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Past-Present-Future of thinkAbout

Had a wonderful and thought-provoking time at this year’s thinkAbout in Cleveland. Sadly, it’s the last event after 20 years. I am proud to say I have attended 10 of the 20 gatherings. It all ended at the place it began, Cleveland, Ohio.

The event was themed around time and the #ExperienceEconomy evolution and hosted by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore. Each segment was separated by the past, present and future. Below are the visual translations.

The past was a tour from the beginning through last year’s gathering in New Orleans. Each city had a theme and usually had some tie in with the award winners. I have always imagined what city or place Joe and Jim would choose had I ever won an EXPY. Probably somewhere that embraced visual thinking or illustration. Oh well, its fun to dream.

The next day took us to the present in Jim and Joe’s wacky time machine. They shared the ideas and directions they were pondering for the next evolution of the Experience Economy. From time as currency to the Hinduization of the digital world. 32 million deities now transformed into 32 million apps on our mobile devices. When we wake to the chiming of our mobile devices it is the same as banging the pots to wake the deities. We do not worship them, we use them.

Our world view of the Experience Economy changed as Jim and Joe unveiled the next progression of thinkAbout, thinkAbout4U. A client focused gather mirroring the process of thinkAbout for Experience stagers.

We also discovered the last two award winners. For the EXPY, Carnival cruises took the prize for this year’s stager and for the EMA, Ty Koon received the honors as Experience Manager.  All in all, a great time of discussion, contemplation and investigation.

One thing I took away is that mobile technology is reigniting the lizard brain in all off us. We now react with Fight-Flight or Respond. This makes me wonder if we as humans are becoming the greatest experiment of Pavlov’s digital dog. (bing)

The second thing I took away is that Experiences should be designed to provide happiness, As goes of experience, we pay extra for that experience that makes us happy. No one pays to be made miserable, that’s called customer service.

Until next time, keep your eyes to the future and keep staging experiences that are photo-worthy.

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Staging A Remote Experience

Okay, so I completed my Experience Economy Certification this past September with James H. Gilmore & B. Joseph Pine II. Extremely intense event and education. And like most events I attend, I created some Visual Translations  (my version of sketchnotes) to help keep all the big ideas.

My grandmother and my mother always told me to give when I could, so, as part of my appreciation for my mentors and the companionship of my fellow classmates, I sent out my series of 6 thINKing Canvas to each of them as a reminder and a thank you.

What I thought was a simple gesture of friendship  returned an even greater gift from my friend Dennis Moseley-Williams. An Inspiring Video.

What a great feeling to get in return for a simple gesture. This is how experiences are staged.

Thanks Dennis!

P.S. Here are the boards the canvas from our certification class that were distributed. One for the five days of training and one recap.

DAY 1:

TEEC Day 1 sm

DAY 2:

TEEC Day 2 sm

DAY 3:

TEEC Day 3 sm

DAY 4:

TEEC Day 4 sm

DAY 5:

TEEC Day 5 sm

RECAP:

TEEC Highlight sm

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Welcome to the Experience Economy

When I hear how some people talk about customer experience (CustExp) or user experience (UX) I get a bit frustrated. Why, because most are speaking about good customer service or a good interface design and not really about an experience that provides an economic value worth paying more for the experience. No what they are really saying is we offer an expected customer service like everyone else. A service that is not measured how well a customer is involved with your offering, rather how efficient you provided it on a consistent basis.

Customer experience has become a replacement buzzword for good customer service without too much sacrifice for the customer or the provider while still keep within budgeted limits. Even some of the books written by so-called customer experience experts are usually no more than satisfaction program authors or worse yet, neglect the point-of-view from the eyes of the customer, rather what they believe to be good for the customer.

Okay, so I am a bit touchy on the subject, so much so that I put the whole book thing to the test by asking myself, of all these authors which ones have had the longest run in print and in person about their unique perspective on experiences. And when I mean unique, I mean that they were the originators and not the adaptors of a given concept. After a few dozen book purchases from the half-price and used book stores I found many were alterations of each other and finding which author came first is like answering the age-old question; chicken or the egg. Only genetics can tell.

