I’ve been contemplating this afternoon when we know we have enough knowledge, training and experience to do what it is we want to do. 

I met someone at the bar camp in Lincoln last Saturday (Awesome Camp) who started this train of thought.   Just when I had decided that you have enough when you feel ready to start, Rachel Roy threw me for a loop this morning. 

Rachel Roy is a New York designer I admire.  Trust me, I’m no fashionista, but Omaha Fashion Week last fall made me realize just how little I know about this area and I’ve been exploring.  I like how she runs her business and her use of cardigans (see – so not a fashionista). 

This morning Rachel Roy was on Rachael Ray’s Show.  The focus of the show was 2010 trends.  My point however, is that neither of the RRs received any formal training for their chosen fields.  Ray mentioned she’d learned to cook from her mother and Roy said it was her passion and persistence that led to her success.  Their comments rang true and challenged my earlier conclusion. 

So I’ve changed my mind.  I now think you have enough knowledge, training and experience to do what you want to do when you try and succeed.  The key I think is to try, fail, learn from that failure and try again.  Try as many times as needed.  Try until you succeed.  It’s scary, but we’d better get started if we’re going to succeed.

Do you know what this means?  Neither did I this time last year.  Which is why I’m writing about it today. 

Dogfooding is the process of using your own product or service to figure out whether it’s ready for consumers.  Google did it over the past holiday season with it’s new Android.  Dogfooding helps companies determine whether any problems remain.  It’s a good idea.  It’s a good term to add to your vocabulary.

Blue ocean refers to a market that is wide open.   In contrast, red oceans are crowded markets full of sharks that make the water red.  Blech.  There is an example in “Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne that clearly communicates this concept. 

Cirque du Soleil was a blue ocean idea.  Before Cirque du Soleil, there were traditional circuses and theatre productions.  Each had set audiences (you know who you are), set expenses and had been done for many, many years.  These are very red oceans.  Cirque du Soleil removed expensive portions of the circus (animals) and theatre productions (well known performers).  It also blended elements of the circus and theatre to appeal to both audiences and attract additional crowds. 

What blue oceans can you see?  What blue oceans can you imagine?  How could your company benefit from dogfooding?  How could you benefit from dogfooding?  I tried napping in my guest room today and decided it’s far too cold and crowded in that room for guests.  Dogfooding works.  Blue oceans are worth the search. 

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I met with someone today at a local Panera (Starbuck’s was full).  We were covering a dry, practical, boring, but necessary topic of business.  Nothing thrilling until he asked about how I came to be a small business owner and I wrapped up my little synopsis with “and now I can’t imagine ever going back to the way things were before.” 

Much to my astonishment (and delight once the shock wore off) he high-fived me right there in the middle of the quiet, suburban Panera.  It was a very enthusiastic high five and a very quiet Panera.  I’m sure you can imagine the stares. 

And I loved it.  I was honored to be recognized by a fellow adventurer and thrilled to exchange tales of our experiences. 

It reminded me of a sappy story I heard once about how we should follow our dog’s example and greet all our loved ones enthusiastically when they return home. 

Greet the next innoveering entrepreneur you meet with an enthusiastic high five.  It will make their day and encourage them to work even harder – even on the boring, dry aspects of business.

Is anyone researching what the results of our searches mean?  Has anyone even verified that our search results are a valid reflection of or commentary on our society?  They must mean something.  Are we documenting this electronic landscape for the job security of future archaeologists and historians?   

Ironically, I spent way too much time today trying to answer these questions using my favorite search engine.  The closest I could find was Jonathan Harris‘s TED presentations (here and here) describing his work collecting and telling stories through new means.       

If you know anything more about this or find out anything more through better search skills, please contact me.  I don’t know what else to say about this – except that I feel it’s important to explore the potential of this area as a research tool.

The results of my Google searches for “rest” and “relax” have been haunting me.  This often happens when I become aware of a long held assumption or blind spot.  I’m troubled and am doing my best to think it through. 

I’ve spent a lot of time wondering what would change in our physical environments if we became a society that valued rest more.  In other words, what would our personal, public and semi-public environments look like if we valued rest?  What would our businesses look like?  What would you change in your home?  Could some of these changes be made relatively quickly and easily?  Could we give it a try for a little while and see what happens? 

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I’ve never been very comfortable with the word rest.  Which is unfortunate for so very many reasons. 

My problems with the word have varied.  The biggest reasons are grammatical and guilt ridden.  To me, “rest” sounds far too much like ”wrest” and, in my experience, nothing good ever happens when that verb is in use.  I’ve also always felt guilty resting unless it was a verifiable and officially certified ”well earned rest.”  Until now. 

Now is different.  Now I’ve learned the value of rest.  It’s priceless.  A good rest brings clarity of thought, order to emotions, fresh ideas and an overall sense of joy.  In short, I’ve discovered that rest is actually a very active and productive verb.   

