each picture links to a piece of my life and work, my resume for what is proposed here
each picture links to a piece of my life and work, my resume for what is proposed here
Pieces of Matt a work in progress
each picture links to a piece of my life and work, it is my resume for what is proposed here
If you have not done so, click on the graphic on the left which tells the story of the Pieces of Matt photo which makes up the Mast Head of this page. It sets part of the context for the Having Pieces of Matt Program.
Several converging trends have stimulated my thinking about the Program and consequently have driven my design thinking over the last several months. The acceleration of worthyProject opportunities in the last several weeks alone have convinced me to start it now and publish this invitation this weekend. Not only myself and MG Taylor, but many in our ValueWeb are being overwhelmed by a tsunami of opportunities we do not have the means to respond to. The work we have been waiting for, and preparing for, these many years is here now. MG Taylor has designed and is fabricating and shipping the Foundation III WorkFurniture line, moving toward prototyping the Cube Patio System, and is deeply engaged in three large scale worthyProjects. This work is not yet adequately funded, yet will be as worthy Projects become main stream Now, there is a gap.
   
creating the problem:  
 
 

CONDITION: rapid increase in projects; insufficient operating capital; extreme demand on time

VISION: develop new products/services; support the growing ValueWeb; keep the learning curve tooling and processes of the Method requisite with the challenges ahead

CREATIVE TENSION: capital and revenues appropriate for business requirements vers. supporting the mission and performing necessary RD&D in time

THE PROBLEM: how to crowd source “capital” for mission with out adding debt, dilution and failing to meet the goal of being an exemplary 21st Century profitable corporation in a healthy true ValueWeb

spot

A DIALOG WITH MYSELF Wednesday February 20, 2013:

Often people confuse conditions with the problem. Many of my pieces - see above - from 20, 30, and even 50 years ago, are still considered too radical for business investment today. Yet, objectively, the market for them is clearly rapidly forming. It will be tragic if richer but less able corporations exploit these “new” opportunities and establish the first position in ideas, designs and products we have pioneered. It is happening. Is this a problem? No, this is a condition.

Can this enterprise, after 33 years of innovation, be capitalized now? Yes, this is happening. A solution? no, a condition. Will there be capital for RD&D? Yes. Capital to take new products and services to the market once prototyped with reasonable potential and risk profiles demonstrated? Yes. A solution? No, a condition.

Will this provide the means to go to the cutting edge market now? No, a problem? A condition. Do we have to get to market at the early entry edge with the signature products and services which finally create the means to bring about and demonstrate the Solution Set we defined in the 70s in anticipation of this time? Yes, if we are to achieve our starting VISION and the mission statement which supports it.

These conditions define a small yet significant gap.

To find a solution requires going to the market and getting a vote. A vote with commitment to it. Who is the market? The ValueWeb which is forming around and is now rapidly evolving with this work of 33 years. In the ValueWeb architecture, investor/owners, producers, and customer/users are THE market. As MG Taylor transforms into a new venture, lets call it RADIANCE for now, it will have the fiduciary duty to meet its mission and create return for new and old stakeholders.

This defines the scale and scope of the risk which is legitimate for the introduction of new products and services. It also creates an opportunity for the ValueWeb to step up to the ENTERPRISE scale of action.

Will RADIANCE stage for the future? You bet. Will it scale the new work when the market is ready? You bet. Is this the whole solution? No. Why? Because of time lags and the anticipatory design requirement to have products ready at the moment of market creation opportunity. The Taylor Method, by its nature, can only be developed by being imbedded in the market and organizations it serves - the products and services are created in vitro. Problem? Solution? Just the condition. The Pieces of Matt Program is the opportunity for the market to vote and accelerate the ability of RADIANCE to appropriately serve the ValueWeb.

Voting positively provides means, and more importantly, proof of intent and capability.

