TALE: How to Set Annual Themes for 2023?

Oliver Ding

Published in

TALE500

13 min readJan 17, 2023

The Double Themes Strategy

A friend of mine asked me a question about her learning plan for 2023:

I’m also gathering a reading list to better my ecosystem mapping of concepts. If you have some quality papers/books in mind, I’d love to know them.

It is perfect timing to make an annual plan for knowledge engagement.

Today I am going to discuss the notion of “Annual Themes” and share a strategy for setting annual themes for learning and development.

Annual Themes v.s. Annual Goals

Many people set goals for their new year's resolutions. For examples:

Goal 1: 50,000 Linkedin community.
Goal 2: 2,500 newsletter community.
Goal 3: Join a mastermind group to learn from others.
Goal 4: Hired a VA to free up my time for vision, system & content.
Goal 5: Making regular income online — course & other assets.

These annual goals are pretty good.

However, these goals point to concrete actions.

The “Themes of Practice” approach sees abstract things behind concrete actions.

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.

Annual Themes and Annual Goals can work together because the former is a “soft” cognitive tool while the latter is a “hard” cognitive tool.

While Annual Themes are about exploration, Annual Goals are more about performance.

Annual Themes for Knowledge Engagement

For knowledge creators, it is really useful to set annual themes for developing the journey of knowledge engagement.

A journey of knowledge engagement is a multi-year journey. A particular year is part of the whole process.

For example, my journey of “Appropriating Activity Theory” is a seven-year journey. It roughly started in 2015. You can find more details in Appropriating Activity Theory (Book).

The above diagram represents the complexity of the journey. There are five major thematic spaces:

Non Act
Before Act
Acting
After Act
Beyond Act

There are many moves between these five thematic spaces.

A particular year is part of a multi-year journey. So, annual themes are part of a theme network too.

To be honest, I didn’t use the above diagram to set annual themes for the journey because I made the diagram on Dec 31, 2022.

I just want to point out that you can have a map of a multi-year journey of knowledge engagement and a particular year is part of the journey.

If you have a good model for your journey, you can use it as a reference for setting your annual themes.

The Evolution of Theme Network

The above section discusses a particular multi-year journey of knowledge engagement. How about a particular year for learning and developing in general, without regarding a particular knowledge engagement?

In fact, this is a question about managing the evolution of a Theme Network.

The “Themes of Practice” approach adopts the notion of “network” to understand the complexity of life themes and cultural themes.

For a knowledge creator, her knowledge themes form a connected dynamic network. As with any network, the Theme Network is dynamic.

The picture below is an example of Del.icio.us Tag Cloud. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website for collecting and sharing web bookmarks with tags. If we see a tag as a theme, then the dynamic tag cloud represents the dynamics of the Theme Network.

For knowledge engagement, we don’t suggest setting hundreds of knowledge themes.

I suggest the following structure:

Knowledge Enterprises
Primary Theme
Secondary Themes

You can have 3–4 Knowledge Enterprises. Each Knowledge Enterprise has only 1 primary theme and several secondary themes.

In this way, you only have to deal with less than 20 knowledge themes, not hundreds of tags.

On Sept 5, 2022, I reviewed my “Curativity” knowledge enterprise and identified the following knowledge themes:

Knowledge enterprise: Curativity Theory
Primary themes: Curativity
Secondary themes: Concept, Diagram, Affordance, Activity, Anticipation

I also launched Curativity Center to continuously develop the “Curativity” knowledge enterprise.

The “Double Themes” Strategy

How to set annual themes?

I use a simple strategy called “Double Themes”. Each year, I set two annual themes.

Theme #1: continuously working on an existing theme
Theme #2: explore a new possible theme

Theme #1 is about the Refinement of the existing Theme Network.

Theme #2 is about the Expansion of the existing Theme Network.

The “Refinement — Expansion” notion echoes James March’s notion of “Exploitation — Exploration” in organizational learning. But Expansion can be learning new themes from others or making brand new themes.

These two types of themes require different techniques.

Each year, you can set Theme #1 in January. However, you can explore a possible theme for a whole year. The new possible theme may appear in any time.

Moreover, possible themes can have many candidates. You can have Theme #2A, Theme #2B, etc.

Refinement

In January 2022, I decided to use “Life Strategy” as Theme #1 for my 2022.

Why?

In 2021, I worked on the D as Diagramming project and one of the by-products is the Anticipatory Activity System framework.

The Anticipatory Activity System framework is not a concrete framework, but an abstract model. It offers a general framework for understanding Second-order Activity from the perspective of Anticipatory Systems Theory. In order words, the Anticipatory Activity System framework is a hybrid theoretical framework that curates the following two theories together:

Activity Theory
Anticipatory System Theory

On Sept 15, 2021, I published D as Diagramming: Strategy as Anticipatory Activity System. Since the article is part of the D as Diagramming project which aims to explore the power of diagrams and diagramming, I used the article as an example for testing the value of diagrams for turning tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.

