Have a Nice Idea

This doodle was inspired by a poster hanging in the Portland, Oregon offices of the marketing agency, Grady Britton.  I liked the play on the traditional greeting "have a nice day," but it brought something else to mind as well.  And that is that our ideas should be nice.  As in, kind, generous, and gracious.  They should be filled with humility and a genuine concern for others. Because our ideas are our thoughts.  And our thoughts are our actions.   As we start this week, have a nice idea and make the world better!  Especially important as we head into November and a seasons of thanksgiving!

Interestingly enough, I got to know Grady Britton through their work with the non-profit, Marathon Scholars.  I serve on Marathon's board of trustees and Grady Britton developed a great campaign for them this past year.  So, I guess they were putting that poster work and having nice ideas!

The Dilemma of Mobile Technologies

Does your phone or other mobile devices give you wings or are they an ever-present, ever-connected tether?  Or both?

Get Curious

A few things that I learned from researcher, author, and TED talker, Brene Brown at the recent Inbound conference interspersed with thoughts from talks from Dharmesh Shah from Hubspot and others:

1. If you recognize emotion in yourself or others, get curious.  Seek to understand what is happening.
2. The sense of relief when you think you understand what is going on is your brain rewarding itself to having a story that reduces ambiguity.  However, reward is the same whether or not the story we tell ourselves is true or not.
3. We are great at seeing patterns.  Even when patterns don’t exist. 
4. Everyone has a poor quality first draft of explanations for the facts we perceive and the emotion we feel.  Reveal it’s poor quality by writing it down.  You might be mortified or amused by what you write down.
5. After all a conspiracy theory is nothing more than a story with limited facts filled in with beliefs, assumptions, and fear.  That is describes most of our first draft explanations, so we should hold them loosely.
6. We don’t have to look any further than the constellations to find examples of how we have stretched stories to cover an unrelated and sparse group of facts.  How did we get Orion’s Belt or The Little Dipper but someone filled in the blanks with their own beliefs.
7. Address things directly by recounting the observable facts and the story you are making up to those involved.  Get clarity and move on.

It All Adds Up

Rome wasn't built in a day.  Your lifestyle and health are the choice of lots of small choices and habits.  Your career has been built one day at a time.  One day doesn't matter, but every day does.  It accumulates.  It builds upon itself.  It all adds up.  

I know many people are practicing gratefulness this month.  The small act of counting our blessings and acknowledging our appreciation changes lives.

Smart Fruit: The Internet of Things Goes Bananas

In a recent talk by entrepreneur and researcher Amber Case, she was painting the picture of a future kitchen dystopia where incompatibilities between your smart refrigerator and your smart stove would cause your smart toaster to keep you from using your smart dishwasher. All of this trauma and drama, so that you can have a computer tell you whether your bananas are ripe.

“Bananas have their own built-in ripeness indicator,” she said in exasperation. “They literally change color. It’s a great system.” As it turns out, in our quickening quest for the Internet of Things, we’ve had smart fruit all along.

As most technologists know, companies, big and small, are driving toward the Internet of Things (IoT) — a world in which every device has sensors and is connected. Aimed at making data work more seamlessly in the world and in the enterprise, the IoT movement is affecting everything from wearables and medical devices to home automation and HVAC systems. In our quest for bigger and new, it is important that we not take for granted the natural sensors in our world and intrinsic motivations of the people using these devices.

I am looking out of my window at a beautiful autumn day in Oregon. The leaves are signaling the season in a naturally zero-energy (solar-powered!), renewable and sustainable — not to mention repeatable — process wrapped in a beautiful industrial design precisely tuned to its purpose. Let that inspire our efforts to innovate.

This article was published by InfoComm International.

Clear Concept Awards: a design competition #clearconcept

The first entries for the Clear Concept Awards have been received!  This design competition sponsored by Planar, Digital Signage Expo (DSE), and SEGD (the Society for Experiential Graphic Design), envisions the future of transparent OLED and the winner will present at DSE and be given a Planar LookThru OLED transparent display for their lab or studio.  Learn more at www.planar.com/clearconcept.  #ClearConcept

How to Build a Network, Before You Need One

Students and professionals alike regularly hear about the benefits of networking.  They may see it as some sort of punishment or obligatory task that would require them to introduce themselves to a stranger.  In professional circles, “network events” are often nothing more than shameless vendor self-promotion hidden under the guise of free food and drink.  This misconception starts with an improper definition of networking and a lack of understanding of how and why to build one.

