It was one of those ideas which bubbled up from the bottom of a pint - a nice slow pint - of ale.

“Why don’t we go on a trip around the world…?”

“Lara pulled a long face.”

“Without flying…”

“Her face lit up.”

A year later we found ourselves on the open road: no job, no house, no family and friends; just the two of us, a couple of bulging backpacks and a vague route sketched out on a little Michelin map.

This was World in Slow Motion - our aim was to circumnavigate the world, choosing to undertake it wholly without flying - the old-fashioned way, the slow way.

We didn’t view our decision as debilitating; instead we saw it as an opportunity, opening up a whole new world of possibilities to us.

Without flying we were able to perhaps able to get a clearer sense of the world, its sheer size, its variety and differences. Almost infinite possibilities.

Plus we would be able to travel between these different worlds, dawdling where we felt the need, becoming more sensitive to the gradual changes between places - towns, regions, whole countries - as they arose around us.

There were other benefits as well - we hoped to get closer to the people and places we passed through - something you simply couldn’t do in an anonymous aeroplane screaming between A and B. We would get to stop at C and D and, if we felt like it, E as well.

Then there were the environmental benefits as well, flying being a far more carbon-intensive mode of transport than any other. With the need to reduce our individual carbon footprints more pressing than ever, we have opted for a greener journey and, through our website, hope to help others do likewise.

This website (www.worldinslowmotion.com) not only recounts our adventures but also seeks to help others who would like to give travelling without flying a go, offering as it does a plethora of information for prospective surface travellers, from getting visas to booking a berth on a container ship.

Now eight months into our travels we have travelled some 36,000 miles, through 18 different countries. It’s been an amazing adventure, and all the more enjoyable for not flying.

We’ve met many interesting characters along the route - from drunken Russian soldiers and
teenage Laotian monks to Japanese salarymen and Mexican cowboys - and had same memorable experiences.

Particular highlights have included visiting Mayan ruins in the Guatemalan jungle, speeding through the streets of Hanoi’s old town on a moped and hitting the streets of New Orleans during Mardi Gras.

I’ll shortly be posting accounts from some of these adventures, plus adding in new ones occasionally as we travel across our current country, the United States.

In my own time, of course…
We hope you enjoy travelling with us in slow motion. For more information visit our website www.worldinslowmotion.com

Bombarded by a decade of self-proclaimed guru’s, evangelists and other romantic revolutionaries (including myself, just to set things straight) I think we got the message by now: agile systems development is in, waterfall development is out. At the risk of having some more experienced readers drop out of this blog-item– and I would not blame them – let’s summarise some of the original ideas. The understanding of the objectives, possibilities and risks around a solution grows during the lifetime of a project. This is why it is better to develop a system through small pieces, going through the entire lifecycle of specification, design, build and test. Combine this with small, multi-disciplinary teams and a frequent recalibration of priorities and direction, and you get better results with more commitment in the client organisation.

When well applied, it brings you right into the heart of both the organization and the problem space. Just like with a stew, quietly simmering on the gas. Frequently, you lift the lid to stir it all a bit and have a taste. Let’s see how the flavour evolves, if the herb mix needs to be adjusted. Maybe it is even time for a new ingredient. The resulting dish is exactly what you want and it radiates the love and carefulness that have gone into it.

What a surprise. Almost sounds like Slow Food, doesn’t it. Not the very first association that many people nowadays would have with agile development. And indeed, practice often turns out very differently. The agile principles then seem to become an ordinary alibi for wheezy ADHD behaviour, not having to think and misplaced pragmatism. Just Do It: everybody is working hard, but the foundation is missing and the project persists in following a jittery, unpredictable path from iteration to iteration.

This situation is best illustrated by the Daily Scrum, a concept which is particularly popular with agile fans. Just like in an intense rugby scrum, the team members gather together every morning in a short, high-impact session. They all answer just three basic questions: what did you do yesterday, what will you do today and are there any impediments in your way? In such a burly, but friendly brawl, the team spirit becomes strong and tight. But before you know it, the main emphasis is on optimising micro results and it gets very far from direction, coherence, business context and architecture.

If you are all pushing each other in that small, heated circle of a scrimmage, obviously looking inward, you tend to forget about the trainer, the opponents, the field and the audience. And certainly also about the world outside.

We are a close-knit team and we build results, never mind what or why: I don’t believe this is the reason why agile development became hip in the first place. And yes, I know that if the Scrum approach is applied in the right way, there is a Product Backlog, a ScrumMaster and a Product Owner. But means and end are too often confused and people get blinded by the trendy externals and mechanisms. And no, I don’t believe one single bit of the claim that Waterfall development is back because it is more effective. But we are in need of a better balance between thinking and doing, or – as my colleague Erik Proper puts it – a better balance between ‘Think Unless’ and ‘Act Unless’.

