Monthly Archives: July 2019

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Red Herring

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Something that is misleading or distracting from a relevant topic or important discussion can often lengthen discussions and delay conclusions.

A red herring may be an unintentional logical fallacy or in some cases, it could be a purposeful misdirection  (e.g., a literary device that leads readers or audiences toward a false conclusion).

Staying on Track

Recognizing and highlighting red herrings during an earnest discussion (whether group or individual) is a key facilitation skill.  Identification of a red herring is the first step to calling a halt.

Unfortunately, however well-intentioned misleading distractions only make achieving acceptable conclusions more difficult and can even lead to lower quality results.

Keeping a discussion on target is not only a helpful skill but can be critical to achieving a successful resolution to the topic under review.

Focus on the Objective

There can be some subjective analysis as to whether points raised constitute a red herring.  Most likely the progenitor of the comment considers it both important and valid.

Identifying red herrings in a way the discussion does not get derailed or “go down a rat hole” is an important skill.  Be gentle, not adversarial.   Focus on the objective.

The discussion has a purpose and objective.  Red Herrings may be valid points but the key is they do not focus on the purpose nor are they likely to help achieve the objective.

Identifying and disarming discussions that are getting off track (missing the purpose and objective) can be done most effectively by reiterating the goal.

Use care though that your intervention is facilitative and not argumentative.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Bug or Enhancement

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The term bug has long been used by engineers to describe an error or flaw,  that causes an incorrect or unexpected result or unintended behavior.

In the 1940s Grace Hopper immortalized the term software bug when she wrote about how a moth in the MarkII computer caused erroneous results.

Although this was not the first use by engineers of the term bug to describe a fault it has become famously ingrained as the first instance of a software bug.

Perception

If we are able to change our perception of a result from the unexpected to the expected arguably it is no longer a bug.  If the software performs unexpectedly we can save a lot of time and effort by simply successfully marketing it as an enhancement.

Assuming perception is a reality, using this approach bugs can actually be perceived as worthwhile and used to help sell the product.  In this case, all you need to do is sell the unexpected behavior as a positive aspect of the software program.

For example, you could say this gaming program is great because it is unpredictable.  You can never be sure if it will work or not, you don’t necessarily get the same experience repeatedly.  Exciting eh.

The Emperor has no clothes

Undoubtedly there will be detractors who smirk at this approach.   These are the folks that read the children’s tale “The Emperor has no clothes” and laughed at the Emperor’s plight.

The Emperor in the story believed the lack of clothes was in fact an enhancement.  It made him happy.   Who am I to question that.  When software I develop has bugs, I sell them as enhancements and move on.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Silence speaks volumes

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Not speaking appears to be a less than effective way to communicate.  In fact not making or being accompanied by sound can send a powerful message.

Phrases like “strong and silent”, “silence is golden”, “silent night” associate the term with positive attributes.  The reality is silence is a powerful tool in your communication kit bag.

Repeating

Like banging your head against a wall does little more than hurt you, being part of a discussion where the point is reinforced through verbal repetition can be painful.

For many, there is an innate belief that if you repeat it enough then it will become true.  Interesting logic, however, in my experience this has never been the case.

Surprisingly to some, silence often proves more powerful in selling an argument than filling the space verbally, most of which (if not all) just get tuned out.

Speak and Wait

Silence is often treated by others as wisdom.  We generally don’t even know we are doing this.  Speak a few words, then wait.  Let others fill the silence.

Many times I have observed this technique to return powerful and positive results.  Often others will flesh in your arguments without prompting.  All you need to do is wait, quietly and voila.

Written or Spoken

Words are most powerful when there are few of them but the meaning is clear.  Consider the simple phrases; “I go now”,  “Let’s go”, Should we go?” or just “Go!”

The most powerful and commanding of the four is just the one word that works every time. The other phrases could lead to questions like; “Where are you going?”, ” Why should we go?”.

The single word go brooks no challenge, it contains its own simple clarity.  Just (implied) GO.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Building a Strategy

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A strategy will define the approach to achieving your needs but considered in the context of the bigger picture (e.g., personal life, business life, social life)  over specified time horizons (e.g., immediate, mid and long term).

Your strategy defines the top-level goal (e.g., obtain a post-secondary education) at a conceptual level  including what are the key objectives (e.g., type of education, cost considerations, quality expectations, etc) over a specified time frame (e.g., the next 1 to 5 years.)

