Leaping To A Sound Byte #82

"Don't conflate correlation with causation."

This was so profound when I heard it the first time that it took me a few minutes to fully figure it out. It landed like a 200lb donkey sky diving into my latte."

I know. Wham! Bam! Kerrang!

Meaning simply that things often ain't what they seem. Meaning that we see things and straight off we make an assumption. That is what we've observed. Problem is that it is based on stuff that is often the effects of another thing rather than the cause of the thing we made the assumption about.

So, don't jump to a conclusion. If you want leaps of imagination then think first and know that just because it makes sense on the first impression it's well worth a further look under the hood.

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A Visually Sound Byte #18

Consuming things visually is umpteen times quicker than just reading the same bits of information in words. 

For example I guarantee you I can draw the idea of 'User Interface' faster than you could read about one. And mine would be in colour.

Fact is we like both - us humans. 

We like to reflect and read up on stuff but we also like the pictures. And now the world has gone nuts for visual stuff. Because it is just easier and more engaging right? So by combining the two things – the magic of a visual interwoven by data and nitty-gritty facts then 'wallop' you have the perfect way to communicate.

In fact with this combination done well you also have the perfect way to think too. 

And that means you can discover, consider, reflect, align, imagine, design, execute, convey, decide, plan, change, collaborate, co-create, develop, simplify, arrange, organise, facilitate, architect, analyse, shape, frame, inform, unravel, unlock, innovate, engineer, systemise, orchestrate, synchronise, challenge, integrate - oh and visualise too.

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An Unquestionably Sound Byte #75

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

Go on read that again. Very often there isn't more value in debate and conversation because competing mindsets seem destined to shut down discourse as quickly as a slightly cracked nuclear plant.

An emerging thought is highly likely to be shot three times in the head before it gets to fully stand up. More than probably it will not reach that moment where it's backside get's slapped and it's first scream shatters the peace of the theatre.

What is it in our behaviours that is so primed for the kill? 

Have we had some bad experience with an early, unfinished fragmentary idea? Did a half formed phrase spike our martini? Was there an unfinished concept responsible for murdering our favourite falcon? Are we incapable of shutting the fuck up to listen and think before pulling the trigger?

I'm just saying.

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A Hugely Sound Byte #10

I like the idea of congruence. It doesn't smack of compromise. 

Well that's because in many ways it is the opposite. It should be collaborative negotiation. The world is a huge place and given that at most two folks will share only just so much complete agreement on things then what chance real alignment on anything?

Let's take politics. Ugh. There's a bunch of elections going on right now. We all loathe the debate. To me it would be a neat idea if everyone who needed to agree on anything would  be given a shot gun and be instructed do the following.

Everyone who gives a damn (interested party) gets a cartridge full of shot (small grains of lead) They open the cartridge and then write on every small piece of lead what they care most about and what needs doing. They must debate as much as they can but only ideas that get agreed (or reach an agreed percentage) can be put into each of their cartridges.

For instance unless each idea is at least agreed by 30% of the bunch it doesn't get in.

I know what you are thinking - that's a lot of fiddly mess right? And how can we get such small pens to write on little bits of lead? But just imagine - it's an idea. Ok it sounds ridiculous but go with me here. (And you all thought I was going to recommend a different idea with the guns right?)

Draw a big circle on a wall 300 yards away. 

They all get to shoot their cartridge. Only the stuff that lands inside the circle is what gets done. The more they practice their aim and work together the more chance they get to see their dream emerge. That's goal congruence.

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A Completely Sound Byte #78

When you hear a new way of thinking for the very first time it is impressive right? Sends a bit of a shiver. 

Just like the first time I heard the following. A challenge from someone in leadership to someone in a session who was struggling to think something through. He said - "If you knew the answer what would it be?"

There was a bit of a gasp in the room - a nervous laugh as people thought the guy who was challenging was being a bit of a nob. It was a stupid question on first hearing. Then the lightbulb went off. The question sank in. What a fabulously freeing question. 

You can't forget a question like that. 

What's really important though is the imagination to understand the idea of it as a tool – now presented by the question. Go on inspire yourself! It is the greatest gift we have and we seldom use it - it's called thinking. Think about it.

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A Deceptively Sound Byte #59

Simples.

You have your wits about you. You keep your eyes open. You must be alert if you want to survive. You wouldn't rush headlong onto black ice – careering over it in slippers would you? Nor would you speed up as you entered a blind bend in the wet. Well unless you wanted to come unstuck. You would wear the right equipment, you would alter your approach accordingly, aiming to stay in some kind of control correct?

Pimples.

