Edgeware Newsletter 005

8/2/2019 Edgeware Newsletter 005

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*SPAM FREE GOODNESS

EDGEWARE NEWSLETTER 05*


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this issue is dedicated to

LIFE BEYOND THE SCREEN


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when you need to call someone in the

wilserness, look for the red tardis*


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Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast* is an innovative

Edgeware program (also in an Edgeware-Lite two-day

workshop version). Its designed for the development

of an innovation culture in companies and organisations

through a focus on intrapreneurship.

Intrapreneurs are people willing to create and develop entrepreneurial,forward-thinking systems, balancing the needs of existing structures

with a drive to think and act creatively, and so to develop or enhance

innovative products, services and processes.

Six Impossible Things stresses capability as well as competence

that is, generic human values related to entrepreneurial excellence,

including creativity and play, personal development and self-fulllment,

empowerment and belonging, humour and enjoyment, team dynamics,

ethical business practice, and social and environmental responsibility.

The general theme of the program focuses rst on a practical, working

understanding of

Why we cant that is, why and how the structure of organisations

inhibits creativity, entrepreneurial behaviours and processes.

Second, it identies

How we can, given that we cant that is, how participants can use

their emerging entrepreneurial capabilities, in the context of their

understanding of organisational constraints, to develop an innovative,

entrepreneurial culture, as demonstrated in practical, workable project

activities.

INTRA-PRENEURSHIPSix Impossible Things Before Breakfast

* Alice laughed: Theres no use tr ying, she said; one cant believe impossible

things. I daresay you havent had much practice, said the Queen. When I was

younger, I always did it or hal an hour a day. Why, sometimes Ive believed as

many as six impossible things beore breakast. Alice in Wonderland.


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The answer to this intriguing question has been over a

century in coming.

Openness to experience is a psychological term describingpeople who are imaginative, exible, creative, and

independent. Such people enjoy novel experiences.

A major contributor to openness is childhood family

context.

Research into foundations of innovation and creativity

involved 379 adults, each one of three children. The

word leader was used only by the oldest to describe

themselves, but not to describe either of the younger

siblings. The word creative was used by respondents todescribe the middle and youngest, but not the oldest.

In research examining innovation in country towns,

respondents identied themselves as (a) a community

leader, (b) somebody with expertise that could be called

upon, or (c) a support person.

The least innovative towns reported the highest number in

the rst and third categories. The most innovative town

reported the highest number in the second category and

the majority of these were recent arrivals.

A self evident truth is that people have mobility choices;

to move towards something attractive, to stay somewhere

attractive, or to move away from somewhere unattractive.

These patterns of mobility are not random. Creativity,

independence and mobility go hand in hand.

It seems that creativity and innovation are more likely to

come from those who are uninterested in either leadership

or followership, independent thinkers operating outsideof hierarchical structures or as rebels within them. It is a

critical mass of such people rather than leaders that are

required for innovation to ourish!!

I have been speculating last night what makes a man a discoverer of

undiscovered things; and a most perplexing problem it is. Many men who are

very clever - much cleverer than the discoverers - never originate anything.

Charles Darwin, 1871.


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1. Everything takes three times longer than it should.

Especially the money part.

2. The best way to get approval is not to need it.

3. People want what they cant have. In act, thats prettymuch all they do want.

4. Once you become an entrepreneur, you nd the company

o non-entrepreneurs a lot harder to be around. Youve seen

things they havent; the wavelengths alter, its that simple.

5. In a world o over-supply and commodication, you are no

longer paid to supply. Youre being paid to deliver

something else. What that is exactly, is not always obvious.

6. Word o mouth is the best advertising medium o all. The

best word o mouth comes rom disrupting markets.

7. People buy your product because it helps ll in the

narrative gaps in their lives.

8. You can either be cheapest or the best. I know which one I

preer.

9. Some people think that once they secure venture unding,

their problems will be over. Wrong. Thats when your

problems REALLY begin.

