This period will be one of pleasure and rest with little going on at the site until early January. It is a time to step back and access, finish the documentation of the effort to date, to plan the next phase of finishing the physical place and to organize for the events and Method transfer work ahead. The important meta process is to “connect back” to the origin and reason of this project and to renew this context so that is the framework, within which, the work of the last 25 days to opening is done. In the day-to-day work, it is easy to forget the “why.”

...Sunday - 24/Dec/ 06 25 days to Opening

This will be the third day in a month I have not been on the Job site. I am snug in my California home, Elsewhere. The first task, today, is to learn what happened on site the last day and a half and what the status of things are in relation to the floor finish work and the setting of the column brackets.

The second task is to start a final punch list for completing the project. I will do this on the project management system. There are numerous tasks, large and small to be done. It is still difficult to grasp that this work is a large house sized object with the complexity of a theater and a school. How this work came to be, as a result of many contributors, added layer and layer of ideas and capacities until the result is not the work of a single person but of an intense, lengthily and extended collaboration of many. It is “mine” only to the extent that I created the original concept - and even then within a “room” started by the UniCredit architects - and then continued in the role of system integrator working to keep the passion and integrity while facilitating the incorporation of the work of many. I suspect that there are few works this small that have greater complexity, nuance and shells of utility, character and meaning. And, this is just the “static” architecture. The variety of uses to which this space can be put and the variety of “media” which the users can engage - as maker and recipient - is almost unprecedented. While, by far, not the largest NavCenter to be built, is it a significant advance toward the full expression originally conceived by me as the necessary tool for understanding and engaging in the complexity and variety of the 21st Century. Even thought this project has consumed six months of my time this year, the full impact of it is just beginning to dawn on me.

I will devote my time to the full exploration of these possibilities for, in the second week of january, 50 internal and network knowledge workers will converge to design and support an experience for nearly 400 UniCredit executives that will be their inauguration to the Unimanagement Center - of which the NavCenter is but a part. This will require that I link the beginning of the design process - of this place - to the details yet required for its completion, necessary to achieve the potential of its full use - and, all of this back to the vision that has compelled this work for a generation. The important thesis is that the first use of a NavCenter sets the vector for a long time to come. The effort of birthing this place, to date, fads in importance to the work necessary to finish its emergence properly - to bring it to its full potential - to maintain the integrity and focus necessary to birth it fully and healthy into the world of practical affairs.

25 days from now, the investment of a generation will be put to test.

...Monday - 25/Dec/ 06 24 days to Opening

Today is Christmas. In my tribe, typically the gift giving is 75 percent or more books. This year was no exception. Since there are no random events, it stands to reason that many of the new stack sitting on my desk have relevance to the UniCredit project. It is also interesting to see how many of the new found thought-capsules will find their way into the ReBuilding the Future reading list. This is an exercise in relevancy and a measure of how well the ValueWeb is working. I have not worked on the project today nor thought about it too much. This is a vacation. This stepping back is an important part of the creative process. The mind needs time to relax. Relax in the technical sense as well as the self experiential. This does not mean that thoughts which come up about the projects are ignored either. It means they are recognized and noted and left to themselves to find their way back, as is appropriate, into the coming action phase.

...Tuesday - 26/Dec/ 06 23 days to Opening

In a week I will be heading back to Torino to pick up where we left off, The majority of the UniManagement staff and the network KnowledgeWorkers will be on site by the 7th of January to start preparing the Center for its opening. We have to get the the 3rd floor mini-NavCenter set up for them and this activity as we finish the first floor build out and installation.

...Wednesday - 27/Dec/ 06 22 days to Opening

Received verification that Permasteelisa will put the brackets on for the outer airfoil ring before the shores are removed and that the ring by the elevators is support, temporarily, by the balcony structure.

On this time off, I visited Stan Leopard and he told me he is ready to proceed with his Guest House and Studio Addition. The UniCredit project has kept me from progressing with his work area in the house. This has bothered me. In this case, the delay worked to our mutual advantage. We will now proceed with the Studio and keep the existing Dining Room as a formal eating place. It will be used as his home work area, furnished with WorkFurniture that will go into the Studio, until the addition is completed in the Spring to Summer time frame in ‘07. Other than being one of the rare times that a project delay works to the better, the real connection between the UniCredit project and the Leopard Addition is the ability to manufacture structural elements in the AI shop and the AI-AE team’s ability to install them. My leisurely work this vacation has been to work on the Preliminary Plan Description of this project - click on the graphic to see this. We will be preparing the project for manufacturing and construction upon my completion of the UniCredit work and initial transfer and return to the States next March.

...Thursday - 28/Dec/ 06 21 days to Opening

Found out today that the 3form materials for the PODs did not ship today as scheduled. This make it highly unlikely that they will be on site before the meeting. This is a disappointment. There was a manufacturing problem and the work has to be done over. The shipping date is now January 12th. It is not impossible we will get the material in time - not likely either. We have to, now, decide how we will “present” the PODs given this circumstance. They are necessary, as work areas, in order to provide for the number of teams necessary for the January meeting.

...Friday - 29/Dec/ 06 20 days to Opening

Received a message that Permasteelisa has not put the columns brackets up yet and that the floor is recovered and the shores replaced. Also, that two of the columns cannot receive the brackets because of attachment problems due to buried pipes. Permasteelisa is requesting clarification on what structural issues this causes. I will check this out upon my return.

...Saturday - 30/Dec/ 06 19 days to Opening

In early October, when asked about the feasibility of the schedule, I said that “adding two more weeks to it would significantly reduce risk, stress and trauma.” Now, here we are. Despite all the great efforts of everyone, this is going to be very tight. The task, now, is to select the right scope of work that can be done and is also adequate for the first-use January meeting and focus on getting this work done well with minimum confusion and stress. Then, finish the project afterward and before the next scheduled event whch is January 30th. It will be important to get through this without recriminations. Hopefully, we can can do this - the alternative will just be a distraction and serves no useful purpose. At some point, soon, people are going to start adding up the true costs of this deadline and there will be great temptation to start looking for someone to take the fall. Perhaps the professionalism that has been displayed thus far will hold.

Gail and I went for a walk overlooking the beach today and I took this picture. Somehow it seems to belong in this narrative. A peek at the sky, just before sunset, through the windblown coastal pines.

I was grateful to get a break and some rest, to read, dialog with Gail and to start thinking about about another project - is there life after completing Unicredit? Yet, when the number of days remaining dropped from 20 to 19, a certain amount of peace and tranquility flew out the window. My first temptation was to spring into action a send a fleet of e-mails and punch lists however this soon faded. This is a rest time and there is no one to send them to to. Minimal but key messages have been exchanged and this will have to do. There is no way to guess the status of things until I return to the job site and it is better not to be flying off based on false assumptions. The reality on the ground will be what it will be and it will be dealt with as it must be dealt with.

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GoTo: UniCredit Handwritten Notebook

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posted: December 24, 2006

revised: January 2, 2007
• 20061224.708819.mt •20061227.565688.mt •
• 20061230.989877.mt • 20070102.565412.mt •