Digital Digressions

Philosophies in Bite-Size Chunks

Philosophy is one of those subjects, where the insights can really help you put some distance to things otherwise difficult to deal with. What better than this collection of bite-size philosophical quotes for you to peruse and be inspired by: 

A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure.  ~Lee Segall 

Believe those who are seeking the truth.  Doubt those who find it.  ~Andre Gide

Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying.  ~Baba Ram Dass

There's more to the truth than just the facts.  ~Author Unknown

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.  ~Ludwig Börne

When the student is ready, the master appears.  ~Buddhist Proverb 

I tell you everything that is really nothing, and nothing of what is everything, do not be fooled by what I am saying.  Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying.  ~Charles C. Finn

Knock on the sky and listen to the sound.  ~Zen Saying 

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.  ~Henri Louis Bergson

Don't miss the donut by looking through the hole.  ~Author Unknown

To learn something new, take the path that you took yesterday.  ~John Burroughs

Each forward step we take we leave some phantom of ourselves behind.  ~John Lancaster Spalding

No matter where you go or what you do, you live your entire life within the confines of your head.  ~Terry Josephson

If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.  ~Russian Proverb

The obstacle is the path.  ~Zen Proverb

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.  ~James Thurbe 

You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.  ~Author Unknown 

The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.  ~Buddha

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.  ~Zen

The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing.  ~Eric Berne

The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.  ~Aldous Huxley

Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong.  They are conflicts between two rights.  ~Georg Hegel

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. ~Francis Bacon

One does what one is; one becomes what one does.  ~Robert von Musil, Kleine Prosa

A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top.  ~Author Unknown

A stumble may prevent a fall.  ~English Proverb

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise.  Seek what they sought.  ~Matsuo Basho

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Cheating Your Mind: Ending Procrastination & Mastering Weight-loss

It seems many of the problems we are faced with are to do with how our minds react to things. An excellent article on the root causes of procrastination explains that our behaviour is mostly driven by our unconscious mind, especially behaviours that is hard to explain from an intellectual point of view. Procrastination is knowing what to do, having the ability and desire to do it, but still not doing it, because of the capacity of our unconscious mind to delay or avoid doing things we associate with fear.

Our conscious mind is very limited in its ability to deal with life, basically it can only handle one thing at a time, this is why using your willpower to create any real change rarely works long term. You can try to overcome procrastination by using willpower but it will usually be a short term change. The cause for procrastination is not your conscious actions, but the unconscious associations that influence your behaviour.

Your nervous system is designed to preserve you and when fear presents itself your nervous system, through the working of your sub-conscious, will “kick in” to “protect you. The ironic thing is that we train ourselves, unconsciously, to fear certain things by making false associations about the meaning. Nothing in life has any meaning but the meaning you give it. You literally create neurological links to experiences that gets “stored” in your nervous system so that you can act quickly and accordingly next time. Whenever something happens to you, you assign a meaning to it by the way you communicate the experience to yourself. Unconsciously you are always trying to establish meaning and at a very basic level you are trying to establish whether something means pain or pleasure. This meaning then gets stored in your unconscious mind that will help you act (or re-act) appropriately in the future. The challenge is that when associations are reinforced you build up beliefs that will greatly influence your behaviour and is often the cause for procrastination.

Although procrastination makes no sense intellectually it actually reveals a lot about your unconscious and your self imposed limitations and (in)abilities. The major cause for procrastination is fear, and more specifically your fear that taking action will lead to pain or a painful experience of some kind. At some level your unconscious mind combines and searches it’s “files” to come up with a “link” that associates the action to a painful experience. This can range from something which is mildly uncomfortable to something physically painful. Although you consciously want to do something your unconscious will prevent you as it associates pain to the action. As human beings we automatically reach for comfort and will almost automatically reach for whatever feels comfortable in the moment. This is why you often procrastinate on tasks that do not feel good in the moment although it will mean much more pleasure in the future.Read more

Procrastination is an indication of your fears and, quite by design, gives you the necessary resistance needed to expand and grow in your capacity to push past your fears and create the things you really want for your life. The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of “discomfort” you can comfortably deal with. Procrastination can also shed some light on the goals that you value most, as your concern over procrastinating on it shows that some part of you care enough to be concerned.

It’s been said that first we form our habits and then our habits form us. This is also true for habits of mind and procrastination often manifests itself as a habitual pattern of thinking. Your thoughts lead to and help create your actions. Like the engraved pattern on a record your behaviour will “play the same tune” every time. Your associations to pain and pleasure play an important part in your habitual behaviour in that it determines what you will or will not do. By repetition you form habitual patterns of thinking that will cause you to automatically act or retract in certain ways when your habit pattern gets triggered. The challenge is to use procreastination as a guide to deal with issues and understand why we associate fear with them, so we can consciously begin to 'unlearn' this pattern and start associating positive things to it instead.

Interestingly, cheating our brains in an even more profound way is at the heart of a new book on diets. We are stuck with so called legacy brains that are pre-programmed with a behavioural pattern to make us think we need to stuff ourselves as we never know where the next meal might come from. This is of course not true by a long shot in these days of abundance of fast food, snacks, chocolates and whatnot - but it is still our subconscious that makes us eat all these things, convince us that we are hungry and then store away any excess fat for those cold winter months when we might need it.

It is almost impossible to describe what this "diet" (it's not really a diet) does. A UC Berkeley professor named Seth Roberts claims to have found a way to trick the legacy brain into thinking it needs to weigh less. It claims to do just one thing--cause your body to want/need less food. Quite simply, it reduces your appetite. It is not an artificial appetite supressant; it works by using your body's natural appetite supressant--the desire to keep you at a particular weight.

So how does it work? All you have to do is to find at least one two-hour time window each day where you have nothing but water. Nothing with any flavor of any kind is allowed--NO EXCEPTIONS--during that period, including brushing your teeth. For most people, two hours is no problem at all... but you have to be extremely careful or you risk not just eliminating the positive effect, but potentially ruining your chance of using it correctly in the future.  In the middle of that two hour window, you must ingest one of two things... either a tablespoon of sugar dissolved in water, or a tablespoon of extra light olive oil. If either of those are not do-able for you, you're out of luck. You must also... well, no, there IS nothing else. Seriously. Nothing. Eat whatever you want, do whatever you want, just take in the extra calories from either the sugar or the oil, and there's nothing more. THAT is the Shangri-La Diet. Sugar, or oil. Read more

So can it really be that simple? I mean can you even cheat your mind into defeating your fears and ending procrastination or into losing weight for that matter? Does being consciously aware of your effort to cheat yourself even make it possible to be cheated? Maybe not, but interesting theories none the less.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster and other deities

Is it me or is that every time you turn on the TV these days, you never get further than a few sentences into a news broadcast and they start talking about religion? Whether it is the fanatic variety, which apparently goes better with bombs, or the creationism variety, where we are invited to part company with science and common sense and embrace the Lord, our saviour and believe the world truly was made in six days.

