John Caswell John Caswell

Surviving The Coming Wave

Now and then, I get a minute to reflect on all the lessons. Eventually, a few of them become ‘truths.’ These lessons repeat themselves so regularly that I get the time to distil each one into a simple sentence.

I call them simple sentences, but they’re not simple ideas.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Things I Wish I Had Said - Volume Five

Visionaries like Steve Jobs and Haruki Murakami had the power to use phrases capable of changing attitudes and paradigms. Well-aimed aphorisms that pierce prevailing notions and clear the way for new directions. 

A quote from a brilliant mind motivates me to keep questioning reality, challenge assumptions and not be constrained by how things are.

These verbal formulas for creativity and nonconformity stick with me like mantras and guide me to think harder and entertain entirely new possibilities.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Things I Wish I Had Said - Volume  Four

The best quotes crystallise elusive aspects of the human experience - our struggles and aspirations, fears and longings.

They distil life's messy complexities down to their essence. A well-turned phrase makes me nod in recognition, feeling suddenly that a veil has been lifted, and I understand something about myself or the world on a deeper level.

Profound quotations give voice to our shared humanity across time and culture. They confirm that others have walked this winding path and grappled with the big questions.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Things I Wish I Had Said - Volume Three

The best aphorisms are scalpels cutting to the core of an issue with elegant economy. They resonate because they give voice to our innermost feelings and ideas. A good quotation takes flight in the mind and allows our understanding to float on the wind.

A great quotation articulates some essential truth about living that I've long felt intuitively but never fully grasped consciously.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Things I Wish I Had Said - Volume Two

Words have power. The right ones at the right time can stop us in our tracks, resonate deeply in our souls, and eloquently capture truths we've long felt but never fully expressed.

I always collect statements, and sentences (quotes) that have in some way taken my breath away - elegant distillations of hard-won wisdom and insight that lit up my mind.

Some are pithy and humorous, others poetic and profound, but all beautifully encapsulate an essential truth or hard-won lesson.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Things I Wish I Had Said - Volume One

Other people’s sentences seem to say things far better than I can. They take my breath away—they literally steal the words from my mouth. They’re breathtaking because while you’ve never said the sentence before, you know it. After all, the idea has been flying around in your head for so long.

This is a collection of brilliant sanity-restoring (to me, anyway) statements recently found. Ponder on them for awhile

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John Caswell John Caswell

Redefining Vision

Spatial computing will present new challenges for some - increasing distraction and information overload. The doomers will knock seven bells out of it. But the core benefits around intuitiveness, immersion and new modalities of collaboration are incredibly compelling. As with any new interface paradigm, entirely new use cases will emerge that we can't even envision today.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Being More Japanese

I’m Turning Japanese. I applied Japanese concepts to our visual framework language, Structured Visual Thinking™, purely as a thought experiment. I wanted to see how Japanese ideas aligned with what we do and was interested in how they could further encourage leaders to think more deeply. If you are Japanese and I have mangled any of this, ごめんなさい Gomen Nasai. And please help me make this more accurate.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Positive Class AI

There’s a dilemma for society and an opportunity for creative people.

If you saw Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin’s video on the AI Dilemma, you will have seen them define AI's first and second eras. Curation AI and Creative AI. If you haven’t, then watch it now.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Is There Anybody Out There?

Getting your idea across to someone is a bloody nightmare

The acid test is whether or not they bought it. Did the message hit the mark? Did the deal get done? Did the brief make sense to the team?

Although this is not breaking news - creating a simple and compelling message takes blood, sweat, and tears—often years.

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John Caswell John Caswell

What’s A Meta For?

The thing about metaphors. I love a good metaphor, but sadly, over time, they fall victim to their success. Overuse guarantees their death — the meaning is vapourised. It becomes a label — no longer the value proposition it once was.

We start to gloss over and lose the subtle importance of the idea contained within. We hear the clever phrase, bracket everything under it, and ignore the breadth of its value. It's how we roll.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Thought Partner? Copilot? Creative Prompter?

When explaining AI's current value, I think ‘thought partner’ — copilot to my riff. A well-connected creative ‘prompter’ able to get enough of a sense of where I’m aiming to suggest ideas.

An obedient assistant to help me ‘engineer’ an outcome. A new kind of industrial magic. A tool for our age and one we can not dismiss. (I’m still deciding which)

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John Caswell John Caswell

A New Era For Conversation?

We are entering a new era of conversational/constitutional AI. A powerful byproduct could be that we improve our conversations.

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John Caswell John Caswell

How To Develop A Mindset For Success

In General. If more of us spent a little time choosing differently based on how we genuinely felt about things and stopped compromising in favour of what others want them to feel or think, the whole world would be a far better place.

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John Caswell John Caswell

It’s Easy To Spot The Great Leaders.

Every industry relies on a raft of technologies to make them more valuable and compelling to their audiences. But to be successful both hemispheres of science and art need to be present.

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John Caswell John Caswell

A Masters In Art AND Science

Many leaders' biggest mistake is not exploiting the science AND the art of business. Both are essential to make businesses work fully. (1) The science is the ‘how’ and ‘why’ the operation works. (2) The art is how we make the customers feel and want to buy, and the workforce want to be there. They’re two parts of a critical whole—the Yin and Yang in perfect harmony.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Platform 2.0

A short description of our work and a glimpse at the latest evolution of the system and applications that support our work. It includes a new level of utility across the program as we continue to help clients further into execution.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Strategy Without Story Is Not Strategy

How to get the critical part of the strategy right - the story. As part of writing up our 21 years of Group Partners, there’s been more than a few humdingers we’ve unearthed. Here’s a perennial.

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