TPOVs @F-L-O-W
Artifacts
“Flawless Living focuses on… scaffolding in the third space, where our strengths reform and our limitations inform our needs for scaffolding, support, and maturity.” (Mike R. Jay 2012)
Artifacts are “what is left behind.” Discussing The Lessons of History, Will and Ariel Durant’s (1968) book, Will Durant describes artifacts as, “…the lasting developments which enabled each generation to proceed with a larger heritage than the one before.” (Durant 2005)
When discussing artifacts @F-L-O-W, we are looking at the metaphorical wake left behind culturally scaffolded behavior. Mike too has found that by examining artifacts we can move to a different position on the developmental GPS.
Artifacts can point us in the direction of understanding what was occurring in the behavior that produced the artifact. Like everything else, the meaning needs to be unpacked by sense-making practices, which we are evolving here multidimentionally @F-L-O-W.
Often artifacts can be helpful in determining what was possible under the scaffolding.
They can also tell us, in many ways, what was the design and complexity of that scaffolding, giving us another set of data points to identify capability and its application under load, under the current design.
It is important to value the artifact for what it is, and that is what was possible under the circumstances.
Even Einstein’s theories were artifacts of the current scaffolding, even if he was alone at the time of his creation of his relativity theory. Scaffolding the present more than likely produced the external pressure for him to forge the theory in the first place, being pressure prompted by nature.
Helpful Hint: Artifacts present us with verifiable data that can be unpacked to understand the capability that produced the artifact, the KSEs involved, the values present, and perhaps even more detailed looks at the scaffolding and design at the time the artifact was produced.
Action Step: Identify artifacts and scaffolding in the wake of your own experience as you “unroll your past.” Sit with your experiences as metaphors emerge, then construct a narrative that you “roll up for action” as you move forward.
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We hope you pick up valuable insights, ideas, and
tools during this process, which you can use for your own development as
well as your work and leadership with others.
You, Me, and We @F-L-O-W
Mike R. Jay is a developmentalist utilizing consulting, coaching, mentoring and advising as methods to offer developmental scaffolding for aspiring leaders who are interested in being, doing, having, becoming, and contributing… to helping people have lives.
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