Even a Vatican astronomer has decided to chime in and claim that believing that God created the world in six days is a kind of superstitious paganism, much to the discontent of numerous reddit.com readers, who express their varying views with much alacrity. What takes the price for me is Bobby Henderson's   deliberate parody of all things religious, by going that one step further and creating a religion of his very own, with the head deity being the famous Flying Spaghetti Monster. This all started as a very inventive way to protest against the Kansas School Board's decision to teach Intelligent Design in schools. Below is a quote from the open letter Bobby began circulating:

I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent    Design.

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

It is for this reason that I’m writing you today, to formally request that this alternative theory be taught in your schools, along with the other two theories. In fact, I will go so far as to say, if you do not agree to do this, we will be forced to proceed with legal action. I’m sure you see where we are coming from. If the Intelligent Design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith.

Albeit Bobby clearly has command of both wit and intelligence (as also shown by a graph posted on his website where he claims there is an inversely proportional relationship between global warming and the number of pirates, thus reminding us all that diagrams and statistics are an clever way to create relationships between things that have apparently no relationship with each other until brought together on a graph:

What does worry me with all this clever mincing of words is, does the message get through? I mean, for those who genuinely believe in Intelligent Design, no scientific fact or evidence seem to be enough to convince them otherwise - will complete parody work instead? Or do people continue to fail in seeing the very obvious link to what they are doing and these more hilarious unfounded beliefs as proclaimed by Mr. Henderson? 

The Philosophy of Killer Hill - or why you need one and why conquer it regularly

Preface
This is an entry from a few days ago, which I managed to delete in anger after receiving some really discouraging comments from an individual over the email (unfortunately this sometimes happens and makes life hard for bloggers trying to keep their spirits up and write interesting stuff).
My day took a drastic turn for the better today however as I received another email asking where the post went and countering all the BS from before with a generous heap of support instead. This great man came to my rescue after I sheepishly confessed to him that I had deleted the entry without backing it up and due to the efforts and lengths he went into finding a cache'd version of this post so I can copy it back up again I owe you, Michael Wong, my deepest gratitude. Thus I dedicate this post to you. You rock!

These days the Internet and bookstores seem awash with attempts to offer self-help on topics ranging from improving yourself, your career, wealth, house, fitness, partner, pet and whatnot. As some clever sod wrote: The easiest way to become a success is to write a book about it. So in an attempt to steer clear of efforts to sell you abstract theories  - I will instead introduce you to the exact opposite: simplicity - Why you need a hill you can comfortably call a killer and why you should regularly push yourself to conquer it.

Life is a series of hills
Killer hills are a killer - particularly if you are running or cycling. Everything is easy when you are going downhill, but come that hill the effortless ease turns into a hot, sweaty struggle accompanied by occasional cursing if no one is around. Life is a lot like that, not that we'd like to admit it sometimes. We work extremely hard at conveying effortless ease to our friends, family and colleagues, because it is not attractive to show your weakness, doubts, worries or be caught whinging about the things you don't think are fair. It is hard to muster up the energy sometimes and even harder to see if you are making any progress overcoming those bouts of anxiety, because it is often all in our mind.

Real hills help us conquer our mental ones
So where do the real hills come in? Well, right now actually - you need to find one for yourself that you can't imagine you can conquer. You may already have found it - whenever you think of going cycling or running, you think of ways to avoid it unless you take the route that allows you to go downhill. It may be an inevitable part of your daily journey and one that you currently prefer to walk up, because it seems too much of an insurmountable task. Or you are plain unlucky(!) and live in Holland or parts of Denmark where it can be extremely flat in places and you really have to look for a hill for miles. If this is the case you may have to substitute this challenge for an extremely long straight road instead, but beware - those are tricky, because you need to be able to tell your progress continuously. You KNOW when you've reached the top of the hill, but it is not so easy to tell where your goal is with a straight piece of road. 

My Killer Hill and the philosophy behind it
I would like to introduce you to my Killer Hill. It is a sneakily large hill hidden away behind unsuspecting flats in a beautiful big park here in London and it is one I have great respect for. I first discovered it when going the opposite way and loved the high speeds I could reach when pedalling furiously before freewheeling down the entire way. Going the opposite way though is a completely different story.

It starts near a car par, which means the steady gradient almost kills you as you eek your way past the car park and all the drivers who are oblivious to the struggle and duress you are under and occasionally decide to turn into your side of the road and slow you down. As you make your way past this challenge, you reach a flat area, surrounded by trees where you can rest before the extremely sharp gradient of the second part of the hill kicks in. This bit also goes around a corner so by the time you finally reach the top you are absolutely spent, but feel victorious.

The philosophy of this hill for me is that often when faced with initial challenges you need to conserve your energy and go for the slow burner approach than try to spend all your energy in the first half, because you invariably are not able to see the full extent of the challenge that lies ahead of you. You often get half-way and realise that if you really want to do something, you have to struggle even harder than before to get it done. Once you do overcome it though, of course you are tired but ultimately ecstatic.

So why use real hills to deal with mental ones?
Good question. For me the explanation is simple: when faced with difficulties in life we have a natural tendency to worry, get anxious, stress and be continuously preoccupied with how to overcome this challenge - whatever it may be. Stress produces cortisol, the body's stress hormone and that makes you more irritable, short-tempered, makes you sleep worse and often you struggle to see the forest for the trees - literally.

Hills are great exercise and great exercise produces endorphins in your body - a natural high that counterbalances stress and instead fills you with a calmness of mind and relaxation of your body. To overcome demanding challenges you need both and the more stress you are under the more you need your Killer Hill. Killer Hills are also symbolic of the struggle you face and it is easy to play-act and imagine the hill is whatever challenge you are under currently and as you gradually pound away up the hill, you mentally become more focused about conquering the real challenge you are faced with too.The hill gives you constant feedback of where you are and rewards you instantly when you have reached the top. These things are often less straight-forward in real life, but you need to at least give yourself the benefit of imagining they are you killer hills and you can conquer them, because if you can believe it you can do it.

As you do this on a regular basis, you notice that your fitness level increases, you get better at it - things feel a little less hard work every time and this gives you confidence and determination to go on. And confidence and determination are the most important things you need to overcome any challenge, whether physical or mental.

These days the Internet and bookstores seem awash with attempts to offer self-help on topics ranging from improving yourself, your career, wealth, house, fitness, partner, pet and whatnot. As some clever sod wrote: The easiest way to become a success is to write a book about it. So in an attempt to steer clear of efforts to sell you abstract theories  - I will instead introduce you to the exact opposite: simplicity - Why you need a hill you can comfortably call a killer and why you should regularly push yourself to conquer it.

Life is a series of hills
Killer hills are a killer - particularly if you are running or cycling. Everything is easy when you are going downhill, but come that hill the effortless ease turns into a hot, sweaty struggle accompanied by occasional cursing if no one is around. Life is a lot like that, not that we'd like to admit it sometimes. We work extremely hard at conveying effortless ease to our friends, family and colleagues, because it is not attractive to show your weakness, doubts, worries or be caught whinging about the things you don't think are fair. It is hard to muster up the energy sometimes and even harder to see if you are making any progress overcoming those bouts of anxiety, because it is often all in our mind.

