Blind spot

We all have blind spots. Right now, just because of the way you are positioned in the space you occupy, your point of view, literally is limited. Between two people in the same room, the person who has the larger perspective is likely to make better decision, ask more astute questions and provide a richer context on what she sees than the one with less perspective.

One way to quickly expand your perspective or reduce your blind spots is to find in your entourage someone who will play the role of sounding board. It can be a friend whose judgment you value, a professional consultant, or even a skilled therapist, whom you evaluated and trust. The idea is to explore with someone else, through open feedback. It's a great way to practice receiving feedback and in the meantime opening your perspective to unexpected point of view.

When facing a difficult problem or though knot in a relationship that does not see to go away no matter what you do, it can be disarmingly simple to open up to the perspective of someone you know, who does not know you too well so they can remain objective. I bet that a lot of the stuff we find difficult in our life and our business is connected to blind spots we will never discover unless someone is ready to hold the mirror for you and give you feedback. It's a reminder that we can't do it alone.

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Missed opportunity

In this great article about Microsoft culture of innovation, we are witness of the pitfalls of a workplace that grew allergic  to creative collaboration and its devastating effect on their ability to innovate. What can be done about it? I don't see any chance for a collaborative culture to exist if there is no place for debate and no collective maturity (that starts from the formal leaders of the organization) about the importance of conflict as a source of discovery and growth.

As in a relationship, the inability to use the energy of conflict and debate to create breakthroughs will lead the organization to power struggles without a connection to the collective welfare of the group. It then all becomes about you or worse about your group, your department.  We see how internal power struggle within Microsoft slowed down their process to a point where years later, the Ipad was able to propose to the market a product that much more compelling, although Microsoft had tablet computer out in the market 10 years ago!

There is a great value at adding to the indicators of success for your group, your project and even your small team a qualitative appreciation of your collaborative culture. It can be as simple as a scale from 1 to 10.  You can even ask your colleagues to do the same and use the results to start a conversation about improving the collaborative culture.  Sure there are governance and other high-level corporate approaches to trigger a more collaborative place in bigger companies, but I am almost certain that Microsoft had these corporate governance structures in place.

Sometimes, it is about something much more simple. Assessing where you are, where your team is when it comes to collaboration in connection with innovation?  Figuring out how to improve on the some of the findings. From how you brainstorm as group, to what type of meetings gets mostly  organize and what is the employees evaluation of the utility of the meetings your team goes . These can all be qualitative indicators to help you get a better sense of how to navigate away from creative destruction.

You're a Coward... Me Too

Here is an excerpt of this article in the NYT:

"In January, the chef Jason Neroni of Blanca, north of San Diego, blasted back at anonymous critics who had posted negative comments on Yelp.com. “Yelp is for cowards,” he tweeted, who don’t have the courage “to say anything while in your restaurant.” 

He has a point! Although I love eating in restaurants, there are too many times where for a reason or another, when the experience was either awful, or there was a suggestion I felt would improve things for the owner, I did not act on it. To make it even clearer, one of my neighbors owns a restaurant close to our home and despite observing from going to her restaurant that some adjustment could make a difference in the success of her place, I still feel uneasy when I see her, unable to open up to her. After all, preparing food for people, even in some really bad restaurants, can be a labor of love and who has a heart really wants to crush a dream!

Here is my take on Neroni's comment, he is right, most of us are cowards! But I see an opportunity for restaurants, other type of organizations and even you in your own personal life. How easy right now is it to get real feedback, good or bad from the people you work with and from those you serve? Why not to make it really, really easy for people to give you feedback and complain or rave about what you do? There is an opportunity to offer your customers, restaurant patrons and others, new, easy and compelling ways  to tell you what do they think about you.

Here's one simple proposition that you can make yours: why not creating a board of honor, that could be seen by all of your clients? You could show feedback from customers that made a real difference in the way you deliver your service. You could start raving about clients who respond to what you do, good  or not. Nobody expect you to be perfect,but people love to see you improve.

Imagine if you can start doing this at home!

Clown or buffoon?

There is a fundamental difference between a clown and a buffoon. A clown's motivation is to attract laughter, to act in ways  that will make you laugh. In direct opposition, the buffoon, a different style of clowning is here to laugh at you, to make fun of you  and even to insult you. He is getting away with it because he smiles all along, constantly, grimacing his way into the world. He is ridiculous, but it is in his  absolute disobedience that sits his power.  Because what drives his behavior is the need for food (any kind of food) and cheap sex (if he is lucky!) . The buffoon is much less likable than the clown who despite his fringe and outcast appearance, is constantly looking for love and approval.

Both archetype (among others) exists in us as the exist in the psyche of your ideal audiences. Both have strengths and weaknesses that must be kept in our awareness. When you work on a project to  spread an idea, it can be useful, in the context of making your idea stick, to determine if the identity of your project is more clown or buffoon. This approach can give you useful creative insights as to what tone to give your work depending of your intention to provoke to shock or cajole to surprise.

