Monthly Archives: August 2018

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Freedom

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Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.  Freedom is a choice, not a right.  If you choose not to be constrained, then you will not be. 

Some argue the ability to make a choice can be overridden.  When the exercise of the power needed to be free meets a stronger power, your freedom can be diminished.  That is the strength overcomes resolve. 

Take It

If you choose to behave without hindrance or restraint there should be no need to request or even demand the right to do so, rather it is a case of exercising your prerogative to act as you see fit.

Realistically, there are obstacles to this approach and caveats that should be considered.   Social and cultural considerations are valid constraints on your freedom. 

Choosing freedom does not mean disregarding your environment.  Consideration of others is a cornerstone of appropriate behaviour, albeit a subjective assessment to some degree. 

It is reasonable to have an expectation the behaving freely is a choice you can make but to take this approach without recognizing the impacts on others is not recommended.  

Overcoming Opposition

As alluded to earlier, others may exercise their power and this can appear to effectively limit your options to act freely.  For example, armed aggressors may threaten to harm you for not following their dictates. 

You may choose to fight this aggressively or passively, whatever you decide it is your choice, not theirs.   The point, you do not need to accept the limits on your freedom but you can choose to do so.

In some cases the consequences drive your choice to adhere or not, but it is still your choice to accept rather than overcome the constraints.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Overcoming Aprehension

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Basic human biology plays an autonomous role governing and controlling our behaviour.  While we might believe we are in control of our thoughts and actions there are many biological influencers which need to be overcome if we are to achieve full control

Consider the simple fight or flight response.  The body produce adrenaline involuntary as a reaction to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival. 

The hormone prepares the body to repel the threat (fight) or flee the threat (flight).  Its production is automatic and conscious thought is needed to override it’s effect, for example, a false alarm.

Communication Apprehension 

Apprehension is the anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen.  Typically it is not consciously derived but rather an unconscious control we develop over time.

In the case of communication apprehension, this may result in holding your tongue when speaking out is more appropriate.

The level of apprehension we may experience arises based on the context of a situation but the underlying individual propensity for apprehension is derived from both nature (genetic) and nurture (learned through experience).

Take Control

Clearly, there is value to these unconscious bio-influencers as they drive appropriate behavior where time is of the essence (fight or flight) or cases where we might do the wrong thing through unclear thinking.  

There is a time though when the unconscious control (e.g., involuntary communication apprehension) does not lead to the better behavior.  In this case, recognize it’s presence and conciously override it.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

A guiding light

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Leadership should not focus on personal accomplishment.  A leaders prime function is to act as a guiding light.  Keeping this concept in the forefront is the number one attribute of an effective leaders behavior.

Leaders who practice “guiding light” principles influence others by showing them how to do something successfully through the exercise of impact and influence behaviors that create acceptance and understanding, not by force. 

Everyone is Important

It is critical, to be an effective guide that you recognize the value everyone brings toward achievement of groups goals and objectives.  Leaders who believe it is all about them are less likely to be able to sustain their influence over longer periods. 

If I have been able to see farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants

Issac Newton

The concept that everyone is important only works if founded on a deep believe.  A a personal value understanding that no one overshadows anyone else is a cornerstone of combating personal bias. 

That is not to say unconscious bias will not still be present to some extent, however deep held beliefs have a greater chance of influencing unconscious thought.

Lead by Guiding

Enable others to excel by guiding them but not in an overbearing way is the best approach for everyone.

Believing everyone is important can override your unsupported bias that arises involuntarily from your sub-conscious from environmental impacts.  

This will enable you to be an effective leader for the greater good.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Taking Time

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The progression of time leads to change.  Something occurs in every moment and these occurrences represent a change.  Whether the activity was the similar to a past activity, or not, something changed.

For example, if you get up in the morning, shower, shave, dress the actions seem similar.  Each of these activities results in a change, for example from sleeping to waking state, from whiskers to clean shaven, from dirty to clean, although the activity itself and order of the activities might be unchanged.

