Innovation Tyrant

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Motivation and Self Improvement: The Strength to Overcome: Frank Jennings

Photo credit: ‘Strength‘ by Big Stock

It is through adversity that we display what we really are made of.

Adversity: Could You Overcome This?
Paul got off 2 hours later than normal. He was working overtime to save up for a home purchase he wanted to make at the end of the year. Tired and ready to get home, he slowly walks to the car while rambling through his pockets trying to find his keys. As he finally arrives to where his car was parked, he is alarmed to find shards of broken glass and tire marks but no vehicle. Someone had stolen his car and to make matter worse he didn’t have any insurance. Paul called the police and submitted a report about his stolen vehicle.

Devastated by the loss of his car, he calls a cab and proceeds to make his way home to break the news to his wife. As he walks in the door, defeated and exhausted, his wife greets him with the biggest smile he has ever seen. He didn’t want to kill her great mood so he decided he would wait and tell her what happened after dinner. The car was their sole means of transportation and without it they would struggle to maintain. This car allowed him to get to work, his wife to school, and allowed them to commute to see their family that stayed far away.

The Celebration Dinner

At dinner Paul’s wife had prepared a feast similar to Thanksgiving. There was food everywhere. She was so happy. She was full of love. She was glowing. The food tasted amazing and with every bite the struggles of Paul’s day slowly disappeared. He enjoyed the moment and the time he spent with his wife at the dinner table. Finished with dinner, Paul remembered that there was something important he had to tell his wife. He grabbed her by both hands, looked her in the eyes, and tried to force his lips to say what needed to be said.
Before a word could leave his mouth, she screamed with so much excitement the following statement that the neighbors on both sides of their house heard her. “I’m Pregnant!” Those very words hit Paul like a ton of bricks. He was so overwhelmed with emotion that he didn’t know what to do. How was he going to feed and provide for another life? I mean just seconds before she made her announcement, he was going to tell her about the drastic changes that needed to come about in order for them to reach their dream of owning a house.

The Devastating News

In the midst of his wife’s celebration and joy, the phone rings. Paul quickly steps away to answer it, thinking it would be the police who recovered his stolen car, and he is mortified by the words the other party communicated. His eyes glass over. His breathing intensified. He drops the phone and begins falling to the floor because his legs could no longer sustain his weight. Paul just got fired.

Real Life Adversity
This fictional story is a reality in the lives of people all across America. People are going from a position of planning for their future to a state where they are just struggling to survive. However, this difficult time is where we get to see what the people in this country are really made of. It is in the midst of adversity where people show their true strength.

Imagine being in this situation. What would you do? Do you think after a day like this you could get back up and do what is necessary to feed you family? If so, what do you think is necessary?

We are in a time where people are having to start over from scratch. People are building their futures using the ashes and debris of their hopes and dreams. The weight that many of us are carrying is so overbearing that if we don’t find some help soon it will crush us. Even though the circumstances seem impossible, there is always hope.

Fighting Adversity with Brute Strength
It is so important for each of us to look down deep inside and find a way to fight even when our backs are flat on the mat. No matter how hard it gets, we can never give up. There is too much to lose by throwing in the towel. We all need to develop the strength to overcome.

The strength to overcome is the ability to believe, strive, and persevere even when you don’t feel like it. It is the function of existing beyond how you feel. It is the talent of chasing your dreams when you don’t have the air in your lungs to run. Having the strength to overcome means having the faith that if I keep sowing seeds, I will reap the harvest I desire.

With Strength You Will Overcome:

Failure

Adversity

Foreclosed Homes

Misbehaving Children

Unemployment

Broken Relationships

Debt

Depression

Low Self Esteem

Striving Through Adversity
It’s up to you how your new life begins. Are you going to lay on the floor or are you going to get up and take back what belongs to you? I can’t promise you it will be easy. I can’t promise you that you won’t cry, feel pain, or want to give up. However, I can promise you that doing nothing won’t solve the problem.

You have the strength to overcome whatever circumstances your are facing in your life. Believe in yourself. And if you don’t, never forget I believe in you. You are stronger than you have ever known. You just needed a challenge big enough to prove it.

