Bright Days, Dark Spirits

All around, there are seasonal songs and signs of merriment.  By 'signs' I mean imagery of what we are all supposed to be feeling and doing.  We drown in it from media with 24/7 classic carols, and TV specials of every imaginable ilk celebrating Christmas.  The shops have December sales, and decor and push at each of us what holiday conformity looks like.   The messaging is clear - get in the spiirt, let gifting to one another demonstrate your true selves, kind, caring and sentimental.  

But look for a moment at each other.  Look into other's eyes and souls and you don't see it. I don't anyway.  We still cut one another off in traffic and argue for that last parking spot. We're still rude and self-centered in all the normal ways.   We say Merry Christmas, but it's perfunctionary as a means to end encounters. When it's said, it means "We're done talking now".

Show me the selfless acts, the desire to help each other.  Keep your gifts, but illustrate through changed attitude that this is actually the time of year when we place our fellow man ahead of our own needs and wants.

I'm not mad at Christmas or whatever version of it you celebrate, I'm saddened that we let the idea be corrupted and don't seem to notice.   It's unfortunate but I think this is a sign of the times, and so let's skip the formalities next time and just text or tweet each other 'Merry Xmas'.  At least then we'll be authentic.

The World's Favourite...ad

I love innovation, especially where it's clever and touches an unserved market. If you get all three of these - the marketing trifecta - then it's a huge win.

I think British Airways and their Ad Agency have accomplished this feat with this contextual use of an old medium - billboards : - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7vq7yS4ghE 

The clever things about this abound.  There are a series of variations in the video's launched on the board; it actually interfaces with the plane flying overhead so the results aren't random or canned, they are real.  And its engaging.

The use of new technologies to make a big impact is rare these days - there are lots of great ideas but many don't find traction with customers.  This one is simple and very effective.  Way to go BA.

The Aboriginal Legacy

I wanted to say kudo's to Australia.  Specifically Qantas, the national airline of the land down-under.

I live in a country that has a hard time admitting they were wrong for raping and pillaging the native people, and here's Australia with a not-so-different history celebrating it's indigenous peoples.

They paint their planes up in designs specific to their people, and they are indeed uniquely Australian.  I admire that on a few levels.  It says - "We have a great native people, and we're proud of them."  What other country that has a questionable history does this ?  Umm.. None.

Australia deserves recognition.  Not for the way they treated the aboriginal peoples, but for how they acknowledge today that their culture is richer for these people, and the native Australians are an intrinsic part of Australia's future as well.  We could all learn from this.

Asking the Right Question

A friend asked me an incredibly astute question about a big purchase I was considering.  So insightful was this question, that it made me think of my purchase in a whole new way. In fact thinking about his question and my answer meant I'm ready to make a decision now, something I hadn't been able to do before.  Often customers find themselves unable to make a decision to buy something as they aren't clear, just like the situation I found myself in.

The purchase I've been thinking about concerns a new car, and a fancy, sporty one at that.  As it's obviously not a need, you're probably listening to yourself think "mid-life crisis", just the same way I'm saying that to myself. I can live with that though.

When considering one of these it can either be a frivolous toy or it can be serious, and I've tended to look at it the latter way, trying to validate that I use a car daily and having a sportier one could fit my needs and provide some fun as well.  I've been hesitating for a long time though, and have looked at a used car for less money, or a newer, shinier one. Pro's and cons to both and I have been on the fence for a while on the decision.

My friend hit the nail on the head with his bright question.  It was: "which one are you more likely to drive in bad weather / winter?"  I live in an area that has a serious winter, and let's call be frank, few fancy little sporty cars are designed for winter, or even very usable in snow.  Underneath the question wasn't a query about traction or winter tires though, it was about use cases and value - depreciation vs usability.

You see the used car will cost less, but I think I'm less likely to drive it in winter (assuming it performs equally poorly as a new car) as I'll be looking to maintain it's value for a resale situation in the future.  A new car could be leased and if it's just mine for a defined period, I'm more likely to drive it wherever as depreciation won't be my concern.  I hadn't looked at the decision in this framework at all - and my friend knew that - as he's also gone down this road (no pun) lately, albeit on the frivolous toy justification side.  My indecision was based on the fact I couldn't figure out the question to myself that would differentiate the choices to be made - so I was waiting.  Now I actually feel very clear on moving forward.

The value of asking of the right question is incredibly high.  It can provide quite a bit of relief to your customer/friend, as it allows them to move past a log-jam in their own minds.  It does require knowledge of their situation and insights into their motivation though.  And that is almost impossible to do without discovering a little about them.

The American Situation

The government is locked out, shut down.

The congress doesn't agree with the executive branch, and the idea of compromise isn't in the air.

The country's population is divided almost 50/50 along red and blue lines, and the Tea Party and Far Left each have tremendous power.  Discourse is disagreement.

Seems a setting for a futuristic novel about some totalitarian state, where chaos reigns. Instead it's the state of the US today, sad as it is.  When things done't go right, blame is the rule, but really - it isn't the answer.  It's not about denouncing and revoking Obamacare, or election manipulation via re-districting.

