These terms of art are based on the MG Taylor Glossary that lives on their website and the Glossary included in "A Management Center Recipe Book" an MG Taylor work product from June '96. Other terms of art have been added to this list to support the knowledge worker manual.

Samples from Edgeware's glossary of complexity science terminology are defined here. Explore the Edgeware site glossary for futher terms as well as other complexity resources for healthcare.

If you don't find what you are looking for here, consider online dictionaries.
American Heritage® Dictionary
Merriam-Webster Online
Encarta World English Dictionary

If the term you are looking for is part of the 'NavCenter' pattern language and doesn't appear in this list, please send us a note with the term you would like defined and explained.

Email us at NavCenter@Borgess.com

Creativity cannot be controlled or managed, but it can be facilitated through the consious management of the 7 Domains. Thus the main work of the Management Center staff is to manage the 7 Domains rather than attemtp to manage the users of the Center.

ANDMap®
Project Management Tool The term ANDMap stands for Annotated Network Diagram Map and refers to an invention that synthesizes Gannt charts, network diagrams like PERT, CPM or GERT, and process flow charts. The items on the map are plotted to scale over time and may be collected across a series of horizontal tracks, like Gannt charts. A standard set of symbols are employed to represent a range of activities from the strategic (Landmark, Benchmark) to the tactical (Event, Task), to the conditional decision point (Cusp) to the task level (Milestone). (More about the ANDmap®)

Author-to-Author
A type of DesignShop® module in which each participant has been given a different book to read in advance. At the time of the module, the participants engage in a discussion of the issues facing the enterprise, however, they discuss from the vantage point of the authors they have read. Each participant assumes the personae, knowledge base, vantage point and opinions of the author whose book they were assigned to read. The exercise forces a change of vantage point and introduces new information into the pot. It's a day one or day two exercise.

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Breakout
A general activity during a DesignShop when a large group is divided into smaller teams to work on either different issues, or different aspects of the same issue. The space in which this activity takes place is a Breakout Area. The group undertaking this activity is called a Breakout Team. Breakout activities are variously referred to as Breakout Rounds or Design Rounds.

Capture Team
A subset of the KreW of Knowledge Workers in a DesignShop who are assigned to work in a Breakout Area to document, or capture, the discussion in one or more forms: keywords, synthesis (by individual attribution or journalistic summary), graphics from the WorkWalls. The work of this team is published to the DesignShop Journal.

Circle-Up
A ritual for the disciplined sorting of signals to help a Patch (Team) through the process of association and decision-making in support of the next major phase of work. Circle-Up also brings the Patch into unity at a point in time; although unity does not imply consensus in this case. It's also a formal time to acknowledge progress, failures and successes along the Lifecycle of the Web (Enterprise). It's a time to engage the multiple intelligences of the team's members in a process of collaborative design. Commonly a Circle-Up is use to shape the opening and closing of an event. It can put the Patch back in touch with its Vision and the iteration of the work to be done.

Crew
(Also spelled KreW) A team of Knowledge Workers charged with supporting an event such as a DesignShop.

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DesignShop® Event
An event whose purpose is to release group genius in the client, condense the time in which a team moves from Scan to Act by an order of magnitude, completely capture and organize all of the information generated, and do all of this in a facilitated way by managing not the people involved, but the Seven Domains that regulate collaboration and evolve ingenuity. A DesignShop is also a specific process designed by Matt and Gail Taylor.

DesignShop® Sponsor
Representatives from the client who usually have a considerable stake in the successful outcome of the DesignShop. They may be project managers, department heads, or CEO's. Sponsors are also participants in the event, although in some cases they may work on the KreW. Some clients have only one sponsor, and others have an entire sponsor team.

Discovery Day
The initial designsession between MG Taylor and a prospective client. Discovery Days usually follow a series of phone conversations and preliminary meetings and usually takes place in an MG Taylor environment (Management Center, knOwhere store, DesignCenter or NavCenter). The client has already received some introduction to MG Taylor and its processes and MG Taylor already knows something about what the client seeks to create. The purpose of the DesignSession is to play 'spoze (what if) by sketching out a rough idea of what a DesignShop might look like--who would attend, what the outcomes might be, the process for achieving these outcomes, and what follow-up might be required. Through the Discovery Day, the client gets a brief experience of what it's like to work in a Management Center and in a DesignShop process.

