Jiří Benedikt

Sometimes, an older person comes to me when I park at night:
„Excuse me, sir, you forgot to turn off your headlights.“
„Don’t worry, they’ll turn off automatically in the few seconds,“ I answer.

I can’t wait the day when the story will go like this:
„Excuse me, sir, you just left your car in the middle of the street!“
I answer: „It’s actually not my car, but don’t worry, it’s picking up someone else around the corner in few seconds.“

I am big fan of shared economy, autonomous cars, I already shared a post on how this might help us have 3x less cars in future. What is your view on Autonomous cars, Uber and the future of mobility?

I attended the TEDxPrague conference few days ago. I had a chance to hear talks of amazing and successful people who are living their dream. There’s one thing that fascinates me. All of them mentioned same three simple habits that help them be successful:

1. They do what they want to do.

„Do what you want to do and let the others help you,“ said Barbara Sher, amazing charismatic 80 years old lady who invented life coaching. Jaroslav Beck wanted to work for Holywood, same for Emka Klučovská, a 15 year old prodigy. It seemed impossible at first, but it happened. „Live your Dream, not someone else’s“, said Jaroslav. So what would you do if money were no object? All of them started by setting an impossible goal, something that they really wanted. And it worked.

2. They actually do something. Every day.

„There are dreamers who dream and dreamers who do“, said Renata Chlumska, adventurer and first Czech and Swedish woman on Everest. All TEDxPrague speakers told the same story. They work hard on achieving their goals every day. Being productive actually means producing something. They take an easy step every day and eventually, things happen. Michael Carvan was contacted by a Spanish entrepreneur asking if he could help him produce drinkable water out of pig crap. Jaroslav Beck was „suddenly“ contacted by a world’s top Hollywood movie producer. Emka Klučovská was contacted by a top Hollywood visual effects studio. You can think that this is pure luck, but it is not. They did not wait on their couch for a call, just dreaming. They took action.

3. They say yes.

„I was asked to do an interview in English.“, said Emka during her TEDx talk, „But I did not speak English. I said yes anyway“. Then she worked really hard to learn English and finally, she made it. Michal Carvan said yes to the question if he can make drinking water out of Pig crap, even though nobody succeeded with this before. These people are not afraid of challenges. They say yes and then figure out, how to do it.

What is your dream?

How hard are these habits? Not really. 5 years ago, when I was a first year consulting associate at PwC, I set myself a goal: In 5 years, I want to be freelance management consultant, work with startups, train and lecture at a university. It seemed crazy and impossible at that time, I was just fresh out of school. But it did happen and I love my life 🙂

Renata Chlumská said that her current dream is to climb the tallest mountain on the moon. This sounds really crazy, but it made me think: Didn’t other great ideas sound supercrazy on the beginning? Like flying to space, snowboarding down Mt Everest or jumping down from stratosphere? They probably did. The sky is the limit. What is your dream?

If you like this post, check out my other posts on offline as a new luxury or amazing design thinking on everyday objector see all articles here.

A teammate at one of my project just came to us last week: „I am leaving for vacation to a cottage in the woods with no cellphone coverage. I will not be able to pick up your calls or answer your e-mails in following two weeks“. The reaction from other team members was surprising: „Wow, this is like the best holidays ever! We’re so jealous!“
The more we are expected to be online 24/7 for lots of of (mostly) meaningless requests, the more we appreciate when we do not have to be online. Being offline helps us experience the forgotten art of living in the present. We can enjoy our friends, sounds, smells, views around us, living fully. However, how often are we able to reserve even few hours of offline time? Offline is the new luxury. It is pleasant, rare and hard to get. But not impossible. These are three ways how I enjoy life of luxury.

Spend your mornings „on the plane“

My work as a management consultant requires me to do lot of writing and thinking, as well as lot of meetings, workshops and answering tons of e-mails. Doing this in a constant uncontrolled stream, I accomplish nothing.
So I started set aside my mornings from 9-12 when I am most productive. I stay in calm, quiet place, turn my phone into airplane mode and e-mail and start being productive. By productive, I mean producing something – draft a project plan or a strategic report for my client, prepare materials for my trainings or write a blog post or Linkedin post.
Sometimes, it is not possible to achieve a productive morning like that because of client requirements or simply because I fail. By failing, I mean falling into „reactive mode“, answering e-mails and phone calls, accomplishing someone else’s goals. I aim for having at least 3 mornings „on the plane“ a week, starting with my goals first before reacting to others.

Try working without a computer.

This is a more hardcore version that I sometimes do: I go to a cafe from 9-12 bringing nothing than my paper notebook. I plan my speeches, trainings, outline presentations and reports or create strategic plans this way. For many of these high leverage tasks, you really do not need your computer or cellphone, they are more of a distraction than help. You would not believe how awesome this is before you try.

Enjoy the luxury of being offline on your time off

Start small by reserving few hours of offline time: Go for a long walk, a concert, museum, art exhibition or whatever you like. Or just stay at home with glass of wine and a book, but turn your computer and phone off. After that, reserve a day or two of offline time during the weekends. Live in the present, how we used to do before 2000s. It really is good!
In a few days, I am leaving to hike a long distance hiking trail in Iceland, with 6 days without cellphone coverage, electricity or shops. Just nature, my friends and me. This will be a well deserved luxurious refresh. Get yours too now.

Lean management is something and that make your everyday life better. I recently stumbled on this case study done by young Slovak designer that shows great example of it.  When I train Lean, I always tell my students that it is not a management method for factories and banks, but more a way of thinking about objects, systems and its users. Have look how Lean can be used in user experience design.

„Perfection is Achieved Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to Take Away“

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

 

 

Washing machine redesigned

Peter Fabor is a young Slovak UX designer that pointed out and amazing thing: User interface of washing machines is simply user-unfriendly.

I decided to visit the nearest store with electronics. They had about 50 different types. I explained to the shop assistant, that I’d always had problems with user interfaces of washing machines and I wanted to buy something really, really simple. She finally understood and showed me this type. Yes, the simplest type offers 15 special washing programs….

Complicated user interface creates a lot of waste: Waiting for help, searching, wrong decisions leading to destroyed laundry, unnecessary use of mental energy for such a dumb task like washing your clothes.

So he gave himself a challenge to redesign the washing machine interface. You can read more in his brilliant article on Medium. He was able to redesign the washing machine like this:

 

 

No settings like speed of rotation and tens of ambiguous programs, icons and buttons you never use. I consider this a perfection.

 

Simple is difficult to achieve

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

― Mark Twain

Lean thinking is simply just removing everything that customer or user does not pay for. It is not just a set of methods for reducing inventory and lead times in banks or factories. It is not a tool with heavy use of statistics and Excel spreadsheets. It is a soft skill, a way of thinking about things, problems in everyday life. Just look at the Lean startup, for example.  It is easy to create a complicated system and it is difficult to create simple system that works.

 

 

What is your customer paying for?

Next time you start your working day or a project, create a process, an app or a new product, ask yourself these questions: „What are the things the customer/user/employer is paying for? How do I eliminate the rest from what I do?“ Let’s make the world more productive, efficient and user friendly place.