Douglas Rushkoff is just too smart, too convincing, and too damn ahead of his time. In this video he provides a snippet of how we have lost the beauty of storytelling (with a prime example of the girl with the zit to illustrate).

MIT Medial Lab are certainly living in the future. The thinking is that Resilience, RIsk, and a Good Compass are key to flourishing in today’s world. Here are The Principles broken down:

Resilience instead of strength, which means you want to yield and allow failure and you bounce back instead of trying to resist failure.

That means you pull the resources from the network as you need them, as opposed to centrally stocking them and controlling them.

You want to take risk instead of focusing on safety.

You want to focus on the system instead of objects.

You want to have good compasses not maps.

You want to work on practice instead of theory. Because sometimes you don’t why it works, but what is important is that it is working, not that you have some theory around it.

It disobedience instead of compliance. You don’t get a Nobel Prize for doing what you are told. Too much of school is about obedience, we should really be celebrating disobedience.

It’s the crowd instead of experts.

And my favourite…It’s a focus on learning instead of education..

Source: Wired.com

It’s been over 25 years since Michael Jackson’s Bad, his seventh studio release picking up where he left off with Thriller five years prior.

In Spike Lee’s celebratory documentary, Michael Jackson BAD 25, the antidotes and story behind each album track are explored – and the presence of Jackson (after death, as in life) is nothing short of AWE-some.

The film delights by providing insights into Jackson’s career-long collaboration key with Quincy Jones, as well as capturing personal stories from folks like Questlove, Bruce Swedien an Martin Scrorsese.

..And perhaps the best footage is Jackson performing live in concert.  Over a quarter of a century ago, as a hysteric crowd at Wembley arena is treated to Another Part of Me and Man in the Mirror, it is clear that on stage is where Jackson felt most at home.

In his latest instalment To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink makes it clear as day that we are all in sales now.  Exploring a range of research studies, an ongoing narrative of the Fuller Brush Man, and so many more wonderful antidotes on ‘Moving People’ - here are just 3 themes that pop out (assuming you just want the coles notes):

1. Balancing the positive with a splash of negative.   Translating the work of Barbara Fredrickson from the University of Northern Carolina into a sales context, there are two competing pulls at work: Levity and Gravity.  Positive emotions tend to broadens people’s ideas about possible actions (the rising feeling of floating) while negative ones evolve to narrow people’s vision (the grounding attributes of practicality).  Summed up succinctly:

“Levity is that unforeseen force that lifts you skyward, whereas gravity is the opposing force that pulls you earthward…when properly combined, these two opposing forces leave you buoyant.”

2. Problem Finding. Examining the work of Jacob Getzels and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the case for optimising creativity relies not on solving a problem as much as it does finding and framing the right problem:

“Good sales people, we’ve long been told, are skilled problem solvers…but today when information is abundant and democratic rather than limited and privileged, it matters relatively less.  The services of others are far more valuable when [one] is mistaken, confused, or completely clueless about [her] true problem.  In those situations, the ability to move others hinges less on problem solving than on problem finding.”

3. The Pixar Equation. One of the highlights of the book is the insight into the unparalled success of Pixar.  This includes the untraditional design of its workspace to encourage serendipity and a coffee machine culture as well as the consistent practice of ensuring computer technologists are sat alongside graphic illustrators.  Most of all, it is the formulaic pixar narrative, or perfect pitch, which can always be relied upon:

Once upon a time..
Every day..
One day..
Because of that..
Because of that..
Until finally..

Take any story in the world and plug it to this model and you may be surprised, well, that is just works.

Came across this and it just rang a bell.  Almost as good as “When you have to start compromising yourself or your morals for the people around you, it’s time to change the people around you.” - Someone

Mysteriously, the very words on this screen have simply disappeared on multiple occasions.  It would seem as if they came into life when being written and just as quickly decided they would be better off if they leapt off the computer – perhaps onto another web, or more aptly into the physical  universe.  I sure as hell don’t blame them: They dreamed a better dream.

And the point? – well that’s the thing: When you daydream there doesn’t need to be,  a point.  The luxury is in not having to be concerned in achieving a specific outcome, but in the unfettered freedom of enjoying the process.   And when we do concern ourselves with the end results, whether in business, sport, integrative thinking, or cooking – we can begin to bring our dreams into focus.  After all, if we don’t exercise the choice to paint our own masterpieces, we mine as well let George Martin conduct our orchestra.

If only we could suspend it all (for just a moment of course), in exchange for a type of blissful silence.  A return to The Garden.  The wind is ruffling through the trees and the soothing sounds of the sea saturate our senses.  Of course we could do without the seductive slur of the snake and the permanent pain in the ass form predators. But until such time, let us laugh in unison:

The mind and the body are forever entwined in a one of a kind love affair.  In this inspiring talk from Amy Cuddy, we learn anecdotes for exactly how our body language can change people’s perceptions as well as our very own thoughts.  It’s just human physiology.  Learning to raise our testosterone (confidence), and lower our cortical levels (stress), can actually programme our minds for success.  So the tip to take away then: Succeeding in something can be dwindled down to just how well you ‘fake it’.

No, this was about the future of search.  Spawned by an Observer article here, it was refreshing or reassuring or re-something (Maybe I should search for the word right?) to see so much chutzpah going into predictive, accurate, relevant, and just plain ol’ smart search methodology.  Indeed this ‘making our lives piss-easy’ has been going on for over 15 years  - while Google has been eerily watching us for most.  That’s every keyword, each spelling error, click through, unique visit, repeat visit, duration spent on results…you get the picture.  Well anyways, inspired by what comes up when you type ‘what is..’ this is what mine looks like.  Well, for today at least:

Another saga of a world on the brink of ..here are 3 random predictions for 2013, in absolutely no particular order:

1. Sock Buddies. RFID tagged socks that find their missing partner for you.

2. Smart Bathrooms.  Increased bathroom sanitation including hygiene friendly ergonomics, ubiquitous self-cleansing , and sensor enabled doors so you don’t ever have to touch an infested handle again.  Ok maybe this is  just a little pipe dream.

