Separation of Powers in Education, Cognitive Competencies, Selective Reinforcement of Spontaneous Behaviour and Open-Hearted Relationships of Unconditional Love… they’re all “hobby horses” that I have ranted on about from time to time, yet I haven’t always explored them as much or taken them as far as I could. Continue reading “Some ideas that I’ve been developing…” »
Archive for the 'Creativity and genius' Category
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Listening to a Stanford podcast from the founder of Tesla Motors, I made the following notes that I thought worth writing down…
- Do something you’re passionate about
- Do something meaningful
- Be bold
- Think your ideas through
- Build your company while you build your product
- Face reality everyday
- Hire the best
- Aggressively follow all leads
Makes a nice snap back to reality after yesterday’s session with China NLP on values…
A few minutes ago, I was asked to attend an induction ceremony. As I perused the agenda for the early morning meeting (my unborn own child would be considerate enough to wait until after 8:45am on a Saturday morning to be born!!!) outlined eight outcomes… of which at most one were relevant to me. For me, that’s the sort of meeting that I try fervently to avoid, so I phoned the person who called the meeting to confirm whether I needed to attend… and the response that I got astounded me: “it’s procedure”.
“it’s procedure”!!!!!
Maybe waisting your time is “procedure” for some, but I like to not be one of those people… but it got me thinking about motivations. I realised – as I was speaking with the MBA-educated meeting convener – that she was motivated by fulfilling the criteria (going through the motions or just doing stuff), rather than actually achieving outcomes.
It really got me annoyed for a few minutes… until I got curious.
I noticed that some people sincerely believe that life is accomplished by going through the motions… it’s more than the difference between being efficient and being effective – I’m really talking about alignment. I’m talking about the importance of getting your actions and outcomes aligned with your overall direction or vision, and consistent with your values.
So where are you at? What are your values? How aligned are you? How aligned is your organisation?
There are now more than a hundred billionaires in China – and the youngest was born in the 1980s! And you can bet that they are lean, focused and disciplined to get profit… and profit is where you are better aligned to deliver value than your competitors. Fundamentally, that’s why capitalism can work so well… it rewards and challenges us to create ever-greater value.
In a world of hypercompetition, free design (as it is once you get to scale) and a boundary-less world alignment is everything… to deliver alignment you have to design it, necessitating self-awareness and the determination to understand your underlying values.
Because if you don’t, you can be sure that someone else will.
We talk a lot about software for your mind as a metaphor for your thought patterns – cultivating emotions (like compassion, tenacity, playfulness, love etc) or refining our thinking skills (creativity, learning, problem solving…)
However there’s some great software out there. One of them – Mindjet’s MindManager is sensational! It helps you organise, implement and communicate your ideas and concepts. I’ve just fallen in love with it (and their viewer that comes with a 5-day trial of the full software): Now I want a version for my smartphone…
If you’re looking for a more metaphorical software upgrade, I like the Four Hour Work Week generally, and particularly this post on Tim’s blog about finding your rhythm for peak creativity. His ChangeThis manifesto is pretty cool too. Though if you want a more-easily accessed stimulus for creativity, try sitting for a few hours in the couches of the Grand Cafe on the 54th floor of Jin Mao as I did this afternoon… truly inspiring!
I always loved collecting certificates. When I was in Scouts, I collected as many badges as I had sleeve space. When I was at school, I collected lines of writing for my blazer. At university, I similarly collected an array of parchment (five so far). And in karate, I didn’t want just a ‘black belt’ and completed my Yondan (fourth degree black belt rank) in two systems.
But as I was preparing for my last karate grading, one of my great instructors asked me whether I was chasing the rank or whether the rank was chasing me. The word “dan” in Japanese refers to the degree of black belt, so “shodan” is a first degree, “nidan” is second degree and so on. This of course meant that he was able to ask me: “Is the dan chasing Dan, or is Dan chasing the dan?”
Being conditioned to be ‘an achiever’ from a very young age, this was very confronting – I knew nothing other than to chase “the dan”. Yet over time, it dawned on me that having a sheet of paper without having the competence that the sheet of paper represents is meaningless, while being competent makes the sheet of paper a largely redundant formality. Certificates can make great wallpaper.