Frank Jennings is the founder of A Spark Starts where he writes inspirational and inspiring stories. These stories give hope to single parents, encourage people consumed by debt, restore broken relationships, re-build damaged families, empower disgruntled employees, prepare the uncertain, and help you reach for your dreams. Stop by and subscribe today! via pickthebrain.com

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Jim Woods is president and founder of InnoThink Group; a leading Strategic Management and Innovation Consulting Firm in Denver, Colorado. He is an author, speaker, and a strategic innovation and hypercompetition expert to profit, non-profit organizations and municipalities. He advises clients with an objective view of their competitive capabilities and defines a clear course of action to maximize their innovation return on investment to achieve profitable growth. Build a capability for ongoing competitive innovation across your company. Call 719-649-4118 or complete our form: contact us for more information on hiring Jim to advise or speak for your next event. Business, Career or Life Coach.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Andrea Meyer: Kaplan’s Business Model Innovation Factory | Working Knowledge ®

Point: Experiment with new business models in a “connected adjacency” before committing to them.

Story: Saul Kaplan, founder of the Business Innovation Factory (BIF), just wrote a new book, The Business Model Innovation Factory. Kaplan shares 15 business model innovation principles, weaving in his personal experience (from Eli Lilly to Accenture to BIF) as well as experiences from numerous presenters at BIF’s Collaborative Innovation Summits. My favorite chapter in the book was “R&D for New Business Models.”

In the chapter, Kaplan describes how to deal the challenges of testing a new business model. Organizations can’t easily jump from an entrenched business model to a new one. There’s too much support for the old model and too many unknowns about the new one. The solution is to test the new business model in what Kaplan calls “connected adjacencies.” A connected adjacency is like a real-world sandbox or living lab. For example, Kaplan details how Accenture changed its business model from being a systems integrator to being a business integrator. Accenture (Andersen Consulting at the time) started to rapidly build a strategic capability alongside its existing systems integration business. As Kaplan writes,

“It was a connected adjacency that was given the autonomy and resources necessary to scale a rapidly-growing strategy practice from scratch – right next to the huge systems integration practice. We were an entrepreneurial business unit within the context of the behemoth. The emergent strategy practice would never have worked if it had to live by the rules of the core business model at the time. If not protected, it would have been swallowed alive by line partners from within the core business model. The new business model needed to be shielded, at least temporarily, within the relative safety of a connected adjacency.”

Part of the success of experimenting in a connected adjacency is letting employees self-select to participate. In Accenture’s case, the company went so far as to hire partners directly from outside the company – something the company had never done before in its “promote from within” philosophy of the past. The connection between the existing business and the innovation sandbox is vital, however, because it lets ideas and experiences be transferred between the two spheres.

In another example, Kaplan describes Babson College’s creation of Babson Global, an entity separate from Babson’s core business model that serves as an R&D platform for creating, prototyping and testing new approaches for teaching entrepreneurship and creating entrepreneurial ecosystems in communities worldwide. The entity is separate from the college but adjacent to it – faculty and staff from the college self-select to participate.

Action:

Nurture the new business model in a “connected adjacency” — a sandbox, living lab, or side unit of the main business.

Protect the developing new business model effort from the old model’s metrics and pressures.

Allow staff to self-select or volunteer for the new model, or hire outsiders so that you have open-minded enthusiasts for the new model rather than adherents to the old. via workingknowledge.com

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Guy Kawasaki: 10 Things You Can Learn From the Apple Store

My friend, Carmine Gallo, has written a book called The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty

. The Apple Store is the most profitable retailer in America, generating an average of $5,600 per square foot and attracting more than 20,000 visitors a week.

In the decade since Steve Jobs and former head of retail, Ron Johnson, decided to reimagine the retail experience, the Apple Store not only reimagined and reinvented retail, it blew up the model entirely and started from scratch. In his research for The Apple Experience, Carmine discovered ten things that the Apple Store can teach any business in any industry to be more successful:

Stop selling stuff. When Steve Jobs first started the Apple Store he did not ask the question, “How will we grow our market share from 5 to 10 percent?” Instead he asked, “How do we enrich people’s lives?” Think about your vision. If you were to examine the business model for most brands and retailers and develop a vision around it, the vision would be to “sell more stuff.” A vision based on selling stuff isn’t very inspiring and leads to a very different experience than the Apple Retail Store created.

