"GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE" ON PRODUCTIVITY!

I love this quote from  Dudley Lynch, President of Brain Technologies, a consulting outfit on accelerated self-growth, and author of 'Leap! How to Think Like a Dolphin & Do the Next Right, Smart Thing Come Hell or High Water', among others . He also happens to be one of my most favourite strategist authors:

"Give the team what it needs and trust their brains to figure it out."

It resonates with the fine quote from the late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Company:

"You cannot mandate productivity, you must provide the tools to let people become their best."

MAKING STRATEGIC CONNECTIONS

Just sharing an interesting excerpt from my presentation materials used during my heydays of strategy consulting and training development:

INNOVATION ON THE VERGE

This is a good example of innovation on the verge, which is described by author-filmmaker-futurist Joel Arthur Barker as "something and something different meet:

Here you see an industrial robot, built by Kuka Robotics (Germany), moving from a traditional sphere of activity, industrial automation, to another new and yet unrelated sphere of activity, in this case, entertainment ride.

ROBOCOASTER!

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

Here's a nice painting - better known as camouflage painting - of a winter scene of nature.

What do you see?

AN INSPIRING QUOTE FROM STEVE JOBS

This is my personal way of remembering the late Steve Jobs, one of the foremost strategic thinkers in our lifetime, by gathering all his inspiring quotes... here's one more to share from my personal collection:

“People think focus means saying yes to all of the things you’ve got to focus on.

But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the 100 other good ideas that there are.

You have to pick carefully.

I’m actually as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done.”

THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE: A LESSON IN STRATEGIC AGILITY

As I see this majestic lion in the picture, I am reminded of this harsh "Law of the Jungle", which goes like this:

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or gazelle. When the sun comes up, you'd better be running."

Transposed to the human domain, we just gotta be smart, quick and agile in today's workplace, in order to stay on the top of the game.

Readers may recall the global advertising slogan in the popular Timberland sportswear stores several years ago: 

"IF YOU ARE NOT FAST, YOU ARE LUNCH!"

EXPLORING THE FUTURE WITH LIFESCAPING

One of my most favourite quotes about the future:

"No matter how much you study the future, it will always surprise you. But you don't have to be dumbfounded."

~ Kenneth Boulding (1910 – 1993), economist, educator, peace activist, poet, religious mystic, systems scientist, and interdisciplinary philosopher;

As I interpret it, it doesn't have to stun us into inaction. We can take massive and consistent action to explore the future.

Strategic tools and strategies like environmental scanning, context mapping, graphic history, SPOT matrix, implications analysis, vulnerability audit, strategic visioning, life-scaping or future-scaping are extremely useful in helping us to understand what's going on around us and what we can do to move forward into the future.

All we need is a sense of wonder and a sense of discovery.

[The following life-scaping graphics are the handiwork of my good buddy, Dilip Mukerjea, in Mumbai, India.]