L Vaughn Spencer - Very Funny

A good friend of mine, Neil Mullarkey (yes, that’s his real name), is one of the funniest people I know.  He, Mike Myers, and a couple of other guys founded the Comedy Store Players (an improv comedy group) in London.  I have seen Neil perform dozens of times.  Always fantastic!  I even spent a day training with him.  Now I am funny(er).  His latest comedic character is the “gansta motivator,” L Vaughn Spencer, also known as L Vo.  He also has a new book based on this character (I am eagerly waiting for mine to arrive from Amazon).  I know many motivational speakers.  After a while, it is hard to take some of them seriously.  That’s why L Vo is so much fun.  The Sunday Telegraph in the UK said, “(L Vo is) the perfect antidote to the endless bogus management consultants and coaches who ply the corporate circuit.”  Hopefully they aren’t referring to me!

The Innovator’s Dilemma and the US Economy

Clayton Christensen, in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma, discusses how disruptive technologies will kill incumbent technologies. Basically it is about how the crappy and cheap will eventually take over the sophisticated and expensive.

The well-worn example is in the computing world.  The PC (which until recently cost thousands of dollars) killed the dominance of the mini-computer and mainframe (which then cost tens of thousands of dollars).  The new $300 netbooks may eventually become the dominant computing platform.  Or maybe a $100 mobile phones will eventually replace computers altogether.

The dilemma arises because most companies focus their innovation energies on building faster and more sophisticated technologies: becoming bigger and better.  That is, they move towards the right of the graphic above.  Unfortunately, the newer, cheaper developments - even if they are lower quality (in the beginning) and don’t perform as well - will ultimately be the winners.  Or in other words, the left part of the graphic above.

The US Economy Dilemma

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Shadow Personality Poker

If you own the Innovation Personality Poker system, here’s an interesting game to play. It’s called “Shadow Poker.” It was suggested by my colleague Jason Bates over at Executive Rockstar.

Shadow Poker is the same as regular Personality Poker, except with one small difference: the goal is to choose personality traits that describe the people you don’t like. All players choose the five cards that best describe the people who get on their nerves.

This version is based on Carl Jung’s “shadow” work. The theory is that people have an irrational dislike of others who demonstrate characteristics that they most dislike in themselves

This game works best when all of the players do not know that this is based on shadow theory, because then everyone will be thinking of others and not themselves. Revealing this “projection” motif at the end of the game can prove quite insightful. Jung suggested that everyone eventually has to come to terms with this shadow self.

Shadow Poker is just one of the many variations included in out new and improved 80 page instruction manual.  Order your Innovation Personality Poker Starter Kit today.

The Origin of Spam

You may wonder how spam got its name.  No, I am not referring to the annoying emails we get.  I am referring to the canned pork product that pre-dated the internet.

In a classic Straight Dope article from 10 years ago, Cecil writes that the name is short for “spiced ham.”

Supposedly there was a “name-the-product party, in which you had to contribute a possible name in order to get a drink.”

Clever idea.  Maybe this is a way of developing a new name or concept for your business.  Just make sure you check your corporate insurance policy first.

Relearning What You Know

The blog here has been quiet for a while. I was overseas for the past 2.5 weeks having a fantastic time. A handful of days in Lisbon (my favorite photo from my travels is pictured left). A week in England. And a few days in Oslo.

It was my first time to both Lisbon and Oslo. They are lovely cities.

And of course I always love visiting London. I lived there for four years. However, there is always something a bit disconcerting about being in the UK.

I have been driving a car in the states for nearly 30 years. I know how to drive. I drive well. And I don’t need to think about driving when I drive. It just comes naturally.

But when I am in the UK, that’s a totally different story.

The cars there have the steering wheel on the right-hand side. You drive on the left side of the road and pass on the right. Roundabouts (rotaries) go clock-wise. And for manual transmission cars, you shift with your left hand.

The task of driving a car in the UK is almost identical to driving a car in the US. But for me, the experiences are TOTALLY different.

I need to concentrate when I drive in the UK. When turning, I need to remember to go wide when turning right. I find it hard to judge the end of the car. While driving in South Africa last year, I came close to killing everyone in my car on several occasions.

It’s amazing how we can become very good at something. But when one thing is changed, we become incompetent.

Think about your job. Think about your life. What do you do well? What are you able to do without thinking, because it comes naturally?

Maybe these areas of your life and business represent blind spots. Places where there is an opportunity to grow and learn.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc, once said, “Creativity is just having enough dots to connect… connect experiences and synthesize new things. The reason creative people are able to do that is that they’ve had more experiences or have thought more about their experiences than other people.”

If creative people think more about their experiences or have more experience, then it is possible that the more you are on autopilot, the less creative you are.

What are the routines in your life? What small, subtle pieces can you change to fundamentally change the experience?  Remember, you don’t need to change everything, just something that moves you from unconsciousness to consciousness. I still know 99% of the skills required to drive a car.  Only 1% needs to be changed to cause me to think.

Visit a country where you don’t know the language. Change an aspect of your job so that you need to be more present to your actions. Speak with people you normally avoid. Change one attribute of a routine.

Do you want your organization to be more innovative? If so, your people need to get more comfortable with change.  Start by introducing small changes. Every morning, write down one small change you want to introduce into your day. Have everyone on your team do the same thing. Make the changes small. They should take little or no time.  They should be easy enough so that people will actually incorporate into their day.

If everyone on your team starts to introduce small changes on a regular basis, they will get used to frequent small changes.  And then, infrequent large changes won’t seem like such a big deal.