Men, Maps & Sir Vivian Fuchs

What is it about maps that is so enticing?

We haven't yet moved the big world map into my son’s new bedroom, but in the meantime we’ve been playing all sorts of games with it, imagining what people’s lives are like in different countries, figuring out how to get by boat from one country to another, talking about the animals and the weather.

From reading this blog entry, you won’t get that wonderful smell of the printer’s ink on a new map, or the clapping sound a large map makes as you shake it out.

With a map, you can go anywhere - if you have sun or stars you don’t even need a compass, just a good map.

With a map, you can see what a big, diverse world we live in. Everywhere are people who have hopes and fears just like us.

What about you - what do maps evoke for you?

Often when I think of maps, I remember a guy called Sir Vivian Fuchs, a polar explorer, who died ten years ago this month. I read his obituary just because I was so struck by his face.

Looking at that face I think I see a man who is so ready to go find out what land the map actually represents - or even to go where there are no maps, to create them for others. And he had an interesting life, that wasn’t always easy and had a fair number of costly mistakes. He wrote a frank autobiography, ” A Time to Speak” which is now out of print. [click here for link to his obituary]

Other links you might be interested in if maps light your candle:

[Ordnance Survey - mapping Great Britain]

[Stanfords - maps and travel books to die for]

[Strange Maps - a blog about, well, strange maps!]

14 Things Top Coaches Say to "I Can't Do It"

1. Will you NEVER be able to do it?

2. Not tackling the difficult and dangerous things is sometimes a sensible approach.

3. What is much more important than worrying about whether you can or can't do it?

4. Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right! (Henry Ford)

5. A lot of people through time must have found themselves feeling that they can't do it.

6. Which part, specifically, can you not do?

7. What is the cost of not doing it?

8. How do you know for sure that you can't do it?

9. Difficult things often look easier only after you've done them.

10. Overcoming difficulties and obstacles can take time.

11. Have you or has anyone you can think of ever done something like this before?

12. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step (Confucius).

13. You can't - or you don't want to?

14. It's not whether you can or can't, it's more about learning from experience.

The Three Types Of Tweeters

How does the way you Tweet show your preferences for relating to other people?

Thinking about how I use Twitter the other day brought up a connection to one of my favourite books of the moment "Words that Change Minds" by Shelle Rose Charvet. I took her course last year and really enjoyed it. More about the book at the end of this post.

Anyway, I use Twitter a bit like the casual conversations I used to have in the office (back when I had to work in one...). Swapping information, finding out what's going on, taking a break from serious stuff to connect about something trivial, and so on.

In her book, Shelle describes the different preferences we operate to do with whether we like to have other people around us or not. There are three patterns:

1. Independent - Likes to work alone with sole responsibility;

2. Proximity - Prefers to have their own territory with others around; &

3. Co-operative - Is at their most productive when sharing responsibility with others.

I definitely operate a Proximity preference most of the time. And I think this is reflected in the way I use Twitter - connecting with others when I want to and in the way I want, but not having to be always connected. According to Shelle, this is the most common trait, exhibited by about 60% of people at work.

But I wonder how someone with an Independent preference would use Twitter?
If they use it at all, I imagine they'd be more of a 'broadcaster' - sending out their own individual tweets without any need to involve others along the way.

And what about a person with a Co-operative preference?
Perhaps they might tweet only when others had been deeply involved in what they have to say.

How about you...
What does the way you tweet - if at all - say about your own preferences for when you are at your best at work, working alone, with others around, or sharing responsibility?

Or look at it the other way. When you're happiest, is it on your own, with others around or in a shared experience - or possibly some mix of those? And is that reflected in the way that you tweet?

My proximity preference would really like you to leave a comment, so if you share that or the co-operative trait why not click the COMMENTS or 'Post a Comment' link below and let us know what you think.

The book "Words that Change Minds" is a great read on its own but may also turbo-charge your ability to have fruitful connections with people. Based on the Language and Behaviour Profile (LAB) tool, it helps explain why some people's behaviour is different from yours and how to use language to understand that and have better communications. Be warned though, there's a strong element of being able to sell to and trigger other people - read it with your own morals and motives intact.

You Are Not Who You Think You Are

I watched a fascinating episode in the BBC's 'Horizon' strand yesterday evening, attempting to answer the question "How do we know who we are?".

This was a good summary of the various strands of thinking that have been gathering force around this topic over the last decade as research into it starts to become mainstream science.

