Paul Isakson

Joi Ito's Thoughts on Leadership

2012-02-05T11:01:40-06:00

Thought this was a great way to frame-up how leadership needs to evolve from "command and control" to "empower and roll" in our current business climate. The highlights are mine. The words are Mr. Ito's.

The Internet has enabled the cost of the production and distribution of ideas and information to plummet nearly to zero-resulting in an explosion of ideas and a low cost of collaboration. This has prompted a great deal of innovation, but also a complexity, speed and capacity for amplification that makes the world a difficult and dangerous place for many organizations and human-made systems designed for a slower and simpler era.

The cost of planning, predicting and managing rapidly changing, complex systems often exceeds the cost of actually doing whatever is being planned and managed. In fact, it can be often easier to try something and iterate than to try to predict the outcome and manage the risks. Most great ideas as well as dramatic failures have been unpredictable and are only obvious in hindsight. (Don't get me wrong: foreknowledge and planning are useful and, often, necessary; they're just not sufficient.)

In such a world, leadership hinges on the ability to master a broad set of skills and character traits necessary for fostering a robust system, including courage, flexibility, speed, values and a strong vision and trajectory. It's more important to have a strong compass than a detailed street map since the map is probably outdated and wrong.

These kinds of decentralized models of leadership have been evolving and emerging in a variety of situations ranging from battle (virtual and real) to religions. The Internet has just super-charged the importance of this type of leadership in almost every organization.

Managers in large corporations no longer have the promise of promotions and long-term employment to keep employees obedient and hard working. Central corporate R&D and planning organizations can no longer provide detailed maps of the world to their staff and partners. Innovation is happening in the most unlikely parts of the organization-often outside of the organization.

Leadership today is about empowering those around you share your vision, embrace serendipity, have the courage to take risks and learn from failure rather than be crushed by it. Diversity must be embraced and organizational borders made porous. Assets such as intellectual property and lines of software code must not prevent aggressive agility. Organizations must be willing and able to pivot away from attachment to such assets lest these assets become liabilities holding back innovation and progress.

In this new world, leaders must be courageous, visionary and comfortable in an environment where control and complete knowledge are impossible and their pursuit futile and counterproductive.

Don't Give Up, Don't Ever Give Up.

2011-12-07T00:12:08-06:00

The Jimmy V Classic was on earlier tonight. Between the games, they played Coach Valvano's speech at the 1993 ESPYs. It's a touching talk full of good advice...

Every day try to laugh, think, and feel joy or sadness to the point of tears.

When you think, think about where you started, think about where you are and think about where you're going to be.

To get from where you are to where you want to be you have to have enthusiasm for life, you have to have a goal/a dream, and you have to be willing to work for it.

Enjoy every moment of your life with everything you have.

Don't give up, don't ever give up.

The Future Is Guided By Voices

2011-10-09T22:07:11-05:00

Apple wasn't the only one making a big announcement last week about one of their devices. They just got a lot more coverage. In case you missed it, here's what Xbox Live + Kinect have in store for watching TV:

The Wisdom of Dieter Rams

2011-07-31T13:04:07-05:00

As I have shared many times in the past, I believe that there is much that marketing communications people can learn from the world of design. One of the greats to learn from is Dieter Rams. His 10 Principles of Good Design are timeless and true to the very core.

The quote above on design is equally true to creating advertising, web sites, mobile apps or any other type of "brand" experience for people. Indifference for the people we create things for and the reality of their daily lives is not just foolish, it's wrong.

Sharing a Summer of Nice Rides

2011-07-25T08:18:38-05:00

Back in early June, I received my Nice Ride key (pictured above). I had decided in late May to take advantage of the discounted price for an annual subscription, knowing that there would be days where a ride from work to home or vice versa would be more enjoyable than my typical walk. What I didn't expect was to enjoy riding a bike again so much.

Somewhere around my second or third ride, I decided that it would be fun to document some of the places I rode the Nice Ride bikes over the summer on Instagr.am, using the hashtag #summerofnicerides. It was inspired by some of the women in the Twin Cities who started using #summerofdresses last year and are doing it again this summer.

Not long after a few shots were posted, Arik emailed me to ask if I would be open to others joining in to share their adventures using the hashtag as well. I of course agreed and thanks to Arik and the good people at Bike Walk Twin Cities and Nice Ride, it has now found a home on the web for others to share stories and pictures of their bikes, favorite rides and adventures.

You can read more about it on the BikeWalk blog, including how to participate. Or, just go to the "Submit" section on the Summer of Nice Rides blog. It would be great to get more people to take part, so consider this me asking you to join in if you ride a bike. You don't have to use the Nice Ride system and it's really pretty simple to upload a picture, so I hope you do.