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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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Category Archives: Strategy
Who Really Calls The Shots In Your Company?
Perhaps this has happened to you: you get informed that your company is now going to take a left turn, when last you heard it was going to take a right. You ask around, “When did that happen?” You get … Continue reading
Uncommon Service
It should come as no surprise that the primary driver of our economy is no longer what we make but how we serve each other. Eighty percent of jobs in the U.S. and 80 percent of the gross national product … Continue reading
How To Disagree At Meetings in a Positive and Productive Way
How many times have you sat in a meeting thinking, “This is all wrong.”? How many times have you disagreed with something, but not spoken up, for fear of making waves, rocking the boat, holding things up, or being viewed … Continue reading
The Synergist
Your project is gridlocked. Your team is dysfunctional. The goals aren’t clear. There’s rampant “mission drift.” Your team leader keeps changing direction. You can’t figure out what completion, much less success, even looks like. There’s no coordination, no communication, no … Continue reading
Grow
“Maximum growth and high ideals are not incompatible,” begins Jim Stengel, in his new book Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies. “They’re inseparable.” Stengel should know. Not only was he Proctor & Gamble’s global … Continue reading
