DRAFT - Technology in Context Praxis - Doing
Draft For Feedback
Welcome to the second in a series of posts describing the praxis - the working method - behind Time & Space Studios – also known as T&S Advisory :) This one's about doing. The first one was about thinking. I think two posts marks the end of this series. So welcome to the end of this series.
After this I think the newsletter will get a bit more, um, experimental. And will include more connecting readings and thinkings. But getting these two posts up and out was one way to try to expose as much of the foundation of what we’re up to as possible. (With the caveat that it’s all up in the air for change and adaptation, endlessly. Of course.)
I’m writing this newsletter using Ghost.io — you can sign up for it here. I am going to test out a paid subscription model next year, once I’ve got an editorial calendar created and some interviews booked. I’ll stop cross-posting to Medium in 2026, and am not sure if/how I’ll be writing there but we’ll see. The newsletter — adventures in time and space — is free to join for now :) If you’d like to support in the meanwhile, thank you — here’s a link for one-time contributions:
https://time-and-space-studios.ghost.io/#/portal/support
Events
Before I get into it, if you’re in Toronto, please consider joining us at Systems Thinking Ontario on Tuesday November 11th at 6.30 pm EST for a conversation about tech governance and systems thinking. Zaid Khan and David Ing - our hosts for the evening - are doing super interesting work about using time more thoughtfully in design and decision-making. (See this recent short talk from Zaid - Humbling Design by Sensing Rhythms). I'll be talking with Su Lynn Myat about the connections and relationship between tech governance and systems thinking, and there will be lots of time to talk about this with Zaid, David, and you too - if you can make it. The event is in-person only, but I’ll do a short write-up to share after if you’re interested but aren’t close/able to join.
ALSO - consider paying a visit to the Space for Grief installation that is running from November 1-11 at the Evergreen Brickworks. Beautiful and careful and necessary thinking informing this work.
Back to the Newsletter…
The operating thesis of this studio and the business we’re standing up is that having better conversations about technology leads to better decision-making about technology. As a facilitator, I know that process support can help create more productive conversations and outcomes than what happens without it.
To that end, T&S Advisory is offering the seven services below. They’re not exactly packaged correctly yet, but these activities are part of the work of process support. Doing the activities below helps expose the kinds of issues that need to be explicitly managed in decision-making about technology.
The way this work is packaged at the moment, when I’m in sales mode, might sound more familiar: one-on-one advisory calls, being on retainer to help for a few months as needed, strategic planning and procurement advice, convenings (group meetings, trainings, and workshops), and the production of artifacts (maps and models).
Something I’ve learned in my career to date is that people are willing to pay for advice then not follow it. There is a pretty big market for performance. This is why it’s part of this business adventure to acknowledge that this is a small-scale operation, intentionally designed not to scale. We are seeking clients that don’t need to be sold on the value of making collective decisions, people that want to engage seriously with the collective responsibility they hold.
T&S Advisory Services
So, below is a list (as of today, October 28th 2025 – it may look different tomorrow :) ) of the things you can hire us to do with you. A package could be anything from just one (the engagement plan) to any number of additional modules. This is something we will talk about in order to draw up our service agreement.
Making an engagement plan
Rationale: Creates an accessible and repeatable narrative about proposed technological change and related decision-making. This helps to bring the entire organization into tech conversations from a place of confidence, using institutional knowledge, norms, and memory. It creates a grounded starting point for conversations that refuse tech exceptionalism. It also clearly defines what is on and off the table for decision-making, as well as relevant considerations related to timeline of the process.
Understanding temporal patterns
Rationale: Names, explores, and indexes the time-related considerations that are informing decision-making, as well as operations. These include things such as annual budgets and related cadence, urgency to respond to a near-term situation, long-term planning and maintenance etc. Defines more opportune moments to act vs. less opportune moments.
