Living better, with less, for less

Obsolescence is a crime from Vitsœ on Vimeo.

Standing in others' shoes

Dan Germaine is head of creative for Innocent, where he's been producing words, branding and ideas pretty much since day 1; he shared his ideas as one of the speakers as the Do-Lectures-in-waiting event, Little Big Voice nearly four years ago.

Earlier this year, Dan headed to the US to spend some time with the lovely team at Method, who's Chief Greenkeeper and founder Adam Lowry spoke at Do 09. Dan learnt lots on the way, as you'd expect:

A while ago I realised that it was 11 years since I had worked anywhere new. So I thought it might be good to go and be the new boy somewhere. I talked to the people at method and made a plan to go and work at their place in San Francisco for a short while. I figured this would be a good idea for a number of reasons:

1. They're a smart business. Surely they had spare ideas that I could steal?

2. They are based in San Francisco.

3. They're quite similar to innocent, so there were some parallels that could be interesting.

4. Being the new boy would give me a different outlook than my default grizzledoldhack position.

5. They are based in San Francisco.

So I did it and now I'm back home, back at innocent, thinking about what I learned. It was a bit of a wrench to leave. My new American friends were fond of the idea of having an exchange student and made an attempt to kidnap me (see photo), but whilst they were doing crazy finger pointing, devil horns and posing for the camera, I quietly slipped away unnoticed, off to the airport. For all I know they may still be standing there, in that exact same pose.

Anyway, what did I learn? Well, I learned that whether you make laundry detergent or smoothies, you need to have a strong purpose behind what you do, or you are screwed (American word). I learned that having a bunch of people who believe in what they do is a much more powerful weapon that a bunch of people who are thinking about maybe joining the company down the road that makes cat food. And I learned that maybe I should just try saying these things straight, without having to load them up with irony or inverted commas.

I had a great time, they are a great business and it was very kind of them to let me stay for a while.

The science of improvisation

Firstly, a quick apology to followers of my blog for a lack of postings in the last month - a combination of preparing some exciting work packages on behaviour change for sustainability and climate for the Welsh Assembly, then catching up on some important family time shifted priorities for a while.

Back in the saddle now, it's great to start again with this lovely video sent by colleague Belina Raffy, who I have the pleasure of working with on organisation development and innovation projects. It's all, as Alan Alda says, about the animation that we bring, and having the courage to dive in deep without a script - listening to our hearts, not our heads.

Ideas worth spreading

More good stuff from Seth Godin

Random rules for ideas worth spreading

If you've got an idea worth spreading, I hope you'll consider this random assortment of rules. Like all rules, some are made to be broken, but still...

• You can name your idea anything you like, but a google-friendly name is always better than one that isn't.
• Don't plan on appearing on a reality show as the best way to launch your idea.
• Waiting for inspiration is another way of saying that you're stalling. You don't wait for inspiration, you command it to appear.
• Don't poll your friends. It's your art, not an election.
• Never pay a non-lawyer who promises to get you a patent.
• Avoid powerful people. Great ideas aren't anointed, they spread through a groundswell of support.
• Spamming strangers doesn't work. Spamming friends doesn't work so well either, but it's certainly better than spamming strangers.
• The hard part is finishing, so enjoy the starting part.
• Powerful organizations adore the status quo, so expect no help from them if your idea challenges the very thing they adore.
• Figure out how long your idea will take to spread, and multiply by 4.
• Be prepared for the Dip.
• Seek out apostles, not partners. People who benefit from spreading your idea, not people who need to own it.
• Keep your overhead low and don't quit your day job until your idea can absorb your time.
• Think big. Bigger than that.
• Are you a serial idea-starting person? If so, what can you change to end that cycle? The goal is to be an idea-shipping person.
• Try not to confuse confidence with delusion.
• Prefer dry, useful but dull ideas to consumer-friendly 'I would buy that' sort of things. A lot less competition and a lot more upside in the long run.
• Pick a budget. Pick a ship date. Honor both. Don't ignore either. No slippage, no overruns.
• Surround yourself with encouraging voices and incisive critics. It's okay if they're not the same people. Ignore both camps on occasion.
• Be grateful.
• Rise up to the opportunity, and do the idea justice.