5 Fingers or 1 Hand

Which is bigger, 5 or 1? It is a simple question. Alright, here is a more contextual question - do you have 5 fingers or 1 hand? Is your answer so simple now?

Without the example being a hand and fingers, it might be and it might seem impossible to have something that represents both 5 and 1. Well...it is possible.

Either way you look at it. Either way you answer it. It is still the same thing. It is all things beyond the end of your wrist. It is 5 and 1 at the same time.  This is the dangerous art of definition, category, and counting magic.

I often hear the phrases, "that seems like a lot" or "feels like there should be more." And yes, sometimes fewer just seems better. Sometimes more just seems better. But, make no mistake, however the volume of something seems or makes you feel, don't let how items are defined, categorized, and counted fool you.

Changing how you categorize something does not change the substance or volume of what it is. Changing how you define and decide how to count something does not change the substance or volume of what it is. Be careful out there.

Thanks for reading this 1 blog post - I mean these 241 words - wait, I meant these 1,285 characters.
5 is more than 1, right? Well, not always - it might very well be the same thing.

Know Thyself - On the Oregon Trail

Just in case you have no idea what the Oregon Trail is, I shall explain. The player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Missouri to Oregon in 1848. This was a computer game produced in 1974 that was designed to teach school children about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail.

Oh but, the Oregon Trail is much much more than just a game about pioneering life. It is a personality test, a seer that can look into the heart and the mind. The game knows all. Who do you really care about? Are you a risk taker? Hunting? Ammo? Meat? Disease?!

As you start off, you are allowed to choose what kind of person you are (not a trivial question) - a banker, a carpenter, etc? Buy supplies - what is important to bring?

You select who will come with you. You must choose their names. Will it be your best friend? That girl you like? Who will you not take with you...?

As you journey along, you are asked to make decisions that could put your companions at risk - and through these decisions your companions might fall sick or die. Will you hunt for food? Will you risk fording the river to save time, risking drowning and losing supplies?

These selections and decisions are what constitutes the strategy behind the game and make up the personal analysis of the one playing.

Forget personality tests and the science of introspection, this all you need to know about someone. How do they traverse the Oregon Trail. How would you?

That you guy you liked made it but alas, you did not. It is the Oregon Trail, after all.

If you'd like to give it a try - and find out who you really are - please, hitch your wagon here.

Move Over Humans - You Learn Too Slowly

Recently, I had the privilege of sitting in on fiery but, intellectual discussion among a few very smart cookies. This discussion centered around the topic of AI and how it relates to machines, specifically autonomous vehicles (ie self-driving cars). The intellectual credit for this specific nugget of insight I must give to Professor Edward Lee of UC Berkeley, as he shared with the group at this meeting of the minds I had a chance to witness.

You probably are assuming I'm about to launch into some technical fun facts and sci-fi fanaticism of a not-so-distance future - sorry, that's just not so. Instead, this not-so-distant future thought will focus on learning.

For all of you that have kids or were a kid (that's everyone reading this, just to be clear), you all probably attempted to touch something hot, at one point - a candle flame, a hot pan, etc.

Immediately after touching that candle flame you learned that you probably shouldn't do that again. We all learned that. We all learned that at different times. Right now, there's a child somewhere in the world learning that fire-is-hot lesson. That's natural. That's how humans learn. But, human learning isn't #1 in the world of wisdom gathering. Not anymore.

What if, when the first child touched that flame, all children learned this lesson simultaneously, and all children born after altered their behavior accordingly? Simultaneous and shared lessons-learned. This is an ideal state of how machines can learn. This is not a human-style version of learning, this is a new type of learning.

Let's make it more serious - if a self-driving car experiences something never before seen and an accident occurs, it learns from that. However, it is not just one car learning, it is all cars learning. Preventing this accident-causing scenario from ever happening again. Yes, yes, of course, sharing of data, across vehicles, etc. is a factor but, the point is sound. Point being that this is a very different way to think about learning and development. Not human learning but, simultaneous learning. Sharing lessons-learned in real time and forever after - moving on to the next lesson and to next.

To some of you, you might have learned this long ago but, I just found out. Share this with people - so we all can learn - just not at the same time....

Hey, Grown-Up! Think Like A Kid.

On a few occasions, I've been asked how I go about being creative. What process do I use, etc. Now, I'm not the most creative person around but, I do enjoy diving into any form of creative ideation. In my definition, creativity is thinking beyond the world around you.

There is a group of people that I can very confidently say, is the most creative group I've ever had the experience of interacting with. No, this is not a design thinking group. This group is called "children." OK, hold on a second. I know, "children are creative" is not a new and novel observation. But, why? Why are children so creative?