Rooting to land and making systems legible
Rationale: Elevates life-centered design considerations to make sure climate impacts are at the forefront of thinking. Maps jurisdictional and sovereignty considerations. Maps accessibility considerations. Maps the analogue alongside the digital. Maps assets.
Naming invisible structural power dynamics
Rationale: Illustrates invisible systems of influence that include things such as incentives, counterincentives, informed consent, norms, and other political dynamics. Celebrates successful technological changes and considers the missteps of past decisions that were made too quickly and without adequate internal collaboration. Helps create a way to consider and understand the implications of a new way of doing things for all parts of the organization.
Defining the seams
Rationale: Maps borders and entanglements within systems. Asks questions such as: what are you in control of as an organization, in the technological part of this equation? What aren’t you in control of? Where does IT have too much power, given the many broader consequences of how technology is managed as part of service delivery? Where have you given away or delegated important authority that needs to be reclaimed? What are the current impacts of these dependencies, and if/how will they change with the new technology in question?
Exploring and understanding relationships in the seams
Rationale: Maps people’s connections to each other, and ways these relationships are mediated by tech, by function. Maps perspectives (internal and external). Asks questions such as: what does it look like when this technology works exactly as sold – what does that to do organizational design and staffing? What about when it doesn’t? Who suffers the consequences, and how are these people connected (or not) to the power to adapt to and address the problem?
Creating wayfinding for maintenance
Rationale: Develops new communications channels for the long-term health of the proposed system. Creates ongoing ways for employees to engage with maintenance plans both technically and from a governance perspective. Technology will always break. To address this, wayfinding is designed around the tech life cycle to help think about planning from purchase to maintenance to sunset. Asks questions such as: how can you bring the expertise of front-line staff into discussions early enough to have them shape buy vs. build decisions, go vs. no-go decisions, procurement, contract terms and maintenance plans? Excavates the past of potential vendors and suppliers as part of due diligence. Leverages employee training to inform ongoing maintenance plans for technology, uses training as part of a feedback loop for maintenance, contract renewal negotiations, product feature requests, etc.
Gratitude and thanks to Steve Farrugia, Tim Reierson, and Gordon Ross for early feedback. Also, in response to feedback I received on part one – thinking – I’ve included a revised draft of it below. Thanks again to Melanie Kapogines, Zaid Khan, Shiva Sankar, and Gabe Sawhney for early feedback as well.
Should you have any feedback or suggestions on any of this, or would like to join a small number of beta readers of the handbook that I'm writing about our working methods, please let me know by sending me an email - hello [at] timeandspacestudios.com :) Feel free to shred anything, I’ll keep repeating that I don’t take myself too seriously and that critique is care :)
REVISED DRAFT - Technology in Context - Praxis – Thinking
Part I
Ideas to help structure conversations about technology decisions. Intended for decision-makers that work in a collaborative manner.
Technology decisions are operations decisions. Think and talk about technology in terms of where it is being used – or proposed for use - in specific - in your organization. Think and talk about the use of technology rather than technology as a commercial product.
Rationale: Creates familiarity across the organization with technology decision-making by putting the discussion in the frame of existing systems, mandates, and goals.
Excavating the past. Revisit the mandate of the organization and its values, all the way back to its beginning, to understand the intentions behind the current technical systems and their constraints.
Rationale: Aligns technology changes and decisions with the broader organizational mandate.
Exposing the seams and the relationships within them. Map the ways that various existing systems interconnect and how these would be impacted by new technology implementations. This means mapping physical workplaces and the people within them. This also means exploring digital supply chains.
Rationale: Puts decision-making focus on the ways that technology use impacts all relationships.
Building operational scaffolding for adaptation. Change is the only constant for technology (and the world writ large). How can you set your organization up to steward this product, especially when you don’t own and directly control it?
Rationale: Reorganizes power to those best situated to wield it for organizational benefit.
Prioritizing the worker perspective. Maximize the agency that each employee retains over their use of the technology in standard operations.
Rationale: Respects the workforce tasked with implementing the organizational mandate.
