Asking Better Questions

How can you ask better questions?   How can you ask more effectively?  If you improve the questions you ask, as well as who you ask and how you ask, you can produce more effective results.   In Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement, Anthony Robbins writes about asking intelligently and precisely to get the results you want.  

5 Guidelines for Asking Intelligently and Precisely
According to Robins, the five guidelines for asking better questions are:

1. Ask specifically.
2. Ask someone who can help you.
3. Create value for the person you're asking.
4. Ask with focused, congruent belief.
5. Ask until you get what you want.

1. Ask specifically.
Robbins writes that you have to be specific about what you want:

You must describe what you want, both to yourself and someone else.  How high, how far, how much?  When, where, how, with whom?  If your business needs a loan, you'll get it -- if you know how much to ask.  You won't get it if you say, "We need some more money to expand into a new product line.  Please lend us some."  You need to define precisely what you need, why you need it, and when you need it.  You need to be able to show what you'll be able to produce with it.  In our goal-setting seminars, people always say they want more money.  I hand them a couple of quarters.  They asked and they recieved, but they didn't ask intelligently, so they didn't get what they wanted.

2. Ask someone who can help you.
Robbins writes that you have to ask the right person:

It's not enough to ask specifically, you must ask specifically of someone who has the resources -- the knowledge, the capital, the sensitivity, or the business experience.  Let's say you're having trouble with your spouse.  Your relationships is falling apart.  You can pour out your heart.  You can be as specific and as honest as humanly possible.  But if you seek help from someone who has as pitiful a relationship as you do, will you succeed?  Of course not.

Finding the right person to ask brings us back to the importance of learning how to notice what works. Anything you want -- a better relationship, a better job, a smarter program for investing your money -- is something someone already has or something someone already does.  The trick is to find those people and figure out what they do right.  Many of us gravitate toward barroom wisdom.  We find a sympathetic ear and expect that to translate to results.  It won't unless the sympathy is matched by expertise and knowledge.

3. Create value for the person you're asking.
Robbins writes that you have to make it a win-win for the person you're asking:

Don't just ask and expect someone to give you something.  Figure out how you can help them first.  If you've had a business idea and need money to pull it off, one way to do it is to find someone who can both help and benefit.  Show them how your idea can make money for you and for them as well.  Creating value doesn't always have to be that tangible.  The value you create may only be a feeling or a sensibility or a dream, but often that's enough.  If you came up to me and said you needed $10,000, I'd probably say, "So do a lot of other people."  If you said you needed the money to make a difference in people's lives, I might begin to listen.  If you specifically showed me how you wanted to help others and create value for them and yourself, I might see how helping you could create value for me as well.

4. Ask with focused, congruent belief.
Robbins writes that you have to ask with conviction:

The surest way to ensure failure is to convey ambivalence.  If you aren't convinced about what you're asking for, how can anyone else be?  So when you ask, do it with absolute conviction.  Express that in your words and your physiology.  Be able to show that you're sure of what you want, you're sure you'll succeed, and you're sure you will create value, not just for you but for the person you're asking as well.

5. Ask until you get what you want.
Robbins writes that you have to keep asking until you get what you want:

That doesn't mean asking the same person.  It doesn't mean asking in precisely the same way.  Remember, the Ultimate Success Formula says you need to develop the sensory acuity to know what you're getting, and you have to have the personal flexibility to change.  So when you ask, you have to change and adjust until you achieve what you want.  When you study the lives of successful people, you'll find over and over again that they kept asking, kept trying, kept changing -- because they knew that sooner or later they would find someone who couldn't satisfy their needs.

"Ask Until" Is the Most Important Part
Robbins writes that asking until you get what you want is the most important part of asking intelligently:

Sometimes people do all four perfectly.  They ask specifically.  They ask someone who can help them.  They create value for the person they've asking.  They ask congruently.  And even after that, they don't get what they want.  The reason is they didn't do the fifth thing.  They didn't "ask until."   That's the fifth and most important part of asking intelligently.

Key Take Aways
Here's my key take aways:

• Be specific.
• Ask the right person.
• Find a win-win.
• Believe in what you're asking for.
• Keep asking until you get what you want.

I find that asking intelligently at work helps me be more effective.  For example, if I know what to ask for and I know who to ask and I show a win-win, this helps me get support for a project or idea.  I know that if at first I don't succeed, to try, try again.  I also change my approach, if it's not working.  It's about persistence and tuning along the way.

My Related Posts

• Precision Model for Language Pitfalls
• Choose "How" Questions Over "Why" Questions
• Outcome Questions
• PRIEST for Well-Formed Outcomes
• Step Into Your Future
• Cooperative Controversy Over Competitive Controversy
• Framing Compelling Arguments

Choose "How" Questions Over "Why" Questions

Why are you stuck?  That's not a very empowering question.  You'll just figure out reasons for why you're stuck.  Instead, ask a question like "how can you move forward?" or "how might you accomplish that?"  The key is to ask "how" questions over "why" questions.  In Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement, Tony Robbins writes about choosing "how" questions over "why" questions.

Choose "How" Questions Over "Why" Questions
Robbins writes that you should choose "how" questions over "why" questions:

Here's another important frame.  Choose "how" questions over "why" questions.  "Why" questions can get you reasons and explanations and justifications and excuses.  But they usually don't come up with useful information.  Don't ask your kid why he is having trouble with algebra.  Ask him what he needs to do to perform better.  There's no need to ask an employee why he didn't get a contract you were bidding for.  Ask him how he can change so you'll be certain to get the next one. 

Good Communicators Move Forward
Robbins writes that good communicators focus on moving forward over rationalizing why something's wrong:

Good communicators aren't interested in rationalizations of why something is going wrong.  They want to find out how to do it right.  The right questions will lead you in that direction.

Key Take Aways
Here's my key take aways:

• Choose "how" questions over "why" questions.
• Don't dwell on what's wrong, focus on what's right.
• Find a way to move forward.

My Related Posts

• Outcome Questions
• PRIEST for Well-Formed Outcomes
• Step Into Your Future
• Cooperative Controversy Over Competitive Controversy
• Framing Compelling Arguments

Outcome Questions

How can you ask better questions to improve your effectiveness?  By asking "outcome questions" you can change direction toward the outcome and away from the solution.  In Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement, Tony Robbins writes about asking better questions using "outcome frames" and "outcome questions."

Outcome Frame
Robbins writes about reframing questions towards the outcome:

There are other ways to direct communication by asking the right questions.  One is the "outcome frame."  If you ask someone what's bothering them or what's wrong, you'll get a long dissertation on just that.  If you ask, "What do you want?" or "How do you want to change things?" you've redirected your conversation from the problem to the solution. 

Outcome Questions
Robbins writes about changing from the problem to the outcome using "outcome questions":

In any situation, no matter how dismal, there's a desirable outcome to be achieved.  Your goal should be to change direction toward that outcome and away from the problem.  Do this by asking the right questions.  There are any number of them.  In NLP, they're referred to as "outcome questions."

Example Outcome Questions
Robbins provides examples of "outcome questions":

• "What do I want?"
• "What is the objective?"
• "What am I here for?"
• "What do I want for you?"
• "What do I want for me?"

Key Take Aways
Here's my key take aways:

• Ask "outcome questions."
• Use "outcome questions" to move forward and avoid getting stuck in analysis paralysis.
• No matter how bad the situation is, there's always a desired outcome.  Focus on that.
• Move away from the problem and towards the solution using "outcome frames" and "outcome questions."

