I want to alert the integrative thinking and design thinking communities to a must read new book just out from my colleague and friend Hilary Austen.  It is titled: Artistry Unleashed: A Guide to Pursuing Great Performance in Work and Life.  I have written the foreword in which I argue that it might be the most important book you read this year.

These days, many argue that artistry and creativity are important and then admonish people to be more creative.  Great.  I guess that is better than not understanding that artistry is important.  But having people understand that they should be more artistic and creative but have no idea how to make that happen is not exactly a huge win for humanity.

Hilary is the only writer that gives rigorous and practical advice on how a person can develop and enhance his or her artistic capacity. The book is clear, entertaining and inspirational. 

Please read it and enjoy.

Roger

Posted on December 6th, 2010 | Filed Under: Blog, Design Thinking | Permalink | Comments (4)

For the second straight year, I co-chaired the June DMI conference on De-Thinking design in San Francisco with my friend Darrel Rhea, CEO of Cheskin.  It was terrific and I encourage everyone to watch for the video of the conference to go up in the next month.

Highlights for me included watching Roberto Verganti in action for the first time.  What a smart guy!  His writing is great but he is really special live and in color.  David Butler, head of design for Coke and I had been meaning to get together for some time and the conference provided an opportunity to do that on stage and it was terrific.

The most fun for me (and I think the audience) was interviewing brilliant Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts President Katie Taylor talk about how design infuses absolutely everything at Four Seasons.  Even the interview process for new hires is designed with the user experience in mind.  Four Seasons routinely interviews over 100 candidates for a new position – that is interviews, not receives applications.  Five interviews are required for the successful candidate; the last one with the hotel general manager – a very senior and responsible person in the Four Seasons system.  But unbeknownst to the candidate, that final interview is carried out after the hiring decision has been made (after the fourth round).  The fifth interview is there only to let the candidate know that the general manager cares deeply about every single employee in the hotel and wants that personal connection.  Beautiful.  Kinda explains something about Four Seasons service, doesn’t it.

Posted on June 27th, 2010 | Filed Under: Blog, Design Thinking | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last October, I attended and spoke at the AIGA Make/Think Design Conference in Memphis. While I was there, I was fortunate enough to encounter Bill Drenttel, who is a graphic designer, editor and the co-founder of Design Observer, and to share a memorable dinner with Bill, Michael Bierut and some other smart folks. 

Bill recently encouraged me to write a piece for Design Observer on recent efforts by the U.S. Army to bring design thinking into their processes. The blog, Design Thinking Comes to the U.S. Army, has generated some thoughtful discussion.

Posted on May 10th, 2010 | Filed Under: Blog, Design Thinking | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a wonderful time on the West Coast this week.

On Monday, February 1, I visited my friend Steve McConnell at the leading architectural firm NBBJ in Seattle.  I met with NBBJ folks on strategy and did a talk on The Design of Business for a crowd of NBBJ folks and Seattle area design afionados.  It was terrific and Steve did a wonderful job of interviewing me on stage.

On Tuesday, February 2, I visited my friend Sohrab Voussoughi at Ziba Designs in Portland.  It was also terrific.  I did another Design of Businss talk and had a wonderful time with my friend.

On Monday, February 8, I am speaking at the North Carolina State forum on emerging issues in Raleigh – again on the Design of Business – and then head to New York to talk to the Parsons School about their curriculum reform.

On the evening of February 9, I am having an on-stage discussion with Adi Ignatius (editor-in-chief of Harvard Busineess Reveiw about my current HBR article: The Age of Customer Capitalism.

I will put up links to the various podcasts when they become available.

All the best,

Roger

Posted on February 4th, 2010 | Filed Under: Blog, Design Thinking | Permalink | Comments (0)