When will we wake up to cause and effect?

Riddle me this Batman. Firstly Kelvin MacKenzie said this morning that "The Max Mosley ruling was excellent (especially all the noise around it)" because "It makes the media world go round and thank goodness for that!"

As if to put the other side of the case someone, whose name was lost to me - then argued violently (in response) that "Our British morality has changed?" - and - "All the gossip we spread about others moralities is just what the British Public like to do."

Are we really OK with this? Why don't we care more about this?

At that moment I reminded myself of Brian Wilson's immortal lyrics that I really wasn't born for these times. I asked myself - do we actually want this media world to go round? Oh and what causes this culture of petty gossip – and who is surprised that we are therefore in this ridiculous spiral of mediocrity in the first place? This 'culture' is the outcome we can expect if we allow everyone to be comfortable with these standards. The very thing that the media promotes is based on dual standards and we are supposed to accept that just so long as it makes the media world go around.

Are we really this bloody stupid?

This all came at the same time as the super injunction/Twitter story. Whilst I don't agree with spreading untruths or salacious gossip (under any circumstances) this had better not be the thin end of a worrying wedge. Any restriction to free speech has to be resisted!

Is it any wonder that people feel it necessary to speak out? Intelligent people are sick of double standards that's what's at issue here. Whether what he says is true or not and whether we like it or not - the guy got 50,000 followers in a split second and this became news and the Government is spooked.

The sinister thing (and maybe I am alone in thinking this) is that the UK Government/Media (Command & Control System) seems shaken enough to tackle free speech on Twitter. There are now mutterings over the threat from Twitter and the Super Injunctions - and OUR ability to say what we want. How many standards is this? Way more than double right?

I sense our out of touch and institutionally cracked system is feeling threatened by the reality of society and the human state that it has encouraged. A 'society' - now deeply conditioned by a cult of celebrity and the dual/triple standards of our politicians and media - atop an education situation that's allowed to decay - increasing yet more generational issues. Our only hope being generations coming through so dismayed by such stench – hopefully about to kick some disgraceful butt!

Anyway ending on a more optimistic note. Imagine if WE could turn these insights into something really valuable and actually deal with the causes of this within our failing society.

Posted via email from Just Thinking!

Love To Hate Information Graphics

Firstly let me state up front that I absolutely love Information Graphics. Secondly I absolutely loathe Information Graphics.

I'm sorry but the idea was interesting at first and it wasn't just the novelty. It was that designers, with flair and style, could take complex topics and tell a real story with creative/smart intelligent design.

What on Earth happens? What was a great start, and caught a lot of everyone's attention then turns to turgid and deeply unhelpful mediocrity. Well we know. The bandwagon gets jumped by a few thousand wannabees and hey presto. Desktop Publishing all over again.

To whom it may concern. 

Please don't fill a 4 x 30+ height page with 20 dumb Power Point Slides. Don't pour your kitchen sink of fonts and clip-art effects onto a badly thought through story. Please don't hijack a powerful new platform for genuine communication with lazy, not smart/unthoughtful stuff that can be communicated better by other means. 

Please!

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Transformation - Boot Camp!

One of my all time favorite thoughts of all time is as follows - 

"The reason we don't find solutions to our problems is because the answers to our questions interfere with our concepts".

In my experience this maxim is at the core of why change (at any level) is so tough. We hear the lament that change is always hard because none of us like change. Well I don't like 'not to change'. When everything changes around me I find myself more rather than less frustrated by my lack of change.

My inability to change something seems rooted in a preference for what 'is/was' rather than what 'might be'. In my case, when I realise that, it makes me react strongly and I begin to work really hard at changing as much as I can! People don't like that.

Transformation requires a fresh and obsessive intention. Nothing will remain the same.

It will require a dogged determination and utter application. You will have to do different things and perform unusual activities. Some people around you will start to distance themselves from you. Everything you have done up until now has to be reviewed. The language you use will start to get questioned. Some of the moves you used to make will not work anymore - and the new ones you will need to make will be uncomfortable. Your ideas will be constantly challenged.

For transformation to work it requires a complete change to your intention. All the team and everyone around will undergo dramatic surgery.

Intention is a small word but a massively interesting idea.

If we intend to really change we have to commit to actually wanting transformation of our world. If we do then clearly we have to review and alter everything we do - our behaviour and attitude must be different.

I observe several dimensions, many of which don't get discussed, that need to be present for transformation to get done. Get your boots on because these are just some of them.

Different Language: A common language must be developed - together with agreement on the meaning of key terms. This language needs to be developed together as the transformation is planned. This language needs to be markedly (deliberately) different from that being used today.

Stop Using Slides: Removal of slides and lengthy written tomes from the process. Stop expecting the people you are trying to encourage to change with anonymous, meaningless Power Point decks and docs. Start engaging them within the conversations about the transformation. Treat them with respect and collaborate with purpose and passion. Face to face.

Complexity Is Real: Overcome the cliche's and easy claptrap around simplicity. It is not simple. Anyone in a transformation program has to understand that complexity is the daily diet. Get used to that. Simplicity may well be required (in the way it gets applied) but stop confusing complexity with the hard work required.

Beyond The List: Don't try to manage transformation with lists and best practices that are not 'felt'. If we attempt transformation with templates and panaceas it will fail. Passion for the hard work of transformation has to be close to the emotion felt by a sportsman (and team) approaching the big game!

Intimacy And Leadership: Deep respect and understanding for the team you build and work with. This means leadership of the real kind, transmitted with authenticity and integrity across everything. The tools and techniques that create the vision, the metrics, the roadmap and everything involved, will have to be built by these people. Living together for long periods of time will demand the ability to become intimate with everything and everybody to develop shared energy for the challenge.

Delight In Disappointment. When something didn't go to plan it now spurs you on to greater things. Mistakes become opportunities to re-double effort, creativity and ingenuity. Being knocked back means returning with greater effect because of the lesson. Adversity is the mother of new intention.

