Monthly Archives: December 2016

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Learning to talk

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Our two and a half year old grand-daughter is really beginning to talk. She has a large vocabulary and is starting to string words together into a sentence.

Word Association

I am really enjoying the  initial word association.  Recently our granddaughter was taken back to the local community centre for some first time skating.  She had been there before to visit the water park.

As we approached the building she pointed and exclaimed “water” several times. I was quite puzzled.  Had she suddenly gotten a tremendous thirst.

Her father clarfied for me water was a reference to swimming here before, in the water.  When we left the building, this place had become more about ice, the concept for that moment.

Observing this self awareness of her surroundings develop is facinating to me.  Clearly the brain is developing and storing simple associations.

Over time these will continue to become more and more complex.  Ultimately this will continue throughout her life.   The capacity to gather and store new learnings continues to old age and in some cases even beyond.

Understanding

I find watching the developing comprehension is a lot of fun .  Simple concepts like hot, cold, fast and slow for example are initially developed from very a  basic understanding and slowly grow into more complex analysis.

In the beginning it looks like a lot of circumstantial recognition is going on.  It’s a cup of coffee – hot.  That is, this or that.  Gradually this develops into a deeper comprehension of the context.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Eustress – gotta have it (as opposed to distress)

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Janos Sayle, working at McGill University in Montreal Canada discovered and documented two distinct kinds of stress.  A simplified version of  these types defines them as a stress reaction resulting from good news (eustress) or resulting from bad news (distress).

Living without eustress

A colleague commented today how it nice it would be to have no stress.  Relaxation, now that is the goal.  Personally I am not totally certain how beneficial this perspective is.

There have been numerous studies which appear to definitely demonstrate that retiree’s who do not experience eustress tend to die earlier than those that do.

Good stress is motivating.  Simply it give you a reason to live and so supports your desire to do so.  Bad stress can result in undesirable physical impacts, lack of good stress also does.

Wandering Aimlessly

Intuitively wandering aimlessly with no pressures, demands, purpose or constraints,( for example being a beachcomber traveling the world searching for the perfect climate, pace, culture)  might seem like an ideal situation.

In reality this is really not the case, even the beachcomber has some stressful activities – the search itself for the beach for example is not fully without stress.

Back to Balance

Of course the level of eustress must be managed and balanced with low stress situations (whether good or bad stress).  That being said though, there is a strong case for the benefit of experiencing some level of eustress .

Avoid it altogether at your own peril.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

The Light is Coming!

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Yesterday was the winter solstice, the one time a year with the least amount of daylight and most amount of darkness.  I enjoy the day after the winter soltice because it begins the journey to the summer solstice in June when the day and night situation is reversed.

Stonehenge and the Ancient Druids

To the ancient druid civilization that built the monuments at Stonehenge, it appeared as if the Sun and Moon stopped in their flight across the sky—this the longest night of the year and was a time of both anticipation and rejoicing at the Sun’s rebirth out of the Goddess.

On the winter solstice each year their is a combined Druidic and Pagan ceromony built around he Sun’s representation as the male divinity, or celestial ruler.

The assembled crowd view the sunrise from above  the stones.  The Winter Solstice is the most important day of the year at Stonehenge and a truly magical time to be there. It’s an ad hoc celebration that brings together England’s New Age Tribes (neo-druids, neo-pagans, Wiccans) with ordinary families, tourists, travelers and party people – 100’s of them!

Of course this is on my bucket list.

Celebrate the Coming of the Light

For me the darkness is now behind us.  I have thrived through another year and the light beckons me toward better things.

Celebrate, dance in the daylight!

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Sleeping on it

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I am never really sure what happens when I sleeping .  Afterall it is a state of unconciousness.  Of course we dream and our brains have periods of activity during sleep.

This has been proven over the years through numerous studies about sleeping.  Most people know,  a lack sleep can lead to ill effects like bad temper , hallucinations and so on.

What exactly are dreams and why do we sleep is not yet solved.

Sleep is critical, but what is it?  Todays post is triggered by the fact I woke up this morning with a “to do” list in mind.  This is not unique and does occur from time to time.

I Wonder

Why did my particular events or stored memories, feelings or ideas at this point in time trigger analysis, decisions and determination of actions  which I ultimately woke up with top of mind.

