Steve Neiderhauser

The Brilliance of Blake Snyder

Like the rays of the sun, the more condensed the words, the more powerful they are.

Blake Snyder shines in Chapter 3 of his book Save the Cat Strikes Back like a super nova. In this one chapter he lays out the three acts, describing them as Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis, in a clear, concise, and clever way that could spring only from Blake's genius.

The rivers of Blake's understanding flow together in this chapter, gifting you with the wisdom of story structure. 

Go ahead! Read the chapter, watch the movies, write your story.

Emphatic Word Order

Roy Peter Clark Clark provides eight strategies that can strengthen your writing. One tool is emphatic word order. Placing a word at the end of a sentence will emphasis the word more than hiding the word in the middle of a winding sentence.

Here's an eloquent description of the tool.

“There is sometimes an extraordinary force in some particular word, which, if it be placed in no very conspicuous position in the middle part of a sentence, is likely to escape the attention of the hearer and to be obscured by the words surrounding it; but if it be put at the end of the sentence is urged upon the reader’s sense and imprinted on his mind.”

Power of Words

Here's one of Blake Snyder's posts describing the power of words. Writers more than anyone know the power of words.

We all have the ability to speak things into the here and now through the power of words.  Blake illuminates:

There is something powerful not only in our written words, but in our spoken words as well.

Use them wisely.

Old Testament Genesis begins not with the waving of a wand to create the Earth in seven days, but saying:“Let their be light.” Words have power. We know better than anyone. Let’s make sure our words are well chosen.

 

 

Writing Tools

Roy Peter Clark, author of Writing Tools, illuminates 50 strategies for every writer.

Tool 20 is brilliant. Choose the number of elements with a purpose in mind. Here's a sentence with one defining characteristic.

"That girl is smart."

What's the effect? The reader must focus on one quality.

Let's look at sentences with three and four elements. Three elements provides a complete picture, a sense of the whole. Mr. Clark uses this example:

"That girl is smart, sweet, and determined."

From William Shakespeare, the power of three: "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." 

Now, consider the effect of four or more elements. Three elements provides a greater sense of completeness. When you use four elements you break out of the circle of completeness. Four or more elements can provide a flowing, literary effect.

"That girl is smart, sweet, determined, and neurotic."

When to use three or four elements.

Use three for completeness, wholeness. Four or more to list, compile, and expand.

Orange You Looking For Me

I stepped onto my patio and was greeted by what sounded like a thousand carpenter nails clawing a tree. I peered into the bough of a nearby tree and realized I was spot on about the nails. Twenty of them.

The nails are the tools of this Orange Tabby. She remained perched on high for 10 minutes, and safely returned to Dallas soil without the aid of a fire truck.

An Opening is an Opportunity for Greatness

What kind of opening am I talking about? One where you allow your artistic skills to take flight.

The first ten pages of a novel, the first ten minutes of a movie, or the first couple slides of a presentation.

Because we're in a new age of media consumption, it's imperative to grab the audience's attention in your opening gambit. You may have purchased a streaming media service like Netflix. For eight bucks a month your eyeballs are free to swim in an endless supply of images.

When I choose a movie and the opening scenes fails to entice me, I simply sample another movie. Screenwriters have know about the importance of openings for ages. So when business people ask me how to improve a presentation, I suggest they take a trip outside the boundaries of business and see how the pros do it.

Check out Erik Bork's guidance for The first 10 pages of a script.

Want to sharpen your opening skills while watching a movie. Pay attention to the opening and final images. What changed?

In Save the Cat, Blake Snyder writes that good screenwriters check their movie math by comparing the opening and final images. Do the images show a change in the character? After all, stories are about change. Stories are about transformation.

Consider Miss Congeniality, starring Sandra Bullock.

Opening Image: Sandra is dressed in sweats, working out with male FBI agents.

Final Image: Sandra is dressed in a dazzling gown, surrounded by women and awarded the Miss Congeniality prize.

The movie math checks out.

Small bets lead to a Legend

John Legend... Did you know that John started his career as an analyst at Boston Consulting Group?

So how did he transform himself from business analyst to 9-time Grammy Award winner? He experimented… he played in clubs at night, he cut demos, he was curious.  And he listened.

John is profiled in Peter Sims book Little Bets and in this blog post where the band trumpets the book.

If the John Legend Band can riff on a business book and practice the art of placing small bets to invent the future, shouldn't your company — and employees — become artists of innovation.

Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs

What would you do to learn the innovation secrets of Steve Jobs.  The secrets used to create the iPod, iPad, and iPhone, generating billions in revenue.  Would you read a book?  Would you read an entertaining book?  Of course you would.

In his new book, The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, Carmine Gallo does the heavy lifting… he performs the research, he illuminates the patterns, and he delivers the seven secrets of innovation in an entertaining and insightful tapestry of principles and stories.

All you have to do is absorb the message.

The stories make sure the secrets stick with you and help you create new products.  In addition, at the end of chapters Carmine provides iLessons − Three key points for that secret.

The first secret may be the most important.  “Love What You Do.”  If you dislike your work, you’re not going to put in extra time, imagine new ideas, or dream up new products.  First, find something you love to do, the other principles will take flight.

Let’s review three of the seven secrets that will make your business soar.

• Kick-Start Your Brain
• Say No to 1,000 Things
• Create Insanely Great Experiences

Kick-Start Your Brain

Creativity is just connecting things.

− Steve Jobs

Why do some people swim in new ideas while others tread on dry lakes?  It's the key skill needed to create new ideas − Connecting seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas.  People who have an affinity for new and different experiences are more likely to make connections from different fields.  Steve Jobs is drawn to new experiences − the art of calligraphy, meditation, trips to India.