3. Acid Jazz.  Making a big comeback (at least on my stereo) only this time surely it will be called something else.  Afternoon Yacht-funk?  Downtown-Drill  Delight?  I’m not really bothered about labels, as long as I start hearing K&D on commercial radio.

Serendipitously, I came across an article the following day commenting on the two disgraced culprits.  What struck a chord was just how much corruption, deceit, and wrongdoing, is rampant in the media: TV personalities, Athletes, Businessmen, Bankers, Journalists, Politicians- you name it.  Human nature may be to blame, surely it’s just the ones that are well known and get caught, that we hear about.

But when those exposed of evil are still alive, we as citizens witness them shamed.  We can demand for an explanation or a reaction no matter how feeble it is.  But then came along (Sir – Really?) Conrad Black making a complete douche of himself – threatening or at least saying that he would bash a BBC reporter’s face in.  Check it out for yourself here

OK, maybe I’ll borrow some time via the Olympics simply by refusing to go anywhere albeit my kitchen, so that should save me several lifetimes by avoiding commuting all together.  And I will refuse to watch the closing ceremonies but rely on a recap from BBC Sport or on the words of a trusted friend.  Wait a second, I don’t have any friends I trust – I’ll just rely on The Sun.   And yes, that should give me  plenty of time to write breeze…

Back to our hunger for time.  While many now fast for Ramadan, us others continue to suffer a deficiency in time.  Not a spare moment to loiter with friends or family.  No time to connect with estranged acquaintances on Facebook.  No time for the park, or movies, or napping.  What ever happened to napping?  Or travelling for that matter? Who’s got time to travel now that they got rid of that Concord – I mean really?

And yes, what about that activity called eating?  Walk into any M&S and witness the disproportionate amount of ready made meals glaring at you. It reminds me of the day I walked into HMV and to my dismay, finding all the music replaced by rows and rows of DVDs. I mean seriously do people still even go into HMV – are they still around?  I must admit that lemon encrusted chicken breast with sweet potato and caramelised onions is different than a special limited edition blue-ray re-release of Usual Suspects – but still it baffles me how our ancestors had time not just to eat food, but to actually hunt, kill, prepare, and cook it!

That reminds me – my Pizza delivery is here.  And truth be told the Mens 100 is on, and I really have to go…

Traditionally, the ‘runners high’ has been attributed to endorphins – the neurochemical that acts as a really good ‘painkiller.’   Often cited in research, it’s a rather feeble attempt to explain away the elated feeling that runners get. Surely, the weeping and overwhelming tears of joy that marathoners can testify to must be caused by something more?

And this is not about simply increasing levels of serotonin which in turn leads to spikes in our dopmanie levels.  Fair enough, this can play a given role. Enter a newly published study from the University of Arizona which finally sheds some light on the matter: Endocannabinoids.

Yes, it’s no coincidence with the terminology.  This is the very substance which is  produced from within the body when running and can activate cannabinoid receptors.   This is to be differentiated of course form synthetic cannabinoids (which have distinct chemical classes, one being related to  THC).   Endocannabinoids on the other hand, are chemicals that like cannabis, can alter and lighten moods – only 100% naturally.  Go Figure.

Photo from theAtlantic.com

“…Many of us at the moment, are spending money we don’t have, on things we don’t want, in order to impress people we don’t like.”

Recently I went to St. Paul’s Cathedral to see Michael Sandel speak on his latest book: What Money Can’t Buy. The public debate held in the awe-inspiring venue addressed the role market mechanisms can play in our daily lives.  Do they corrupt our social values and poison the sacred areas of our civic life?  Well perhaps that question is posed with an inherent bias, but it does capture the sentiment. If you have an hour and a half to spare it is well worth your time watching the debate: here

If you are short on time (after all, time is money), here is a recap of some standout examples I have selected that really illustrate how far this market mayhem is all going:

1. Cell ‘upgrades’ in Santa Ana County Jail
Yes that is right, for just $82 bucks a night, if you happen to be a nonviolent offender in Santa Ana, California - you can pay for a clean, quiet jail cell.  That means all the non-paying prisoners won’t disturb you while you get caught up on your beauty sleep.

Photo from Oddee.com

2. Gambling on Life Insurance Policies

What? Yes, you can bet on other people’s lives.   Through investing in someone else’s life insurance policy, should they die,  you stand to benefit financially.  In Sandel’s own words, ” The Sooner they die, the better the payoff.”

This is such a fascinating moral dilemma that if you aren’t convinced simply watch this:

3. Pasty Tax

I must admit I was a bit clueless on this one.  The ill-conceived move to add 20% to the cost of hot pies and pasties, is perhaps the least forceful example of this bunch  -  but worth including if only just to ridicule.

Photo from Telegraph.co.uk

It certainly ticks the box of  a personal vendetta against pastys that I hold from a near death experience.   Sparing the grotesque details, I can say it involved an uncooked beef pasty orgininating from Clapham Junction station masquerading itself as a healthy late-night veggie option.   Whatever the case,  the argument might go as follows:  Should taxpayers money and thus a market mechanism surrounding the price of Pasty’s be a justified way to garnish more money for the government to spend on a well over budgeted Olympics?  Or were they simply:

“Desperate to find yet another way to take more money from the taxpayer, the idea of raising more than £35 million from pasty eaters must have felt like taking candy from a baby.” – Falmouthpacket.co.uk

More on this terribly exciting topic: here  – or for some total buffoonery from David Cameron try: here

Where this leaves us really is exactly where Sandel wants to take us: to a space of public discourse and debate on these absurdities.  For all of us, to take a firm stand for where and when it is wrong for markets to impede and infringe on our values – whoever we are, and whatever those may be.

Yes, values are subjective and will evolve over time, but today, in a totally jaded economic world – we can still express our views on where markets do serve the public good, and argue for where indeed they do belong.

