Stumping Goes Green

I thought this was a creative and green way to make campaign buttons. Kudos to Councillor Joanna McCallum for her creativity! Who would not want to sport one of these babies!

Quotable Quotes from (not so) Ordinary Folks

I've had enough of hackneyed quotes from famous people. 

Einstein's once novel quote,“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them” may be true, but I'm sick of it! 
Cited over and over again in order to herd groups toward innovative or design-thinking, it's a taser with dead batteries.

As an antidote, maybe even an inoculation against group-think, can't we draw insights from people alive and working alongside us today? I offer a small sample from recent experience:

Freshly home from back-to-back business trips in Las Vegas (really it was business) with some fun, wildly smart clients, and  Vancouver for a conference, I received an email from  design genius John Tong. The founder of +tongtong and his wife, Anne, had just returned from Milan. "Being able to mix business with pleasure is one of the secrets to living well." His quote summarizes precisely what I'd experienced during my two recent trips. 

While exploring key factors in identifying niche markets with a client, I'd posted into our collection of yellow stickies one which read "intuition". As I did, the man who'd made the suggestion earlier blurted, "Intuition? I didn't think that was allowed!"  Mike Smith, the President and founder of ReadySmith Advisers, summarized cultural bias in that moment.

The topic of intuition spiced many conversations throughout Vancouver's Corporate State event. The event is attended by powerful women in business. Kicking off the event, keynoter Sherry Cooper, the former Chief Economist with BMO Nesbitt Burns, balanced her data-filled financial forecast of the U.S. and Canadian economies with, "I trust my intuition in forecasting." 

In her opening remarks on the Auction Economy, innovation expert Karen Morris said, "My intuition is beating in my breast." Pure poetry. Later in that same discussion Karen noted, "Values and Innovation are inextricable tied." She illustrated how using a reference to John Donne's brilliant 16th century poem Valediction Forbidding Mourning, "If they be two, they are two so, as stiff twin compasses are two; thy soul, the fixt foot, makes no show to move, but doth if th'other do." Now that's a quote I never tire of but used to describe business relationships--that's new.

Of our obssession with discounted goods and services resulting in RFPs awarded to lowest bidder regardless of quality or ability to deliver, Karen asked, "What is the right price for the wrong thing?" Nudging Canadian businesses to innovate she prodded, "All businesses need to be asking 'How can I change what, how and by whom I am paid?'" Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

Who was it who said, "Insanity is doing the same things over and over again expecting different results"? Oh yeah, Einstein. Let's take the dude's advice and  sample the sayings of today's brainiacs. Go ahead, I dare you to float an original quote to see what can happen. 

Or as Evelyn Bailey, Vice President of Software with IBM said, "My job is to break glass and not accept business as usual."

Pushpins = Ideas

Yesterday it struck me that push-pins are like ideas. They are only useful when deployed. If they aren't doing the heavy-lifting, they just take up space.

Animated imagination

I am looking forward  to baby sitting tonight! There's nothing I like more than coming up with fun things to do, and stories to create.

I was thinking I'd buy a pulley and some rope and we'd try sending favourite toys, stuffies, and dolls through space on their own zip line. Of course, the temptation is there for us to make one for ourselves, but since we'll be playing inside, we'll have to use our inside imaginations.

What I'm aching to try is to make an animation like Ms. Beveridge has in her incredible video. Maybe we'll be inspired by one of the stuffies to animate his/her likeness on a bike tire...such anticipation my day will fly by!

Comfort Food

I recently moved into a new place with a GREAT kitchen. It's moved me to cook. My friend Vicki called me and we were talking about chicken pot pies. I was inspired. Only thing, I had no wheat flour, butter or lard for the crust, and no milk or cream for the sauce.

Instead I used some homemade Boursin (soft cheese) for the fat mixed with rice flour for the crust. Tasted very cheesey & peppery. Then I ground up some roasted root veggies along with white wine, chicken stock and water to make the sauce, flavouring it with thyme and rosemary. I added in remnants from a roasted chicken, frozen peas, onion and garlic, and shazam! I had me a chicken pie. It was soooo delicious!

Why do I mention it here? Because my intention was to make a chicken pie and my momentum was not stopped by an idea of what "perfect" ingredients were in order to create the vision in my head. Sometimes we have to create using what we have, and in so doing, find a new and better way.