The Busy Culture

The year was 1582 and changes needed to be made. There had been much discussion for many years over this critical issue and the solution had been found.

This was the year the Gregorian calendar (also known as the Christian or Western calendar) was more widely used. It featured 365 days, 5 hours, and 49 seconds which was a reduction of 10 minutes and 48 seconds from the Julian calendar to align the celebration of Easter with the Spring Equinox. It's the calendar we use today.

Some of the prominent inventions of the 16th century included; bottled beer, the graphite pencil, the pocket watch, the map projector, the knitting machine, and flush toilets. Each was created within the time constraints of the calendar we have today.

What about now?

Since the year 2000, we have seen the emergence of the iPod, the Braille glove, birth control patch, artificial liver, the virtual keyboard, and the iPhone.

In the 16th century, the average life expectancy was around 50 and in some areas of the world – like North America – it’s close to 80 today. The world’s population in 1582 was about 500 million and it’s over 7 billion today.

Why is this important?

Since our current calendar was adopted, we are living 40% longer and the population has increased 350% but each of us still has only 24 hours in each day. Yet we continue to attempt to jam more and more stuff into each of them. More meetings, more email, more tasks, more deadlines, more sales calls, more everything.

In a hundred years, they may come up with another way of measuring days, years, and centuries. There will be medical breakthroughs to give humans a longer lifespan, and our finite planet will probably have a couple more billion people living on it which gives pause to the environmental impact. But hopefully the desire to do more tomorrow than today will at some point subside.

Let's exchange emails and book a meeting to discuss.
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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

antiqwatch

Let's Go For Coffee

Wanna get together for coffee? How about we meet for coffee? Let's book coffee some time. Where are we meeting for coffee? We know it's about much more than coffee.

Steven Johnson explains.


__________________________________________________________________
Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

Steven Johnson | TED

Key Elements of Presenting Ideas

Much of my work and passion is helping people with their leadership, collaboration and business development. Whether it's a keynote address or a small group in the office, your ability to explain your plan or concept is critical. An idea often dies because we are unable to articulate it to our intended audience. It’s not about simply creating a slick deck of slides. We must focus on the idea and how we want it to resonate with the audience. Then we need to ensure something happens to turn it into reality.

Sebastian Wernicke has created a template for developing a successful TEDTalk which may help you to prepare for your presentations. You might find this entertaining, but there are actually some good tips in here.

Watch, enjoy, and have fun presenting your ideas!


Kneale Mann

TED | Sebastian Wernicke

Does This Move You?

Three guys, forty-four days, eleven countries, eighteen flights, thirty-eight thousand miles, an exploding volcano, two cameras and almost a terabyte of footage. The guy in the shots is Andrew Lees, the other two on the crew are Rick Mereki and Tim White and music is by Kelsey James. These were commissioned by STA Travel Australia.

Some suggest these were filmed on green screen, others say it’s a hoax. How about it’s well done and brilliantly clever? Interesting how some feel compelled to tear down an idea when they didn’t think about it themselves.  

Watch these and get inspired







Eat. Move. Learn. Shall We?

Kneale Mann

visual credit: Andrew Lees | Tim White | Rick Mereki  

Viral Creation and Manufacturing Brands

Myth or Reality?

Many will argue they can create you a brand. It begins with a strong product or service followed by expertly designed look, feel, execution and emotional connection. Your intended customer will embrace such a wondrous entity and share the positive experience with all whom they know. And that simply not true.

Brands cannot be created. That is up to those who have the experience. If you are Canadian, you know the story well. If not, it’s one worth reading about all things branding and viral.

The Legend of Tim’s

If you are from or have ever been to Canada, you know of a phenomenon like few others on earth. It is a cultural and business marvel. And it is named after a legendary hockey player who was one its co-founders. The Tim Horton’s coffee company is one of the most successful franchise models and continues to grow into the U.S. under the expanded name Tim Horton’s Cafe and Bake Shop.

What the company does best is stick to what they do well. It amazes most experts that they can introduce new products all the time and all the while sell hundreds of thousands of gallons of coffee each year. What is equally amazing is that most of their customers have perfectly good coffee makers at home, but prefer to line up with their fellow java junkies for a cup of Tim’s. The future of building relationships and product awareness is through brand experiences customers can share with each other.

