In a recent article in the New Yorker magazine, Jim Lord, author of What Kind of World Do You Want?, called my attention to an article in the January edition entitled Groupthink: The brainstorming myth. In this article, the author, Johah Lehrer, relates the scientific evidence that shows that traditional brainstorming techniques are not the best for discovering new ideas. This was interesting, but then the discussion shifted to the success of teams that include ‘newbies’ in the mix and then on to what happens when people from many disciplines are co-located. The creativity that comes from the simple juxtaposition of people doing different things and how being together forces people to talk to one another. And that’s where the magic begins to happen. Suddenly someone working in one area is stimulated to see a new idea as they talk with someone working in another – perhaps totally different – area.

I’ve always known that reading in another discipline offers whole new insights and alternative ways to examine and see your regular discipline of work. I’ve always known that learning is done in conversation, especially when the group is varied. What I wasn’t aware of was the amazing power of continuous exposure to other disciplines to produce unimagined results. One example, the Bose speaker came from a graduate student, Amar Bose. Bose was interested in listening to great music, and while working on his dissertation in one area, invented the first Bose speaker because he was able to frequent “the Acoustics Lab, which was just down the hall.”

If you are interested in bringing fresh knowledge into your life and work, here is a new insight – find a place where you can be with others who are working on very different things. If you can find that place, you will discover not only fresh knowledge, but you can expect to have breakthroughs that can lead to unexpected but real results.

So, what can you do to join the conversation with people working on very different things or create that place yourself? I’m looking for solutions that go beyond simple networking.

So, please take a moment and comment.

The New York Public Library was featured in a recent NYT’s article discussing the “overhaul [of] its branches and to renovate its Fifth Avenue flagship.” I love public libraries. Having grown up on a farm, the nearest one was so far away that I never went to it. Yet, over the years, as I have been introduced to them as an adult, my admiration for the tasks they perform has only grown.

Francine Houber of Mecanoo Architecture, called libraries the ‘cathedrals of our millennia.’ The first time I read it, the phrase stuck in my throat like a large vitamin pill. As I thought more about the rich implications of the phrase, it slowly slipped into my understanding.

We think of cathedrals as beautiful entities that make us look upward. Well, they make me look upward. I can’t resist the high windows or the frescoed ceilings or simply the spires as I approach from the street. It’s said that cathedrals were the symbol of what was most important in the Middle Ages and so they were the tallest structures. Inside, the cathedral is a hushed sense of power.  Inside I tend to walk quietly along the aisles, eschewing the mosaics that embellish the floors so that I might not wear them out with my step.

But then I think of the morning I visited Notre Dame in Paris during Mass. The chairs were close together, and I could smell one person’s breakfast and another’s delicious perfume. (Why do perfumes smell so much better in Paris?) As we performed the rituals of the service, there was a unique connection that occurred among the participants. Ah, this is the real reason for cathedral – to draw us into community in order to restore the invisible threads of our energy and commitment as we walk out and return to the world.

But how can a library be a cathedral of the 21^st century? Do we value information so much that we make them tall? Hardly. Do we make them beautiful to instill in us a sense of awe? Sometimes. (If you haven’t visited the Library of Congress, you really must. Talk about awe inspiring!) Does the sense of community exist in today’s libraries? Yes!

Today, I have several public libraries that I can visit, and when I go, my eyes are not drawn upward; they are drawn to the shelves of books and periodicals. I do not worry as I step. The floor is covered in carpet. But there is a real sense of connection and community – from the woman who quietly browses the rows of books in the history section as she seeks inspiration for her next class, from the two boys who chat as they peruse the science fiction shelves exchanging their delights from different authors, from a young person who is conferring with his parent on which DVD to select, from the silent group in the computer section whose eyes are glued to the screens as they search beyond the physical walls of the library, from life long students who sit quietly reading in the research area enriching their minds lest they grow old, or from the children who are gathered to listen to the reader as they learn the joy of great writing. Each has come for the common purpose of finding something new to learn even from an old favorite or the latest novel. Like the cathedral, we are drawn to the library for something that is invisible, yet energizes us to move on to the next step in our lives.

Years ago, I created a technical library as part of the work of my division. The library was created at the time when PCs were being first placed on employee desks. Within a large international organization, the library was anything but quiet, yet it was most assuredly a place of learning. We often said that while training might provide new skills to do the work, the library offered the big picture of how the new technology could fit into the work flow. I suspect that some of the earliest communities of practice met on Friday afternoons at the weekly coffees the library sponsored. Learning occurred, enhanced by invisible lines of friendship and a real sense of community.

