Are you my drummer or am I your singer? Seth Godin on the Stones

September 27th, 2011

I was caught by this post by Seth Godin.  Are you my drummer or am I your singer?  It’s all in the perspective.  Notice how the perspective dramatically shifts….

Keith Richards tells a great story about Charlie Watts, legendary drummer for the Stones.

After a night of drinking, Mick saw Charlie asleep and yelled, “Is that my drummer? Why don’t you get your arse down here?”

Richards continues, “Charlie got dressed in a Savile Row suit, tie, shoes, shaved, came down, grabbed him and went boom! Don’t ever call me “your drummer” again. You’re my … singer.”

No drums, no Stones.

Who’s playing the drums in your shop?

As a Carrot Life Lens™ do you nitpick or are you focused on fine details?  As a Mountain Life Lens™ is your head in the clouds or do you have your eye on the horizon focused on upcoming trends?

As a Stop Life Lensâ„¢ do you have ‘analysis paralysis’ or are you reflective and cautious?  As a Go Life Lensâ„¢ are you impulsive and reckless or do you spontaneously dive into opportunities?

As a Head Life Lens™ are blind to your intuition or are you focused on facts and figures?  As a Heart Life Lens™ are you blind to what the facts say or are you highly intuitive?

As a Journey Life Lensâ„¢ do you loose sight of where you’re headed or do you prioritize process?  As a Destination Life Lensâ„¢ do you loose sight of process or are you clear on your goals?

It’s a matter of perspective.  What’s yours?

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What frames your view? A Life Lensesâ„¢ take on provocative video

September 22nd, 2011

Is the video below funny, creative, rule breaking and subversive or a waste of time, waste of energy and sadly pathetic?

Depends on your view.  Depends on how you frame things.

A Carrot Life Lens™ appreciates the attention to detail.  A Mountain Life Lens™ likes the strategy.

A Destination Life Lens™ approves getting it done.  A Journey Life Lens™ is enjoying the moment.

A Heart Life Lensâ„¢ might wonder why he’s so disaffected.  A Head Life Lensâ„¢ things about what tasks he’s avoiding.

A Stop Life Lensâ„¢ may worry about getting caught.  A Go Life Lensâ„¢ says ‘give ‘er!’

What’s your view?  The frame around your view is powerful.  It affects the view.

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Barbie’s booty meets Ruby – an illuminating perspective from the Body Shop

September 20th, 2011

Meet Ruby – from an ad by the Body Shop.

Illuminating.  Thought provoking.  Colourful.  Educational.  Insightful.  Creative.

The ad was banned in the United States – Mattel, the makers of Barbie issued a cease and desist order.

From Anita Roddick’s former blog (founder of the Body Shop) – Their reason: Ruby was making Barbie look bad, presumably by mocking the plastic twig-like bestseller (Barbie dolls sell at a rate of two per second; it’s hard to see how our Ruby could have done any meaningful damage.) I was ecstatic that Mattel thought Ruby was insulting to Barbie — the idea of one inanimate piece of molded plastic hurting another’s feelings was absolutely mind-blowing.

It’s a great example of how perspective influences everything.

What’s yours?

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Bugs in the bathroom = the problem with Journey Life Lensesâ„¢

September 15th, 2011

I was doing my business in the bathroom the other day and happened to catch site of a small bug. (I’ve recently moved to Nairobi, Kenya where on top of luscious foliage, lots of bugs are a reality.)  It was doing a crazy dance – imagine the most frenetic two year old hopping around the room and multiply that by 10.  It went to, fro and then back to to and fro again.

I was getting dizzy just watching it.  It’s path looked something like the above diagram.  It started its frenetic dance at ‘A’ and ended at ‘B.’

And that’s the problem with Journey Life Lensesâ„¢ on a bad day.  If their point is to enjoy the scenery then all the more power to them.  Process, process and more process.  Journey Life Lenses’â„¢ strength is focusing on how things get done.

If however, the point is to get something accomplished on a deadline, then an extreme process focus of Journey Life Lensesâ„¢ can end up wasting a lot of space, time, energy and resources.

Sometimes a straight line between your start and your finish is a good thing.

If you’re a Journey Life Lensâ„¢ and you’re having a bad day, here are some tips:

  • make sure you know what you ultimately have to accomplish
  • know what your goal is, where you’re headed
  • avoid your tendency to work out the perfect process if you’re under a tight timeline
  • keep your eyes on your goal

If you work with a Journey Life Lensâ„¢ and they’re having a bad day, here are some tips:

  • help them focus on what they’re need to accomplish
  • help them identify their goal
  • they will prefer to work on the process (how something gets done), if they have a tight deadline, help them avoid spinning their wheels by only focusing on the process
  • keep their eyes on their goal

And Destination Life Lensesâ„¢ (Journey’s opposite), if you’re sitting there even slightly smugly, know that you too have your challenges.  We’ll get to those on another day.

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