So, according to Derek Sivers and nearly a century of research:
“…when you tell someone your goal, and they acknowledge it, psychologists have found that it’s called a social reality. The mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it’s already done. And then, because you’ve felt that satisfaction, you’re less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary.”
I’ve noticed this, though still find myself quickly spilling the beans, following Robert Cialdini’s advice that people are more likely to do things they’ve publicly committed to (consistency and commitment).
The key advice is at the end of the talk: if you phrase your goals honestly and optimistically (“I’m going to bench 500 pounds by christmas!”), you get that dangerous little dopamine boost, but not if you phrase them in such a way that they have a potential punishment built in (“Cancel my Netflix subscription if I don’t go to the gym three times a week”).
There is a cool tool that may help with this called Stickk, a website where you make a commitment and set-up a cash punishment: a donation to a hated organization like the George W. Bush Presidential Library or Chelsea Fan Club). Load up your credit card details, get a referee so you can’t cheat, and you’re done.
A CEO does only three things. Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders. Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company. Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank.
Insightful quote, which has attracted some equally insightful comments.
I’ve condensed the first comment from JLM, a CEO with over 30 years of experience. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but here it is as twelve commandments:
The CEO is first of all a moneymaker.
The CEO has to set the tone of everything.
The CEO has to set a vision for the company.
The CEO has to be a good thinker, a better writer and a powerful communicator.
The CEO has to tranform the idealistic vision into bite sized specific objectives.
The CEO has to organize the functions of the company to accomplish the vision.
The CEO has to be a trainer.
The CEO has to be a disciplinarian.
The CEO has to recruit, inspire and drive talent.
The CEO has to be able to reduce what the company does to logical processes.
The CEO has to force the company to be “customer centric”.
Most importantly —
The CEO has to face down risk with a steady gaze which inspires confidence amongst the executive team. “Well, if he isn’t scared, then I guess I shouldn’t be scared.”
A CEO is a master salesmen
1) selling a product that cannot be made, selling a service that cannot be provided, a vision is something that has to be described and sold to business owners before it is ever realized.
2) selling the opportunity of taking part in a legendary business to the brightest and most fanatic team
3) selling the product/service and everything else, including shares in the business to keep capital flowing into the business.
And of course the incendiary application to Obama (which triggered its own heated discussion):
Great post. My politics may be different from yours, but if the role of President is like that of CEO… Obama has three strikes.
Has he sets the overall vision and strategy of the country? FAIL (Far too many “top priorities”.)
Has he recruited the best talent? FAIL (Too many academics… And too many life-long politicians.)
And has he ensured that there is always enough cash in the bank? FAIL (Just look at the debt and deficit.)
The Veto Pen
Later on, the comments reveal an additional duty which may be just as important is to be the final authority on the product.
Fred, I like to feel that there is an additional role that good CEOs take on – that of the final authority on product utility, usability and quality. These functions need to be the responsibility of experts but ultimately the buck must stop with the CEO and he cannot run a company successfully if he is not on top of these areas. He should hold a veto on the launch of any product which he feels don’t match up to the standards he would expect in each of these areas. Roshan Silva
You probably can’t be a great CEO without these things, but I think there’s more. Leaders like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Jack Welch, Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan all have a rich legacy of getting involved in managing operations beyond just leadership. Kevin Morrill
I agree in theory, with the most obvious example being Steve Jobs, but his model of intense oversight breaks down when applied to companies like GE, Procter & Gamble or SC Johnson where 1) the user base is very different from the CEO (e.g. women’s makeup is harder for a male CEO to judge directly) 2) there are too many products in the portfolio for one person to judge. This is why Steve Jobs decimated the Apple product range on his return: fewer products made it easier to to play the final gatekeeper.
Just saw this at Starbucks (Belmont & Clark). The baristas had a board lying around unused in the back, and decided to put it to work as a trivia quiz (today, American presidents). They put up questions, customers put in answers. As the picture shows, it’s getting some nice attention.
