The International Herald Tribune published an amazing infographics about Kickstarter. According to these stats, this leading crowdfunding site gathered in 3 years more than 200 million dollars of funding!
Amanda Palmer and the future of creation
Most of the funding happens to be for the creative arts. Yes, because crowdfunding redefines the future of all creative arts. Before, government subsidies were the only way to get funded when the big companies that controlled the market did not want to hear about you. Today, ordinary citizens vote with their feet.
Check out the example of the video of Amanda Palmer, a musician. As of early May she had already gathered more than 500K$, thanks to some viral diffusion by Seth Godin and others. The computation is simply awesome: 10,000 backers put on average 50$ to help her get her album out. And it’s not finished!!
Crowdfunding is changing the world. It redefines the economics and the possibility of Creation for millions or artists. And if you don’t believe it, just listen and watch the excitement of the creators. Go on Kickstarter. And enjoy the video below!
“Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything” – George B. Shaw. The more I speak about the Fourth Revolution, the more I consult in the field of organizational change, the more I find this quote incredibly deep and powerful.
change your mind, change the world
Most changes need to start with a mindset change. Many failures are caused by the failure to change one’s mindset. Of course you can change your environment, your processes, your organization. But if you don’t change your mindset, or rather more precisely, your mind perspective, change will not be successful. You will fail, and slowly become sour, frustrated and angry.
Only by changing your mind first, by changing your identity, your view of the world, will you be able to really change your life, and to change the world.
So, how do we change our mind perspective? It requires both openness and deep introspection.
Openness so as to apprehend the reality of what surrounds us without all the filters that we usually impose to our perception
Deep introspection to find the right way to change – our own way, the way that excites us deeply and fits with our inner self
It is an intensely personal quest, and it can be made difficult by how our environment might tend to push us back into our previous mind perspective. It requires solitude and mindfulness. Yet going through this exercise is a necessary preliminary. All the rest of the change is just a consequence of the mindset change: see the world differently, you will act differently.
It is amazing how this is applicable both for individuals but also for organizations: organization’s culture and mindset needs first to change for the organization to really change. Change programs that do not consider this as a preliminary will fail.
So, when do you start stopping for while, open your mind and seek your passion?
I found this thought in one book by Alan Weiss, a consulting guru. I noted it because that’s quite deep actually, and it relates perfectly to the Fourth Revolution transformation.
train for mass production efficiency
Training was appropriate for the Industrial Age. People got trained to do their job more efficiently.
You trained people to do their individual task more quickly, with better quality… And you used carrot and stick incentives to help.
Alas, training is not any more appropriate for the Collaborative Age. Education is much more. Because value is not anymore in people following a written, predictable process to produce something. Now, you need to give people the background, the thinking tools, the inner game to produce effective things, that are worthwhile and of high value.
Education (as in general, higher cultural education) was reserved to a small portion of society. It needs now to be made available to everybody.
And ‘training course’ needs to change in ‘educational event’. And the content focused on getting people to developing their thinking and creative abilities.
When will you change your people’s development strategies to fit into the Fourth Revolution new needs?
This is a powerful quote, which got me thinking. It is interesting because of the ambiguity of the word “acting”: acting as in “doing”, or acting as in “actor”?… This ambiguity is great because it creates suddenly a greater understanding.
act into a new way of living
At some stage one needs to dive in a situation. Take the bike and try. And fall. And try again. And fall. Until such time where biking will become a skill that will change the view on the surrounding world.
Much better and more effective certainly than staying at the side of road, looking at the bike, and over-thinking how to make it work.
An other practical example I know is influencing one’s posture to change one’s mood and outlook on things. Not by thinking – but by doing, by acting in the sense of the actor, can we change the way we think!
Basically, whatever you want to do, don’t over-think it. Just go and do it. Even if you fall a few times, you’ll get on to something. And your outlook on the world will change. And so will the world.
In high-tech, breakthrough technology appears to be negatively correlated with R&D expenditure. In this amazing article, how Apple disrupted its market on a shoe-string R&D budget, we see how R&D expenditure (relative to the revenue of the company) does not correlate at all with market breakthrough, on the contrary.
R&D as percentage of net income for technology companies
Here is the curve given in the post. Other examples are developed in the post itself like Microsoft – high expenditure, low results.
We know that with the Fourth Revolution looming, the conventional R&D system is broken. The “R&D factories” that were created during the Industrial Age can’t produce the disruptive output we need to make a difference in the world.