Embrace Terror: Ignore the terrorists by becoming closer to them. Your enemy is actually your best chance of success. By working more closely with detractors you get to your objectives quicker. By working with them you achieve many things. Everyone sees that you are more determined than ever to win. You will learn to tell your story better. They will be confused by your overtures. They will either change your mind because they are right and you missed it or they will become your biggest ambassador. Or they will leave the picture - in some way(!).

Unlearn At All Costs: Learn how to unlearn fast. In unlearning we see new things hitherto lost to us. This brings incredible riches. Walls break, new knowledge floods in, our new stories shock people into listening to us. We can support the transformation from many more perspectives. We can support it because we can see the possibility from fresh points of view.

Fine Tune Your Acuity: Developing an engineers eye for the vision. The ability to dismantle, reassemble and use the vision under water and blindfolded with both arms tied. Draw it, speak it and defend it from every single angle while listening intently for clues about how to improve it. Be able to do the same with the roadmap and all organizational models and implications.

Integrative Thinking: Cultivate both your brains. For every visionary leader there is the numeric luddite. Be ready to prove the math. For every well defended business case there is a disruptive upstart that doesn't give a damn about your numbers. Become a better visionary.

Learn From Celebrity: Love it or loathe it this era is epitomised by the power of celebrity. Someone has to be on stage. Transformation works when there is someone being the pied piper. This person is just as involved with all of the above as can be. To not be totally immersed is certain death. Everyone will smell it. 

Just a figurehead, a token? Then you are doomed!

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Kill The Lists!!

I'm a bit angry today. I am depressed about my own field.

I've been in a couple of sessions recently where I've seen the result of the dreaded check-list being used as a panacea for problem solving and all future thinking. I was forced to politely disagree.

I see clients stuck in situations where they can only fail because of the conditioning that advisors and articles have created around their damned lists. They can only continue to fail if we can't get them out of that. They have been sold simple templates to solve problems. A list!. They are told that everything needs to be made simple. A list. So they are fed easy to populate templates and scorecards. The devilish 4-square/quadrant models. Sure - and they can draw hundreds of them on flip–charts to great applause. 

Well they don't work.

Sadly the industries desire to make things simple have led to a feeling that there is something bad about complexity and that everything can be reduced to simple lists. "The 7 things we need to know about this, that or the other." - "The 5 big ideas that will save your business." - "The 16 dimensions of becoming a great leader." - "The 8 principles for the perfect business model." Arghhh!! Stop!!! 

To get my own back I have produced a list.

1. Re-think the meaning behind the check-list.
2. Never believe check-lists that guarantee results.
3. Lists that remove the investigation into the fields they describe must be banned.
4. Complexity in business is a fact – it cannot be simplified into a list
5. Lists are guns in the hands of three-year olds
6. Lists must be challenged if they end at the 6th bullet
7. I prefer 7 things in a list

I get that we need to get to simple ways of thinking about things. 

I understand the idea of list and they have a place. But people need to understand that they only go so far. We need to analyse the exponential growth of things that need to get thought about these days but the list will not do it. The problem isn't with what is in the list – it is because it is a list. All too often it is just a check list. It suggest that all we need to do is to tick the box.

OK I am being extreme but I worry that the more we simply break things into lists the more they are superficially learned by rote and so the thinking stops. The calculation of what goes on between the items in the list is often missed. The opportunity for cleverness with what the lists don't yet show or might get surface is ignored. The meaning of the patterns that are involved within the descriptions get side-lined and we don't explore the unknowns or the finer aspects that were missed by the structure of lists. The important things that aren't on the list are just not on the list.

Dealing with complex enterprise and constantly moving situations is complex. That is what complexity is. Complex. It cannot be reduced to lists. Lists are OK to categorise areas of investigation but not at the expense of the investigation. Let's re-think the list. 

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Drawing. I Think.

I'm lucky I guess. 

I've always been able to draw. It is a total luxury and I'm blessed to be able to do it. It's amazing, not because I feel I'm especially good at it, but because it is how I get to think about things. It is a  kind of a media – a platform.  For me it is an act of making things come true (making decisions) and how I process my inner ideas (thinking)

It also allows an inner calm. 

That calm begins with total fear. Fear of the enormity of the empty page and the empty conclusion of the task. I hear people talk about creativity being the challenge of the blank canvas. I get that when the challenge is art. But for me the challenge is to divine/define/design an answer from empty space - where I know the 4 sides are soon the boundaries to my expression. The framework.

To be able to do this is pure adrenalin mixed with responsibility and privilege. That anyone would value the act is my motivation. Underneath all this a drive to develop better craft with every mark and each detail.

I worry that obsessive attention to seeming tiny dimensions or aspects of this is approaching obsession. It is. And I like that now, after all the years of doing it and explaining it and defending it, now I just do it and that is a kind of peace at last. I was delighted then to see this incredible program about John Kascht. He gives you a behind the scenes look at the creation of his portrait of Conan O' Brien, explaining his artistic process and approach to caricature. 

The way he thinks, works, collects, curates and then builds IS the process of thinking. And being creative and…

A summary from the National Portrait Gallery.

No red-carpet stalker has observed celebrities more closely than caricature artist John Kascht. Conan O’Brien, Eminem, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Murray, Jack Nicholson, Barbra Streisand, Mick Jagger, and Donald Trump are just a handful of the famous faces he has scrutinized, deconstructed, and reimagined for our delight. All appear in his video Funny Bones: Anatomy of a Celebrity Caricature(above), done recently for the National Portrait Gallery’s Gallery360 series.

Fifteen years ago, when I started collecting Kascht’s work for the National Portrait Gallery, we began a series of conversations about how to draw, “getting” a likeness, the nature of celebrity, and the art of caricature.

Inevitably, Kascht, with his unusual combination of wicked humor and thoughtful insight, made unique contributions to those challenging subjects, all of which interest the students, teachers, artists, and general public who make up the Portrait Gallery’s diverse audiences. So the idea of a sharing Kascht’s drawing process through a video has been a long-term dream.

