Tenacity

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This year I've written at length about the Delta Wing project.  Last month the team reached their goal of racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mons, and did very well.  The car performed as advertised and was putting in competitive lap times until it was forced off the road due to a racing incident.

At Le Mans, a driver is allowed to try and fix a broken car, but is not permitted to receive direct outside aid.  So the driver is the only person allowed to touch the car in the process of fixing it, but can be coached by other people from the team.  The tools used to fix the car have to be carried in the car, and no outside spare parts can be used.  If you're able to drive your disabled car back to the garage, the entire team can then go to work on it.  Because of these rules, and due to the extreme time duration of the race, there's an imperative for drivers to do whatever they can to nurse a car back to health.

At the time the Delta Wing was shunted off the rack, it was being driven by Satoshi Mototyama.  The video above is an edited account of the 90 minutes Motoyama spent trying to get the broken Delta Wing in good enough condition to limp back to the garage.  Through much of the video, he's being coached by his team of engineers and mechanics standing on the other side of a chain-link fence.  Bear in mind that while he's doing this, it's hot and humid outside, he's wearing several layers of fireproof underwear below a nomex firesuit, and extremely loud race cars are constantly zooming by.  And, he's wearing his racing helmet; it's remarkable how much vision a race helmet blocks out.  When I last wore mine in an unfamiliar car, it kept me from being able to see my own seat belt harness, which made it hard to get out when I wanted to!

As you can see from the video, it didn't work.  Even after 90 minutes of trying just about everything, nothing worked.  And yet, I find Motoyama's efforts deeply inspiring.  He tried like hell.  He put everything into trying to win.  As a person who believes in the power of putting in as much as you can when the chips are down, I find his courage and tenacitiy utterly inspiring.

While I'm sad that the grand Delta Wing Le Mans adventure ended this way, his conduct made it a noble ending.  Tenacity really matters, and in another place, it could have worked out for Motoyama.  Possessing the grit to see things out, that's a true gift, and it's one you want to see in everyone trying to bring something remarkable to life.

Innovating is Tough: Hats off to the DeltaWing team

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I had a deep emotional response while watching this video about the DeltaWing project.

If you've ever struggled to bring something new and innovative to life, you know what everyone in this video is going through. What they've accomplished is immensely impressive.

Toward the end of the video, Dr. Don Panoz is wearing a shirt with the following aphorism emblazoned on its back:

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

Amen, Dr. Panoz.  Amen.  I think myself very lucky to be part of the team at IDEO, and there are very few teams or organizations I would consider signing up to belong to, but the DeltaWing project is certainly one of them.  I once again tip my hat to Ben Bowlby and everyone there who has worked so hard to make a clever vision into a stunning reality.

Innovating is tough.  Talking about it is easy.  Doing it to the hilt and creating a true gamechanger is beyond hard.  Respect.

2012-06-11 at 10-44-29

David Kelley on Creative Confidence

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“Don’t divide the world into ‘creative’ and ‘non-creative’. Let people realize they are naturally creative … When people regain that confidence, magic happens.”

– David Kelley

 

Earlier this year at the TED conference I had the wonderful experience of watching my teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend David Kelley give the talk above.  It’s about building confidence in one’s ability to be creative.  It’s also about empathy, courage, leadership, and choosing to strive to live the life you want to live.  

I hope you enjoy listening to David’s thoughts on creative confidence as much as I did.

 

Climbing Mountains and Wells

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Innovating upon something already in existence requires change.  The road to that change can be faster or slower, but there's always a journey to be had.  If you're lucky, it may be an easy path you take, but it's much more likely to be one with lots of obstacles, dips, and dead ends along the way. 

When I look back upon the things I've embarked upon to create change in the world, one thing stands out: the journey always took much longer than projected.  If that journey was something akin to climbing a big mountain, I spent more time navigating the approach to the base of the mountain than summiting the peak, if you will.  I rarely if ever planned for this "flat" part of the trip.  The mountain peak is so seductive, so sexy — it's where you want to end up, so you focus on what it will take to scale the verticals.  But as it turns out, it's the long walk to the base of the mountain that's the hardest part.  It's about perseverance more than strength.

Innovating something, be it a stand alone product or a massively interconnected system, involves many more days of getting to the peak than it does scaling the peak.  This is because there are so many pitfalls along the way — so it always feels like you're climbing something.  Climbing a mountain face or a well, it feels the same: steep, slippery, and difficult. As it turns out, a lot of that climbing happens because you've stumbled into a crevasse or a well, and you have to find your way out before you can get back to your mission of walking to the mountain.  It can't be helped; if you're innovating, by definition you're venturing out through the dark unknown, so of course you'll stumble and fall and have to pick yourself up.

While there were lots of hard points, in any difficult project I've done there was also more joy and camaraderie to be had along the way than I ever dared hope for.  This is key.  Whether it's Orville and Wilbur figuring out how to make man fly, or it's you tweaking the messaging on a web site in the middle of the night, you need the help of friends and colleagues.  Not only can they help pull you out of a crevasse, but they can help you see that you weren't yet on the mountain.  And that you need to keep walking. 

Understanding the difference between a mountain and a well?  Priceless.