Being Different Means DIFFERENCE!

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IDEAS FOR LEADERS – a new recipe?

via ideasforleaders.org

So what constitutes a great idea for Leaders? An idea capable of a breakthrough perhaps?

Well apart from the fact that there is nothing new under the sun – it has to be in how old thinking can be the new idea. Probably a new recipe but with age old ingredients -

Get all the following ingredients fresh from the market every day.
Take two spoons of black belt curiosity mix it vigorously with a big dollop of ‘what’s next?’ – whisked for as long as you can get those who give a damn to pay attention. Simmer.
Add the resulting alchemic brew slowly into the juice of some seriously smart curation (a reduction) of what is globally (and freely) available – all the wisdom of humanity. Don’t let it stand at all.
Like tribal soup keep adding whatever arrives every day and chuck it in. Add spice to taste. Never whine. White or Red.
Stand back a little.
Draw a simple menu on the wall.
Think hard about how to tell everyone what the meal will taste like.
Invite many friends to dine with you regularly. Even strangers. Add their conversation to the meal. They will tell you if it tastes good or not – quicker than friends perhaps.
Never freeze or store.
Don’t re-heat.
And just for fun anyone want to give it a name? I’ll kick it off…

Paella 2.0
Seize A Salad
Saving Your Bacon
Corporate Moules.

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So you want Innovation?

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Volcanic Anger Management

The State of Cranky is not a state I particularly like, aspire or admire but I am increasingly guilty of it. It's sadly become an all too familiar way to be in order to get on. You know - getting through an Airport, filling out a stupid government form or 97 - surviving that deadly contact sport of shopping in a ‘super’ market - marooned in Atlanta – the State of Georgia - and having to pronounce words like Eyjafjallajoekull and Volcano. 

If these things don't make you cranky then what will. Check your pulse.

Working slavishly to deliver on your purpose in life, your big idea or your vision in any business is tough enough. That tenacity I spoke about earlier requires a bunch of things - but often the last line of defense is attack. Get cranky.

You know the feeling.

You've got things that need doing. Incoming is under control. (Actually, it's never in control - live with that.) The torment of e-mail - the daily dumb request hidden in there to trip you up. The phone rings - some lazy - dumb assed distant relative or past person demanding attention that they have just grown accustomed to. Live with that?

What's the point of resisting it? Well, so that maybe the offender learns never to do that again? Hmmm. Great idea but maybe I've just never been that cranky to make it work yet. Should I live with that? Hold that thought.

I know that great visions required incredible amounts of cranky. Great ideas and powerful change has only ever come about by people who got cranky to get the ball across the line. Genius is correctly attributed to flawed cranks when the flaw creates the magical breakthrough or difference making idea. Dali, Lennon, Einstein and Jobs amongst that list. All cranky, all very difficult to live with.

So I'm defending cranky and I'm going to have to carry on perfecting my own blend of it.

At social and system level I am working to tear down the establishment. If Guy Fawkes 'friended' me on Facebook or Twitter with a new plot - I'm in. I'm that cranky. Anyone have his e-mail?

At personal level I'm not sure I have the right to be this arrogant but hey. I'm angry. At least I believe it. When being driven to cranky at an individual level most people will actually never know how cranky I was anyway. I will probably not encourage meeting them long enough (or at all). The cause of my crank with them will remain a mystery.

In the presence of crass or belligerent stupidity - and if I can be bothered - I will disguise this base level of cranky by calling them with a better question than they have. Always works.

At my silver level of cranky - (and only if I like and admire them as humans) and only if I've done significant enough research through wider discussion to prove that I'm not actually the problem (which can often be the case) - I will force them to question themselves more truthfully. At the bottom of this there is the conveniently forgotten - long denied, possibly never surfaced reason behind my need for crankiness in the first place (folk like to forget why the crank emerged – it’s not part of the fun for them) I only get this cranky with things I care about. Otherwise it’s totally wasted energy for the true task of constructive anarchy!

At gold level I plan to get AK47 level cranky. Visit me?

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Columbo questions and the Semantic Answering Machine.

Um - I was wondering sir, if you could take time out of your busy schedule and help me out. You know, no big deal, just some loose ends and things. Hey, you have a nice place here! The wife sees houses like this on TV all the time and says boy she wishes she had digs like this you know? Is that painting real? Really? Wow. I saw something like that in a museum once!

Oh, sorry sir. I didn’t mean to get off the track.

Well, listen, anyways, I can’t seem to get some information I need to wrap this up. These things seem to either be “missing” or “difficult to find”. I’m sure it’s just some oversight or glitch or something, so if you could you tell me where these things are - I ... I ... have them written down here somewhere ... oh wait. Sorry about the smears. It was raining out. I’ll just read it to you. Could you help me please find these things, sir?