The MG Taylor mission has two parts. We are well on our way to achieving the first: a global network of navCenters capable of supporting Transition managers and their work. Yet, not yet the second which is to be profitable (in the true and sustainable, triple bottom line sense) and by doing so providing just return to those who made the success; AND to demonstrate that this kind of an enterprise is practical.

Actually, we are not that far off. With only $300 thousand of invested capital, MG Taylor has booked Income of 80 million dollars and spent 90. In these costs are all the pro bono, non profit work, and the R&D costs which has been spent to build the Method, its products and services to this point. This is an achievement given that a major US furniture company has told me that to produce a furniture line like our Foundation III series alone would cost them up to two years and five million dollars. Can a 21st Century enterprise be built that closes the gap between sustainable business practices and the requirement to stay on the innovation edge in the many domains which make up the Taylor Method? The answer is yes if that enterprise is a functioning ValueWeb. It is our Mission to make this so.

Can the Mission be accomplished without risk to the capiatal required to grow the business that has already been created, is rapidly expanding, and has years of work to do at the level of its present capability? Can anticipatory design “capital” be had without debt? Can it be earned? Can it be provided by the ValueWeb for the ValueWeb’s immediate benefit? Can this investment be secured?

If the condition is the need for a new kind of capital can this be achieved within the time window that exists? If the vision is that the purpose of RADIANCE is to support the success of the ValueWeb as a whole viable system; if the blocks are the paradigm differences in accounting short and long range financial value and return; if the “tug and the pull” is the non compromised, creative resolution between these time frames (Stewart Brand’s slow-time, fast-time); then what is the design strategy that dissolves all of these conditions and creates a problem that once solved is the vision state?

Can it be seen that this is not a crisis of the moment but a crisis of the near future? That a unique window of opportunity exists that has nothing to do with the present state of the enterprise yet has to be grasped now if we are to intersect with this emerging possibility? A possibility quickly becoming fact that drove this venture from the beginning? How do we close this small yet critical gap in time?

The answer is simple. There is an asset, a limited one, that is in high demand. This asset is my time. My personal, free, life-time made available in discrete increments.

The solution is to balance the time allocation between my responsibilities as a corporate officer, the requirement to serve corporate clients, the necessary effort to practice Weak Signal Research, and to design/invent future-ready new products and services.

And, to do this so that old, new, conventional and future focused stockholders receive full diligence, share of the wealth created and return in their own terms.

The SOLUTION is discounted, tradable, prepaid, mattDays that, upon redeeming, the holders can have my time focused on projects they determine and, in the the mean time, I can have exclusive control of the revenue to use “as capital” directed solely by me to advance the most critical ideas, designs, inventions, in our warehouse and new, to a state where they are “investment ready” as determined by investors in their respective markets.

The design/build/use process is accelerated. The conflict of interest, caused by a society with each foot in a different paradigm, is greatly reduced. This advances both the mattDays holder’s agenda, my personal life-work agenda, it benefits RADIANCE and its shareholders, and the ValueWeb as a whole.

you may want to explore further the picture links on the Pieces of Matt masthead before proceeding
the value proposition and proposal
 
The essence of mattDays is that I offer my future time, on a project of the mattDay certificate holder’s choice, at a significant discount in order to have the personal control of the funds made available to employ now to remove the friction holding back the development of selected innovations which are not at this moment deemed ready, or there simply is not money available for, timely for-profit investment.
 
This enables me to act as Venture Manager to accelerate the development of processes, products and services in anticipation of their wide-bread recognition and acceptance without disrupting the Business Models, and current economic realities, of our organization(s) or those of our client partner’s or investor’s. The in-place economic model and practices remain intact yet potentially disruptive work can be done when needed not when recognized or deemed affordable. In fact, this work will bring revenues to RADAINCE and other organizations and individuals in the ValueWeb as a consequence of the work being done - instead of being a cost, it is revenue. The necessity for acceleration of certain capacities to the market it critical now. It is not just simply bringing the new product/service at an ideal time, it also involves finding the right window to develop the new work. The two do do not always line up.
 
