TALE: The 100-Day Challenge

Published in

TALE500

15 min readFeb 17, 2023

Running A Developmental Project around your Primary Annual Theme #TALE100

One month ago, I wrote a post titled How to Set Annual Themes for 2023? There is a difference between Annual Themes and Annual Goals. While Annual Themes are about exploration, Annual Goals are more about performance. Annual Themes and Annual Goals can work together because the former is a “soft” cognitive tool while the latter is a “hard” cognitive tool.

How do we work with a “soft” cognitive tool such as Annual Themes?

For knowledge engagement, learning, and development in general, we can use “Annual Themes” for framing the direction, the boundary, and the meaning of the journey.

Direction: Annual Themes don’t point to a particular place, but set a rough direction.
Boundary: Annual Themes don’t claim a particular content, but set a boundary for your journey.
Meaning: Annual Themes connect Past, Present, and Future together by linking with other themes.

The Thematic Engagement project is supported by the following two theoretical approaches:

The “Themes of Practice” approach (2019, 2021)
The “Project Engagement” approach (2021, 2022)

Thus, we need to move from “Annual Themes” to “Passion Projects” for “Practice” and “Engagement”.

What should you do with an annual theme?

On Jan 13, 2023, I shared several possible themes with readers in Start Your Journey of Knowledge Engagement with A Possible Theme.

You can pick one theme from the list of possible themes and work on something about it.

You can talk about it with your friends. You can write short posts about it on Linkedin. You can collect links about it and share them on Twitter.

You can write a book about it too.

Moreover, you can pick one tool from the Thematic Engagement toolkit and try it. For example:

Run a knowledge curation project about the theme. For example, I worked on a project about “Activity Theory” in 2020. You can pick a tool from the knowledge curation toolkit.
Reflect on your tacit knowledge about the theme with the Knowledge Discovery Canvas and write a reflection report.
Use the Career Theme Canvas to conduct a case study.
Pick four projects and use the Thematic Journey Map to reflect on the journey.

Some of the above themes are related to my research. I’d like to offer help and advice.

If you have your own annual theme, that is great too!

The 100-Day Challenge

Some readers don’t know how to work with an annual theme actually. I think there is a need to give a “Setting” for the knowledge engagement around a particular theme.

Let’s use the magic number “3” to develop a simple schema for life planning.

3 Days
3 * 3 Days = 9 Days -> 10 Days
3 Weeks = 21 Days
3 Months = 91 Daya -> 100 Days
3 * 3 Months = 273 Days -> 300 Days
3 Years = 1095 days -> 1000 Days
3* 3 Years = 3287 days -> 3000 Days

If we only select three timescales, we can use “10 Days — 100 Days — 300 Days — 1000 Days” as metaphors for our discussion. I have to point out that we can use these numbers metaphorically. It means we use “10 Days” to refer to a set of times such as 1 week (7 days), 2 weeks (14 days), 3 weeks (21 days), etc.

Now let’s associate the “10–100–300 — 1000” metaphor with the journey of knowledge engagement. See the diagram below.

10 Days: Set an annual primary theme for 2023

From the perspective of the Thematic Engagement approach, this is the beginning of a journey of knowledge engagement.

As mentioned above, you can use 1 week (7 days), 2 weeks (14 days), or 3 weeks (21 days) to discover an annual primary theme too. However, if you spend 100 days discovering a theme, this is not for setting annual themes. It is for discovering life themes.

Can we spend 100 days discovering a life theme? Yes, we can. You can manage the Explore—Exploit Cycle for your life strategy. For example, you can set 3 years as an Explore — Exploit Cycle, then it is fine to spend 100 days on the Explore stage.

For Annual Themes, it only considers the “10–100–300” time scales. The next scale is 100 Days.

100 Days: Running A Passion Project

As mentioned above, we use the Project Engagement approach to support the Thematic Engagement project and TALE.

The Project Engagement approach is a large theoretical framework with several sub-frameworks. We can start with its primary sub-framework: The Developmental Project Model. See the diagram below.

