Reverb Consulting

I read a lot. I have not always been a reader and I don’t read particularly fast. Anymore, I find that taking in information, as much as I can, the best quality that I can, is critical to being relevant in the 21st century. Besides, being informed gives meaning to my life, helps me make meaning of my life.

I recommend that everyone be informed, and I am not the most sympathetic person when it comes to excuses. The most common excuse people offer, and I hear it a lot, is I don’t have time. I am married to a dyslexic man and have a dyslexic son who both read more than most people despite the effort it takes. They don’t complain about the time it takes. Not to be flippant and in all sincerity, we all make time for the things we value. I would much rather hear someone say, I don’t value reading/learning/taking in information, or I don’t make time. Then, we would have something to talk about that began with honesty.

I just finished Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. This book is a balanced portrait of Einstein the man and Einstein the theorist. It was refreshing to see Einstein’s humanity in the many struggles of his personal relationships and his disdain for the rhythms of daily life. It is humbling to see how his mind worked, especially in that it didn’t work well for everything. Einstein struggled with basic math and was not a talented teacher. He lacked empathy and compassion and had few close relationships that were not bound by physics. It is inspiring to realize that Einstein’s great discoveries were primarily made possible because of his conscious unwillingness to accept and conform to conventional thinking.

The most inspiring message for me from the book is the importance of developing and sustaining a compulsive sense of curiosity and marvel, a creative spirit, and a great independence of thought. Einstein believed that freedom was the basis for all of his thought work. “The development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit,” he said, “requires a freedom that consists in the independence of thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudice.” This nurturing of creativity and independence is what Einstein believed was the fundamental role of government and of education.

Asking in our educational systems how we instill the values of creativity and of independence of thought and of a driving, seeking curiosity instead of requiring allegiance to conventional doctrine is an important new question. We need to create a collective celebrated regard for thinking and problem solving instead of valuing and rewarding inert knowledge. Like President Eisenhower declared of Einstein, we need to become a society that highly values “thoughtful wonderers.”

Einstein Archives Online — Be curious!

I take in information in a variety of ways, including watching Charlie Rose religiously. Last week Charlie had an exceptional interview with Chef David Chang that is worth watching, regardless of what business your are in, and regardless of your passion for food. Why? Because David Chang is a man living a vision. He is consciously working toward a big picture. He understands, accepts, and embraces the need to innovate all the time, to change in order to stay the same, which, as he says is his goal over and over again: to be the best. Midway through the interview when the conversation turns to his pricing strategy, Chang easily and comfortably states the guiding vision of his work: let’s make delicious food of value. Chang had already repeated this vision many times over throughout the interview: we try to serve the best food we can; our goal is to make the best food in New York City; good food is not just for fine dining; we try to do something good and do it the right way. Without anxiety, Chang states that he is not sure where he and his restaurants will be in three years, but he knows the goal will be the same: to be the best. Chang exemplifies the importance of knowing the vision and the importance of not letting allegiance to specific strategies and tactics rule the vision. He strives to be dynamic, ever-changing in response to the environment, in order to remain relevant.

Chang is a refreshing mix of humility and ambition. He possesses a clear vision and an acceptance of the ambivalence of the specifics of the future. For a young man, he is full of sage and visionary advice:
Work hard. Stay humble. Try to do it right. Have integrity. Delight in what you do.

Wow!

More about Chef David Chang
The I Chang by Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld
Chef on the Edge by Larissa MacFarquhar
The Year of the Pig by Alan Richman

While in Oklahoma City with ACDA in early July, I had an opportunity to visit the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial and hear designer Hans Butzer discuss its symbolism. His design team, Butzer Design Partnership, which includes his wife Torrey and associate Sven F. Berg, was chosen from over 600 entries to design the memorial based on their vision for the space.

Butzer started his talk by recalling the mission of the memorial site:

We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.

