Unless you have been under a rock, you have been impacted by The Second City.  Tina Fey, John Belushi, Dan Akroyd and list just goes on and on.

This video is from The 2008 Chicago Convergence and features Tom Yorton, President of Second City Inc. 

The Second City is the original interactive company: creating memorable characters and biting sociopolitical satire based on audience input for nearly fifty years. Second City Communications, the corporate services arm of the legendary theater, has leveraged SC's core comedic beliefs, philosophies and methodologies to create insightful, hilarious and effective video, animation and web design for its many corporate clients - porting the laughs from the stage to the web page.

Second City Communications is the marketing services division of the famous comedy theater, The Second City — a company thats been interactive before interactive was hot. They help hundreds of Fortune 500 clients win audiences and marketshare — as well as improve individual & team performance — through the basic teachings of improv and a talented stable of writers, directors, producers, and production staff.

John Patterson

From Seth Godin.  I'm reposting as it illustrates something about uncommon offers.

There are people who I will never encounter in a restaurant.

That's because when these people go out for dinner, they go to chain restaurants. These are the tourists in New York who seek out the familiar Olive Garden instead of walking down the street to Pure.

That's fine. It's a personal choice.

But it got me thinking about the difference between apparent and actual risk, and how that choice affects just about everything we do.

The concierge at a fancy hotel spends her time helping tourists and business travelers avoid apparent risk. She'll book the boring, defensible, consistent tour, not the crazy guy who's actually a trained architect and a dissident. She'll recommend the restaurant from Zagats, not from Chowhound.

Apparent risk is what keeps someone working at a big company, even if it's doing layoffs. It feels safer to stay there than to do the (apparently) insanely risky thing and start a new venture.

Apparent risk is what gets someone who is afraid of plane crashes to drive, even though driving is more dangerous.

Apparent risk is avoiding the chance that people will laugh at you and instead backing yourself into the very real possibility that you're going to become obsolete or irrelevant.

When things get interesting is when the apparently risky is demonstrably safer than the actually risky. That's when we sometimes become uncomfortable enough with our reliance on the apparent to focus on the actual. Think about that the next time they make you take off your shoes at the airport.

Seth Godin

The health of the fish is given by the water
Healthy water, healthy fish; dirty water, dead fish
Human beings do best when tending to their water
(and most only tend to themselves)
'Water' for human beings takes many forms
This series is about tending to those many forms of water

1.  City/Town/Village - Moral Landscape

As social beings, you and I live by moral codes; a set of fabricated (yet very real) rules that dictate what is good or bad, right or wrong.

The power of the 'moral landscape' is powerfully illustrated by John Truby in his education on screen writing. 

In his classes he uses the movie "Its a Wonderful Life" to illustrate.  George Bailey, from the TownScape gives up his dreams to save the Baily Savings & Loan, make sure his brother succeeds and argues that he has no life and no riches.  In the end, he discovers his riches in his relationships.

This is classic TownScape morality.  It is a maternal order. A system of that thrives on guilt (Bailey always chooses to give up his dreams for the guilt of being selfish). A system that states that true happiness is about relationships.

Mr. Potter is classic CityScape morality. All for yourself. "Immoral". A system that states that true happiness is about getting as much of the pie for yourself as you can.

We get to see these two scapes played out as characters - and it is obvious which scape is 'better' in the eyes of the Film Makers.  In truth, neither are better or worse, good or bad.  Both have flaws and benefits and neither is 'The Truth'.  You could equally make a film about the poverty and isolation of a townscape vs the excitement and wonder of the city.

The point is that you are not separate from a city, town or village scape and these systems or contexts are forces that shape yours and others actions regardless of your awareness of that fact.  Knowing these background moral landscapes are shaping you - vs - you shaping them, is powerful and allows you a choice.

I was brought up Catholic in the townscape of Richardson, TX in a family of eight and spent a good twenty years working on behalf of the benefit of others at a cost to myself. Guilt is my middle name.

John Guilt Patterson

Healthy Water, Healthy Fish; Tools for Uncommon Performance - a Primer

The health of the fish is given by the water
Healthy water, healthy fish; dirty water, dead fish
Human beings do best when tending to their water
(and most only tend to themselves)
'Water' for human beings takes many forms
This series is about tending to those many forms of water

Tending to the 'water' rather than simply tending to you requires an awareness of forces that shape and impact the you that you are.

That you were born in a specific place, time, country, race, culture, religion has obvious implications. The additional forces, or 'water' that shape your fish is a long list.  Below are a few I'll be discussing in this series.

1. City/Town/Village scape
2. Membership
   
3. Architecture
4. Dwelling
5. Situation
6. THE environment
7. The human dialog
8. Society
   

The point of these discussions will be this: when you are aware of something, you can now be responsible for it, shape it and tend to it.  When you are not aware of it, you can't impact it (purposefully).

As an example that illustrates the potency of this; I'm in my home office typing on a Mac. My unscreened opened windows allow the cool Pacific breeze to share the scents of the earthy garden just outside and the tropical flowers that inhabit it. A not too distant church bell welcomes the hustle of cars and their journey down Hollywood Blvd.

That is my morning 'water' and all the ways my senses and ambitions are 'activated'.  Accidental? Hardly. Lucky? Nope.  A purposeful well-tended to experience that connects me with the city, the ocean, nature, my work and my community.

Why purposeful? To fulfill all my ambitions (and I have more than one) I have crafted an environment that perfectly nurtures it. 

Your environment (water) and you are inseparable. Given this is the case, what water should you construct?

John Patterson