4d

New World Economics - Thomas Friedman

2014-06-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

Thomas Friedman shares some sobering thoughts in this long but interesting presentation. Yet another respected futurist who reminds us that 'good enough' will no longer cut it in our highly networked, technological world. Friedman is both an informative and highly engaging speaker and this presentation is a masterclass in how to share observations, ideas, statistics and beliefs using story - without PPT.

Transforming Anxiety Into Creativity - in under 3 minutes

2014-03-31T11:09:00.001-07:00

10 Things You Need To know About Influencing People

2014-03-19T14:19:00.002-07:00

10 Things You Need To Know About Influencing People from 4D Human Being

Being Human Inc 'Dissed' in the Media!

2014-03-16T04:37:00.002-07:00

If we believe everything in the news media then being a human being is not something to be proud of.

Read, watch or listen to the news anywhere in the world and all you'll find are stories of bad humans doing bad things to themselves, others and the environment. We are constantly being trashed, slandered, vilified and misrepresented. So much so that if Being Human was a brand and you are genuinely, ethically and ecologically minded you really wouldn't be working for Being Human Inc. The testimonials on Glassdoor.com would read like a vision of working in Hades. But is it true? Are we all really that bad? Of course not.

Most of us realise that people working in the media are in the news business and they know that bad news gets our attention much quicker and for longer than does good news - it's just a fact of life. We humans love a scary horror story that makes us feel our own lives are not so bad after all. We can sit safe and smug in the knowledge that people are a lot worst of than us, or at least, knowing that we're not like those bad people. Good news just doesn't sell as well. In fact there's a website called Happynews.com. Looking at it today, the last update was five months ago.

But does the brand name of Being Human deserve such bad press?

Not if you believe the research outlined Steven Pinker's book The Better Angels of Our Nature. However, recent studies carried out by a diverse group of researchers from Harvard and Yale suggests that while we are not intuitively selfish creatures the truth about the human condition is not so clear cut. If we're not intuitively selfish then are we cooperative? The study seemed to reveal that the drive to cooperate only stabilises if there are rewards on offer for cooperative behaviours. So, it's not a given. Oh dear! This particular piece of research was conducted on 2,068 people so we may assume it was fairly thorough and we can only hope it was conducted with rigour. Even so, the evidence did not answer the question as to whether humans are innately good or bad but it did seem to suggest that we are an "overwhelmingly cooperative species, willing to give for the good of the group even when it comes at our own personal expense."

Personally, and regardless of what I see, hear and read in the news I have to believe we are fundamentally good. While human beings have done, and continue to do, many terrible things, we also have achieved and created a plethora of good and beautiful deeds. Our desire to survive through acts of creativity far out weighs our destructive impulses. I am very hopeful and still optimistic about the future of Being Human Inc so I for one will not be handing in my resignation anytime soon. And yes, I would still recommend this company to my friends.

The Ghosts In Our Genes!

2014-03-12T11:22:00.001-07:00

Have you ever had the feeling that you may have lived before? What about Deja Vu? Maybe you have actually experienced specific and persistent memories from a past life.

The subject of reincarnation has always fascinated me and I have long suspected that it has more to do with psychology, genetic memory and morphogenetic fields than Astral Planes, after lives and floating souls. So, I've just been reading Jungian psychologist, James Hollis's excellent book 'Hauntings - Dispelling the Ghosts Who Run Our Lives'. In it he considers how we may all be living out certain impulses arising as a result of invisible, energetic forces (called complexes) that animate our four dimensions through genetic, ancestral and direct parental and cultural influences.

The interesting thing about these impulses is that they don't seem to belong to us at times and appear in our consciousnesses as inner voices, dreams, impulses, imaginings, sub-personalities and synchronicities. They are the occasional voices and ideas that pop into our heads out of nowhere and unbidden.

They can also be persistent patterns of physical feelings that rise up from within our bodies haunting us, by causing us to blush, twitch, sweat and tremble at the thought and sight of certain people, places and things. We can often be confused by these impulses, particularly when they lead to feelings of fear. Even though we may intellectually know a feeling or thought is irrational yet we are still driven to act on the impulse to flee or fight. In some cases these 'ghosts in the genes' can hold us back by preventing us from making important or necessary changes in our lives.

In the book James Hollis offers that there is a difference in the meanings of the words Fate and Destiny. According to Hollis our Fate is in the genes we inherit, and the experiences and effects of our cultural conditioning recorded by our body/mind system from birth to around 3 years old. However, our Destiny is determined by what we consciously decide to do with the physical, emotional, intellectual, environmental and social resources we possess and have available. He also offers some useful questions and exercises to help us understand the ghostly complexes and what life might be asking of each of us through them.

By consciously applying some focussed attention over a period of time we can begin to release the energy of these 'ghosts' and integrate them into our intentional dimension of self. As a result we will have more energy to create our destiny and consciously choose the impact we make in the world. I very much enjoyed this book, particularly as his insights support our model of the 4 selves.

Posted by Tom

Are You A Resilient 4D Human Being?

2014-01-30T11:47:00.000-08:00

“I’m so stressed…!!” How many times do we say this? Think this? Hear others saying it? In our busy lives, often. And whilst stress has very negative connotations (and of course chronic stress is a bad thing both in terms of our emotional well being but also our physical well being) a certain level of stress can be healthy. Why? Well, stress can build up our ‘preparedness’ like a kind of vaccination against future stress. In effect we can become more resilient. And it goes without saying that resilience is a very good thing to have from our mental well-being and performance as well as on our physical health.

So how do we become more resilient? The key, as always, is to start with those 4 dimensions of the human being…

Physical – participation in physical activity has been shown to build our resilience levels to stress, mental and physical illness. Physical activity does not necessarily mean strenuous exercise. 30 minutes activity a day will suffice (even broken down into 3 x 10 minute sessions) so whether that’s a power walk at lunch or taking the stairs instead of the escalator, just get active!

Emotional – Experiencing a high level of positive emotions encourages a more resilient nature and whilst some of our ‘happiness’ levels are genetic there is much we can do to get happier! Watch a funny video, focus on your breathing to reduce negative emotions or take 5 minutes a day to feel grateful for what you have in your life (gratitude is a real ‘happiness’ booster!)

Intellectual - We naturally when faced with a challenging event go into negative thinking traps and one of the main ways to gain more resilience is to reduce our negative or pessimistic thinking. For example applying Beck's (1976) ABCDE approach to thought process. Take a moment to think about a challenging experience or event from your life and write down some thoughts using the following guide:

Adversity (What was the event?)
Beliefs (What was going through your mind at the time of the event?)
Consequences (What did your beliefs lead you to do, think or feel?)
Disputation (What are your internal arguments against those automatic beliefs?)
Energization (What do you think and feel now about the event?)

This simple, intellectualising process can help to significantly increase your resilience levels by challenging and reevaluating any unrealistic or self-limiting beliefs.

Intentional – Viktor Frankl’s famous and moving book – Man’s Search for Meaning identifies a theory of human drive (and ultimately survival). The meaning we give to our live. We choose what the meaning of our lives is and we also choose our reactions to events. And these choices we make lead to the building of our resilience… or not. Start by counting to 10 before you react or respond in a situation and take those precious seconds to really choose your reaction consciously thinking about what the effect will be both on you, and other people.

Finally, in terms of our shared culture or environment – social support is critical to maintaining our resilience levels. No man is an island and taking responsibility to surround ourselves with family, friends, colleagues, mentors that are there for us in the good times and the bad times and have a positive influence on our lives is paramount.

