Hello Movember, meet "Grovember" - How expressing Gratitude can change your life

As a useful complement to Movember, I suggest the practice of "Grovember" - using November to establish your daily habit of expressing Gratitude. By introducing a bias towards the positive and focusing on what you DO want (rather than lamenting what you don't want), you can break the downward spiral of depression and positively influence your thinking in ways that can dramatically improve the enjoyment of life and increase your levels of happiness.

We're now in Movember (the month formerly known as November) when many men grow a moustache to raise funds and awareness on two biggest health issues men face: prostate cancer and depression.

The overall intent is to work to change established habits and attitudes men have about their health, to educate men about the health risks they face, get them to act on that knowledge and increase the chances of early detection, diagnosis and effective treatment.

This year for the first time I'm having a go and raising money for charity in memory of my brother Jim, who died this year and who often suffered from bouts of deep depression.

Raising awareness of organizations (like Beyond Blue and Mensline in Australia) that exist to help men combat depression is important work. I think it's also important to offer men the tools for a bit of self-help DIY. That's what this post is about.

How you can combat depression - and live the best life you can!

A really effective way to combat depression, and to shift your state of mind in general for the better, is to cultivate an "attitude of gratitude"

One specific practice is to intentionally and regularly record positive appreciation in a Gratitude Journal. Here's how it works:

You write down five (or more) things every day that you are grateful for

That's it.

Even Don kept a journal!

Don't be fooled! Though simple, the practice it is a surprisingly powerful way both to get out of negative/depressed states of mind and to positively influence your thinking in ways that improve your enjoyment of life.

Depression is often the result of a pervasive, circular pattern of negative thoughts. Keeping a gratitude journal breaks that pattern and re-programs your mind to think more positively.

By regularly noticing and recording things for which you're grateful, you train your brain to focus on things you like about your life (and want to have in it) rather than the things you don’t. This simple practice, done consistently, can improve your whole perspective on life.

In her book The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want, University of California professor Sonja Lyubomirsky praises the practice of writing a Gratitude Journal as a good way to increase your level of happiness. In a nutshell, her research has found that "truly happy individuals construe life events and daily situations in ways that seem to maintain their happiness, while unhappy individuals construe experiences in ways that seem to reinforce unhappiness."

In other words, as Lincoln said:

"People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." 

Have a Go!
And so as well as taking part in Movember, I've started keeping a regular Gratitude Journal this month. What you write down doesn't have to be huge or mind-blowing. It might not matter to anyone but you. For example, my entries for today included:

1) taking time this morning to tend to the plants on the balcony and in the flat - gives me a sense of nurturance and feeling "grounded"
2) hearing about NaNoWriMo - feel inspired about doing more writing and like the idea as a way to increase connection with others while pursuing an inherently solitary activity
3) I like that I can get Dutch goodies like speculaas, hagelslag and honingkoek in Oz - yum! (feeding belly & soul, "ethnic" food)
4) liked reading the positive inspirational quotes that come through daily on my facebook page
5) enjoyed sitting on balcony this AM eating breakfast with the springtime Sydney sunshine on my face, a full day of coaching, meeting people and writing ahead of me, and an early surf session with some mates set up for tomorrow morning

You can write things in the AM - including things you're looking forward to with the clarity of mind that comes after a good sleep, or in the PM - recording what you've appreciated about the day and to symbolically end your day, heading off to sleep with a positive frame of mind. For my part, I'm doing both as I like the idea of having a morning-and-evening ritual.

Start your journal writing today, whether it's at the start or end of the day, or both!
Continue the daily habit of expressing Gratitude consistently through November and I bet you'll notice a difference in your life. Think of it as your own personal "Grovember". It's a practical habit that, as you have learned, can profoundly change your life. Who knows, maybe it'd be better to call it GROW-vember!

Finally, if you've found this post at all helpful then I'd love you to support my Movember fundraising efforts. All amounts are appreciated as every little bit helps. Remember, anything over $2 is tax-deductible.