From Andrew Sleigh

Selgas Cano, Madrid.

Google HQ, Zurich.

Steven Harrington, California.

“It seems I have insulted you,
You’re dancing with your back against me
It seems I have insulted you,
You’re dancing with your back against me

I Look around, You look away -
We said hello, you had nothing to say

I think I know the reason why
In fact, it’s very clear
I think I know the reason why
In fact, it’s very clear

Gonna have to make you understand,
You’ll always have a place in my heart
Gonna have to make you understand,
You’ll always have a place in my heart..”

-Morgan Geist & Erlend Oye

Listen to track here

Today was a day out of the blue – California in London. We also just managed to track down YK who after 7 years since building the first Social Fabric site, is about to give us us a little face lift. We can’t wait.

1. Your i-pad case is worth more than your i-pad

2. You’ve had more ‘meetings’ in 2011 via Skype than face to face ones

3. You find yourself watching yet another episode of Breaking Bad as it nears 3am Monday morning

4. The Ocado man has been to your doorstep this year more times than you’ve set foot in a grocery store

5.  You no longer recognise [or for that matter care] that Minority Report-styled personally targeted online ads are following you everywhere you go

6. ‘Checking in’ for you no longer conjures up anything to do with planes or hotel lobbies

7. You haven’t read a book from cover to cover this year

8. You have more apps on your phone than phone numbers

A year gone by.  2011 was pretty jaw-dropping – think Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street; Charlie Sheen or Amy Winehouse; Discoveries from The Large Hadron Collider or the fact that we now have 7 billion little humans running around the planet.  Onward to the next episode..

The best thing about the two references was that the Israeli was using the idiom as a word of caution to the end of civilization as we know it (technological warfare was the root cause I believe).  But in the same breadth, listening to the serene jams (sipping eggnog), everything seemed to be just right, in the right place, at the right pace – exactly as it does sometimes.

Porter and Mykleby: A Grand Strategy for the Nation

SIR KEN ROBINSON..”[Education]..it goes deep with people, like religion and money.”

1.  Don’t Pitch
When and if possible simply refuse to do a formal pitch.   Explain to the potential client that because you work in a participative way the brief will almost certainly change as the project progresses.  Error, a creative studio based in Liverpool has done just this as expressed so eloquently on their site.  Provide a prospective client with a few key references to your latest work  – and when applicable create a tailored deck outlining specifically how you work.  If that doesn’t fly or they tell you to bugger off, then maybe it just wasn’t mean to be.

2. Re-imagine the Brief
Answer what the brief is asking but also read between the lines as the client often finds extraordinary ways to not say what they really mean.  Commit to your ideas – because not only will it show that you are willing to take risks but when you do win -  it will be all the better.

3. Ask Questions.  Lots of Them.
On the day, gather as much information as possible before you pitch so you are well informed on the client’s mood as well as any new developments.  A great way to do this is to simply ask before the pitch how the process has been so far, if there have been any changes, or if they have seen anything ‘out there’ lately that they have liked.  It’s amazing as sometimes given the opportunity, the client ends up doing more talking than the agency.

We are set for our latest Reboot session at Enterprise Week.

Just one week until our event for Enterprise Week 2011. Enterprising individuals are leveraging their flexibility and creativity to provide innovative solutions to society’s problems. This Reboot session will harness collective creativity and explore service design, managing for impact, and business model generation. 

Used to make these all the time as a kid…it was a bit harder then.

Trailing around London we interviewed two-dozen entrepreneurs with the aim of capturing their views on risk and success within the creative sector.  We had a diverse range of respondents from the secluded milliner to the international media firm, from the tech start-up to the independent record establishment.  Here is a snapshot of what we discovered:

All of the entrepreneurs we talked to were able to take risks, have faith in their creative staff, identify new business opportunities, and anticipate and adapt to changing market conditions.

Take considered risks. Although some respondents were quick to label themselves as naive when starting up, when probed further, most felt that they had taken calculated risks based on the information available to them at the time.  In the majority of cases, there were no other stakeholders in their ventures, and therefore little was at stake besides reputation and personal investment.

Businesses develop over time.  Successful organisations adapt to changing situations in order to survive and thrive, and our studies exposed how in practice this varies between creative sectors.   In the music industry, one company moved from a strictly sales and distribution operation to include in-house labels and an array of new artist services.  In the fashion sector we saw a company move from own-label creations to designing more accessible clothing for third party manufacturing and distribution. This growth strategy is a carefully calculated one involving tailoring the right designs to suit a new market as well as partnering with the right retail channels from the outset.

In the TV and Film world converging media and cross platform services are permitting original content to yield revenues from a range of previously untapped sources.   In the video games sector there is a distinct user-centred approach to gaming development as companies use real time data, incremental feedback, and ongoing validation to meet consumer behaviour.  The end result is that in a highly competitive market these companies can respond and stay relevant to what the market and the consumer desires.

We found that a significant factor in enabling businesses to produce output with high commercial value was that their leaders consistently made decisions that upheld the integrity and sovereignty of their creative talent.   This skill to spot, nurture and develop talent was present in each entrepreneur, and contributed to a positive and healthy work environment.

The interviews enabled us to also identify some common factors underlying success. Strong creative businesses are:

1) Values Driven: possess a higher sense of purpose that informs why the company does what it does beyond just making a buck;

2) Profit making: an underlying business strategy to turn a profit so that it can at least adapt and sustain itself;

3) People centric: emphasis on creating a collaborative culture in the workplace along with building long-term affinity with customers

These lean and flexible businesses that maneuver smart and fast within their specific sectors are led by entrepreneurs that are first and foremost, creative thinkers.  Most are content working on a present-day model of borrowing bits of time from highly skilled specialists over amassing an impressive number of employees. The end sum is a striking balance of preserving a general sense of purpose, creative autonomy, and the ability to grow a profitable business – organically.

The report is led by Helen Burrows and Kitty Ussher and can be downloaded here.

Photo courtesy of Demos.

