Last week I finished a course in Estuarine mapping.
In an estuary, a river flows into the sea, and at high tide the sea flows back into the river. There are cliffs, big boulders and sandbanks, and each of them changes at a different speed. The cliff will still be there in a hundred years. The next storm will move the sandbank.
It's a brilliant analogy. That's what every complex problem looks like.
You want to change how people behave during a company transformation.
You're looking for a new successful AI product.
You want gardeners to start actively dealing with drought.
Lots of forces act on you at once, they pull against each other and each moves at its own pace. It's hard to even know where to start.
The worst thing you can do in that situation is set an ambitious goal, build a roadmap to it and start delivering. The situation will change many times along the way and you'll successfully deliver a plan that runs aground.
Last Friday we tried Estuarine mapping straight away at our Friday strategy workshop. It was really useful!
At the same time, this way of mapping isn't in the book Řež. That book only has the tools I've used for years. Estuarine mapping looks really useful, so we'll come back to it on Discord.
Which brings us to communities.
One-off course or ongoing development
With Řež, I originally focused on the book and the video course. More and more, though, I feel the most interesting part is the community on Discord. The book and the video course give you the know-how. On Discord, you can talk to other people dealing with situations as complex as yours. And we can extend the discussion with tools we don't know yet.
We're taking the same approach with AI Marketing Lab and AI Design Lab. You get access to the know-how of all past and future labs for a one-off price. But that doesn't feel like enough to us. So we've set up a Discord for the labs too and we're gradually inviting past participants. People from all cycles will meet there and can work out together what works for them and what doesn't.
We tried building a community on Discord before and it didn't work. Now we're giving it another chance, but above all we have a plan to make sure the discussions really keep going and people bookmark Discord and keep coming back.
Řež and the Labs also complement each other nicely. You want to make the right decisions. You want to carry them out efficiently with AI.
Dates and changes
Today, 6 October, AI Marketing Lab started, the most advanced AI training for marketers and managers in Czechia. You can still join if you catch up on the first session from the recording.
Next week, on 14 October, AI Design Lab starts, the most advanced AI training for designers, innovators and product people in Czechia.
On Sunday 11 October, the Řež pre-sale ends.
Nothing changes for people who have already bought Řež.
For buyers from Monday 12 October:
- We're separating the sale of the printed book from the e-book and the audiobook. They will no longer all come at one price.
- The Řež video course will become Klub Řež (video course and Discord), because in my view the community matters more than the video course.
- Klub Řež will have an annual membership fee instead of a one-off payment.
On Thursday 15 October I'm going to the printer to sign the books and, if all goes smoothly, we'll ship them right away. They'll also go out to distributors and bookshops. You'll have to wait a little longer for the e-book and the audiobook, we expect both in November.
The current prices are our thank-you 🙏 to everyone who pre-ordered Řež. Thank you! Once the community is alive and the video course is polished, the whole thing will be much more valuable and therefore more expensive. The first price increase comes as soon as next week.
"Find out where you are and what is possible before you leap into the whole vision and goals thing."
– Dave Snowden
Weekend reading
Estuarine mapping first edition
Curious about Estuarine mapping? Dave Snowden thought about the method for 7 years, then put it together very quickly, and it excited him more than Cynefin.