Posted By Penelope

A Case Study of The Four Selves

2014-01-12T08:04:00.001-08:00

In this interesting interview the late, great Colin Wilson reveals a perfect example of developing his intentional self to manage a disintegration of his physical, emotional and intellectual dimensions.

Colin Wilson describes how, after becoming stressed and over worked early in his writing career, he began to experience anxiety and panic attacks. From the description of his experience it seems as if his physical and emotional selves had been put under pressure and exhausted while his intellectual self tried to over ride them. This seems to have created an inner conflict which manifested in the middle of the night when his fragile intentional self was offline. It's interesting to hear how he developed a more robust choosing faculty (his intentional self which he desrcibes as a 'higher Colin and school mistress' ) to manage his personal crisis and eventually integrate the other three selves.

The good life is...

Body, heart, mind and soul

Functioning as an integrated whole

Anonymous

How To Engage People In The Workplace

2014-01-02T09:54:00.003-08:00

I think it's fairly safe to say that the key to success in life and work is having the motivation and energy to get up each and every morning and actually 'do' something that contributes to the achievement of your goals and objectives. This means being fully committed to, and engaged with a role in life, or a job of work. And that's where the challenge lies.

The employee engagement situation in UK businesses looks like it needs attention with a Gallup Engagement Survey revealing that only 24% of UK employees are engaged with their jobs. Also an online study of 2000 organisations by the Hay Group revealed that HR managers now rate employee motivation and engagement as their number one concern. But there is also research showing that less than 20% of managers have received any training in engagement skills or how to bring out the best in their people.

So if this is where we are today even before things start to get really rough in terms of the business challenges ahead, what are we to do?

As we often hear - and quite rightly so - that an organisation's strength is its people, perhaps a good start is to first look at what it means to be human and express yourself in life and work.

Communication between people involves four dimensions of behaviour:

Physical - The health and fitness of our bodies and how effectively we are able to move and function in the world.
Emotional - Our feelings about ourselves and our own circumstances. Also how we feel about other people with whom we share our lives and the environment in which we live.
Intellectual - The knowledge and information we have acquired and refer to in order to live and work effectively.
Spiritual (or Motivational) - Our deepest values, drives, ideas and beliefs about ourselves and how we fit in the world we live in.

At 4D our understanding and experience has led us to understand that people function most effectively when these four dimensions are fully integrated. That's why we became interested in a recent survey by the CIPD in the UK measuring engagement. Their research suggests that engagement has three components:

Cognitive engagement - focusing very hard on work, thinking about very little else during the working day.
Emotional engagement - being involved emotionally with your work.
Physical engagement - being willing to 'go the extra mile' for your employer and actively 'do' work over and beyond expectations.

In this survey only 31% of employees who responded were found to be cognitively (Intellectually) engaged, and 22% were/are actually disengaged. Scores for emotional engagement were higher with 58% of people reportedly emotionally engaged with their work and only 6% emotionally disengaged.
And finally 38% of employees were physically engaged with their work, whilst 11% were/are physically disengaged. So that leaves one component (or dimension) missing.

Intentional engagement - Our personal values, beliefs and drives that generate the energy to engage with life and work. Arguably the most important dimension of all, as our intentions are indelibly linked with our emotions and the way we feel day to day.

Research into engagement has revealed that the emotional climate in an organisation has a profound affect on employee engagement. In fact it has been suggested that 'Climate' (or atmosphere in the workplace) is responsible for 80% of the negative or positive effects on engagement. Simply put, people enjoy working with and for people who have a positive attitude and who make their employees or direct reports feel valued, heard, involved and cared for. This means open and honest communication between employees, managers and leaders in order to build rapport and allow people to share ideas, have them heard and maybe even rewarded.This includes celebrating peoples successes however small, showing team members appreciation and ensuring people have the skills and resources required to achieve their expected professional targets and goals.

Sounds simple enough but tricky to implement when so few people in leadership positions (according to studies) are trained in the behaviours of engagement. But there is a fairly straight forward solution.
A simple behaviour of engagement that anyone can begin to develop right now is to increase your listening skills.

Most of us like people to listen to us if we have something to share, and if we are listened to we will automatically feel more 'engaged' with the person who is making the effort to listen.
Not only that but if the person actually hears our point of view and acknowledges the value in what we say our engagement quotient is likely to increase. Taking listening skills to the next stage would mean an 'Idea Sharing' initiative across an organisation and at all levels of the hierarchy. Creating an opportunity for everyone to be listened to and hopefully heard. In fact we at 4D Human Being have been engaged in organisational listening through idea sharing for some time now in our work with creativity and innovation and have discovered that while people 'brainstorm' around a product or service, other issues nearly always emerge and reveal surprising insights.

For example: say you are looking to help a team develop a new product range that builds on something already existing. The most effective approach is to begin with getting people to talk through the facts about the current product and overall context in which this product exists and into which the new product will potentially follow. This means taking a multi perspective look at the product idea and the context in which it will appear and this is when it is helpful to take the four dimensional approach.
The initial exploration will include all the Physical aspects like shape, form, materials used, packaging, texture, ingredients and ergonomics. Also talking through people's ideas and experiences of how the product physically moves through the business from manufacture to supply chain, then into the hands of the customer.

The next dimension is the Emotional impact of the product's branding for customers and employees alike. What types of emotions does it surface and how does it make people feel?

The Intellectual dimension - What immediate need does it meet technically and what other, unseen needs might it meet outside the obvious?

And finally Intentional - What value does it bring to people's lives and how, why, where, when and to whom will it become most important?

To do this the 4D team work our way through a number of processes that we have developed that utilises several tools to surface 'values driven' thinking styles. We work with the theory of Spiral Dynamics Integral (developed by Don Beck and based on the work of Clare W Graves) which means we are able to tap into the values and drives of each person attending an idea sharing session in order to get a unique perspective on an issue. There is plenty of information on the internet about the theory of Spiral Dynamics or you can refer to my article 'Spiral Dynamics and Creativity' (published in Integral Leadership Review) for an easy to read breakdown of the theory.

What is interesting about this particular approach is that if you thoroughly explore an idea from a values and drives perspective you will discover more than you expected about unexpected aspects of your business. Occasionally during our sessions we discover that some people in organisations have ways of doing things that are perhaps unorthodox and occasionally break some of the rules. This would be described as 'Orange' value set behaviours in the SDi model and surface when there is a need for an individual to break away from the collective to creatively adapt to a given situation, in order to meet a need. A person expressing 'Orange' will be focussing their energy on achieving results for material gain, status, success and recognition. However they are often forced into adopting these methods because the organisations infrastructure ( systems and processes) impede or stultify their ability to achieve their targets and goals by following the rules. The surprising thing is that these 'unorthodox, rule breaking methods' often go unnoticed.

How is that possible? Because of the high levels of disengagement and lack of four dimensional engagement in many companies today. In other words... too few people care enough to tell anyone!
But it is often in these improvised, unorthodox ways of doing things that future innovations can be found and it's becoming clear that what businesses today need are new and innovative ways of doing things. The good news is that all the new ideas are in the hearts and minds of some if not all of an organisation's people. But with up to 75% of employees disengaged at work how are these ideas ever going to be discovered? A good start is to get people talking together about what they value and what drives and motivates them in all four dimensions.

Spirituality In The Workplace?

2013-12-22T02:05:00.000-08:00

For some time now the word on the capitalist streets of the Western world has been that there’s a desperate need for a new way of doing business. The suggested solution is the way of ‘conscious’ capitalism supported by ‘conscious’ leadership and many companies are introducing training programmes on the subject and implementing policies of social responsibility in a bid to address this need.