There is a famous truth that the surest way to end up with a $1 Million is to start with $1 Billion. Wicked and clever deceptions are many along the slippery path to rid you of your careless decisions. Countless villains, cut-throat pirates – deep traps in the forest floor.

These lessons are all there for us to learn from but we seem to think that they won't happen to us. We seem to expect to carry on doing things we know we do and yet expect a different outcome. Or more elegantly - "If we keep on doing what we've always done we will always get what we always got"

So you may reasonably think that to get a simple answer to something then you ought to start with a simple question. Well that's a start but that's also wickedly deceptive. Don't expect a simple answer if you live in a complex world. The slippery path is just as complex. The pitfalls and dragons are still present.

Business is a complex world and I wish I had a $1 for everybody that demands simplicity when creating meaningful strategy or sustainable change. The simple questions and the simple answers are there for sure but get yourself equipped for the slippery path. You can't avoid it so get with it. Learn to like things that are slippery, master how to glide through the constantly changing dynamics.

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A Complex But Sound Byte #32

Complexity is a funny concept but not in a humorous way. 

I'm almost always working with intricate business challenges. They are important questions hitherto merely surfed upon by busy seniors in large enterprises.

I hear interested by-passers, other people in the business (but new to the panoramic walls we have been worked hard on for a few days) say to me upon entering the room that while it looks incredible isn't it all a bit complex? My answer is a light-hearted - "Well if you think this looks complex, try not doing it"

I am being serious though.

Prior to us creating this wall of debate and decision can you imagine the wicked ball of string? The differing and contentious thoughts of these earnest protagonists hanging like pregnant bats from the white hot rocks of an erupting volcano.

Imagine the leadership not collaborating - not figuring out the gazillion dynamics affecting every business challenge. And worse not doing it in a way that wrestled the damn thing to the ground with some sense of smartness, rigor or focus. 

Definitely not funny.

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Tips From Icebergs

Being creative is alchemic. Keep your eyes open – scan the horizon. It's that ability to look at everything with an open and curious mind and not get bored with that. 

You have to get seriously good at curating. Beach combing.

That means collecting all those bits of mundane rubbish and in real-time spotting what others aren't spotting. Put your thought processor on stand by and just marinade in what you see. Don't think about it too hard. 

For me the challenge goes like this. I read this the other day.

"The power of equations lies in the philosophically difficult correspondence between mathematics, a collective creation of human minds, and an external physical reality. Equations model deep patterns in the outside world. By learning to value equations, and to read the stories they tell, we can uncover vital features of the world around us." - Ian Stewart

In my head pops a visual.

That's how it works for me.

I can't explain it but that's what happens and it causes connections that I start to wire other things into. From this new words are generated and the process goes on a few hundred times a minute or until I decide to stop and do something different. 

The things on the surface are of only superficial value. You know, rather like an iceberg the best bits are usually hidden. That's as far as I should take the analogy I guess.

Ian Gilbert suggests that nature abhors a vacuum and the same applies in your head. The trouble is, if there’s nothing to replace the gap left behind when you clear out all your old rubbish then some new rubbish will come along to fill it. 

Therefore make sure that you are pretty eclectic with your own archive of stuff. Stuff you have squirrelled away - that you like – and like a real alchemist be ready to drag great things in.

Stay awake to all the fragments of the mundane and ordinary and watch for the things that aren't. They will look like the mundane too so it takes practice.

Being creative means to be open to all the stuff about to hit you, at all times and having your thought processor on stun. Working too hard at it isn't going to deliver anything worth 'jack' so let it marinade.

"The mind, at its best, is a pattern-making machine, engaged in a perpetual attempt to impose order on to chaos; making links between disparate entities or ideas in order to better understand either or both. It is the ability to spot the potential in the product of connecting things that don’t ordinarily go together that marks out the person (or teacher) who is truly creative." - Phil Beadle

"We create the new not generally through some mad moment of inspiration in fictionalized accounts of ancient Greeks in baths (though the conditions for this can be forced into existence), but by putting things together that do not normally go together; from taking disciplines (or curriculum areas) and seeing what happens when they are forced into unanticipated collision. - Phil Beadle

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How Much Of The Value You Could Create Don't You Want?

I like working on large walls.

Asking questions – drawing out thoughts – teams of people

Together – creating, curating – conceiving new ideas

It's an inspiring and privileged thing to do

We get to really see with our eyes the opportunity we have – the value we can create

Too often it doesn't get realised

Is it the people – or the 'habits' we build around us

Processes and systems that don't change?

So why don't these change?