The BBC's Horizon page is currently here:
www.bbc.co.uk/horizon

Another good overview (and actually quite detailed) examination of this topic of identity and what makes 'me' think that I am 'me' is in Tor Norretranders' book "The User Illusion"

Both Horizon and Tors share the view that this person we call "I" is probably a synthesis of the several biological brain processes working as a kind of 'network'. And that many of these processes operate out of necessity on an unconscious level.

Tors maintains that because our brains are able to receive and process many millions of bits of information (far more than we could handle consciously) and because memory gives us an evolutionary advantage, then 'consciousness' (the person we think of as 'I') only exists as a kind of librarian in what is actually an almost totally automated library. The librarian is there as a kind of organising principal and comfort factor.

Both Horizon and Tors point to recent research showing that apparently conscious decisions - for example to reach for a glass of water because I'm thirsty - actually take place unconsciously first.

Horizon repeated experiments which show that this actually unconscious decision-making process happens up to SIX seconds before the conscious part of the brain builds the illusion that it made the decision. The presenter was astounded to discover that the scientists watching him inside a magnetic resonance imager were able to know whether he had decided to press a left or right button before he was consciously aware of his decision!

Horizon also showed how the brain could be fooled into thinking that it was observing itself (and its body, of course) sitting in one place when it was actually a few feet away.

I'm fascinated by all of this because of its profound implications for change work, personal development and emotional intelligence.

It seems that science is able to prove what some philosophers and therapists have been attempting to work with for some time, things like:

1) If I change the inputs to my mind, for example, the kind of tv I watch, or I change my biological processes, for example by sleeping better or exercising more, then the "I" will also be changed

2) I can use my mind to imagine observing myself and introduce the information of my behaviour as part of my unconscious library. I can create a feedback loop that introduces more awareness of the whole me, not just the illusory conscious part, and add more choices about how the whole of that behaves

3) I can be aware that a lot of my reaction to and understanding of other people arises from this amalgam of unconscious processes. Then, I can (a) deliberately use my unconscious to help build better understanding of others and (b) give my internal librarian a little more choice in what reactions I actually let myself express

4) The best change work will balance working at a conscious level with the knowledge that most of what determines a person's sense of self is actually happening at an unconscious level. Working with the whole physiological system, for example reminding somebody how their posture affects their internal confidence and their external ability to relate to others becomes very important. As does working directly at a subconscious level, for example using metaphor and imagery to describe a person's experience, hopes and fears rather than talking more (illusory) directly about them.

I'm also reminded of the Buddhist concept of Anatta, meaning 'no self', in which the mind is nothing but a complex compound of fleeting mental states. Descartes and Bertrand Russell had related things to say - nice to see science catching-up!

How are you doing with your own sense of who you are?

And what does it mean for you if who you think you are is more fluid and unconsciously-determined then we thought?

Please leave a comment because it helps people to express their thoughts too.

Don't Pay the Price for Being Sad

Do you always take time to get yourself into the right emotional frame of mind before you take an important purchasing, hiring or product decision? Or before you respond to an unpleasant stimulus, like an annoying email or a challenging blog comment?

I've written before about the ways you can use to change your emotional state - see in particular: 39 Simple Ways to Change Your Day.

And I just came across research by Lerner, Small and Loewenstein into what an impact emotions can have on important decisions. They got one group of people into a sad state of mind by getting them to watch a sad movie and then imagine how they'd feel in that situation. Then they looked at how that sadness influenced the groups' purchasing and selling decisions compared to a control group.

On the whole, the people who were sad either paid 30% more for an item as purchasers, or were willing to sell an item for 30% less as sellers - a big margin!

Even more significant, they were unaware that their emotions had had this impact.

[Click here to download a pdf of their research report]

For me, this highlights even more reasons, and in this case very practical ones, to take care of your emotional state at work.

Top Ten Ways to Survive Working Really Hard

1. Prioritise
Just because you've got a lot of stuff to do doesn't mean it's the right stuff to do. Stay rigorous in your choices, say "no" when you need to, and continue to refresh your assessment of your 'top three' priorities. If you could only do three things before you were forced to take a break, what would they be?

2. Stay Connected
Don't out-distance your colleagues, friends and family, to the point where you're so far out in front you're really on your own. This is not sustainable. Instead, make sure you have the balance of your effort right: senior people need to work hard at connecting with other people as much (if not more) as driving the task-achievement. Who do you need to connect with today?