How did Steve’s experiences affect the Mac?  None of us would have seem the beautiful typefaces in the early Macs unless Jobs had dropped in on a Calligraphy class.  In addition to this example, Carmine writes about other product innovations directly attributable to Steve’s love of new experiences.

Here’s one of Carmine’s practical iLessons:  To seek new experiences, if you typically read nonfiction, read a fiction book.  Read different magazines.  Read about music, architecture, design...

Seeking new experiences, you may take a yoga class and make your body and mind more flexible.  As you become more flexible, your metaphor thermometer will rise and you will start using metaphors to envision new products.

The mercurial Mr. Jobs has a flare for using metaphors to describe products.  In 1981, Jobs wrote a business plan comparing Macintosh to a crankless Volkswagen.  He also thinks of personal computers as bicycles for your mind.  Notice how Steve’s metaphors lack clichés, they have sharp edges and grab your mind by the lapels.

Metaphors are more than word connections, they connect us to major innovations.  Harvard Business Professor, Gerald Zaltman writes, “Metaphor is the engine of imagination.  In fact, the use of metaphor together with visual imagery lies at the heart of all major advances in science.”

Story expert, James Bonnet tells us that metaphors spring from archetypes, and artistically treated metaphors communicate with our creative unconscious and reveal the hidden truth.

So whether it’s the model, the mythology, or the man that inspires you, start using metaphors to kick-start your brain.

Say No to 1,000 Things

All CEOs are project managers to some degree.  They will either manage an issues list or design their way out of a problem.  If they manage an issues list, they’re probably at the mercy of people who created the problem.  When Steve Jobs regained the helm at Apple, he designed his way out of the problems circling Apple like a school of starving sharks.

Carmine shows how Jobs turned Apple into a profitable company through design based on simplicity.  First, Jobs reduced total product offerings from 350 to 10.  Then he focused on making those products remarkable and elegant.  Apple designers focused on simplicity, the essential meaning of the product, and what creates great experiences for customers.

Apple has always been known for brilliant and easy-to-use interfaces.  With the introduction of touch screen interfaces, it’s easier than ever to use Apple products.  Concepts learned on one device can be applied to another.  This YouTube video illustrates iPad’s simplicity.  So simple a two-year-old can use it.

In design, subtraction adds value.  Matthew May writes, “...our addiction to addition results in inconsistency, overload or waste, and sometimes all three.”  And from Jim Collins, “A great piece of art is composed not just of what is in the final piece, but equally important what is not.”

Steve Jobs believes he creates works of art.  Apple’s art is uncluttered and elegant.  As a testament to the iPod’s simplicity look at how Jobs can describe the device:

“Plug it in.  Whirrrrrr.  Done.”

Truth is, flexible, Lego-like software elements are the basis for simplicity and − Insanely great experiences.

Create Insanely Great Experiences

Many software executives believe they get paid for the software they create.  That’s not really true.  People really pay for customer experiences.

Apple designs customer experiences − and marketing − into its products and stores.  When you visit an Apple Store you may not know what’s different about the store... You will feel it.

Jobs hired Target executive Ron Johnson who also believes in beautiful designed products.  Together they created a vision for the Apple Store − Enrich Lives.  Johnson asked his team, “What would a store that enriches lives look like?”  Here’s several design concepts that help Apple Stores stand apart:

• Design uncluttered stores.
• Allow customers to test-drive products.
• Offer a concierge experience (Genius Bar)

All executives have the opportunity to audit customer experiences.  Simply purchase a product from your company or dial the customer support line.  What kind of experience are you delivering?

iLesson:  Review every customer touch point with your brand.  Make every effort to create a deeper, more lasting relationship with customers.

 

Summary

There’s four more secrets to learn when you read Carmine’s book.  And the secrets can be used to produce new products or enhance your brand.

Together, the seven secrets will give you the confidence, boldness and control to create products that delight your customers.  What final advice might Steve Jobs give you about innovation.

 

“Dream bigger.”

BP Spoof

When someone is so clueless that they create a frustrating, daunting problem, we’ll resort to humor to deal with the absurdity of the situation.

So it’s no surprise to find a British Petroleum spoof (BP Spills Coffee) has gone viral.

Roberts Rule’s of Innovation

Would it make any sense for a world-class athlete to starve himself before a major competition? Of course not.

And yet many companies do just that. Here’s a little secret − You can cut costs to zero, you can innovate to infinity.

In his new book Robert’s Rules of Innovation, Robert Brands gives us this wisdom − Innovation is not optional: If you don’t innovate you will perish.

Mr. Brands provides a convincing argument for innovation and gives us practical steps to build an innovation program. The cornerstone of his program is 10 rules of innovation that bring order to chaos. Let’s take a look at two of those rules:

Value Creation: Successful innovation transforms ideas into money. To accomplish this goal, it’s important to understand the market and consumer drivers.

Training and Coaching: Find fantastic people and coach them in the ways of innovation. The basis of successful innovation? “A natural curiosity, open-mindedness, an ability to see big picture − combined with hard-headed business acumen.” Find people with an ambidextrous mind.

In addition to a training program, if your team lacks an executive with innovation experience, you may want to bring someone on board to coach your company and eliminate speed bumps. Without leadership, you’d be surprised at how fast common sense turns to nonsense.

To determine where your company needs improvement, Mr. Brands' offers a short innovation audit.

The author has experience with the creative process and makes the point that creativity flourishes when it is constrained by structure. This is true whether you’re creating a musical score, screenplay or new product.

For idea management, Robert’s advice is think fast. Validate your ideas through rapid prototypes. Think in terms of completing the prototype in days instead of weeks or months.

There are many more concepts in the book (including managing intellectual property) that will fuel white-hot innovation. And that’s key because like the Olympics, when the flame of innovation goes out at a company, the games are over.