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How to Catch Great Ideas

Picture a meeting at your company/institution/school.  Meetings are for getting things done:  Solve a problem - Create something new - Make a decision.  But often, meetings turn into arguments, power-plays, endless debate or inauthentic "discussion" for the purpose of getting the meeting "over with".

If the ideas served in meetings were beach balls, it may seem as though people are trying to shoot the ball with a gun... whack it down so nobody can play... or grab it and run home so the ball is just for them.

Recently, however, I've been reminded it doesn't have to be that way.

Curating ideas and developing solutions (in meetings or otherwise) isn't about ball-combat, but rather, it's about playing a game of catch. 

You have to let go of the ball (idea) in order to throw it.  You have to concentrate on the ball (idea) in order to catch it.  Each toss to and fro is about:

• Knowing where you are
• Knowing where your playing partners are
• Understanding their position
• Throwing the ball back with the genuine intention of a reciprocal catch

It takes being open, fluid, mobile and participative.  And yes, as trite as it might sound, it also takes chilling-out and having a little fun for cry'n out loud.

I continue to play serendipitous "intell-i-catch" with Ralph Solonitz.  We haven't planned a thing.  We don't even talk except for an occasional email.  He thinks with images and art.  I think with words.  It's been a blast, and I owe it to him for starting the game.

This week I tossed out a ball regarding social media and etiquette.  Ralph once again caught the ball and tossed it back.  Heck, I didn't even realize that I wasn't talking about social media and etiquette.

illustration:  ralph solonitz 12-29-11

intell-i-catch concept credit: sea james

...Now the ball's in my court.  Or is it?

craig arthur james 2011

How to Spell Etiquette in Social Media

Do you have a few words you constantly have a hard time spelling? 

I do.  One of mine is "etiquette".  Some sort of mental block.

Spelling it is one thing, but having it, especially in Social Media - is another.  With plentiful on-line tools and global conversations, how does one know the proper etiquette when say, communicating with someone from Japan or Spain?  How does one properly edit a tweet to make it fit within 140 characters when re-tweeting?  How should/shouldn't one alter the original tweet?  Etiquette is indeed far more than using the right fork at dinner.  It's a variable code of social conduct that morphs over time, differs by culture, and can be tricky in Social Media.

But the basics don't have to be that difficult.

Recently, I had a meeting with a colleague named Don.  I haven't seen him for years.

He reminded me of some (perhaps not so "common") courtesies:

• A couple days before the meeting, Don confirmed via Facebook.  His mobile number was contained within the message, just in case I needed it the morning of the meeting.
  
• I arrived three minutes early for the meeting.  In other words, I was late.  He was already there - all ready to go.
• He selected the place and provided location details in advance.  It was a great little neighborhood restaurant.  $13.00 for breakfast for two. 
  
• He expertly weaved conversation with eating.  He respected his food.  Not a crumb was left on his plate.
  
• He paid the tab.  The server received a gracious 40% $5.00 gratuity (He wouldn't let me get that either).
• After the meeting, I promptly received another Facebook message.  It was Don thanking me for the meeting.  
• While outlining my follow-ups from the meeting, I realized I wasn't sure of Don's current email address.  No worries, he highlighted the address within his thank-you note before I had the chance to inquire.
  

Considerate.  Anticipatory.  Thoughtful.  Classy.

Nuances aside, the thing to remember is that etiquette is about deference - the other.  The good old tried-and-true "do unto others" once again comes into play.

So, as we endeavor to communicate and relate effectively on-line (yet may be tempted to, or accidentally send, overly-brief, self-centric, maybe-even confrontational messages)... perhaps we should take a few extra moments to think about how things feel on the other end.

So there - Take that!

;-)

craig arthur james 2011

 

How to Escalate a Constructive Conversation

This Blog entry is the continuation of a conversation originated in email. 

You're invited to join it. 

Net-net, it's a discussion about America, the World and the Future... Trivial stuff like that. 

Have we become complacent?  Have we lost our way?  What does the future hold?

SCENARIO:

1. Read the early portions of the book That Used To Be Us, by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum
2. The opening tells a story of Escalat(ors) in the U.S. and Construct(tion) in China.  We've fallen behind.
3. Sent an email to certain folks explaining how the story hit me
4. Numerous responses ensued via email
5. Migrated the conversation to this Blog
6. Responses, to-date, will become blog-post-comments within, if/as commenter(s) approve
7. Please add comments and share your thoughts

Between meetings and reading email responses, I had a few interesting serendipitous experiences.  One of them is briefly described below.  After that, you'll find the original message that started this whole thing.  Below that, one finds articles by Umair Haque you might find interesting.