And if you think that public libraries are a thing for only the few, the NYT’s article states, “Statistics show that more people go to public libraries in New York City than visit all sporting events and other cultural institutions combined.” Not bad!

I have come to appreciate so much more the hidden power of the library to transform individuals. At a time when knowledge is growing faster than at any other time in history and access can be at our fingertips, it is good to know there is still a place where both mind and spirit can be nourished.

Public libraries make a remarkable contribution to American life. Where is your favorite public library? How do you feel when you are there? What is your favorite story of a library experience?

Being able to do so makes us so much more effective – we break through ‘log jams’ more easily. It makes us more creative – we are more attuned to finding the new solution rather than justifying the old or fighting the new. We become more effective and creative – not a bad return for a little skill enhancement.

So, how can you learn to hold conflicting thoughts with greater ease and maybe even delight? Can we hone this skill? Here are three actions you can take to do so. They are listed in the order of difficulty.

Turn things upside down. Really. Take a familiar object, turn it upside down and look at it critically. Do it every time you think of it. This will enhance your curiosity – your ability to discover something new.

Read different topics than you usually do. I have been a gardener for many years. I love to read about varieties of plants just to learn what they like, how they perform, what challenges them to produce more and better fruit. My daily reading now is about leadership. The topic is rich, producing over a hundred books every year. Yet, as I read through them, I find I automatically test the premises I encounter with my knowledge of plants. Another time, I began reading about architecture. Suddenly, I could see new relationships between space and how people interact in various spaces, an entirely new insight for me. Reading in other areas frees us from our assumptions for a moment– just long enough to see a new perspective on a familiar topic.

Engage in conversations with those you may not agree with. This is a very different kind of conversation. This is not an exercise in argumentation or winning or convincing the other. This is an exercise in probing until you understand their perspective so well, you can explain it back to them to their full agreement. If you do this well, you will have enhanced your ability to see different sides of an issue.  (More than likely you will also enhance your friendship with this person. People truly appreciate being listened to.)

Deep curiosity, freedom from assumptions, and seeing the other side more clearly – three great skills that help you to not just hold conflicting thoughts, but to enjoy doing so.

For those of you who have read the Harry Potter series, you will recall the amazing ceiling of the great hall that always appears as the sky does outside – pinpointed with stars on a clear night, running clouds on a rainy day. Well, once again fiction leads invention. Fast Company just reported on a German firm that has developed a virtual sky for use indoors. What I loved most about it is the report that people who work under this virtual sky work enjoy its movement over the course of the day. The new lighting promotes concentration and heightens alertness. Now, how good is that?

I have always tried to offer my staff natural lighting wherever they are working. I remember the outrage from my fellow managers when I offered a corner office to the three customer reps who spent their days in the phone with irate users. I stood my ground and said they were the face or our department. If they felt good, they would convey that to our customers. My colleagues never got over it, but my staff were excellent performers. Customers rated us highest in service, and my staff were in the 90^th percentile of the attitude survey. I didn’t need that corner office just to impress others. My intention was to impress through our performance, and I think we did.

After reading the article about the virtual sky ceiling, I found myself understanding better why the natural light was effective. If indeed, movement in the sky as well as the subtly beautiful color changes are actually part of what makes us humans more alert. Being more alert means that learning, as well as work, is improved. There was a song back when that said, ‘bring on the clowns.’ I always thought the words were ‘bring on the clouds.’ Today, I have decided that my version has more validity than I thought.

What’s the best setting for your learning? Is it sitting on the patio in the sunshine, at a quiet corner, in a busy coffee shop? Where is the sky?

Bring on the clouds!

As a teenager, I put my mind on seeds. I collected seeds from all sorts of plants. I learned how to gather them – there really is a science about when it is the right time to gather seeds. Cleome flowers (sometimes called spider flowers) develop long pods of seeds that at just the right moment, spring open and spray the seeds out, leaving nothing in the pod. You have to be fast to catch them just before that moment. I learned how to extract seeds from inside a fruit.  I don’t mean opening up the core of an apple and extracting the seed, I mean the more challenging form of extracting the seed from the spinning ‘helicopters’ of a maple tree. I learned which seeds needed to be dried before they were stored and which came ready for immediate display.

