Just Think

A 61 Corvette. Any day.

What is there not to love?

This guy in Dallas Texas has spent most of his life and money being a dedicated lover of things. Especially this car. I actually didn¹t make an offer, even though I look like I am, but it was very tempting. You could literally have licked it.

A very beautiful thing and a wonderful man who anybody could speak to for literally hours whether they liked cars or no. A special moment. And yes it was taken by a Leica but not mine. This is a mini one. I got the Digilux 3 in the end.

Another thing of beauty but sadly the M8 will have to wait.

Alberto Seveso

When you find an original artist it is a rare thing and you want to inform others.

I know this can be irritating. Why would you like what I like? For me it's the mix and mash that I guess i'm commenting on here. A metaphor for so much these days and an interesting take and style on life, especially his photographs, take a look. This guy isn't necessarily that original anymore in that there is a lot of this style emerging but hey he's got it down to a real art in my opinion. Alberto Seveso

Eye On Creativity said this:

"It's rare we look at something here at EoC and go 'wow', but lately we¹ve been pleasantly surprised by the amount of times we have. If you¹re looking for an inspirational start to your week, you have to check out Alberto Seveso and his Recycled Area. It's an amazing mash up of illustration, graphics, and photography with truly breathtaking results. The style is very fluid, alluring, and minimally complex which will no doubt capture your imagination. Here¹s hoping you have a right mouse button though, as navigating the site can be a little tricky."

High Dynamic Range

An example of an HDR photo with (above) and without (below) HDR:

"High Dynamic Range" or HDR. Never heard of it? Nor me until today.

Take a good look at these two shots. Incredible and  why can¹t all photography be like this? This is is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures (i.e. a large difference between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows.

With thanks to the funky cats at HDR Photogallery see more links below...

Visual illusions

Frankly I'm not normally or especially amazed by these things any more but here are two examples of a more interesting type. They kind of do make you think a bit more about the eye and the brain colluding to mess our heads up - quite a lot.

The first one shows us that the two greys Œ'A' and 'ŒB' are in fact the same color. Never in a million years - except they truly are.

And in the second one all of the small bars within each pattern are actually the same color (i.e., all of the blue segments are the same color blue, all of the red segments are the same color red, and all of the small grey bars are the same color grey).

The lightness differences you are experiencing are massive illusions. A theory of what's underlying the lightness illusions in this figure is described in a paper to appear in as special issue of Perception on "Contextual effects on color appearance."

Have a wonderful season...

Well, that was the year and to finish it on a high - just a little gift from me. I find some things, just visually astonishing and here is a great example that is out of somewhere quite magical. Enjoy and see you all in 2008.

All courtesy of the incredible Nouvelle Vague

Making Tough Decisions

There is a great book by Alex Lowy go get it if you are into knowing how to make great decisions. In my business we have the maxim, "Helping our client's avoid solving the wrong problem really well" Alex has written the book on how.  Visit Alex's site here.

Patience may be a virtue, but the passive mindset is deadly. We rarely sit in neutral; either we are moving towards or away, positive or negative, confident or fearful. Once the negative mindset is established, it becomes a part of the problem, often the most difficult one to dislodge.

Define the problem correctly

Our propensity to tackle the wrong problem only increases with the perceived seriousness of the situation. If you are stuck on a problem, assume two things: the definition is probably incorrect, and you have somehow become part of what's problematic. Break down to build up; synthesize to re-frame; seek opinions to challenge faulty assumptions.

Separate emotions from facts

Great problem solving calls upon rationality and feelings in equal measure. Together they bring content and context into true focus. Unfortunately, emotions can take over, distorting reality and influencing us unduly. This is obviously the case with negative emotions like fear and anxiety, but can also result from our hopes and expectations. We need to be able to see both with our emotions and beyond them.

Learn and apply problem solving methods that fit the situation

One size does not fit all circumstances. Churchill¹s unique character made him an ideal wartime leader but lackluster in peace. The ability to size up the moment and assume the most appropriate problem solving stance is essential as situations shift. Becoming proficient at a variety of problem solving methods gives you the confidence to choose the right approach rather than going with what feels natural and comfortable.

Paradigm shift?