People Want More

Tim Horton’s doesn’t serve the most exotic coffee on the planet; it’s certainly not the fanciest joint on the block. However, while others try to dress up their customer experience with high back padded arm chairs and CDs featuring acoustic compilations, sometimes the right model is to get your customers in and out of your store with exactly what they want and expect from you. For that, they will line up.

Will Yours?

Kneale Mann

image credit: the fit gourmet | original: oct 2008

Your Idea Could Save a Life

That may sound like a provocative notion but think about all those ideas that are rolling around in your mind. Yesterday we discussed thinking big versus doing big.

Sebastian Thrun is a professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, where he also serves as the Director of the Stanford AI Lab. His research focuses on robotics and artificial intelligence.

He led the development of the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. Stanley is now on exhibit at the Smithsonian. Sebastian has been working toward a time when we no longer drive our cars. You may think this TEDTalk is about technology and gadgets. It is about a far more important idea.

It's also really freakin' cool! [video]


Kneale Mann

visual credit: TED

We Are All Makers

Whether you run a business, work for others or spend your weekends at your hobby or craft, you are a maker. We produce objects and content, we share ideas and create products. No matter what “job” you have, you create something.

Dale Dougherty co-founded O'Reilly Media and is a technical publisher and conference organizer. He and partner Tim O'Reilly first coined the phrase Web 2.0. He created Make Magazine and is founder of Make Faire which has annual events in New York, Detroit and San Francisco.

Here he explains his one simple theory. [video]


Kneale Mann

video credit: TED

The Intelligence of Coffee

I often meet colleagues and clients in coffee shops, perhaps you do as well. It has become the cliché of our time to meet for coffee. The drink has become the conduit for gathering and discussing and sharing.

Let’s meet for coffee. Let’s grab a coffee some time. But according to author Steven Johnson, there is much more to coffee than we may know. [video] 

knealemann

image credit: TED

Motivation and Movement

It's Everywhere. It's In You.

It is amazing what you will find if you head into the spare room or the garage or the basement and begin to open the boxes you so neatly labeled and placed there for another day.

I have been pouring over some 500 OMO posts for the last week or so to see what still has life.


This post was originally published last fall.

A King Is Born

From your earliest memory, life is filled with every possession you desire. Your destiny is to become the king of a nation and you will never know life as a 'commoner'.

The Reluctant Hero

From the ashes of a relationship at the hand of an abusive husband, you raised your son on welfare and a part-time job at the gas station. You put yourself through university night school and achieved a bachelor degree in business administration. Your company now employs thirty people. Your son has been accepted on a full university scholarship.

Silicon Son

You were a smart kid with a penchant for numbers. You saw a chance to revolutionize the personal computer. Forbes Magazine names you the richest person on earth.

Green Thumbs Up

After declaring bankruptcy for the second time you discover your love of gardening. Leaving the fast lane of stock trading and money management, you open a local nursery with two high school friends. Life couldn’t be better.

Chicanes and Hairpins

Some say you were born in the cockpit of a race car. With almost flawless technique you become world champion seven times and the highest paid athlete on the planet for over a decade.

Fear Of Nothing

After working hard for more than twenty years to make money for the corporation, you are handed a severance package and a box under your arm. On the first day of freedom you begin to do all those things you were afraid to try. First on the list: skydiving.

A Living Inspiration

You lived your life helping the poor and helpless. You won the Nobel Peace Prize. You were beatified by the Pope and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

Flying High Again

Faced with unthinkable odds you endure four agonizing years of reconstructive surgery. The plane crash almost ended your career, your private airline business and most certainly your life. Earning your pilot’s license again and buying your new Lear Jet feels like a new beginning.

Success: Earned and Replicated

Your parents divorced when you were seven years old. You brought yourself from the brink of personal bankruptcy to a current annual salary as a motivational consultant of $30 Million a year.

Thanks Dad!

Your wife was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder a year after your second son was born. The company you built for eight years is going under. Twelve months later, the company is profitable again and your wife is fine. The talk with your dad about staying positive and focusing on the good stuff seemed to work.

