Thoughts into practise...
So I have a bit of a rant every now and then. But it's interesting I've been playing with the idea of using one side of my brain, then shutting it down and using the other side.
Seriously this is brilliant!
Try it the next time you find yourself getting worked up. Especially if it's emotionally.
Switch over to being logical and instantly you calm down and things just seem to sort themselves out. The more stressed and upset you are the more remarkable the switch.
I have been thinking about it a lot today. One of the biggest mistakes non-designers / non-creatives make is that they think creatives get attached to their creations. Not so. It's an iterative process, meaning it goes round and round continually improving. New information comes in and you re-evaluate and off you go again. I've never been attached to any design, I'm just resistant to idiocy or poor decision making, and there is plenty of that around.
I used to teach design and I had lots of exercises I taught my students. One was a fast design process, but one where they had to reject their favorite design by critically tearing it to shreds. Then rebuilding it bigger and better.Then they tore it down again but this time taking the argument from a completely different viewpoint. I used to get them to keep repeating this process until their design could be criticized from any direction and would hold up under the scrutiny.
Poor decision making is when someone hasn't done this, they look in one direction only.
I'll give you an example. Many years ago my boss at the time wanted to get rid of yoga off our timetable because it was too expensive and very few people attended. The strange thing is, many of the people joined our club because we did yoga, even though they never attended (yes weird I know).
I think it's the same with swimming pools. Everyone want one, thankfully very few use it.
So here's why. Differentiation.
I used to shop in Sainsburys. I don't like Sainburys, their meat always went off very quickly and their food didn't seem to have the same quality as M&S or Waitrose. But they had this amazing sundried tomato bread that I loved. We shopped there every week because of that bread. Then one day they stopped selling it. I asked the manager and he said they only sold 75 units a week. So they binned it. My question would have been what was the total spend in those 75 shopping baskets? Ours was always around £150.00 a week. So potentially £11,250 worth of shopping a week. That's £540,000 a year. Half a million because of a £1.50 loaf of bread. We stopped shopping there and went to Waitrose, better meat, better fruit and veg. I make my own tomato bread and it's way better.
Such a simple concept. Missed.
Everyone I every showed round asked for yoga. It was a selling point. Didn't make money, but it differentiated us in the market place.
What differentiates you?
Seriously this is brilliant!
Try it the next time you find yourself getting worked up. Especially if it's emotionally.
Switch over to being logical and instantly you calm down and things just seem to sort themselves out. The more stressed and upset you are the more remarkable the switch.
I have been thinking about it a lot today. One of the biggest mistakes non-designers / non-creatives make is that they think creatives get attached to their creations. Not so. It's an iterative process, meaning it goes round and round continually improving. New information comes in and you re-evaluate and off you go again. I've never been attached to any design, I'm just resistant to idiocy or poor decision making, and there is plenty of that around.
I used to teach design and I had lots of exercises I taught my students. One was a fast design process, but one where they had to reject their favorite design by critically tearing it to shreds. Then rebuilding it bigger and better.Then they tore it down again but this time taking the argument from a completely different viewpoint. I used to get them to keep repeating this process until their design could be criticized from any direction and would hold up under the scrutiny.
Poor decision making is when someone hasn't done this, they look in one direction only.
I'll give you an example. Many years ago my boss at the time wanted to get rid of yoga off our timetable because it was too expensive and very few people attended. The strange thing is, many of the people joined our club because we did yoga, even though they never attended (yes weird I know).
I think it's the same with swimming pools. Everyone want one, thankfully very few use it.
So here's why. Differentiation.
I used to shop in Sainsburys. I don't like Sainburys, their meat always went off very quickly and their food didn't seem to have the same quality as M&S or Waitrose. But they had this amazing sundried tomato bread that I loved. We shopped there every week because of that bread. Then one day they stopped selling it. I asked the manager and he said they only sold 75 units a week. So they binned it. My question would have been what was the total spend in those 75 shopping baskets? Ours was always around £150.00 a week. So potentially £11,250 worth of shopping a week. That's £540,000 a year. Half a million because of a £1.50 loaf of bread. We stopped shopping there and went to Waitrose, better meat, better fruit and veg. I make my own tomato bread and it's way better.
Such a simple concept. Missed.
Everyone I every showed round asked for yoga. It was a selling point. Didn't make money, but it differentiated us in the market place.
What differentiates you?
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