(*) And thanks to my colleague Lee Provoost for rightfully pointing out that the word ‘hip’ is only used by elderly people. Of course, ‘cool’ is much hipper. I rest my case.

Nine months ago I was in an exciting new job, whizzing around and between London and Cambridge and not getting the sleep I needed.  As the whirlwind of my former life reached its apex it suddenly stopped.  I was on the train to Europe, seeing the world in slow motion and looking forward to Russia, Japan, China, South East Asia, the Americas and back again.

I quit London for the world. I left fast for slow. For on this global circumnavigation I was going to make sure that my feet didn’t leave the ground.  Or more strictly speaking, the earth’s surface for in between these countries there were some large bodies of water that we going to need to cross.

Tom and I had embarked upon seeing the world in slow motion.  Our mission was simple - to travel 360° around the world without flying.  We wanted to see how the world is made up, to celebrate the similarities and differences between countries and to leave behind as small an environmental footprint as possible.

Slow Planet joins World in Slow Motion eight months into our ten month trip.  I’m therefore going to rewind a few months and start my postings from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where I found myself the only woman on an enormous cargo ship in the middle of oceanic nowhere.

[If you want to know where we are right now visit www.worldinslowmotion.com]

Today I had a short, but interesting discussion with my colleague and ‘architecture professor’ at Nijmegen University: Erik Proper. More or less as a result, he published this excellent blog item about finding the right mix between ‘thinking’  and ‘acting’. Acting too early - out of misplaced pragmatism or just being impatient - is bad and it happens all too much in the IT projects of today. So indeed we need to dedicate the right amount of time to Thinking. On the other hand- and clearly a pitfall for bringing in the Slow Attitude - we have the risk of becoming a victim of Analysis Paralysis.  Important stuff for any project manager involved in IT or business change projects, and I am most happy to point you to it.

Living a slow life is really about taking the time for quality. The Slow Cities movement is attempting to translate this notion into a day-to-day reality for people living in urban environments.

Creating a city with slow infrastructural polices is key to the overall quality of life for its residents. The Slow Cities movement includes the following in its infrastructural polices:
- sustaining historical and culturally significant buildings
- promoting and building safe transportation
- a focus on alternative transportation options (including bicycle paths and a pedestrian focus)
- Accessibility for all
- Green Space
- Public lavatories

These goals work together to create a better experience for the city residents and tourists alike. When infrastructure is put in place to promote alternative transportation, it is more likely that this alternative transportation will be utilized. These infrastructure goals incorporate pedestrian walkways and greenspace.  Overall, it is a higher quality urban environment that is attained. And because of the pedestrian focus, it is more likely that each person will have a more intimate relationship and a greater awareness of their higher quality urban environment.

It is not always possible to take a slow transportation option everyone you go. Sometimes we are more rushed and need to hurry along to fit more into our day. Therefore, it is important to have a variety of well-designed transportation options available in an urban area. But if our cities give us the option of using beautifully designed and safe pedestrian routes there is a greater possibility that more and more people will take those routes. If more people are out walking, there is a higher degree of human interaction.  And these people are also more likely to lead healthy, active lifestyles.  Promoting pedestrian transportation options in a city will give the residents a chance to take a few steps in a slow lifestyle.  Even if they have no concept of what slow really represents, they can begin to interact with life at a different pace, and begin to enjoy the quality of that moment in time.

It has been about six weeks since my last, and first, post about Slow Homes. My goodness, this sounds like the beginning of a confession. The reason for the tardiness is that we have been very hard at work revamping the Slow Home site in response to viewer feedback. They told us that they wanted more design education content. We thought that this was a good, and also quite slow, idea because although there are lots of magazines and websites out there that feature picture after picture of beautifully designed houses there is very little design education that teaches you how to actually go about creating a great place to live. In the same way that Slow Food promotes learning how to cook, making a Slow Home means learning enough about design thinking to make good decisions about where and how you live. We thought that really learning about design would be a more active and effective way for people to become engaged with their home.

Of course, like most things slow, the only real way to learn design is by doing it. The result is a web based interactive studio environment that we released on Monday. We call it Design School For Real Life. It is inspired by the groundbreaking work of the chef Julia Child, who invented Demonstration Cooking in the 1960’s. In the same way that Child presented cooking as a series of skills and techniques that could be demonstrated, learned, and applied to a variety of situations, we are presenting architectural design as a series of principles, skills, and processes that can be demonstrated, learned and then applied to your own situation.

