The Beauty of Reduction May 24, 2008
. . .
Although my garden machete couldn’t make the picture, my essential message remains the same:
Reductionism is a noble value for healthy living
. . .
Where can you trim excess in your activities and plans?
LEAP: Vision, Love, and Energy March 4, 2008
Continuing with my series of posts on Steve Farber’s “The Radical Leap”, today I’ll quote and review some dialog about the source of love and inspiration individuals need to develop energy they can channel into their work.
The narrator and his companion are on the beach playing fetch with an enthusiastic dog. A stick is motivation enough for her to play, since there’s few activities she loves to play more than fetch. The companion says:
“..people are not dogs; we’re not content to spend our lives chasing sticks. We’re far more complex that that; yet, so many businesspeople throw sticks and expect others to fetch and come back again and again like good little doggies.”
How we’ve all been subject to that at times, as if we’re kids happily receiving candy and toys in response to good behavior or rituals (birthdays, holidays). Sure, they’re perks. But ultimately all humans need attention, validation, a feeling of contributive worth, and at least a sense of purpose.
The narrator goes on to say that to energize and inspire masses, most leaders will give stout speeches, write rousing memos, print shirts, hang up posters, etc. The real kicker is the Vision, to which the companion adds:
“It’s become conventional wisdom that in order to get people excited about the present, you talk about the future, you have a vision statement. Problem is, most vision statements are way too incomplete at best, and cynic-inducing claptrap at worst…It’s easy to pump people up. But its usually a temporary phenomenon. Michael Cunningham, the novelist said, ‘If you shout loud enough, for long enough, a crowd will gather to see what all the noise is about. It’s the nature of crowds. They don’t stay long unless you give them reason’.”
The companion goes on to say how most vision statements are formed by executive committees offsite, arguing over petty words, phrases, and trite expressions. When they’re done, they laminate it and hand it out to everyone in little wallet cards or place them on walls around the premises. He funnily says:
“It’s as if they expect the laminated card to work like a nicotine patch. Carry it close to your skin [or on your desk] and the energy will somehow get in your bloodstream…A vision statement doesn’t generate energy, love does, great ideas do, principles and values do. A vision statement that comes from a corporate exercise is about as energizing and memorable as a saltine cracker.”
Next, the companion reasserts love generating energy, draws a circle of hearts around the narrator and him, posits that it’s the extreme leader’s job to connect all those hearts, and continues:
“Without that heart connection, you may have an employer-employee thing going on, or a bureaucratic boss-subordinate ‘relationship’. But people who don’t have that heart connection won’t try to change the world together. And if you’re not trying to change the world, you haven’t entered the realm of the Extreme Leader”.
The narrator then asks how to establish such a connection, to which his companion replies:
“By revealing yourself as a human being to those you hope to lead. So, instead of reciting a vision statement, reflect on the ideals that it represents, and take it all into your on heart. Then at every opportunity - whether you’re talking on-on-one or standing in front of a crowd - you say, in essence, ‘This is who I am, this is what I believe, this is what I think we can do together if we put our hearts into it. Look at how magnificent our future can be. Please join me and let’s help each other make this happen.’ Then you can burn the document, because, in effect, you’ve become the vision.”
Electric connections will ensue, because it’s honest, well-delivered, and sends an impacting blow to those around. Now that makes a lot of sense. Sure, I’ve thought vision / mission statements were lame at times, but I understand the good intention was oftentimes there. This story made me think much more about effective delivery techniques that resonate strength and authenticity, while kicking banality and generic hope to the curb.
One CEO I worked for delivered this passion and purpose of the company exceptionally well; other department heads could too (except for mine). The little placards around the building didn’t mean too much because all of us understood our roles and commitment to paying fanatical attention to the needs of prospects and clients, while seeking to make the most innovative and unique products retailers would love. That was our common purpose and what we strove to do everyday.
[image by brapke]
The LEAP February 16, 2008
Continuing with some tasty quotes from “The Radical Leap” by Steve Farber:
“If I love who we are, and if I love what we can be, then I’ll love the process of how we get there. And in order to make it all happen, I will act boldly and courageously and I will, at times, fail magnificently. But my love demands that I try. Demands it.”
“that’s the nature of leadership in the extreme: the dynamic interplay of love and fear. Acting out of love creates fear, and love gives me the courage to work through that fear.”
LEAP - Love, Energy, Audacity, Proof
“Love generates Energy, inspires Audacity, and requires Proof. LEAP, you see, is simply the Extreme Leader’s active, dynamic, expression of love.”