I claimed that the post is a rough idea, not a formal proposal. I also mentioned the scope of applications of the framework. The new framework is perfect for thinking about the complex of “Self, Other, Present, Future”. For example:

Sustainable Business Development
Organizational Strategy
Startup Studio or Venture Studio
Technology Choices
Educational Strategy
Family Development
Intimate Relationships

I didn’t mention Life Strategy on Sep 15, 2021. However, I realized that it is perfect for applying it to discuss Life Strategy in Dec 2021.

On Jan 28, 2022, I introduced the idea of “the Life Strategy framework (v1.0)” to a new friend who read the article about D as Diagramming: Strategy as Anticipatory Activity System and wondered if she could use it for her projects.

I curated the Anticipatory Activity System framework and several related frameworks together, and named them “Life Strategy”.

In Dec 2022, I finished a possible book titled Advanced Life Strategy: Anticipatory Activity System and Life Achievements.

Expansion

In April 2022, I contacted Ping-keung Lui who is a theoretical sociologist. This opportunity inspired me to add “Theoretical Sociology” as a possible theme (Theme #2B) to my journey of knowledge engagement.

Ping-keung Lui aims to build a brand new theoretical sociology as a candidate for the paradigm of sociology. According to Lui, “There are three kinds of theories in sociology, namely, social theory, sociological theory, and theoretical sociology. ”

Social theories are speculations about the social world. They constitute the speculative project of sociology.
Some social theories are amenable to positivistic investigation under certain specific conditions. I call them sociological theories.
Also, some other social theories, being very ambitious, attempt to recruit as many as they can sociological theories supporting themselves. I call them theoretical sociologies. They compete against each other. The winner becomes the paradigm of sociology, and its supporting sociological theories become exemplars of the paradigm. In this way, theoretical sociologies and sociological theories constitute the scientific project of sociology.

I started writing his books and papers. For example, I read his book The Scientific Project of Sociology in June 2022. It inspired me to write a post called Re-learning Activity Theory.

Later, I wrote a section called Rethinking Activity Theory in a thesis about the Project engagement approach.

Ping-keung Lui also developed a method called Sociological Semiotic System for his theoretical sociology. I also learned this method and applied it to curate my knowledge frameworks.

In Oct 2022, I developed the following semiotic system for the Life Strategy project. You can find more details in Three Paths of Creative Life and A Semiotic System.

We can claim that “Theoretical Sociology” is Theme #2A of my 2022.

Exploration

The above “Theoretical Sociology” is a great example of learning new themes from others.

However, learning new themes from others is not the only way to Expansion of your Theme Network.

Theme #2A “Slow Cognition” is a great example of exploration.

On April 26, 2021, I sent an email to a friend of mine and introduced my book The ECHO Way which reflects on my journey of writing three books in six months. I coined a new term called Slow Cognition to describe my favorite methods such as Howard E. Gruber’s evolving systems approach to creative work.

In Jan 2022, I designed the above picture and wrote a short post on Linkedin.

I used “A Theme for Creative Work Study in 2022” as the title of the short post. I spent 30 minutes designing a logo for Slow Cognition. This technique is called Objectification from the perspective of Project-oriented Activity Theory. Cognitive psychologists called it Cognitive Offloading. If an idea is very important to you, you could make a logo, design a picture, write a slogan, and print out these things. You can find more details in TALE: How to Develop a Possible Knowledge Theme? A Simple Answer.

What are the actual results of “Practices” of “Slow Cognition”?

It led to two projects and two possible books:

Phase I: Knowledge Discovery: Developing Tacit Knowlege with Thematic Space Canvas
Phase II: Creative Journey: The ECHO Way to Creative Work Study

Later, I merged the content of Creative Journey into Creative Life Curation.

This is a great example of using Possible Themes for Exploration. The theme “Slow Cognition” doesn’t refer to a concrete plan and goals, but a rough direction and a clear vision.

The about two projects were born from the journey of exploration.

Reflection

Developing Possible Themes is a process of developing tacit knowledge. It requires Reflection.

What’s Theme #2C of my 2022?

It’s “Thematic Dialogue”.

In the past several years, I worked on connecting THEORY and PRACTICE. Since I didn’t work on only one theory, there was a challenge for me. I had to maintain the boundary between one theory and the others. For example, Activity Theory and Ecological Psychology.

However, I found the zone of boundary is a great creative space for developing new ideas. Sometimes, I can find similarities between these two theories.

Eventually, I found a new way to develop a thematic dialogue between two different theories.

The above diagram represents the process of the journey of making the Thematic Engagement framework by running a thematic dialogue between Activity Theory and Ecological Psychology.

On Sept 15, 2022, I launched the Thematic Engagement Toolkit (v1.0) which is for understanding knowledge engagement, thematic conversation, controversy, thematic reflection, etc. The toolkit refers to a dialogue between the following two knowledge frameworks:

The Themes of Practice Approach (2019, 2021)
The Project Engagement Approach (2021, 2022)

You can find more details in The “Activity — Opportunity” Thematic Dialogue.

