Interesting As It Is

The Necessity Of The Other

I've lived in a cold climate all of my life. For several months every year, I participate in the annual rite of complaining about the deep cold, the snow, ice, and wind chills. Minnesota has some of the coldest temps in the nation, and while there are many who enjoy the pleasures of skiing or ice-fishing, I'm more inclined to patiently await the start of Spring and the warm, humid days that start in June and stretch on until, what...August?

Last winter I was in northern Minnesota to present to a conference of leaders. They offered to put me up in a nice home on the shore of Lake Superior where I could enjoy a wood burning fire, and have a calm cabin facing the menacingly cold winds, and arctic ice of the lake. It wasn't terribly pleasant, and though the view of the lake was spectacular, it was also too cold to actually enjoy any more than a few short minutes. 

It wasn't too many months later that the lake ice was gone and the warm winds of summer blew through the cedar and aspen trees. The same spot I had stayed was now a place of leisure and luxury, the view indulgent, the fire place unnecessary. It was if these were two different worlds, the cold one and the warm one, both at the same address, but only the experience of the place had changed.

The climate of business and work is much the same. It seems we forget, a kind of temporary amnesia, that seasons exist not only in nature but in the cycles of business, and in our life. We experience these emergent things, like a bad economy, job loss, loss of health or wellness, even the demise of a relationship, as a surprise, as if life shouldn't have these seasons, things shouldn't be that cold and frozen?

The reality is, what we see in nature is a lesson in life. It is the necessity of the other; the morning is spectacular because the night is cold and dark, the Spring is incredible because the Winter is so harsh, the new job makes us happy because we are needed again, and the demise of something we love reminds us of what is most important. Whenever we experience the down side, we would do well to remind ourselves that this is the necessary condition of life, it is an indication not that all things are bad, but that the other is alive and well.

Not everything in life will regress to the mean, nor will joy always follow sadness, but  this season always follows that one. The older I get the more I recognize that the things that irritate me, that make my feet cold, my head hurt, my heart broken, are the things of balance and the seasons that live within me. If I could stop to reflect for a few moments in the midst of the windchill, the snowstorm, or the never ending deluge of rain, I might find an assurance in knowing that tomorrow will be new. So when things are bad enough, I can figure the direction of the wind will eventually change. Maybe the sun will burn through the gray gauze that's covering the sky today, and all those things that I trip over and curse for lack of rhyme or reason, will just serve to remind me that these things, these shitty moments are just flow, and nothing more, or nothing less than the necessary other.

6 Ideas For Creating Momentum.

Okay, it's getting near to the end of the first month of the year and most of us have thoughts of warmer weather and longer days that lay ahead. For some of us, the promises we made to ourselves at the beginning are already showing signs of weakness. Whatever our promise, we may be experience what staticians refer to as "regression towards the mean", which means that if a variable is extreme when it's first measured (I'm never going to drink another soda..ever!),it will be closer to an average, when it's measured a second time.

When I work on material for a presentation with an audience, or working with an audience as a performer, I try out some pretty wild ideas, ideas that I know may or may not work.  What I eventually discover that many of my ideas or goals are lofty and sometimes stupid big, but they eventually flatten out. What I'm left with after this regression, is something worthy and good.

Playing it safe with our resolutions or goals is a sure fire way to stay comfortably where you are. But wild ideas and even ridiculous dreams, can awaken your spirit of adventure.  There are those that say your goals should be "doable", and bite sized, and there is some research that suggests that small, step-by-step plans are the most effective. But, we still need a wild hair, a hair-brained scheme, a big damn idea that will shake up our imaginations.  If the imagination isn't involved, then we live our lives like a two dimensional board game, competing in win/lose propositions all the while our creative energy is draining away.

Look at your goals, your ideas, your dreams....are they too big to fit in your head?  What do you want to make?  We have to recognize our prejudice for having step-by-step game like instructions for achieving our goals and creating our ideas. It's fine and good to plan the steps, but why not start with big...even impossible sounding ideas. If we don't sketch out ideas that provoke our imaginations in big ways, then we're running the risk of courting boredom as a lifestyle, shorting ourselves on potential, and giving away our time and energy to things that don't actually energize us. 