On any particular evening I go to sleep with things on my mind.  Only occassional do I wake up with them thought through ( unconciously) with the solutions present at the forefront of  my thoughts.

Sleeping on it

In essence some things benefit from “sleeping on it” and some do not.  The frustrating part is I seem unable to select those challenges, problems and issues that would benefit from silent unconcious analysis and those that remain unsolved.

Somehow my unconcious brain is making these selections.  It really is nice to wake with the problem gone and the solution at hand.  Unfortunately though, as I noted, it’s not always the most troubling problem that gets solved in this way

Too Bad!

Oh to be able to choose which things to magically solve while blissfully unconcious and those which unfortunately keep you awake.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

The spirit is in you

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This time of year is often called the holiday season because of the nunmber of religious and social holidays that occur in November , December and January.

The christian celebration of Christmas is widely participated in but in general whatever your religious or cultural background this is considered a time of peace and joy.

Feeling the spirit

A collegue commented today how this year he was not feeling the spirit.  It was not something he could put an exact explanation to, it just felt like a busy time at work and in his personal life.

My snap comment, albeit a bit tongue and cheek, was “the spirit is in you, what you feel and how you manage the spirit within is truly a personal choice.”

Your surroundings or You

The weather (burr) the length of the day, our experiences and memories, the people around us, all influence how we choose to feel (and of course much more).

Regardless of the impact of the environmental inflences,  or lack thereof, a warm and happy holiday spirit is yours to choose.  So choose wisely.

Why now?

The holiday spirit is driven by some annual events, gathering with family, eating sumptuous food and exchanging gifts.  These are part of the standard experience this time of year.

Doing these things more frequently can lessen the impact. Anticipation  of them happening is  one of the keys to the happiness and pleasure we feel about them.

So take advantage of the environmental influences and let your holiday spirit bloom.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

A fine line

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Most people would agree that communicating with each other is a cornerstone of human existance.  That is, a critical behaviour that is one of the keys to a happy life.

Balancing your personal needs with those of others, while communicating with others,  often requires you to tread a fine line between getting the message across and not offending.

What are you trying to do

Communications  are either an information exchange (typically two way) or providing information or direction (typically one way).  These are not exclusive practices and a single communication event can include both types.

Information exchanges work best as conversations or discussions whether in group meetings , one on one verbal exchanges or even online conferences.

One way information or providing directions can occur in all the above ways but also be used effectivelyin email exchanges.  Email exchanges usually fall apart when one or the other party attempts to make the interchange two way.  Email is not a good vehicle for that.

Treading the Fine Line

If your intent is to provide a clear message or direction, often some finese is required to ensure receptivity.  The key is early recognition of low acceptance or receptivity to your information.

When you identify this the best approach is to shift gears and enter an “info exchange” mode.

Exchanging information, by it’s very definition, is two way and when done effectively, adversarial and attack type communications can be avoided.

The goal is to achieve consensus around the information/message you are conveying.  Even though you might have begun the discussion with a singular, one way perspective, shifting to a more collaberative method (while not compromising your intent) is the fine line that more often then not leads to good results.

As noted, it is almost impossible to have an effective information exchange when the communication vehicle is email and in these cases I would exit that method as quickly as possible and move to dialogue.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

A touch of Philosophy

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Reality is of our own making.  Facts are real based on our perception of them.  You might argue human society is an integrated whole, for me, ultimately it’s all about me.

Only you can control your thoughts and behaviours. External influences, albeit real, do not make changes in and of themselves. Only you can act.

Everything can come to pass in the fullness of time .  With a little patience and some saliva  ants can devour an elephant.

Sound like nonsense?

Given the nature of thought,  there are truly no absolutes.  If I think it,  then it is real.  Probably not, surely some balances exists between facts commonly accepted as “true” and our own perspectives, perceptions and interpretations of these facts.

The cynical me argues a rational argument exists for any reality.  For example I could state the sky is orange , not blue.  Since I believe it, is it true?

By common agreement the sky is blue, therefore I am at fault with the facts.  How so, just because the there is a plurality of belief of among other humans as to the color label am I  wrong?

This of course is where standards and agreements come into play.  Total anarchy around facts would lead to disintegration of culture.  Without some common acknowledgements inter-operation of individuals becomes virtually impossible.

A common Reality must Exist and be recognized as such

” I think, therefore I am” is a broad and universal statement of existence.  If it is false, I do not exist.  If I do not exist, then you do not exist as your existence ( at least validation of it) depends on my existence.

