Adult Games vs Kid Games

In my blog post, “How Can Goals Enhance Creativity” I said…

“…As long as everyone in the organization believes they are playing a game which is designed to get them energized today, and it is not specifically about hitting the target, I can assure you that people will be more motivated.”

Games can be a useful tool for enhancing creativity.  They make work more fun, they reduce stress, and they get people in action.

HOWEVER…

Not all games are created equally.  There are adult games and kid games.

With adult games, there tend to be rigid rules, the games have an ending, and there are winners and losers.

Think about nearly every game we play: Monopoly, poker, or basketball.

They typically have a complex set of rules that all of the players need to adhere to.  If you break the rules you “go to jail,” are disqualified, or get penalized.

Adult games end.  The game is over when all of the other players are out of money, when the “clock” says there is not more time, or when everyone has had their turn.

And nearly every adult game has a winner and one or more losers.  They are competitions.

Contrast this with kid games.

Kids play games with very loose rules, the game continues until they say it ends, and there is no concept of winner/loser.

If you watch kids play.  They tend to have very few rules in their games.  And if there are rules, they make them up as they go along. They improvise. Even universal rules don’t apply to kids.  They can don a cape and fly through the air, defying the laws of gravity.

Rarely is a stopwatch involved when kids play.  They play the game until they get tired of playing that game.  And then they invent a new game.  The only clocks involved with kid games are the watches on the wrists of their parents.  The adults end the game when it’s dinner time or bedtime.

And there are no winners or losers.  They don’t even have that concept. Yes, they might have battles with imaginary swords or super powers.  And there are victims who get hurt or die in the heat of battle.  But they come back reinvented as a new character.  The play does not end at death.

Kids play for the sake of play and no other reason.

Adult games can limit creativity. The rules, deadlines, and pressure prevent the flow of new ideas.  They create stress.

If you want to enhance creativity, passion, and productivity, I encourage you to play kid games. These timeless, unbounded, and rule-free games can create an environment of free-flowing-thinking.  As mentioned in previous blog entries, studies show that 98% of 5 year olds test as highly creative, yet only 2% of adults do. We don’t lose our creativity; we learn habits which stop it from emerging.

I contend that the types of games we play reflects our level of creativity.  When people are most creative, they play kid games.  When they are least creative, they play adult games.

Maybe it is time to recapture our creative youth and start playing more kid games.

In future blog entries, I will discuss HOW kid games can be used to enhance creativity, productivity, and success.

When a Goal is Not a Goal

This post marks two major milestones for me:

• This is the 500th entry on this blog
• In 3 months, my Personality Poker book will officially launch

Yesterday I was talking with a good friend, Susanne, about the book and everything we are doing to turn the Personality Poker book into a best seller. I told her that we are shooting for #1 on the New York Times best seller list.  In fact, the project is code-named “NYT1.”

Susanne looked at me and asked, “Isn’t that a goal?”

Although that might seem like an odd question to ask, it was a great question to ask of me.  If you aren’t aware, my previous book, Goal-Free Living, discusses the power, creativity, and freedom that occurs when you break free from your goals. So clearly I am someone who is not a huge fan of goals, at least not in the traditional sense.

Here was my response…

“For most people the present is designed to give them a future they want.  For me, the future gives me the present I want.”

Here’s what I mean in English…

Most people relate to their goals as something to achieve.  They will do things in the present in order to get to their desired future.

As a result, most people feel as though they are making sacrifices now (i.e., it is hard work) in order to fulfill on their goal and achieve happiness in the future. In fact, according to a survey I conducted, 58 percent of Americans are consciously and willingly “sacrificing today for the future.”  Unfortunately, 41 percent say that “achieving their goals has not made them happier and has only left them disillusioned.”  And that is for the people who achieved their goals.  Those who do not achieve their goals are typically even more unhappy.  And, as we know, most people don’t always get what they want (there’s a reason why the Rolling Stones wrote a song by a similar name).  In fact, according to my surveys, 92% of people say that they fail to fulfill on their New Year’s Resolutions, the most common goal-setting ritual.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t have goals.  The issue is with how we relate to those goals.

For me, the future “goal” gives me the present.  That is, it provides a powerful “context” for the work I do now.  Here is an excerpt from the Goal-Free Living book that explains it with a simple example.

Context is not a place to get to; it is something that changes your attitude and perception today. It is a mindset. To experience the power of context, imagine that as you read this, your phone rings. You answer the phone and the person on the other end notifies you that you won the raffle you entered last month. You and your family are going on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii sometime next year. You jump for joy and become energized—now. Although this vacation is many months in the future, it changes your attitude today. This vacation hasn’t happened. It isn’t even real yet.