So, now that your New Years resolutions are peeling off the bumper, start over and ask yourself what's the big idea? What do you really want for yourself, your family? Are you shuffling around, or stepping confidently towards that idea, that thing you want?  Do you have a journal of ideas? (NO! Why not?), a map, a page, anything that shows you where you're going to go?

You don't have to know HOW you're going to accomplish this thing, you just need to start with some big ideas, and say yes to getting your move on.

1.) Spend 1 hour, every other day, doing nothing but drawing, sketching, writing, and clarifying what you want? You can't accomplish everything, so be careful not to list too many things. Write it as a narrative! Do this for 1 week.

2.) Week 2-Now that you have a few ideas, ask yourself if they are wild enough? Ask others to listen to your hair brained scheme.  Specifically, ask people if they have any ideas on how to help you accomplish this thing?

3.) Convene your advisory committee. Invite friends, influential others, to help you with your ideas. Don't suck the life out of them with long winded diatribes on what you're going to do. Instead, give them a simple hand out that describes what you want to accomplish, your big ideas. Invite them to support you, challenge you, to help you get there.  Give them bonuses if they help you score a goal.

4.) Take one room of your house, and clear out a wall for your imagination The bigger the better. Now it's time for you to be crazy and to scare your friends and family. Start posting everything you can think of that is part of your dream. Pictures, planning sheets, mind maps, and your project planning sheet. In a few days, weeks and months, your wall will be full of ideas.

5. ) On the wall next to, or part of that, have big squares for the months ahead, and slowly fill those squares with Post-It notes that include what you're doing that month to get this project done. Not screw around...do it!

6. ) Finally, somewhere on this wall..put what you're going to get for accomplishing your goals? What are you going to buy as a reward for the big and small wins? A dinner out? A new watch? A new car?  Rewards are important.

If you're worried about a wall being too messy, then perhaps you'd be better served doing it on small paper. Personally, if what you want to be big, and you want to be successful, then make your wall big, messy, obvious, crazy, fun, wild and useful. Use the wall, interact with it, play with it, share it, take pictures of it and send it to others.

If you do this you may find that creating new things for the world is both challenging and rewarding, and doable.  Sure, we always tend to regress towards our comforts, but playing up the big wall and thinking like a bad ass lifts you higher, and can give you a sense of real, tangible momentum.

Have fun!  Make Cool Stuff! Make Money! Get Rich? Repeat!

 

4 Ideas For A Better Connection

My father once said, "You've got two ears and one mouth, play the odds." It's a classic quote and a good meme and one that I often forget.

In the wake of the horrific shooting in Tucson, I found myself on Facebook arguing with others who, like me, were upset by the events and the subsequent blame-go-round. While fingers were pointing and tempers were raging, many of us lost track and doubled down with our mouths, choosing to drown everyone else in a sea of words. This never amounts to much, and I don't know of anyone I was debating that change their mind a result of the deluge of words I poured over them.

Here it is, a few days later, and I don't recall much about the content of those conversations, just a few days after they had occurred. What I realized after the fact, was how much time I lost in an attempt to blast the opinion of others, how much energy I spent in righteous indignation.

Two ears, but too often, I think we tend to believe that talking is active, and listening is passive. But listening is an action step, and real listening requires endurance. Talking alone provides us with no new information, it is only through the combination of listening and inquiry that we can ever hope to expand or understand, not just of another, but ourselves as well. What did I learn from my time? I, I can't remember!

In my work as a consultant to business, one of the first things I like to investigate is how much time is spent in reflective listening?  While most business have perfunctory meetings, few of those meetings yield truly useful information. More often than not, meetings are an opportunity for a few, to lecture to the many.  Modern business spends more time analyzing and dissecting numbers and trends, and not nearly enough time in conversation and reflection.

