POWSAF interviews Dr. Rod King, Inventor of the Fractal Grid Technology (FGT); Part 3 – The application and use of FGT for Sierra Leone

POWSAF:   We heard the University of Makeni (UNIMAK) in Sierra Leone teaches and adopts the use of FGT in local communities. What is your involvement in this effort?

Dr. Rod King:  I started Fractal Grid App Movement (FGAM) as an online community to more deeply learn, discuss, and spread ideas about the FGT and Fractal Grid Methodology. The FGAM group on WhatsApp is our most active community. In FGAM (WhatsApp), we have an eclectic group of professionals from around the world but mostly of Sierra Leone origin. I had to first talk about FGAM because we cannot discuss work with the University of Makeni (UNIMAK) without knowing what FGAM is or its role.

Kisimi Kamara, a Computer Science lecturer at the University of Makeni, is an active member of FGAM and a lead user of the Fractal Gridding Methodology. Kisimi is a serial entrepreneur and innovator as well as CIO of eWomen in Sierra Leone. At UNIMAK, Kisimi’s use of Fractal Gridding is wide-ranging: from visually documenting syllabi to preparing lesson plans, organizing projects, and delivering lectures to students. Nevertheless, it’s Kisimi’s work on the eWomen project and in particular, the “Cleanest Community Competition” in Makeni that has brought the Fractal Gridding Methodology to the local or grassroot level in Sierra Leone. Kisimi invented the Fractal Gridding Colored (FGC) Board which teams in local communities are using to rapidly discover, validate, and solve problems in their communities.

Once in FGAM (WhatsApp), I saw photos and videos of Kisimi’s work with an FGC Board in local communities in Makeni. I was inspired to launch a fundraising campaign so that more local communities could have their own FGC Boards. And the fundraising campaign … “Innovatively Save Sierra Leone (iSSL)” … was resoundingly successful. In 10 days, a small “army” of FGAMers raised just over US$2,000. And US$2,000 was transferred to the eWomen organization. FGAM and eWomen are considering our collaboration as a pilot project. And Kisimi and the rest of the team in Makeni are doing a wonderful job in disseminating knowledge on modern project organization and management while members of local communities collaboratively discover, validate, and solve their problems on FGC Boards. We hope that one day we’ll be able to scale this model of community and visual problem solving not only throughout Sierra Leone but also in the rest of the world especially at grassroot level.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT (PM)-FRACTAL GRID:

Innovatively Save Sierra Leone (iSSL)-eWomen Pilot Project in Makeni, Sierra Leone

POWSAF:   Do you think FGT can help Sierra Leoneans to improve or crystallize their thinking and analysis of challenges or situations to foster development, improve processes, and aid economic growth in the country?

Dr. Rod King:  I’m confident that FGT and in particular, the Fractal Grid Methodology and Gamification could help Sierra Leoneans as well as Sierra Leone to rapidly discover, validate, and solve problems everywhere: at school, home, outdoor, and work. After all, the Fractal Grid Methodology is a collaboration platform for Universal Visual Communication, Problem Solving, System Thinking, and Business Model Innovation as well as Fractal Grid Sketchnoting. And all of this can be done just by using a Fractal Grid which looks like a Tic-Tac-Toe (3×3) Gameboard at level 1 and a Sudoku (9×9) Gameboard at Level 2.

The template of a Fractal Grid is very easy to create and use on any flat surface; a Fractal Grid can be created on paper and notebook; on desktop and laptop screens; on tablet and smartphone screens; on TV and smartwatch screens; on blackboards and whiteboards; on walls and floors; on the ground and any other flat surface. In addition, one does not need to be literate in order to use a Fractal Grid; ideas can be communicated using drawing, doodles, sketches, clips from magazines/newspapers, and/or photos. Consequently, a Fractal Grid is the ultimate tool for rapidly democratizing creativity, hyperlearning, innovation, and productivity in Sierra Leone. In short, we could use Fractal Gridding as a key to rapidly unlock Sierra Leone’s Genius & Innovation (GIP) everywhere.

My vision is that in the not too distant future, Sierra Leone would be the world’s number 1 nation in terms of users of the Fractal Gridding Methodology which has the potential to revolutionize knowledge organization and management on a global scale. For instance, an innovation like the Fractal Grid Multiplication Table is already revolutionizing how traditional multiplication is done the world over. And Fractal Grid Multiplication is simpler, faster, and funner to do than traditional multiplication. Students such as in primary school could multiply 2-digit by 2-digit numbers without writing down any number while deepening their knowledge about the properties of number systems especially in matrices and algebra.

Fractal Grid Multiplication relies on using visual patterns to do lightning calculations. This and other innovations using FGT could radically transform the landscape of education especially in Sierra Leone. I strongly believe that learning and mastering the Fractal Grid Methodology could provide an exponential return regarding investment on human capital in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone’s level of creativity, hyperlearning, innovation, and productivity could go through the roof in schools, homes, outdoors, and workplaces.

POWSAF:   You have an FGT WhatsApp group in which you and your members develop and disseminate thought processes about concepts using FGT. What are some of the benefits have your members (some of whom are company/business owners) expressed from using FGT?

Dr. Rod King:  Our WhatsApp group, which is the foremost group that develops and shares ideas on FGT and Fractal Grid Methodology, is FGAM. We call members “FGAMers.” The feedback from frequent users of Fractal Gridding is extremely good; sometimes, it even sounds too good to be true. The consensus is that their creative thinking and problem solving skills have been transformed beyond measure. It’s common to read in FGAM about transformational experiences involving exponential improvement in ideas organization, creative thinking, problem solving, business planning, strategy, project management and productivity both at individual and team levels. In comparison with other tools of knowledge organization and management as well as problem solving, key benefits of using the Fractal Grid Methodology could be summarized as great savings in time, effort, and money while having fun.

FGAM freely offers myriad tools and visual templates for facilitating ideas collection, organization, presentation, and evaluation in any discipline. When development of the Fractal Grid App is complete and made available to the public, we expect a great change in the way knowledge is organized and managed in schools, homes, outdoors, and workplaces. And one of the great things about the Fractal Grid App would be that one does not have to draw out a Fractal Grid. The app would largely be voice-driven. you simply have to TTP: “Tap, Talk, Play.” Voice could be translated to text; text could be translated to voice. At the POW for example, teachers as well as students could instantly create and share Fractal Grid (FG) Audio Books and FG Audio Notes: which can literally talk to them and to which they can talk and record their ideas. Imagine students having the opportunity to freely listen to contents of their books, class notes, or essays anywhere 24×7. Wouldn’t they widely experience hyperlearning?

Also, with this voice-based feature, anyone at the POW or in Sierra Leone could do “hands-free” Fractal Gridding while generating ideas, solving problems, recording ideas, and/or listening to notes, messages, and reminders on a Fractal Grid. Imagine the amount of effort, time, and money this would save for individuals, teams, and organizations.

Imagine.
Imagine this at the Prince of Wales School …
Just imagine this … first in Sierra Leone … and then, the rest of the world …

FORWARD.

Dr. Rod King is an engineer, innovator, inventor, author, and a proud Princewalean. Dr. King believes that personal, team and organizational goals should be F.A.S.T.E.R.: focused, ambitious, space-bound, time-bound, expansible, and reducible in today’s hyper-competitive environment.