Documents
'Documents' include assignments and team lists created by the KreW, hypertiles created by the participants, self-selected team lists chosen by the participants, space maps, wall copy, wall photos and documentation.

Documentation Team
A subset of the KreW whose work comprises capturing reports and conversations that occur when all of the participants are assembled into one group.

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Emergence /Edgeware glossary
The arising of new, unexpected structures, patterns, or processes in a self-organizing system. These emergents can be understood as existing on a higher level than the lower level components from which the emergents emerged. Emergents seem to have a life of their own with their own rules, laws, and possibilities unlike the lower level components. The term was first used by the nineteenth century philosopher G.H.Lewes and came into greater currency in the scientific and philosophical movement known as Emergent Evolutionism in the 1920Õs and 1930Õs. In an important respect the work connected with the Santa Fe Institute and similar facilities represents a more powerful way of investigating emergent phenomena. In organizations, emergent phenomena are happening ubiquitously yet their significance can be downplayed by control mechanisms grounded in the officially sanctioned corporate hierarchy. One of the keys for leaders from complex systems theory is how to facilitate emergent structures and take advantage of the ones that occur spontaneously.

See: Self-organization Bibliography: Cohen and Stewart (1994); Goldstein in Sulis and Combs (1996)

Engagement Team
A group of people who are assigned to work with a specific client over the duration of the relationship. They may also include DesignShop facilitators and Knowledge Workers, but this is not necessary.

Environment
Typically a Management Center, especially in the context of a DesignShop. More generally, any space that has been consciously designed and configured to support a process in a flexible and evolutionary manner. Most of us work in "spaces" (office space, work space, etc.) that are devoid of enlightened, conscious design, and therefore very poorly support our lives and the processes that comprise them. [see more on environments at the Athenaeum International page.]

Facilitator
(sometimes called the Key Facilitator) The Facilitator works with the DesignShop Sponsors (which may include members of the engagement team) and the Process Facilitator (representing the KreW) to design the DesignShop before it begins, manage the continuing design and execution of the DesignShop while it is happening, to bring closure to ideas and processes immediately following the event, and to open paths for progress to the next stages of work.

from A Manual of Facilitation Version 1 Draft 2
To facilitate means "to make easy"” The art of facilitation is the art of bringing clarity and effectiveness to the work process of individuals and groups. The facilitator's mandate is to ensure that the process is designed and implemented in a way that brings out the best thinking of each participant and the best resolution of issues from each group. (more about Facilitation)

Group Genius
The ability of a group to form a context large enough to hold each individual's vision and utilize the talents of each of its members. The DesignShop uses techniques that aid communications and sharing, unleacshes energies and abilities that otherwise lie dormant and un-utilized. Group Genius at MG Taylor Article: Group Genius Discovered

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Hypertile
The WorkWalls that MG Taylor Corporation manufactures (through Athenaeum International) are made of steel, and therefore accept magnets. Hypertiles are large rectangles of flexible magnetic material, measuring up to 11"x17". It is covered on one side with a sticky surface manufactured by 3M. Large sheets of paper can be adhered to this surface and peeled off without leaving any residue on the back of the paper (sort of like an inverse Post-It Note). The paper can then be photocopied or scanned for entry into the Knowledge Base.

Hidden Design Assumptions
Fundamental beliefs that form the basis of design work or decision-making. They are "hidden" when we are not conscious that they exist and form the basis of our decisions. Hidden assumptions are intrinsic parts of a paradigm; to change them always challenges the paradigm's validity. People have difficulty rethinking their paradigm largely because it can be emotionally threatening to examine assumptions that they don't know they have. These hidden assumptions often were programmed at an early age and often contradict the person's conscious beliefs.

Infolog Number
Every document produced in the network has an Infolog number assigned to it (see the bottom of this web page for a sample). There have been different types of Infolog numbers in the past but the type most often used in DesignShops is composed of a complete date/time group sorted from year to second, employing a 24 hour clock, and expressed in local time, followed by a period, and then the initials of the individual creating or filing the document. The Infolog number, 19970131214513.jsb indicates that the document was logged in 1997 on January 31 at 9:45:13 PM by someone whose initials are JSB. This convention will hold for the time being, but must be changed in the near future to avoid possible duplication. In a DesignShop, each entry made by a documentor is automatically Infologged by the database software; a DesignShop Journal may have hundreds of Infologs associated with it.