Throughout

 Funny Bones, we have the illusion of peering over the artist’s shoulder as he draws. The video starts with the seductive sound of charcoal scratching on paper. Using a broad vocabulary of graphic marks in various media, Kascht experiments with lines, squiggles, blotches, tracings, and washes, moving ever closer to his final concept.

“Getting” the likeness is a more particular skill. It is “all about noticing,” he tells us. You realize how little most of us see in our daily interactions with people. Kascht’s scrutiny is relentless. The taut mouth, fidgeting hands, tapping feet, wrinkled face, belly laugh—beautifully filmed here by A. Greg Raymond—all tell him something about a person.

No doubt Kascht is right that “you wear your life,” but it takes his keen eye to observe it. Since his subjects are famous, he also studies multiple photographs and available moving footage, adding to his information. By the time he is done, he knows the structure and facets of each face intimately, along with its characteristic expressions, as well as which single feature might force our recognition.

But there are challenges to focusing on the famous, with their agents, handlers, and stylists. With comedian Conan O’Brien as his case study, Kascht explains the difficulty of trying to catch a celebrity’s unguarded moment or figuring out the authentic look disguised by makeup and the public persona. He considers comportment, behavior, and body language; he loves finding pictures of his subjects when they were children.

It is a tricky balancing act. The preened and polished version of the star is, after all, what we recognize. Some of that familiar artifice might have to remain. All that digging and observing nonetheless helps capture the essence of the individual, any portraitist’s goal.

Finally, once Kascht understands how to create a likeness, he can move that portrayal into caricature. It isn’t mere exaggeration in his view but an intensification of characteristic attributes.

In one sequence, he morphs Abraham Lincoln, Luciano Pavarotti, Barbra Streisand, and Mick Jagger from photographic reality into caricatural magnification of their actual features. He has to really know that likeness before he can start to mess with it. Sometimes he finds that it helps to mimic his subject, compare someone’s hair to soft-serve ice cream, or make a likeness out of cheese doodles. It is all part of learning the face and pushing toward “the life at the center of it all.”

For those of us who have enjoyed long lunches learning about portraiture through Kascht’s enhanced eyes, it is a delight to share Funny Bones with our Portrait Gallery audience.

Wendy Wick Reaves, Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Portrait Gallery

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Said Detective Colombo to the CEO...!

Ah, sorry to bother you Mr. CEO, Sir… 

Excuse me Mr. CEO, Sir? Um . . I know you're busy, and important and stuff. I mean, running the business is very important and - ah - I hate to bother you, Sir. I will only take a minute. Ok, Sir? See, I have these missing pieces that are holding me up, and 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. So if you could just help me out a minute and give me some details, I will get right out of your way. I want to close this case and maybe take the wife Coney Island or something. Ever been to Coney Island Sir? No? I didn't think so...

Well, listen, anyway, I can't seem to get some information I need to wrap this up. These things seem to either be "Not known", "Not clear" or "Not understood"  I'm sure it's just an oversight or glitch or something, so if you could you tell me where these things are I have them written down here somewhere - oh wait. I'll just read it to you.  

Could you please help me find these things, Sir?

• What are you are aiming to achieve? The outcome of it all? This business of yours? Sir…?
• The measures that might tell you that you are getting there? Where are they?
• And Sir? - what's the actual need you are trying to fulfil?
• What is your vision exactly?
• Does the world actually actually need what you are aiming to do?
• The story. What's the story really Sir?
• And your strategy? No-one seems to know what that is. 
• The people in the business don't seem to care Sir? Why should they?
• The road map you say you have? Where is that?
• The alignment. Where is that Sir?
• And the things that differentiate the business from all the others? Can you tell me that Sir?

Oh and one more thing Mr CEO Sir, I can't seem to find the criteria you used for any of this. Can you explain that to me, Sir? but hey - listen! I know you're busy! If this is too much for you right now  - I mean - tell you what. I'll come back tomorrow. Give you some time to get these things together, you know? I mean, I know you're busy. I'll just let myself out. I'll be back tomorrow. And the day after. 

What's that Sir? 

Who wants to know these  things? Well the people in your business, the customers and partners who rely on you Sir. You know, the ones that keep you alive?

Posted via email from Just Thinking!

Truffles

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Innovation? - An Egyptian Pyramid Of A Definition.

Innovating requires a fine kind alchemy - a mischievous blend of three things -1. Making countless mistakes. 2. An ironic sense of humour and 3. Obsessive creative endeavour. These three dimensions form a kind of diabolical tension. A triangle that becomes a circular and perpetual crusade in my brain. A vicious circle.

1. Mistakes need to be utterly soul destroying - becoming triggers for the next idea. Ideas come from our thoughts so having our minds challenged refreshes the spirit and forces us to fix the aching void of failure. Of course this takes a masochism of an unenviable type.

2. Irony seems to force the best kind of comedy from me. That comedy translates into a creativity which in turn comes from the deep depths of I know not where. I know irony is not to everyone's taste and which is why it suits me and probably confirms my endless joy from it. I like to leverage the heady mix of adrenalin and disruptive energy shocks and provokes so much.

3. Creativity is the result and forces the crusade to finish building the pyramids of idea in my head. Ideas so outrageous but that will fix the problem and answer the brief. The fix needs to be breathtaking and when it isn't it's just another another soul destroying mistake. 

I laugh ironically.

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Structured Visual Thinking

Taken at Starbucks

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Apple - Please Make Pens!

Forget Afghanistan, Lybia and the Middle East. What in the world is going on in the pathetic dry-erase pen manufacturing world?

The 'dry-erase' marker market! A mouthful? Well cop this! Did they invent that term because of the fact that there is no ink in them - or were they being ironic about their supply of quality product? The Writing Is On The Wall - Badly!

If the pen is supposed to be mightier than the sword then I'm about to become history. Exploitation of artists was supposed to have been eradicated years ago. I should grow up and stop being so naïve.

Q: Why have the world's manufacturers of dry erase markers (whiteboard pens) gone stark raving mad and stopped making yellow? Indeed why have the same 'baboon-brained' manufacturers also stopped making decent pens - at all. I don't mean to insult baboons. They won't even speak to us about it. I can only assume they don't give a flying chisel-tip about any of this.