Accepting Change

In fact the only way to freeze change would be to stop time, something that can be conceptualized but is unlikely to be actually realized.  Time marches on mercilessly.

We do of course have some control over the extent and magnitude of change we are comfortable with and can influence or impact the amount of change we are willing to accept. 

Like the daily march of time, change is inevitable and some things we must just accept, “it just is” and move on.  Being able to recognize when to accept and when to take action is critical to your ongoing peace of mind. 

Passive/ Aggressive

One common method to address change is to create the perception you accept it, while aggressively resisting through sabotage and other indirect practices

Open resistance is a far better practise both from the perspective of the challenger and the champion of the change.  Open discussion can enable the changes to occur with less anxiety and frustration by all parties while allowing for the potential of collaborative modifications.

The key is recognizing change is inevitable and resisting is a far less productive practice than participating. 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Clear thought

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Clear thought is the bedrock of logical outcomes.  Today’s environment has a multitude of complexities that have developed over-time and can lead to sensory overload. 

As our society has advanced,  so have the associated cultural complexities.  Obvious examples of this are the behaviour changes associated with automation, communication advances and the omnipresent social media options.

Focus

Intuitively, the first step to a clear mind is to focus on nothing.  This is the basic principle of meditation.  This technique causes your brain becomes cleared of all thoughts except what you are focusing on.

As you are focusing on nothing,  beyond involuntary thoughts, which you cannot control, the brain becomes thought free.

Meditation is often thought of a a relaxation technique, this is simply because the elimination of every day sensory overload, which we are all subject to, is nothing if not relaxing.

Clarity without Meditation

Meditation is used only a an example of a mind clearing technique.  It is not always practical to meditate and is best done in a quiet isolated place where you will not be bothered.

The principle of clearing the clutter that burdens your thinking is the same.  It requires focus.  When you are seeking to employ logic, and are not able to find a quite place or time to enter a meditation state, simply focus on the objective.

That is, place all your attention toward the data set you want to understand, parse and resolve.  This singular focus will enable you to follow a logic path to the best outcome.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Focus on the A

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Experiential learning is a extremely powerful way to identify opportunities for improvement.  Through observation and feedback you can uncover things to change, try or even not to do.

Surprisingly, often the learning is something you already knew and you might  think “ I knew that, why did I ignore my inclination and proceed anyway”?

There is no answer to this auestion, that I am aware of, beyond the fact it is human nature to not always pay attention to your inner thoughts.  Sometime they are just  present to be ignored.

Play to your Audience

The other day I encountered a clear case of experiential learning.  It was about something I understood intuitively, but ignored.

I failed to focus on the audience perspective during a recent information share to a group of colleagues.  I often interract with groups of technologists with a strong foundational knowledge of digital software and infrastructure.

Without thought to the core background of the audience I proceeded on the assumption basic technology concepts did not need to be explained.

Assumptions are Dangerous

Assuming knowledge leads to misunderstanding, confusion and worse disenfranchising the audience such that they are not receptive to any message.

The opportunity to share information for the benefit of all could well be lost because of the simple misstep of assuming rather than confirming, ( i.e knowing with certainty)

Through observation and subsequent feedback it was clear I had been guilty of this simple principle.  This is not to suggest being overly simple but rather tailor the information exchange to match the audiences perspective.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Action/Delay/Reaction

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When the results of an action are delayed there is a risk the outcomes might not be what you expect and a danger it will be too late to make a correction

Trade Wars

The looming effects of various trade actions, either recently implemented or being contemplated are unknown.

Of course, various stakeholders have made various prognosis of the outcomes but these often differ and may well be forrgotten by the time the impacts are felt.

The real danger in trade action is over governance.  Typically free markets self adjust according to the environmental factors .  This is both natural and expected.

Playing with Fire

By altering the natural order there is a real and present danger of causing significant damage. The plan (I would cynically call it a hope) is the tarriffs or other types of controls will alter economic activity in a favourable way.

