Good Morning Thinkers!

Does Choice Make Us Happy?

How many varieties of toothpaste are there? 44? 72? 257?

Whatever the number, it's more than any of us will ever try in our lifetimes. Have you ever had that little niggling thought that you should try a new toothpaste ... maybe one with whiteners? or baking soda because it tastes so bad it's bound to be good for you? or maybe one of those swirly ones that give you two-in-one something or others? If so, you may be falling victim to the Choice Syndrome.

In an article by Barry Schwartz in the April, 2004 issue of "Scientific American," the author states that more choices may make some of us less happy rather than more. The problem is that more choices make the decision more difficult ... and leaves more options unexplored. For a certain type of person (termed a "maximizer -- those who always aim to make the best possible choice), the proliferation of options elevates the level of frustration and stress. "Satisficers" (those who aim for good enough), on the other hand, do not seem as stressed by over-abundance of variety.

To determine whether you are a maximizer or a satisficer ...

Querencia

Information changes
Skills obsolesce
Technology morphs
People move
And the world turns.

What is bedrock?
What merely shifting sand?
Where is our querencia,
Our home place of safety?

Every year I pick a word to be my touchstone for the year. This year an unfamiliar word entered my consciousness and snuggled into that place of focus. Querencia, unfamiliar to me (but which yields 57,000 google hits), comes from the Spanish bullring. When the bull stops for a moment and finds querencia -- his place of safety -- he becomes truly powerful and dangerous. This is the moment he gives
up fear.

This morning as I was thinking about our ever-changing world, I thought about our own querencia. What is that place of safety for each of us, that place that gives us power in the face of adversity, that place that takes away fear? I thought this might be an interesting question for the week. What is your place of querencia? Please add your comments below.

More on Querencia -- a song by John Flynn

Blog Survey Results

Thanks to everyone who responded to the blog survey. Here are the highlights of the results:

Responses: 44
People currently blogging – 25%
Why are they blogging:

1. As a way of expressing opinions and connecting to others who share opinions or have interesting perspectives.
2. Learning
3. Community building

Reasons for not blogging:

1. No time
2. No reason to.

People reading blogs – 63%, most reading 3-5 blogs sporadically
Future of Blogging: Over half of the responders indicated that they would start a blog if they had a reason and it was easy.
Blog recommendations:
Good Morning Thinkers
Heads-Up!
IdeaFlow
Innovation Tools
How to Save the World – lots of stuff on business innovation
Pure Content
MetaFilter – an example of an open blog
BoingBoing – outrageous opinions and other “wonderful” things
The Occupational Adventure – food for thought about your job
Horizons Unlimited – want to ride a motorcycle around the world? Read this blog first.
Bisnow on Business – a ton of business related info

Blogs are more than blogs

Chances are good that by now you are either a blogger yourself or a reader of blogs.

I was suprised to find out that blogs started showing up in 1998. By 1999 there were 23 known blogs; today estimates run in the 4-5 million range. In 2002 Wired stated that blogging was to words what napster was to music. Fortunately there wasn’t an icy hand of restraint to staunch the flow of blogging words and they continue to proliferate like tribbles. Blogs tend to live in the fuzzy world somewhere between journalism, talk radio and a voyeuristic webcam. They have an immediacy and personal touch that makes them engaging and many bloggers also invite comments which leads to a community atmosphere.

Read more about why and how to blog ...

Wellington: Film Center of the Universe

This piece comes from an article by Richard Florida. There is a political tone to the article but it is important to think about how our political environment impacts our ability to innovate. The following story about Peter Jackson's film studio in New Zealand is just one example of the shift happening in the world. Richard Florida is the Heinz professor of economic development at Carnegie Mellon University and the author of The Rise of the Creative Class.

From Richard Florida:

Last March, I had the opportunity to meet Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, at his film complex in lush, green, otherworldly-looking Wellington, New Zealand. Jackson has done something unlikely in Wellington, an exciting, cosmopolitan city of 900,000, but not one previously considered a world cultural capital. He has built a permanent facility there, perhaps the world's most sophisticated filmmaking complex. He did it in New Zealand concertedly and by design. Jackson, a Wellington native, realized what many American cities discovered during the '90s: Paradigm-busting creative industries could single-handedly change the ways cities flourish and drive dynamic, widespread economic change. It took Jackson and his partners a while to raise the resources, but they purchased an abandoned paint factory that, in a singular example of adaptive reuse, emerged as the studio responsible for the most breathtaking trilogy of films ever made. He realized, he told me, that with the allure of the Rings trilogy, he could attract a diversely creative array of talent from all over the world to New Zealand; the best cinematographers, costume designers, sound technicians, computer graphic artists, model builders, editors, and animators.

For a great insight about why Peter Jackson has succeeded, keep reading.

Heart of Change

"Change the environment, not the person. "
-- Inventor-philosopher Buckminster Fuller

"Every corporate giant says it wants to change.
Few can do it.
Every young company starts out as a natural force for change.
Few can sustain it.
Every organization has people who think they can be agents of
change.
Few can survive it."
-- Charles Fishman, Fast Company magazine,
April-May, 1997 "Change"

I love it when authors spell out their most important message right up front. In John Kotter's book "The Heart of Change," he puts it on page 1 -- here's what he states:

"People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings."

In talking about organizational change, he emphasizes that the central challenge is changing people's behavior and the way to change behavior is to "influence their feelings." "The heart of change," he continues, "is in the emotions."

So, how do you show a truth? And, what is truth? I thought this topic might stimulate some conversation. Think about change initiatives in your organization. What have you done, or seen done, that was effective in getting people to change their behaviors? Do you agree with the author's point about the value of showing truth over providing analysis? What does that say about the value of facts and factual analysis? And how does Buckminster Fuller's quote fit into this mix?

Please add your thoughts in the comments section below.

Buy the book here.