Resolving disconnects between form and function

Form and function often get disconnected with the result of ineffective, useless or non-existent outcomes. We speak of the disconnect between form and function as:

• It was intended to solve a problem but it created a bigger one instead.
• It worked pretty well in a different situation, but not at all in this kind of a mess.
• It looked good on paper but it played out much differently than expected.
• It was a great sales pitch but nobody bought into it like they should have.
• It was the accurate thing to say, but it backfired when it came across as a putdown.
• It's only giving them what's required while depriving them of what they really want.
• It looks good on the surface, but it's loaded with costly consequences.

We get into disconnecting function from its form in lots of different ways that we all have experience with:

• Making something out to be an ideal solution that polarizes the issue into extreme alternatives.
• Making added trouble for ourselves by inadvertently feeding the problem and fueling our opposition.
• Making ourselves right in ways that make others wronged by our self-righteousness
• Making unwanted conditions persist by resisting the lesson or shooting the messenger.
• Making a thing of something in isolation that is really an ongoing process for balancing several things in combination.
• Making it impossible for the natural order to emerge by imposing a contrived order in its place.
• Making the collaboration into a vicious cycle that drains the energy of everyone involved.

Connecting form and function occurs naturally when we open ourselves to innovating:

• Finding the middle ground between polarized extremes that emerges as the "best of both" or "two sides of the same coin".
• Starving the problem and our opposition's vengeance by going along with it, joining the flow in it or giving into what's it's becoming.
• Making others right in ways that make us seem wise, insightful and inclusive of many viewpoints.
• Turning the adversity into a lesson to be learned or coded message to get understood before proceeding any further.
• Making a thing of the process of growing things from seed, keeping things in balance or combining more things together.
• Discovering what it wants to be, what it becomes when it's free to explore itself and what its meant to contribute to the greater whole.
• Forming virtuous cycles where further collaboration feels energizing, inspiring, validating and nurturing.

With the two new frameworks I'm developing, I am resolving several complex disconnects between form and function:

1. I'm addressing the micro scale of societal evolution. This sets up changing one mind at a time by giving people the feeling of getting understood by a narrative of relational grammars; where the macro scale inadvertently gives people the feeling of getting misunderstood by the imposed narrative inherent in a societal evolution of forms.
2. I'm addressing quadri-functional relating between people. This invites fluidity between many practices, roles, contributions and interactions; where quadri-form societies can have the unintended effect of inviting personal role fixity, organizational rigidity and toxic stereotypes.
3. I'm addressing the combination of form & function with process and pattern in a given situation. This supports making better predictions about what will work and prove to be beneficial; where the combination of situated practices unintentionally plays into analysis paralysis, avoidance of chaos and failures to innovate.
4. I'm addressing the use of a prediction language. This sets up emergent outcomes from the inherent complexity in the situation and from the transformational potential at the level of adopted narratives; where the use of a pattern language burdens designers with taking heroic action to solve every apparent problem.