The mattDay certificate Holders will get periodic updates on the projects they have expressed interest in yet not control or have an authority-based input on the project itself. They do choose the project they direct my attention to when the certificate is redeemed by me at their choice but must be done within three years of the initial transaction, unless the time is extended by mutual agreement.
 
mattDay Certificate holders, having purchased at a below market price will accrue several possible future benefits including selling days in the future at market rates, pooling days with other Holders to achieve a complex project, or using them to buy work from their peers.
 
The ValueWeb will benefit from this activities, sometimes directly financially and more generally by the accelerated innovative products and services made available. For example, if this Program had been in place, at any significant scale two years ago, the Foundation III series would have been fielded in 2011. There are several such opportunities in the QUE.
 
 
terms
 
There will never be more than 150 mattDay Certificates on the market at any time. As days are redeemed, I can choose to re-issue that amount or not. I have no obligation to redeem more that 50 mattDays a calendar year yet a best efforts attempt will be made to meet Holder’s requirements.
 
Priority will be given to the earliest date purchased. The three year time to maturity of each Certificate will be based on its purchase date.
 
An individual, a group or an organization can purchase mattDays which will be specified, as such, as “Holder” on the Certificate. One mattDay per Certificate. A Certificate can be sold with mutual consent of the buyer, the Certificate Holder and myself; my agreement will not be unduly withheld. The identity of a Certificate Holder will be held in confidence unless a notice in writing is provided asking to be listed on the website which will be establed to faciltate trade.
 

The Face Value of all Certificates will be 4,000 USD. This is a 20% discount of my standard price and a 60% discount of my price for complex work (i.e. Type I DesignShops) or high level design (UniCredit scale and complexity). The Certificate Face Value is factored; when redeemed a mattDay is equal to a calendar day except as follows:

teaching the Taylor Method a mattDay gets 2 days

virtual coatching, a mattDay gets 1.75 days

work with non-profits, a mattDay gets 1.50 days

product and environment design, a mattDay gets .75 days

Type I & II DesignShops, a mattDay gets .5 days

The buyer of a mattDay understands that while I will direct my absolute best efforts to the field, subject and work the Holder specifies, that the Holder is clearly aware that ”I do what I do.” In other words, do not ask me to design a Georgian Colonial House unless to want as Georgian Colonial House as they would have done it if they had the ability to recreate their Pattern Language and had the means intrinsic to the 21st Century. My work, philosophy and design logic is well documented on this site. In this regard “Let the buyer beware.” That said, the added value for me is the the variety of work and experiences I will get from this program which is likely to be different than my norm.
 
 
the projects
 
The present Business Plan and ProForma shows RADIANCE doubling revenues each year for the next three years. This is a rate we have grown before and will have us, in the second to third years, exceeding our peak income of of 1998/99 and posting a substantial profit, at the end of the period, for the first time is well over a decade. During this time, capital will be available to buffer cash flow requirements, improve production, rebuild our communications infrastructure, and complete the development of Foundation III work processes, environments and tool sets. We will establish a systematic publishing of the Taylor process and history making available the extensive documentation of the Taylor Method from our archives. Our ability to interact and engage other organizations and individuals doing leading edge work will be enhanced and thus the opportunities to find common ground, synergies and the mutual development of projects which lever each other’s work. This plan is called Securing The Base. It sounds conservative, and it is, yet it involves a great deal of work and a tremendous extension of our existing capability in terms of infrastructure and operations. Our capacity for interfacing with and working with the ValueWeb will be greatly enhanced. There are a number of projects which have emerged out of recent 7 Domains exercises focused on systematic learning and certification of those working with the Method and we will have the resources necessary to pursue these important initiatives with vigor.
 
