Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Week #3 - Precise Observation: Pay Attention! and CoolBurst
Welcome back to our "Creativity Café", a place to chat and share...
So, now you are in week three of our class and, we imagine, getting the hang of these live-withs. You've had time to experiment with Have No Expectations and Relax the VOJ. Our new live-with, Pay Attention, builds on these first two.
You are becoming familiar with your own creative process and with the influence of your VOJ. When you have a deeper awareness of both, you begin to be more open to the world around you, and the world inside you. This week, we invite you to pay attention to both worlds.
Listen, see, taste, touch and smell with precise observation, as a young child filled with wonder, a scientist absorbed in research, or an alien who has just landed on earth and is seeing things for the first time.
Shake things up! Travel a different route, eat different foods, talk with strangers - do anything you can to have a “foreign experience”, as if you are a traveler in a new world, because in reality you are. In every moment, life is changing right before your eyes.
So, get out there, and in there, and Pay Attention. Julie suggested the Color walk-- where you focus on seeing just one color in the world around you. If you jog a route for exercise, Hal suggests you go in the opposite direction and observe how different it looks/feels. Then come back here to fill us in on all the wonder-filled moments you have experienced. You could share thoughts about the Crossing the Ravine exercise and whether/how it provided personal insight.
We discussed the CoolBurst case study in Monday's class, with five excellent presentations that covered the case. If you did not share your views, it is not too late. What do you think Luisa should do? How much must she change HERSELF???
Please share with us here any questions, thoughts, etc. that will help us all to get more out of this interesting case study.
Have a great week,
Julie and Hal
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Just in time for week 3, an article on how multitasking does to your brain. Stanford professor Clifford Nass is highlighted.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fastcompany.com/3019659/leadership-now/what-multitasking-does-to-your-brain
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DeleteThank you very much for sharing! Multitasking takes away focus and concentration, so true. When I started working in Silicon Valley, I thought multitasking was the thing to do, since everyone I was working with seemed to do it. But as my workload increased, and I went from one project to the next without finishing anything and feeling overwhelmed, I decided to start working on one task at a time, and it works much better.
DeleteI find it's interesting that most of us have the "perception" that in order to get more things done we have to multitask and yet time and again, studies have shown that's actually on the contrary. As a notorious multitasker myself, I know that I'm not nearly as productive when I do too many things at once. However, when it comes to people management, I make a conscious effort to solely focus on the person in front of me. From previous experience with managers who always multitask when I'm there, I find it distracting, inefficient, and just annoying.....same goes for friends at gatherings and dinners.
DeleteHi All,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed to read the CoolBurst article because it shows the reality of hundreds of companies. It is not easy for a company to change their mindset. It's always a question of strategy AND people. Without the right thinkers, the challenge is/will be hard. Concerning the case of Luisa, this is first of all a question of changing the culture and values of the company. It's a much bigger challenge than develop a new product. If she does that, it will be easier to create a new product. Everybody will collaborate to the success of Coolburst.
But Is it doable? Yes if Luisa is motivated and if she believes in future of the company. According to Mintzberg ("The Five Minds of a Manager" article), Luisa has probably an analytical mindset… she needs now to focus on the actions. Her homework should be like this:
First of all - Start with an internal and external analyze of the situation.
Secondly - Clarify the mission and marketing goals.
Thirdly - Take a decision.
Fourthly - Implement and control the activities.
At each step, she will have the clues to make some smart decisions such as: hire the right experts (essential) and redefine the culture & values. And then after that, she might be able to redefine the tasks, maybe collaborate/merge/acquire another player, apply the 3M Method (way to innovation) … at this point, there is a lot of fancy possibilities.
Also, she will learn about herself as CEO.
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself" - said Tolstoï
And probably, she will become a new Marissa Mayer of this world and show how to break the model and succeed.
There is two interesting articles about Yahoo's CEO that I would like to share with you:
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/08/26/is-marissa-mayer-the-right-ceo-for-yahoo/
and
http://labs.openviewpartners.com/marissa-mayer-bets-big-developing-company-culture-at-yahoo/
Enjoy!
Thanks Sebastien. I really enjoyed reading the articles, and comments, on Marissa and how she is showing leadership.
DeleteCoolBurst:
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view, the CoolBurst case represents the classic case of those companies that have grown to a point and stagnated. Those companies that one day discovered the "formula of success" and thought that this formula would work forever. In other words, they settled.
I believe most of them are afraid of making changes, because that would mean leaving their comfort zone. But the world is constantly changing and if you cannot follow them, you're left behind.
