Steve

What a day. What a day. We all knew this day was coming. But now that it has we are still surprised. No, far more than surprised: shocked.

Steve relentlessly championed design. He cared about beauty in form, he championed simplicity and elegance in operation.

In my career, I have always used and loved his creations. Not only have they transformed the design industry, but they have repeatedly redefined the possibilities of what each of us could achieve as designers ourselves. 

In recent years the true scope of his ambition has been realised and (without overstatement) has reshaped society.

He wanted to leave “a dint in the universe” and is one of the few who have actually changed the world: my world, your world, all our worlds.

Thanks Steve.

POSTSCRIPT

These were the three best Steve Jobs obituary posts I read yesterday. I would like to share them with you.  John Gruber  |  Jason Calacanis  |  Horace Dediu

Dan Cobley’s Ten Paths to Innovation

Image by Dublin Web Summit.

Jerry Kennelly’s Business Axioms

Photo by Dublin Web Summit.

Jerry Kennelly, founder of Tweak.com, was the third speaker at this week’s Dublin Web Summit. His concentrated presentation distilled some personal business axioms that he had developed over his career.

Quote of the Day 12/02/09

“When in doubt, overwhelm a small niche.”
—Seth Godin

Quote of the Day 22/01/09

“Real leaders exist only in the heads and hearts of those who believe in them.”
—Kjell Nordstrom, from his book ‘Funky Business’.

Quote of the Day 20/01/09

“Hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths.”
— US President Barack Obama’s Inauguration Speech today.

The Six Lessons of Johnny Bunko

Daniel Pink, author of ‘A Whole New Mind’ has written a new best-selling book called ‘The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The last career guide you’ll ever need.’ It is a funky little book, presented in Manga comic format and obviously aimed at Generation Y (or whatever letter we are at these days). It looks like a short read, but the lessons proposed in it are summarised on the related website, which make for an even shorter read. This is a good list, even if you are not starting out on in your career.

The six (+1) lessons of satisfying, productive careers:
1 There is no plan [The economy changes too fast for your career to have a plan.]
2 Think strengths, not weaknesses [Find your advantages]
3 It’s not about you [Serving others serves you best]
4 Persistence trumps talent [Keep showing up]
5 Make excellent mistakes [Take risks, but fail forward]
6 Leave an imprint [Do something that matters]
7 Stay hungry

The seventh lesson is in italics because it is currently being voted on in an online poll. I have chosen that one from the three options available, as it strikes me as the best. I also like the way they he is working the user-generated content angle. I found some elegant additional commentary on Pink’s list from Kevin Kelly which I have appended above in parenthesis. Those seven points seem particularly useful while I am thinking through what I am learning on the Masters programme.

If you are interested in these seven lessons you may also find something useful in my post about the learnings gained in achieving my Masters degree.

#learning  #leadership  #business  #career  #insights

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

I just totally love this new phrase ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’ (or BHAG) which was proposed by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in in their book ‘Built to Last’. A BHAG is a form of vision statement “...an audacious ten to thirty-year goal to progress towards an envisioned future.”

It strikes me as a very Tom Peters kind of idea and one that definitely appeals to me. They write about it in the context of teamwork, but to me I can see how this can be such a useful leadership asset as well.

“A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines.”

It is an interesting exercise to think about my work and my organisation and ask how we could stretch ourselves be setting the challenge of our own particular Big Hairy Audacious Goal.

Quote of the Day 05/01/09

“What creates trust, in the end, is the leader’s manifest respect for the followers.”
—Jim O’Toole, Leading Change

Colin Powell’s Thirteen Rules of Leadership

I discovered this list online taken from the memoir of the ex-US Secretary of State Colin Powell. It is a useful practical listing of leadership advice.

Rule 1
It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.

Rule 2
Get mad, then get over it.

Rule 3
Avoid your ego being so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

Rule 4
It can be done.

Rule 5
Be careful whom you choose.

Rule 6
Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.

Rule 7
You can’t make someone else’s decisions.
You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.

Rule 8
Check small things.

Rule 9
Share credit.