Instead, what's been lost amongst the loud voices arguing is the idea of leading.  Leading the world by example of how powerful a force democracy is.  Leading though selflessness and compromise.  Like a good parent leads their family, like a good spouse or good friend leads a relationship.

If I take a "in order for me to win, you HAVE to lose" approach, then I doom us both.  That's what was allowed to happen, and that's the idea that's been sold to the American public - our side has to win, and the other side must lose.  It's sad that this wasn't questioned, but the pursuit of power tends to to avoid sound consideration.

The left isn't correct, and neither is the right.  They're both wrong in the way they've participated and manipulated the process.  They're both wrong in the lack of compromise to make America better for the people of America.  Somehow this was lost in the need to be 'right'.

The situation in America won't get better until the people demand leadership and compromise to help them all out of this situation.  I fear that the voices saying this are too softly spoken, and overshadowed by their own red-ness or blue-ness.  Why would I listen to a ...  (insert Republican or Democrat) - even if they are correct.

No, the situation in America won't get better soon .. and the loss will be felt by the American people for a long time to come.

Fire, Ready Aim

I've been around some people lately that have a real bias for action.  I enjoy that phrase, though the people who (only) have that approach can be speed-blind at times.

It's been interesting to watch them in this effort we're involved in, as they MUST do it fast, even though it's clearly acknowledged that we'll have to "tweak" the output afterwards.  I think they've sold themselves up the river, as we all know they won't be tweaking, but rather doing full blown determination of what it is that they're trying to achieve exactly. Or 're-achieve' to be precise.

There's a 0% likelihood that we'll actually get to their overall objective with this approach, and yet it's also unacknowledged at this point that they need to be seen to be doing something.  That's a powerful motivator for action - even if we can all agree its the wrong action to take.

It's fascinating to be part of efforts like this, the way a slow-motion car crash in a movie is fascinating.

Faith & Folklore vs Technology

I saw a wonderful little line the other day that's been bouncing around my brain ever since: "cell phone cameras deter aliens".

The point, made as astutely as ever by Seth was that now that the cell phone and its high quality cameras were ubiquitous, the instances of sighting alien spacecraft has gone way down.  Prior to our always-connected world where something wasn't real unless it was instagram'ed, the instances of sighting flying saucers were folklore, and generally not independently confirmable.  Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and other such popular myths have similarly suffered from the emergence of connected-awareness. Does this demonstrate these situations as fallacy, or wishful thinking ?  Perhaps a little, yes.

It's interesting and unintentional that technology has started to give us tools to dispel or prove those things that required only faith in the past.  And that got me thinking.  What technology would emerge that would have a similarly profound impact on our beliefs and ways of life that we've had to take on faith until now.  Would time travel and the ability to go backwards into our history and validate or prove false the fundamental precepts of Christianity, or Islam forever change our religious beliefs?  Will cancer 'vaccines' tip us over the edge due to food production limitations, as our population swells with healthy people.  Will the ability to manipulate the sex of your unborn baby mean football is that much more competitive, and even more wars break out as the world tips towards having more territorial males..?

The unintended consequences of 'advancements' are fascinating to imagine.  But it does make you want to loosen your grip a little on your most sacred truths as well I think.

The Horizon Line

I went around the world this week.  Modern travel makes this far more feasible than that sounds. It's not extraordinary, it simply requires lots of sitting.  Its is special if you've not travelled too much, or perhaps if you envy long periods of sitting. I don't know anyone in the latter situation, but in that sense - it is a big world, so who knows.

I travel for business very frequently, and one of the side benefits of that is the ability to travel for pleasure. Loyalty begets loyalty in this sense, though if I had colds and fever sickness frequently, I don't know that I'd like to be rewarded with more of the same.  Perhaps airlines don't grasp some of the "fun" their own consumption experience entails.

I have come away from this week with the renewed understanding that our planet is indeed small. Getting around it all is easy. It might be a real feat to be on a Jupiter size planet and circumnavigate. Then flying at 1000 km/h, like as on a boat here on Earth,  it might take months or years.  But in our part of the solar system, we're talking about 40 hours of sitting. Big deal.  

What it brings into perspective is our fragility, due to our small size. This is relative of course. Sure, I'd hate to have to walk around the world, but think about the snail or worm's progress across the sidewalk. Then think about the Albatross, Arctic tern or Grey whale that regularly span hemispheric oceans every season.  If animals do this, as part of their innate DNA - then why do we think this is special..?

We would all approach the world differently if we were more migratory as people.  Without being 'travellers', our horizon is our whole world and the empowerment that we offer to the horizon line is self defeating I think.  "If I can't see past it, the places beyond must be far away."  Poppycock.  That's some sort of pre-historic, latency issue that was intended to ensure we didn't get lost from the pack of proto-humans we lived with for self-protection.  If I travel the world, the sabre tooth tiger doesn't get me these days, though duty-free stores may.

The other horizon-line fallacy invoked is that we can we can do what we want to the planet, and it is big enough to recover. (Hence my fragility comment) Problems only manifest past the horizon.  Sure that sounds silly, but look at history - when does the US enter WWII ? Post their islands being attacked. When a bus plunges somewhere in the world, it's only news if 3 XXX's were onboard. (At XXX, insert your nationality here). Polar ice-cap melting? Sure seems cold here in winter still. If stuff happens 'over there', past the horizon it doesn't matter to us as much as if it was right in front of us. 

