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Are you able to discount your own certainty?

December 7, 2010 by Rosa Say

For that is what it takes to be open-minded —and being open-minded is but the start of possibility in your bigger and better thinking, thinking your brain is fully capable of.

Spikes

Voltaire said,

“Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position, but certainty is an absurd position.”

Meet Dr. David Eagleman, neuroscientist (Link to PopTech2010 Video). I love speakers who can communicate as eloquently as Dr. Eagleman. Trust me, he’s a scientist you’ll enjoy listening to!

“90% of the universe is what we call ‘dark matter.’ That’s a lot to sweep under the rug!”
— Dr. David Eagleman

In his presentation, Dr. Eagleman presents possibilianism:

At 13:52: Possibilianism is “the act of exploration of new ideas and a comfort with the scientific temperment of creativity and holding multiple hypotheses in mind… It’s not that anything goes; anything goes at first, and then we import the tools of science to rule out parts of the possibility space.”

What’s cool, is that “…possibilianism picks up where the toolbox of science leaves out; it’s where we no longer have tools to address it [the magnitude of all we don’t yet know.]”

So why should you bother with this video at all? (It will explain Possibilianism in about 20 minutes.)

In the crush of the holiday season the year will turn, and like it or not, welcome it or not, we will all do a great deal of thinking about ourselves and the world we live in. I urge you to frame your thinking within greater possibility. Give yourself a gift, and let your growth in.

In his talk, Dr. Eagleman will explain that we must seek comfort with multiple narratives.

“This is not just a plea for simple open-mindedness, but for an act of exploration of new ideas. …go back into your world, and live a life free of dogma, and full of awe and wonder. See if you can celebrate possibility, and praise uncertainty.”

This is something you have to work at, because old conditioning can fight you:

At 6:18: You don’t need to be an anthropologist to recognize that our nervous systems absorb whatever our culture pours into us” it is not coincidence that there isn’t a blossoming of Islam in Springfield Ohio, and there isn’t a blossoming Protestantism in Mecca, because we are products of our culture; we accept whatever is poured into us, right? If there was one truth, you’d expect it would spread everywhere evenly, but the data doesn’t support that”

Merry Christmas my friends. However your faith got you where you are today, I’m celebrating the possibility of where we all have yet to go in both heart and mind.

Many thanks to Liz Danzico for introducing me to David Eagleman.

On the 5th Day of Christmas: Wonder

Wonder. To have an inner capacity that can always make room for awe and wonder is such a blessing. To return to child-like innocence and acceptance, to be rendered speechless, and have it feel good and right, never helpless. To not have all the answers but feel it is perfectly fine not to, to just have wonder.

How is wonder an Aloha Virtue for you?

Drive well: Pay People Enough

June 5, 2010 by Rosa Say

Yes, I just jumped to a new theme this past week, so think of this post as a weekend breather, because I happened to find this video (below) via science fiction author Tobias Buckell, who posted a few thoughts on  The nature of motivation.

I want to share it with you because I think it’s a good follow-up to this: The Energy of Gainful Employment.  While we happily move ahead with a new theme, we are nowhere finished with our efforts in Job Creation or our Sense of Workplace call to action, are we. You go through this with your Weekly Review all the time:

  1. You look back, taking stock of what just happened.
  2. Then you look forward, having both directional views shape a more complete perspective,
  3. …so you can do a good job proactively planning your week progressively, and with the pacing which feels best to you.
  4. It’s the best way to reality-check your goals, while not losing sight of them,
  5. …and to think about how you will team up with others in the week to come (A-Upcoming calendar appointments give you fortuitous opportunity. B-You schedule to fill open slots).

Number 3. and Number 5. MUST always include very healthy helpings of follow-up.

SIDEBAR:
Two fantastic Follow-up Tools if you are new round these parts, and missed them:

  1. Be the Best Communicator
  2. Improve your Reputation with 1 List

So here is what I propose: Grab the next 15 minutes or so to go back to those keepers in our recent studies here, and refresh them with what this video might trigger for you.

My take is up in the post title: This post-recessionary economy is driving compensation levels down, down, down, and business owners, we must pay people well, fully understanding how it will affect their motivation, and thus the job/work they do for you, and with you. You could also connect this to Wealth is a Value (January 2010).

I have read Dan Pink’s book, Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us, and I think this is the biggest keeper from it for most of the work world, (though I really should read the entire book again, and slowly).

“Pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table.”

Then, and only then (paraphrasing now) can we talk about everything else (like autonomy and mastery, or other incentives). For then, and only then, will people stop thinking about money and begin to think about the work.