Butzer explained how from the beginning they were moved by this tremendous opportunity to leave a legacy, to make an impact that was the final statement on the incredulous, impersonal, violent act of others. They viewed their challenge as an incredible paradox: to create a place of serenity and peace from something that was created from evil and violence. They understood that part of the challenge was to create a sense of presence from absence, an enduring absence that caused random lives to be taken by an intentional act.

The site is incredibly moving. The two gates that stand sentinel over the bombing site gracefully and powerfully mark the intellectual threshold for the space. One gate is engraved “9:01″ and the companion gate is engraved “9:03″. The bombing took place at 9:02 a.m. Butzer’s point is that things can only be understood in context. That placing this intentional act and its ramifications in context of the past, in the context of our culture, in the context of Oklahoma City, in context of the individual lives it touched, and in context of the future is the only way to make meaning. Similarly, choosing to make the street where the Murrah Building fronted as part of the memorial, commemorating it with a shallow black marble reflecting pool, changed the traffic flow of the downtown grid, forcing people trying to get from points downtown to encounter the reality of what happened perpetually. The reflecting pool is mystical. With every breeze, the waters distort their reflection of the memorial, inviting the viewer to understand that we work to understand, but that true understanding is not available to us because it has no ending point. Once we think we have a clear picture, a clear understanding of the motivations and ramifications, the wind blows, events in our life change and offer new awareness, and the picture changes.

Butzer team’s vision was powerful and palpable as they designed this memorial. They created a sense of space, a sense of scale, a sense of story - individual stories, community stories, societal stories, a sense of history, a sense of absence and longing, and strangely a sense of presence and hope. The chairs that honor the 169 men, women and children who were killed are at once headstones and chairs at the table in the discussions of why?, and how not again?. All, from the power of a vision. This memorial is a great of example of vision as the details and the experience of the mission incarnate.

Everyone needs those things that free the mind and break it from deadlock. We all need a thing or two that successfully kills some time as the brain is switching gears.

For me, pretending to be Jackson Pollack fits the bill sometimes. I can put this program on the screen with a booming symphony or some loud rock-n-roll and get ready for the next thing, whether it is a long meeting that will be tense, a hour or two of concentrated writing, or carpool pick-up. It is energizing. It is also ephemeral because, compared to Jackson Pollock’s, none of mine are worth keeping. Still, it is nice to pretend.

I love words - written, spoken, quoted. I love play with words like what e.e. cummings created, or Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), or Shel Silverstein. I love to see words in art, like the work of Alan Fletcher in The Art of Looking Sideways. I love biting words used in editorials like those of Maureen Dowd or Ben Stein or Thomas Friedman or David Brooks, all favorites. I wish I could do with words what they all do!

I have discovered an awesome word memelet: Wordle. It is a program written by IBM programmer Jonathan Feinberg. For a wordophile like me, it is addictively fun. The gallery has some great wordles. Here are just a few that I have made. Make one of your own.

and, with my del.icio.us tags:

Too much fun!

I couldn’t find a formal vision statement but I think Kashi’s founding principle is visionary. It is simple, easy to remember and motivates all that they do.

Kashi’s founding principle:

I find Clif Bar to be an inspiring company that derives its business strategies from its vision. They call it “their soul”. We need our corporations to have souls, and we need places to work that inspire and desire soulful people. Clif’s aspirations are noble, people-oriented, visionary in their aim. Their videos don’t come through here but you can see them on their website.

5 Aspirations:

Sustaining our Planet — keep our impact on the environment small even as we grow.

Sustaining our Community — be good neighbors. Give back to the community.

Sustaining our People — create a workplace where people can live life to its fullest, even 9 to 5.

Sustaining our Business — grow slower, grow better, stick around longer.

Sustaining our Brands — make what people actually need. Never compromise quality.

Sustaining is a good visionary word.