A network is simply a collection of people or resources that connect for mutual benefit.  It could be the members of a club pulling together to accomplish a big vision.  It could be a work team.  It could be a group that joins up because of a shared interest or cause. A network effect occurs when there are enough members of the network to have the scale and reach to allow each member to contribute and benefit.

You build a network because you can’t do everything alone and neither can members of your network.  Even with the wealth of the internet at our fingertips, it is useful to learn from others about what college to attend, what clubs to join, or how to improve your 5k time.  It is satisfying to offer your own expertise for the benefit of others.  You don’t build a network just to take.  You must be purposeful about giving as well.

You have heard the adage, that to have a friend, you must be a friend.  The same is true to building your network.  Start by connecting to people you respect or appreciate by telling them so.  Use social media invitations or a personal invitation complimenting them and saying that you’d like to stay in touch.  Then simply do what you said: stay in touch.  Let your network know what is going on with you.  Ask questions.  Ask people to refer others who might have expertise where you need it.  Answer questions.  Offer your expertise or make an introduction to someone you know who is a relevant expert.  Be a catalyst that brings people together to discuss big ideas or practical projects to make the world a better place.

Remembering that networks are just people that are helping each other be more successful, makes it easier to build and keep your network strong.

This article was published by Saturday Academy.

Catching Up

The phrase "catching up" (which I use routinely) typically is referring a timeline.  Something along a horizontal axis.  Time has marched on and I need to "catch up" to the current point and learn what has been going on with you.  

It struck me recently that this same phrase could have a different meaning.  To catch something is to capture an item in motion or to observe something that might be been in secret and "up" is a reference to altitude (a vertical axis). So, to catch up with something or someone would be to see the best and them and to stop and acknowledge it.  To catch someone in the act of doing their best, of feeling their best, or being their best. 

And I bet if we sought to catch up in this way, we'd find a lot more examples of excellence and achievement around us!

How to Be a Better Presenter in 3 Easy Steps

Presentations are increasingly part of academic and professional life. Don’t bother trying to fight it. Instead, use your poised and polished presentation style as an opportunity to shine. Here are three easy techniques that will dramatically improve your presentations.

1.   Practice out loud
Whether or not you have a script, practice by reading or reciting your speech out loud. Not only will this allow you to make sure it is long (or short) enough to fill your allotted time, but it will help you memorize your speech or have it flow better. Reading words on a page might be great for visual learners, but hearing your own voice say the speech and by using your real gestures and movement, you reinforce the speech through your other senses. You will also be able to identify and correct awkward word choices, rushed transitions, or tongue-twisting sentences before you are on stage.

2.   Record yourself
An audio recording (from your phone) is helpful because it allows you many of the benefits of practices out loud without the hassle of having to find a private space. Record it until you get it the way you want and then listen to it using headphones. The benefits, however, of videotaping yourself are substantial. Practice your gestures, pacing off different points during your speech, making eye contact, and projecting. And for an advanced lesson, play back the video in fast forward. This is the best way to identify repetitive, and often distracting, hand motions.

3.   Feel your feet
Nerves are natural. The comedian Jerry Seinfeld once noted that more people are afraid of public speaking than death, which means people would rather be in the coffin than delivering the eulogy. If you feel this way, it is perfectly normal. Sometimes that apprehension takes the form of nervous movements or rushed pace of the speech. You literally can’t wait for it to be over and it shows as you rattle off your points too fast for anyone to understand. And some of us have a lot of “performance energy” that can make us a little too bouncy during presentations. All of these can be helped by a simple move. When you take the stage, feel your feet in your shoes. Feel the shoes upon the firm ground of the floor or platform. This simple mental move will instantly quiet your body and has a calming effect that will help you slow down and keep your nerves in check.

Follow these rules and you’ll be giving your own TED talk in no time!

This article was published by Saturday Academy. 

Backing into the Future: 4 Ways to Make Change Work

Last week, we celebrated “Back to the Future Day.”  The day to which Marty McFly and Doc Brown set the time machine at the end of the movie Back to the Future:  October 21st, 2015.  The day came and went without mass market hover boards or funny futuristic clothing, but it brought to mind to me the strained relationship we have with the future and the change it implies.  And how often, like Marty, we are swept into the future without a strategy for making change happen, and instead let it happen to us.  In short, we back into the future, instead of diving in with purpose and resolve.  This kind of drama is great for the movies, but is difficult for our organizations and teams.

