Then, in 2010, he read a Harvard Business Review article based on Clayton Christensen’s commencement speech given at the Harvard Business School, called “How Will You Measure Your Life?” It became the most popular article of the year, and remains one of HBR’s most-read articles to this day. For Horwath, the article‘s resonance indicated a gap: That while executives doggedly pursued business success, many were struggling to find fulfillment in their lives. He asked himself, could strategy bridge this gap? If executives used strategy to create successful businesses, could they use it to create successful lives?

Horwath conducted research in conjunction with Harris Interactive, and found that the practice doesn’t cross over. Based on a study of more than 300 Fortune 1000 executives, he found that while 82 percent had a written strategy for their business, only 22 percent had a strategy for themselves. It became clear that while the majority of people working in business understand the inherent need for strategy in achieving goals, the majority of them are not applying these same principles in their own lives.

Horwath seeks to address this disconnect by applying the language of business strategy to achieving personal goals. He challenges businesspeople to ask themselves two questions:

1. What would be the greatest day of my life?

2. How would I get there?

Using the metaphor of a bridge, Horwath shows how we can use strategy to get us from where we are to where we want to be–to the greatest day of our lives.

Discover: Selecting Your Br|dge’s Location. Just as you can’t build a bridge without first determining the starting and finishing points, you can’t build a strategy for your life without understanding where you’re starting from and where you want to go. The Discover step is the process of uncovering your purpose-what you want and why. Purpose takes the form of a mission, a vision, goals, and objectives.

Differentiate: Imagining Your Bridge`s Style. Bridges come in all shapes and sizes, from small, wooden covered structures to shiny, sweeping waves of metal. Their differences begin in the mind of the designer. The Differentiate step requires you to identify the unique characteristics of your personal bridge. These elements include your individual combination of strengths, weaknesses, background, and abilities that set you apart from the pack. To differentiate means to deviate from the norm in ways that people value.

Decide: Choosing Your Bridge’s Materials. Before a bridge can be built, the designer must decide which materials to use, based on functional needs, the size of the span to be crossed, and desired aesthetics. All these choices require trade-offs. The Decide step involves the process of allocating your resources-time, talent, and money-to achieve your goals. The act of deciding requires you to make trade-offs, choosing what to do and what not to do.

Design: Building Your Bridge. It’s one thing to think about a bridge. Its another to actually build that bridge. While natural bridges like logs over streams exist, the majority of functional bridges are man-made. The Design step asks you to develop an action plan that will help you reach the goals you’ve set, using the appropriate resources. Just as a designer creates a blueprint for a bridge, we can design a “strategyprint” for life.

Drive: Crossing Your Bridge. Once the bridge has been designed and built, the true test begins. Can you move across this bridge, from one side to the other? A bridge that looks good but crumbles when used is of little value. The Drive step guides your actions and moves you forward on a daily basis according to the strategy you have designed. It includes the ability to execute your plan without becoming distracted and taken off task by “urgent” but unimportant things that eat away at your time.

Horwath has put this personal “strategyprint” into Strategy For You, a book you can download the first chapter of which for free by clicking HERE.

Reprinted from OPEN Forum.

“News Corp. Without Newspapers Would Be Addition By Subtraction” reads the headline of Jeff Bercovici’s column on Forbes.com last week.

“Everything I did was subtraction,” states TED founder Richard Saul Wurman in an article on OPEN Forum, referring to the original intent behind his 1984 conference in Montery, the first TED.

According to the article, Wurman wanted to change the conventional format: “Suited white men standing behind a podium on one side of the stage, showing bullet points and promoting a book or company.”

“In an effort to change things, Wurman tapped into his personal definition of innovation. He feels, in order to innovate, one needs to add or subtract. He put this principle into practice and set out to innovate the conference by taking away podiums, long speeches, panels, dress codes and the single subject premise.”

Wurman was after the improvisational nature of impromptu speechifying. Now that TED is mainstream and quite scripted, thanks to the efforts of Chris Anderson, who took over in 2003, Wurman is setting out to subtract once more.

In an effort to revive the improvised conference, Wurman is launching a handful of new conferences later this year and early 2013. The first is The WWW Conference, focused on “intellectual jazz” and featuring influential people paired “together for a 10- to 50-minute unrehearsed talk prompted by a question. The conference will not be open to the public; instead, Wurman will live stream it to various locations and offer related information after the fact on a smartphone app for purchase.”

