Re-ima gine !
Feb 25, 2016
Re-imagine!
Passion & Purpose
07.13.2004
“If there is nothing very special about
your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself, you won’t get noticed, and that
increasingly means you won’t get paid much either.”
Michael Goldhaber, Wired
“Self-reliance never comes ‘naturally’ to adults because they have been so
conditioned to think non-authentically that it feels wrenching to do otherwise. … Self Reliance is a last resort to which a person is driven in desperation only when he or
she realizes ‘that imitation is suicide, that he must take himself for better, for worse,
as his portion.’ ” —Lawrence Buell, Emerson
The Rule of Positioning
“If you can’t describe your position in eight
words or less, you don’t have a position.”
— Jay Levinson and Seth Godin, Get What You Deserve!
“Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must
must not obey the laws too well.” —R. W. Emerson
The greatest dangerfor most of us
is not that our aim istoo high
and we miss it,but that it is
too lowand we reach it.
Michelangelo
“For Marx, the path to social betterment was through collective resistance of the proletariat to the economic injustices of the capitalist system
that produced such misshapenness and fragmentation. For Emerson, the key was to jolt individuals into realizing the untapped power of
energy, knowledge and creativity of which all people, at least in principle, are capable. He too hated all systems of human oppression; but his central project, and the basis of his legacy, was to unchain individual minds.” —Lawrence Buell, Emerson
“Until there is commitment there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts
of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then
providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!” —Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe
Joe J. Jones Joe J. Jones 1942 – 2003 1942 – 2003
HE WOULDA DONE SOME HE WOULDA DONE SOME REALLY COOL STUFF REALLY COOL STUFF
BUT …BUT … HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM! HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!
T. J. Peters T. J. Peters 1942 – 2---1942 – 2---
HE WAS A PLAYER!HE WAS A PLAYER!
“Nobody gives you power.
You just take it.” —Roseanne
“You are the storyteller of your
own life, and you can create your own
legend or not.” —Isabel Allende
Characteristics of the “Also rans”*
“Minimize risk”“Respect the chain of
command”“Support the boss”
“Make budget”*Fortune, article on “Most Admired Global Corporations”
It is the foremost task—and responsibility—of our generation to
re-imagine our enterprises, private
and public. —from the back cover, Re-imagine!
“Management has a lot to do with answers. Leadership is a function of questions. And the
first question for a leader always is: ‘Who do we
intend to be?’ Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but ‘Who do
we intend to be?’” —Max De Pree, Herman Miller
The Work Matters!“What we do matters to us. Work may not be the most
important thing in our lives or the only thing. We may work because we must, but we still
want to love, to feel pride in, to respect ourselves for what we
do and to make a difference.” —Sara Ann Friedman, Work Matters: Women Talk About Their
Jobs and Their Lives
“When was the last time you asked, ‘What do I want to be?’ ” Sara Ann Friedman, Work Matters
“It’s no longer enough to be a ‘change agent.’ You
must be a change insurgent—provoking,
prodding, warning everyone in sight that
complacency is death.” —Bob Reich
HTSH: Engage!Commit! Engage! Try! Fail! Get up! Try again!
Fail again! Try again! But never, ever stop moving on! Progress for humanity is
engendered by those who join and savor the fray by giving one hundred percent of
themselves to their dreams! Not by those timid souls who remain glued to the sidelines, stifled by tradition, and fearful of losing face or giving
offense to the reigning authorities.
Key words: Commit! Engage! Try! Fail! Persist!
“She made us close our eyes and hear the singers she was passionate about: Roberta
Flack and Aretha Franklin. ‘Listen to the joy in their voices,’ urged Diane. ‘It’s not the words or the music. They sing with such great passion,
such heart and soul. You can feel how the singers love what they’re doing. It’s not just a job to them. If you want to excel at anything,
you must be passionate. Otherwise, why waste your time?’ ”
Source: Lucky Every Day: The Wisdom of Diane Geppi-Aikens, by Chip Silverman)
“How Would You Play Today If You Knew You Could Not Play
Tomorrow”Source: Slogan for Loyola’s lacrosse season, from coach
Diane Geppi-Aikens (Lucky Every Day: The Wisdom of Diane Geppi-Aikens, by Chip Silverman)
“If you ask me what I have come to do in this
world, I who am an artist, I will reply: I am here to live my life out
loud.” — Émile Zola
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of
arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body—but rather a skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and
loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow, what a ride!’ ” —anon.