The perfect pen was this. 

(Paper Mate or EXPO – now owned by Sanford – all owned now - by Newell Rubbermaid.) 

I could hold them in my hands all day. They were rubberized, shaped correctly and grippable. Each one had an eraser on it. They were well built and initially had excellent ink coverage.

Now they have stopped making them. The supply chain dried up along with their remaining pens. They choose to leave us stuck with badly designed equipment, low quality ink, ugly and painful to hold pens -  cheaply made unhelpful and crass rubbish that is unfit for the task! We buy boxes of them that just don't work, they are already dry straight out of the box. We are suckered.

I know why.

This is the main tool of my trade so I would be pissed wouldn't I - but it's become an analog for so much tack out there in the world. To me this is the pursuit of profit at all cost. It is the standard cynical abuse by manufacturers in any market when they gain a monopoly.

I've written before about the typical lousy state of meeting room tackle - that’s why I take all my own. The countless badly abused flip charts that are wobbling their way to their graves, shocking and rubbish markers with no ink - products that everyone hates. Countless pens get thrown to the floor by irritated executives who can't get the lid off or on - and when they do they don't work. All of this bollox is contributing to low standards of execution and worse it is ultimately resulting in squalid thinking.

Well WTF!!!

Do something you lousy, lazy, cheapskate, userous dry-erase manufacturing bastards!

Can anyone point me to a quality chisel-tip dry-erase marker with a spectrum of colors (including yellow) that I can call a professional product and that I can actually buy during my lifetime?

Posted via email from Just Thinking!

If Apple Made Cars?

I will never rent a Citroen C5 again. 

I can't imagine why a motor manufacturer would name a car after Sir Clive Sinclair's failed electric folly but there you have it. The centre of the steering wheel is large, ugly and square, the bit you hold is round. The bit in the middle stays put when you turn the wheel. So if, like me, you hold various parts of the wheel in different ways as you maneouver hairpin bends at 100mph you will break your wrist and fingers with guaranteed and crushing whelps of pain!

Utterly ridiculous design. Think about it.

If Apple built a car - oh my goodness. You would be able to see behind and in front of you at the same time. Sideways too. Everyone would marvel as it docked with a shoosh in your house or (with the mobile dock) anywhere the hell you damn well please.

The Sat Nav system is a full HD wind-screen with anti-glare lick my face super gloss device. Angry Birds would be swiped (or pinched) off with a very satisfying flick of your little finger as they hit your screen. There would be a delicious schloop sound. Stephen Fry tweets curious sites of historic or general interest at you - as you wish.

In an iCar you don't need to concentrate on the road, that's handled by the on board magic mouse. You are left free to download apps of your choice and arrive at your destination refreshed and ahead of the pack. You often don't need to travel though because - with Total Surround Screen Technology (TSST) and Telepresence (T) the inside of the iCar is a fully equipped conference venue fully integrated with social media and augmented reality.

There's an app for giving you the impression of driving to the office as fast as Lewis Hamilton - with all the effects but the iCar manages you within the sedate traffic outside via the Slow Leopard OS feature.

You can choose whatever weather you would like to be displayed through the sun-roof display. You are adding automatically to Google Earth as you go. Foursquare and Gowalla are in fact sponsoring your fuel - Apple Juice.

It's impossible to get a ticket because the body of iCar is so aerodynamic as to ensure they can't be stuck to it. Traffic wardens are PC anyway so they are completely incompatible anyway.

Traffic jams become enjoyable with the right music for the road conditions. Road movies are unlimited and free.

"We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it" - Blues Brothers

Auditorium quality sound is played through the seats and directly connected via your Apple 'BodyPad' driving suit. Designed in California - Black Cru Neck and Denim ensemble - BUT - here's the scoop - it's actually a total immersion, multi-media touch sensitive interface to iCar. This comes as standard on the iCar CoupeAir.

All current versions allow you to configure your own dashboards and select your own background colors.

All your devices - wife, husband and kids would fit and operate seamlessly without further configuration. A Ski rack comes as standard and you would get nearly 60 MP3. That's awesome.

The only queues you will meet from now on will be those other folk queuing get their hands on one. Although V.1.0 doesn't allow it, the plan is for future versions to neatly fold away into your shirt pocket and recharge from the heat of your body.

Yes the batteries only last 40 minutes at the moment.

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11 Years Thinking Change

Really odd that I needed to leave the creative industry to become creative. 

More odd that 11 years on, the more I work with seemingly 'non-creative' industries (Government, Mining, Financial Services, Pharmaceutical Industries for example) the more creative I become - and can be.

These 11 years have been interesting - and while the following 'Ages' are not as crisply segmented as they sound - they are fairly close to what I now know about what creativity really means, and how that emerged.

Year One: The Age of Context. Coming from the creative industry everything was about the idea and its cleverness or the sheer awe of its production. It wasn't essential that it met every dimension and it could be argued (and was) that it didn't need to. I didn't agree. It irked me that I was responsible for solving the wrong problem really well. I needed to think bigger.

Context became a big part of my life. The first year of the business was all about mapping the context and building what is now the Discovery Framework, which was all about the surrounding context within which to think. It often shocked people and me that so much from one industry could be so relevant to another. Many people remarked on how rethinking their own context generated fresh thinking. Creativity. I thought I was onto something.

Year Two: The Age of Facilitation. In the early days I had great friends and colleagues who would facilitate while I sat quietly and built the content into the context of the framework. This was all about 'active-listening' - translating the conversations forced by the contextual frame. It occurred to me that creativity was about knowing where to hunt for the truffles. Where a fresh idea might be lurking - and how to trap and then skin an insight. It meant asking a question and then a better question and then…

I freely admit that I was happier butting in and I couldn't stay quiet. I know I was frustrated and I was frustrating others, but I needed to keep the questions digging deeper and deeper. I needed to actually step it up. The age of facilitation meant I had to move from sitting at a drawing pad in the corner to getting into the art of facilitation. Could I do both? Ask the questions and complete the framework?