Great conversation starter, and an example of the kind of thing you’d want to see happen in great places to work – and great places to hang out in (although part of me wishes it had been the Karma Cup board).
This video for Arcade Fire’s “We Used to Wait” (from their new album The Suburbs), is an extraordinary experience created by writer/director Chris Milk with Google and the band. It’s hard to describe, so avoid even the tiny spoilers in this blog post and check it out.
It uses your childhood home’s address to mash up Google Maps/Street View and HTML5 canvas tricks with its own footage, all the while spawning and killing browser windows in an elaborate choreography.
This is a technical achievement and also further evidence of how Arcade Fire and its Merge, its label, have nailed the web (for example by streaming a live show in Madison Square Garden with an interactive feed directed by Terry Gilliam). More on that at the Google Blog and in Mashable’s article.
Part of the appeal certainly is the novelty of the execution, combined with music which already has a strong emotional core and imagery of a running man, a common trick to energize the viewer.
However, I was surprisingly affected by the pictures of my childhood home (which I only moved away from a year ago, so the wound is still fresh), and even more so writing a letter to my younger self. Making it personal creates the beautiful interpretation of the idea of growing up, of nostalgia and a walk down memory lane. I’d have liked that letter back then.
In improv they teach us to skip the easy laugh and trust the audience’s intelligence: they laugh that much harder if their mind has to work to make the funny connection, and they like it more because they don’t feel that a joke was rammed down their throats. In a similar way, this experience delivers an emotional impact because it trusts that a simple street view image will give you pause for thought, and because it asks you to work a little to get the full reward. The tech just supports this beautifully.
Previsualization uses just-good-enough 3D graphics and virtual sets to allow a filmmaker to see entire scenes (and ultimately entire movies) before filming has even begun.
“It’s not like working on that final shot, it’s about seeing how that shot fits as a piece of the puzzle of the shots around it, and the scenes around it.” David Dozoretz
It’s the logical extension of storyboarding, and the documentary shows that it can do more than action sequences, dinosaurs and explosions. A director can test different camera options to get the greatest impact out of intimate, emotional scenes. It saves time – an example given is how it allowed post-production for War of The Worlds to be completed in only three months – and money:
“We had a team of twelve on Episode 3, which is the most we had on any of the Star Wars Films. We spent $1.1 million for a two and a half year period, the whole prep, shooting and post-production of the film. We easily saved $10-15 million, and that’s just on the production side. On visual effects, it’s inestimable.” Rick McCallum
Prototyping is the heart of design. Arguably, a designer is someone who can make something real before it exists, so that it can be improved through iterative testing rather than wishful thinking.
With these techniques, entire films can be more carefully assembled, piece by piece and element by element, before actors are even brought in to perform. They can be more consciously designed.
If you really want someone’s thoughts, don’t undermine your question.
Citibank, your customer will wear the same expression as your girlfriend when she comes home while you’re watching the game, you ask her how her day was, and as she answers your eyes flit compulsively back to the game.
The September Issue is a film about leadership, not fashion.
It’s about the epic tome that Vogue produces every September to mark the coming of the new season. This is the time when styles are reviewed, looks are reconsidered and – to hear those interviewed in the film – women have to take fashion more seriously than ever.
We follow Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief who inspired The Devil Wears Prada. Her best quality? “Decisiveness” she says, and this film may be the best example of what that looks like – at least until we get a behind the scenes documentary about Steve Jobs (some draw parallels).
We repeatedly see her reviewing work. She triages with cold efficiency, arms crossed, intent but expressionless, with the occasional comment or question. In one scene we see her eviscerate a photoshoot’s worth of clothes in a few minutes. Later, she scraps an entire set of pictures, requiring a reshoot just days before the magazine needs to go to press. We never see her angry, simply ruthlessly effective.
We also see just how much respect (and affection) she has for those who work for her (like Grace Coddington, the creative director) even as she infuriates them by cutting work into which they have invested their heart and soul.
