I've resolved that 2011 is going to be the year of elegance. I'm referring to the elegance spoken of by Matthew E. May's book, In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the best ideas have something missing, which I've blogged about here before.
This is the elegance that comes from eliminating the extraneous, focusing on what is truly important, valuable, worthy. So one of the places I'd like to start is with the unnecessary conversations of unwanted email. I had a fascinating conversation this morning with Julian Treasure, the truly amazing entrepreneur who is the world's leading expert in applying sound to business. Julian wrote Sound Business and is the chairman of The Sound Agency, a UK-based consultancy that helps clients like BP, Nokia, Honda, Unilever and others achieve better results by optimising the sound they make in every aspect of business -- for example, making sound in branding and marketing communication congruent with visuals, or designing and installing effective and appropriate soundscapes for branded spaces. Julian spoke at TED a while back on the effects of sound and it is a highly rated, widely viewed talk.
In our call this morning, Julian talked of the need to avoid starting every day in reactive mode. You know what we all do: sit down at our desks, get on the computer and start checking emails. Many of them are unwanted and unnecessary to our lives. Most of them, likely. Yet we waste energy in culling them, throwing them away. Julian talks of the importance of finding ways to eliminate that intrusion in our lives so that we have more time to be innovative, creative, even quiet, peaceful.
This is a big deal. I have no idea how to do that in my life, but perhaps the place to start is to spend some time in the morning--before looking at emails--in meditation on the day and its possibilities. What if we could do that? What if part of that exercise would be to focus on one person with whom we intend to have a conversation at some point in the day and how we can make that exchange truly valuable?
Would the day unfold differently?
Author of I is for Intercourse: The ABC's of Conversation, Susan Bird is the visionary behind Wf360, and a sought-after speaker around the world for her views on leadership, the strategic importance of conversation, entrepreneurship, and the role of women business leaders.
These are stories that your editor may not see as news until you explain them. Yet in coming decades they may profoundly impact the lives of the people you write for. The TipSheet is going to start the year with a list of subject areas where much of tomorrow's news is likely to be found — and a few links to get you started exploring them. We hope to update and expand this list during the coming year.
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Crowned champion of Celebrity Masterchef 2010; yes it's the wonderfully lovely, Lisa Faulkner. We are delighted to have Lisa on-board and she joins Anna Hansen as the next member of our super dooper kitchen team.
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