So first of all, CoolBurst HAVE to decide "who is the costumer", for who they want to sell their product. If they want to expand and reach other age groups, or if they want to keep their actual costumers, the kids. And then discover what their costumers like, what they do, where they live, which places they attend, what they watch, what they read...
Thenceforth, they would have to make a research on their competition and work on creatives ways to make it look more "desirable". They have to find out what makes CoolBurst different? What makes them better? Once they are already a known brand, they have to work on make people always correlate this brand with positive and desirable things.
Hire some creative person to bring inovation could be a quick solution, for a moment, but work with their staff could be a surprisingly good solution. People are creative, we just have to motivate them, let they share new ideas and never repress, even though their ideas are not the best solution at the time, someday it might be useful.
And definitely, make sure the employees are working in a good atmosphere and they are happy for making part of the team, because that reflect on the final product the company is selling.
Ravine:
My ravine is really wide and deep, so the only way I found to get to the castle was go down to the bottom and then, climb all the way to the castle.
I had no tools, except for some bush rope that I found in the forest. So I had a hard time trying to figure out, how could I go down. It took me a long time, I got hurt, but I did, I arrived all scratched and tired. And once I was there, in the bottom of the ravine, I found no one, nor anything, just a broken cellphone. And I realized the way up to the castle would be even harder, that made me feel discouraged, disappointed. It made me wonder if I'd better go back and try another path, or if I should keep going and trying to get to the castle through the hardest way. I'm still stuck in the bottom and I don't even know if is possible to go up to the castle, or if I'll just try and try and never get there. Or if after all, I get to the castle and find out it is just an old abandoned castle. But I'm already on the halfway so I'm still working on finding my way to the castle.
Precise Observation:
Since I started to "explore the world" I've used my precise observation. When we are tourists we pay attention in everything, from the little house in the corner, to the beautiful park in the middle of the town. But most of us never payed these kind of attention on our own cities. Once I adopted these precise observation, I learned to appreciate little things we ignore on the busy days that can transform our day, and make us happier. Even when I'm at my hometown I'm a observer, and I allow myself to see beauty where nobody else do and that's very inspiring. Somehow, the more I see from the world, the more I see from myself.
Very much enjoyed the observation about the differences we employ as tourists and residents. That is a helpful lens to apply in so many settings.
DeleteConcepts presented in the article “How Successful Leaders Think” by Roger Martin reminded me of those presented in a book titled “The 3rd Alternative: Solving Life’s Most Difficult Problems” by Dr. Stephen R. Covey. Both stress the importance of looking beyond conventional thinking to develop a more effective approach to addressing challenges. What I found to be different is that Martin implies that one could primarily develop this capability within him or herself (self-reliant “integrative thinking”), whereas Dr. Covey stressed the importance of communicating and collaborating with others in order to reach such breakthroughs in thinking (collaborative “synergy”). As I practiced these concepts during the week, I found value in following Martin’s “integrative thinking" process and recommendations initially as I visualized the structured approach to addressing each challenge, but I have found it essential to include others in the solution design process because together a group is better able to yield more creative “out of the box” ideas than any individual person could alone.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I agreed to practice the “pay attention” tool together as we visited the San Carlos Art and Wine festival this past weekend. This was an ideal venue to “slow down” and consciously observe the activities surrounding us, from the music to the artwork to the people. One particularly memorable experience was when we visited a photography booth that specialized in “three-dimensional” (3D) photography. Several of the photos were so realistic that I found myself “lost” in the moment - nature, parks, sporting events. As I observed the other customers, they also seemed to be “lost" in the moment, mesmerized by the artist’s creative vision. We had an opportunity to speak with the photographer, who expressed his desire to share how he observes the environment with others. His ability to “pay attention” helps him design innovative artwork that draws the audience into the moment and creates a shared experience.
ReplyDeleteThe continuing theme throughout my other posts, and again experienced this week, is the surprise about where and how the tools become most useful and the findings they reveal. (Even as I write, I am drawn back to "..without expectations" and become increasingly conscientious around how pervasive my own expectations are).
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that I had an eyebrow raised in the final section of the last chapter where techniques were given for the "observation" of one's own dreams. My VOJ scoffed: "just hang a dream catcher in the window and it will work as well!"
And yet, after two vivid nights of dreams, that I would have historically dismissed as nothing, I tried the technique. Low and behold, a very clear path was revealed by me... to me. This topic had been fraught with anxiety in my waking hours. When I played back the dream, which seemed confusing, fanciful and obscure, in a simple recounting of the chronology of events, nothing was clear. When I really payed attention to to the "parts of me" and connected them to "who was talking" the gig was up for that sneaky VOJ... busted!