To this very day, I can recognize a seed right out of the seed envelop – yes, without reading the cover. Holding it in my hand, I can almost see the plant bursting to come forth once it is planted and allowed to grow. I put my mind to learning about seeds, and I did. I still have an enormous respect for the magic of seeds.

On the other hand, I never put my mind to spelling when I was in school. I got A’s in math and the only D I ever got, in spelling. I limped along for years until one day, I realized that ignoring this topic was holding me back – it even embarrassed me not to be able to spell. So, I put my mind to it. For a whole year, I looked up every word that was even in the least questionable to me. (And that was a lot of words!) By the end of the year, a funny thing happened. I was spelling words that would have been impossible for me to even consider looking up without at least the first letter, and I was spelling words that I didn’t even know before that year began. Putting my mind to it did more for me than I anticipated. I thought it would allow me to spell the words I knew. What I discovered through this year was that I had developed a vocabulary well beyond what I began with. (You have to read the words around the word you are looking for in the dictionary. Sometimes you even begin to read about them. Yes, reading the dictionary in small spurts is possible – and can be enjoyable.)

At the end of that year, I happened coincidentally to take the GRE (Graduate Record Exam). I knew I would do well in the mathematics section, but I didn’t anticipate that I would ace the word comprehension section. If I hadn’t before, I now totally respected the power of spelling and the door it opens to other things.

As I write this, I am beginning to think I should ‘put my mind to learn’ about something. I’m not one for resolutions. I’m an action-oriented person out of the starting gate. But, the idea of focusing on something to learn is totally intriguing. And as it was with seeds and spelling, part of the fun is not anticipating the unexpected benefits. How great is that?

What are you going to put your mind to learn this year?

Happy holidays!

There is another kind of longing that fills whole groups of people. Those in war, long for peace. Those who are discriminated against, long to be accepted. Those who are ill, long to regain their health. When I look at American society, I see many people longing for a sense of security – some from terrorists, but many more from economic ruin. People value independence yet long for a sense of belonging as they struggle with the aloneness that comes from independence. We are a nation that longs for freedom and struggles with the responsibilities that come with it. For example, I see people longing for a sense of freedom from fear yet find it hard to embrace the compassion that would mitigate the fear.

But is there a longing that comes from an even deeper place than even the political and social patterns of a society? This little essay is about the longing that fills people not because it is a particular moment in or condition of their lives or a general feeling of need within a society, but from somewhere universal.

When I asked a young woman of my acquaintance about longing, she was very quick to respond. She said, “We are longing for a sense of purpose and for connections with others – that are meaningful.” What a beautiful summarization that transcends time, political and social patterns and focuses on individuals who one day realize they are unique.

A sense of purpose answers the question of what my uniqueness brings to the world and how I can make my contribution from this uniqueness. Meaningful connections tell us that unique does not have to mean alone, and that there are others who will support us in our uniqueness. Purpose and meaningful connections feel elemental. Society does not have to do a thing to place these longings in the human soul. We are naturally beings of purpose and beings who wish to be with others. We may be unique, but we are not alone in the struggle of life.

Longing is not the same as desire or want. It feels like it comes from a much deeper place than either of them. Perhaps longing is the ‘desire of the heart’ that is spoken of in scripture. Longing is often unnamed. It is often unrecognized. It is always felt.

I’ve never written so far afield from the general topic of riding the current in this blog. However, as I dive deeper and deeper into this topic, I am finding pearls that embellish the earlier thoughts I have had. For example, deciding that you will learn to ride the current is about finding the path to the knowledge you need to be who you are meant to be. Inviting Practice Partners to go along with you is about meaningful connections.

I have been searching for an umbrella under which I can place all the work I am doing – from Riding the Current to Mental Espresso – an umbrella that represents the deepest values I hold. This feels like the place to begin.

When asked how he keeps fresh knowledge flowing into his work, his answer was immediate. “I have a wide ranging curiosity. I look around at a lot of things.” I thought I could see how this would bring fresh knowledge flowing in all the time, but Dennis went on to explain what he meant further through a story.

“One day when my Dad and I were out hunting deer, my Dad said to me, ‘Stop looking for deer.’ Well, I had been looking so hard at every possible place where a deer could be that I thought I was surely doing the right thing. Instead, my father said to just take a walk in the woods and let my mind do what it does well when it doesn’t have to concentrate on one thing – it observes the unusual. When we don’t demand that the mind concentrate on something, it is free to absorb all the subtle signals from its surroundings – a movement, a different color, a sudden noise, a sudden silence. It was then that I began to really hunt for deer.” Today, Dennis says, “We all need to unharness the right brain and take walks and sit quietly – ‘explore the woods.’ In this way, we allow for greater learning.”