Information /Edgeware glossary
Originally, information in the technical senses referred to the bits of a message, as opposed to "noise," in a communication channel (formulated in Information Theory by the mathematician Claude Shannon). Information has come to mean the bits of data that are the elements which are processed by the computer as information processor. "Noise" has a disorganizing effect in its way of disrupting redundant patterns so that novelty can come about in the emergent structures resulting from self-organizing processes. In terms of organizations, information is the cognate in social systems of what energy is in a physical system. According to Gregory Bateson, information is "a difference that makes a difference." In terms of social systems this refers to the differences among group membersÕ perspectives on what is going on in the system. Information is not mere data: it is data that is meaningful to the organizational members. An organization that is low in the flow of information is one in equilibrium or tending to maintain its status quo; whereas, an organization that is high in informational flow is in a far-from-equilibrium state in which dramatic changes can take place.

See: Equilibrium; Far-from-equilibrium Bibliography: Goldstein (1994)

Journal
The complete, chronological record of ideas and concepts discussed or illustrated during the DesignShop. Every conversation, each report, every WorkWall is captured and placed into the Journal database by the Capture Team, Documentation Team or Sketch Hogs. The Journal is not a transcription, but an attributed summary or synthesis of conversations. WorkWalls are either captured by hand or digital camera.

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Knowledge Objects
Pieces of information, usually from outside of the body of knowledge resident in the participants, brought to the attention of the group at the right time to help bring ideas into focus or expand a perception. Knowledge Objects may take the form of articles from magazines or journals, research papers, or databases.

Knowledge Wall
Management Centers have at least one large wall--sometimes up to 50 feet in length, usually the back side of the Radiant Wall-- that is covered with a mildly adhesive surface manufactured by 3M. This wall serves as an oversized European-style kiosk. All sorts of information may be posted to the wall. Sometimes portions of the documentation are placed on it. Photographs, color art work, and diagrams are also posted here. Articles from magazines or the Internet are also displayed for participants to browse through. Information is not displayed haphazardly, rather, a layout is thoughtfully designed, making the wall a structured information event.

Knowledge Workers
The individuals who comprise the KreW that supports an event. They are responsible for managing the flow of information temporally through the duration of the event and spatially within the Environment. Those who manage knowledge are emerging as the predominant workers in the developed economies of the wor4ld. The performance of this group, now known as "knowoledge workers" has become the key to the development of any economy, and the keys to the success of any business.

The phenomenon of knowledge work was first identified over 20 years ago by Peter Drucker in his book, The Age of Discontinuity, (1968). Even after 20 years this important social phenomenon is little understood and rarely recognized in organizational structure or policy.

What do knowledge workers do? They measure critical performance factors, enabling them to deliver effective feedback , reporting the difference betwen performance and expectation; betweeen plan and reality; and between capacity and potential. What make the knowledge worker different form anyone else? Most significantly, knowledge workers are guided by their understanding and expertise, and give their allegiance to the authority of knowledge rather than authority of hierarchy.

Explore the Knowledge Worker's Manual for more details.

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Knowledge Worker Sponsor
A Knowledge Worker of at least Journeyman level who is also a Process Facilitator or Facilitator, and whose purpose is to provide an official, facilitative and welcoming link to the work and philosophy of MG Taylor Corporation for one or several other Knowledge Workers in the network.

KreW
Another term for the Crew of a DesignShop or other event. The "K" and "W" in the title refer to the abbreviation "KW", or Knowledge Worker. The "re" can take on most any meaning that seems appropriate to the situation.

KWIB
Knowledge Work Information Broker. Each Management Center or KnOwhere store has a KWIB, usually assigned on a rotating basis, to collect, maintain and disburse information concerning events in the center.

Linking
The process of recognizing similarities and patterns from many different fields or projects; part of the process of managing information and knowledge.

Logistics
The KreW facilitates the flow of matter, energy and information through the DesignShop or the Management Center. Logistics focuses on the flow of matter and energy. This includes providing the physical environment, tools, equipment, materials, food. It also calls for the continual refreshing and maintenance of these elements. [Of course, these all comprise messages bearing information... darn that interconnected, fractal, feedback driven, recursive nature of the universe!]