Vision as a noun is the power of sensing with our eyes, our sight. To vision is the ability to imagine or conceptualize in vivid detail something to come. The vision, with its detail and specificity, becomes a motivating goal for the future. A vision creates a magnetic force or pull towards realizing the vision. A vision also creates an organizing energy, a sense of direction so that goals can be set and reached, which allows the vision to be created. I am a firm believer that we can only do, as individuals and as organizations, that which we can envision. The first step, then, in planning for the future is crafting the vision. Everything else flows from there.

A vision statement is not a mission statement. In his BusinessWeek article, The Napkin Test, Carmine Gallo tells us, “A vision is a vivid image of a brighter future that can be articulated in 10 words or less. It is repeatable and consistent. A vision can fit on the back of a napkin.” So easy to say and yet so hard to develop. His advice, “Lose the mission statement. That’s right. Throw it out and throw out all of the meetings and e-mails that go along with it.” Can you do it?

I do not have a formal vision statement. I have a rather unclear vision sentiment that motivates me and guides my thinking. I am undertaking a research project for a client regarding vision crafting and have decided I need a vision statement, lest I preach what I am not practicing. I need to crystallize my vision sentiment into a series of carefully chosen, coded, guiding words. I think it will take me a while to develop one right for me, and I know not to decide the outcome before researching the possibilities.

Here is my first, great, inspiring possibility. I love the vision statement of Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacies headquartered in Boulder, Colorado:

seek knowledge
embrace change
practice wellness
celebrate life

I could adopt that whole! But, that would be too easy. I shall keep looking, and let you know what I discover.

“Reason can answer questions, but imagination has to ask them.”
– Dr. Ralph Gerard

Dr. Ralph Gerard was devoted to scientific inquiry his whole life. Gerard had a mighty mind and terrific energy that he used to continually ask and answer questions of scientific inquiry. Gerard epitomized creativity. He used his imagination to envision new questions. And, new questions always lead to new answers.

I recently facilitated a visioning session for the American Choral Directors Association in Oklahoma City. Their leaders from all fifty states gathered to discuss the future. I led them through a day-long imaginative process not to find answers, but to discover new questions to ask. It takes courage and creativity to discover what the new questions that will guide your thinking should be. The leaders of ACDA showed tremendous imagination and courage and enthusiasm.

I always start this process by helping groups develop their external awareness, within their industry and within the culture at large. Organizations must be internally focused with budgets, projections, and personnel issues, but it is imperative that they are also externally aware. This process requires you to hold the vision and the strategic tactics and details in your minds and your decision-making all at the same time. It is a new demand upon our well-worn skill sets, but this synthesizing skill, or as I described it to the choral directors, the skill of symphony, is one that can be cultivated.

Once you have the right questions, the answers come. Using our well-practiced skills of logic and pragmatic reasoning, the answers come more easily than you think initially once the right questions are excavated.

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
- Anais Nin

Anais Nin is best known for publishing her journals which span more than 60 years. Nin’s journals intimately chronicle her emotional life, her physical life, her spiritual life, and her intellectual life from age 11 until her death at age 77. The journals are fascinating because you can trace on the page the development of Anais Nin as a multi-dimensional being. Born of artistic, worldly parents, Nin’s perspective from the beginning was non-traditional, open, rather unencumbered, thus it seems natural that she delves deeply into the world of psychoanalysis and erotica, what a wonderful combination!

The inspiration Anais Nin offers any one of us is this: the power of an open perspective and the power of questioning the conventional. Page after page of her journals is full of these two aims. Her whole life was full of these two aims, and this worldview led her to some interesting places, interesting situations, and interesting people. To remember that she was writing so openly and graphically about her relationships, as unconventional as they were, back in the society of the 1950s and 1960s is incredible.

We could jokingly say Anais Nin got around. But, I would say it non-jokingly - Anais Nin got around, met and worked at getting to know deeply interesting and interested people. I love her quote above that speaks to how we can activate the innate worlds of intelligence, motivation, and passion in one another. To connect our internal bodies of knowledge and intuition is the power and purpose of collaboration, and I love being able to think of Anais Nin, radical that she was, as a collaborator, one who melded what she had with others in hopes of creating something bigger, better, more.