Kernel: Life is filled with opposites. If you’re facing darkness (stress/change), what is the opposite now visible as light?

From creativity consultant and author Roger von Oech:
“Heraclitus is saying that we don’t fully appreciate something until we have thought about or experienced its opposite. For example, success is more rewarding if we’ve tasted defeat, life more precious if we’ve been close to death, and love dearer if lost and regained. … So, the questions this insight suggests are: What’s ‘dark’ or missing in your current situation? How does it shed light on what is there?”

Roger von Oech’s books include:
A Whack on the Side of the Head (New York: Warner Books, 1998.)
A Kick in the Seat of the Pants (New York: Harper & Row, 1986.), and
Expect the Unexpected (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2002.)

There is something magical about visual thinking strategies such as Mind Mapping, clustering, concept mapping, or FutureScapes™. Each approach varies somewhat and personally, I like to use Gabrielle Rico’s “clustering” simply because I’ve had the most experience with it. I rarely begin any project at work without doing a cluster map of my thoughts, ideas, resources, goals or needs, and connections, etc.

Simply described, clustering begins with a “focus” word or phrase written in the centre of a large, unlined sheet of paper (at least this is my preference–you could create a cluster in the sand… or on lined paper). Circle your focus word and then capture your thoughts, ideas, and related topics, letting them pour onto the sheet in representative words or phrases. In my use of clustering, I circle thoughts and connect them to related or hierarchical thoughts at the same time or later as I reflect on the cluster topic. In Mind Mapping, developed by Tony Buzan around the same time as Rico’s clustering technique, use of colour and images is considered very important.

FutureScape™ is a technique that I’ve learned about recently and instantly appealed to my librarian sensibilities in that it incorporates information gleaned from environmental scans and intuitive insights. It is a visual thinking strategy developed by T. Irene Sanders for organizational strategic planning, but has been used for many purposes including career development. It is described in her book Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the Midst of Chaos Complexity and Change (New York: The Free Press, 1998).

I was especially interested in Sanders’ use of what she calls “perking information”–new developments occurring just below the surface that will impact your situation in future. She notest that FutureScape™ is different from Mind Mapping in that it “helps you see the self-organizing behaviour of the big-picture context in which your decisions are being made.” (p. 157)

More information is available at the links below:

T. Irene Sanders: Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy

Mind Mapping video with Tony Buzan

Clustering developed by Gabrielle Rico, author of Writing the Natural Way

Review of Dan Roam’s book, The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. at Paul Baker’s blog, EducationPR: Social Media for Communicators In Education

Chuck Frey is the founder and editor of InnovationTools.com (check out the Mind Mapping Resource Center here) and the author of The Mind Mapping Software Blog. The Mind Mapping Software Update newsletter includes excerpts from the blog.

For information about online or electronic visual thinking tools, check out Innovation Tools and Chuck Frey’s Mind Mapping Software Product Guide

Nurturing contentment fosters future change-ability

Kernel: Nurturing joy, interest and contentment = strength, resilience and well-being

According to psychologist, Barbara Fredrickson, “Cultivating positive emotions produces an upward spiral that not only counteracts negative emotions but also broadens habitual modes of thinking and acting and builds personal resources for coping.”

Negative emotions narrow a person’s repertoire of thoughts and actions, Fredrickson explains. “This effect is clearly adaptive in life-threatening situations that require quick action to survive.” Positive emotions broaden and expand this thought-action repertoire. Over time, this broadening creates an “upward spiral” which builds personal strength, resilience, and well-being.

Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory applies to three distinct positive emotions—joy, interest, and contentment. “Joy creates the urge to play and be playful in the broadest sense of the word … encompassing not only physical and social play, but also intellectual and artistic play.” Even though it is often aimless, play has several reliable outcomes, including strengthening friendships and attachments, and developing physical and cognitive skills.

Relaxation therapies, including imagery exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, and meditation, are effective, she maintains, because they cultivate the positive emotion of contentment.

Read more at: “Happiness, joy and other positive emotions”
University of Michigan Press Release (May 9, 2000)

Barbara Fredrickson at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Fredrickson’s blog: Positivity: Insights from Science on the Art of Living

Fredrickson’s recent book: Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive (Random House: Toronto, 2009)

According to Butler, “Impasse means that we need to change our whole approach to the problem. We need to change our understanding of the problem. We have to change our repertoire of ways in which we approach life challenges.”

In Getting Unstuck, Butler describes six phases in the “impasse process” and notes that progress through the stages is not linear but is a back and forth process. The first phase is the “arrival of a crisis” when we put our head down and keep doing what we’ve been doing. In phase two, we “realize that our old ways are not working.” Our “inner critic” becomes very vocal during this period.

In the third phase, we begin to examine the situation more carefully and honestly and in the fourth stage we become receptive to new kinds of information and “begin to appreciate complexity and metaphor in underlying themes.” The fifth stage takes some time and involves recognition of patterns in our life. Phase six occurs when we take action based on what we’ve learned in the previous stages and move forward.