Lieutenant Columbo’s 3 questions and the Semantic Answering Machine.

1. To learn ask - “What do you mean by that?”
2. To uncover a flaw - begin the question with - “Can you clear this up for me?”
3. Close with - "Let me think about that..." and then research the truth before going in for the kill.
   

Careful what you wish for - the art and science of better questions.

Lot's to think and say on this. It's all become a question of semantics and pull. The power of an idea whose time has come. Read this: It’s beautifully put. http://bit.ly/d7b601

• ‘Semantic’ – unambiguous – something utterly correct.
• ‘Pull’ - by asking smart questions you get to the right result straight away. The opposite of push in the world of digital fire-hosing of unsuspecting humans in the increasing world of data.
  

I love the notion of this shift from push to pull.

The idea that I get to decide exactly what I receive and how and where I want it. Priceless. Not the arcane onslaught of arbitrary rubbish from poorly thought services and solutions from profit hungry and unthinking businesses. They deserved to fail at that and they now will.

Just imagine the shift from all or nothing, take it or leave it. Our way or the highway. Dismissing the idea that if you bang on with mediocrity long enough it will kill any quality or resistance from the public. Because with few exceptions that’s worked. Anybody caught doing that in the future will get rightly toasted.

The idea that the main systems of business, politics and media having to completely alter the way they operate in this new world order - brilliant. While some predictions are that this will take 20 years others will rightly argue it’s already happening.

Bring it on.

Bring on the shift to this intelligent access to the right answers and experiences for me. The right information not the deluge of quick drying data cement. Bring on the change to so many government agencies where this is prehistoric defense of mountains of unncessary data and requrement definitions of the wrong stuff for the wrong reasons. Bring on a more intelligent approach to enabling more meaningful and rewarding ways to find better quality experiences and answers - which in turn will make for better questions.

Bring it on yes but get prepared.

Asking better questions of a responsive system of things requires better questions. So how do I know what I actually want anyway? There are countless examples of not knowing that I liked or needed something until I stumbled on it. How would I know? That was often the thrill. In the near future the designers and architects who curate these new experiences for us will be the new alchemists of our individual destiny. Turning our poor question of the system into smart and intelligently phrased quasi-wisdom.

My hope then is it will shock billions of people into realising the decades of soporific acceptance of the dullness we've inflicted on each other in the name of industrialization, systemization, socialization and progress. They may rise up and demand better. That will hopefully be the new question.

This could indeed be the global answering machine we've all been praying for.

I’m sure it’s just some oversight or glitch or something, so if you could you tell me where these things are - Could you help me please find these things, sir?

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Vision, Starbucks and Faster Delivery

Arthur Schopenhauer once wrote that all truth passes through three stages: first, it gets ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; third, it is accepted as self-evident. It's wonderfully true. (I laughed at that idea at first (!))

In this new century I've added a step zero:

Truth must be written in less than 140 characters so that the average person will read or understand it - only then can you expect the next 3. Holding true to a truth that might lead to a new vision - long enough - is a lonely and bleak place. It requires tenacity and nerves of steel. Of course there is no other way. Schopenhauer rightly observes. So we had better get used to it.

To be obsessive, relentless and persistent enough to go through this, to deliver, people with ideas and vision need ingenuity, massive resolve, very thick skin and caffeine. Oh and an iron will.

Ideas - visions – anything worth pursuing cannot be fought except by better ideas, visions or pursuits. The battle consists - not of opposing but of exposing; not of presenting but of surfacing; not of dictating but co-creating; not of denouncing but of disproving; not of evading but of boldly proclaiming - a full and consistent framework of alternatives.

My worry? Not enough people care enough to engage in the wrestle. There is incredible effort required for true change. This is long distance stuff. Sweat and toil and the lives of many people involved in the adoption of any new vision or idea. In addition we have to make education more about thinking and being and less about passing a test. Leading has to much much more about listening and less about telling. Society has to be much more about society and less about political systems or centralised services.

For every one of these big issues, and there are millions, we need new visions and new truths.  We also need more agents for change to carry this disruption.

This means:

• Significantly more effort to write and convey real truths and visions clearly
• Gird up to get through Schopenhauers process more rapidly
• Think in ways differently than we’ve been conditioned to do
• Question everything in the first place.
• Take no prisoners.
  

This is rebellion. This requires different leaders, creative people - far crazier ways to be and think. We need new Malcolm McLarens and a lot more caffeine.

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Apps - It's about time.

