Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .
 

IN OUR WORLD:   Coming to you from the woods of Virginia and the colors are magnificent!  Went from a Lake Travis Resort to a Virginia Resort in less than 12 hours!  I am still at the beginning of my journeys and so far so good.  The only down side was when I got to Austin I discovered I had booked my return flight to Dallas at 7:45 AM instead of PM!  Lucky for me Deborah at SW Airlines took pity on my dumb ass and got me on a flight home.
 

The group I had the pleasure of working with in Virginia was fantastic.  Receptive of our ideas and fully engaged, even though I was the last presenter of the day!
 

After I get in to DFW tomorrow I run to Love Field to catch a flight to El Paso to start the next project.  From New Mexico, it’s back to Virginia then to San Francisco with a quick jump down to Southern California.
 

Spoke with both my son’s who both have visions of post season championships for their teams, the UT Longhorns and the University of Arkansas Hogs!
 

I am so excited about the projects on the table for rest of this year and into 2007!  The concept that our ideas can drive Fortune 100 companies is an honor.
 

Time of the traditional dinner.
 
 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:  Let me introduce one of the core tenants of simplicity – Occam’s Razor.  William of Occam was a 14^th century English logician and one of the original ‘reductionist’s”.  In a nutshell, when all things are considered, the simplest answer is almost always the best.  It also follows the scientific principle of Parsimony, which states; the preference for the least complex explanation for an observation is the best.  This are core principles in the pursuit of simplicity.
 

Image a hard rip tide yanking you out to sea.  You fight against it, but it takes a ton of energy.  That rip tide is the rush of complexity and to maintain a commitment to a simple perspective is the energy you need to fight it.
 

This week I have met with a variety of clients and explained the need to look for the simple response to every situation we discussed.  The desire was there, but the ability to grasp this idea was a struggle.  I fully understand it.  It is hard to think; “there is value in making something simple.”  The idea seems, oh, I don’t know, maybe  – - – - Simple!!!
 

Here is a simple exercise:
 

THE GRAND LIST:  Write down everything you can think of associated with your project.  Leave NOTHING OUT.
 

THOUGHTFUL REDUCTION:  Now look for ways to reduce or combine items from your Grand List.  Some of the things you listed can be grouped together while others, after thoughtful reflection can be eliminated.
 

ORGANIZE:  Take your reduced list and organize it.  Find the visual method for making sense of the information you have accumulated.
 

There is ONE method of simplifying a look at possibilities.
 

MOVIES:   Will Ferrell is a very funny guy and his new movie – Stranger Than Fiction, will be a good time at the cinema.  Take some time to have a laugh.
 

NetFlix Fans:  More and more people are renting entire seasons of TV shows to either become introduced to the show or to get caught up.  It is an interesting way of watching TV.  The West Wing’s 7^th season just came out on DVD and it was one of my favorite shows.
 

 
BOOKS:  Mavericks at Work by Taylor and Labarre is a great read about why the most original thinkers in business always seem to win.  The win may not happen at the beginning of the idea, but in the long term they end up winning.  Think of it as the appreciation of the space between cause and effect.
 

I wish I could recommend a fiction book to everyone, but I am in the middle of my Repairman Jack addiction.  I am on the 4^th book in the series. Can’t wait to get started!
 

MUSIC:  Here is a band that is making waves – Cold War Kids.  Give them a listen to on iTunes.
 

SOUTH OF NORMAL:  Green thinkers, those environmentalists, always seem to have a new take on South of Normal thinking. 
Now there is a $90,000 ELECTRIC sports car that can really move.  Not a hybrid, but a full electric car that can go 250 miles on a charge and go from 0-60 MPH in 4.3 seconds.
  They had a 100 car production run, all of which were swooped up by the likes of George Clooney and Sergey Brin.  Produced by Tesla Motors, with Elon Musk as the chairman, who also was the founder of the space exploration startup Space X, the Tesla Roadster could be the future of electric cars.
Everyone living on the South of Normal border will soon have an electric car in their garage!
 

Lift the scales from my eyes,
Lift the words from my lungs.
I want to cry out
It’s on the tip of my tongue.
Mark Heard
 

Drop me a note with your comments at creativeventures@nova1.com.
 

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.
 

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .
 

IN OUR WORLD:   Coming to you from the Gulf of Mexico on Padre Island on a strategic planning retreat.  Great coastal weather with warm high winds blowing off the gulf and Madre.  I wish I had more time to enjoy it all.
 

We positioned a new project with a client, based on the ability to view a very complex project through a simple filtering idea.  By developing a filter to pass issue through you do exactly what a filter is designed to do, remove impurities.  Idea filters allow you a method of judging the value of ideas and allows an organization to develop starting points.
 

I wasn’t sure if we could find a level of engagement on the way we positioned the project, but low and behold, we received a request for a proposal, so we are in the running!
 

Next week takes me to Austin, Richmond VA and Santa Fe NM.  Great projects for very progressive thinking clients.
 
 

• THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:  Last week I wrote about the power of  video and wanted to continue it’s position as the pinnacle of the communication pyramid:
  

• Tim Kobe and Wilhelm Oehl are the key designers of Eight Inc and are responsible for the way cool designs of the Apple stores.  They now have created a new look for Nokia’s flagship stores that has a center piece of video.  All the product information is delivered via video and can be tailored any specific market, including language and specific product pushes.  Video became the combination of a local and global view.
  
• Thomas McInerney is the founder of GUBA, a company that won the “first in” position in offering legal downloads of theatrical movies.  He spent months studying and getting to know the movie industry and their main concerns regarding finding the right path to web base movie purchase.  They knew the power of video delivered via the internet and worked on an application that made sense.  With Apple and Amazon getting in the pool GUBA used its first in to become very agile to the changing needs of the movie industry.
  
• To pat myself on the back, with our technology partner SiSTeR Technology we are positioning video as core components to e-commerce and as a method of connecting experience beyond an event.  What if every car listing  on the internet had a video?  You could watch a 2 minute video on the specific car you wanted to buy.  What if every major meeting was filmed, broken into small chapters and sent to attendees to reconnect them to the experience created at the meeting.  These aren’t two ideas, they are two realities in the use of video.
  

MOVIES:   OK, go see Borat and laugh your “you know what off” at the uncomfortable situations this fictional guy puts himself in.
 

NetFlix Fans:  Want something so wonderfully odd and funny to keep your over worked brain company?  Rent the first season of Robot Chicken (don’t ask).
 

 
BOOKS:  Here is a coffee table book that will blow your mind – SPECTACLE.  This is a book that celebrates the most visually stunning live events in the world.  Great Christmas gift.
 

MUSIC:  OK, here is something both weird and wonderful.  Try Beast Moans by Swan Lake.  It is a combination of indie rock dudes with great lyrics and lots of good old distorted guitar.  A good listen.
 

SOUTH OF NORMAL:  We seem to put a lot of faith into the ability of politicians to solve the worlds problems.  Doesn’t seem to work does it?  It seems we are creating more problems than solutions.  Enter POP!TECH (www.pop!tech.com), an annual meeting of luminaries, wizards, writers and entrepreneurs who for the past decade have gathered to take a shot a outthinking the worlds big problems.
I love this idea!  There is a great article on it in this month’s Fast Company magazine and the web site is worth a visit.
It is a South of Normal view of attacking a problem. 
 

It’s never about the lock.
It’s always about the key.
Doesn’t matter where you look.
It only matters what you see.
Stephen Harvill
 

Drop me a note with your comments at creativeventures@nova1.com.
 

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.