“Feeling Stuck? Getting Past Impasse:” Q&A with Timothy Butler by Martha Lagace (April 25, 2007)
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge: A First Look at Faculty Research

Leary, author of The Curse of the Self traces what he calls “the curse of the self,” or self-reflection, back to its evolutionary roots. He argues that “the self” evolved to help us meet the challenges of living as prehistoric hunters and gatherers. At the time, the self was an outstanding evolutionary adaptation,” he says.  “For the first time, people could think consciously about themselves and their lives, allowing them to plan, act intentionally and solve problems better than any other creature on earth.”

What increased the chances for survival a million years ago can cause problems today. “When human beings first evolved the ability to be self-aware, they used it to plan only a few hours or days ahead,” Leary says. “Today, however, people spend much of their time thinking about things that may happen months or years from now.  As a result, many people are plagued with excessive worry about the future, worry that serves no useful purpose to them.”

“If the self had been installed with a mute button or off switch, the self would not be the curse to happiness that it often is,” Leary says.  “Learning to quiet the voice in one’s head is the first step.”

Leary’s tips for coping with the “curse of the self” include:

• meditation to reduce self-chatter
• “don’t believe everything you think”–develop a healthy sense of “ego-skepticism,” the understanding that one does not always have an accurate view of the world and should be skeptical of one’s own interpretations of events.
• practice self-compassion–be kind to yourself
• develop a “metapersonal identity”–”Rather than seeing yourself as an isolated individual struggling against the world, recognize the ways in which you are connected to other people and the world at large.”

Sources:
Wake Forest University press release
The Curse of the Self website

Feedforward... insight for the future

I first read about feedforward in Marshall Goldsmith’s book, What Got You Here won’t Get You There but you can also read an article about it on his website.

Asking co-workers or friends for feedback can be helpful–if they’re skilled and you’re accepting. As Goldsmith points out, feedback looks at events that have already happened. Change-ability means moving into the future with strategies and tools to adapt to new scenarios. Goldsmith’s feedforward tool is practical and easy. Here are the four steps for feedforward described in his book (p. 171).

1. Identify a behaviour that you believe if changed, would lead to a significant positive difference in your future. Goldsmith offers the example: I want to be a better listener.

2. Describe your goal to another person–someone you know or even someone you’ve just met. They don’t need to know anything about you or your life for this activity to be successful.

3. Ask this person for two suggestions that you could use in the future that would help you achieve the behavioural goal you’ve described. (If you know the person, Goldsmith notes that “the only ground rule is that there can be no mention of the past.”) The person then offers their two ideas.

4. Listen carefully to the suggestions and take notes if you wish. The final rule is that you  must not comment in any way other than to say “thank you.” Repeat the process with other people until you have all the suggestions you want or need or until the ideas begin to repeat.

We’ve all done variations of feedforward, but typically with one major limitation: we normally have a rebuttal ready to fire off when the person with the idea pauses to take a breath. We dismiss the idea because… “we tried it and it didn’t work” … or it could “never work for us because …”

Let me know ways you’ve used feedforward and how it turned out for you.

Slow and steady to the top

Photo: L. Solonynko

Much is written about the benefits of goal setting and articulating our dreams. It seems, however, that goals may be even more important than we thought. In 2008, psychologists Baruch Eitam, Ran Hassin and Yaacov Schul at Hebrew University studied the benefit of “non-conscious goal pursuit”–moving toward a desired goal without being aware of doing so–in new environments.

They noted that until their research, it was believed that non-conscious goal pursuit only reproduced formerly learned actions, and was thus ineffective in mastering a new skill. Eitam and colleagues argue the opposite: that non-conscious goal pursuit can help people achieve their goals, even in a new environment, in which they have no prior experience.

Goal setting leads to “learning on auto pilot”
After their two recent studies, these researchers say, “Taken together, both studies suggest that the powerful, unintentional, mechanism of implicit learning is related to our non-conscious wanting and works towards attaining our non-conscious goals.” Implicit learning, according to Dr. Darlene Howard at Georgetown University, is the kind of learning that “has been called by various names including ‘learning by osmosis’, ‘thinking without thinking’, and ‘the adaptive unconscious’.”

Based on Eitam, Hassin and Schul’s work, once we have identified our goals, we can work toward achieving them even when we’re not consciously thinking about them. Moreover, we unconsciously work toward them even in new situations where we may be preoccupied with unfamiliar activities. This sounds almost too good to be true. But, personally, I’m going to try being a bit more focussed in defining my goals. What do I have to lose? Let me know about ways you use goal setting to increase your change-ability.

Eitam et al’s research results were published in the March 2008 issue of Psychological Science. Read more in the press release.

Goal setting resources
Personal Goal Setting
Mind Tools: Essential Skills for an Excellent Career

For a humourous look at goal setting check Goal Setting for Skeptics by Gina Trapani at Lifehacker blog

Hang on for the ride!

Photo: Mary R. Vogt

Researchers have found that people who approach stress-filled workplace experiences with a specific mind-set can weather difficult times with improved performance and happiness and even greater enthusiasm for their jobs!

