I know there have been millions of articles about the iPad. But you haven’t heard my perspective. So, here goes… As soon as I saw the iPad announcement I was of two minds. On the one hand I thought “Why would I want to pay $500 for a glowing screen version of the Kindle?” On the other hand, it was hard to deny a big touch screen device that gives you immediate access to all your content wherever you are is pretty interesting.

Lucky for me, the release of the iPad was relatively close to my birthday. I circled the wagons and let everyone who might be thinking about giving me a gift to give me some money to go towards an iPad. It worked so well that I don’t think that I received any other gifts besides this iPad.

In the first few days of owning any gadget, it is hard not to love it simply due to the novelty. The real test to any gadget is if you still use it on a daily basis a month or two months or a year later. So far, the iPad seems to have staying power. It is a great toy, but it is much more. It is now a part of my work day as well.

iPad as Toy

Here is the thing. We are officially in the future. Think about this. Go back just ten years. Thin TVs existed, but they were pretty expensive. Most people still had those big tube-type TVs. TiVos were around but not very prevalent. If someone handed you a thin screen that you could hold in your hand that connected to the Internet, played movies, played TV shows, played music, let you purchase and read books, you would have lost your mind. This thing is a game changer.

Now that I am using an iPad on a daily basis, it has completely changed how and why I use my laptop. My MacBook has now been relegated to content creation only. All the content consumption has been off loaded to the iPad for me. It is great. When I want to relax, I get out my iPad and browse around all the different types of content at my finger tips until I find something that seems interesting whether it is a movie, podcast, website, book, or whatever.

iPad as Tool

I don’t go to a meeting without my iPad. I have downloaded a killer app that is simply called Todo. All it does is help you create a todo list. But man, the way it does that simple job is worth the $4.99 I paid for it. I can track all my projects. I can see all the tasks that are relevant to where I am at the time. And, the user interface is beautiful. When was the last time you were passionate about a todo application?

The iPad also gives you a quick and elegant interface to manage you email and calendar. It makes the management of your life clean and simple, which for me is a good thing. It makes me a better manager of my life because it is just more fun now.

The iPad is too big to take everywhere, but because nearly everything syncs back to the cloud, I have access to all my data on my iPhone. When it is inappropriate to carry the iPad, I have the iPhone in my pocket. I hate to sound like such a fanboy, but I love it.

The Negatives

The iPad isn’t the panacea for all problems. It is not a great content creation device. I am typing this blog entry on the iPad right now and nearly all the muscles in the upper half of body are starting to hurt as I lean forward trying to type on this thing. It is not a replacement for your main computer which means it is an expensive accessory. In a world where people go to bed hungry or thirsty, there are probably better places to spend your money.

Final Thoughts

I figured that I was going to like the iPad as a toy but I am continually surprised by how useful this thing is in other areas. If you are wondering whether or not to get an iPad because it seems expensive for a toy, rest assured it is much more…

This is my first blog entry created with my new iPad. Pretty cool. I am still getting used to typing on this thing. One thing that is for sure, it is definitely easier to type on than an iPhone. It isn’t the fastest thing to use, but it is definitely easy enough to use. More to come.

About a year ago, I made a change to the look and feel of my blog. It was a magazine look which really made my blog look cool. The only problem was that it raised the amount of production it took to write a blog entry.

Every time I wrote an entry, I had to create an image that had very specific measurements which had to be uploaded in a specific way. The long and the short of it is that I had to do too much to write a blog entry.

It has been a long time since I have written a regular blog entry. I want that to change. That is why I changed the look and feel again.

I don’t know if I like the new look and I might change it again. The hard part about choosing a new template is knowing exactly what I want. How do I want to use this blog?

I am going to do some thinking.

Update:

I have found a new blog look I like.  As of the time I write this, it is a blue theme with a picture of a lightning strike in the header.  I love thunderstorms and severe weather so this works for now.

So, WordPress has a brand-new iPhone app to update your WordPress blog. Actually, to be more to the point, they have a new version. I have just downloaded it and I couldn’t wait to try it out.

I like it for the same reason I like the email app on the iPhone. I wouldn’t use it as the only way I blog, but it gives me a way to triage my comments and do some quick management of the blog while I am out and about.

If you want to give it a try, there are two versions in the app store, or at least there was. You want WordPress version 2. I will be playing with it more in the coming days. Maybe it will inspire me to blog more. Maybe.

One thing that we are learning in this process of helping to develop curriculum for Walmart is the value of communicating a complex story in a way that is simple and easy to understand. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. There is a lot of thought and hard work put into keeping it simple.

You know you have done your job when you show a finished product and one of the responses is, well I could have done that. That means you have made your complex message so accessible and easy to understand that the message is obvious to the viewer.