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Management Center
Special environment for managing the design and innovation process in the context of expected social-economic change, and for building action plans to accomplish the goals established. By careful facilitation of the elements of environment, information, design and group process, Management Centers decrease the "accident" factor of discovery and synergistic events. Management Centers are "safe" environments in which designers and decision makers can risk exploring and creating new models. Also called "DesignCenters".

Metaphors Exercise
A Breakout Round in which the various teams will compare some "unrelated" system to the situation at hand in a metaphorical way. If the situation concerns a distribution system, a team might be asked to examine how an ant colony manages its distribution system, or how a distribution system might be described in quantum mechanical terms. The purpose is two-fold: (1) to actually learn how other, alien or obscure systems actually manage similar processes, and (2) to see the situation from a radically different vantage point since we know that this is a powerful technique for generating creativity.

Model
An analog of a real thing; its attributes are selected acoording to which aspects of the real phenomena are bing simulated, displayed or studied. Models usually change scale, i.e., atom models are "blown up;" automobile models are scaled down to make them perceivalbe to the user. Models come in many forms.: ecomonic models often exist in computers, industrial prototypes are models of the final products. Some models exist only in people's heads or in books, like a paradigm.

Module

Process Facilitator
An individual who facilitates the work of the KreW and the Facilitator during the DesignShop.

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Production
The subset of the KreW of a DesignShop charged with keeping track of all of the documentation generated by the DesignShop and assembling it into paper and electronic Journals for distribution to the participants, usually within a few days of the end of the event. Journals may be 500 or more pages in length. The new documentation process allows the Journal to be captured in a database for ease of use in an electronic format.

Project Status Map
A project management tool that employs a matrix of projects listed down one side and days or weeks listed across the top. There are two ways to use a project status map: (1) for each sub task within a project, place a tag along the project's line under the date when the sub task is due. Then track the progress of work on each sub task through a system of visual indicators (green for go, red for holding, blue for completed, etc.); (2) if you're tracking a number of identical projects, advance a single tag along each project's line to indicate the status of the project. Project status maps are most appropriate for projects whose scale and complexity tend to make them linear progressions of tasks. If there are many parallel tasks or the duration of the project runs for many quarters or years, an ANDMap or similar project management tool is more appropriate.

Radiant Room
This is the name we give to the large space in a Management Center where the participants gather together as one body to hear reports or have synthesis discussions of some sort. The focus of the Radiant Room is a long WorkWall called the Radiant Wall that may be straight, folding or curving depending on the design of the individual center. Some Radiant Walls stretch to over 40 feet in length. The back side of the Radiant Wall is frequently covered with an adhesive material made by 3M to which paper can be adhered and removed many times over. This is called the Knowledge Wall, although you may hear it called the Sticky Wall by old timers in the network.

The term Radiant Wall comes from Isaac Asimov's idea of a Radiant Cube that he introduces in the third volume of his Foundation Trilogy. The cube is a device that holds the plans for the rebirth of an entire galactic civilization, yet sits unobtrusively on a table top. When a Speaker from the Second Foundation focuses his mind on the cube, it projects the plan on the walls of the room. With further mental effort the Speaker can navigate the plan from start to finish, zoom in to more detail or pull out to a more general landscape, and see the record of all the changes that have been made to the plan and all of the contingencies built into it as well.

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RDS
Rapid Deployment Solution. Also called Rapid Deployment System. Also called the Transportable Management Center. An entire kit of WorkWalls, Work Stations, Break-out Tables, lighting, computers, network, video cameras, video technical direction equipment, video editing equipment, supplies, library, games and toys sufficient to support a multiple day DesignShop for a group varying from five to one hundred participants and up to thirty or so KreW. The RDS is shipped in trucks and takes a day or two to assemble and tear down depending on the size of the event.

Read Ahead
A collection of materials delivered to participants up to a week or so in advance of a DesignShop. The articles and books chosen for a Read Ahead will serve one of two purposes: provide more information concerning the problem to be created and solved during the DesignShop, and to stretch thinking and introduce new ideas that challenge preconceptions. The Facilitator, Process Facilitator, Sponsor and perhaps one or two KreW members handle the selection, assembly and distribution. Books are ordered through the KnOwhere store.