In the early 1980s, a 12-year study by psychologist Salvatore R. Maddi and others at the University of Chigago was already in progress and included workers at Illinois Bell Telephone (IBT). In 1981, IBT downsized from 26,000 employees to a little more than half that number in one year. Not surprisingly, two thirds of the workers experienced negative consequences such as “heart attacks, strokes, obesity, depression, substance abuse and poor performance reviews.”

Interestingly, the other one third did not experience negative consequences and according to Maddi and his team, even seemed to feel “renewed enthusiasm.” The researchers found that workers who thrived during this stressful experience were people who held three significant approaches to life that helped them “turn adversity into an advantage.” They all had attitudes that could be described as: commitment, control or challenge.

Commitment meant that these workers made every effort to remain involved in events, thus avoiding isolation. Control is the descriptor researchers used to describe an on-going effort to influence decisions and events. By continuing to be involved and trying to ensure some control over final decisions, these workers maintained a sense of power.

The third “C”–challenge–refers to interpreting stressful changes as an opportunity to learn. By incorporating new understanding gained from positive and negative experiences, the more resilient IBT employees were able to move on with increased knowledge and wisdom.

One or more of the three Cs, commitment, control, and challenge, can offer a life raft in the midst of chaos. They are outstanding change-ability tips because they are so powerful … and entirely within our control. We’ll see more of the three Cs appearing in various forms in future change-ability tips.

For more about this research, read: Turning Lemons into Lemonade: Hardiness Helps People Turn Stressful Circumstances into Opportunities at the APA Online website.

Notice facial expressions when listening

Photo: L.M. Solonynko

In my opinion, listening is so critical for resilience that it should really be change-ability tip #1. We all spend much of our daily lives listening. If you live with another person, pets, or even a radio, listening starts when you wake up in the morning. However, if you’re concerned about your resilience and change-ability rating right now, I propose that you consider fine tuning your listening skills.

Well developed listening skills (also called “active listening”) affect our resilience in two significant ways. First, active listening facilitates learning and information exchange–essential for navigating change. As soon as we’re feeling stressed or anxious, listening becomes more difficult. We’re preoccupied, probably fatigued, and often afraid of what is happening or what we think could happen. However, when we engage in active listening, we take in information from all sources available, including the speaker’s tone of voice, facial expressions, body language, pauses, etc. We take note of what the speaker chooses NOT to say as well. We encourage the speaker to continue by nodding or saying “uh huh … ” at appropriate moments and by resisting the urge to complete sentences for them. We look at the speaker and may lean forward slightly as occurs naturally when we’re interested in what is being communicated. Active listening provides the space for the speaker to communicate without being rushed or fear of being judged before completing a thought. Active listeners encourage free information flow, ask questions to clarify, and paraphrase to confirm their understanding. When in need of change-ability, never miss an opportunity to gather critical information as efficiently as possible.

The second way that active or “empathetic listening” as it is sometimes called, can make us more change-able is less obvious but perhaps more powerful. People who hone and practice high level listening skills are perceived as providing extraordinary value and leadership to others–probably because they do! Marshall Goldsmith, one of my favourite bloggers at HarvardBusiness.org, wrote in his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (p. 153): “The ability to make a person feel that, when you’re with that person, he or she is the most important (and the only) person in the room is the skill that separates the great from the near-great.” This quote is from his chapter on listening.

Change-ability tip #11 is challenging but essential. Active listening is like glue that builds relationships, networks, and community. You can never have too many friends and connections when you’re in the throes of change!

I’d love to hear your tips for developing better listening skills or ways that active listening has helped you be more change-able.

I was reminded of the importance of our environment while reading a recent post by Peter Bregman, a blogger at Harvard Business Publishing, called “The Easiest Way to Change People’s Behaviour.” Using personal stories, Bregman points out that human behaviour has more to do with our relationship to the environment around us than nearly anything else. “So don’t fight yourself to change your behaviour in the midst of the wrong environment; just change the environment. In the case of food, using a salad plate instead of a dinner plate might be all the diet you need.”

Most of us are familiar with strategies like using a smaller plate or putting treats “out of sight out of mind,” but it seems that our environment also affects us on a deeper level. Rachel Kaplan and husband Stephen Kaplan are psychologists and researchers in a new field called “restorative environments.” In an APA Monitor on Psychology article called “Green is Good for You,” author Rebecca A. Clay writes that the Kaplans and other psychologists “are exploring nature’s impact on people’s mental functioning, social relationships and even physical well-being.” Rachel Kaplan’s research revealed that workers with a view of nature felt more positive about their work and experienced better health and greater satisfaction with life.

Clay also describes Roger S. Ulrich’s research at the Center for Health Systems and Design at Texas A&M University where he found that “patients whose hospital rooms overlooked trees had an easier time recovering than those whose rooms overlooked brick walls. Patients able to see nature got out of the hospital faster, had fewer complications and required less pain medication than those forced to stare at a wall.” Research he conducted in Sweden found that heart surgery patients could reduce their anxiety and need for pain medication by looking at images of trees and water.

So where do we start? Look around and become aware of environments that make you feel positive or relaxed. If you are unable to change daily taxing environments, can you refuel during breaks or by regularly visiting more calming surroundings? Try pictures of scenes that help you relive more zen moments. Let me know what works for you.