Change 1 Recollection And You Can Change It All!

Refresh your Vision and enliven your life!

We get our clearest Vision when we aren’t being intellectual about it, but are just writing down the quiet thoughts in the background of our mind – the reactions we all usually push away as ‘unrealistic’ and ‘too many challenges.’

Grab a blank piece of paper and put your pen in the hand you would NOT normally write with. This will send your inner critic into a tizzy and keep it occupied as you answer the following question:

“What is it I wish would get solved in the world?”

Let yourself write out any and all ideas and thoughts that come to you. Don’t limit what you write down. It may include reactions to recent events, or memories from your childhood and teen years. One recollection you pushed to the background.

Now set that page aside. Come back and look at it over the next few days, and add additional thoughts to it as they come to you. Notice what’s really been quietly hinting to you from way inside.

Let me know the results you create!

April 30, 2007 | Filed Under Vision | Leave a Comment 

Get On The Vision Train

By Linda Feinholz, “Your Success Catalyst”

Coming up dry on the “vision” thing?

I had a conversation with one of my clients last week. We’ll call him Dan. All my clients know that I focus exclusively on consulting to and coaching business owners and professionals who have a vision they’re trying to accomplish… and have had enough of feeling stalled. And Dan was stalled!

His point was that he doesn’t get out of bed in the morning thinking about his Vision… he’s thinking about his To Dos.

And those to do’s are a looooong list that doesn’t feel productive. They feel like they’re just constantly moving stuff from ‘needs to get done’ to ‘done’ or ‘sigh, still needs to get done.’ Like a To Do Train constantly heading down the tracks, pausing in stations to let off some To Dos and just having more hop on board.

No matter how much he’d been getting done, he felt utterly stalled. And it showed. His shoulders were tense, and so was his face and his speech.

I shared an article with Dan that I’ve been moving from one corner of my desk to another… I first read it on the treadmill at the gym and the guy next to me thought I was a nut case as I kept jumping off the belt and onto the sides so I could write in black marker all over it. The guys in the club are getting used to it – I’m always using articles to open my clients’ thinking about things.

Wendy Kopp didn’t imagine herself founding a business that would become one of the largest non-profit hirers of college seniors. When she was a senior at Princeton she had an idea of a Peace Corps-like program to teach in troubled schools. As she stepped into it, and discovered her own passion for reforming public education, she shaped the world around her.

She helped organize a conference on the topic and wrote her senior thesis on it, failed to get a job at graduation and decided to launch the corps herself. You can read the details about it in Fortune Magazine. But the key is that each two steps forward lead to steep success and equally to failures.

And to stunning Success! Today Teach America accepts only 2,400 of the 19,000 applicants and gets students who turn down offers from Goldman Sachs to join Wendy and make a difference in schools across the USA.

She wasn’t born with that Vision, any more than Dan needed to be born with his. She had failures that triggered new ideas, new pursuits, new actions. Loss of funding that required the concept be redesigned. Relationships built with the Mega-corporations of America that led in new directions. They coalesced into a vibrant program influencing 100s of 1,000s of lives every year.

Wendy’s Vision took shape in reaction to her life’s experiences. As a result of a life of involved living,

So, too, with Dan. We systematically talked through the elements that jazz him in life. What he wishes were different in the world and the piece of it that he’d like to commit himself to.

The result?

By naming his passion and the Vision he wanted to set in front of himself and focus on, Dan was able to sort through his entire To Do list  and take every single task and assign it on the Daily 4-in-1 sheet.

And he easily moved 38% of his list (he did the math) straight off the To Dos – not even into the “Delegate It” or the “Someday” categories. Gone! All that attention recaptured to put into the stuff that he cares about.

His shoulders relaxed, his eyes perked up, and he looked like he regained 10 years of his life.

Now that’s a nice way to get on the Vision Train!

April 26, 2007 | Filed Under Inspiration, Vision | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Reference And You Can Change It All!

Take some issue that you’re stuck on and write it on a clean piece of paper.Once you’ve done that, rewrite it with lots of extra adjectives around every part of the issue. Now put each idea or piece of information on a separate small piece of paper. You can use Post-It Notes, torn paper, the back of business cards!

Now, ask yourself the question:

“What are 3 ideas that come to mind with this pairing?”

Capture every single idea that comes from every pairing. As you do this “Ah Ha!”s will quickly reveal themselves for you and your team to carry forward.

April 23, 2007 | Filed Under Inspiration | Leave a Comment 

Success Principle 3 - Get More Productive Results By Expanding Your Attention

By Linda Feinholz, “Your Success Catalyst”

Still Stuck? Not making any progress on that To Do haunting you from the top of your list?