Real hills help us conquer our mental ones
So where do the real hills come in? Well, right now actually - you need to find one for yourself that you can't imagine you can conquer. You may already have found it - whenever you think of going cycling or running, you think of ways to avoid it unless you take the route that allows you to go downhill. It may be an inevitable part of your daily journey and one that you currently prefer to walk up, because it seems too much of an insurmountable task. Or you are plain unlucky(!) and live in Holland or parts of Denmark where it can be extremely flat in places and you really have to look for a hill for miles. If this is the case you may have to substitute this challenge for an extremely long straight road instead, but beware - those are tricky, because you need to be able to tell your progress continuously. You KNOW when you've reached the top of the hill, but it is not so easy to tell where your goal is with a straight piece of road. 

My Killer Hill and the philosophy behind it
I would like to introduce you to my Killer Hill. It is a sneakily large hill hidden away behind unsuspecting flats in a beautiful big park here in London and it is one I have great respect for. I first discovered it when going the opposite way and loved the high speeds I could reach when pedalling furiously before freewheeling down the entire way. Going the opposite way though is a completely different story.

It starts near a car par, which means the steady gradient almost kills you as you eek your way past the car park and all the drivers who are oblivious to the struggle and duress you are under and occasionally decide to turn into your side of the road and slow you down. As you make your way past this challenge, you reach a flat area, surrounded by trees where you can rest before the extremely sharp gradient of the second part of the hill kicks in. This bit also goes around a corner so by the time you finally reach the top you are absolutely spent, but feel victorious.

The philosophy of this hill for me is that often when faced with initial challenges you need to conserve your energy and go for the slow burner approach than try to spend all your energy in the first half, because you invariably are not able to see the full extent of the challenge that lies ahead of you. You often get half-way and realise that if you really want to do something, you have to struggle even harder than before to get it done. Once you do overcome it though, of course you are tired but ultimately ecstatic.

So why use real hills to deal with mental ones?
Good question. For me the explanation is simple: when faced with difficulties in life we have a natural tendency to worry, get anxious, stress and be continuously preoccupied with how to overcome this challenge - whatever it may be. Stress produces cortisol, the body's stress hormone and that makes you more irritable, short-tempered, makes you sleep worse and often you struggle to see the forest for the trees - literally.

Hills are great exercise and great exercise produces endorphins in your body - a natural high that counterbalances stress and instead fills you with a calmness of mind and relaxation of your body. To overcome demanding challenges you need both and the more stress you are under the more you need your Killer Hill. Killer Hills are also symbolic of the struggle you face and it is easy to play-act and imagine the hill is whatever challenge you are under currently and as you gradually pound away up the hill, you mentally become more focused about conquering the real challenge you are faced with too.The hill gives you constant feedback of where you are and rewards you instantly when you have reached the top. These things are often less straight-forward in real life, but you need to at least give yourself the benefit of imagining they are you killer hills and you can conquer them, because if you can believe it you can do it.

As you do this on a regular basis, you notice that your fitness level increases, you get better at it - things feel a little less hard work every time and this gives you confidence and determination to go on. And confidence and determination are the most important things you need to overcome any challenge, whether physical or mental.

The Conditions for Thriving Innovation

A while ago I wrote about Catalysts and also the Power of Collaborative Innovation, because as I see it - businesses stuck in the commodity market are desperately trying to figure out how to 'add value' to whatever it is that they sell and realising that doing this requires thinking about providing experiences. Catalysts are important factors in creating experiences, because to do it effectively you need your company to adopt a kinf of 'hive-mind', where people spontaneously re-organise themselves to deal with a particular problem or exploit a new opportunity. Doing things the old way, by putting people in boxes and waiting for orders from the top is simply too slow to react to many things. Relying on individuals alone is not enough though. Companies need to change the way they approach solving problems by changing structures, staffing of teams and culture to create optimal conditions for innovation. Lastly, if your company has a community - figure out how to enable more of your fans to participate in what your company does and open up channels to enable dialogue.

Individuals as Catalysts

On one hand, values are what bring people together better and more efficiently than boxes. Breaking down boxes also create room to deal with previously unforeseen situations - it puts emphasis on people's knowledge and experience, more than restrictive 'roles and responsibilities' the modus operandi becomes the potential to outgrow those roles than merely sticking to them blinkering oneself to things going on nearby. It is an approach which encourages knowing what is wrong with any given product or situation, but equally, taking the view that one has power to find solutions and not being discouraged when the solutions produce unexpected results.

There used to be a clear division between people who give orders and those who receive them. There is a third group, previously rarely recognised, but a crucial component in making the 'hive-mind' work and those are the intermediaries. Intermediaries are catalysts who can achieve more than their own personal talents permit. The idea of catalysis gives intermediaries a new status. Previously, they were mere links or hyphens, supplying needs felt by others. As catalysts, by contrast, they have an independent existence or purpose: they can create new situations and transform people's lives by bringing them together, without having any arrogant pretensions themselves. To be a catalyst is the ambition most appropriate for those who see the world as being in constant change, and who, without thinking they can control it, wish to influence its direction.

And it is the catalysts who invariably see the power of collaborative innovation - or as the Japanese proverb puts it 'None of us are as smart as all of us' - that surely has to be the raison d'être of collaborative innovation, working across disciplines, departments, locations to create more meaningful and relevant solutions to problems that one could ever have achieved whilst stuck away in a silo somewhere.

Enabling Collaborative Innovation in Business

1. Know the experts - The bigger an organisation, the harder it is to know the unique skills and abilities of your staff, particularly in creative fields. Moreover, companies often forget that many of the true experts in their products are in fact not employees, but avid fans who have formed communities around your product. It is a match-making task, finding the right people to work on your project and equally, being committed in involving fans in improving your products - but infinitely more rewarding.

2. Feed the minds - Business, development and innovation moves ahead at a breakneck speed and there are no excuses for not keeping up with trends, industry developments, research and headline news. Effective collaboration enables information to get through effortlessly and this is where corporate communications should partially re-direct its efforts from being a insular company-only news media to serving the company with tools to stay on the cutting edge of the latest relevant information

3. Use technology to enable collaboration - Use the intranets to enable on-line knowledge share, take the wiki approach of creating web pages around a topic which can be modified by anyone with access and use that as a virtual meeting room, encouraging contributions, ideas and input.

4. Encourage entrepreneurship - Collaboration will not grow and flourish in structures continuing to employ command-and-control approaches. This stifles creative thinking and creates a cynical, passive attitude, as there are no incentives in doing things in an unconventional way. The benefits of unconventional methods are increasing speed, flexibility and innovation in solutions, but mechanisms net to be set in place to reward and encourage this behaviour - otherwise it is far too simple to do things the way we have always done.

5. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts - Great ideas happen when timing, expertise, collaboration and geographic locations all come together in surprising, unpredictable, but effective combinations. Intranets, entrepreneurship-schemes, time can all be set aside to achieve this, but it is ultimately down to a shift in mindsets and a greater degree of personal ownership and responsibility of the outcome, which creates the necessary sparks. You need advocates, passionate champions of a new way of working to publicise the efforts, and all the other dimensions to be in place and last but not least, a profound understanding of the power of collaboration.

Community-driven co-creation

Creating meaningful links with communities sounds a lot simpler than it is. It actually requires a very particular type of person to instigate meaningful exchange and bring the best out of people, rather than cramping their style. Designers are naturally poised for this role, because of their continuous involvement in product development and the holistic view required to do this properly. However Laszlo & Lazslo draw a fascinating analogy between generations of designers and of conversations facilitators. In social systems design they differentiate among five generations of designers (Laszlo, 1992).