Conscious capitalism essentially means that an organisation and it’s people become conscious of the causes and effects of it’s daily business practices, systems and processes on both other human beings and the environment. It means establishing a culture through the implementation of business practices and management strategies that prioritise social and environmental concerns for the benefit of human well-being, internally and externally, locally and globally.

In parallel to this we have also been noticing - particularly over the last 3 years - that there has been a fairly sharp rise in interest in the subject of spirituality in the work place. We suspect that this is to do with the emerging challenges of the current, global economic situation and perhaps a re-evaluation of what is important, valuable and of significance in people’s lives. As a result many individuals and organisations in the personal and professional development space including writers and consultants like Barbara Heyn, Cindy Wigglesworth and Joan Marques have introduced relevant books, programmes and seminars on the subject. There’s even ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Spirituality in The Workplace’ by someone called C Diane Ealy. As I’m not a complete idiot I haven’t read it. Yet…
But what is spirituality and how can we begin a discussion in the workplace on a subject that is so personal?

The word itself is difficult to define and belongs in a category along with love, god, creativity, talent and charisma. All of which are subjective. Like the heightened emotions we might describe as loving feelings, spiritual experiences can be completely different for each person, being thoroughly dependent as they are, on a person's culture, stage of life and state of mind. For instance, speaking personally, spirituality for me is the experience of connecting with the deepest impulse within myself to 'create' something. Sometimes felt as an underlying anxiety, or undefined agitation and at other times it presents as feelings of excitement. But, I translate these feelings as coming from an energy and intelligence emanating from the infinite, boundless, timeless ground of being. An eternal process of creation, seeking to express a non-dual, always, already, ever present sense of self. Some might call that spirituality, others would call it the force of nature and a psychiatrist might describe it as delusion.
But my personal realisation has led me to understand spirituality as a connection with the essential quality of the source of creation, which I personally translate as an infinitely bubbling, creative ferment. Not a 'being' as such, more a potential state of suspended 'doing'. Something that I am integrally a part of but also something that fills me up and makes me feel whole. I tend to describe the feeling of this ferment at the core of me and in the ground of being as the 'Primordial Anxiety'. The stress of an infinite and eternal energy only ever able to manifest itself in finite forms.

I've long suspected that the Buddhist concept of the wheel of Samsara is an inescapable ride, because if you think long and hard on the idea, it is the ultimate process of creativity and itself is an expression of the eternal ferment (or primordial anxiety). After all, how could it ever cease turning? Under what circumstances could an eternal, boundless, timeless, space less, uncontainable being ever contain the infinity of itself in a finite form anyway? It will always have a part of itself that remains outside of, and separate from itself. Anxious about being left out of all the fun. So – and this is purely my personal view - riding on the wheel of Samsara is essential. Waking, sleeping, dreaming, doing and being all use energy and are perfect activities on which to focus the ever present anxiety. Relief comes by making and taking form, manifesting the material universe so that the impulse that began this particular cycle can become conscious of itself, through all of us. We have developed conscious minds so we can experience the difference between pain and pleasure, happiness and sadness, sleep and awakening. With our bodies and our minds we can experience 'being' rather than remaining anxious in an eternal state of potential, doing nothing. After all, how happy could Adam and Eve really have been in that garden? If you're that happy and have everything you want and need, you're not going to be tempted to do anything that would risk your happiness. Not unless there was always that twinge of anxiety, wondering if one bite of the forbidden fruit would lead to something better. Clearly, they were both waiting for something better.

Back to the impulse of the primordial anxiety. How can we understand it? Well, in its most basic form, it is the desire to procreate. The sexual urge. In its most sublime expression, it is the desire to co-create the world. To pick up where the blind, random, groping hand of evolution and natural selection left off. Music, maths, painting, dance, scientific theories, theological propositions, poetry, sport, love, beauty, birds, bees, bubble-gum trees, everything and anything is simply an expression of the primordial anxiety. For me spirituality means relieving the often unconscious, subtle, yet ever present anxious excitement by creating things to share. That could be anything from making music, writing poems, training programmes, drawing, ideas, cooking, constructing mathematical formulas, speaking and of course blogging.

Now, what you’ve just read may have made total sense to you or you might consider it absolute nonsense. Perhaps you vehemently disagree with me and it has left you feeling frustrated or cross. Either way, if you and I were working together and you’d have asked me where I find spiritual comfort and inspiration I would have to say that it is purely in creativity and definitely not in a set of rules laid down in ancient texts by humans I’ve never met. It is in the future more that the past. It is in what’s possible more than what’s impossible. It is in creation more than destruction and it is in evolution and change more than stability and stasis. And that is the challenge of spirituality in the workplace. We all have our own perspective. What makes the subject such a profound challenge is that many people – me included- totally identify themselves by their values, ideas and beliefs on the nature of spirit, god, the universe and existence itself. That might be through one of the traditional religions or it may be something more esoteric and occult. So, can it ever be appropriate, safe, practical or even useful to broach the subject at work in the context of a ‘training’ programme? At the moment I honestly don’t know.

At 4D Human Being we always aim to take an integral perspective and assume that no-one can be 100% wrong 100% of the time. In other words each spiritual perspective may reveal a partial truth. So, for now we are quite content to stick with supporting the values and themes of conscious, capitalism and conscious leadership and we'll be listening, acknowledging and leaving each to their own when it comes to spirituality. What do you think?

Post by Tom

How to be Happy - in 4 Dimensions

2013-12-03T07:25:00.003-08:00

I think it's safe to say that we human beings like to be happy. In fact seeking happiness is an inherent human trait. Living in 4D means fully expressing ourselves physically, emotionally, intellectually and intentionally. But most people will experience happiness as an emotion and it will often be their emotional self experiencing it. If we are past 30 years old this may a be a younger version of ourselves. But what about our intellectual, intentional and physical selves?

If you enjoy exercising your intellect by doing puzzles and processing information and knowledge you will be able to increase your happiness quotient by engaging in intellectual pursuits like reading, debating issues with others and watching intellectually challenging documentaries and films.

We can certainly increase our subjective intentional happiness by expressing and embodying our deepest values, ideas and beliefs in our behavior and actions.

The interesting thing to consider here is that the emotional, intellectual and intentional selves are predominantly psychological processes. They are the feeling and thinking capacities of the mind.

So what about our bodies? How does physical behavior impact on our ability to be happy?

The study of genetics has suggested that our genetic make up accounts for around 50% of our happiness levels. Not much you can do about that you might think. Or is there?

Recent research in the field of epigenetics suggests that over generations our DNA does in fact change our bodies as a result of our experiences and environment, impacting then our future generations. So, what about in the here and now? If we discount a 10% influenced factor for our environment, the remaining 40% of our happiness levels are within our control. And one way to start impacting this for the positive is through your physical self.
Can we create positive, happy emotions just by changing our physical behavior? The answer is Yes!

Did you know that if you smile, even faking it your brain releases a message to release endorphins – the very neurotransmitters that cause us to smile! Our brain is constantly receiving messages resulting from our physical behaviours so just by smiling, laughing, using high energy joyful body language we are effectively tricking our brains into feeling those happy emotions – as well as reducing our stress levels. Our happiness levels in turn affect our health, ageing and even our longevity. Recovery times from illness have been shown to be reduced for those individuals expressing more positive emotions and even susceptibility to the common cold is lower in happier people. And at the very crucial level of life longevity, research has demonstrated that happier people (as defined through their higher use of positive language) live longer – between 4-10 years longer. So keep smiling!!