The above picture is the standard diagram of the Developmental Project Model. It uses eight elements to describe a developmental project:

Purpose: Why do you want to initiate or join the project?
Position: What’s the social structure of the project?
Program: Does the project have formal organizational processes?
Social: How do you connect with others due to joining the project?
Content: How do you acquire new information and knowledge due to joining the project?
Action: What actually do you do due to joining the project?
Theme: Do you find some new and interesting themes for your career development?
Identity: How do you perceive your identity before and after joining the project?

In the past few years, the Activity U project (2020–2022) is one of my Developmental Projects. I started the Activity U project on August 19, 2020. Initially, I just made a diagram called “Activity U” which is a test of the “HERO U” framework. I wrote a post to explain the diagram “Activity U”. The original title of the post is Activity U: The Landscape of Activity Theory. Later, I added “(Part I)” to the end of the title. It expanded from one post to a series of articles.

My primary actions were reading and writing. I originally published long articles on Medium. Later, I curated them into three books.

While the Activity U project is a three-year journey, a Developmental Project can be a three-week project. It depends on your goals. You can find more details in Developmental Project Canvas and Developmental Project Model.

Now we have an Annual Theme and a general model of developmental projects. How do we associate them together? See the diagram below.

“Theme” is a significant element of the Developmental Project Model. We can use the primary annual theme to explore and evaluate other elements of the model. In this way, you can get a better picture of the landscape of your projects.

The dynamics of Developmental Projects are emphasized by plus signs and minus signs. Plus signs refer to positive impacts while minus signs refer to negative impacts.

This component refers to individual psychological status. In order for further discussion, I’d like to adopt a model developed by Ellen Skinner and Kathleen Edge in 2000. According to the authors, “The motivational model is an action-theoretical account of motivation, and its goal is to provide a framework for explaining psychological sources of energized and directed action. The basic model integrates work on attachment, perceived control, and self-determination.”

The model is based on Self-determination theory (SDT) which is one of my favorite psychological theories. SDT claims that there are three basic psychological needs — namely, the needs for Relatedness, Competence, and Autonomy. You can find more details in The Customer Profile and Life-to-be-Owned.

When you design your Passion Projects, you can make a balance between your psychological needs on Relatedness, Competence, and Autonomy.

You can also find some related ideas in Life Discovery: Running A Developmental Project.

Things You Could Make around the Primary Theme

For the journey of Knowledge Engagement, you can consider some things you could make around the primary theme.

The diagram below lists five ideas.

A Knowledge Framework
A Theoretical Concept
A Diagram
A Canvas
A Template

All these things are contained in the thematic space which refers to a large cognitive space about a particular theme.

Why do I choose the above picture for this list? I use it as a metaphor to highlight the following principles:

Turning “Fluid” to “Solid”
Build the foundation first

Themes, ideas, knowledge, and thoughts, are “Fluid” because they are not graspable. We need to use some concrete containers to shape them. There are many types of knowledge containers. I discussed the following types in my 2019 book Curativity.

Knowledge Card
Knowledge Framework
Knowledge Diagram and Chart
Knowledge Workshop
Knowledge Sprint

It is not an accurate classification, but a rough recommendation. Also, I suggested that we not only adopt existing types of cognitive containers but also create new types of cognitive containers. Actually, this is the essential point of the Curation Theory. We are shaped by containers and we can make containers too.

Inventing new knowledge containers is an exciting challenge too. You can find more related ideas in The Knowledge Curation Project (phase 1) and Thematic Space: Sparks In, Statue Out.

In 2022, I wrote a book titled Knowledge Discovery: Developing Tacit Knowledge with the Thematic Space Canvas. The diagram below is the summary of the book. You see the Enter — Exit Trajectory in the picture.

I roughly use City Travel as a metaphor to summarize the idea:

City: a concrete container (a knowledge field)
Map: an abstract container (the canvas of Thematic Space)
Trajectory: Enter and Exit (a strategic plan for Developing Tacit Knowledge during a period of time such as months or years)
Path: Offers and Acts within social dynamic situations inside a city (various social settings for Tacit Knowing Activities)

The primary theme of Knowledge Discovery is Developing Tacit Knowledge. This is a type of Activity in the journey of Knowledge Engagement.