AN AMERICAN COFFEE SHOP - AN EXPERIENCE - CLEVELAND, OHIO:

After a couple days of productive and enjoyable meeting(s) with colleagues, I find myself alone (literally alone, as the only customer) in a pretty darn big and rather nice coffee shop, not far from downtown Cleveland, Ohio.  It was the peak-peak of the (traditional) work-week (10:00 AM, Wednesday morning). 

I'm not saying this represents every coffee shop in America - or even Cleveland.  But it made me pause - and think.

I ordered a green tea and asked the young gent behind the register for a receipt.  The register's printer wasn't functioning.  The young gent asked the manager what to do.  She instructed him to create a hand-written receipt.  He searched for, and found, a receipt-pad... but discovered there were no receipt forms remaining within.  He inquired with the manager, yet again.

...At this point, I said, "Don't worry about it".

I proceeded to settle in for some wireless.

The wireless was down. 

Our gent from the register said, "Oh, yeah, I was supposed to bring in my laptop today to figure that out - but I forgot".

Meanwhile, the manager shuffles back and forth a couple times to pop outside for a smoke in a little alcove in front of the coffee shop.  She gazes upon a boarded-up crumbling theater across the street.

Plumes of smoke ascended from her as if they originated from her pony-tail (an attempt at creative writing).  By this time, another customer walks in, a middle-age woman.  She sits by herself and begins work on a crossword puzzle.  Shortly thereafter, four other people arrive.  It's three older gents and a young woman.  As they assemble together, the guys begin to berate the young woman for not having a job, and they expertly highlight her inability to secure one.

What's happening?

ORIGINAL EMAIL MESSAGE 12-19-11:

I'm reading Tom Friedman's & Michael Mandelbaum's "That Used To Be Us".  In the first few pages, they share this:  Meijiang Convention & Exposition Centre in Tianjin, China.  Built from the ground-up in 32 weeks:


In Washington, the Washington Metro system had two (2) broken escalators (21 steps each).  It took 24 weeks to repair those 42 steps --- i.e., about the same amount of time it took to build the entire Meijiang Convention Center Complex including countless huge escalators.

Meanwhile, back in DC, an outfit was paid $225K to study/assess the state of the Washington Metro system. (I'd do it for $224K: "Broke" ;-)

The Washington Post reported, "...people are getting used to it" (the condition of the system).

Wow.

Needless to say, this one gets a full read. 

As we all have our own version(s) of day-to-day do's that need to "get done" I do wonder what the future holds, in a macro sense... and what we (still) can do about it.

...Just thought I'd help start your day with a headache :-)

Thanks for letting me indulge. 

 

OTHER READING YOU MIGHT FIND RELATED / INTERESTING: 

Umair Haque - America: Excelling at Mediocrity

Umair Haque - Is a Well-Lived Life Worth Anything?

 

craig arthur james 2011

 

How Do You Know if You're Using the Right Package with the Right Message?

A couple articles ago, we talked about the HUGE world-changing ideas of Nikola Tesla. One article ago, we talked about how certain simple "little" ideas could have big impact.      
 
In this article, we're talking not only about what's "in the box" (the message) and the things "outside of the box" (grand ideas) but the box itself (thanks, once again, to the inspiration of the smart-art of Ralph Solonitz). 

175-ish years ago, it took an entire day to get the equivalent of one tweet to just one other person - It took a guy on a horse carrying a hand-written message. 
   
With that time, effort, and risk, one had to think.  Really think: 

- Is our GuyHorse package strong enough?

- Will the message, "Hey, don't take the hill after all" get there?

- What if it gets there, but late, and we're already taking the hill?

- What if it gets there late, and the other guys are taking the hill?

- What if it gets there exactly on time, but the message can't be read because the rain washed it away?
 
Yes indeed, back then, you had to think carefully about both the message and the package.    
   
Today, however, messaging and packaging are so easy that we barely think about the message-package combo at all. 
 
We set our social account settings once.  We then forget that when we do a blog post, it's simultaneously available for on-demand viewing, distributed via tweet, listed on a Facebook wall, entered into a LinkedIn update queue and set-up for auto-emailing at 6:00 AM... all with the press of a button. (Not to mention the people who can take our messages, put them in their own packages, and send them to the world.)       
 
Chances are, the horse-riding messenger didn't deliver pictures of half-eaten plates of lasagna.    
 
Should that be the first thing your next client sees from you when she checks Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn... or, or, or?       
 
Just ask'n. 
  
Some (half-eaten) food for thought.    
 
craig arthur james 2011
  

Maybe Your Big Ideas are Too Big to be BIG

Recently, SmartSimple discussed Nikola Tesla and his amazing inventions. Inventions that changed the world. He was spooky-smart, worked day & night, and dreamt-up HUGE complex inventions that people couldn't comprehend (at the time).

Wouldn't it be something if all of us were Tesla?

