Tag: English entry

Blog entry from Chicago

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It’s always exciting to land in the new place.

The first morning in Chicago welcomed me nicely. I woke up at 5ish am. The city was still dark.

I crash at my friend, Hiro‘s studio. It’s located in an industrial area, one of the old buildings renovated into a super nice apartment. SimpleScott used to live here, has just moved out, and Hiro took it over and shares with another crew from The Post Family.

Big rusty engine noises of trucks driving around in the hood in the early morning tell me that people are starting another day of life. Through the big window by the bed,  sky scraper of the chic town Chicago is silhouetted against the dawn. Smoky orange sky.

Chicago is a clean, neat, and lovely city. Flat land. Big, tall, square buildings. Wide roads. Quiet. Grounded.

Yesterday, as I was moving up from Chicago Midway Airport in SimpleScott’s car, I thought that this city seemed suitable for truly creative people, who can give a birth to the new from scratch.

Chicago isn’t filled with too much materialistic stimulus and amusement of external world, unlike Tokyo, but does have space and freedom. Definitely different flavor it has from San Francisco, New York, Paris, Barcelona, and London. Despite rather stoic atmosphere, designers and artists gather here. That makes me ponder, “how do they get inspiration and stay creative?”  My immediate answer is: creators living in Chicago need to generate stimulation and inspiration internally. They should be able to build up novel things without visually and auditory vivid, buzzy stuff. This is what I mean by “truly” creative.

Gigantic To-go Coffee Cup @ SimpleStudio

What the heck is Communication Process Designer?

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It’s been almost 1.5 years since I started working as an independent professional.

What do I do?

I have my own practice called “Communication Process Design.”

What the heck it that??

Well, this is neither an established job title nor even an existing professional field. Nothing like this out there yet though there are plenty of like-minded people. Communication Process Designer is indeed my dream job and what I wanna be. Nonetheless, since Day 1, when I first called myself such, I’ve already been ‘it.” That’s me. I’m Communication Process Designer.  In other words, I’m living my dream in a sense!!! Isn’t it cool?

Communication occurs anywhere as long as humans exist. But, we tend to pay more attention to “what to say,” or contents, than “how to say,” or process. Because we speak language and communicate with others everyday, we think that we “are able to” communicate well. However, reality is quite different. The world is filled with misunderstanding. Are we incapable of communication?

In my opinion, we badly underrate the importance of “process” of communication, while preoccupied with “what I wanna tell you.”

“You know what I mean?” 😉

My point here is, instead of repeating “you know what I mean?”  we should reflect upon how we convey our messages.

Therefore, I’m determined to be an expert in designing the process of communication. Whether it’s verbal or non-verbal; whether it’s intra-personal, inter-personal, group, organizational, community, national, international, or global; whether it’s corporate, not-for-profit, or volunteer; whether it’s physical, mental, or spiritual,  I collaborate with people to design more creative, more innovative,  more effective, wilder, and more powerful communication ways.

Specifically, my services (all can be offered JPN/ENG bilingual) ranges following:

Coaching

  • Career visioning coaching
  • Presentation coaching

Facilitation and Visualization

  • Graphic facilitation+recording
  • Process recording (creating live collage)
  • Workshop and training design+facilitation
  • Strategic meeting design+facilitation
  • MC
  • Moderator

Produce and Direction

  • Event and conference planning+operation
  • Space design for event, workshop, and conference

Cultural Competencies

  • Cross-cultural/Inter-cultural/multi-cultural communication training
  • Academic/Business English writing (for Japanese)
  • Performative interpretation (ENG-JPN, JPN-ENG)
  • Translation (ENG-JPN, JPN-ENG)

Organization, Community, and System Design

  • Organizational design and development
  • Face-to-face/virtual team-building
  • Community building
  • Global network weaving

I believe, already now and by far more in future, that we require such a job as Communication Process Designer who sees multiple dimensions in communication, excels in the areas above, and thus is able to create holistic and systemic approach towards our world.