“The Extreme Leader consciously and intentionally cultivates love in order to generate boundless energy and inspire courageous audacity. And he or she must provide the proof that it’s all been worthwhile: proof through the alignment between word and action; proof through the standing up for what’s right; proof through measurable, tangible signs of progress; and proof through the experience of phenomenal success as well as glorious failure. That’s the LEAP. And, if I can add to that, it’s the LEAP that creates the OS!M [Oh Shit! Moment]. The OS!M is fear in the pursuit of creating something greater than the current reality. And the desire to create something greater is a bold expression of love. Simple as that.”
On Fear and Leadership February 11, 2008
So I started a new book tonight: The Radical Leap, by Steve Farber. After the first chapter though, I really couldn’t continue reading that or anything else. I wanted a certain feeling to stick around a little longer, and not be distracted or diluted with other interesting facts or observations on any subject. Here’s some quotes that caught my attention:
“We’ve been conditioned to believe that fear is bad. And yeah, fear can save your life or keep you from doing something stupid, but it can also keep you from doing something great, from learning something new, and from growing as a human being. Fear is a natural part of growth, and since growth, change, and evolution are all on the Extreme Leader’s agenda, fear comes with the territory.”
“You screw up every day, and everyone already knows it. But when you can show us that you can face your own screw-ups, when you can publicly acknowledge that you crashed and burned, when you can - metaphorically speaking - hoist your shirt in front of a hundred people to show us the scar that you earned when you fell off the mountain, we’ll be closer to you as human beings. And we follow human beings; we don’t follow idealized icons of unattainable perfection.”
“If you’re using all the buzzwords, reading all the latest books, and holding forth at every meeting on the latest management fads, but you’re not experiencing that visceral churning in your gut, not scaring yourself every day, not feeling that Oh Shit! Moment like clockwork, then you’re not doing anything significant - let alone changing the world - and you’re certainly not leading anyone else. But you’ll sure look snappy in your big, baggy pants.” [allusion to 'posers' wearing skater clothes for fashionable reasons, not for participating in the sport where the jeans cover up protective gear underneath].
The Ghost Map November 19, 2007
Sometimes a true story comes along that is suspenseful and gripping. Not for the facts, but for the manner in which the author has laid out the narrative combining the historical background, situation, characters, and long-term implications.
While business, sociology, and design books have been the staple of my reading diet over the last year, it was a historical nonfiction book that captured my attention last weekend: The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson.
While the story is about 2 gentlemen whose efforts helped cease a Cholera outbreak in a London district in 1854 and subsequently advanced the nascent field of epidemiology, there is an important underlying lesson. Theories are vastly abundant and can be made by anyone. Evidence or proof is often demonstrated by the presence of correlating phenomena. But correlation does not prove causation. Thus in the lack of strong evidence that is supported by multivariate data sources, we must be a bit careful in what we hear/read/see and choose to establish an opinion or belief about.
Skepticism can be a virtue. It can prevent you from following the wrong path, leading down many popular, yet false and dead-ending roads…which in the end may just leave you holding a confirmation bias, a shield for the ego.
In this day and age, we marketers must be wary of fads and marketplace happenstance, versus viable long-term trends. We know that technology and a culture of participation have been radically transforming certain aspects of our lives. See my post on Wikinomics for a glimpse.
My point is that in this day of hyperactivity and innovation, let us not forget to gather facts from multiple angles; let us not limit our field of view in popular paradigms and models as absolute platforms for the future; let us remember that substantial change is only possible when its total perceived cost is much lower than the total perceived benefit.
Be skeptical - Build a case - Communicate it well
Awakening of an Open Heart September 12, 2007
[From another blog I write, comes a bit of bit of personal enlightenment I'd like to share]
To truly enjoy the sweetness of life,
Appreciate our true nature:
that we all desire and pursue happiness
while seeking to avoid suffering.
When our minds grasp that reality
in little glimpses or as part of a habit
that we cultivate through practice and awareness,
we’ll recognize the full capacity
of an Open Heart.
One that we can use to express compassion:
for ourselves because this is our life to live and enjoy,
and for others since giving can be fun and
seeing others happy gives great pleasure.
An Open Heart knows no boundaries
it just acts without exception to time, place, or object.
Its strength may be variable
but its intent is unchanging.
To truly love responsibly,
we must be willing to give and receive
without expectation nor envy; like Life,
Love has a fluid state of being.
It is never the same, one moment to the next.
When we recognize this impermanence,
we are able to give more to others and
realize fuller happiness in Life, in addition to
being able to freeing ourselves of any
sadness or discontent when it seems to fade,
or we don’t sense a receipt in kind.
Voltaire once wrote:
“Love is a canvas furnished by nature
and embroidered by imagination”.