The fix for this is simple and immediate. Though one might have to wrestle with the demons of distraction, if we want to increase our knowledge or expand our insights, we need to start tracking our listening or reflection time. It doesn't take much. If we spend just a few minutes each day in reflective silence, creative flow, or active listening, we give our mouth a break and our creativity a boost.  I don't think it necessary to take on seated meditation or chanting mantras, instead just remind yourself to "play the odds" whenever you are hanging out with others.  If you're in a debate, give that someone else a chance to finish a sentence before you start pile driving your next point. 

Listening and attention are ours to give, and having someone know that we are truly interested in what they have to say will raise our value to them. We don't need to set down our opinions, or throttle back our passions, but rise to the occasion by lending balance through listening to someone else. 

1.) Whenever you start a conversation, take note of the time of day, start thinking about "minding time" and how much you're paying attention.

2.) If you manage others, look for ways to make meetings more interactive and personal. Casual, non-constructive meetings are often more useful than long agendas and Powerpoints.

3.) Keep a journal. Log what you learned as you talked with a friend or colleague. The entries don't need to be long narratives, but tidbits and words.

4.) Spend 2 to 5 minutes each hour being silent and doing nothing at all. If you can't reach that goal each hour, try every four hours.  If you can do 5 minutes at least four times a day, you'll have spend 5 complete days on paying attention in a calendar year. Call it a vacation.

This week, challenge yourself to play the odds, track what you heard and learned, and start cultivating your powers of personal attention one-step at a time.

Design thought for the week.

"Above all, think of life as a prototype.  We can conduct experiments, make discoveries, and change our perspectives.  We can look for opportunities to turn processes into projects that have tangible outcomes.  We can learn how to take joy in the things we create whether they take the form of a fleeting experience or an heirloom that will last for generations.  We can learn that reward comes in creation and re-creation, not just in the consumption of the world around us.  Active participation in the process of creation is our right and our privilege."

- Tim Brown

5 Steps Of Creative Planning

I've spent the majority of my life around and amongst working creatives. Most of the creatives I know don't take a lot of time to plan, or rather, they don't seem to have a lot of things to put in a plan. They prize doing things as they come up, and minimize their forward planning.

The contrasting image are the people I've worked with in the corporate world as a consultant, speaker and trainer, most of whom have calendar pages packed with things to do. Everything goes into the plan..plan the work, work the plan. But often, for both of these groups, creativity and tinkering are left out of the plan, or the planner. Those "frivolous" activities are considered time wasting, weekend fodder, not something you would do in the midst of a busy business day. There is a balance to be struck between wandering and creative freedom, and the densely populated day planner. This is my approach.

This is a simple approach, one that includes flexibility and encourages "white space" in our planner. Here, we take time to play, create, reflect and build something off the grid. I call this plan "Next 15" and it can yield a basketful of new ideas, as well as give our mind a much needed energy boost.

This is designed to help you accomplish creative tasks, play and noodle with new ideas, tinker and build something. Don't use this time for more planning, unless you need to map out the design for your new mousetrap!

This plan won't replace a project management calendar of priorities, it's designed to encourge "white space" in your planner pages so that you take time to cultivate fresh thinking, to play, and to dabble.  

Musician Charles Mingus wrote "Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple." 

The 5 steps of creative time management

1.) Imagine - Take no less than 15 minutes, but no more than 30 minutes a day to ponder what you need to and want to do. You can separate your thoughts in any way you choose, using a mind-map, an unnumbered list. Don't worry about priorities, judgement, opinion or fears. Just write. Do it in the morning, in the evening, when it's quiet.

2.) Plan - Take no more than 15 minutes to place each of your tasks into three simple comparments. #1-TODAY, #2-TOMORROW, #3-Later. If you decide to just have a "15 minute creativity break", you simply need to decide on what day. Don't put it into a scheduled time, it is just an item you're going to do today, or tomorrow, or later.  

3.)Pick - Pick a starting time for you day,  and once per hour check your "Plan" list. Based on what you're feeling, your level of energy, your interest, your focus "pick" an item on your list.

4.) Play - You now have 15 uninterrupted minutes to complete or play with that task. If it's a simple task, and it's done in a couple of minutes, then pick something else. When the 15 minutes are up, you can stop and return to whatever your complex task is.

5.) Produce - Create something! That can be as simple as writing a letter, taking some pictures, or writing a lyric or poem. You can produce whatever time permits, and whatever your energy level is.

