I first met Leland when he was giving a talk at SVA’s Design Criticism Program back in 2010 and he referenced “Finite and Infinite Games” by James Carse...I knew, right then and there, that we had to be friends!

 

Lee is the Chief Creative officer at Chobani, which Fast Company rated in the top 10 most innovative companies in the world. When I met him, he was one of the Founders of Collins, an agency that Forbes tapped in 2016 as an agency defining the future of brand building.

 

We had a wide ranging conversation where we tried to find a theory of change: can you only harness trends and follow patterns, or can you create the future? We also discuss how companies need to digest chaos and turn it into Creativity and Action through balancing volume of ideas captured, velocity of ideas turned into opportunities and maintaining a Variety of ideas in the mix. I hope you enjoy listening to Lee as much as i enjoy talking with him!

 

Links and Notes:

 

Eight Flavors, by Sarah Lohman

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/nyregion/sarah-lohman-four-pounds-flour.html

http://www.npr.org/2016/12/15/505751272/eight-flavors-the-untold-story-of-american-cuisine

 

Innovation through features vs The Jobs to be Done Framework

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjcx87JmhvM

 

Finite and Infinite Games

https://www.amazon.com/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse/dp/1476731713

 

IxD17 Users versus Owners (video not posted yet!)

http://interaction17.ixda.org/session/chelsea-mauldin-keynote-tbd/

 

Sketch notes at https://twitter.com/dastillman/status/839189078352486400

 

Reinventing Instagram:

http://www.recode.net/2017/1/23/14205686/instagram-product-launch-feature-kevin-systrom-weil

 

 

Harvard Negotiation Project and classes

 

http://www.pon.harvard.edu/category/research_projects/harvard-negotiation-project/

 

Other book mentioned:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended-ebook/dp/B014DUR7L2

 

On Improv:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_(improvisation)

 

Rejection vs Acceptance vs. Creation

https://www.amazon.com/Harold-Purple-Crayon-Books/dp/0064430227

https://www.amazon.com/Where-Wild-Things-Maurice-Sendak/dp/0060254920

 

On VUCA:

 

https://hbr.org/2014/01/what-vuca-really-means-for-you

 

On cherry blossoms and cradle-to-cradle-design

 

https://www.ted.com/talks/william_mcdonough_on_cradle_to_cradle_design

 

 

My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers.

- TOM STOPPARD , ENGLISH DRAMATIST

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