Let it be free and enjoy its presence…
in the past,
this living moment,
and what time may come 
A Grand Conversation for the New Age July 12, 2007
The Era of Enlightenment is back in full glory. After 250 years since these classicists helped fuel a revolution of ideas across Europe and in the New World, a Grand New Coalition has formed to spread the merits of thinking open-mindedly and the power of conversation as a tool to further the humanistic, commercial, and spiritual progress of mankind. The following individuals have come together for a wondrous cause.
These individuals have each contributed a page to a book called “The Age of Conversation”. In it, each author discusses their perspective on how conversation is best seen and applied in this new millennium. I’m happy to be one of the authors included, and I recommend you keep it in mind for your bookshelf.
Sales proceeds will be going toward the children’s charity Variety.
Official website:
To purchase:
Collective Intelligence May 3, 2007
That’s my topic for ‘The Conversation Age’. It’s an interesting subject I formally read about in James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds, and am now laterally exploring in Wikinomics.
But my first encounter with it was in the field of Competitive Intelligence, a discipline I have studied in the past and still highly admire. You see, apparently there’s a lot of gold in them there conversations with various departmental employees, partners, and customers. You just have to strike up a conversation and you’ll get plenty of fun facts, insight, and often directions on who else to talk to or where to research next.
If we decide to expand this conversational range horizontally (in topic) and vertically (in audience category)…you can get an idea of the depth of field we’re looking at here. Yet wait! Don’t think you’ll get a big bag of intelligence by simply chatting and asking for feedback. There’s a common process to this game. It doesn’t have to be strictly followed like we would the scientific method…but adhesion to the rules will yield better results if you’d like to go from “that’s nice to know” to developing strategies and tactics for the wide variety of applications you might imagine.
With only 400 words and one diagram, I’ve attempted to make my case without being too technical nor trite. I hope you’ll like it 
I look forward to perusing what the other authors have to reveal.
The State of Being Genuine April 14, 2007
In my relations with other people, sometimes I perceive it unconsciously - like intuition in Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink“. And sometimes it just gradually develops through repeated interaction. Merriam-Webster defines it partially as “sincerely and honestly felt or experienced”, “free from hypocrisy or pretense”. CK makes an interesting post about authenticity, from a different context though, and highlights the points: raw, no sugar-coating, and giving the self through storytelling
In my own personal development over the last couple years, I’ve meditated on the precept of loving kindness, as best taught to me by Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. It can be easy to apply to friends and family members, but what about the rest of the world? (let’s exclude children, the poor, and sick for whom feeling empathy comes naturally). Note: In the last 3 years I’ve made good friends online and offline…and the distinction between inner and outer circle is rapidly fading away.
This is where there’s much need for growth in our society. The ideals of individualism and return on personal investment still cloud a lot of thinking in our society. In our day and age, it seems people bent on treading the path alone while using others for temporary gain and access will have even greater trouble ahead and turn into even bigger jerks down the road.
According to Keith Ferrazzi, being generous and sincere in all our relations with others not only makes for a more fulfilling and joyful life but also a more successful career as an unexpected benefit. I am a third through his book: “Never Eat Alone” and I must recommend it for anyone starting their career. It has taught me a lot more about interpersonal communication in addition to Dale Carnegie’s classic. Keith even has a section on blogger culture, which I’m about to start. If you’re interested in learning what he has to say, he gave a presentation to Microsoft 13 mo. ago available Here (Note: IE browser only).
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Now to open up to readers:
How do you recognize authenticity?
Where is the line between general friendliness and superficiality? Should businesses teach their employees that difference?
Should all undergrads have a mandatory course in interpersonal communication and ethics? Like English 101?
The Secret April 5, 2007
From a friend of a friend whose local meetings based on the book by Rhonda Byrne, got picked up by NBC Nightly News:
A popular rehashing of some classic psychology applied to daily living. Think positive and attract yourself to what you desire in life. I saw the film and enjoyed it, although the production was a bit over the top. It’s really just another perspective on maintaining good mental attitudes.
As a student of eastern philosophy and having previously studied NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), all this is nothing new. The Secret is just packaged in an easy format and marketed/positioned in a way to stand out to people who have never explored personal living psychology and great habit training.
I believe the greatest insight comes when we can just observe our thoughts from a third person perspective. Are they negative, of an assuming nature, overly positive, rational, what? Sssshhhhhhhh……..just observe. If there’s a bit of anxiety, fear or pain…acknowledge it’s there. We can’t think it away. Embrace it and we can come to terms and resolve it in a reasonable manner. Smile…take a break. Keep realistic goals and make some deep wishes for life aspirations and dreams. Lastly, on a different angle, watch your diet and bodily health. This is one area of the “you” that has a dramatic influence in the subconscious quality of our lives.
Happy Easter everyone!