PS- I am really beginning to develop a disdain for my VOJ. Skeptically, I can't help but wonder if that emotion (disdain) is just the VOJ trying to weasel her way back in as a kind of relator, thinking I will accept her if she is on my side. The trick (VOJ and the sneaky VOJ in disguise as friend) make me think of the game "Whack-A-Mole"... Fascinating to see what is revealed when I step back from myself and pay attention.
I discovered the "pay attention" tool few months ago when my friend and I went on a backpacking trip through Yellowstone and Grand Tenton. We both love traveling and taking photos is always part of our itinerary. Lets just say we go mad with our big SLRs, zoom lenses, Go-Pro and time-lapse set ups, etc. But this year's trip was different, for me at least. I decided to observe beautiful landscape through my eyes and not my camera's viewfinder as much. I wanted to focus on "being in the moment" and experience everything as it comes. And what a transformation it was! During one of our hikes we spotted a moose by the river and while I was admiring the animal's magnificent antlers my friend franticly began to search for his camera. By the time he was ready to take National Geographic like photograph the moose disappeared. Just like that, the moment was gone.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a fast paced digital world where everything has to be documented, so we can enjoy looking at it in a later time. We have a tendency of focusing more on capturing the moment than living it. How many of you run for a camera (iPhone these days) first seeing your kid taking his/hers first steps instead of just observing your child's discovery of walking?
As for me, seeing the world will never be the same. Still with the camera around my neck, but more present. By paying more attention to things around me I feel more grounded and aware, ready to accept a new experience at any given moment.
The Ravine exercise we did in class last week was very insightful. Initially the gap between me and the castle appeared to me as large and challenging, but during the visualization I stopped and thought "who said that the gap has to be that large? It doesn't have to be. After all, nobody had mentioned anything about the size of the ravine". Eventually I was able to make it to the other side with the help of a tree. What I learned is that in real life, I tend to make challenges initially much bigger to me than they really are. But I also know from experience that I'm usually resolve challenges I face. Moving forward I can start looking at challenges in different ways. Another thing is that I don't always ask others for help (no people or creatures appeared in the visualization). I guess I tend to rely on myself too much. In order to be more efficient and successful I can consider involving others more often.
ReplyDeleteThis week I tried to be a better listener to practice paying attention. This was not an easy task. In a meeting I was quiet for a long time, and I resisted to talk for quite a while. But a question came up and I was afraid that if I would wait too long, I would forget my question, and I interrupted the speaker. As soon as I did, I felt bad... Any suggestions on how to deal with this?
This afternoon, we went to see a photography exhibition at Stanford: http://arts.stanford.edu/the-rapture/ and observed the works of the photographer observing and capturing visitors of the Pantheon in Rome who in turn were paying attention to and focusing on taking the perfect picture. We were wondering what the nationalities of the different visitors were and what they were thinking as they were focusing on their object to be photographed.
Also, this week, we did an exercise at work where we were given 5 different values and had to discuss with other coworkers how we apply these values in similar ways and write down our experiences. Surprisingly I found that in almost all of the answers/descriptions, we used "listen", "interact", and "engage", verbs that I see recurring in the articles/chapters that I've read for this class. By listening and engaging, we can focus and be present.
As I was reading Goodwn and Mucha’s article “Aesthetic Intelligence: What Business can Learn from the Arts”, I visualized the recommended approach to be similar to how successful jazz musicians perform together. Although I am not a musician, as a listener I can appreciate how jazz music is spontaneous and based on what “feels” right in the moment. It requires the band to work and create together, building on each other’s intuition, skills and experiences. The article also ties together with the concepts of VOJ and “having no expectations”. For example: describing how 98 percent of 2 year old kids vs. 2 percent of 25 year old adults consider themselves to be creative, or how 'players’ come to meetings with pre-defined conclusions.
ReplyDeleteRavine excercise:
ReplyDeleteMy ravine was pretty deep and dark, I even couldn't see the bottom. My first idea was to climb down to the bottom and then climb up to the other side. But then I remembered I'm not that courageous to face an unknown darkness. So after that two new ideas came in my mind. The first one was to find a enourm bird that could to carry my on its back and flight me to the other side of the ravine and get the castle. My second idea was to have a giant friend that could get me to the other side just with one step.
I didn't get inside the castle, I only thought about ways to get to the other side of the ravine.
Precise observation:
ReplyDeleteSince I start to excercise my precise observation I've payed at atention how the nature is changing because of the new season. I started to observe my backyard. There are a lot of fruit and flower trees there. About one month ago I still had fruits and flowers on the trees, but now there aren't. Even the leaves are falling down and the trees are starting to have no life.
