All posts for the month September, 2015

I Am Your Idea

Euphoria

As an idea, I was quite happily resting in an unassuming nerve-end in a remote corner of the brain of my original owner. It was quite a good life really, just sitting back taking it easy where I was oblivious to all the busyness of those other ideas around me. But then, my life changed, and in a phenomenally big way!

For some unexplained reason, my owner’s brain decided to think. Why this happened, I have no rhyme or reason as to what initiated this mental activity, but the result for me was an electric and significantly life changing experience. Once the process of thinking commenced, I started to notice an immediate change in my appearance. Yes, I started to transform into a larger and more complex idea. I quickly gained substance, and in a most surprising and totally unexpected way, my social life increased exponentially as I became really popular with other ideas that were totally unknown to me. It seemed like all my new idea acquaintances wanted a piece of my being, so much so that I started to lose my individual identity.

As the concept of human time mysteriously progressed in what seemed like only microseconds, the idea of me started to reside in not just my owner’s brain, but also in that of many people. This biological effect continued to compound and I was swiftly transported via numerous communication methods across the globe into other countries, cultures and out into the solar system and beyond.

I started life as a single idea, but now I am a thought celebrity and one that is core to the survival of many other ideas and foundations of knowledge. Owing to my immense popularity of thought, I am now frequently mobbed by many other small and less advanced ideas, all seeking my autograph where they try and absorb any readily accessible part of me as they themselves quickly grow and develop.

I’m now unstoppable, viral and as long as there is a mind that can reason and think, I will exist. I am thought personified as creativity and innovation. I am your idea.

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by Steven Cramer on September 28, 2015  •  Permalink
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Posted by Steven Cramer on September 28, 2015

https://thinkingfuturethoughts.com/2015/09/28/i-am-your-idea/

Framing Your Office Correctly

Paris & London 2011 922

When walking around an art gallery you will see a variety of different people mulling in front of an oil painting making all kinds of comments. Each of them will see different aspects of the painting and will make their own interpretation as to the artistic and messaging intentions of the painter.

Some observers will focus on colour, the scene portrayed, or potentially the interaction of the people encapsulated in the work of art, and what they may be thinking or experiencing.

The viewer’s analysis of the painting will be varied, with each opinion based on their own unique life experiences that have coloured their thoughts and imagery on life.

This got me thinking. What if you took a random, non-staged photograph of the workers in your office that captured a specific moment in their working day? This image could be black and white, or coloured, placed in an impressive frame and then hung on a wall, just like in an art gallery.

So as to avoid any potential bias and insider people knowledge, employees from a non-related business would then be asked to comment as to photographer’s intentions, just like the painter of the oil canvas.

Those observing would come up with a range of assumptions and theories, some of which could be related to the work culture, stress, mood, or happiness of those people contained within the “frame”.

The collective feedback would provide a unique and objective insight into the machinations of your office. However, in this instance, the painter, or photographer, is your CEO, as this role is the creative source of the scene. Depending on the critical comments received, is your CEO proud to sign their name in the bottom right corner of the painting to stamp their ownership of the work? If not, maybe they would prefer to learn from the feedback and use it to develop and fine-tune their management artistry skills and have another go?

Yes, a picture does indeed say a thousand words. The key is to listen to them.

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by Steven Cramer on September 19, 2015  •  Permalink
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Posted by Steven Cramer on September 19, 2015

https://thinkingfuturethoughts.com/2015/09/19/framing-your-office/

Keep your Eyes Focussed

Closeup of a woman wearing a monocle in one eye. Date taken- 1930

The date was the 4th September 2025 and the last Will and Testament of my dear grandfather had just been read. His friends knew him as Barry “Pirate” Cramer, to me, he was simply Papa, and he and I, were the best of friends.

Barry “Pirate” Cramer was an entrepreneur in the true sense of the word and left his family a financial fortune that many people can only dream of attaining. My father, Leon Cramer, was his only son and today became the wealthiest person on the planet.

In my grandfather’s Will, I was left no money, real estate, works of art, or other trinkets that those in the know would classify as valuable. However, the “Pirate” had left me two items that to me characterised the “real” him. These were his gold-rimmed monocle, and his personal diary.

It took about three months before I could open his diary owing to the grief I had been feeling, but once I did, I could never have imagined the innovative insights that this little worn leather bound book contained.

Barry “Pirate” Cramer was a business visionary and could always see how to commercialise new and novel ideas that many of his peers, and competitors, could never understand, or appreciate.

He earned his “Pirate” nickname for two reasons. The most obvious one being that he always wore a monocle in his right eye. The other one was that he was famous for plundering companies that were on the brink of bankruptcy that he miraculously, and quickly, transformed into highly profitable business that were the envy of the original owners.

As I was rummaging one night through his diary, I was intrigued by the words that he had scribbled when he was only 21 years old, an age which signalled the start of his financial prowess. The reference was to why pirates wore a patch over one eye. Apparently they did this so their eyes were ready for combat in the poorly lit interior of a ship [1]. As such, they always had one eye accustomed to light, the other prepped for darkness.

Papa took this concept further and replaced the pirate eye patch with the monocle, which eventually became his personal signature facial accessory. Yes, he did need to wear glasses, but he used the monocle in a cunning and rather visionary way. By wearing a monocle, his eyes were always focussed on the short and longer distances, ready for any visual obstacle that he may encounter. However, he took this in not just the metaphorical sense. Whenever he viewed a problem, he was always able to literally “see” two sides to the solution, the short-term and most obvious one that everyone could appreciate, but also the future opportunity that many of his competition could not comprehend.

What a brilliant visionary concept, one that many corporate businesses, particularly their CEOs, could learn from and utilise in in the development of their strategic plans. The key is to be a “pirate” and to have one eye looking at the now, the other eye very much focussed on the future.

So next time you go to the optometrist for your pair of fashionable glasses, why not get a monocle instead and let the potential pirate in you take control! You will also look rather spiffy, and will most definitely be noticed.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyepatch

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by Steven Cramer on September 4, 2015  •  Permalink
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Posted by Steven Cramer on September 4, 2015

https://thinkingfuturethoughts.com/2015/09/04/keep-your-eyes-focussed/

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