Australia burns, Australians unite

Even if you don't read any further in this blog post, I urge you to please support the following worthwhile causes by clicking any/all of the three links below:

1) Red Cross 2009 Victorian Bushfire Fund

2) the Wildlife Victoria Bushfire Appeal or

3) the RSPCA Victoria Bushfire fund
to care for burned and injured animals

This year for Australia, February is the cruellest month. While extreme heat has assaulted the nation, storms and floodwaters have saturated tropical Queensland and parts of NSW. Most tragic and dramatic, however, have been the bushfires raging throughout the country.

The deadliest of those fires have been in the state of Victoria. The bushfire death toll (now at 200 people and still expected to climb) is felt most keenly because the areas worst hit have themselves been primarily small communities dotted across the countryside - many of which have been completely obliterated by the raging firestorms of the past weeks. Over 1800 homes were destroyed, leaving 7000 people homeless. As of this writing, many fires are still burning.

To give some idea of the savage nature of these firestorms: experts have calculated that the storms on February 9th (now simply called Australia's Darkest Day) reached a temperature of 1200 degrees. The areas burnt and energy released from the fires equalled 400 to 500 Hiroshima atomic bombs. Smoke from the fires was clearly visible from space.

This was, quite simply, unimaginable destructive force on a large scale and that incinerated everything and everyone in its path.

Witnesses have spoken of a deafening, howling wind noise like the sound of a dozen jet engines, of choking black smoke blotting the midday sun from the sky and flames that raced across the landscape at speeds in excess of 80 km/h. People trying belatedly to flee from the fire were caught and died in their cars. If this seems inconceivable, take a look at this first 20 seconds of this video to see how alarmingly quickly the river of flame tears through a field.

A wider tragedy

The human losses of this fire have been overwhelming, yet there is another story to be told as well. Regular readers of this blog know that tm consultancy has chosen to support animal-related charities in 2009 and so in relation to that commitment I also want to take a moment to consider how animals have been affected by this disaster.

Over a million acres of bushland has been burned (more than double the amount of Australia's next-worst fire disaster in 1983, dubbed "Ash Wednesday"). The toll in animal lives from this year's fires will be utterly catastrophic, with early estimates of at least a million animals killed in the fires.


Hope from the ashes

An unlikely mascot of hope has emerged from the aftermath, however, in the form of one of Australia's iconic critters: Sam the Koala.

Sam (now most often called Sammie, as Sam proved to be a girl Koala) first caught the imagination of the world when she was filmed drinking water from a volunteer firefighter.

Taken to a local animal shelter by volunteers, her burned paws were bandaged up and, in a happy twist, she found herself being cared for by Bob, one of the other koalas at the shelter.

From tragedy, love seems to have emerged as Sammie and Bob have become inseparable.

Their story is captured in video here and the plight of animals in general is reported here.

I think the reason this story has so quickly caught the imagination of people worldwide is because, on a small scale, Sammie and Bob represent how even overwhelming and deadly adversity can bring out the best in us. These little koalas have shown us that, in the end, we have to pull together and take care of each other.

Most of all, moments like this clearly illustrate one basic truth: what joins us is so much greater than what separates us. Australia is an extraordinary land, and this year it has faced extraordinary natural disasters. Australians have united to face these disasters with dignity, kindness, generosity and the good-natured "no worries" attitude that has captured the world's attention.


The Long Road Ahead

Still, Sammie and Bob are among the lucky ones to have survived. For them and for many other survivors, the fallout will be great, and it will be lasting. Please donate to the charities listed at the top of this blog using the links provided. As reported here and here, animals continue to need help and will do for some time because their natural homes have been wiped out.

I'll close with the following montage of images posted on YouTube in support of the RSPCA (also viewable here).
TM

Obama's Inauguration - The Principles of Hope

Last week's Inauguration address by President Obama once again showcased his extraordinary speaking talents. My impression is that the delivery of his speech deftly weaved together the threads of Presidents Kennedy and Clinton, of Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., and reaffirmed the role we have come to see as a cornerstone of his identity: statesman and orator.

Yet this time, there was something more. It was his moment to offer a first glimpse of the course he intends to set for the world's most powerful nation over the next four years. He's given us the agenda that will drive his behaviour as President and that will guide the staff of his administration.