Receiving a deluge of images or words is like anything deluge-like - it's a deluge. Probably unhelpful, certainly irritating, lobotomy inducing, likely to be ignored - all in equal proportions. So why do it? Well, sadly because we can.

The world is unfortunately populated with mediocre design and designers ill equipped for what is about to hit us all.

If it's unsolicited it will tossed into the nearest bin as rubbish. If it’s solicited and deluge-like then the question has to be - "do you care that I engage with this – at all?" Yet we all still do it. It’s totally unnecessary.

The craft of telling complex stories simply is a lost art. Look at the majority of Power Point. (No don’t) See any proposal, entertain any presentation from anyone. The stand out ones are those that have wrangled with the deluge - and won. They have honored my time.

In the world of iPads and similar technologies we have a potential for elegance or blithering idiocy. Rather like desk-top publishing, everyone and their cat will be on the appwagon. Holy confusion Batman!

If design was ever the consummate skill then now is that time. I'm already seeing dreadfully thought through and banal designs in applications. I'm lost – bad form over average function - dreadful tack. Ruining my iPad, wasting my time - so I delete it. Already gone.

A top performing application will follow the following criteria.

• It won’t waste my time.
• I always know where I am.
• I'm encouraged - wisely - to know why and where I'm going.
• And I can get back to safety from there too.
• And it won’t waste my time.
• Did I mention wasting my time?
  

Yes I will want to wipe, pinch, drag, tap, magnify, edit and everything any first time user will get within a minute. Table stakes. Stunning information design.

The other question is in the title. What is its application? What will I get?

• If I want to read, make it legible. Straight away.
• If I want to be entertained – do it with quality and design.
• Tell me a story that makes sense and is meaningful to me.
• If a picture or symbol is required and tells the story better then fine. But it had better add to the experience.
• A great image, first rate captions, narrative close at hand – bring it on.
• I always know why I'm here and where I go next.
• Don’t make me have to work at it because there are plenty other requests for my time.
  

Never waste my time because I ain’t coming back.

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What do we know? Actually.

Banksy’s film is a prank. Is it? Dunno. Most likely. I know it’s a film. I like a lot of his work – it makes you think. Not knowing what we don't know has become quite the phrase over the last few years. Donald Rumsfeld got both praise and ridicule in equal measures for the idea – this is what he said. You may need coffee to read this.

The Unknown

As we know, 
There are known knowns. 
There are things we know we know. 
We also know 
There are known unknowns. 
That is to say 
We know there are some things 
We do not know. 
But there are also unknown unknowns, 
The ones we don't know 
We don't know.

— Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing


All of its variants have been trotted out with one exception - "We don't know what we know we know.." You could change the middle know to ‘think’ but that would ruin the perversity of the riddle.

I've sprung it on some of the most respected people I know and to their credit they will mostly agree. They will think what it means – stare at me and say – yes. 'Cos it's true. I know - I suffer from it too. To really ‘know’ means to have unfathomable resolve about the thing. Be able to state with certainty all its properties. To be completely comfortable that it is so.

Well I'm not so sure I can say that about much - if anything.

I know that I'm watching a film, reading a book or flying a light aircraft. And I know when I'm not - but I don't really know all the bits I could or should to be any good at any of it. Life is probably way too short anyway.  How can we know everything.  When questioned I truly know far less about the film, the book and flying than I thought. Almost nothing in fact. We are actually rubbish at memory anyway. I know.

Applying this thought to business is a scary thought. If it's true then how prepared are we for anything? Ever? How can we make better decisions in important scenarios? Add to this the number of things that need 'knowing'. The list is often huge - much of it not knowable in the first place.

The other part of all this is we humans try to code the known. Ergo we bake in all the unknowns - hey presto! Certain failure. Systemising stupidity in.

So what to do?

Well you may disagree with the premise anyway and have already stopped reading this. But I think increasingly the answer is to say “I don't know...” and figure from there. To my mind the 'knowing' is not so much the prize as the continuous act of thinking. We are far better off coding the unknowns. We will have far more data on that anyway.  A brain frying thought. Working through the known unknowns is actually exactly what most people do anyway.  Without realizing that. They just kid themselves that they know.

Recognizing patterns in knowns and unknowns is only any use in a transitory sense - so really knowing is not possible nor the right premise. Go into every complex decision process as if we know nothing. It yields far better results, way more creativity, better behaviours and healthier less judgemental conversations.

Summary? I don't know!

Have better hunches and create a system for hunch making.

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Ouch!

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Art of the Possible Now - Magazine Revolution Alert!

<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/10676843">iPad Magazine Art Direction</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user294622">Brad Colbow</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Quite a helpful video explaining what is starting to happen on magazine design. All gives good clues but especially neat at around 4 minutes or so where it shows terrific glimpses of the shape of things to come - Popular Science magazine. With thanks to Manfred Linzner at another Posterous blog.