3. Keep Part Of Your Pain Monitor Switched On
Like an athlete who knows how to get through the pain barrier, you can switch off a lot of the signals about how much it's hurting. But you need to keep part of your mind monitoring this. What's showing up on your pain monitor that you need to deal with?

4. Make Coming Down Routine
Working hard can be such a rush. I love feeling really alive with the pressure and buzz of it all. I don't like the come-down so much, especially when I let it crash into me all at once. Music, movement, letting your eyes focus on the distance and anything which healthily engages your senses of touch and smell will really help. What might be in your come-down routine?

5. Keep It Light
Isn't it a bit funny really, putting all this effort into stuff which probably won't even exist 200 years from now? You've probably already seen something funny in it anyway? And I often feel like I'm Charlie Chaplin in that scene from Modern Times where he's desperately trying to keep up with the ever-accelerating cogs and gears of the machine. Maybe I should grow a comic moustache – how about you?

6. Keep The End In Mind
There is some point to all this effort right? Even if it's just to keep the wolf from the door? I only ask, because sometimes people have got the act of working really hard confused with the reason for working really hard. And that can lead to sub-optimal choices about the strategies you can use. Find your reason for working so hard, don't be embarrassed by it, champion it, and keep it close by.

7. Use The 80:20 Rule
The first 20% of effort you put in gets 80% of the result. And conversely, the last 20% of the result takes the remaining 80% of your effort. Learn when 80%+ is a good enough result. Sony used this to devastating effect when first grabbing their huge share of the personal electronics market, and Apple may now be doing the same. Getting many 80% right results out there gives you more feedback, more time in the limelight and more opportunities to improve than getting out just a few 99% right results.

8. Go With The Flow
Do I take the rough overgrown path everytime, or the smooth downhill one? Should I push at the open door or try to knock down that closed one instead? I probably am strong enough to paddle my canoe upstream (for a while) but might it be more sensible to go with the current downstream and save my strength for paddling round those dangerous rocks and pulling out of the water at that nice sandy bank? Hmm – what do you think?

9. Get A Life
This was a hard one for me, because there isn't much that comes close to the personal reward I get from my work. And I'm better at my work (and probably a better person all round) when that isn't the only thing in my life. Don't try too hard to choose the 'right' other stuff to have in your life; best to just pick-up what's (metaphorically) right in front of you and go with that. Got boots and hills? – go for a hike. Got kids? – go to the zoo. Got pots, basil and tomatoes? – cook Italian. Get it?

10. Don't Take The Bait
People working really hard sometimes mistakenly bite at two different kinds of bait out of unconscious emotional reactions. The two types of bait to avoid are: (1) tempting possibilities that look at first like they will get you closer to your goal, but really end up wasting your time; & (2) painful prods or comments connected to some flaw in yourself or your work and which lead to unproductive outbursts or withdrawals. To avoid both of these, be an observant fish and swim around the bait a few times before deciding if it's a genuine juicy morsel or a hook waiting to catch you.

Abundance Conkers All

At the weekend I received my friend Patrick Ryan's occasional newsletter. He always writes about something consciousness-raising, and this one was no exception, with a moving and elegant article on abundance.

If you believe that there is enough of what you need around in the world then it becomes easier to have what you need - and in a way that creates abundance for others too.
But Patrick's an old hippy so I read it and moved on. Click here for his website.

In the meantime, we have a family trip to the movies and on the way home are surprised to find a group of people, heads down, milling around in our front garden. Our huge Horse-chestnut tree is really loaded with conkers, a week or so early this year we think, and a stiff breeze has delivered a carpet of spiky green casings and yummy brown conkers.

Our drive is open to the road and the windfall has attracted a number of passers-by; some casual browsers and a family of serious conker-collectors, all busy harvesting the fall.

As usual, I'm quite peeved that all these strangers should make themselves so at home on my driveway and I begin to figure out just how rude I can be to them without seeming like a total madman. My son, aged seven becomes very worried that there will not be enough conkers for him to play with and runs inside to write a sign telling people to leave the conkers alone.

But my wife is a little better at seeing the bigger picture, even without having read Patrick's newsletter, and she remembers that one of the groups on our driveway is the family from up the road that our son wanted to make friends with. She fetches some bags and buckets and pretty soon we're all collecting and swapping hints on soaking conkers in vinegar, baking and the best kind of shoelaces. It's a street party before we even know it. And our son gets an invite to go play with his new friends.

The tree meanwhile doesn't care about any of this. It's just being a Horse-chestnut tree and getting on with making conkers in abundance. In the photo is this morning's collection.