by Stephen Mills on March 9, 2010
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“Our default response in life is not to experience happiness.”
“Our default response in life is not to experience meaning.”
“Our default response in life is to experience Inertia.”
– Marshall Goldsmith
In his excellent little book Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It, Marshall Goldsmith describes his solution to the problem of inertia. It seems simplistic, but I think in its simplicity lies its effectiveness and elegance.
Inertia is simply the process of continuing to do the same thing you are already doing.
The Two Question Discipline
Evaluate every activity with the following two questions: [click to continue…]
by Stephen Mills on March 4, 2010
Switch
This is the second part of the series on change made simple. It is based upon the excellent book by Chip and Dan Heath: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. You can read the overview here: Change Made Simple – Overview.
In this article we discuss the first of the three main components of the process – Direct the Rider. Directing the rider is all about providing clarity to yourself or others. It’s about solving specific problems and taking specific actions instead of trying to boil the whole ocean.
Find The Bright Spots
To pursue the bright spots is to ask the question “What’s working and how can we do more of it?”
I thought this chapter of the book was a very good one, but you are going to have to read it to get the full effect. The bottom line strategy here is to [click to continue…]
by Stephen Mills on March 3, 2010
I saw this in the ETR Newsletter today.
A group of students was asked to list what they thought were the present “Seven Wonders of the World.” Though there were some disagreements, the following received the most votes:
1. Egypt’s Great Pyramids
2. Taj Mahal
3. Grand Canyon
4. Panama Canal
5. Empire State Building
6. St. Peter’s Basilica
7. China’s Great Wall
While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one student had not finished her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The girl replied, “Yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there are so many.”
The teacher said, “Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help.”
The girl hesitated, then read, “I think the ‘Seven Wonders of the World’ are:
1. To see
2. To hear
3. To touch
4. To taste
5. To feel
6. To laugh
7. And to love.”
Read the whole article: The Other Seven Wonders of the World
What do YOU think? Leave a comment and join the conversation.
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by Stephen Mills on March 2, 2010
Switch
Chip and Dan Heath of Made to Stick
fame are out with a new book that looks to be a huge winner: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. Check out 90+% five star reviews on Amazon. It is currently a best seller on Amazon and the New York Times lists.
Switch is an excellent book with very practical advice
that is made as easy to follow as you can imagine for such a broad and complex topic. I really loved this book. I bought the book at a Barnes and Noble. When I was checking out, the sales clerk said “The whole world needs to read this book”.
I’m going to write a series summarizing the ideas and suggestions in the book and this first article in the series will be an overview.
Overview
The book covers individual, organizations, and societal change and does so in a reasonably concise way. The book is organized around a metaphor of an elephant, the rider on the elephant, and the path the rider and the elephant take. The elephant represents the emotional self, the rider represents the rational self, and the path represents the environment in which change occurs. This metaphor [click to continue…]
by Stephen Mills on February 27, 2010
by Stephen Mills on February 22, 2010
For some of us, myself included, there is an internal battle going on between our natural inclination to go with the flow of unstructured thinking and living and the real-world of dealing with the necessary details of life.
By nature I’m not a planner nor an organizer. My world is one of increasing disorder. Whenever I get a wild hair and decide to get organized, the change is only temporary. Things quickly return to an equilibrium of disorder. I seem to have a set point of disorder. Despite repeated attempts I can’t seem to change that set point.
I’m a big picture person. I don’t like to work the details. After a few minutes in a spreadsheet I want to commit suicide. [click to continue…]