10. Its better to be underunded than overunded.


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11. I an average guy in a bar can understand what you

do or a living, chances are youre halway to becoming a

commodity.

12. Its easier to turn an ally into a customer than vice versa.

13. I youre happy in your career beore the age o thirty,

youre probably doing something wrong. Heck, i youre

happy in your career beore the age o seventy, youre

probably doing something wrong.

14. Smart, young, artistic people are always asking me

which is a better career path, Creativity or Money.

I always answer that it doesnt matter. What matters is

Eective and/or Ineective.

15. Write the ollowing on a piece o paper, have it ramed,

and stick it on your oce wall: Have you hugged your

customer today?

16. People will always, always be in the market or a story

that resonates with them. Your product will either have

this quality or it wont. I your product ails this test,

quit your job and go nd something else. Just making the

product incrementally cheaper or better wont help you.

17. Products are idea ampliers. The molecules and/or bytes

are secondary.

18. People remember the quality long ater theyve

orgotten the price. Unless you try to rip them o.

19. Markets serve entrepreneurs better i the latter can keep

the ormer undersupplied. Oversupply is the kiss o

death.

20. I personally know a ormer CEO who, once he attained

control o the company, ran an EXTREMELY protable

business into the ground in less than two years. From

a market cap o $100 million to ZERO, just like that. Why?

Short answer: He loved being The CEO, but he didnt

much care or being a CEO.

21. In terms o becoming an entrepreneur, probably the

most useul thing I learned in the last twenty years was

how to enjoy my own company or long stretches o

time.

22. One successul entrepreneur I know well has a

wonderul quality, namely that he never, ever compares

himsel to other people. He just does his own thing,

which actually serves him rather well. Just because

his competitor has bought himsel a bigger motor boat,

doesnt mean he eels the need have a bigger motor

boat. This quality helps him to build his business the

way he sees t, not the way the motor boat people see t.

23. Running a startup is ull o extreme ups and downs.Which is why so many successul and happy

entrepreneurs I k now lead such normal, stable,

unglamorous, boring, amily-centered lives. Somehow

they need the latter in order to balance out the ormer.

Extra-curricular drama looks great in the tabloids, but

thats all its ultimately good or.

24. MBAs are conditioned to use their brains in much

the same way as sex workers are conditioned to

use their genitals. Nice work i you can get it.

25. Bill Gates may have a million times more money

than me, but he isnt going to live a million times

longer than me, watch a million times more

sunsets than me, make love to a million times

more women than me, drink a million times more

ne wines than me, listen to a million times more

Beethoven String Quartets than me, nor sire a

million times more children than me. Human

beings dont scale.

26. F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, There are no

second acts in American lives. F. Scott was a

drunkard and a ool.

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/

archives/003642.html

Posted by Hugh Macleod

at January 14, 2007 10:47 PM | TrackBack


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REVIEW: KAOSPILOT A-Z*

* Elbeck, Ufe (2003, Second Ed. 2006), KaosPilot A-Z. Aarhus:

KaosCommunications

Michael approached me a ew weeks ago and asked i I

would write a short review o the second Kaospilot A-Z or

his next newsletter real ast, due to publication deadlines.I was having a ghastly day an unholy collision o events

in my personal and business lives but being a sucker

or doing anything Michael asks me ;-) I readily said yes,

whereupon the 275 page tome was delivered to my ofce.

Aaarghwhat had I let mysel in or? How could one read, absorb and

review any book in a day or two with an already ull calendar, a head

ull o personal issues and a To Do list that takes up an entire Holy

Mackerel to do list pad?

Perhaps the momentary panic could be alleviated with ood (yes, Im

one o those sad sacks who nds solace in chocolate, wine, BLTs and all

manner o other culinary outlets). Determined to ulll my NYR to take

lunch I rummaged in my desk and located a handul o almonds, an

apple and a ew slightly stale rice cakes and settled down or 15 minutes

with the book .

