The Door

I sat in bed on Saturday night with my two beautiful children sleeping between my beautiful wife and I; a humbled smile on my face. As a life-long Oakland A's fan the story of Moneyball was a glorious viewing pleasure. Long before the Oakland A's winning streak of 2002, there were the A's of the 70's that were paid to grow mustaches to embrace the hippies and bikers that supported their team. Long before Billy Beane there was Bill Martin....Crazy George and Rickey Henderson's stolen base record. There was an Earthquake that unified two sides of Northern California during a world series. The most famous home run ever hit started in the hand of a clutch Oakland A's reliever. Heart breaking at times, glorious in others, baseball is certainly a romantic sport.

A person I consider a very good friend has suffered and thrived as a member of the Oakland A's staff. They await a new stadium, their cross town rivals have won a World Championship and the recent fire sale of their team's talent makes the Giambi/Damon departure look like a walk int the park. There can be no glory without heartbreak and such is the story of Moneyball.

Golden Globe Nominee, Jonah Hill, called the story of Moneyball punk rock - Amen! The movie is not about the Oakland A's or even baseball. It is about finding the door where others see a dead end. Billy Beane and Peter Brand bucked the tradition of the most traditional sport in the world and created a new way of operating. That is the challenge that faces us all, no matter what we do. We cannot bow to the New York Yankee's of business because they have more staff, more clients and bigger operating costs. We have to use our gift of inventive thought to flip our respective industries on their ear.

Here's what happens: a company gathers market share, they systematize their business plan and profit drives their mission. People become numbers and reputation creates customers.....In hindsight, they stop creating ways of attracting new clients because they focus on margin management. The sales folk get lazy and count their money instead of hunting. Someone call Billy Beane!

The standard in any industry exists only to be broken. The rich think they are getting richer while the commoners plan a way to storm the tower. Every great company is built by a chairman or chairwoman who is hungry. This is the definition of punk rock: viewing the norm as a stagnant weight station on the road to success. Nothing is cemented, permanence stopped a second ago, and being at the top of the ladder only reveals the color of your bloomers. Our fleeting moments on this earth are only an invitation to chase a pennant every day!

There is a moment in Moneyball when Billy Beane reveals how badly he wants to win. He states that the only game worth winning is the last game of the year. His pursuit of perfection is equal parts torture and joy. Billy Beane missed his daughter's growing up to build a team worth watching on a shoe string budget...and I voiced my disapproval from the stands. His time lost encapsulated in a song that his daughter played for him. My frustration erased by a Scott Hatteberg home run!

Sports are an incomprehensible metaphor for life. You cannot make this stuff up. The human spirit cannot be systematized or defined by metrics. With every achievement the bar is set only to be raised higher.

Find The Door!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Proof

I recently attended a Diversity Networking Forum. When I got there a man asked me, "so, why are you here?" As if to insinuate that I needed a preexisting condition to qualify my attendance. I was under the impression that the whole purpose of diversity was to dispel stereotypes...?

I recently heard an interview with a musician. He explained that science dispels magic. That scientists are able to put facts behind a myth and take the fun out of the fable. That no one believes in anything anymore. That we need proof before we can put our faith in anything.

Osama Bin Laden is dead at sea....fish out his body and bring it on a US Tour. We won't believe it until we put our fingers in his wounds.

It's kind of sad that we have become so mistrusting. It is a shame that we need undeniable proof to validate the use of our time. Show me the statistics and I will evaluate next steps with the committee of me.

Maybe there are 2 types of people:
Those who act in good faith
Those who cannot act without proof that their actions will produce results

Are results all that matter? If we only did things with the certainty that it would produce a winning formula would we experience anything new? Would we ever find a new frontier if we feared to travel there without a proven path through the forest?

Data has never been more accessible. So it is incumbent upon us to ensure we have all the facts before we act, right?

Wrong!

We are not robots. Not everything has to have a finite end game. Progress evades so many of us because we are afraid that the lack of proof would invalidate our effort. Our need to have evidence makes us normal, predictable...sad.


We all want to be great but sometimes we fail to recognize that greatness is a result of exploring the unproven. To act without evidence catapults us into the unknown. The exploring of the unknown is a process of education. Every time we try something unproven we get closer to creating something new.

Maybe the aforementioned musician was wrong. Maybe scientists create magic. Their quest being the creation of the magic formula not an effort to dispel our faith in the unknown.