Enrich lives. The vision behind the Apple Store is “enrich lives,” the first two words on a wallet-sized credo card employees are encouraged to carry. When you enrich lives magical things start to happen. For example, enriching lives convinced Apple to have a non-commissioned sales floor where employees feel comfortable spending as much time with a customer as the customer desires. Enriching lives led Apple to build play areas (the “family room”) where kids could see, touch and play on computers. Enriching lives led to the creation of a “Genius Bar” where trained experts are focused on “rebuilding relationships” as much as fixing problems.

Hire for smiles. The soul of the Apple Store is in its people. They are hired, trained, motivated and taught to create magical and memorable moments for their customers. The Apple Store values a magnetic personality as much, if not more so, than technical proficiency. The Apple Store cares less about what you know than it cares about how much you love people.

Celebrate diversity. Mohawks, tattoos, piercings are all acceptable among Apple Store employees. Apple hires people who reflect the diversity of their customers. Since they are more interested in how passionate you are, your hairstyle doesn’t matter. Early in the Apple Store history, they also learned that former teachers make the best salespeople because they ask a lot of questions. It’s not uncommon to find former teachers, engineers, and artists at an Apple Store. Apple doesn’t look for someone who fits a mold.

Unleash inner genius. Teach your customers something they never knew they could do before, and they’ll reward you with their loyalty. For example, the Apple Store offers a unique program to help people understand and enjoy their computers: One to One. The $99 one-year membership program is available with the purchase of a Mac. Apple Store instructors called “creatives” offer personalized instruction inside the Apple Store. Customers can learn just about anything: basics about the Mac operating system; how to design a website; enjoying, sharing, and editing photos or movies; creating a presentation; and much more. The One to One program was created to help build customers for life. It was designed on the premise that the more you understand a product, the more you enjoy it, and the more likely you are to build a long-term relationship with the company. Instructors are trained to provide guidance and instruction, but also to inspire customers, giving them the tools to make them more creative than they ever imagined.

Empower employees. I spent one hour talking to an Apple Store specialist about kids, golf, and my business. We spent about ten minutes talking about the product (a MacBook Air). I asked the employee whether he would be reprimanded for spending so much time with one customer. “Not at all,” he replied. “If you have a great experience, that’s all that matters.” Apple has a non-commissioned sales floor for a reason—employees are not pressured to “make a sale.” Instead they are empowered to do what they believe is the right thing to do.

Sell the benefit. Apple Store specialists are taught to sell the benefit behind products and to customize those benefits for the customer. For example, I walked to the iPad table with my two young daughters and told the specialist I was considering my first iPad. In a brilliant move, the specialist focused on my two daughters, the ‘secondary’ customer who can influence a purchase. He let the girls play on separate devices. On one device he played the movie, Tangled, and on the other device he brought up a Disney Princess coloring app. My girls were thrilled and, in one memorable moment, my 6-year-old turned me to and said, “I love this store!” It’s easy to see why. Instead of touting “speeds and feeds,” the specialist taught us how the device could improve our lives.

Follow the steps of service. The Apple Store teaches its employees to follow five steps in each and every interaction. These are called the Apple five steps of service. They are outlined by the acronym A-P-P-L-E. They are: Approach with a customized, warm greeting. Probe politely to understand the customer’s needs. Present a solution the customer can take home today. Listen for and address unresolved questions. End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.

Create multisensory experiences. The brain loves multi-sensory experiences. In other words, people enjoy being able to see, touch, and play with products. Walk into an Apple Store upon opening and you’ll see all the notebook computer screens perfectly positioned slightly beyond 90-degree angles. The position of the computer lets you see the screen (which is on and loaded with content) but forces you to touch the computer in order to adjust it. Every device in the store is working and connected to the Internet. Spend as much time as you’d like playing with the products—nobody will kick you out. Creatives who give One-to-One workshops do not touch the computer without asking for permission. They want you to do it. The sense of touch helps create an emotional connection with a product.

