Structured Visual Thinking™

Attention - I'm moving this blog

2008-03-01T03:58:00.001-08:00

After a few months of planning and plotting I’m moving this blog (and shutting it off in a month) to http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/ If you join that one it already has quite a lot more at it than this one as a result of the transition. Can you write to me at john@grouppartners.net so that I can make sure this is seamless or if this causes you any technical problems?...You can of course write me anyway...Have a great day... John

Business on the Back of a Napkin

2008-02-25T23:39:00.000-08:00

It’s amazing that this topic isn’t already the subject of some degree course or other. Today Business Week has an excellent article exploring what is almost now such a true genesis of pure creativity.

Its mythical status as the emergence of ideas is commonplace. The excellent Dan Roam book out soon The Back of The Napkin: Solving Problems And Selling Ideas With Pictures - And see the "slideshow" here.

Business Week extract by Douglas MacMillan

Who says doodling is a waste of time? Here are four ways to solve serious business problems with a simple drawing

No e-mail, no spreadsheets, no PowerPoint—no problem. All you really need is a pen and a cocktail napkin, says Dan Roam, a visual thinking consultant.

Take the story of Southwest Airlines (LUV): During a dinner meeting with his lawyer in 1967, Texas entrepreneur Rollin King jotted down the names of three cities on a napkin—San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas—and connected them to form a triangle. A small airline that offered non-stop flights between these hotspots, he explained, would have an edge over big airlines like American and Continental, which forced travellers in the region to fly through expensive and time-consuming hubs.

Total Contact...

2008-01-20T01:00:00.001-08:00

Engineers from the University of Washington have designed some contact lens with imprinted ‘Circuit’ contact lens electronic circuits and lights to help vision-impaired people, for an alternative way to surf the web or holographic driving control.

Babak Parviz, a professor from the University of Washington stated that they’ve only made a small step to their goal, but it seems very promising, so they should manage to reach their goal.

Their technology will definitely have great use in the future and not only for contact lenses. If they use it in windshields drivers and pilots could get a lot of help and information about the roads and other cars directly on the windshield.

Also the contact lens could be used by video game companies for a new generation of virtual reality gaming. The options for this microscopic circuits are infinite both for usefulness and entertainment in many domains.

They have already tested them on rabbits for up to 20 minutes without them showing any adverse effects. It was a hard work for them building the lenses, because of the limited materials they could use to be safe for body use and also to be flexible.

Yet, the technology used in the contact lenses doesn’t correct the vision, but can be installed in corrective lenses.

Interesting Irrational Left vs. Right?

2008-01-13T05:50:00.001-08:00

Check out the ‘Right Brain and Whole Brain’ articles at Jariscope

Jari Chevalier discusses a whole series of interesting aspects to our work in thinking and structure, emotion and attachment to ideas and empathy.

An extract: “Our educational system over-stresses the importance of logical, linear and verbal skills–all of these processed primarily by the left brain. In order to advance our capabilities now, to balance ourselves and come to wholeness, we need to regenerate our innate ability to tap into the irrational, metaphorical, symbol-making, intuitive, tonal and imaginative right brain.

Information Design Part 2

2008-01-04T06:51:00.001-08:00

At the outcome of any meaningful conversation business or event there is often a record of the proceeding. Typically this record is used to explain to both those in attendance, or those not in attendance but with a wider interest, just what happened. In daily life the same is true. In all conveyance of knowledge or information between people the quality of this transfer is paramount.

We pay a lot of attention to how this works and how we maximise this facet of each assignment. We call the application of creativity and care to generic or specific content, visual and verbal - Information Design.

We all need reference and information in order to make decisions or learn new things. We are alive to new input as humans. We cannot avoid it either, 20,000 messages every day from every direction. The difference between a positive or negative, a valuable experience or otherwise is more often than not the care that went in to ensuring that the information was presented properly or relevantly. See more on this at Group Partners Wiki.

Information Design

2008-01-03T07:48:00.001-08:00

As an example of how Infographics are finding their way into our lives take a look at this one. A really interesting way to explain complex information but in an entertaining way. Well subject matter may well be somewhat not to everyone’s taste but posted here in the interests of this study.

Graphic Extremes...

2008-01-02T06:47:00.001-08:00

Here are a few examples of some screen-shots from this toolset.