Imagine for a moment that you are driving in a car, over a bridge.  Over water.  Suddenly, the car veers of the bridge, and into the water and sinks towards the bottom.  

Clearly, you're having a bad day in this car. Underwater.

What becomes evident very fast is that you're about to run out of air, and so effort is made to escape the car to avoid drowning.  That all makes sense, we would all react that way.  And I think the allusion is also clear.  You see we're all in the same car, and it is small, though due to the horizon line..we don't quite acknowledge that yet, this fact that we're in deep trouble.  Even though there's significant evidence to support the fact we're in trouble. 

Ignoring the fact doesn't make our "air" last longer to extend the analogy, it just gives us less reaction time.  Do you think more or less reaction time is beneficial if in that unfortunate situation?

I, for one, wish we'd all understand this horizon line bias that colours our perceptions about our world, as I think it would change how we approached just about everything.  

Summit the Mountain in Front of You

You'll find it's easier than trying to climb a far away or future one. 

Stretching

Sometimes we relax and enjoy down time. It's deserved, (or not) and we indulge a little.  Other times though we prepare ourselves, take a deep breath and stretch.  We push beyond our comfort zones knowing it is good for us.   This can happen in a workout or other favourite activity when we go harder for a defined short term - the sprint at the end of a run. Or it can happen over the long haul when we make life altering decisions such as moving away from the single life and deciding to have a family.  There's a middle ground though that I think represents the hardest type of stretch.  That extended but not permanent commitment to something that will do us good over the mid-term.  A year long decision to really change a pattern in your life.  There's no shortcut on these. 

Stretching isn't easy. It requires a degree of self motivation and will power. It requires that we put what's good for us ahead of what's comfortable.  And like anything we decide, there's is a need for commitment to stick with it.  With that in mind, when we see others stretch it impresses us - certainly it impresses me.  I think we place ourselves in the others' shoes for a moment and ask if we could do it.  We consider it, and quickly and if only superficially grasp what is needed for that stretch , for that movement outside where we feel safe.  We recognize it.  

I know someone that's stretching now.  I know she's not 100% ok with it. And I'm really blown away by her personal strength to do it.  I hope to be inspired by  her to explore new areas for myself and I'm not so secretly wishing her tremendous good fortune as we don't see this kind of thing everyday.  

Look around and give yourself a pat on the back if you 'stretch' regularly.  You deserve it.   

We are All Compound People

Some of us have numerous online identities, and some don't.  It can get creepy when an individual pretends to be something they aren't - middle aged men assuming the identities of young people in online communities for example - but I'm not talking about the questionable outliers, I'm thinking more mainstream.  I've heard it recommended more than a few times, that we "professionally" ought to maintain numerous profiles, one for our work, and one to make comments about a few beers with friends or your like/dislike for the favourite local team.  I happen to disagree.

I think we are all compound people - we have a multiple aspects or perspectives in our lives depending on whether we're at work, at home as kid/parent/spouse, or at church or the local biking club.  That's not an exception, that's the normal way we do things.  We exhibit it with our dress (business suit / casual wear / community clothes) and our talk.   When we suppress this idea in the online world, and pretend that we're always professional, or always all about this passion or that one, we are attempting to manipulate people's impressions of us.  Especially if under another online identity, we are making those personal comments or sharing instragrams that are 'unprofessional' in nature. (I don't mean questionable here, I mean not work-related) It is not genuine, and hence begs questions around trust in what's being said - because it's not the whole story.

I support the concept of being one person, and have the people that choose to listen to you understand that there are multiple interests and important aspects in your life.  I put forth that the same is true for each member of your audience, and hence legitimacy is granted.  Your listeners, viewers or audience may not like your entire interests - but that's the beauty of choice.  They can elect to un-listen in the various forms that takes.  For those I listen to, I'm not as interested when they post a picture of their dog, as when they talk about the things that I care about - BUT - and here's the important bit, I know that they aren't hiding anything, and are genuine as otherwise they wouldn't have the guts to say it all.  

There's a side-note here worth saying.  You don't have to post it all, and I'm not suggesting that you do share everything in your life.  If you only want to blog about work topics, or only talk to old friends on FB, that's fine.  Each of us adopts the personality for our circumstances as we require.  Just be straight about it, as we're all compound people.    

 

 

I'm probably wrong

I've been going through an interesting (for me anyway) mental exercise recently.  You see, I disagree with how someone close to me is treating a 3rd person we both know.  I fear this person close to me will get hurt, and let down, and I don't want to see that happen.  I tried to suggest caution and going slow...to no avail.

I'm not particularly hurt my advice (unsolicited) wasn't heeded - that's not my thing.  Rather I was concerned that we both had seen evidence that trust was abused in the past, and I didn't see that this person close to me had 'learned' from it, as I had.

So I've stewed for a few days.  Not fumed, or was angry in any way, just stewed.  You see this person close to me is probably the wisest person I know.  So the question in my head wasn't.."Why don't they see what I see?"...rather it was.. "What do they see that I don't ?"

