Innovation Factory

Meeting up with Robert Tucker in Manila was a pleasure. Comparing notes, getting insights and drawing sensible conclusions about creativity and innovation has usually been a slippery process. Every single individual and every single industry have ideas of their. Robert shared the concept of his Innovation Factory and I walked away with three major conclusions.

One: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Idea generation, capturing possibilities and executing that flux may all be logged in and read as that we must think out of the box and we must stretch our minds but how far individual ideas can be stretched is totally made to order and custom designed. You got to come up with a process that works for you. What worked for Google, Starbuck, 3M, Evian and even Mang Inasal may not work for you. You will have to mix your own.

Two: Execution is Key
None of the names mentioned would have known how wonderful their ideas were had they not taken them to market. Out in that nebulous territory called the “market” roam beasts and beauties of undefined shape and size. You may research, reason, position, plan and strategize but it will only be the results that will give you a true reflection and a report.

Three: Make your Approach Methodical
In essence, when you mix your own, make sure you keep track of the ingredients you use, the measures you use and how long each individual process stays on the burner of intention and focus.

I like to think in terms of preparing, persisting, percolating and performing towards creating something out of nothing. Towards making new what doesn’t work well and even what may be working perfectly well at this time.

I had the opportunity to peek into how Kraft comes up with new products, process and promotions for their products. They partner, they purchase, they persist but way before they do all that they prepare to come up with something new. Their work areas are colourful, spacious and laid out to trigger ideas and teamwork. They nurture their research and development teams with volumes of select information; they are exposed to new theories and methods of thinking and action.

All this leads to products that are yummy, a presence in the market-place that is unshaken-able and a perch where Kraft, always, gets a glimpse of the curves ahead.

Five Sensible Ideas for Meetings

The whole world is constantly participating in meetings. “Let’s have a meeting,” “I am in a meeting,” “Call you right back after the meeting,” are statements you hear all the time. Sometimes, it makes me wonder if most everyone I know is so often in one meeting or another who then, in heaven’s name, is minding the, proverbial, store? Who is building the bridges and who is baking all the bread in the world?

The truth is that a lot of time, across the world, is being wasted in and during meetings. Should we be able to capture all the wasted energy from the din and noise generated during meetings then we would have no energy crisis. We’d be cutting down lesser trees, digging up lesser oil and, leaving lesser carbon foot-prints on the face of this lovely planet. The air will be clean, the oceans will start cooling down and the birds will start flying south again.

A typical meeting usually starts late and it involves catching up with others, waiting for the late-comer, listening to his excuses and a traffic-report of the city, bringing him up to speed, ordering coffee, re-reading the minutes of the last meeting, plugging the computers, logging onto the net and rushing through the true agenda so as to catch up with the next meeting at another venue.

If this is even partially true for you then here are five quick ideas to bash up the beast of bad meetings. Five ideas is a good number because it represents the number of sensory inputs and outputs and research in the field of neurosciences has shown that the conscious mind can only juggle and manage seven plus minus two chunks of information at a given moment. With nine chunks of data we are at peak performance therefore stressed. With seven we perform at medium stress but at five chunks we are relaxed, participative and also creative.

Idea One: Email everyone, a substantial time before the meeting, a five-point agenda that is more illustrative than narrative. Use sketches, diagram and flowcharts because pictures are easier to remember than words. Assign expectations and tasks for that individual. Keep it simple and to the point.

Idea Two: During the meeting issue a little more detailed version of the same illustration to everyone with their roles and tasks color segregated. Allow space for that individual to make and takes notes. Look up Edward De Bono’s ‘Six Thinking Hats’ and use the science behind that. Throw out one of the hats or use it as a pan to collect penalties from the late-comers, the hecklers and the time-wasters in meetings.

Idea Three: Choose one big, hairy goal for the meeting and less than four minor goals to be achieved as outcomes of the meeting. Hang a large sign of the big, hairy goal where everyone can see it before and during the meeting. The large visual aids focus and like bees to honey everyone will keep directing their conversations to the big, hairy goal. The minor ones will fall in place just like dominoes do.

Idea Four: Allow a few minutes before the meeting ends to make a bonfire out of the big, hairy goal sign and the small illustrative notices that you sent out. Capture the outcomes of the meeting in an illustrative format and sketch out the measures and the big hairy goal for the next meeting. Oops, scratch out the last sentence! Your every meeting should be like you’ll never have to meet again.

Idea Five: All research, option generation, plans, milestones, measures are elements of cerebral thinking but true choices are made from the depths of our hearts. Treat each other with respect, kindness and empathy so as to nurture their emotional sides but let the late-comers, the time-wasters and hecklers be pirated by the competition.

Practice these five ideas if you like or chuck them out the window. It is best to just roll up your sleeves and bake that bread, build those bridges or chill by the beach.

Here’s hoping your meetings are always lean, mean and the coming year happy, healthy and wealthy for you!

Author, Coach and Trainer
Raju Mandhyan

While Speaking Where Do I Put My Hands

Have you ever watched Asian dancers from India, Indonesia, Japan, or Thailand? They have these exotic dance routines where the story behind the dance is beautifully and eloquently expressed through the movement of limbs backed up by facial expressions. You may have also seen people communicate through graceful hand movements and expressions. These dances and sign languages can be mesmerizing to watch because they create such clear images.