Report Out
After participants have spent some time in Breakout Teams they are often invited to reassemble as a large group to hear each team report their work. To prepare for this report, the teams are asked to recreate (not copy) their work onto paper covered magnetic Hypertiles (11x17 inches) which will adhere to the porcelain steel WorkWalls. The group reassembles in a large room that usually has a very large, curving WorkWall called the Radiant Wall (some are over 40 feet long). The teams group their Hypertiles on this wall either by team or by some other sorting category, or they place them on the wall as they are being discussed. The tiles can be moved about and drawn around to sort, connect and emphasize ideas.

Rules of Engagement
A list of boundaries that must be set on an event, session, Management Center or NavCenter in order to secure success. The requirement of having no observers or visitors during a DesignShop is an example (everyone either participates or they are on KreW). Another example is the limitation on the conduct of other business by the participants during the event (it destroys breakout team integrity and compromises the product to have individuals constantly conducting other business away from the team on the phone).

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Sapiential Leadership
The participant with the most experience and energy around each stage of the designing process may step forward or be asked by their co-designers to lead the others through that stage.
Sapient: ADJECTIVE: Having great wisdom and discernment. (American Heritage® Dictionary)

Scenario Exercise
A module of an event that is frequently employed to uncover assumptions among the participants regarding how they think about trends, the past and the future. It's usually done in large group on the Radiant Wall. The Radiant Wall is divided horizontally into time frames. Sometimes the Scenario considers the distant past--up to 30,000 years ago, passes through the present (usually the current year plus or minus 5-10 years) and ends sometime in the future. Participants stand before the wall one at a time and state an event they wish to place on the timeline (sometimes further defined by the facilitator's instructions) and perhaps its significance. Then they write that event on the wall under the year it occurred. Then the next participant places their event on the wall. This may continue through all of the participants and through several rounds. The exercise is very flexible in terms of how the wall is laid out, what types of events the participants are asked to place on the wall, and how Sketch Hogs are employed to augment and synthesize the visual display. A good synthesist on the KreW can predict much of the outcome of the DesignShop and the solution to the problem simply by studying a well-executed scenario.

Scenario
A story of "myth" about the future events that projects a personal view of the future. This view constitues the context for planning process. Scenario building is a method to objectify "hidden design assumptions" and to play with various "what if's" about the future.

All science fiction stories are scenarios. A systematic reading of this underrated branch of leterature reveals that writers have consistently modeled very realistic visions of the future a generation ahead of their time.

Building 25 year scenarios is typically a significant segment of a DesignShop because it draws out the hidden design assumptions about the future and create a context for work.

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Share-A-Panel
A module of a DesignShop usually preceded by a Take-A-Panel exercise wherein participants assemble into teams and visit each team member's panel--or WorkWall--in succession to hear a report of the work scribed on that panel. After each team member has reported their individual work, the team usually assembles in a Breakout Area to either synthesize what they've heard, or begin work on another exercise. If the total number of participants in a DesignShop is small, they may all participate in the exercise, which is then called a "Walk-About". After each participant has had an opportunity to share their panel, the entire group may assemble for a synthesis discussion or may be divided into Breakout Teams to begin another round of work.

Sketch Hog
Also called a scribe. A KreW member skilled in listening to a conversation or presentation and capturing its essence and significance in illustrated and annotated diagrams on WorkWalls, paper, computer, or in a 3D physical model. Sketch Hogs are called upon to support participants in Breakout Teams to illustrate their ideas, work before the large group during synthesis discussions, create finished art and icons to support the production of the Journal, and to create finished art and diagrams to support any follow-on work products.

Sponsor (Client)
(See also DesignShop Sponsor.) An individual or small group who hold primary responsibility or a principal stake in the outcome of a DesignShop®, NavCenter™, Management Center, or session. Often the sponsor is the champion of the idea which the shop or center is designed to address. The sponsor may also be a manager or executive. Often a sponsor team is assembled made up of representatives from various constituents who comprise the participants in the DesignShop.

Sponsor (Knowledge Worker)
An experienced individual (usually of Journeyman level) who assists and supports another Knowledge Worker through the transition into, through, and out of the MG Taylor ValueWeb™ system. The sponsor is not necessarily a mentor, and is usually chosen my mutual agreement--never assigned. Assigning sponsors would violate the pattern of "Stepping Up" or self-selecting tasks and projects from the work to be done. Sponsors are literally individual transition managers.

