{"id":611,"date":"2015-07-12T06:51:07","date_gmt":"2015-07-12T13:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/?p=611"},"modified":"2015-07-12T06:51:07","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T13:51:07","slug":"wait-what-it-has-a-toothpick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/?p=611","title":{"rendered":"Wait! What? It Has a Toothpick?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_4233\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Can one covet what one already has?<\/p>\n

My Swiss Army Knife. I was in Boy Scouts; hiking and camping in the mountains of Oregon when I was given mine. For boys of a certain era, I believe, the possession of such a wonder was almost a rite of passage, a coming of age, the precursor to Mountain Manhood. Owning one made one Cool\u2026and able to accomplish anything.<\/p>\n

I could whittle with the best, open things, pry things, cut kindling or meat or rope. I could do it all, and was sure to carry this instrument with me at all times; Be Prepared.<\/p>\n

One evening, over an actual campfire with a group of guys, as we cooked and ate our burgers, all with our Swiss Army Knives attached to our belts; one of the guys got some gristle stuck between his teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone got a toothpick\u2026\u201d he asked. Two of us looked uselessly at each other, thinking \u201cWho packs toothpicks for a camping trip?\u201d<\/p>\n

The fourth guy reached for his SAK, pulled out the toothpick and silently, smugly, handed it to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWait! WHAT? Yours has a toothpick!!?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYOURS have toothpicks\u2026\u201d he quietly said.<\/p>\n

Oh.<\/p>\n

Who knew?!<\/p>\n

Life Lesson<\/b>: One ought never to assume one knows everything about anything; no matter how familiar one is with that thing\u2026or how familiar one believes<\/i> one is with said Thing.<\/p>\n

Working with people – be this on a creative or production team or in virtually any context – one can easily come to assume (See Exploration of Assumption<\/a>) one knows everything relevant about one\u2019s teammates or those whom s\/he is directing. This is never<\/i> so. People can almost always surprise us with another layer of creativity, another applicable experience from the past to apply to today\u2019s problem, a deeper understanding of some thing or other which can miraculously expand horizons or enrich an experience.<\/p>\n

Keep asking questions, keep minds open; as a project unfolds through its process, see to it that the atmosphere is open for contribution, innovation, exploration of possibility outside one\u2019s own experience, vast or otherwise.<\/p>\n

Likewise, being familiar with or \u201cknowing\u201d another\u2019s Body of Work can make one an expert in what that person has done; but not an expert on that person or what that person can do.<\/p>\n

Be open, expect surprises, seek them out. I speak from show and experience production: I\u2019ll wager, though, that this dynamic applies in almost any business or academic context.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve worked with scores of designers, legions of creatives, producers, technicians. They\u2019re all different\u2026and can each and all surprise you.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just saying that simply because someone has \u201cArt Director\u201d on the business card, s\/he may or may not work as other Art Directors work\u2026not all Creative Directors live in a cloud of their own reality (though, some\u2026) and not all Producers are\u2026well, you know.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good rule of thumb to approach afresh each person on one\u2019s teams\u2026each time<\/i>\u2026to see what\u2019s new, what characteristics may have evolved since last contact and what amazing and valuable properties may have been there all along without your awareness.<\/p>\n

Keep exploring, remain ready to learn at all times and keep people around you who can surprise you with what they can do and how they can inspire you. I have been newly inspired in the past few weeks, by people I had inadvertently mis-evaluated based on my experience of them.<\/p>\n

I offer, too, we should guard against forgetting that people evolve just as we, too, explore, discover, learn and grow ourselves.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be the last one to know about the toothpick. Explore.<\/p>\n

(Though, people who cannot tell a joke will probably never be able to tell one. Physics.)<\/p>\n

IMHO.<\/p>\n

Interested in a refresher on The Original Five Tenets<\/a>? Good tools to keep one fresh, inspired, inspiring\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIMHO: Creating Compelling Experience\u201d is a free downloadable eBook on the tenets and methodologies we use to\u2026create compelling experience. Find it in the iBooks app on any Apple device or in iTunes at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can one covet what one already has? My Swiss Army Knife. I was in Boy Scouts; hiking and camping in the mountains of Oregon when I was given mine. For boys of a certain era, I believe, the possession of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2oSuI-9R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":615,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions\/615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}