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From Editorial to Curatorial...oh, and the iPad

I heard a great word the other day – curatorial.

I had never figured on a variant of the word like that – doh!

It’s a word to watch out for to be sure. I will probably now bore everyone I meet with it.  Starting right now. The context of hearing it for the first time was this chap who said there was no ‘curatorial layer’ to the application. There literally could be any amount of data about to be unleashed on him. He would then have to plough through it. No thought applied to the way in which the content had been distilled. Curated. He went on to say it would be like drinking a pint of quick drying cement. So he wasn’t about to do that.

Meaning, rather like Google search, that you will get a million responses to any search term. It’s kinda what happens. If no design thinking gets applied to the experience of the user, or the reason why you might want all that data - watch out you will be fire hosed. Because we can!

So in the new world order, this idea of curation of data is huge.

Rather like the word ‘Editorial’ meaning - the summary or overview/management function - so that the context stays true to the intention in some way ‘Curatorial’ will come to mean - intensely valuable construction and design of intelligent content - brought together from wherever - by thinking about it (intelligently) and creating more and more rich/valuable experiences for the consumer.

We so need to get our heads around this if we are to take advantage of the onslaught of devices like the iPad.

So - talking about experiences.

Buying an iPad in the US was something quite special. A very quiet mall in a district of Atlanta at 11 am Sunday morning. A quite beautiful and sunny day. The Apple store came into view - a small queue buzzes patiently for the place to actually open.  Every other store deserted, looking enviously at its counterpart. Within literally 5 seconds of the place opening a very attentive Apple concierge explained the options, the process of buying iPads, how it all just works - and then within a few minutes there it was, my very own iPad.

Jonny Ive was spot on when he called it magical.

I’ve heard the word delicious applied to many things. Mostly food, wine, women and Italian cars.

Now I genuinely felt that thought about glass, aluminum and the countless man years of magical design applied to digital machinery. I make no excuses. It is incredible. It is genuinely a game changer. Easy to say but it really is. If this is the first edition in a new category of product then hold onto your hats.

The way the apps work is exactly how I imagined - only more delicious. And remember this is just the beginning. Design thinking makes it come alive because they have considered the whole experience. They have studied important insights they’ve gained with iPhone and iPod. They have thought through the real use to which this machine will be put.

You hold, caress, squeeze, tap, push, slide and stroke the thing. You consume not only the information but much more meaning within the information because of the care that’s been taken to think about that. It’s intuitive. A truly curated experience.

I will stop now.

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Partnership? I will bring two Armadillos, you bring your Dromedary. OK?

Funny word that. Partnership.

Partnership typically means a thing - a device that involves, equanimity, balance, shared values, shared outcomes, respect and free transfer of experience and asset. It's about transactions yes - but beyond. Multiple dependencies and actions across a bunch of humans. Trading in real value.

In my experience it often doesn't mean that at all.

Most times there is a winner and a loser.  A leader and a grudging follower – plus quite often a fractious break down leading to long term resentment and cost.  All of this is because the way, shape and form of partnership wasn't set up properly. (See previous post.) And/or it was formed from naïve optimism mixed with good natured belief as the basis of the 'partnership'.

"Pah! One of my armadillos is worth way more than your Dromedary. I now discover."

Well to me this result falls into the same category of every program or project. I'm not saying all this is ever easy but we actually build in failure to the majority of partnerships.

Nowhere near enough attention gets paid to the ‘way’, the ‘shape’ and the ‘form’ of the thing. In modern arrangements there is a much better way to arrange things than a flat partnership agreement anyway.

Take a value network for example, where the exchange of value between members is, out the outset, variable. It's agreed upfront that it's way more than just the dollars. It's designed and thought about that way round - with open acceptance and an understanding that not everyone is likely to contribute in the same way, shape or form. However everyone knows the overall shape, everyone agrees with the way and each understands the form.

Shaping a common outcome is something that all parties must help to create. Co-create. Open.  The way everyone works is agreed and it conforms to an open standard. The form is clear, different and yet valued across the team. Different returns are a given. This is just how it is. Why wouldn't there be? Everyone is doing different things. It's out in the open. Spending time designing all the moving parts of the partnership is as important as designing the thing.

By setting things up this way, ahead of time, the likelihood of success is dramatically increased. By having a visual representation mapping of every role, contribution, hand off, return and other agreed values or principles the partners all know what is expected and likely to happen. We reduce the risk of failure at least. We stand a chance of showing that (when required to) that Dromedary managed to get us over that hump.

And armadillos can be so snippy.