A great development and some impressive output in my opinion. Visually compelling and almost unlimited in the detail or application to which it can be put. Xara Xtreme for Linux is a powerful, general purpose graphics program for Unix platforms including Linux, FreeBSD and (in development) OS-X.

Formerly known as Xara LX, it is based on Xara Xtreme for Windows, which is the fastest graphics program available, period. The Xara Xtreme source code was made available open-source in early 2006, and is being ported to Linux. This process is almost complete and Xara Xtreme for Linux is available for download now.

The Beauty of Type...

2008-01-02T01:53:00.001-08:00

One of the greatest joys of working in information design and conveyance of strategy is to be able to experience great typography. The beauty of it in visual terms and of course as it conveys meaning can literally be breathtaking. I came across this visually excellent blog The Ministry of Type and attach a couple of the images I have found there here. Enjoy.

Global Impact. Visually.

2007-12-30T13:40:00.000-08:00

If I can describe thinking visually simply then it’s with ideas that express practical emotion or action. Furthermore concepts that simply inspire or make complete sense in a split second. Take this image. It needs no further explanation. Just brilliant.

Click on the image itself to see it more clearly...

Thoughts,clues and inspirations...#59

2007-12-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

Well here we are again, well almost. I want to wish you a very prosperous and rewarding 2008. And just to be a little ahead of the curve - this is the first collection of those little gems that I’ve come across recently to kick off 2008. I hope you find them as intriguing and insightful as I do. With warmest best wishes. John

(NB: As always if you want me to remove you from the list at any time just ping me and it shall be done. Also remember I post them all at the following blog if you ever wanted to get at them again so sign up there too via RSS or simple e-mail. http://contextualframeworking.blogspot.com/)

.........................................................................................................................................................................

“And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.” - Ayrton Senna

“I'm just looking for an angel with a broken wing.” - Jimmy Page

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ” - Mark Twain

“To fail to take the battle to the enemy when your back is to the wall is to perish.” - Sun-tzu

“New media was the underdeveloped stepchild. Now it's first on the marketing plan.” - Greg Trani

“When the map-makers arrive, you know the real explorers have already moved on”. - G.H. Hardy

“For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time.” - Brian Eno

“While coolness in disaster is the supreme proof of a commander's courage, energy in pursuit is the surest test of his strength of will.” - Field Marshall Wavell

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” - H.G.Wells

“Dreams and dedication are a powerful combination.” - William Longgood

“To do more for the world than the world does for you - that is success.” - Henry Ford

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.” - Voltaire

“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.” - Ferdinand Foch

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” - Paul Boese

And finally...

“The word 'genius' isn't applicable in football A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.” - Football quarterback and sports analyst.

“We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people.” - Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor

“We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur.” - Al Gore

“Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas.” - Keppel Enderbery.

“The loss of life will be irreplaceable.” - Dan Quayle.

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | JC Blog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/ Quotes Blog | http://www.grouppartners.net/blog/index.html

“A picture is worth a thousand words, a metaphor a thousand pictures.” - Daniel Pink

P Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

"Helping our clients avoid solving the wrong problem really well"

Berries, Snowflakes and Baubles... #58

2007-12-15T07:29:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone. As this may well be the last collection of the year, I wanted to thank everyone for the very kind comments, contributions and of course friendship over this year. I hope these occasional missives brighten the day or cause some thought or simply remind us of the power of great minds. If of course you don’t want to receive them anymore or are subscribing via the ‘Quotes Blog’ then always ping me and I will take you off.

Have a great holiday season and of course a calm, safe and exciting 2008!. John

Errr...

“I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body.” - Winston Bennett. (University of Kentucky basketball forward)

“It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.” - Al Gore

“I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law” - David Dinkins, New York City Mayor

And seriously...

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” - Buddha

“I do everything I can to disrupt my comfort zone.” - Brian Grazer,

“Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees.” - Williard Marriott

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.” - James Neil Hollingworth

“The best way out is always through.” - Robert Frost

“We're really a niche company, but it's a huge niche." - Kip Hirschbach

“You will rise by lifting others.” - Robert G. Ingersoll

“I believe advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable.” - Robert Stephens

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.” - Abraham Lincoln

“One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.” - Marie-Henri Beyle

“While it's important to work hard, all work and no play is a recipe for diminishing returns.” - Wendy Marx

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” - Peter F. Drucker

And finally two wonderful if not massive understatements from 2007...

