Aug 23, 2017
Summary & Ideas for Action
Jim Gilmore, best-selling author and co-founder of Strategic
Horizons LLP, discusses his experiences, books, and the importance
of mastering the various modes of observation to innovate and
improve decision making.
Key Takeaways
[6:50] Jim explains how he came to write Look. After
studying Edward De Bono, he had an insight into thoughts, actions,
and observations, which inspired him about six looking glasses to
represent modes of observation.
[11:27] The six looking glasses are: Binoculars, for
surveying and scanning, Bifocals, for comparing and
contrasting views, Magnifying Glass for pinpointing the
main point, Microscope, for scrutinizing the details,
Rose-colored Glasses, for seeing potential, and
Blindfold, for recalling all you have seen. Together they
help people see more of what there is to be seen. Observation is
separate from cognition.
[24:40] Watching people in groups and in detail can reveal
unseen patterns of behavior that lead to innovation and
disruption.
[26:00] When film was an expense, people framed their photos
carefully. We lose our sense of framing by shooting carelessly. We
take too many shots to curate. Study a scene carefully and limit
yourself to framing one shot. Apply this deliberation to business
decisions. Apply it to life.
[37:31] The more skilled you are at observing with the first
five glasses, the better you will be at recalling blindfolded what
you saw. If you don’t look well, you will recall poorly. The best
glasses for a leader is to be skilled in using all of them.
Particularly consider the bifocals. Pair opposites, and pair things
as opposites. All innovation begins with observation.
[45:44] Jim sat next to George Carlin on a cross-country flight
in 2000. Jim learned how George Carlin worked and filed his
observations. He said, everybody observes, but they don’t know
where to put the data. George Carlin maintained 2,500 directories
where he recorded his daily observations and he knew each category.
Come up with a number of categories of things you want to be
consciously observing.
Conference:
thinkAbout Conference 2017
Website: StrategicHorizons.com
YouTube: Youtube.com/Jim
Gilmore Discusses Look
Amazon: Look:
A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills,
by James H. Gilmore
Linkedin: Jim
Gilmore
Email: Jim@StrategicHorizons.com
Books Mentioned in this Episode
Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles, by
Don Norman
Bio
Jim Gilmore coauthored the highly influential book, The
Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre
& Every Business a Stage (Harvard Business School
Press). Now published in nineteen languages — and in an updated
paperback edition — the book spawned worldwide interest in
experience design, experiential marketing, and customer experience
management.
Jim’s other book, Authenticity: What Consumers Really
Want (Harvard Business Review Press), prompted TIME
Magazine in a March 2008 cover story to name its insight on
the subject as one of “Ten ideas that are changing the world.”
Jim is co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP, based in Aurora,
Ohio. He is a Batten fellow and adjunct lecturer at the Darden
Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia, where he
teaches a course on the Experience Economy. Gilmore is also a
visiting lecturer in Apologetics at Westminster Seminary
California, where he teaches a course on cultural
Hermeneutics. He also teaches a design course at the Weatherhead
School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.
He is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania, an alumnus of Procter & Gamble, and, before
co-founding Strategic Horizons LLP, was head of CSC Consulting's
Process Innovation practice.
Conference:
thinkAbout Conference 2017
Website: StrategicHorizons.com
YouTube: Youtube.com/Jim
Gilmore Discusses Look
Amazon: Look:
A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills,
by James H. Gilmore
Linkedin: Jim
Gilmore
Email: Jim@StrategicHorizons.com