Buffalo, on the other hand, wait for the storm to crest over the mountain, and then they charge directly into it. By running straight through the storm, they effectively shorten the storm and minimize the amount of pain they experience.

It’s a great metaphor, because in life, we all deal with storms, both professional and personal. We don’t get to choose whether or not we have challenges, all we get to choose is how to respond to our unique storms. Vaden’s point is that we would all be better off if we dealt with life’s storms like the buffalo–head on–and that if we do the hard things now, life will be easier in the long-term.

Rory Vaden is the cofounder of Southwestern Consulting, a multimillion dollar international sales training company. He makes his point in his new book, called Take the Stairs.

The paradoxical idea is this: What seems like an easier path is really much harder in the end, and it won’t take you where you really want to go.

That’s not an easy thing to convince people of in this fast-paced world, where tweets are sent instantaneously and most of our work can be done from our iPads.

“Has technology turned us into a society of people trying to take shortcuts?” Vaden asks. “Are we all looking to get rich quick, or for a magic silver bullet that will make us lose weight or stay eternally young? We are on overdrive, but none of this has increased our productivity or well-being. Our time is stretched thin, our stress and anxiety levels are at an all-time high, and our unhealthy lifestyle choices are mounting. In spite of our constant search for convenience and instant gratification, we’ve actually made things worse.”

Like the cows in Colorado.

“We live in an ‘escalator world’ that makes it all too easy to slide into procrastination, compromise and mediocrity,” he says.

That’s why we need to take the stairs to whatever it is we really want in work and life, and Vaden sums up the strategy for taking the tougher path to the top of the stairs in seven key steps:

Sacrifice. What seems easy in the short-term is actually much harder in the

long-term.

Commitment. The more we have invested in something, the less likely we are

to let it fail.

Focus. When we have diluted focus, we get diluted results.

Integrity. You think it you speak it, you act it it happens.

Schedule. Balance means appropriate time spent on critical priorities.

Faith. Put faith into enjoyable results, not enjoyable processes.

Action. You are much more likely to act your way into healthy thinking than to think your way into healthy acting.

What I like about Take the Stairs is the counterintuitiveness and paradoxical nature of the central idea, that the self-discipline required of any lasting success is, although the most difficult, the simplest and fastest way to make life as easy as possible.

“Discipline creates freedom,” Vaden writes. “The freedom to do anything! It is what took me from being a poor Hispanic boy raised by a single mother in a trailer park to speaking in front of thousands of people in just a few years.”

On that note, Vaden has launched a nationwide charitable “Take the Stairs” tour, the mission of which is to provide both education and money to organizations that build character in young people today. Vaden is hosting free public events in 20 cities across the country, where parents can bring their teenagers to learn about the power of self-discipline. 100% of of the suggested donation of $10 per person is given directly to that local school district, foundation, or youth charity. Vaden’s hope is that by connecting with these teens in person, and financially supporting the efforts of local organizations, he can instill the values of self-discipline that will carry them throughout their lives.

Registration for one his events can be found at RoryVaden.com.

Reprinted from OPEN Forum.

I think my wife cried for half the movie, which I’ve never seen her do. What’s behind that? Subtraction at its finest. A combination of Law #1 (What isn’t there can often trump what is) and Law #3 (Limiting information engages the imagination).

The story didn’t just happen on the screen. It happened in our minds. And the emotions were intensified because we had to supply the missing information, inject ourselves and our feelings and our words into the story. (Some of the most powerful moments in film are those without words.)

The story is one of fame and diminishing fame. It’s Hollywood, 1927, and silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion. Which of course it does, but not before he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break. Which thanks to George, she gets. As the movie studio goes with talkies and abandons silent movies, George’s star fades. “No one wants to hear you talk, George,” according to the studio head. Peppy becomes a big star amidst the backdrop of the 1929 stock market crash. By 1932, George is in ruins, Peppy a big celebrity. It is, of course, a love story, with Peppy having never lost the original spark.

But all along, I wondered (as I’m sure everyone watching does): why can’t George simply talk in the movies? All along we think that it’s all simply a matter of stubborn pride. But, I thought, that can’t be all of it. And it can’t be just, as the story suggests, that people want “fresh meat.” We do not find out until the very end, when, (don’t worry, I won’t spoil it) he utters just two words, which explain the entire plot. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so satisfied with an ending. As a matter of fact, as my wife will attest, I’m usually dissatisfied with movie endings.

