Bad Coffee, 3D TV Turn off and the Marvels of the IPad

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I was meeting a couple of business contacts in a soul less Auckland Westfield mall yesterday. We were looking for a place for a coffee, disappointed our favourite spot had been taken over by yet another coffee franchise that sells expensive buckets of scalded brown milk.

Sadly, we ended up at another coffee franchise spot, at least it was a good place to stop and talk, and the mall, antiseptic as it is, is close to home.

We came across a mall display of the latest 3D TVs, all with $250 glasses set up in front like those pole-mounted binoculars you get at scenic spots.

We all agreed what a turn off the whole thing was. How annoying would it be to constantly have the whole family having to wear three D glasses in the living room? Not to mention $1000 for the four pairs for an average household. What happens when you switch channels or hit a non 3D programme? Glasses on, glasses off. What will it do to interpersonal skills in the home if everyone is wandering around with 3D glasses on. And then how much better is the 3D anyway in terms of viewing experience? Not much, and it looks terrible without the glasses. How will that work as you sit in the lounge browsing magazines, your laptop, the remote, your cup of tea?

A definite 0 out of 10 for first generation 3D TV.

Ahh, now contrast this with our next technology experience over coffee, the IPad. Now I had thought, really, isn’t it a toy, and how much do I need one as well as the Iphone, the MacBook and the I Mac?

Well I do.

Sorry, it is amazing. Its potential for me to use in business and to research things I like and care about is fantastic. Gone will be the days of bringing up sites and pressos and info on a laptop and clumsily swivelling it round across the cafe table or board table for people to look at. Gone are the days of scribbling models and plans in a moleskin or notebook. All this will be done on the Ipad. Magazines such as Wired and Popular Mechanics have great apps for their mags. They give the magazine browsing experience a whole new dimension.

And then of course reading books, surfing sites etc etc is just a whole new experience. Another toy, another gadget. Yes, but in our, lovely post modern world, toys, gadgets, work, fun, passion and inspiration continue to converge. Isn’t that what evolution is all about?

All Things Bright and Beautiful

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“ Storytelling reveals meaning without commiting the error of defining it.” ….Hannah Arendt

People, what ever walk of life hold great knowledge. In the western world we have divided people up according to the their education, their intellect and their wealth. Those that have, and those that have not. Those who are bright, and those who are dumb.

When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, and I imagine still today, parents put a great deal of stock in a child being bright. Bright was usually defined as doing well at school, reading a lot, having a good vocabulary and comprehension, or often being ‘ahead of your years’ in numeracy or literacy.

I think this is a rather narrow definition of brightness. Bright is about light, about shining. All human beings can shine given the right environment.

If we see humanity as having endless potential, then all can be bright. The old Christian hymn, went :

“ All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, the Lord God Loves Them All.”

So when one stops to think of the people of the world as having limitless potential, more and more untold stories emerge.

My great passion as a journalist, and still today, was to find the story in any person I dealt with. There was never ‘no’ story. In fact our training as journalists in the 1970s created a culture where it was completely unacceptable to come back from an assignment with no story.

Not only did you need to turn up with a story, it had to have a fresh angle, one that no one else had. So it had to be an untold story, with facts, and turns of phrase that were new. In radio, one was always hunting for the unique, or ‘telling’ sound bite. I taught myself to scan a conversation or an interview for fresh turns of phrase, that sound bite, that aphorism, that anecdote, that recollection that would sum up a whole story and strike a chord.

I was teaching myself to create an environment to enable anyone to be ‘bright’ about their story; where their conscious and unconscious met, and they spoke unfettered, with honesty and authenticity. This was great fun with politicians and business leaders who went to great lengths to obscure the truth, to control what they said consciously to the degree that there is not depth, validity or authenticity to what they say.

Tellingly, it was the man on the street or eyewitnesses to events that produced the most colourful and authentic interviews and soundbites. They told it like it was.

The art and science of great story encourages all in leadership to give up this control. It is ineffectual. No one believes it. The most effective leaders are ‘comfortable in their own skin’ and so when they speak, when they communicate, there is no separation between conscious and unconscious. They trust and are therefore trusted. They allow themselves to shine, to be bright, they do not obscure, and they achieve the results that they wish for.