Post by Penelope Waller

Integrating The Four Selves

2013-11-29T01:32:00.001-08:00

For us at 4DHB the goal and meaning of human being is about both discovering and creating your self in the world. This means discovering what and who you are and then bringing something new that enhances and improves both your experience of being and the experience of others with whom you share your world.

You may already be familiar with the basic theory of 4DHB which outlines the physical, emotional , intellectual and intentional dimensions of expression and being. In this video Tom Bruno-Magdich offers a deeper dive into the four dimensions and their structure and how your four dimensions are in fact four distinct yet integrated expressions of your being, each with their own awareness.

Shifting from Human Doing To Human Being

2013-11-06T02:21:00.002-08:00

How can you change your experience of life and work from just doing to fully being and therefore create for yourself more feelings of satisfaction and even happiness ?

By making sure that you spend a good portion of your time absorbed and engaged in doing what you have a reasonable talent for. According to Daniel Goleman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi this type of activity can often elicit a state of flow. It also needs to be something that is important to you so you are committed and attached to the outcome of your actions.

Here are four questions to help you evaluate what you do each day.

Answer Yes or No to each of the questions.

Are you doing something that you're good at?
Is it something that totally engages you in a state of absolute flow?
Is it something that is in alignment with your deepest values, ideas and beliefs?
Are you attached to the outcome of what you're doing?

If you answered Yes to at least three of the questions then you are probably a human 'being' more than just a human 'doing'.

If you answered Yes to just two questions then, like old Blue Eyes, you're in the DO BE DO BE DO mode.

Three or more Nos mean you may be in a human 'doing' mode. In which case - What small, achievable changes could you make today to shift from doing to being?

Download The 4D Energiser Session mp3

2013-10-27T10:16:00.001-07:00

If you've already bought our book Communicate With Charisma you'll be looking forward to trying this quick exercise in Energetic Breathwork.

First things first.

Download the 4D Human Being Energiser mp3 here.

Now, sit comfortably in a chair, or lie on your back, your head supported by two average-sized paperbacks, with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor .

Take a few moments to relax and tune into the breath.

Breathe in and out through your nose.

When you are ready, draw your breath consciously into the lower part of your lungs. The best way to do this is to breathe in, trying to keep your shoulders from rising up as you breathe. This will help you to connect the breath to the movement of your diaphragm.
Start by breathing in on a count of five and out on a count of eight.

As you inhale, feel your lower chest expand in all directions: front to back, top to bottom, side to side. As you fill with air, begin to notice the sensations in detail.

Imagine your lungs turning (metabolizing) this air into energy.

Begin to visualize light, colour, or any image or sensation that brings life to this idea of ‘energetic breath’ as you inhale. When you are full, or you have reached the point of strain or tension, slowly release the breath with a sigh of relief.

You are feeding and nourishing yourself with energetic breath (Life Force).

As our thoughts are also energy (electro magnetic pulses and photons), you can use energetic breath work to energize and increase good thoughts and feelings, and diffuse negative thoughts and feelings.

Focus on the in- breath for five cycles to activate the sympathetic nervous system and raise your energy. Then change focus to the out-breath for five cycles to release energy and create a relaxing state. The process of slowly breathing out will activate the para- sympathetic nervous system which helps to decrease feelings of stress.

Think of situations when you are stressed out and notice how your sigh-rate increases.
Therefore to instill confidence, gain empathy, and create rapport we must adopt a particular type of behaviour – one that conveys a precise message.

By preparing with some energetic breath work and getting ourselves into the required energetic state and attitude, we ensure that our whole demeanour will communicate the mood and effect we are trying to achieve.

If you have any questions feel free to email tom@4dhumanbeing.com anytime.

6 Steps to Graduate Success

2013-09-28T02:43:00.002-07:00

Congratulations! now you've got your degree. So, I'm afraid there are no prizes for guessing there's a major difference between life as a student, and life in the world of work. You've done the graft and you're ready to share your hard earned qualifications with the world. But did you know a recent YouGov survey of 635 employers, including 419 directly responsible for recruiting graduates found that just 17% of employers focused on graduates’ university degree classification when hiring new recruits and only 8% cared about the university they attended.

Not only that but the stats also revealed that a growing number of students are finding themselves left without a job after finishing University because many students are lacking the essential skills required in the workplace.

Apparently employers are not just interested in the fact that you've been to university. 52 per cent of employers surveyed said regardless of their degree qualifications, few if any graduate recruits were work-ready and 17% said none were fit for a job.

So what are students perceived to be lacking?

· Communication skills

· Team-work

· Punctuality

· The ability to cope under pressure

So, for now I'm going to concentrate on the first item on that list - communication skills. Partcularly in the first meeting with an employer.

Question: How are you going to differentiate yourself from the dozens or even hundreds of other graduates with the same qualifications as you competing for the career kickstart you need?

Answer: Communicating by consciously creating the impact you choose.

Here are 6 steps to help you think about the impact you might make as you venture out and tell your story to potential employers.

Step 1

Understand there's a 'gap' between how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you. In this instance we're talking about the 'other' being your potential employer.

Online impact...Back in the day they'd ususally only have your written CV and a photo; these days they only need to look online to see straight through any BSCV you've written to gather a profile of you from any of the social networking sites you've plastered yourself over. It's crucial you begin to manage your on-line presence now... not tomorrow or next week, but today.

Step 2

Humans expression involves communication using 4 distinct dimensions:

* Physical... What are you doing?

* Emotional... What are you feeling?

* Intellectual... How are you thinking?

* Intentional... Why are you doing all of the above?

Many graduates will naturally score high on the intellectual dimension. Consequently they may well believe that they 'are' what they 'know', and to a 'degree' they would be correct. However; unless you can also communicate your knowledge physically, emotionally with clear intentions you're only firing on one cylinder, and seriously in danger of delivering an unconscious one dimensional impact.

Granted not every single employer may looking for engaging, emotionally connected, trustworthy, likeable, energetic graduates with a high positive attitude; but 99.9% probably will be.

Step 3

The first thing we notice about another person is how they show up physically. The way they look, their handshake and swiftly followed by the sound or pitch and tone of their voice. Nothing is right or wrong in comunication, there's only cause and effect. The problem occurs when the the cause you've 'unconsciously' created produces an effect you didn't want.

So take a look in the mirror and check out your clothes, your hair, makeup, jewellery, tattooes, even oral and physical hygiene, your posture, your eye contact. Is your voice tone conected to what you're saying, is your handshake saying what you want, are your facial and physical gestures congruent; even down to the detail of what is the kind of bag you'll take into your meeting saying about you?

Look at yourself objectively and ask yourself this question: Am I physically communicating the message I want to convey?

Step 4

Emotional communication... or what are you feeling, and how do you want to make the other person or persons feel about you?

As sure as rain is wet, the most powerful influencing tool you'll ever learn to master is consciously deciding how you want people to feel about you and what you have to say and allowing that intention to determine how you deliver your message.

Do you know what the 'trip triggers' are that make you feel happy, angry, sad, uncomfortable etc. Do you know how to consciously trigger emotions in others so you can influence them to, at the very least, remember who you are and think about you in a positive light?

Step 5

Intellectually... or how are you thinking? Are you a big picture or nuts and bolts thinker? Do you think in images or words, colours or sounds, are you obsessed with detail and facts or are you a spontaneous and random thinker?

Once you've identified your core style, can you begin identifying what others' thinking styles are, and can you adapt in the moment to those styles so you can continue to influence their opinion of you in a positive light.

