Last night, I’m on this train home from the office in London. Whilst squashed into my seat in typical commuter fashion, I started to reflect on some inspirational people I’ve met over my career, and the lessons I’ve learned from them. That’s an interesting idea for a post, I thought, so I’ve created a list of the top 5 who are most influencing my work at the moment.
It is firstly impossible to go past Janet Parker, founder of a startup I worked in as CTO some years ago. The most inspirational person I’ve ever seen in front of an audience, then or since. She could get up in front of a crowd and make you believe things. I recall being in a room and hearing her speak about a potential opportunity in the cards (as in credit cards) business, and having a tear in my eye, she was so good. Janet taught me something I’ve never forgotten: the ability to motivate and inspire is the key skill you must have when you lead. I’ve struggled ever since to be even half as good at it as she was.
Next up, my first career coach, who is the ex-MD of P&O in Australia. He told me that if you want to get anywhere, you first need to be part of the money. In other words, connect to the business you’re in, then make a difference. This will automatically get you moved up. Hovering around the edges in support functions doesn’t do that. Its why most CEOs are from sales or marketing.
Annalie Killian, who is Catalyst for Magic at AMP, and the producer of their bi-annual innovation conference AMPlify is on the list. Annalie showed me the powerful effect you can have when you add design to things. Oh, I get the fact that the iPhone, for example, was interesting because it was beautiful. But I didn’t feel the power of design until Annalie showed me at her conference what you could do. She was using a butterfly logo, for example, and on the last day had chrysalises at entrance to her event, timed to hatch as people arrived. It was beautiful. And it was remarkable, enough so that you’d never forget it. Because of Annalie, I now insist that everything we do has that kind of design about it. You really can’t believe what a difference it makes.
Miss Pamela Hinde, my 2nd grade teacher at Lane Cove Public, in Sydney Australia, and now retired. She taught me to read and write, after I’d repeated 2nd grade for not being able to do so. Obviously, the fact that I get to write blogs and books now, is all because of her. I can’t imagine how my life would be different now without her.
And finally, my fast entry graduates, now, and in all roles previously. They make you think differently about the way you’ve been brought up to do work. They also, if they’re any good at all, tell you you’re crap from time to time. I’ve had lots that have changed my thinking about things, and I rely on them not knowing what can’t be done to know which impossible things we should do next. They are also very useful for translating next generation thinking into stuff oldies can understand. I still can’t believe I’m now one of the oldies...
Who are your top 5? Shall we start a meme?
Yes, a great meme!
Posted by: Pragmatist | October 14, 2009 at 05:17 PM
Dear James, I am totally stunned and humbled by being included in your top 5 list and at the same time pleased that our butterflies symbolising "Emergence" is having a transformational effect across continents in the Dept of Work and Pensions in a way that matters because it is about the influence and power of aesthetics in innovation. It is said that the eye of an individual can shape a product, a company or a destiny! May I recommend for your reading pleasure "A Fine Line" - a book on how design strategies are shaping the future of business, by Hartmut Esslinger, founder of Frog design. This is about more than pretty pictures....its about how creative design gets baked into the innovation process and framework of an organisation's strategy and it's what has set many of the most successful brands in the world apart.
Google takes design to extreme...and backs it up with meticulous science as you will deduce from this post on a talk recently given by Google's Marissa Mayer on how Google tests every millimetre and every tone that goes into their design. http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/alissa-walker/designerati/marissa-mayer-google-data-not-design-rules?partner=homepage_newsletter (I don't think most artists would like this approach....but it proves there's clear science behind good design too! I wonder though if good designer's intuitively get this?) Hope all is going fantastic with you in the new role.
Posted by: Annalie Killian | October 15, 2009 at 02:16 AM
James, Thanks a lot for your inspirational thoughts.
The ones most influential to me are:
Peter Claussen, the former plant manager of BMW Leipzig, who triggered my interest into organizational learning
John D. Sterman, Head of System Dynamics Group at MIT Sloan School of Management, who invited me to go to the International System Dynamics Conference in 2006 in NIjmegen (was the start for my deep interest for system dynamics and how things are interrelated into life)
Peter Senge, whom I met during a workshop at MIT Sloan School of Management in 2007, talked to him and the conversation closed the loop which Peter Claussen had opened in 2005 in Leipzig
Jay W. Forrester, the founder of the field system dynamics, whom I spoke to during a coffee break at the above workshop. He told me, "If nobody is listening to your ideas and proposals work on them yourself, learn and get deeper understanding! It will come the time for connections!"
Kai-Uwe Ropers, a dear old friend from schooldays, with whom I was on a Youth trains for Olympia rowing competition in 1980, lost sight until a revival of our old classes in 1995 and again met via the internet a couple of years ago. He has been my strongest advisor and has shaped more my path of action that he probably knows himself.
...and there are more as the loops open and close, shrink and widen;-)
Posted by: RalfLippold | October 15, 2009 at 09:45 AM
Great meme-starter James. I posted my 5 here: http://bit.ly/1fRBSL
Posted by: Brad J Garland | October 16, 2009 at 02:45 AM
Ralf - your top 5 are very interesting. It tells a lot, doesn't it, about someone when you can find out who they think is important. Thanks for letting us know.
Posted by: James Gardner | October 16, 2009 at 06:08 AM
May I ask you a question, James?
After meeting these people, which aspects of your life changed, what did you start to do you didn't do before, what behaviours within your life are different as a result?
I'm talking about the difference between motivational engagement and emotional engagement.
