Arvai’s presenation rambled all over the place.  He seemed to have no one particular point he was driving at.  Frequently, he’d turn his back to the audience, look up at his Prezi projected on a large screen, scratch his head, and navigate around the Prezi until he found the next thing he wanted to talk about. Sometimes he got a little lost as to where in the Prezi he could find what he was looking for.

On top of the seeming incoherence of his story, Arvai, as a Scandanavian by upbringing, isn’t what you’d call an animated personality type.  His voice has a pleasant, sing-songy quality, like small waves lapping at a dock on a lake. His performance style doesn’t have that build-build-build-bada-bing! quality that TV packages into bites like Nabisco packages cookies.

Afterward, outside the room, I heard people panning the presentation.  “Boring.” “You’d think he’d have it more together.”  “I can’t believe that guy’s the CEO!”

The people who were disappointed were looking for a particular form or style from Arvai, and probably looking to be entertained for an hour by a showman, a pitchman, a visionary, a clown, or a pundit.  None of that materialized, so waaaah!  They were like children who didn’t get the toys they wanted for their birthdays.

These people, I think, missed the gift Arvai gave them:  He showed himself learning! It was one of the most interesting and disarming games I’ve ever seen a CEO play in a presentation.  To show the audience how one uses Prezi, he was willing to get himself lost in it.

In a totally unforced and improvisational way, Arvai showed how putting Prezi to best use means working with themes, chipping away and shaping them to a narrative, purposefully getting lost in the material so that you can find meaning in it, as if the information you put on the Prezi screen is a stone and your narrative is a sculpture.

I thought it was brilliant.  Another thing I liked about his presentation is that it was conversational, which was good for the relatively small room we were in.  Arvai showed that ‘always-on’ doesn’t have to mean always being the center of attention.  You can be ‘always on’ if you step onto the stage as if a conversation were taking place before you got there and you’re joining it.  That way of ‘always performing’ is more genuine and easier on the life of your batteries than if you have to crank up the voltage every time you step in front of a group of people to talk about your product.

Our friend Barbara Groth, CEO of the design company, Big Buddha Baba, put something on her Facebook profile earlier today that seems to applie to Arvai’s prezi:

“Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.”
— Haruki Murakami

We do, however, use the word ‘imp.’  I have always associated the idea of impishness–of being playfully mischievous–with improvisation and even sometimes refer to improvisers as ‘my fellow imps.’  While waiting on a Skype call this morning with Hildy Gottlieb of Creating the Future, I decided to look up the roots of the word ‘imp.’

Turns out that ‘imp’ comes from an entirely different strain of language than ‘improvise,’ which is derived the Latin root ‘improvisere,’ meaning ‘not foreseen.’  ‘Imp’ has Old English roots, a little Latin attribution.  Yet there’s a lot of overlap, like a family from Naples and one from Nottingham having a lot in common.

Here’s how the TheFreeDictionary.com, an aggregator of print dictionary listings, defines it:

imp (mp) n. 1. A mischievous child. 2. A small demon. 3. Obsolete A graft. tr.v. imped, imp·ing, imps 1. To graft (new feathers) onto the wing of a trained falcon or hawk to repair damage or increase flying capacity. 2. To furnish with wings. [Middle English impe, scion, sprig, offspring, from Old English impa, young shoot, from impian, to graft, ultimately from Medieval Latin impotus, graft, from Greek emphutos, grafted, from emphuein, to implant : en-, in; see en-2 + phuein, to make grow; see bheu- in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms

Noun	1.	imp – (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous elf, gremlin, pixie, pixy, hob, brownie folklore – the unwritten lore (stories and proverbs and riddles and songs) of a culture faerie, faery, fairy, fay, sprite – a small being, human in form, playful and having magical powers leprechaun – a mischievous elf in Irish folklore sandman – an elf in fairy stories who sprinkles sand in children’s eyes to make them sleepy
	2.	imp – one who is playfully mischievous scamp, monkey, rapscallion, rascal, scalawag, scallywag child, kid, minor, nipper, tiddler, youngster, tike, shaver, small fry, nestling, fry, tyke – a young person of either sex; “she writes books for children”; “they’re just kids”; “`tiddler’ is a British term for youngster” brat, holy terror, little terror, terror – a very troublesome child

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

---

imp

noun

1. demon, devil, sprite He sees the devil as a little imp with horns.