Our minds are very clever at running through the same ideas over and over, like a needle stuck in a groove on a vinyl record spinning over and over, around and around.
That’s great for turning new information into knowledge or skills. Our mind will keep buzy, running images and ideas in the background while our conscious attention is on other matters. It’s helpfully building our expertise. But it sure gets in the way of coming up with new approaches to situations that are stalled. In fact, the end result of that ‘helpful’ mental activity is that…
We often give the available options no attention at all.

And then no shift in understanding is made. No new decision is made. No targetted plan of action is designed or implemented.

But relief is at hand! I often say “God bless the guy who invented the Post-It Note!” Those wonderful little sticky pieces of paper have liberated our busy minds. Whether you use sticky paper or scraps you tear up for yourself, you’ll want them on hand for the next version of our technique to 

REFRAME – Change Your Frame of Reference

There are several versions of this technique. Two that I’ve shared include

Version 1 - Add a new person with a different background to the conversation.

Version 2 - Add a new ’setting’ to the conversation.

Remember as you use those versions of Reframing - The less similar the circumstances, the less similar the experience of the new person you add to the conversation, the quicker you’ll see the assumptions you’ve been making that have been preventing you from seeing the alternatives you could pursue.
And here is a third apprach. I’ve used it in board rooms, conference rooms, offices, park benches and on airplanes:

Version 3 - The Shuffle

Whether you’re trying to solve a business issue for a client, or the matter is internal to your own business productivity, treat the information like pieces in a Rubik’s cube. Shuffling all the information into new positions and changing their pairings lets you see them in a new way. It can quickly reveal the assumptions that have been stalling your progress.

Write all the issues and ideas on separate pieces of paper, and pair them up randomly. You can use Post-It Notes, torn paper, the back of business cards! On a separate piece of paper capture each of the ‘new’ ideas that comes to mind.

If you’re doing this as a team, using sticky notes up on the wall lets everyone’s mind join in, jotting, shuffling and sharing the new ideas and realizations.

You’ll fill pages of alternative ideas that you can let yourself or your team continue to probe and play with, so be sure to set a time horizon for The Suffle and for when you’ll sit down again to sort through and prioritize those new ideas.

You know you’ve got something your mind’s been chewing on. So grab this Reframe technique and apply it today and let’s get you moving again so you can boost your productivity this week.

April 19, 2007 | Filed Under Ideas, Inspiration | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Reference And You Can Change It All!

Take some issue that you’re stuck on and write it on a clean piece of paper.Once you’ve done that, rewrite it with lots of extra details around every part of the issue. Trust me – you’re the only one who will see this!

Now, ask yourself the question

“How could we approach this if it were a fruit farm in Alaska?”


Rewrite the entire situation in the language you’d use in that situation. Now take it one step further - pose the question to your entire team!

Rewrite the entire situation in the language you’d use in that situation. Now take it one step further - pose the question to your entire team!

April 16, 2007 | Filed Under Ideas | Leave a Comment 

Success Principle 3 - Get More Productive Results By Expanding Your Attention

By Linda Feinholz, “Your Success Catalyst”

The theme of  indecisive decisions and unsolved situations hit a strong cord with subscribers. The idea that solutions might be lurking just around the corner from our attention has had several readers perking up and looking at additional ways of expanding their attention. As promised, here’s another powerful technique that is quick and simple. Grab a piece of paper and write down your most current top 10 issues that still are unresolved, undecided, unmoving. (Go ahead. Hit the ‘pause’ button and do it now - I’ll wait for you.)I’ve mentioned before that I often find for myself and my clients that the root of our becoming ’stalled’ lies in our fixation on how we’re approaching the situation.

As individuals we become certain that we know the question and all the factors we’re supposed to take into consideration. Often we’ve written off the alternative ideas without actually considering them.

As groups, we often decide to not question or challenge an idea or a solution being proposed for reasons of personality or politics. The end result is the same:

We often give the available options no attention at all.

And so no real progress is made. No truly effective decision is made. No productive plan of action is designed or implemented.

In particular when I work with teams it’s important to get playful and deliberately use one of the simplest and most powerful exercises that expand your attention and expand your options.

REFRAME – Change Your Frame of Reference

Version 2 - Add a new ’setting’ to the conversation.
Write down the situation in all its detail. Put in all the adjectives you can come up with. This will allow you to capture all the underlying details you’ve been cementing in place. And as you do this exercise be sure to ‘reframe’ every single item on that list!
Next, change the references you are using. Here are examples of ones that have worked wonders with recent clients who have been stalled.

For one client, a professional services firm, the challenge was improving product delivery. Asking “How could you deliver it if it was for an aquarium or skate board manufacturer?” got everyone at the table to shift perspectives with ease.

For another client the breakdown was around customer service in a health care office. Great ideas surfaced when the team was asked “How would you do it if it were reception at a ski resort?” and “at a paint ball range?”