With contributions from a motley crew of writers, Smack (the brainchild of Alex Shniedeman), also  provides stunning images from Alex’s Hard Light exhibit – an array of photographs all taken in Taroudant, Morocco.  We also see our friend Babycakes Romero enlighten us with his ‘Allure of Filmaking’ article.  Well worth picking Smack up just for these, here is a small sample of ‘Social Something’ to give a taste of what to expect:

“I hear a global murmur with a sensuous slur of s’s concerning social media, social space, social capital, social innovation, social business, social change, social design, social this, social that, social me, social you, and just plain ol’ social.  What exactly are all these voices saying?  Pretty much all the same thing.

Social design, no longer operating as a fringe discipline, is gradually paving the way for a new generation of conscientious individuals who are adamant about creating a future that they would want to inhabit.  At its core, the voices are all singing the same tune: we need to improve livelihood – now. From Michael Young’s ‘Open University’, to Nicholas Albery’s ‘The Institute for Social Inventions’, through to John Bielenberg’s ‘Project M’ there are countless examples of so called unreasonable people taking the lead in doing absolutely magnificent things.

By 2014, the European Union’s goal is to have a cohesive ‘Social Innovation Europe’. The remit of this initiative and any programme involving social design for that matter, is to bring together and invest in those that consensually want to improve society, and work collaboratively to design a sustainable future.  Appealing to those who share values and a wider sense of purpose, this networked hub is attracting entrepreneurs, policymakers, innovators, designers, and many more.  As these new ways of thinking spread and permeate the wider public consciousness, we move away form mere talk, to un-coerced collective action.

What distinguishes today from other ages in history (certainly a tired sentiment every generation abuses) are two things: 1) We are absolutely f*cked if we don’t do something about the state of the world immediately (global debt, the environment, energy, overpopulation – take your pick) and; 2) modern technology makes it more feasible for anyone to trigger and enable systemic change.  This new mindset may be best captured in the youth of today who just might look back in 2050 to today, a ‘golden age’ that was increasingly less about ‘me’ and more about ‘we.’

The party pooper in all of this is that the view from Mars might tell us a wholly different story: a world littered with dots representing the disenchanted through to the demoralized, from the disillusioned to the discarded.  Regime changes, peaceful demonstrations, violent protests, flash mobs, economic uproars, invasive strip malls, social injustice, trade unions, – there is no shortage of causes for which to get behind.  After a year of demonstrations in Greece, this powerful sentiment from blogger Alex Andreou, captures the spirit of Greek frustrations as they occupied Athen’s central plaza this summer:

“We will not suffer any more so that we can make the rich, even richer. We do not authorize any of the politicians, who failed so spectacularly, to borrow any more money in our name. We do not trust you or the people that are lending it. We want a completely new set of accountable people at the helm, untainted by the fiascos of the past. You have run out of ideas.”

We may still be making sense of what happened in the London riots but we do not doubt the role that social media played in drumming up rioters.  The author and futurist, Douglas Rushkoff, saw this possibility long ago but was much more optimistic in how we would opt to harness the new tool:

“…[Social Media] offers us the ability to play an active, conscious role in the development of our networked human future: from distributed communications networks impervious to the censorship of corporate or government regimes to new modes of value creation and exchange, or new open source democratic participation to collective consciousness and expression.”

While the Greek demonstrations may be demanding a call for fresh thinking, the London riots incline to abuse and corrupt freedoms.  Yet still, the escalating Libyan protests aim to bolster and protect basic freedoms.

Reaching a global consensus on how we will chiefly utilize our surplus time is not the point – it’s merely to acknowledge that like voting (for those that have that freedom), it’s a decision we each can make.  Having swapped one-way television sets for hyper-connected iPads, the digital generation collectively has a trillion hours or so per year that could be used socially and constructively if desired.  We are left right back with the commandment of social design: let us congregate to play an active role in increasing the resilience of our communities.

Whatever we decide – let’s get moving.”

Smack photo courtesy of Alex Schniedeman

It can’t be? Yes it is not too far now until 2012 and plans for Reboot_Camp are underway.  We will be announcing dates and more details next month and in the meantime you can catch us at a session for enterprise week on November 17th. Details here.

Our friends at Consurgo and Bracket are putting on a wonderful event this weekend at the CUBE in East London.  50 diverse and talented creatives will work towards finding actionable solutions to address youth unemployment in the UK. Spaces are limited and you can apply now: here

Our friend Tim Laurel based in San Francisco mentioned this movie was coming out months ago, and it is finally here.  Also available in a shorter 15 minute version  for educators – we cannot wait to see this.

We absolutely love this photograph just taken by our friend Cory Permack.  We are awaiting a series of similar photographs from various cities that bring the old into the new – looking at things with a through a different kind of lens…

If you are interested in attending a similar session, join us next month for Global Enterprise Week – details to come.

Could be the Canadians but free WI-FI in the majority of popular hangouts makes life a breeze.  Major airports including Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal offer free WI-FI and an increasing number of airports worldwide are following suit – an up to date map of them can be found here.  It’s just a matter of time when Generation Z looks at us with bemusement that we actually ever had to pay…

We haven’t had a recap of the first Reboot_Camp but can say that there was a fine mixture of brainstorming, walking, scheming, eating, sleeping, swimming, planning, talking, lounging, suntanning, working, hula hooping, and lot’s of other ‘i-n-g’s.  The full report soon.

101 fall collection touches down.  Classics, new jams, and collaborations galore including a red hot mix from DJ Spinna. More here.

Kicking off next week on August 16th, Edinburgh will be transformed into a jungle chalk full of iconic animals, one of them specially named Hati.

In Haigh’s words, “Hati (which means ‘heart’ in the Indonesian language) is a celebration of the wonderful wildlife found within the jungles of Sumatra. Sumatran Orangutan Society and I thought this name was appropriate as orangutans are in many ways the heart of their jungle habitat, playing a vital role in the ecosystem and biodiversity. Hati also means ‘use your heart to do/decide something good’

Featuring 130 life size sculptures of some of the planet’s most endangered species, the event aims to raise £ 1million for their survival. The event will co-incide with the infamous Fringe Festival.  The sculptures will then be auctioned online and at a live event.  For more striking images of Hati or if you are interested in giving Hati a loving home, details here.