Born Leader

Your mother struggles to put food on the table. Before his death, you met your father once. You become the first African American President in U.S. history at the age of 47.

What motivates you?

@knealemann
Helping you integrate all you do with all you do.

photo credit: coach5150

Motivation: It's Different For Everyone

A King Is Born

From your earliest memory, life is filled with every possession you desire. Your destiny is to become the king of a nation and you will never know life as a 'commoner'.

The Reluctant Hero

From the ashes of a relationship at the hand of an abusive husband, you raised your son on welfare and a part-time job at the gas station. You put yourself through university night school and achieved a bachelor degree in business administration. Your company now employs three people. Your son has been accepted on a full university scholarship.

Silicon Son

You were a smart kid with a penchant for numbers. You saw a chance to revolutionize the personal computer. Forbes Magazine names you the richest person on earth.

Green Thumbs Up

After declaring bankruptcy for the second time you discover your love of gardening. Leaving the fast lane of stock trading and money management, you open a local nursery with two high school friends. Life couldn’t be better.

Chicanes and Hairpins

Some say you were born in the cockpit of a race car. With almost flawless technique you become world champion seven times and the highest paid athlete on the planet for over a decade.

Fear Of Nothing

After working hard for more than twenty years to make money for the corporation, you are handed a severance package and a box under your arm. On the first day of freedom you begin to do all those things you were afraid to try. First on the list: skydiving.

A Living Inspiration

You lived your life helping the poor and helpless. You won the Nobel Peace Prize. You were beatified by the Pope and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

Flying High Again

Faced with unthinkable odds you endure four agonizing years of reconstructive surgery. The plane crash almost ended your career, your private airline business and most certainly your life. Earning your pilot’s licence again and buying your new Lear Jet feels like a new beginning.

Success: Earned and Replicated

Your parents divorced when you were seven years old. You brought yourself from the brink of personal bankruptcy to a current annual salary as a motivational consultant of $30 Million.

Thanks Dad!

Your wife was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder a year after your second son was born. The company you built for eight years is going under. Twelve months later, the company is profitable again and your wife is fine. The talk with your dad about staying positive and focusing on the good stuff seemed to work.

Born Leader

Your mother struggles to put food on the table. Before his death, you met your father once. You become the first African American President in U.S. history at the age of 47.

What is your motivation?

image credit: examiner.com

Is Thinking A Lost Art?

The mind is the most capricious of insects.
Virginia Woolf

If I asked you how often you think, you’d probably say – always.

And that’s true.

If I asked how often you allow yourself time to think about what you want to accomplish or roll an idea around in your head before acting or just sit in your workspace and ponder new creations – how would you answer?

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
Voltaire

Why don’t we allow ourselves time to shut off the unrelenting chatter and noise once in a while to strategize and let a project filter through our gray matter?

What would you do if you walked into someone’s office and they were simply sitting in their chair staring out the window? Would you wonder if they were napping or perhaps daydreaming? Is it possible that they could simply be thinking?

Believing is easier than thinking.
Bruce Calvert

If you do presentations as part of your job, you probably have some sort of ritual. I enjoy cranking some tunes while I make hand written notes. Then I slowly piece together the story. I have a colleague who can’t do any presentations at the office, she has to take them home where there are no distractions.

Distractions are everywhere, they never leave us and if we ever find a rare moment void of them we have gotten very good at creating some simply but going to a website or signing on to the social web.

Thoughts create a new heaven, a new firmament,
a new source of energy, from which new arts flow.
Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus

I used to work with a guy who spent his entire day stuffed inside his blackberry dealing with "other issues" rather than making eye contact and dealing with the one he was currently facing. I call it 'technological avoidance'.

We humans can’t seem to deal with the quiet, the time alone with our simple thoughts. We have this inherent need to fill our minds with stuff then blame the stuff for our busy lives.

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts
into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
Johann Wolfgang von Geothe

We don’t give ourselves or each other the proper time to think things through. Time is money, deadlines loom, the client needs an answer right away, we have to finish that immediately.

Where is the time to create? How on earth can we give anything the proper deliberation when society judges us by solution reponse rates?

A caution: thought without decision won't work either.