1. The first generation designer is consider an expert and specialist in the design process. She studies the situation of the group and decides which is the best solution for them. 
2. The second generation designer is akin to the classical consultant who asks for information from the members of the group, and then analyses it and gives them a solution according to her perception of their needs. These two first generations design for others.  In contrast, the last three generations of designers design with others. 
3. The third generation designer gets the group involved in the creation of alternative solutions, but at the end of the process, she nevertheless selects the best alternative for them. 
4. The fourth generation designer works to create an adequate group environment that facilitates the processes of generating alternatives and selecting solutions. 
5. The newest generation, the fifth generation, not only involves the group in the design process, but also helps the group to learn how to learn to facilitate.  A group that does so can sustain the continued design process by themselves (Banathy, 1996.)

How are these designer generations roles related to the role of the conversation facilitator?  We believe that a facilitator of a conversation cannot operate out of the values and assumptions derived from the first two generations.  That is to say, there is no possibility for an authentic conversation facilitator to “design for others” or to assume a position of authority and control over the conversants.  The conversation facilitator cannot be an external agent to the community but rather needs to be just another member of it.  In fact, many thriving conversations are characterised by a shared facilitation process in which the role of the facilitator is not assumed by only one individual but rotates among the members of the community. The facilitator of a conversation can function out of the framework of a third, fourth or fifth generation of designer. But facilitators of thriving conversations tends to work from the basis of the fifth generation — completely integrated into the group, sharing the facilitation functions and responsibilities, and helping the group to become more and more capable of facilitating their own process evolutionary change and transcendence.

Bela Banathy (1996) suggests a set of guardianship roles to share responsibility and accomplish the tasks of the group.  These roles include:
- the guardian of participation
- the guardian of keeping the focus
- the guardian of selected group technique
- the guardian of documentation
- the guardian of accepting and honouring all contributions
- the guardian of values
- the guardian of “keeping the fire burning”
- the guardian of time and coordination
Each role is descriptive of the functions that a facilitator carries out, but in thriving conversations, they are not assumed by just one individual but shared by the community as a whole.

Inspirational quotes by Frank Lloyd Wright

As my last set of quotes came from a cartoon character (Homer Simpson) or maybe his father, Matt Groenig, I've decided to counter-balance this emphasis on entertainment and popular culture with some thought-provoking quotes from one of the greatest American architects, Frank Lloyd Wright:

• "Less is only more where more is no good."

• "'Form follows function' — that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union."

• "Get the habit of analysis – analysis will, in time, enable synthesis to become your habit of mind."

• "Mechanisation best serves mediocrity."

• "Freedom is from within."

• "An idea is salvation by imagination."

• "The truth is more important than the facts."

• "The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes."

• "Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities."

• "An expert is a man who has stopped thinking — he knows!"

• "The heart is the chief feature of a functioning mind."
• "There is nothing more uncommon than common sense."

• "I'm all in favour of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters."

Principles of Experience Brands

What are the things that make us passionate about our favourite brands? Many cite the success of the Harley-Davidson user groups, the communities established around the life-style of owning a motorcycle and others talk about Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOLs), adults who are obsessed with building with LEGO - but what are the principles that drive this passion?

1. Personal - Develop a personal and unique one-to-one connection with customers.
2. Involved - We favour brands that give us new opportunities to become immersed in their worlds, while they also become more immersed in ours.
3. Passionate - We love brands that have real passion and a point of view about what they are, why they are and what they do.
4. Memorable - The brands that provide us with valued moments and memories - become the stories we pass on to others.
5. Imaginative - As we become more immune to marketing we reward those that are more imaginative in how they engage with us
6. Famous - Our obsession with celebrity means we look for an element of fame - or infamy - within the brands we favour.
7. Relevant - Deeply relevant brands not only tap into what we want, but our feelings, dreams, hopes, aspirations and fantasies.
8. Responsible - Our distrust of spin means we expect brands to operate within a higher and more transparent set of moral, social and environmental ethics.
9. Genuine - Brands that are authentic and genuine in how they conduct their affairs win our hearts.
10. Simple - Experiences need to be simple to communicate, understand, use, enjoy and recount Source: Ralph Ardill, Imagination Ltd.

Why Monsters Rock

Yesterday was the day of the 51st Eurovision Song Contest. It is one of the most watched television programs in the world that pits pop groups from all over Europe and the Middle East against one another, with the winner decided by popular vote by more than 600 million viewers.

Yesterday was also a pivotal day for Europe for two reasons. Firstly, the country almost infamous for its inability to produce a decent entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, Finland, swept to victory. Secondly, the winning entry was a heavy-metal number, performed by a cast of monsters accompanied by pyrotechnics, more at home in a Lord of the Rings movie than the institutionalised, mostly turgid euro-pop contest. Yesterday was thus a triumph of humour, great entertainment free from political quagmire and a rebellion against the predictable, boring pop-entries that have become to signify what the Eurovision Song Contest means to the average European.

What is amusing in all this is that Lordi's rise to victory in the contest was by no means simple or straight-forward. As you know, individual countries have to organise a contest to select their entry. Finland have for two years not had an entry at all, either because the Eurovision Song Contest has become by all standards very formulaic and nobody could be bothered to be creative within the bounds given, or because we simply had had enough of the political vote that meant we nearly always ended up with very few points, or sadly because the entries we did produce did indeed feature some Finnish folk singer that had zero entertainment value and was thus voted out in the European semifinals.

So come the national semifinals, Lordi - the band with eight-foot retractable latex Satan wings, who sing hits like "Chainsaw Buffet" and blow up slabs of smoking meat on stage, did expect a reaction when they beat a crooner of love ballads to represent Finland at the Eurovision song contest in Athens, the competition that was the springboard for Abba and Celine Dion. But the heavy-metal monster band did not imagine a national identity crisis.

First, Finnish religious leaders warned that the Freddy Krueger look-alikes could inspire Satanic worship. Then critics called for President Tarja Halonen to use her constitutional powers to veto the band and nominate a traditional Finnish folk singer instead. Rumors even circulated that Lordi members were agents sent by President Vladimir V. Putin to destabilize Finland before a Russian coup — an explanation for their refusal to take off their freakish masks in public. The fury also spread in Greece, winner of last year's Eurovision and therefore the host of this year's contest, where an anti-Lordi movement called Hellenes urged the Finnish government "to say 'no' to this evil group."

The lead singer, Lordi — a former film student who goes by his real name, Tomi Putaansuu, when not wielding a blood-spurting electric chain saw — is philosophical about the uproar.

The affair, Mr. Putaansuu says, has exposed the insecurity of a young country whose peculiar language is spoken by only six million people worldwide and whose sense of identity has been dented by being part of the Swedish kingdom and the Russian empire until gaining independence in 1917. Most Finns, he adds, would rather be known for Santa Claus than heavily made-up monster mutants.

"In Finland, we have no Eiffel Tower, few real famous artists, it is freezing cold and we suffer from low self-esteem," said Mr. Putaansuu, who, as Lordi, has horns protruding from his forehead and sports long black fingernails.