NeuroPower Leadership: the Compassionate Leader

I've written previously that Obama is frequently able to embody what within the NeuroPower framework (as developed by author and strategist Peter Burow) is called a NeuroPower Leader.

Specifically, he is able to manifest the characteristics of what is termed the Compassionate Leader, which is the result of integrating the two NeuroPower archetypes of Chancellor and Navigator. Before we go on, I'll give you some detail on how NeuroPower suggests these archetypes are formed.

Archetypes and the 6 Intelligence Centres

Each of our individual personalities comprises two archetypes. An archetype is formed through the combination of three of the six thinking functions that NeuroPower suggests make up the majority of our brain's activity.

These six thinking functions (also called Intelligence Centres, or ICs for short) may be grouped in their three respective pairs under the following headings:

Innovation and Vision
Logic and Passion
Data and Empathy

Note that there isn't a stark divide between each pair, so it's not "Data versus Empathy," rather (following the Jungian conception of behaviour) they are the respective endpoints along a continuum of possible behaviours.

Master/Mirror Archetype and Integration

As we each tend more toward one or the other end of these three continua, we'll each come to prefer or rely on one set of three thinking functions as our "default" mode of operating. The combination of these three preferred modes of thinking results in our Master archetype. Meanwhile the other three thinking functions that represent our less-preferred ways of operating combine to form our Mirror archetype.

To take President Obama as an example, I would argue that his default mode - that is, the three ICs that he tends to favours in the first instance - are the Innovation, Passion and Empathy ICs. The archetype that results when these three are combined is the Chancellor archetype and, since these are his preferred three ICs, the Chancellor is his Master archetype profile. The corresponding three ICs (Vision, Logic and Data respectively) therefore combine to form the Navigator archetype and this is his Mirror archetype profile.

The two key concepts to grasp here are that:

• We all have access to all six of these thinking functions or Intelligence Centres. Reintegrating your Master profile (made up of your "preferred" three ICs) and your Mirror profile (made up of the other three ICs) is the central developmental challenge each of us faces in our efforts to express our fullest capacity as people - hence that's also the primary developmental focus of the NeuroPower framework.
• The Master profile tells us what we want out of life, the Mirror profile reminds us of what we need. How this plays out is that our Master archetype forms our self-identity (i.e. where we place our focus and how we communicate with others; to that degree it also determines how others view and value us as individuals) while the Mirror archetype influences our behaviour.*
  

Up to the Inauguration we've seen a good deal of Obama's Master archetype, the Chancellor, and this has determined our sense of his identity. In this speech we begin to see the integration of his Mirror archetype, the Navigator, and get a sense of how that is likely to guide his behaviour.

Here is the video of his speech and below that are two short descriptions of the Chancellor and Navigator archetypes. I invite you to use these archetypes as a lens through which to view the content and delivery of his message, to see how seamlessly he has integrated the best aspects of each and how he brings them to the service of his purposes.

You can visit the original YouTube page here.

The Chancellor**

Chancellors are charming, enthusiastic, energetic and ambitious. They like competition, negotiation, promoting ideas and people and rising to the top. Chancellors are found among some of the most senior leaders and officials in society. They live to work and rise to challenges, particularly those complex people issues that others cannot seem to sort out.

Chancellors are passionate about projects with which they are involved; they are highly adept at getting team members to achieve their respective objectives, each for their own reasons. Indeed they are the ultimate diplomats: they strive to build bridges both externally, between groups and people and internally, within the sometimes conflicted breast of an individual with whom they may be interacting. They are altruistic at heart and dedicated to authenticity and bringing out the best in others.

At their best, Chancellors are genuinely charming, excellent negotiators, diplomatic, strive for esprit de corps to foster high-performing team environments, and have a warmth and kindness about them, even a sort of venerability as they put us in touch with our own better natures.

The Navigator***

A Navigator’s mind is structured and visionary. These traits combine to produce a person with a clear vision and the discipline and structure to achieve it. They are super-dependable and like to be a respected contributor to the community and a pillar of society.

Very emotionally detached, Navigators are inflexible when discussing plans, directions, approaches and logistics. If they are given no advance warning, however, they can cope with flexibility and ambiguity and perform brilliantly ‘on the hop’.

