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Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

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Thought Tweet #760

by Rick Baker
On Jun 14, 2013

Thought Tweet #760 “Don't ignore your gut feel. If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't."

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Consider those situations when your prevailing thoughts are: "everything is too tough"...and..."everything shouldn’t be this tough”. Your gut feel is accurate. Your gut feel is telling you something needs to change. It is up to you to figure out what change is appropriate - then make that change.

Tags:

Change: Creating Positive Change | Emotions & Feelings @ Work | Thought Tweets

A Safety Tip [few people know]

by Rick Baker
On May 31, 2013

Despite everything you have done to meet legislation and best practices, your people do not feel as safe at work.

Abraham Maslow and others have created pictures like this...

 

...to explain human needs. Physiological needs come first and Safety needs are next. Safety is the #2 most-basic human needs.

And your people do not feel safe at work.

This has nothing to do with workplace hazards and accidents.

Your people do not feel safe because:

  1. Future Shock - The pace of change is accelerating - we are experiencing the 'Future Shock' Alvin Toffler wrote about 40 years ago: people know relationships in business are much more fragile than they used to be; people are more uncertain about the stability of their place at work; people are inundated with information, Attention Dilemma, etc. 
  2. Economic Recession - The 2008 economic downturn shook people's confidence and the fact economic doldrums linger on prove people are still shaken. Shaken means uncomfortable, uncomfortable means insecure & unsafe. 
For these 2 reasons, your people do not feel safe at work.
 
If you take a step back from the heat of day-to-day work, you can observe the behaviour that confirms this fact. You can observe increased 'fight' and you can observe increased 'flight'. 
 
Some examples of increased fight:
Some examples of increased flight:
  • people failing to return phone calls
  • people failing to pay bills...and stretching accounts payable
  • people failing to take risks [including spending money]
  • increased use of consensus decisions 
 
To be comfortable...business people must feel more safe than they do now.
 
 
As a business leader...
 
What are you doing to make your people feel safer?
 

Tags:

Change: Creating Positive Change | Leaders' Thoughts

Cutting Through The Confusion: Seeing Good Qualities in People

by Rick Baker
On May 30, 2013

Intertwined with our spirits and minds, each of us possesses 3 human qualities: Drive, Intelligence, and Self-Control.

Drive

Drive has 2 components: Emotions, which are hereditary vestiges, and Desires, which come in two forms - pleasure/gratification seeking and pain/difficulty avoidance.

Put another way:

  • Emotions are subconscious drives inherent in us, and all other human beings, designed to protect us from danger. Each of us has to figure out how to cope with Emotions.
  • Desires are aimed at achieving positive rewards and avoiding negative outcomes. Desires are conscious drives, specific to each of us and linked to each individual's Intelligence and Self-Control....and Goals.

Intelligence

Intelligence has 4 components:

  • Self-Knowledge, 
  • Innate Talent, 
  • Knowledge about People, and 
  • Wisdom covering self and interactions with other People in Situations

Intelligence spans a wide range from the rational/logical to the irrational/emotional...with feelings dancing in between.

Each of us experiences Intelligence 2 ways, and only 2 ways:

  1. by Thinking &
  2. by Taking Action.

Self-Control

Self-Control seems to be a thing played out between spirit and mind....between logic and emotion...between right and wrong...between Good Habits and Bad Habits, between short- and long-term goals. Self-Control is much easier said than done. Coupled with clarity of thought, Self-Control (power of will) presents to each of us an exquisite & life-long series of mind-challenges.

Thought Tweet #740

by Rick Baker
On May 17, 2013

Thought Tweet #740 It's easy to make a significant change: just tell everyone you have developed an electricity intolerance.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Sure, change is tough.

But you gotta look on the bright side: if you don't like that last suggestion - when the urge to change gets too annoying, you can always watch a TV rerun.

Now, do you see the benefit in the power of positive thinking?

Tags:

Change: Creating Positive Change | Humour | Thought Tweets

2 Simple Tools: 1 for Thinking, 1 for Action....both for Communicating.

by Rick Baker
On May 10, 2013

Edward de Bono is one of my heroes. In my opinion, he is the world's greatest creative thinking educator.