As he stuck out his tongue menacingly, his red demon eyes glaring, Lordi was surrounded by Kita, an alien-man-beast predator who plays flame-spitting drums inside a cage; Awa, a blood-splattered ghost who howls backup vocals; Ox, a zombie bull who plays bass; and Amen, a mummy in a rubber loincloth who plays guitar.

Dragging on a cigarette, Mr. Putaansuu added, "Finns nearly choked on their cereal when they realized we were the face Finland would be showing to the world." NY Times Article

It is not the first time the contest, which began in 1956, has spawned discontent. Last year's Ukrainian entry song was rewritten after being deemed too political by government officials in Kiev because it celebrated the Orange Revolution. When Dana International, an Israeli transsexual, won in 1998 with her hit song "Diva," rabbis accused her of flouting the values of the Jewish state.

But not everyone in this Nordic country of five million views the monster squad as un-Finnish. On the eve of the vote, fans in ghoulish monster outfits held Lordi parties from Helsinki to Lapland and sent text messages urging everyone from grandmothers to young metal heads to "Change the face of Finland!" Lordi won the right to go to Athens with its Kiss-inspired anthem "Hard Rock Hallelujah" and its lyrics, "Wings on my back/I got horns on my head/my fangs are sharp/and my eyes are red."

Under their masks, the band members are quintessential Finns. Awa, the ghost, is a soft-spoken blond who wears glasses and studied classical music. Even Mr. Putaansuu, who wears a black leather jacket when not sporting serpent lapels, says his music is closer to gospel than Satan. After all, one of the band's hit songs is "The Devil Is a Loser."

"Even if we lose the contest, we have already won," Mr. Putaansuu said. "Many Finns would rather have sent someone boring and acceptable than to be represented by freaks like us."

This entire event makes me think of those moments in history when music got pitted between generations - the young generation championing a musical movement, which was derided by the older generation as 'degenerating, foul, akin to devil-worship (this is not a new accusation by the way!) and completely un-musical'. The last time this happened was with the advent of Punk rock, before that it was the Beatles, who with their unkempt hair and ballads were clearly putting 'ideas' in the minds of the youth, and even before them, Elvis, the king of crooners, caused controversy with his suspect dancing on stage with was commonly deemed as 'pornographic' and 'un-suitable for young ladies'.

Where we are now, the 21st century - a melting pot of trends, fashion, musical genres, culture, you name it - everything today exists in parallel and very few musical phenomenons have the power to rise above this noise and truly create controversy anymore. Think about it for a second, if Lordi had merely turned up to sing 'Hard Rock Hallelujah', looking like any average heavy metal band, I don't think they would have cut the mustard.

Lithuania tried to be tongue-in-cheek by turning up with a song simply titled 'We are the winners' and promptly spent their 3 minutes shouting in a football-anthem style that people should vote for them. Inspired, but not good enough. The fact that Lordi turned up, not only with a heavy-metal entry (in itself a revolution as I believe there has never been such a thing performed at the Eurovision Song Contest), but also having gone all the 9 yards by kitting themselves out in full monster-makeup and dress just made the entry rise beyond anything ever seen.

Why I can't in all honesty get all threatened or worried about this, is because it is so tongue-in-cheek and fun - they sing about 'the day of Rockening' for goodness sake. It is truly an experience to watch them perform and I can't get over how cool the make-up is - the guys look fantastic! To me this is a triumph of humour, challenging the norms of what a song is and what a performance or a band is - it blends cinematic visuals with real-life and brings the fan-movies (where movie buffs take Star Wars or any other movie and use the characters, clever editing and select new scenes to take the mickey of the story-line or invent new ones) to a live performance and ultimately - as we all voted : to be the coolest Eurovision Song Contest victory I have ever seen! Rock on!

Lordi's Homepage

Reasons Not to Drink

Last weekend was the local beer festival. Every year the Campaign for Real Ale (a bunch of mainly bearded beer-drinkers with guts the size of their appetite for strangely named brew) organises these merry get-togethers around the UK and having been to the local one last year, I should have learnt.

Alas, wisdom is seldom present when faced with lots of kegs of local ale, at cut-down prices and with the objective of trying to taste as many of them as possible. Thus, my friends and I were all paying the price on Sunday and to me it felt like I kept paying the price far into last week. You must have suspected, as the postings were few and far in between :) So in an (pointless) effort to dissuade you from similar capers, I have come across some great photos, which could be great ammo for a 'don't drink'-campaign if one was to launch such a thing: The Manbottle Library

Inspirational Quotes on Creativity

Creativity is one of those things that defy the understanting of those who aren't comfortable with it and is part of the life blood of those who are. Below are a selection of my favourite inspirational quotes, great ones to keep cynicism at bay and shut the Devil's advocate up for a while too.

• "If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." --Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.

• "There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes." -- Buckminster Fuller

• "If at first, the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it."-- Albert Einstein

• "Whenever you see a successful business someone once made a courageous decision" - - Peter F Drucker.

• "Standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world. Imagination is the highest kite one can fly" -- Lauren Bacall.

• "The ability to learn faster than the competition is often the only sustainable competitive advantage a company can have" -- Arie de Geus

• "In the long history of humankind (and animalkind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed." -- Charles Darwin.

• "Instead o pouring knowledge into people's heads, we need to help them grind a new set of eyeglasses so that we can see the world in a new way." -- J S Brown.

• "And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more." -- Erica Jong.

• "The 'silly' question is the first intimation of some totally new development." -- Alfred North Whitehead.

• "Someone once said that for every problem there is a solution that is simple, attractive ... and wrong." -- Arthur C Clarke.

• The opposite of creativity is cynicism. -- Esa Saarinen

• "Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework in which the problems were created." --Albert Einstein

• "As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might." -- Marian Anderson

• "The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed my men." -- Ortega Y Gassett.

• "The greater the emphasis on perfection the further it recedes" -- Haridas Chaudhuri.

• "When a finger points to the moon the imbecile looks at the finger" -- Chinese proverb.

• "Go some distance away because the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony of proportion is rapidly seen." -- Leonardo da Vinci.

• "The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity." -- Ludwig Wittgenstein.

• "Some people will like me and some won't. So I might as well be myself, and then at least I'll know that the people who like me, like me." -- Hugh Prather.

• "Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you and just before you realise what's wrong with it." -- Anonymous.

• "Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist." -- Thomas Disch

• "A problem is a chance for you to do your best." -- Duke Ellington.

• "When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before." -- Mae West.

• "As soon as you have made a thought, Laugh at it." -- Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher.

• "Curiosity has its own reason for existing." --Albert Einstein

• "All great discoveries are made by people whose feelings run ahead of their thinking." -- C H Oakhurst.

• "If you can dream it, you can do it." -- Walt Disney.

• "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." -- Henry David Thoreau.

• "Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour, springs and germinates no more." -- Henri Frederic Amiel.

• "An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." -- Victor Hugo.

• "Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different." -- Albert Szent Gyorgi.

• "Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think, creation's." -- E M Forster.

• "There are some things that are so serious you have to laugh at them." --Niels Bohr.

• "Launching a breakthrough idea is like shooting skeet. People's needs change, so you must aim well ahead of the target to hit it." -- Raymond Kurzweil.