Navigators are very focused when there is a clear vision, executing enormous mind over matter, suppressing unwanted emotions and disciplining themselves and the people around them.

At their best, Navigators are the embodiment of faith, exhibiting complete confidence in the achievement of their goals and never, ever giving up hope. They are protective, almost patriarchal figures. They excel at visionary planning, holding responsibly to the agreed course of action, reaffirming the guiding principles that underlay their plans, and encouraging role excellence in themselves and others. They love to explore and conquer new realms, leading themselves or a group into uncharted territory or experiences - and to do so with honour and respect for others.


Reaffirming the principles of hope

For me, Obama's message was an inspirational reaffirmation of American ideals, principles and the responsibility that comes with power and leadership.

Looking outward to the world and (re)building bridges, he has set his stake in the ground to say clearly and confidently:

...we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more. [my emphasis]

Welcome back, America. The world has missed your leadership and your culture's deep, abiding belief in the power that ideas can have in shaping the world. As anthropologist Margaret Mead reminds us:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

TM



*adapted from the NeuroPower handbook, edition 1.0.5 (2008), p 746
**adapted from the NeuroPower handbook, edition 1.0.5 (2008), pp 270-271
***adapted from the NeuroPower handbook, edition 1.0.5 (2008), pp 364-65, 375, 562

Happy Chinese New Year: The Ox

Gung Hay Fat Choy / Gong Xi Fa Cai

Today we enter the Chinese Year of the Ox and I wish all my friends, colleagues and clients a prosperous and healthy year ahead.

Last year was the Year of the Rat, the first in the cycle of 12 years in the Chinese calendar. I've read that Rat years are fast-paced, a time of new opportunities and fresh starts, of renewal through reinvention and also of upheaval.

Certainly in keeping with the theme of renewal and upheaval in a Rat year, 2008 saw its fair share of crises. In fact the events of last year call to my mind the purported Chinese curse, May you live in interesting times, as well as the old saw that the same Chinese character (or ideogram) is used for both the words crisis and opportunity.

In keeping with the Chinese theme of this post, however, I'd like to examine a few of the phrases and concepts that have gotten a bit mangled in their East-to-West translation.

Crisis = Opportunity?

In my previous post I quite explicitly made the point that you have the power of choice over whether to view a situation as a crisis or an opportunity - something that I still hold to be true. However it seems that the concept does not have its roots in the use of the same Chinese character for both crisis and opportunity (see here and here for details).

Similarly there is no reference that can be found for a Chinese curse, let alone saying, May you live in interesting times. According to Wikipedia the expression may have its roots in an interpretation of a Chinese phrase that may be translated as follows:

the times produce their heroes
(pinyin: shí shì zào yīng xióng)

I rather like this, for several reasons: first off, it's not a curse(!); it neatly encapsulates the element of personal agency and choice mentioned above; I think it taps into the underlying truism that each age needs to produce heroes that are appropriate to the moment - with the presumption that each of us has heroism within us that's waiting to be manifested and shine through.

Rat-cunning & Ox-solid

The Rat year 2008 was certainly marked by upheaval and the start of a process of (forceable and possibly overdue) renewal - not least in the financial sector. The signs of continued global climate change were starkly evident. Not all was negative, though, as in 2008 America ushered in a new era marked by the promise of change and of hope by collectively saying Yes We Can.

The Ox year 2009, meanwhile, promises prosperity through fortitude and hard work.

It's meant to be a conservative year, one of traditions and values, of stability and growth where patience and diligence pay off.

It's a year of harvest - when we reap what we have sown and consolidate the progress that the Rat's speediness and destruction/renewal has produced, in which any recent setbacks or obstacles can be overcome.

Even if you put no store by Chinese astrology, I'd suggest that these guiding principles will hold you in good stead this year as people the world over learn how to be the heroes that their times require. We, as well as our communities and the planet, deserve nothing less.

In keeping with the theme, my next post will assess President Obama's inauguration speech to see what kind of Ox year he has in mind for America and, by extension, the world community.
TM

What are you thinking...? Choose wisely!