A chance to unplug, connect, reboot.  The first Reboot_Camp is set to kick off in just 2 weeks.  Further details on the weekend can be found here

A great visualization of our serial processor, aka our left brain, and our parallel processor, aka our right brain – both fascinating and mysterious.   Few have captured more powerfully the essence of how the two parts are so different yet connected than Jill Bolte Taylor in her talk, Stroke of Insight.

The Left: helps us categorize, organise and systematize.  It enables us to process information -  to walk, talk, read, write and remember. It is how we recall the past and project the future. 

The Right: helps us experience the present moment.  Through pictures, movement, we use the full gamut and richness of our senses to capture the ongoing wow happening right now.

And when the two sides are in perfect harmony?  Our wildest dreams can come true.

Image: Ads of the World

But what’s on the agenda? At 48-hour hack events it’s a great opportunity to see all of this ‘Co-something-or-other’ at work.  Several dynamics can interplay to make a success.  Many times, the obstacles to team cohesion are resolved naturally, and the true colours of the team surface as members gel to compliment one another.  And yes, sometimes it goes the other way and things don’t quite work out so pretty.  The name of the game is to continue a dialogue with teammates (future collaborators) in real-time and acknowledge when something is working and when it is not, trying out new things, and perhaps most of all – letting go by identifying when it’s time to move on.  Few practice this better than Quincy Jones – read more here

Image: Collaboration Handbook

Integrate this platform with a sharing-friendly service like Spotify, and we could just be in for a very pleasant surprise.

Several dynamics interplay to make a successful collaboration.  Ian Broom, co-founder of Launch48 enjoys the buzz that is created at weekend events where entrepreneurs, designers, coders, and marketers form collaborative teams.  He is amazed however, at how teams often disregard the tried and tested methods that have yieled strong results in the past.  Many times, the obstacles to team cohesion are resolved naturally, and the true colours of the team surface as members gel to compliment one another.  And yes, sometimes it goes the other way and things don’t quite work out so pretty.  The key is to continue a dialogue with collaborators in real-time and acknowledge when something is working and when it is not, trying out new things, and perhaps most of all – letting go by identifying when it’s time to move on.  Few practice this better than Quincy Jones.

While producing Michael Jackson’s seminal Off The Wall album, Jones expertly harnessed and curbed Jackson’s unrelenting yelps, shamons and heeeeheeee’s.  If Jackson was the thick and spicy chili soup, piping hot, and bubbling over – Jones was the master chef in the kitchen keeping the lid on the pot, and ensuring the right mix of spices and cooking temperature for optimum flavour.  The outcome is arguably one of the slickest and most epic recordings of funk/disco/jazz – over 20 million copies sold and acceptance into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  But it was Jones who not only enlisted others including Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and Rod Temperton – but he also urged Jackson to go on to collaborate with others.  The wisdom that Jones imparted was that their were plenty of other masterchef’s on the market: Don’t Stop ’till You Get Enough.

Amazing new initiative from the folks at A Very Good Company.  Take a look at the great videos and more here

Admittingly, this is not wholly how we derived the name – indeed it was slyly hi-jacked from long-term collaborator, Tim Laurel.  Tim is one of those soft spoken, highly intelligent, and incredibly prolific creatives.  He is a pioneer of multimedia and is a veteran filmmaker and videographer based in California.  In 2005, Tim was leading a project for a new gallery space with the working title Social Fabric.

When the name was abandoned, with Tim’s suggestion (and blessing), we snagged it for good.  The identity – a rotating double helix – evolved organically and communicates one simple idea: the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

Read the full story and interview at designtaxi.com

A series of events and resulting conversations has led to an insurmountable amount of talk about the social sector, social capital, social innovation, social business, social enterprise, social ventures, social media, social agendas, social good, social change, social design, social this, social that, and just plain ol’ social. It’s all well and good that there is so much talk but I wonder if the popular language of the time may be overshadowing what is really going on at the core.

Agencies like Think Public, Common Ground, and Sidekick Studios are paving the way for a new generation of socially conscious designers. Social innovators like Bruce Mau, Nicholas Albery, John Bielenberg and countless other inspiring minds have been doing good for several decades without a need or desire to labelled.  Ventures like FoodCycle, The Good Gym, and Striding Out! hum along doing what they set out to do without fussing about terminology.  It’s perhaps time to take an expansive view which is simply about improving livelihood. When we look at this movement which is permeating the wider public consciousness and shifting from mere talk to un-coerced collective action, the common bond is evident: shared values and a wider sense of purpose and concern for society.

The difference this time round, is that this renaissance is captured principally in the shift from humanism to altruism.  Moving away from looking within, to looking out – to what could be.  And indeed that has to be a good, if not a great thing.

Image courtesy of thesoftspot.org

Richard Layard – On Happiness

In this Sermon from The  School of Life Lord Richard Layard lays it down by telling us amongst many things that neuroscience shows us that when we do good the same part of the brain is stimulated as when we eat chocolate. He also touches on our individual mindsets and perspectives on the world when he quotes Victor Frankl: “..Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

A lot can be said for body language.  Cheryl Cole vs. Paula Abdul, Brad vs. Angelina, the public’s interpretation of a single photo can speak many words beyond those doled out by the adjacent print.  Shifting to President Obama’s recent visit to the UK, we witnessed no shortage of media coverage – and the medium that I  found myself serendipitously consuming was strangely: Television (with no sound).

Indeed with the benefit of sound or not, seeing “The Beast” from a helicopter’s point of view as it swerved through Green Park conjured up more a CCTV / OJ Simpson type feeling than anything else.   However, once displaced from the protection of the limo, Obama stood tall, his movements calm and natural.   As words escaped his mouth his lips moved slowly in tandem, and his gaze focused firmly ahead and sometimes above (seemingly to us in the distance) – his message reaching out to billions.