• "Half the failures in life arise from pulling on one's horse as it is leaping." -- Julius Hare, 1795 1855.

• "None of us are as smart as all of us." -- Japanese proverb

• "Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream." -- Malcolm Muggeridge.

• "There is no limit to what a man can achieve as long as he doesn't care who get's the credit" -- Bob Woodruff. Coca Cola.

• "Think wrongly if you please, but in all cases think for yourself." -- Doris Lessing.

• "Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprang up." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes.

• "Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." -- Carl Jung.

Life Observations in a nutshell: Best Bumper Stickers Part II

One of the most popular posts of this blog was my definitive list of favourite bumper stickers I did a while ago See Post. Since then I have come across some more treasures, many submitted by your good selves, dear readers. So thank you to all who have commented and sent me emails – here's to you all: part II of best bumper stickers:

On career and success:

• A bad day of fishing beats a good day of working.
• A bad day of golf beats a good day of working.
• A boss is like a diaper. Always on your ass and constantly full of crap.
• A cubicle is just a padded cell without a door.
• A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
• A sense of humour is the difference between ambition and achievement.
• Advice is free: The right answer will cost plenty.
• All I need is some peace and quiet. If I got a piece I'd be quiet!
• All stressed out and no one to choke.
• Always put the important before the merely urgent.
• Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else.
• Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
• An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.
• An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less.
• Another Deadline, Another Miracle!
• Behind every successful woman is herself.
• Crime wouldn't pay if the government ran it.
• Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else get your way.
• Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
• Even Jesus lived with his mother until he was 30.
• Everyone is entitled to my opinion
• Everyone makes mistakes, that why pencil have erasers
• Everything I know, I learnt by killing smart people and eating their brains.
• Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
• Hire teenagers while they still know everything!
• Honesty pays, but not enough
• Housework is evil, it must be stopped.
• I'll do anything for money, except work.
• I fight poverty, I work
• I have a drink problem - I can't afford it.
• I have yet to hear a MAN ask for advice on how to combine marriage and career.
• I love my boss, I love my job, I'm self employed
• I owe it all to my boss - Ulcers, nausea, paranoia...
• I respect your opinion. Just don't want to hear it!
• I won't rise to the occasion, but I'll slide over to it.
• If all else fails .. lower your standards
• If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished.
• If at first you don't succeed, aim lower.
• If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
• If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving is not for you
• If crime fighters fight crime, and fire fighters fight fire, then what do freedom fighters fight?
• If first you don't succeed, suck and suck until you do succeed.
• If work is so terrific, how come they have to pay you to do it?
• It's an Honor to teach my Student at home
• It's hard to stumble when you're on your knees.
• It's not hard to meet expenses...they're everywhere!
• It never fails! You start having fun, and they send in the lawyers.
• Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honour, make him pay cash.
• Money isn't everything, but it sure keeps the kids in touch!
• Money isn't everything. It simply isn't enough!
• MONEY TALKS! But all mine ever says is GOODBYE!
• Money wouldn't be so important if everybody didn't want some
• My daughter turned down your honour student!
• My job drives me to drink. If it wasn't for that, I'D QUIT!
• My job is secure. No one else wants it.
• My Job is to Comfort the Disturbed & Disturb the Comfortable
• My parents think I'm in college
• Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
• Plunder globally. Manage media locally.
• Professionals are predictable. Amateurs are Dangerous!
• Question Authority before it Questions You!
• Rest assured that all your hard work and effort will go unnoticed.
• Sado-masochism means not having to say you're sorry.
• Some days it's just not worth gnawing through the straps
• Summa cum laude graduate, Darth Vader School of Personnel Management
• Support a lawyer. Become a doctor.
• Support bacteria! It's the only culture some people have.
• The closest I ever got to a 4.0 in college was my blood alcohol content.
• The urge to scream tells me I must be at work
• Well behaved women rarely make history.
• When all else fails, manipulate the data!
• Where there's a whip, there's a way.
• Work is for people who don't know how to fish.
• Work is for people who don't know how to golf.
• Work is for people who don't surf the net!
• Worry is the darkroom in which negatives can develop.
• You can't have everything. Where would you put it?

On Government & Politics:

• A politician should do two terms - one in office and one in jail
• A Woman's Place is in the House... and Senate!
• An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.
• Annoy a liberal. Work hard and smile.
• Annoy a politician today. THINK!
• Balance the budget. Declare politicians as game and sell hunting stamps.
• Bomb Texas. They have oil!
• Born free. Taxed to death!
• Bush & Cheney - Kiss My Ashcroft !
• Can you think on your own, or do you need the media to think for you?
• Don't be stupid. We have politicians for that!
• Don't Re-Elect a Son of A Bush!
• Don't steal. The government hates competition!
• Empty the prisons - Make room for Congress.
• Fight organised crime. Abolish the IRS.
• Fighting for Peace is like f*cking for virginity
• Grow your own dope! Plant a politician!
• I'm Too Poor to Vote Republican
• I love my country, but I fear my government
• If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
• If Democrats and Republicans could read they would be Libertarians.
• If You're Not Outraged, You're Not Paying Attention
• Inside every small problem is a big one trying to get government funding.
• Is it too late to get the Russians to nuke Washington?
• The trouble with political jokes is that they get elected.
• Support Capitol Punishment, Flog a Politician Today!
• Satan for President - Why pick the lesser of two Evils?
• Re-elect Bush: I'm tired of waiting for the Apocalypse.
• Put politicians in their place – Landfills!
• Nothing political is correct.
• Ignore your rights and they'll go away!

If Microsoft Designed the Ipod Packaging..

Now here's something very funny... imagine what would happen if Microsoft did Ipods or designed the packaging for that matter? Scary thought, but no need to wonder - have a look at this video, kindly sent to me by Edith Ackermann - a trusted friend and source of much inspiration. Thank you!

 

As we are on the theme of bashing Microsoft and PCs... if you haven't yet seen the hilarious new ads by Apple, you simply must:

New Mac Ads at Apple.com

The Experience Economy According to a Priest

Now here's something that caught my eye - an executive course in value creation through experience, hosted at a monastery in Umbria. Is this for real or a gimmick? I mean, it seems people are willing to go to any lengths these days to try to understand the experience economy and how to apply it in business. In that quest we frequently end up returning to what makes life worth living: the simple tenets of what makes for a happy, fulfilled life in today's relentless quest for material wealth and success and the accompanying trophies to assert personal wealth. From that angle, the insights that the priest could offer are of much value - similar to why I would urge you to read the Dalai Lama's book The Art of Happiness or indeed Status Anxiety or the Consolations of Philosophy by  Alain de Botton.

However, back to the priest - a fascinating account of his talk can be found on the  European Centre for the Experience Economy site, a great source of cutting edge research and insights to this constantly moving and growing field. I have taken the liberty of quoting some of his points below:

Work and the human condition

Theological anthropology The Rule: Before the apple of wisdom was taken, people lived in paradise, and did the work of paradise. Only after eating the apple, work became cursed, it became work of paradise lost. The monastic tradition focuses on work to regain paradise, how can we regain paradise by our activities?
Here & Now: This story immediately reminded me of the book ‘Die Erlebnis Gesellschaft’ of Gerhard Schulze. Schulze speaks of ‘Erlebnis Razionalität’, or experience rationality: a focus on adapting and changing our environment (which requires activity and work) in order that it gives us pleasure and makes us feel good (paradise regained?). 

