Market7

Week Of Deep Thoughts Post #1

Per the sub-headline here, a plan was that during this week after just getting a knee operation, I would be mind altered by Vicodin and could daily offer brief opinions on various weighty topics with chemically enhanced color. But Dr. Colin Eakin’s precise hands have me quite literally feeling no pain, so here are the first of those thoughts, in full sobriety.

Let’s start with Google eliminating China presence as a topic. Some of the controversies about this include whether the company is putting principle above fiduciary duty to its shareholders, whether the “do no evil” ethic can be selectively applied here whereas there are other areas it is arguably diluted (ex: constructing profiles based on observation of personal on-line behavior), and whether it all might just be posturing while selecting a more tactical retreat versus tough, local competition.

This post’s quick analysis acknowledges such compromises as potential factors and salutes Google nonetheless. Even if not absolutely purely, the company is overtly embracing principle that is consistent with the identity it’s cultivated. That identity is in fact reason why many choose to trust much of our online lives to Google. And by & large there is evidence that it’s been thusfar abided. So, in fact Google’s public embrace of principle is a driver of its popularity and hence its success, and this weighty demonstration could bolster such positioning perhaps with greater benefit than its ofsetting & significant consequences.

Market7 has yet to reach stature where our demonstrable abidance of particular principles makes much impact on our success, but we do have resolution of what some of those principles are. They motivate us (another factor that may favor Google here — internal, cultural pride in the workplace) and we look forward to the day we can exercise them (likely in  less Star-Wars-esque manner than the Google slogan) to the business benefit of our company through generation of extensive goodwill among multiple key constituencies.

On Monday at SxSW I watched Bryan Mason and Sarah Nelson from Adaptive Path discuss the 10 tips for managing in a creative environment. This post focuses only on two tips. Don’t worry, At the end of this, I will list the other eight tips for those of you who absolutely MUST look under the bandage.

What I love about the adaptive path research was how they took a cross disciplinary slice. They spent time studying diverse, creative groups including restaurants, theater troupes, and professional writers among others.

Tip #1: Actively turn the corner

This diagram is of the creative process:

The first half of creating anything involves a divergence of ideas. You start with a single idea and then everyone starts throwing in different ideas that diverge from the original. No idea is eliminated at this stage and often experiments and mini-models are created. Then you turn the corner. At some explicitly defined point, you stop taking in new ideas and start converging towards a single point by eliminating what is unnecessary. This reduces scope creep, release slippage and the dreaded moving target. Eliminated ideas aren’t trashed, simply put into a “future creation/release” bucket.

Tip #2: Kill your darlings

Eliminate the ideas you LOVE that don’t get you closer to the goal first. Don’t eliminate the low hanging fruit or easy choices first. Choose instead to go after eliminating the tough choices from the beginning. By biting the bullet and eliminating the difficult choices first, the low-hanging fruit (those ideas to which you are not attached) becomes easy.

The eight other tips:
3. Cross-train the entire team
4. Rotate leadership
5. Know your roles
6. Practice, practice practice
7. Make the mission explicit to the entire team
8. Leadership is a service
9. Generate the creative projects around the group’s interests
10. Remember the audience
BONUS: Celebrate Failure (after all, it’s part of the creative process)

I must post today. There will not be another February 29 post on the Market7 blog until 2012 at the earliest. I’m reclining on the floor, computer on my lap, staring up at halftime report of Golden State Warriors vs. Philadelphia 76ers.

Not sure what I should write about this Leap day. The Warriors? They just had a beautiful half, connecting on 28 of 47 shot attempts, and passing for assists on 21 of those 28 baskets.

I do sometimes consider similarities between the Warriors and Market7. Really.

The captains of the Warriors are Matt Barnes who drifted through something like six NBA franchises before settling in at the team’s training camp before last season, Baron Davis who was considered damaged goods from frequent injuries before being traded to the Ws two years ago, and Stephen Jackson who had a few occasions of news-making, startlingly bad behavior before his trade to Golden State last year.

I don’t mean to imply that any of myself, Curtis, Pat or Shannon were mediocre contributors to our prior organizations or delinquents. But like the Dubs and their captains, I like thinking we’re an eclectic crew particularly able to thrive in our loose culture with enjoyment of each other’s distinctive personality.

One other business analogy from basketball. It’s a unique sport in that each player can make each kind of play. In football an offensive lineman can’t catch a pass (unless specially designated “eligible” before the play) and in baseball a centerfielder pretty much never assists on a groundout, but in hoops a point guard can block a shot and a big man can sink a three pointer.

Earlier today, I had a meeting in which someone pointed out my relishing of our building a versatile team, each member a contributor across aspects of our business. Go Warriors.