After watching this video I’ve been fascinated by Behavioral Economics. Is it really possible to increase your revenues by 42% by merely changing how you offer your products to your customer? Watch the segment on the Economist Offer – if you do the math his research showed a 42% increase in revenues by adding a meaningless option to the pricing strategy. I’d love to hear about your own experiences with this concept.
R. Buckminster Fuller was perhaps one of the greatest people of the 20th century. He’s best known for being a visionary, designer, architect, author and inventor.Fuller died in 1983 at the age of 87. On his gravestone is inscribed “Call me Trimtab”.
Bucky frequently used the phrase as a metaphor for leadership and personal empowerment. In a 1972 article Bucky said, “Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary — the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trimtab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go.”
Bucky’s life long accomplishments speak for themselves – he wrote over 20 books, held 28 US Patents, and began a movement that is alive and well today. When ever I start to feel like stuck and I’m not making a difference, I remind myself of this phrase and the man who changed the world.
In Ithaca We Trust. If this is not a clear message of how confident we are, I don’t know what is. Ithaca Hours is a local currency system that promotes local economic strength and community self-reliance in ways to support economic and social justice, ecology, community participation and human aspirations in and around Ithaca, New York.
Ithaca Hours helps to keep money local, thus building the Ithaca economy. It also builds community pride and connections. Over 900 participants publicly accept Ithaca HOURS for goods and services. Additionally, some local employers and employees have agreed to pay or receive partial wages in Ithaca Hours, further continuing their goal of keeping money local.
I met another person who many of you may know — Simon Sinek — who also has his own currency. Simon issues Tokens of Inspiration to people who inspire him or others. I keep my token in my pocket to remind me that there are better ways to measure success than how much money we have in our wallets. What keeps crossing my mind is that fact that, now more than ever, get the opportunity to build a society the way we want…all it takes is creativity combined with thought. I imagine that we will see a lot more people exchanging new types of currency in the future.
So much of what we hear today is focused on negative banter about what’s happened, who’s to blame, etc. Maybe we need to spend more time talking and thinking about what is possible.
We are beings driven by our conscious and sub-conscious minds. Our behaviors are directly linked to our thoughts. We control more than we realize.
I’ve been a huge fan of R. Buckminster Fuller for many years. In his first book “Nine Chains to the Moon” Fuller coined the term ephemeralization – which refers to the ability of people to use technology advances to continuously do more with less. His vision was that ephemeralization will result in an ever-increasing standard of living for an ever-growing population despite finite resources.
Here’s a simple illustration of this idea. In 1520 Magellan spent 2 years sailing in a wooden boat around the globe. 350 years later steam ships could navigate the earth in just 2 months time. 75 years later an airplane, made of alloys, took 2 weeks to fly around the world. 35 years later a space capsule, made from exotic alloys, needed one hour to circle the earth. The rate of advancement is increasing at an exponential rate.
How has ephemeralization affected what is possible? Talking and thinking about what is possible starts with you, and it starts with me. We define how and what we can do to make our world different. Maybe it’s simply spending 1 hour a day thinking about what’s possible for your life, dreaming of what will make your life better for you, your family, and your fellow humans without any limitations. I do know that we cannot turn back time and change the place we find ourselves living in today. We’re being carried to the doorstep of “necessity” – as it becomes increasingly clear that our past and current ways of dealing with our crisis won’t yield the desired results. Today we have the opportunity to elevate our culture, our society, and ourselves beyond our primal urges. We can exchange greed and fear for collaboration and acceptance. And, we do this simply by our actions right now. Perhaps a starting place would be to think about one small thing you can do today – now — that will begin to make your dream a reality. Inaction is our only means of failure.
The news for US automakers didn’t get any better this past month. GM reported January 2008 car sales plunged 51% compared to last year, Chrysler down 55%, and even the darling Toyota down 32%.
Yet, there was one car maker who reported an increase in sales for January. Let me say that again. There was a car maker who reported an increase in car sales for January. Hyundai posted an impressive 14% increase over last year’s sales. How did they do it? It’s simple. They listened to the customer and were willing to step up and deliver value to their customers. 
In a bold move, Hyundai announced their Assurance Program for new car buyers. They are the first automaker in the U.S. to offer a return program that allows you to walk away from your loan or lease without having to worry about negative equity. It lets you return your vehicle in case of certain life-altering circumstances. In other words — they are simply saying “we’ve got your back, customer.”
This is an excellent example of a win-win strategy. Gone are the days where it’s me or them. Now, welcome the days where success will be measured differently – success will be measured by the ability of companies to develop innovative strategies that will garner market share and loyalty. I wonder how much impact this program had on their customers’ psyches and the long-term loyalty they earned.
Of course the remaining automakers will play follow the leader — you can count on that. But, Hyundai gets the credit for being the one who first stepped up and delivered for the customer.
For all entrepreneurs, this is an important lesson. There is growth for companies who find ways to add value, and address the concerns of your customers. Innovative thinking does get rewarded!
If a picture is worth a thousand words -- what’s a video worth? I’ve been a big, big fan of visual thinking for some time now. Simply put -- visual thinking is communicating information with pictures, symbols and graphics. I first learned about the importance of visual systems when I started to dive into my Lean journey. Check out the video below. It’s a perfect example of how to use pictures, symbols and graphics to effectively communicate complex ideas and information.
Here are the top reasons why I LOVE visual systems and thinking (in no particular order):
1. Sometimes it’s easier to show a picture than find the right word.
2. We process the majority of information through our eyes.
3. Graphics cross over cultural and language barriers.
4. Visual thinking uses more of your right brain which has a higher propensity for addressing complexity and ambiguity.
5. Creativity is a right brain activity.
6. Using pictures and combining symbols, you can communicate 4x more information.
7. People respond better to pictures than to text or data -- why else would facebook have such a focus on photos?
8. All of our innovations are created in our mind’s eye (hello, visual too).
9. Using visual thinking you can easily break problems down into the 6 W’s (who/what/how much/where/when/how/and why) by using pictures.
10. All you need is a pen, paper and your brain to make it work.
If you haven’t read it yet -- go today and pick up The Back of the Napkin. It’s one of my top 5 books in the past year -- it will change how you communicate. Dan Roam - if you see this, I want to meet you! Get it? See this? I like funny too.
According to Wikipedia, there are some 480 million Monopoly players worldwide making it the most played board game in the world (Guinness Book of World Records). The recent global financial crisis makes me wonder what games like Monopoly are teaching us. Greed? Win-lose? Having been played billions of times, it’s having some influence on our behaviors and our beliefs.
Maybe it’s time time to play a different kind of game. Here’s one - Games With a Purpose (GWAP) . A game that’s fun to play, where everyone can win (I thought it was that everyone wins.) and that serves a purpose. Why isn’t there a “popular
Over the past 15 years, I’ve been interested in better understanding which business practices are most important to maintain organizational health and which will result in a higher level of success. In late 2007, I conducted a study among US businesses (across all industries) that identified seven key areas of the operation that were most closely tied to success.
Here is what I learned:
1. Setting and Selling Your Vision
Organizations who have effectively developed a clear core vision or purpose, and, who effectively communicate it to employees, customers and partners, are more likely to experience higher levels of success. These organizations also tie their “vision