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Backstory
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You can call me Matt. I'm a blogger for the American Express OPEN Forum Ideas Hub, which I reprint here. I've written three books, with the fourth, The Laws of Subtraction, coming out in a few months. I run a small ideas agency called Edit Creativ (formerly Shibumi Creative Works...practicing subtraction...and no, it isn't a typo in the name).
I spent 8 years as an independent advisor to the U.S. corporate headquarters of Toyota. It changed my outlook on work and life. I learned how to learn and solve problems. I learned to "think lean". I learned the power of less. I took those lessons on the road to other organizations. Now I write, speak, coach others on creativity, innovation, and design strategy.
You can read more on my About page, or connect with me on my Contact page.
Why Subtraction?
Lao Tzu said: "To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day."
When you remove just the right thing in just the right way, something good happens.
That's my go-to philosophy, and this blog is dedicated to sharing it along with all the amazing things that amazing people are doing to improve the world by waging "war on more" through subtracting from our collective experience anything obviously excessive, wasteful, complicated, unnatural, hazardous, hard to use, or ugly. Or better yet, refraining from adding those things in the first place!
I've just finished a new book entitled The Laws of Subtraction, which are these 6 simple rules for winning in the age of excess everything:
#1: What isn’t there can often trump what is.
#2: The simplest rules create the most effective experience.
#3: Limiting information engages the imagination.
#4: Creativity thrives under intelligent constraints.
#5: "Break" is an important part of any breakthrough.
#6: Doing something isn’t always better than doing nothing.The book will be out October 26, 2012. I've asked some of the most brilliant people I know to contribute short insights on these laws. Almost everyone said yes...54 to be exact. You'll be amazed and inspired by their stories of how subtraction has played a role in their work and life.
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Monthly Archives: July 2011
Don’t Pay for Ideas…Light the Fire Within
Whenever I give a speech on creativity and innovation in business, I never fail to field some version of this question: “What’s the best way to incentivize people for ideas?” My answer, invariably, is “You don’t. Never ever pay people … Continue reading
What If They Listened to Entrepreneurs?
There’s a great site that all small business owners and operators should have among their bookmarked favorites: ChangeThis.com. It’s a sister site to 800CEORead.com. What’s so great about ChangeThis.com is that each month they publish a handful of short (1500-3000 … Continue reading
The 5 Habits of Highly Disruptive Innovators
In 2003, three scholars of innovation got together to chat about innovation: Jeff Dyer of Brigham Young University’s Marriott School, Hal Gregersen of INSEAD, and Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen, originator of the phrase “disruptive innovation” in his seminal book, … Continue reading
The Innovator’s DNA
Ask any business owner or CEO about their strategic priority list, and “innovation” is likely to be at or very near the top. In fact, a recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified “creativity” as the number one leadership competency … Continue reading
Google+
I did it. Took the plunge. Google+ that is. Probably the closest I’ve gotten to “early adopter” status. Yeh, yeh, coupla weeks late, I know. I must say, though, I think I’m going to like it. The simplicity, clean look, … Continue reading