The Artist is brilliant and beautiful. If you haven’t seen it, see it. Sure, Moneyball is good–better, in many ways, from the book, which I loved. But The Artist is pure greatness. Here’s the official trailer. Enjoy.

All art has its foundations in functionality and utility. Great works of earlier centuries were not created to hang in museums and adorn private collections any more than elegant Egyptian hieroglyphics were meant to simply beautify crypts, wooden totem poles to garnish the forest, or coarse images of the hunter’s kill to decorate the walls of a cave.

Rather, they were intended for a very specific purpose or to signify a specific event, and judged first and foremost by its usefulness and ability to meet the requirements of its commissioner. Art in its purest form is quite simply something created by people, for people. It is a contribution.

The true artist toils not only to create, but also to touch the lives of others and bestow the world with his creation. Focusing on this contribution inspires us to invent ourselves, to become one with the world through what we create.

This is the idea of artistic intent, and it is the heart and soul of purpose. It doesn’t rain down from the heavens, and no one grants us our purpose…it is chosen. Feeling that our work matters in the grand scheme of things can only come from believing our unique gifts can and will in some small way help those in need of what we do. It is here that our private art gets shared with others, and that private paths meet common ground.

Artistic intent is not a mission to be accomplished or goal to be achieved, but rather a point of departure, a genesis. It is separate and apart from the question of how to pursue a means of livelihood. To achieve business artistry, it is more important to decide what we are uniquely able to contribute than to pursue the question of specific profession or vocation.

Why?

First because occupations are simply descriptions of activity, and almost always inadequate to capture our deeper purpose. Second, because job titles block our ability to clarify and connect with our unique contribution.

If artistic intent concerns aiming our talents to connect with others, we are much better served by asking: Given my unique gifts, how might I best share them to the benefit of others? Why is my work important?

The pursuit of these simple questions is behind a Starbucks counterperson viewing her work as not serving coffee but rather helping busy people get a nice start to a hectic day; a golf course greens keeper viewing his work not as a lawn care maintenance task, but a creative challenge to provide unparalleled consistency enabling golfers to shoot their very best round.

For those struggling to find a more noble purpose in their present work, a simple technique called “The 5 Whys” can help. Begin with any job description (I sell computers). Now ask Why is that important? (It gives people a powerful tool). Continue asking Why is that important? after every answer until the real cause is discovered: I help others become more successful by helping them be more productive.

True purpose frees us to accept a much wider range of titles and positions. We may have many careers and hold many jobs in the course of a lifetime. But true purpose is an unfaltering, unwavering aim standing solidly to set our course. Like the North Star, we will never reach it, but it guides us forever.

It happens all the time, according to Bob Frisch, the author of Who’s In The Room: How Great Leaders Structure and Manage the Teams Around Them.

“If you think the the big decisions in your company are made by the people on organization chart, think again,” he says. “The truth is that it’s rarely the formal senior management team who’s in the room with the leader as they think through major issues, but instead a kitchen cabinet—an ad hoc, unofficial, and flexible inner circle of advisers that doesn’t even have a name. Yet most executives can name its core members.”

Bob is Managing Partner of The Strategic Offsites Group, and was previously a Managing Partner at Accenture, he also held leadership roles at Gemini Consulting and The Boston Consulting Group. He has been published in Harvard Business Review and featured in Fortune, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Most importantly, he’s someone who’s been in the room.

This is such an important issue for every company of any size to get their arms around that it begs for more insight and clarification, which Bob provides here.

What’s the biggest myth about how big decisions are made in organizations?

People assume that the top team, often called the senior management team or executive committee, collectively makes the most important decisions for a company. While that group or its members may be engaged in the process, it’s rarely the case that this group actually makes key decisions together. Most often big decisions are actually made before or after this formal team meets.

Why does it matter that executives at all levels learn the truth about how big decisions are made?

The assumption that the executive team should collectively be making key decisions underlies a number of key organizational processes, from approving business cases to scheduling key initiatives. When these processes fail to work effectively, fingers start pointing to the individuals or groups involved rather than at the root cause for the failure.

What should be done differently?

Processes need to be reoriented to reflect the fact that decisions rest with individuals, not groups. The role of the executive team, or any other leadership group, can then be redefined to do what teams do best – debate, refine, adapt, identify resource conflicts, raise concerns – rather than spend their time in ritualistic discussions and approval meetings that don’t actually accomplish anything.

What do you get by doing that?

