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Introducing my guest writers
 Every
month in The Scribbler I
feature two hand-selected articles from
writers and thinkers I admire. The articles
have a common theme in that they offer insights
and tools to help you live a better life.
You get a few paragraphs of each of my guest
authors' articles, and the link if you'd
like to read more.
As well as being a renowned speaker, consultant
and coach, Eileen McDargh has been declared
one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders by Executive
Excellence Magazine. In her article Sixth
Century Wisdom for 21st Century Changemasters,
she reflects on Saint Benedict's vows of
stability, conversatio and obedience, and
how they can help us in the turmoil of today.
Hugh MacLeod writes a quirky and provocative
blog, Gaping Void (It's one of the few blogs
I recommend in my own blog, Possibility
Virus).
His article, How to be
Creative, has a number
of wise insights and quirky cartoons about
what it takes in the stretch to be creative.
My favourites? "#5 Your are responsible
for your own experience" and "#22
Nobody cares. Do it for yourself."
My own blog Possibility
Virus is up and running. If you make
a comment or create a "link back" before
the end of the month, then your name will
be in the draw for a copy of Get
Unstuck & Get
Going ...on the stuff that matters. What
have you got to lose? You can check out some
recent musings on:
An
Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, When
Goethe isn't and Why
Leonardo da Vinci is known by some as "the
ineffectual."
Michael's
quick scribble:
What catches your
eye?
Germano
Facetti was art director
at Penguin books
for over a decade,
from 1961 to 1972.
He'd moved to London
from Milan, and worked
for Olivetti before
Penguin snapped him
up to revive their
flagging design ethos.
Facetti
took the base Penguin
design – the colour
coded books – and
built upon that
to create a look
and feel that many
of us still associate
with Penguin – either
from our obligatory
readings of "the
classics" in
school, or because
we trawl secondhand
book stores today.
In
the world we live
in, where everyone's
trying to be a 'brand',
where we can be exposed
to advertising hundreds
of times a day, where
the channels for
communication are
multiple and ubiquitous,
what does it take
to grab your attention?
Here
are four lessons
I've learned from
Facetti. You might
think about what
catches your eye
– or doesn't. And
you might think
about how to use
these insights when
you need to catch
someone else's eye.
1.
Be consistent
Behind
all of Facetti's
designs was a grid
design which he commissioned
Polish designer Romek
Marber to create.
It meant that Standard
and Helvetica san
serif typefaces were
used for the series
title, book title
and author name,
always in the same
size and in the same
position on the book.
Insight:
One of the fundamental
rules of creativity,
is that you need
clear and firm parameters
to operate within.
Define your rules,
then play.
2.
Be clean
Facetti
had a gift for finding
a single image that
could capture something
of the essence of
the book and hint
at the drama within.
So much design today
can feel like a smorgasbord,
where images have
been piled on in
the hope that more
is better.
Insight:
Keep in mind Einstein's
quote that "everything
should be as simple
as possible, but
no simpler."
3.
Be provocative
Emile
Zola's novel on prostitution,
Nana, features a
nude staring brazenly
out at the prospective
reader. In a different
way, J. D. Salinger's
Catcher
in the Rye stood out by being
just a silver cover
with only the title
and the author's
name.
Insight:
Find a way to break
the rules, to catch
the breath.
4.
Prototype
Facetti's
grid started with
the Penguin Crime
series. On seeing
its success, he
took it to the other
sub-brands in the
Penguin list. Each
sub-brand was consistent
with the grid design
yet also different.
The Classics used
a stark black background
with an image from
an historic painting
or sculpture; the
Modern Classics
had an image from
a piece of art that
filled the whole
cover; while the
Modern Poets series
used a photogram as the cover image.
Insight:
Find what works,
then move it sideways.
You
can see some of
Facetti's iconic
covers here.
"How
to be Creative" by
Hugh MacLeod
So
you want to be more
creative in art,
in business, whatever.
Here are some tips
that have worked
for me over the years.
1.
Ignore everybody.
The
more original your
idea is, the less
good advice other
people will be able
to give you. When
I first started with
the cartoon-on-back-of-bizcard
format, people thought
I was nuts. Why wasn't
I trying to do something
more easy for markets
to digest, i.e.,
cutie-pie greeting
cards or whatever?
You
don't know if your
idea is any good
the moment it's created.
Neither does anyone
else.
Read
Hugh's other 25
tips here.
Get Unstuck & Get Going shortlisted for Book of
the Year Award
I'm very proud to say that Get Unstuck & Get Going ...on the stuff
that matters has been shortlisted twice for ForeWord
Magazine's
Book of the Year Award, in the Mind/Body/Soul and Self-Help categories.
It's a great honour – and we'll find out if we've won a Gold, Silver
or Bronze award on May 19 at the BookExpo American convention.
Stay tuned!
(And if you'd like to see what the fuss is about, it's
all here.)
"Sixth Century Wisdom for 21st Century Changemasters" by
Eileen McDargh
In the sixth-century, the Rule of Saint Benedict asked monks to take
vows of stability, conversatio[Latin], and obedience. Stability emphasized
the need to work for the good of the community. Hence, all actions taken
were in the context of "will this be of assistance to all rather
than just a few?" Certainly this wisdom must be at the center of
Synovus Financial, a company rated by Fortune Magazine as one of the top
places to work. Employees at Synovus Financial say it has "a culture
of the heart."
Read about the importance of conversatio and the rest of the article
here.
What's
going on?
In the coming months I'm speaking in person in Connecticut, New York,
Portland and Prague, and holding my usual "international" teleforum.
You can find the details here.
My next open Get Unstuck & Get Going teleforum is on Wednesday,
May 17 at 2pm EST. There is no fee, except your own telephone
call charges. You
can sign up here. You will receive confirmation
and details of what number to call within a
few minutes, by email.
As you might be able to guess, I love to speak or run workshops for groups!
Read more about the keynote
and workshop topics I offer in this PDF.
Michael
Bungay Stanier helps
people, teams and
organizations to
get unstuck and get
going on the stuff
that matters. He
is the author of Get
Unstuck & Get
Going ...on the stuff
that matters,
a self-coaching tool
endorsed by leaders
in the coaching and
training professions,
and creator of The
Eight Irresistible
Principles of Fun,
a Flash movie that's
taken the internet
by storm. He is the
2006 Canadian Coach
of the Year. You
can find out more
at www.boxofcrayons.biz or
you can contact him
directly at
michael@boxofcrayons.biz or
+1 (416) 532-1322.
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