Rule 10
Remain calm. Be kind.

Rule 11
Have a vision. Be demanding.

Rule 12
Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.

Rule 13
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Leadership Opportunities For 2009

“While the rest of your world huddles and holds back, here’s a golden chance to use cheap media, available attention and great talent to make something that matters.”
—Seth Godin’s New Year Message.

On Reading ‘Level 5 Leadership’

I had encountered this material when I read Jim Collins’ earlier book ‘Good To Great’ over the past Summer.

There is some interesting cross-over between this article and Goldman’s ‘Emotional Intelligence’, but whereas Goldman talks more about interpersonal, people-management, aspects of leadership Collins also addresses resolve, vision and direction-setting.

One fact to note when mapping any learnings from this article onto my real experience is that Collins is looking at a company’s performance over a thirty-year cycle and few, if any, Irish design companies have lasted that long. That is not to say that they will never achieve that span of years, just that they have not yet so far.

Quote of the Day 28/12/09

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”
—General Eric Shinseki, retired Chief of Staff, US Army

Self-Management And The Leader

In reviewing my thinking on leadership during the course of this module I went back and watched David Allen’s talk at Google on personal productivity. He is not an authoritative voice on leadership, nor does he claim to be, so his thinking most likely falls outside of the canon of leadership literature which I am exploring for this module. However one always needs to look for good ideas in unsuspecting places.

What drew me back to this video was his central thought that when you are in charge of others and leading them in whatever direction you all need to go, you need to be very much in charge of yourself and totally clear about your own direction. I remembered his four panel matrix* of self management. This is a good diagnostic tool to evaluate where you are at in terms of your degrees of perspective and control, and once aware then you can act to improve. I made this diagram of the four categories that Allen identifies.

• The Crazy-Maker has no consciousness of constraints or resources.
• The Reactor is driven by the latest and the loudest.
• The Micro-Manager is over-structured: ‘too controlled is out of control’.
• The Master & Commander has his eye on all of the horizons, walks the line between structure and freedom so as to get to where he needs to go most elegantly.

Where am I located on this matrix then? I would say that I am too high in control and only lower mid-level in perspective.

*It is always a four-panel matrix isn’t it?

Leadership In ‘Tribes’

Seth Godin’s latest book Tribes is essentially about leadership. Mostly about leadership within the business context, but not exclusively so. Scanning through it again I captured these four quotes which I find inspiring and which also relate to this module’s material.

“The barriers to leadership have fallen. There are tribes everywhere, many in search of leaders. This creates a dilemma for you: without a barrier, why not begin?”

“No one gives you permission or approval or a permit to lead. You can just do it. The only one who can say no is you.”

“Do you have what you need to lead? Do you need more power or education or money? When will you have enough of what you need in order to start leading?”

“What we see, over and over, is that the brave but cheap leadership that leads to passionate movements always (always!) defeats the top-down, mediocre, slow-moving and very expensive techniques we all grew up with. Do the math.”

Those are four very challenging statements and difficult to answer if you are being true to yourself.

Quote Of The Day 19/11

“How do you want your answer?
— Immediate.
— Accurate.
— Brief.
(Choose two.)”
—A sign seen on an office door.
Link via Merlin Mann.

Quote Of The Day 5/11

“The market for something to believe in is infinite.”
— Hugh Macleod
This quote from 2005 is one that has always stuck in my mind. The palpable sense of Obama euphoria in the air today seems to prove the point.

Quote Of The Day 4/11

“Your product doesn't have features that are more important than the ‘features’ being discussed in this election, yet, like most marketers, you’re obsessed with them. Forget it. The story is what people respond to.”
—Seth Godin
I had to do an election-themed quotation given the day that is in it. Seth Godin is turning into the most-quoted pundit on my Learning Log, but he is consistently hitting the high notes these days. This post on the marketing lessons from Election 08 is particularly insightful.

Quote Of The Day 19/10

“Learn from the right people at the right time”
A strong posting on the 37Signals blog about paying attention to whom you are choosing to look to as your business role models at any given stage in your career.