Year Three: The Age of Collaborative Endeavour. By now I had been completely seduced by the power of context and the sheer effect a visual interpretation of the conversations was having. We were now beginning to see the importance of having the right people in the program. Inclusion and ownership – engagement and understanding.

We were observing how behaviours were altering in some situations and not others, how groups reacted differently when their leaders were present and how we could leverage these dynamics. At this time we had started to become much more structured and the context was being informed by better thinking ahead of time. We were working within more collaborative systems and architectures. We were growing.

Year Four: The Age Of Structured Thinking. Now it was all starting to make sense. We had become very much more capable of being prepared for the work that was coming along. Bigger and bigger issues, larger and larger enterprises. We could understand the context, we could appreciate the bigger picture. We realised that we knew nothing. That helped.

We seemed able, because of the frameworks and the discussions, to better 'think' about a smarter idea, a new scenario, a more deft turn of phrase or something completely new and fresh. To start to think like this requires this emergence, this journey. We were better able to work together to cause this ideation through the structured and visual surfacing of seemingly curious ideas that then became less curious.

We could analyse these things more objectively and now we started to create decision architectures. We had grown to respect far more what a well considered framework could produce. It didn't restrict creativity it made it happen. Whether we built them ahead of the sessions or during - these 'tools' formed the basis of what we now know why frameworks work to solve issues. We were also starting to be able to describe what we did.

Year Five: The Age of Sustainability. Solving the wrong problems well is a fools errand. It's also what many businesses and Government agencies seem to do repeatedly. In truth we are impartial about all the outcomes of our work as long as they can be sustained. This means putting the ownership and capability of the outcomes into the hands of those who must deliver.

We began to engage on many more levels. The people involved in the thinking process were now far more able to 'own' the process for themselves. This meant that we were able to give them more and more accountability for the outcomes. This work was never about us but enabling real creativity on the part of the team considering the 'exam question' we were debating. Creative problem solving is not an event it must live and be watered often once born. If we don't think sustainably then we solve an event. If we think sustainably we can transform everything.

Year Six: The Age Of Partnering. The approach to solving problems this way kicked off with being impartial to a given outcome. A more creative way to think. I was a client myself and deserved every lame solution I bought. With this business I never wanted us to be a solution that conveniently re-engineered the problem so that it looked valid. Whatever we did - we didn't want the curse of the 'expert' getting in the way of being as creative as we could be.

Around this time we realised that we needed to excel at partnering. We had always had an Expert Network to call on once we had identified the real problem. We needed to be able to leverage skills and resources that did have expertise only once we knew what the actual problem was. In finding excellence in our partners we added to the creativity, to the context and to the power of the whole.

Year Seven: The Age of Visualisation. So yes it's always been a visually biased approach but visual doesn't mean just pictures. Words, phrases, data - they are all visual. We are not a graphic recording or big pictures company. We like information design but we are not an infographic maker. In the late half of the first decade of the 21st Century the world became capable of developing high power, multi-media and fast tools for creativity. We also were given unlimited ability for expression - unlimited white–wall space using 'micro–film' electrostatic paper. This allowed scale and that created immersion and enabled a dramatically more interactive experience.

This era ushered in new 'everything' - Data modelling technology, 3D software for film, social media platforms. They all started to become things we could all master and afford. This changed everything. Creative thinking was possible over long distances, by many more contributors and of course visually! And all of this at such high quality that ideas and contributions could multiply with almost no limit. We could extend the known power of visual decision making and creativity beyond the realms of anything we had known. We did.

Year Eight: The Age of Comparative Patterns. As we started to analyse, archive and codify what we really had achieved we saw yet more clues in our 'story so far'. Not only had we managed to solve the frustrations of developing strategy and transformation for teams - we saw the importance of this kind of creativity for more dimensions than business.

We saw a 21st Century that needed more awareness of the systemic stupidity that caused social unrest and inequity and also the critical issues of climate change, ecological disasters and so on. We coined the phrase - 'ethical/social continuum' - meaning we would work with organisations to help them do better things with more moral outcomes. We became keen to enable others to get greater access to what we had learned and we saw that we had many peers for whom what we did would be familiar/complementary. Systems Thinking, Design Thinking and Value Networks for example.

Year Nine: The Age of Transferring Capability. So we had come a long way and we had proven the approach in over 2500 assignments/interventions. We could see that we could share the value. By now we had had over a hundred companies and individuals ask if they could also use the approach. We hadn't really developed it that way but we always knew we could.

This is still a big work in progress, codifying everything, but we were determined even then. We started to finesse the tools. We started to explain what we do differently and translated it all into English. We had always written about what we did but now we started in earnest making it understandable and less technical. We started to structure the objects and build a scalable architecture. It was a huge undertaking but it is coming to fruition.

Year Ten: The Age of Social Platforms. Our work is purely co-creative. That means it includes all and any input from multiple sources. All stakeholders can and should play. It is facilitative and interactive. It is highly visual and transports those involved to new places and greater value.

The advent of truly accessible global tools like social networks with multi-media rich platforms have revolutionised our ability to deploy all of our dimensions at least to some degree. As they continue to become more powerful and integrated they bring with them their own stimulus and structure for added creativity and input. This is one hell of a ride!

Year Eleven: The Age of Consciousness and Empathy. Standing as we often do between many powerful egos and ambitions we see amazing opportunities for additional value in all this. We are now both more subtle in the discussions and more urgent with the structures - forcing greater tension between the outcomes and the realities of what the enterprise seeks to achieve.

Each of the previous 'Ages' have stayed the course. They are all continuing to define creativity in our assignments. They are all the mainstays of how we create value, increase opportunity and deliver innovation to our chosen markets.

Who knows where next?

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Problem Solving using Visualisation. The Menu!

Well first let's agree what visualisation means. To me it means words, phrases and anything image-based - that we can use to capture, convey, stimulate and align people and their ideas.

And let's agree that 'ideas' are any clear thought, viewpoint or suggestion that moves the dialogue forward within the 'framework' we've chosen to manage this thinking within.