To really change people’s frame of reference, there’s nothing like giving ourselves the opportunity to return to the mind of a child. As adults we take everything so seriously that we shut off the imaginative part of our own brains. To access that part of ourselves I use the question “How would you do this if it had to work for children ages 4 through 8?”

The less similar the circumstances, the quicker you’ll see the assumptions you’ve been making that have been preventing you from seeing the alternatives you could pursue.

When you let yourself and your team expand your attention, highly productive ideas can surface in as little as 15 minutes. Now that’s boosting your effectiveness!

So grab the Reframe technique and apply it to something on that list you wrote out and let’s get it moving again so you can boost your productivity this week.

 

 

April 12, 2007 | Filed Under Processes, Time Management | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Reference And You Can Change It All!

Take some issue that you’re stuck on and write it on a clean piece of paper.

Once you’ve done that, identify someone who knows absolutely nothing about this issue, it’s circumstances, the industry or people involved.

Invite them to hear your idea and ask them to

“Help me identify the alternatives I’m not noticing!”

Write down every alternative without editing or criticizing it. You may spot an instant “Ah Ha!” or you may want to let them sit and stir up your thinking for a few days, so that your own mind can start to play with them.

April 9, 2007 | Filed Under Inspiration | Leave a Comment 

Success Principle 3 - Get More Productive Results By Expanding Your Attention

By Linda Feinholz, “Your Success Catalyst”

Are your decisions indecisive and your solutions long in coming?

Grab a piece of paper and write down your top 10 issues that still are unresolved, undecided, unmoving. (Go ahead. Hit the ‘pause’ button and do it now - I’ll wait for you.)

I had a meeting with a successful professional this month who was stalled. She has a fabulous new business idea that could revolutionize the driving habits of young drivers and the costs of insurance for their parents. And she wasn’t making progress.

As we spoke about her thinking and the actions she’d taken, it was clear that she’d become stuck in her approach. Stuck with a particular point of view about how best to proceed. Stuck with her ‘knowing’ based on many years experience in the industry.

And yet, that ‘knowing’ is a two-edged sword. She’s not alone. I often find for myself and my clients that the root of our becoming ’stalled’ lies in our fixation on how we’re approaching the situation. We’re certain that we know the question and all the factors we’re supposed to take into consideration. Often we’ve written off the alternative ideas without actually considering them.

We give the available options no attention at all.

And then no progress is made. No decision is made. No plan of action is designed or implemented.

On the one hand my client knows exactly to who contact throughout the industry to explore the idea. On the other hand, she had passed over the rather long list of alternative entry points for her idea and ended up immobilized when her contacts didn’t move forward with her proposal.

Our life experience and our training and expertise often box us in and prevent us from seeing the many other ideas and solutions that are available. So here is one of the simplest and most powerful techniques you can use to expand your attention and expand your options in a similar situation. The technique is called the

REFRAME – Change Your Frame of Reference

There are several versions of this technique I’ll be sharing with you. Here is the first of them.

Version 1 - Add a new person with a different background to the conversation.

A new mind, with other experiences and expertise often helps create the shift that will enable you to reach a decision.

The less similar the new mind you bring to the conversation, the quicker you’ll see the assumptions you’ve been making that have been preventing you from seeing the alternatives you could pursue.

When my clients use me they know they’ll get new perspectives, as you’ll see later. When a fresh additional person is not available I find that the following technique works for most of my clients to get them shifting their references.

For my client, this version of the Reframe Technique came up with more than six distinct new approaches she could pursue. Every single one of them was as viable as the idea she’d been stuck on. One was to change from using the insurance industry as the entry point for her proposal to the parents themselves.

Parents could be approached individually and in their local organizations. Since the idea is of economic benefit to them as well as to the insurance companies at large, there might be quicker receptivity to the idea and quicker action on testing her idea.

There were more ideas that came from our meeting, but I’ll save those for you to discover in the mailer you get from your insurance company in years to come.

So grab the Reframe technique and apply it to something on that list you wrote out and let’s get it moving again so you can boost your productivity this week.

April 5, 2007 | Filed Under Ideas, Productivity Tools | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Certainty And You Can Change It All!

Are you ready to Widen Your View?

Identify someone who recently took a position different from yours, or even made a specific suggestion to you that you rejected. Think back to the idea they tried to propose. The one that you brushed off rather than considered.

When you have their suggestion clearly in mind, ask yourself.

“I wonder what it could be like to approach this issue from their perspective?”

Now write down at least 10 ideas that come to mind. As you flex your perspective you’ll see all kinds of possibilities begin to appear. And if you use those as new starting points for asking the question again, you’ll experience your mind limbering up, your opinions flexing, and the world of possibilities showing up to sort through and work with!

April 2, 2007 | Filed Under Ideas, Inspiration | Leave a Comment