During this three year period, I will be able to shift my attention away from CEO and business issues to Research, Design and Development (RD&D) and prototype the rather long list of natural extensions to the current practices of the Taylor Method and tool sets. Many of these as you know where conceived from our beginning and many have emerged during the last 33 years. Those who have attended recent 7 Domains sessions, and have spent time in my Notebook, will have a good sense just what these “new” capabilities will be and their importance to our work.
 
Already, there can be seen a dramatic shift in the type of work opportunities we are finding and seeking with our client partners. This no doubt is the result of the general awakening around the globe that Humanity now faces complex, systemic cross organizational issues of its own making and also that our message, consistent since the mid 70s is beginning to resonate with a wider number of people. This is, of course, what we built our venture for, to be ready when this kind of challenge emerges at scale. We now have three worthyProblems/Projects underway of various scale, scope and geographic range. There is tremendous opportunities here and also great challenge. worthyProjects will require the attention, resources and abilities of our entire ValueWeb and it is precisely here that the Pieces of Matt Program comes into play.
 
We are finding out, as we work through the startup phases of these projects that, yes we - all of us together - are ready, yet just barely. And, that our capacities and ability to act in this new domain is severely limited by our tools, practices and Business Models. This is where the “Tug and Pull” between the two aspects of the Mission becomes evident and deeply felt. Our organizations our, by fact, still 19th and 20th Century and the work challenges we face are 21st Century in their nature.
 
On one hand there is an entire organization and ValueWeb to (re)build to attend to the ever increasing current work we have, and on the other a tsunami of new work which requires a greatly augmented response. This Appropriate Response, falls into two categories of effort. One our work itself which we have long anticipated and have practiced for, The other, addressing the impacts of the now clearly decaying exiting order and the impacts which this has on our own lives and ability to function. It is here that the not fund-able, not “ready” for investment projects are key. They cut across all three domains of our practice: environments, work (now living) processes and technology augmentation.
 
The exiting market and its work, and the exiting Business Models and organizations which support doing it, are worthy and present a massive challenge in themselves. Doing this work can be profitable in the way that profit is now counted. Yet, we are now in the transformation that we have been preparing for. There is a whole new body of work to understand, to finance, to invent solutions for and to bring these new products and services to a new market in a new way. This work is concurrent with our existing focus and efforts as one cycle ends another is born.
 
The Pieces of Matt Program, nor 150 mattDays as an investment cycle, will not address the enormity of reinventing an entire industrial civilization. Yet, there is a small gap which can be closed. There are “almost ready” projects which are useful and demonstrate a direction. There is a “moment in time” when doing some of this work now - right now - can help facilitate the shift from MGT to RADIANCE. There is a fork in the road, we are at it and we have to to take both paths at once. This is what this Program is about. The design Strategy of this bridge work can be described as “Going Retail” and “going SOHO” (Small Office, Home Office).
 
The projects themselves are familiar to many of you. They are at the edge of our current work. They are a mix of old and new ideas. They are just short of being “market ready.” They do not address all of the issues of the 21st Century yet they illuminate many of them. They are a start. They are thought experiments in concrete form. Many will lead to something else. Many will be commercially successful in themselves. Some are environments, some processes, some tools. They are all bridges which can work today while showing a way to a better future. They are receiving increasing attention from people throughout the world. Every one is supported by me, personally. Every one is a real project somewhere being done today. I cannot do this alone. I need help.
 
These projects can be found on my Notebook and elsewhere. Not all of them will appeal to all of you. It is the system of them as a whole you should consider as well as your personal interest. They include: getting ready the true RDS for deployments to crises areas; the Cube Office System to provide truly affordable basic sustainable living/work environments and apartment retrofit systems; the virtual knOwhere store to promote all ValueWeb members individual products and services both in their aggregate form and individual aspects; supporting worthyProjects which are on the edge of mainstream yet not yet financially viable, example the GBE Cure Brain Cancer Project; putting the entire Taylor System and Method on Apps; publishing the Taylor Method Manuals, philosophy and story; supporting the several “Future Ready City Projects; delivering the ReBuilding the Future Course and the supplementary personal life planning workshops; embedding the Method into MBA Programs so that graduates are certified and those taking our courses can get accreditation; developing and practicing the ValueWeb architecture concept as a viable model of a 21st Century Organization.
 