Most of us, especially those who are high on auditory learning, are not so proficient with using our hands. In reality, hand gestures are very powerful and effective visuals. Imagine the impact of hitting your fist into an open palm when insisting upon a point. Imagine the effect of placing your right hand on your heart while talking about personal things, and imagine the honesty expressed when you spread open both your palms towards your audience. With appropriate gestures, you can increase impact and enhance connectivity with the audience.

Here are some pointers on how to keep your gestures natural, effective and in sync with your words:

• Start with hands loosely held over your belly-button area, prayer style.
• Visualize your head and your body down to your waist level enclosed in an imaginary frame like a photograph. Work your gestures from within that framework. Any gestures that go out of the frame will appear loud and sometimes impolite.
• Do not point your index finger at the audience. No! You are not Uncle Sam that says, “I want you” with a scowl on his face and his index finger pointing! Instead use an open, upward facing palm.
• Let your hand movements be in sync with your words. When you say “big” raise your hands high. When you say “small” lower your hands with palms facing downwards.
• When you want to convey excitement rub your hands together or close them into a grip, lean forward slightly and emote expressions.

All through managing your body language, your facial expression and your hand gestures do remember that mind and body are one linked system. What you feel and think in your mind will show through your body and actions and what you do with your body and movements will have an effect on your mind. Therefore, think and practice rhythm and grace during all public speaking interactions.

Beyond these suggestions, another very powerful thing I can tell you about hands and hand gestures is that, while speaking, focus so much more on the message and the audience that you become less and less conscious of making hand gestures. Because we communicate as a single mind-body linked system, our hand movements, inadvertently, represent our thoughts and many a times fill in and make up for lack of appropriate words.

In all cases, always relax, have fun and let your message provide meaning and value to your listeners.


Raju Mandhyan
Author, Coach and Trainer
Video Clip
www.mandhyan.com

A World of Clear, Creative and Conscientious Thinkers!
http://mandhyan.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/RajuMandhyan

Need to Bleed

Recently, in an interaction, with people from my profession, I got a bit peeved when someone began professing the value and importance of Corporate Social Responsibility as an image-building tool and as a marketing strategy. She was suggestiing that CSR practitioners pursue efforts in areas where it would give them higher exposure and visibility.

I was in a quiet rage for the next few days until I came by an article on the story Mayang. Mayang, a Filipina in Japan, who has been doing work for the community for years and not seeking recognition for it until it was gifted upon her.

Some of Mayang's words sit well with me and here they are, "...being successful is all about being humbled by the experience. Like palay [rice shoots] arches its body towards the ground when starting to bear grains," and "You put success in your heart, not in your head."

Read the whole article at ‘Bayaning Pilipino’ in Japan By Karlo Jose R. Pineda
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 08:30:00 10/26/2009

Creating Resonance

Many a times in my workshops on interpersonal communications, sales, negotiations, etc; I have stressed the importance of aligning our internal resources like our mood, our state of mind and most importantly our authentic agenda behind the conversation. I have also stressed, referring to the 55+38+7 percentage rule of Dr. Albert Mehrebian, the importance of body language, tonality and gestures. The 55+38+7percentage rule on impact and effectiveness states that of a 100% impact upon our listeners, 7% comes from words, 35% from tonality and other non-verbals and 55% from our total presence and body language.

Now this is only partially understood by many and completely misinterpreted by many a trainer and coach of interpersonal communications. When Dr. Mehrebian, originally, conducted studies on communication patterns the results of the studies were widely circulated in the press, in abbreviated form, leading to blithe acceptance and generalization of the outputs. Dr. Mehrabian’s research was to decipher the relative impact of facial expressions and spoken words. His subjects were asked to listen to a recording of a voice saying the single word “maybe” in three tonalities, to convey liking, disliking and neutrality. The subjects were then shown pictures of the faces conveying the same three emotions. Then subjects were asked to guess the emotions portrayed by the recorded voice, the pictures and both combined. The subjects’ assessment of the picture+voice drew more accurate responses. In another study, subjects listened to nine recorded words, three meant to convey liking (honey, dear and thanks), three to convey neutrality (maybe, really and oh) and three to convey disliking (don’t, brute and terrible). The words were spoken with varying tonalities and subjects were asked to guess the emotions behind the spoken words. The finding was that tone created more impact and meaning than words alone.

Thus the 55+38+7 Rule was born and has been promoted around for years and decades across disciplines and other learning interaction. Years later, Dr. Mehrebian declared he never intended his results to be applied to everyday conversations and public speakers cannot just depend on 55+38% impact alone. The truth is that the spoken word has several intangible components and a flat out application or the assumption of this rule would be a fallacy. All interactions must equally depend on the three factors i.e. body, non-verbal and the words. The percentages of each my resemble the rule for 100% impact but in reality will vary upon depending on the medium and the context.

What true and heavy impact will really depend upon is the clarity, the purpose and the authentic agenda of the speaker. Through the filters of the body, the tonality, the gestures, the non-verbals and flowery language what are truly seen, heard and sensed well are the purpose and the agenda of the speaker. Getting an alignment and agreement between what we truly want, feel and need helps make the outward expression of it more viable, acceptable and impact heavy. Alignment of our internal resources_spititual, emotional, intellectual and physical is guaranteed to create resonance and consensus easily. View similar sentiments at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfgToFYRfrM

Positive Intention

Late one night, me and more than a dozen friends of mine from the coaching profession walked into a small coffee shop in Greenhills, Manila. All of us, ready for a jolt of caffeine, gathered up at the counter. The attendant, who seemed to be cleaning up the place, went aghast at the crowd in front of him and declared the shop was closed.

