Ken: We were supportive of you when your difficult Cindy episode appeared a few years ago but your recent online behaviors with shades of nasty Cindy behavior reappearing has made us question if that previous support was miss-cast. The tone of your personal attacks suggest a dimension of becoming unhinged that would worry any level-headed administrator.
I am not looking for an apology from you Ken but I do suggest that you take a deep breath and step back. It is not healthy what are doing, for you and for the groups that you are posting into where younger people are present. It makes you look nasty, manipulative and desperate. It is not a good face for Swinburne either.
It is not your background credentials but rather your everyday behavior that signals your leadership skills. What I see here in terms of behavior from you is rather scary stuff. Take a few days off and regroup Ken.
Ever since Humantific launched The OTHER Design Thinking Call for Participants you have been on a vengeful rant against everything we do. That was a poor choice on your part Ken.
We have seen no other academic leader react is such an unfortunate way. You alone have been on this rant. The negative sideshow that you have generated has nothing to do with the positive energy of our initiative.
Clearly your nose has been put out of joint by what we are doing without any official permission and with a criteria that you do not like, but it's a big world out there Ken and lots of room for many streams of initiatives. Many are needed. Lets let readers decide what is most relevant for them and what is not.
Have a good weekend all.
...
GK VanPatter
Co-Founder
Humantific
SenseMaking for ChangeMaking
NEW YORK / MADRID
6 West 18th Street, 9th Floor
New York City, NY 10011
T: 212-660-2577
http://www.humantific.com
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Follow Humantific on twitter: http://twitter.com/humantific
...
On Jan 16, 2014, at 10:15 PM, Ken Friedman wrote:
> GK,
>
> There you go again, GK. It’s admirable, really. Your ability to blurt out meaningless accusations is a marvelous skill. If you could use fewer clichés and less execuspeak, you could get somewhere. Why not use that “get out the vote energy” of yours in politics? And no one has filled the gap that television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart left behind when his empire evaporated.
>
> But let’s stick to the issues.
>
> You write, “Ken has no understanding of the marketplace.”
>
> This is not quite true. My work in publishing and my work as a consultant suggest an understanding of the marketplace. Consulting to government is not the same as work in commercial markets, but it does involve understanding markets. My work experience says that I understand markets. But there is more.
>
> The last time you did this little dance, you said that I don’t understand organization and systems design. Those are the two orders of design in Dick Buchanan’s model that you repackaged to circulate under your own label as “Design 3.0 and Design 4.0.”
>
> The fact that I spent 14 years as a professor of leadership and strategic design at the Norwegian Business School demonstrated you were wrong on that claim.
>
> You are wrong on markets, too. Any professor at a major business school is expected to understand markets. Markets involve many aspects of human behavior for value exchange, and I certainly understand these.
>
> Let’s be serious, GK. You might as well write, “Ken has no understanding of the marketplace. His wife sent him to market to sell their cow. He came home with six magic beans.” That’s a better storyline, and you can option the movie rights.
>
> So let’s stick to the issues at hand.
>
> You’ve shown up on this list and others to criticize the rest of us. I’ve read your rants and rude comments on IDEO, Roger Martin, and Paula Thornton. I’ve read your rants and comments on Stanford d.school, Stanford ME310, Rotman, Aalto Design Factory, and Swinburne Design Factory. I’ve enjoyed your rants about me – casting me as the sinister academic Dr. No against GK as Marketplace 007.
>
> You’ve repeatedly stated your concern for design education and the design education community. You say that you have the expertise and experience to move us forward.
>
> Why we should believe you?
>
> If you will answer two simple questions, we could judge whether you have the basic experience and expertise you need to give the advice you dispense.
>
> 1) What universities or design schools did GK VanPatter attend?
>
> 2) What degrees did GK VanPatter earn?
>
> It’s simple, really.
>
> If you haven’t been to university, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. But if you haven’t been to university, it’s not likely that you have the experience to understand what a university education involves.
>
> It takes even more experience to make a university work. Running a university is complex. You need experience teaching and you need experience in university leadership and management.
>
> If you haven’t gone to university or earned a degree, you generally won’t get hired for a position that gives you a serious teaching or leadership role in a university. For that matter, you’re not even likely to be hired to serious consulting.
>
> Without that experience, you can’t have an idea of what it takes to transform a university. Universities are subject to the multiple challenges, along with the complex constraints and laws that governments impose on them. Beyond this, there are the economic constraints of a very specialized market.
>
> It’s easy to do “bolt-on” workshops. The real work of university leadership isn’t done in workshops.
>
> The challenges of leading a research university are even more difficult. Every single PhD student on this list has been to university, a university-based design school, or an equivalent design school. To be accepted into a PhD program, a student must earn an honors BA in Australia, or a BA and an MA in the Bologna system or North America.
>
> Do you even have the experience you’d need to enter a PhD program? If you don’t, I don’t see what advice you have for the PhD students on this list. They are already more highly qualified than you are.
>
> Then there are the rest of the people on this list. They’ve nearly all completed a PhD and started on a research career. The senior professors and leaders who manage university design schools and research programs have even greater experience and expertise.
>
> They all have the academic training they need, and many have an extensive track record of successful research projects. Many subscribers also have extensive market experience as designers, managers, and consultants.
>
> If you’re not even qualified to advise our students, why should we find you credible?
>
> The two questions I asked involve your experience and expertise in these fields.
>
> I can ask a third question about your involvement in the market.
>
> We know about Roger Martin’s client work because he writes about projects with client permission. IDEO publishes much of their work. So do MindLab, d.school, and ME310. Aalto Design Factory has a long list of clients – serious folks in the real market who come back again and again to work with Design Factory. Tongji-Aalto Design Factory and Swinburne Design Factory are building an imposing record. All this is visible. Some of this is published.
>
> Helsinki Design Lab is no longer in operation, but they left behind an impressive record of legible practice in books and case studies.
>
> Everyone you criticize has demonstrated and documented their professional practice. Only Humantific seems to have no visible record of client service in the marketplace. Issuu book pictures of happy design students at “bolt-on workshops” does not document client service in the marketplace.
>
> Here’s the question, GK:
>
> Why should anyone on this list or any other find you credible?
>
> That’s the issue.
>
> Simple answers to three questions would help.
>
> 1) What universities or design schools did GK VanPatter attend?
>
> 2) What degrees did GK VanPatter earn?
>
> 3) What evidence of successful practice in real markets can GK VanPatter put forward?
>
> Yours,
>
> Ken
>
> Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished Professor | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | Mobile +61 404 830 462 | Home Page http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/people/Professor-Ken-Friedman-ID22.html<http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design> Academia Page http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman About Me Page http://about.me/ken_friedman
>
> Guest Professor | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China
>
> --
>
>
>
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