Appeal to the buying brain. Clutter forces the brain to consume energy. Create uncluttered environments instead. The Apple Store is spacious, clean, well-lit, and uncluttered. Cables are hidden from view and no posters on placed on the iconic glass entrances. Computer screens are cleaned constantly. Keep the environment clean, open, and uncluttered.

The three pillars of enchantment are likability, trustworthiness, and quality. Apple’s engineers take care of quality, and the Apple Store experience personifies likability and trustworthiness. I’ve never left an Apple store without being enchanted—in fact, I seldom leave the Apple Store on University Avenue in Palo Alto without being enchanted and buying something too! Resisting Carmine’s book, like resisting an Apple Store, is futile, so just get it here: The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyaltyvia blog.guykawasaki.com

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Old fire truck turned into rentable guest room

The Inshriach House offers beautiful accommodations tucked away on the countryside of northern Scotland. The Edwardian country house is situated on the Cairngorms National Park, creating the perfect backdrop for weddings and other special events. The house can fit 17 people, but if your party just couldn't shake off pushy Aunt Sally, there's a special place for her to stay.

Not too far from the main house sits a 1956 fire truck that underwent a total makeover to become a quirky guest room. Outfitted with its own sitting area and kitchen, the fire truck lodging ensures pesky relatives stay out of your hair and still have a grand time.

Via Design Mom. Inspiring design. via holykaw.alltop.com

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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

50 Golden Blogging Tips For Business: Social Media - Brad Shorr

inShare9

Every blogger should know that social media and SEO are fast becoming one big, messy and marvellous marketing discipline. Here is a collection of 50 blogging tips from my most recent and valuable posts on topics that are essential for a successful blog marketing effort. If you’re just starting out with a blog, these tips may save you a lot of time – and perhaps a little heartache as well.

Blogging Tips For Strategy

Blogging is a powerful tool to be used in marketing as well as presenting yourself as an expert, but you need to take notice of a few simple rules to make it more effective for you or your business.

Headlines are just as important as the blog post, and in some ways, more. It takes a pretty good one to capture the attention of readers who are scanning scores if not hundreds of Web pages every day.

SEO drives traffic, but a site must be optimized for conversion in order for that traffic to turn into leads and sales.

Companies err by concentrating on SEO and ignoring CRO, conversion optimization. The fatal flaw of an SEO fixation is that it takes your eye off the ball. SEO is about traffic. Traffic is important, but it’s not the goal.

The fundamental purpose of Internet marketing, and business blogging in this case, is conversion.

Publish regularly. Have a calendar based plan for your blog posts. Once a week is good, twice a week even better. The important thing here is that you stick to your plan.

Consider hiring an SEO specialist. This is one of the most important decisions you will make in your pursuit of online marketing success. (see points below)

Blog Design And Functionality

No matter how brilliant a website’s design, no matter how elegant its navigation, sooner or later visitors will decide whether to take action because of something they read. In the end, the effectiveness with which a website converts visitors hinges on words. If a new website is going to hit all the right notes, its content must be just as well crafted as its design and programming.

Primary SEO keywords should appear at the beginning of headlines. This helps readers as well as search engine crawlers.

Use bold text for keywords; again, this help readers in addition to strengthening SEO.

Use bulleted lists to the attention of readers and crawlers.

Insert primary keywords at the beginning of Meta titles.

Build a strong internal link structure on your site.

Optimize site images – this is an often-overlooked technique that boosts SEO and user experience.

The biggest error in corporate website content: inward focus.

The second biggest error: burying the lead under a pile of unimportant words. Give readers the point first of all, and then elaborate.

The third biggest error: poorly optimized or non-existent Meta content. Your site will seriously confuse Google and readers without proper optimization.

The fourth biggest error: Too much content. If you can say it in 1000 words, you can say it more effectively in 500.

The fifth biggest error: Lame or non-existent calls to action. If you don’t tell readers what to do next, they won’t do anything.

