never use more when less will do

A fundamental design and life lesson from the Zen arts is to never use more when less will do....The ancient art of Japanese brush painting called Sumi-e provides a powerful lesson concerning the use of color, communication, and restraints. Sumi-e was brought to Japan from China and is an art deeply rooted in Zen, embodying many of the tenets of the Zen aesthetic including simplicity and the idea of maximum effect with minimum means....

...Either way the lesson is clear: few colors carefully selected and positioned can be more effective than many colors indiscriminately placed.

The objective of Sumi-e is not to recreate the subject to look perfectly like the original, but to capture its essence — that is, to express its essence. This is achieved not with more but with less....

Garr Reynolds, "Sumi-e, color, and the art of less," Presentation Zen, 6 Oct 2009,
www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2009/10/a-fundamental-design-and-life-lesson-from-the-zen-arts-is-to-never-use-more-when-less-will-do-this-goes-for-the-use-of-color.html

This is treasure

Later, after Yoko Takegawa had hung up with her sister in Sanjo City and had telephoned this stranger in Connecticut, it began to sink in. Her father had seen her face before he died; he had held her image near his heart during the battle. This realization, even so late in life, lessened a hurt she never knew she harbored and softened a sadness that had hardened long ago. “My daddy carried that letter with my picture in his body, in his bosom,” she said during a recent interview at her home. “I felt something, a spirit, come down in my body. This is treasure, a treasure that carried so much love to me. Before, I go to school with his money. But now, he sends his love to me.”

Lizette Alvarez, "U.S. Veteran Returns Iwo Jima Relic to Daughter of Japanese Soldier," New York Times, 18 Sep 2009,
www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/nyregion/20iwo.html.

Design works if it's authentic, inspired, and has a clear point of view.

Anyone who has ever been to Target would instantly recognize the Michael Graves section simply by the distinctive blue boxes lined up at the base of a kitchen-products gondola. 'Graves blue' is a Wedgwood-y shade, as iconic as Tiffany's robin's egg blue. Born from the color of architectural blueprints, it's a complex hue not easily matched with a Pantone number. But it's Graves's favorite and, naturally, the one he chose to use in his first collection.

Target, it seems, had other ideas. Graves remembers submitting his first collection -- which featured a toaster, a blender, and an ice bucket, all with blue handles -- to the trend spotters at Target's headquarters. 'They said, 'Well, we love it, but the blue will have to go,' ' he recalls, laughing. ' 'Blue doesn't sell. Half of America doesn't like blue, and the other doesn't like green. It's got to be neutral.' ' The standoff continued until Ron Johnson, then head of the discounter's home products, mediated the dispute. 'I had to step in and say, 'Guys, these are Michael's products,' ' says Johnson, who now oversees Apple's retail stores. 'Design works if it's authentic, inspired, and has a clear point of view. It can't be a collection of input.'"

When the line launched in stores, Graves was instantly vindicated. From day one, the toaster has been a hit at Target, and five years later, it's still available. "That's the fundamental difference about design," Johnson says. "It endures."

"Between the Lines," Fast Company, 1 Aug 2004,
www.fastcompany.com/magazine/85/open_betweenthelines.html.

It's really hard to design products by focus groups

'It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.'
Steve Jobs -- BusinessWeek, May 25 1998

Owen Linzmayer, "Steve Jobs' Best Quotes Ever," Wired, 29 Mar 2006,
www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2006/03/70512.

Morale & Budgets

Brad Bird: In my experience, the thing that has the most significant impact on a movie’s budget—but never shows up in a budget—is morale. If you have low morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about 25 cents of value. If you have high morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about $3 of value. Companies should pay much more attention to morale.

Hayagreeva Rao, Robert Sutton, and Allen P. Webb, "Innovation lessons from Pixar Director Brad Bird," McKinsey Quarterly, April 2008, www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Innovation_lessons_from_Pixar_An_interview_with_Oscar-winning_director_Brad_Bird_2127.

That’s very Googley

For now, Microsoft continues to fight alone, but with more vigor than in years past, analysts said. Less than a month after Bing’s release, Microsoft beat Google and Yahoo to a hot new area in search: It became the first major search engine to index new postings from popular Twitter users almost immediately. The move helped amplify the buzz around Bing.

“I feel like they are a little more daring,” Mr. Sullivan said. “They popped this thing out in a few weeks. That’s very Googley.”

Miguel Helft, "Bing Delivers Credibility to Microsoft," NYTimes.com, 13 July 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/technology/companies/14bing.html.

Stories for change

We tend to conform to the behavior of the people around us. Which is what makes culture change particularly challenging because everyone is conforming to the current culture. Sometimes though, the problem contains the solution.

'Stories.' I said to the head of the firm.

'Excuse me?' he responded.

'You change a culture with stories. Right now your stories are about how hard you work people. Like the woman you forced to work on her wedding day. You may not be proud of it, but it's the story you tell. That story conveys your culture simply and reliably. And I'm certain you're not the only one who tells it. You can be sure the bride tells it. And all her friends. If you want to change the culture, you have to change the stories.'

Peter Bregman, "A Good Way to Change a Corporate Culture," HarvardBusiness.org, 25 June 2009, blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/06/the-best-way-to-change-a-corpo.html via a tweet by David Armano

good questions

America? What could I possibly teach this esteemed group about America? Then I remembered what one of my mentors, Bill Lazier, told me about effective teaching: Don't try to come up with the right answers; focus on coming up with good questions.

Jim Collins, "How the Mighty Fall: A Primer on the Warning Signs," BusinessWeek, 14 May 2009, www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_21/b4132026786379.htm.

simplicity, accessibility, honesty, and enjoyment

'With technology, the function is much more abstract to users,' Ive, then 32, told us. 'So the product's meaning is almost entirely defined by the designer.' Even then, it was clear that Apple's head of design knew what he was doing. Ive defined his overarching design principles as 'simplicity, accessibility, honesty, and enjoyment.'

"Most Creative People 2009: Jonathan Ive," Fast Company, June 2009, www.fastcompany.com/100/2009/jonathan-ive

If you're terrified to release control, nothing gets made!

I'm not going to run out of creativity or ideas, so I don't hang on to stuff for dear life. If you're terrified to release control, nothing gets made!

"Most Creative People 2009: Dave Stewart," Fast Company, June 2009, www.fastcompany.com/100/2009/dave-stewart