Sadlly this is often not the case.

Governing by Tweets

A recent tweet by Donald Trump to the effect the trade sanctions he had authorized were working makes me shudder.  

Declaring policy victory for actions which we cannot know the real impact of for at least one to five years is ludicrous.  Posturing for sure with a digestable sound bite, but really is anyone fooled. 

Unfortunately there may be some.  The bad news is those whom are fooled by such silly posturing fuel such actions, and by the time the negative impacts are clear it is often too late to remedy.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

I believe in better

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As a core personal value, I believe in continuous improvement as a base philosophy.  Back in 1967, the Beatles captured this sentiment perfectly on the song “Getting Better”

The line “Things are getting better all the time” is both clearly optimistic but also reinforces ones believe in the power and joy of life.  Why not embrace this concept, what is the downside?

It’s Attitude

Blindly believing things will get better is very different from an underlying attitude that it is possible to make everything better over time.  The behaviors you practice, based on a positive attitude are more likely to make things better.

Success 

Believing better will happen magically is not the point of this post.   As a foundation to what you do, believing success is achievable (i.e., a positive and optimistic attitude) is a key to achieving positive change, but not an absolute guarantee.

Visualizing the goal, accepting it is achievable and than making it happen is a standard path to improvement, also an approach more likely to be successful than otherwise.

If you don’t believe in “better” the chances of driving improvement are diminished.  Having faith does not equal execution but not having faith probably leads to failure.

Desire

Coupling a desire for improvement with recognition that things are continually getting better dramatically increases your opportunity to be part of continuous improvement.

Ultimately, believing in better, having a desire for improvement will lead you to joyous outbursts of song.

It’s a little better all the time”

Lennon/McCartney
Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Taking or Making Opportunities

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When a set of circumstances  make it possible to do something, it is an opportunity.  Do opportunities arise because we create them or are they present and we only need to decide to take them.

Of course it is a bit of both.  Creating your own opportunities can be both challenging and rewarding.  Recognizing the presence of an opportunity  and then acting on it is not as easy as it sounds it requires self awareness.

You shiold be atuned to the potential for an opportunity to appear at any time.

Embracing the Possible

Whether engineering your own opportunities, that is influencing circumstances in a way that enable you to do the thing you want to do, or just taking advantage of a chance opportunity, the motivation lies in the outcome.

That is the opportunity itself, the thing that is being made possible entices you because it is something you desire.  While something may become possible if it is not desirable it is not really an opportunity from your perspective.

Take Advantage

When something you seek becomes possible, don’t hesitate to embrace  the chance.  Do not ponder or wonder why the something you seek is now possible, rather, simply procced.

Good fortune in the form of opportunity, whether self created or providential is not omnipresent and so should not be ignored. When the opportunity arises, embrace it.

An opportunity missed is an opportunity wasted.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Managing Emotion

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One of the most forceful influences on human behaviour is emotion. Emotions are both natural and instinctive.  They are a state of mind derived from one’s circumstances.

Our interractions  with others or things that happen or we think will happen define our mood.  Happiness, sadness, fear, anxiety, anger are just a few examples of the pelthora of English words we use to describe our mood setting emotions.

Regretting your Behaviour

Most often,  the behaviours we regret most are those which arise from strong emotional moods.  A key attribute of emotions is the way they shut down the logical thinking centers of the brain.

This makes it harder to make a good decision because the analytic functions are shut down.  Often the focus of the emotions, (anger, hurt, humiliation etc) result in very focused behaviour, not focused on the root cause but rather on resolving the emotion.

Reasoned analysis enables a weighing of benefits while balanced against negative consequences of your actions.  This is likely to reduce the risk of you having regrets later.

Managing your emotions

For each of us, the techniques best used to allow emotions to subside before responding are unique.  That is ever individual needs to customize their appoach to holding a resonse to circumstaces until it can be a reasoned one.

The commonalities for everyone is to first recognize your emotional state, second deal with your emotions yourself, third consider a reasoned response and finally, act.