Jo Webb from the UK Data Archive, a partner in the UK Data Service, explores what upending a very familiar visualisation can tell us about how people deal with change.
In my last blog post I discussed change uk rcs data management using Marie Kondo’s programme as an example. The idea for the post came from a workshop on change management I facilitated at the IASSIST conference this year. In this post, I look at another example from a different field which brings an aspect of change management to life.
UNESCO has decreed 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT). It’s the 150th anniversary since Dmitry Mendeleev developed the first periodic table. It grew as additional chemical elements were discovered into the table we know today. Even if people don’t understand what exactly it means, it is recognisable from chemistry lessons at school, it’s had a renaissance on the front of various stationary items and due to the Year of the Periodic table it’s been seen in the form of macramé, breakfast and cookies.
Macrame image of the periodic table. Source: Twitter.
Image: Macrame version of the periodic table.
Source: Twitter.
Earlier this year, Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff and his colleague Dr Sam Tang suggested that the periodic table should be turned upside down.
Presenting a picture of an upside-down periodic table in the workshop sparked a conversation which brought to life the Kübler-Ross stages of grief and an accompanying change curve.