I actually use this technique effectively at work, but I call them "solution-focused questions."  Basically, I focus on how to move forward and getting clarity on where we want to go.  This helps keep the team in a resourceful state rather than get bogged down in problems and excuses.

My Related Posts

• PRIEST for Well-Formed Outcomes
• Step Into Your Future
• Cooperative Controversy Over Competitive Controversy
• Framing Compelling Arguments

Reading is an Investment

Photo by cesarastudillo.

Do you get return on your reading investment? Do you turn insights into action? In Little Guide To Your Well-Read Life: How To Get More Books In Your Life And More Life From Your Books, Steve Leveen writes about reading as an investment.

Your Notebook is Not a Miser's Sock
Leveen writes:

"'The time you spend in reading is an investment,' Walter Pitkins advices us. 'You ought to get good returns on it. But, in order to do so, you must salt down the essence of books and articles in whatever form proves most usable.' And don't put your notes away. 'A notebook is not a miser's sock in which treasure is to be hidden,' he reminds us. 'It is a tool drawer, which ought to be opened daily.'"

Key Take Aways
Well, I know I use reading to give me an edge in all areas of my life. I also share what I learn with others to give them an edge in life. That's part of what this blog is all about.

My Related Posts

• Proven Techniques for Remembering
• Why You Should Write in Books
• The Truth About Speed Reading

Proven Techniques for Remembering

How can you retain more information? What are the most effective techniques for remembering information? After all, what's the point of learning if it's not there for you when you need it. In Little Guide To Your Well-Read Life: How To Get More Books In Your Life And More Life From Your Books, Steve Leveen writes about proven practices for remembering information.

SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review
Leveen writes:

"In the 1940's Francis Robinson, a professor of Ohio State University, came up with something of a breakthrough for learning college course material. It is an eminently practical method based on psychological research that he called SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. The idea is to survey each section of a textbook, starting out high and coming in lower for successive passes. Key to this method is transforming the textbook's subheadings into questions. 'Naturalistic Substage' becomes 'What Is Naturalistic Substage?' Then read to answer the questions, practice reciting the answers without looking at the text, and after short breaks, review what you've learned."

Prompting Questions
Leveen writes:

"At about the same time that Robinson was developing his method, a scholar named Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, who had studied and lectured at the Sorbonne, came up with his own, similar method for extracting the most from texts. In The Art of Study: The Sorbonne Method, Szekely recommends that you underline key passages on the page of the text, rite pithy summaries of these points in the right margin, and then write your own questions that these points answer in the left margin. Use the top margin for your own ideas and the bottom margin for things you don't understand. By covering up all but your prompting questions on the left, you can practice your recitation. Later, your notes at the bottom about the points that were unclear may become your most valuable notes of all. 'In this way ou become your own examining professor and your own judge,' says Szekely."

Cornell System: The Question-in-the-Margin Method
Leveen writes:

"Current college-level recommendations carry on the same basic idea: to learn most efficiently, you need to become your own instructor. Walter Pauk is the creator of the Cornell System for taking notes. With this method, students leave a wide left-hand margin for the questions they ask themselves after class or after reading, which their notes answer. Students then cover up the answers until they can recite them. In the seventh edition of his How to Study in College, Pauk still recommends his question-in-the-margin method for twenty-first-century students."

Frame Questions
Leveen writes:

"Whatever you wish to remember after finishing the book, it will help if you frame questions that will elicit these facts and ideas. Returning to Panama, for example, I asked myself: 'What was the startling, counterproductive practice hospitals were following for their malaria patients?' Answer: 'Putting bedposts in pans of water to keep ants away -- meanwhile breeding mosquitoes in hospital wards.' This is a proven way to seize the most from your reading."

Recite Soon After Learning
Leveen writes:

"After learning something, how best can we retain the information for the long term? The college study books pay lots of attention to this question, and one overriding lesson is to recite soon after learning something and then repeatedly, at lengthening intervals, as often as you need. Usually it takes surprisingly little time to do this, and you can retain an impressive amount of information for years to come."

Refresh Your Memory Quickly
Leveen writes:

"College texts still refer to the pioneering work in memory that Hermann Ebbinghaus did in the late nineteenth century. A German psychologist, Ebbinghaus discovered that most memory loss occurs very soon after learning something. The best way to counteract this natural loss is to refresh your memory quickly -- for example, later in the same day. Then refresh by recitation the next day, then perhaps a few days later, a week after that, and again at three weeks. These reviews, which may take only minutes, will yield surprisingly good results for your long-term retention. While this technique applies mainly to textbook and nonfiction learning, there's no reason you can't use it to remember the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird if you wish."

Key Take Aways
Here's my key take aways:

• Chunk it down. Our working memory can only hold so much at a time and it fatigues fairly quickly. Chunking down information makes it easier to absorb. When I blog, I chunk information down and this helps me absorb and retain more.
• Ask questions. Questions engage your mind. Similar to driving a bunch of miles and not even noticing, it's easy to read a bunch of information passively and walk away with nothing. If you ask questions, you'll notice the landmarks, insights, and "ah-has" along the way.
• Improve your questions. Thinking is just asking and answering questions. If you ask better questions, you'll get better answers. The answers will also stick better since you're using a question-driven approach and you're engaging your mind.
• Write it down. The act of writing it down also engages your mind. You need to think about what you're going to write, so when you write your notes, you're transforming the information with your mind engaged.
• Revisit the information. I make a habit of scanning my notes, asking questions and finding the answers. This helps remind me of important things, while the unimportant stuff just sloughs off.
• Turn insights into action. The most important thing you can do is turn what you learn into something you can use. Always ask yourself, "How can I use this?" You may be surprised by your own answers.

The Truth About Speed Reading

How important is speed reading in today's information overloaded world? What do the experts do to read faster and retain more? In Little Guide To Your Well-Read Life: How To Get More Books In Your Life And More Life From Your Books, Steve Leveen writes about the truth about speed reading.

Speed Reading Then and Now
Leveen writes:

"In the Space Age '60's, speed reading was seen as a scientific way to train people to cope with the ever-increasing amount of information. Yet today, in our Information Age, you don't hear much about speed reading. You can still find Evelyn Wood training sessions, but they have withered from six-week courses to one-day seminars. What happened?"

Speed Just Isn't That Important
Leveen writes:

"It turns out that speed just isn't that important. It is no magic cure for information overload. You can increase your speed, even dramatically, but pure speed is only part -- and not the biggest part -- of reading well."

Don't Let Your Eyes Limit You
Leveen writes:

"By the time Mortimer Adler revised How to Read a Book in 1972, he had to respond to what he termed the 'fad' of speed-reading courses. He agreed that they are useful in letting your reading speed be limited by your mind and not your eyes. By simply using your fingers together as a pointer and disciplining yourself to read in this fashion, he wrote you can read twice or three times as fast. Speed reading, says Adler, can improve elementary comprehension -- that is, what a book says. But speed reading can't help you understand what a book means. That says Adler, is controlled by your thinking speed, not your reading speed. Go ahead and take a course, he allowed; it won't hurt you. But it won't help you much either."

What The Experts Say
Leveen writes:

"Speed reading is no more likely to make you a good reader than the ability to run quickly will make you a good tennis player. None of the professional readers I've interviewed - editors, writers, publishers, booksellers, book reviewers -- believed that a speed-reading course made any difference for them. In fact, a surprising number said they consider themselves slow readers (although this is obviously a self-assessment). Only two people I've interviewed, both attorneys, reported that they profited by a speed-reading course. They use their skills today mainly for reviewing lengthy legal documents."