Why don't we get rid of these millstones around our necks?

I like working on large walls

We agree the current habits are wrong because we can see them

We know they don't help because they just don't

We can see a new way ahead and these things will restrain us

What is stopping us then?

How much of this value won't we achieve?

Is it the leadership? Is it the behaviour?

Is it just us? It is all too hard – too much invested in the wrong place

There's not enough time – too much risk – "not on my watch"

Is it courage? Is it belief?

I like working on large walls

It makes us understand what is required

It gets us engaged with the right stuff

It enables us to think, create real meaning

It causes new ideas that we can execute on

It illustrates all the connections that integrates the team

It changes behaviour by showing us new value

It aligns a team because they created it

It creates the new direction that is shared and owned

So how much of the value you could create don't you want?

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The UI and The UX explained

And all the underpinning technology that goes with. Simples.

<div style='padding-bottom: 2px; line-height: 0px'></div><div style='float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px;'><p style='font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;'>Source: Uploaded by user via John on Pinterest</p></div>

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If by Yes you mean No?

If you always do what you always did then you'll always get what you always got. 

So goes the popular epithet. Think about that then imagine what you 'do' today. Then think how different what you do might be if you could get the answer to literally anything you needed together with the inspiration of the whole world delivered to you in whatever way you wanted it.

Well that's now!

Herman Hertzberger once said about what makes us what we are today:

"When you discuss your own work you have to ask yourself what you acquired from whom. Because everything you find comes from somewhere. The source was not your own mind, but was supplied by the cultures you belong to. Everything that is absorbed and registered in your mind adds to the collection of ideas stored in the memory; a sort of library you can consult whenever a problem arises. So essentially, the more you have seen, experienced and absorbed, the more points of reference you will have to help you decide which direction to take"

So, now add to this memory you already have to the incredible system we have have to hand - a considerable system that expands our horizons beyond belief - the internet and the platforms and applications that are coming on-line every day – and that is connecting and connecting up – adding immeasurably every second to our collective brain. 

What do we think will actually happen when we can harvest (in real–time) amazing insights from the fire hose of information and inspiration we have at our fingertips? 

What will it mean when we've wrestled and re-engineered it all into that perfect 'app'? What will we think when we have sorted inspiration from mess – structured it intelligently within a platform that we can all use as if we were brushing our teeth? 

We receive gazillions of bits of information through all our media devices every day? What will it be like when this information ONLY consists of the stonkingly incredible stuff we actually value and want? What will be capable of when we have at our disposal stuff that we can immediately do something with – something that we can make real value from?

Well what would you do with it because it's almost there now?

The following was written in a letter to Eva Hesse (the eternal artist) from Sol LeWitt (the conceptual artist)

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Eva

From your description, and from what I know of your previous work and your ability; the work you are doing sounds very good 'Drawing-clean-clear but crazy like machines, larger and bolder… real nonsense.' That sounds fine, wonderful – real nonsense. Do more. More nonsensical, more crazy, more machines, more breasts, penises, cunts, whatever – make them abound with nonsense. Try and tickle something inside you, your 'weird humour.' 

You belong in the most secret part of you. Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world. If you fear, make it work for you – draw & paint your fear and anxiety. And stop worrying about big, deep things such as 'to decide on a purpose and way of life, a consistent approach to even some impossible end or even an imagined end' You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. 

Then you will be able to DO!

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Whatever it is you say you will do make that what you think deeply about. Really think what that means – then do that. 

Imagine if this new connection we have with such inspiration could connect you to things that you always wanted to do. Perhaps you hadn't recognised it before but there it now is. You are truly inspired. Well that's what these new insights and opportunities mean.

We are all too conditioned to do things that we actually don't like and don't get value from – and all too often it isn't really valuable to anyone else. But it is called work. You get paid for it. But what if you had better value to add and you could do that so that you could do something of more value. 

If you think about that it would have to start by thinking about different things, being inspired by new sources of value. Then if you didn't agree with something that isn't valuable against your wider thinking then you can say no. 

In practice this means that if you can think of something more valuable then push to do that! 

What's so tough about that idea? That's evolution. Why don't more people say that they don't want to do something – rather than just going along with it. Why don't they think for themselves about what they could do that's more valuable?

If we thought more, widened our horizons, made smarter choices then we could get on with things we actually wanted to do. Like Eva that thing could be cathartic, spirited, different – wholly satisfying and even more creative and interesting to the world.

I don't think people think hard enough about what could they be? 

What could we do? What might we become if we could get access to that much inspiration. If we could sort the rubbish from the truly inspirational would we? Would we know it if we saw it? Could we do something special with that much powerful stuff?