We respect the likes of Steve Jobs, James Cameron and Anna Wintour because they are absolutely committed to quality. They have negative taste in spades and the willingness (or compulsion) to put that filter above every other social consideration. They are ruthless judges, and are willing to discard and terrorize people who don’t meet their standards. But is that the only way?
Really, this film raises a question (shamelessly inspired by Bob Sutton) that I’ve always struggled with: how much of an asshole do you have to be to inspire the best work?
Great point from Diego about BMW’s brand audacity in getting Jeff Koons to vitalize the car:
I admire the marketers at BMW because they seem to be able to conceive of their hallowed brand as a dynamic, living thing. Instead of saying “our brand can’t go there”, they think “our brand is designed to go places”, which I’d wager is why the brand is still so strong after so many year in the market. The dynamic totality of their vision, which encompasses everything from manufacturing to sculpture to R&D to messaging, is centered on the principles of movement and getting to new places, with the risks that come with leaving the safe harbor called What We Know That Works Today.
The other point though is that sometimes you have to look to other fields and media to communicate your essence. The front view in particular gives an incredible sensation of speed and color – and life – that BMW could not have achieved just with their skill and passionfor shaping the form of the car.
I’m grateful for the feedback from the jury. Jake Nickell, founder of Threadless:
While I was hoping for a solution that would solve everything, I think that’s a pipe dream. So I was looking for something that would have the biggest impact. I think this is the one. In today’s social climate, I just felt like the idea behind this had the most potential to engage a large amount of people. I love how it spreads into so many online social presences and could really see millions of people participating and actually bringing the cup back just because they could so easily share that they are being socially responsible to all their friends.
… and Starbucks’ Jim Hanna:
The concept encompasses a number of strategic Starbucks platforms, including engaging digital communities, rewards for frequency, transaction automation, relatively easy exchange of universal tumblers.
Particular congratulations to Karma Cup, the top prize winner! I’m actually quite awed at the simplicity of their solution. Even though it only requires a chalkboard, it gets at most of the behavioural issues that need to be addressed. By ignoring non-reusable mugs, it provides a public nudge, gently shaming people away from disposable cups. Its collective reward fosters a sense of community. As Allan pointed out, the playful jockeying for position to get free coffee will probably lead to fun encounters in line. It’s open as any coffee shop with a blackboard can participate. Finally, the low tech nature communicates the thrifty spirit that we need to beat this problem.
I hope the final approach will include a technological platform like Champion Cup, mainly because it would make it possible to visualize the problem and share in the solution on an enormous scale. Exposing that data would also create many more touchpoints we could harness to change our behaviour. That said, Karma Cup should be implemented right now because of the ridiculous amount that it would achieve with its elegant, inexpensive solution.
Road infrastructure paved the way for the car. Electrical infrastructure ushered in the modern era of household convenience. Radio infrastructure allowed us to create wonderful things like the mobile phone. We need a new infrastructure now, but as seen in the Karma Cup, Champion Cup and many others, the product won’t be physical.
The product of this new infrastructure needs to be massive behaviour change.
Jane McGonigal from the Institute of the Future at TED. Millions of gamers have a fully fledged education in skills that could help save the real world… if it was more like a game. 10,000 hours “The average young person today in a country with a strong gamer culture will have spent 10,000 hours playing [...]
Tokyo’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) doesn’t pull its punches. While many museums seek to entertain, this one hits you with beautifully presented information that rewards your attention with real teaching. The first exhibit I’ll mention is particularly relevant for readers of this blog. It’s dedicated to five types of innovation: Alternative: [...]
In their heyday, the existence of Native American Indians revolved around the buffalo. They used every part: “The buffalo gave us everything we needed. Without it we were nothing. Our tipis were made of his skin. His hide was our bed, our blanket, our winter coat. It was our drum, throbbing through the night, alive, [...]