There cannot be a question that trying something new is a wonderful waste of time. With each mistrial comes another door, another path in the woods, another chance to disprove what has been certified.

Without excitement we cannot thrive. Without the mystery of the unknown we cannot generate excitement.

The door is open.....

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

The Seventh Rule of Awesomeness

The story of Great Expectations transitions when Finnegan Bell has moved beyond his roots to the big city and found a new group of friends. His uncle Joe brings his doc worker's demeanor to a big city Art Show and Finn becomes embarrassed of him.


As Fred Sanford once said, "the same people you see on the way up, you gonna see on the way down"

The seventh rule of Awesomeness is: Even a Broken Clock is right twice a day!

In Human Resources we have been overwhelmed with the changing Generational Landscape of our workforce and how to scale our company directives in an inclusive manner. The idea relevant, the underlying masquerade transparent.

Fact: There are people over 80 that use Twitter
Fact: There are 25 year old's that don't use Facebook
Fact: There are Gen Xers that don't have cell phones

In short, one cannot categorize another based on their age, organizational tenure or technical skill. It's getting old......(no offense Baby Boomers)

The greatest Human Characteristic is Grace. I like people who are confidently calm....I dislike people who are arrogant out of insecurity. Confidence and arrogance are different forms of socialization. People who pretend are always exposed. People who are genuine live through their own validation, they do not wait for it from another.

Here are a few tips to keep you in your britches:
* Everyone has something to teach
* Innovation is only part of the puzzle
* Human interaction is still the gateway to everything
* No idea is completely unique
* Those who project insecurity really just want to be your friend
* Listen before you preach


Most importantly, when your Uncle Joe comes to visit you at college, remember where you come from. Allow him to share his moonshine with your dorm mates!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

http://twitter.com/davidkovacovich

Break the Mold

In an interview yesterday I was asked what was the best Tweet I ever saw.

Here it is:
@benjaminmccall - If I personally belived all statistics, then I wouldn't have accomplished anything! Break the mold.

Ben, like me, seems to be a guy who believes that convention is what got us in this mess in the first place. I am concerned that organizations are using this down time not to re-invent but to scale back. I am continually concerned that when things get better organizations will go back to the same old thing and hope it works this time.

In my consulting efforts I am always asked for 3 things:
References
Case Studies
Best Practices

People thirst for defendable statistics to take the guess work out of decision making. Essentially, "tell me what other companies are doing and we'll do that because if they decided it will work, it must".

If there is no where to go but up why not take a chance......if the other stuff didn't work why try it again....if everyone else is doing something and failing, does that make it right?...if Jack Welch jumped off a bridge.......(you get the idea)!

I know we're freaked out but FEAR will not move us forward, in fact, it will drag us back.

Be Bold, Be Couragious, Take a Chance.....Break the Mold!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

References:
http://twitter.com/davidkovacovich
www.linkedin.com/in/davidkovacovich

Redefining Innovation

i-phones, touch screens, the latest in social networking tools, handheld personal identifiers. What comes next and how do we keep up? How can we gain knowledge to endure, adapt and stay on the cutting edge...?

It is a simple fact that we all enjoy knowing things others don't. So the quest to have the new thing before anyone else and the empowerment of fresh product knowledge has come to define innovation. I, however, define innovation with a fresh perspective and a meaningful way of sharing it. It really is not contingent on a widget so much as a perspective.

How fresh is your perspective?

A few things to ponder:
* People are more important than products
* A widget means nothing if you fail to understand it's differentiating capacity
* To find new perspectives one must stretch his/her mind beyond systematic function

So here are a few tips that might help gain a fresh perspective:

* Conceptualize a new idea and gather input from others to better qualify your vision

* Speak to people in a humanly empathetic manner

* Be Nice



7 Steps to Innovation Sensation:
1. Think of something new; every day
2. Ask people what they think about it
3. Formulate a Vision
4. Be Empathetic in your Communication
5. Be Nice
6. Learn
7. Start Over Tomorrow


* Note: There is no device, machine, copy write or certification that is perfectly necessary to achieve the aforementioned.

Might it be said that innovation is not so much about moving forward with blinders on but finding new ways to engage others....in this case the cutting edge (or long forgotten) methodology of being friendly in your human interactions.

Go now and change the world by making it a better place!

Don't Forget to Remember!


- Dave


References:
http://twitter.com/davidkovacovich
www.linkedin.com/in/davidkovacovich