Collect competence, not just certificates.
The New York Times has just published an article acknowledging the role played by Ayn Rand in the thinking of modern capitalists. My Grandfather gave me The Fountainhead when I was an arrogant 13-year-old with a warning that the first half was boring but the second half made it worthwhile. He was right on both counts.
While “the virtue of selfishness” might be very unpopular as a phrase, I was transformed by this book and still have it together with my Grandfather’s copy of Atlas Shrugged in a special place in my bookcase at home.
It’s not a complete philosophy. Assumptions arrogantly taken for “axioms” are adopted by ignorant idealogues undermine the intellectual integrity that Objectivists purport to uphold. However, as James M. Kilts is quoted as noting in the NYT article, Ayn Rand’s works uphold a very important value that has few other sources:
“that excellence should be your goal”
Spiritual masters, NLPers and psychologists are largely and unusually in agreement (though they won’t let you know!): Self-actualisers, prime mover geniuses and happy “ordinary” people everywhere live in accordance with the vision that Rand had for the world… rather than being the victim of what other people want for you or think of you, may we all take personal responsibilty for how you feel, what you think and the life that you live.
Be excellent.
Great speeches don’t solve problems, though bold statements and profound ideas can. As I was watching Andrew’s presentation on TED, I was reminded of my days of contemplating political economy and constitutional theory and back to conversations with my Sri Lankan law school professor… ah, the good old days!
Putting more resources into a dysfunctional system makes that system more dysfunctional just as driving faster in the wrong direction just takes you further from where you want to go.
Solutions to the real problems come by lifting our level of thinking and clarifying our desired outcome. Becoming a great problem solver can come by elevating your thinking, getting better at clarifying your outcomes and framing the situation in a manner that so that it fits familiar situations (through models or frameworks).
Andrew spoke about how giving aid to Africa strengthened corrupt governments and undermined the need to build the rules for sustainable wealth creation systems. But I especially loved his simple ending: That great speeches should be like miniskirts – short enough to arouse interest but long enough to cover the subject.
I’ve been fascinated by genius and personal excellence for almost 15 years now yet there is still very little of a satisfactory definition. Last night I was speaking with some friends on the subject of personal excellence and we really struggled with the very definition of the term. Somebody said it was getting above 80% (or 90% or 95%)Â - because that’s what it is at school. But that’s just a number – and not a very reliable or useful number at that!
To me, excellence has to be more than ‘good’ – being good, or even very good. Being very good is so common that it doesn’t even rate a mention these days: anybody can do it.
For me, excellence has something to do with finding your voice. Finding that part of yourself that is unique and developing yourself so that you can share it with the world. There are countless pathways to finding your voice… from NLP to work to psychotherapy to karate to mysticism to religion to intimate relationships and even sex itself.
I find that we are all drawn towards finding our voice. We are pulled towards what we enjoy and pushed away from that which we find painful. Sometimes, our conditioning or external conditions lead us to ignore these messages – that’s why we need to shut up and listen as my friend Jason says – but ultimately the message is still there.
Once we have enough excitement and diversity, enough security and stability, enough power and enough love, most of us are drawn to two higher needs: to expand and to impact. To expand is to learn and grow so that we can become greater; to impact is to leave an impression and a contribution in the world.
Personal excellence can come back values. While reviewing my NLP Master Practitioner materials yesterday, I was reminded of the ‘levels of consciousness’ concept. This model holds that individuals and societies and even the world progresses as it changes its way of thinking.
Last night I presented a training session. Here’s the 100 word summary…Â
Transform creativity into innovation by organizing your ideas. Whether you’re in a meeting, brainstorming or thinking on your own, convert your ideas into action by identifying it as one of three things:
- An outcome or action for your task list,
- Filed for periodic review, or
- Filed for reference.
Once you have actions on your task list, delegate them to the right person for the job. When you focus on what’s most important and do what you’re best at, you might start to notice yourself showing your talent – and even genius – being revealed.