Step 6

What are your intentions? What has driven you to be sitting in that seat talking to these strangers about why you want they're offering. Are you really as clear as you can be about what you want, why you want it, and what you'll do with it if you get it?

If you can really focus on your intention then the other aforementioned dimensions, to a degree, may take care of themselves.

If you ever believed that a CV and qualifications were what communication was all about, then think again, because it's you - a natural, organic, wholesome, integrated, 4 dimensional human being - they will buy!

Good luck and I look forward to seeing you in the wonderful world of work!

Ants

http://www.courageous-communication-partnership.com

Communicate With Charisma

2013-09-16T10:12:00.001-07:00

We are excited and delighted to announce that Tom and Jo's updated version of their fabulous book 'Communicate With Charisma' is now available from all leading, online book sellers. Here's the blurb:
Do you ever wish you had the confidence to stand up anywhere, anytime with anyone and just tell your story? Would you like to increase your personal impact when communicating or presenting? Then Communicate With Charisma is the book you've been waiting for. In this book we offer you secret tips and techniques used by professional communicators from public speakers, actors, comedians and singers to help you dramatically increase your personal impact in life and work. But be warned - If the idea of being able to influence people using the power of non-verbal behaviour disturbs you then don't open this book!

Keeping people Awake, Engaged and Informed should be the goal of everyone presenting or pitching their products, services, values, ideas and beliefs to customers, clients and colleagues at all levels in business today.

And there is no better place to observe the management and focus of human energy and personal presence than the world of entertainment. The very livelihood of the professional performer depends on his or her ability to fully engage, captivate and hold the attention of an audience.

But, charismatic performers are not ‘born’; they have to work at their craft. There is a great deal to learn from the way the great entertainers express high levels of energy through their bodies, voices and language and the use of the environment or ‘space’ in which they communicate.

In Communicate With Charisma you will find the tools and unspoken rules which historically have been used by performers to enhance personal presence. In terms of using space and movement, for instance, there is a healthy respect among actors and directors for left and right positioning when it comes to stage and screen craft.

It is clearly possible to apply such principles to interpersonal communications. For example, you may or may not be aware that by standing on the left-hand side of a right-handed person you are more likely to elicit an increased ‘emotional’ response to your presence than if you stood on their right. This can be so powerful as to literally alter the other person’s mood – for better or worse. In addition, when gesturing as you speak, you are sending specific, subliminal messages which alter meaning, dependent upon the height your arms are held. In the book you will discover how cells in our brains literally begin to activate when we watch a person gesture, causing us to actually ‘experience’ their movements as well as observing them.

If you are interested in exploring the subtle, subliminal dynamics of interpersonal communication there is so much valuable information in this book the chapter on voice alone is worth the price!

Here's the Amazon link

How Do Integral Leaders Define, Create and Support Culture?

2013-07-09T14:59:00.003-07:00

Organisational culture has often been described as 'what people say and do when they think no-one is watching'. At 4D we've often found there’s a gap between a company’s stated values and mission statements and the shared values, ideas and beliefs of the people working there. Sometimes this gap is huge!

 A recent International survey by Cubiks suggested that today many recruiters are increasingly concerned with finding candidates that fit with their organisation’s values and beliefs. 82% of people responding to Cubiks survey said ‘cultural fit should definitely be part of the recruitment process.’ However only 54% of employees surveyed felt their organization had a clearly defined culture.
 
This presents a huge challenge for todays leaders - both existing and emerging - when a company’s culture, as expressed in the feelings, thoughts and behaviours of it’s people, is vital to differentiation in an increasingly crowded market place. So who’s responsibility is it to define, create and support a company culture?
 
We would say, and I think most people would agree, that it absolutely has to start at the leadership level.
 
As the global economy continues in a state of flux we are seeing increasing levels of economic migration as the good and the great of developed and developing nations begin seeking new opportunities. If they are not available in their own country they will go where the action is. From a leadership perspective embracing cultural diversity will be an absolute must in order to create a sustainable, organisational culture supported by a globally focussed business model.

 However, it can become extremely challenging when people holding differing belief systems, worldviews, and levels of complexity of thinking encounter each other in the work place. The main challenge being that people are often only able to understand concepts, models and ideas based on the perspective of their own value systems. And it is widely recognised by any psychologists claiming a level of expertise that we the people will nearly always process information through the lense of our own world view.
 
This can make communication between people difficult and as a result trying to establish an aligned culture may become a fruitless task. Especially when dealing with non-negotiables in the work place.
 This challenge requires a new type of leadership. Integral Leadership.
 
But what is Integral leadership?
 
It means being able to take an integrated perspective on leading and managing diverse groups by establishing an integrated culture that recognises the values and beliefs of individuals and how an authentic culture emerges through natural synergy. A leaders responsibility is to nurture that emergence and guide it towards it's natural evolution. This begins with acknowledging that everyone has something of value to say about the nature of reality and the given life and work conditions within a community. But this is not pluralistic leadership. Neither is it leadership by consensus. The Integral leader listens to everyones opinion and then applies relational systems thinking to identify who should do what with whom, when, where and why based on a systemic perspective that considers the culture as a whole.
 
What follows are some key capabilities that, for us define Integral leadership, beginning with:
 
A high level of self awareness - This means having a clear and thorough understanding of the 4 dimensions and two perspectives of human development and expression.
 
A Flex and Flow mindset -This means being able to creatively adapt and respond to the rapidly changing conditions of life and work today.
 
A Network mindset- This means developing the capacity for systems thinking, understanding the emotional dynamics of networked relationships and how intrinsic values like trust, integrity, empathy and spirituality constitute human networks.
 
Communication Skills- How to communicate in a way that inspires and motivates a diverse group of individuals by communicating 4 dimensionally.
 
A clear and compelling vision - about who should lead whom to do what, how and why? It might not always be you.

 Understanding how and why different people are motivated by different values.

 Understanding why values, ideas and beliefs take hold and spread in an organisation.

Understanding what personal and professional development really means to each and every person you lead.

 Understanding when to lead a diverse group of people through change.
 
Understanding how to communicate with people in ways that reflect back to them their deepest values.
 
The ability to model leadership behaviours that empowers and motivates people to take responsibility and achieve their full potential.
 
The intention and commitment to build an innovative culture that aligns the values and drives of individuals, and teams. An Integral leader is able to encourage, support and develop others towards generating and releasing their energy and creativity in alignment with a leadership vision and the organisation’s purpose, values and drives.
 
Our approach to leading, creating and supporting organisational culture is inspired by (and based on) the theory of Spiral Dynamics - an evolutionary, developmental model and map that outlines how people living different value systems will look for different modes of leadership.

 For example:

Purple Leaders are nearly always part of a direct lineage of succession and are often the ‘elders’ of a group as Purple communities are close knit and fearful of others who are different. Leadership is driven by appealing to tribal loyalities.

Red leadership is about the absolute ‘power’ and rule of the individual. Leading from the front the Red leader demands respect and always comes first, even if it’s at the expense of those being led. Leadership is dictatorial and ego-driven.
 
Blue leadership is driven to serve a higher authority and observe and obey absolute laws and rules. While offering a degree of order, authority, predictability and stability this form of leadership can sometimes be inflexible and pedantic in today’s shifting market place.Blue leadership is compliance driven.

Orange Leadership is entrepreneurial and innovative but can sometimes be Machiavellian. This energy is driven to succeed at all costs. Showing emotion may be considered a waste of time and money. Similar to Red, this mode of leadership is primarily self-seeking. Orange Leadership is achievement driven.