You can work on Curating Explicit Knowledge, Curating Life Experience, Creating New Knowledge, and Discovering Ecological Knowledge too.

Moreover, you can consider your journey of knowledge engagement as a Second-order Activity which refers to Life Discovery, Strategic Exploration, and other activities without pre-defined objectives and goals.

If you work on a Second-order Activity, you can ignore the above suggestions. If you want to know more about Second-order Activity, you can find more details in A Typology for Anticipatory Activity System.

Build the Foundation First

The second principle “Build the foundation first” is about the abstract hierarchy of knowledge. For example, a theoretical concept can generate a framework, a knowledge framework can generate a diagram, a diagram can generate a canvas, and a canvas can generate a template.

Can a template generate a theoretical concept? I am not going to say that it is impossible. It’s just hard to do it.

If you are working on a journey of Applied Knowledge Engagement, you can select a level of the abstract hierarchy of knowledge and use it as your foundation. For example, you can decide to work on the level of “Knowledge Framework” and ignore the level of “Theoretical Concept”.

How can we develop a knowledge framework without considering theoretical concepts?

A knowledge framework is a bridge that connects theory and practice. An ideal knowledge framework should contain two types of concepts:

Theoretical Concepts
Operational Concepts

Theoretical Concepts are adopted from Meta-theory or Specific Theory. Some frameworks don’t associate with any theories, they only have operational concepts. Operational Concepts are framework-dependent concepts for guiding research and reflection.

You can use your own terms to define Operational Concepts for your knowledge frameworks. In this way, you don’t have to adopt any theoretical concepts from academic fields.

You can also adopt some theoretical concepts from academic fields to develop your frameworks. You don’t have to develop your original brand-new theoretical concepts.

You can find more details about knowledge frameworks in Knowledge Discovery: The “Frameworks — Insights” Mapping.

If you are a practitioner who tends to work with ready-to-use knowledge, you can try a different approach to your journey of Knowledge Engagement in 2023. You can select the not-useful knowledge such as THEORY or theoretical concepts as your primary objects.

In fact, this is my journey in the past several years.

Before 2014, I spent most of my spare time on digital nonprofit communities as a digital activist. From 2014 to 2015, I transformed my focus from nonprofit activities to theoretical learning. Since then, I have been spending most of my spare time learning ecological psychology, creativity research, and other related subjects.

2014–2020: Ecological Psychology and Creativity Research
2014–2018: Action Science, Activity Theory, and Cognitive Science
2018–2019: Practice Theory, HCI, Strategy and Work
2020: Social Theory, Social Media, Information Systems and Platform

Later, I adopted these theories as knowledge resources to reflect on my various work experiences. The journey of connecting THEORY and PRACTICE is so amazing! Eventually, I wrote 18 books (drafts) from 2018 to 2022.

However, I’d like to emphasize that there are three different Foundations of knowledge.

THEORY as the Source of Knowledge
PRACTICE as the Source of Knowledge
Meta-knowledge

If we consider THEORY (academic knowledge) as the Source of Knowledge, then its foundation is Understanding Concept Dynamics.

If we consider PRACTICE (real-life experience) as the Source of Knowledge, then its foundation is Turning Experience into Insights.

Meta-knowledge refers to some knowledge about Mind, Cognition, Learning, Meaning, Self, and Knowledge. If you are not working in a field that is related to these topics, you should be careful about learning and using this kind of knowledge.

1000 Days: Building A Knowledge Enterprise

On May 6, 2022, I wrote an article titled How to Grow A Knowledge Enterprise? The answer is the diagram below.

The model is inspired by Project-oriented Activity Theory. Each phase refers to a focus. The three-phase development is inspired by the following diagram which is one of a series of diagrams in the book.

I used the above diagram to explain the concept of “culture” from the perspective of Project-oriented Activity Theory. It zooms out to a large view that connects the Individual mind (Idea) and Collective theme (Zeitgeist) through Collective Projects (Concept).

