Why Communications is Like Water

Lessons from Bruce Lee on How Communication Should Flow

I have always enjoyed being around the ocean, especially in warm locations. If you do a search on my site for “beach” you will see pictures of a very happy Jeremy. OK, so before I bore you with how much I love the ocean, I have to get to the point of this post. Communication is how I have made my living for almost half my life now. I live, eat, and sleep communications and rarely get surprised these days with new ways people choose to communicate.

I saw Bruce Lee’s “Be Like Water” video on YouTube a few years ago, and people at work know ever since I have referred to it when discussing challenges with communications in companies.

The Water Analogy

The reason the video resonated with me is I loved how Bruce Lee described water taking the shape of different things, as well as its different forms. I’ve visited a lot of companies over the years, and I’ve seen a lot of company cultures. I think many of us overlook how important communication is to our companies.

Countries fighting in wars know the value of communications because one of the first things they do when attacking an opposing side is attempt to disable as many communications as they can. If countries can’t communicate they can’t effectively organize, follow orders, and similarly businesses are the same way.

Water & Communication

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

— Bruce Lee

The Rainstorm Metaphor

Returning to our water analogy, everyone needs water to live and in many ways professionals must communicate in order to survive. How much or how little communication people send or receive determines how well they are able to receive it.

The Gutter Down spout

If you are in a rainstorm, and you want to capture water, one of the most efficient ways is to put a cup under a gutter down the spout. Similarly, if you want to capture the best audience when communicating, you find your funneled, or target audience.

The Open Mouth

If it is raining, and you run around with your mouth open, you will get wet, but you’ll also stay thirsty. In business, many of us are communicating, but how many times have you heard employees are being “flooded with information”?

How to Effectively Communicate Without “Getting Yourself All Wet”

1

Take a Temperature Check

Understand your audience. Will the person I am communicating with care, and is it pertinent to them? If no, what will it take to make them care of for it to be pertinent for them?

2

Don’t Belly Flop

If you jump in without checking your grammar, you might not get taken seriously.

3

Use the Raindrop Method

Default to the raindrop method when communicating, rather than flooding your audience with too much information.

4

No Splashing in the Pool

Get to the point. You can swim, and you can splash, but when you get to the other side of the pool, people will appreciate you a lot more if you don’t make waves by talking too much.

5

Like Bathing, Do It Often

But only as needed.

6

One Step at a Time

When people first learn to swim, they need to know the basic mechanics before you throw them “in the deep end.”

7

Hire Lifeguards

At the beach and many of the pools, we hire lifeguards to make sure people follow the rules and help those who need it. In business, if you don’t have a person or team making sure people follow the rules, chances are, they won’t.

8

Don’t Be a Prune

Make your communication short and sweet. If you stay in water too long, you’ll turn into a prune. Prunes aren’t cool, and you won’t be either.

Communications in a company can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend!

Bruce Lee Be As Water My Friend
Share your communication insights in the comments below!

Steve Jobs and the True Meaning of Design

How Apple’s co-founder revolutionized our understanding of what design really means

Steve Jobs with lamp

Steve Jobs examining a product with his characteristic intensity and attention to detail

In a world obsessed with aesthetics, Steve Jobs stood apart with a more profound understanding of design. The Apple co-founder and visionary didn’t just create beautiful products – he fundamentally reimagined what design meant in the context of technology and consumer experiences.

Jobs, in an interview with Rob Walker for a 2003 New York Times Magazine profile on the creation of the iPod, articulated this philosophy in what has become one of his most celebrated observations:

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

This deceptively simple statement encapsulates a revolutionary approach to product creation that would transform multiple industries and set a new standard for how we think about the objects that fill our lives.

Beyond Aesthetics: Jobs’ Design Philosophy

Jobs’ perspective on design represented a significant departure from conventional thinking. While many companies treated design as a final cosmetic step – a way to make functional objects attractive – Jobs saw design as the fundamental process through which function itself was determined.

For Jobs, design wasn’t about decoration but integration. It meant creating a seamless unity between:

  • Hardware and software
  • Form and function
  • Technology and human experience
  • Engineering requirements and user desires

This holistic approach meant that at Apple, design wasn’t a department but a philosophy that permeated every aspect of product development. It wasn’t about making trade-offs between beauty and function, but finding solutions where both could be achieved simultaneously.