If I pitched those outcomes to your business, wouldn’t you sign up for the product or service?  So why did I resist it for so many years?  Why are you resisting?  Embrace rest – and don’t let anyone wrest it from you (or make you feel guilty).   

Shocking discovery!  Search Google Images for “rest” and see what you find.  It’s a terribly sad representation of what our society thinks about rest.  Rebel and rest!

I have a theory that we’re returning to many of the societal norms of the 1700 and 1800′s.  Stick with me here.  If I’m right, it will have some serious implications for your future. 

It wasn’t until the industrial revolution (1760-1850) that we began reporting to little spaces in big buildings to do our work for a set period of time.   Until then we worked together in smaller collaborations featuring partnerships, craftmanship and apprenticeships. 

I’m not saying that having a small space in a big building is bad (I would have loved to have had a small space in Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park lab).  However, I don’t believe it is the optimal way for humans to work creatively on a long term basis.  Even Edison’s lab operated more by rote experimentation than imaginative exploration (>6,000 filament materials tested).     

But it isn’t just the work environment that I think we’re revisiting.  Instead of focusing on what degrees we’ve accumulated, I think our approach to education is beginning to value again what we know, who has invested in teaching us and what valuable experiences we’ve encountered.  Also technology has made it possible for the “gentleman” scholar to once again learn everything there is to know about his chosen field.    Lastly, technology has also made it possible for these field specific experts to find each other and correspond. 

It’s probably a good thing to resurrect some of these old norms.  After all the buildings can only get so big and the individual work spaces so small.

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Do you regularly experience psychological flow?  Do you want to?   Does the idea frighten you a little?  Do you know what psychological flow is?

I knew in my bones that flow existed before I had the word “flow” to label the experience.  I was unbelievably thrilled to stumble across Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s definition of the concept and accompanying “handle” last fall.  Having a word has made this idea much easier to discuss with others. 

Besides having an intriguing name, Csikszentmaihalyi defines flow as total absorption in an activity.  These are bare, dull words to describe the magical wonder of losing yourself so deeply in a project you feel so passionately about that you forget anything else exists. 

For flow to exist you must:

• Be involved in a project you find personally rewarding
• Have clear and attainable goals
• Be capable of handling that project, but also have the project challenge your skills
• Have control over your work  
• Not feel the least bit self-conscious about yourself or the work you’re producing
• Be able to concentrate on the project to the exclusion of other thoughts (including bodily functions)
• Lose tract of time

For me, flow is the mental equivalent of a runners high.  You find your rhythm and work your way through the process until you burst into an awareness of an amazing clear, clean feeling of accomplishment. 

As kids we seem to experience flow much more easily and regularly than we do as adults.  Think of the child absorbed in play or dancing to unheard music.  This may be attributed to our adult size responsibilities.  However, I believe we’d find more time and means as adults to experience flow  if we placed a higher value on creativity. 

I also believe that we recognize the results of flow when we see them.  They’re new, different, intriguing, alluring, clever and authentic.  They have a sense of truth and honesty about them.  Great things come from flow.  Watch for them and they’ll begin to stand out like beacons of light.   

PS3 Flow

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Innoveering

I enjoy words.  They’re useful, versatile and can be quite entertaining.  The right word at the right moment is an amazing convergence of thought, purpose and action (“Nuts!”).

Some words are timeless (freedom), while others are not (groovey).  Occasionally words can lose their meaning through overuse or repeated misuse.  Sometimes new words are needed to capture new thoughts. 

Innoveering isn’t formally recognized as a word yet, but it will be.  The general consensus is that it’s pioneering innovation.  Innovation with a twist of adventure and a dash of daring.  Imagine modern pioneers exploring and pushing back the edges of established creativity and thought.  Imagine people failing with gusto and verve, dusting themselves off and moving on to find out what’s behind the next hill.  You never know when and where the next great idea will be found.  You can however be certain that the innoveers amongst us are searching for it.  Fo’ shizzle.    

For those of you who also love words and haven’t yet heard Erin McKean speak, treat yourself today and listen to one of her talks (here or here) or check out her lexicography blog.   

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Connections: Imagination First & The Time Paradox

So what’s the connection between imagination and time perspectives? John Boyd, co-author of “The Time Paradox” has the answer. Years before he joined Google, he spent two weeks teaching 50 students at community colleges in San Mateo California to shift more towards a future time perspective through mental simulation. 

The outcomes were both astounding and heartbreaking. At the end of the study, two students reported “I set a goal and it came true. That never happened before.” and “At first I did not understand what this mental simulation was about. But it has helped me achieve one of my most important goals, staying out of jail” (quotes from The Time Paradox). 

While mental simulation sounds like science fiction, it’s actually a fancy word for using your imagination to mentally play act several possible scenarios. Yes, it’s as simple as that. If you’re reading this, you’re probably at least some future time perspective and may have trouble believing that community college students need to be taught to use their imaginations. It’s true though. Remember we view the world through our own time tinted glasses. 

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