There was a constructively critical comment on our internal blog here at RISD about how I needed to get out more on the street. Good idea. Today I went to my favorite non-RISD lunch joint Cafe Choklad, got my regular sandwich with baby carrots, and sat by myself outside our HQ building here at RISD. Indeed, I met a variety of people I wouldn’t normally meet on the blog, or in the cafeterias, or on the jogs I’m doing.

First of all, I met a Hollywood film maker who had dropped by RISD to visit our Dean of Fine Arts, John Terry. After that, I met the person that was part of a crew that I saw fixing a roof in the neighborhood — I had said “hello” to him at the time, and he remembered me. Unfortunately he had lost his job, and I told him to continue to have hope as he clearly seemed like a hard worker with an honest heart. Then a non-RISD truck passed by and the person inside told me to, “Keep on doing what I’m doing!” I wanted to stop him and ask him, “What *am* I doing?” But he drove off before I had a chance to ask.

As I approached the last bite of my sandwich, I had a faculty person approach me with one of his students. He had an idea about connecting RISD to an interesting part of the United States in some sort of new kind of studio experience. I told him that as President my “powers” are quite limited, and that ultimately all decisions regarding academics are naturally in the purview of the Provost’s Office. My advice to him was to talk to his Department Head and generate interest starting there.

His response was that it was a *special* kind of studio — that it would be better served by involving faculty from all over RISD. I said, “Great! Then you should ask your Department Head to talk to other Department Heads and see if there might be broader interest. If the idea was special enough and excellent enough, it would naturally go up to the Deans, and if there was enough interest among the Deans, it would ultimately make it to the Provost. In which case, the Provost would decide if the project makes sense and have a conversation with me.”

It was interesting to watch his reaction. He said that his way was to talk to all the different parts of RISD and “figure a way in.” I responded that I wasn’t surprised — artists and designers are right-brained thinkers that know how to “hack” any system. I also pointed out the problem that occurs when everyone is a “hacker.” The result is total system-wide chaos, also known as “gridlock” — a concept that has been elucidated quite nicely in the context of organizations in the new book Gridlock Economy.

So I proposed to him to use the system of communication that is in place, and to let the decision making take its natural course. When the system works, a natural case of “survival of the fittest” occurs and the best ideas *do* bubble up if you just let the system work. In any event, the president that was stuffing his face with a sandwich on the street heard about his idea, and wished the faculty person sincere good luck with his journey.