Close Encounters of the Pollywog-ian Kind
A Pond Water Sampling
At age 4, I perched beside a pond in Hawaii and dipped my styrofoam cup into the warm, verdant waters. In the next few seconds, minutes, hours by that pond, I passed through four stages of wonder: an Aha! Ah!! Haha! and Huh! moment all rolled into one. Working with clients to find these moments of discovery — scientific, aesthetic, humorous, and pure wonder — is where I thrive and deliver lasting value.
After years of wiggly zigs and zags, I’m an innovation strategy Pollywog with a simple formula for motivating teams to arrive at novel solutions:
- Love thy customers
Connect with their unfulfilled needs and aspirations - Embrace uncertainty
Shift team thinking into the liquid space between building and dreaming - Model beginner’s mind
Suspend judgement and put expertise on the back burner - Identify and pursue shared aspirations
Build kinship and trust
Here are some close encounters of the pollywog-ian kind — FIVE recent innovative spaces or ponds I’ve wiggled my way through:
Pond 1: where AI meets Ethics
Pond location: Cornell Tech
Fauna: Computer scientists and researchers
Flora: Talks for the Digital Life Initiative seminars that explore societal perspectives surrounding the development and application of digital technology, focusing on ethics, policy, politics, and quality of life.
Strategic goal:
Chronicle 30 talks in a way that casts light on issues confronting us today,
from algorithmic bias to intimate partner violence, from privacy and equality
in smart cities to digital arts ownership.
Pond 2: where NLP meets 3D graphics
Pond location: The Metaverse
Fauna: Creators of all kinds, artists, gamers, storytellers, influencers…
Flora: A no-code, language-enabled world-building platform where creators can conjure up 3D worlds with simple language, add behaviors and animations with just a sentence or two, and then invite others to play.
Strategic goal:
Continue role as co-founder, providing on-going strategic support and communicating the capabilities of the platform for different use-cases, from education to gaming to AI-supplemented entertainment to supporting brands and NFTs.
Pond 3: where Big Tech meets Freedom of Speech
Pond location: Knight First Amendment Institute
Fauna: Thought leaders in the media and privacy space
Flora: How the dominance of a small number of technology companies pose a
threat to the online speech environment.
Strategic goal:
Translating seven panels covering the breadth of issues into thought-provoking poster imagery. An interview with Knight creative director Lorraine Kenny about our process.
Pond 4: where Wellness meets Wellspace
Pond location: Delos, Inc.
Fauna: Technologists, UX/UI designers, development labs, and researchers
Flora: Work with expert teams to widen product opportunities and accelerate
speed-to-value on a range of digital and spatial wellness solutions.
Strategic goal:
Conduct large scale virtual FIGJAM sessions to drive new thinking; exploring solutions across multiple customer journeys and spaces, from mobile to home to hospitality to office to hospital.
Pond 5: where Aspiration meets Discretionary effort
Pond location: “Everyday Superhero,” Penguin Random House
Fauna: Organizations of all kinds
Flora: A new vision of leadership, designed to help companies take on the challenges that organizations face and create lasting change in complex and chaotic times.
Strategic goal:
To craft a hero’s narrative around a middle-middle manager and her journey to overhaul outdated leadership systems and instead prioritize people, their aspirational purpose, and their discretionary effort.
I recently drafted a guest piece for d.school Jeremy Utley’s Creativity blog entitled, “Make Leaps Happen.” As with other twists and turns I’ve taken, this froggish title took me by surprise. But during a time of rapid disruption driven by COVID, AI, cryptocurrency, the Metaverse, politics…, dramatic leaps are required for companies to produce new and sustainable ponds.
I embrace this change to a higher amphibian life form :-)