I think people try to be something they so aren't. All too often people are inspired by what they hear around them and think they are supposed to be inspired by it. They tend to agree with the popular view without really thinking it through. Without widening their world view. I think they are conditioned to simply want to look like they are going with the flow of things and yet have no sense of what that means or worse have no intention at all of doing the thing with any vigour! 

It drives me nuts in a working sense because nobody gets value from this. 

We don't get at the root cause of anything or changing things really because we are pushing the thinking through a very restrictive filter. We aren't pushing ourselves as a species to be truly creative or innovative – we don't get at the true value of ourselves.

Well listen up people - we are getting very close to this ability so will we do the smart thing and take advantage of it or will we continue to let progress pass us by? I hope not.

Final word goes to Sol

"Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder, wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, gasping, confusing, itching, scratching, mumbling, bumbling, grumbling, humbling, stumbling, rumbling, rambling, gambling, tumbling, scumbling, scrambling, hitching, hatching, bitching, moaning, groaning, honing, boning, searching, perching, besmirching, grinding grinding grinding away at yourself.  Stop it, and just DO!"

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Close Encounters Of A Material Kind

Making A Deep & Visual Impact.

When you think about it we all like to know how things actually work. It's a universal thing. And as things get more and more complicated what was once simple is now more complex. And now a whole bunch of complex things are joining up to make them simpler for us to use. As a result the stuff in the background stays getting more complex and needs careful maintenance and consideration to keep it working. 

Have you noticed thought that our obsession to wonder how things tick stays ever present. We also know that making anything work excellently is as much about how it was made (deep inside the system) as it is about how it looks or how easy it is to use and consume.

Beauty is definitely no longer a good thing if it remains skin deep. 

As if we haven't made it all tough enough we have come to expect that every 'system' we experience will be stunning on every levels. The experience we get on the surface had better be sustained as we journey on through. We will quickly vote with our feet if our experience isn't wonderful pretty much every step of the way.

So, everything that we can do to get to grips with the system has to be good. To better 'see' all the moving parts of the system means the more we are armed to improve it and better positioned to manage it dynamically. If we don't understand the pressures on all the 'elements' of the system then there will be big impacts right through it – and they will hit us very hard indeed!

Seeing Deep Inside

We need new and more powerful ways to get right under the skin of everything – to be able to peel away all the layers of the thing. To allow us to look at it from multiple dimensions. This then allows us to work out how to rewire it all as we figure out how to make it better. Getting control of everything that makes up the best possible system we can is crucial. If we don't then we can expect the result we deserve.

By bringing these complex systems to life is to make them accessible to everyone - even those not directly involved. And this means that we can dramatically improve the outcome of every strategy. It means we can convey complex ideas and complex systems simply. This is a major benefit when trying to create alignment or engagement for everyone in a big change program for example. Hugely powerful too when we need to imagine a new vision or how to operate differently to cope with today's changed world. 

Everyone gets to see their role; their part in the system in far more valuable ways.

Seeing large scale systems at work are always impressive and compelling. 

Look at any smoothly operated ocean going liner, the flight operations of aircraft, railroad or space operations centres, the inside of an expensive Swiss watch, a coral reef or the Amazon rain forest - they are all extremely impressive in how they work. It is truly amazing what it takes for them to exist and what complex components are required to be in balance to make them actually work

When we work at scale we get inside the system of these things. There is space to move and think about them. There is a bigger impact on the way we can see and understand when working on large canvases that we all feel the power of but we often just take for granted.

Within you and without you

And yet the really deep impact is actually on us as human beings. By seeing how it all works means we can actually lose any fear we had. It's no longer an unknown quantity. No more fear. We can start to get the confidence we need to make better use of it. Start to understand how to improve our decisions within it and improve the experience of it to those outside.

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A Massive Visual Attack

Something very interesting happens when we work at scale with visuals. I saw the David Hockney exhibition recently and was literally transported into his world. But what was interesting was that it was also my world.

Trust me – the similarity with Hockney ends there. He is a proper artist but I hope it makes my point.

When I'm working at scale I too observe the impact and the value of the visual in getting people engaged. The big difference with my stuff though is the act of collaborative creation. People seeing their own thoughts literally flying onto the canvas. They are part of the creativity. The conversation comes to real life!

What is going on here?

There is a very human thing in being part of a team, a tribal thing that binds people together as they go on a mission where each and everyone has a role to play. Some act of creation where the building of something weaves all their dreams and ambitions into one.

