Storydriven

Above and Beyond in Montana

Seems like all I have time for these days is providing links. But everybody at E+S should read this article on what is undoubtedly the highest-end second (third, fourth, fifth)-home gated community in the world. We think we've seen grandiosity? I've heard of naming homes, but naming - really, seriously naming - individual rooms?

What's cool about this is that many of the homes appear to be using sustainable building practices. It isn't mentioned overtly in the article, but using "found architecture" - recycled beams, railroad ties, saddles, etc. - is one way to save embodied and literal energy. Though flying timber from New Hampshire probably isn't the most efficient... Nor building a 7,000 square foot home. Or creating space for 20 SUVs in a single home garage.

Okay, this could have been really cool if they'd used geothermal exchange to heat the "river" and homes - certainly the people who live here can afford it. Hard to imagine Dan Quayle getting into green building practices ("But I like blue!" I can hear him saying).

Well, at least we know what Warren Miller's up to these days...

The Next Big Thing in Snowsports

So many things to write about, so little time. For now, just a link: what do you get when you cross skiing some of the world's steepest mountains with...paragliding? Looks terrifying and exhilarating. Is this something resorts are going to capitalize on? I'd imagine the insurance premiums would be sky-high, no pun intended. Does this make Eiger, or say, K2 or Everest somehow more accessible? (Don't think I'll be going down - or up - any of them any time soon, but for the serious and affluent extreme adventurer...)

Only a few years ago, nobody had heard of boardercross, and now it's an Olympic sport, albeit one that doesn't involve athletes attempting to literally fly.

This sport doesn't have a name yet. What would you call it?

TED for free

The Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference, held annually in Monterey, California, is to ideas what South by Southwest is to music or Sundance is to film - the single most important place to discover new things and hear fascinating people. It's so successful that the 2008 conference is already sold out.

I really, really want to go to this thing. Maybe in 2009. Until then, many of the presentations are available online, kind of like YouTube for innovators. William McDonough, the way-farthest-out-there sustainability guy, has a talk about his "cradle to cradle" philosophy. Carl Honore talks about the power of slow. Steven Levitt talks about "crack economics." And, for a more holistic (and humourous) touch, Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) talks about body-and-soul happiness.

Bookmark this page. Check it out when you can. It's a source of constant inspiration, and regardless of your area of interest - design, technology, writing, music, sales - you'll find something to stir new thoughts in your brain.

Edited to add: I had no idea when I started this post that this concept - sharing TED presentations online - was so new. It launched yesterday. Here's the NY Times article on the relaunch of TED.com

Seth Godin on Powerpoint

I've been looking for this post since I began this blog - it sums up everything I've said (but with much more authority). Read it. Learn it. Live it. Love it. (And it goes for Keynote, too.)

One of the key messages that applies to everything we (E+S and individuals) do: "communication is the transfer of emotion."

You can watch the principle in action here. (This is better than his demo reel, referenced below.)

Inclusionary Amenities

And now, a guest post (actually an email that I thought would be a great blog entry) from Paul Belserene:

"A fellow alumnus of the University of Chicago, Lior Strahilevitz, has done a study in the Virginia Law Review about how amenities in communities can be used to exclude people to create a homogeneous living environment, and also how they can be used to include, creating a more heterogeneous and lively community.

He began by noting, as we have, that during the 1990s, the United States experienced a boom in the construction of residential developments built around golf courses. he says "This occurred at a time when golf participation functioned as a noticeably better proxy for race than income, wealth, or virtually any other characteristic." As we know, substantial numbers of Americans who purchased homes in  golf communities play no golf. We have often said that this was because the natural benefits of the golf landscape attracted people. But it is equally arguable that the costs associated with this amenity served rather effectively to guarantee a mostly-white, homogeneous population inside the gates.

How, in the Post-Tiger era, the demographic of golf will change is an interesting question and Strahilevitz is studying whether there is a correlation between the use of golf will rise or fall as an amenity in new planned communities.

Strahilevitz then notes the possibility of "inclusionary amenities", and shows how a few developers, common interest communities, and municipalities have used these amenities to achieve greater residential heterogeneity than would otherwise have been possible.

It seems that the market is beginning to realize that diverse communities are more interesting to live in. Ive noticed that inclusionary amenities are something we are already exploring in envisionings - water, gathering places, markets, etc. It warrants some conscious attention, I think."

This is something we should begin thinking about - what, exactly, are incusionary amenities? Paul mentions most nature-based activities (pathways, hiking trails).

The article is definitely worth a read - towards the end, the author discusses how to cultivate diversity within communities, using a variety of amenities. Very cool.

The Power of Green

I haven't had a chance to post anything new in a while (my "blogging ideas" bookmark is overflowing), but this article from today's Sunday Times (I think it's the Magazine cover story, but it's hard to tell online) is a must-read. Thomas L. Friedman brings together many of the ideas that Mark Holland talks about - making sustainability mainstream - and he offers some new language to get away from the "tree-hugger" image. Finding new language around sustainability has been one of our biggest challenges.