I still feel the same way about the situation, and left to my own instincts, I probably wouldn't have done anything that took me off-course from acting in a manner that demonstrated that.  But, I'm putting aside what I think, and acting instead on what they think, and what they are doing.  You see I trust this person close to me, and while I can't get my head around their rationale, I know that's ok - one day I may be able to, and in the meantime, it's better to follow the judgement of someone that you know always makes good decisions.

I don't see it yet -  that I'm probably wrong, and they are right- but one day I hope to.

Pay It Forward

This was a lovely little movie from the year 2000 with that oh-so-cute little actor (Haley Joel Osment) that undoubtedly grew up and became less cute.  At least that's the reaction I get when people see the bracelet I wear that says "Pay it Forward".

In fact the concept goes back many many years, and is attributed to many practitioners from Benjamin Franklin, to Emerson and the phrase itself is credited to Lily Hardy Hammond in her 1916 book entitled "In the Garden of Delight".

Pop culture means historic and interesting references give way to movies though - and the movie had a core message that was conveyed in the title and the desire was to make the idea into a movement.  I'm happy to say that Charley Johnson has done that - and founded Pay it Forward, from which my little bracelet comes.  It's a wonderful idea, and one I'm happy to support, thanks to a few very smart people in my life that helped make me aware of it.

The concept is brazenly simple and elegant.  Do something nice for someone else.  Then give them the token (the bracelet in my case), and ask that they pay that kindness forward to another.  I wear it as it provides a constant reminder to me that I should be thinking of others more than myself.  That's what I 'get' out if it.  Being able to do something nice for another person - well that's just a bonus.

Interested ?  Get your own bracelet here.

Childhood's End

I try to be realistic and relative with new ideas I see, hear or read about, and don’t use labels such as “mind-blowing”, “revolutionary” or associate ideas to Toffler’s “Future Shock“ too easily.  But I've come across one of those concepts, and I’m staggered by it.  The implications are life-altering on a species-level for humanity, and I’m stunned by it’s significance.

I recently wrote about the mountain of data we were on the verge of collecting, and ironically, I think I missed a rather key point.  The real-time reality capture we’re on verge of making happen is but one of the mega-data components we’re enabling today.  The other is the object data, connectivity, rules and implicit implications surrounding the internet of things.  For those uninitiated, the internet of things is the connected-ness of inanimate objects and networking them.  At a macro-level, imagine your refrigerator connected to the web and telling you to pick up some eggs on the way home from home via SMS when you’re low on them.  Clever, yes ? At a more detailed level, it’s the labelling of each individual egg with unique identifiers that exist from production through distribution and consumption and these guide the need to create it, how to care for it, the distribution and marketing of it, the pricing of it and finally its’ consumption and recycling.  A smart egg indeed.  Every single item, in every household and every business, everywhere, in real time all connected and interacting.  Starting to see the scale ?  Complement that with real time capture of every stage in every day of both human and automated process reality.

Like any system, efficiency is achieved through scale.  With a rudimentary backbone already in place to connect (the internet) early systems, the framework for this infrastructure exists today.  The check-out is connected to the warehouse now, so demand, shipping and re-supply are all automated already. Getting more granular is straightforward.

Go forward now. The implications for us are overwhelming.  For this to happen we will need to revolutionize how we look at a number of aspects of our lives as we know them.

·      *   We will require whole new identification systems as today’s are cursory and simplistic when the   interactive and pervasive nature of the future is considered. Bar codes, RFID and IPV6 don’t cut it.  Will we need to be tagged too ?

·      *  The economics of this world will need to change as production is empowered with smart supply and smart demand.  More pointedly, the economics will need to systemically embedded so that ‘things’ understand their intrinsic systemic value.  The “Blade Runner” future vision of being hammered 24/7 with advertising we’ve been weaned on misses the point that as we’re too feeble in our attention spans to manually manage ourselves in this world, and will have to hand over ‘economic rules’ to the system itself. Who defines these ?

·      *  The rules or law itself will need to morph from what’s happened, which typifies our current legal approach to the web, to being enforcement of design rules.  Over-production, or faulty production (Sorry we accidentally killed your husband, the factory had a glitch) will cease to be human-caused, and so our liability concepts will evolve to allow statistically acceptable levels of error.

·      *  We will live always-connected, a cog in the wheel in a system we don’t actually run any longer, but enabled.  ‘Opt-outs’ will be a lifestyle choice I might imagine until it’s clearly uneconomic for the system, so will be eliminated.

·     *   Power in the form of politics and nations will have to evolve as protection of systems rises in importance equal to people.

·      *  Power in the form of electrical generation will also develop, as today’s data storage and management already takes the energy of 30 nuclear plants. 

I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that by and large, we don’t see this coming. 

"Much like a body slowly infected with a virus, the invitation to this future won’t be announced and the milestones missed.  The move to this future ‘utopia’ will be as fundamental a change to our species as the evolution into nations from villages 2500-4000 years ago was.  That was the dawn of civilization, and we’re verging on the end of its childhood.

Design - The Issue with Electric Cars

Like many of you, I'd like to do my part for the environment.  Like many of you, I would like to make good choices where possible, and where the 'cost' of doing so isn't prohibitive, or problematic.  And like many of you, I don't own a pure electric car.