With thanks to Clare O¹Halloran today...

"I remember a mini-paradigm shift I experienced one Sunday morning on a subway in New York. People were sitting quietly -- some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene.  Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed.

The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people's papers. It was very disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing.

It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe that he could be so insensitive as to let his children run wild like that and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all. It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience and restraint, I turned to him and said, "Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn't control them a little more?"

The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, "Oh, you're right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't know what to think, and I guess they don't know how to handle it either." Can you imagine what I felt at that moment? My paradigm shifted. Suddenly I saw things differently, and because I saw differently, I thought differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently. My irritation vanished. I didn't have to worry about controlling my attitude or my behaviour; my heart was filled with the man's pain. Feelings of sympathy and compassion flowed freely.

"Your wife just died? Oh, I'm so sorry! Can you tell me about it? What can I do to help?" Everything changed in an instant.

Intriguing

I am a big fan of axiom's and epithets, quotes and such like. I even write my own, for example: "An opinion is often a lie dressed up as a fact..."

It is intriguing to me, these paradoxes that face us every day of the week. You know; the more you know the less you are sure about anything; the more you try to get straight somewhere the harder it is. The deeper you dig the less you actually find. Blah, blah.

It is these things that perhaps ignited me in the first place and now inspire my love of the conflict between these thoughts. I really like to process them as ideas explore the truths that lie right there and the mischief that they contribute.

"Is a dividend the sum of what we don't yet know?..."

"From the turmoil of everyday business we need to extract ourselves - but recognise that in the everyday turmoil lies the value and opportunity..."

"The last thing we need near an unqualified problem is a fully qualified expert..."
"Why does authenticity not sound real?..."

The point of this ramble though is actually quite important. It all gets down to the fact that anything that challenges convention is alright by me. Getting stuck in a paradigm is way worse than getting stuck in Trafalgar Square on a Thursday evening, behind 40 of mad Ken's bendy busses with only ŒBanksy Œwatching as a pastime...

"With thanks to the most excellent Banksy  for the great image"

Beating PowerPoint

This is a very smart little device. Just check this out and then add your own presentations to the blogosphere. One tip though is to make sure you have a simple story to tell. That point is also a not too ironic truth about presentations.

The Art of Conversation

I used to sit in meetings thinking - "Haven't I been here before? last week? last year? yesterday?" Well, yes actually. The groundhog day of meetings as I now call it. See my website

Also how could I brief someone to help me solve a problem or create value when I didn't have the full picture myself? I used to think - "This is nuts." I was able to tell suppliers and service providers what I wanted but they seemed to simply sell me what it was they did in spite of what I told them my problem was. (Why was I surprised by that?) Also what was the problem with it being fun? Interesting? Understandable" What on earth was that all about? Some of the outcomes of my work.

Grasping the nettle

Anyway I looked around for the right way to solve problems in business. I looked at consultants - complex. I looked at advisers - self serving. I looked at Experts - narrow minded. Agencies? - 30 second TV ad (no matter what the problem). Where to go?

Nowhere!

Why is it that thinking is so ad-hoc? Consideration around the big issues seems to happen in between work not in work. There is so little time, so little quality time, allowed for the critical act of thinking, agreeing, contemplating - future planning and strategy. Worse it's often just outsourced.

Back to basics

Anyway to cut a very long story short I started grabbing the flip chart, turning off the power point hell and asked some far more basic questions like "so what?" and "why?" - a lot. What struck me was the lack of confidence in many of the answers I got.

There was little conviction in the responses partly because the data or research was itself so self centered, or just not there.

Over the years these 'interventions' started to form into some interesting patterns. The same things started to appear in each conversation. I also observed that most meetings were very solution hungry, way before we actually all knew what we were trying to achieve.

I've got some thoughts about why that is. In many organisations it's all become very task oriented, folk incentivised and measured by particular outcomes. Often there is little praise given for wider thinking or initiative. The list doesn't end there - it is a big one.

So in any given meeting, designed to tackle the thorny issues, people would arrive with a big pile of defensive data, the audience would take a deep breath and then play the game of hiding from the conversation or diverting the conversation to a different place.

Let me know what you think.