“In Tom’s world, it’s always better to try a swan dive and deliver a colossal belly flop than to step timidly off the board while holding your
nose.”—Fast Company /October2003
“I don’t think there’s anything worse than being
ordinary.”American Beauty
“Dream as if you’ll live
forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”
—James Dean
The Re-imagineer’s Credo … or, Pity the Poor Brown*
Technicolor Times demand …Technicolor Leaders and Boards who recruit …
Technicolor People who are sent on …Technicolor Quests to execute …
Technicolor (WOW!) Projects in partnership with …Technicolor Customers and …
Technicolor Suppliers all of whom are in pursuit of …Technicolor Goals and Aspirations fit for …
Technicolor Times.
*WSC
“ ‘It’s only business, not personal’ … IT
ALWAYS IS PERSONAL.”
!
Why Not Excellence?
Measures
–WOW!–Beauty!–Raving Fans!–Impact!
Language matters! Wow! BHAG! “Takes
your breath away!”
“Astonish me!” / S.D.
“Build something great!” / H.Y.
“Immortal!” / D.O.
“Let’s make a dent in the universe.”
Steve Jobs
Cirque du Soleil
The Experience Economy: Work Is
Theatre & Every Business a Stage, Joseph
Pine & James Gilmore
Legacy!
TP: “Your ‘signature’ is not ‘I work for Dow.’ It’s, ‘’I
accomplished [INCREDIBLY COOL PROJECT] while I
was associated with Dow.’”*
*Terms: Signature. Portfolio. Projects. Braggables.
“To Be somebody or to Do something”
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War (Robert Coram)
“You can’t behave in a calm, rational
manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.” — Jack Welch
“Reward excellent failures. Punish
mediocre successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
Some Do, Some Don’t
I take an “heroic” (“Great man”) view
of life-history.
“intrepid, unprincipled, reckless, predatory, with
boundless ambition, civilized in externals but
a savage at heart.”
Herman Melville on JPJ: “intrepid, unprincipled,
reckless, predatory, with boundless ambition,
civilized in externals but a savage at heart.” —from Evan
Thomas, John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy
Huh?“Quiet, workmanlike, stoic leaders bring about the big
transformations.”--JC
Huh?“Humility: The Surprise Factor in Leadership … bosses with Gung-
ho Qualities and Charisma May Be Out of Fashion” —Headline/FT/
re JCollins/10.03
WellingtonNelsonDisraeliChurchill
MontgomeryThatcher
“Humble” Pastels?
T. Paine/P. Henry/A. Hamilton/T. Jefferson/B. FranklinA. Lincoln/U.S. Grant/W.T. Sherman
TR/FDR/LBJ/RR/JFKPatton/Monty/Halsey
M.L. King/C. de Gaulle/M. Gandhi/W. ChurchillPicasso/Mozart/Copernicus/Newton/Einstein/Djarassi/Watson
H. Clinton/G. Steinem/I. Gandhi/G. Meir/M. Thatcher E. Shockley/A. Grove/J. Welch/L. Gerstner/L. Ellison/B. Gates/
S. Jobs/S. McNealy/T. Turner/R. Murdoch/W. Wriston A. Carnegie/J.P. Morgan/H. Ford/S. Honda/J.D. Rockefeller/
T.A. Edison Rummy/Norm/Henry/Wolfie
Elizabeth Cady Stanton/Susan B. Anthony/Martha Cary Thomas/Carrie Chapman Catt/Alice Paul/Anna Elizabeth
Dickinson/Arabella Babb Mansfield/Margaret Sanger
“To Hell With Well Behaved … Recently a young
mother asked for advice. What, she wanted to know, was she to do with a 7-year-old who was obstreperous, outspoken, and
inconveniently willful? ‘Keep her,’ I replied. … The suffragettes refused to be polite
in demanding what they wanted or grateful for getting what they deserved.
