Shadows of the Neanderthal - David Hutchens
illuminating the beliefs that limit our organizations
A story about cave people...about changing mindset... setting your mind free...
Finally wiping the tears from his eyes, Boogie looked up. He gasped.
This outside world was big-bigger than Boogie could ever have imagined.
Mental models are deeply held beliefs, images, and assumptions we hold about our world, ourselves, and our organizations, and how we fit in them.
The way we see the world affects our experience of the world. When the way we see the world changes, we can then change our actions and get very different results
Seven principles about mental models:
1. Everyone has mental models
2. Mental models determine
how and
what we see.
3. Mental models guide how we
think and
act.
4. They lead us to treat our inferences as facts.
5. They are always incomplete.
6. They influence the results we get, thereby reinforcing themselves.
7. They often outlive their usefulness.
We form mental models by climbing the Ladder of Inference:
1. We select "data" from the "pool" of observable data.
2. We add
meaning to the data we've selected.
3. We make
assumptions based on the meaning we construed.
4. We draw
conclusions from the assumptions.
5. We adopt
beliefs.
The Reflexive Loop reinforces our mental models:
6. Based on the conclusions and beliefs we reach at the "top" of the ladder, we take action.
7. We then get results, and those results influence what data we select in the future - thereby reinforcing our original mental model.
The indivisible grail by john simmons
In search of the true language of brands
Grail (in full Holy Grail) is an object of quest in medieval legend. The grail is supposed to be the chalice from which Christ drank at the Last Supper or the cup in which Joseph of Arimathea caught the blood of crucified Christ. It was believed that, if discovered, it would confer mystical benefits on the discovered. In the Arthurian cycle of legends it became a symbol of perfection sought by the Knights of the Round Table.
Starbucks founded by Howard Shultz and it's mythological associations with starbucks in
Moby Dick.
Quarter Pounder with Cheese -> metric system -> Royale with Cheese
Big Mac -> Le Big Mac
"Travel is only useful if you go open to the possibility of surrendering parts of what had formed you in exchange for the new perspectives offered by difference - if you go out of curiosity and respect. If you enter a place
on its own terms. But tourism is travel with its heart ripped out."
In the summer of 1998 when we had developed our first smoothie recipes but were still nervous about giving up our proper jobs, we bought $500 worth of fruit, turned it into smoothies and sold them from a stall at a little music festival in London. We put up a big sign saying 'Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?' and put out a bin saying 'YES' and a bin saying 'NO' and asked people to put the empty bottle in the right bin. At the end of teh weekend the 'YES' bin was full so we went in the next day and resigned.
-->
Lush is a brand which appeals first to your sense of smell, then to your sense of color , and then to your sense of humor.
A LUSH life
WE BELIEVE
...in making effective products out of fresh organic* fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics, without animal ingredients, and in writing the quantitative list on the outside.
we also believe in buying only from companies that test for safety without the involvement of animals and in testing our products on humans.
we believe in making our own fresh* products by hand, printing our own labels and making our own fragances.
we believe in long candlelit baths, massage, filling the house with perfume and in the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again.
we believe that our products should be good value, that we make a profit and that the customer is always right.
*we also believe words like fresh and organic have honest meaning beyong marketing
EGG owned by Prudential
new organization around the digital model
new business needed to appeal to people willing to experiment with a new kind of banking
"Fiction gives life to form." Jean Anouilh
Stories are the way we make sense of the world, and stories give meaning to brands.
"A story is a tightrope between two worlds." Jeanette Winterson
Storytelling provides that connection between two people, between teller and listener, writer and reader, individual and employee, brand and customer. There are many possible points of connection. The real power of a story is that it enables any number of different connections to be made.
This can be particularly crucial in a world where one of the worst possible mistakes is an obvious seperation between 'them and us', between the cold distancing of bureaucracy and the warm proximity of the personal.
A story must be exceptional enough to justify its telling.
Who drinks Guinness?
First, there were people who drank for reasons of fashion.
Secondly there were those who drank for oblivion.
And thirdly there were those for whom drinking was an important part of their life; a habit and a reward for effort.
'The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.' Marcel Proust
At the heart of any culture is the process by which we bring successive generations into a narrative, the story of which we are a part. There is, of course, not one story but many, but storytelling is the place where identity is found, it is the vehicle of community..(and humanity)
Stories tell us who we are, where we come from and what we might aspire to be. A culture is defined by its narratives. - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Good deeds of brand founders continue to provide narrative resonance through different generations.
Stories are at the heart of any culture, every system of belief. they are the way we share what we have in common. They are the way we understand another person's philosophy, to embrace it or reject it. They create links between people and they build bridges between different minds and different worlds.
'the two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.' samuel johnson
'Thou shalt not might reach the head but it takes Once upon a time to reach the heart' Philip Pullman
Captain Pinkney
In 1992 the Chicago native became the first African-American to sail solo around the world, only the fourth american in history to do so, taking the southern route around the five great capes, through waters considered to be the most dangerous on the globe.
In 1998 he embarked on a second trip, setting sail from the Caribbean on an historic voyage to retrace the "Middle Passage" slave trade routes used during the 18th and 19th centuries.
"Don't let anyone ever set your limitations,"he counseled. "Know what you dreams will cost and be willing to pay the price."
On June 9,1992, after two years at sea, the
Commitment docked again in Boston.
"Upon every face is written the record of the life the man has led; the prayers, the aspirations, the disappointments, all he hoped to be and was not - all are written there; nothing is hidden, nor indeed can be." Elbert Hubbard, philosopher
"When a man's fight begins within himself, he is worth something."
"A man's own self is his friend, a man's own self is his foe" Bhagavad-Gita
"Life is a grindstone, but whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends upon what you are made of." Robert E.Johnson
"You may not be responsible for getting knocked down, but you're certainly responsible for getting back up"
"Greatness can be captured in one word:
lifestyle. Life is God's gift to you, style is what you make of it." Mae Jemison, American first black female astronaut
"Morality and values begin at home..." Dr Poussaint
"The first real test of leadership, is maintenance of the family unit" Ann Fudge
The seven sins in the world
wealth without work;
pleasure without conscience;
knowledge without character;
commerce without morality;
science without humanity;
worship without sacrifice; and
politics withou principle. Mahatma Gandhi
Remember the times when you finger are grind again the rock during the YLTC in NJC and you set your goals to canoe round Singapore.
You dream and you achieve it not long after.
"Paradise is here, or nowhere. Happiness cannot be found in a bottle or a pill; it can only be discovered in that great spirit that rests deep within. Lord knows, if you can't find it in here, you sure ain't gonna find it out there." Lonise Bias
"Prosperity and a fulfilling life, lie within the realm of possibilities if we identify and apply the principle of success." W.Clement Stone
Starting on a book.. What makes the great GREAT by Dennis P.Kimbro
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minutes;
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it!
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;
BEGIN, and then the work will be completed.
