Just Seven Things

Exploring why and how we do what we do, and how we can do it better

23 Jul 2012
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Mind Control and the Completeness Obsession

Network Neurons by Gerard79

Network Neurons by Gerard79

I’m thinking a lot about whether I trust myself.

Not in the bigger sense of being out of control at certain points (I’ve controlled those remaining outposts of wildness over the years: only now to be seen when an invited house guest..) No, I mean whether I trust my mind enough. When I wrote about trusting my creativity within confined time slots I kind of papered over the nagging little voice.The nagging little voice is an element within me that is both good and bad. One of my strengths and also my hindrances? I talk a good game about taking an 80:20 approach. To operating within the time slots. But the little voice is always there in different guises.And what does it say? First, it continually asks ‘why’? Good in a number of ways, but it wants to know how and why things work from a people perspective. All the time. And sometimes it doesn’t relent until I’ve settled. The bad side of this is that it is over-rationalising and attempts to compartmentalise too rapidly at times. It attempts to exert too much mind control and not allow the grey. Read more…

Posted in Conscious and Unconscious, Control, Mindfulness, Stress and tagged , , , ,
05 Jun 2012

Four ways to read differently to be successful

With the amount of great content available we need to examine our strategies for consuming information.

An article on Forbes.com today questions whether you are reading fast enough to be successful

I’ve found four things really help effective information consumption:

1. Always have a reading objective. If you’re reading a book on innovation, ask yourself what you want to be left with after reading it (a checklist for launching your own product/ a basic understanding etc.). For pleasure reading however, just give yourself permission to lose yourself.

2. Fit into the gaps of your day. Have Pocket on your smartphone with saved articles of interest for a spare minute on the subway. Have a great feed reader like FeeddlerPro on your homescreen for a quick scan while you’re in the ATM queue.

3. Switch ways of taking information in. Audio books or your Kindle’s text-to-speech function whilst you exercise, walk to work or do the gardening allows you to absorb information with less effort.

4. A speed-reading technique that works for me for quick consumption of information: read it back to front. Reverse-reading by conclusion, paragraph opening sentences and sub-headings seems to crank my attention up a level and gives me a faster understanding.

Posted in Communication, Control, Deliberate Practice, Focus, Habits and Routines, Knowledge Management and tagged , | Leave a comment
10 May 2012

The Role of Leadership Vision

I was thinking about the concept of leadership and the importance of the leader’s vision to the group of people being lead. Specifically, the multiple levels in which leadership vision works. I know a lot of this is well-trodden territory, but it helped my train of thought on something else to write this down:

  1. There is the obvious creation of a fully-sensory vision (if done well) of where that group of people are going. If the full group are engaged in the vision then there is a shared view of a successful future outcome. A shared goal.
  2. In being created by one person, the groups’ actions should have an extra degree of alignment. Aligned actions to achieve the goal.
  3. A leader’s vision enables the individual to fill in the gaps within a defined framework/ journey direction. It is this that enables the engagement and commitment required for major action. An engagement framework .
  4. It makes action towards the goal by the group easier. Sharing or signing up for a collective or corporate vision make it easier to focus on the doing, rather than worrying about where you’re going. Making actions easier.
  5. There is the need and specific accountability of the leader to keep on communicating that vision to the group he or she is leading. An important element of communication is the flexibility to communicate in a way that works for the recipients of the communication. The effort behind this communication re-affirms/ strengthens and makes more real the vision for the leader. A self-reaffirming vision for the leader.
  6. The act of constantly communicating and aligning execution behind the vision also facilitates a level of analysis, introspection and criticism of the vision against new facts and changes in the environment as they arise. This sets the stage for any potential tweaks to the vision, or strategies to deliver that vision, in closer to real-time. A self-adjusting mechanic.
Posted in Leadership, Successful Outcomes and tagged , | Leave a comment

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