Useful Insight [2007]
Remember in the last newsletter I was talking about Nostalgia for Simpler Times and how it had become so widespread.
So I said words to the effect that this reflects a reaction against all the choice and complexity of 21st century life – because even though we really like it, it taxes our energy and time and attention. And I asked if you were part of the problem.
And I said I thought I had been.
So that’s fine. Interesting idea. We think about it for a minute and a half and consider what it might mean for the way we deal with clients or co-workers, then something else happens and we move on.
Maybe we could have re-designed the way we structure our products and services or our reporting requirements, but we didn’t. It might occur to us to do so at some relevant time in the future, but it probably won’t.
So what could I have done to make this insight usable for you?
First of all I’d have needed to embed it into your already over-taxed mental reservoir of ideas, values, conceptual frameworks, rules of thumb and to do lists. I’d have had to hook it onto something relevant and important so it would be there when you needed it.
Secondly I’d need to put it in context. Unless you're actually in the Nostalgia business, how important is it really? There's a lot of other trends out there. But because there's a lot of stuff happening , I'd need to have a very strong process for weeding out what matters and what doesn't.
In fact, considering some of the other symptoms of our fast-moving existence – like time scarcity, increasing transience and expanding horizons, to name just three,
I can see you’d be loath to enter into this messy chaos of trends and ideas unless you could be reasonably convinced you’d come out the other side with some kind of clarity and useful insight. So the weeding out process is crucial.
Thirdly, I’d have had to help generate true empathy with the people who are affected by the way you operate so you could intuitively recognise what would be most practically useful to them. Because without that we’d simply remain in the world of pretty ideas rather than practical realities.
Finally and most importantly, we'd need to shape these insights into workable ideas, smart concepts and intuitive processes that could be easily put into action and readily communicated to others.
The aim should be to make it so completely in sync with your own thinking you'd wonder why you hadn't already done it.
So that’s what I’ve done. I’ve create a thinking tool called Trajectories for businesses and organisations, which helps people develop opportunities in a more effective way. It takes you swiftly from the chaos of unlimited possibilities to the orderliness of well-formed action plans.
People who have been through the whole process say that Trajectories generates ideas that are just that much easier to put into practice and to communicate to others. And it contains its own future pathways so they can see where they’re going. They get really excited about it, even though it’s quite simple and intuitive.
It’s worked with owner-operated consultancy businesses and it’s worked with larger and more complex mid-sized businesses.
I haven’t done a big multi-national yet but when I do I’ll be looking to give them the same kind of oddly satisfying, highly integrated thinking experience that this process seems to generate.
This sounds like a bit of a sell I know, but I want to convince you to try this out. I’m looking for a few guinea pigs for the Phase Two development of the Trajectories tool so I can test its effectiveness in different situations and with different groups.
So, for more details or to register your interest in being part of the testing process, please click here to email me.
Cheers
Jill
P.S. And by the way, if you're interested in applying 8 Tribes to your business or organisation as a way of understanding what staff or customers think of you and want from you, can you let me know. My co-author Chris Brown and I are in the process of developing some useful tools that are almost ready to go. More next month.
P.S. Thanks to everyone who did the Resene questionnaire. It really helped.
Jill Caldwell is Director of Windshift Communications Ltd. Click Here to contact Jill directly This is a free monthly newsletter provided to direct subscribers and legitimate Windshift contacts only. No further use is made of subscriber information. [Copyright Windshift Communications Ltd 2006]
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". . . I can see you’d be loath to enter into this messy chaos of trends and ideas unless you could be reasonably convinced you’d come out the other side with some kind of clarity and useful insight."