A friend recently quipped: "What's the definition of optimism for an investment banker?" His answer: Ironing five shirts on a Sunday night.

While the times around us are changing, as they ever will, one thing remains the same: your power of choice. You can see any situation as a crisis or as an opportunity. As an ending or a new beginning.

This may sound trite and Pollyanna-ish to you, but rest assured there is good reason for you to cultivate an awareness of what choices you make during your each waking moment. Where you place your attention will determine your level of happiness...both now and later in your life.


We become what we think about all day long.

These words, attributed to the early 19th century American essayist, philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, neatly present the commonsensical insight of something that has now been confirmed by neuroscience.

In fact the book The Wisdom Paradox : How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older by neuropsychologist Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg (see here for book excerpts and here for a short book review) makes a compelling argument that wisdom is essentially the ability to know what to do in a given situation and make good decisions, fast, based on having seen and dealt with similar situations in the past.

So like anything, practice makes better. Unsurprisingly, the way to become good at something is to do it often and to learn from your efforts.

In this way wisdom is not so different from playing a sport or a musical instrument - over time you build up memories of how to do something, which can be readily accessed later on by the fast, memory-building part of your brain (based in the limbic system).

So here's the lesson: if you practice playing the piano badly through your years of life, then you're only ever going to be a bad piano player (though you'll have very ready access to the skill of playing it badly!).

Similarly, if you continually cultivate a mindset focused on crisis, negativity, the downside, and being fearful, then later in life those are exactly the memories you'll most readily access and - hey presto - you're stuck in the same rut of continually thinking everything is rubbish.

Like giving up any vice or bad habit, however, it's never too late to quit and the positive effects can begin to add up immediately. If you begin to manifest positive aspects of your character, some of the noble qualities of what you're like when you are at your absolute best, then those are the attributes to which your brain will make the strongest connections. They will become habits, taking you upwards in a positive spiral towards greater happiness and a more hopeful outlook on life.

Even if you're doubtful of the science behind the matter, I think you'd agree that manifesting a character-filled approach to life by learning to focus on the possibilities rather than the negatives has relatively few down-sides. (Of course, if you're immediately prone to pointing out what the downsides might be, that in itself could be a useful piece of insight for you...!)

I'm reminded of a story about an executive who, no matter what news was presented to him, responded by saying "That's great!" Staff members bearing really negative messages were, to say the least, disconcerted by this reaction, until they learned to see the philosophy behind it - that nothing is unequivocably positive or negative in itself - it all has to do with the meaning we choose to attach to it. Like Hamlet says, "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so".

What are you thinking about, all day long? And is that the way you want to think your whole life long...?
TM

NeuroPower Leader: Barack Obama

Insights from New Zealand

Greetings from the latest NeuroPower training program in Queenstown, New Zealand. Each year NeuroPower practitioners gather in this inspirational and contemplative location to develop not only participants' understanding and application of the framework, but to review the year's latest research and refine and update the framework itself with the latest input, insights and business applications.

This year's particular focus is the process of Transformational Change in organizations and teams. We have also looked at the role of NeuroPower Leaders in the transformation cycle, as outlined in the NeuroPower handbook (developed by author and strategist Peter Burow).

NeuroPower Leaders

These extraordinary individuals are the leaders we admire and follow because we trust them.

We trust them because neurobiologically we can sense that they are coming from a position of nobility rather than a position of selfishness.

We trust them, yet they can be difficult for us to understand because they have most often been able to integrate the diverse aspects of their personality in a way that is compelling and inspires us to achieve more of what we are capable of being ourselves.

In their presence and through their words we believe we can be more than what we've been up to now, that we can achieve more than we've ever achieved before.

If you haven't seen or heard President-elect Barack Obama's acceptance speech I encourage you to do so through the embedded link below or here. Notice in his speech how he integrates all the aspects of both archetypes that he represents, the Chancellor ("bridge builder") and the Navigator ("visionary planner").

Listen for how he brings together the various noble qualities of:

Faith - "The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there."

Charm (in the sense of placing the focus on the other person) - "... you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done. But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you."

Negotiating and Diplomatic - "There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand."