“There is actually the opportunity for value creation in being socially responsible.” - Brian Walker

“The needs of business travellers have not been helped by the current realities of air travel.” - Owen N. Wild

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | JC Blog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/ Quotes Blog | http://www.grouppartners.net/blog/index.html

“Pattern recognition is the brain’s ability to scan the environment; discern order and create meaning from huge amounts of data; and thereby quickly assess a situation so that action can be taken right away and with a high degree of accuracy.” - Roderick Gilkey & Clint Kilts

P Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

"Helping our clients avoid solving the wrong problem really well"

Gems from around the place...#57

2007-11-18T04:21:00.001-08:00

“Who idolizes the plodding studiers of spreadsheets? Nobody.” - Rob Walker

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” - Steve Jobs

“Even the best are ineffective unless they can also lead.” - Jim Bolt

“The display is the computer.” - Jen-Hsun Huang

“The commonality between science and art is in trying to see profoundly - to develop strategies of seeing and showing.” - Edward Tufte

“Questions about whether design is necessary or affordable are quite beside the point: design is inevitable. The alternative to good design is bad design, not no design at all.” - Douglas Martin

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.” - Herman Melville

“Nothing happens unless first a dream.” - Carl Sandburg

“Don't just tell customers you've changed; show them you've changed.” - Saabira Chaudhuri

“[Leonardo Da Vinci] combined art and science and aesthetics and engineering, that kind of unity is needed once again.” - Ben Shneiderman

“Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.” - Paul Rand

“Wimbledon - A private members club that has a bit of a do in the summer...” - Anon but told to me by Ian Ritchie the CEO recently.

And finally, not so much a pithy insight but the more I read this explanation the more it inspires...

“The sound of vision: Vision comes to those who exercise themselves to see what they hear, as they listen, who learn to see what is said and who enter in the experience of simple perceptual connection with the wide open personal completion to the moment's happening. As one develops the maturity of full participation with the moment, so does the perceptual envisioning dexterity. From the normalization of envisioning into one's perceptual connection getting firmly established in the daily living, then comes the envisioning. The envisioning is the imagination's inner screen lighting up in context of where the envisioning grows. To envision is to become aware from soaking in the atmosphere. To envision is the focus coming in contact with the natural deployment grown from the whole envisioning atmosphere I soke in daily. The essence of vision is from the personal relatedness development in its whole simplicity of perceptual connection of the moment. The sign of a vision is confirmed when it gets communicated in the context that it addresses and that the focusing message lights up a healthy stimulation of the imagination screen and creativity from each listener's own personal perceptual relatedness. It is also recognized from the pure joy of effortlessly knowing beyond any possible argument... offered with love in faith and hope.” - Benoit Couture

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | JC Blog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/ Quotes Blog | http://www.grouppartners.net/blog/index.html

“We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box.” - Robert Fulghum

"Helping our clients avoid solving the wrong problem really well"

Thinking Kindling & Touch Paper #56

2007-11-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

“You've got to be honest; if you can fake that, you've got it made.” - George Burns

“We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box.” - Robert Fulghum

“Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others? ” - Martin Luther King Jr.

“A man to carry on a successful business must have imagination. He must see things as in a vision, a dream of the whole thing.” - Charles M. Schwab

“Creating a clear and compelling vision statement is not a simple matter.” - Gordon Quick

“Creative thinking begins with great questions, not answers. Great creative thinkers stay with the question instead of rushing to find an immediate solution. They ask more questions than the average person and are comfortable in the often uncomfortable situation of not immediately having the answer." - Elaine Dundon

“The peace I am thinking of is the dance of an open mind when it engages another equally open one.” - Toni Morrison

“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” - Chinese Proverb

“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” - B. B. King

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” - Nelson Henderson,

“What particular privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call thought, that we must thus make it the model of the universe?” - Baron Paul Henri Thyry d’Holbach

And finally...