Corporate sites tend to have weak calls to action because they don’t take the time and apply the creativity to develop them in the first place.

SEO For Bloggers

Title Tags are the Nuclear Warheads of Content Marketing.

While Title Tags contain only a very small mass – roughly 65 characters – they pack an unbelievable punch. Because of title tags’ enormous impact on SEO, social sharing and conversion, content marketers should know how they work, and how to put them to work.

Title tags are the most important piece of Meta information on a Web page in terms of SEO.

Title tags are also crucial for optimizing user experience and facilitating social shares.

Title tags may or may not include a branding message.

Title tags must always include the primary keyword phrases for the Web page it represents.

Title tags can be composed for conversion: snappy titles inspire social sharing. The decision whether to stress SEO or conversion depends in large part on the nature of the content.

Skilful use of H1 title tags boosts conversion without compromising the SEO integrity of title tags.

Title tags should be updated if on-page content changes relevant keywords.

The biggest factor in selecting an SEO partner: understanding their methodology. If the agency doesn’t have a formal one, or if the methodology is outdated, results inevitably will be poor.

The second biggest factor: understanding the SEO’s track record. Actions speak louder than words!

The third biggest factor: making sure there is a good fit. Every SEO has a sweet spot; if you’re not in it, results will lag.

The fourth biggest factor: the longevity and stability of the SEO. You don’t want to start from scratch after investing years developing a program with a partner who suddenly disappears.

The fifth biggest factor: great relationships. You don’t want to start over after investing years on a program with a partner who suddenly disappears.

Some web content writers, as well as web designers view on-page SEO as a necessary evil to an effective content strategy on the web. However, when properly executed, SEO can actually enhance a site visitor’s experience, rather than detract from it.

Writing For Web

Web writers are a special kind of breed. Their jobs include writing AdWord ads, corporate bios, blog post titles, calls to action, display ads, Facebook fan page posts, landing pages, Meta descriptions, taglines, testimonials and tweets.

Writing AdWords ads requires more precision than perhaps any other form of Web writing.

Corporate bios require genuine creativity to be readable and relevant.

The art of writing brochures should not be lost, because it’s still a highly valuable business skill.

Landing page composition is too important to be a sideline job: great landing page writers are made, not born.

Several important (and not always understood techniques) go into writing a truly persuasive sales proposal.

Taglines are the most all-around demanding form of business writing there is. There’s a reason why brilliant taglines cost a fortune.

Twitter may seem like a frivolous medium, but great writing skill is required for effective business tweets.

“Different from” is universally accepted, but “different than” is not.

Avoid the expression “if and when.” Not even experts understand its meaning.

Social Sharing And Blogging

Twitter is a feast-or-famine marketing tool. It can help you achieve important business goals, or it can be a monumental waste of time.

Social Sharing is the latest ‘add on’ in blogging and Twitter has become one of the most important social sharing platforms. Here are some practical tips how to make Twitter perform better for you.

On Twitter, define your purpose clearly before launching your page.

Make sure you have adequate resources to support your Twitter program. Many firms grossly underestimate the time and effort needed.

Select the right Twitter interface platform to support your program. They all have strengths and weaknesses.

Vet your Twitter followers and clean them up to avoid being buried under a mountain of spammers.

Learn the basic types of tweets and best practices for writing them before you start tweeting.

Don’t tweet on one or two themes all day long: variety helps attract followers.

Although you have 140 characters to work with, tweets at 100 characters or less can be very effective and draw retweets.

Avoid jargon and exotic abbreviations in tweets – the longer it takes someone to get your drift, the less likely they’ll be to pay attention to you.

Schedule certain types of tweets in advance to save time and make sure you’re getting the full message out.

Always respond to people who retweet your material and ask you questions.

Always be ready to lend a hand to fellow tweeps – giving to get works well on Twitter.

I hope these 50 tips will help you in your blogging endeavours. If you have any blogging tips of your own please share with us.