Imagine your future as a big and bold vacation. A vacation that is so exciting that you can hardly contain yourself now. A vacation that has you in action and playing hard every day. This is a vacation that you will never take. This is a vacation whose day will never come. Its sole purpose is to generate passion in your life today. A context. Something that calls you forward.

Now back to my New York Times #1 Best Seller “goal.”

For me it is not about actually achieving the result (although that would be nice).  Rather it is about playing full out each and every day.  I wake up every morning excited about what is going to take place that day.  Every day is a new learning experience with new insights and obstacles.  My “work” is never work and it is certainly not a sacrifice.  It is a joy. It is exciting.

Will I achieve #1 NYT best seller status?  In 3 months we will know.  But given that the future is giving me a powerful present, the result is less important than the process. There is no sacrifice.  Each day is a new adventure.

Special Offer

I strongly believe that this philosophy can increase anyone’s happiness and productivity…INSTANTLY.

Therefore, to celebrate my 500th blog entry,  I am offering my Goal-Free Living book for only $10 postage paid. Although it retails for $25, I want to get this into the hands of as many people as possible.

Please note the following restrictions:

• I can only offer this to US addresses (books will be shipped via media mail)
• You must be prepared to wait up to 4 weeks for delivery. If you want faster delivery, you can buy the book from Amazon.com.
• There are only 250 copies available at this price.
• The offer will end August 31, 2010.

I hope you will take advantage of this offer and give the gift of passion and productivity to someone you care about.

You Failed! What’s Next?

Last week, I had 3 conversations with 3 different companies.  And each had a complaint about the same group of people: lawyers.

If you think about it, innovators and lawyers have completely opposite objectives.

Innovators want to grow the business.  They believe that risk and failure are a natural part of the innovation process. Their mantra is “expansion.”

Lawyers, on the other hand, want to guard the business.  Their objective is to minimize risk and avoid failure.  Their mantra is “protection.”

But the issue isn’t really lawyers versus innovators.  The issue is how to balance an organization’s need to protect the business while enabling it to expand at the same time.

In my previous blog entry, I discussed how to redefine failure. The model proposed was to treat everything like an experiment.  While using this mindset, failure only occurs when the experiment does not give you the feedback you require.

However, sometimes even experiences can give you false positives.  That is, the experiment tells you a new product, service or market is a good idea, yet in the end it proves to be a total flop.

In those situations, you have a good ol’ fashioned failure on your hand.  What do you do then? Beat up the people involved?

I was having a conversation with the former head of innovation for a giant retailer.  In their quest for big successes, they had some colossal failures. Instead of chastising the people involved with the failed venture, they celebrated. They held a massive funeral.  There was even a coffin in which the project (not the project team) was buried.  In my mind I can imagine a New Orleans style funeral with music.

Several years back, Intuit, decided to target a younger population by linking tax filing with hip-hop.  They made large marketing investments and created partnerships with companies like Expedia and Best Buy.  But in the end, their marketing effort proved unsuccessful.  They attracted very few new customers and killed the program.

How did they handle the failure? According to Business Week…

“The team that developed the campaign documented its insights, such as the fact that Gen Yers don’t visit destination Web sites that feel too much like advertising. Then, on a stage…in front of some 200 Intuit marketers, the team received an award from Intuit Chairman Scott Cook. ‘It’s only a failure if we fail to get the learning,’ says Cook.”

Successful companies don’t punish failure.  They don’t necessarily celebrate them either.  But there should be serious consequences if…

• You try to sweep your failure under the rug
• You try to blame someone else for your failure
• You don’t learn from your failure and as a result make the same mistakes again
• You create a colossal failure without first doing enough due diligence, often in the form of experiments

The point is not to glorify failure.  Although failures can give you useful input, success can do the same, at a much lower price.  But if you do fail, be sure to deal it head on.  Learn from the experience.

Or as Reverend Lawrence G. Lovasik once said, “Any fool can try to defend his mistakes – and most fools do – but it gives one a feeling of nobility to admit one’s mistakes. By fighting, you never get enough, but by yielding, you get more than you expected.”

There is No GPS for Innovation

OK, after 2 weeks of sleep deprivation due to manuscript deadlines, I am now back in action here.  The final version of the manuscript went to the publisher on Saturday.  I then played Personality Poker in Memphis with nearly 100 representatives from Penguin’s gift sales on Sunday.   These individuals sell books into non-traditional bookstores, gift stores, hospital gift shops, department stores, casino, and similar places.

Last weekend, I played Personality Poker with a couple hundred people at a conference in Canada.