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Sponsor (NavCenter)
An individual, or most commonly a team who champions the purpose, mission and existence of a NavCenter. Since NavCenters are established to support a particular project or purpose, the Sponsor may also be the project manager. Because a NavCenter represents a way of work which radically departs from the behavior of the rest of the organization, the Sponsor should have a position of authority within the organization as well. Sponsor Session

Sponsor Session
Usually a three or four hour session attended by the client sponsor (individual or team), the key facilitator, the process facilitator, and supported by one or more KreW. The purpose of this session is to develop clear objectives for the DesignShop, work on assembling the right participant list, decide on general logistics arrangements, take a first cut at the design of the DesignShop process, and get a general idea of what sort of products should be generated during and after the DesignShop.

Strawdog
Before each DesignShop, the Event Facilitator (Key Facilitator) and/or the Process Facilitator generates a first cut at the design of the event. Sometimes this process is completed formally in a Sponsor Session with the DesignShop Sponsor, the Facilitator and Process Facilitator. These sessions are documented. The Strawdog summarizes the planners' thinking in terms of the purpose of the DesignShop, the desired outcomes and the individual modules that comprise the design. Usually the first half of the shop is outlined in detail; the rest cannot be designed until the shop is underway.

Swarmware and Clockware /Edgeware glossary
Two terms coined by the editor of Wired Magazine Kevin Kelly for two antithetical management processes. "Clockware" are rational, standardized, controlled, measured processes; whereas "swarmware" are processes including experimentation, trial and error, risk-taking, autonomy of agents. Clockware processes are seen in linear systems whereas swarmware is what happens in complex systems undergoing self-organization as a result of the nonlinear interaction among components.

See: Cellular Automata; Complex, Adaptive System; Self-organization Bibliography: Kelly (1994)

Synergy
The performance of the whole system is not predictable by the performance of the parts, or sub-parts. The corollary is that if you "know" the whole system and some of the parts, you can predict the existence of "unkown" parts. Not understanding synergistic behavior in large systems is why so much of the modern world is confusing (See Synergetics 1 and 2 by R. Buckminster Fuller)

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Syntopical Reading
An exercise that provides participants with a way of reading and sharing a large body of information in a condensed period of time. During a Syntopical Reading exercise, participants are asked to scan and read (and later discuss) a set of materials. The materials they are given contain an eclectic mix of essagys, articles and book chapters, ranging from innovatiions in business, to science fiction; from new physics to social commentary. These may be focused on specific issues the participants are addressing, yet should provide as broad a range of perspectives as possible, appreopriate to the situation. Th9is exercise is based on the understanding that the creative process is stimulated by both the differences and similarity of seemingly "unrelated" pieces of information.

To read syntopically is to red many books or articals simultaneously, and to study each work in realtion to the others. The exercise is based on How to Read A Book, by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972) and Mortimer Adler's The Great Ideas: A Sytopicon of Great Books of the Western World (Chicago: Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1952). We have adapted the concept to cover the study of many subjects simultaneously. (Adler's Syntopicon method studies one subject at a time.)

System
A system is a set of part or components that work together to form a whole. To understand a given system, some analysis is usually required. Your analysis may include defining the boundaries of the system you wish to understand; defining the aspect or dimension of that system which is of importance to you; considering all of the components that allow this system to be viable (the phrase "whole system" is often used, to emphasize this point); and defining the next larger system (or the environment), of which your system-in-focus is a component part. Further analysis may include defining component sub-systems of your system-in-focus.

Whole Systems

Systems Perspective
This is the ability to apply an understanding of systems to one's work; usually this means having a familiarity and understanding of several systems larger (more inclusive) and several systems smaller (more exclusive) than the one of which you are directly a member. In his Living Systems Model, James Miller identified 19 sybsystems that he found in every living system: cell, organism, human institution, society (or nation), supra-society (all nations) and biosphere. An Interpretation and Application of Miller's Living Systems Model

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Take-A-Panel™
A module of a DesignShop wherein the participants take one panel of a WorkWall™ (about 6' tall by 4' wide) each and compose on it answers to an assignment. The exercise allows all of the participants to be heard, to express their ideas in whatever visual fashion they wish, and have their ideas available to be viewed by other participants and captured by the DesignShop KreW. This exercise is usually succeeded by a Share-A-Panel exercise.