I think of the core issue here as one of design, or specifically poor design.  It isn't that the automobiles in questions aren't attractive, they are.  It's the use-case design that leaves much to be desired.

Let me explain.  I have two flashlights at home, and one is a battery powered flashlight.  When the batteries die, I replace them.  If I need light immediately, this works fine.  It does require I have a supply of spare batteries handy, otherwise this plan doesn't work so well.  I also have a rechargeable flashlight.  After some prolonged use, the light dims, and I must recharge the flashlight. At times, this isn't feasible as it's often required when the power itself is out..  If I need light immediately, this doesn't work fine, in fact, it remains pretty dark in this latter situation.   Now, I have two flashlights as both use-cases support one another, and act as spares if one situation wouldn't work out...I may not have spare batteries, or may have to use the light for an extended period, or perhaps it isn't fully charged.  But let's get back to cars...

Now the issues with the pure electric car isn't a choice - replaceable battery or recharge station, as the former option doesn't actually exist.  In fact, the principal issue (besides the general lack of recharge facilities) is that the recharge takes hours.  Think of the lines you've seen at the gas pumps.  That takes 5-8mins to re-fill a gasoline or diesel tank. Now imagine the lines if it took 5-8 hours to refill/re-charge.

Herein lies the problem.  What we need is a hybrid (no pun) design so that I can borrow (think propane tank refills) a battery pack, connect it to my car and be off for the next 300-400 miles before I have the time and access to a proper re-charge station. That proper recharge might be at my home, office or destination.  And for what it's worth, the gas/electric hybrids don't cut it here..their mileage isn't great as the battery is an afterthought, and so they're just cumbersome, slow and awkward.  Don't believe me? Drive one.

If we focus on pure electric vehicles and the concept of 'battery packs', there's even a pricing model here that would offer benefits for the return of a fully charged portable battery pack, versus say an empty one.  But...as I said, the design doesn't allow for this, and on top of this
a few issues exist that would be problematic, such as standardized connections, moving them, storing them and so on.  Battery technology remains heavy and well behind where it needs to be...just think of your cellphone and the endless recharges it needs.  Even before this technology gets better though (and it will), someone needs to apply some common sense design-thought to how we actually use cars if the pure electric vehicle is ever to go mainstream.

Otherwise Tesla, Fisker and others will go the way of the dodo.

Short & Sweet

Sometimes you can hold someone's attention for a long period of time. Other times (most times) you have to be efficient, eloquent and succinct and make your point quickly and clearly. Often, we don't do that.  We should more.

Feeling Overwhelmed...Don't Look Up Then

There's a lot to remember these days. Between the dawn of civilization and 2003, there were five exabytes of data collected (an exabyte = 1 quintillion bytes). Today five exabytes of data get collected every two days. Soon, there will be five exabytes every few minutes. (Don Tapscott in Designing Your Mind)

The implications of items such as Google glass, and life logging are astounding, and not simply in a big data sense.  How are we to deal with all this data in how we think, recall, and synthesize what's around us, into experience we can use..?  Technology will be the enabler, but the significant change coming quickly at each of us is not appreciated I think.   We're about to personally experience Moore's Law on steroids, on crack, with a triple expresso on the side.

We're going to have to make choices, we're going to have to switch off vast areas, and we're going to experience an intellectual renaissance as a species, once we understand the depth we can reach as time in everyone's reality can be tracked, in real time, at the same time.  This has implications across everything we think about, and touch.

Fasten your seatbelt, the next big shift is almost here.

The Chains of Success

Beware the chains of success, for they will ensnare you with your knowledge and agreement.

We are often wary of the dangers of failure, avoiding it with great effort.  Sure, we know that we learn from our mistakes, but they are still to be avoided at all costs.  Better to have constant success - right ?

I hope we all see that we have to fail, and fail often, to continue to grow.  I saw something wonderful written by Samuel Beckett today.. "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."  Let that thought simmer in your mind for a moment - read it once more, slowly. Like the first sip of a fine wine, it has after-taste and resonance.

Much has been written about the value of failure by far smarter people than me.  But I think at times we aren't warned enough about the danger of success.  Achievement of success means we stop breaking new ground, we stop taking risks and we become comfortable.  We don't want to rock the boat or spoil the success we have attained.  How do we find ourselves in this predicament ?  We do some of the worst things we can do - we reward ourselves for success achieved and often in a disproportionate way.  We buy expensive toys or houses.  We let the monetary side of success seduce us.  Our new relationship with success makes our lives more comfortable, and that feels... good.  A little like rich chocolate as a treat, except that the treat is frequently longer term, and addicting. We get fat on success.

As time goes by, we want the success to continue; in fact we need it to continue to maintain our newly established lifestyle.  Everything in our consumer society drives this point home.  The result is that we aren't taking new risks with our work, our art, or passions.   We know from experience early-on, risk and success don't go together - wisdom filled mistakes taught us this.  So we become derivative in our work, our art and passions.  We settle for this and justify our specialization to ourselves as sensible, all the while not admitting to ourselves that we sold-out to the new house, or expensive toys, the lifestyle enabled and we grew very little.