The article is very American-centred (which makes sense); it essentially positions "geostrategic" (what a great new word for "green") thinking as the new patriotism for both Democrats and Republicans.

In a recent session, Mark told us that a study showed the emotional space occupied by the concept of sustainability was "hope". Another presenter at the same session discussed how Americans were becoming more and more pessimistic about the country and its future. What better way to rebrand the United States than as leaders in the "geostrategic" movement - and inspire hope among its citizens? This is, of course, an enormous undertaking, especially given the worldwide perception of the United States at the moment. But it's a cool idea.

 

Here's an excerpt:

Well, I want to rename “green.” I want to rename it geostrategic, geoeconomic, capitalistic and patriotic. I want to do that because I think that living, working, designing, manufacturing and projecting America in a green way can be the basis of a new unifying political movement for the 21st century. A redefined, broader and more muscular green ideology is not meant to trump the traditional Republican and Democratic agendas but rather to bridge them when it comes to addressing the three major issues facing every American today: jobs, temperature and terrorism.

Now, go read the whole article.

Reinventing presentations

We love making presentations. To develop the client relationship. To solidify the client relationship. All during the client relationship, and sometimes, even after a particular phase of the client relationship has ended.

Which is fine, but we - along with most other businesses - are stuck in an old-school way of presenting. We put onto a Keynote presentation exactly what we're saying. Then we say it. And then we give the client a copy of the Keynote, to remind them what we said.

Check out Seth Godin's demo reel as a speaker (some day, we will find a way to get him here, but he's expensive). Granted, it's been edited, so we're not seeing him on stage the entire time. Notice these things:

1. He's not at a podium. There is nothing between him and the audience (except the height of the stage). On an unconscious level - maybe conscious for people who know speaking - this conveys transparency and a willingness to put oneself at the same level as the audience.

2. The slides are eye-catching. Not with great design, but because they're unexpected images that make you wonder what he's going to talk about next and how the slide is going to be relevant.

3. The slides rarely have words. And the words rarely match what he's saying, unless he's illustrating a point, in which case a couple of words underscore the essential message. No more than a few words per slide.

4. He's talking naturally, not from any prepared speech. Granted, he gives these talks almost every day, but he's not reading cue cards or the hidden part of Keynote.

His style is so distinct that it's actually referred to as "the Godin method." There are others, which I'll post about at another time, but all of them are living their personal brand in their presentation.

I know a couple of us (not me, necessarily) and several of the presenters we use regularly can speak extemporaneously. What I'd personally like to see, especially from us, are more stories. We're storytellers. Let's illustrate those stories with amazingly designed slides that really carry a punch -- because there aren't 40 of them. Then, after the presentation, if we want to hand out an outline or a written document, that's fine. But everything I've read says that audiences pay more attention to a speaker who doesn't rely on slides. To paraphrase something I read, uh, somewhere: if your slides literally illustrate each aspect of your presentation, the audience will be reading the slides and not paying attention to you.

The paradox of choices

One of my favourite blogs, Garr Reynolds's Presentation Zen, has a great post about the benefits of self-imposed limitation. His focus is on design - specifically design of presentations - but it can be extrapolated to writing (actually, many of the lessons he cites come from writing). Too many choices are overwhelming. Too many choices can lead to... too much. Of everything. To illustrate this example, spend five minutes in the hanger section of Bed Bath & Beyond (in the States). Too much choice is overwhelming - and wasteful.

Part of this is the way the creative mind works - at least mine, and a few others I know. Anything is possible, ideas are limitless, and until someone yanks at the hem of my jeans, I'm not coming back down to earth. Whee!

To paraphrase a quote we used recently, talent is generating ideas; genius is knowing which to keep. Prior to E+S, and probably for my first year at E+S, I spent about 15% of my time on a first draft and 85% on the rest. Most of that 85% was cutting, cutting, cutting, followed by tweaking and polishing. The ultimate goal was (and always is) to have the words that remain on the page imply all those words that aren't on the page.

My rationale was that each creative endeavor was a blank canvas. I believed in brainstorming wildly, writing everything that could possibly be relevant, to get beyond cliches and start generating new ideas - and to ensure I didn't miss anything (the renowned FoMS illness: Fear of Missing Something). The first draft of my book manuscript was 600 pages. Eeek! Because the creative mind tends to be so self-critical, crazy brainstorming can be a good way to allow your brain complete creative freedom and then, at a different time, shift to the critical/editor part of the brain to make choices about ideas.

At E+S, I'm learning a new model - one that some other writers use with ease - not only of outlining but of figuring out the important stuff before I put it on paper. In a world with unlimited time, I'd choose to put everything on paper  But in a deadline-driven world, and one in which fewer hours are directly linked to greater profit, being strategic about creativity is essential.

It starts with the questions. There are literally limitless questions we could ask clients. But which ones are going to start giving us insight into their story? And which question do we ask first? And how do we phrase the question so that the listener feels free to explore and be creative and not give a rote answer? How do we get them out of the box (or, as in one recent case, into the box)? Pre-planning questions saves time and helps us structure the session, but we have to have the ability to throw all those out the window if the client is clearly going in a different direction. To me, that's how we get at the authentic story, rather than the story we want them to tell.

