While you’re lacing up your Google running shoes, or in the vernacular of this future, your ‘Googs,’ you get an alert on your mobile that there’s a major drought looming in Tibet, which is on track to record its lowest snowfall ever.

You program your Googs where to send the 1,000 foot-pounds of energy you’re going to generate during your 6K run.  Around the world, millions of others who belong to the Himalayan Foundation like you do get the same alert, and trigger the same program on their Googs– and additionally via the movement generated by wearers of the 12 other shoe brands, two brands of workout machines, a theater seating company named Squirmigy, four flooring companies, and a wheelchair manufacturer–all of which the Himalayan Foundation has networked on the Donorgy platform.

For the next hour, the energy generated by the movement of the users of all these brands will be auctioned by the Himalayan Foundation and sold as futures on global commodity networks.  At the end of the hour, the contracts will be delivered and all bets get paid off.  With the money raised in a little over one hour,  the Himalayan Foundation will be able to fund a fleet of  gigantic solar powered cargo-cleaning blimps (known as Humptys) to pick up a billion metric tonnes of water from a flood in the Phillipines and clean and haul it to the farmers and communities of Tibet, who can now keep Buddha smiling for another season.

Okay, we’re not there yet, but we will be someday.

MEANWHILE…here’s what we got.  We run for causes.  The mechanism by which funds get transferred to various causes is to the aforementioned scenario what a Stanley Steamer is to a Lexus.  We’ve got a ways to go, but we work with what we’ve got.

Kevin Wall

TOMORROW, SUNDAY, APRIL 18…Kevin Wall and his band of Live Earthlings will stage a Run for Water that will channel money to a number of organizations who dig wells and provide clean water for poor communities in Africa.  It is the ‘opening act’ for the big concert Wall and Live Earth are producing to open the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg in June.  Proceeds from that concert will also flow to social networks supporting economic development in Africa.

The cynic in me says this is sponsored by Dow Chemical.  Those Bophal people.  The thing is, it takes big money to solve big problems.  The waste and misallocation of the planet’s resources is a big problem, and Kevin Wall has a special genius for getting large organizations to direct big money at big problems.  movement.  Yea absolutely, the guy can  be a pain in the ass to work with.  Between him and Al Gore, there was pretty much no oxygen in the room on the Live Earth concerts (the plants were happy, though : )  That said, Kevin has a great heart, he is a master business improviser who causes a lot of unforeseen positive outcomes in the projects he does, and he deserves the support of anyone–from Tony Dow to Dow Finsterwald to Dow Jones to Dow Chemical to Daniel Dao–who wants to work on better ways of treating the planet.

And I will guarantee that when roller skates and skateboards start generating energy futures, Kevin Wall will be the first in line for that deal.

Until then…what are we going to do tomorrow?!…

If you run, or can walk 6K, and are in one of the many locations around the world where this run is happening, it will definitely be a good thing for you to do tomorrow morning.   Program those Googs and throw some foot-pounds at the problem, why don’t ya!

]]> http://www.gamechangers.com/index.html/archives/1760/feed 0 http://www.gamechangers.com/index.html/archives/581 http://www.gamechangers.com/index.html/archives/581#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:14:12 +0000 admin http://www.gamechangers.com/index.html/?p=581 I sometimes answer business-related questions on LinkedIn that can be addressed with the principles of improvisation. This is one in a series of responses that was deemed ‘Best Answer’ by the questioner…

THE QUESTION: How do you feel about your career?

In June 2000, I felt incredibly “not good” about my job working as account manager for a firm voted as one of the 50 best managed firms in Canada. Even though I was surrounded by wonderful coworkers and supported by the best boss I ever had, I felt intuitively, without being able to explain it, that I was not in my “right” place.

So I committed what could only be called “career suicide” and began an exciting journey to find my true self. Took me 5 years to figure out I truly wanted to become a creative knowledge writer!

What I’ve learned is that one’s inner guidance (which is mostly emotional) cannot fail. Hence, my question above.

If you wish to answer, these words could be helpful in identifying one’s states: worried, bored, hopeful, optimistic, overwhelmed, content, frustrated, discouraged, angry, enthusiastic, happy, eager, passionate, joyous, empowered.

I would be interested also to know WHY you feel as you do.

Feel free to respond privately if you wish. Thanks!

Peter Nguyen
Editor in Chief
CareerKnowledge.net

MY ANSWER:

The part I like best about your statement is when you describe how our ‘inner guidance’ cannot fail. I agree with this wholeheartedly. As the first person in my family to graduate from college, I felt as if I needed to have a ‘legitimate’ job after graduation to show for my degree. So I went to work for a very large (Fortune 100) company that stuck me in the town of Effingham, Illinois, where I was miserable. After eight months, I decided to quit listening to my head, quit acting on what I perceived, rightly or not, as the expectations of others, and instead to follow my heart, and I’ve never regretted it for a second.