So beware the chains of success for we invite them, and shackle ourselves with their luxury.  But chains, even gold-plated ones are still chains and they hold us back from our own potential.

Loyalty

When an organization seeks loyalty and gets it, the work just begins.

It's not about handing out the points, the perks or providing the ability to track "status".  It's a contract - a subtle one where the organization has said - "we value you, and we'll recognize that".  That in itself is a huge step.  And it's the heart of the matter.

The loyalty offer doesn't have to be made by the way; we could all live in a Walmart world where the provision of lowest prices carried the day. When the organization elects not to do that, and instead seeks our continued patronage in return for recognition, it's very compelling for many people.  However it carries an implicit promise that is so often over-looked, and that is that when we perceive that the recognition of the value you or I provide isn't forthcoming, we tend to head for the hills quickly.

Recognition isn't 'points' by the way, these are the reward for past behaviour and the lure for future patronage..just one more coffee, flight or trip to the grocer for the free whatever-it-is-we-seek.

Recognition is that acknowledgement that we're all participating in a contract whereby you get my business in return for the understanding that it's appreciated.  When that stops - the points and other mechanisms aren't enough to maintain that loyalty on their own, as just about everybody else has similar reward schemes these days.

Sadly too many organizations have lost the plot on loyalty.  They think they're trading prizes for loyalty, when in fact that wasn't really the basis the customer had for entering into the arrangement.  It is why their customers leave though.

Dear North Korea..

It's fun to watch you posture.

It does make many people nervous, but I don't think they really "get" you.  I think you huff and puff and the whole point in threatening and preening is to score some points at home.  After all, the thought of who might be on your side in an unprovoked attack narrows the field down to...well no other countries actually.  It's really too bad for you that you didn't discover some egregious military faux pas, like a sub stranded in your territorial waters, or South Korean soldiers sliding under the fence for some authentic BBQ beef.

If we look somewhat coldly at the facts, there's been no provocation, no recent event that you can point to, and little attention paid recently to you.  So what's changed ?  Why suck in your gut and inhale out your national chest right now..

Well I suppose there is the issue of succession, which probably doesn't sit right with some of your generals who may have had aspirations.  And Mr. Kim Jong-un (can I call you Kim ?) I imagine you do want to look good in front of the people...after all if it's seen clearly that you're a pimply faced, fat little man who has little talent, and isn't aggressive enough to be his father's son..well, I bet the prisons there aren't too sweet.

So if all this is to make yourself look imperial at home and unafraid of the big bad west, how much is enough ?  What exactly are you waiting for to concede that you've seen victory in this little war of posture.  That's the million won question isn't it.  Who in the west will make some public concession to you so that you can save face and stand down.

Therein lies the problem Kim.  You see without that initial cause to rally around, the one that the rest of us can highlight as the reason you were thrown a bone to shut-up, there's really little empathy for what you're doing.  It may just be too much this time.   When it's agreed it is too much - the payback won't come in the form of a carrier group steaming up the Sea of Japan flying the stars and stripes in the wind..no..the payback will be a messenger from Beijing and it'll be more painful for you personally.

It is fun to watch you posture Kim, but it's not entertaining for very long.

Signed,
Everyone

Where are the Advertisers ?

I don't own a PVR. Instead, I use my TV system provider's box to time shift some things I like to watch. This system works for me, and I can access content both via the traditional set-top box and TV or via my tablet with the TV Channel's apps. There's probably more ways than that as well, but between these two I manage.

What strikes me as I watched a few favourite shows in the last few days (as I have some down time), was that there's no ads. Yes there are commercials, but they are for the content that channel already has - they weren't able to; or weren't thinking they could sell ad space on these shows in this media to their clients.

Now, I grew up many years ago on a diet of TV, so commercials are just the "price we pay" for this content, and I understand that. The absence of them (and the repeated prompts to watch one or two other shows) makes me wonder...Is the world of on-demand digital content just to hard to measure by the traditional Neilson yardstick, or are there really no interested parties..?

In a fragmented world, did something actually get missed...

360º to the Customer

Sometimes we can't see where we're going because we're looking in the wrong direction.  Numerous times this past week, by numerous people (coincidence?) I was reminded, and I also reminded others that we really can't go wrong if we keep the customer in front of where we are trying to go.

So if you're lost - turn around, find the customer, and go in that direction. It's never wrong.

The Value of Interaction

Recently, I was faced with a small- a very small - group of people to work with.  Smaller than usual.  In some senses, it should have been easier, as there were fewer people to know, and I could go deeper with each.  But what you lose in a group that is few in numbers is the collaborative effect.  The interactions of people with each other is tremendously important.  We often underestimate that, and the result is that we talk at one other without ever having a discussion.

If half the act of working with others is listening, and it's hard to hear what isn't being said.  Think about that when trying to expand your own understanding of something new, or exploring an existing topic to try to uncover previously hidden gems of insight.  We need others not simply as sounding boards for our ideas, but also to reinterpret them through their own lens of experience and add perspectives we may not have acknowledged.  Interaction, collaboration - call it whatever you like... we learn through each other as much as from each other.

What's the Real Goal ?

