💎 Friday Gems (Assuming best intentions, Yoga Back stretches, IBM Design Thinking, King Arthur bread recipe, and much more!)

Reflect on your assumptions.

Welcome to Low Fidelity, a free weekly newsletter where I share freshly squeezed insights from hand-picked articles, books, music, and quotes on a variety of topics such as mindfulness, design, running, and food to inspire you to empower you to show up in life, thrive in your work, and achieve your full creative potential. ✌🏽

Photo by Pao Pattarapol on Unsplash

In this edition of Friday Gems:
🧠 The Benefits and Downsides of Assuming Best Intentions
🧘🏽 Yoga Sequence for Back Strength Tutorial
✨ The IBM Design Thinking Framework
🍞 King Arthur's Classic White Sandwich Bread
💬 Do you have any books on your shelf you haven’t read yet?
🌞 On Our Destiny, a quote by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
🎵 Hope - Roly Porter Mix by Max Cooper

Mindset

💎 The Benefits and Downsides of Assuming Best Intentions

I’ve always been skeptical of the phrase “Assume best intentions”. I want to give people the benefit of the doubt but assuming they have the best intentions feels like letting my guard down and just asking for people to take advantage of me.

My approach may have helped me survive in the past, but now I recognize it’s time to change my mindset because leading with doubt hinders better relationships.

Is there a middle ground where I can build better relationships while keeping my guard up? The answer is yes.

I found the answer in this helpful article by Andrew Quagliata as I looked to understand better what assuming best intentions looked like in practice for all of us.

Here are a few steps to help develop this habit:

• Reflect on your own assumptions - Instead of jumping to negative conclusions about other people’s intentions, we can pause and give people the benefit of the doubt.

• Understand the other person’s perspective - Instead of assuming we know what exactly is going on with the other person, this is a perfect opportunity to ask questions to try to understand their situation better.

• Communicate openly - Share your thoughts and concerns openly to check assumptions instead of running wild with the stories that come to mind.

• Remember that everyone makes mistakes - We all make mistakes and forgiving others helps us connect with our humanity.

While it is good to give people the benefit of the doubt, there are downsides to this approach. Some of the drawbacks include

• Being taken advantage of

• Prevent us from addressing issues

• It may not be realistic in all situations

• It’s exhausting

In this case however, a middle ground seems to be a better approach and we can do that by:

• Assuming neutrality - Acknowledging we don’t have the whole story, we can lean into our curiosity to ask questions to get a better understanding.

• Assuming skepticism - If the signs are clear that we are dealing with a person with a history of deception then leading with skepticism is the right approach.

• Assuming self-interest - We all want what’s good for us so self-interest is a big factor in people’s actions. By recognizing this we can be more understanding and less skeptical of others’ actions

• Assuming best intentions with caution - Handle each situation by choosing an approach that feels appropriate and realistic for the situation

Changing our approach takes time and effort but to build stronger relationships it is important to check our assumptions and lead with curiosity. Choosing an approach that feels right for the situation seems to be the best way forward. ✊🏽

Source: Andrew Quagliata

Healthy Body

💎 Yoga Sequence for Back Strength Tutorial

Healthy back, healthy body, healthy mind. This is a great routine to start your day off strong.

Here is the handy graphic of the pose sequence Jason mentions in the video. Read the full post for detail on each of the poses.

Source: Jason Crandell Yoga

Design

💎 The IBM Design Thinking Framework

We treat everything like a prototype in design thinking, we treat everything as an unfinished product that will always be iterated on, that will always be reinvented

There are many design thinking frameworks out there such as Stanford d.School, The Human-Centered Design Toolkit by IDEO, The Double Diamond, etc. This week I learned about the IBM flavor of design thinking called Enterprise Design Thinking.

We think the systems of the world should work in service of people. At the heart of our human-centered mission is Enterprise Design Thinking: a framework to solve our users’ problems at the speed and scale of the modern enterprise.

