Dan Pallotta makes a lot of sense to me.
More often than not we see life through a barely translucent movie screen in our minds that is running nine shows at once. These inputs deafen and blind us to reality. It is a testament to our capacity for unconsciousness that we hefted luggage around airports for decades before anyone thought to put wheels on the suitcases. We literally couldn’t see that they didn’t have them…You have to ponder the reality of a thing before you can ponder a new vision for that thing. Before it can occur to you that there could be two different flush volumes for a toilet it has to occur to you that there is presently only one… No presence in the moment no innovation. No now, no new. This is not taught in B-school. In fact, the B-school culture encourages the opposite of it… The truth is, our time is too valuable not to be present. The opportunity cost of worry, anxiety, stress, and incessant activity in terms of unmanifested innovation alone is inestimable.
Last year I ran some workshops with my good friend Kay Scorah with the title “Notice more, change less” in this spirit. This year, they are mutating into something I’m calling Crumbs!
Crumbs! will be (amongst other things) about the power of tiny moments, small connections and the surprises to be found in the ordinary. It’s a kind of antidote to brainstorming and much of the effortful discourse that seems to surround creativity and innovation. The first outing will be in Sydney on 13 May,courtesy of my evil twin brother, Matt. I’ll be co-hosting with Viv.
And there’ll be another iteration in Copenhagen, pencilled in for June 1st – more on that later.