These projects are Weak Signals of our near and long term future work. As they develop, many will fit into our developing Business Models, just as the DesignShop had to do in the past. The simple point is that these projects cannot wait for the market, they drive the market. And, on the scale that the ValueWeb will become, it is the market. Taken a little further now, these projects will more quickly become mainstream. Given what they do and represent, and their importance to society, we cannot wait.
 
 
execution and FAQ
 
There is a degree of experiment and social contract with the implementation of this kind of relationship. It is understood that this is not an offering for stock or ownership in any organization or property. This is a way for us to make a mutual investment in the creation of a social commons which is the ValueWeb. In doing so a Certificate holder and myself acknowledge a mutual fiduciary relationship which is to be carried forward though the work performed when the Certificate is redeemed. The spirit of this work is to do no harm, have fun and make great things happen. It is to fulfill the Mission for which this way of working we share, by working togther was created and is being advanced by the work which we do.
 

at this moment 27 pieces of Matt have been committed

 
FAQ responses
pod_greenhouse
WHAT ARE EXAMPLES of PROJECTS?
 
The Pod Greenhouse project 2003 is a example of a window of opportunity which was lost for the lack of $75,000 - less than 20 mattDays.
At the time, the real estate market was growing and developers were looking for designs that could be bring new features to their product. The opportunity was to place a prototype into a model home. We had a team pulled together to do the project, the AI Shop was prototyping the POD and we had developed in the past the entire delivery process. There were other AI, tsmArchitecture projects in design which employed the POD. This was an opportunity to develop our home office product, while developing synergies with our already existing market. This window closed [for a period] with the housing bust and now has to be accessed by a different design strategy. Markets can be created yet only when a window for a specific kind of solution, in a specific location, exists.
     
 
cube_patio_system
 
The Cube Patio System, 2011/12, is a design/build exercise of the postUsonian Project It is being developed to become a kickstarter project for the building, testing and market evaluation of three prototypes.
The Cube Patio Office System is a classic example of the thesis of the Pieces of Matt Program. It has been ready for a Kickstarter effort for six months lacking only two things: First, about $50,000 of ignorantia and components/material testing to be sure that what is being represented is in fact ready for the first, fully usable prototypes; and second, the minimal cost and time of putting together the Kickstarter presentation. I believe that Kickstarter is ready for a project of this kind, scale and scope yet the arguments for this have to be clearly stated in the media presentation. Meanwhile, the “Shedworks” phenanmana is catching on and the Market for this kind of approache to working/living environmnet is strong. After decades of preparing and waiting for this market window, it will be a shame to be this close and miss having our unique contribution in the game.
     
 
global_brain_exchange
 
The first Global Brain Exchange DesignShop was held in Sydney the 15th and 16th of March, 2013. This is the first of 6 to be done around the word to discover a means, in ten years, to eliminate brain cancer.
This project is a classic example of why mattDays are required. This worthyProject in a few years will be main stream and revenues to the ValueWeb and MG Taylor will be full fees. In the incubation phase, we have to invest considerable time and energy to support a “start up” for fees which are a fraction of our costs. Most of ValueWeb members spend most of their work focus on mature projects which have high commercial value. Future markets are often neglected. It has been the policy of MGT to move away from established applications of the Method and move into the new, nascent future areas and develop them. This is a dual service. First, leading edge projects are served as they are the beginning of the future and new markets. Second, the capability and capacity to be serve these new markets are developed so that when demand increases the knowledge, modules and tool sets are developed and the appropriate pricing structure understood.
     