I think there are times when we lose sight of our real goals.  Instead, we get convinced that executing our plan to achieve the goals is actually what it's about, and forget the plan itself isn't actually the goal.

I live and work in a world where we bring new ideas and ways of working (and being successful) to people.  If we're effective, people adopt these new methods and perform better.  But there are times when in our eagerness to demonstrate how well thought-out our ideas are, we lose sight that it's about people understanding and adopting what we speak about, rather than the need to transmit all the information we have.

I think it's better to get 100% traction on a smaller set of ideas, than to drown when confronted with all of them.  Of course, optimally we get both results - understanding and full content.  But, if we have to choose - choose wisely.

You - The Artist

We are all artists.  Seth's taught me that, and I've come to believe it.  We each perform our art every day doing whatever it is we do, from garbage collection to leading organizations to taking care of our kids.  Our art varies (as it should) and those really great artists stand out from the crowd as exceptional, in their own respective fields of expertise.

I had a week as an artist where I left no stone unturned, I performed to my own max, and it felt great.  I didn't short change my audience, and as a result I'm proud of the work I did.

When your experience combines with your talents, and you throw yourself into what you hope is a bravura performance - you'll never regret it.

I strongly encourage you - embrace that in your own life, and give it all you've got.  Be the artist you're capable of being.

Be Thankful

I had what in some instances might be considered a tough day on Sunday – It wasn’t really tough in the scheme of things – stuff just didn’t work out the way I’d planned, or hoped.  I was trying to get to another city  on the west coast for work– a 5.5 hour flight and I’d arranged to go early to both enjoy the day a little, and take some stress of travelling off.

Here’s what happened – I’d gotten up at 5am, and made my way through a mild snowstorm into the airport for an 08:00 flight.  They downgraded the airplane, made me do the extra security check, and couldn’t give me a seat until 25mins to departure, where I got the very last row.  Then the flight delayed.  Then the flight cancelled.  Then I couldn’t get re-booked, even though there were 3 more non-stops that day, and countless connections.  Flights were operating poorly all over the place due to the weather, even though my situation was mechanical in nature.  I ended up getting a 12:10 flight, but again due irregular ops at the airport, that plane was actually was scheduled to leave at 3:45 and eventually took off at 4pm.

But here’s why I was thankful – I made it, the plane didn’t crash, I ended up not sitting in the last row, I was able to do some preparation work while I waited and I felt better about the week’s tasks as a result.  What it costs me was some anxiety, and about 8 hours of my time, which truth be told I was going to try to enjoy casually – so nothing really lost.

I decided to be thankful rather than wound up as it made my day easier to deal with.  I tried to think consciously and positively, and appreciated the various assistance that was offered to me by others in the airport.  I don’t want to get all preachy here, but I would offer that I’m not sure what I’d have gained by being very angry and upset- I did see those people all day, and it didn’t work out well for them.

What I had reinforced from this was that some time things don’t go as planned, the situation often and frequently looks dire, and our response to it governs our experience.  But, you’ll get through it. I did.  My day wasn’t bad, and I hope I’m smart enough to have the same reaction next time. 

Motivation & Going the Extra Mile

Do you know people that work 60+ hour weeks and don't complain ?  How about those that volunteer for their community by coaching, or for their church by singing or advising those with less, or even in their families by being the 'go-to babysitters' ?

I'm sure you do, most of us know people that do those things, and perhaps some of us even do it ourselves -  but what motivates this behaviour ?   What drives us to get up at 5am, to work-out, or stay late and make personal sacrifices for the benefit of work or others in our lives.  In my work, we talk a little about business and personal agendas - the drivers we experience that cause us to do certain things.  But there's more to it I think.  Some people are simply wired to try a little harder out of a sense of wanting to be better, or the fear of the latter -  wanting to avoid looking worse.   I might suggest that there's an altruism spectrum, with Mother Theresa at one end, and a black-hole of selfishness on the other end.  Most of us are in the average, middle area, though some of us are clearly more altruistic than others.

These people tend to stand out in whatever group they find themselves in, they're the caring and giving ones.  It's great to recognize them, but the need to understand their motives doesn't always strike us.   I think it's a truism to suggest we can't force people to be selfless - not for any length of time anyway.  Any attempts to do that are misguided and ill-conceived.  The way to stimulate that behaviour is to reward the original motivation - show the fitness-oriented real gains in strength or capabilities, demonstrate to the work-focussed a raise, a promotion or a bigger office.  Show tangible results for those that strive to do a better job.  If I'd like to see someone try even harder, I might help them achieve the desired results they're aiming for, and in the process develop a sense of deep loyalty in that person.

Think about this the next time you see a situation, any situation where attempts are being made to force 'extra's' out of someone.  The way to see success here isn't a stick, or even a carrot for that matter...it's standing beside them and helping them realize the outcome they seek.

Superbowl Ads

These are works of art unto themselves at times, and they all have a couple things in common - they're over the top.  They're not regular marketing, the costs involved and expectations are too high.  Where else are the ads judged for creativity, humour and originality and viewed as stand-alones worthy of the main program.

RIM is doing one this year for the new Blackberry10, and I kind of hope they just have images of someone gasping for a last breath, as that would be realistic, ironic and worthy of note.  But I bet they try to convince us instead that they're contenders for wallet-share.  I'd be open to that story if they hadn't bought a superbowl ad actually.  But that purchase, that stage and surrounding hype really do make this seem like a desperate last gasp.