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If only we put minds to it...in some way, shape or form!

Let's build a Pyramid. Awesome, Yeah! Let's Go! - wicked. Whoo Hoo!

This has to work in some way, shape or form. Great idea. It will amaze and shock. It will live forever.

Every day since we were fish (maybe even a week or two earlier), we set about creating value so as to survive. We worked hard to add more richness to each of our lives. We did it through improvement in some way, shape or form. Individually or collectively. That's all there is to it right?

That's it. What else is there? As a species we are all about combining efforts in some way – to survive and improve.  Amazing if you stop to think about it.

We all have different reasons and ways to go about it of course.

In business we combine so that change or performance gets increased - hopefully recognized and valued by the world. In society it's so that we have a rewarding world in which our kids are safe and educated to enjoy a balanced and worthwhile life. Or we don't and we try to kill each other. We have got pretty amazing at that too.

I don't think I am the only one who felt physical nausea at the slogan of 'shock and awe' applied to a recent invasion of utter deceit and stupidity.

Given the opportunity (or good reason) to get our minds wrapped around any given topic we can make magic happen. Alchemy. If we put our minds to it then we can carry that energy on into ever more remarkable territory. Outstanding. Problem is we seem to have lost our way a bit.

Well - it comes down to the ‘way’, ‘shape’ or ‘form’ in which we do it. Doesn't it always?

Yep and therein lies the big snag. Holy crap. We are dreadful at agreeing the way, the shape and the form and getting worse in countless cases. In my experience we need way more focus or caffeine (or electric shock treatment). So many brave attempts at change come unstuck because we never agreed the way, the shape or the form in which each participant would operate. Let alone co-operate.

What do we mean by way, shape or form these days? It's easy to say. I hear it all the time. It’s completely lost it’s original and vital meaning.

For me shape is truly that. What does the thing look like? Can we prod at its corners and edges? Could we hit it with a stick? Take a photograph of it. Draw a picture in the sand. Define its colors precisely with Pantone swatches. Can we walk around it? Lean against it - explain its design! Well can we? And if we could would we all be better able to agree that it's the awesome thing we all want to create? Of course we would!

And the form, well the same thing really. In the 21st Century this would cover the media it arrives by/through, the choice of specific materials with which it gets made, the stuff around it to support its existence. Its eco-system - its value network. Surely if we could see and share in that expression we would stand a better shot at success correct? - Yep!!!

And the way? Well now it gets sporty. Subjectivity will kill us here if we can't all agree on the way. My way or the highway meets let's create a shared way to build the Pyramids. How we do anything is as important if not more important than the what. How you pass that granite rock up to that chap in a loin cloth chopping away at that boulder thing with those trees rolling underneath to shift it all is paramount. It could all go horribly wrong. Without a shared way it does. Frequently.

So the triangle of way, shape and form is considerably more than the simple sound-byte we all trot out. It's a multi-dimensional puzzle that needs to be exceedingly well thought through. It's so much a three dimensional triangle in fact let's think of it as a pyramid. Awesome!

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Rambling 2.0

I’ve never been to Mars.

Traveling is actually a great relief - even with the toxic and diabolical state of traditional travel processes. Road, Air and so on. Obnoxious.

If you can shut out the stupid systems and appalling experience we humans have concocted to make it happen, the act of travel is hugely valuable.  And underestimated. The old maxim – “It’s the journey not the destination” - and the new one - “The search is the find” - never more appropriate.

A meander in a new city - a ramble that’s written, a wander about the planet.  All wildly underestimated.

I find it disappointing - and hard sometimes to argue this because so many people are conditioned to want the result - not the figuring. The end product not the design or the working it out part. The destination not the journey. People have become so used to expecting conclusions.

We seem to have lost the art of enjoying the crafting of the thing.

We've lost the patience and involvement of it all. We’ve misused the meaning of design and as a result weve started to atrophy. We’ve stopped thinking. No time for contemplation.

Traveling, seeing, experiencing and mind rambling is such a delight - then ‘writing’ it first in my head and then into my machines – it is the thing. It's like the creation of a picture for me. Writing what I’ve ‘felt’ is what forms the better and bigger idea. It's a ramble, full of wild departures, blind alleys, interesting meetings, strange alien creatures on the side-walks and relaxing stops for fresh provisions in a new place. I don’t much mind if no-one else reads it.

To be on the journey is always a far better experience than actually getting there. I'm not for a minute suggesting that there isn't a good thing at the destination but if the journey was rewarding I always seem to enjoy there more.

I’ve just seen a road sign that says Slow Down. I wonder what it means?

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Thinking Round - The Future!

Look at this. It’s 4 phases of a thing. A thing that’s so simple it can often elude people.

