Do you have any idea what you're doing?

Disruption, reinvention, rapid change and transformation. How do we know what to do? And is it ok if we don't know what we're doing?

Will Dayble presented a great session last week at the Future of Leadership in Brisbane, on Disruption.  
Here's the still and below is the moving picture of my digital visuals from Will's session. 



You can check out the rest of the visual content from the event's nine brilliant speakers in digital format. When the topic was about the future, paper and markers just wouldn't do!

The Future of Work

Eating 3D printed food? Your front door greeting you when you get home? More robots on the planet than people?

These were some of the predictions from the Future of Work conference last week. 

This week's sketch video highlights how we have to adapt and transform!

Click on the other visuals I crafted to see more about The Future of Work:

     
So… what are you doing now to deal with the future of the world… the future of work? 

Don't fight stupid - make more awesome

Ask any of the talented improvisers at Impro Melbourne and they'll tell you that 'yes' is an almost magic word. When they're on stage, making things up, for the entertainment of an audience, they live for hearing a 'yes' from their fellow performers.

'Yes...' allows them to build on, add to and develop a story line, an idea, a thought.

Whereas a 'no' hits them like a bat over the head! Thud! Momentum stopped.

It's harder to be creative, innovative or do your best work if you keep bumping into 'no'.

At the Agile India conference I attended and presented at this past week, keynote speaker Martin Fowler mentioned in his presentation on 'Software Design in the 21st Century' the sweet phrase of 'don't fight stupid; make more awesome'.

Looking into the phrase more, I found that Jesse Robbins, from the same sort of technology field said this and uses it as somewhat of a philosophy. 

Jesse said:
“If you keep bumping into ‘no,’ and the organization makes it hard to get to ‘yes,’ you are going to have a long, slow, painful death. Get out of there!

“Every time I tried to win over stupid, I regretted it. On the other hand, every time I’ve gotten people to swing around and build a movement, I remember all those moments and felt good every day, no matter how hard I worked.”

If you're battling against some no's where you are at the moment:

• Yield.
• Shift.
• Pivot.

Head off over there, in that direction and make awesome things happen, using your expertise, your capabilities and your knowing that you are on to something brilliant. 

Yes. Go for it. Make more awesome. We're waiting for it. 

"I didn't think; I experimented"

Kick off 2014 with some experimentation. No need to overthink, ponder for too long or wonder. 

Just start. 

Try something out. 

Then try something else. 

Keep on experimenting. 

"I didn't think; I experimented" is exactly what Wilhelm Rontgen did. 

If you or someone in your circle or network has had an x-ray lately, you can thank Wilhelm.  It was he who discovered and detected the wavelength that we know today as x-rays, or 'Rontgen rays'.

A Nobel Prize later and he was recognised as truly having changed the future of health care and medicine. 

And if you're a fan of the TV show 'Big Bang Theory', you'll understand how cool it is that Wilhelm was also recognised by having one of the elements named after him. Number 111, 'Roentengium'.

He didn't just sit, gazing out the window thinking about how x-rays might work. He got to it, experimenting, testing, trying things out. 

Wilhelm took notes after each of his experiments and kept on testing and investigating. He was human... and he was worried that his ideas may have been seen as a bit too out there or in error. 

But without his experiments, our health care and medical diagnoses could be so very different. Wilhelm is a brilliant inspiration and a reminder that few pieces of truly impactful work are created by just thinking. Sure, start with a thought, an idea... but then go and test it out. 

Talk to someone about it. Get a minimum viable product up and out there to see how it might be received, how it could work, what else needs to happen. 

Are you putting a dent in the universe?

Sometimes things bump you off course, at other times you can be soooo very deep in the detail of things that you forget what you're doing and why. 

I will often review the article by Carmine Gallo, The 7 Success Principles of Steve Jobs from Forbes magazine. The article is bookmarked on my browser for a regular read. Carmine Gallo wrote a whole book about the innovation secrets of Steve Jobs and Apple. 

But if I don't have time to read either the book or the article or I need a quick reminder, I use the visual notes that I took on my IPad when I first read them. 

They're a powerful anchor to the more detailed content and I share them here this week: 


In so many presentations and interviews today, people quote Steve Jobs and Apple for their innovation, focus, success, determination and how they really did 'put a dent in the universe'.

So don't get too distracted too often by unexpected responses, detailed discussions or unnecessary actions... keep your eye on the success you're after and take a tip from Steve Jobs (via Carmine Gallo) so you truly do make a dent in that universe.