“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.” - Bob Dylan

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | Weblog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/

“We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box.” - Robert Fulghum

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Imagine, ponderings and thoughts... #55

2007-10-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

“You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea.” - Benazir Bhutto

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” - George Bernard Shaw

“Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.” - Muhammad Ali

“Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion towards men and towards objective things.” - Albert Einstein

“Don't be afraid to take a big step. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.” - David Lloyd George

“You should empower the creativity of others.” - Brad Garlinghouse

“Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible.” - Hannah Arend

“Most civilization is based on cowardice. It’s so easy to civilize by teaching cowardice. You water down the standards that could lead to bravery. You restrain the will. You regulate the appetites. You fence in the horizons. You make a law for every movement. You deny the existence of chaos. You teach even the children to breathe slowly. You tame.” - Frank Herbert

“You can't have everything. Where would you put it?” - Steven Wright

“Pain is only temporary, giving up is forever.” - Lance Armstrong.

“Words are like bullets; if they escape, you can't catch them again.” - Wolof (Senegal, The Gambia)

“The people who oppose your ideas are inevitably those who represent the established order that your ideas will upset.” - Anthony D''Angelo

"The trouble with academics and commentators is that they care more about whether ideas are interesting than whether they are true." - Isaiah Berlin

And finally...

“What's another word for Thesaurus?” - Steven Wright

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | Weblog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/

“It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.” - Douglas Adams

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Snippets and Nuggets from hither and thither... #54

2007-10-06T04:57:00.000-07:00

“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.” - Tom Robbins

“There is no point in asking consumers - who do not know what they want - to say what they want.” - Russell Ackoff

“The real marketing potential of online social networks is listening, not talking.” - Tim Manners, publisher, "Reveries"

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” - Douglas Adams

“It's fine with me if design is regarded as nothing more than a business tool.” - Sam Lucente, VP of design, Hewlett-Packard

“To be or not to be that is your choice. And that choice will influence your whole life.” - Horatio Nelson

“There is nothing that a manager wants done that educated subordinates cannot undo.” - Russell Ackoff

“We don't stop laughing because we get old; we get old because we stop laughing.” - Unknown

“When the truth is missing, people feel demoralized, less confident, and ultimately are less loyal.” - Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans

“The simplest definition of design is how you treat your customer.” - Yves Behar

And finally...

“It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.” - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | Weblog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/

“It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an Airport' appear.” - Douglas Adams

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Collections from the Road... #53

2007-09-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

“The one thing worse than not being able to see is having no vision.” - Helen Keller

“There’s never a budget for the management of change.” - A UK Government Minister in a recent talk.

“Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behaviour. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behaviour.” Dee Hock

“Design is the art of gradually applying constraints until only one solution remains.” - Unknown

“Developing leaders and high-potential talent has become a strategic necessity.” - Jim Bolt

“The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.” - Bertrand Russell

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it's the only thing.” - Albert Schweitzer

“The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.” - Benjamin Disraeli

“Interactive design [is] a seamless blend of graphic arts, technology, and psychology.” - Brad Wieners

“Leonardo Da Vinci combined art and science and aesthetics and engineering, that kind of unity is needed once again.” - Ben Shneiderman

And finally - and at the same talk - just not by the same UK Government Minister... (Deliberately not attributed)

“The commercial models between us and the private sector are in the main incompatible...”

“Implement change, not technology...”

“There are glaring discrepancies and real paradoxes between the definitions in Private Sector and Government in the following areas, leadership, risk, ownership, objectives, and relationship - in these observations lies the gap between our assumptions, our expectations and then our disillusionment...”

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | Weblog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/

“I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.” - Woody Allen

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Ponderings, cluelets and wonderers... (#52)

2007-08-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” - Edgar Allan Poe

“Figure out what changes, what doesn't change, and what you want to change.” - Anne Hartman, Essex Partners

“You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.” - Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

“And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. ” - Nelson Mandela

“Playing safe is probably the most unsafe thing in the world. You cannot stand still. You must go forward.” - Robert Collier

“We had 12.9 gigabytes of (Microsoft) PowerPoint slides on our network. And I thought, 'What a huge waste of corporate productivity.' So we banned it. And we've had three unbelievable record-breaking fiscal quarters since we banned PowerPoint. Now, I would argue that every company in the world, if they would just ban PowerPoint, would see their earnings skyrocket. Employees would stand around going, 'What do I do? Guess I've got to go to work”- Scott McNealy Sun Microsystems

“Disorganization is an issue for more people than it isn't.” - Barbara Hemphill, productivity consultant

“You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.” - Olin Miller

“Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.” - Gore Vidal

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

And finally...