I get asked what I do - I explain I answer complex problems by getting people to think differently. People will not be all that impressed by that. It doesn’t tell them much. So I explain that there are 24 vitally interconnected conversations, each of which are crucial for solving critical business issues. I get these conversations out using visual framework tools and techniques. They often say that’s very complex.

So I will say that these conversations are broken into 4 logical frameworks. 11 conversations in Discovery, 8 in Development, 3 in Decision and 1 in Deployment.  All of this preceded by a single conversation that asks what the issue is that we are trying to resolve – and why.

Nah, you lost me - way too complicated.

OK, what about this then?

I force fresh thinking for companies that want to be in the 21st Century. What does that mean? Well that means a real time - adrenaline filled, unique and proven approach for companies that have become exasperated that solutions are too slow, don’t work, are too expensive, waste critical resources, solve the wrong problems really well or serve the supplier/advisor more than them.

Hmmm, OK, long sentence but now it’s getting more interesting.

I continue. I suggest that in this century we can crack the answer together.  It’s not rocket science.  I believe that all our clients know more than they know. I can prove it. If they just give me a short amount of time to get them in a room with the correct exam question, a white wall that’s big enough to expand their minds and an openness to trying a different way to think – hey presto.

2500+ cases and hundreds of references to say it works - cannot be wrong.  Realizing that there's a better way to a solution is a very big thing. When people give it just that extra little bit of thought they can see how this is actually quite simple. By using structured conversations instead of random and opinionated presentations, by applying real-time visualization to abstract but critical ideas, by opening the minds of the senior teams to the art of the possible – we can change minds and hearts. What else is there?

Oh yes - we have a shared, aligned and practical plan that describes everything we need to know - so we can get on with it.

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Stable Doors? Bolted Horses!

Living downtown on Planet Risk.

It's official. The words predictable, safe, secure, manageable, stable and long term are the new high risk strategies.  Avoid them or die.

Who would know.

The big objective for most people seems to be to reduce risk at all costs. And reduce cost at all costs. Oh and at low risk. But that will be at huge cost and risk. Because we know that risk is on the edge and at the edge is where the opportunity is.

Planning for safe is not only ludicrous it's stupid.

It bakes in apathy, risk and dumb process. It kills the spirit of what makes business survive.  And yet these things are the first words out of everyone's mouths when thinking about the future. Getting to anything like these things requires constant re-thinking. Constant disruption, black-belt creativity, truly flexible systems, passionate and engaged people right across the enterprise and incredible energy and passion by mercurial leadership.

Yes everyone want’s the latest technology, creativity and smart capability but it has an increasingly short shelf life.

Rising above the crowd and leading in the 21st Century means leveraging not owning what was once valuable or unique (but is soon commodity). Then doing it again.  All the time.  And again.  And again. It is how to think – it is not a one-off project. Designing ‘apps’ for the iPad is the hot ticket today - it will be the daily trudge for creative programmers inside a year. Probably already is.

Being in front is about being happiest with the uncertainty of next.

Staying at the top of the food chain is remembering that it’s always about next. Now is boring and already dying. Yesterday. Not a comfortable place for many people. We have to get used (and delighting) to the fact that the norm is that tense, adrenaline buzzed - risky more sporty place called "don't know, we can't be sure - but let's try this...".

This means we don’t have to own all of the current resources. But we need to know how to partner with the talent for next. We need to know how to build communities of innovation for next. We need to understand the value networks for next and the 21st Century Eco-Systems for next.

If we could be sure about anything it would not be realistic. We know that sure bets aren't. We know that fashion is fickle and short term. Getting shorter. Get to understand that. Fast.

Baking in stability is to die. Stable doors means the horses have bolted.

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Virtual Reality! More than a game?

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In September 1955, James Dean met Alec Guinness outside an Italian restaurant in Hollywood. He introduced himself and showed Guinness his brand-new Porsche 550 Spyder.  “The sports car looked sinister to me,” Guinness wrote in his autobiography:

Exhausted, hungry, feeling a little ill-tempered in spite of Dean’s kindness, I heard myself saying in a voice I could hardly recognize as my own, ‘Please, never get in it.’ I looked at my watch. ‘It is now ten o’clock, Friday the 23rd of September, 1955. If you get in that car you will be found dead in it by this time next week.’

Dean laughed. One week later he collided head-on with a Ford coupe outside Cholame, Calif. He was pronounced dead 6 days and 20 hours after Guinness’ prediction.

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Interesting Nike Campaign...!

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Dilemma's, Paradox, Irony.

My head hurts.

Dilemmas, Irony and Paradox. Can you simplify that for me please? Err, no.

