What's in a curve?

E51: Surfing - address the scary, bide your time, await serendipity, engage with excitement

Hidden messages in logos?

"Amazon has the smile, FedEx has the arrow. What message is hidden in your logo?"

You know, that secret message that you cannot unsee once you know about it? I thought a lot about messaging this past weekend while I was participating in Nate Kadlac’s Approachable Design course.

This week:

• How Nate’s design class had me re-examine my visual metaphors

• Do we serve our kids better by protecting or preparing them for the future?

• How does surfing connect with these thoughts?

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Colour + Shape = Logo

First, we created a vision board of photos that appealed to us based on a wonderful “inside-out” exercise that allowed us to roam our internal databases for formative memories.

Was there a particular colour palette that kept repeating?

Those of you who have been following the creation of Tilt the Future, and the simple slant in my logo are probably leaning back as you see the very familiar roller coaster photos and the yellow and blue colours.

What surprised me was the number of photos of water I included. Particularly those with powerful waves, spray, and seafoam. (Memories of growing up in Goa?)

As we were asked to focus on shapes, I noticed that I gravitate towards curves - like the bend in the paddy as it sways in response to the wind. I liked angles and arcs. In a scroll through hundreds of photos, my eye responded to movement, energy and the unusual.

One photo, in particular, stood out for me. Why?

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

I am drawn to the beauty, effervescence and opportunity in this photo. And I can just imagine the thrill of the person with the Go-Pro while capturing this shot, the white space as the sweet spot, the curves as the swimmer meeting the energy of the exploding swirling wave.

Preparing vs protecting

As you may expect, when you are invited to work on your project, rather than in your project, you take time to explore subliminal messages and meanings. The phrase Raising future-ready leaders reflects my particular interest in parenting.

We are raising GenZ (born 1995-2012) and GenAlpha (born 2012 onwards). Part of our responsibilities as coaches, educators and adults in their lives is to prepare them for the future. Life rhymes more often than it repeats. So we have to offer tools and frameworks that prepare rather than protect them.

• As these little ones born during a pandemic reach high school and university, will they repeatedly be facing wildfires and rains that flood a 1/3 of a country?

• Will work be re-shaped and redefined by the time they graduate for the young adult starting college in the coming week?

• Is life on Mars a possibility for their grandchildren? If so, what are the ideas that we can send down the ancestral chain to make their lives enjoyable and exciting?

In other words, what will their NORMAL look like? How do we support them in succeeding in that environment?

Riding the curves

If you have been in one of my presentations, you will probably have heard me say

The career ladder of the industrial era is rusting. It’s being replaced with a gig-work roller coaster in the new world of work.
Now, if you came in expecting a ladder and were suddenly placed on a roller coaster, you would be suitably frustrated.
But if you come in knowing it will be a roller coaster … you can sit back and enjoy the thrill of the highs and the dips of the lows.

This is all about setting expectations. We are temporarily out of the industrial zone of cookie cutters plans and maps, following the steps others have taken before. These next generations will behave more as the explorers we read about in history books - working with a little less certainty, navigating by intuition and inner moral compass.

Back to surfing

No two waves are the same. They rhyme but never repeat. There is uncertainty and unpredictability. Not every wave is right for surfing. You have to exercise patience and read the water so you can pick only the waves where you have the best chance of a good ride.

Once you commit to a wave, know that you are going to wipe-out half the time. Address the danger and scary head-on. You are going to fall off and get wet. In which case you get back on the board and paddle back out to find the next wave you will choose to take a chance on.

Occasionally, you will catch a classic. That is serendipity — being in the right place at the right time, and having the equipment, training and preparation necessary to take advantage of it. You will be able to ride the crest of the wave. And if you are REALLY lucky, you might even get to ride the pipe. It may be fast and furious, but just when it seems that everything should be falling over you, you are just one step ahead, skimming the edge of the water, searching for balance, engaged in the ride of your life.

Those who’ll have the most fun are taking chances. They’re in the water. They won’t be playing it safe. They will have good fundamentals, training and equipment. They will be able to read signals and signs - in nature and in their personal ability to handle the situation.

That is what I expect life to look like over the next few decades: part excitement, part uncertainty, part serendipity. And frameworks are going to be part of the toolkit that prepares us to face that future.

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Welcome to each of you in our Tilt tribe - including our recent new members. As I shared the concept of prepare vs protect in this week’s edition with fellow Tilter Lisa, she told me about Donald Winnicott and “Good Enough Parenting”.

Wishing you a wonderful week, till I see you again.

Karena

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