Below are four ways that you make change work in your organizations to take maximum advantage of changing conditions, business circumstances, or technological advancements.

1.       Give Up Nostalgia

The “good ol’ days” of how things used to be, weren’t always so good, so make sure your memories don’t take on mythic proportions.  In the movie, Marty was told his Dad was a pedestrian hit by a car and that caused Marty’s Mom to notice him, when the truth was something slightly different than that (I won’t spoil it for you, in case you need to watch the show again).  Unlike in the movie, you can’t go back to the way things used to be, and even if you did, the past may not be entirely as you remember or how it has been depicted by others.  The past is warmly familiar, but let’s not forget that it had problems.  Problems that prompted solutions we now rely on and take for granted.  You have to be willing to agree that change is inevitable, and possibly good, to be able to move forward.

2.       Listen to Yourself

As you face periods of uncertainty and change, don’t neglect or downplay your emotional reactions.  Although irrational and impulsive, they will often identify some underlying risk or unrealized opportunity.  Your gut is trying to tell you something.  When that happens, get curious.  In your curiosity, note what you are feeling and why.  Bréne Brown in her book Rising Strong, talks about writing out a SFD (“shitty first draft” - her words, not mine) to describe how you feel and why.  Reading that private description back, you can see more clearly the flawed logic and alarmism and focus on the facts you need to pay more attention to next.

3.       Listen to Others

Everyone has a different tolerance to change.  As vocal and unapologetic optimist, even I can tell you that there isn’t one approach that is best.  Because risk mitigation begins with risk identification, the most positive and fluid in your organization might not be the best at helping you face the future prepared.  Inspired, perhaps, but not fully prepared.  So, get the most conservative members of your team to envision the future.  Facing forward in this way, listen to their concerns.  Listen not to change their mind, but to pick their brains.  You’ll be better for it.

4.       Take Heart: It’s the People that Matter

We often talk about technology changing or evolving. At the most basic level, however that isn’t true.  One technology generation actually replaces or supplants another making the previous obsolete; this is especially true in the disruptive developments that shape industries and create tipping points.  From covered wagons to Uber.  From encyclopedias in the reference section of the library to the Internet.  The same is true of disruptive business models, market conditions that set new standards of performance, or even changing customer sentiment.  The generations of technology may play leap frog, but the people are the ones that make the mental jump.  Only people change with the circumstances and evolve.  And there we find our comfort and our challenge.  Because people, like us, have been proven to be highly irrational, cruel, and fear-driven.  And we have shown ourselves to be generous, adaptable, and capable of radical change.  How we show up in the midst of change at work depends a lot on the leadership and how we are given opportunity to listen to ourselves and others, permission to loosen our grip on the past and our stories around it, and how we take care of each other in the process of change, knowing that our relationships are the things that endure.

The future might not look like the scenes from the movies, but as we move through different time periods, circumstances, and use different technologies, the characters are the same. Biff Tannen, George McFly, and all the other characters in Back to the Future showed how circumstances can bring out the best (and worst) in our personalities.  Whether it was 1955, 1985, or 2015, the choices that we make are strikingly similar because we ourselves bring ourselves along for the ride.  So, when the credits roll, make sure you are the character that chooses to face the future facing forward.

This article was published on LinkedIn Pulse. 

Generation Gaps, Millennials, and the Future

I remember an interesting and impactful article I read in college in the Atlantic magazine about the different cultural norms in the generations in the U.S.  We have added a few more named generations to the progression since that article was written and got my attention.  The business world is in a tizzy about how to attract, retain, and motivate the famously free-spirited “millennial” generation as increasingly we are losing members of the “greatest generation” every day.  We wonder about the shift in our population, work forces, and voter ranks based on these changing demographics.

I heard Perry Hewitt from Harvard University talk recently about how some corporate cultural attributes like collaboration acted as “millennial nectar,” helping organizations attract new talent like colorful and fragrant flowers would attract bees and birds to a plant.  Conversely, an insistence on fixed job structures, long-term and slow-building career paths, and corporations that act too “corporate” act something like a millennial repellant.  I suppose each generation has their own nectar and repellant.

As part of the ill-defined “Generation X,” I am intrigued and puzzled by these generalizations.  I think each generation has faced its own impactful events and infrastructure.  Some things are consistent and many things have changed dramatically from generation to generation, leaving the “young people” of each generation to find their way.  A second world war, which came to US soil, demanded that the greatest generation develop a sense of duty and a fight for the common good and we wondered by in other times it wasn’t replicated by their children or grandchildren.  Today the world’s knowledge (and misinformation, as well) can fit in our pocket and we are puzzled when children raised with any answer only a click away, might feel impatient with corporate career paths and having to “pay their dues.” 