Social structures

The Rule: In the old days slaves did the heavy work, so that free men could focus on study, art, philosophy etc. According to Benedict the former is work and the latter is leisure and everyone should have both. Leisure according to Benedict is not ‘dolce far niente’, doing nothing.
Here & Now: This focus on leisure, that it is not doing nothing, can also be recognized in the theory of Flow experiences by Csikszentmihalyi. People do not enjoy their spare time most when doing nothing or almost nothing (as when they watch TV or sit around being bored), but instead enjoyable leisure means being creative, being active, being challenged.

Psychological insights

The Rule: According to Benedict, work is the remedy for assidia. Assidia can be described as sadness, depression, when there is no focus of the soul, emptiness, anxiety, no concentration. This point has been made by many philosophers like for example Guardini, Pascal and Kierkegaard. Prior Padre Cassiano notices a growth of collective sadness and sees the solution in meaningful work, meaningful activities, meaningful leisure.
Here & Now: The discussion about generations of experience and the critique that ‘idle’, ‘superficial’, ‘entertainment only’ experiences are receiving is in line with this critique of assidia. To prevent assidia people should be supported in finding their own purpose and meaning, hence the need for more meaningful experiences according to Benedict.

Redeeming our work: Sacramentality of the created order.

The Rule: According to St. Benedict, created objects point to uncreated realities. Material objects point to spiritual reality. For this reason the tools with which people work are as sacred as the things used for the sacrament. This is why we should work with care, deliver good results, make things of beauty. Beauty in things points to beauty in spirituality. We should behave with stewardship of the things that have been entrusted to us.
Here & Now: Although often a strict line is made between the material world and its objects and the spiritual world of immateriality, also in much contemporary research this line is crossed. Many objects that people care for have a meaning for them beyond the physical appearance or utility. The meanings objects have for us (e.g. Rochberg-Halton, Csikszentmihalyi), the symbolic value of objects (e.g. Levy, Hirschmann, Holbrook) and the blurring of the sacred and the profane in consumption (e.g. Belk, Wallendorf, Sherry) are high-interest topics in literature nowadays.

Self-sufficiency and charity

The Rule: Benedict says that not everyone is equal. We are all human beings but people need different things. They should thus be given what they need, not just what everyone else, or some magic average person, needs. Furthermore, work and its results should lead to self-sufficiency. Any surplus (in produce, money , time, etc) should not be collected (profit) but should be used to give others what they need (charity).
Here & Now: The fact that Benedict has pointed to the inequality of people in terms of what they need and that they should be treated as individuals complies with Cornelis’ claims about the shift from a social ruling system (in which equality of everyone is the goal) towards communicative self-steering (in which the individual is the basis of everything). This shift can be recognized in theories on the shift from mass-production and –markets (equality) towards personalization, customization, co-creation and support (individualization).

Human relations

The Rule: Relations can cause pleasure or grief. There have to be enough people to do the available work calmly to avoid stress and murmuring. When someone finds himself doing nothing, he should find someone else to help to avoid ‘ozio’, idleness. The abbott is responsible for organising the available work in such a manner that there is no justification for grumbling or murmuring.
Here & Now: Many theories on how to organize work without harming the human being in any way or while motivating and supporting the human being, contain ideas that comply with Benedict’s ideas. The smaller focus on efficiency and larger focus on the calm way in which people can do all the work reminds me of Jaap Peters’ book ‘De Intensieve Menshouderij’ (intensive people breeding) and Schumacher’s classic ‘Small is Beautiful: Economics as if people mattered’. The responsibility of the abbott can be recognized in current managerial and leadership theories.

Interior attitudes

The Rule: Prior Padre Cassiano told us a story about a monk that had the responsibility for cooking. He was a great cook, but because of this he felt that he was special. The abbott placed him somewhere else in the abbey for this reason: take pride in your work and do it well but don’t feel special.
Here & Now: The supporting and serving attitude that is already required to be able to deliver services, is even more important when working with experience. When the individual human being is really at the centre of your thoughts and you are really looking for ways to support this person in what he can do, can be, can learn and can feel, you will have to step aside and give that individual the space he needs. The organization is not the core anymore, it’s the individual. Take pride in your work and do it well but don’t feel special: it’s the individual that makes the experience. 

Paradise regained

The Rule: The goal of study and prayer is to understand the created world. This is the world we have created by our choices and actions and by understanding this world we can take responsibility.
Here & Now: Especially in a world in which organizations have so much influence on the lives of people, one should try to understand what we do and why and avoid the confusion of means and ends. These are also some of the points that Beck and Giddens make when writing about reflexive modernization.

 

Surefire Innovation Killer - the Devil's Advocate

Just began reading a fascinating new book by IDEO, Ten Faces of Innovation - an in-depth look into the roles people can play in an organisation to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers.

The thing is, we've all been there. That crucial meeting where you present an idea you are passionate about. A ground-swell of support and suddenly a dreadful end to the optimism when someone opens up with the words: 'Let's just play the Devil's Advocate for a moment..'

' Having invoked the awesome protective power of that seemingly innocuous phrase, the speaker feels entirely free to take potshots at your idea, and does so with complete impunity. Because they are not really your harshest critic. They are essentially saying, 'The Devil made me do it'. They are removing themselves from the equation and sidestepping individual responsibility for the verbal attack. But before they are done they've torched your fledgling concept.'

The Devil's Advocate gambit is extraordinary but certainly not uncommon, since it strikes so regularly in the project rooms and board rooms all across the world. What's both sad and astonishing is how much punch is packed into that simple phrase, and how much people have to struggle to pull their idea from the ground when someone has finished. It seems it is perfectly legitimate to criticise, without offering any solutions to the problems highlighted. I would often like to say that "if you can't make the idea better by what you are going to say - then keep quiet", but you can seldom say that to more senior people and even if you would, it still struggles to pack as much punch as a Devil's Advocate statement.

So why do they do it? The Devil's Advocate role, as it is really a role, like any other - encourages idea-wreckers to assume the most negative possible perspective, one that only sees the downside, the problems, the disasters-in-waiting. Once those floodgates open, they can drown a new initiative in negativity.

Interestingly, a Harvard Business Review article on Level 5 Leadership, mentions the Stockdale paradox as one of the ingredients that make truly innovative leadership happen. The Stockdale paradox is named after James Stockdale, winner of the Medal of Honour, who survived seven years in a Vietcong POW camp by hanging on to two contradictory beliefs: His life couldn't be worse at the moment, and his life would someday be better than ever. Like Stockdale, people who are able to confront the most brutal facts in their current reality, yet simultaneously maintain absolute faith that they would prevail in the end - the ability to hold both disciplines -faith and facts - at the same time, all the time are the ones who overcome the hardest of challenges. In this context, being a Devil's Advocate would not have done anybody any favours, but when the survival of ideas are at stake, people are willing to not accept any responsibility for potentially bury the greatest money-earner ever.

