Seven Principles of Convergence (pt. 2)

1. Think at the inter-section, not outside the box - The inter-section is 21st century. Wandering outside the box is not. The RealWorld (the first 3/4 seasons) Netscape, Gameboy, and the creation of the DVD were incredible 'outside the box' ideas. But companies like Apple, Ebay, and Innocentive and ideas like design thinking, crowdsourcing, and social media (to name a small handful of examples) are the next stage of innovation and these are companies and ideas at the inter-section - where convergence happens.

2. Recognize the patterns by identifying the trends - When you see, recognize and understand patterns that means that you've looked at and compared trends across industries and you are recognizing the shift from a different vantage point. You don't just see the individual trends in fashion, trends in financing or trends in philanthropy you see the shift in people and their behavior across the board, on the macro level. You're observing the change in behavior with respect to people, their ideas and how that plays out in multiple arenas.

3. Understand the whole by knowing the parts - Right now, for numerous reasons, people and their technological, professional, social and natural environments are moving towards being inter-connected. The day is already here where the distinction between one and the other is becoming hard to tell. So in order to truly create viable ideas for today you have to know, understand and embrace holistic thinking as the approach to dealing with business and socio-cultural challenges. This perspective is the future.  Anything else is not.

4. Ask excellent questions the right way - In order to get to the crux of a problem that ultimately allows you to arrive at the needed solution, asking the right question is essential.  Yet often, many people aren't doing that. Example: wrong question - Should I be using social media?  Right question - What is the value of social media in terms of the business that I am pushing forward?

5. Create scenarios that are "both-and" not "either-or" - In today's market completely discarding the 'old' and only embracing the 'new' is a bad idea. Additionally the whole notion of a zero sum game is not valuable and will only limit your creative capacity. Taking the approach that you don't have to make a choice by eliminating something allows new and incredible possibilities. 

6. Be creative in your thinking, disciplined in your action - This one is almost self-explanatory.  You can have 1,001 creative, cool, hot, gamechanging ideas, but if you don't know how to execute, your ingenuousness is pointless.  An incredible idea with no follow-thru is like a kitchen full of new groceries with no refrigerator - a waste.

7. When on the verge, persist and surrender - There are times when you are learning, growing, and pushing yourself into new personal and professional boundaries. It may be scary because its new to you and its unchartered waters but keep going.  Be persistent. Push through for that new breakthrough, that new project, that new possibility - but don't push so hard that you don't take time to see if what you're doing makes sense - at this moment, surrender. Give up your drive (temporarily) to get feedback, see if what you are doing has value (to yourself and others). Then determine what changes need to be made (if any). Then once again, persist. And the cycle begins all over again.

Seven Principles of Convergence

Convergence has been an idea that I have been developing for some time now (you can see past posts on this particular idea here, here and here). And just this year I have been able to really push it like I've wanted to.

So on the 23rd of this month at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University I will be presenting Washington DC's first and only Convergence mini conference. For numerous reasons I am both excited and nervous. As a part of the night's presentation I will be discussing what this whole idea is about (the 7 principles of Convergence). For those who may not be familiar with Convergence, it is a framework for developing new strategies in building brands and business models for the 21st century. If you take trends within business, culture and technology and merge them in new combinations, you create opportunities for remarkable products, services and experiences. The goal is to fuse creativity and the commercial world into sustainable enterprises.

This framework consists of seven principles:

1. Think at the inter-section, not outside the box
2. Recognize the patterns by identifying the trends
3. Understand the whole by knowing the parts
4. Ask excellent questions the right way
5. Create scenarios that are "both-and" not "either-or"
6. Be creative in your thinking, disciplined in your action
7. When on the verge, persist and surrender

Over the next few days I'll be discussing the principles in detail.

When people gather. . .

 . . .something magical happens.

Now I'm not sure exactly what the young lady above is doing (the robot, maybe. . .not sure though) but from the looks of the crowd, they are enjoying themselves and having a good time. Imagine you have your iPhone or Blackberry and you twitter: watching a dancing girl get down in a crowd. . .now receiving that twitter message and then actually being there is like night and day. The two will never compare.

The actual live engagement with other people. . .technology will never replace.

Just the other night I attended my good friend Michelle James' monthly Capitol Creativity Network event in which she featured leadership guru Seth Kahan.  It was an incredible night where discussions about the future of leadership, communication and technology went into new and uncharted waters. VERY exciting stuff.  The ideas that the group shared and the stories communicated could only happen in a gathering where people were actually connecting face to face.

MySpace, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and all the rest are great. They are still just tools, and tools change over time. The telegraph and the typewriter came and went - just as all tools do. So at the end of the day you should be asking yourself - what is it that I'm doing?  What is my brand about? Is it about tools or is it about an idea that people can get behind, demand more of or rave about to their friends?

Now if you can get your idea and the tools to work in concert so the end results is a scene like the one above, then I think you're definitely onto something.  And even if your idea or business isn't about gathering people, but your audience has the same look on their faces or the same kind of enthusiasm (for your product or service) then pat yourself on the back, you're doing things right!

Crazy Sexy Cancer

In one of my previous posts I discussed 10 absolutely necessary brand considerations that should be on your plate. Number three was, have you got your rebel jeans on? I then went on to explain that brands impacting the market in remarkable ways do not follow the rules. Often you have to buck the system to make extraordinary breakthroughs.

Kris Carr has her rebel jeans on. . .

When you decide to bring an idea to life is it embracing new market realities where the focus is on more thant just profits and shareholder value?

Does it have meaning or speak to our life's instincts? Will it make a positive impact on people?  Does it have the potential to change the world?

I've got a secret for you

Unhandcuff yourself from irrelavant marketing ideas and pay close attention.

Seth (Godin) has two words for you:

First, ten.

Now its a secret, but I can't tell you who to tell and not tell (most people won't get it anyways). So I'll just leave it up to your discretion.

Ok, Seth the floor is yours. . .

Find ten people. Ten people who trust you/respect you/need you/listen to you...

Those ten people need what you have to sell, or want it. And if they love it, you win. If they love it, they'll each find you ten more people (or a hundred or a thousand or, perhaps, just three). Repeat.

If they don't love it, you need a new product. Start over.

Your idea spreads. Your business grows. Not as fast as you want, but faster than you could ever imagine.

This approach changes the posture and timing of everything you do.

You can no longer market to the anonymous masses. They're not anonymous and they're not masses. You can only market to people who are willing participants. Like this group of ten.

The timing means that the idea of a 'launch' and press releases and the big unveiling is nuts. Instead, plan on the gradual build that turns into a tidal wave. Organize for it and spend money appropriately. The fact is, the curve of money spent (big hump, then it tails off) is precisely backwards to what you actually need.

Three years from now, this advice will be so common as to be boring. Today, it's almost certainly the opposite of what you're doing.

                                                                                         Image courtesy of Ann Nathan Gallery