As an other example, pharmaceutical companies are also suffering from the obsolescence of the former model where pumping money in R&D would automatically deliver a blockbuster later on.
What is the appropriate new model for R&D and breakthrough innovations?
A first part of the answer could lie in the ‘lean startup’ movement which is currently very trendy. What is the concept about? It says, basically, that prototyping is cheap today. Don’t spend years developing a perfect product you believe the market wants. Come out as soon as possible with a workable product, test your product as soon as you can on the market, and iterate like mad. Apple does exactly that: their products are always missing something that will come in the next iteration. And in the meantime they get plenty of feedback on what to improve.
A second part of the answer will lie in “Open Innovation” or “Crowd Innovation” as soon as it will have found an effective model.
Here is the conundrum: effective R&D (in the sense of market breakthrough) costs 10 times less and is 10 times more effective that what you think.
Should you do more of what you’re doing now or seek a new model for R&D, a model that will bring you through the Fourth Revolution?
Did you hear about Kaggle.com? It is one of the most innovative startups of 2011 according to Business Insider. Agreed, it is an improvement on the model of “Open Innovation” developped by Innocentive or Ninesigma, but unfortunately it still misses the point of collaborative innovation, or Crowd-Innovation.
Kaggle is bringing together scientists (mainly data-scientists) to participate in collaborative competitions to solve difficult problems. It boasts a network of 17,000 PhD-level people.
Are you ready to contribute on Kaggle.com?
Have a look at their sites and the different possible competitions. The most well known is the “Heritage Health Prize” with a prize of 3 million US$: Can you predict who will turn up at the hospital next year based on people’s medical history / historical claims data?
Of course that’s the outlier; most competitions have a prize of 10,000$ or less, and are mainly rewarded by community recognition among the world’s best data-crunchers, or free trips or the ability to present in a well-known conference. You can help to improve prediction of insurance claims, rating of pictures, or help NASA bring evidence of dark matter!
It appears that Kaggle brings something more than Innocentive or Ninesigma, who also bring together the problems of large companies and a worldwide network of passionate problem solvers. Kaggle develops the concept of competition where people can see the result of others in real time, which is a form of deep motivation. Yet Kaggle still stops short of where the power of the Collaborative Age lies: collaboration between participants.
The right format of “Open Innovation” is still to mature. Will it be through companies, foundations, non-profits? How is real time feedback given about the performance of other competitors? How can we develop a spirit of true collaboration between the participants above and beyond competition, a tight community to solve the hardest problems?
The value of “Open Innovation” needs to be unleashed completely. Actually “Open Innovation” needs to be transformed into “Crowd-Innovation” because it is just that we want to achieve: getting people to collaborate meaningfully on a problem they are passionate about.
What will become of our Industrial-Age huge and rigid research organizations? They’ll have to open to the crowd or die.
Even Innocentive, Ninesigma and even Kaggle still need to go one step further or they will struggle to continue. Who will find the right concept, allowing cooperation between participants to develop?
Building on failure is another skill of the K.E.E.N. This interview of Seth Godin is a real eye-opener on the power of failure, and in general, the skills of the K.E.E.N.
Seth gives also deep insights on the new world that is awaiting us: remember – the concept of climbing the career ladder is bust !
One of the most useful discoveries of the Fourth Revolution period is our understanding of how our body and our brain are interlinked. It has huge consequences explained in the Fourth Revolution book, and also in the Fourth Revolution Manifesto part VII (p16 and following).
I have been raised in a very rational household where the brain capabilities were praised and the body was discounted as some inevitable and annoying appendix. The thing is that there are more and more proofs that our body participates significantly to our intelligence and our cognitive abilities. Our emotions (bodily reactions) do in fact influence our actions – for our good most of the time. And we know that our posture influences our mood and our receptiveness to others.
I have now the discipline of doing some easy deep breathing exercises in the morning for only 5mins – and it really changes my day. When do you start having routines acting on your body to work on your mood and your cognitive capabilities?
Today Amazon sells more digital books than physical books. This is a dramatic shift in this industry and publishers struggle to adapt. The struggle of an industry – an institution – seeing its Industrial Age business model crumble should not hide the most important: the actual dissemination of information.
e-readers like Amazon's kindle make people read more books
Overall, do people read less or more books than before?
According to this MediaPost detailed article and statistics, people who have bought e-books tend to download and read more books than before. It appears to be statistically significant.