It pops up on this very cool 10-minute video at about the 5-minute mark half-way through:
RSA Animate Drive by Daniel Pink

It makes so much sense, and always great to have it backed up by smart research (we’ll take his word for it, short of reading more in his book). In his post (referenced earlier) Buckell is absorbing the book’s message as a solo artist/creative:

I’ve been talking about [the book, Drive] to creative types a great deal, as we’ve all faced the very real dilemma around the fact that when creative works becomes directly linked to pay, a very real crisis happens. Learning to navigate that is crucial to making the switch to a full time creative type. I wish I’d read Drive years ago, it would have made the transition much smoother.

To sum up:

  1. If you’re the Job Creator for others, factor good pay into your business model — you have to in order to get them to be a good partner for you on the work itself. It’s a simple matter of being realistic about what our basic attentions must be devoted to.
  2. Same goes for when the only job you’re currently focused on is your own: Deal with the issue of your baseline compensation realistically, and get it off your own table!

Here is some good Archive Aloha which relates to this thinking about your own business model: What if your business got sick? My own follow-up to that journey was the writing of Business Thinking with Aloha, just published last month.

~ ~ ~ Want more for your weekend? ~ ~ ~

  1. After I saw this video and had programmed this post for you, it seemed these RSA Animations were beginning to go viral — I kept seeing a few different ones. They are done by Andrew Park of Cognitive Media if you are interested in visiting his site (Mahalo to Mike Rohde for his help in tracking down the info.) You can check out RSA here: 21st century enlightenment.
  2. If you would like to see another, I would recommend the one summed up at kottke.org which is “A fascinating 10-minute animated talk by Philip Zimbardo about the different ‘time zones’ or ‘time perspectives’ that people can have, and how they will affect people’s world views.” — It may give you added oomph to the process and/or context of doing your Weekly Review, as mentioned above. If you like those self-assessment type online questionnaires, find out which time zone you’re in by taking this survey.
  3. Back to the subject of job creation, here is a recent article by Robert Reich: Why the President’s Next Big Thing Should Be Jobs. Of note: He wrote this about a month before the BP oil rig explosion, and his current suggestion is that the President put BP into temporary receivership: Part 1, Podcast, and Part 2.

Discover the power of 5 Minutes: A book excerpt from Managing with AlohaD5MBetterMgr

No Excuses

September 23, 2009 by Rosa Say

After the writing of yesterday’s post, it was pretty clear to me that I need to declare an all out war on procrastination. [Yesterday: Cultivating a Well-Behaved Mind – How can we do it?]

So as a quick mid-week posting, I thought I’d share two Nike videos with you which resonate with me. If you are reading this via email or RSS you may need to click in to see them: Each is only about a minute long.

I run every morning to start my day, and so this first one combined this notion of an all-out war (still talking about procrastination!) with each daily beginning and that Whole-minded Story crafting I am learning.
The very beginning of it recalls yesterday’s tip on “pulling a Ulysses” too :)

Need Motivation? (Length – 1:00)

Dean Boyer reminded me about this next one in a posting he did yesterday for Teaching with Aloha: Making Excuses. Dean offered five steps to take if we are “ready to seriously deal with your excuses” with this video a final power-packed prompting.

Warhawk Matt Scott: (Length – 1:01)

Really puts things in perspective, doesn’t it.

What would you add to these conversations?

  1. Cultivating a Well-Behaved Mind – here on Talking Story
  2. Making Excuses – by Dean Boyer on Teaching with Aloha
  3. No Excuses – right here today: The comment boxes await you! Let’s talk story.

Are You The Favorite Person of Anybody?

June 22, 2008 by Rosa Say

Took a look at this earlier today and I can’t get it out of my head. I’ve mostly thought about it in the context of the workplace, and how it is far, far too easy for us to take people for granted when we see them day in and day out, and they aren’t those we consider to be family, or our best friends… though as you will see, the video makes you wonder about those relationships too…

We inherit so many others in our workplaces, whether they are co-workers, customers, suppliers or in other partnerships. Can you imagine how dramatically the workplace would improve, if every single manager made it their goal to have every person working with them answer, "Oh yes, definitely." and, "Oh yeah, I know that’s the top answer, and that’s the way I feel."

This also reminds me of that Gallup Organization Q12 question on if we have a best friend at work or not, and why that question is so important. From the Talking Story archives: Vital Friends, The People You Can’t Afford to Live Without.

So I ask you; Are you the favorite person of anybody? Whose favorite person would you like to be? Love to be? What are you doing about that?

If you’d prefer to sit with those questions for a while, or privately, how about sharing your reactions to this video? There are a lot of messages packed into these 4 minutes… If you are a manager, would you share it in a daily huddle or a staff meeting?

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