MMTT: My morning thinking time

When you are a young designer you are always trying to read about what the pros are doing, thinking, eating, smelling, whatever. If Stefan Sagmeister said that washing your face in broken glass each morning would make you a better designer you might think about doing it.

As I sit with my fancy ass cappuccino and wonder about things I realize how important this time is to me. Some days it is used for serious writing and some days I just stare at the wall and the people that pass through the coffee shop and see where my mind takes me.

Anyway, I realized that if I told a young designer to do this, set aside time in the day to reflect, I would be telling them the wrong stuff. I would be telling them stuff that is for old people with houses and cars and stress and risk. I read many recommendations to do this thinking time as a young designer and it never added up for me.

So what do I recommend? Going a bit crazy. Seriously. Extend youthful inquiry as long as possible. And by youthful I mean full force, deep dive into culture. Go see stuff just to see it. Taste stuff to taste it. Don't get addicted to anything, don't get into major debt and brush your teeth but otherwise don't pontificate in coffee shops during the time you have set aside for thinking cause that is a tactic for people who are too old to stay up after 10 and can't deal with rock shows. Coffee shops are great but find flow rather than schedules.

MMTT: My morning thinking time

Obvious

"It is really hard to ask a good question about something that seems "obvious". Said Rowland Hobbs, my former business partner and someone I admire a great deal. He studied philosophy at Oxford (if I remember correctly) and has gone on to be a marketing and innovation stud. It struck me deeply.

That comment is ringing in my ears this morning as I am reading through the NY Times piece on Bell Labs and innovation. "It was clear to the researchers and engineers there that the ultimate aim of their organization was to transform new knowledge into new things."

Wow. Their aim. They understanding of their fundamental purpose. So obvious. Classic even, but not.

Aim means that there is a calculating mechanism that will guide something in a particular direction. Good aim requires a bit of knowledge. A purposefulness. It requires an understanding of the context and goal. The components and mechanisms. Ok, all very obvious, right?

I met with a young couple that wanted to start a shoe line and I gave them more advice than they bargained for (they were happy) but they didn't understand that I was consulting them. It is likely no one had ever provided real consulting services to them. They just didn't know how to take it. To make the most out of it. I was struck by this. They didn't know what a consultant is and how to best use one even though the information seemed clearly useful.

It reminded me that people don't know how to be managed. They don't ask, they aren't trained to be managed and they certainly aren't often able to suggest a best way for their manager to help. We think employees are there to be taught and trained but we miss the fundamental issue. The obvious fact that the ground rules and meaning of being managed were never explained. It should just be obvious, but it is not.

This assumption is all around us. In restaurant menus, gyms, banks and more. Companies are in such a rush to sell or be heard that their mandate pushes their employees to blow past the obvious. Explaining the fundamentals carries the risk of having the person realize they fundamentally don't understand what they are getting themselves into and walking away. I have told many startups they are not ready to make shoes. People that come to me with their life savings and want a tennis shoe and clearly have no plan, no hope, no design. I educate them on the fundamentals and ask them to come back when they feel like they are ready. It is obvious to me but the obvious is generally only obvious to those that know and have experience.

Try it. Don't over explain, just review the very basics of why you are meeting, where you are going and how you might work together. It can be brief once you get good at boiling things down and it serves you in building relationships over the long run.

Little Bits of Courage

Fear and anger are two sides of the same coin and addressing that can take a bit of courage. My recent work is to rebuild a company which has been around for 10 years, is founded and run by my family and is in major transformation mode. It is exciting but with change comes fear and that fear is often expressed by anger. Anger at how things have been done, how they should continue to be done or just reaction for some reason that isn't quite clear. While it is important to address the issue that is being discussed rather than get sidetracked by the emotion it is important to stop and address the emotion in order to move forward successfully.

It takes courage to stop and address emotion as you might quickly find yourself in a deeper conversation about things you may not like. Things that may cut deeper than a simple operational decision. In business it is too easy to be opponents when it makes it easier for you. Too easy to assert your position as the dominant force and push through the change. By addressing the emotion in a conversation which can cause a great deal of unnecessary turmoil you can defuse the situation and set the proper context for the conversation which really is generally unemotional or even better, should be collaborative and energizing.

When I feel the temperature in the conversation rising I like to stop and say something like, "Whoa, what is happening here? How did this become so emotional?" And then address the fact that rising tempers is not an effective way to get the work done. That is it not good for relationships. Getting agreement here is usually quite brief and enables you to say, "Ok, let's discuss this without all the stress, we are on the same team and I am interested in hearing what your thoughts are." This validates the person, let's them know they are safe and respected which works for you over time as your relationship with that person will prosper and they will use the tactic in their own conversations.

Links, Leaps & Lepers

When asked about how I work through data first I say it is hard work and curiosity but when I feel clever I say stuff like, "I look for links, leaps and lepers."

Links: How can one piece of information in a different context be useful in amplifying another? What is their relationship in function, form or context?

Leaps: What does it mean when things are linked? What is important, bad or good, about those links? What does the distance between them tell you? What mental journey did you go on?

Lepers: Who or what is failing miserably and why?

This is a rough framework I am always using to find insights in everything I read from the most casual to the most critical.

Finally, list things in threes as they feel good, sound smart and if you can add some alliteration then all the better.