As he addressed the Great Hall of Westminster, Obama appeared humble yet dominant.  His slow speech exuded authority as Peter Collett explains because, “It’s ‘only the powerful who have the confidence to keep their audience in suspense.”  A physical trait like a large chin (which Obama thankfully possesses) can also be connected to larger levels of testosterone and translate to being perceived as having greater leadership ability.

So what do we take away from all of this?  Being tall, having a pronounced chin, steadily speaking slowly, (and being the President of the United States) is all fine and dandy – but it’s what we can learn from understated body movements that can help us really understand people.  Certainly, if we jump to our micro-expressions and watch enough episodes of Lie to Me – we might all just become experts.

FoodCycle on paper from FoodCycle on Vimeo.

Have to say that when you are thinking of ways to spend a weekend usually coffee and the paper sounds like a good start.  But sprinkle “A collection of thinkers, makers, and tinkerers” along with some inspirational social innovators and what you get is a jam packed weekend of doing Good for Nothing.  This animation put together by the FoodCycle team led by a hyper enthusiastic Mariana Santos (sporting a pink workout outfit to boot) was just one of many great outcomes that spawned from the day.  A play by play run down here.

On reflection, whichever way you slice it -  Day 2 was all about teamwork.  Starting the day with the known deliverables, a deadline, and dedicated project teams got us moving in the right direction – and fast.  On the FoodCyclers plate of goodness was a mini-animation,  documentary-style short, web strategy and redesign, press release, and of course some good ol’ fashion fun.  The energy in the space, the divine chocolate, Kelvin’s afternoon coffee run, and nostalgic DJ sets from GFN all made for a blissful afternoon.  The sum of it all is that although things can get messy at times, getting people together to do good can really only be a good thing.

Before the happenings of the day escape the brain, thought it best to capture a few highlights from day 1 at Good for Nothing.  Getting a lot of people together in a Shoreditch based office at 9am on a super sunny Saturday morning doesn’t seem like a grand idea, but when those people happen to be bright, committed, and charged with energy it turns out to be a brillaint one.  The whimsical space peppered with weak Nescafe and soft chill out beats – saw our motley crue take on a brief from the wonderful organisation known as Food Cycle.  Half the group went up to Cambridge to get real-time perspectives and documentation of what goes down, while the rest of us tinkered and mulled about hammering out a plan.  At times we seemed to be losing momentum and waning, wholly understandable for a dispraportionate amount of left-brainers coupled with Saturday afternoon restlessness.  Thankfully, with some interjections of some swift moving strategists including Andy from Splendid (Image 2), we seemed to get our mojo back.  The Cambridge crew returned, we mapped out the deliverables and who was going to do what – and now it’s a matter of putting ideas into action – bring on tomorrow…

A new report from Nesta tells it like it is, read all about it here

Today was interesting to first hear about Facebook’s smear campaign of Google’s Social Circle via Daniel Pink of all people: “Shockingly, it didn’t end well.”

What struck me after reading about it on Wired.com, then in the Guardian, then at the end of the day on the cover of a floor-ridden and battered METRO headlined:  TwoFacedBook.com  – was the innocent thought of how we’ve seen this all before.

Remember Wholefoods?   The quintessential grocer with cult-like status was guilty of an online smear campaign all of which is now long forgotten and sales continue to boom (even at the highly impractical Kensington branch).  Recall Jack in the Box?  In the infamous E. coli cases, several children dropped dead from their oh so gourmet meat.   This was no fictitious story conjured up for bad publicity – it was vivid and real.  Yet astonishingly today, Jack in the Box is one of the most successful and popular fast food establishments in America.

The notion that the mass public cares about how a company behaves (which of course we should) is negated by our failure to successfully boycott a guilty party (in this case a very large slanderer), or through a very clever Ad agency who can work magic to spin things in a different light.  Indeed it’s no surprise that in today’s celebrity driven culture it is not so relevant what you are famous for, so long as you are.  Cue TV hits like Keeping up with the Kardashian’s, The Simple Life, and Mob Wives.  I mean, what would the world look like without those shows? What would the world be like if you couldn’t like or poke someone?

Well i think the media will have their fun and play with this latest Facebook blunder, but indeed the irony will be in Zuckerburg looking at his Google Analytics this week to see that if anything – there was a spike in activity…

Image courtesy of Mopa.ca

Some time ago we ran a post on Mental Fitness and are now doing some further reflection on the idea in relation to the announcement of RBS’s Business Bootcamp.  We get it, we need to make business work.  But it’s easier said than done.  In this instance, an analogy to none only than barefoot running seems only appropriate.

The rational goes like this: Humans were born to run and as we got caught up in gels, pumps, and cushions – we lost the true essence of our natural state.  The time (not sure why exactly now) is here to unlearn our bad habits and get back to nature: with the good ol’ barefoot.  Enter The Clark’s Desert Boot – “Designed with function in mind.”

Entrepreneurs likewise, in their natural state,  possess many defining attributes.  In varying degrees passion, drive, creativity, knowledge, and leadership – all compete to make up a bespoke Entrepreneurial Engine.  However it really is the shell or skin that an entrepreneur chooses to employ, that can be the make it or break it.    Are the features simple or complex? Designed with looks or function in mind? Or both?  The overall prescription is by no means easy but in this context the theory is self-evident:  Strip things down to their bare bones then dress in the runner with the perfect fit.

Our friends in NYC have been running RECESS for sometime now.  RECESS is a new paradigm in cultural event marketing that bridges gaming and sportsmanship with creativity and the community – don’t sleep.

Our friend Rachel Miller sent us this today.  She is working on a show called the SkinNY in the big apple.  This was taken on her day off -  thanks Rachel.