Works for me.” —Anna Quindlen/Newsweek
“Well-behaved women rarely make history.”
Anita Borg, Institute for Women and Technology
Jim Collins vs. Michael Maccoby
“quiet, workmanlike, stoic”vs.
“larger-than-life leaders”/ “egoists, charmers, risk-takers with big
visions”: Carnegie, Rockefeller, Edison, Ford, Welch, Jobs, Gates
Johannes Kepler: Quiet … humble … stoic??*
*Joshua Gilder & Anne-Lee Gilder, Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History’s Greatest Scientific Discoveries
“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder,
bloodshed—and produced Michelangelo, da Vinci and the
Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce
—the cuckoo clock.”Orson Welles, as Harry Lime, in The Third Man
Re-imagine!*1.Empower one and all to vigorously seek WOW! in their work/projects. (Or else.)2. Encourage the entrepreneurial (Brand You) spirit in people of all ages; lead the parade of those aiming to “Free the Cubicle Slaves.”3. Urge education “bureaucrats” (From kindergarten to MBA schools) to emphasize the arts, creativity, entrepreneurial behavior.4. Seek out the bold, the strange, the misfits, the dreamers—and welcome their presence in our midst.5. Drag enthusiasm, passion, Technicolor and bold commitment out of the closet.6. Be a champion for: Women Roar! Women Rule!7. Underscore the importance of/stupendous opportunities associated with the “cool new markets”: women, boomers and geezers, Hispanics, greenies, wellness.8. Dramatically re-orient healthcare from after-the-fact “fixes” to before-the-fact attention to prevention-wellness.9. Nurture the “lesser” “intangibles”—such as design/experiences and innovation—as the prime basis for individual and enterprise success.10. Support Globalization as the best/only—if indeed messy—path to maximum human freedom, security and welfare.11. Fight bureaucratic rigidities, centralization and mindless gigantism to the death.12. Swear by the motto: “Reward excellent failures; punish mediocre successes.”13. Foster a “sense of grace and care” in enterprises and organization-client transactions of all flavors.*Why I get out of bed in the morning/TP/07.12.2004
All You Need to Know About “Strategy”
1. Do you have awesome Talent … everywhere? (“We are the Yankees of home improvement here in Omaha.”) Do you push that Talent to pursue audacious Quests?2. Is your Talent Pool loaded with wonderfully peculiar people who others wouldcall “problems”?3. Is your Board of Directors as cool as your product offerings … and does it have50% (or at least one-third) Women Members?4. Are Innovation and Entrepreneurship your primary aims?5. Do you routinely use hot, aspirational words-terms like “Excellence” and B.H.A.G. (Big Hairy Audacious Goal, per Jim Collins) and “Let’s make a dent in the Universe” (the Word according to Steve Jobs)?6. Do you subscribe to Jerry Garcia’s dictum: “We do not merely want to be the best of the best, we want to be the only ones who do what we do”?7. Do you embrace the new technologies with child-like enthusiasm/revolutionary zeal?8. Do you “serve” customers … or go berserk attempting to provide every customer with an “awesome experience” that automatically turns her/him into a “raving fan”?9. Are your leaders accessible? Do they wear their passion on their sleeves? Is yours a “hot place to hang out” and “learn cool stuff”?10. Does integrity ooze out of every pore of the enterprise? Is “We care” your implicit motto?11. Do you understand business mantra #1 of the ’00s: DON’T TRY TO COMPETE WITH WAL*MART ON PRICE OR CHINA ON COST? (And if you get this last idea, then see the 10 above!)
I = My calendar*
*Period
Importance of Success Factors by Various “Gurus”/Estimates by Tom Peters
Strategy Systems Passion Execution Porter 50% 20 15 15
Drucker 35% 30 15 20
Bennis 25% 20 30 25
Peters 15% 20 35 30
“In all my lectures, I have taught one
doctrine, the infinitude of the
private man.” —R. W. Emerson