It messes with my head to meet smart people who state determinedly that they want to solve a major issue in their lives/business/government department. They go on to say that they want to do so with simple tools and techniques and fast. I get the question I just find it hard to explain (without some incontrollable facial muscle spasms) that the answer may require dealing with complexity.

This request more than often comes along with a request for a whole new vision - a strategy – wholesale transformation in some critical area or other.  A new deal for this government department, a whole new way to engage with our consumers – reengineer my organization - change my life please.  

“Oh, and we want it to be simple.”

If I dig deeper they defend this with -

“It’s because I fear my colleagues will not be able to deal with the complexity of it all.”

After a while I may get them to admit that it is they too that actually can’t deal with the complexity of it all – not often though. Trust me - I know the feeling. I used to feel the same when I was a client. Admitting this fact is over 80% of the way to solving the problem. I am bursting to ask them then if in this case should we close down the operation and let them get on with their lives elsewhere? - do only the things they are capable of? I don’t ask that. Often.

A dilemma in fact.  A dilemma in that the capability of some of these leaders asking for change doesn’t exist  - it won’t work - but - they are the leaders.  A paradox in that they have recognized that there is a problem bigger than they can manage or wish to pursue but they still will - and irony in that they want the solution, they don’t know what it is, they know it’s very valuable - but not at any price.

I’m still optimistic.

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The underestimated power of the Gif...!!

Gotta love these, and much thanks to FFFFOUND! At http://ffffound.com/ where there’s a ton more. The idea of the GIF is an the abbreviation of Graphics Interchange Format. It was originally developed by CompuServe (an on-line service that was pretty successful in the early nineties). The format features include file compression, transparency, interlacing and storage of multiple images within a single file which allows for a primitive form of animation.

Primitive? It works for me. Armed with a degree of creativity and an eye for the idea this format is a great structure within which to think visually. It strikes me that rather like Twitter disciplines the mind to make sense in short sounbytes then this format does the same for the visual idea of idea.

Love it.

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On being wired...or tired?

Infographic source: http://bit.ly/cjbgi9?

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I like people who are connected. To me they are prepared to roll with life.

They know what’s going on - are more interesting - they seem sharper to me.  They sparkle, they have their fingers on countless pulses. We know we can't stop the inevitable weight of human endeavor so we have to turn it to our own advantage. What comes with all this is the fire-hose of being connected. Relentless though it is. Invasive as it is. We have to learn to deal with it. Handle it. People may think this is anti-social, anti-human. It’s the opposite.

It's all very time consuming isn't it? Well no!

I find that I have been able to make it a part of what I do anyway. I don’t spend a lot of time on it. I graze, I skim, I skate across what I want and when something attracts my eye then I get stuck in. It is about my own passions at that time. It’s replaced things that I used to do that were a waste of time and inefficient. I choose to link to whoever I want. I get to turn them off again if they bore me. I can ignore them or hit delete. But for every one that’s tired and bores me there are countless that teach me something and adds to my experience and learning.

We need to remember that each of us are individual. We work in different modes, we have different moods. We demand flexibility. Our tactics in the digital realm require similar ideas. It’s these ideas that we need to keep up with. Today’s web space is a web of things, spaces, moods, modes and tools to tackle each one in a different way. So let’s get on with it!

It drives a lot of people people crazy.

Not me. Fact is for me it’s the other way around. People choose to use the platform that suits what they do. Nobody to my knowledge religiously signs up to all of this stuff.  And anyway it's all a stepping stone to something else - the personal portal or something like that. Something that gets all of this stuff into a rational single space. Nope.

Why would that work? That's just a website. The world has moved on.

Ping!

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Radical? The way it's going to be? Well?...hmm...

This is how business will need to think. Well - along these lines anyway.

This may have gone a little weird but it’s a great example of how the business world will start to rethink it’s consumers as co-creators of their business – the new terrain - content. Love it or hate this expression it’s a sign of what to come.

It all starts naturally enough with a boring shot of a car.

Missed opportunity but I guess ford isn’t quite that brave yet. Yes we know you mean cars!http://www.fusion41.com/ Then it gets kinda crazy with what they have done to make the car interesting to people who have some time on their hands and are interested in the kind of challenges and resulting stats that they seem to have winkled out of them.  Sadly too the questions resemble a thinly disguised attempt to sex up their car and a cross between a reality TV show and a drunken night at the Agency.

They have targeted their ideal consumer - some unsuspecting and presumably well paid punters.

Well it’s a start.

The fact is they have to think differently to make the common or garden car seem a bit more interesting. Whoever wrote the challenges probably needs to get out more (a new car perhaps?) but it’s a valiant attempt to think differently within the media as it is now. So well done lads.

