Wednesday, November 14, 2007

"Method will teach you to win time." Goethe

"Show me the business man or institution not guided by sentiment and service; by the idea that 'he profits most who serves best' and I will show you a man or an outfit that is dead or dying." B.F. Harris

"The present is big with the future." Leibnitz

Today's image: Cone head by Fred Winston. Great shot. Thanks for sharing.

To succeed sooner, learn to fail faster

Twyla Tharp writes about failure in her excellent book The Creative Habit (Amazon info). She says "To get the full benefit of failure you have to understand the reasons for it."

Failure of skill
Failure of concept
Failure of judgment
Failure of nerve (the worst kind)
Failure through repetition
Failure from denial

She writes "Change - changing the work and how we work - is the unpleasant task of dealing with that which we have been denying. It is probably the biggest test in the creative process, demanding not only an admission that you've made a mistake but that you know how to fix it. It requires you to challenge a status quo of your own making."

In the performing arts when we fail we fail in public, no dress rehearsals.

In broadcast we're reading each others mail (courtesy of Nielsen and Arbitron).

Everyone in the craft is aware of the failed breakfast show, the broken 11 show, the format that is not working.

In too many cases we are not failing fast enough. Management having developed an inexplicable acceptance, a tolerance, a dangerous denial of the obvious.

This is not a dress rehearsal, this is the big time, we are professionals.

Change

Change requires courage. The courage to admit failure. The courage to see reality as it is, not as it was nor as we wish it to be. The courage to challenge the status quo of our own making. The courage to stop doing what is not working, to learn from failure. Faster.

Management is responsible for results

Bonus: Frans Johansson

Bonus 2: GIF

Congrats & cheers: Doc filmmaker Ofra Bikel on winning the 2007 John Chancellor Award. Kevin Rose and team digg on their very cool new relationship with WSJ. Programming ace Jhani Kaye on a killer trend which is simply the most recent confirmation of his genius. The gifted Tammy Haddad on her new venture Haddad Media and her new gig as consulting EP for newsweek.com's soon to be announced political web video initiative.

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