“Wow, what time do you close?” said fiery Susan, the wealth coach.
“Uh, 10:00pm, ma’am” replied the attendant.
“But, it’s only 9:55 now!” she said with an edge to her voice.
“Yes, ma’am but one of our rules is to close at exactly 10:00pm and I don’t think we will be able to achieve that and yet serve all of you” he replied.

Now here was a clash of goals and ideals. Should the man have focused on specific goals or think big picture and ring up additional pesos to his daily sales goals.
For the attendant to think big picture and to make a decision in light of the Coffee Company’s strategic intentions he’d have to be fed with a lot more meaningful information rather than just a few regiments against which his performance would be measured. He’d have to juggle his decision making between the six generic performance indicators that every business strategist leans upon, namely; competitive advantage, flexibility of action, financial performance, resource utilization, quality of service and innovation. He’d have to choose between being excellent with resource utilization and increasing the financial performance of his outlet.

Now, the thrust of Leadership Conversations is not so much about strategy and decision making but more towards providing quality feedback and coaching others. The thrust is towards eliciting, through conversations, leadership qualities out of self and others.

So, imagine, a month later, the attendant is sitting in front of you and you’ve got to talk him about the evening a dozen or more customers lined up in front of him five minutes before closing and the fact that he’d let them know that the outlet was closed. Here’s an NLP [ Neuro-Linguistic Programming] presupposition that you can utilize, “There is a positive intention motivating every behavior, and a context in which every behavior has value.”

You’ve got to realize that his choice at that moment was based completely on the knowledge he had of the issues involved in that scenario. The outcome of his decisions may or may not have been in alignment with the company’s overall strategy but his intentions were absolutely positive. You could then, through questioning and dialogue, upgrade his decision-making skills for the future. You’d have to start with the presupposition that behind his behavior was a positive intention and then work your way forward and upward. That would be your leadership in action through NLP.

That evening in Greenhills, Susan, the wealth coach, gently influenced the attendant into taking our orders. He failed at closing on time but succeeded at raising his financial performance for the day.

Appreciative Inquiry, an Acquaintance

A Quick Video Clip

Individuals and organizations are similar in the way that like an individual an organization needs to be conceived, given birth, incubated, nurtured, formed, trained, inculcated with values and then released into the world to become fruitful and value-adding entities. Like individual, organizations too, come in all shapes, sizes and cultures. Some live long and some just fly by the night. Some succeed and excel continuously while others just chug along happily ever after. Both, individuals and organizations, can live to be quite simple systems or become increasingly complex for themselves and by their own making.


The challenge, though, we all face is how can we all constantly and continuously succeed, excel, stay at the top of our game, and yet keep on adding value to the communities, the country and the world that surrounds us. The current, though ancient in nature, approach is to look for and analyse what does not work in a system and then make an effort to fix it.

The approach is ancient because it rests on the belief that individuals and organizations have, or are problems by themselves and they need to be solved. The approach becomes inherently fallacious because it focuses upon what does not work rather than what is working well or what can work well. This failure focussed approach also evolves from our addiction to the cliché that a rotten apple spoils the basket and therefore we need to find that apple and do away with it. For a basket of apples that may conclude as a happily ever after but individuals and organizations are far from being just a plain, old basket of apples. We, as systems, can think, analyse, feel, judge, act, learn, help, celebrate and, more important than anything else, dream and design our own destinies.

Thus, the cliché of rotten apples and our belief in the cliché can be overturned with gusto and fervour. A basket of rotten apples, when it comes to humans and human organizations can turn fresh and can get nourished when a good apple is placed amongst us. A good thought, a good word, a good deed and a good human system can convert individuals and organizations into supportive, constructive, value-driven entities.

In the mid-90s, post the 1992 racial riots in Los Angeles, Erin Gruwell, an enthusiastic school teacher, takes up a job at Woodrow Wilson in Long Beach, California where she is placed plumb in the middle of a multiracial, hard to integrate, class of “at risk and highly unteachable, students.” Amidst the tension ridden surroundings, students are forced into class by security guards, Erin Gruwell works her way through the resistance and the angst of not just the students but a lethargic and numb educational system by focussing on the sparks of potentialities in the students, on what works and on the possibilities of the future. She works through by gently appealing to the human side of the individuals and the groups involved. In the process she makes multiple sacrifices for her career, her family and her status in the community but eventually efforts bear fruit when at the end of two years her bunch of students graduate and move on to college and a life ahead. A good, strong apple that nourishes and brightens the life of people around her.

Though she did not follow any set method or a frame-work to clean out a system that was rife with a culture of failure and resistance. She manages to help a bunch of multi-racial, unteachable, angst-ridden student and their families into happy, productive entities through sheer passion and grit. Thankfully, for us, who are into individual and organizational development there is a whole school of thought and practice which can deliver results at par with those of Teacher Erin Gruwell of Woodrow Wilson High School in California.

The method of Appreciative Inquiry, developed by Dr. David Cooperrider of Case Western University, provides an approach and a way towards achieving excellence by focussing on exceptional performances of the past and current core strengths which can be blended with a clear, challenging and conscientious vision of the future. The method is holistic, life-giving, constructive and in resonance with all that nourishes us as human beings and human organizations.

