Welcome to the November issue of The Exponential Executive.

In this Issue

	Future Flash with Jack Uldrich
	A Tale of Two Photos
	The Power of Creative Play
	Unlearning Our Bias Toward Action

In Other News

On November 17, Google unveiled a cool, new voice recognition application for your cellphone. To see the tool in operation and consider where it might be head, I invite you to watch this new iMovie I produced entitled "Voice Recognition Technology Takes a Baby Step into the Future."

Clients in the health care, retail or insurance industries may also be interested in the following articles: "Hospitals Wireless Future," "The Future of Medical Devices," "Retailers: Using Technology to Build Trust," and "All-State Insurance Jumps the Curve."

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Future Flash with Jack Uldrich

On a monthly basis, I will now be producing a short 3 to 5 minute video designed to encourage Exponential Executive-like thinking. The first is this series, which I call "Future Flash," is entitled "100 Years" and it outlines three critical skills you and organization will need to adopt if you want to prosper in the future. The video can be watched in its entirety by clicking here.

A Tale of Two Photos

To better understand where the future is headed, sometimes it helps to recall the recent past. Remember this picture from the 1991 hit movie "Pretty Woman"? To demonstrate that Richard Gere's character was a successful tycoon, it showed him using his block-like cellphone. Now, fast forward to 2008, this picture is from a recent unemployment line. What is striking about the photo is that many of the people are using cellphones. Often yesterday's expensive technology becomes tomorrow's necessity. For a more intriguing vision of the future, check out this powerful video (note: it is the second video on the page) which appears to be pulled straight from the 2001 sci-fi thriller "Minority Report" but is, in fact, an existing -- albeit expensive -- technology. Now just imagine where this technology might be in ten years and how it could change everything from education to entertainment!

The Power of Creative Play

If you want a handful of helpful suggestions on how to become an "Exponential Executive" by engaging in the power of play, I encourage you to watch this outstanding 27-minute video presentation by Tim Brown, the co-founder of Ideo, a "creativity incubator". It is chalk-full of examples of how to help people and organizations become more creative. Key concepts include: focusing on quantity (not quality); building/playing with things with your hands; and engaging in role-playing. By the end of the video, I'm confident you'll find that "serious work" and "play" need not be mutually exclusive terms.

Unlearning Our Bias Toward Action

“There are three types of people in this world: Those who don’t move; those who are moved; and those who move.” “Man is made for action!” And my personal favorite or, as my father used to say, “Don’t just sit there, do something!”

From childhood, we are instilled with a bias for action. In many cases, it is a useful trait. It is even possible that our bias for action is genetic hand-me-down from our cave-dwelling ancestors and it enabled us to avoid being devoured by predators.

Is this bias toward action something that we may need to unlearn? The answer is a qualified, yes. To find out why, read on.