The Far Away Look
Leveen writes:

"When you think about it, aren't some of the most important moments in reading, whether for pleasure or for learning, when you stop and gaze off with that faraway look? At these moments, your reading speed slows to zero, but your understanding soars. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, 'The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts.'"

Key Take Aways
I read a lot of information every day, on the job and on my own time, whether it's books, blogs, email, sites or feeds. If there's a better way I'm always looking for it. Here's my key take aways:

• Don't let your eyes limit you. I didn't realize how limiting your eyes could be if you don't train them. A while back, I bought a product called EyeQ: Read and Process Faster in Just 7 Minutes (Package Edition, and I took it for a test drive. It's purpose is to improve your reading speed by improving your eye speed. I was already a fast reader, but by using EyeQ, I became very aware of where and how my eyes slowed me down. I was surprised by how quickly the training exercises improved my reading speed. I love the fact the program shows you measurable improvement in your reading speed. It feels more like a video-game than training.
• Focus on comprehension over speed. Assuming your eye speed isn't limiting you, the next gate is your mind. What's the point of racing through a bunch of material if you don't understand it?
• Use focus and priority over speed. Carve out what's important. There will always be more information than you can possibly read. If this approach is good enough for the experts, then maybe this is actually the proven practice for more effective reading.
• Be flexible in your pace. At work, I have to parse a lot of email to get down to the actual points that matter. I do that in books, blogs and sites too. I selectively slow down or speed up, based on purpose and scale. If I have a lot of email, but I'm time-boxing my results, I set a faster pace. If I'm researching a topic and I have to hack my way through the information jungle, I set a faster pace. If I'm reading for leisure, I soak it up all in good time, at whatever pace feels good.
  
• Slow down for the good stuff. Slow down for the "ah-has" and fully absorb the impact. Savor the good stuff.

Positive Thinking vs. Positive Action

While positive thinking is a good guideline, it's not a mantra to use while you're performing your task. When you're performing, the key is to stay focused on the task and take positive action. In Overachievement: The New Model for Exceptional Performance, John Eliot, Ph.D. writes about how great performers use positive action over positive thinking to produce great results.

Exceptional Thinkers Act
Eliot writes:

"Negative thinking is extremely powerful. If you believe a catastrophe is one step around the corner, then it will be hard to be genuinely committed or confident. 'Think positively' is generally good advice, but it also can be an obstacle to exceptional thinking. Positive thinking tends to be goal-oriented. It also tends to put performers in the Training Mindset, analyzing their stream of consciousness. Exceptional thinkers learn to trust their consciousness. They teach themselves the power of positive action. They don't stop to think about how great the act is going to be. Instead, they act."

The Best Result Possible for That Given Moment
Eliot writes:

"This is a big difference. A great surgeon is not carving away at your innards thinking to himself: 'I'm a great surgeon, I'm doing a great operation, yes I am.' Such self-talk would strike a surgeon as not just silly but potentially very dangerous. Surgeons do not even think, "First I do X, then I do Y, and what is it that comes after that? Right, I do Z.' Good surgeons go to work, cut by cut, stitch by stitch, trusting their training and experience. During surgery, they no more think about what they're doing -- positively or negatively -- than a good salesman in the middle of a deal thinks about the steps in the company sales manual or a great pianist on stage is thinking about what note comes next. Nor are they thinking about the perfect result; they are just doing what they're good at and enjoying it, and they know if that's all they do, the best result possible for that given moment will be there."

Confidence is in Gear
Eliot writes:

"They do not have to contemplate the importance of being confident because genuinely confident surgeons, salesmen, and musicians arrive with their confidence already in gear. They perform based on their philosophies, not a set of instructions. They no more have to remind themselves to be confident or committed than truly religious people have to jot down 'keep the faith' on their to-do list. Being faithful is just who they are."

Think Exceptionally
Eliot writes:

"A philosophy of performance is not a mantra that you repeat over and over to yourself as you perform. It's a guideline to help you keep thinking exceptionally regardless of the factors pushing you to revert to your old habits or socializing you to think like the masses."

Key Take Aways
I like the distinction between thinking about performing and actually performing. Here's my take aways:

• Don't second guess yourself. Great performers don't analyze their stream of conscious. Instead, their fully engaged in their performance.
• Don't allow negative thinking. Negative thinking holds you back.
• Trust your abilities. Don't doubt yourself. Great performers trust their abilities.
• Be in the moment. Great performers aren't stuck in the past, or distracted by the future.

I think the real key here is that great performers don't mix practice with performance. They lose themselves in the moment. They act with competence, commit with confidence, and fully embrace the task at hand.

Shouts, Hits and Awareness

How do Zen masters point students to awareness without using words? In Simple Zen: A Guide to Living Moment by Moment, C. Alexander Simpkins PH.D. and Annellen Simpkins PH.D. write how Zen masters point students to awareness through hits and shouts.

A Nonconceptual Experience
Alexander and Annellen write:

"Chinese Zen masters Ma-tsu and Lin-chi often resorted to shouting or hitting in response to students' questions. This created tension in the students since they never knew when they might receive a smack from the master. The purpose, however, was not to terrorize the students but to give them a direct, wordless, nonconceptual experience."

The Unborn Mind
Alexander and Annellen write:

"If you think about a time you were surprised by something - for example, a ball thrown at you unexpectedly - you probably extended your arms and caught it without thinking. Bankei referred to this as the Unborn Mind. This is the nonrational awareness that Zen helps us awaken. Frequently, students who were
struck by Lin-chi's stick discovered sudden enlightenment."

The Student and the Master
Alexander and Anellen write about a typical exchange between Lin-chi and a student"

"The Master said to a nun, 'Well come, or ill come?'
The nun gave a shout.
The Master picked up his stick and said, 'Speak then, speak!'
The nun shouted once more.
The Master struck her. (Watson 1993, 99) "

A Means to an End
Alexander and Annellen write:

"Like any teaching device, koans, shouting, and strikes with the stick are not the awareness itself. They are aids to engage students toward awakening. Words can point to the experience, like the finger pointing to the moon, but they cannot become the experience itself. When you meditate on koans, do not mistake the means for the end ... or the beginning. Employ them as a useful vehicle to help you get to the other shore. "

Key Take Aways
Well, that's different. I wonder if that's where the expression "knocking some sense into you" comes from. If nothing else, this got me to think. Here's some thoughts:

• Do the hits help more than they hurt? Does a Zen student consider the experience positive or negative? Is the stick seen associated with great awareness? Do students become fearful of asking questions? Obviously it will vary by individual, but I'm curious about the cultural view.
• Does it mean, look to the answer within? If the answer to the question is a hit or a shout, does that mean find the answer within or that the answer is already there and you just need to stop thinking and just experience it?
• Is the shock value meant to amplify the experience? I know that our greatest "ah ha" moments create a physiological response.
• Is the wordless approach meant to bypass our filters? Do our words get in the way? We all have filters concepts, beliefs and assumptions -- it's how we filter the world. What's your reaction in the moment, without these filters? Is this technique really for tapping into your "Unborn Mind." I try to tap into intuition at work by asking myself and others, "what's your gut say?" It's a practice I learned from my manager. It seems particularly effective at both helping tease out other perspectives and concerns, or finding motivation to find a way to make something happen.
• Is it a way to reach non-linear conclusions? Sometimes in the morning, I just wake up with answers. It's not linear. It's as if I stopped being blind and the answer was there all along.
• Is it a way to create referential experience? Just giving somebody an answer doesn't always stick. Socrates used questions. Does a Zen master's stick help encourage similar reflection?