It is a predictably beautiul to look at bright, un and lled with

gorgeous images, photos and words o inspiration. Lots o white space

and use o my avourite colour palette (earthy oranges and terracottas)

oer a visual east. Simple graphics illustrate esoteric concepts like

the Fourth Sector and important points are picked out in bold or the

benet o the time poor. As a piece o art the book would come close to

meeting the high standards o the JM team.

But o course it is the words and spirit o the book that provokes

thought and touches heartstrings. Stories o inspiration and shared

thoughts bought together to celebrate Kaospilots 10th birthday in 1991

2001 then added to produce a book that in the words o Ue Elbaek

A book about hope, learning, playful leadership

and how to navigate in times of turbalence

ANNE-MARIE BIRKILL

truly refects Kaospilots here and now. Stories o an incredible journey

or Kaospilots, its students and the other people who have sweated over

the years to create this ever-evolving school unlike any other in the

world.

Ue tells us in the introduction that there is no right way to read the

book ront to back, in one sitting or otherwise, and he is right.

The best testimonial I can give is this one.

I was having a bad day. Why is unimportant.

I took 15 minutes to scan the book (o course, I have read it in much

more detail since).

In that time I was reminded that I control my own destiny. That I can

make changes that will result in my business, my sel and my amily

being in a better place tomorrow than they are today. To steal a concept

rom Kaospilots and twist it a little, I needed to be my own corporatechaplain, acknowledge that my working and amily lie are inextricably

intertwined and stop acting like a lack manager (read KP A-Z2 P61 and

youll get it).

The book made a material dierence to my day then and on

many other days since. I cancelled a bag o meetings and reed up

my calendar so I could ocus on what was really important in my

business. I scheduled meetings with several o my sta with whom

I had scarcely interacted over the past ew weeks. I nished o the

darned Strategic Plan and distributed it in imperect orm rather

than wasting a bunch more time to get the words right (the spirit

was sound). And importantly I went home early and cooked dinner,

conronted those issues at home, made them my rst priority and

acknowledged that part o the solution lay in my need to change.

Lets not get too dramatic the collective problems o that day were

trivial on refection. My point is that the book was a timely reminder

o the truly important things in lie, and the simple tools we can

apply to overcome the normal hurdles we ace each and every day.

Give it a read any way you like you might nd it changes your lie,

or perhaps just your day.

PS my NYR has gone to pot. Next year I intend resolving to give upricecakes

PPS be sure to read Michaels article and check out the uncanny

resemblance between Michael and Ketan Lakhani on page 265

PPPS does John Kaos article give Donald R umselds amous Known

Unknowns quote credibility???

only dirty people need to shower


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+

Whosoever would undertake some atrocious enter-prise should act as i it were already accomplished,should impose upon himsel a uture as irrevocable asthe past.

Jorge Luis Borges, The Garden o Forking Paths

+

Years o solitude had taught him that, in ones memory,all days tend to be the same, but that there is not aday, not even in jail or in the hospital, which does notbring surprises, which is not a translucent network ominimal surprises.

+Jorge Luis Borges, The Waiting

+

+


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The concept o Slow emerged rom the Slow Foodand Slow Design movement in Europe and the UnitedStates and builds on and develops the ideas o sus-tainable living as a desirable uture. Slowness as apedagogy allows students to learn not at the metro-

nome o the school day or the school bell, but at themetronome o nature, giving them time to absorb, tointrospect, to contemplate, to argue and rebut and toenjoy.

...

The learning opportunities which oster slowness arecreated in such a way that they operate on three lev-els which are not discrete, linear or sequential. Taken

together they enable experiences which oster genu-ine and sophisticated understanding.

The layers are:

looking and listening

exploring and thinking

making and beingGeetha Narayanan (2007), A Dangerous but Powerul

Idea - Counter Acceleration and Speed with Slowness

and Wholeness, http://kt.fexiblelearning.net.au/

tkt2007/edition-13/narayaran/


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