Terms of Art
Every discipline has it's own language--terminology. The meaning of words withing a particular discipline do not necessarily mean the same thing that they may in an informal or colloquial setting and should not be compared as such.

Training
To drag behind; a connected series; to guide; to aim. Taining is a closed process of making actions automatic. Training pertains to un-consciousness and the development of habits.

Transition Manager
Transition Managers are people who are commited to helping the organization change; in this usage, people from all levels within the organization self-select to become Transition Managers, rather than it being a formally appointed position. By establishing and supporting an informal network of Transition Managers, one can create widespread understanding and support for the various steps of the change process, as it is initiated. Transition Managers Creed

Wall Copy

Wall Graphics
Includes all wall images created by users or staff. This is often the only form of documentation for DesignTeams. Wall Graphics should be recreated to show color and spirit of the orginal work. This definition refers to Wall Copy which is a method of copying the contents of a WorkWall™ onto paper for archiving or inclusion in a published document. The advancing technology of digital photography is gradually replacing the need to copy a WorkWall by hand; however, the technique is important to know just-in-case!

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Wall Scribing
The process of using the WorkWalls™ to translate participant's words into pictures, models and icons. Participants can 'see' what is being said and are able to interact with what would otherwise be a flat, linear projection of their ideas. Scribe's resource

WalkThru
A session during which the DesignShop is designed, including all of the modules, assignments, and team configurations. Day one is rigorously designed, day two a little less so, and day three may be rather sketchy at this point. The Client Sponsors, Facilitators, Process Facilitators and KreW participate in the WalkThru. Usually a "straw dog" design of the shop is presented at the beginning, but sometimes the design proceeds from scratch (no pun intended--dog, scratch,.... get it??).

WAWD Team
An acronymn coined by Robert Heinlein in a science fiction short story: We Also Walk Dogs. It was the slogan of a large network of "knowledge workers" which could be galvanized to accomplish nearly any task imaginable for any client whatsoever, from the largest engineering project to simply walking someone's dog. The concept of a WAWD team in MG Taylor is a consortium of knowledge workers, or enterprises of one, who are linked together in a vast value web, and whose expertise, skills, and passions can be focused on helping clients imagine visions and then implement them anywhere on the globe.

Weak Signal Research
In communication terminology, a "weak signal" refers to a signal that, respective to other signals and the circuit background noise, is difficult or impossible to distinguish. Weak Signal Research gathers infomration on ideas, trend and phenomena which do not fit an organization's current model or reality, and thus are usually filtered out. Often organizations are literally unable to perceive the new information, due to the strength of their established world view.

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Writing Team
A subset of the KreW and Sponsors of a DesignShop charged with crafting the assignments that participants will work on in their Breakout Teams. The term "craft" is key here. Assignments are not composed without considerable thought. When you consider that a single assignment will consume perhaps 1/6 of the duration of a DesignShop and that the reports from such an assignment will steer the entire content and tone of the DesignShop, it's easy to understand their importance.

Work Product
A synthesis or evolutionary product of the DesignShop whose purpose is to either crystallize some concept, detail and illustrate some plan, or take the participants beyond the information of the DesignShop into new realms they may not have considered yet. Its purpose is not to simplify, but to present the complicated and obtuse in a way that is merely very complex--so that it may be understood, but not watered down. [see articles on types of Work Products and how to create them.]

WorkWalls™
Panels of light colored porcelain steel which accept a variety of marking materials such as chalks, dry erase markers, water colors, India ink, pastels, and water based markers (Article: Beyond Expo Markers). They are used by participants and KreW as a tool to support collaboration.

A typical Management Center may have more than 3,000 square feet of this surface available. Large or small groups can illustrate complex issues and detailed plans all within plain view of the entire group, and all easily editable. The amount of information that can be manipulated on these wall systems and the flexibility of erasing or adding to it, dwarfs the capabilities of butcher paper, flip charts, or projection systems.

The walls are typically six or more feet high and may be any length. Rolling walls come in lengths from four to sixteen feet in length, some of which are folding. WorkWalls may also be permanently installed within the Environment.

The walls are manufactured by Athenaeum International for MG Taylor and distributed by Athenaeum International or through MG Taylor Corporation's chain of KnOwhere stores.

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