The Formative Influences

Jobs’ understanding of design wasn’t formed in a vacuum. It was shaped by diverse influences throughout his life:

  • His adopted father Paul Jobs, who taught him the importance of crafting even unseen parts with care
  • His calligraphy course at Reed College, which gave him an appreciation for typography and aesthetic precision
  • The minimalist Zen aesthetic he encountered through his exploration of Buddhism
  • His admiration for the Bauhaus movement and its principles of form following function
  • His relationship with industrial designer Jony Ive, who helped translate Jobs’ vision into physical reality

Jobs once explained that his father insisted on properly finishing the backs of fence panels and cabinet drawers, even though no one would see them. “He loved doing things right,” Jobs recalled. This attention to unseen details would become a hallmark of Apple products under his leadership.

Design Philosophy in Action

Throughout Apple’s product history, we can see concrete examples of Jobs’ design philosophy manifested in revolutionary products:

  • The Macintosh (1984): Not just a visually distinct computer, but one that fundamentally changed how humans interact with machines through its graphical user interface
  • The iPod (2001): Behind its sleek exterior was a revolutionary interface (the click wheel) that solved the problem of navigating thousands of songs with minimal physical controls
  • The iPhone (2007): Eliminated the physical keyboard not merely for aesthetics, but to create a device that could transform its interface to match the user’s needs at any moment
  • The MacBook Air (2008): Its thinness wasn’t just for show, but represented a fundamental rethinking of what components were truly necessary in a laptop

In each case, the distinctive appearance of these products was not the goal but the result of deeper thinking about how they should work to best serve human needs.

The Apple Design Process

Under Jobs’ leadership, Apple developed a distinctive design process characterized by:

  • Relentless simplification: Repeatedly asking what could be removed rather than what could be added
  • Prototyping: Building numerous physical models to test and refine ideas
  • Integration of teams: Bringing together designers, engineers, and marketers from the beginning
  • Focus on experience: Starting with the desired user experience and working backward to the technology
  • Attention to detail: Obsessing over elements that most companies would consider insignificant

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of Apple’s approach was its willingness to make difficult engineering choices to achieve design goals. While other companies might compromise user experience to accommodate technical limitations, Jobs insisted that technical challenges be solved to deliver the intended experience.

Beyond Apple: The Broader Impact

Jobs’ design philosophy has extended far beyond Apple products to influence multiple industries:

  • Consumer Electronics: The entire industry has shifted toward more integrated, experience-focused design
  • Software Development: User experience (UX) has become central to software design rather than an afterthought
  • Retail: Apple Stores revolutionized retail design by focusing on experience over transaction
  • Education: Design thinking has been embraced as a problem-solving methodology in schools and universities
  • Business Strategy: Companies increasingly recognize design as a strategic advantage rather than a cosmetic consideration

Today, even industries far removed from technology speak of “Apple-like experiences” as the gold standard for user-centered design.

Challenges and Criticisms

While Jobs’ design philosophy has been tremendously influential, it has not been without its challenges and critics:

  • Cost implications: The pursuit of ideal design solutions often results in higher product costs
  • Repairability concerns: Integrated designs can make products harder to repair or upgrade
  • Environmental impact: The emphasis on new, seamless products can contribute to electronic waste
  • Accessibility trade-offs: Some design decisions prioritize aesthetics over universal accessibility

These tensions highlight that even the most thoughtful design philosophy involves trade-offs. The ongoing challenge for those influenced by Jobs’ approach is to balance its principles with other important considerations.

The Enduring Legacy

Steve Jobs passed away in 2011, but his design philosophy continues to influence how we think about the creation of products and experiences. The idea that “design is how it works” has become so deeply embedded in modern product development that it’s easy to forget how revolutionary it once was.

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of Jobs’ approach was his insistence that great design isn’t about compromise but synthesis – finding the point where seemingly conflicting requirements (beauty and function, simplicity and capability, intuitiveness and power) could be resolved through creative thinking.

In a world increasingly shaped by digital experiences, Jobs’ holistic understanding of design remains more relevant than ever. As we navigate the challenges of creating products and services for an interconnected world, his reminder that true design goes far deeper than appearance continues to guide innovators across industries.

Join the Conversation

How has Jobs’ design philosophy influenced your thinking about products or experiences? Can you think of examples where “design is how it works” has been particularly well (or poorly) applied? Share your thoughts in the comments below!