A new age of mobility

What critics and observers (most) don't understand about Apple's latest move is that the Ipad is announcing a new era of information mobility and the leaders at Apple understand the shift in action. They realize that real digital mobility will not be achieved through mobile phones and smart phones as we know them now; although, the communication tools they provide are indispensable.

Real mobility, (sorry Nokia!), will be achieved by new tools that will truly allow a link to the growing Web, everywhere, conveniently.  In 5 years, we will find incredibly awkward to open a laptop to work and explore the web. Even a netbook in its actual form will feel clumsy. The Ipad, no matter what it's success will be, is accelerating this new transition for the user.


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Does it work?

I was using this hand dryer yesterday and while my hands were getting increasingly dry I realized something completely unexpected, it was working!  I had pushed the button once and by the time the preset cycle was done, my hands were actually dry!

This was a surprise because what I had not realized until then is how ineffective most hand dryers are.  We could create the Angie's list of hand dryers in restaurants, airport washroom and other places all around the world and I sense that the global evaluation of users would not be positive.  We need a global revolution in hand dryers, because I realized through my experience yesterday that we came to not expect much from them.

When it doesn't work, it's expected. When you have to press 5 times on the activation button and your hands are still soaking wet, it's expected. We are just not surprise by these poor performances, but yesterday was different and I started to ask myself why?

Was it because the designer who work on the prototype actually test it? Was is that they had the end-user in mind and therefore manage to calculate how much time you need with a certain amount of water to dry to average human pair of hands? My sense is that they did not built it just to make a profit, but somehow they also cared about the people who were going to use their product.

What about you?  It's great to come up with a solution, but what space to you give to empathy in your conceptualization? When do you start to think about the user of your product, the audience of your presentation, the people that your foundation is going to help, the assistant you are delegating to? If you care, you will think about them sooner rather than later.

Mistakes Happens

Even before we could decide on it, right in the virtual or real womb of our mothers, we were already growing and evolving as unique expressions of a common diversity. Before we even consciously knew that we were a singular manifestation of life's creative force, creativity was circulating at rapid speed in us . During the process, small and big mistakes were possible; yet many of us beat the odds and manage to be carried out  of a human belly and into the world.

Several voices, one of them belonging to Sir Ken Robinson, have recently called for a radical new approach to education. The common theme from this collective call is that our openness to mistakes in the work we are trying to do linked to our  growing ability to accept perceived failures has an integral part of a creative approach to life, has become something crucial.  In other words, we need to adopt a mindset that puts the ability to learn from mistakes and the openness to make a lot of mistakes has a fundamental part of the creative mind of our children, our business and our collectivity.

I am observing in my life that the ability to recognize mistakes, to be open to learn from them becomes pivotal for whoever wants to build and nurture intimate relationships that are truly nurturing. It's interesting to notice that through this perspective, conflicts and other "failures" in our relationships can potentially become gateways to unique and creative approaches to resolving our difficulties. When we become truly curious, courageous; facing the conflicts and hardship in our relationships, we give  our creative mindset a chance to grow and look at things from a new perspective. Sometimes we stay in relationships that are destructive for us, because of that fear of failure (social, psychological, ancestral, etc.). We have yet to realize that the first territory of creativity can be found in our own life.

On this Valentine day, are you staying connected to people who won't admit their mistakes, no matter what? Are you allowing mistakes and failure into your life or trying to be perfect? Sometime, the best creative decisions is to let go, and you can only do that when you accept that failure is part of the creative process, each idea, venture, projects, relationship doesn't always work. If you remain open to failure as a creative engine of change, you realize that mistakes truly happen and that the are sources of profound transformation.

Are you talking to me?

You and I have probably seen hundreds of live presentations. From the high level CEO address to the most intimate team project presentation on PowerPoint or Keynote, to the creative director's take on the new show in pre-production. To this day, I am still amazed how small details can make a big difference in your next presentation and improve the power of your message. One of my great mentor in this area is Garr Reynolds from Presentation Zen.

For example, when we are regularly looking at the screen (to read the content of the slide or just to have a reference of where we are in our presentation) as oppose to connecting with the audience, we undermine both the message and the audience. When you show care for what's on your screen more then your public, it feels like a dead conversation between a screen and a human being; therefore you exclude us, the audience. Moreover, when you have a difficult message to put across, you lose your audience in a very short time. So here is my personal take on helping your message to stick.

Abandon bad animation, bad clip art and bad graph. The world doesn't need more pie charts, it's needs more connections! Unless it is really well done, outdated or poorly designed visuals distract your audience and seriously undermine your message. Humans, even without any graphic design training are becoming increasingly aware of the power of visual cues. Go for simplicity by exposing less in words and evoking more with simple, well done images and physical visual cues.