The executive team can become an even more valuable forum where the boss can bring key discussions before the entirety of the organization seated around a single table. The various perspectives and wide expertise represented can be leveraged into helping the leader make higher quality decisions using broader, more meaningful input from the executive team and, in the process, actively engaging them in committing to a successful implementation of those decisions.

Why hasn’t the influence of kitchen cabinets in organizations been noticed before?

Oh, it’s been noticed, believe me. It’s just not often discussed, since doing so would be treading on a politically charged area of corporate life.

What are the advantages of having a kitchen cabinet?

Everyone needs trusted people around them they can turn to when they are faced with a big decision, and CEOs are no exception. The honesty, confidentiality and quality of counsel a kitchen cabinet can provide are irreplaceable.

Does this mean there’s no need for an executive committee?

Absolutely not. In fact, one of the concerns we dealt with in writing the book was that readers might come away with this misperception. The executive committee has a number of unique and irreplaceable roles – it’s just that sitting as a decision making body isn’t necessarily the biggest one, and it’s unfortunately the one that they’re most often cast in.

How can organizations make better use of their executive committee or senior management team?

There are three key roles that the top team needs to spend their time on – developing a common view of the future, prioritizing and integrating key initiatives, and managing dependencies among the various parts of the enterprise.

Why is this “portfolio approach” to teams better than trying to concentrate decision making into an executive committee?

The monolithic, one-size-fits-all model isn’t working. The agendas of senior management teams are cluttered with a hodgepodge of items, ranging from formal approval of massive investments to deciding on minor changes to corporate policies. Their unique role needs to be leveraged to deal with important issues only they can resolve, and other items need to have organizational entities manage them. The best companies have a whole spectrum of teams, formal and informal, temporary and permanent, assigned to handle the issues appropriate to each.

Why is it more urgent now to know who’s in the room?

There are tremendous pressures from consumers, employees and investors to be constantly ratcheting up the effectiveness of organizations. And so the effectiveness of both the leader and their team needs to increase in order to respond to these demands. But without acknowledging the reality of their respective roles in key decisions, attempts to improve that effectiveness will have limited success.

What’s the first step to take in applying this strategy?

I’ll give you three. The first is for a leader to think through how to reconfigure and coordinate the teams around them to best fit their individual style. The second is to candidly and explicitly talk to the executive team about why it’s important to change how the company should be managed. And the third is to jump-start the change by refocusing the senior management team on the key tasks only they can do.

“It’s time to send the psychologists packing,” Bob writes. “Time to stop hamstringing yourself and selling the members of your executive team short. And time to free decision making and decision makers throughout your organization from the tyranny of the organization chart.”

You’ll know his advice is working when you see a dramatic drop-off in people coming into your office and asking, “Why wasn’t I in the room?”

Reprinted from my OPEN Forum column.

Great Leaders Grow continues the business saga of Debbie Brewster, a character the authors introduced in their previous book, The Secret. The emphasis in Great Leaders Grow is showing leaders, and aspiring leaders, how to ensure that they’ll be able to effectively serve others throughout their careers.

Debbie Brewster has become an accomplished leader, and now becomes a mentor to Blake, the son of Debbie’s former mentor. She teaches him not just how to lead, but emphasizes the critical importance of continually learning and developing his leadership abilities throughout his career. She identifies four areas in which every leader must continue to G.R.O.W.:

Gain Knowledge of themselves, others, their industry and the field of leadership. Every leader is a learner, but many leaders fail to gain knowledge because they have too much to do–they’re going too fast and trying to accomplish too much.

Reach Out to Others both formally and informally. As a leader, your role is to teach both by sharing information as well as by probing questions.

Open Your World at work and outside of work. If you get too busy with your job to grow, your influence and your leadership will stagnate and ultimately evaporate.

Walk toward Wisdom through self-evaluation, feedback, counsel and over time. Wisdom is the application of knowledge, discernment, insight, experience, and judgment to make good decisions when the answer may not be obvious.

The best way to review a business fable is to interview the authors about applying the key messages they’re trying to communicate through storytelling. I sent Ken and Mike a half dozen questions. Here are their answers:

How will people be able to tell whether they are growing or not?

They have to be able to answer “yes” to questions like: Are they responding to the challenges of their roles in new and fresh ways? Are people seeking them out for their counsel on issues?

What is the number one mistake someone makes while growing to become a leader?

Quite simply this: confusing leadership with a position or a title.

How is the mentality of a leader who is willing to grow different from one who isn’t? What are their advantages? Any possible disadvantages?