2. rascal, rogue, brat, urchin, minx, scamp, pickle (Brit. informal), gamin I didn’t say that, you little imp!

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

imp

adj impish

——————————————————————————————

GameChangers summary:  Both ‘imp’ and ‘improvisation’ express themes of playfulness, the getting of wings, a childlike view of the world, and a mischievous spirit that results in some kind of transformation.  Like improvisation, the imping that describes a plant graft builds on an existing reality.  Impishness isn’t a seed.  It is a branch grafted onto the existing reality of the tree.  It isn’t a new wing, it is adding feathers to a bird that already has wings.

Growth, flight, magic.   What fantastic themes these are.  Imp on!

JSB asked Erick and me how social networks (Erick’s area of expertise) and improvisation (mine) create value.

I asked rhetorically in return, “Why do pictures have frames?”

The conversation continued for a minute or so and then JSB repeated, “Why do pictures have frames? That’s a good subject for an article!”

So here it is, JSB.  An improviser’s answer to the question, “Why do pictures have frames?”  (Erick B?  You got anything?  Bring it!)

Frames impose discipline. How many times have we all heard the phrase, “Think outside the box”? Scary many.  Over the past ten years, it has succeeded “paradigm shift” as the #1 business cliché.  Worse than a cliché, it’s bullshit, because it implies that a good creative process is not subject to restrictions.  That it’s totally free. Random and unfettered.  A good process, in fact, begins with restrictions.

A sculptor chooses a rock.  The rock is a frame. The sculpture is already in the rock, and it’s the artist’s job to coax it out.  The rock tells the artist what tools to use.  How much time to allocate.  How much force to apply to the coaxing process.  The nature of the rock suggests where the sculpture will eventually live.  The artist can only create within the limitations of the rock, and yet, within those limitations, there is unlimited potential to bring something delightful to life.  The artist uses the frame of the rock to test his or her own limitations to make something of value.  Our limitations are not in the rocks we choose, but in ourselves.

For improvisers, the game is the frame.  The game liberates potential because players know that everything required for a great performance is already in the game, waiting to be discovered.  In terms of business, ‘framing games’  put the emphasis where it belongs, on human potential, and not on a particular system or platform.

Frames create focus. The eye knows where to go.  The geometry of the frame introduces–to both the artist and the beholder–spatial and temporal relationships.  These relationships between the art and its environment, and between elements of design within the frame, give meaning to what’s inside the frame.   Likewise, the act of framing helps define relationships within networks; and between a network and the business environment.

Frames provide context. Unless the immense amount of communication coursing through a network is given context, it tends to be read as raw data by platform- and metrics-obsessed managers.  Data is not narrative.  Data is not theme.  Data without a framing game to give it context is meaningless, like water without a container.   All it does is evaporate.   The molecules are still there, but its usefulness vanishes into thin air.

Frames invite valuation. Let’s face it, business needs numbers.  The margins must be there.  How much is the time of a employee at the edge, in steady communication with players outside the company’s network,  worth?  Framing games make valuation possible.  (Not easy.  Possible.)

In The Power of Pull, JSB, Hagel and Davison describe ‘shaping strategies’ for networked organization, which are analogous to the framing games described above.

If this has whetted your appetite for the subject of ‘why pictures have frames,’ you can deepdive into this conversation between the renowned academics, David Bordwell and Henry Jenkins, part 3 of a series about framing transmedia narratives.

Two days ago, Mr. Stick explained the genesis of BPGlobalPR.  Thanks to @andysternberg of Live Earth for pointing it my way.  Here’s an excerpt:

You know the best way to get the public to respect your brand?  Have a respectable brand.  Offer a great, innovative product and make responsible, ethical business decisions.  Lead the pack!  Evolve!  Don’t send hundreds of temp workers to the gulf to put on a show for the President.  Hire those workers to actually work!  Don’t dump toxic dispersant into the ocean just so the surface looks better.  Collect the oil and get it out of the water!  Don’t tell your employees that they can’t wear respirators while they work because it makes for a bad picture.  Take a picture of those employees working safely to fix the problem.  Lastly, don’t keep the press and the people trying to help you away from the disaster, open it up so people can see it and help fix it.  This isn’t just your disaster, this is a human tragedy.  Allow us to mourn so that we can stop being angry.

“Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  – The Little Prince

We recently attended TEDxUSC, an event co-produced by our friend Elisa Wiefel Schreiber.  It was a day of uniformly brilliant presenters in fields like virtual reality, health care, music, and innovation and creativity in the fashion industry.