Why is that? For sure, clever marketing by Amazon makes it easy to download and consume more. When it comes to reading, my own experience is that the small, lightweight and convenient size of e-books allows to read in many places like the underground train or whenever there is a short break. And I definitely read even more since I have an entire library inside my Kindle, making a switch from a book to another easy.
So, the introduction of e-books did not kill reading. It increased it, at the same time as it made many non-mainstream or old books available to everybody. And, taking into account the vast amount of other information we read on other media, such an availability of high quality information is unprecedented. It will necessarily be the source of many creative innovations.
Think about it. I can download on my e-reader in less than 1 minute any title available worldwide without the bother of the logistics of sending physical books over (and I am living in Singapore, so this problem is particularly sensitive!). WOW.
Why is there so much frustration and so many people that don’t really do what they long to do, what they dream to do?
Ever since I have written a book, every time I present it, I get more questions on how I managed to write and publish it, than on the book itself! So many people dream to write a book, or have written a book already!
Ever since I have announced to the world that I was leaving the comfortable corporate environment to be an entrepreneur, I get more questions on how I manage to do it than on my actual project itself! So many people dream to start their business, so many people have a truly good business idea ready for application!
The answer is obvious, of course: fear, which often hides behind busy-ness (being busy on actions with little impact, spending one’s time). All of this entertained by Industrial Age institutions, which repeat endlessly how inappropriate it is to be weird, to have initiative, and lock us into a system from which it is difficult to escape.
Of course these institutions look like they provide us with a stable, safe environment. That was maybe true in the past, but today we know that’s really overrated. No job is really safe today in any corporation. Still, we cling to that mindset for lack of another safe haven. And the Industrial Age system also cleverly provided barriers to our dreams: large mortgages that limit drastically our financial freedom; tax, professional and immigration legislation that limit our freedom of movement or of choosing our activity.
do you need a buddy for tandem jump?
There are ways to minimize risk when starting a venture. Have good advice and support from people who have gone through the transition (like you stay safe during your first free fall jump by having an experienced person jumping in tandem with you). Have a parachute already open that slows down your scary dynamics (a signed contract, savings…) and gives you more time. Have encouragement and support from your family and friends.
You know what? It is rare to find someone who has jumped out of the Industrial Age system and has really, deeply failed. Of course people go through temporary failures until they find their way; they might not seek and get those shiny things that Industrial Age ego would crave (a larger car, a larger house, etc); still, overall I find that people who jumped are more happy. And above all their contribution to the world is just tremendous.
I can barely imagine how the world will be when a significant portion of people will have jumped outside the Industrial Age, when the number of K.E.E.Ns will have increased dramatically, and when all these people will share their talents and contributions with all of us, creating a very different place to live.
Let’s go and do it. Overcome your fear. Become a real K.E.E.N.. Come on, jump!
Actually I encourage you to dwell into the projects and see how the site works. Did you get it?
No, the power of Kickstarter does not lie only in the fact that it allows funding for creative new ventures to happen through the accumulation of numerous small donations (the crowdfunding bit).
It also lies in the fact that donors vote with their feet (or rather, their keyboard and plastic card) on what projects they find the best. It is intrinsically a voting engine.
It also lies in the community building power around each project, with the project owner giving away some goodies to the generous donors, giving updates on the project progress after it has been funded…
Thus, what looks like pure crowdfunding is also a vehicle of choice and community building. It is a vehicle of the Collaborative Age. Below what just looks like a fun crowdsourcing service for weird creative projects lies the fuel of the Collaborative Age value production system: communities and crowd-voting.
I have been asked to summarize the main practices of the successful K.E.E.N.
So, here are 10 basic practices to be successful through the Fourth Revolution, into the Collaborative Age:
Practice regular, holistic exercise (not just the body, but also the emotions/ mind exercises)
Lean into the Collaborative Age. Become literate in social networks: use them – even only at a basic level. You’ll progress soon enough;
Be open to new ideas by following some leading blogs and publications;
At the same time, make sure spare sufficient quality time every day to focus on activities that are important for you;
Practice overcoming Resistance more often by practicing dedicated Creative Work time
Establish your clear purpose – what can you do better than everybody else, and how can you contribute to the world through this talent? (on that one in particular you might need external help)
Write your purpose and 1 year goal on a paper and post it on your bathroom mirror to watch them morning and evenings
Practice and enhance your connection and giving skills
Practice being fully present, controlling your inner chatter, filters and impulses;
Be flexible – master your ego – remember the law of requisite variety: the most flexible prevails at the end.
More of it and more details in the Fourth Revolution book!