I began by doing something I loved. Telling and writing stories. I wrote a humorous history of Notre Dame football. I used my book and my freelance writing samples to get a job in the marketing department at Disney, where I was the publicist on TRON, among many other films.

I started a production company to produce media for the entertainment business. During this time, I wrote and directed films and television and traveled the world for my clients. I got into the internet and produced the web site for Toy Story and many other Disney films, which became the genesis for production company to produce web sites. This, in turn, got me gigs as the creative director and head creative exec for a series of ever-larger dotcom companies.

When the dotcom bubble burst, I made a film about my father’s life story entitled Finding Bill Murray (you can see it on YouTube as 187 separate clips) that we showed to my father the week before he died, projected on the side of our barn in Indiana for an audience of 200.

In making the film, I connected with a friend who was starting a streaming media company, and became a co-founder and head of creative for that company, which then became the springboard for the Live Earth concerts in 2007, for which I was the Chief Storyteller.

Meanwhile, I began studying improvisation, and realized the deep and pervasive connections between improvisation and our ability to maneuver and succeed in the Networked World. I wrote a book about it and started an education company to help clients achieve their business goals.

One of the realizations that came to me through the study of improvisation is precisely what you stated — that we all have an inner light guiding us that cannot be wrong. When we are young and flexible of mind and body and our spirits are unfettered, the light is strong. As we get older and more weighed down by expectations, responsibilities, the weight of the world, we can lose sight of it. But it’s still there. With focus and disciplined effort, we can keep it stoked and ourselves along with it.

There is no predictable trajectory, no rational map, to explain how I got where I am today. I have, in fact, improvised my career. I know where it matters, in my heart, that where I am today is the right place for me, and that all my life and work experiences, and whatever knowledge I have accumulated on my journey and the friends I have made along the way will come into play. All because many years ago, I began making choices with my heart instead of my head.

Knowledge will always be there for us, but what the heart senses can be fleeting, and we should act on it whenever we have the opportunity. The rewards for these choices cannot be known ahead of time, but they will be there and they will be substantial. Thank you for asking the question.

PETER’S RESPONSE:

Mike, your story is just amazing! Your success story validates age-old wisdom at the heart of aphorisms such as “follow your bliss” (by famed mythologist Joseph Campbell). Your multifaceted experience of a (breathtakingly!) prolific career is an uplifting and inspiring testimony to the creative powers we all have within, powers that are often stifled by external influences with our unwitting collaboration. You are the proof that as a person follows his bliss, bliss will soon follow him everywhere he goes. Thank you for leading by example!

Flash forward to last week. Our friend Shannon Porter shows me around Nau, the sustainable clothing store (men’s and women’s) in Chicago where she is one of the managers. (Nau is based in Portland.) The store where Shannon works is at 2118 North Halsted Avenue, smack in the heart of a great part of a great city. Shannon has a Wharton School degree and impeccable taste in music and friends and just about everything else, and so I want to think Nau is going to be cool before I ever set foot in it. But there is a shadow of a doubt in my mind. I mean, I’d had the unsatisfactory experience with the smokable clothes, and she did say a lot of their stuff is made from recycled polyester and, well, you know, the original polyester ain’t so great to begin with, so how could recycled — ???

And then I crossed the Nau threshold, and within minutes, my experience with sustainable clothing had changed, just the way the brand intended.
The clothes are fantastic. The material, the design, the concept, the technology, the emotion. Everything works. The store experience guides you through the brand’s narrative with a constant sense of discovery and appreciation.

The bathroom has the mission statement posted. Given this environment, any scene set in here is almost guaranteed to explore a theme one could describe as ‘Reflecting on One’s Brand at a Time One Normally Would Not’. (A GameChanger changes the game whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself.)

Nau stores are, in effect, showrooms. They carry minimal stock, reducing the needed retail space and the carbon emissions associated with shipping from warehouses to stores. Savings are passed along. Ordering directly from the warehouse saves you 10%.

To learn more about an item, you take a card from a holder where the item is hanging and scan it.

To order an item, you wave that same card at a different scanner.

5% of every purchase you make goes to a cause you choose at checkout.

From the conscious designs of buttons on the clothing to the quality of the video on the Nau web site, every choice made by the brand resonates with heart and reeks with aesthetic wonderfulness.

I bought lots of clothes for spring, donated 5% to Kiva in the process, and was kicking myself by the time I got back to L.A. that I did not buy more. Oh well. Nau’s L.A. store opens in April, and I’m sure that will be a good time, too.