Just Do It

Often strategies are considered a waste of time.  Why spend time figuring out the future when I can just plunge in.  Of course, often hindsight raises its ugly head and we wonder if we could have made better choices.

Well thought out strategies define our expectations but more importantly the supporting rationale for them.  Contemplation now can avoid pain later.

How to Get There

The strategy is directional.  It includes not only the objective but the key attributes of it.  These can be easily used to develop the actions that need to be undertaken to meet those goals (e.g., acquiring funds, educational pre-requisites,  health considerations )

Strategies help us avoid figuring things out on the fly, always fun but not always effective.  Making it up as we go along can be invigorating but also lead to regrets.

Flexible

Most importantly, treat your strategy as flexible.  Things change both for you personally and environmentally.  As the context changes so should the strategy.

Without a strategy, I wish you good luck.  With a strategy, luck is not needed. your success is planned.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Making the World Better Economically – 75 years on

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In July 1944 in Bretton Woods New Hampshire 730 delegates gathered for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference.

This conference resulted in the establishment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development later renamed the World Bank.

The discussions attempted the creation of an international trade organization which did initiate the International Agreement on Trades and Tariffs (IATT) although a formal organization did not actually get created until 1995 as the World Trade Organization

Why

Economic unilateralism was considered by many as a root cause of the turbulence and warlike behaviors of the late 19th and early 20th century.

While structuring international support for post-second world war recovery was top of mind the conference intent was to bring 43 countries negotiators together to create ways to move global economies from unilateral to multilateral foundations.

Countries operating on the “it’s all about me” basis is not the best way to achieve universal posterity.

Conflict arises from the insular behavior and the focus is not on things that are good for everyone but rather good for us.

The current US thinking, spearheaded by Donald Trump is exemplary of this.  Perhaps seventy-five years later the visions and dreams of 75 years ago are about to be crushed.

Learning from the Past

The Bretton Woods conference focused on the consequences of unilateral economic behaviour and strove to develop ways to overcome the negative impacts of the “me first” approach.

We have overcome much of the root causes of international aggression in the past 75 years and perhaps our success is making us complacent.  Now is the time to make the IMF, World Bank and WTO stronger, not to do away with them.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Without Questions there are no Answers

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It is simple and intuitive but surprising how often we don’t adhere to the simple imperative.   Answers start with the question.  Determining the question can in itself be a significant task.

Those seeking post-graduate designations at institutions of higher learning are quite familiar with this concept.  Selecting a research topic (i.e., the question) is the first step to conducting research.

Value-Based

Seeking a worthwhile question is a great way to get answers.  Just raising a question for the sake of the question itself can waste time and effort and ultimately has little value.

Quora (quora.com) is a forum for raising questions of any type or category and drawing on the memberships collective knowledge for answers.  Quora has an interesting model to encourage participation.

By invitation only, selected members are asked to become Quora partners and get paid for asking questions.  (Full disclosure, I am a Quora partner so am fully familiar with this process.)

Question is King

Quora recognizes their answer forum is of little value without an ongoing stream worthwhile questions (Unless of course, you are playing Jeopardy which is all about answers).

Post-secondary educational institutes which focus on research recognize the same.  Without questions to answer, there is no research to do and doctoral programs are largely unnecessary.

Caution

One of the things I observe with the Quora forum is the compensation model can and does lead to some frivolous, low-value questions.  I wonder why they are being asked.

Often these valueless questions accumulate zero answers as respondents do not want to waste there time. Compensation is based on answers and reviews so it does act as a mitigating factor though, no point in asking a question that earns no cash.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Fear and Intimidation

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Managers get things done through others.  Leaders help others get things done.  In both cases, the core behavior is developing motivation.

For managers, the motivating factors can range from fear and intimidation to understanding and encouragement.  Fear and intimidation are not in the leaders’ toolkit.

Sustainability

Managing through fear and intimidation is largely at the expense of individual initiative and empowerment.  Micro-managing is the order of the day.

This practice can be very effective in getting things done through others, and since it is typically very directive the results are often as expected (generally good things).

Unfortunately, this approach is usually not sustainable (others don’t like it so either avoid or leave) nor does it necessarily get the best results, just what was demanded and expected.

Demotivation

Motivation through fear and intimidation leads to loathing, that is a feeling of intense dislike or disgust.  A symptom of this is the development of a lack of trust.