Maybe.

But then again, maybe not.  And maybe we shouldn't try to be.

Perhaps the biggest ideas are the painfully small simple ones - sitting there - right before our eyes.

 

The Tesla article may have partially inspired this cartoon by Ralph Solonitz. Well, his cartoon most certainly inspired this article.

Somewhere along the line, a zillion bajillion years ago (this article may not be historically accurate) someone said, "I know this sounds nuts, but maybe we should turn the spinning-block catapult plow dirt-moving thingie into, you know, a "spinning-wheel" with a round part? Call me crazy, but I think it might be better. Besides, I need one of those sharp edge pieces-parts to hunt for tonight's dinner."

World: Changed.

More recently:

Health-care Innovation: A hospital's development team worked day & night on a capital campaign to build a new $120M state-of-the-art cancer center. Meanwhile, one of the team members asked patients what they wanted. What was learned? People diagnosed with cancer wanted an appointment, fast. They didn't care about buildings. Solution: Revamp the appointment scheduling system for a fraction of $120M.

Paint Industry Reinvention. Scenario: "We've GOT to figure out how to make paint less messy. Let's hire a 1,000 top chemists, work day & night, and change the entire chemical composition of our paint... to make it the best paint ever everer." Potential better small big solution: Revisit how paint is poured.

Things you may be dealing with daily:

Problem: "Our company morale sucks. Everyone is fighting all the time. Let's either fire everyone, or get a team of expensive consultants in here, stat, to fix things." Potential smaller solution with bigger impact: New guidelines stating that if internal emails are conflict-oriented, the author should spend at least 2X time on that message (i.e., Sleep on it. Regroup. Then Send.) Better yet: At least one half of those email messages should be replaced by an honest, face-to-face conversation.

Wish: "I just wish my sales team and I were super-fantastic hyper-connected networkers. That's the key. It's time to invest big bucks in the magic sales-person-connection-CRM-networking killer app." Potential smaller idea with bigger impact: Show up at relevant events. Say, "Hi, my name is____, what do you need?" Follow-up. 

Wish: "I wish I could start losing weight. I guess I should try the new sure-fire diet program and its accompanying 16 DVD set". Potential smaller/better idea: Skip the cola.

So: What small little (big) things are right in front of your eyes?

craig arthur james 2011

Three Indications You May Be Insanely Inventive

100-ish years ago, "Edison", "Westinghouse" & "Einstein" were the "Gates", "Jobs" and "Sagan" of their time. Those names still roll off our tongues, and big companies still bear their names.

Even though we depend on AC power, wireless communications and clean energy, we don't often think of Nikola Tesla. If it wasn't for him, the iPhone would be the "iHand-write-it, mail-it, and-wait".

Nikola Tesla

Tesla understood and basically invented those technologies in the 19th century. But people thought he was a bit "insane". Not because he had a few personality quirks (today we might call it OCD) but because his ideas, experiments and inventions were so extreme. "Wireless communication?" "Clean energy?" "Impossible!". "The guy is absolutely out of his gourd." Buggy whips were the smarter, safer, practical investment.

But he changed the world.

How do you know if you're onto something so BIG that it might help change the world too?

1. You make no sense. Your friends and colleagues think you're wacky, unrealistic and "out there".  They may even work hard to stop or block you. J.P. Morgan helped slow Tesla's advancing dream of "clean energy, everywhere, for everyone - for free". The Commodore would have none of that.  Otherwise, how could there be a "monopoly"? How could the energy business be controlled by a small group of companies, including General Electric (which Morgan helped create through his merger magic). No Nikola, no! We'll have none of that.
2. You can't help yourself. Tesla was known to work for three days straight without sleep. He was so focused on doing his work that he tore-up a contract that he had with George Westinghouse. That contract would have made him (Tesla) one of the first billionaires on the planet. But he didn't care (about money). He cared about the work. He cared about changing the world.
3. Intuitive insight. Brain science tells us that the brain is imperfect - but efficient. Our brains have been "filling in the blanks" (inaccurately) for survival reasons, for thousands of years. If you bumped into a prehistoric guy at Starbucks and asked him, "Hey, prehistoric alive-guy, when I saw you running yesterday, was it a) a lion or b) a tiger that almost ate you?" He'd likely answer incorrectly. He may not remember "lion" or "tiger" but his brain knew that he had to run like hell, regardless. Our brains still "know" what to do in a sub-second. However, in our modern society, we've become a bit too prone to stop, plan and analyze. It's as if we stopped, opened our laptop and reviewed the strategic don't-get-eaten plan while a liontiger runs toward us. Chances are your first thoughts are the right ones: Go with it. Trust it. Run like hell!