Not all ideas lead to a real concept which means a social practice from the perspective of Project-oriented Activity Theory. Though Blunden’s approach focuses on “the formation of a project with a concept of the problem is an original and creative social act”, I think the non-problem idea could develop into a real concept too. Cultural Innovations can be driven by problem-solution ideas and play-for-fun ideas too.

I personally believe that the journey of epistemic development is for fun first and for labor second. Why? You don’t have to continuously develop your mind in order to master some work-related activities.

The about diagram also mentions three knowledge frameworks I am working on:

Each knowledge framework could be adapted to support one phase of the Building Knowledge Enterprise (BKE) Activity.

Each Knowledge Enterprise is defined by a unique theme and it should be developed by its founders with a unique perspective. For example, Activity Theory is a successful knowledge enterprise and its primary theme is “Activity”. Its founder Aleksei N. Leontiev developed an activity-theoretical approach to psychological science.

While Phase 1 is about an individual mind, Phase 2 is about a collective project.

A knowledge center is a collective project that aims to develop a certain unique knowledge. A “center” should have its own uniqueness in order to establish its identity and theme. Otherwise, there is no need to build a “center”.

Phase 3 is building a Knowledge Community. The difference between Knowledge Center and Knowledge Community is Scope and Scale. A knowledge center may only have less than 15 members while a knowledge community may have thousands of members.

The above path can be seen from the perspective of Curativity Theory. See the diagram below.

The above “Life Sandglass” model is based on my journey in the knowledge curation project. You can find more details in Slow Cognition: The Creative Life Curation Framework.

“Self” Engagement?

Now we have a big picture of the “10–100–300–1000” metaphor. We can see the Building Knowledge Enterprise Activity (1000 days) as the frame of the primary annual theme (300 days).

What about other life aspirations?

If your possible selves are not about becoming a knowledge hero, what should you do with the primary annual theme?

The Thematic Engagement Project uses the “Themes of Practice” approach and the “Project Engagement” approach to connect “Life Themes” and “Cultural Themes”.

We also set a simple typology of themes:

Knowledge Themes
Cultural Themes

You can work with a cultural theme. There are various concrete activities and projects under the abstract notion of Thematic Engagement. We will introduce some examples one by one. For example, City Curation Activity.

If your primary annual theme is yourself, what should you do with “yourself”?

From the perspective of Thematic Engagement, we can consider “Self” as a knowledge theme. Then, we can do something with the knowledge theme “Self”. For example, we can use the Knowledge Discovery Canvas to run a thematic reflection project.

You can search “Self” in Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and find many concepts about “Self”.

You can read a 1993 book titled The Perceived Self: Ecological and Interpersonal Sources of Self-knowledge and a 2010 book titled Self Comes to Mind.

You can find more details in Knowledge Discovery (Book).

We can also understand “yourself” as a cultural theme. In this way, we pay attention to your real life and practice. Then, we can do something with the cultural theme “YOU”. For example, we can use the Life Discovery Canvas to run a thematic reflection project too.

The pair of themes “Supplies — Demands” refers to the first basic principle of the Project-centered approach: Being by Doing.

The philosophical roots of the Project-centered approach are Activity Theory and Ecological Psychology. At the general philosophical level, both ecological psychology and activity theory share the same view of the inseparability of human beings and the world. I use the slogan “Being by Doing” to highlight the philosophical roots of the Project-centered approach.

The pair of themes “Aspirations — Situations” refers to two modules of the Life Discovery Toolkit (v1.0):

Life Aspiration Orientation: What kind of hero are you?
Life Process Awareness: What is the status of your primary life project?

While the “Supplies — Demands” Mapping is about a discovery of life meaning at an abstract level, the “Aspirations — Situations” Mapping moves to daily life activities at a concrete level.

You can find more details in The Life Discovery Canvas (v1.0) — Part 3A: Concepts (THINK and LEARN) and Part 3B: Concepts (SAY and DO).