“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So - get on your way.” - Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel)

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | Weblog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/

“I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.” - Woody Allen

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Out and out thoughts. From out and about... (#51)

2007-08-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

“Great work is done by people who are not afraid to be great.” - Fernando Flores

“Everyone is born a king, and most people die in exile.” - Oscar Wilde

“I just bought a Mac to help me design the next Cray." - Seymoure Cray (When he was informed that Apple Inc. had recently bought a Cray supercomputer to help them design the next Mac.)

“Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” - Bernard M. Baruch

“Where is there substance in a world composed of events?” - Frank Herbert

“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.” - Dr. Karl Augustus Menninger

“Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.” - Dr. Joyce Brothers (Diane Bauer)

“The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.” - Elbert Hubbard

“I'm a leader only if there are people who are willing to follow me." - Terri Kelly, Leader, W.L. Gore's Military-Fabrics Department.

“People don't care about cold facts. They care about pictures or stories." - Nancye Green, Founder, Donovan and Green

“It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Emotions are the igniter of thoughts”. - Frank Herbert

“A second kind of fear is based on imagination. To overcome that, you need calmness so that you can investigate it more closely. When you look into it in detail, your imaginary fear dissipates.” - Dali lama

And finally...

“It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it.” - Steven Wright

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | Weblog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/

“Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.” - John Wayne

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Precious Stones.... (50)

2007-08-12T06:23:00.001-07:00

“To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan and not quite enough time.” - Leonard Bernstein

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” - Mark Twain

“Complexity well understood is about simplicity.” - Dave Snowden

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” - Segoyewatha

“He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” - Albert Einstein

“Put one dumb foot in front of the other and course-correct as you go.” - Barry Diller, Chairman and CEO, InterActiveCorp

“Figure out what behaviour needs to change and how to change it.” - David Thomson, Vice President, Hewlett-Packard

“Agencies say advertising is part of the solution because that's their output.” - Jon Wilkins, co-founder of Naked Communications

“We are on the verge of a revolution that is greater than any in the 20th century.” - Tim Smit, Cofounder, Eden Project

“If you're frightened of making a mistake, you won't make a thing.” - John Taylor, Director of Design, GM's APEx

And finally...

“Control is an illusion." - Avram Miller, VP of Business Development, Intel

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | Weblog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/

“The Definition of Definition: The wilderness of ‘idea’ trapped within a wall of words.” - Unknown

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Smart, Neat and Curious... (49)

2007-08-03T07:22:00.001-07:00

“There are two keys to life: 1. Don’t tell everyone your secrets”. - Cal Bigosh

“Things that don't quite make sense can be our most valuable tools." - David Wilson, Director, the Museum of Jurassic Technology

“What keeps us awake is the fact that we can think the turnaround is going pretty good and then lose a billion in a quarter." - Tom LaSorda, Chrysler's COO

“Genius is an African who dreams up snow.’ - Vladimir Nabokov

“Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it”. - Irving Berlin

“Try a lot of things to find all the dead ends, and learn from them." - Bill Gross, Founder, Idealab

“Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.” - Lou Reed

“The sexy cable TV channels don’t expand our horizons, don’t make us better people and don’t come in clearly enough”. - Bill Maher

“Management has a lot to do with answers. Leadership is a function of questions. And the first question for a leader always is, ‘Who do we intend to be? That’s the business we’re in. The question one.” - Max De Pree, former CEO of Herman Miller.

"Focus clearly on what can go wrong." - Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, Brain Surgeon

"Innovation is all about people. It is about the roles people can play, the hats they can put on." - Tom Kelley, general manager of Ideo

“Creativity can cause a lot of confusion." - Markus Mettler, Cofounder, BrainStore

“Opposition helps. Kites rise against the wind, rather than with it” - John Neal

And finally...

“Watch out for emergencies, they are your big chance”. - Fritz Reiner

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | Weblog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/

“The language of Nelson Mandela's tribe, Xhosa, has a word that perfectly sums up the truth of life: Ubuntu. In English, it translates as "I am because you are."