People often remark that they themselves can't draw but appreciate that seeing their thoughts drawn live and made highly meaningful is a good second. The audience is literally drawn in and they become part of the collective 'artistry.' We sometimes describe the result as a 'tapestry' and in many ways that is a better word as often tapestries are made by many artisans.

Seeing things at scale, seeing and understanding the connections between things is only really convenient at a sufficient scale. Looking at entities, intangible ideas and being creative with a sense of freedom and emotion is far easier at scale. Getting people engaged across a big team, and 20/30 feet away, is only possible at scale. Rather like an enormous billboard or outdoor installation that demands a second look – developing a strategy at scale is a very powerful thing!

Fundamentally this is about sheer scale. The size of things makes a big difference! A massive difference and something that has to be witnessed to be fully understood. Their is quite a bit of awe seeing Hockney's work at the Royal Academy. Their is a lot of surprise and immersion by people who don't often get the chance to get inside their opportunity, challenge or ambition. 

This way they most certainly can

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Peerformance!

If you think about it – when was the last time you actually modified your behaviour? When did you change the way you thought or acted about a thing? Anything!

Everywhere you look businesses are desperate to get their folk more engaged. They talk about wanting them transformed, inspired – behaving for the benefit of the whole firm!

Well mostly it ain't gonna happen!

We individuals (being individuals) tend to be able to resist most attempts to modify our attitude and behaviour. But in 'groups' we typically have to. It's just decency right? When we respect the collective spirit of the group then we soon learn that if we want to progress then we had better step up. But the key words here are respect.

The greatest success we observe in change programs is when the majority of the people respect each other. We then observe those involved are themselves a kind of movement - then these rules soon become the standards. These guys are formidable.

"The most powerful modifier of an individual's behaviour is the immovable power of the peer group!"

People, in my experience, are very often quite distant and dismissive of their employer and their corporate missions. And especially dismissive because many employers just don't get what actually works. They seem to have no idea how to change their peoples minds about anything let alone the success of the business. 

And frankly most employees couldn't give a damn whether their employer achieves the targets it lays out and announces in the company propaganda. The employee often doesn't see appropriate behaviour in their leaders so why should they play ball anyway.

Sadly many senior leaders are not equipped for this level of change. Nor are they deeply determined or charismatic enough to really make the changes required. Overall engagement leading to transformation is probably the hardest kind of change to make. It involves individuals so that makes it almost impossible. Especially without real innovation in the way to think about it.

Oh dear!

There are countless 'snake-oil' tools and techniques claiming to be the magic bullet. They all have some merit but the really powerful answer is actually obvious - if you think about it. The business has to recreate the peer group. 

The business has to make a significant and sincere attempt to create a peer culture. A group of respected people that (as a group) add up to what is feasible, meaningful and downright right. This needs to be accepted by the majority of the people. How this peer group thinks and works may not be as lofty as the dream required by the enterprise strategists but it will be authentic and practical. And that is what will actually work.

In actual fact several peer groups need to exist in the business. The peer groups will need to engender the right kind of spirit and then, by degree the terrorists and naysayers will have to change or ultimately be ousted by the power of their peer group.

How to create the 'Peer Group'.

Imagine a selected group of people discussing and developing everything that they need to agree on and share in order to collaborate and succeed as a team. Imagine that this dialogue became a blueprint for everything they said, everything they stood for and everything they needed in order to manage and work as a real team every day. Imagine that this framework was publishable and could become the ultimate tool for change. A Peer Performance Framework!

The 'framework for performance' and positive progress right across the business.

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My world has changed. Beyond Recognition

It's true. I am addicted. 

And I hereby formally apologise to all around me who have to put up with my incessant obsession with gadgets and everything cool, on-line and funky but hey – go with me here. 

Within a mere 3 years I have been able to achieve some pretty heavy duty ambitions. Some powerful mojo. I always envisioned the ability to stumble across an image (or an idea) and store it somewhere where not only could I find it but I could share it with others by inviting them along. Inspire someone with the find or even better meeting others with the same or similar passion. Outside of a care home or a prison. Along comes Instagram and Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/johncaswell/

And I also thought what a really awful job most people did of their BIO and CV. And then along comes this. http://zerply.com/GroupPartners/public What a completely superb and simple way of creating a simple easy and above all for those who need to – a seriously valuable way to expose yourself! And below this one the other way to view yourself at http://resumup.com/me/259338

The 'Resum UP' Analytical View. All of these solutions take all the data from your Facebook and Twitter feeds. Then you simply add your final and more subtle points as you feel you should and also remain connected to everyone by being able to share it all again.