In April, a little more than three months before the concerts, I am in Live Earth’s Los Angeles production office, which is now at full boil. Damon Cason, who’s in charge of the films, is on the phone dealing with Joaquin Phoenix’s people. Andre Mika and David Parks, who are designing the media architecture, tack maps and index cards on the walls that depict the global satellite config. Jose Caballer and his team from The Groop crank out design work like Junior Warhols. Lily Sobhani, the worldwide event manager, is on the phone serving as some promoter’s suicide hot line. Tom Feegel, the Chief of Staff, is trying to figure out what to do with a hundred pairs of hybrid shoes that just arrived from Keen. Daniel Dao, in charge of on-site promotion is looking at stadium maps on two computer monitors while moderating a global conference call about the placement of banners, and how those banners will be printed with biodegradable ink on recycled material that will itself get recycled after the show. Cathleen Lewis and Kerry Craft are on a speaker phone talking Smart Car through its ticketing arrangements in Berlin. The head of PR, Christina Schake, is plotting for a band of scientists who call themselves Nunatak to perform live from Antarctica on the day of the event. Kevin saunters through, showing Cameron Diaz around and introducing her verrrrrrry selectively to certain people, me not being one of them.

Dang.

Through the hubbub of this crowded stage, I catch a voice that is riveting in its eloquence and intensity. It belongs to a well-dressed man huddled in the middle of the bullpen area speaking with John Rego and Josh Stempel, two of Live Earth’s environmental consultants. I scoot over to listen. What the man has to say appeals more to the improviser in me than anything I hear for the entire year I am with Live Earth.

The man’s name is Michael Molitor. Originally from southern California, he got his undergrad degree at the U. of Michigan and holds graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and the Scripps Oceanographic Institute at the University of California-San Diego. Today he lives in Sydney, where he is founder and CEO of a CarbonShift, a PriceWaterhouseCoopers joint that advises Fortune 1000 companies on energy investment strategy. In 2003-4, he served as the scientific adviser on the Roland Emmerich film, The Day After Tomorrow. On Live Earth, Molitor supervised the sustainability of the Sydney concert. That was a small scene for him. When he plays to his full potential, the objective is to move capital markets in a way that has a positive effect on the environment and generates new wealth. That is a big, big game. One that is changing every day. To play it, you must be a GameChanger. Like Molitor.

This week, Molitor took time out from prepping for the U. N. Conference on Climate Change, which is taking place Dec. 3-14 in Bali, to email me his views on how the energy game is changing (my queries in italics):

Describe the Industrial Age energy game vs. the energy game being played in the Networked World.

The new global energy game will be defined by “carbon-energy” — the ability to increase global energy supplies with decreasing carbon emissions. The large and growing carbon driver will also force new and bigger demand-side management exercises — because at least half of our current global carbon emissions are “superfluous” as they are the result of blatant and obvious inefficiencies. We have calculated that we can reduce household emissions in Australia in half at no net cost to households — the story is even better for commercial buildings. We cannot begin to imagine the changes in our lives that will result from the upcoming global carbon-energy game. Did you predict in 1960 that we would have personal computers and the internet before the end of the 20th century?

In a sense, the energy game is one we all play. The smaller players do not, however, define the game, or have a huge say in its rules. What players (or what ‘roles’), in your opinion, have the skills to change the game and establish the new rules?

The carbon-energy game will be driven largely by capital markets as they are already working to convert a company’s carbon performance into financial performance. The TXU deal and the Alcan purchase were both carbon-energy plays — these were the two largest deals in the world in 2007. Credit reporting agencies are downgrading the credit status of companies as a result of their exposure to both 1st and 2nd order climate change risks. Regulations will play a role but nothing compared to the new capital markets’ carbon rules. We are moving towards a point where there will be a measurable premium or discount on the share price of companies’ based exclusively on their carbon performance.

What effective moves can individuals and small businesses make in the new game?

People and smaller companies should be looking to invest in carbon management solutions.

What is CarbonShift’s role in the new game? How are you a player in it?

CarbonShift plays two roles: (1) we advise large companies on how to design and implement carbon management strategies through our strategic partner: PricewaterhouseCoopers (Australia) and (2) we are active in the carbon finance/carbon trading space working with large financial institutions to create and manage carbon funds.

What are three themes that guide you personally and/or the CarbonShift brand?

(1) help drive the process of reform in capital markets where carbon is measured and reported on a scale meaningful to both the risks and opportunities flowing from climate change

(2) measure your performance in terms of mega-tonnes of carbon emissions avoided and not revenue

(3) walk the talk—-live a carbon negative life

In what sense are you improvisational in your work?

In everything — there are virtually no set rules or guidelines for how we approach a challenge as large as global climate change. If you are using something that looks like a recognised framework then you are moving in the wrong direction. We face this climate challenge because of the existing and well-embedded rules of the game — we need entirely new rules. Improvisation would be the fourth point to your question [about themes] above.

If you want to add notes about the Climate Change Conference, I will blog about that, too.

Success in Bali depends on getting most of the large carbon emitting nations to see a global response to climate change as the world’s greatest investment opportunity and not simply as a giant cost. Why can’t we develop a new treaty framework that makes it profitable to reduce carbon emissions in China [instead of focusing] on the cost of compliance in the US or Europe? GE and many leading investors have already acknowledged that the global carbon management challenge is the greatest business opportunity in history — why haven’t key government also seen this?