widgetwonder

At the heart of widgetwonder is a deep commitment to group creative process. We like to help people make things together — to design relationship alliances, agree on goals, thrive in collaboration, and respond authentically to change.

Creative collaboration — with teammates, with partners, with customers — is the leading edge of innovation, and drives service excellence in business. In personal relationships, how we create together makes the difference between surviving & thriving.

Our clients are ad agency teams, dancers, focus groups, entrepreneurs, co-operatives, educators, lawyers, life partners, actors — any 2+ relationship that wants to explore a new story about who they are in the world, or to bring a vision to life…

Check the just the facts at the top right of this page for a view into our work - who, where, what story was told, and what happened next. The creative brief, for the blog entries to follow this one, makes a rousing call to “pique curiosity and add-value”. Stay tuned.

Try 415 637 6587, or denzil@widgetwonder.com for spam about upcoming events.

Thanks, Denzil J. Meyers

My coaches training included an exercise called Cosmic Flirts — being open to the notion that the universe may be sending you messages. How do we explain coincidence? You’re thinking about a friend, and suddenly she calls. Is there a connection? Our mind certainly wants to believe there is, and yet, there’s no scientific proof…

Carl Jung said that his idea of synchronicity really came together while dining with Albert Einstein, whose theory of relativity includes the notion that the whole universe exists simultaneously, that seeming separations of events & things are only due to our perspective, our relative location in the field.

For Jung, this was support for his idea of the collective unconscious, a connection that does not have to travel like an email or phone message or envelope does. Events can be connected, without conforming to cause/effect. And we can be connected without our minds acknowledging or understanding the connection.

In coaching, a client might keep a peripheral eye/ear open for flirts — small shouts out from the universe of coincidence — and we ask: What is that trying to tell you? What wisdom is there for you?

Its been said that real change happens in small ways, on ordinary days, at seemingly insignificant moments that perhaps only later we might label as a turning point. Jung believed that flirts (or winks, as he called them) were possible at boundary events — moments of great life transition, where turning randomly left rather than right may make all the difference in the world.

The real question is — What are we paying attention to? The thinking mind is one channel of information, like channel 7 on your TV. And there are others: the emotional channel, the flirt/wink channel, the body channel, the intuition channel, the ‘What your partner is really trying to say’ channel. Yoga and meditation are ways to switch the channel of attention, away from the mind to breath, to sensation. Just focusing on the Now seems to be useful.

So everyday, give your thinking mind some time off, and practice paying attention to something else — the sounds of silence, your breath, ask your body what it wants for lunch today. Really listen to your intuition for 5 minutes straight, without judgement or disagreement about what’s practical. What choices become available when we give attention to the parts of us that we don’t believe we control?

Why even ask these questions? Basic research and exploration, on the road to growth and innovation…

Greetings for the new year! As the year counter clicks, we’re reminded of an opportunity to connect with, and to focus on what nourishes & energizes us in life: values, aspirations, and actions. I’ve been attending to two particular areas this season — Relationships, and a 2008 Theme.

Relationships — Our success and satisfaction in almost every area of life is inter-dependent with the satisfaction of other people with whom we live, work, play, and create. But we receive little if any training or guidance in How to work well with others, how to collaborate. Consider taking some time with your partner(s) to discuss the values and goals that bring you together, and how you can design the relationship you want.

For 2008, think about key relationships in your life, to people of course, and also to your relationship to your work or health. You can ask yourself the questions below, or even better, discuss them with someone close to you:

• What does this relationship want more of?
• What’s working? What should be celebrated?
• What would help create a sense of fun and ease in this relationship?
• What resources (people, time, money, support, info, commitment) do we need to grow?
• What does it mean to conduct this relationship in alignment with our values?
• What have we learned from this last initiative or year of working together?
• How do we want to be together when someone drops the ball?
• What are we tolerating in this relationship?
• What does being supported look like to you & your partner?

Theme for 2008 — Thinking about your goals for 2008, consider creating a theme or tag line or headline or song for yourself that captures the excitement of where you’d like to travel this year. Your theme word, phrase, song, image, dance, etc. should be emotional and dynamic, more of an inspirational reminder than a summary.

My personal theme for this year is A Bigger Game — for me this means preferring to be a smaller fish in a bigger pond, with room to grow. It also means the possibility of rejection and failure. Whatever happens, I’m interested in the feedback that comes with shooting for the moon.

Below are a few questions for completing the old & creating the new. And perhaps along the way you’ll find a theme song for 2008 …

1. Reflection for ‘07 — Think about & write some key issues/events from the past year: A) what were your Successes & Breakthroughs? B) your Failures & Breakdowns? C) what are some Lessons Learned from all of those experiences?

2. Completion for ‘07 — From your list of Breakthroughs & Breakdowns, on which issues do you feel “complete”? Completion can mean “finished”, and can also be about making things whole. When we feel incomplete in an area, it drains our energy. Think about losses you haven’t let go of yet. Or perhaps a win that hasn’t been fully leveraged or celebrated. Or just something where you need to let it be what it is & stop trying to change it. About what would you like to feel more complete in the coming year?

3. Visioning for ‘08 — Sit back, close your eyes, and dream about a year from now — writing your Reflections of Wins & Breakthroughs for 2008. What’s on your list? Write it in the present tense, e.g. I started a new business. Or, I improved my relationship with my kid. How or what would you like to look & feel different a year from now? Be idealistic, be bold. And in the end, remember that a plan is only the place to begin; life is full of surprises.