Hard Wired For Story

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I read the other day about a teacher who asked their young class whether they would like a story read to them, or a story told to them. Without pausing to think they all said ‘tell’ us a story.

Excuse the pun, but that is very telling. I reckon they instantly and instinctively knew that being told a story was going to be more engaging, and an experience, rather than something being read, more by rote, to them.
Our relationship to story is primal and it strikes a note at the heart of our brain, in the limbic system. Rational and more linear information does not sink in the same way.
So our brains are ‘hard wired’ to accept story as the most powerful way for us to learn.
Scientists believe this goes way back over many millennia to when we first evolved to become mammals. Esteemed American psychologist Renee Fuller says that we learnt what is called ‘object constancy’ where we became aware of stimuli that enabled us to distinguish danger. We eventually came to form language, with nouns to describe this stimuli and then developed verbs to describe actions, so snakes bite and lions attack. These linkages of object to action in ancient times were critical to our survival as they warned us of danger, and alerted us to the presence of food.
These cognitive links for humans became the way we formed story.

Based on a True Story

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The blurring of fact and fiction in all forms of media is rife. How do we discern what is true and what is not?
We are in a fascinating era where access to information is going through the roof, we can find out endless streams of information at the click of the mouse. But is it true and is it useful?
The key to discerning what information is accurate, relevant or useful is our intention when we search for it. That sets our pathway.
What and who are we gathering the information for? How does it line up with our values and beliefs?
Since time began, we have been storytellers. And stories in their retelling have always varied, depending on the intention of the teller. At our lowest, we have created propoganda to win wars. At our highest we have created beautiful factual and ficitional stories that have lifted our souls.
It is a tired old joke about the media that you should ‘never let the facts get in the way of a good story.’ Perhaps we should flip this to say never let a negative intention get in the way of a good story.
I had lunch with a good friend the other day and we got to talking about stories, and laughed at how often the phrase ‘based on a true story’ gets bandied around to attempt to add value to a film, television programme or other media story. We really don’t know which bits of most stories are true. So we must build our capacity to discern through developing our own honest and authentic communication and seek it in others. As Jeff Jarvis says in What Would Google Do, these days in social media, we develop our stories warts and alls, own up to inaccuracies, and get honest about the ‘fact’ that truth is a work in progress.

Get That Stake Out of the Heart of Your Stakeholder!

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As a communicator I work with a lot of organisations in a field called Stakeholder Management.
I often feel uncomfortable with the term ‘stakeholder.’
It is often used to keep people and groups at arms length; disparate groups, often with ‘issues’ who may challenge an organisation going about its business. To suggest they be ‘managed’ often really implies ‘kept quiet’.
Enlightened organisations don’t have that attitude. They see the opportunities that can lie in so called stakeholder groups, and when people are outspoken on an issue, there is a powerful opportunity for them to participate in becoming part of the solution.
My point is that the stories these people have are the real untold stories of our communities, our publics, our stakeholders, our investors, our clients, our customers, our opponents and our competitors.
The more we look for the humanity and love and valuable stories in all of these groups, with their diverging views, the more robust we become in delivering our vision, our service, our products.
It is their passion, their heartfelt feelings that have people become vocal ‘stakeholders’. To relegate these voices to a nuisance factor is to drive a stake into the heart of their humanity.
If we learn to love our outspoken people, hunting for the value in what they say, we become more robust, as individuals, as organisations as communities to do what we are here to do.

JFK , Shakespeare and the Wisdom of NZ Maori

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I ended up browsing a biography of JFK in the library the other day.

I’ve always been curious about his speeches, and how they riveted the world.
Was it Kennedy or his advisors and speech writers that came up with “Ask not what your country can do for you, can do for your country, ask what you can do for your country.”
As with many great moments for great leaders, it was a collaboration. Kennedy had sought ideas and opinions from many about what he should say when he gave his inaugural speech on January 20, 1961. And in the end made his own call about what to say.
The key thing was that it was not all about him, it was about something greater, a coming together of ideas at a time when he was required to rise above himself, through the collaboration and collective support of others.
It struck me again how true Shakespeare was when he said ‘there is nothing new under the sun.’
New Zealand Maori have a sacred value called Manaaki. Manaaki is all about being of service, putting the needs of others ahead of one’s self, being of service.
It is when we focus on others and what we can provide for them, that we are at our most powerful. It is when our communication is most clear, most succinct, and connects.
We often ‘overthink’ how to stand out in what we say and do and be and can get concerned about whether our ideas, our thoughts our actions are our own, or simply following others.
That is when we achieve greatness in what ever realm we inhabit.

