Category: This is all a test

…can determine how organizations might change.

It seems that when we personally do something, it seems totally logical to us. When others do something we sometimes wonder, ‘what the heck were they thinking.’ We all have our own map of the world, which we’ve heard a number of times, but sometimes forget what it really means.

The way the world occurs to me is not the way it occurs to others. And how it occurs to others is not how it occurs to me. Though there might be some reality in the middle, it matters very little because what takes precedence is how the world, or the reality, is personally occurring to each of us.

If taking public transit into town occurs to someone as being too time-consuming, they will drive whether it actually is or not. The actual fact is immaterial. How the situation occurs to the person is.

And organizations, which are made up of people, work the same way. For a group of people in an office, a department, or an entire company, the world occurs in a certain way collectively and if a change or new way of working is required, no amount of pressure, training, or incentives will be totally effective until how the world occurs to the group changes.

If the way the world occurs to a group of staff members is, “no matter what happens nothing ever changes,” a new manager will find it difficult to make much headway.

When how the world and the future occur moves beyond what is expected, there’s a chance to move to a more useful place.

So, for example, if a new manager just looks at, ‘what isn’t working’ or ‘what happened to cause this,’ regarding a situation, the way the world occurs to a group of people remains intact. It harkens back to the way it was and has always been by providing proof of how it occurs to the group.

Finding a way to shift how the situation might occur in the future at the same time one is asking what isn’t working or what happened is a way to open up new possibilities.

Written while listening to Hungarian Gypsy songs.

Something great I came across over the last week or so. The MyNoise website of non-distracting sound and music to have in the background while working.

…here’s what I found.

• It’s less challenging to unplug than I thought it would be.
• Unplugging entails more than just not blogging or engaging with social media.
  • Think email.
  • Think phone calls.
  • Think TV or streaming services.
  • Think YouTube podcasts etc.
• Being unplugged is not a genuinely alternative lifestyle in our present-day social networked society.
• Plugged in, in all its various guises, seems to require intention and attention, not an unconscious distraction.
• It’s one of our primary sources of connection, engagement, entertainment, information, and a business building block.

So we probably shouldn’t waste it by complaining about it but instead, find better ways to use it.

Written while listening to Zakir Hussain & Rakesh Chaurasia in concert.

…is a helpful way to get some clarity on things.

In working with people and situations we often want ‘the answer’ so we can get on with things. What’s interesting is that sometimes, it seems, the more we look for and require/demand an answer, the further it escapes our grasp.

We’ve all had the experience of an answer coming from, ‘out of the blue’ usually caused by some unintentional drifting: working on something different, finishing the meeting and putting the question away until tomorrow, or just giving up for now.

Putting some intentional drifting into our daily toolbox can sometimes accelerate this ‘out of the blue’ resource.

Wander aimlessly either mentally or physically. I periodically take what I call, a ‘cool hunt’ day, to visit and wander unfamiliar neighbourhoods or drive out of town along the back roads and through small towns.

Look at adjacencies, instead of staring directly at a question or problem. Sometimes an answer or solution is not directly in front but somewhere on the periphery. If we don’t spend a bit of time drifting there, we might not see it.

An early mentor once mentioned to a group of us to “leave your strongly held beliefs and firmly held opinions at the door for now. You can pick them up again on your way out if you still want them.” Leaving our judgment and criticism behind for a while might give us a chance to see other options, opportunities, and possibilities instead of just the single answer or solution we’re so desperate to find.

Drifting, in all its many guises, is not just a motorsport but a possible different route to answers and solutions.

Written while listening to Estas Tonne

One of the great things I came across over the last few weeks. Lex Fridman and Andrej Karpathy.