Falling in love with Amanda Palmer a little ...

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

I watch TED talks regularly as I find them inspirational, thought provoking and they introduce me to people that I most likely will never meet but who say things worth listening to - I highly recommend it!

It was TED who introduced me to Amanda Palmer.

Let me back up a second here and let you know that way back when, like all of us, I had to make a decision as to what I would do "when I grow up". For me I did have to decide if I wanted to travel the road of an artist or go into the sciences - ultimately I took the science route as I figured there was enough angry young man art already without me adding to the collection. The sciences have served me well but I have a great affinity for the arts in all shapes and sizes as it makes me whole.

Amanda Palmer is a musician as well as a poet I suspect, so right away I have a soft spot for her - she is also tall, attractive, well spoken, daring and original. The foundations for a crush are set but then compound watching her TED talk a couple more times, checking out her web site and watching some of her music videos and it becomes official that I've fallen in love a little. I've attached her TED talk so you can check it out and see for yourself.

I would like to think I do not slide into "groupie status" so easily and hence my "science/ business hybrid side" kicks in and I need to discover what is really at the core of this newly minted crush. I actually like Amanda's cabaret punk but it turns out my crush has nothing to do with the artist per se but actually the business woman... it's probably not even an aspect of any formal business frame work but more simply who she is, which serves business very well. 

I've fallen in love with Amanda because she is uber-customer connected and different! 

For me, Amanda has redefined "customer oriented"... in fact, I'm now throwing out the term as a part of my lexicon and using "Customer Connected". I look at my business career as well as other businesses that believe they are guided by being customer oriented but I dare say they are probably not - at most "transactionally efficient", which is by no means customer connected. I dare you to look at your customer through Amanda's eyes... look hard at what you see and decide if you are really connected. Oh one more thing, I get that having a bunch of drunken Germans draw on you may be hard to scale but the spirit of it most definitely isn't!

I'm was almost afraid to write the word "different" as it's a black hole for debate, definition and every philosophy ever created; so in the context of my crush I will say that Amanda being different allows her to see the status quo and say, "why do we have to do it that way" and "the way I see it, it needs to change for success"... different is what drives change. Different is that Change Agent people whisper about and that is what Amanda Palmer is.

So there you have it... someone who truly connects with the customer as well as who can see past the current situation to change the game... how can a person not fall in love a little?

gpe 

PS: Amanda, if you ever read this know there is a couch at my place with your name on it. Bring Neil too, as I like his books.

A Samurai and his smartphone...

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

Remember how cool it was to be a Samurai swordsman? (Just go with it) - I mean you had this ability that few others could rival, your skill was valued, you were respected and you were important (and dangerous). Then along came the gun and almost overnight it was all gone... not so dangerous except when you were "packing".

So along comes the Internet, then the smartphone and "bam" the value of knowledge for knowledge's sake isn't really that important anymore. I mean, want to know when Louis XIV reigned? -  It's twenty seconds away on your smart phone (from 1643 to 1715 btw). Facing extinction is the person who has knowledge for knowledge's sake... more and more we all have this knowledge at our finger tips, along with greater convenience and connection... the playing field is now equal and in effect we are all Samurais with a smartphone...

So here is one Samurai's story about a smartphone, decision making and risk tolerance.

When I travel, I take a Go Pro and my smartphone to meet all of my memory capturing needs. My last trip took me to Iceland and as expected my portable cameras left me with some amazing visuals and a fine tale to tell. The very last picture I took with my smartphone was of a glacier on which I was hiking and climbing- oh yes, I should foreshadow this by mentioning it was raining. With this picture you see here taken, I put my phone back into my "water proof pocket" and went about climbing and hiking said glacier. 

On the way back to the hostel and with a long bus ride ahead, I settle in and decide to listen to some music, as a smartphone is rather multifunctional compared to a cool sword. Reaching into my pocket I first ask myself why the bottom of my phone is dripping wet, then secondly recognize that my home page is half its normal size and then finally settle into the gut wrenching realization that my phone is wet, possibly ruined and I've now cut myself off from the world as well as everything that is holy! So how did this happen you may ask? Well the water proof pocket only really works when you zip it up fully. (Ugh)

Just so you know Samurais don't throw rabid tantrums or lament to the cosmos as to "why me?", they calmly review the situation, solicit advice from other travellers who have dry smartphones and envision how you can bend the universe to get a box of rice. And get this, ten minutes into the drive we make a pit stop and across the street is a grocery store - 500 Icelandic krona later I have a box of rice and a phone nestled snuggly inside. For those of you asking" why rice"? Well it is a tried and true method for drying things out as the grains of rice absorb water.