The approach draws from two modalities. First, Appreciation: an act of recognizing the best in people, places and performances and then to add and increase in value. Second, Inquiry: an act of exploration to discover potentials and highlight possibilities. The first leans on our needs to love and be loved, while the second rests on our natural desires to wonder and be curious about things. The combination of the two modalities creates a powerful potion to build, construct and energize areas and behaviours that are working well and boost their growth and development exponentially. Highly regarded as a paradigm for seeking out what works and moving towards it, a method for many organizational development practices, Appreciative Inquiry for many, is much more than that. It, in many circles, is regarded as a way of life and like life it needs to be soaked in appreciation and inquisitiveness of what is and what can be.

In contemporary methods, most all systems and organizations are seen as problems to be solved by management techniques such as root-cause analysis, solution analysis, critical problem-solving and mechanised action planning. With Appreciative Inquiry, organisations become a mystery to be embraced, a world to be created by reflecting on what we do best and by sharing life-giving narratives of success and harmony, by making inspired choices and designing a future of our dreams. This ‘way of life’ can pervade through research and planning, managing, mentoring and coaching for change. It can be lived through and for developing communities, invoking business excellence and creating visions and missions.

The most powerful tool of Appreciative Inquiry, or AI as it is referred to, is the AI Protocol or the inquiry process. This inquiry process invokes excellence and energy. It is achieved through powerful and structured questions which leave the responder empowered for idea generation, action planning and implementation. The questioning process is a tri-modal approach and is explored in depth after the discussion of the several assumptions the theory of AI makes for unleashing its effectiveness.

AI makes eight assumptions, and though they may have similarities with several other paradigms; they substantiate well the premise, the promise and the power behind the AI.

• Assumption One: In every human situation there is always something which works. No matter how damaged, destructed or dysfunctional a system is, there is and will always be a spark of life and humanity in it which can be rehabilitated. Our objective then, from that window, becomes to seek, to enhance and spur that spark into a flame.

• Assumption Two: It is important to value and appreciate differences. Differences exist and differences are a fact of life in not just what is but also in what is considered to be is. It behooves us to recognize and respect that realities and our perceptions can differ. We need to synergize and seek strength from the diversity.

• Assumption Three: What we focus upon becomes reality. Our intellect can, but our mind is unable to decipher simulation from reality. Should we then focus upon the constructive and our capability to succeed, then we get drawn towards building and achieving success.

• Assumption Four: Realities are created in the moment and there are, always, multiple realities. Since most realities are our perceptions of the truth and our perceptions constantly change with changing times, economics and environmental conditions. Therefore, realities are multiple and our current perceptions are realities of the moment.

• Assumption Five: The language we use shapes our realities. Since our current perceptions are the realities of the moment and our words are used to describe our perceptions then our words and how we string those words together morph and shape our oncoming realities.

• Assumption Six: The act of asking questions influences the outcome in some way. Not really in “some way,” but in a way that can be, if needed, measured and controlled. Questions, we ask, are our invitations to others to express the reality of their perceptions. Others respond with words and language to our invitations to share perceptions, the language they use shapes reality and therefore influences outcomes.

• Assumption Seven: People have more confidence going into the future [unknown] when they carry parts of the present [known.] Since perception and reality are divided by a very thin, almost invisible, wall, perceptions which are like real-life experiences or actual experiences then they give strength and vigour to developmental thoughts and actions towards designing a positive future towards success and excellence.

• Assumption Eight: When we carry the best parts of the past into the future, they will create a better future. Enough said.

These assumptions are the driving force and the armament behind the double-barrelled approach of appreciating and inquiring. That, perhaps, is not a highly recommendable metaphor for AI, since AI is all about the right choice of words and the subtle and powerful influence the structure of language has on our minds. Nevertheless it brings us right into the discussion of inquiring in depth the practice-able of how, the way of life that AI is, works.

The theory of AI has a very simple, framework to apply. It starts with choosing a topic, a theme or a developmental challenge. This is then followed by a four-stage process as follows:

• Discovery: In this stage the AI practitioner helps uncover past strengths and successes while staying anchored and focussed towards the central theme. In the Discovery stage allowing the respondent entity to express and share stories is the key objective followed by listening for “what gives life,” within those stories. These life-giving elements can be used to propel the dream and the destiny.


• Dream: In this stage, the practitioner invites the sharing of dreams and visions from the respondents. The process elevates hopes of achieving the ideals.

• Design: the design stage is critical since it needs to take account of external realities and material capabilities of the individuals and the organisations. This stage also calls for working out a result-based plan on how to achieve the dream.

• Deliver [Live the Destiny]: At this stage the practitioner helps the respondents visualize and simulate success of the design thereby imprinting, with power and passion, it as the reality on the minds of the respondent entities.

The critical step for these four stages is a proper selection of the core theme. The choice of words and the language structure needs to be empowering and affirmative from every angle.For example if a community development group chose, “Reduction of Crime and Graft in the Country,” then that theme, though logical, will have a negative tinge since it assumes the existence of crime and terror and may thus end up feeding that beast. The theme can be reworded to, “Nurturing Peace and Order in the Country.” This version assumes existence of peace and order, this shifting focus to what works for eventual development.

Therein lies the power of Appreciative Inquiry and the most consistent and handy tool for all these stages is the power of intelligent and empowering questioning, also referred to as the AI Protocol. The protocol is a process of questioning to empower the deliverance of dreams and destinies. Three powerful things happen when we ask the right questions.