Protecting - "To those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you."

Responsible and Principled - "And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope. That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow."

Building Bridges - "A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Senator McCain. Senator McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him; I congratulate Governor Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead."

Seeking Role Excellence

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change.

And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.

Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

And perhaps most characteristic of all for his campaign, the hopefulness of the slogan "Yes We Can", embodied by the qualities of Honour and Genuineness invoked by the memory of Obama's Illinoian predecessor, President Abraham Lincoln:

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

An extraordinary individual for an extraordinary time - and most hopefully for us all, the things he is able to do are based on his being able to fully and freely access all six intelligence centres that are available to him - as they are to all of us.

So are we all able to access the things that will make us NeuroPower Leaders like the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama?


Yes We Can!
TM

A positive New Year's resolution for 2009

Greetings from one of the places where the New Year 2009 had its earliest beginnings: Sydney, Australia. I sincerely wish my readers health, happiness, growth and learning this year - and I hope that you look forward to achieving your goals even as you appreciate the good things that happened for you in 2008.

At this moment of good intentions, hopefulness and a fresh start to the year, I'd like to suggest a New Year's Resolution that I know will bring delight and greater happiness to those who decide to have a go.

Like most things that consistently work well, it is based on common sense and is not very complicated. In my work with both individuals and groups of people, one of the things that has most often delivered positive outcomes and, well, there's no other word for it, a "feel-good" atmosphere is: the practice of offering sincere, positive feedback to other people.

The Affirm

The technique that describes how to do this most effectively comes from the world of solution-focused practice and is described in the book The Solutions Focus: Making Coaching and Change Simple (Jackson/McKergow 2002, 2007).

The Affirm is a deceptively simple, yet highly effective tool, one that is based on the principle that people feel better (and in organizational terms perform better) when they are appreciated and their strengths, talents and attributes are noticed in a positive way. Giving sincere, positive feedback is one of the most underrated tools in the box. It seems we are stronger at spotting mistakes and homing in on what’s wrong or not so good. And yet how many of us do not warm to the praise of those around us and feel pretty good as a result?

So is this just a matter of giving compliments willy-nilly to anyone and everyone?

Well, no.

You'll have noted by now that I've mentioned the word "sincere" several times. To identify the sort of compliments that leave people deflated and cynical, rather than buoyed-up and energetic, I invite you to imagine the manager who delivers, with the emphatic two-thumbs-up gesture, a loud: "You guys are GREAT!" Such a comment misses the mark entirely because it is insincere, it's unspecific and it's so open-ended as to be totally irrelevant to the receiver.

By contrast, Affirms work as effective positive feedback because they are:

• Authentic and sincere,
• Specific and detailed,
• Relevant to the context

So if, using these points as a guide, we were to coach our well-meaning manager in the example above, he might revise his comment to the team to sound something like, "I think it's great the way you guys worked together to get that widget proposal delivered yesterday - even though there were different ideas on how to get it done, I really like how you managed to build on each other's contributions and produce high-quality work despite a really short lead-time. Well done!"

By cleansing the practice of complimenting others from the stink of insincerity, this technique helps to create a more positive environment, one where it's OK to give and to receive sincere positive feedback and to look for what's working rather than what's not working. It's not only a great way to mind your use of language to help spread some happiness and positivity in the world, it's an absolutely essential ingredient in effective engagement of people and the creation of high-performance teams in the workplace.

Most astoundingly, it can even be used to turn around some quite negative situations. If someone is complaining or "having a moan" about something, you can even Affirm them in such a way that they actually feel heard and are more likely to stop moaning and get on with something more productive!

Because you affirm the person's underlying strength, talent or attribute rather than the moan itself (which is really just a symptom, a transient reactive emotional state they've been triggered into) you actually enable the person to get back in touch with their higher cognitive and more noble qualities. With a gentle prod you can help them become more resourceful and actually get on the path to solving their own problems instead of inflicting them on everyone around them.

Check out this Affirm activity as an example of how this can play out in real life - from my own experience, I've had great results introducing it to people who very quickly get in the spirit of things and revelled in the challenge of finding the person's positive noble qualities lurking beneath even the most cantankerous moaning and bellyaching.