I have written about Edward de Bono and his 'Six Thinking Hats'...'Six Thinking Hats' is an extremely helpful tool for sorting out your thinking and for communicating with others about thinking.

Here's a picture-summary:

Edward de Bono's 'Six Thinking Hats'

 

 

I have a de Bono section in my library. My goal is to collect and red all his books. That's a challenge because he has been prolific, writing well over 50 books. I have just completed reading de Bono's 'Six Action Shoes', (1991). 'Six Action Shoes' is an extremely helpful tool for sorting out your actions and for communicating with others about actions.

Here's a picture-summary:

Edward de Bono's 'Six Action Shoes'

These thinking and action tools provide excellent ways to Seek Simple....a Spirited Leaders' philosophy. When thinking can be summarized in 6 ways...that's seeking simple. When action can be summarized in 6 ways...that's seeking simple. And, that's why Edward de Bono is so amazing. He has been able to unleash his genius [and help others do the same] because he is the master in simplifying before choosing how to think, simplifying before choosing how to act, and knowing when and how to be creative. In other books, he illustrates exactly how to be creative. [Our recent thought post 'Taking Curiosity to Creativity' contains de Bono's signature contribution - lateral thinking.]

Now, Seek Simple is one of Spirited Leaders' core philosophies...another is:

Business Contains Only 3 Things: People, Process, & Situations

Much has been posted about People, Process, & Situations.

Now we will show how Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats and Six Action Shoes can be incorporated.

Business Contains Only 3 Things: People, Process, & Situations. 

Here's the picture...


A snapshot in time during your business day - that's what we mean by Situations. That snapshot will contain people [at least 1, you] and it will contain process [at least 1, your thinking]. Process either involves People or machines/mechanisms/tools [designed by People]. For the time being, let's concentrate on the Processes performed by People. There are only 2 types of Processes performed by People: Thinking and Action. If we embrace de Bono's tools, the Processes performed by People have 12 components: 6 ways of thinking and 6 ways of taking action.

In any Situation, People can decide which of the 12 things they will perform.

Here's the picture...

 

Those are good questions to ask!

[That's Seeking Simple and finding it.]

[That makes for one very Good Habit.]

Are you updating your business tools?

by Rick Baker
On May 9, 2013

About Tools & Business Improvements


It started with rocks and sticks. In our early days, we used them to do work.

We needed them to perform what our bodies could not do. We used tools to make work easier and less risky. We used rocks to injure prey. We used rocks to scrape the meat off bones. We used rocks to open shells. We burned sticks to keep us warm. We burned sticks to protect ourselves from animals.

We used sticks & stones to make spears for hunting. 

We used sticks to support us when our legs were injured and we used sticks as spears for fishing. 

 

Later we used rocks and slings to hunt prey from a distance. We used sticks to create bows and arrows for protection and hunting.

Tools have played a major role in our lives...in summary, 5 ways:

  1. Making them,
  2. Exchanging them, 
  3. Putting them to good use, 
  4. Maintaining them, &
  5. Upgrading them [as technologies and our bank accounts allow].
 
And now, with really-advanced technologies, tools are creating really-advanced problems for us...call them techno-problems.
 
Techno-Problems: here are a few examples:
 
Yes - our increasing demand for higher-technology and innovative tools has generated techno-problems.
 
We need to fix that.
 
The solution is: seeking simple and one important aspect is simplifying our tools.
 
Some suggestions:
  • Less is better...limit the amount of information you are exposed to. Be information-selective. Employ the 80/20 Rule. These reductions will allow you to focus on what's important. 
  • Use 1-Page Tools: demystify process and help your people get over work-process hurdles
  • Take advantage of proprietary software
  • Remove system & process gaps...those work-flow disconnects that cause duplication of work, unnecessary month-end and project-completion overtime and other things that really annoy your people
 
 

 

 

Copyright © 2012. W.F.C (Rick) Baker. All Rights Reserved.