Dull Sex Politics

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It was fabulous that 40 to 50 thousand people marched against mining National Parks at the weekend. My heart lifted. Here was a huge bunch of people expressing themselves about something they really cared about passionately.
It was no mistake that two prominent figures on the march were Lucy Lawless and Robyn Malcolm, both women known for their roles as particularly spunky women; Xena Warrior Princess and Cheryl in Outrageous Fortune.
So these women, fictional or not, stand for strength of character and most likely good and lasting sex.
There type of leadership is a great contrast to the Premature Ejaculation economics being promoted by the government through Jerry Brownlee. Wham Bam, thank you Mam, instant cash from a hole in the ground. Just stick in the hole and go hell for leather til you strike gold.
And everyone takes a turn, sounds like gang rape.
And it also sounds just like Muldoon’s Think Big projects of the early 80s, another great example of PE economics. Think big, fast, and blow your load of non=renewable resources. And Aotearoa NZ is better off from Think Bit, exactly how?
It is bordering on the ridiculous to think this quick fix mining idea will have the NZ economy ‘catch up’ to Australia. Economies of scale people. We are just so niche here in NZ, I can hardly see the costly style of niche mining that would occur in NZ as doing anything at all to our bottom line.
Sad, sad, sad.
Now while we have the ‘ooops shot my load’ style of economics from Key Brownlee and the gang, there was our terrible sad calculated and unsatisfying orgasm economics of Labour. It was always by the book, the theory and strategy was right for good sex, didn’t matter your gender, sexual preference, it was all good, and fabulous on paper. But there was not heart, soul, or mongrel in it.
We need an economy that is like great sex that lasts; tantric economics, sustainable economics. Creative ideas, indivduality, niche products. Kiwi ingeunity from the bedroom to the boardroom to the cabinet table.
Who is going to stand up for this? Maybe the Greens? But I worry that they wallow around ‘in coitus’, perhaps addicted to the ‘feel good’ of sex.
If we are to continue to evolve as a species, we have to learn a brave new world of sex, of politics of economics that is sustainable. What’s the hurry? Well there is urgency but going harder and faster is not going to be the answer. Standing up for what inspires you is going to be part of the mix, getting out on the streets tosay what you feel is not a bad start.

The Third Way of Story

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In today’s world we are never short of access to a story. Daily in the media, the movies, gossip with friends; stories are far and away our most powerful form of communication.
But which ones are true? And which ones are useful and remembered?
I love this quote:

The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in. —Harold Goddard.


Goodard hits the nail on the head, because what we care about, believe in and act on are the stories we create about ourselves and the world.

We don’t run our lives on statistics, much as we would like to think we are that straightforward, we base what we do on the story we have created about the world that may run completely at odds to logic.

My point is that a lot of stories that are told are setup to make everything black and white. This is good, and that is bad. That is a win and that is a loss. But it is the story of the win or loss, or the triumph of good over evil, or the reverse that is remembered.

To create a story that will be remembered and acted upon requires an x factor or a ‘third way’. This is the soul of the story, the heart of it, where you inject what is moving and transformational into the story. This can be quite simple. It may be your reflections on looking at a beautiful flower in the garden, or your sudden rage at another driver on the road. Your honesty, your heart and soul if it is evident in the story will have it be compelling Tricky, Titilating and Tstories are a dime a dozen in the media, but the ones that sustain, like a beautifully sung note will have the heart and soul that makes up the Third Way of Story

The Balance of Story

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Great thinking is dis-integrating.

We have become expert at compartmentalized thinking;

with the intellect for one task, from the heart and intuition for another.

Work, life, and family

are segregated and our thinking in these domains is often seperated. We have stopped

thinking holistically with all of our being.

In many indigenous cultures such as Maori, thinking was integrated. Learning a song or a

game was part of learning survival skills. Oratory and rhetoric integrated strategic thinking,

heartfelt emotion and integrated oneʼs self with people and planet.

Story telling was an art and a science. To re-integrate our thinking embracing story to

communicate powerfully will be the way of the future.