• One. The questioning process raises a storm of curiosity and challenges all status quo. This, inadvertently, invites creative thought, followed by careful words and conscientious action.
• Two. Questioning helps converge thinking between the creative and the logical side. It also stirs up unconscious wisdom and challenges mindless rituals.
• Three, responses to questions make the responder an author of those ideas and, thus, drives them, eventually, into conscientious action.

All questions are made up of three elements.

• The first element of questioning well is the construction and the linguistic tilt of it. The format of the question can open up options or close possibilities.
• The second element of the question considers the capacity and the ability of the responder. It is this element of questioning which mostly draws response regarding the “how” of things.
• Finally, the third element regards and analyses all underlying assumptions. The higher the ratio of positive and appreciative assumptions a question has, the better a response it generates.

Under the AI Protocol there are three forms of questions. Levels, if you prefer.

• Inward Questions are those that make the responder reflect upon the how, the when and the why of past performances and past successes. These questions, through anecdotal responses, surface strengths and competencies of individuals and groups.
• Outward Questions string together innate strengths and successes to present day possibilities. These are questions related to the what, the when, the who, the where and the how of achievable plans.
• Forward Questions recreate and reinforce dreams and possibilities. These questions create stimulation and simulation of successes and celebrations in the mind. Forward Questions are future-paced. They give shape and form to visions thereby creating powerful and positive tension between what is and what can be.

The power of the AI Protocol is unsurmountable and the holistic core of the AI Way of Life brings to fore good living and greater business successes. AI raises our benchmarks and our bottom-line with ease and élan.

This November,2009, hundreds of AI Thought Leaders and Practitioners will converge in Kathmandu, Nepal for the

Annual Conference on Appreciative Inquiry. The conference will explore the factors that promote global health, peace and societal welfare. The outcome desired will be discovery of new ways AI can create sustainable peaceful and yet, vibrant communities. The truth that this conference will expose is that everything has beauty and, with the AI Way of Life, all eyes and hearts can capture it.

By Raju Mandhyan
www.mandhyan.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/rajumandhyan

Raju, has over ten years’ experience in personal development, specifically in the areas of interpersonal relations, increased awareness, and communication skills. He specializes in helping others understand how to communicate thoughts, ideas, goals, and visions of the future. Thousands of executives across the Asian-Pacific region have benefited from Raju’s training and coaching.

He has been trained and certified in many modalities including but not limited to the following: Neuro Linguistic Programming, Mind Mapping, LIFO and Celemi. He is a trainer certified by the American Management Association and by the Arbinger Institute.

He has authored two books, one on Public Speaking and another on Humor as a tool for Leadership. His background is in international trade. He has lived and worked in three different cultures - Indian, Filipino, and American. Currently, he lives and works out of the Philippines.

Power of the Pause

A work of art, way before it becomes a masterpiece, must start with a plain white canvass. Hidden, and yet unborn, inside it lie the ponderings, the passions and the promise of hope and beauty. The artist’s creativity would be severely crippled, every time he picked up his brush, if the solitude of white on the canvass did not lure him to conceive and co-create a brand new reality. Just like masterpieces require the emptiness of a canvass to creatively explode upon; our conversations also need momentary silences, pauses, to express and highlight the magic and motivation which lie hidden in our hearts and minds.

Job applicants, job interviewees, salespeople, managers and even senior executives across industries fall into this trap of speaking up without thinking in. We forget to recognize and give way to the feelings within. This constant shooting-from-the-hip-ness adds nothing but more noise to the din and the mindlessness that engulfs our world. This aimless and excessive thoughtless verbosity is a waste of ammunition and a massive waste of human energy.

A pause, before, during and even after conversations adds color, rhythm and a panoramic elegance to conversations. A pause, properly orchestrated, is one of the most powerful dynamics of speech. It allows the speaker and the listener to assess thoughts, structure ideas and tap into the deeper recesses of our wisdom and instinct. In the language of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a pause allows us to align our internal resources of intellect, emotion and authentic self with our external resources of the body, speech and action.

In conversations, before interactions, we can chose to stop, to slow down and be still for a few seconds. This will allow us to put a leash on the chain-reaction of reactive behaviour. This can lessen our spinning off in the usual way of defend, offend, talk up, talk down and constantly justify our past performances. A pause is power and a pause induces empowerment and trust, as it makes the other person feel listened to. This little pause then becomes a source of powerful human energy.

The way to increase the amount of pausing before, during and after all our interactions is to keep a mindful awareness on our breathing. Every now then the din and the clamour of the world that surrounds us tends to take over and engulf us in its toxicity but an awareness on our breath acts as an anchor and helps us manage emotions. A visible sign, and constant life-saver of emotional intelligence is a smooth, deep and a rhythmic flow of breath.

In many of my workshops, I profess the 3P method of powerful connection, engagement and influence. In any interaction plant yourself in a position where you are physically stable, at ease and have good visibility and exposure. After planting, pause deeply to gather your thoughts and visualize empowerment of the listeners and a successful outcome of the conversation. Finally, project yourself with power and confidence keeping the goals of the interaction authentic, integral and driven by purpose. This will align your internal and external resources and also evoke excellence from others. That, in essence, is leadership and coaching for excellence in action.