So I started to pay atention to the trees in the streets and every where. The fall just started but shows up its mark. The streets are covered of leaves and the trees show up their limbs.
Live-With : Pay Attention.
ReplyDeleteA few weeks ago, I had an interesting challenge at work: develop an immersive experience for users with their smartphones in a stadium for a soccer game. What a challenge! How could I start this exercise? I had a lot of ideas… but it was only in my mind and I wasn't sure if they could live in a reality of a stadium for users. We had only one question: What people do at a Stadium?
So, we went to a Stadium for a full-day game to observe and pay attention to each detail. We documented this experience with a lot of pictures. We followed a group of people all the day, from the morning until the end of the game. It was so interesting and relevant. We had a perfect point of vue of what's an "user journey". There was a pattern for everybody. Different steps that gave us the keys to do a brainstorm.
Overall, meet friends, get a collectible item of their favorite team, order food and drink, share unique moments, find restrooms without a huge line-up (funny but real), getting out the place… there is a lot of steps. Whatever the steps, "Pay attention" connects us with others. What is important is not what we think about a situation, it's what we observe. In a context of brainstorm (whatever the matter), observing people and behaviors is an incredible valuable tool.
This week hit a bit of a bump after such a great week last week. On Wednesday I had a meeting that I had ‘expected’ to go well. It wasn’t until after the meeting that I realised that I had had such a strong expectation, based on past experience with the organisation. The fact that the meeting hadn’t gone so well really knocked me over, and I could hear my VoJ shouting loudly in my ear, using many of the terms we have learnt about in class or read about in the articles: ‘I shouldn’t have had expectations’; ‘I should have actively listed and observed the feelings in the room’; ‘I should have asked dumb questions.’ Pretty clever, this VoJ, eh! It was immediately easier to give into this and keep running over where the meeting had gone wrong, rather than step back objectively. I seemed to take comfort in this examination of failure, rather than taking a deep breath, stepping back and being objective.
ReplyDeleteIt’s taken me a good few days to rise above the maelstrom of everyday chatter and to start paying attention to my Voice of Objective Intelligence. The meeting didn’t go so badly. I did use some of the tools taught. I didn’t close any doors, but started a relationship for collaboration. Crucially, the meeting has given me a new - wider - perspective, which can only be a good think. As Margaret Wheatley would say “I was disturbed.’
The experience of the meeting, together with acknowledging the difficulty of the ‘paying attention’ live-with, has made me realise just how dependent I am on the junk food of constant distraction: the everyday chatter; all the VoJ voices; a long list of things to do and a need to multitask. I listed to Richard Hansen, author of ‘The Enlightened Brain’ on KPFA this Sunday (http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/96121 at 1:35). He talked about neurological diversity and the natural variance between ‘jack rabbits’ who are hungry for neurological stimulation and ‘turtles’ who can hold onto information, but who find it difficult to update awareness. Most business, education and other formal settings are developed for ‘turtles’, yet modern culture is more attuned to ‘jack rabbits’. How do you adapt your own temperament for the situation? This was the first time I had heard that there may be elements of our own temperament that influence our need for stimulus. Not an excuse for the jack rabbit in me, but something of which to be aware. Hanson talks about the effect of dopamine on concentration, and how we need to practice paying attention to increase the dopamine reward levels for focusing on the moment, rather than constantly seeking the dopamine spikes from new activities. This has made it easier for me to stand back, be objectives and consciously try and develop more ‘turtle’ tendencies. ‘Paying attention’ has got easier as the week has gone on. I hope it gets easier still.
I also learnt this week that the ravine visualisation had really revealed the best ways I can solve problems: the person at the bottom who helped me across and then took part in journey with me was my husband. In Britain stating this would cause a collective groan from readers of this blog. (We don’t really like to reveal our emotions, and certainly not what we feel about our own spouses!) I can confirm, though, that as always, in the days following the meeting he has been brilliant at helping me sort out what is VoJ and what is VOI. He’s also a turtle....
A very simple exercise of paying attention led to an interesting and useful emotional experience.
ReplyDeleteI have a ~45 minute commute from home to work. I usually take one of 2 or 3 routes back home every single time. One night (a couple of weeks back when there was a little more sunlight), I tried taking a different route when I was about halfway home.
Paying attention to my internal experience I noticed something very special. Taking a new way home not only gave me a new mini adventure--my associations with the new route were especially fresh. I had no major associations with the roads I hadn't driven on before. This had the unique effect of clearing out my mind. I was free to create new associations outside of the usual thoughts and stress I've formerly associated with my usual routes. This exercise reminded me how important it is (not only for the mind, but also for my emotional health) to try new things.