Brad Shorr works for Straight North, a Web development, Chicago-based agency concentrating in B2B, with clients in specialized niches such as credit card processing for gas stations and truck tracking systems. via socialmediarevolver.com

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5 Secrets to Creating a Winning "Mad Man" Pitch : Innovation

Two of television's most popular shows right now are "Mad Men" and "The Pitch." And the appeal, according to Madison Avenue adman-turned-author Kevin Allen in a recent interview, is that there is a "constant and universal fascination with seemingly powerful people coming up with ideas, slogans and jingles that sell an awful lot of soap powder to an awaiting public. There is a sort of inherent marvel as to how these folks conjure up the winning idea."

Just how to do that conjuring is the subject of Allen's new book, The Hidden Agenda: A Proven Way to Win Business and Create a Following. Allen is one of the advertising industry's most accomplished professionals, with over two decades of experience on the front lines at ad giants McCann Worldgroup, Interpublic Group and Lowe Worldwide. He was an early part of Rudolph Giuliani's mayoral election team.

Allen's unique approach to pitching and securing hundreds of millions of dollars in new billings has little to do with traditional selling. Rather, it rests on making an authentic connection with an audience that links their personal hopes, ambitions, desires and beliefs with your professional assets.

"Having seen hundreds of 'Mad Men' and women at work," says Allen, "the brilliant ones are those who have the emotional intelligence to sense what is in the heart of their audience and figure ways to ignite it."

Allen draws from his own experience in pitching to the likes of Nokia, Marriott and Johnson & Johnson, among others, and lays out these five steps to what he calls the "Allen Key" system.

1. Identify the conceptual target

The conceptual target is the crystallization of a community of individuals who share common human truths. It allows you to hone in on and speak to exactly what your audience cares about. In pitching to the highly analytical, high-tech company Ericsson, Allen uncovered the company's strong need to be appreciated for making a difference in the lives of people around the world and created "Everyday Miracles," as the campaign came to be called. By strategically drawing out in discussion what your subject is really about, the conceptual focus of an effective pitch becomes clear.

2. Tune in to the "hidden agenda"

The search for the "hidden agenda" is essentially a search for desire. At Johnson & Johnson, Allen encountered resistance to younger people (such as himself) bringing new ideas and critiques to the table. The conceptual target was clear: respect for the traditional ways of the company. From this, the "hidden agenda" was teased out: a desire to proceed not from irreverent criticism, but respectful optimism. Allen developed what his team dubbed the "Possibility Agenda” ad campaign and won Johnson & Johnson's business.

3. Take inventory of your core and connect it with your target

Your core reflects the special abilities and assets you possess and how you add value for others. Uniformly proud of its superiority as an airline carrier while simultaneously hesitant to boast or appear aggressive in asserting this, Lufthansa was a difficult potential client to decipher. By knowing his own company's core, its unique and defining attributes, Allen was able to connect with Lufthansa’s real essence–genuine excellence–and lead them to address concerns for truthfulness and modesty with a campaign featuring a slogan that simply stated, "There's no better way to fly."

4. Communicate your credo

Your credo is your belief system that drives your actions. Clearly communicate that credo, emphasizing your values with those of your audience, to forge a bond. Marriott faced the challenge of defining itself in an overdeveloped hotel market with competitors wielding fancier architecture and up-market cache like Hyatt and Westin. The key to staying in the game was connecting to Marriott's real values and presenting those effectively to the world. Allen discerned, through an investigation of the everyday interactions between Marriott employees and customers, a culture based on the honor and nobility of service. This became the basis of a highly effective pitch, "The Spirit to Serve."

5. Discover your target's real ambition

Real ambition, as Allen defines it, is the human desire to grow and to add something to the world where nothing previously existed. South African Airways sought a new direction at a pivotal time in the country’s history. Feeling the eyes of the world upon them, they were deeply concerned to do the right thing in all aspects of their business–not just for themselves, but for their nation and its reputation. A pitch connecting the real ambition of every individual in the room–hope for a peaceful and prosperous South Africa–to the aims and pride of South African Airways moved everyone and won the day.

“We don’t really persuade anybody to do anything,” says Allen. "Businesses hire you and people follow you not because they've had their arm twisted, but because they see that you understand them. At the end of the day, behind every decision is an unspoken, visceral, emotional motivation. Tap that, and you win."