Pausing consciously is a momentary respite between being completely self-absorbed to being awake and present for others and for life. Our conversations need these momentary silences and pauses, to express and high-light the magic and motivation which lie hidden in our hearts and minds.

Raju Mandhyan
Author, Coach and Trainer
Video Clip
www.mandhyan.com A World of Clear, Creative and Conscientious Thinkers!
http://mandhyan.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/RajuMandhyan

Original Knowledge and Intellectual Property

The idea of original knowledge tied in with the concept of intellectual property does raise a lot of issues. The growth of knowledge has been like a raging fire and futurists claim that in the next decade or so everything we already will double. At the same there are others who want to, with good reason, like to protect the work they put out. I am off the bias that we should be careful and yet take failure to control things lightly. After all we still haven’t given credit to the person who put together the 26 letters of the alphabet and the person who came up with numbers.

Two of my speaker friends put out a query on Linked In and many others responded to their ponderings. I share here the questions and my thoughts on the subject.

Question from Karen Peña / Meeting Professional / Professional Speaker / Trainer / Motivator:

“Is it bad etiquette to reference and quote another speaker in your presentation? We all admire our peers in the industry. At times I would like to reference key points from their presentations, and give them the credit of course! Is that a big faux pas? “

Answer:

"The unexamined life is not worth living. " Socrates, Apology.

Now how many times has this been repeated, in variations, by writers and speakers over the centuries? Add to this the possibility that this quote, in itself, may have been a variation of something someone must have said before Socrates.
There is an inherent fallacy in the belief that something is totally original. Most everything I know I have learned from someone, somewhere and the process, prior to that, has been continuous. I, Ladies and Gentlemen, am nothing but a dung-heap of perceptions, which I claim to be my own! [Uh, wait! Didn't someone say something just like that before?]

The knowledge and the wisdom in one good book have similarities to the knowledge and the wisdom in another good book, even as these books may have been written thousands of years ago.

My stand is use words, ideas and suggestions by others. Give credit to the author everywhere you can and yet claim nothing to be your own unless the world credits it to you.

“To thine own-self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou can'st not then be false to any man.” Shakespeare-- Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 3


Question from Nishant Kasilbahtla, Speaker, Trainer and Memory Champ.

“How do you deal when one of your participants (in a talk) posts what all you taught in his / her blog? I was searching the internet and found a blog where almost all key ideas I discuss in my talk are posted by one enthusiastic blogger (in some cases verbatim). The funny thing is, he didn’t even bother to mention my name in the post. How do you deal with people like this? Your ideas,please?”

Answer:

Nishant, you might consider celebrating.

We are in the business of human development. We are in the business of helping others. We are in the business of learning, morphing and distributing knowledge and actionable knowledge. Knowledge that will eventually turn to wisdom. Wisdom to spirituality.

We are in the business of contribution to society and the world. We are out there speading the good word and then someone grabs it from you and runs.

What's he going to do? Spread it as his own? He, thus, has helped you spread the goodies. He is doing your job. Seek no retribution.

His intentions and his actions create his destiny. They do not change yours. That as you already know, is no secret, dude!

Epilogue:

The second query ended with a happy ending. Nishant, upon suggestion from Heather Hansen, emailed the blogger who went online and rewrote the blog and gave credit to the speaker/author.

Raju Mandhyan
www.mandhyan.com
A World of Clear, Creative and Conscientious Thinkers!

Replicating Success

This blog is now at the following address:

http://hongkongbusiness.hk/leisure-entertainment/commentary/key-replicating-success-in-hong-kong

Copyright: Raju Mandhyan / www.mandhyan.com
A World of Clear, Creative and Conscientious Thinkers!

Humor and Laughter

“Humor,” according to Stephen Leacock, the guru on the theory of humor, “is the kindly contemplation of the incongruities of life and the artistic expression thereof.” In other words, humor is the positive description of our flaws and follies, and it is the artistic expression of the lopsidedness of life and living.

We laugh when the incongruities of life and living are emphasized and exaggerated. We also laugh when incongruities are created in our perceptions. Creating incongruities is also referred to as derailing the normal pattern of thought, and all techniques on humor and comedy depend solely on this ability. This ability to derail the normal pattern of thought is the fulcrum that essentially mobilizes fun and raises the levels of our happiness.

Consider a finely dressed man walking briskly down the street, being admired by onlookers. When, unfortunately, this man suddenly slips and falls, the crowd of onlookers can’t help but burst out in laughter. The suddenness and the surprise of the situation snap the pattern of logical thinking and the onlookers couldn’t help but laugh.

Now, consider something as simple as the following statement: I was wondering why the Frisbee was getting bigger and bigger, when all of a sudden, it hit me!

Let me repeat that again, slowly this time, and see if it makes you smile or chuckle at the vision your mind creates.

I was wondering why the Frisbee was getting bigger and bigger, when all of a sudden, it hit me!

Here is what happened: your mind was focused on the speaker wondering about the looming Frisbee when the word “hit” tripped your thoughts, as did the vision of someone suddenly being hit by the toy—one that the speaker actually saw coming—and that triggered your smile or your laughter.

This trip, this incongruity, produces amusement because our brain is programmed to follow logic, structure, and sequence. When the sequence is broken or the structure is tripped, a result like a mental knee jerk is generated in the brain. This mental knee jerk sends a signal to the abdomen, which, in response, releases air into and through our lungs, larynx, and vocal chords, producing chuckles, guffaws and laughter.