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Choose-Tos Over Have-Tos

Do you find yourself saying, "I have to do this" or "I have to do that?" Well ... stop! You're draining yourself, and taking away your chance to enjoy what you do. Instead, tell yourself, "I'm choosing to do this." You may not actually like what you're doing, but you are choosing to do it, either to gain pleasure, or avoid pain. In The Power of Focus: What the Worlds Greatest Achievers Know about The Secret of Finiancial Freedom and Success,Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Les Hewitt write about how to turn your have-to's into choose-to's.

Stay Out of Have-To Land
Canfield, Hansen, and Hewitt write:

"When you constantly live your life in Have-To land, you put yourself in a position of pressure. This causes resistance and resentment and drains your life of energy.

When you live each day from a position of Choose-To, you are your are in a position of power. You feel in charge and in control of your life."

Master the Mundane
Canfield, Hansen, and Hewitt write:

"This takes a conscious effort to consistently think about your everyday decisions -- even simple tasks like washing the dishes.Say to yourself, 'I'm choosing to wash the dishes now, and I'll do the best job possible.' This is much better than,'Oh no, I have to do the dishes, what a drag.' If you really detest doing mundane tasks, choose now to create a lifestyle where you won't be required to do those things. Delegate them to someone else, or hire the work out. "

Consistent Choosing
Canfield, Hansen, and Hewitt write:

"It's also worth noting that the resistance caused by your Have-To jobs often leads to chronic procrastination, and you know how unproductive that can be.

Decide how to shift your focus. Make every activity a conscious choice. No more Have-To lists. Starting today, eliminate those words from your vocabulary.

Regain your power. Expand your energy and enjoy the freedom that consistent choosing adds to your life."

Key Take Aways
I like nuggets you can put into practice and get immediate results. This is one of them. You might have heard the saying, "The only thing you have to do is die and pay taxes." Whether or not you agree, the message is to embrace the freedoms you do have. Don't cage yourself with limiting language. Here's my take aways:

• Don't beat yourself up when you could lift yourself up. When you catch yourself saying, "I have to," remember you're the one in charge, and say, "I choose to."
• Create choose-to lists over have-to lists. Your To-Do list is really your choose-to-do list. Are you choosing the right things?
• Don't undermine your dicipline. If you're good at sticking to your routines and schedules, don't sell yourself short, by saying you do what you have-to. You're choosing to stick to your schedules and routines, so good job!
• Revisit your choose-tos. If they're not working for you, maybe you need to choose a new set.
• Turn tasks into opportunities. Even the most mundane task is an opportunity for improvement.
• Consider Personal Outsourcing. Maybe your mundane tasks are another person's opportunity?

My Related Posts

• Motivation without Coercion
• Process Over Product Orientation
• 13 Negative Motivation Patterns
• How To Overcome Resistance
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Personal Invention Quotas

Can setting a quota, help you accomplish more? It worked for Thomas Edison. In Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition), Michael Michalko writes about how Edison used quotas to improve his results.

Thomas Edison's Personal Invention Quotas
Michalko writes:

"Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He was a great believer in exercising his mind and the minds of his workers and felt that without a quota he probably wouldn't have achieved very much. His personal invention quote was a minor invention every ten days and a major invention every six months. To Edison, an idea quota was the difference between eating beefstake or a plateful of Black Beauty stew."

Key Take Aways
Quotas are a powerful tool for improvement. For example, if you want to change a particular behavior, count the number of times you perform that behavior each day.

Once you set a benchmark, you can tune it. If you first get in your quantity, you can then get in your quality. For example, I wanted to comment more in blogs. First, I decided I would comment in five blogs a day, while I ramp up. Next, once I found my rhythm, I decided to focus on efficiency. From there, I can either improve the quality of my comments, or increase my quota.

I haven't applied quotas to creating ideas. I already have a large backlog. Instead, I'm considering quotas to implement my ideas.

Seven Meta-Programs for Understanding People

In Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), meta-programs are the keys to the way you process information. They're basically how you form your internal representations and direct your behavior. In Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement, Tony Robbins writes about meta-programs that people use to sort and make sense of the world.

7 Meta-Programs

• Toward or Away
• External or Internal Frame of Reference
• Sorting By Self or Sorting by Others
• Matcher or Mismatcher
• Convincer Strategy
• Possibility vs. Necessity
• Independent, Cooperative and Proximity Working Styles

Toward or Away
Robbins writes:

"All human behavior revolves around the urge gain pleasure or avoid pain. You pull away from a lighted match in order to avoid the pain of burning your hand. You sit and watch a beautiful sunset because you get pleasure from the glorious celestial show as day glides into night."

External or Internal Frame of Reference
Robbins writes:

"Ask someone else how he know when he's done a good job. For some people, the proof comes from the outside. The boss pats you on the back and says your work was great. You get a raise. You win a big award. Your work is noticed and applauded by your peers. When you get that sort of external approval, you know
your work is good. That's an external frame of reference.

For others, the proof comes from inside. They 'just know inside' when thy'eve done well."

Sorting By Self or Sorting by Others
Robbins writes:

"Some people look at human interactions primarily in terms of what's in it for them personally, some in terms of what they can do for themselves or others. Of course, people don't always fall into one extreme or the other. If you sort only by self, you become a self-absorbed egotist. If you sort only by others, you become a martyr."

Matcher or Mismatcher
Robbins writes:

"This meta-program determines how you sort information to learn, understand,
and the like. Some people respond to the world by finding sameness. They look at
things and see what they have in common. They're matchers.

Other people are mismatchers -- diference people. There are two kinds of them. One type looks at the world and sees how things are different ... The other kind of mismatcher sees differences with exceptions. He's like a matcher who finds sameness with exceptions in reverse - he sees the differences first, and then he'll add the things they have in common."

Convincer Strategy
This meta-program invovles what it takes to convince someone of something. Robbins writes:

"The convincer strategy has two parts. To figure out what consistently convinces someone, you must first find out what sensory building blocks he needs to become convinced, and then you must discover how often he has to receive these stimuli before becoming convinced.

To discover someone's convincer meta-program, ask, 'How do you know when
someone else is good at a job? Do you have to a) see them or watch them do it, b) hear about how good they are, c) do it with them, or d) read about their ability?' The answer may be a combination of these. You may believe someone's good when you see him do a good job and when other people tell you he's good.

The next question is, 'How often does someone have to demonstrate he's good before you're convinced?' There are four possible answers: a) immediately (for example, if they demonstrate that they're good at something once, you believe them), b) a number of times (two or more), c) over a period of time (say, a few weeks or a month or a year), and d) consistently. In the last case, a person has to demonstrate that he's good each and every time. "

Possibility vs. Necessity
Robbins writes:

"Ask someone why he went to work for his present company or why he gought
his current car or house. Some people are motivated priimarily by necessity, rather than by what they want. They do something because they must. They're not pulled to take action by what is possible. They're not looking for infinite
varieties of expeirence. They go through life taking what comes and what is
available. When they need a new job or a new house or a new car or even a new
spouse, they go out and accept what is available.