4. Actions for ‘08 — “Just Do It” is a popular slogan, but not particularly helpful advice. Most change initiatives require some planning, and lots of support. Thinking about your Visioning goals, answer 2 questions: What would be a first step towards making that happen? What kind of support (people, materials, information, etc.) do I need to get started? Starting a big project at the beginning offers small wins, which build momentum & confidence. And thinking about support needs helps to develop the plan, and can connect you to your community instead of thinking that its all up to you & you alone.

I plan to be working this year: helping partners design alliances, building trust and productivity with teams, and designing spaces for creative process. Give a call or email if I can help in any way. Wishing for all your dreams to come true…

I love this ad because it so perfectly captures the crazy endearing chaos that is India…

In case I haven’t mentioned it to you personally, I’ve been working more over the past few years as a life & performance coach. These skills are a great addition to my toolbox for facilitating better group creative process & workplace relationships.

Based on my training in Organizational & Relationship Systems, I’d like to extend an offer for a sample hour of coaching with you and any kind of partner (business, family, romantic, athletic, creative) to help you Design Your Alliance — literally, talking together about HOW you want to make things together, WHO you’d like to be while you’re building a life or business or team, and WHAT values are most important in your shared goals or vision.

The offer is for a sample hour. Click here for info about the one-day TDA workshop for ad agencies and their clients (or other business teams). TDA is also great work to do with agency creative teams, romantic couples, in families, etc.

Please give a call or email if you’re interested in exploring how TDA can improve your relationship & the process of making together…

Sometime this month, April 2006, will be 20 years for me in advertising. I’m happy to say I still enjoy this business, the people, the ideas, and yes I even still enjoy moderating focus groups & training moderators.

When people ask, Where Do You Want to Be in Five Years?, I’ve never had any idea or answer. Mostly, I’ve been confused enough with where I was. My 2006 answer: “Somewhere I can’t possibly imagine today”.

My first 6 years in the business I was a sponge at DMB&B NY as a P&G media planner & then Chiat/Day NY as a young account planner. The pay was crap, and the work was fascinating. I liked the strategy of media, and literacy in MRI books proved an asset at C/D. The people I worked for at both shops are still rock stars in their world. There’s no way I could have planned this kind of education & opportunity.

When I moved to FCB San Francisco, then started my own business a year later in ‘92, I wasn’t sure what would happen next. Pitching IBM with Ogilvy in 1994 was a good break, and started a 12+ year relationship. And clients in SF, NY, Seattle, and elsewhere have kept me busy & learning & paying my mortgage. Thank you.

One day, I sat down & asked myself about widgetwonder‘s value proposition: How do I best serve my clients? Why should someone hire me?

Perhaps contrary to my British-infused education, I was tired of the planner’s role as “most clever person in the room”. So I said Yes to Collaboration — work to bring the group together, into alignment around language and ideas. The power of brands are expressed as shared values, not proprietary. Help the team move forward, and experience themselves in new ways. My job is to help create an environment where the group can do its best work. Building & holding a group is a skill, and I’ve been focusing here for the past 10 years.

Mostly, I just follow what I’m most curious about. And I like to solve problems, tell stories, and make a connection. That’s my idea of a plan. Oh, and its ok to freak out all along the way because you don’t know where you’re going. Doesn’t everyone do that anyway?

The best thing about entrepreneurship is that I’ve had the opportunity to invest in my business & myself. With each 5 year period of the past 20 years, my growth & learning have accelerated & have become more interesting.

This diversity of experience drives innovation for my business, and adds value to my clients. Personally, I couldn’t ask for anything better. Check back for an update again in 2026…

Humble appreciation for a lovely success: 12 of us on Thanksgiving morning making sandwiches, adding an apple, water, fresh veg, vitamin C, pumpkin bread, and chocolate-covered espresso beans to the lunch bags. After cooking two 20 lb turkeys the day before, I limited myself to making coffee & waffles, while the crew took over. When we had 50 meals, we scattered in our separate cars, hitting the streets to feed the hungry. Lots to be thankful for — the folks who showed up to make this happen, especially my students. Clearly, we all got more than we gave…

Since the Gold Rush, San Francisco has been a famous "end-of-the-line" destination to those looking for a chance to re-invent themselves. 

The next play I’ll be acting in is Emperor Norton I — a new musical. Norton, by proclaiming himself Emperor of the US in the 1850’s, became perhaps the first of a long, colorful, proud line of "eccentric" San Franciscans.

Conventional wisdom was that he was crazy — suggesting a bridge over the East Bay, trying to prevent the Civil War, proposing to the Queen of England. Yet with every new "royal proclamation" he became more loved, more celebrated, more in demand. This is the San Francisco way.

Come enjoy this charming & funny story from the Barbary Coast — from rags to riches to rags to pomp & fleas — weekends in Dec ‘05 and Jan ‘06. At the Darkroom Theatre, of course, 2263 Mission St @ 19th St. 415 401 7987. Reservations recommended…

When it comes to photography, my approach is pretty much the same as elsewhere — chuck the rules, embrace the random, and dump quickly what isn’t working. Here’s a link to a series of images I call ColorFields — explorations into the intersection of light, color, motion, and slow shutter speeds. Using the technique for portraits can also yield suprising & beautiful results. Links are to Flickr.com pages.