Psychology and neuroscience aside, here are my beliefs on why children are inherently creative:

• They just don't care what anyone thinks about their idea 
• They think they are the first person to ever think of it
• They aren't concerned with the differences between reality and fantasy

With this in mind, my answer and my process to how to best go about thinking creatively, is to think like a kid. Perhaps easier said than done but, there are ways to pry your grown-up cap off and put your kid-cap on. Here are a few tips:

1. Read and/or watch pure fiction - put the HBR down and immerse yourself in make-believe
2. Question everything - ask why over and over again 
3. Believe anything is possible - truly anything

Something I like to say related to creativity and ideation is that it is much easier to start in the world of fantasy and make your way back to reality than it is to go in the opposite direction.

Try it out next time you get stuck and can't think beyond what is in front of you. Or, just ask the nearest kid.

Halloween III: Marketing Used for Evil

So if you have not seen Halloween III: Season of the Witch, you are seriously missing out. Now, I'm not here to give a movie review rather, to explain the evil plot and premise of what I believe is the only Halloween horror movie where the entire evil plan rests on a solid marketing strategy and precise execution.

Follow me here...

1. An evil company, "Silver Shamrock" makes Halloween masks...(those masks turn your brain into insects if you sit in front of your TV and watch a "special" broadcast).
2. This special, killer broadcast is called (and marketed as) "the big Halloween night give-away" - messaged and disguised as a prize.
3. Masks are marketed and sold - TV Ad spots countdown to the "big give-away" compelling kids to get the masks in time for Halloween - "don't miss it!"  
4. I'm seriously not making this up.
5. These Ad spots seem to run on every channel - 24/7
6. Print ads, people in cars with megaphones (old school social media) all compel kids to get those masks in time for "the big give away" - peer pressure tactics are heavy.
7. Evil company sits back and waits for the "big give away" event to complete the horrible plan.

Let's pause for a second....let's get this straight:

• If kids do not know of the masks and hence, no demand, the entire plan fails.
• If kids do not buy the masks in time for "the big give away," the entire plan fails.
• If kids do not watch the TV during the exact time planned and allotted for the "big give away," the entire plan fails.

No pressure to hit your objectives...

Let's also note that the mastermind behind this sinister plan is expecting to reach ALL children. That sure is an aggressive target market to reach. 

Now, I won't ruin the ending for you and, even if classic, campy Halloween horror isn't your thing, at least check out the Silver Shamrock ad (video below), and try to get the tune out of your head, if you dare. 

Let's be safe our there. Don't use your marketing skills for evil.

Oh, and be sure to wear your mask. Happy Halloween!

The Emoji Scorecard

Red, yellow, green. A down arrow. An up arrow. That pretty much sums up the business-as-usual list of ways in which we visually describe metrics, KPIs, targets, etc on our business scorecards.

We have all seen these charts. These scorecards that look like a traffic light convention. The issue with these arrows and these colors is that they do still require an enormous amount of context.

What does yellow mean? If an arrow is up but, the color is red, is that good or bad? So...what if we try something new?

In our personal lives, it is now common and acceptable for us to use all sorts of emojis that span the incredible spectrum of human facial expressions, emotions, etc. A quick emoji response is all we need to know and, in many cases, says a 1,000 words.  It adds the appropriate context to any statement. I don't see why we can't use these in our professional lives now too. Instead of "yellow", we might see a kind of worried but not worried furrowed brown face.

Go head, give it a try, if only for fun. The emoji dashboard is surprisingly informative. Yes, I know this blog post isn't too serious. Therefore, I think I will score it as.......

The Playbook is Not the Game Plan

As we are now head first into football season, there is no shortage of coach interviews, sports talk shows, polls, etc that question, analyze, and criticize the game plan. The game plan is essentially defined and discussed as the strategy to be used against the opponent to win the game. Will they focus on running the ball or is a more balanced run/pass approach the answer? Will they pay closer attention to time and clock management this time? The answers to these type of questions make up the game plan.

As a complement to the game plan, we have the playbook. The playbook is not the game plan. The playbook is the compilation of specific plays that you can/will/should execute based on your game plan. Outside of football, and in the marketing world, the game plan is the strategy and the playbook is the compilation of potential marketing tactics. Just how a playbook without a game plan makes for an unaligned assortment of plays, marketing tactics without a strategy represents the same random assortment.

It is almost certain that each sports analyst, avid fan, and sports talk show host would think it just plain crazy to run plays without any game plan in mind. The same perspective should go when even considering executing a random assortment of marketing tactics with no strategy. You won't win.

So before you yell at your TV this weekend, "why would they run that play?" just then ask yourself if you actually know the game plan. Before you question the tactics, I hope you first know the strategy.

It's time for kickoff.