2009 NAIS Annual Conference Speaker Guy Kawasaki

The Top 10 Things I Wish You Would Teach Students So I Don't Have To

Charismatic Guy Kawasaki – the legendary entrepreneur, author, and Iolani School (HI) alum – strides across the stage in Chicago, completely at ease as the center of attention for his 3,400-person audience. Rather than jumping into his talk about the Art of Innovation, he takes the time to explain to us the friendly rivalry between Iolani and Punahou School (HI), now famous the world over for graduating President Barack Obama.

“The reason why Barack Obama didn’t go to Iolani is – he didn’t get in." Immediately the crowd bursts into laughter. "And if he had, then the 2008 presidential election would have been much more of a landslide! Sorry, Jim Scott [current Punahou president and alumnus, class of 1970], but what can I say? I’ve got the stage and you do not.” The hysterics continue.

Kawasaki disarms us with this effortless humor for nearly an hour. The former Apple Fellow, software evangelist at Apple Computer 1983-87, and author of eight books, including The Macintosh Way, points to the Mac as a prime example of true innovation: When the first iteration of the Mac debuted in 1984, it was not just 10 percent better than the old DOS computers – it redefined personal computing and desktop publishing, creating a whole new market. "Nobody voluntarily uses a Windows machine," Kawasaki jokes, "Well, maybe Punahou graduates."

In order to be truly innovative – in business, in education, in life – here are the important lessons Kawasaki has learned as an Apple employee, entrepreneur, independent school grad and parent, and venture capitalist.

1. Make meaning. ("I know you’re not in it for the money!" Kawasaki states the obvious to a room full of educators.) The people who wake up in the morning wanting to make meaning usually succeed. The people who want to make money usually fail. Those who perpetuate good things, cause good things, or end bad things – those are the innovators. For example, the Nike ad aimed at women that sells the idea that when you exercise, you empower yourself. Nike turned two pieces of cotton and rubber into efficacy, liberation, and power. Nike is making meaning out of shoes – just think of what we as educators can do.
2. Make a mantra. "Most organizations make mission statements and most mission statements suck." They are created at a two-day offsite meeting – in California there’s usually golf involved and an outside consultant leads the effort because, of course, our management team can’t do it! By contrast, a mantra is no more than two or three words. For example, Wendy’s should be “healthy fast food;” Nike stands for “authentic athletic performance;” eBay represents “democratization of commerce;” and Target could be “democratize design.” Needing a mission statement is debatable, but Kawasaki insists we do need a mantra to describe our academics, social development of children, enrichment activities, etc.
3. Jump to the next curve. Don’t be satisfied battling it out on the same curve. Macintosh created a whole new curve, not a slightly better DOS computer. The telephone was not a slightly better telegraph, it was a whole new curve. Most organizations define their business on the curve they’re on. If you truly want to be innovative, it’s not about doing things 10 percent better – jump the curve to do something 10 times better!
4. Roll the DICEE. All innovations share the following elements.
   Depth: Create great products and services that are revolutionary (i.e., Reef makes a fanning sandal to protect feet and has a metal clip to open a beer bottle).
   Intelligent: Someone has anticipated what’s necessary (i.e., Panasonic developed a flashlight that takes three sizes of batteries so you're sure to have one on hand).
   Complete: Not just the leather and steel and glass of the car – it’s the totality of the experience, it’s the Lexus experience.
   Elegance: The beauty of the industrial design.
   Emotive: Generate strong emotions – people love what you do or hate what you do, but they are certainly not indifferent. The worst case is that people don’t care about what you do.
5. Don’t worry, be crappy (which Kawasaki readily admits is a blatant rip off of the Bobby McFerrin song). If you wait for perfection, you’ll never be ready.
6. Polarize people (emotiveness). Many organizations try to be all things to all people, which inevitably produces mediocrity. Don’t try to anger people, but do not hesitate to alienate a group. Kawasaki loves Tivo because it allows him to timeshift his TV watching experiences. In fact, his family has three: one for him, one for his wife, and one for their kids. But advertisers don’t like this because now many of us only watch ads one Sunday afternoon a year, usually in late January or early February.
7. Let 100 flowers blossom ("stolen from Chairman Mao, though I fail to see how he ever implemented this"). For example, Apple's original goal wasn't to spark a new desktop publishing industry, but it did encourage many software companies to write programs for the Mac. Apple Computer would have died if the Aldus Corporation hadn't developed PageMaker for the Mac in 1985 – thus expanding the Mac beyond a simple word processor or spreadsheet tool.
8. Churn, baby, churn (yes, another song rip off – thank you to the Trammps!). Take version 1 of your product, and make it 1.1 and 1.2 and 1.3. To be an innovator, you need to be in denial. Ignore the bozos who keep telling you it cannot be done. Then listen to customers to see how to fix your product.
9. Niche thyself. You want high uniqueness and high value. If you’re a great value but not unique, then you always have to compete on price (i.e., Dell Computer). If you’re only unique without value, you’re just a clown – you own a market that doesn’t exist. If your product/service is neither unique nor valuable, fahgeddaboutit! You want to produce something that is unique and of great value to the customer, like the Smart car, which can park perpendicular to the curb, among other things. Determine what is unique about your school and make sure your uniqueness is of value – curriculum, hours of operation, sports program, etc.
10. Follow the 10-20-30 rule. Create a maximum of 10 slides in a PowerPoint presentation; deliver it in 20 minutes; the optimal size font is 30 points.
11. Don’t let the bozos grind you down. Rich and famous parses to “lucky” not necessarily smart. "If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at who he gives it to." So watch for Bozosity. Take a shot of Bozosity to inoculate yourself against it.

Kawasaki attributes a great deal of his success to Iolani, more so than Stanford (where he completed his undergraduate education). "My high school English teacher taught me how to write. He’s in heaven now, but I know he’s laughing that I’m a writer!"

So here are the top 10 things he wishes we would teach students so he doesn't have to:

1. Teach students how to figure out anything by themselves.
2. How to explain anything in 30 seconds.
3. How to do a one-page report.
4. 10-20-30 rule of PowerPoint (see above).
5. Optimal length of an e-mail is five sentences, without an attachment.
6. How to survive a meeting (basically you get what you want out of the meeting and then you park your brain).
7. How to run a meeting (start on time, end on time, involve as few people as possible).
8. How to work as a group (the solo brilliant person doesn’t work in business).
9. How to negotiate win-wins.
10. Learning is a process not an event. It’s a lifelong process that is not limited to school.

What our schools do should prepare people for living. Part of living is working. But generally speaking, we’re preparing people for life, not work.

Kawasaki recommends the following "magazine racks" (online content aggregators) for independent school educators. (Full disclosure: His company operates these sites.)

http://education.alltop.com/
http://science.alltop.com/
http://math.alltop.com/
http://news.alltop.com/

And for a magazine rack that covers all topics: http://alltop.com/all.