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The Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training.

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When I heard that Arthur C. Clarke had died, I was transported back to my boyhood. I loved science fiction and Clarke was one of my favorite authors. I don't remember the title of the first book of his that I read. I think it was Childhood's End.

Clarke, along with Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, inspired me with the idea that I might make my living by writing. And so I owe them, in some way, thanks for my professional life.

As a boy, I was also fascinated with science. I was inspired by the stories of Clarke's idea to use geostationary satellites as communications relays. And I loved his story that illustrated what that might mean. I loved the way his work mixed science and fiction and real life and the ways he applied a disciplined imagination to the process.

Some years after I had grown, I came upon his Three Laws. And once again I discovered that disciplined imagination at work. Those laws became part of my thinking toolkit. Just last month I wrote a newsletter piece based on them. Here it is.

Arthur Clarke's Laws

Arthur C. Clarke is the British writer who gave us 2001: a Space Odyssey and other great science fiction. As a scientist he came up with the idea of using geostationary satellites as telecommunications relays. He also developed this helpful bit of advice, which is the first of Clarke's Three Laws.

"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

Experience, in science or in business, is excellent for telling us what is known. It's not so good at telling us what might be possible. For that we need Clarke's Second Law.

"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."

Good advice. The first two laws will help us with business innovation. But Clarke's Third Law puts us on to another bit of wisdom that helps us with process.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Think of technology here in its wider meaning of "the way to do things." What looks so much like magic when great performers do it can usually be duplicated if you're willing to look at the process.

Top individual performers have specific ways of doing things that you can adapt. Top companies develop systems that help ordinary people produce extraordinary results.

Remember: it's not magic to the magician.

If you want to read more about Arthur Clarke and the impact he had on so much and so many, let me point you to two excellent obituaries, one from the New York Times and the other from the BBC.

Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Science Fiction Writer, Dies
Writer's interest sparked by sea

I tell my children that you are alive as long as someone is telling stories about you. If that's true then I suspect Arthur Clarke will live as long as we have words.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.

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Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.

Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.