I wish you every success with your Affirming in 2009!
TM

Are you ready...for the UPturn?

A city broods in the dark...but the dawn will come again.

Greetings from Hong Kong, where, to be frank, things seem a bit grim. Here in the world's third-largest financial centre, banks are busily making cuts to staff and rolling back their recent expansion.

Speaking to one senior VP at a multinational bank here, the thing I noticed was that he seemed less concerned about the volatility of the markets than he was about the impending layoffs...and the rounds of political infighting and bloodletting that have intensified as a result.

A global economic shift is taking place, that is clear. There's nothing like large-scale uncertainty and financial instability to drive people straight into their limbic "lizard-brain" of emotional reactivity - a trend not discouraged by media outlets that seem to want to frighten, not inform. Even the business press is glutted with articles on "surviving the downturn" and "managing through a recession" and "leadership despite layoffs".

As people are driven into survival-based fight-flight-freeze responses, the practical results are: teams fall apart; bad behaviour becomes the norm; secrecy, infighting, politicking and point-scoring become the order of the day. Productivity - the very thing needed to pull a company through these times - plummets and it's every individual for him/herself.


Are you ready for the upturn?

At this point I want to suggest another point of view - being ready for the upturn.

To counter the divisive trends noted above and steer the ship toward calmer seas, it makes good business sense to get people out of their lizard-brain mode and find a way to get their rational minds back in the game.

To put it in a broader context, what's happening now in the economy was largely inevitable. Securitization, the separation of lender from risk, and other speculative and highly leveraged transactions had become unsustainable practices. We have lived through - and enjoyed - a long period financial success - and excess.

These financial practices have arguably been the logical outgrowth of a mentality and societal goals that are shaped by the ceaseless and senseless focus on profit at any cost. Not only are individuals and companies now paying the financial piper, the planet is suffering from our myopic mania for short-term gain.

On the long view, this correction of excesses may even be timely - otherwise as a species and a culture we'd have careened happily over the edge, setting in motion cascades of consequences that would doom the planet and ourselves.

As the pendulum swings back in the other direction, will it be a pleasant process? No - it has the potential to be a unpleasant as the other extreme was excessive. The process of creating balance and reintegrating a broader view, though difficult, is as necessary for society as it is helpful for individuals.

The long-term, rational policy suggests we get into the best possible position in our organizations and companies to be successful when the current period ends and things have shifted. The current climate (economic and environmental) won't last forever; we face an important turning-point.

At this stage there's great potential here for far-sighted companies to create the high-performance, humanistic and productive environments that will be needed to take us forward into the future.

These are not decisions you want to be making using your panicked limbic lizard-brain in knee-jerk mode, but rather your rational brain seeking signs of resilience and hope.

So although the night seems to be getting ever-darker, keep your eye on the brightest lights as they show a way through the darkness. The dawn will come again...
TM

Surviving vs Thriving - insights from the Lion City

Singapore has long been a strategic nexus of commerce and trade. Here you have "instant Asia" - Indians, Chinese, Malay, Japanese - along with masses of Western and other expats and the multinational firms that employ them. Today Singapore offers many useful insights into what is happening in the region of Southeast Asia and also globally.

Out of this mix of cultures and worldviews, a particularly Singaporean view has emerged. Here the business culture is fostered on a deeply pragmatic view of the world...and yet it is not all short-term practicality. The government is strongly focused on Singapore's future wellbeing, with carefully laid-out strategies geared to the long-term objective of ensuring the city-state's place on the world map of commerce and business.

Certainly on the surface of it, with construction sites and container ports running literally 24/7/365, it seems the Lion City is poised to roar ahead through the current economic turmoil and beyond.

In my previous post I mentioned the difference in the US presidential election between McCain's politics of fear and Obama's politics of hope. During my visit over the past few days here in Singapore I've been listening to the insights of local executives and the thoughts expressed at the first Singapore Human Capital Summit. It seems as though there are two prevailing mentalities, similar in nature to the themes of fear and hope.

Let's call them surviving vs. thriving.