Photo credit: Courtesy author

via openforum.com

Searching For New Solutions to Attract and Retain More Customers? Looking for a Strategic and Innovation Advisor to work on retainer? A riveting speaker?

Jim Woods is president and founder of InnoThink Group; a leading Strategic Management and Innovation Consulting Firm in Denver, Colorado. He is an author, speaker, and a strategic innovation and hypercompetition expert to profit, non-profit organizations and municipalities. He advises clients with an objective view of their competitive capabilities and defines a clear course of action to maximize their innovation return on investment to achieve profitable growth. Build a capability for ongoing competitive innovation across your company. Call 719-649-4118 or complete our form: contact us for more information on hiring Jim to advise or speak for your next event.

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Labels: Creating a following, Innovation consultants, innovation ideas, Innovation Open Forum, Innovation speakers Jim Woods, Kevin Allen, The Hidden Agenda

This column will change your life: design thinking

Oliver Burkeman: 'The notion that designers might have much to teach the rest of us has swept the business world.' Illustration: Francesco Bongiorni for the Guardian

If you're a graphic designer, you'll already know that "kerning" refers to making tiny adjustments to the spaces between letters. If you're not, there's a strong possibility you won't care. But either way I suspect you'll see why I was sceptical about a new book entitled Life Kerning: Creative Ways To Fine Tune Your Perspective On Career & Life, which treats kerning as a metaphor for living. No offence to the designers I've known, but they tend to be neat-freaks with an obsessive attention to detail (and stylish spectacles). These are excellent attributes for the job, but are they really a recipe for happiness? Most of us could do with a bit less perfectionism and a bit more acceptance of those parts of life that, metaphorically speaking, will always be in badly-kerned Comic Sans.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book, by the Chicagoan designer Justin Ahrens, is a solid collection of antiperfectionistic advice – a font of wisdom, even. Ahrens doesn't overstretch his metaphor. He uses it to argue for "creating space" around the elements of your life by, say, planning short retreats to gain perspective, and to emphasise that small changes – a tiny tweak to a routine – might make all the difference between an awkward life and a beautiful one. "We tend to think sweeping changes need to be made," he writes, yet "it's often the fine adjustments between the smaller details… that tend to make the headlines of our lives seem… not as harmonious as they could be".

The notion that designers might have much to teach the rest of us has swept the business world. "Design thinking", to paraphrase its leading proponent, Roger Martin, means thinking that focuses on creating better things, while "analytical thinking", which is standard in business, is choosing between things. Sometimes, design thinking literally means what we colloquially mean by "design": the careers blogger Penelope Trunk argued recently that the past 20 years, dominated by email, favoured good writers, while new technologies mean "you will be more valuable and more relevant if you can think in terms of visuals". More broadly, design thinking refers to seeing things as systems, and shifting perspective to break out of predetermined grooves.

There's legitimate eyeball rolling to be done here. "The idea," writes one sceptical designer, Peter Merholz, "is that the left-brained, MBA-trained, spreadsheet-driven crowd has squeezed all the value they can out of their methods. To fix things, all you need to do is apply some right-brained, turtleneck-wearing creatives, 'ideating' tons of concepts and creating new opportunities for value out of whole cloth." Besides, creatives can be narrow-minded, too: studies on "architectural myopia" have shown architects literally see the world differently from laypeople, which may explain why they so often design buildings people hate using.

Still, there's something appealing about treating life as a design project: it's less cringe-inducing than "life as a work of art", yet more free-spirited than life as a to-do list. Most lives are too messy to think in terms of a blank canvas. But thinking in terms of elegantly arranging interlocking items is practical, while leaving space for real creativity. There's an old joke about designers, which I'd always taken as teasing them for being truculent, but perhaps on reflection it's more flattering: how many designers does it take to change a lightbulb? "Why does it have to be a lightbulb?"

oliver.burkeman@guardian.co.uk; twitter.com/oliverburkeman

• This column was corrected on 6 December 2011. In the original, Justin Ahrens was referred to as Jason Ahrens.

via guardian.co.uk

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