There were a few books out there that I didn’t find on the used book shelves, mostly because of limited run or out of print. One however stood out, a book written by two gentlemen with various backgrounds ranging from Logic, Physics and Economics. Both having a strong background in multiple fields of science. Science! not marketing or sales, but science. What’s most impressive is the reason its hard to find their book on the used bookshelves is because it’s still in print and has recently been updated after 10 years. No other author or authors I could find have done this. Maybe you can find a few.

B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore wrote their original book, not white-paper publication, on the subject of the Experience Economy (note: not just the customer experience) in 1999 and then translated in 18 languages that I can find. Then in 2010, it was updated to show changes and the widening growth of the Experience Economy. Through their research and writing identify the economic impact and value and not merely state customer interfaces or service programs.

I was so impressed by their books I began attending their special conferences around their books. Not your typical conferences I grant you, these were “Experiences” all to themselves. the best way to prove your findings and ideas. Good customer experience is expected by customers, staging a true experience delivers on the unexpected and creates memories. Many reports have proven that customers value memories more than goods and those companies boasting good or great customer experiences are all goods or service providers and not truly experience stagers. That is the difference.

To put an exclamation mark on my post, I attended the “Experience Economy Certification” course. A five-day deep dive into the Experience Economy as an economic era and to learn and understand the techniques that companies can use to create experiences worth paying for and not just selling goods or services.

As of this post, I am proud to be of a part of a selected few now honored to be an Experience Economy Experts and not a Customer Experience Specialist.

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#204

 

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When Is Innovation

What I have learned from observations.

Over the years I have graphic-recorded and facilitated many meetings and strategic ideation session where the topic of innovation arises. Recently, possibly due to the popularity of the idea, innovation constantly emerges as an answer to a problem.

‘In order for us to achieve (X Y Z) we must innovate, be innovative, or become innovative thinkers.’ 

The real challenge is not achieving innovation but what leads up to the innovation for, in my view, an innovation is not ever-present. I believe it does not happen throughout, but at as end moment proof of an endeavor. Innovation is the tangible outcome, not the intangible process.

A colleague far across the big pond, discussed this idea with me on many occasions. We both agree that innovation is originated from discontinuous thinking. It is an outgrowth of difference and not of continued progress. We do slightly divert from the definition however as I feel strongly that part of the misconception in public is the word use outside of its true definition and he sees that it is a bit more about being word semantics. In either case that you may lean-to, it still is an over-used term for everything new or different.

So much distortion has been created that “Innovation” has become a catch-all buzzword and has diluted its value and tense of the action. As I stated, innovation is a past tense word and here is why I think this. Please indulge my thinking for a moment. I will arrive at the importance of this statement shortly. Take a look below at a diagram (The Path To Innovation) I created for an online chat about innovation over a year ago.

Path of innovation

Notice the Path of Innovation flows along the process, but is not truly part of the process. It flows in the background. Above the Path of Innovation is the Path of Thinking. This path runs parallel yet changes slightly once through each node only diverted by an outside resource. The path is not continuous, yet the direction is. Only until both paths pass through “Measure” do we know if the idea is an innovation or that your idea has been proven innovative.

It is not until you measure and prove that the “Idea” is a valued concept can you initiate it into action. This action then has created an innovation or innovative method that changes an old process or product indicating the point of application or implementation is after the innovation has been proven valuable and is adopted. Innovation is then a historic action making an innovation a past tense thing.

Okay, so why all the nonsense of past and present tense of innovation? Simple, for the reason of clarity. Innovation is a thing proven not of an idea conceived. If no proof in action or value is present, something, be object, process or thinking can not be deemed an innovation. If proof dictates innovation, then innovative thinking is then merely creative thinking improperly categorized or misquoted. In essence, creative thinking is an intangible concept, and innovation, which is a proven (past tense), is the tangible product.