For those of you who have yet to discover Tumblr – and apparently there are still one or two folk out there like that – then this was another really big idea for me. Where to go to be inspired. To just be wowed - without having to go through 'trial by search' (Google) to find something (and people) who are truly seeking out the insane or the diabolically creative. By adding a quote or another thought then you can add to the circle of creativity and ingenuity that is the visual world of Tumblr. http://johncaswell.tumblr.com/

And finally I found my inner writer and a perfect platform for me to just talk to myself – like now. 

Like most people who blog I write for myself. I do it to rehearse my own thoughts and just see what I can do to be that little bit more creative. I use the blog to get over myself and outpour all sorts of mad rambles that inhabit my crazy head. And then I head to Pinterest/Instagram to get an image, to Tumblr to get over it all and realise how boring I am – and if you are reading it here, then here.

But mostly I'm razzing about what amazing tools we all have now. Simply incredible power, really really simple to implement, incredibly intuitive, free to use and totally crazy in terms of the sheer quantity and confusion of their profusion. What a great time to be living through. Where will it all end? Well hopefully it never will. There will be far smarter versions and platforms, User Interfaces (UI) and Search (Semantic) but mostly our human creativity will continue and we will take it all as it is meant to be – to improve our ability to connect, share and add value to our evolving world. 

Oh and it doesn't mean we stop talking to humans face to face right!

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Talking Japanese ­ (Or Is That Russian?)

Living In A Colloquial World

Strategy is such a misunderstood term. I think that it needs to be taken down, told off, picked apart, redefined, polished nicely and relaunched. This is true with many terms we all fling about in business. Words like this have lost their meaning. They get abused, hijacked and used as sticking plasters, tokens and thus lose their value. We need a new lexicon, real definitions for what these things actually mean – back to a 'Plain English' approach. Something simple right? 

Take the Large Hadron Collider for example. 

The Strategy - Convince everyone that a dinky little Hadron Collider will solve all the riddles of the universe – right back to what happened immediately after the big bang.

The Tactics - Actually get the money to build the Large Hadron Collider.

The Capability/Function - Built in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries, as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories. It is a tunnel 27 kilometres (17 mi) in circumference and in some places 175 metres (574 ft) beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva Switzerland. Its synchrotron is designed to collide opposing particle beams of either protons at up to 7 teraelectronvolts (7 TeV or 1.12 microjoules per nucleon, or lead nuclei at an energy of 574 TeV (92.0 µJ) per nucleus (2.76 TeV per nucleon. 

Leadership Role - Ensure that popular opinion and investors see the value of this and in turn make science popular and understandable. To most people.

The Mission - Build the thing, find the Higgs Boson and until then make it the reason why anyone working there bothers getting up in the morning. Answer some worrisome things like - "How did our universe come to be the way it is?". "What kind of Universe do we live in?",  "What happened in the Big Bang?",  "Where is the antimatter?",  "Why do particles have mass?" and "What is our Universe made of?" - you know, that sort of thing.

The Vision –  Know all there is to know about everything and make those crazy colliding hadrons mean something to the average dude. You know something far more resonant than an abstraction (best set of guesses) of what until now was an idealised past. Something that will inspire a more understandable future.

The Outcome - The World Wide Web. (Oh and the popularisation of Science, Image Search Technology, Detection Systems, Education, Health and Human Understanding.)

Sweet!

Big credit to Phil Dunsky for the amazing artwork ay the top and to the incredible WWW for wherever I found the one below.

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The Recipe For The Right Kind Of Change

Yes the business world is getting more complex!

And the recipe for surviving it is elusive. The following is the secret sauce and yet so rarely applied it makes me wonder why.

1. Gathering – Firstly get as much insight and information together as you can. This is often called context.
2. Recognising – Then come to terms with the fact that there are a lot of fluid moving parts. This requires the ability to think beyond your usual perspective.
3. Understanding – Now make sense of all these dynamics ahead of getting properly stuck into analysing the patterns and clues inside it. This takes skilled, impartial and analytical experience.
4. Developing – Next create a framework that everyone can own and that is designed to enable the business to thrive in this ongoing and dynamic reality. Impartial facilitation ensuring the right dialogue and exploring the right stuff as you go.
5. Choosing -  As all this evolves create a set of rules that help you sort a good from a bad choice. These criteria will be at the core of making high quality decisions.
6. Engaging - Make sure your work contains an inspiring vision, a relevant way of operating, based on shared meaning and executable clarity
7. Aligning – Now get everyone on–board and allocate the tasks by engaging them properly – and easier now now that there is focus. 
8. Persisting – Don't forget to keep it going, refreshing it regularly and maintaining the courage and discipline to implement it properly.
9. Evolving – And to finish it all off become more and more comfortable with emerging 'dynamics' and never stop considering the possibilities that they open up every day.

