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by Rick Baker
On Sep 7, 2010
Snakes and Ladders.
That’s the name of a board game many of us were introduced to when we were children.
It is a game that demands no skill.
The outcome of the game is caused only by the kind or cruel roll of dice.
With Snakes & Ladders everything rests on chance.
When the dice deliver luck we players of the game quickly leap up ladders and experience the joy of getting closer to our goal. When the dice bring no luck we players slide down the snakes and face the annoyance of starting over to recover the ground lost.
Even young children lose interest in this pure-luck game soon enough.
In real life ladders are meant to be climbed…not leaped. In real life there's no toss of the dice to take you up ladders in leaps and bounds. Similarly, there's no toss of the dice to take you down the slippery-slopes.
Regardless of how we define success and failure, they don't happen as consequences of pure luck*.
We learn this early.
So, most children soon tire of the Snakes and Ladders game and very few adults play it.
Most people lose interest when they face only chance...most people lose interest when they face no challenge beyond that contained in chance.
Put another way, most people feel a need to have influence on outcomes.
When I hear people complain about their children exhibiting an attitude of entitlement I wonder what they use as the measuring stick. And I think about that Snakes & Ladders game.
Footnotes
- Snakes & Ladders http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_ladders
- Regardless of how we define success and failure, they don't happen as consequences of pure luck*. This comment is intended to apply to people who have the good fortune – the good luck – to be born in places like Canada, where the privilege of opportunity is pretty much unlimited.
by Rick Baker
On Aug 18, 2010
People like to hear stories.
I bet this dates back to the early caveman-hunter days.
In those days they didn’t have iPads and I’m pretty sure they didn't even have books. So, some hairy fellow, all beaten up and scarred would arrive at his cave after a hard day chasing sabre-tooth tigers and other such creatures, beating them into submission, and dragging them home for the clan dinner.
And, of course, everyone wanted to hear the story behind the huge, charred racks of ribs. So, the proud hunter would share the story of the day. Everyone would get full and get entertained. Then they would fall asleep beside the safety of the fire. The next morning, they would wake up and tackle a new day…another day, another huge beast to cook.
At some point, cave folks didn’t completely follow the hunters’ stories. So, they started asking questions. That was a pivotal point in human pre-history. The story tellers learned how to delve into the details. Also, they noticed certain stories and certain details generated more interest and more excitement amongst the cave-crowd. They concentrated on these types of stories with a win-win attitude.
Every once in a while one of the cave people would ask a really bad question and the story teller would bonk him with a tree-branch club. This helped the cave community develop guidelines for fair and reasonable questions.
That's a prehistoric rendition of how storytelling and questioning began. Sure, there were stories before these exciting cave-hunter stories. There were cave-gatherer stories and questions and later cave-scavenger stories and questions. But, those stories lacked cave-pizzazz. No sizzle.
Like: "Blork... [I found some berries today.]" "Gluck... [where?]" "Mrunk... [over by the river.]"
Simply, not very exciting stuff.
But, when cave-living folks started telling hunting stories and asking hunting questions, well, that was magic.
That's when civilization took off.
As did evolution.
And, ever since those cave-days the hearts and imaginations of human beings have been captured by good stories and good questions.
by Rick Baker
On Aug 11, 2010
Sales Tweet #18 Perhaps Probable Clients will tell you a fib or two today. Don't take it personal... they're only human.
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
People lie. People lie a lot. Some people limit their lies to the point we can call them fibs. Some people set few limits and they tell whopping lies. Some people have no ability to control their lies. Most people set the liar-bar higher for others than they set it for themselves. That is, they tend to judge others harshly when others lie while they tend to forgive themselves when they lie. Or, at least, they struggle admitting to their own lies. This Sales Tweet is linked to self-confidence, self-image, and communication with others.
by Rick Baker
On Aug 3, 2010
For some time I have had a pet peeve with that saying, “Knowledge is Power”.
At best, knowledge is potential power.
I know the purist philosopher-types can opine here: an expanse of knowledge will provide the terrain for enlightenment and enlightenment will set you free. And, is or is not enlightened freedom nothing other than pure power?
But, in business, we have to combine some skilled action with our knowledge.
And, to oversee that skilled action, we have to blend in thinking…thinking ahead – let’s call that planning.
Of knowledge and thought, thought is more closely linked to power.
So Thought is Power is closer to fact.
However, in business, thought on its own isn’t of much value.
Skilled action is required.
Thought, when coupled with specialized knowledge and skilled action, is power.
by Rick Baker
On Jul 29, 2010
Sales Tweet #9 Successful people pick up and return more phone calls. Don’t ignore successful people. Call one today.
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
On average, I believe successful people return more phone calls and return more email messages than people who are not so successful. Here's why I believe that: (1) it aligns with my personal experiences when I leave messages, (2) successful people are more organized than less successful people so successful people have more time to do things like return phone calls, (3) successful people are more open-minded curious than less successful people, and (4) successful people expect good news while unsuccessful people expect not-so-good news.
by Rick Baker
On Jul 15, 2010
I get a kick out of words.
In 2008 Jeffrey Kluger published his book ' Simplexity'...
When the words simplicity and complexity were blended they came up with simplexity.
On the other hand, they could have chosen complicity over simplexity. You can learn more about complicity by Googling the letters “e, n, r, o, n”.
Around the same time Jeffrey Kluger was publishing Simplexity, ie, May 2008, I published a blog titled 'Seeking Simple'.
I am now reading Kluger’s Simplexity book… actually, I have just started it.
When I am done the book, I want to see if it has altered my going-inthoughts…which are along these lines:
- Everything is simple and everything is complex, it depends on how our minds are working when we 'experience' the things
- The way our minds work is heavily influenced by our genetics, our past experiences, and the situation at hand
- Our desires, particularly our short-term desires, influence how we experience things
- To a lesser degree, our longer-term goals influence how we experience things
- Our emotions regularly dictate how we experience things
All that said, we have the ability to choose how we experience things:
- We can choose to view things as complex or
- We can choose to view things as simple.
That's one of the premises that holds up the mini-philosophy I call 'Seeking Simple'. The other premise is – we can boil things down and find their essence.
When we choose to Seek Simple and we boil things down to their essence many experiences become easier: corporate culture, communication, marketing, training staff, problem solving, etc.
More on Seeking Simple and Simplexity in future blogs…
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