Chris
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I’m currently enjoying Same as Ever as an audio book. The last chapter was about how people who can tell a story about their work create far more influence and change than those simply with rigorous data and logic. 🙂
penguinrandomhouse.com
Same as Ever by Morgan Housel: 9780593332702 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Want to understand the changing world? Start with what stays the same. That’s the amazing conclusion of Morgan Housel’s fascinating, useful, and...
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I really don’t know how I came to have such an optimistic/positive attitude. But I am grateful for it. I had an unremarkable and semi-dysfunctional family growing up lower middle class in a rural town.
For me, the heart of optimism is believing we can overcome the challenges (small and big) that we face. Curiosity and creativity fuel my learning and desire to address challenges and opportunities.
Somewhere along the line I started seeing life and work behavioral patterns repeat. Good ones and bad ones. It was then that I realized that I had built some perspective (wisdom) about how things change (slowly and through the unpredictable dynamics of people and environment).
It allowed my stress levels to subside and I started navigating much more than pushing or driving or convincing. Negative outcomes don’t bother me as much as I see them as an inevitable part of the journey.
What I have started to get stressed about is explosion of negativity, self-righteousness and intolerance in social media. I actually fear the country is set up to go unstable with these conditions.
I guess I ended this optimistic reflection on a down note!
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I finally watched this. Oh my. Wonderful, insightful, deeply touching. It’s worth every one of its 13 minutes!
“Drawing is looking. Looking is loving.”
The story of the library.
The story of the boot maker.
“Drawing is one of the most effective ways for children to process their emotions.”
I suspect adults, too, if we would let ourselves…
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Love this visual essay!
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Love this visual essay!
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Love this visual essay!
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As a number of you said, this technique of researching for 15-20 minutes then sharing what we’ve found is a great collaborative method! So simple, but think of how infrequently we do something productive like this together with our staff and colleagues!
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I may be the King Spuddler!
When I decide to despuddle, I do three things:
• Create a simple task/project list with things I know I want to accomplish. And keep it visually nearby.
• Focus on one at a time and get it done.
• Go back to the list, check it off and pick the next one I want to do.
It sounds so basic, and it is, but it is the only thing that keeps me from spuddling too much!
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I haven’t read it, but have seen it recommended several times!
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Nicely done, Erik!
It makes me think we should provide transcripts and audio files for our videos.
Thank you for trying it and letting us know it is valuable to you.
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That’s really inspiring. I have found myself waking up to scrolling youtube and reading news. Afterwards I feel unfocused and not ready for the day. I need to introduce a practice of making and/or writing in the morning again…
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👏
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As far as science fiction being “just made up”, so is every forward looking strategy! 😂
But seriously, there is a whole field of using science fiction to help companies create more inspiring (and cautionary) stories of their future. I know the founder of this company, SciFutures, and some of the projects they’ve worked on are really cool. (Their web site is a bit much, but on brand, I guess…:)
I also know Bruce Sterling from a design-oriented group I’ve been interacting with for more than thirty years. When he joined the first time, he was getting all sorts of new ideas and turns of phrase from all the design intellectuals around the campfire. 🤣 He just shared a verbose essay with us about his fascination with the objects artist Alexander Calder would make that never became art pieces, but populated his house and studios… Only if you’re interested, I couldn’t make it through:
The Homemade Limits of Everyday Weirdness by Bruce Sterling
scifutures.com
SciFutures - Accelerate Innovation with Science Fiction Prototyping
SciFutures is an award-winning innovation house that uses science-fiction prototyping to help accelerate innovation.
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This is the perfect place to put your comment, Erik! And thank you for sharing it.
It is common that a lot of challenges in our work come from folks discussing directions/solutions when they really don’t share the same framing of the problem. In essence, they disagree about what problem needs to be solved, not really possible ideas of what to do.
Our typical 16-week consulting projects had 4-6 weeks of research and framing the challenge & opportunity. Then we would bring the client team in to use their expertise to “solve” the crisp, focused scope.
I’ve found organizations have a harder time now taking the time to frame their challenges. Perhaps the whole lean/design sprint/minimal viable product has everyone believing that understanding the problem better doesn’t matter…
