Light Pollution and Strategic Thinking: Look Up

Watching Princeton Astrophysicist Lucianne Walkowicz‘s talk at TEDxPhoenix titled ‘Look up for a Change,’ it became increasingly clear to me that my obsession with Light Pollution has many similarities to my daily role as a strategic planner. First off Light Pollution, excessive or obtrusive artificial light decreasing visibility at night, blinds us from everything around us. It’s counterintuitive to what light is supposed to be doing. In fact, you should ask yourself if you have ever truly seen a dark night sky? If you aren’t sure — then you haven’t. It is astonishing what’s out there. Which brings us back to strategic thinking. Each day we try to look through the artificial cultural pollution to see what is truly out there. If we can’t do this successfully then I’m not sure what type of value we are providing to our brands? Anybody can look up and see some bright stars, but only a select few can look up and see the expanse of the universe. The emphasis here is not on who is looking, but how they are looking. Planners are no special breed, but great Planners know how to turn off the lights…

Look Up...

I Want to Climb Inside my Data…Do you?

Ever since I saw Professor  JoAnn Kuchera-Morin speak at the CAT Conference in NY last year, I have been obsessed with her AlloSphere — and have even emailed her about potentially visiting when I am next in the area. The AlloSphere is a three-story-tall aluminum sphere with a catwalk running through the center with six hi-def 3-D video projectors that spray 360-degree images onto a spherical screen.  It resembles the famous catwalk fight seen in the Death Star, but it’s actually located at UC Santa Barbara and what it essentially does is, it allows researchers to literally get inside their data and information. Projects so far include examinations of how hydrogen atoms bond together and a giant model of the brain derived from fMRI scans. Up to 30 people can fit on the catwalk, and they get glasses and wireless joysticks to mess around with the streaming imagery. Dozens of speakers play sound into the echo-free chamber. The result is psychedelia with research applications….How could you not want to experience this? Every time I look at data, I envision what it would look like in the AlloSphere…

Get in there...