« ROI for Attending | Main | Blink wins! »
August 10, 2005
Extreme Questioning - Or All About My Date with Drew
>
I'm reading Patricia Ryan Madson's Improv Wisdom right now. In the prologue she talks about a paperweight she keeps on her desk all the time that says, "What would you do if you knew you would not fail?"
I just kind of tripped over it at the time - yeah, yeah, yeah, bumper-sticker psychobabble. Sounds good - but how would I put it to use at work, etc. etc.
But then I'm reading an article by Jia Lynn Yang in the August 8th issue of Fortune magazine - and it brought home that sometimes when you ask those questions, it does work out in the "real world."
Most of you have probably heard rumblings about a new indie documentary released Aug. 5, My Date with Drew, about one man's quest to win a date with Drew Barrymore. But did you know that the company that produced it, DEJ Productions, is an offshoot of Blockbuster Vidoeo?
DEJ Productions was formed six years ago as a way for Blockbuster to bypass the studios and go straight to the filmmakers when filling its shelves. It has acquired close to 400 movies, mostly at film festivals around the world. Most go straight to DVD, but some have enjoyed box office success, including Charlize Theron's Monster and this year's Crash.
And how did it begin? With an extreme question, posed by Dean Wilson (now head of business development) to CEO John Antioco on an elevator ride: Why do we need to go to the studios to buy movies? Why don't we go to the filmmakers?
Now that you have an example of someone who asked an extreme question and didn't get fired - what are the extreme questions that we need to be asking our CEOs in the elevator? (I knew there was a good reason I take the stairs.)
Posted by at August 10, 2005 04:18 PM
Comments
Thank you so much for reading and mentioning my book, Improv Wisdom, in your column. It means a lot to know that the book is useful to people. May your new year be filled with many happy improvisations. What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
Posted by: patryanmadson ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blogs.asaecenter.org/XtremeASAEblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 2, 2006 03:27 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)