Why should you care? Because innovation is the lifeblood of all organisations, and the Devil's Advocate is toxic to your cause. This is no trivial matter. There is no longer any serious debate about the primacy of innovation to the health and future strength of a corporation. Even the staid British publication The Economist recently claimed, 'Innovation is now recognised as the single most important ingredient in any modern economy'.

There is a growing recognition that fostering a culture of innovation is critical to success, as important as mapping out competitive strategies or maintaining good margins. And while acquisitions can yield synergy, and re-engineering can streamline operations, a culture of innovation may be the ultimate fuel for long-term growth and brand development. Having optimised operations and finances, many companies are now recognising that growth through innovation is their best strategy to compete in a world marketplace in which some of the players may have lower-cost resources.

The Ten Faces of Innovation is a book about innovation with a human face. It's about the individuals and teams that fuel innovation inside great organisations. Because all great movements are ultimately human-powered. Archimedes said, "Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I can move the world." The book goes on to describe ten innovation personas, each bringing its own lever, its own tools, its own skills, its own point of view. And when someone combines energy and intelligence with the right lever, they can generate a remarkably powerful force.

It is a book about people, or more specifically, it is about the roles people can play, the hats they can put on, the personas they can adopt. It is not about the luminaries of innovation like Thomas Edison, or even celebrity CEOs like Steve Jobs and Jeffrey Immelt. It is about the unsung heroes who work on  the front lines of entrepreneurship in action, the countless people and teams who make innovation happen day in and day out.

The ten core chapters of the book highlight ten people-centric tools developed at IDEO that you might call talents or roles or personas for innovation. By developing some of these innovation personas, you'll have a chance to put the Devil's Advocate in his place. The concerns about the Devil's Advocate should not be interpreted as some sort of endorsement for a 'yes-man culture'. It is about encouraging constructive debate rather than the stand of the Devil's Advocate, who prefers to tear an idea down with clever criticism and often exhibiting the mean-spirited negativity associated with that role. Meanwhile , the innovation roles are intended to encourage people to stand up for what they believe in.

Things that Make You Go Hmmm..?

Kids can ask some pretty great questions, and those we can't answer end up in stand-up comedy quips. Other quips are simply funny observations on life, like that list of Bumper Stickers I did recently. Here are some of my favourite comedy quips though:

If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented?    

Why do we say something is out of whack? What's a whack?

Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?

If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?   

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?   

When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?

If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?       

What hair colour do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men?

Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office? What are we supposed to do, write to them? Why don't they just put their pictures on the postage stamps so the mailmen can look for them while they deliver the mail?

No one ever says, "It's only a game" when their team is winning. Last night I played a blank tape at full blast. The mime next door went nuts.

If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhoea. . Does that mean that one enjoys it?       

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why do croutons come in airtight packages? Aren't they just stale bread to begin with?

Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist but a person who drives a race car not called a racist?       

More from where that came from

On Why I Killed My Inner Hamster and Stopped Going to the Gym*

*and bought a bicycle instead

News and media these days are obsessed with obesity, whether it is affecting the nation, our kids or even our pets. Doctors and GPs here in England are being issued instructions on how to discuss the topic with their patients as the decision is now to regard obesity as an illness, that needs urgent treatment. The message still doesn't seem to be getting across as one woman the other day was chirping "I am trying to do my bit in helping kids have 5 helpings of fruit and veg a day - I gave my kid a bag of crisps just now!". I nearly fell off my chair and it took me a while to realise that she obviously thought that since crisps were made from potatoes, that would count towards a helping of vegetables.

Therefore in the age of 'healthy diets', getting more exercise, joining the gym and whatnot being touted as the tricks of survival - I have gone and done the exact opposite: resigned from the gym. This is not actually, because I prefer not to exercise - it's because I believe gyms are partially to blame why people prefer not to. Sounds a little counter-intuitive, but let's elaborate:

The good aspects of joining the gym are the following:

• Getting a variety of different types of exercise for the whole body
• Having access to a qualified health instructor to advise and inspire you to improve
• (hopefully) fit, attractive men to look at if you are a woman
• (hopefully) fit, attractive women to look at if you are a man
• Creating a routine out of getting exercise
• Gadgets readily available for you to measure calories burned, heart rate etc. to illustrate the progress you are making
• Option to exercise AND watch telly at the same time.

These are some of the selling points people use to advertise joining a gym and now, rather than it being the pursuit of a few steroid-enhanced monkeys, it is quite normal and acceptable to tell your friends you go to the gym and moreover, it even gives the illusion that you may consider your body to be a temple, by merely turning up there regularly. However, having a been a regular gym-goer myself for many years, (I blame a bad back and crap weather in the winter) I have taken the plunge and resigned. What made me do it? Things that swayed me were:

• The price - going to the gym nowadays seems to be impossible unless you buy a membership, monthly subscription, a special session with an instructor (costs more)to set up your exercise program (doesn't matter if you already have one!) and a fitness assessment (even if you give them the numbers in advance they still like to do it themselves and it costs). It even takes time to register, so if I wanted to go today to do a 100 sit-ups in the gym that's juts opened around the corner, I can't. I first have to be talked to like a moron, explained the gym rules, give my credit card details for membership and bank account details for monthly subscription, then book appointments and finally days later (regardless of whether I'm a professional athlete or not) I might have some fleeting chance to actually sit down and do some exercise. If this wasn't enough to dissuade you then read on.

The Life Philosophies of Homer (Simpson)

I'll make a confession - I like the Simpsons a lot. Not such much because they are yellow and strange looking, but because the humour is great. For that same reason I absolutely adore Futurama, because it appeals to my subversive side and my desire to jibe at society in general. As you may have gathered I have a tendency to over-intellectualise most things and thus, the humour of the Simpsons is a good counter-balance to help me not get too carried away. In fact, there are some great pearls of life wisdom hidden in all those episodes. Below are some of my absolute favourites:

• Ah, beer. The cause of and the solution to all of life's problems.
• Who are you? Why am I here? I want answers now or I want them eventually!
• Because they're stupid, that's why. That's why everybody does everything!
• That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college!
• America's health care system is second only to Japan, Canada, Sweden, Great Britain, well...all of Europe. But you can thank your lucky stars we don't live in Paraguay!
• It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day.
• English? Who needs that? I'm never going to England!
• You're saying butt-kisser like it's a bad thing!
• You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel.
• think Mr. Smithers picked me for my motivational skills. Everyone always says they have to work twice as hard when I'm around!
• Marge, it takes two to lie. One to lie, and one to listen.
• Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand!
• You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is 'never try'.
• Oh, everything's too damned expensive these days. Like this Bible. It cost 15 bucks! And talk about a preachy book! Everybody's a sinner! Except this guy.
• God bless those pagans.
• Don't let Krusty's death get you down, boy. People die all the time, just like that. Why, you could wake up dead tomorrow! Well, good night!
• If you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now, quiet, they're about to announce the lottery numbers!
• I'm a white male, age 18 to 49. Everyone listens to me, no matter how dumb my suggestions are.
• Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that.
• You know boys, a nuclear reactor is a lot like women. You just have to read the manual and press the right button.
• Now what is a wedding? Well, Webster's dictionary describes a wedding as the process of removing weeds from one's garden.
• I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me, Superman!
• Shut up, brain, or I'll stab you with a Q-Tip!

Some more Homer classics