SparkS #2

We are thrilled to bring you our second edition of Sparks! As we considered the myriad things we might talk about, we were struck by the wealth of seemingly contradictory movements in our lives. They are paradoxes (apparent contradictions in which both sides are necessary for the truth) or trends and counter-trends. In our roles as creative catalysts we have long found that paying attention to these forces provides fascinating food for thought and rich springboards for problem-solving and new ideas.

In the 1980's John Naisbett's Megatrends described an important trend/ counter-trend which he called "high tech and high touch." A current example -- High Tech: It's clear that PC's are the primary tool in business AND, High Touch: sales of fountain pens are booming as well -- perhaps they're being used for nothing more than signing electronically generated documents!

We have selected some paradoxes and trends/ counter-trends that especially intrigue us and present them here in vignette style. We hope that this collection will provoke you to think deeply about how these paradoxes and others may be affecting your business opportunities.

Enjoy this issue of Sparks! We welcome your comments.

Laurie Tema-Lyn

Open Secrets

When my friend emailed me her teenage daughter's on-line diary, I was torn between my love of eavesdropping and respect for the girl's privacy. However, the diary was clearly posted for anyone to see (and my friend assured me that her daughter wanted family and friends to read it), so my eavesdropping impulse soon won out. Still, wasn't it a bit odd, I wondered, for my friend, and anyone else for that matter, to be privy to her daughter's innermost secrets in this very public way?

As 1984 recedes into distant memory, George Orwell's Big Brother is very much alive and well, and he is indeed watching. In a surprising twist, however, some of us couldn't be happier. While today's technology raises more and more concerns about the loss of privacy, it also entertains us with public displays of what once was intimate behavior.

"...Paradox is the source of the thinker's passion, and the thinker without a paradox is like a lover without feeling: a paltry mediocrity."
Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher
We may worry about the possible disclosure of our on-line purchases and credit card information, our financial transactions, and our medical records; or about the hotly debated issue of internet and email surveillance of employees.

Yet our culture revels in voyeuristic "reality" TV shows like Survivor, Temptation Island and The Jerry Springer Show (which offers the spectacle of contestants clamoring to shock viewers with family secrets that were once safely hidden away). And then there are Internet web cam sites, a growing phenomenon where ordinary people invite strangers to watch them in their homes, 24 hours a day. Like many paradoxes, these trends that seem at odds with each other actually reveal two sides of the same coin: the wish to protect our privacy, coupled with a wild embrace of its very opposite.

As the private becomes more public, the distinction between what's real and what's "for show" gets blurred. What, after all, could be more theatrical than a band of "real life" castaways struggling to survive on prime time TV, with medical teams swarming off screen? And that on-line diary? It may seem a contra-diction in terms, yet it raises some intriguing questions about the intricate dance between what's public and what's private in our lives.

Reva Dolobowsky

By Laurie Tema-Lyn of Practical Imagination Enterprises, Reva Dolobowsky of Dolobowsky Qualitative Services & Marcia Mogelonsky of Mintel International Group © 2001, Dolobowsky, Tema-Lyn & Mogelonsky

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