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Literary Litter - (48)

2007-07-20T12:30:00.001-07:00

“Economics is a science with excellent tools for gaining answers but a serious shortage of interesting questions...." - Steven Levitt, Economist

“Before you can be creative, you must be courageous.” - Joey Reiman, CEO, BrightHouse

“If you get your facts wrong, your map will be wrong. If you get the map wrong, you're likely to do the wrong thing.” - Peter Schwartz

“Scenarios transform information into perceptions... It is a creative experience that generates an 'Aha!' ... and leads to strategic insights beyond the mind's previous reach.” - Pierre Wack

“The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." - Alvin Toffler

“The concept of progress acts as protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.” - Frank Herbert

“Anybody can jump a motorcycle. The trouble begins when you try to land it."- Evel Knievel

"Live up to your potential instead of imitating someone else's." - Martha Burgess

“True faith is when you believe in a vision and are willing to follow an imperfect person and to tolerate imperfect execution and imperfect results.” - Michael Saylor, CEO, MicroStrategy Inc.

“Companies that make the change from good to great have no name for their transformation - and absolutely no program.” - Jim Collins, Author, "Good to Great"

And finally, it’s worth it one more time...

“I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise what you heard is not what I meant....” - Alan Greenspan

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell | Weblog http://johncaswell.typepad.com/my_weblog/

“The language of Nelson Mandela's tribe, Xhosa, has a word that perfectly sums up the truth of life: Ubuntu. In English, it translates as "I am because you are."

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Caviar, Ferrari's and Critical Observation...(46)

2007-07-01T05:30:00.001-07:00

“What senses do we lack that we cannot see another world around us?” - Frank Herbert

“An assertion that everything necessary must be on the first screen is tantamount to the assertion that all crucial facts of the novel Crime and Punishment must be listed in the first paragraph. (What’s the point in reading it then?) I mean, if your novel is crummy, the first screen won’t help. If it’s the other way round, folks will thumb through it four hundred times and ask for more”. - Roma Voroneshski

“The conundrum for companies is that good products or services aren't enough.” - Chip and Dan Heath. Authors.

“The past is something you can know much about with certainty, but you can’t change it. The future is something you can know little about with certainty, but you can change it.” - Anon

“I once heard an Aboriginal Chief from Canada describing how their language is different in the sense that when they speak, they describe images in order to convey meaning. It got me to start practicing when I talk, in either French or English. I figured if a picture is worth a thousand words and that I learn to use 20, 50 or 100 words to describe a picture that's worth a thousand words, then it means that with every 100 hundred words or so, I end up speaking a thousand white man's words... Isn't that economy at its best?.” - Benoit Couture

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” - Indian Saying

“To be aware of a single shortcoming within oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in somebody else. Rather than speaking badly about people and in ways that will produce only friction and unrest in their lives, we should practice a purer perception of them, and when we speak of others, speak of their good qualities. If you find yourself slandering anybody, first imagine that your mouth is filled with excrement. It will break you of the habit quickly enough.” - Dali lama

“A truly great intellect is one which takes a connected view of old and new, past and present, far and near, and which has an insight into the influence of all these, one on another... It possesses the knowledge, not only of things, but also of their mutual and true relations.” - Fred Scott and Joseph Denney

“To err is human - and to blame it on a computer is even more so.' Robert Orben

“A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends”. - Baltasar Gracian

And finally...

“You do not take from this universe. It grants what it will”. - Frank Herbert

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell

“So we live in an accelerating possibility curve. Perhaps we can't control it, but we can learn to ride it like a surfer on a wave or a bird on a thermal, to use its power to take us where we want to go - to live in uncertainty and yet act with confidence.” - Dewitt Jones.

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Virtual Graffiti... (45)

2007-06-24T02:16:00.001-07:00

“Could you change when change really mattered?” - Alan Deutschman, Author, “Change or Die”

“When you think you know something, that is the most perfect barrier against learning.” Frank Herbert

“You can't find out if you're right until you take the risk." - Greg Papadopoulos, CTO, Sun Microsystems

“The hardest battle is to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else” - E.E. Cummings

“How you think matters more than what you think.” - John Maloney

“Paradox is a pointer telling you to look beyond it.” - Frank Herbert

“It is not until we understand the law of karma, or cause and effect, that we are inspired to embark on the path to end suffering. Negative thoughts and actions produce negative results and conditions, just as positive thoughts and actions produce positive results and conditions.” - Dali lama