In the past, the storyteller would come back and go through the notes, their experience of the session, and identify the big ideas and write them up. Then we'd ask what everyone else thought (usually a day before it was due to the client). That - while fun and perhaps a bit more creative - was very time consuming, and there was no guarantee we were on the right track. So now, we debrief together and, though it sometimes feels as though there's a surfeit of input, we have more structure. I bristled at first (and still do, sometimes), feeling like my creativity was being limited.

What I didn't see was that, by placing those "restrictions" around what I write, I can write a more focused first draft and spend a higher percentage of time tweaking and polishing (those are highly technical words, by the way). Though I still have to remind myself of this, it's not that this process is less creative; it's that my creativity is focused - dare I say it? - strategically.

Yes, sometimes it feels a little constrained, and there are plenty of times I just want to write out everything that's in my head and then edit it (like, uh, in this post), but when it comes to cost-effective business, for us and our clients, limited options actually make me more productive.

A good exercise in semi-limited brainstorming

One way I learned to semi-focus my ideas was this: when brainstorming ideas for scripts or sketches, I'd open a thesaurus and pick a word. Then I'd brainstorm story variations that could possibly include that word (even if it meant the entire cast of Grace Under Fire was going to Space Camp to become...astronauts!). I made myself list a minimum of 10 one-line plot descriptions, and I aimed for 20. Then I'd pick another random word and repeat the exercise. I'd do that with ten random words, and voila - 100 story ideas. Then I'd go back and, in each list, pick the two that had the most potential (and I was usually lucky if there were two). Those 20 ideas got a postcard-pitch treatment, slightly more fleshed out. By this point, I'd have a couple of favourites, and I'd try block-outlining them. Sometimes I'd have to go back to the thesaurus entirely. And as you all know, I never did get hired for any sketch shows or sitcoms. But it's a great creative exercise (and it's not original - thanks to Jurgen Wolff, author of Successful Sitcom Writing).

Here's a not-so-secret: it's not just for writers. It's not just for artists. You can approach almost any situation in your life this way. Use the random words to trigger solutions, no matter how outrageous - the brainstorming allows you to get at your subconscious without your conscious mind interfering. Look for my new book, The Thesaurus Solution to Life at bookstores soon...

Please Understand Me

No, that's not a personal request (though isn't it what we all want, really?). It's the title of a book by psychologist David Kiersey that discusses, in depth, the 16 MBTI types: How each perceives the world, how each works, the most effective communication style to use with each - and also how each type functions in relationships and as a parent.

I swear, it's not a cult. It's not astrology. It's nothing like Six Sigma. It's just a better way for us all to get along (who brought the CokeTM?)

(full disclosure: my father mentored Isabel Briggs-Meyers while she was developing the test in the 1950s, I think. He thought she was brilliant, but the rest of his staff couldn't stand that she walked around in sneakers, and apparently they told him she drank all the coffee. I would've liked her.)

Days of wine and... no, just wine.

The new trend in spas is “vinotherapy,” or wine-based treatments.

I’m not kidding.

We’re not talking Sideways or spas with endless cellars. We’re talking bathing in Pinot Noir while having a Merlot grape seed facial. Before you go to bed, you use a crushed cabernet scrub to exfoliate your body. Presumably the bath is watered down, or the new status symbol will be a literal port wine stain on one’s entire body.

It reminds me of the line from the movie The Truth about Cats and Dogs, where Janeane Garofalo tells a caller (whose cat has been licking the man's face for three hours), “It’s okay to love your pet. Just don’t loooooove your pet.” I mean, some of my best friends are wine aficionados. But isn’t this going a little overboard (or, more aptly, over the barrel?). At the very least, one would hope these places confiscate their guests’ car keys for the duration of their visit.

We all know that, in reasonable amounts, red wine is good for you. It’s not only the wine. The grape, grape skin, grape seed and grape vine all contain powerful antioxidants, according to this MSNBC article.

“Luxe resorts such as The Inn at Camelback in Arizona and the Shore Club in Miami are offering wine treatments using Olavie’s Le Vin range of oils made from Chardonnay grape seed. Across Europe, spas are using ISHI Elements — creams and oils from Chianti, Chardonnay and Pinot grapes sourced from organic vines in Tuscany. And New York City's first entirely wine therapy-based spa, Delluva Vinotherapy Day Spa, opened in Tribeca in January 2007, featuring TheraVINE products derived from the Pinotage grape in South Africa.”

The top 10 wine spas in the world span the globe, from South Africa to Argentina to, understandably, Bordeaux in France. The only American resort to win the accolade is the Kenwood Inn and Spa in Sonoma, California. If you’re going to go luxe enough to make a wine spa your destination, it only makes sense to make the destination an area of the world renowned for wine.

“To your health” has never been more apt. Hiccup.