After the event,  over a dozen of us decided to go to dinner together.  Half the people fit into taxis.   After the taxis departed from the hotel, the remaining individuals went in two cars, one of which I drove.  We had the address and a map. I, being Mr. Technology, plugged the address into the GPS.  The other individual had the map, but also relied on directions he received from the front desk.  I didn’t bother getting directions since I had the navigation system.

I was the first car out of the parking lot. After exiting the hotel, I turned left, just as the GPS told me to do.  The other car followed, but not for long.  David, the other driver flashed his lights.  I kept driving.  After a minute I realized David was no longer behind me.  Instead of believing that I might be going in the wrong direction, I just assumed that the GPS was taking me there via a shortcut.

After taking a series of turns – left, right, left, right, left, right – the final turn led us to a dead end.  In fact, this road was nothing more than a large pile of dirt.  So much for taking a shortcut.

Since my technology was not going to get us there, we needed to rely on the map.  Unfortunately, the map provided by the hotel only had the restaurant marked off.  The hotel was not to be found.  The reason we could not find the hotel on the map was because the map did not extend far enough to include it.

There we were, in the middle of nowhere, with a map that told us nothing – and a GPS that told us even less.

This got me thinking. 

How often do we drive our innovation programs the same way I drove to the restaurant that night?

We create our plans for innovation and we start driving.  There might be signals along the way (like the flashing lights of the car behind us) that something is not right.  In the case of innovation, it might be signals from the customers, buyers, or vendors telling us we are going the wrong way.  But all too often, we continue to drive forward, arrogantly believing we are right and that those signs are all wrong.

No matter how great your plans are, you need to keep your eyes open.  Look for signs. Don’t assume others are wrong.  Maybe your blueprint/map is incorrect.

Or, as Scott Cook from Intuit so eloquently said, “For every one of our failures, we had spreadsheets that looked awesome.”

There are no accurate GPS systems in the world of innovation.  Your ability – and willingness – to adapt, evolve, and change your plans is critical to a successful innovation program.

If you don’t watch out for the signs and you blindly follow your plans, your innovation program will probably lead you to a huge pile of, um, dirt.

P.S. We did eventually get to the hotel.  We did what any sane person would do…we asked for directions.

When You Sit on the Fence, You Get Splinters in Your Ass!

During the Q&A section of a presentation of mine on Goal-Free Living, a woman in the audience asked…

“I work in a cubicle in a well known technology firm and I am unhappy. How do I know if it is me or if it is my job? Do I need to change myself or change my job?”

I asked others in the audience for their answer to that question. Most people gave answers that hedged their bet. “Stay at your job while you explore other options,” or “If you are really miserable, find another job quickly and quit this job,” or the most outspoken, “Quit your job now! How could you work another day for the evil empire?”

My answer was a bit different.  I said,  “It doesn’t really matter.”

With the right mindset, every decision is the right decision. If you believe that the path you are on is the right one, then it is. Quitting your job doesn’t change things. You can change jobs all you like, but it won’t matter if you don’t have the right attitude. Conversely you can change your attitude and find new opportunities where you are today, without changing jobs.

We often fail to make progress in life (and business) because we want to wait until we have all of the “answers.”  We want to know all of the facts, look at everything from every angle, and study the details.  In the end, we just sit on the fence.  Instead of answers, maybe what is needed are decisions.

Sadly, many of us suffer from a mild form of  “decidophobia“  – the fear of making decisions.  It is human nature to avoid issues that make us uncomfortable or afraid, and therefore we decide not to decide. Indecision is a no man’s land with no direction and no progress.

Should I change my job?  Should I buy a new house?  Where should I go on vacation?  What should I do with my life?  These all seem like pretty big decisions.  And for most people they are.

We think “Oh, it’s so hard to make these big decisions,” when what’s really hard is the indecision.

In life there are no right or wrong decisions. There are only decisions. When we come to a fork in the road, we tend to overanalyze it. We might say, “I have an opportunity to create this new business venture but . . .” So we end up staying on the same path. Or we may choose a particular path, but then rethink our decision.

One of the reasons we worry so much and wonder whether we are on the right track is that we often see decisions as long term, semi-permanent decisions.

If you are driving your car and you get onto a highway where there are no exits for 300 miles, you had better be certain that you are on the right road. Making the right decision is critical when you don’t have any alternative paths on which to travel. Most people relate to their decisions like hopping onto a road five-years-long with no exits – one road, no options, lots of traffic, and many potholes.

But what if you were on a beautiful winding country road where there are exits every mile, frequent intersections, and a rotary from time to time? What if you had many paths on which to travel, and from which to choose? Then making the right decision becomes less stressful, because you could always change direction. If you drove down a road like this, you would only have to plan to the next fork in the road.

Always move forward. Make decisions.  Movement in any direction is better than stagnation or indecision.

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