I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
Albert Einstein

When was the last time you devoted an entire day to thinking. No email, no websites, no calls, just you and maybe a notepad and pen. If you haven’t tried it, you should. If you are a manager, you should get your people to give it a shot.

Schedule some think time in your day. Don’t just fill it up with stuff so you can end each day exhausted and satisfied you "got a lot done today”.

Thinking is doing and we simply don’t do enough of it.

When do you think?

image credit: msclipart

What Is Your #1 Business Relationship Rule?

As we near the end of a tumultuous year with the promise of another one on the way, many are reflecting as they often do near the Holidays. Of course it is time to get together with friends and family, to recharge the proverbial batteries and refocus our newly found energy.

Everyone needs and deserves a break but few of us feel we can afford that luxury right now. Simply put, we have to take our eyes off the work and money road and give ourselves times for reflection.

My passions are music, media, entertainment, social media, and marketing. What I’m excited about is the wonderful possibilities for us to integrate our forces and our projects. It is time for us to meld ideas and partners in projects for mutual benefit.

Above all, my true passions are: accountability, teamwork, strategy and focus.

Over the last couple of days, I have been asking a simple question on Twitter: What is our #1 business relationship rule? Thanks for all the responses! I did receive some of the expected ones like:

- Follow up on what you promise
- Under promise and over deliver
- Do what you say you will do

When possible, true integration is when all parties work together from the beginning.

Some other responses included:

Near Real Time Response
Love this one! Prove it with action. Again, the more information and input you can gather from the other people on the project gives you a better chance to respond swiftly and accurately.

Never Forget The Relationship
This works very well when factions work together at co-creation rather than execution. Relationships are not built on price point, deals and hidden agendas. Jennifer Rice recently wrote an excellent piece on the co-creation of luxury brands.

Relationships take time and trust. And they are more important now than ever!

Never Compromise Your Beliefs Ethics or Reputation
This is obviously different for everyone. The art of the deal, the way we do business, and I win/you lose - happen all the time. If you want to take on this mantra, be prepared to walk away from business. And that is perfectly acceptable.

I admire people who can stick to their beliefs – though speaking as one who always tries to do so; it can put you in situations where people will disappoint you. So be it!

I will add a few of mine: assume nothing, be realistic, share with and include everyone, put your focus on what they need in place of what you need. Or as I often say “I’m not here to cover my butt, I’m here to cover yours”.

The best evidence of future behavior is past behavior.

What Is Your #1 Business Relationship Rule?

km

Be An Action Hero

We all go through it; it’s the ebb and flow of life and business. We have projects, to-do lists, stuff we’re working on, stuff we’re completing, and stuff we want to get to but never find the time.

This week is a culmination of months of work and it made me realize how much more simple it is to make a decision, than to not make a decision.

One of my partners called me last Thursday with an idea. I loved it, I acted on it, made some calls, and we mapped out more detail yesterday. The meeting with the client is this week.

Obviously it doesn’t always work out this smoothly – as you know – but it feels good to have the discipline to know when you have a good idea. And most importantly you know when to take immediate action.

Procrastination is simply what we use to avoid making a decision. Money, time, or resources can be reasons but we must insure we aren’t getting the way. Put it off until tomorrow, next week, next quarter, take it off the list. If it was that important, it would be a priority.

If I told you that there was $1 Million in cash signed over to you, in a safety deposit box in Boston, how fast would you get there? We delay decisions because we don’t want to make them or we haven’t instilled the importance of them to the others we may be working with or need to act on those decisions.

Doesn’t it drive you absolutely crazy when you leave a meeting where nothing is resolved? Millions of those meetings occur every single day. We often blame some omnipresent person for the lack of progress, but we all need to take responsibility. This is one of the reasons many of my friends and colleagues are running their own companies now and not working for someone else. They grew tired of inefficiencies while great ideas were being lost.

Ask this question after each meeting or connection: Who does what by when? Which is immediately followed up and followed through.

There is that project, that thing that you are staring at it every day. It’s bugging you. You know it’s a good idea but you keep putting it off. And the best part is when you use the integration model and include all parties, action doesn’t need to rest solely on your shoulders.

Pick up the phone, book the meeting, make a decision. Today.

...oh, that reminds me!

km