What a great metaphor, Dennis. How many of us would find it easier to ‘see the deer’ if we just relaxed and let our brains work as a massive filter of our experiences, of our senses. This is a new way to understand observation.

When was there a time you saw something you weren’t looking for? How did you recognize it?  How might you apply ‘exploring the wood’ in your work?

As Dennis talked, he explained how he knows he has learned something, “I know it when I see a guiding metaphor shift. For example, a colleague once said to me about my teaching, ‘God sends threads to webs begun.’ As soon as I heard this, I began to change the way I taught. If the student doesn’t already have an interest, a base on which to hang what I am talking about, then it won’t stick.” He went on to say, “Now my instruction to students is to come to class with questions. We spend the time with me responding to their questions.” As I listened to Dennis, I realized again how his approach has confirmed something I have always said, namely, that we don’t build without a foundation.

“Language, which not only houses our thoughts but even the potential of our thoughts, in essence consists of dead and living metaphors. Metaphorical perception allows us to understand the nature of one reality by using the perception of a dissimilar reality to provide the necessary light…Our interpretations guide our perceptions more than vice-versa. Debates rarely change the images that guide our behavior. Reflections and conversations are better at changing the guiding metaphors determining our methods and materials…Without conversation and/or reflection, the guiding metaphors are hidden and thus unchangeable.”

As a part of my work on Riding the Current, I defined seven principles of what I call radical learning – learning that is social, sticky, fuel-efficient, and guilt free. (Okay, it’s time for me to blog more on this. Later.) In Rader’s writing, I could see another way to see two of the principles from radical learning – conversation and observation – working together.

First, the conversation principle says that a face to face conversation opens the possibilities for unexpected learning because multiple voices bring more perspectives. I tended to see this as an external activity – creating a space where ideas could mingle, coalesce, and even merge and emerge. Rader describes the interior aspect of conversation that reveals the hidden metaphors that are guiding our individual interpretations.

Second, the observation principle is about becoming aware of what we experience in the world and using that awareness to discover new insights. Thinking in terms of Rader’s guiding metaphors, the observation principle has a new dimension – one of filter. Observation comes in through a ‘lens’ that can change the original sensing. Combining it with conversation where those filters (frameworks, metaphors) can be revealed, enhances the effectiveness of both principles.

I discovered that the seven principles of radical learning must all work together. Rader’s exploration of the guiding metaphor is completely consistent with this, and it helps me explain better why using all the principles creates a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.

I admit it, I am only a bit more than half way through Rader’s book, but I couldn’t resist sharing this initial insight about guiding metaphors. I’m about to begin the chapter Neurogenic Learning. I can’t wait to see what new insights I gain.

I had an intuitive sense that it was a good idea to give something tangible to those who are trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. Today, I read something that justified this intuitive feeling. World Ark, the magazine of Heifer International, had an article called “Thoughts for the Brain.” The title immediately intrigued me, and I read it. In the midst of the article, I discovered something truly wonderful. Let me tell you about it.

The author, Mike Thompson, was describing a recent trip to Nepal where American interventions are suspect. He was talking with Netra (Maoist Party secretary for the Palpa District of Nepal) who, like many leaders in poverty areas of the world, takes a hard-line, isolationist approach to reform – no help from those outside the borders. Yet in his meeting with Netra, they both arrived at an ah-ha moment. As Mike tells it, “heifer had become an acceptable partner in the future of Nepal, Netra told me, because Heifer is more about putting ‘thoughts in our brains’ than ‘bread in our stomachs.’” ‘Thoughts in our brains” – what a beautiful statement of what can happen.

As the author continued, he spoke of his lesson from meeting with many such leaders in the poverty areas of the world. “What I learned from these incredible people is that they all displayed the three basic traits of an Anywhere Leader: They were Driven for Progress, Sensationally Curious and Vastly Resourceful.”

How many times have I talked about curiosity is a real driver of life long learning – of learning at any time. To see it as one of the characteristics of someone who struggles with the hardest of what life has to give, it says there is no reason not to be constantly – sensationally curious.

What are you curious about today?