I first met Leland when he was giving a talk at SVA’s Design Criticism Program back in 2010 and he referenced “Finite and Infinite Games” by James Carse...I knew, right then and there, that we had to be friends!
Lee is the Chief Creative officer at a food company which will not be named (for reasons...but linked here), which Fast Company rated in the top 10 most innovative companies in the world. When I met him, he was one of the Founders of Collins, an agency that Forbes tapped in 2016 as an agency defining the future of brand building.
We had a wide ranging conversation where we tried to find a theory of change: can you only harness trends and follow patterns, or can you create the future? We also discuss how companies need to digest chaos and turn it into Creativity and Action through balancing volume of ideas captured, velocity of ideas turned into opportunities and maintaining a Variety of ideas in the mix. I hope you enjoy listening to Lee as much as i enjoy talking with him!
Links and Notes:
Eight Flavors, by Sarah Lohman
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/nyregion/sarah-lohman-four-pounds-flour.html
http://www.npr.org/2016/12/15/505751272/eight-flavors-the-untold-story-of-american-cuisine
Innovation through features vs The Jobs to be Done Framework
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjcx87JmhvM
Finite and Infinite Games
https://www.amazon.com/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse/dp/1476731713
IxD17 Users versus Owners (video not posted yet!)
http://interaction17.ixda.org/session/chelsea-mauldin-keynote-tbd/
Sketch notes at https://twitter.com/dastillman/status/839189078352486400
Reinventing Instagram:
http://www.recode.net/2017/1/23/14205686/instagram-product-launch-feature-kevin-systrom-weil
Harvard Negotiation Project and classes
http://www.pon.harvard.edu/category/research_projects/harvard-negotiation-project/
Other book mentioned:
https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended-ebook/dp/B014DUR7L2
On Improv:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_(improvisation)
Rejection vs Acceptance vs. Creation
https://www.amazon.com/Harold-Purple-Crayon-Books/dp/0064430227
https://www.amazon.com/Where-Wild-Things-Maurice-Sendak/dp/0060254920
On VUCA:
https://hbr.org/2014/01/what-vuca-really-means-for-you
On cherry blossoms and cradle-to-cradle-design
https://www.ted.com/talks/william_mcdonough_on_cradle_to_cradle_design
My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers.
- TOM STOPPARD , ENGLISH DRAMATIST