Work & Excercise

This isn't how to stay fit on the road.

Rather I'm seeing the parallels lately between physically working out, building up muscle tone, and being able to do more physically, and the work equivalent.

When you're working harder, you seem to be able to do more work.  That's somewhere between counterintuitive and obvious perhaps, but it has struck me lately.  The more you work, the more efficient you become, and your diligence and awareness of deadlines increases.  Your capacity to handle work increases.  In a way, your work "muscle" gets stronger.

Perhaps I'm wrong on this. How does it work for you ?

Hey Apple - TV is Different

There have been rumours, rustling and swirlings about Apple's move into TV for some time.  It's the 'next big frontier for them' has been some of the hype, and they'll do to TV what they did to mobile telephony.  I'd like to go out onto a limb and predict the pending arrival of the next "Newton".  Apple will uncharacteristically fail in their TV effort and here's why.

TV is different.

Than what you say ?  Than just about every other vertical they've entered before, and some of the barriers to success are not competitive but rather behavioral on the consumer's part.   These tend to be the toughest to change.

For a start, the long, slow approach to TV that they've done has left Apple without some of the more obvious quick wins it could have 'pioneered', such as web connectivity to your set - been done already.  What they've got left that's easily available to them is messing with the user interface - think TV remote morphing into an app on your various iDevices and Jetsons-era talk of the connected household.  Cool, yeah, but worth an Apple-style premium over a Sony or LG TV set ... don't think so.

TV like the original iPod, or now the latest mobile device universe is a consumption device.  And TV isn't about music, or books (hello Amazon), it's about video content that has to be fresh.  As is today's shows - that fresh.  Apple's got music, Apple's got video rentals.  Apple doesn't have TV content, and the Complete Season 2 of Friends doesn't count by the way.  They have excelled in other markets as they offered content to match the device. iPod+iTunes, iPad+Apps etc.  But without TV content that is in some way interesting, where are they ...  well, they're in the same spot as a few other TV makers...fighting a price and screen-size war.

Even if we put that aside for a moment, and assume they find TV content, the second big chalenge I see is that the business model behind TV is different than music and movies, both areas they've seen some success in.  Those are paid content models, and so buying content through another media (device) wasn't really that tough to understand.  TV however is a free subscription model, whereby we've access to the fresh content, and in return we watch certain commercial messages that are associated with it.  Apple's captive market is zero, so they aren't in a position to get a share of that revenue.  Frankly, they made such an impact on the music and movie business that was negative for most content creators, that I can't imagine any TV content creator  will want to play with them.  If the content was free on the Sony TV why would you pay Apple for it ? The answer is you won't and that's the behaviour they won't be able to change.

The last big challenge for them sprung up in December of last year, and they've perhaps not yet put two and two together about it yet.  Apple's recent hardware push has been in screen clarity, more pixels, better visuals etc.  Nice if I'm looking at photos or something.  They call it retina display, and you really can see a difference.  Imagine a TV with that...  no seriously, imagine a TV throwing incredibly high definition visuals in 30 frames per second (or more) at you.  It's overwhelming as your brain struggles to deal with it all.  Peter Jackson found this out the hard way, as he released his Hobbit movie in a variety of formats, including one in what I'll call "Super-definition".  People got lost in the story due to the visual impact. They were overwhelmed, they got headaches.  Mr. Jackson gave us a movie version of retina display, and showed us the upper end of tolerance for more visual detail.  What works fine in a photograph doesn't always translate to live action.  Again, I'm not sure Apple understands that yet, as they've not hit this barrier themselves with iDevices.

So, will they proceed anyway and release an iTV ?  I think they will, as Tim Cook, Apple's CEO needs to be seen to have a rabbit or two up his sleeve. Let's wait to see what happens..

New Year's Resolutions

Many make them, few follow through.  We know this and yet year in, year out we feel compelled at this turn of the calendar to place a line in the sand.  It's interesting, as I think we almost look at these now as things that don't have to be followed through on, a free pass given our desire for that extra junk food, or to do less when doing more is the right thing.  They've become hollow and pointless.

So - I've got a resolution for you.  Well, perhaps more of a suggestion.  Don't do new year's resolutions  this year, and if you have already - then throw it away in the same public or private manner as you've declared it.  Officially abandon them.

Take the month of January off.

Then, on February 1st, make a single (only one) resolution to do something to improve your lot in life.  It has be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound).  Do it for the month of February.  Make it really happen, knowing it's only 4 weeks.

Then, on March 1st do another one.  This one will be different, and while possibly complimentary it should stand on it's own, and also be SMART.  Focus on this one alone for the month of March.  Really do what it takes to make it happen.  It's only 31 days, of course you can do that.

And so on, and so on all year long.

At the end of 2013, you will have had 11 resolutions, each manageable, each done for a short period only.  I'll bet you succeeded with a number of them. I'll bet you even carried some of these 'enhanced' behaviors forward.

There's great reward in a sense of achievement.  By following this approach, that can be your 2013 - the year you followed through and did it.