Simples.

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The UI - I'm Getting Tired of Neon Flickery Signs. (Part 3)

In tight corners everyone needs a plan right? – a blueprint that gives at least some direction? Even if sometimes the plan is to have no plan then that's OK too – that's progress. For creatives that is a brief. Creatives need good briefs.

Looking at all one's heroes in life they seem to have an effortless way about them. They must have something drawn out to guide them – even if it's only in their heads. A doodle even. They seem to have an in-built navigation system that allows them to access a kind of quality and that enables them to know where they are going at all times. 

These people glide 'all-knowingly' through each innovation that they introduce, every piece of work they perform or public statement they may make. They have a quality that suggests an inner belief. One that most of us find so difficult to pull off.

Getting to the perfect design brief?

Life's a tough journey alright and one that we know has no signposts whatsoever other than that big neon sign in your head that occasionally flickers like Bates Motel - 'Progress? No Progress!' 

Structure or open to interpretation?

The story goes that Herbert Hoover drew the doodle below while being interviewed. When he tossed it in a White House wastebasket, a guest retrieved it and asked him to sign it. The guest then sold it to a collector called Thomas Madigan – who resold it for a substantial sum. I doubt that anyone knows what Herbert was thinking. 

The doodle was soon published in newspapers across the country, often with expert interpretations. 

“Generally this man is highly efficient, a man who figures things out and who is at his best tackling difficult tasks,” opined one for the Chicago Tribune. Another objected: “It is the normal thing for a man to do – to occupy himself scribbling with a pencil when talking over the telephone or listening to someone. It would be significant if the president did not do this.” Whatever.

Before it was all over, the doodle had been converted into a fabric pattern for children’s rompers, which even Hoover’s granddaughter was said to have worn. If the president had an opinion about all this, he kept it to himself. It was by no means a brief but we could interpret it.

What was he thinking?

Was he thinking? Was he accessing deep parts of his brain? Was he contemplating a wholly different idea while doodling this? Was he sketching out some way to get access to parts of his mind that only sketching this way could unlock? Was he figuring out how to progress or process his ideas? Was he aimlessly distracted and simply calming his mind to allow better thoughts to come through?

Well we will never know but it's been interpreted anyway.

The Philosophy Behind The Perfect Design Brief! 

Take just a minute to understand what Charles Eames achieved in this sketch below. Very little interpretation required. Anyone would know what their task was. The notes below explain the handwriting included in it. Perfect!

The essence of design as interpreted by Charles Eames in 1969

The Key To The Diagram:

1. If this area represents the interest and concern of the design office.

2. And this the area of genuine interest to the client.

3. And this the concerns of society as a whole.

4. Then it is in this area of overlapping interest and concern that the designer can work with conviction and enthusiasm.

NOTE: These areas are not static – they grow and develop as each one influences the others.

NOTE: Putting more than one client in the model builds the relationship - in a positive and constructive way.

Navigate this.

Getting to the heart of the matter with a doodle coupled with precise and logical thinking can be extremely valuable. To me it is at the heart of all valuable thinking process. It is what unlocks the perfect brief. The Colombo Question. Colombo has to be the best at understand how to get to the facts. How to take a brief. Charles Eames was most definitely one of my hero's too. And he definitely doodled AND he had a vision and a purpose to it. There was humour too.

Everything he did was structured. Eames could use his skill at doodling to suggest a framework for thinking and a blueprint for a future that others would buy into. His doodling caused fresh questions. His mind effectively understood the user and the requirement and it became the framework and springboard to something. It set the course. It was the initial navigation device. It was the brief.

I would love to have seen what he would have done with the UI for the apps we all need these days.

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The UI - Neon Flickery Signs (Part 2)

Talking of Neon Flickery Signs

There's a lot of heat and noise right now about how different an experience an iPad is from a book. How social media and networking on-line is nothing like a dinner party and how social and political change is being completely affected by 140 character messages. (Doh!) 

There's a lot of excitement over the experience on the web and the new found connectivity we all have. But probably 80-90% of the entire 300,000 Applications in the marketplace (and we can happily download them right now) are designed by people who don't understand the first thing about them. Mostly they get downloaded and immediately consigned to the trash.

What does that say about your brand? Your Neon Is Flickering!