The definition of 'framework' is a simple device that bounds the discussions and forces the teams minds to reason and process (in or out) what is a good - or a not so good - choice.

If it's good we visualise it into the framework. If not then it's not. The team agrees this criteria.

Choices are everything and anything that we know (*) we can carry forward and that each pass the test. The test of being valuable or correct in answering the question we have posed.

The question posed can be anything deemed agreeable to the team to spend quality time discussing. Let's call that the 'exam question'

The questions can be at any altitude - How do we survive as a species? - to How can we create a strategy for the firm? How do we build better customer experiences? - to What is the Vision that will inspire our people and transform our market?

Then all you need is to get people in the room who who give a damn!

(*) Or what we need to know or go and find out through agreed cycles/iterations.

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Getting To Balance. Wabi-sabi!

Often overused word - balance. 

We know we need to be more balanced. Well I agree completely. The yin - the yang. The dark - the light, the masculine - the feminine. Good cop - bad cop. The east – the west. And. I want to explain a more subtle and personal version of it. One that has been in my life forever and I wonder whether it resonates with you!

Because my need to get an idea down is almost a neurosis - I have this frenzy - a thing going off in my head - (in fact my whole body) - I have to scribble - get it down. This rough thing is enough to make me want to rethink it. I will scribble it again. A chicken-scratch in the sand. 

But when I look back it every iteration is still full of meaning to me. Right up to the final thing but not worse or better – just part of the arrangement of things.

A diamond in the rough.

Recently I've been contrasting this 'raw material' with fully thought through bits and all the intermediate bits to tell entire stories. This juxtaposition is many times more powerful than a consistent set of things at a consistent standard of finish. Hybrid is good. The roughness of it is somehow much more authentic. Much more approachable. Like a beaten and battered leather armchair is far more comfortable than a new one.

This intrigues me because that's how I feel about everything in my world. The deliberate placement of things that are seemingly careless but just feel right alongside the other thing. This is called 'wabi-sabi' in the Japanese culture and it's genesis is wrapped up with the incredible tea ceremony. Studied carelessness.

I apply this to my work. 

If I could draw a completely accurate and straight line in a strategy session I wouldn't. The imperfections in it denotes a much more natural state. As we work with teams we see a much more human sympathy with the imperfections. I always hated using a ruler in my technical drawing classes. My art teacher told me the ruler was the work of the devil. (I loved my art teacher!) If I enter a place that is just too perfect it makes me uneasy. In fact anything that is aiming to be just perfect is just not. I strongly recommend Leonard Koren's book 'Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers.' It is in many ways a doctrine for my entire world-view.

Just to make my point and to encourage you to find out more about it he describes the universe of wabi-sabi as follows. 

1. Firstly the Metaphysical Basis – Things are either developing toward or evolving from nothingness. 
2. The Spiritual Values. Truth comes from the observation of nature. Greatness exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked details. Beauty can be coxed out of ugliness.
3. The State of Mind. Acceptance of the inevitable. Appreciation of the cosmic order.
4. Moral Precepts. Get rid of all that is unnecessary. Focus on the intrinsic and ignore material hierarchy.

If you want to buy the book - http://amzn.to/dSaROE If you want to find out more about the dude - visit Leonard Koren's Blog http://www.leonardkoren.com/

In search of a global Wabi-Sabi.

Imagine if this set of characteristics, these values and these ideas, were how we all lived our lives - and how we treated and combatted this increasingly commercial world. What if instead of craving that latest fridge-freezer we didn't. What if these values were how we all felt and – what if the media and the politicians urged these thoughts and not patronising denial, deep crust pizza or train smash TV.

"A comprehensive aesthetic system, its worldview, or universe, is self-referential. It provides an integrated approach to the ultimate nature of existence (metaphysics), sacred knowledge (spirituality), emotional well-being (state of mind), behavior (morality), and the look and feel of things (materiality). The more systematic and clearly defined the components of an aesthetic system are - the more conceptual handles, the more ways it refers back to fundamentals - the more useful it is." - Leonard Koren

I couldn't put it better if I tried. So I won't.

"Wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all. Wabi-sabi is flea markets, not warehouse stores; aged wood, not Pergo; rice paper, not glass. It celebrates cracks and crevices and all the other marks that time, weather, and loving use leave behind. It reminds us that we are all but transient beings on this planet-that our bodies as well as the material world around us are in the process of returning to the dust from which we came. Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace liver spots, rust, and frayed edges, and the march of time they represent." - Tadao Ando

"One grasps the purest essence of a rule or concept by understanding its totality. Then if one desires, the derivative forms may be modified to meet current needs." - Sen no Rikyu 

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Business & The Holy Grail

Like many notions these days, the idea of 'NOW' is a fleetingly helpful frame of reference.

For the business 'now' mostly means our current context - a wide definition of now! And yet 'now' must always consider NEXT. The gap between now and next is the plan of how to get there and requires us to think about a few critical things. There is no short-cut to this.

We have to bend our collective minds around the following at least:

1. What outcome do we want?
2. How would we measure that?
3. What's stopping us getting to these outcomes?
4. What would NEXT look like?
5. What is vital/imperative to have in place to get there?
6. What are our strategies and tactics to get there?
7. How must we re-think our operation and approach to get there?
8. What does our roadmap need to look like to get there?

Within these major headings comes the more subtle questions around - everything we have to know about our markets, our customers. Conversations about communicating the value, our decision criteria, the distinguishing values, the processes, the systems and the culture we need. Add to this the myriad dimensions/flavours of everyone in the teams opinion and it is a rich discussion.

To make the crucial decisions about strategy in all of this we have to place some bets.

We also have to be as creative as we can be to think beyond how our competitors might think about the same topic. We may even be better off thinking about a better topic.

Just making a better version of the thing that we did before is far less valuable than re-imagining what the better outcome might be anyway. For a better outcome for the enterprise then we need to ask significantly better questions and that demands an open mind and the jettisoning of our prejudices on everything.

To plan a strategy on what we have today and what we know is foolish.