Surviving
This mentality is focused almost exclusively on the short-term: let's hit next month's numbers and then take it from there. It's a reactive strategy, designed to do the bare minimium required to ensure economic (and, hopefully, individual job) survival. It's therefore also bereft of long-term strategic focus, considered thought, and high-level awareness of consequences - the intended and the unintended.

Thriving
The other mentality is practical, yet future-focused. As one executive argued,

Right now I'm not putting money in marketing because who knows what the market will be doing in 6 months time. But I think it's important to invest in my people. If things don't get so bad, it means I've got a team that's ready to perform and I'll eat the lunch of my more reactive, fearful competitors who haven't similarly invested. But even if I have to shed some staff, they'll still have the skills when it comes time to hire them back later on. At worst, there's a relationship to be strengthened by developing their skills - and that relationship can also be the competitive advantage I need over other companies in a tight labour market!

Both styles, short-term and long-term, may be valid depending on context and a host of other variables. Looking at the above two philosophies, I know which company I'd like to work for. (And wasn't it an exclusive focus on the short-term that got the world into the current economic crisis in the first place...?)

Maybe here at the crossroads of Asia, the combination that Singapore has woven of "pragmatic long-termism" has some valuable insights. Straight from the lion's mouth.
TM

Neuroscience everywhere, plus: fear and hope on the campaign trail

Seems like everyone's talking neuroscience these days...

Neuroscience and osteopathy
Two weeks ago when I was back in the UK, I stopped by the clinic of Steve Makinde who, besides being kind enough to confirm that I had in fact been travelling with two fractured ribs (ouch), mentioned that he's pursuing a Masters degree in Neuroscience at University College London. So why does an expert in osteopathic medicine take a sudden interest in the brain? Well it turns out he wants to explore both the physiological and the neurological pathways of pain to see how best to provide effective patient care - to explore, I suppose, the mind-over-matter dimensions of pain relief and injury rehabilitation. This echoes the work that colleagues of mine in Australia are doing with neuroscience related to diet and body shape, and I plan to put them in touch with Stephen to see what useful conversations might result.

Neuroscience and human behaviour: Hard science + Soft skills
A week ago in Montreal I spoke with my colleague Elizabeth Hirst, communications consultant and coordinator/instructor at McGill University's innovative program in Public Relations Management.


We had a great discussion based largely on the fact that we've been pursuing parallel interests in neuroscience and human behaviour. How gratifying it is to us both that there is now hard science that backs up the of "soft stuff" of managing and communicating with people in organizations, an area to which we've both spent years influencing clients to pay more attention.


Fear and hope
Our conversation eventually turned to the American Presidential race and the way in which McCain's approach is fast, jerky, emotionally-charged and high-pressure, in stark contrast to Obama's more measured, considered messages of hope for the future. It seems to me that the Republican campaign is based on keeping people in a limbic state, where their knee-jerk responses will have a comforting predictability that (McCain/Palin hope) will deliver the White House in a few weeks time.

The limbic, emotional part of the brain makes decisions first, then seeks justification (or rationalization) for the decision after the fact. McCain has said he, like Bush, prides himself on acting fast and sorting out the details later. While to some voters this may seem an attractive trait, a form of real decisiveness, it's exactly the sort of decision-making the produced a war in Iraq with no detailed disengagement plan for the post-"regime change" period.

The rational brain, where our better nature and true talents lie, gathers information first and then makes decisions based on careful analysis and thoughtful debate. It makes it easier to imagine a positive future state, to believe in the fundamental optimism and resilience of the American people and their ability to recraft the American Dream for a new century.

It's the opposite of trying to operate from a locked-down, fear-based state of mind - a space which is fundamentally ill-suited to handling complex situations with multinational repercussions.

The American political process (and, I'd hazard to say, American culture in general) is not famously known for considered thought and examination of the issues at play. It's more about instant gratification and short attention spans - a tendency worsened by media that seek to keep people in a limbic state as well (after all, when you're scared shitless you crave more information, which is a great way to sell newspapers).


For the sake America's future, and for the rest of us in the world outside the USA, let's hope that Obama's message of hope and belief in the common sense of the American people will prevail over the politics of fear and reactivity.
TM