It's up to you how many creative time breaks you want to take. I recommend you take 4 breaks a day, once in the morning, two during your work day, and another one in the evening. You can certainly go longer if you want to take the time, but you shouldn't go less. 

Tools.

Colored pens. Make sure you have a set of colored pens. They're fantastic for doodling and noodling, brainstorming and sketching. I use them daily. 

Timer - I have a meditation clock (shown here), as well as a "Zen Meditation" app for when I'm on the road, but you can use whatever form of timer you find or want. 

Sketch paper - You can use any paper, but the bright paper found in spiral bound sketch pads is great to work with, and it lets you keep your doodling in one place.

Music - During my 15 minutes I often find it useful to have a little music playing in my ears or background.

Kit - Keep this creative stuff in a kit so when you are taking your Next 15 time, you can simply have it out and at your fingertips.

Try it, today. Put a mark on your planner at the spot you're going to stop what you're doing, and pick from your list of items, activities that will generate energy and creativity for you. Set your timer for 15 minutes, no less, no more...and go. If at the end of 15 minutes you need to keep going, then set it for another 15 minutes...and go. 

These tasks are for your well being, your mind and heart. If you only manage to do it once a day, you'll have added hours of creative play time to your work week, and you will be cultivating new and innovative thinking.

(from the forthcoming book "The Take Away" by Carr Hagerman/ Fall 2011)

Step By Step

The holidays are thankfully behind us for another year,  we've made our way around GO and we're facing the first stretch of our new year hopefully with new energy around the possibilities that lay ahead.  I'm always surprised when the end of the year looms closer and it seems to automatically flip a switch in my head, and I find myself reflecting on what I've accomplished in the past year, and what I have yet to do.

This year I found myself fumbling about questioning the point of resolutions, goals and the like. I wondered, do the goals or the big hairy bad-ass (Sorry Jim Collins) visions really get us headed in the direction of our dreams, or are they fodder for fools, distractions for discontents, subterfuge for the silly and stupid?

There is some compelling research that suggests that if we want to achieve our goals, whatever they may be, we can't invest all our time writing down our nice fantasies, or meditating on positive outcomes. Writing down affirmations may make you feel good, but they're not likely to get you anywhere. Instead, you need to have a concrete plan, share the plan with others, make it time based, write down the individual steps, and reward yourself as you accomplish these mini-steps.

In one study, them women who were on a weight loss programs and who wrote down affirmations and visualized their "ideal weight" were much less successful in achieving their goal then women who took a more realistic view of the losing weight, had a specific plan and worked through it step by single step.

As a writer and performer, I've learned through trial and error, mostly error, that improvisation alone won't yield a great many results. Thinking off the top of the head is necessary, but wandering and making it up as I go won't really get me too far down the path. When things get tough, or I encounter a heckler, a problem, or a challenge, improvisation can make the difference between success and failure, but only if I have some sense of my core ideas, and where I'm headed.

We can embrace "Yes...and" thinking in brainstorming or ideation sessions, but in our quest to create new, beautiful forms with our ideas, we have to balance the improv with small, planned actions, single steps. In other words, use your imagination to create a story, think about where you want to go, then write down your script, map out your plan, and let the curtain rise!

In the past few years I've been writing about the coercive dependence upon scripts, processes and plans. I've been advocating for the imagination, for a greater sense of freedom and choice. But I've often overlooked the power of my own plan. The secret is to balance these things.  A script alone won't make a great performance, and energy and imagination by themselves don't take us anywhere fast. We need to combine our brain, the creative and the strategic, in order to create what we most want.

As I get started in this year, with a plateful of projects and plans,  I am using a simple model presented by Richard Wiseman (Quarkology).

In short...

What's your big goal? Have some fun...think about what you want to create, where you want to go.

Create a simple plan of small steps. What are your sub-goals? Why do you believe you can achieve these goals? What do you have to do to achieve this sub-goal? When? What is your reward if you get there?

Check out Richard Wisemans blog for more mojo on creating a great life. Good journeys my friends, may your challenges be well met.