Laugher, thus, is the outcome of humor. Laughter is the physical manifestation of humor, while humor is the sense and skill of creating laughter. Learning to laugh is learning to develop a sense of humor, and mastering the skills of humor requires observing, contemplating, and artistically expressing the flaws, follies, and the lopsidedness of life. Laughter is one of the main reasons why life still remains popular even though the cost of living goes up everyday.

John F. Hennedy was right ...

“There are three things which are real:
God, human folly, and laughter.
The first two are beyond our comprehension.
So we must do what we can with the third.”

Leadership Conversations

Over the decades, the idea of Leadership has been made out to be like a huge, ambiguous and an incomprehensible thing. People go about making assessment about how grand, how perfect and how very important leadership is but the million-dollar truth is that leadership does, and can, always happens in tiny instances and tiny interactions we call “conversations.”

All of our grandest achievements, every life-changing incident, in reality, pop out from the wellspring of our beings as an idea, a thought or as an emotion. At the root level it is like an abstract seed that has to take form, which has to be substantiated, structured and styled in a way to be accepted by the world outside of our beings. This process requires generating, sorting, challenging and then simplifying it to be presented in a written or a spoken form—conversations!

I am firm believer of the fact that every word we express creates change, however minuscule, but it definitely and surely creates change. And, the kind of change our words create is a secondary question. A story that blurs through my mind is that of a father who hands his young son a bunch of nails and asks him to go and hammer the nails in the trunk of a large tree in their backyard. The son, without asking for any reasons from his Dad, does just that. A week later, the father instructs the son, again, to go out into the backyard and pull the nails out from tree-truck. This time, the son obeys but comes back curious and annoyed at having labored purposelessly when the father explains, “Son, our words are like the nails you hammered into that tree. When used for a purpose they can build and when used senselessly they can, like the scars left in the tree-trunk, create permanent damage.

Now, I take back the word “minuscule.” Every word we express, gives a new direction to who we are, what we want to become and how we want to influence people and the processes that surround us. So, as when an idea, a thought or an emotion pops up from the wellspring of our minds and intellect, it would behoove us let that idea or emotions pass through severe, internal, quality control. Ask yourself, if the thought your expressing has ethical groundings. Check if it will do justice to a positive, constructive purpose for all those it addresses. Verify and future-pace the long-term output it will create and then finally, with utmost care, express it with a willingness to learn from it and openness towards the feedback and the results it generates. That is leadership conversations in a nutshell.

Raju Mandhyan
Author, Coach and Trainer
www.mandhyan.com

How to Mind Map

Mind Mapping® is a fun and simple technique that can help you analyze more efficiently and boost your creativity in expressing ideas. Originated by creativity expert Tony Buzan, Mind Mapping® has done wonders for my learning, thinking, and speaking skills.

I came upon this technique several years ago while I was conducting a presentation skills workshop for the British Council in Manila. A young Englishwoman with bright eyes and an easy smile sat through my workshop and seemed to do very little except keep her eyes on me. She seemed to be listening to every word I spoke with an uncanny ease.

At first, I thought she was bored. Then I thought that perhaps she didn’t like what she was hearing or probably knew much more than I did. It was intimidating and scary. Curious, I walked up to her and expressed my concerns. She smiled, held up the Mind
Map® book and her notes in a Mind Map® form. Later in the session, she shared with us the rationale and the benefits of the technique. I went home that night and did some research, called up some friends, and was intrigued enough to spend days and weeks learning more about it. In a matter of weeks I started applying the technique and soon became addicted. It worked fabulously!

Today, I apply it for reading, researching, writing, during meetings, and for public speaking. This is how I define Mind Mapping®: a colorful, two dimensional, quick representations of your ideas, knowledge, and feelings.

The rationale behind Mind Mapping® is that our senses take in a lot of information, and all this input generates responses, ideas, and opinions that cannot be expressed vocally or written down as quickly as they occur. For example, if 10 ideas flash through our minds then we may only be able to express only half of them verbally and less than a quarter in writing. Mind Mapping® provides the answer to this malady: It is like a thought-grabber with eight or ten sets of limbs. Capturing your thoughts quickly gives you time to analyze and qualify them later. This makes your thinking process more effective. Putting down thoughts in images and colors also enhances retention and invites the creative, right side of your brain to come and play!

How to create a Mind Map®

• Draw an image of your topic using three colors at the center of the paper positioned horizontally.
• Make the central image a representation of the topic. Use images rather than words.
• Draw the main, appealing ideas as thick branches coming from the central image.
• Whenever possible, use different color themes for different branches. This will help you segregate and qualify ideas later.
• Maintain one word per branch and keep that word on top of the branch.
• Add images wherever you can instead of words.
• Add arrows between images and branches and ideas expressing relationships or commonalities among the ideas.
• Flow with abandon. Do not judge your thoughts. Grab your ideas first and quantify them later.
• Use capital letters, print, and be creative with your Mind Maps®.

Reading a Mind Map®

A Mind Map® is drawn from the center going outwards and read from the outside going inwards. The primary branches form the main points and the secondary and tertiary branches form the sub-headings or points. The branch and its sub-branches are read flexibly. Read clockwise and then convert single words into simple sentences as you go. Structure, sequence, and polishing off the language in the complete text can be done later.