One of the more profound presentations belonged to Al Seckel, a cognitive neuroscientist and author of The Ultimate Book of Optical Illusions.  The presentation basically consisted of his thesis statement–”One cannot trust one’s perceptions, because perceptions are not reality”–followed by a series of illustrations and short film clips proving the thesis.

The context in which we receive information shapes the information.  The implications of this idea are far-reaching and deep, and touch on everything from politics to product design.

The more ubiquitous information gets to be, the more valuable our ability to contextualize information becomes.  More importantly, if one does not have the ability to think critically about context, to ’see the game,’ he or she will be setting themselves up for manipulation, and will be more likely to act on someone else’s manufactured perceptions than on reality.  And that is where trouble begins.  If you don’t see and act on your own reality, you will surely be subjected to someone else’s.

Look at this.  Then move 15 feet away and look at it again. 

Which line is longer?

Does the horizontal bar in this drawing change color?

(It does not.)

A few years ago, I was asked by a network executive to videotape interviews with the alumnae of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, including Betty White.  The show had been off the air for many years but Mary clearly maintained her star status, and the rest of the cast deferred to her as such.  I, however, only had eyes for Betty.  Then, as now, she lit up the room with those smiling, sparkling eyes, and the sincere attention she gave to those around her.  Listening, I am more convinced all the time, is the secret to relating to the world, and Betty listens with the best.  Her ego does not get in the way of her reception, and as a result, her picture is always crystal clear.  What you experience is not the illusion of a human being, it is human.  It is not a portrayal, not a role.  It is true character.

After we had completed our interview, Betty and I had a chance to talk, and I got to tell her the one thing I really wanted to tell her, how my mom had been a big fan of hers since the Password days, and how she celebrated the relationship between Ms. White and her dream husband, Allen Ludden.  Then, on pure impulse, I asked Betty she’d mind calling Fern on my mobile phone and saying hello.  This was a no-no for someone doing my job, a line you did not cross, it was like kitchen help taking a seat at the dinner table.  But all I could think about was how happy Fern would be to get a phone call from Betty White.  “Of course I will”  Betty said.

Fern was not home.  The call went to voice mail.   Betty didn’t miss a beat.  “Fern, this is Betty White,” she said.  “I’m standing here with a handsome young man who claims to be your son, and he tells me you’re a Password fan.  That is so sweet of you.  We had so much fun on that show, didn’t we?…”  I don’t remember the rest of what she said, but I remember that the tone of her message was as if she and Fern were old high school classmates who hadn’t seen each other in ages.  Which, in a way, they were.

A couple of days later, the network executive called and the conversation eventually came around, as I figured it would, to the subject of the call I’d asked Betty to make to Fern.  “At first, I thought what you did was okay, and later I thought it wasn’t okay,”  said the exec.  She said she had no choice but to fire me.  I could not have cared less.  The happiness in my mother’s voice when she phoned to tell me about the voice mail from her BFF, Betty, was worth a thousand gigs.

I imagine that Betty White’s life has been a series of encounters just like this one, in which she has given the gift of herself, and treated her fans as her equals, her collaborators in a joyful conversation.  (”We had fun, didn’t we, Fern?”)  This is why she is still young and her world is still unfolding at the age of 88, and she’s hosting Saturday Night Live tomorrow night.

3 AM, French Lick (Indiana) Casino

I see this same spirit in my mother, who, at the age of 82, still lives on the farm in Indiana, quilts, bowls, plays bingo, gambles in Vegas, sings in the choir, gardens, cooks amazing meals, mows the huge yard and can drink with the young folks at the Shamrock Pub until closing time.  When I talk to her on the phone, she’s usually the one who ends the conversation because, hey, she’s got things to do and has to get going.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mother!  Break a leg, Betty!  We love you both!

Understanding How and Why B2B ‘Buyers Are Liars’ …

Every good story has conflict, and the accusation in the headline implied this element in Needles’ post.  The quotation marks round the accusation suggested that Needles would be offering context.  And besides that, who can resist a good rhyme?  I dove in, and I’m glad I did.  Quotes from the post:

“…buyers regularly enter data that is not wholly accurate because it serves their purposes at that moment in time.”

“…it’s something they do both intentionally and unintentionally to better manage the dynamics of their interactions with vendors.”