Growing leaders understand how little they really know about the world. They have an appropriate humility regarding their roles and their accomplishments.Leaders who aren’t willing to grow have misplaced confidence in their own abilities. Their egos are huge obstacles to their future success.

What is the biggest hurdle a leader needs to overcome when growing?

The biggest challenge is not getting too caught up in today’s challenges and ignoring the future. A leader’s first priority is to ensure that there will be a future for his or her organization. Unless a leader is extremely vigilant, the current challenges will always win the day over future challenges. Only the disciplined leader will make time to grow, yet growth is absolutely required.

What is the most important advice you would give to current leaders? Newcomers?

The advice is the same for both: Assume responsibility for your own growth as a leader. If your organization will help, that’s fantastic. However, your growth is not your organization’s responsibility.

How have you personally implemented these lessons in your life?

Personal growth is a daily priority for both of us. We understand that our capacity to grow determines our capacity to lead and practice the four strategies on a regular basis. In the “Gain Knowledge” arena, we read widely, spend time with mentors, attend seminars, and the like. We “Reach Out to Others” by teaching and equipping leaders around the world. Mark leads a group that has been studying leadership for 13 years and recently started a blog to serve other leaders, called Great Leaders Serve. The third strategy, “Open Your World,” is the most fun for us. In recent months Ken spent time in Australia and Mark took a trip to Antarctica! We “Walk Toward Wisdom” by proactively listening and learning all we can about ourselves and others. For example, Mark recently completed a self-initiated, anonymous survey of friends and associates around the things that he should Stop Doing, Start Doing, and Continue Doing — and learned a lot!

In addition to Mark’s Great Leaders Serve blog, check out Ken’s blogs at How We Lead.

Reprinted from OPEN Forum.

Business artistry is much more than simply becoming technically proficient at something. We all marvel at the wizards of the game who not only perform the basics to near perfection, but then actually change the game and achieve hero status: Jake Burton (snowboarding), Dick Fosbury (Fosbury Flop high-jump technique), Steve Jobs (Apple technology), Frederick Smith (Federal Express), Walt Disney (animation and theme parks). The examples are endless. Business artistry requires an application of imagination – calling on the natural childlike curiosity we may have buried and using our talents to blaze new trails in the frontiers of knowledge and skill. To do that well, we must move toward mastery; but we must redefine and expand the concept to move beyond simple competence and workmanship.

There are two sides to the mastery coin: expertise and ingenuity. Becoming expert requires us to first gain command of existing knowledge and competence in “old school” methods. Mastery at this level means being fully aware of how we individually prefer to learn and put new knowledge to work. The Taskmasters of the world prefer to build on past experience and historical fact to ensure practicality. The Playmakers of the world prefer the experiential approach: learning by doing and acting on new information and skills immediately. The Peacekeepers of the world prefer to find points of continuity and connection so they can strengthen their ability to collaborate and build deeper relationships with people. The Thoughtstarters of the world prefer the framework and context into which new knowledge can fit, so that they can advance in the most logical and optimal way.

We can then couple expertise with the discoveries we make through our own constant exploring and experimenting with new ideas, pursuing the kinds of questions found at the heart of most every breakthrough and drive “new school” thinking: Is there a better way, a different way? What’s possible, given my abilities?

This is a scientific approach to work, and to solving problems. There are several distinct steps: observing, designing, testing, and executing. Successful problem solving requires all four styles of thinking: the Taskmaster’s sequential thinking, the Playmaker’s applicative thinking, the Peacekeeper’s integrative thinking, and the Thoughtstarter’s big picture thinking.

Breakthrough innovation requires multitudes of smaller problem-solving efforts. This type of approach accounts for the vast majority of effective innovations in almost all areas: arts, business, science, academics, and athletics. In fact, studies of eminent genius reveal extreme productivity. The explanation is simple enough: the more works produced, the greater chance of changing a given realm of endeavor, and of leading within it. Innovation is one of the surest paths to leadership.

If, as Linus Pauling once said, “we can’t have a good idea without having a lot of ideas,” then the issue of the proverbial muse presents itself. Where do we look for inspiration and insight? How do we incubate our ideas? Some look to mentors and masters; some find success in reverse mentoring; some extract insight from other domains of work; some find a simple change of scenery works wonders; and others look to the surrounding culture and environment.

Visitation of the muse–the main event of the imagination–is more a matter of reframing problems, staying attuned to opportuni­ties, and channeling outside influences than of some mystical or divine intervention.