Others are motivated to look for possibilities. They're motivated less by what they have to do than by what they want to do. They seek options, experiences, choices, paths. "

Independent, Cooperative and Proximity Working Styles
Robbins writes:

"Everyone has his own strategy for work. Some people are not happy unless they're independent. They have great difficulty working closely with other people and can't work well under a great deal of supervision. They have to run their own show. Others function best as a part of a group. We call their strategy a cooperative one. They want to share responsbility for any task they take on. Still others have a proximity strategy, which is somewhere in between. They prefer to workwith other people while maintaining a sole responsibility for a task. They're in charge but not alone."

Additional Considerations
Robbins provides the following suggestions:

• All metaprograms are context-and stress-related
• There's two ways to change meta-programs. One is from a significant emotional event.
• The other way you can change is by consciously deciding to do so.
• Use meta-programs on two levels. The first is a tool to calibrate and guide your communication with others. The second is a tool for personal change.
• Constantly gauge and calibrate the people around you. Take note of specific patternsthey have for perceiving their world and begin to analyze if others have similar patterns.
• Through this approach you can develop a whole set of distinctions about people that can empower you in knowing how to communicate effectively with all types of people.
• Become a student of possiblity. Meta-programs give you the tools to make crucial distinctions in deciding how to deal with people. You are not limited to the meta-programs discussed here.

Key Take Aways
I think knowing how people work, helps bridge gaps. Here's my key take aways:

• Use meta-programs to understand yourself and others. Meta-programs helps you understand how people sort and make sense of the world. They also help you understand your own values, beliefs and behaviors.
• Remember that people use a blend of meta-programs. It's not this or that, it's a spectrum of possibilities. It's a tool for understanding how or why people behave and adapting your own behaviors to improve communication. They aren't a tool for stereo-typing or pidgeon-holing.
• Change your own limiting meta-programs. If you have a way of processing the world that's limiting your success, find a way to consciously adapt. Identifying your own meta-programs you use is a start. Once you have awareness, you can see how this shows up.

My Related Posts

• Meta-Programs and Instrincis Values in NLP
• Satir Categories
• Generalization, Deletion, and Distortion
• The Lens of Human Understanding
• Five Thinking Styles
• Six Styles Under Stress
• The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and The Technician
• The Fat Guy and The Skinny Guy
• 10 Distored Thinking Patterns
• 13 Negative Motivation Patterns
• Six Thinking Hats
• Expert Know-It-Alls
• Power-Clutchers, Paranoids and Perfectionists
• Stallers, Wafflers, and Super Delegators
• Ogres and Fire-Eaters
• Master My Stories

Eliciting a Strategy

You have programs for everything you do. Your progams consist of sequences of thoughts and behaviors triggered by a stimulus. In NLP terms, this is called a strategy for achieving an outcome. Really, this is an internal processing strategy. If you know about the components of an internal processing strategy, you can change it, copy an effective strategy from somebody else, or create a new one from scratch. In Brilliant Nlp: What the Most Successful People Know, Say & Do, David Molden and Pat Hutchinson provide a technique for elciting a strategy.

Why Strategies Matter
Molden and Hutchinson write:

"A common reason why some people are not good spellers is the stategy they use. Poor spellers often try to pronounce words with their internal dialogue. Anyone can be a good speller - you only have to learn an effective strategy using visuals of words and not just what they sound like.

Ineffective strategies prevent people from achieving so many things. How well do you manage your finances? What about the presentations you have given? How well do you communicate with people at work? Are you a good cook? How about the way you make decisions? Can you maintain positive and fruitful relationships?"

Steps to Elicit a Strategy
When you elicit a strategy, you discover a sequence of thoughts and behavior, as well as values, beliefs and meta-programs. Molden and Hutchinson outline steps for eliciting a strategy:

• Step 1. Choose something to change
• Step 2. Find the Trigger
• Step 3. Check the Strategy

Step 1. Choose Something to Change
Molden and Hutchinson write:

"Choose something you do that you would rather not do, or something you would like to improve upon - for example, motivating yourself, stopping procrastinating, improving your decision making, giving up smoking."

Step 2. Find the Trigger
Molden and Hutchinson provide a set of questions to find the trigger:

• How do you know when to do this?
• What lets you know you are ready to do this?
• What do you do as you are preparing to ....?
• What steps do you go through?
• What happens next?
• Then what happens?
• How do you know when you have succeeded?
• How do you test whether you have succeeded?
• What lets you know if you have not yet succeeded?

Step 3. Check the Strategy
Molden and Hutchinson write:

"When you have elicited the complete strategy repeat it back to check for anything missing. If you want to change it, the place to do this is at the trigger point, . The object is not to remove the original strategy but to create an alternative choice, as the strategy may be useful in other contexts."

Examples of Strategies
Molden and Hutchinson provide two different examples of strategies for a decision to buy:

Dennis's strategy for deciding to buy:

• Visualize myself using it (internal visual)
• Do I really need it? (internal dialogue)
• If yes, research the model/type/make/price (internal visual)
• Who shall I ask for an opinion (internal dialogue based on external reference meta-program)
• Ask Jack and Bob (external auditory)
• Yes, that feels right (kinaesthetic)
• Where shall I buy from? (internal dialogue)
• Consider internet/shop/mail order (internal visual)
• Yes, that feels right (kinaesthetic)
• Buy!

Beverly's strategy to buy:

• That would look great on me (external visual)
• Try it on (external kinaesthetic)
• Looks good, feels good (external visual and external kinaesthetic)
• Buy!

Key Take Aways
I think strategies is one of the most important concepts in NLP. I've used strategy elicitation to change some bad habits, build critical thinking skills, model success, and bake in some routines for effectiveness. Here's my key take aways:

• Improve a strategy, copy a strategy, or create a new one. Strategies are your recipes for success. Use stragey elicitation to figure out somebody else's success.
• Identify the details of thoughts, feelings and actions. Don't just going through the motions. It's more than the mechanical act of performing a task. Success depends on precision. Normally, you just notice behavior. If you don't know the sequence of thoughts and the details such as the internal dialogue or visuals, you limit your success. This applies whether you're improving a strategy, copying a strategy or creating a new one.
• Identify your strategies that work and don't. Knowing is half the battle. Your best habits are your best recipes. Capture them for future use. Identify the habits you need to change.
• Use strategies to change habits. When you fully understand the pattern of your bad habits, it's easier to change them. Since they are habits, it's likely you're on auto-pilot and you're not conscious of all the subtle sequences of thoughts, feelings, and actions that support your habit. When you make the pattern explicit, you can change the recipe more effectively.
• Create new strategies for success. Do you have a new skill you want to learn? Is there an area of your life where you might have potential, but you need some strategies? It's a perfect place to practice strategy elicitation.
• Model the best. Find mentors for something you want to be great at. Practice eliciting their strategies.
• Focus where you get the most return. You can tweak and tune all your habits or you can focus on the vital few. I recommend to focus on the few habits that hold you back and on the few habits that will take your game to the next level. You likely have a few unique skills that separate you from the pack. Rather than try to make all your good skills great, make a few of your great skills outstanding.

My Related Posts

• Beliefs on Which NLP is Based
• Generalization, Deletion, and Distortion
• Meta-Programs and Instrincis Values in NLP
• 5 thinking styles
• How Experts Make Decisions

Step Into Your Future

What if you could step into your future, experience your success, and look back on how you got there? What if you could do a dry run or walkthrough of your future accomplishments and actually feel your results? In Brilliant Nlp: What the Most Successful People Know, Say & Do, David Molden and Pat Hutchinson write about a simple but effective technique from their Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) experience, that you can use to visualize your success.

