The Big Moo--Don't be ordinary

I’ve discovered Seth Godin. (Am I late?) I like the way he thinks and writes. And I like his call to action and excellence in everyday matters. Because the everyday stuff, well, matters.

The Big Moo wasn’t written solely by him, but he's the one who pulled it together by recruiting “The Group of 33”—a menagerie of distinguished thinkers and leaders of our time. They each shared stories (anonymously, btw—a great touch—does it really matter who gets credit in the long run?) that reflect new ways of thinking and doing, to keep you from becoming stagnant and to promote growth.

Okay, much of the material perhaps is meant for direct application to organizations, but I've found that such principles are usually applicable across the life board. Thus, it makes a good read for whoever you are.

So "somebody" said:

Organizations don’t get stuck because their employees aren’t creative. Creativity is mostly iteration and juxtaposition. What messes things up is our self-censorship and organizations’ innate tendency to put the brakes on something that’s remarkable. The next time you want to criticize yourself for being dull, stop. Criticize yourself (and your organization) for being scared instead.

In a metric-minded organization, it’s very tempting to focus on things that are easy to measure instead of those things that are important to measure.

Stop being ordinary. How?
5 Quick Suggestions:

• 1) Avidly collect firsthand experiences.
• 2) Protect the Zen principle of “Beginner’s Mind”. Momentarily set aside what you “know.”
• 3) Keep an “Idea Wallet” so you don’t lose momentary insights.
• 4) Be a proactive “Idea Broker” and practice continuous cross-pollination. Think in metaphors to apply the lessons you learn from one context to another.
• 5) Embrace the power of storytelling to bring it all together. Storytelling has an emotional appeal that trumps all the raw data in the world. Medtronic, a blue-chip medical-technology company, reports that when their teams need an extra spark, they bring in patients and ask them to talk about how a Medtronic product changed their lives. These life-affirming stories leave hardly a dry eye in the house, and the entire Medtronic team returns to work with renewed energy, motivated to do their absolute best.