“As opposed to just being this new digital age, I think it's this new age of transparency and kind of obligation that everything that a brand does is a message, and it needs to be done artfully and truthfully and intelligently, because that's how people are ultimately going to evaluate brands that they want to do business with. And I think ultimately brands are going to become media.” - Lee Clow

“Any human utterance of a certain weight contains more than the author may have been immediately aware of at the time." - by Joseph Ratzinger

“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." The Fox and the Hedgehog is a attributed to the Greek warrior-poet Archilochus (680bc-645bc): And later, also to an essay by Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997). BUT - “Whatever your ‘big thing’ is - supply chains, communities, management, etc - it may be time to let-go and think different.” - John Maloney

“There is one thing that astounds me more than all others - the impotence of force to organize anything.” - Napoleon Bonaparte (paraphrased)

And finally...

“If you must label the absolute, use it’s proper name; Temporary.” - Frank Herbert

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell

“The Definition of Definition: The wilderness of ‘idea’ trapped within a wall of words.” - Unknown

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Hindsight's, Insights and Foresights... (44)

2007-06-20T07:31:00.001-07:00

“Ignore everybody. The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.” - Hugh MacLeod

“Anger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world.” - William Shenstone

“You can be cool in conflict if you are not interested in the battle, but this can only be achieved if you have already fed the fires of your own rage.” - Amy & Arny Mindell

“The world of the 1990s and beyond will not belong to 'managers' or those who can make the numbers dance. The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders - people who not only have enormous amounts of energy but who can energize those whom they lead”
Jack Welch

"Your problems don't come because you don't know how to calculate entropies or to design plates. They come because you don't know about people. Our best comes out when we have honest discussions. Our worst comes out when we behave like robots or professionals. You all have the delusion that it's your business to sell hardware. But every company of the future is going to be in the business of exquisite care - which means quick turnaround time and convenience. To deliver exquisite care, you need an organization that coordinates well and listens well. Right now, you are in an organization that has poor quality and slow delivery. You have one big mythology in your favor: Everyone believes that you Europeans are impeccable. But I know you are jerks." - Fernando Flores

“Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.” - Mark Twain

“A cardinal principle of Total Quality escapes too many managers: you cannot continuously improve interdependent systems and processes until you progressively perfect interdependent, interpersonal relationships.” - Stephen R. Covey

And finally...

“Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” - Buddha

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell

“When land is the measure of wealth, then scarcity rules. In a knowledge society we require an economics of abundance, and there is no science for that yet.” - Phil Hood

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

Gems, Pearls and Nuggets... (43)

2007-06-14T04:47:00.001-07:00

< The occasional note from me. A lot of new people have joined this irregular list over the 43 editions but I always want to know if you want off. We all have enough clutter so I wont be offended, just let me know. John >

------ Gems, Pearls and Nuggets... ----------.

“Forecasting is difficult especially when it concerns the future” - Anon

“Leadership has to do with direction. Management has to do with the speed, coordination and logistics in going in that direction. The WORKERS are chopping their way through the jungle. The MANAGERS are coordinating, making sure the tools are sharp, etc. The LEADERS climb a tree and shout Wrong jungle!! The MANAGERS shout back Be quiet! We're making progress!” - Anon

“An instinct for staging, a strong visual imagination, an innate musicality. A critical facility, a background in business history, and an ability to take the heat, ride the lows and keep a level head around praise and criticism.” - Michael Bloom from Thinking Like a Film Director

“Before enlightenment, chop wood - carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood - carry water.” - Zen Saying

“If you really want something, the world will conspire to help you.” - Iftekhar Enayetullah. Co-Founder, Waste Concern

“Environment, social, and governance issues are now commanding dramatically more attention.” - Abby Joseph Cohen, Chief U.S. Investment Strategist, Goldman Sachs

“If you're not confused - you don't know what's going on!” - George Carlin

“Ownership has always been a symbol of affluence in the west, but beyond a certain point less becomes more and the affluent want to go beyond the material. They begin to look for other things.” - Anon

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman

“The inevitable end of multiple chiefs is that they fade and disappear for lack of unity” -Napoleon Bonaparte

John Caswell I Group Partners I http://www.grouppartnerswiki.net | SKYPE John Caswell

“If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism...” - Hunter S. Thompson

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to