Green leadership seeks interpersonal relationships. Honesty, empathy, authenticity and trust is highly valued. However this mode of leadership on it’s own can lead to challenging levels of “political correctness”. Green Leadership is primarily people driven.
 
A leader energised by the Yellow value set is able to see the whole spiral of human differences within an organization from a values perspective, and knows how to communicate with people at their respective levels. Cultural barriers such as race, religion, gender, age and lifestyles that can divide and create conflict are managed, transcended and included in a syngergistic approach that serves the whole system. A leader expressing Yellow asks who is best suited to do what and why? Yellow Leadership is flex and flow driven and therefore Integral.

In summary - Integral leaders Define culture as an interconnected system of values, Create networks of shared commitment, reciprocity and trust and Support culture through communication, flexibility and openness.

Dying Is Easy - Comedy Is Hard

2013-07-02T04:22:00.003-07:00

I work to live, live to learn and adore a challenge so last weekend I faced my final frontier in communication skills and delivered my first ever ‘stand up' comedy routine in front of a live audience in Brighton.

It all happened after we attended Jill Edwards fabulous comedy workshop at the Komedia Studio Bar.

You might think this isn’t such a big deal for someone whose early career was spent performing on stage, including many in London’s West End, but you’d be wrong.

Yes, these days I do stand in front of big rooms full of delegates delivering training programmes, seminars and workshops. I’ve also presented award ceremonies and hosted corporate entertainment events, but this was different.

I’ve always had a huge admiration for comedians and their ability to make people laugh. Seamlessly delivering their material as a mix of improvisation and memorised topics looked to me like acts of the supernatural. Watching comedians deal with drunk hecklers is one of my guilty pleasures and I’m always delighted when I see the best of them eviscerate a troublesome punter. However I always claimed that I never had the guts to try it myself. Well, life is short and as I also claim to be a communication skills expert I thought it was about time to feel the fear and do it anyway.

We arrived back stage at the Komedia early on Saturday morning and after a couple of introductory warm up exercises we very quickly began working on our material. Our comedy coach Jill Edwards was a master facilitator and managed to guide our terrified troupe of twelve towards their comedic fate. We spent the next two days writing, structuring, preparing and rehearsing a one minute comedy routine that we would be delivering in front of each other (plus some specially invited guests) on the Sunday afternoon.

Having both attended and delivered many training programmes over the past ten years I can be a very challenging delegate. However Jill’s no nonsense facilitation style and mastery of her craft was a delight and I had arguably the best two days training of my life. Thanks to Jill, by Sunday I was ready and raring to go.

So, what was it like?

All I can tell you is that surviving for even just one tiny minute on stage, under a spotlight, with only a microphone as your friend in front of 20 expectant faces delivering what you hope will be funny is a feat of endurance difficult to describe. And it's true what they say...”Dying is easy, comedy is hard.”

But, if you really want to feel what it’s like to communicate your values, ideas and beliefs clearly, effectively and in a way that makes people laugh out loud I recommend you try it for yourself.

Laughing is truly one of life's greatest joys. Making other people laugh is one of life's greatest gifts.

There really is no other feeling like it.

TBM

Women Step Up!

2013-06-04T02:40:00.000-07:00

This year 4D's resident twins Philippa and Penelope are delighted to have delivered our unique, 2 day programme called ‘Women Step Up’ live in London for RSA.

This version of the course was tailored to precisely meet the needs of the fabulous, female delegates who attended. However, despite the title the programme is not exclusively for women.

Yes, it is true that only five percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women so ‘Women Step Up’ is very much about the challenges women with ambition meet in the workplace, from both male and female colleagues. And yes we do unpack and explore how to handle some of the daily obstacles women face from sexism and discrimination to a lack of flexibility in terms of parental leave. However these are issues that impact on everyone in the workplace and also on the evolution of business as a whole in the 21st Century. So the course is less about gender issues and much, much more about increasing personal impact, assertiveness and influencing effectively.

These are key capabilities for women in leadership roles as Sheryl Sandberg – COO at Facebook - points out in her book LEAN IN. She tells us: “When a woman excels at her job, both men and women will comment that she is accomplishing a lot but is not as well liked by her peers. She is considered “too aggressive,” “not a team player,” “a bit political”; she “can’t be trusted” or is “difficult.” Those are all things that have been said about me and almost every senior woman I know.”

So, it’s clear that ‘stepping up’ requires good to great levels of communication, networking and negotiation skills. Women Step Up is our learning and development response to the call for not only women but everyone in the work place to identify their passions, take some risks and communicate with clients, colleagues and friends to co-create new opportunities and a new way of ‘being’ human in life and work. For everyone.

Spiral Back In Time

2013-05-28T03:47:00.000-07:00

We were recently talking about some of the most memorable times we've spent as a result of being in the learning and development business and one particular memory stood out for us. It was back in 2011 when we attended a training seminar in Spiral Dynamics Integral in Santa Barbara with one of the originators of the model, Dr Don Beck himself. Since then we've continued to integrate many of the key insights from Spiral Dynamics Integral in our work at 4DHB and particularly in our book Spiral Into Love.

The theory of Spiral Dynamics was originally developed by Dr Don Beck and Christopher Cowan based on their take on the research of Dr Clare W Graves. The central idea of Spiral Dynamics is that what we humans feel, think and believe evolves through time and is dictated by our neurophysiological development and responses to our given life conditions. Research into brain function has demonstrated that our environment and our intrapersonal and interpersonal experiences shape our neurology, which in turn determines the drives and values that dictate our behaviour.

Later Don Beck teamed up with the Integral philosopher Ken Wilber and together they began to integrate their ideas to create what became known as Spiral Dynamics Integral. SDI is not a typology but rather a description of value structures that generate a flowing process of psycho-biological energy that fuels human growth and development. These drives form nested systems and express the evolution of each individual's personality. The theory uses the metaphor of a spiral of energy spiralling upwards as it moves the individual towards satisfying various needs that result in physical, emotional and intellectual adaptions to given life conditions that trigger further stages of development.

In this video Philippa and Don enjoy an informal moment at the end of a training day to talk about Spiral Dynamics Integral.

How Are You Authentic?

2013-04-17T06:53:00.001-07:00

Few people would deny that our outward behavior is the result of our deepest intentions and yet sometimes the results of our behaviour may not necessarily be what we intended. Particularly if we are not skilled or practiced in using our bodies and voice to communicate what we intend.

Ideally the authentic self would be an integration of all four dimensions of human being. However, in our experience there is usually a gap between each of the dimensions of self.

We recently had an interesting discussion about authenticity with a group of delegates during an in house communication skills course.

We had identified early on that most of the participants attending the two-day programme had received a 360-degree feedback suggesting that they might benefit from tools and techniques to develop their communication skills.

One person in the group felt that, while they were keen to improve their skills being authentic while communicating at work was the most important thing. They then added that they would feel inauthentic if they were to consciously use their body language in a way that might influence someone.

This prompted us to pause and ask the group if they would be interested in us facilitating an exploration into the meaning of the word authenticity. They unanimously agreed and so we kicked off by asking the following question:

“Do you think there is a difference between how you feel, think and behave when you are at home with your family, out with friends and at work with colleagues?”

While everyone in this particular group agreed there was indeed a difference, most felt that they behaved authentically while communicating at work.

This then prompted the question, which of the feelings and behaviours were most authentic to the person; all of them perhaps?

This was a little trickier as it was clear from some of the feedback the delegates in the room had received from a recent 360 that their authentic behavior wasn’t necessarily making the desired impact.

