Excellence Now by Tom Peters

Author:Tom Peters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Networlding Publishing
Published: 2021-03-12T19:39:52+00:00

6.31

Extreme Humanism. Design as Soul. Design as Serving Humanity. Design as Who We Are.

“The peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was made by someone capable of believing that an angel might come and sit on it.”

—Thomas Merton, from Religion in Wood: A Book of Shaker Furniture by Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews

To Do: 31A

Can you apply this in your corner of the universe—for example, Purchasing, IS, a three-person local accountancy? My unequivocal answer: YES!

———

To Do: 31B

Discuss and don’t leave the room until you translate “believing that an angel might come and sit on it” into your new product—or training course.

———

“Expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then try to bring those things into what you are doing.”

—Steve Jobs in Steve Denning’s “The Lost Interview: Steve Jobs Tells Us What Really Matters,” Forbes

“In some way, by caring, we are actually serving humanity. People might think it’s a stupid belief, but it’s a goal—it’s a contribution that we hope we can make, in some small way, to culture.”

—Jony Ive, chief designer, Apple

“Steve and Jony [Ive] would discuss corners for hours and hours.”

—Laurene Powell Jobs

“We don’t have a good language to talk about this kind of thing. In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. . . . But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation.”

—Steve Jobs

“It is fair to say that almost no new vehicle in recent memory has provoked more smiles.”

—Tony Swan, “Behind the Wheel,” review of the MINI Cooper S; New York Times

“Design is treated like a religion at BMW.”

—Alex Taylor, “BMW Takes Its Own Route,” Fortune

“Starbucks had become operationally driven, about efficiency as opposed to the romance. We’d lost the soul of the company.”

—Howard Schultz, in a Financial Times interview, on Starbucks’ problems which caused Schultz to reclaim the CEO job

“Romance” and “soul” animate the entire organization in Design-driven / Extreme-Humanism-driven companies. And, as usual, my addenda: This holds for that nine-person training department or two-person consultancy as much as Starbucks or Apple or BMW.

“As a marketing executive, I view business as one of the greatest adventures of the human enterprise—if not the greatest. But I am not just a businessman: I am also an unapologetic romantic. I believe the world would be a better place if we had more romance in our lives. I believe that emotion eats reason for breakfast. I am not a daydreamer, idealist, or social activist. I am a business romantic.”

—Tim Leberecht, former marketing chief, Frog Design, The Business Romantic: Give Everything, Quantify Nothing, and Create Something Greater Than Yourself

To Do: 31C

Consider / Reflect: “Greatest adventures of the human enterprise” / “unapologetic romantic” / “business romantic” / “emotion eats reason for breakfast.” None of these phrases are “over the top” as I see it. All are consistent with the idea of “extreme humanism,” which I—to repeat—see as “Differentiator#1” in the “age of AI.” I would also suggest, perhaps an extreme view, that these design ideas are especially fit for this horrid time of COVID-19.

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