“…more than ever buyers often don’t really have accurate, explicit answers to BANT (Budget, Authority, Needs, Timing) questions, so we have to figure out when/where they’re moving forward on an implicit basis.”

“…the B2B buying process is less formalized than ever before.  “More than 8 in 10 respondents said the buying process did not follow a traditional path…”

“B2B buyer organizations are becoming more agile and making more decisions on a non-planned basis.”

“Don’t expect to learn everything about a prospective buyer through online or automated interactions.”

It turns out that what Needles has to say, headline aside, is NOT that buyers are liars, it is this:  The dynamic between buyers and sellers is changing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s B2B or B2C, the changing dynamic is the same.  Sellers cannot take for granted that the selling process will follow predictable narratives.  Every selling scenario has the potential for uniqueness. Unless you’re willing to address and support this potential, you’re going to get stuck somewhere in the funnel.

Here is the fundamental shift, as described by our friend John Callahan of GE’s Intelligent Platforms division:  “What happens when there’s that much money at stake – one of our systems might cost a couple hundred million dollars – the customer knows your product as well as you do. There’s nothing you can tell them about what you’re selling that they don’t already know. So the question becomes ‘What do you talk about?’ Well, you talk about the relationship between your company and theirs, and between the people involved in making the system work.”

Callahan sums it up perfectly.  The old dynamic between a Seller who holds all the cards and a Buyer who has to show his or her own cards to get in the game has changed.  Reversed, in fact.  So learn your selling script, then toss it aside.  Implement your automated queries, but don’t use them as a crutch.  They won’t get you to your destination.

“You cannot stick to a script,” says Callahan.  “In a long sales cycle, if you try to stick to the script, you’ll run out of things to say. You have to improvise by working with what your customers give you in the way of information about themselves.”

You work with what your scene partners give you in the way of information about themselves. That is the essence of improvisation.

Painting by Bill Schenck www.schencksouthwest.com

“You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this IS the Hour.  And there are things to be considered:  Where are you living?  What are you doing?  What are your relationships?  Are you in right relation?

“Where is your water?  Know your garden. It is time to speak your Truth.  Create your community.  Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader.

“There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.  They will try to hold on to the shore.  They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination.  The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our heads above the water.

“And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history we are to take nothing personally, least of all, ourselves.  For the moment we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

“The time of the lone wolf is over.  Gather yourselves!!  Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.  All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

“We are the ones we have been  waiting for.”

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said,  “This could be a good time!”

No, they improvised.  And by that, I don’t mean they flew by the seat of their pants, or made it up as they went along.  From the CEO on down, they jumped into the conversation with the audience and performed aggressively to build a narrative that countered the media hysteria around the recall and the ambulance-chasing members of the legal profession who fanned its flames.

This is what improvisation is.  A conversation designed to connect the performers with their community.  Not a monologue, a strategy, a script or a campaign.  A dialogue. Observations and comments.  Listening and responding.  Action and reaction.

AdWeek this week highlights one component of Toyota’s conversation with the audience:  a Digg Dialogg with Toyota’s head of U.S. Sales, Jim Lentz.  One of the more telling beats in the article is how skeptical J.D. Power & Associates, the traditional arbiter of performance and quality in the automotive industry is about this tactic.  They don’t see ‘movement’ in their polls, they say.  The jury is still out, they say.  What the J.D. Power people fail to grasp is that the conversation itself is the movement.  The fact that it happened, along with untold other interactions between the brand and audience, constitute a flow of events that defy any one snapshot’s (i.e. poll’s) ability to capture its effectiveness.  Trying to measure one data point in a narrative with a million data points is foolish.  J. D. Powers is trying to apply old school metrics to a new school process.  It’s like taking a poll about how people feel about Rings and using it to gauge the audience’s perception of Lord of the Rings.

No doubt there’s a major problem with Toyota’s process, the company has admitted as much.  Its quantity got ahead of its quality.  It began thinking of its audience as consumers instead of customers.  It’s a big, big, issue, with immense implications for the brand.  What’s impressive is that they didn’t let the immensity overwhelm them.  They didn’t look for an epic solution to the epic problem.  Rather, they began a journey of epic proportions., and they are conducting it one conversation, one scene, at a time.  They are contrite, but they are not backpedaling, or wasting time deliberating.  That would cause the narrative to lose its momentum.  They didn’t script a narrative and then try to force it on the audience.  They improvised, with the conviction that their journey will eventually re-connect them with their community, and win back its confidence and its applause for their performance.