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The State of the Internet - The Facts and the Figures as an information graphic video

via coolinfographics.com

This is doing the rounds quite a bit and that's cool.

The figures are quite incredible and each year we get amazed by them and the rate. Thats cool too. I am posting this because it will be fascinating to see what effect the iPAD has on this. In 12 months and 24 months I would expect the stats to be off the scale in several other dimensions.

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It's simply complex - OK?

One of the big benefits of having a 'language' that's common is that it gets everyone to agree. It’s truly the mechanism by which humans work. It makes things simple. Unless it doesn't of course.

You either love or hate this Ferrari. At what level do you appreciate it or loathe it? Do you see a revolutionary design, a piece of state of the art and passionate engineering – or an unnecessary and needless waste of effort? Why does it have such different meaning to different people? Obvious right? - We are all different, we are uniquely individual and we each see different things in everything.

It seems to me that getting to a simple and common agreement is often impossible. Should we try and where do we stop trying?

• Believing that their is a common appreciation of things is insane and dangerously ignores the subtlety of what is actually going on.
• Enforcing the law as if everything is agreed causes civil unrest is insane and dangerously ignores the subtlety of what is actually going on.  
  

Are we missing something here?

We enter into conflict or debate because our perspectives are so dissimilar - the definitions (or semantics) of the language we use vary to great extents between the users. We are what we have learned and become conditioned by. We are the sum of our experiences. In society this creates huge tension because governments have been so inept at understanding how to manage this truth - In business it can cause huge cost, risk and underperformance because not enough time is spent socializing the meaning of anything. This is why we have governance, standards and standards bodies to be the keeper of the keys. Blunt instruments. Why don’t we learn? If there were more discussion more people would learn, understand what is going on and perhaps contribute to just how things could be improved. Is that so complicated?

To ignore that things are really not how they appear is to ignore that we are human.

When collaborating and socializing to create common meaning – everything works - everyone can ‘team’ - we are aligned – harmony. The theory is that if we could truly collaborate, become more socially connected then bits of work would get done by different parts of the team and it would all come together as one. This applies to running a country as much as running a business. It’s called thinking and conversation – common sense. It’s a rare thing. Is that why we don’t do it? Does it all sound so hard? Too complex? Not simple enough? Imagine if Ferrari didn’t get it right – would you get on this thing?

What else can we do?

Interpretation happens in individuals heads.

In business and the enterprise the same is true. If you allow people to deeply engage in the defining or meaning of the standards then you can expect magic to occur from your biggest asset. Miracles in terms of performance. High energy and potential unleashed by those who would join your team. Don’t do it and learn to live with an underground movement of discontent, opposing parties and massive mediocrity.

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The Multi-Colored Magpie - Breaking old ground In order to innovate.

My life and my work is based on an evolving ‘manifesto’.

Constant change in the world means that my manifesto can never stay still either. Principles, intentions, ambitions and frontiers quite naturally stretching us all further every day. Perversely innovation and change is often about breaking old ground. Breaking new ground all the time is unthinkable and it just doesn’t work. At the heart of the work It’s about tirelessly dismantling old systems of thinking – terrorizing anything that represents a barricade to new reason or fresh thinking.

A Wall of Newfusion.

To do this I put up a massive wall of white space in order to write the insights, the slogans that themselves have the power to tear down the mental wall of conditioned resistance, frustration and dogma recently shed by their owners.

We all know that to really transform anything we need to remove any reasons for the new ground to get fouled up.  In the biggest sense this is where new eras of design are now required. 21st Century design thinking and implementation. The task is one of subterfuge - subtly educating – constantly redesigning - raising the consciousness and appetite for major disruption. Right now!

How to Balance Automation with Individuality?

I believe strongly that to win in this world we have to be crafty and ingenious. Grabbing precious things from everywhere. Anywhere. We are curious multicolored magpies looking at everything that’s valuable and then make off with it.  The search is most definitely the find. The discoveries I make in simple conversation, trawling the web, creating fresh debates, adding to the chatter – this is where I find the gems - the jewels that just lay around unnoticed in every situation are remarkable. To ignore it with lazy minds is diabolical. Search the web now for the definition of diabolical.

The dangerous innovation actively sought by the commercialized world nowadays is automation. It’s impossible to automate creativity. It’s not possible to replicate the skills of design thinkers without design thinkers. None of this is codifiable by computers. Creativity demands humans to think.  We can all do this. We can all contribute if we open our minds. To get close to that just get better at knowing how to think smartly in every single situation you can. Become a magpie but one that doesn’t think just black and white.

Redefine and redesign – thinking.

Some more http://bit.ly/cdBeXv

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