I didn’t plan the thematic dialogue. The thematic dialogue is an emerging process.

Also, there are more echoes that impact the notion of “Thematic Engagement”.

“Themes of Practice” and “Project Engagement” are not the only two sources of the final outcome. See the diagram below.

The above diagram shows the following five Sources that led to the notion of “Thematic Engagement”.

Themes of Practice
Project Engagement
Thematic Space
Knowledge Center
Thematics Controversy

From 2019 to 2022, there are six ECHOes between these five sources.

Sept 29, 2020 — Echo 1: The “Hierarchy” of Human Activity
Dec 26, 2022 — Echo 2: “Formation of Concept” and “Themes of Practice”
April 2021 — Echo 3: The “Themes of Practice” Framework
July 20, 2022 — Echo 4: Rethinking Activity Theory
July 31, 2022 — Echo 5: Controversy Mapping and The Thematic Controversy Project
Sept 6, 2022 — Echo 6: Grow A Knowledge Enterprise

You can find more details in The Echoes of A Thematic Dialogue.

Rediscovery

I also used a technique called “Rediscovery” to develop possible themes.

My primary interest is located in the intersection between Knowledge, Creativity, and Adult Development. I roughly use Creative Life to name this focus.

It’s clear that I don’t want to develop a general framework about adult development for everyone. I only consider Knowledge Workers and Creators as my target audience.

The diagram below was developed on August 30, 2021. You can find more details in D as Diagramming: The Path of Creative Life.

Honestly, I didn’t pay attention to the above diagram too much in 2021 because I was busy developing the Life-as-Project approach which belongs to the field of Activity Theory.

However, I re-discovered the value of the above diagram from the perspective of theoretical sociology in Oct 2022.

From April to Oct 2022, I read books and papers about Ping Keung Lui’s theoretical sociology.

In 2007, Lui published a book titled Gaze, Action, and the Social World in which he presented his account of theoretical sociology. The fundamental starting point of his approach is an Ontology of action, which was inspired by Saint Augustine (354–430), Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961). See the statement below:

The body is in action, action is in the fleeting moment, the fleeting moment is in the body.

According to Lui, “This moment is Augustinian, it comprises at the same time the Present of the Past, the Present of the Present, and the Present of the Future. The actor Remembers in the present of the past, Pays Attention in the present of the present, Expects in the present of the future.” (p.235–236, 2010, The Scientific Project of Sociology)

Now we can look at the Path of Creative Life diagram again. I realized that the diagram is similar to Lui’s notion of the fleeting moment.

Reflection: Remembers in the present of the past
Emergence: Pays Attention in the present of the present
Anticipation: Expects in the present of the future

The connection between the Path of Creative Life and Lui’s ontology of action encouraged me to rethink the value of the path of creative life.

I realized that I can use it as the ontology of life strategy project. Moreover, I can use Lui’s approach as a frame to curate my frameworks as a meaningful whole.

This significant insight led to a new theme called “Aspects of Creative Life”. Later, I used the theme to curate four possible books into a series.

Grow Your Theme Network

You don’t have to make a plan for developing your theme network. The evolution of your Theme Network is a complex process. You can’t fully control it.

The Double Themes Strategy offers several ways to dance with your theme network.

Refinement
Expansion
Exploration
Reflection
Rediscovery

The “Themes of Practice” approach also emphasizes the “Practice” part which is dynamic and complex.

A theme doesn’t give you the power to control details and manage tasks. However, it gives a cognitive tool to connect your long-term mission and environmental opportunities.

My 2023

I selected the following two themes for 2023.

The theme “Thematic Engagement” is not new, but the TALE project is new.

In 2022, I closed several projects and made several possible books. I also started several new projects. For example:

1. The Knowledge Center Project
2. The Thematic Engagement Project
3. The City Curation Project
4. The ARCH Project

In 2023, I will work on these unfinished projects too. Moreover, I’d like to launch a new Knowledge Center for the Thematic Engagement project.

On Jan 1, 2023, I launched TALE which stands for Thematic Analysis Learning Engagement. You can find more details here.

The possible theme “Value Circle” is about connecting my knowledge themes with professional business circles.

If we see “Knowledge Themes” as a type of Theme, then TALE will expand from Knowledge Engagement to more general Cultural Engagement. In this way, TALE is more about PRACTICE.

I use the above “Value Circle” diagram to define the boundary of my new creative space.

There are two types of practice domains: horizontal domains and vertical domains.

Horizontal domains refer to general functions in society such as “organization, strategy, and innovation”.

Vertical domains refer to specific industries, for example, farms (agriculture), buses (transportation), and movies (entertainment).

Based on my career experience, I selected six sets of themes to represent horizontal domains of knowledge works.

I also placed some of my 18 possible books around the circle. Though these books were not written directly for practical purposes, they offer some new perspectives for theory-based reflection.

If you are working on one theme of these six sets of themes. You are welcome to join the TALE community!

Welcome to the creative 2023!