Here are a couple of things to remember when you are feeling frustrated attempting to make the complex simple:

Creativity is Messy, Loud, and Sometimes Stubborn
Don’t get frustrated when it takes some time to get to a workable solution to a problem. Often we are given a complex problem to sort out. It is as if we were given a box of miscellaneous parts and a time limit to create something valuable. There will be a lot of trial and error. There will be a lot of time spent poring over the parts looking for some kind of order. It can seem unproductive.

Remember Progress, Not Perfection
The biggest opponent of creativity is the empty page. Solutions, even bad ones is better than a blank page. Start filling your page with something. Start making progress. Staring at an empty page rarely ends with that elusive eureka moment. Give your brain something to process. Eureka moments happen most when you bring order to disorder, so at least give your brain some disorder to process.

If It’s Confusing, You’re Not Done
If you have a hard time explaining it, break it down further.

Simple is Different for Different Audiences
Know your audience. Put yourself in their shoes. I know, I know that sounds like cliche, but that is because it is true. Something that is simple to a room of electrical engineers is different from what is simple to my daughter’s class of fourth graders. Know that simple is a sliding scale.

Overly Complex Messages Make You Look Like a Tool
If you want to prove that you are smart, go on Jeopardy. It is much more impressive keeping everyone in the room engaged and able to understand your message.

There is more to this, but hopefully, this is enough to get you thinking about the value of simplicity.

iQ font – When driving becomes writing / Full making of from wireless on Vimeo.

Toyota is offering a brand new font for download that was created in a creative, if not cost-effective way. Watch this 2 minute something video and get some inspiration. Think of new ways to do jobs that have become mundane.

Over time markets strive to find equilibrium.  Markets in equilibrium are fairly static and predictable.  Competition has all but steadied to a gentleman’s agreement of “you respect my bottom line, and I will respect yours…”  These markets are closed off to new competitors so the incumbents are left to atrophy and grow fat on their relatively easy existence.

However, periodically something will happen that will knock the economy or market out of its equilibrium.  We call these disruptions.  Disruptions lead to change and opportunity for challengers.  If this is an existing marketplace, the incumbents will do everything in their power to try and regain the old status quo once found in the equilibrium.

If the disruption is big enough, the nature of the marketplace changes to the point where there is no chance for the incumbent’s survival unless they are able to adapt to the new ecosystem brought about by the disruption.

We have seen this a number of times.  The classic example I heard over and over again in business school was the plight of the buggy whip manufacturers after the invention of the automobile.  The automobile was such a disruptive invention that the entire nature of the transportation market, heck, the entire world changed.  The world was turned upside down.

Today’s economy is in disruption and I’m not simply talking about the global economic downturn.  Very few could have predicted the impact of the widespread adoption of the Internet.  Like the invention of the car, the ramifications of this invention are being felt far and wide, even in markets that don’t seem to have direct connections to the net.  Newspapers, magazines, the music industry, the movie industry; these were all easy targets for the Internet.  They were all in direct competition with what the Internet does best.

The wider ramification of the Internet is that the entire nature of our economy is changing.  Starting in the early 80’s, countries that could manufacture better, and for less money, than the United States, started a change in the fundamentals of our economy.  This was the first sign that the industrial revolution had run its course.

Ten years later, the widespread adoption of the Internet has hastened that transition.  The nature of the US economy has continued to change at an increasing rate.

Deloitte recently released a report called Measuring the forces of long-term change: The 2009 Shift Index. It does a great job of framing the current situation that businesses face.  Customers have nearly perfect information and thus are less brand-loyal.  Competitors also have access to nearly perfect information.  The time between your company establishing a competitive edge and the competition catching up or worse, leap-frogging you, has shrunk dramatically.  If that weren’t bad enough, companies are finding it harder than ever to keep leadership.  Your leaders also have access to nearly perfect information which means they know about advancement opportunities elsewhere, and they’re taking them.

All of this adds up to a major disruption in the status quo.

Here is the great news about disruption; disruption equals opportunity.  Companies that can decode and execute on that opportunity are tomorrow’s success stories.  The problem is, how do you build a team who can make the most of this opportunity?  You need a team that is comfortable with change.  You need a team that can quickly and correctly identify opportunities.  You need a team that is passionate about the cause way beyond titles and job descriptions.

These are the teams that will knock out the faltering incumbent companies and replace them.  These are also the teams who will redefine and revitalize dying incumbent companies and transform them into vibrant companies again.

Here is some video hot off the presses from Andy Ihnatko from the brand new iPhone 3Gs. It looks better than I expected it would…

A brand new book by Mike Thompson, called The Organizational Champion hits the shelves nationwide this Friday, June 5th.  Mike is the CEO of the company I work for, SVI. So, needless to say, we are all very excited about the release.

There is a lot going on online around the book as well.  We have a podcast, forums, a site called ChampEm.com where you can tell the world about your Champions and a lot more. Head over to www.organizationalchampions.com to check it all out and let me know what you think. I am part of the team who has worked diligently to put all of it together.