Thought this was briliant to show the mission of Stanfor’ds Design School:  FUTURE INNOVATORS, DESIGN THINKING, RADICAL COLLABORATION, BIG PROJECTS…

With such a great response to the “Who Wants to be a Trillionaire?” post we decide to throw out some more numbers and seemingly random comparisons.  Not only is it fun, but it’s a good indicator for how a good portion of us are spending our time, money, and energy.

*Vin Diesel has box office earnings of $265 million and biceps that are 17 inches wide, so in some twisted world he attracts £15.6 per inch.

*For every waking (or sleeping) hour that passes there is the equivalent of 16 days of Angry Birds being played (what? yes that’s 1.2 billion hours a year)

1.2 billion also happens to be the largest paycheck made in British History – made by none other than Sir Philip Green to himself.

160 million times a day someone, somewhere buys a Unilever product.

Every 3 years man gets about 1 second faster in running a mile:  From 4:14 in 1913 to the current world record of 3:43.

Approximately 180 babies were born in the time it took to read this post.

By 2100 the world will have over 10 billion inhabitants – just think of adding another 50% footfall to Oxford Street.

Some great tools to help your creative business plan, adapt and grow: here

Great talk on acting on big ideas and using design as a tool to help people realize their potential.

With the invention of time, which is really only a desire we have had in the last 5 to 6 thousand years – we’ve also accrued the wonderful concept of lateness.   Indeed we can’t get enough of time, and thus lateness, as evidenced by the continuous demand of wrist watches.  Our love affair with timekeeping (OK, and with luxury) is tantamount to an obsession: in less than picturesque economic times, the last 3 months has seen exports of Swiss watches grow by 40% to France and 30% to the United States.

And let’s not forget urgency.   The misuse and abuse of this term is widespread:  attending your wedding probably is, replying to that tweet probably is not.   The emphasis one places on time is a personal one, and ironically – a type of balance. In a hyper-connected and digitally networked world it seems likely that in just the coming 5 to 6 years, we will see an exaggerated and glorified sense of measuring what we do, and indeed when we do it.  Until then, time will only tell.

Besides feeling and being connected, one of the reasons we may find ourselves constantly switched on is to satisfy our insatiable appetite for speed and keeping (or looking?) busy.

If you find yourself running around doing too many things at once, thinking about the next thing you need to do, while you are currently doing the thing you are doing, just know it’s OK to slow down.  One of our designers, now completely refreshed, wrote “..I’ve had a much needed dose of greenery and fresh air and unplugged from e-mails for a couple of days! It was great!…No skype/phone calls/e-mails/texts/tweets/likes/pokes etc allowed!”

For sometime, Douglast Rushkoff has been urging us to obey a new commandment for the conceptual age: ‘Thou shall not be Always On.’ Breathe. Real air.  Or the consequences could be as severe as iPaditis. We all know that unplugging and disconnecting from digital life is something we should do but indeed being (hyper) connected, we rationalize, just feels natural. The prescription? It does not mean we all need to take up Chi Running, nor does it mean that we need to toss our smartphones off the nearest bridge. It means that until our digital life is totally and absolutely embedded into our existence (and if that sounds scary then let’s not let it) – we can spend our time plugged in wisely.  Rushkoff, who himself is about to unplug and tuck himself away to write another book captures the essence of what all this social media hoorah really means, really:

“…[Social Media} offers us the ability to play an active, conscious role in the development of our networked human future: from distributed communications networks impervious to the censorship of corporate or government regimes to new modes of value creation and exchange, or new open source democratic participation to collective consciousness and expression.”

So let’s get moving.

With this in mind, I feel confident that I am one of a handful on the planet (or at least on my block) who have recently been talking (and previously thinking) about the world’s first trillionaire.  It was with sheer surprise then, that I stumbled across a post in the San Francisco Chronicle on the same topic and indeed with the aforementioned title. What are the chances?

Like the 4 minute mile, the soon to be cracked 2-hour marathon, and of course the first billionaire (see below) it is not in debate if there will be a trillionaire,  but only who and when.   Rather than looking to predict future contenders for this title, it’s much more interesting an exercise to try and grasp just how much a trillion dollars really is.  Making the unfathomable, fathomable, we can look to comparisons to try and put things in perspective.  Listed here are some of the best statistics I have been collating and calculating to add to useless analogies that could easily be a title for a new Malcom Gladwell book.  Failing that, they could also act as okay dinner party conversation.

Up until 1974, the UK was on the Long Scale System where a trillion was equal to a million billions.  Thankfully for general agreement and our basic ability for comprehension, they switched to the Short Scale System of the USA where a trillion is equal to a thousand billions*

*A trillion seconds ago = 31,688 years

*If you gave $145 to each person on the planet it would equate roughly to a trillion

*If you had $1,000 bills and stacked them up to make $1 trillion, the pile would be 80 miles high**

*If Americans continue their love affair with television it will take 5 years to reach a trillion hours watched

*John D. Rockefeller became a billionaire in 1916 – that amount is equivalent in today’s economy to nearly $400 billion (or nearing a half-trillionaire depending on how gracious you want to be)

*Today, Mukesh Ambani and Eike Batista own industrial conglomerates that are focused on the economies of India and Brazil.  If they see a 37 year run of 10% growth they will each become trillionaires***

*America has over 14 trillion dollars in debt (and as you read this post it will have increased by 1/2 million dollars)****

*Not far from 1/2 trillion hours of Warcraft are played each year – Total gaming hours is a whole other kettle of fish

*Facebook’s super optimistic IPO is valued at  1/10 of a trillion.  Go figure

*Charlie Sheen will have to do a whole lot more touring if he hopes to reach a trillion anytime soon..

Sources: *Wikipedia, **FrcBlog, ***Investopedia, ****Usdebtclock

Scientists and Statisticians alike may be able to map out and explain the week’s events as a systematic series of plausible events or a ratio of possible combination of things happening versus what actually did. Simply for my own sanity, I am willing to entertain and even embrace any explanation.  In life as in business it is certain that things happen, it’s just not evident what, when, and how they will.   Perhaps this is the beauty of it all…

I mean seeing your average Stormtrooper ride the tube home one evening  isn’t that bizarre is it?

