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Chief Happiness Officer

It was my great peasure to meet Alex Kjerulf (pictured), who calls himself the CHIEF HAPPINESS OFFICER, through a mutual friend Stephen Shapiro.  It's so refreshing to met people who raise energy levels rather than sapping them. I was fascinated by some research reported in Alex's book (Happy hour is 9-5) which shows that the first intervention in a meeting can set the tone for the entire meeting and inflence the outcome.

"The experiment showed that when the first thing said in the meeting was positive, the discussion turned out more constructive, and people listened more and were more likely to reach a consensus. When the first statement was critical, the mood became more hostile, people were more argumentative and consensus became less likely."

Read about it and put it into action. Instead of siting on the fence waiting to see what others think, stick your neck out with something positive. You can make a difference.

Heston Blumenthal

I´m not a regular follower of what goes on in a Michelin 3 star kitchen but when I saw a TV programme where Heston Blumenthal was demonstrating some of the things he does in the kitchen of his 3 Michelin starred Fat Duck, I was facinated.

Here was a man that was not afraid to try something new to give his customers a new experience. His experiments with food seem closer to the sort of thing an excentric mad scientist would do rather than a chef.  But just watching the faces of the people trying the food he had 'cooked' in liquid nitrogen made my mouth water. I had to find out more...so I bought one of his books...again a little excentric.  He has produced a 300 plus page book "in search of Perfection" which contains 8 recepies for 'basic' food including pizza, steak and fish and chips.  He goes to extraordinary lengths to find out what works. Making batter by pushing it though a sodastream!

Here is a guy who is clearly enjoying the journey as well as the destination. He is looking for ideas every day, looking for new ways of understanding taste, looking for new ways of acheiving the extraordinary and looking to give his customers (an I guess himself) new experiences, even when producing something normally seen as 'basic'.

Heston Blumenthal came to mind when I read a posting in Alex Kjerulf's blog with a nomination for the graph of the year (left). His restaurants ignore assumptions and conventions and from what I have seen on tv he does not have the arrogance of some of the other 'star' chefs we see. What he does do is about imagining, improvising and innovating with food. Ok, he does most of this behind the scenes so that when his guests arive they get an extraordinary food experience.

Credit for the graph goes to Slow Leadership. The blog is worth a read.

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What is Blogovate

Blogovate is about seeing new ideas in everything we do. Blogovate is about observing the ordinary and seeing the extraordinary. Blogovate is abot seeing things from other perspectives. It is about the transformation of technology from gadgets to status symbols to fashion items to commodities. It's about using images, tastes, sounds and feelings to stimulate new thinking. It's about using multiple intelligences. It's about enjoying the journey as well as the destination. It's about challenge. It's about fun.