Subtle Changes, Big Impact

It’s interesting the subtle shifts in technology that effect how we interact. These happen every day with us barely noticing and each of them in isolation really don’t mean much. But compounded by a hundred, a thousand, tens of thousands of these small actions every day, the aggregate impact will be mind boggling.

Two subtle examples:

Snapchat’s addition of a birthday lens. While seemingly innocent, it represents another form of clever data gathering where we as consumers are paying for free access with our information. As they say information is power, in todays world, information is also money. Read the full article here:

http://www.ibtimes.com/snapchat-adds-birthday-party-lens-encourage-users-share-age-data-231955

The other subtle update was to Siri, a week ago I got a little reminder that Siri is always on once plugged in, transforming the virtual assistant from a passive service to an active one. In one fell swoop, Apple now competes directly with echo (or Alexa). And in that one small way, the product moved from the potential as a mobile assistant to a home assistant.

All these little things happen around us everyday without us barely noticing. As these small changes compound it will be interesting to see how we engage in just a few years.

Ian Chee

 

Tuesdays with Toni

Tuesdays with Toni is a little project we’ve been working on at MRY strategy, lead by Toni and inspired by Portia. The idea of thought leadership at consulting entities tend to be relatively one dimensional focused on the quantitative seismic shifts happening in an industry. As an example; the impact of mobile adoption on app usage, the rise of social media.

We decided to look at the task of thought leadership a little differently. Instead of being focused on the quantitative trend, lets focus on the impact this trend has on behavior and attitudes. What new ways can we explore information and ideas and how is culture reacting to all of this.

We were lucky enough to have Rishad (@Rishad, https://rishadt.wordpress.com/), Chief Strategist of Publicis join us for the discussion.

Have a listen:

 

Story Telling

I’m often asked what are the best ways to present and convince. Though a presentation might not be the same as a masterful story told, I think there are some similar themes at play. I’ve always respected the work of the moth and thought this was a particularly good break down.

How to Tell a Story the Right Way

My favorite themes

Details – Showcase them, tell them, don’t leave them out

Honesty – People can smell a lie

Vulnerability – No man is impenetrable, showcase the flaws

Natural Delivery – Rehearse but don’t memorize

The topic of failure on the web

I was recently reading a blog post by Lidiya K on the topic of failure. She was kind enough to like one of my posts and as I explored her writing, she sites one of my favorite Thomas Edison quotes, “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that wont work.” In her post she samples many powerful ways that failure is in fact a positive.

In creating new digital interactions, campaigns, products and service you cant help but fail sometimes. I have failed many times in different ways and those times though often painful helped me to achieve the greatest areas of learnings in life. When I failed as a manager, I worked harder to be a better manager. When I failed at a pitch, I worked harder to win the next one. I’m far from perfect but for me at least, times of growth often come through lows not highs.

To add a slight web angle to this top it’s interesting to note that failure is almost objectively a good thing when you research it on the web.

1) The conversation around failure online is surrounded by success: I have done a social sentiment analysis on the word failure. The conversations online around failure are not conversations about defeat but conversations about progress. If you do a simple word cloud around the term, words that appear are words such as success, progress, learning.

2) Failure is a topic that people can relate to: If you do a google search trend analysis on the term failure vs. success. The topic is searched for almost 5 failures to 1 success. People are seeking out this information because they too are going through it. There is empathy on the topic and its a universal human truth that at some point you will fail. It’s relatable.

3) There is humor in it if you can open your eyes to find it: I once spoke to Ben Huh, the owner of fail blog about this topic. Why is that blog and that meme so popular I asked. Because everyone can relate. There is humor in the lows, and when you find that humor, that’s when you learn and grow. There is a reason that comedians often talk about when things go wrong. If they only gloated about success, there is less to relate to.

Don’t forget that the greatest successes were wrought with failures. Walt Disney’s patent for a theme park was rejected 302 times before acceptance. Steve Jobs was at one point fired from Apple, the company he built. Oprah was seen as unfit for TV. The chairman of Sony’s first endeavor was rice cookers that couldn’t cook rice. Do you remember Virgin credit cards?

In creative, innovation and design we need to use failure to our advantage. Learn from it and grow from it.