Reboot_ Why Don’t you? from Reboot on Vimeo.

Reboot_ Why Don’t you? Courtesy of Romero

Tonight (March 19), the moon will be the closest it has been to the Earth.  It’s called a SuperMoon (ya we we like the sound of that) and the last one took place 18 years when grunge was still popular.

“If we don’t change our direction we are likely to end up where we are going.” – Professor Irwin Corey, American comic and actor.

This sentiment rang loud in a recent pitch when championing that corporations (the really big ones) will incrementally open up to become more transparent, and indeed to embrace change.   Stuffy, traditional, megacorporations will need to become comfortable with ambiguity if they are to stand a chance against their leaner emerging counterparts.

A case in point, are the values of the biggest UK phone company (no names necessary) -  Bold, Clear, Open, and, Trusting. But in a rapidly changing landscape these same values will need extending to become more akin to Disruptive, Purposeful, Social, and Co-created. The skeptics of this necessary shift for big businesses rely on the age-old reluctance of corporations to relinquish control, often with ultra-conservative CEOs at the helm of the ship.  Yet attempting to maintain control in a new economy where it either becomes illegal (a la Rupert Murdoch) or alienates your customers, simply ain’t good business.

It was over thirty-five years ago now that Charles Handy was prescribing that organisations need to adapt to changing situations in order to survive.  When he explains that what may work today may not work in 5 years time, he could not have foreseen the warp speed at which a digital revolution could manifest.  The 60 months in 1976 that passed, could arguably be equated to 6 months in today’s economy.   The question really is then how do conservative businesses begin to embrace change?  Big businesses – private, public, and voluntary know that they need to evolve but many aren’t exactly sure how.  The answer would be easy if it bared no risk, but here are 3 questions that could be a good place to start:

1. What kind of culture does our corporation cultivate? Do employees refer to the company with a “They” or a “We” terminology?

2. What small steps can we make towards a value creation process that genuinely involves our customers?

3. What partners can we strategically align with who are willing to co-create products and services together?

It’s no big leap to draw on the parallels of those with athletic prowess and those with supernatural business acumen.  Comparisons of leaders on the pitch and those in the boardroom first sparked our interest several years ago in conversations with the wonderful folks at Edge Thinking.  The music industry had already transformed into its new reincarnation, and the fashion industry was to follow suit becoming a new beast led by Kate Moss shacking up with Sir Philip Green.  But we are not talking about sports stars using their fame to secure lucrative sponsorship deals a la Tiger Woods nor are we speaking of “Former Gold Medalists” getting caught up in expert insider trading scandals.  This is about the same mindsets that serious athletes share with their relentless entrepreneurial counterparts.   On the ring (or on the ramp) it’s fellas like George Foreman and Tony Hawk who are innovative enough to know an opportunity when they see one.  Still working on identifying their Wallstreet equivalents…

Been decompressing from 2 days of fantastic Open Innovation Workshopping from 100% Open and We Create.  Woke up early on the weekend thinking another day of wonderful brain blasting – but realised instead it was going to be simply coffee and reflection.  To start out this week, here are just some of the buzzlines that can be readily recalled:  Finding your Flow, Designing for Serendipity, and Platforms for Possibility.  Sound easy? Well with so many emerging and untraditional ways to deliver workshops, this one certainly found the feng shui. Participants gradually morphed into conspirators – with a collective mission for harnessing creativity and forming new propositions.  Should be another session coming up in summer, in meantime you can check some of the slides here.

Bruce Mau at Compostmodern

Life Inc. The Movie from Douglas Rushkoff

Henry Chesbrough, Director of the Open Innovation Centre in Berkeley California explains…

Lots of talk over the past years about Crowdsurfing (Lady Gaga’s antics), Crowdsourcing (in the design world specifically fostering  a whole load of rubbish work that a client needs to take precious time to sift through), and much more up our alley: Crowdfunding.  Ed Norton’s new venture CrowdRise is one of our favourites.  The most talked about campaign on it could be Cancer for College – where Will Ferrell acts as the figurehead. For just $28 you can get a personalized bottle of suntan lotion with a naked picture of the good looking lad.  Donate money for a cause that you choose, get something in return, and have fun in the process. Love it.  Other online spots to check are 33 needs, Simpl, and the soon to go live Crowdcube (where you can actually take stake and invest).

“Scarcity makes being at the top worth something”

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A suitable read in lieu of the tube strikes. Forcing us to take new routes permits us to see with different lenses.  The tube lines are an operating system that we have taken for granted.  Like many of our cherished tech gadgets, we only take real notice of them when they stop working.  What Daniel Pink brings to the mainstream in Drive, is the work of leading behavioral economists like Edward Deci who’s experiments demonstrate that when money is used as a reward, it can actually mitigate a person’s motivation to continue working on a project over time.   In the case of the tube strikes, upgrading the system as a long-term sustainable solution will not solve the problem.  Appeasing and incentivizing TFL staff beyond financial remuneration (might we appeal to one’s sense of civic duty?) may be essential – but is only part of a massive system failure.  We could ease the pressure, by further rewarding and encouraging telecommuting and cycling to work – this approach is certainly more our cup of tea.   In the USA alone nearly 15 million people telecommute every day, and in urban hubs like San Francisco the biking culture makes critical mass on the roads, a welcomed every day routine.

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Arguably 60% of the world population will be living in cities by 2030.  Overcrowdedness, lack of jobs, and a yearning for more personal space may in fact make this projection moot.  The question really is a philosophical and subjective one:  What is the right way to live? A broadsheet recently cited anonymity, cultural diversity, and opportunities for businesses (perhaps in particular entrepreneurs) as good reasons to be situated in London.  But the arguments for an against dwelling in a metropolis could be as pithy as to whether you liked the movie Magnolia or not- some folks do an some folks don’t.

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Always wondered what the internet looked like.  Now we know. The large green node off, centre-right, is probably Google.