Ah, the joy of the circular argument.

Today’s post while largely a bit of whimsy and a bit of fun does stem from real conversations I have had with my colleagues and some others over the last week.  An interesting week to say the least.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Guiding your effort

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Management information is used by organizational leaders to help them gauge the efficiency and effectiveness  of the  things being managed, that is the resources within their purview (e.g., people, product, physical assets,etc.)

Ultimately this information is used to inform decision making.  In today’s environment the information is largely in digital form and the tools managers use are called management information systems (MIS)

Technology is an Enabler

This categorization (MIS) puts a technology spin on the information gathering, storage, sorting and retrieval. (often referred to as Extract, transform, load – ETL)

However, management information is not about or even truly bound to the technology.  Technology is just a tool, and that is an important distinction . Some often have difficulty with this separation.

When I first started in business, (in the dark ages) the tools used in the gathering and recording were pen and ink, the sorting was pure brain power.

Interpretation of the information was largely manual, as it continues to be today although automation, i.e., artificial intelligence, is beccoming more and more prevalent.

An Example

There are of course a myriad of information types, interpretations and uses.  The following example is intended to be illustrative of data you might collect, transform and analyze, for management purposes,  highlighting the benefits of doing this.

Whether this is an automated process, fully manual or a combination is not the point, rather just why you would collect management data and how you can use it to, well, manage.

Time Reporting

How do the human resources in your organization spend their time? First you could ask each person record their time by category (e.g. customer support, project work ,operations, administration) over a defined defined period.

By amalgamating the teams results you can get an idea on what type of work your group is focusing on.  This does not account for individual variations ( it is a group measure) but on the whole you can determine if the groups efforts are directed according to your strategic expectations.

If not, you can investigate, determine the cause and make course directions.  Without this type of data you are just guessing, so it really is invaluable.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Jumping to Solutions

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You have probably heard the tired old phrase “jumping to conclusions”.  An interesting variation involves figuring out the answer before understanding what the problem or issue is.

I call this “jumping to solutions”.  Point of fact, this is built into the human psyche.  Many psychology experiments have been conducted to prove this behaviour is part of humans thinking process.

Of course these experiments were often structured to prove this was the right answer to the question.  Never the less,  my personal observations over time do validate this to be an accurate depiction of most peoples natural tendency.

Building Solutions

Often when we collaborate on defining what we need (i.e., the requirements) our intuitive understanding of the solution comes into play.  This is true in both work and personal context.

This can and often does result in the solution not being what we need and maybe not even addressing/resolving the problem.  Consider the following hypothetical exaggeration (for illustrative purposes).

You have been searching for transportation.  Meeting the needs of your wife and two small children form part of the requirements.  In your mind though the solution needs to be a luxury vehicle.

There probably are some good non-luxury vehicle solutions (and a luxury vehicle is probably not actually a requirement) yet when gathering the requirements somehow they indicate the solution should be a luxury sedan. You force it to be so because you have already decided the solution.

A key driver of arriving at this solution was the fact it was the answer you envisioned even before figuring out what you really needed.

Determining the solution before you know what you really need and want; be careful,  it can be costly and ultimately not meet the real requirements.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Location, Location, Location

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The criticality of a meeting environment and meeting tone, as supporting factors toward the sucessful achievement of the sessions goals, really came home to roost for me today.

I have been facilitating a series of working sessions with a team of six over the last three months.  The goal is process development / improvement.

Everyone is Important

When working with a group of subject matter experts of diverse background, it has been my experience best results are derived when everyone actively participates.

Not to put too large a point on it, but for me actively equates to passionately, avidly being in the moment from the sessions beginning to it’s end.

Atmosphere

Today’s session was in a different location.  The normal meeting room was not available.   The smaller more intimate room changed the entire meeting.

The sessions to date while effective and definitely resulting in good progress were quite different.  The mood at today’s session was lighter and full participation by everyone occured throughout.

It was such a noticeable difference I have changed the location for future meetings.  I am aware of the importance of a meetings set-up and location but today’s session really opened my eyes as to how powerfull the proper circumstances can impact  results.

In today’s case it was clearly a positive impact, I am sure though it could just as easily had negative effects.  In fact this probably was true of the previous location we used.

I guess, just like they say when you are buying a new home, location is everything.