Motivational engagement drives you to change, emotional just brings a lump to your throat, or as you say, a tear to your eye.
The first is life-changing, the other simply a con-trick, a Derren Brown moment.
And motivational doesn't require you to be a great orator or to engage a packed auditorium audience. It just requires the ability to touch your soul.
Like the solder who loses a leg in Afganistan and can't wait to get back out there to show he can't be beaten.
Or the little person driven by pure belief that they're right and against all the odds and what everyone tells them, succeeds.
This celebrity thing doesn't cut it for me, James. After all, I believed in Fred Goodwin and look what a twat he turned out to be.
Rambo and Rocky seemed brave, but then Stallone refused to fly after 9-11.
So, sure I could give you five names, but you know what, you would never have heard of any of them.
Posted by: Neil Robinson | October 16, 2009 at 10:18 AM
Neil,
You are unlikely to have heard of any of my five either, I suspect, though possibly you may have noticed Annalie, since her profile seems to be getting quite big, lately....
I don't think of any of my five as a "con-trick".
On the other hand, your examples are certainly emotional choices.
But each to his own, I guess. I'll stand by my five, and wait with interest to hear yours.
Posted by: James Gardner | October 17, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Sorry James,
You misunderstand me. I wasn't impying your choices were vaccuous simply because they were emotional; but that purely emotional choices are not necessily motivational! Too often a stirring message is just a stage act - a con-trick in other words.
The test being what motivation or influence is inbibed in the listener beyond the well timed delivery.
But you invited 5 picks from me. OK, here you are. All these to me have real value as motivational, disruptive innovators.
No 1: Titus Salt. A Victorian textile industrialist who tried unsuccessfully to get the textile mills around West Yorkshire to weave a new type of product. When No one listened, he decided to set up a mill and spin the wool for himself.
Bradford at this time was heavily polluted and overcrowded, creating health issues for the poor souls working in those hellish mills. Salt bought some clean land out ouside of town next to the river Aire. The area became Saltaire.
The mill became extremely successful, but Salt didn't take the money and run. He built houses, schools, shops and a church for his workers.
More evidence of his great public spirit and innovation came from his invention of an anti-polution device for mill chimneys, which again, no one would take up, although used in his own mills.
So popular was this man that's its said that 100,000 people lined the route of his funeral. Testiment to a true social engineer.
No 2: Frank Lloyd Wright. Probably the finest US architect of all time. 19th Century-born Wright had a career spanning two centuries and whose work is timeless.
Like so many innovators to follow, he was a college drop-out. He felt strongly that design should be financially and socially accessible and introduced many modern building techniques that gave his designs great beauty yet were cheaper to construct than conventional methods of the time. He gave so much to those who lived within his buildings. He designed houses, public buildings, skyscapers, even interiors and stained glass, most of which look modern even today. He was happier building for people to live in rather than just public building to just look good.
Despite his great talent, success and following, he gave it all up for love and after an affair with a client's wife, left America for Europe with her. The US took many years to forgive him. A great social architect with real human passion.
No 3: Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Another Victorian. A great innovative engineer and lateral and anti-conventional thinker, who built bridges, tunnels, ships and railways.
He created an atmospheric railway that used vaccuum to propel trains at nearly 70 miles per hour. He even designed and built a wartime field hospital in less than 3 months, encapsulating many sound principles of hygene used to this day. He died at 53. What else could he have done had he lived longer?
No 4: Mark Shuttleworth. My modern day hero and the South African founder of Ubuntu. Back in 1995, he created Thawte, the the pioneer of modern public key infrastructures to secure the Internet. Thawte was sold to Verisign back in 1999.
He used the money to start the VC fund HBD, ploughing the money back into innovation and funding many South African startups. He also created a not for profit fund for social innovation.
Ubuntu is the operating system for the people, harnessing the power of a global open source cummunity to provide a high quality user experience that will always be free, innovative and easy to use. A social genius.
Shuttleworth hates public speaking and let's his actions project louder than a smart-alec sound byte.
No 4: Jonathan Ives: British-born Design of the Apple Mac, iPod and iPhone and another who shuns the limelight.
In a world that thinks we only ever have one good idea (sound familiar, James?) how does he come up with so many diverse, amazing things that all become successful?
Everyone said in 2002 that no one would want a device like an iPod to hold their music. But once again, everybody was wrong. Ives proves that technology can change everything, done right. A lesson our bank bosses would do well to learn!
No 5: Steven D Levitt. I tend to avoid business books. They pretend to offer a shortcut to success as if you can somehow substitute a book for the raw talent, timing and luck necessary to succeed within a specific field. A bit like the commercial equivalent of "how to win the lottery/stock market/horses". Ultimately just snake oil. But Mr Levitt is that rare person, a real visionery.
He shows us how to look around and beyond the obvious, how nothing ever happens in isolation and the most seemingly diconnected things can eventually influence outcomes. Listen to this guy and you'll never see things the same again. Freakonomics is essential reading for any strategist!
Posted by: Neil Robinson | October 19, 2009 at 12:15 PM
1. Ricardo Semler - Showed how to run a successful organisation without resorting to hierarchy.
2. Gerald Fairtlough - ex-oil company executive who spread the word about hierarchy-free organisations
3. Albert Cherns - Elucidated 9 sociotechnical principles in 1976 which are still highly relevant today
4. Ralph Stacey - for signposting a complexity future
5. Noam Chomsky - for his superb work (linguistics, media) and reminding us that we must ever challenge the orthodoxy
Posted by: Peter Johnson | October 20, 2009 at 07:26 PM