The order is received and acted on, but not bought into.  For activities completed under duress, the focus is often not on the objective of the actions but rather avoiding negative consequences.

Not surprisingly this can lead to interesting results.  Although the task may appear to be completed, thus the consequences avoided this can be superficial to some extent.

Belief

Believing in what you are doing is a powerful motivator in and of itself.  Leaders focus on creating that belief.  Their ultimate objective to get things done but not at the expense of others self-esteem and personal satisfaction.

Leaders can be good managers.  Good managers aspire to be leaders.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Electric Cars

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I had an interesting discussion with a former colleague on Friday.  He had just bought a new Tesla Model 3 electric car.  Advertised as the affordable electric car for everyone.

I was a bit puzzled when he shared the fact that after rebates the out of the pocket cost of this affordable car was around $52,000.   Seems a little steep and you can still get a new combustion engine car with many safety features including bells and whistles for under $30,000. (or an Econo car for under $20,000)

Save the Planet

If the prime motivation to move away from internal combustion engines is reducing the footprint of carbon waste products it is going to be a hard sell.

Moving to an electric vehicle because of performance, cost savings, design, styling and functionality are all strong reasons.  Focusing the marketing on saving the planet, being noble regardless of performance, function and cost might not cut it.

Badge of Honor

Tesla electric cars intend to capture the market by producing a high-quality low-cost vehicle, giving greater value than the existing suite of combustion engine vehicles.

Based on the current out of the pocket cost of their low-end offering I don’t think they have the upfront capital cost solved yet although they do argue over the vehicle life the fuel cost savings are significant.

My former colleague advised the Tesla store in Calgary Alberta were delivering 200 cars a month.  Sounds pretty good but combustion engine production needs to stop, the price point needs to drop and the range needs to enable long trips to out of the way places before electric cars take over.

We are still a long way from those things happening but in 20 to 40 years I firmly believe automotive combustion engines will have had their day.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Getting Your Message Across

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When communicating with others you, in simple terms, you first decide what message you want to convey and then craft it in a way others will understand.

The challenge is crafting your message in the context of the recipient’s filters.  Most likely you shape what you say based on your own knowledge and bias.

Target the Audience

To be understood, your communication needs to fit the perceptions and context of your audience not your own.   We all filter what we hear within the context of our personal bias and thinking processes.

How you think about things, that is the way incoming information is processed varies for all of us.  By default, our own outgoing messages are formated based on how we think.

This can be confusing to the recipient.  The tendency is to process what we see and hear based both on what we know and believe as well as the way we assume the communication is structured (which may be different from what the sender intended).

The better we are able to anticipate the way the listeners/readers will filter our information, the more likely the intended meeting will match (both sender and receiver).

Validate

The risk of the intended meaning not be transmitted fully is high.  Even if you try to be fully aware of your audience’s expectations it is not always possible to craft your thoughts in a way their filters will get.

Checking to confirm the intended message was received is not foolproof either but a worthwhile exercise to at least help identify if disconnects exist and attempt to repair them.

The key is not to expect others will transcribe your meaning as intended and it is well worthwhile to probe and follow-up to avoid misunderstandings.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Initiative

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Each of us possesses the power to act or take charge before others do.  We can choose to take the initiative.  The opportunity for seizing the initiative always exists.

The question of whether it is worth the effort to take the initiative is dependent on the benefit.  This is a question of value and has subjective components.  It is, however, a key motivating factor which can drive our choices to act or just wait and watch.

Confidence

Not believing you can be successful when taking the initiative to get something done can be a barrier.  If judged safer to just let things fall out as they will we often choose not to act.

If not acting could lead to a negative consequence,  the perceived benefit of avoiding the consequence could override a lack of confidence.

Satisfaction

Acting on an opportunity is a powerful form of expression.  In essence, “you did it” and so you should feel good about it.  Even just trying (in the case where you are not successful) can lead to being satisfied.  I tried and failed but at least I tried.

Take the initiative can have a positive effect on your well being and I often wonder when I see others pass an opportunity where they could have taken action.

The initiative is not hard but often we perceive it as being so.   We worry others may chastise us, or we might fail or the act could require us to go beyond the limits of our granted authority.

These are legitimate thoughts but the gains from acting when you can far exceed letting your fears hold you back.