To promote a more direct contact with your audience, use a wireless remote presenter like this one to gain full control of the slides you are presenting. It seem obvious, but I still see high level presentations or by marketing agencies where people have no clue of the power and the simplicity of such a tool. When you control your slide's transitions, you no longer have to say to that person at the back of the room that nobody sees "next slide please!". It removes the focus on the slide and puts it back where it belongs, on your message.

Last, whenever possible, find a small table or a stand discreet enough to put your laptop on, in front of you and opposite to your audience. This will be your screen of reference, supporting your message and helping you to keep the focus on your audience as oppose to the screen behind you.

Remember, the slides are supporting you in delivering your message, not the other way around!

Dare in Oregon !

In November 2009, I had the great honor to be named "Quebec young Haitian personality of the year" by the JCCH in a lavish ceremony here in Montreal! It gave me the opportunity to meet some great leaders, to make the front page of the paper version of the business newspaper  Les Affaires, and to have the article on their online blog  about leadership. 

More importantly, the JCCH asked me to give a presentation inspired by their 2009 year's theme: "Dare", ("Osez", in French).  


I don't like to tell people what to do so there was no way I was going to come up with Welby's 10 commandments! Nevertheless, it gave me the opportunity to look back on my professional and personal contributions; and share some observations about what continue to help me grow and dare.

7 observations - not a recipe - to dare!

1. Set your own rules: I know it's obvious, until you realize that the ready-made life that we grow to accept is all about complying and fitting in. I consistently grow, when I remember, that I can be an active agent in setting major rules to run my life that influence everything else. 

2. Baby steps: I found that for me, it worked better and helped me to focus when I chose fewer projects, goals and abandoned multi-tasking. It goes with our anxiety about death, and our fear of suffering to try to get everything we want, think we need, right now, right away. But it usually feeds on itself and the nutrition you will get from such a diet is poor at best.  Whenever I observed myself rushing through life, unable to stop (and trust me the urge to rush is always there!), I always gain a lot of insight when noticing my equal ability to slow down and chew for just a little bit longer.

3. No permission = constructive disobedience: As with setting your own rules (ironically!) resist the urge to ask for permission when you feel your creative fire growing. I've applied this consistently and in the long run never regretted disobeying to rules that didn't fit in order to create something better. The world needs that courage from you... and you need it too!

4. Accepting your differences: Because I traveled around the world, connecting with  a variety of cultures; and because I work in a field where, as a person with black skin, I tend to stand out, I could have decided to foster a mentality of victim-hood. It would have been easy to see one of my differences from most of my peers as a vulnerability. The truth is that we all have aspects of who we are that makes us unique expression of the world's subtle and obvious creativity. For most of those unique traits, there is something profound in not only accepting and embracing who you are, particularly what makes you different, but actually make it a strength.

5. A mindset of service and of giving allows you to transcend fear and pain. I didn't invent this, but it's been a fundamental drive, guiding the accomplishments (small and bigger) that I am the most proud of. 

6. Everything you want to create, always happen in your head first, but then you must get it out of your head and on a piece of paper. Curisouly, if then you just let your idea sit there and don't do anything about it, 2 things can happen. Either it will go back in your head and create clusters, or it will go visit someone else and you will see its concrete manifestation while you are eating ice cream on a hot summer day...

7. Listen, pay attention, observe... and start again. Your mindset then is about learning from people, events, situation, conflicts, bad news, your body, etc. It boost empathy for yourself and from that energy, you realize you have nothing to loose, you are here to learn and to give. 

 I look at this and it looks all too obvious. Still, it made and continue to make a major difference in my daily contribution. At least when I remember I can always observe, remain objective and open  to my experience of being human. 

I concluded by telling the story of a Stu Rassmusen who proved that to dare is a way to live your life with authenticity, against all odds.

Let's hear your voice!

I notice that when people get a little bit of seniority into an organization, they start to feel too busy (or too important!) or both to leave a greeting message on their voice-mail themselves. Traditionally, it was a sign of high status to have your secretary leave a message in your name, stating "hi, you have reached the voice-mail of xyz Director of abc, this person is not available now, but leave a message...". I think it's just not a good idea anymore (and probably never was) and here's why:

• It suggest that you delegate a lot of irrelevant/low purpose tasks  to your staff
• It sends the message that you don't know how to operate your voice-mail
• It shows that you neglect how important your own voice is, in establishing meaningful connection
• Frankly... we want to hear your voice and get an impression of who you are!

Making up the information

In larger organizations (and in smaller one too!), information between departments can be hard to get (red tape, gridlock, poor collaborative culture). We just have a natural tendency to hold on to information while we are working on the projects we are starting and developing.One way that can work to be an agent of change in your organization, is just to make up part of the information to the people you need the information from. In essence, when you need to have some information to move your contribution forward, you can share what you know and fill the gap with information that's as plausible as you can come up with, or that you know in absolutely false. Most of the time, the people concerned with your note will react by presenting the real and updated information.