Visualize Your Success
You can use this technique to set a realistic timescale for your goals and to see how well-formed your outcomes are. Molden and Hutchinson write the following:

"Find a quiet space where you can visualize the journey of achievement. Mark a space on the floor to represent 'now.' From this space walk to a point on the floor a particular distance away to represent the time you think it will take to achieve your outcomes. Stand on this point and look back to 'now.' Spend some time feeling what it's like to have achieved all your outcomes.

Next, walk a little further into the future and turn around. Look back to 'now' again and visualize what you did to achieve your outcomes. Make sure your internal language is in the past tense. Once your mind has grasped the idea that you have already succeeded, visualizing what you did as opposed to what you have to do is a much more creative, insightful and far less stressful process. It's very powerful, and great fun too."

Key Take Aways
Here's my key take aways:

• Do a dry run of your future. Mental simulation is a great way to do rapid pattern matching. Stepping through your future and asking your mind how you got there, puts your mind into a resourceful state. It goes into problem solving mode. You might be surprised at the results.
• Incrementally render your future. You can frame out your future and gradually add detail. Framing out your future will help you figure out the big rocks before getting stuck in details. You can add detail over time.
• Iterate on your future. Doing multiple dry runs might be better than getting stuck on trying to figure out too much. The more you do it, the easier it will get and the more you'll think of.
• Pay attention to surprises. Maybe the grass isn't greener on the other side of the hill. Maybe it doesn't feel like you thought it would, and you really want something else. Maybe you find you're missing key skills or abilities. Use the experience for reflection and consider whether you really want another path.

My Related Posts

• PRIEST for Well-Formed Outcomes
• How To Figure Out What You Really Want
• How To Visualize Success
• Fear of Becoming Who You Truly Are
• How To Paint a Future Picture

Storyboarding the Disney Way

Storyboarding is a brainstorming technique where you stick pictures on a wall to frame out stories. In the book, Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition), Michael Michalko writes about how Walt Disney originally came up with the idea of storyboarding to see at a glance how far along a project was.

What Is Storyboarding
Michalko writes:

"Storyboarding can be likened to taking your thoughts and the thoughts of others and making them visible by spreading them on a wall as you work on your problems."

The Story of Storyboarding
Michalko writes:

"Walt Disney came up with the idea of having his artists pin their drawings on the walls of the studio in sequence so he could see at a glance how far along the project was. Each scene was then used as a point around which a complete story could be told. The story was told on a wall covered with a special kind of board, hence the term 'storyboard.'"

How To Storyboard
Michalko outlines the following guidelines:

1. Topic. Tape or pin the topic card on the wall. In our example, the topic is to "create a new restaurant."
2. Purpose. Each brainstormed purpose is written on a card and posted beneath the "purpose" card.
3. Headers. Identify and list headers, which are primarily the major issues, attributes, or solution categories of the process.
4. Miscellaneous. It's a good idea to include a miscellaneous header to contain all those items that don't fit within the other categories.
5. Brainstorming. Group members use each category as a stimulus for problem solutions and write these ideas, solutions, and thoughts on cards.
6. Hitchihiking. During a storyboard session, consider all ideas relevant, no matter how impractical they appear.
7. Flexibility. Keep the storyboard flexible and dynamic.
8. Incubating. The process continues until the group generates a sufficient number of ideas or time is called.

Key Take Aways
I use storyboarding as a software development technique for framing out user experiences. I've used the technique effectively over the years, but didn't know it was originated by Disney. I think the key to the storyboards is that they help you get the big picture before spiraling down on the details. At the same time, they're a useful backdrop to elaborate on a given area as needed. The real beauty is that everybody can talk in pictures, so it can help get over communication barriers - what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG.)

Additional Resources

• Wikipedia - Storyboard
• Agile Modeling - User Interface Flow Diagrams (Storyboards)

Meta-Programs and Intrinsic Values in NLP

Would you like to improve how you communicate to yourself and others? Intrinsic values show themselves as patterns in what you say, how you say it, and what you do. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) calls these intrinsic values, meta-programs. You can think of each meta-progam as a range of behavior and tendencies based on what you value. The real key is to pay attention to know where your intrinsic values are holding you back, and to use the meta-progams to help you improve your effectiveness with others. In Brilliant Nlp: What the Most Successful People Know, Say & Do, David Molden and Pat Hutchinson write about some of the most common NLP meta-programs.

Meta-Programs
Molden and Hutchinson write about the following NLP intrinsic values:

• Towards and Away From
• Options and Procedures
• In-Time and Thru-Time
• Internal Frame of Reference and External Frame of Reference
• Self and Others
• Detail and Global
• Feeling and Thinking
• Sameness and Difference

Towards and Away From
If you have a Towards Program, you tend to move towards pleasure. You set goals easily and frequently create new goals for yourself. If you have an Away Program, you focus on moving away from pain and avoiding risk. You make sure everything is safe before moving forward.

Towards Program

• Advantages - forward-thinking, goal-oriented, positive energy and drive.
• Disadvantages - may get entangled by too many new intitiatives at once; may be perceived as 'gung-ho'; has a tendency to leave things unfinished.

Away From Program

• Advantages - very good at assessing risks and recognizing what to avoid.
• Disadvantages - overly cautious with a tendency to focus on the downside; may appear negative and unwilling to try new experiences; makes choices based on avoidance rather than a desire for something new.

Options and Procedures
If you have an Options Program, you like to have choices in your life. If you have a Procedures Program, you like to have rituals and routines to follow in order to be effective.

Options Program

• Advantages - explores many options and provides people with choices; happy to test and break rules.
• Disadvantages - may procrastinate and avoid making decisions until forced to do so by circumstances; very good at rinventing the wheel.

Procedures Program

• Advantages - very efficient; good with rule-based administration; will stick to agreed notes.
• Disadvantages - the procedure may become more important than the job to be done; at worst bureaucratic and blocking.

In-Time and Thru-Time
If you have an In-Time Program, you live "in the moment", not worrying about what comes next. You are fully engaged in the present and you value each moment. If you have a Thru-Time Program, you spend your time planning and making sure you are not late for meetings. Your preoccuptation with planning your next moment or analyzing the last may prevent you from concentrating on the matter in hand.

In-Time Program

• Advantages - can concentrate on tasks; emotionally and mentally enaged in each activity and every experience.
• Disadvantages - frequently late and can give the impression of not being concerned about timekeeping; may get involved in too many things through attachment.

Thru-Time Program

• Advantages - good planner and timekeeper.
• Disadvantages - may give the impression of not being engaged in the current activity; being on time, and scheduling activities, can become more important than the activities themselves.

Internal Frame of Reference and External Frame of Reference
If you have an Internal Frame of Reference Program, you insintively know when you have done a good job and you will want to solve all your own problems. You will want to solve all your own problems. You rearely ask for advice from other people. You make decisions on your own judgements, feelings and opinions. If you have an External Frame of Reference Program, you measure yourself against the feedback from other people. When faced with a challenge, you will seek facts, evidence, advice and opinions from other people and sources.

Internal Frame of Reference Program

• Advantages - can stay motivated when there is little feedback or praise.
• Disadvantages - internal standards may override, and sometimes cancel out, external evidence; will disregard evidence, facts, and sound advice from other people.