The stuff we do today is probably a commodity. The stuff we think we need to do is probably also fast becoming a commodity. The future strategy has to bend its mind around what really is next. Can we create a new category and vastly out think the competition. Innovation demands we think differently. We have to become alchemists. It's tough.

For example - we need to consider the stuff that gets missed between other stuff. We have to go beyond the stereotypical safety of what we know. Become evangelists for what we can dream that lives outside of our current boundaries. The edge.

So in today's world think long and hard about these three questions.

• Your customers probably don't know the full extent of what you do so what do you think they think you do? Is that the most valuable – will that keep you ahead?
• If you could imagine the 'bits' in-between your product and your competitors product - and describe the gap between that and what your customers would REALLY like - what would that be?
• If we could create value in-between the spaces created by our products and our competitors products what would we call that category and can we own that/build that before everyone else?

More on this topic here: http://johncaswell.posterous.com/ask-a-silly-question-go-on

PS: I wanted to share this - most recent visual tour through what we are up to about all this. "Changing the way business thinks and works to maximise opportunity in the 21xt Century." Nothing small and yet a rapid, simple and logical approach that works.

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Mind's On Fire - Part 1 (Extracts from a Discussion With Myself)

Although I'm very clear about a 'thing' - there is always the risk of not knowing where to start describing the thing. Anything. I'm talking to myself. Inside my head. Sometimes I'm not listening to myself. Am I making myself clear? No.

I will picture a 'thing' and it will be clear - and whole - and stunningly crafty. As I try to give it form though it will be stillborn, exceptionally dull and scare cats with its ugly and corrugated appearance.

I've realised that I'm very uncomfortable in that final half hour before the session days start. When I'm waiting for the team to turn up for the sessions. They arrive and are often nervous - and that transmits itself into the space. My space. It makes me uncomfortable. I can start to blather about rubbish at that point. A bit like at dinner parties. No agenda. Just small talk. 

I try to make sure I am still working at something so I can avoid this aimless chatter and start the sessions clean. I would just fidget and ruin it otherwise.

I'm now depressed with the lack of memory I have to focus. Do I need an upgrade? Am I on the latest version? I'm good at saying yes to the latest automatically available upload. Have I missed one? Crap.

I got there by train.

I wonder what the person opposite me is thinking. They are sitting transfixed, almost entranced - with a free newspaper in their hand, iPod in their ear, doing their nails, eating a burger - and texting something. We reach the platform. I get out. I move to another platform. More people flashing by, all looking at their iPhones, burgers or the floor. I dodge. I'm good at it. I'm a bullfighter.

I know that I am pushing this point a little too much. The audience agrees with the words. The data supports the claim. They got it so why are you banging on? They are nodding! Yes but I can see someone frowning. I can't carry on unless I know what's going on in her head!

I'm now on the Tube.

The stimulus of this scene always makes me enquire to myself - what are these people really like. I would be certain to like a bunch of them - and yet I never will. It would take an unfortunate and cataclysmic issue, a horrendous event or some chance 'happening' like a heart attack to make us make contact.

If only we could create a platform, a structure that everyone might collaborate around that asked for all to contribute to a simpler story. If we want to get there (Z) and we are here (A) then let's think about these 6 or so big factors. Then a more intelligent journey would be the outcome right? Why doesn't that make sense?

Bizarre to consider.

Considerably increasing that slim chance to meet these people would be the internet and the social nature of that platform and media. I may even know the people I'm looking at now (on-line) for all I know. How about that! I would know them because they share an interest, passion or idea that caused us to connect. In a thread or comment or by clicking 'Like', 'Follow' or 'Friend'. A sixth platform in one day.

London is great when the sun is shining and it's warm. It is also fabulous when there are big thunderstorms and the sky is black and I am in my apartment looking at the river becoming wild. It's especially nice when I get back into London from the wilds of 'Not London'. I'm so familiar with this platform.

That gives me ideas.

And the trouble with ideas are that we cannot quite explain them. We have them, rather like dreams - then they're gone. Or in the describing of them they take on other forms. So when we think them through we have to visualize them in writing and drawings. Or they are diminished.

I have to get everything clear and in shape before I tackle this next bigger challenge. I know I would rather be doing something differently but I have to do that. I'm hungry.

I love social media but am I social?

I draw strategies. These are a bunch of ideas being mashed together through my idea of a rigorous logical structure. I'm always astonished at how hard it is for people to think this logically. If you want to go from A to Z then you have to consider B,C,D etc.

But for some reason people don't immediately default to much that is logical or sequenced.

I shake my head and I'm back.

What?

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Smashing. The Mental Model!

Who's driving? And - where on Earth are we headed?

And who's got the frickin map? Yeah! 

I seriously believe that the pointy–headed people in space – are the people who must be in charge of the worlds GPS – and I'm convinced that they have it rigged! They have somehow limited the number of destinations available to us humans. They've made darn sure we don't go to places that they don't get money from. All of it done, of course, in the name of a better life for us all – a three car kitchen, a slimmer tummy - a far better pizza. Yes I know there is more.

Importantly for me though - who is judging the benchmark for 'better'? Can any one person answer a question like that? Who is better than who, which is better than what and why. Everywhere you look everything is compared and ranked. From beauty pageants to performing dogs and talent competitions for 4 year olds. Everything. And to me it all just seems to get not better. 

But who created the model for these comparison anyway? Who designed the diabolical framework? Is anyone thinking what is happening as a result? Is anyone awake on the bridge of this inter galactic death ship? Is there a bridge? Where did this race to the bottom get started? It's either those weird dudes up there, or us - or it just happened out of thin air right? Over a long time. A very very long time.

We hear it all around us. 

The instructions. Like machine gun fire - "Reduce the time it takes to do anything and everything please - It's job 1 - It's vital. Life or death. Do it now." The cry comes from the boardrooms - "We need to be better! No, I don't know what that means precisely but just do it. What? - OK then - better means get us to increased turnover, increased performance, lower cost, more meaningful customer experiences – and while you are at it – add more differentiation to it all!" 

WTF. 

Oh and put an end to war, poverty and injustice. Make it all better.