As I think of my own children, who have never known a world without the internet, cell phones, and on-demand entertainment, I am excited and curious what they will take for granted and the implications of this to their psyche and culture.

Solving the Whole Problem

Jennifer's blog Solving the Whole Problem was recently posted by the Technology Association of Oregon. 

5 Steps to Relevance

Animal Analogy

You have heard the expression “getting your ducks in a row.”  It refers to the desire to get things organized or aligned before taking some action.  I heard Seth Godin recently talk about “keeping frogs in a bowl.”  He was proposing that it was more accurate than getting ducks in a row, since for most of us, the things that we are hoping to align before taking action aren’t exactly in our control.  They are as unruly as trying to keep frogs in a bowl.  Most action doesn’t need to wait until ducks are in rows and don’t require all the frogs to be in the bowl. We need a new animal analogy.

What animal doesn’t wait for all the information but rather does what they know to do, as soon as they know to do it and figures the rest out in a process of failing forward and failing fast?  They are my new hero.

Maturity is Curation

With experience and expertise comes the ability to choose well.  To understand better the implications of choices that you make.  To see the full landscape when the forks in the road rise to meet us.  To pick that which suits our strengths, brings us joy, and optimizes our success.  To not worry about what others think of the choices we make, realizing that they are one of the few things in life that are truly our own.

The Secret to Being Fascinating

Pace Car: having one and being one

In the world of racing, there is something called a pace car.  It is out in front, setting the pace and demonstrating the angles to the curves of the course.  Especially in amateur racing or in educational driving experiences that people might do on race courses, the pace car is especially critical.

In our professional careers, we have pace cars as well.  Leaders at your company who mentor you in the ways of the business and model the pace of decision making.  Journalists, bloggers, authors, or TED talk speakers who are inspiring you with new ideas to propel you forward.  Admired business leaders about whom those authors write and who blaze new trails.

And in the other ways we are the pace car for others to follow.  We are setting the trajectory of the curve that will avoid risk and launch us into the straightaway. 

As a woman in a male-dominated industry, I have often had to be my own pace car.  I couldn’t look around and see mentors or role models that were helping me navigate or modeling things for me who were like me or who had blazed the trail in front of me.  From tactical issues like how to dress for a board meeting or larger issues like finding my unique position as a leader were left for me to figure out.   This is probably why I became a self-professed professional development junkie.  This is probably why I never had a job that wasn’t created for me to a large extent.  Why I wanted to work with and for smart and capable people (generally men) who would tell the truth and I have been blessed by their advocacy.  Why I feel a responsibility to mentor women at my company (and there are so many talented and capable women at Planar) and the industry (through groups like Women of InfoComm Network, Women in CE, and others). 

So, I have come to peace being the pace car.  It no longer fazes me.  In fact, I do some of my best work quickly and under pressure.  I don’t mind the visibility and attention that comes with that position.  I don’t fear failure as much as many do (which is both a blessing and a curse, let me assure you).  I highly value feedback from those who mean it for my good.  And I am constantly trying to improve my times and those who are following in my tracks.

We should be constantly asking ourselves, “who is your pace car?  How can you be a pace car to others?” and using the results of that question to drive to new results.

See you on the track!

It Takes as Much Energy to Wish as it Does to Plan

"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan." - Eleanor Roosevolt

Be an SME

A Subject Matter Expert (SME) is a person who has experience and capability in a certain field of study or discipline.  On major project teams, they are the ones who you can in to make sure that what you are proposing is technically feasible or won't break a current process or system.  Although in today's fast-paced, mobile, technology-drenched environment, people are rewarded for broad curiosities and interests, there is no substitute for deep expertise in an area.  So, as we begin this new week, I am challenged to think about the areas in which I am an SME and how I can go deeper to learn more to strengthen my value there and how I might make that expertise available to solve problems and create possibilities.

Quoted in "Bridging Analog And Digital"

Jennifer was recently quoted several times in Bridging Analog And Digital, an article by Shonan Noronha of Sound & Communications, regarding Planar’s Transparent OLED prototype.  Shonan viewed the T-OLED at InfoComm15 this year and published the article that provides an overview of digital displays that will be attractive to retail professionals and designers.