Well yes but it's worth remembering that we are right at the beginning of understanding how these interfaces work. The user interface (UI) is rapidly becoming the our experience of everything. And because this is the case we had better get far better at understanding how to design the things. For us to create powerful new ways to access something in a valuable and exciting way then we need proper design intelligence to get it done properly.

So what insights would drive the perfect UI?

1. Meaning & Purpose. It would have to leave me feeling lonely when I wasn't attached to it. 
2. Anticipatory. It would have to have third guessed each move I was about to make. 
3. Learning. It would have to know me intimately and more and more each time I used it …
4. …and it would have to be so useful and relevant to what I want to spend my life doing that I would want to find a way to smuggle it into every part of my waking life. 
5. Indispensable. When I died it came with me to Varsic 8.
6. Designed To Work. It would be so well designed that the shape and form of it was referred to as the gold standard for a UI. People would have its design printed as t-shirts and songs and poems would be written about its symmetry. 
7. Loved. It would be a brand. 
8. Loved Yet More. Brands would float naturally within it and be at peace in its existence.
9. Connectedness. As required it would know when and how to connect with everything it needed to connect to. 
10. Intuitive. Above all though it would be simple elegant and intuitive to use - needing zero instruction. 
11. Utility. It would be so amazingly useful my behaviour and life would change.

There are a few examples of this level of UI emerging now. I have a few that are beginning to fall into this category. iTunes, my Tumblr blog, my kitchen, my Starbucks app, Yammer, Podio and Pinterest. But they are all personally relevant and for different reasons. And still there are a massive number that fail to understand the idea of the UI at all. So 'No Progress. Just a Flickery Neon sign.

Well to be fair of course there is huge progress even though we can all see millions of fails along the road and yes they do spoil the view. Far too many companies have let so called designers loose to create dreadful expressions of half baked ideas in the name of not being left out of the race for a

 UI.

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The UI - Neon Signs (Part 1)

Navigating Towards the Great User Interface In The Sky

Really helpful people will tell you that If you want go 'there' then you shouldn't have started from 'here'. Yes thank you for that. In your mind the destination will be marked with a big welcoming neon sign – but flashy signs are rarely what they seem.

I am reaching saturation point with the quantity/quality ratio of Applications these days. All promising the Earth in lurid neon lights but delivering about as much quality as the average TV talent show on a bad night. You know what it says about the destination when the neon flickers.

It's The Journey AND the Destination

Regular readers will know how much really I like the way most travel systems work. Airports and public transport are amongst my favourite things to experience. I love them. At each step there is new data to consume and at every turn a new challenge. Plenty of neon signs all over the place but at least Bates Motel had a shower that worked. 

It's the same for Apps and UI's right?

Out of around 1000 Applications (bought or downloaded for free) I probably use 20 fairly often. I wouldn't say I am entirely happy even with them but I give them the benefit of the doubt given the adolescent era we are currently in. The occasional one takes my breath away and reminds me that there are seriously talented people out there who deserve all the credit they get.

What makes a great App? – A great user interface!

A great user experience is the aim but very few actually get there. The design approach needs critical  thinking. The main ingredients: An initial 'end-to-end' design, no matter how sketchy – experienced creativity - market awareness and a clear end point in mind. 'Design thinking' in this way means iterating, making lots of prototypes to test – allowing everyone to make good decisions along the way. 

A lot of this comes down to asking the right questions – 

• Why do we need an App?
• What will people actually do with it?
• Are other people doing something similar?
• Are we capable of knowing what a good app looks like?
• Is the UI going to deliver a good experience for my customers? (More than once? At all?' )
• Are we prepared to invest the right time and effort in designing it and keeping it fresh?

In addition do we have the real insight into what our customers really want?

I react very positively when I think I have found a true insight. These insights need to be the kinds of things that take your breath away with their profound nature. Without an insight to go on I am prone to send myself through an airport for no reason at all –  just to remind myself what lack of inspiration looks and feels like

With a true insight I can hop one-legged across a wobbly rope tied across the Grand Canyon. I can.

But seriously if you are alive and in business today then you will want the best for your own UI and fast. 

You will need the right approach – a plan that understands that the game has totally changed. You will need people who have been somewhere near this stuff before to help you with clues. You will want someone or something who can be a companion for the journey and you will want to know that you can stop with comfort at various places on the way to check progress. 

If you aren't alive today then none of this will be any help whatsoever. 

Unless of course this writing has lasted so long that you are now borne and reading it and I will probably (thankfully) have passed on to some other multiverse and be talking Varsic 8 code. With a big neon sign saying 'Slight Progress' (written in Varsic of course). 

Time to clean up the act. Time for the humble UI to put its name in lights.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

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