External Frame of Reference Program

• Advantages - will make decisions based on concrete facts and evidence, or maybe just the 'feel good' factor so long as it comes from an external source; able to give excellent customer service and help to others.
• Disadvantages - will get stressed when there is a lack of external feedback. Needs frequent feedback on performance to make good progress; will be indecisive if there is a lack of feedback.

Self and Others
If you have a Self Program, you speak in terms of "I" and "What's in it for me?" You believe that people are capable of looking after themselves. You help yourself to coffee, push in front of traffic queues, take the last chocolate and put yourself first when making decisions. If you have an Others Program, you spend a lot of time making sure everyone is comfortable and happy and may neglect your own needs and wants.

Self Program

• Advantages - looks after self and is very self-sufficient; avoid getting tangled up in other people's problems.
• Disadvantages - does not engender good team spirit and somtimes may be perceived as arrogant and uncaring.

Others Program

• Advantages - good team player looking out for the needs of others; does well in caring professions.
• Disadvantages - personal well-being can suffer through putting other people first; can be perceived as unpredictable because many decisions are based on what others think and how they might react; considers the welfare of the team to be more important than getting the job done.

Detail and Global
If you have a Detail Program, you will be concerned about the specifics of a situation. Your conversations are likely to be long and drawn out to cover all the details. While focusing on the details you sometimes forget the overall purpose. If you have a Global Program, you look at situations from the bigger picture and speak in general terms avoiding detail. You move conversations onto different topics in preference to discussing details.

Detail Program:

• Advantages - very comfortable working with details and excellent at spotting small mistakes; copes very well with large documents and small print.
• Disadvantages - can get bogged down in detail and work away happily, even though the purpose may have changed; may be perceived as pendantic or fasitious.

Global Program:

• Advantages - make a good strategist or concept creator; can generate big ideas.
• Disadvantages - may appear to have the head in the clouds; may feel uncomfortable holding a detailed conversation; frustration with details may result in too many ideas and little execution.

Feeling and Thinking
If you have a Feeling Program, you react emotionally to a variety of situations. If you have a Thinking Program, you take a pragmatic approach and logical approach to situations while remaining emotionally detached.

Feeling Program

• Advantages - takes people's feelings into account in making decisions.
• Disadvantages - can appear emotive; others may be wary of evoking an emotional response.

Thinking Program

• Advantages - decisions are made based on logic, fact and evaluation.
• Disadvantages - can appear to be cold and unfeeling; may not consider the feelings of others before speaking and acting.

Sameness and Difference
If you have a Sameness Program, you will generate understanding by looking for similarities with previous experience. Repitition doesn't bore you, it instils comfort and familiarity.

Sameness Program:

• Advantages - can be relied on to complete repetitive activities successfully.
• Disadvantages - may be perceived as unadventurous by others; may not be willing to try new things even if they could be beneficial.

Difference Program

• Advantages - happy to try out new ideas and concepts; gains many different life experiences.
• Disadvantages - sometimes creates change for the sake of creating change; doesn't understand the concept of "if it works don't fix it"; lack of stability.

Key Take Aways
Here's my key take aways:

• Know the types of intrinsic values.
• Know your own intrinsic values.
• Know the intrinsic values of those you interact with.

My Related Posts

• The Lens of Human Understanding
• Six Thinking Hats
• Five Thinking Styles
• The Entreprenuer, The Manager, and The Technician
• The Fat Guy and the Skinny Guy

Five Thinking Styles

You improve your communication with others when you can match their thinking style. You can also avoid rubbing your boss the wrong way by paying close attention to how they approach the tasks of the day. In Coping with Difficult Bosses, Robert Brahmson identifies five thinking styles to categorize our modes of thinking and problem solving we use most frequently.

Five Thinking Styles
The five thinking styles are:

• Synthesists
• Idealists
• Pragmatist Thinkers
• Analyst Thinkers
• Realist Thinkers

Synthesists
Bramson writes:

"Synthesists are creative thinkers who perceive the world in terms of opposites. When you say black, they think white, when you say long, they think short. They are curious (in both sense of the word) people who are interested in anything that doesn't fit a mold. Their conversations are often sprinkled with speculations, "what ifs," and off-the-wall comments that seem little related to the conversations that proceeded them. As they sort through this mishmash of ideas, they often see essential connections that elude more straight-line thinkers, and can thereby produce genuinely new perspectives."

Connecting with Synthesists
Bramson writes:

"To connect well with Synthesists, listen appreciatively to their speculations, and don't confuse their arguing nature with resistance - after all, if you thought in contraditioncs, you would sound argumentative, too. If you listen to them long enough and are willing to sit through their theorizing, they will often sell themselves on your ideas. Since Synthesist thinkers often see themselves as very clever and creative, it can't helpto remind them that you see them that way, too."

Idealists
Bramson writes:

"Idealists believe in lofty goals and high standards. They ask: Who is benefiting from what we're doing? What are our long-range goals? As managers, they espouse quality, service to others, team work, and cooperation."

Connecting with Idealists
Bramson writes:

"Therefore, the most your can associate what you want to do with these goals of quality, service, and commmunity good, the more likely you are to get your Idealist boss's attention. It's equally important not to seem dishonest, or untruthful. Not that you can't fool Idealist thinkers -- actually they are quite gullable because they deeply believe in the importance of truth. However, once they catch you being devious, they will withdraw their support, often without telling you, and you will find yourself with surface agreement but no action from them.

Idealist-thinking managers strive for agreement, and they feel disappointed and buffaloed when their team can't, won't, or doesn't agree. If you seem unwilling to compromise with other's perspectives, they may be reluctant to grant you full authority."

Pragmatist Thinkers
Bramson writes:

"Pragmatic thinkers are flexible, resourceful folk who look for immediate payoff rather than for a grand plan that will change the world. Pragmatists are not much interested in why things happen, nor in their eventual impact. Thus they tend to tackle problems one step at a time. They are interested in practical, short-term results, and a plan of action that will get things started in the right direction without too mcuh hassle. Pragmatists have a knack for seeing things as they are, especially what others really want, as opposed to what they ought to want, an Idealist preoccupation. Therefore, they are often experts at fitting in and surviving when others fall."

Connecting with Pragmatists
Bramson writes:

"To communicate effectively with Pragmatist-thinking bosses, emphasize short-term objectives on which you can get started with resources at hand. Make sure that they know that you are not ignoring the political aspects of the situation. Don't overwhelm them with a plethora of data or an emphasis on a wonderful overall plan -- they'll just get over-loaded or bored."

Analyst Thinkers
Bramson writes:

"Analyst thinkers equate accuracy, thoroughness, and attention to detail with competence. They like to gather data, measure it, categorize it, and rationally and methodically calculate the right answer to any problem you come up with."

Connecting with Analysts
Bramson writes:

"To get the approval of Analyst-thinking bosses you must provide a logical plan repleate with back-up data and specifications. Above all, you must never submit anything that contains typographical errors, mispelled words, or numbers that do not add up properly. It's not that they'll get angry if you do. It's that they'll dismiss you as anyone competent to be put in charge of anything important."

Realist Thinkers
Bramson writes:

"Realist thinkers are fast-moving doers who know that reality is what their senses - sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch - tell them it is, not that dry stuff that one finds in accounting ledgers, or the insipid pages of manual of operations. At managers, Realists are seldom interested until something goes wrong. Then they move in on the action, get whatever the problem is and what should be done about it. Thankfully, as soon as whatever was broken is once again clinking along, they lose interest in it."