 
seven_domains_workshops
 
The January 2013 Melbourne 7 Domains Workshop on the MG Taylor Modeling Language. A week of dialog with 60 KnowledgeWorkers.
Of all the work that Gail and I do, the 7 Domain Workshops are the most enjoyable and perhaps the most important for accomplishing the mission of the enterprise. Sometimes these events are sponsored by an organization for one group of KnowledgeWorkers. Most often, KnowledgeWorkers come from all over they world and pay a fee which covers venue and food costs. This is a considerable personal investment. Yet, in the last nine months, the total revenues to MGT, Gail and myself for three one-week long events in three countries, has been $20,000 While doing this important work, I am serving the first part of the MG Taylor Mission, but not the second which to to become a profitable enterprise. In the world which is emerging the requirements for capital and the separation between for-profit and non-profit organizations may not be as distinct as now. Today, these are competing venues with different models of “profit” and accountability. Traditionally, MG Taylor has always commingled these “businesses” and now have to find ways of funding the unpaid for at least to the point which protects investors, employees and ValueWeb members.
       
 
 
These projects are only a few of the many being formed. Some will be initiated by MG Taylor, most will come from the larger ValueWeb and beyond it - thus, growing the ValueWeb. From the beginning, in 1980, the Taylor Method created markets. A market for its own processes and environments and facilitated numerous individuals and their enterprises in innovation. As these markets form - be they be “for” profit or “non” profit (these are only accounting distinctions) - the work finds its way in the main body of the social fabric. It becomes “normal.” a business model is formed. The gap of which I speak is filled.
 
The Pieces of Matt Program is an invitation to help me with the transition of the MG Taylor NewCo to becoming a profitable company and valuable member of a global ValueWeb. If you want to engage with me in this effort, now is the time.
 
 
 

SUMMARY: What This Does

It frees (MG Taylor) RADIANCE to do a complete of iteration7 of MG Taylor’s history which is to preserve the legacy of this work; become a profitable and exemplar 21st Century enterprise; take to market at the fastest pace possible, the products and services which are in waiting and ready, and; reward the Stakeholders, new and old, who have invested time, energy, ideas, money - many for decades with no return - and, who took considerable risk by supporting this venture; systematically prepare the next generation of programs, products and services and take them to market when they are fit with their market; systematically continue the process of moving tested and refined, profitable properties for further development, and market saturation to the ValueWeb itself; at the right time move the Brand and IP to the ValueWeb as enterprise and market become one. Accomplish, with the ValueWeb, ubiquity of this way of working. This will complete iteration7 of the venture conceived in the mid 70s and launched in 1980 - the summation of a two generation cycle.

 

It engages, prepares and supports the nascent, growing ValueWeb to become in time the embodiment and market of this way of working Where this will go is impossible to be known by the founders, it is emergent; our task has been to give it birth and proper stewardship, then join the ValueWeb as a member/user.

 

It frees the founders of the Taylor Method to use it, as a ValueWeb member, getting back the work that was impossible to get done given the conditions of the time - in my case, the practice of architecture, in Gail’s learning and teaching, community development and the pursuit of GroupGenius. Of course, we will do this in a way different then we thought of our core work then as one reason why “you can’t get THERE from HERE” is the “you” who started the journey is a different persona from the “you” who arrives. We certainly are different from those who started. Yet, many aspects of the original idea remains to be done. Getting them done is part of a proper closure - a life-time well spent.

 

A web site is being set up to further develop this Program, track the results, and create a means by which mattDays can be combined and traded. In the mean time, if you have any questions or wish to participate in this Program contact me at:

Matt Taylor 615 720 7390 rmattaylor@gmail.com
 
 
 
posted: February 17, 2013 • published to the web February 25, 2013, 3:00 PM Nashville USA • revised March April 21, 2013 7:55 AM • Elsewhere