• architecture (choose a style),

• music (pick a genre)
• famous landmarks
• green theme …. explore parks and gardens
• shop types (pens, books, fashion)

Start with the “Cheesy” Tour
Take the tours that locals “refuse” to attend… the double-decker bus, the land/water “Duck” tour, or the sightseeing van. (You know which these are… the “tourist traps” you refuse to do in your own town). These tours cover large parts of the city, highlight key landmarks, and provide a broad overview of an area. They provide a great starting point and allow you to become more familiar with the layout of a city. Use these tours to determine which parts of the city you will later explore.
(Another way to get the ‘broad overview’ is to visit the tallest landmark in town. For example, do the Space Needle when you first get to Seattle. It gives you a view of the entire town. Have someone point out the landmarks… It’s a to-scale real life city map from that height).
Hero Hometowns
Walk in the footsteps of one of your personal heroes. Visit their birthplace. See where they grew up, went to school, and visit places that inspired them. Don’t have a particular hero? Adopt one, and explore the path a great inventor, famous artist, or great leader. You’ll be surprised how what you learn will inspire your life.
These tips will not only allow you to better appreciate the place you’re visiting, but will also help gather and create new ideas of your own.

This can be helpful to create a visual report card for you at your job, for your company, or even personal goals.

Here’s how it works…

1. Make a list of important qualities (qualities important to customers, to you)
   
   Style, Approach, Intelligence, Focus, Attitude, Sophistication, Gender-bias, Magic, etc.
   

2. Add the superlatives – the low and high end of this quality.
   • Style: modern -> traditional

   • Approach: unconventional -> conventional
   • Intelligence: easy -> academic
   • Focus: people-centric -> tech-centric
   • Attitude: excited -> laid back
   • Sophistication: upscale -> lowest denominator
   • Gender-bias: feminine -> masculine
   • Magic: reality -> fantasy
3. Plot where you want to be on each continuum.
4. Plot where you actually are. (This could also be your perceived status, as in… what customers, your boss, the media think).

Here’s a sample of what this could look like…

Uses

Here are just a few ways to use this tool:

• Product/Marketing Development – Use this when creating a new product to outline your choices before it is created. Make this part of your brief and refer to it during the production process.

• Decision Making – Before you brainstorm, create a performance chart plotting what the optimal solution should be. After you have finished brainstorming use this as a way to filter out ideas that do not rank where you need them.
• Personal Development – Use the characteristics outlined on your company’s performance evaluation as the high end of the scale, put the opposite on the low end. Map where you feel you fall on this chart. Where do you think your boss and colleagues perceive you?

The Template

In the spirit of saving you 20-minutes time in formatting, I’ve included a blank Performance Chart template. Enjoy. Performance Chart Template [Microsoft Word document, 180kb]

Your iBoard is your collection of business leaders, role models, and personal heroes who inspire and challenge your thinking. The iBoard helps you discover solutions you may not find on your own.

Building & Accessing Your Imaginary Board

In his book, Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques, Michael Michalko provides a few suggestions for this technique…

1. Select three to five business movers and shakers, living or dead, whom you admire most.
   I suggest expanding your list to include any person or character, real or fictional, living or dead. Who knows, you may find a great resource asking what would Captain Picard (Star Trek) or President Bartlet (West Wing) do?
2. Get photographs of your Board and pin them up to constantly remind you of the talent at your disposal.
3. Research your heroes. Read everything about your heroes that you can get your hands on.
4. Take notes on your favorite passages. Pay particular attention to the creative techniques they employed to solve problems.
5. When you have a challenge, consult the members of your board and imagine how they would solve it.

The founding member of my iBoard was Walt Disney. I regularly challenge myself by asking “How would Walt do this?”
My other board members include…
Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, Tom Jefferson, Leo da Vinci, Steve Martin, and I’ve recently added Tina Fey.

Recruitment Tools

Need to find or learn more about people you admire? Here are a few resources to explore:

Websites

• “The Time 100: 2007” – Time Magazine has a list of “the 100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world.” They include five categories: artists and entertainers, scientists and thinkers, leaders and revolutionaries, builders and titans, and heroes and pioneers.

• “Business 2.0: The 50 Who Matter Now” – an unabashedly subjective list of people, products, trends, and ideas that are transforming the world of business.

Books

• “Radicals & Visionaries: Entrepreneurs Who Revolutionized the 20th Century” by Thaddeus Wawro. This book features short biographies about 90 men and women who have shaped the past 100 years.
• “Discover Your Genius: How to Think Like History’s Ten Most Revolutionary Minds” book by Michael J. Gelb …. he features… Plato, Brunelleschi, Columbus, Copernicus, Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Jefferson, Darwin, Gandhi and Einstein.

When trying to solve a business or marketing problem… I’ll ask myself… What would Mark say? What would Leo do? How would Steve handle this situation?

Who would you put on your board?

My iBoard of Directors FY 2007