So over the next two days the functionality of my phone is restored except for the mechanical home button, which can easily be replaced by the virtual screen version (thank you Dave for helping me discover this). My worst fears have evaporated -  I'm connected with the world again and regained my equalizing smart phone.

Fast forward two months... I'm having a business lunch and all of a sudden my smart phone speaks, and keeps speaking, randomly dials people and plays music. Looks like my smartphone's voice control has become sentient and it's now a contest for the soul of my phone. Periodically for about 15 minutes the voice control takes over, wreaks havoc and then the phone is mine again. Over the next week I work with the friendly and patient people in technical service to reset the phone a couple of times as well as reinstall the operating system twice ... but still I wrestle with the voice control for supremacy. Ultimately though, it's off to have someone look at it where an hour and a half later I'm told it's water damage, the warranty is void and I can either buy a new phone or hope the voice control has surrendered the contest.

So in the end I'm hoping that between having the phone inspected and shutting off the voice control I have prevailed and don't have to spend $300 on a phone.... just incase though, I have an appointment booked in two days to buy a new phone. We shall see.

In all of this, which is probably more reflective of every day modern Samurai life than anything, I am most proud of how calmly I worked through this situation instead of looking to the stars and screaming at the top of my lungs "why does this kind of thing always happen to me!!!" As you know, Samurais don't do that sort of thing.

Oh yes, glaciers really are blue - Who knew?

gpe

It just happened... my head exploded

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

So I was asked to articulate creative problem solving and outline the process to others so they can understand how it works  -  take the concept, along with my enthusiasm and design a tangible utility that people can understand and execute on... Sounds reasonable.

An example of a problem solving process

Truth be told I figured I needed a couple of days of thinking and rough notes, two days for formalizing a crisp PowerPoint deck and a day for proofing... I'd be ready for the boardroom or the coffee shop. You would think that after all these years I wouldn't be so "impulsive" with my scheduling.

What became apparent very quickly is that good ol' effective problem solving (and it's process) is primarily defined by successful resolution of the problem; creative problem solving seems to creep into the discussion when problem resolution isn't "so successful". Let me also throw this out there - it is very possible that the problem was not solved because of poor execution of the solution, not because the solution was flawed... this just gets better all the time don't you think?  So for this current discussion, and the sake of my sanity, let us assume execution of the solution is not an issue.

So why don't we just start with creative problem solving and just increase the probability of success - it is assumed creative problem solving increases success right? There is something in the word creative it seems... magical and mysterious.

There are a number of problem solving processes that are well defined and can take you through the process of situation analysis, problem identification, solution identification and execution & monitoring (simplified) ... and they work. It's when they don't work the word creative appears. It was this word that threw a wrench in my "impulsive planning schedule" that I mentioned. 

I've delayed the inevitable long enough and now I guess I will have to take a stab at what creative means with regards to creative problem solving... so here goes - "thinking, interpreting and acting differently". And this dear reader is where my head exploded -  as individuals, and business in particular, we want consistent, predictable, constant and straight forward ... oh yes, we are also habitual, change adverse and more often than not do as we are told (and lets not forget all that schooling). Different is really not what we are looking for.

So what does it take to "think, interpret and act differently"?  I've started a list -

• Identify and change belief systems
• Develop a diverse knowledge base
• crush group think
• encourage lateral thinking
• become risk tolerant
• more to come

So let's say, up until now you agree with my train of thought and feel sorry for my head exploding (as spectacular as it was), there is still that looming question which in light the list I started  speaks to the antithesis of how we behave, even with the best problem solving process supporting us... "How do you actually get one to think, interpret and act differently?"

Well it seems like that crisp PowerPoint deck is going to take a little longer and I now have a much larger number of potential blog topics.

Stay tuned.... and thank you for reading,

gpe