The objective for the rest of the session then shifted towards how we might identify which is our authentic self and how to then consciously use a communication skills technique without losing authenticity. What happened next?

Think, can of worms and a tin opener!

We started by looking at how we might become more conscious of how we use the 4 dimensions (body, heart, mind and intention) to express ourselves. Once we are clear about this we can begin to understand that there are in fact many selves behind what seems like one personality. At least four in most cases.

Let's start with what we might believe is our authentic physical self. It is a fact that we inherit 50% of our genes from our Mothers and the other 50% from our fathers so the self we call our body is entirely inherited. We are basically physical reproductions of our parents. The important thing to understand about this is that the genes we’ve inherited contain memories. You may have heard of muscle memory in sport, well the same applies to the genetic memory inherent in the formation of the human body in vitro. All the memories that inform the process leading to the shape, size and quality of our physical organs is contained in the genes we inherit and are the result of our ancestors’ social and environmental experiences and behaviours. Recent studies in epigenetics have revealed just how important genetic inheritance can be in terms of our health and well-being and that of our children. So, what does it mean to be authentically ourselves physically when we’ve inherited someone else’s body parts?

Now let’s explore how we might become a slightly different person when we become emotional. People will often say that after a particularly emotional episode – this may have involved either feeling extremely happy or ecstatic to feeling sad or angry - they felt like they had been hijacked by another personality. This is essentially because our emotions are a mix of inherited dispositions, learned behaviours and also our own unique responses to the life conditions and experiences we have been born into. Each important stage of life is marked by certain emotional benchmarks, infancy to childhood and puberty to adulthood. Each of these stages will have featured both positive and negative experiences that lay down some fairly stubborn and habitual, emotional responses that can be very hard to break. So, are we always authentically being ourselves emotionally? Which is your true and authentic emotional self?

The intellectual dimension is also subject to the vagaries of our genetic inheritance. Although this is not necessarily fixed for life. Research into brain plasticity has revealed that our thinking style can be altered and with practice and regular brain workouts we can increase our intellectual capacity. However, our genes combined with the quality of our education will influence the development of a personality that is based on our own knowledge of the world. The challenge for this personality is that it will often be a combination of learned traditions and rules plus our own interpretation of the information we have been required to understand and accept. It is probably safe to assume that most people are behaving authentically when communicating their knowledge about the world. After all, it is what they believe to be true.

Which neatly brings us to the fourth dimension of self-expression. The Intentional self. This is the personality that forms around our deepest values and beliefs about life, the universe and everything.

For example, while at work you may professionally execute all the tasks required of your job role but your 'intention' is to get through the day avoiding your boss or certain colleagues and get out of the building as quickly as possible.

In this instance you may be ‘doing’ a job of work that doesn’t utilize all your skills, working for a boss who doesn’t value you or recognize or acknowledge your potential and perhaps your role is not offering you the opportunities you believe you deserve.

In this example your intentional self is the most authentic expression of what and who you are. You may be ‘doing’ your job very well but your 'being'- body language and emotional responses to others you work with - will be expressing your ‘authentic’ intentions. In this case if you communicate anything other than what you genuinely intend you may be perceived as behaving in-authentically – perhaps without even realizing it.

This is the time to reset your intentions and consciously choose a different authentic you that will serve you better. It may be that you can tap into the authentic you that enjoys the physical aspect of the job or begin to explore and expand your authentic emotional self. How might you become authentically more in touch with your emotions in a way that benefits both your colleagues and customers? Perhaps your intellectual self could offer more to your boss than you currently share. What impact might that have?

As we consciously choose which self to express, when, to whom and how, we can begin to integrate all 4 dimensions in a flow of ‘being’ that increases our feeling of authenticity.

So the next time someone says to you “I like to be authentic” you might enquire as to which of the four authentic selves they are being?

Educating For Creativity - Not for Factories

2013-03-03T06:47:00.004-08:00

It is unlikely that anyone in the relatively free West doubts that we live in the age of information. A time when the world is fast becoming not just a global village but a global brain. The exponential growth of internet users has meant that never before in the history of the human species have so many of us had access to so much information. Any one with a laptop can get information on everything and anything from the worlds of entertainment, news, philosophy, psychology, religion, sociology, politics, environmentalism -the list goes on and is endless. So a question arises - Are our school systems becoming obsolete? Should we cease 'teaching' and start asking children, students and ourselves to find the answers to new questions? Is it time for a complete revision of the reasons why, how, where and when we educate ourselves?

Just like the human brain the internet is recording the world’s experiences and people are learning more and more about each other and themselves. This means that many of the old ways of living and working will be challenged as people start to seek new ways of being and behaving inspired by what they discover from others. One of the key revelations of the information age is that for every value, belief and idea that you hold there is an equally credible but differing and sometimes opposing value, belief and idea. We can no longer remain cocooned in a small world culture of the tribe.

In human beings the energy and intelligence behind evolution has shifted its focus as we take our first steps into the twenty first century. Unlike the biological evolution of the past which relied on random mutations and chance to adapt and survive we are experiencing an evolution of consciousness. We have now developed the capacity and capabilities to choose and direct our biology at the level of our DNA. Science is uncovering more and more of the mechanisms that govern creation with the result that people are living longer and healthier lives. But in today’s ever changing and unpredictable socio-economic environment we'll need a new worldview and with it a new way of educating ourselves.

In this fantastic TED video Sugata Mitra points to the way ahead.

TED talks - What Makes Them So Good ?

2012-11-20T11:30:00.003-08:00

If watching amazing presenters giving awesome presentations fascinates you, then no doubt you've already checked out some of the brilliant videos on TED.com

At this point I must admit to having a moderate to heavy obsession with watching TED videos and I'll often try starting conversations about my favourite talks with friends, family and colleagues - in fact anyone who’ll listen really. This is mainly because I am a sad fan of TED and I've done what sad fans do - deconstructed the talks in great detail - and guess what? I’ve decoded the formulas of my favourite presentations.

But before I share the formula with you I will briefly outline what it’s all about - just in case there’s anyone reading this who has not come across the TED website before.

TED is a non-profit, knowledge -sharing platform dedicated to creating a community of people committed to communicating world-changing ideas. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and this title is reflected in the great variety of talks they host which include each of the three subjects. The talks are usually limited to around 18- 20 minutes in length and as a result are punchy and impactful. TED conferences are held around the world each year and videos of the talks are posted on the TED.com website.

So, here are some of my findings:

1. TED Talks tell a story. Preferably personal with a message people could apply to their own lives.

2. They end as powerfully as they begin so they leave a 'lasting' impression.

3. They tell us something fresh, new, and unique about a subject.

4. They approach their subject from an innovative perspective.

5. They don’t try to 'sell' us a story, they engage us in a story.

6. The content is rigorously structured with a focus on brevity, clarity and impact.

7. The message is usually contagious and could easily go viral.

8. They are always tailored to the audience in style, tone and form.

9. The presenter has thoroughly rehearsed the delivery – This results in a fluid, natural and confident voice tone, body language, stagecraft, ease in handling props and working with PowerPoint.

10. They often have a key phrase that we remember.

Obviously not every talk has all 10 of the qualities listed here but next time you watch the TED videos notice how many apply to the best of them.

If you are thinking of designing and delivering your own talk at a TED conference then you'll probably receive the TED COMMANDMENTS.

And here they are:

Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick.

Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before.

Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion.

Thou Shalt Tell a Story.

Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy.

Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego.

Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.

Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desperate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.

Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.

Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.

Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee

Finally, here is a list of the top 5 most viewed talks on TED for you to enjoy, and study for yourself:

Sir Ken Robinson - Schools kill creativity: 8,660,010 views
Jill Bolte Taylor - Stroke of insight: 8,087,935
Pranav Mistry - The thrilling potential of SixthSense: 6,747,410
Tony Robbins - Why we what we do: 4,909,505
Hans Rosling - The best stats you’ve ever seen: 3,954,776

I’d love to hear about your favourite TED talks and any top presenting tips you’ve discovered from watching the presentations, so do leave me a comment.

Happy TEDing!

Tom

Conformity vs Creativity - Is There A Gap?

2012-11-13T07:09:00.001-08:00

Imagine a world where creativity is dying out. A time when we leave creative thinking to machines. When humans are just entranced, lardy skin bags full of offal sat in front of a bank of TV monitors neuronally connected to a computer terminal. Inhaling information and products like a crustacean scouring the ocean floor for plankton and mollusks.

Latest research out of Stanford University by Gerald Crabtree suggests that humans are becoming dumb to dumber rather than evolving super brains because our relatively safe, sanitized, civilized world has taken away the stress of Darwinian competition. This means our brains were much sharper when we were hunting the woolly Mammoth and gathering the mixed fruits and berries.

And yet a survey of 5,000 people across the US, UK, Germany France and Japan revealed that four out of five believe that economic growth in the 21st century will depend on our ability to unlock our personal creativity. But only a quarter of the people surveyed believe they are reaching their own creative potential at work.

So why is this happening? Why aren't people fulfilling their creative potential?

Apparently people feel under too much pressure to conform. To be productive and increase performance while maintaining the parameters of standardisation. In other words the people surveyed felt they were expected to prioritise conformity over creativity while there is still an expectation by business leaders that they should think creatively and come up with innovative solutions to problems. A clear case of cognitive dissonance.

50% of the people surveyed also said that the biggest barrier to thinking creatively was time. They are just too busy ensuring they attend to tasks that maintain profitability. So, what's the solution?

First let's flip this thought on it's head.

If time was the only barrier between you and increased profitability for you business wouldn't you try to find some extra time?

It follows then that if developing a higher capacity for creative thinking is vital for surviving the shifting sands of today's unpredictable market place it might be worth asking yourself this question.

Is there a gap between what you feel, think, say and do to produce the results required of you and what you feel, think, say and do to come up with innovative solutions?

If there is then where might you find some extra time to start exercising your creative thinking muscle?

Once you've worked that out you might like to try these 5 creative muscle builders:

1. Challenge some Assumptions - Have a long hard think and identify assumptions that you make day to day that both hinder and help you achieve success at work.

2. The Lotus Blossom Technique - Follow this LINKfor a cool creative thinking technique.

3. Random Word Technique - Define a problem then pick a random word. Now force an association between the word and the problem. For example your problem might be how to liven up your journey to work. The random word could be 'Frog'. List how many ways Frogs can move around. Hopping, swimming, crawling, floating on a Lilipad etc. How might you apply these ideas to come up with a more interesting route to work?

4. Polar Response - Look at your problem and create a list of ways you could make the problem worse. Sometimes a solution will emerge that you might not have thought of by thinking only about taking positive actions.

5. The See, Hear, Feel and Touch exercise. This is purely about developing your imagination by using your senses. Take a few minutes in the day to imagine an object that is personal to you. Using visualisation get a sense of how it feels to touch, it's weight and temperature. How it looks, how it smells and even how it sounds as you hold an image of the object in your mind.

So even though there's no wooly Mammoth left to chase and you've got used to grabbing a bag of mixed fruit and berries from ASDA, by practicing the exercises above for just 21 days you could start increasing the creative thinking capacity of your brain and help to close the gap between conformity and creativity.

Okay then?...Pass the remote!

The Entrepreneurial Mindset

2012-09-07T05:19:00.005-07:00

Cartoon by Hugh Macleod at www.gapingvoid.com

Does anyone really need reminding that we are facing some heavy, socio-economic challenges on a global scale?

I would lay money that anyone who is keeping up to date with world events will realise that many of the old familiar structures, systems and processes we know, and love to hate, are struggling and failing at an exponential rate.

In terms of education and the young, anyone who's currently dealing with 16 to 18 year olds thinking about what to study for a career for the future is probably struggling to give the best advice. The old job for life is genuinely now a thing of the ancient past.

What advice can we really give when the reality is that none of us have ever been in a world quite like this one before?

As local and global environments change many existing communities and cultures are coming under increasing pressure as a new kind of chaos looms large. New, unseen challenges are emerging all the time.

So... what we need now are new ideas. Ideas that stem from an evolved world view that recognises the diverse, impermanent and yet increasingly connected nature of living, loving and working on this planet in the 21st century.

The good news is that there are people in this world who can help us right now. In fact these people have always existed. They are the individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset. These are the people that make things happen. People driven by a need to acquire and achieve while learning and growing. Hungry for self actualisation at any cost they bring new realities into being and the results of their endeavours often lead to innovations that make life more interesting and in some cases much better, safer and more enjoyable.

We had a chat amongst ourselves at 4D and decided that we could definitely describe ourselves as entrepreneurs. We all have bucked convention and tried to live by our own rules in service of a will to discover the meaning and purpose of existence for ourselves. Regardless of the limits of our own four dimensions we have all adopted the 'act as if' approach to life in a state of positive delusion, believing anything is possible if a person is determined to follow their personal bliss.

So, we thought we might take some time to deconstruct the qualities that we at 4D collectively share as a team, and offer them as an insight into a type of entrepreneurial mind set.

Individually we all...

1. Strive to think creatively before coming up with a solid plan with clearly defined goals.

2. Are prepared to quickly adapt or change that plan if required.

3. Will take on arduous or difficult tasks if necessary.

4. Prefer not to compete, but rather try and take the road less travelled in order to be unique.

5. Treat failure as an opportunity to learn rather than a point at which to give up.

6. Try to remain courageous in the face of adversity.

7. Do something each day, however small, that contributes to our journey towards our goals.

8. Continue to develop our communication skills to the highest levels possible.

9. Try to remain alert, informed and open minded.

10. Maintain a strong personal and professional network of friends and colleagues.

We believe most people have the potential to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. If you are willing.

How many of these do you already have?

What qualities do you think should be added to our list?

Which would you like to develop yourself?

When and how will you start that journey?

How will you know if you're succeeding?

Get in touch, it would be great to hear your ideas.

New Book-Spiral Into Love

2012-05-25T08:16:00.008-07:00

We are delighted to announce that Philippa Waller's new book Spiral Into Love is now available in paperback from Amazon.

Spiral into Love offers a unique approach to finding, building and sustaining loving relationships.

Being in a relationship can be challenging at times, we all know that, but whether you are looking for new love – or want to keep your current love alive and vibrant, you probably don’t have time for a ten-year self-development or partner-awareness programme. What’s needed is an immediate understanding of the dynamics of our relationships and some practical tools and tips we can put into practice straight away.

Philippa's approach takes a unique perspective on the dynamics of loving relationships by drawing on several theories of the bio-psycho-social development of human values, including Spiral Dynamics Integral and Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. The book contains an easy to use values diagnostic – the Spiral Profiler – that will help you identify which of the five main value systems are most dominant for you. After that, you will explore how each of the five value systems responds to each other when they are in a loving relationship and how each combination creates its own unique dynamic.

So, if you’re looking to find new love, rekindle old love, or check whether your latest flame is the one for you, then Spiral Into Love could well become your relationship bible.