So, let’s use the proper words around innovation for the proper application, Creative Thinking, Systems Thinking and/or Happenstance can all lead to Innovation, but are not innovative or innovation of themselves, only something that is proven valuable can be stated as innovative or an innovation.

 

 

 

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Tattooing the Brain

What visual does this title bring into focus?Tattoing Brain

As practitioners of visual communications, we all are performing this task of tattooing on the brains of the participants, viewers and even ourselves at times. We are, in essences, tattooing information and ideas for clarity, collective vision and retention. We become tattoo artist on the cerebrum once we begin putting ideas to paper for all to see.

Visuals play an important role in memory retention and information recall, but why? As a visual translator and graphic facilitator, the question of the impact that graphics have on learning, retention and recall always slips into the conversation, especially when a potential client, who may have never experienced visual thinking before, is trying to assess the value and benefits of graphic facilitation, graphic recording or visual translation. The very question can stop the flow of the conversation dead in its tracks if you’re not ready to respond appropriately.

To aide myself as well as others, I went searching for empirical results from research as well as articles by leading researchers in neuroscience, education and psychology. Here are some of my search findings. I hope they help you as much as they have assisted me in my preparedness to present the power visuals have on retention and learning.

Research and Articles:

Learning Through Visuals in Psychology Today by Haig Kouyoumdjian, Ph.D.

Effectiveness of Visual Imagery Versus Rule-based Strategies in Teaching Spelling to Learning Disabled Students by Craig Darch & Robert G. Simpson at Auburn University

Presentation Skills 1. Use Visual Aids from online Presentation Magazine

Improve Retention of Your Complex Learning Material By J. Jones

BrainRules by John Medina

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Part Two: Peaking Behind the Curtain

In this post, I take a look at the conversation that was scribed which focuses on the topic of lateral thinking, the author Edwards de Bono and building your toolbox for idea creating. Many of these same concepts play out in Graphic facilitator’ and Graphic Scribes’ worlds.

In the thINKing Canvas below, the group explores books 5 through 8 of Jim Gilmore’s 24 books of inspiration, innovation and the application of lateral thinking. Unlike vertical thinking which is focused around sequential processes like flow charting, mind mapping or even time lining, processes of a “NO” function as described by de Bono,  lateral thinking avoids the rigid contiguous stepping and allows provocation to create side stepping and alternative ides to emerge. It is this function of provocation that helps create “new” ideas and not hashing through old or existing streams of thought.

So, how does this apply to the “Experience Economy” book?

In the “Experience Economy”, both authors, Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore use the processes of lateral thinking and “PO” to divert the thinker from traditional trends in economic offers which may only produce slight alterations in a standard mechanism, to allow insight which may lead to progress of a higher level of offering called “Experiences.” It is these experiences with create unique differential in a given market or industry. Simply stated, to help create experiences within your offering, an owner/operator must break the traditional thinking construct and develop innovative mechanisms of presenting and delivering their offering.

One interesting method to help achieve this is through the use of your creative toolbox. By using the various steps gathered from Jerry Rhodes “Conceptual Toolmaking” and Edward de Bono’s thoughts on lateral thinking, one could re-explore their offering in its existing state and develop an innovative way of re-delivering.

Take Starbucks as a prime example. Starbucks wanted to create an experience around the coffee-house business. By possibly applying “PO” and the idea of reversal, Starbucks went from “Serving coffee to people”, the traditional business model, to “Serving people with coffee.” Yes, a subtle difference, but when you explore the direction of intent, you see the focus has change from serving the coffee to people, a traditional model, to that of serving people with coffee, a more personal interaction. This also affects the environment that host the action of serving as well as the culture of the staff who will perform the action of serving.

To summarize, apply Edward de Bono’s processes and exercises of lateral thinking and building your own Conceptual Toolbox can help you reconsider your offering and guide you closer to creating something more than just another business, rather an experience.

Next time we will dive into books 9 through 14 and explore failures, progression of ideas and baseball.