Today, amazingly, the notion of "clean energy for all, everywhere - for free" is actually here for us. But the "energy" is the energy of ideas, knowledge, culture and information that we can now seek (or share) for almost-free - from anywhere - anytime.

What an opportunity.

Thanks Nikola.

craig arthur james 2011

 

Realizing Your Smartphone is Smarter than You (Sometimes)

 

** CAUTION:  This Blog post is rated PG-13 **

Guessing you've experienced type-ahead correction on your smartphone.  My iPhone does it with attitude:  I type this - it promptly says, "Nope, I don't think so, bub - you actually mean that".  It-she-he continues to "correct" the same word or phrase several times until he-she-it finally agrees with what I wanted to type.

More:  My iPhone is rude and obnoxious (is that redundant?):

A while back, I drafted a note to send to the world about a friend.  It sang his praises;  "He's a great guy, and he knows EVERYBODY in town".  Well, my smarter-than-me iPhone decided that "knows" should be a word that sounds like "knows" but begins with "bl". 

Thankfully, I corrected that correction before it was sent.

More more:  iPhone likes to take the phrase "and the thing is..." and makes "thing" a word that sounds like "song", but it begins with a "th", describing a certain undergarment.

Rude.  Obnoxious.  Alas, my iPhone's digital-mind is in the gutter.

But then:

I realized that iPhone might actually have some important insight midst it's ill-informed correction activities:

It takes "I'd love to..." and changes it to "I'd live to..." almost every time.

iPhone is smart.  Smart indeed. 

It knows that if I lived to be 100, that's still only one 50-millionth of Earth's lifespan (to-date).  Further, it knows that if I wanted to travel to the recently-discovered next-closest Earth-like planet (Kepler-22-b) it would take 220,000 of my lifetimes to get there (22 million years). 

iSuspect iPhone's been trying to tell me something.

Given the infinitely small amount of time we get to spend on this planet, we should "love what we live for" and "live for what we love".

My iPhone is brilliant.

I live my iPhone!

craig arthur james 2011

How to Beat Procrastination: Let it Happen (Sometimes)

I had coffee with a couple close friends recently.  Surface conversation turned big issues, quickly:  Technology, tech's impact on humanity - and more.  And then, to my surprise, our conversation evolved even further:  Into an Intervention, and I was the subject.

You see, earlier, I explained some writing plans - including a book that Sue (my partner) and I have in the works.

After some gracious listening, they issued some tough-love: "Yeah, yeah, yeah - we've heard it before - So when the heck are you going to actually ship something!?"  They were right.

I had all kinds of explanations (a.k.a., excuses) for my delays.  But I also shared some honest fears:  Fear of judgement, fear of success, fear of failure, fear of putting my "real self" out there.  I was concerned about the possible negative effects of personal writing, made public, and their impact on "business", family - and friends.
 
They continued:
 
"Uh huh… OK, whatever.  So, again, when are going to ship something?  We want some of what you've got.  What's holding you back?" 

 

 
Then I was asked to answer this: "If money was no object, what would you be doing?  Describe it for us."

With a bit of defensiveness, I answered, "OK, fine.  I'd be an anthropologist.  I'd be a sociologist.  I'd be a philosopher.  I'd be an idea guy.  I'd be observing, writing, and publicly speaking about the big questions of life.  You know, stuff like; 'Why is it the way it is?' 'Why do we do what we do?' 'How can we make it better?' ...That kind of stuff".

I expected that I'd hear some practical advice and receive suggestions that would take me in a different direction.  But that didn't happen.

They thought I was right-on-track.  They said it was obvious to them that that's exactly the kind of stuff I do.  That I'm an observer - a "new kind of anthropologist of the 21st Century"... and that I see the world differently, "just like a photographer who can see things that others can't", they said.

I was motivated.  I was kicked in the butt.  I was validated!  I was inspired to write my next blog post right away.  A day went by.  There was a post.  But it wasn't mine. 

It was one of my coffee klatch mates who wrote about his anthropological questions & observations of the day. 

SteveRucinski.com

But wait!  That's what I do - right?  I mean, sure, my preemptive blog-posting friend is a very thoughtful smart guy - I'll give him that - but heck, this is what they told me I'm destined to do. (Can you tell I'm an only child?!)

Then it dawned on me: 1) The work I'm meant to do is not "mine" alone, and 2) Sometimes we're doing some of our most important work without even realizing it.

The work I was to do that day was to demonstrate a willingness to be open, descriptive, and vulnerable about fears.  I was to demonstrate the courage to be "big picture" and philosophical.  I was to help a friend do his work, too.

So, in the end, I'm glad I procrastinated - and left the writing to a friend for that day.

Now I know I can't procrastinate any longer. Now I know that now is the time for me to write my next blog post, continue the work on that book... and keep doing the work I'm meant to do. 

craig arthur james 2011