Great Work

It often takes great work to get a good response, so imagine what average work gets you.

— Lee Clow’s Beard (@leeclowsbeard) January 20, 2014

Demands

In the end, getting what you demand always costs more than getting what you need.

— Lee Clow’s Beard (@leeclowsbeard) December 4, 2013

Talk Less, Do More

Discovered The Little Book of IDEO today and it led to a series of films created by various teams around the world to represent the company's culture and values. The above is one of my favorites and a philosophy I'm embracing this year. 

The Little Book of IDEO: Values from Tim Brown

Using Language to Shape a Creative Culture

IDEO's Tom Kelley and David Kelley in HBR:

IDEO’s favorite antidote to negative speech patterns is the phrase “How might we…?”  It was introduced to us by Charles Warren, now salesforce.com’s senior vice president of product design, as an op­timistic way of seeking out new possibilities in the world. In a matter of weeks, it went viral at our firm and it’s stuck ever since. In three disarmingly simple words, it captures much of our perspective on creative groups. The “how” suggests that improvement is always possible. The only question remain­ing is how we will find success. The word “might” temporarily lowers the bar a little. It allows us to consider wild or improbable ideas instead of self-editing from the very beginning, giving us more chance of a breakthrough. And the “we” establishes own­ership of the challenge, making it clear that not only will it be a group effort, but it will be our group. Anyone who has worked with IDEO in the past decade or participated in OpenIDEO’s social innovation challenges has undoubtedly heard the phrase.

This year, will you: create or consume?

Rands in Repose:

Turn off those notifications, turn your phone over, turn on your favorite music, stare at your blank slate and consider what you might build. In that moment of consideration, you’re making an important decision: create or consume? The things we’re giving to the future are feeling increasingly unintentional and irrelevant. They are half-considered thoughts of others. When you choose to create, you’re bucking the trend because you’re choosing to take the time to build.

The whole essay reminds me of a decision I made recently, I no longer talk about the personal projects I am working on. Talking about them can easily be confused with actually doing them. Now I only talk about them when doing so will enhance the work.