A Slow Regard of All the Things
TL;DR Future articles will have a proper one but as this is the ouverture to my lovely new blog, I kinda want you to read it in full #sorrynotsorry
In short - I am setting up a new professional blog about comms, org design, systems thinking and behavioural psychology. But it's way cooler than that.
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Why this odd title?
I saw a Reel on Instagram the other day. The protagonist demonstrated a series of acts designed to remind us that we are free of will. That we can focus on, think about and do whatever we feel like, not just what we are programmed to. They sipped a glass of wine from a bowl through a straw (questionable), washed dishes sitting down (erm…yes!) and bit into the center of a burrito rather than one of the ends (I haven’t quite recovered from that one).
The creative muse must have been near. This short clip randomly kicked off a deluge of curiosity and freedom to stray from the path the whole world seemed to be struttin’ down: AI x productivity, community segregation, eroding business climate, you name it. I say “seemed” because naturally my impression of what “everyone is talking about " is dictated by my personal news cycle and social media feeds, stubbornly focused on the surface level consequences of deeper systems in motion.
However, what always tickles my fancy is the study of said underlying systems that shape us and our global society. Mediatisation, sociolinguistics, industrial psychology, complex system science, strategic design, media literacy, neurolinguistic programming, behavioural psychology. All the things.
If it sounded fascinating, you can bet that it was scribbled on one of 100s of post-its cluttering my living room floor.
Image - purposefully blurry - some of the pinned ideas not ready for public scrutiny
The thing is, I don’t suffer from analysis-paralysis. I suffer from something you could call “must-map-everything-and-develop-the-perfect-organising-principle-for-flexible-yet-distinct-knowledge-capture-before-I-can-start-reading-anything”. It’s bad.
My wild mapping started to feel a little frantic. At a time when I (and others) believe that we are so oversaturated with the rapid-fire information and content-bombardment, I see the emergence of a different craving. It feels analogue somehow, like curation rather than targeting, like less is more, like quality over quantity. A slow regard rather than a swipe every 6 seconds.
So I took a deep breath, let the clutter be the clutter and solved for my organising principle issues by channeling all this curiosity and discovery into a product: a little shared learning blog between musings and research, paradoxically called A Slow Regard of All the Things. I was going to study anyway just for me, might as well share the output right?
Ok, but what is this?
So glad you asked. What you might get is:
A review of a book or article I found insightful
An applied case study, weaving theoretical foundations with practical experience
An AI tool or Comms tech stack I’ve played with and want to share
A musing about a particular cultural change current I’ve detected in and out of work
Basically, whatever I want. Because I can, remember the burrito analogy
Most importantly, this is about playful personal discovery, about the joy of shared learning. Because I know so very little and our collective and very cool mind - even just within my LinkedIn network - knows so very much.
I work somewhere between communications/PR, brand marketing, organisational design and the future of work, systems innovation and anything “why do groups of people behave the way they do”.
To give myself a rough focus and you the ability to think along with me, I am channeling the results of my wild yet focused probing into the following 4 overlapping and messily-boundaried areas: 2 applied topics and 2 theoretical more theoretical topics.
A Slow Regard of All the Things by Tom Zamzow - Communications and Brand Mangement
Applied Focus 1 | Curated Communications
There is a nostalgia for and trust in things that feel more analogue and somehow ponderous in a world that is digital and fast. I think we are moving from attention to trust, from targeting to curating. And I want to find out what that means for the way in which people and organisations communicate with their audiences.
Applied Focus 2 | Organisational AI Readiness
It seems to me (or the algorithm) that there is a notable lack of focus on the human building blocks and cultural boundary conditions that make AI adoption within organisations nimble, effective, sustainable and crisis-ready. A quick agriculture analogy: productivity is key and soil health seen as a nuisance. The bill for this error would be steep, as it is for the climate.
Theoretical Focus 1 | Systems Thinking, Complexity & Strategic Design
From an early age, especially in school, our minds are trained to look for linear solutions to problems presented to us as equally linear. Most challenges we face today however are not linear. They are complex, messy, wild. And we need the collective mindset shift to go with the times if we want to not only solve them, but leverage the opportunities they present.
Theoretical Focus 2 | Behavioural Sciences
This area is huge, I know. But recently it occurred to me that in all our appetite for ever-greater efficiencies, tech and productivity, we have forgotten how to look at our audiences - and people in general - through the lens of the humanities. What forces other than our brands exert influence over them and shape culture, perception and reputation?
Ok, but what do you want me to do?
Again, so glad you asked. Here’s what I would love to see happen:
A topic grows more interesting by the multitude of angles from which we regard it. So make use of the comment section. I read it, others read it, it is the most interesting thing about any blog really. We want views and clicks, but the goal is shared learning.
This is a challenge-positive space, which means that a disagreement is not a pushing away, it is a pulling closer. Be fun, be funky, be wicked, be elegant.
If you come to the end of anything I write thinking “This idiot, xyz have already explored this topic ad infinitum!”, don’t stop there. Proper attribution is soooooo important, so help me shout out the brilliant people leading the way we think about, feel towards and act within any of the topics I am sensing around.
If you know of any fabulous resources I haven’t mentioned but you think I’d enjoy taking a look at, send them my way!
Right. Bye. Tom
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PS: The original inspiration behind the blog title stems from a book I loved when I was younger, an addendum title to a wider series called "The Slow Regard of Silent Things" by author Patrick Rothfuss. It always made me feel whimsical and now makes me happy to recall it in the context of something that is about work but feels like play.