Comments

One thing I'd like to add: Matt is the second Cool Friend to have won the New Yorker cartoon caption contest. Dan Heath, http://www.tompeters.com/cool_friends/content.php?note=009582.php, did, too!

Posted by cathy mosca at May 19, 2009 10:04 AM

I love it! Elegance is where it is at because it leaves something out indeed - mainly the snivling front-liners that caused this great recession!

Elegance is relaxing into wealth, health & happiness. It avoids striving & "work".

Take everything "Trevor" decrees & do the opposite - that is elegance!

Take what the MP's & Congress have devolved to & do the opposite - that is elegance! :>)

Posted by Elegance Love at May 19, 2009 1:54 PM

There is a big shift happening in the market. The classical 'employee' is dead.
Companies who want to win in the future are already working on cultures that attract people who want to co-create, actively be a part of a meaningful creation process instead of just going to work to cash a cheque... this will be the main key to achieving elegance and flow

Posted by Roger Konopasek at May 19, 2009 6:28 PM

Roger...

To offer another point of view. The classical employee is very much alive and well. However, they are now becoming more savvy with regard to their employment and who they will serve. Many of these classical employees have 3 jobs (2 working for someone else----1 working for themselves). They need to work for someone else to maintain health benefits and such...they work for someone else not to co-create, but create opportunities for themselves.

One of my IT friends (been out of work for 6 months) is training to become an EMT. When the market turns, he'll be in a position to subcontract his work to another company. With subcontracting becoming more and more popular in today's world of Profit and Loss, he will help a company create something they will call their own, but he will not tie himself to the project as a "co-creator" per se. He's not on the payroll, a mere expense if you will.

Blaze your own trail is what I say. We're in a market that is very dangerous to co-create, co-author, and co-exist. I've found that making my own grand is equal to 10 grand of someone else' money.

I recently had an offer to sell as an Independent Contractor for someone I admire and trust. I passed on the offer because I can do more things on my own.

Just another thought, thanks for inspiring mine!

Posted by Scott Peters at May 19, 2009 7:57 PM

Elegance - THANK YOU!!!!

I think this is a much underated subject. The idea that something should be elegant is close to my heart.

So much effort is put into making sure that ideas and plans are logically correct and yet so many ideas and plans fail to resonate with the people that need to execute. Logical thinking tends to lead a separate solution to every detail of the problem. This create complexity and dischord.

Elegant solutions and ideas resonate with people more easily.

As someone who leans more to intuition I get a sense of almost physical discomfort with a non elegant solution. When something is presented that is just right it feels wonderful

Posted by PaulH at May 20, 2009 1:46 AM

"Take everything "Trevor" decrees & do the opposite - that is elegance!"

The late great and immortal Dame Anita Roddick once said that the key to success is to go in the opposite direction to everyone else. So thanks again C for continuing to compliment me – you say the nicest things : -)

Posted by Trevor Gay at May 20, 2009 3:00 AM

Once we have the Trevors wearing 24/7 GPS devices so we can track their front-line movements - then & only then shall we have TRUE elegance! :>)

Posted by C Love at May 20, 2009 7:55 AM

Elegance is a function of excellence.

Posted by Andres Agostini (Andy) at May 20, 2009 6:37 PM

Hmmm... a 24/7 GPS tracking device on Trevor? Maybe not a bad idea. We'd could track him online in real time, perhaps. At least it would be a good way to keep up with how well he's doing with the running thing ;-) Better you than me, Trevor. Only way I could finish that long a stretch would be in my van. See you at the finish line. I'll be the guy with the 3/4 lb. cheeseburger in one hand and the giant chocolate Frosty in the other.

Posted by Dan Gunter at May 20, 2009 11:55 PM

Japanese companies have so often been light years ahead of American companies in terms of knowing how to garner genuine interest in "the work" on the part of their employees. I think I posted a comment and invitation to this video before, but I'm not 100% sure. It talks about employee suggestion programs, contrasting American programs to Japanese programs. It's at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSqQRG2AwNw&feature=channel_page

Kaizen Teian philosophy really works. TGR -- "miryokuteki hinshitsu" (see "The Tom Peters Seminar, Crazy Times Call for Crazy Organizations" by our insightful host. Another of Tom's pieces of work that just refuses to go out of date. Will we the readers and companies he's preaching to EVER catch up?)

Posted by Dan Gunter at May 26, 2009 11:59 AM

"Japanese companies have so often been light years ahead of American companies in terms of knowing how to garner genuine interest in "the work" on the part of their employees."

One word: Deming

The Deming System:

1. Appreciation of a system
2. Knowledge of variation
3. Theory of knowledge
4. Knowledge of psychology (concepts of human nature.)

It is the integral nature of Demings' work that seems to have worked particularly well in Japan and elsewhere too, including Ford. The Japanese culture is detailed and specific. According to Deming the four need not be present in one person but needs to be present in the whole.

Regarding "how to garner genuine interest in 'the work' on the part of their employees," Deming wrote:

cheapest canada pharmacy viagra "A manager of people needs to understand that all people are different. This is not ranking people. He needs to understand that the performance of anyone is governed largely by the system that he works in, the responsibility of management. A psychologist that possesses even a crude understanding of variation as will be learned in the experiment with the Red Beads could no longer participate in refinement of a plan for ranking people."

Posted by Judith Ellis at May 27, 2009 9:39 AM