- IBM Enterprise Design Thinking

Design thinking frameworks have common processes and steps. The uniqueness comes from different interpretation, perceptions, and context it applies the design thinking process to.

For IBM the context is enterprise design and since I am currently on an enterprise design project this framework resonates because I can relate to each step of the process and see the value it delivers.

IBM Enterprise Design Thinking consists of

• The Principles - See problems and solutions as an ongoing conversation, which includes these practices:

  • A focus on user outcomes

  • Restless reinvention

  • Diverse Empowered Teams

• The Loop - Understand the present and envision the future in a continuous cycle of observing, reflecting, and making, which includes these practices:

  • Observe

  • Reflect

  • Make

• The Keys - Help keep teams focused and aligned on outcomes that matter to users, which includes these practices:

  • Hills - A three sentence statement of intent without saying how to achieve it. This statement consists of who, what, and wow.

  • Playbacks - Open dialogue to share the team’s progress with the larger group. In playbacks, ideas are reflected upon and critiqued constructively.

  • Sponsor Users - I believe this is where the true magic lies. Having actual users be a dedicated part of the team so the feedback cycle to real user feedback is shortened and ideas can be validated and acted upon quickly.

The key to IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking process is that they adopted the design thinking process for their context through many failures and iterations. They made it their own. So if you’re using a design thinking framework within your company, make sure it fits the context and realities of your company.

Source: IBM

Food

💎 King Arthur's Classic White Sandwich Bread

I knew this recipe for white sandwich bread is a keeper when my son gave me a double look when I told him that the bread in his lunch box was home made and not store bought. 🙌🏽

This recipe by King Arthur Baking is simple and quick. The crust and crumb are perfectly soft enough for a daily sandwich bread.

Just make sure to double the recipe! :)

Source: King Arthur Baking

Low Fidelity Chat

💎 Do you have any books on your shelf you haven’t read yet?

Last week I asked the question in a thread:

Do you have any books on your shelf that you haven't read yet?

Here is a list of the books our community shared:

• SPQR by Mary Beard

• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

• The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson

• The Black Antifascist Tradition by Jeanelle K. Hope and Bill V. Mullen

• The Anxiety Audit by Lynn Lyons

• Measure What Matters by John Doerr

• This is Marketing by Seth Godin

• Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday

• The Artists Way by Julia Cameron

• Hold Me Tight by Sue Johnson

• The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker

• Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown

• Why Won't You Apologize by Harriet Lerner

• The Art of Learning by Joshua Waitzkin

• The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté and Daniel Maté

• Black AF History by Michael Harriot

• American Gods by Neil Gaiman

• Running on Empty by Jonice Webb and Christine Musello

We want to know if you have any unread books on your shelf? Join the conversation and share your books!

Wisdom

💎 On Our Destiny

We are not powerless specks of dust drifting around in the wind, blown by random destiny. We are, each of us, like beautiful snowflakes-unique, and born for a specific reason and purpose.

– Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Elisabenth Kubler-Ross was a psychiatrist who developed the theory of the five stages of grief, also known as the "Kübler-Ross model" which consists of 5 stages which are:

• Denial

• Anger

• Bargaining

• Depression

• Acceptance

Music

💎 Hope - Roly Porter Mix by Max Cooper

Hope is a visual poem about the journey of a thought, with a scale transposition to the gigantic/cosmic, it tries to represent the brain's complexity and the birth of a feeling, as a charged particle travels through neuron and gives the power to create information and emotion.

I love the idea of visualizing the journey of a thought especially knowing that this video was made using real shots of macroscopic chemical reactions. 🤯 Enjoy the journey through your mind with the latest addition to the Low Fidelity playlist.

That’s it for this week’s gems!

If you are enjoying this newsletter, please feel free to let me know. It’s always nice to know that people are out there. 💜

Curiosity will save us,