We are very excited about this hands on approach to Design Education. Understanding the foundations of residential design will enable you to plan for a better future. Every choice you make about your home, no matter how small, is a design decision that has the potential to contribute to the creation of this future condition. By learning about how to design a home that is Simple, Light and Open you will be able to make better, more informed decisions that will improve the quality of where and how you live and deepen your relationship to your home.

To see what we are up to go to www.theslowhome.com. We are going to post a new design exercise each week day. (In the spirit of slow we take the weekends off). You can download the worksheet and try the exercise yourself before watching me do it in the daily video clip. We are still in early days with the new site and exploring what this new kind of teaching environment means but right now we think it’s pretty cool.

My first flash-bulb memory of my dad comes from the day we moved into our family home in 1962. I remember sitting in the moving truck, looking at my legs, looking at the driver’s legs, my dad’s leg, then back to my legs. I willed my legs to grow long enough to hang over the edge of the seat, just like them.  I wanted to be as tall and big and strong as my dad. I was two. 

I’m as tall as my dad now (I passed my mum’s height in elementary school), but, I’ve sadly realized that I’m probably stronger than my dad.  I never thought of myself as stronger than my dad, until this week.

I have to be the one with the strength now…both physically and emotionally.

I can’t believe that it was only a week ago that I was researching the Slow Movement, and discovered a few references to “slow medicine”.   Ah, interesting, I thought - sounds a lot like what I’m doing with birth - focusing on reclaiming the rhythm of life, honouring the needs of the body, honouring the wishes of the family, and saying “No” to expensive, unnecessary procedures. 

Thanks to the researchers at Dartmouth Medical School, physicians are now being encouraged to practice slow medicine, by educating their patients and their families about the high risks and low rewards associated with high-tech medical care for the elderly.  Slow medicine can help families avoid the trauma of 911 calls and emergency room visits.  Slow medicine is more about comfort than cure.

Slow medicine allows the elderly to journey gently to the end of life.  Slow birth asks people to consider the autonomy and dignity of undisturbed birth or home birth.  Slow medicine asks people to consider the autonomy and dignity of home death.  Whether entering or leaving this life, the slow movement helps us to make these transitions with grace.

So, it was quite ironic (or perfect in its synchronicity) that, only a few days later, I sat with my mum and dad, the most amazing and loving couple that I’ve ever met, in the Krall Centre (a gift from Diana Krall and friends in memory of her mum), and listened to the hematologist say, “I’m sorry…acute myeloid leukemia…weeks to months…” He told us that, because the disease is so advanced, he wouldn’t suggest any aggressive treatment, but would offer supportive care.  I placed my hand on my dad’s knee, and felt him suppress a sob.

“Slow medicine?” I asked quietly.

“Yes.”

I don’t know if the doctor knows what slow medicine is, but he was gracious enough to follow my lead.  ”We really don’t know how long it will be. Live fully.”

“Can I still garden?  Paint?” asked my dad.

So, rather than undergoing any chemotherapy, which would make him so ill, my wonderful, strong dad is up in his studio today, working on a new watercolour.  He looks so young at 83.  His eyes sparkle with tears.  He calls himself Peter Pan - “I will live to 100.”

With the help of slow medicine, we will be able to help dad make this transition with dignity - telling stories, gardening, dancing, kayaking…and we will all be strong.

We’ve started this great Friday tradition of going to the park for supper. Rather, I should say, we’ve reinstituted an old idea and it feels like a brand new tradition.  We came about it because of our urban hikes during winter break when time was spacious and schedules had no bearing.

When my older 2 were little we spent many hours doing this very same thing - loading up the double stroller and hitting the streets, eventually winding up in the park with friends and some snacks and around evening time a bottle of wine (or two) to share.

As our older 2 went off to school and life included a few more tasks, errands, social obligations, our aimless walks swindled and there were a lot more drives and our younger 2 spent less time in the stroller.

Winter break reminded me of my love of walking the streets and exploring and saying hi and stopping and going when and where we wanted to. Rediscovering a favorite neighborhood park was one of my favorite parts of that reminder - a park covered with live oaks and filled with grackles and kids and families, where we had logged countless hours years past and where there was a minimal playscape but lots of imaginative play to be had.

Since then we’ve been hitting this same park most every Friday afternoon loaded down with scooters and snacks and a bottle of wine or two to share with the friends we meet there. We stay until dark and beyond - building little wood fires in the grill for light and warmth - and when we return home everyone is tired but happy and ready to clean up and crawl right into bed.

It’s slow and connected and each week I am grateful for its return and I can’t imagine anything I’d rather be doing.