Week of March 28, 2011

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

This was a fantastic week with new clients coming on board for the second quarter.  I have a new simplification project that is really challenging and will be a ton of fun to work on.  In the heart of complexity lies a simple path. 

 

I am coming to you from the Valley of the Sun here in Phoenix where the brand new Chaos Conspiracy – The elegant and powerful idea of SIMPLE hit the stage.  It was a big hit and during the program, filled with new images, group participation and a few stage tricks the company began to see a new way of approaching their process planning.

 

Next week I am in Chicago for a series of Repeatable Successful Acts launches then off to Sea Island Georgia to facilitate a planning retreat.

 

Love the work!

 

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

 

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

 

The Law of the Fire hose – It is impossible to take a sip from a fire hose.

 

Here is the deal, you are planning a conference and the fact that you will have a bunch of your team members present gets your brain thinking of all the things you want to do.  You start to load up on data they need, you plan workshops to sharpen their skills, you create roundtable discussion groups, in other words, you LOAD the agenda, filling every unforgiving minute with new content.  You start to think about making the breakfast time a working session.  You know that dinner is another chance to get info out there.  The next thing you know you have built a meeting in which impact has been killed by content overload.

 

I know what you will tell me, “Steve, do you know how much money and lost productive time (as though the meeting was not “productive time”) this will cost?  We need to maximize our time together.”

 

I agree.  What I don’t agree with is that maximizing time together means dumping so much stuff on the participants that their ability to retain something important, something that will move the needle forward is lost in the morass of data fed to them in a non-stop time stream.

                                                                                      

It is impossible to take a sip out of a fire hose.  To change your perspective will help you create a meeting that will create results.  Think about IMPACT.  What if you were only going to deliver content and education that will actually impact the audience.  An adult has about 6 hours of learning capacity a day.  Structure your meetings around this FACT.  Provide them a FILTER they can use to get through all the info they receive.  Here is a simple one:

 

APPLY –   In a quick manner check off each new piece of information and give it a quick overview – Does this APPLY to me?

 

DO – If the idea applies am I actually willing to do it?  Move the ideas that have a YES to the DO question to a new position.

 

WHEN – Take the DO items and give them a WHEN.  If you add action to a do date you have a piece of information that will move your needle forward.

 

 

Stop designing a fire hose and start designing IMPACT.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:  Source Code –   Everyone is saying great things about this one.

 

NetFlix Fans:   Inside Man:  A great show and I just had the opportunity to see it again.

 

TV:   It’s time for the networks to review their line ups.   One of my favorites is on the chopping block – The Human Target.  I hope it makes it.  For those of you not watching Justified you are missing the best show on TV

 

BOOKS:  the Lincoln Lawyer  – Connelly:  Great read before the really good movie.  Connelly writes wonderful characters.

 

 

MUSIC:   Michael Franti singing a catchy tune – Hey, Hey, Hey.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFPobQ-ewiA            

 

 

WEB SITES:   Getting started on an understanding of the science of the universe.

 

http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Physics.htm

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

The psychology of the “daily deal web sites” is an easy one to understand:  Provide a sense of value and give it a time frame to which the buyer feels a portion of pressure.  Everyone is trying to get on the band wagon.  Google is set to launch a deal site, Facebook is on board with their own design and Bing is going to provide a single site to link to all of the flash deal sites.

 

New ideas catch on fast.

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

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