And woven within it all - "Let's have more passion, emotion, love and equality – they sound good. I will get more votes – more ticks. Yes, and bring me a slice of that pizza. That's better."

While any one of these – without the possible exception of the pizza – is a very well worth while objective, the degree of real thought that gets put into any of them is often miserly. When you add all of these things up and try to solve them at once it is a very complex set of patterns and issues indeed. 

For many companies - and sadly - these conversations have become the equivalent of small talk at dinner parties. Ignored, banal and pointless – something to be avoided at all cost. And anyway whatever the work that results, it gets compared to some arbitrary set of measures beamed in wirelessly from Beetlejuice – which at any minute could go supernova anyway! (According to Professor Brian Cox)

I know. 

Some people are very good at small talk. Professional. I despise it and I am not. I loathe it. Why? Well it's not only meaningless it has become the single biggest barrier to making valuable progress to civilized life. Depending on your definition of civilized life. Small talk has become - in and of itself - the way the majority of the world now seems to talk to each other. Ignorant, banal and pointless. Small. XS. 

It is has no connection to anything of importance and so the decisions that get made are made in a deep fog - a wool of meaninglessness – and they carry weightlessness. No weight. No wait! 

Can we change these frames – these utterly mental models? 

Well erm… yes. 

As long as we are prepared to suffer a medium (even long-term) onslaught by those so called 'people in charge'. Those (usually) very grey people with the fixed paradigms bolted into their craniums – the occasional slab of cast iron sticking out of their necks. We have to be prepared get secretly angry and violent – not easy to perfect this. I'm still trying.

Every one of our principles will be exposed right down to the raw - they will be burning red – acid and vitriol will be poured into our ears while our eyes will be physically abused with a pointless diagram or two. It will be a highly emotional water boarding in a mental Guantanamo.

Our standards will be challenged by literally everything we disagree with and abhor. Inequality, self serving, profiteering, lying, shallow, deceitful and all of it in the name of official policy. We

 need to remain smiling and civil - charm personified - while drinking from this fire–hose of abuse, ridicule and prejudice. 

We will be forced to stand upright and personable while reeling from a whirlwind of differing and confused contexts delivered by people who have no real appreciation of themselves and the shame they are bringing onto the English language and our species as their forked tongues speak.

Reducing the Signal To Noise

Even writing about all this worries me. People will think I'm negative. I'm not – quite the opposite - I am trying to reverse it in small ways as an 'Army Of One'. I know there are millions of people who think the same way or similar and doing a lot more than me to turn the tide. I do worry though that unless we all get joined up more meaningfully that I’m just adding to all the blather. I'm going now.  

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Etiquette Shmetiquette, David Attenborough and the birthing of a big idea!

Can I have some English Mustard? 

"Yes Sir." 

It was a stupid request on my part. I should know better. I travel a lot. I eat in restaurants a lot. Stupid me. Was he lost? 8 minutes is a bloody long time when your meal is already in front of you. What was going on? What were they doing? I was on my own - the hotel restaurant was both cold and empty so there was really no excuse. I was cold and now - so was my meal. 

The problem was not that the person serving was a dunce or a bad person - but the system dictated a silver spoon, thin white bloody china - the right 'branded' saucer. I don't know where the mustard was being kept – the Dordogne? Anyway I used the fleeting bits of clarity between the raging red mist to ponder.  

The lightbulb moment? Or the moment of the lightbulb!

It's hard to say quite what happens - or when - but there is that incredible moment – that 'lightbulb' moment - as if a whole series of combinations of entirely random bits have tumbled into place in the metaphorical lock. A door to something amazing sucks itself open with a satisfying rush of air and relief! I love that moment! Crystal clear consciousness and the birth of a great idea.

What's the big idea?

All our clients always have great ambition. I hope that’s why they call us in. They want light speed progress towards brand spanking new territory. The sun-kissed uplands of opportunity. It might be new market value - at any cost. It might be superior quality in some specific regard. It will always be a transformation of sorts requiring bulbs to go flashing on all over the savannah. 

So we ask them to describe the unique essence of what they do. Then how it might best be described! Often they have not been forced to think creatively like this before. It's a fascinating moment.

They will say - "The value of our stuff? - well it's huge." We will say - "Yes of course it is but why and how can you describe it in this world of super-superlative, over-use and crazy claim?" they will say "Right."

Anyway we start the conversation.

(Imagine that David Attenborough is doing this voice over - as if describing a pride of lionesses circling their prey… In fact you could read the whole piece in DA speak – it would make it all so much better.)

"The air is thick with anticipation. It is now the hottest part of the day. Rich and colourful marks are appearing on the white parched wall in the distance - the leader encourages everyone to focus. It is still now. Then slowly - but surely imagery starts to appear. It's as if it is imagining what the audience is saying - in pictures, phrases and ideas. In fact that is precisely what is happening." 

"As the pace quickens the red earth is thrown up by the heels of many impatient minds. Only a couple of minutes has gone by. It seems much longer. We are witnessing a deeply inner debate - a stand-off between these powerful mammals – it seems to us onlookers to stir endlessly around the same topic – sometimes rather too long for some. It's an age old process – these mammals can be seen to do this almost every day.

"Some of those in the centre of the group are getting restless, impatient for a charge – towards a big idea. New words get thrown into what now looks like frenzy – it is frenzy. All of this remarkable spectacle has taken nearly five minutes. "

"Fresh meat gets offered up - a slogan, new phrases, a new slant, a famous quote - the temperature increases – mingled with speckles of dust catching and sparkling like firefly's dancing in the suns early evening rays. (may have gone too far there) There's even more anticipation, blood can be seen rushing through the necks of this now trapped circle of flesh. A redefinition of the key requirement is called out. A reminder of what we are trying to do. Around and around another couple of minutes."

"Then as if by some distant signal - at some magical, imperceptible point, as the image builds in peoples minds and on the wall, a noticeable change emerges. A finale. It happened in a split second. What a brilliant idea! - that’s it!"

So how come English Mustard takes 8 minutes?

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