Patio Furniture and NOT Overly Complicating Solutions (5-22-24)

Last week was about patio furniture and establishing decision criteria. This week is about patio furniture and not overly complicating solutions.

Especially in the spring and summer, my back patio becomes one of my favorite workspaces. As a result, when my wife and I first started talking about buying patio furniture she was concerned with us being able to buy something in the perfect set up to make it a great workspace. For example, it would need to be large enough to fit my laptop, keyboard, and mouse. Things would also need to be at the right height, so I wasn’t always staring down at a low screen. This was on top of the criteria that we had already decided was critical. I told my wife to ignore those things, and to stick to our key criteria because I would find a way to make it work. Check out the picture for my solution. #ergofriendly

You might wonder where this is going. I could have spent a lot of time, effort, and energy trying to find the perfect and elegant solution to set up my patio workspace. However, I embraced that I didn’t need perfection. I just needed something that worked. I found a cardboard box, flipped it on its side, and then added my laptop stand I have. My keyboard rests on my lap, and my mouse sits on the folio beside me on the couch. The box does the job, is easy to transport, and takes 1 second to set up. I use this cardboard box ALL THE TIME. It’s not pretty, but it solves my problem.

Now think about work for a minute. Have you ever overengineered a customer solution or a project deliverable? I know that I have. I’ve built things packed to the brim with features and benefits, when really the team just needed a “simple cardboard box”. Then, I would realize how much time and effort I wasted. Has that ever happened to you? As I’m further along in my career, I try to do a better job of understanding what the true need is and how to meet that need in the simplest way possible. By getting comfortable with the fact that most of the time I just need to deliver a “simple cardboard box” I can create the headspace and the time for when I need to deliver something with more features and benefits.

The challenge: How will you ensure you are not overly complicating the solutions you build and the outputs you deliver?

You get 278 bonus points if you read the message in the photo 😉

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Chili and the Beauty and Power of Simple Things (10-26-22)

This week is about chili and the power and beauty of the simple things.

Imagine for a moment. It’s a cold crisp day. You can see your breath when you’re outside. You’ve been out running errands and you come home. You still have a little bit of a chill in your bones. When you get inside you smell it. A nice pot of chili is cooking on the stove. You scoop yourself out a bowl, add a little cheese and crackers, and you eat. That scene would describe a perfect fall day for me. It’s hard to beat a good bowl of chili on a cold day. There isn’t anything fancy about chili. It’s only a few key ingredients. The power is in the simplicity. A few ingredients, a hot bowl on a cold day, and it’s perfection.

How does this connect with anything? We live in a world where so much is at our fingertips. We live in a world where it is easy to have more and more and more. It’s easy to get lost going after the next thing with all the newest features. There’s nothing wrong with new things, but sometimes all of this causes us to get lost in a world of complexity. Sometimes, what we really need are the simple things. There is power and beauty in a short walk outside. There is something magical about a sitting around a bonfire or a table and sharing stories with friends and family. There aren’t too many things better than curling up and reading a book or magazine. Some of my best memories were formed playing simple card games. There is hidden beauty locked inside the world of simple things.

The challenge: Will you stop to appreciate the simple things?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Simplicity and Yo-yos (7-2-14)

When I was younger I used to be good with yo-yos. I only wish I was as good as this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq3rn8g15po. I love yo-yos because they epitomize simplicity. This simplicity combined with gravity allows people to do some amazing things if they will put in the time to master the art.

Think about how a yo-yo connects back to what this blog has recently discussed. At its core a yo-yo is basically a wheel and axle attached to a string. It has been sculpted to its elegant essence and not overly engineered (last week’s message). You have something simple (a yo-yo), but that doesn’t mean it’s easy (“simple does not equal easy” from two weeks ago). How much time do you think that person had to put in before these tricks became second nature?

There is still one thing left though. Once we have that essence and communicated it in a simple way, how do we pull it through? That’s the third thing a yo-yo can teach us. Once you have uncovered the simple essence of something: you keep going back to that essence, just like a yo-yo is meant to always come back to your hand.

Think of the video. If the yo-yo doesn’t return to his hand, then those tricks are not impressive. Instead, they are just a bunch of twirls and loops that end up looking like a convoluted mess. Does this sound like any presentations, communications, or movements you have witnessed? They might start with a great essence, but the essence is never revisited so it gets lost. When the essence gets lost, the power is lost. Now think about things that have resonated with you over a long period of time. What was different? I would bet the farm that it’s because that person found a simple essence that resonated with you and whenever there was an opportunity they connected everything back to that essence, reinvigorating it with renewed passion and energy. Everything kept coming back to that essence just like a yo-yo going back to the person’s hand. How did you feel when someone was able to keep that essence alive and strong?

If we want to do amazing things, if we want to spark and support change in ourselves and others, then we need to embrace this yo-yo mentality. We need to put in the time and effort to sculpt a simple essence and then we need to keep going back to it again and again, just like a yo-yo doing tricks before snapping back to our hands. It won’t be easy, but nothing worth doing ever is.

Have a jolly good day and a wonderful holiday,

Andrew Embry

Simplicity and Sculpting Communications (6-25-14)

Let’s stay focused on simple, and think about our role when it comes to communicating. I recently read an article and there was a quote from Bruce Lee that struck me. “It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.” This was his secret to mastery. This is also the secret to communicating things in a simple way.

Last week was about making sure that we put in the time and effort to try to process a concept before we declare it too complicated. This week is about being a sculptor. I believe that all people are sculptors. As you can read in the quote above, even when we are building something we are also sculpting. We are trying to shape it, focus it, and cut away the non-essentials. We do all of these things in order to reveal the elegant essence of something, and that’s where the beauty and power exist.

Sculpting and my poetry failure…

As you probably know I write poetry (if you ever want some, just ask 😉 Anyway, I submitted a poem to a college contest and got rejected. The person reviewing the applications was a friend and talked to me about it. She pulls out a poem and says, “You had this awesome theme going and this is the best line in the poem. Up until this point we were all captivated. Then, you added all of this stuff that is good, but it doesn’t really build off of your central theme. If anything, this extra material took away from the power in your theme. My advice to you, once you have identified that powerful theme or that riveting line figure out how to build off of it. If you can build on it, then you can layer more in. If you detract when you add stuff, then don’t add stuff. Why would you add on things and distill your message?”

Now, my ego was bruised, because I thought all of my lines and themes were riveting but she had a great point. Have you ever experienced anything like that where you added “good” stuff that just detracted? Now, all of my poems, presentations, and even these emails start long and I cut without mercy until I feel that I have revealed the simple powerful essence of what I am trying to communicate. Am I perfect? No, but I’m a lot more focused than I used to be.

The question I keep asking myself is, “Am I putting in the time to sculpt what I am trying to communicate or showing them a full block of marble, hoping that they will be able to see the vision?”

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Here is the link to the article http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2014/06/one-key-to-story-design-is-to-hack-away-at-the-unessential.html