Connecting with Realists
Bramson writes:

"If you communicate with Realist bosses as if they were Analysts, you will never get their attention. Rather than gobs of computer-printouts and other detailed information, Realists want a three-paragraph "Executive Summary" which tells briefly what is wrong and how you propose to fix it. For rather complicated reasons, they will often take you at your word if they see you as a qualified expert. You become an expert in their eyes when they know that you've assembled a store of facts in which they are interested, and you have proposed a set of actions that they already believe are the best things to do."

How To Use the Five Thinking Styles
Take the time to place your boss or who you need to interact with into one or two of the five thinking-style categories. Keep in mind that while one or two styles predominates for most people, about fifteen percent use all five styles equally. Those who do, are seldom dificult bosses. Once you've identified their preferred categories, figure out how you can change your approach to better suit their style.

Key Take Aways
Here's my key take aways:

• Seek first to understand, then to be understood. The more you understand somebody, the better you can adapt your style. I think the five thinking styles are a helpful framework in addition to understanding somebody's learning style ( auditory, visual, or kinesthtic), their NLP meta-programs, their motivation (towards pleasure or away from pain), their values, their "rules", their extraversion and introversion tendencies, their passive or aggressive tendencies, whether they are more "task-centered" or "people-centered", ther decision making style (consult-and-decide or build concensus), and their management styles (Autocratic, Paternalistic, Democratic, and Laissez-faire.)
• Establish rapport. I think the heart of identifying the five thinking-styles revolves around establishing rapport. Rapport is the key to communication, influence, and trust.
• Know the anti-patterns. It's probably more important to know how to avoid rubbing somebody the wrong way, than getting the preferred or ideal communication style exactly right.
• Wear different hats. I think you can use the Six-Thinking Hats concept to switch your hat based on who you are working with. Each hat you put on or take off can represent a different thinking style.

My Related Posts

• Five Conversations to Have with Your Boss
• Coping with Bulldozing Expert Know-It-Alls
• Coping with Coping with Power-Clutchers, Paranoids and Perfectionists
• Coping with Super-Delegators
• Coping with Wafflers
• Coping with Stallers
• Coping with Fire Eaters
• Coping with Ogres
• Understanding From the Inside
• When Good Bosses Turn Bad
• How To Repair a Broken Work Relationship
  

Emulate the Great

How can you learn whatever you want from any of your favorite heroes? By modeling what they think, feel, and do. In Think and Grow Rich, Napolean Hill writes:

"Experience has taught me that the next best thing to being truly great is to emulate the great, by feeling and action, as nearly as possible."

Imaginary Council of Heroes
Hill writes about using an "imaginary council" to shape his character:

"I followed the habit of reshaping my own character by, by trying to intimidate the nine men whose lives and life-works had been most impressive to me. These nine men were Emerson, Paine, Edison, Darwin, Lincoln, Burbank, Napolean, Ford and Carnegie. Every night over a long period of years, I held an imaginary council meeting with this group whom I called my "Invisible Counselors."

The procedure was this. Just before going to sleep at night, I would shut my eyes, and see my imagination, this group of men seated with me around my council table. Here I had not only an opportunity to sit among those whom I considered to be great, but I actually dominated the group, by serving as the chairman.

I had a very definite purpose in indulging in my imagination through these nightly meetings. My purpose was to rebuild my own character to it would represent a composite of the characters of my imaginary counselors."

Example Dialogue
Hill includes an example of his dialogue with his imaginary council:

• "Mr. Emerson, I desire to acquire from you the marvelous understanding of nature which distinguished your life. I ask that you make an impress upon my subconscious mind of whatever qualities you possessed, which enabled you to understand and adapt yourself to the laws of nature."
• "Mr. Burbank, I request that you pass on to me the knowledge which enabled you to harmonize the laws of nature, that you caused the cactus to shed its thorns and become an edible food. Give me access to the knowledge which enabled you to make two blades of grass grow where but one grew before. "
• "Napolean, I desire to acquire from you, by emulation, the marvelous ability you possessed to inspire men, and to arouse them to greater and more determined spirit of action. Also to acquire the spirit of enduring faith, which
  enabled you to turn defeat into victory, and to surmount staggering obstacles."
• "Mr. Paine, I desire to acquire from you the freedom of thought and the courage and clarity with which to express convictions which so distinguished you! "
• "Mr. Darwin, I wish to acquire from you the marvelous patience, and ability to study cause and effect, without bias or prejudice, so exemplified by you in the field of natural science."
• "Mr. Lincoln, I desire to build into my own character the keen sense of justice, the untiring spirit of patience, the sense of humor, the human
  understanding, and the tolerance which were your distinguishing characteristics."
• "Mr. Carnegie, I wish to acquire a thorough understanding of the principles of organized effort, which you used so effectively in the building of a great industrial enterprise."
• "Mr. Ford, I wish to acquire your spirit of persistence, the determination, the poise, and self-confidence which have enabled you to master poverty, and to organize, unify and simplify human effort, so I may help others to follow in your footsteps."
• "Mr. Edison, I wish to acquire from you the marvelous spirit of faith, with which you have uncovered so many of nature's secrets, the spirit of unremiting toil with which you have so often wrested victory from defeat."

My Take Aways
There's a few things I like about this example:

1. I like the idea of turning your favorite heroes into a personal sounding board.
2. It doesn't matter whether you model from someone alive or from the past. It's an imaginary council.
3. I think the process of visualizing helps you clarify what you really want.
4. I think the act of visualizing from multiple perspectives helps you reflect on where you really are with regard to where you really want to be. It's a good way of exposing opportunities for improvement.
5. I know from experience that modeling the success of others is an effective way to speed up learning cycles.
6. I particularly like the fact that Hill called out that it's more than just modeling action, it's modeling the feeling. If you just go through the motions, it's not the same as being in the same state of mind or feeling your way through.

My Related Posts

• Idea Techniques (Group C) (see "Hall of Fame" and "Board of Directors" from )
• Idea Techniques (Intuitive) (See "The Shadow")

How To Visualize Success

Which works better, the carrot or the stick? In Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Revised and Updated, David Burns writes that clubbing yourself doesn't work as well as a fat, fresh carrot:

"Suppose for example, you want to quit smoking. You may be reminding
yourself about cancer and all the dangers of smoking. These fear tactics make you so nervous that you immediately reach for another cigarette; they don't work. "

Burns shares a three step method for visualizing success that actually does work.

Summary of Steps
To visualize success effectively, take the following actions:

• Step 1. List the advantages of taking the positive action.
• Step 2. Fantasize you are in your favorite spot.
• Step 3. Go through your list of benefits.

Step 1. List the advantages of taking the positive action.
Prepare a list of all the positive consequences that you would enjoy if you take the action. Write down as many as you can and prioritize them. List the most important first.

Step 2. Fantasize you are in your favorite spot.
Each night, before sleep, fantasize that you're in your favorite spot. This could be walking on a mountain trail, lying on a beach ... etc. Focus on every enjoyable detail and let your body go.

Step 3. Go through your list of benefits.
Once your body is relaxed, go through your list of benefits one by one. State each benefit as if you already have it. For example, you might say, "Now that I have greater self-discipline, I can take on other challenges."

I like the fact that Burns is shares a technique he's successfully used on himself and with many of his patients. I know that mental conditioning is a common practice among athletes and peak performers. I'm also a believer that if you can see something in your mind's eye, you have a better chance of achieving it. If you can't visualize success, then chances are you won't achieve it (a self-fulfilling prophecy.)