“This makes sense doesn’t it?” asks Kevin. “Not. Let’s break it down.

A. Somebody at the parking company has been tasked with the job of handling social media.

B. Second, that person’s boss has probably established some sense of the metrics in the space: likes, plusses, and follows.

C. Since this is what the social media person is being measured on, he or she creates the sign as described and posts it in the bus.

D. The irony is that they’ve ‘missed the bus’ with the marketing collateral that she just made.”

Sadly, this is how many small businesses are marketing their social media in an attempt to build an engaged following. So what’s wrong with it?

“Simple,” says Kevin. “They’re telling customers what the company wants. Why would any customer ever care what the company or someone’s boss wants? Why, why, why? I would not be surprised if out of 50,000 customers per month in those busses nationwide, not a single one ever responds to this poster as it is written.”

Every company needs to compose messages that get customers to do what the company needs done. But you shouldn’t confuse your need with the customer’s.

So what should the company have done? Kevin offers a three-point strategy:

1. Start with “why.” Under what circumstances would customers ever want to interact with messaging from her brand? What do they need? What are they interested in?

2. After identifying possible whys, evaluate your resources and see how you can provide a solution to one or more of them. This is the process of building a value proposition around that why. The mantra here is, “Provide value. Provide value.”

3. Finally, follow up by attaching the desired actions (in this case, like, plus, and follow) to that value proposition.

How about these?

“Get one free day of parking! Just ‘like’ us on Facebook to receive your coupon.” (Value plus desired action)

“Love Hawaii? So do we! We are sending two lucky families to Oahu—just follow us on Twitter and we will enter you to win!” (Value plus desired action)

“A lizard in a suitcase? The funniest travel stories ever told—only on our Facebook page.” (Value plus desired action)

By providing value, and arranging the message in such a way that customers who are interested in the value do what you are asking them to do, you greatly increase your chances of getting customer buy-in.

Reprinted from my OPEN Forum column.

Scott is a master of the third law of subtraction: limiting information engages the imagination. That’s the heart and soul of comics. Why? Because the action isn’t in the panels drawn. It’s in the white space between them…the gutter. That’s why I spent time with him: he’s half a chapter in my upcoming book The Laws of Subtraction (October 26, 2012).

This past weekend, while most people were rooting for the Giants (I know, I know, don’t zing me), I was attending his 2-day “Making Comics” workshop at the Los Angeles School of Figurative Arts, to learn more about the art of visual storytelling, and to experience a new dimension in communication. It was not a drawing class–no skill was needed–it was a visual communication class. I learned the subtractive art of comic storytelling, which is actually quite difficult but engaging, because the fourth law of subtraction (creativity thrives under intelligent constraints) is in play.

I learned about the 5 choices: choice of moment, choice of frame, choice of image, choice of word, and choice of flow. If you think about it, aren’t these the five choices everyone needs to make no matter what they’re trying to communicate?

The workshop consisting of some theory, and exercises, with critique. The critique was not centered on technique, but rather a single criterion: did people “Get it.” On day one, for example, he handed out 6-sentence stories. And they were weird, nonlinear, and random. Everyone got something different, and you couldn’t reveal the script. You had to draw the story in six panels or less, using NO words. Then people had to tell you the story, and you couldn’t give hints, like you can in Pictionary.

Here are a few of the renderings. Mine’s in there. See if you can guess which one. I’m no sketch artist, but I do have some ability.

Right now your brain is undoubtedly working overtime to make sense of these stories. The challenge of course is there is no context or backstory, so you must rely solely on the images. Can you “get” the stories? The fun and enlightening part was the critique:

Let’s see…some of the stories:

A businessman walks into a grocery store. The cashier wave hello. The man looks at the watermelons. A rhinoceros falls from the sky. The man puts it in his cart. He walks to the cashier and checks out.

A robot walks toward Big Ben. A person on a bicycle crashes into the robot. The robot’s head falls off. It rolls away. A football player picks up the robot’s head. He kicks it over Big Ben.

A mom takes her three children with her to the hardware store. Two of the children have a sword fight with rakes. The third child gets on a riding lawnmower while no one’s looking and drives away. He leaves the stores and drives onto the freeway. He drives to a speedway and enters the race. He wins the race on the lawnmower.

A king walks into hamburger joint. He orders a king size hamburger. The hamburger is delivered to the king. The king puts his crown on the cashier. The king puts the hamburger on his head. Mark Twain drinks a toast.

Like I said: random.