Benefits of Mind Mapping®

• Noting and reading only relevant words save time.
• Reviewing is graphical and can be done at a glance.
• Concentration on real issues is enhanced.
• Key words are easily discernible since they are placed according to importance for easier recall.
• Clear and appropriate associations are made between key words.
• The brain finds it easier to accept and remember the visually stimulating, multi-colored, multi-dimensional Mind Maps® rather than monotonous, boring linear notes.
• While Mind Mapping®, one is constantly on the verge of new realizations; this encourages a continuous and potentially endless flow of thought.
• The Mind Map® works in harmony with the brain’s natural desire for completion or wholeness.
• By constantly utilizing both the logical left and the creative right side of the brain, the mind becomes increasingly alert and receptive.

Over the years, as an ardent “Mind-Mapper,” I have come to realize that Mind-Mapping my ideas and emotions helps me look at them through a deeper, more colorful perspective.

Mind-Mapping my ideas and letting them percolate for a while allows my subconscious to kick-in and gently delete what is unnecessary, enhance and internalize what is useful and good. The process also increases my faith in the value of the material and confidence in my own self.

welcome to a world of clear, creative and conscientious thinkers

A World of Clear, Creative and Conscientious Thinkers!

I can’t do anything … unless I Mind Map it out!

Yes, you guessed it … I am now hooked onto the idea of getting one’s thoughts down on paper by “mapping it out”, like an architect would do through a blueprint of their design project.

Buzan Licensed Instructor and Coach, Raju Mandhyan, who conducted the 2-day workshop, defined Mind Mapping as a “2-D refection of your own thoughts, ideas and feelings quickly transcribed on paper through images, colors, lines, and key words”.

Brainstorming, planning, writing articles and designing curriculum is a happy cinch with Mind Mapping. Mandhyan, whose Indian last name incidentally translates into Mind and Awareness, made the learning fun, interactive and practice-able. All I had to do as a student was to be there and “absorb like a sponge.” Absorb, I did! It has been almost 6 years since I was first introduced to Mind Mapping … and I have SO made the most of this “gift” Mandhyan extended to me.

For me, this “tool” / technique has certainly:

· helped me get MORE organized
· be MORE analytical with the tasks, projects I handle at a given time
· kept me MORE intact … especially where meetings, appointments or schedules are concerned
· allowed me to showcase a level of commitment, quality and creativity, too

That one significant day of October 3, 2001 at The Peninsula, Manila … was definitely NOT a coincidence.

With Mind Mapping, I was able to identify programs for the IT training courses I was assigned to market. This paved the way to formulate the appropriate marketing collaterals to the target market of the company.

With Mind Mapping, I received a grade of 98% for the project in my Events Coordination course. Using Mind Mapping, I feel like a creative genius and I am now working on projects, arts, literature and I am also managing and running my own consultancy in a most innovative manner.

Those who got to meet and network with Mandhyan’s Guru, Tony Buzan, last March at the Mandarin, Makati City claim that it was one of the best training events the country has experienced in years. I bet all those who walked out of that interaction will become Mind Map aficionados like me. Well let me, then, welcome you into a world of clear, creative and conscientious thinkers.

Ana Marie G. Herrera (March 29, 2007)
Consultant – Events: IT, eMarketing, Project Management

get rid of the anger that lurks

I am turning another year next week. Way back when I was a kid, I didn't know that
I'd make it this far and still be healthy and hearty. I used to, then, think that
Forty was way too old. Your skin begins to sag, your chin and waistline grow folds,
your teeth begin to rot and the hair from your scalp moves down to your ears and
into your nose. Its downhill all the way and its bad!

That's what I used to believe then. Now, I am looking at Eighty in the same way.
Times change and so do our views. And, the reason this is on the top of my mind
today is because I happened to read Professor Randy Pausch's book, The Last Lecture,
a week ago.

Here's a bit about the book from his website, "A lot of professors give talks titled
"The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate
on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull
the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our
last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy? "
What if this was my last "Insights"? What would I say? What comes to my mind is
something my mother said several months before she did the world adieu. "Of all
the things that I should have done, I should have done away with the anger that
lurked inside of me for a large part of my life."

Though this is not my last Insights, I think, today, I'd like to make claim to the
statement that we should do away with the pain, we think, has been caused to us
by others. That will get rid of the anger that lurks and the fear that accompanies
that anger. The rest of our lives can then become what we alwsy dream of. Amen!

Raju Mandhyan
Author, Coach, Trainer
www.mandhyan.com

Insights On Insights

The world does move at a maddening pace and I'd like to adhere to the adage that life is not just about adding speed to it. So when the rest of the word is up and tweetering, I decided to get on the blogging bandwagon. Here's my first song, hope you like it.

It is kinda' strange that nowadays everyone is out putting out something onto the cyberworld. Everyone is out there, busy, making a guru-of-sorts of himself. And, yes, of course, that list does include me. So, to set the pace and to get you all, hopefully, on my page I wanna' tell you what Insights is going to all about.

I am of the belief that everything changes all the time, consistently and constantly. We create the change, we are created by the change and we are affected by the change. It is a, forgive me, but a crazy, riotious, almost incomprehensible cycle of madness and mayhem. A cycle of time, space, elements, energy and emotions that is unstopping, unforgiving and has been around for for eons and eons. What each eon, each age and every individual does is to take an ever-so-tiny snapshot of this humongous change and present it all those around like a proud Dad showing off pictures of his newborn to his friends. What the Dad does forget it that world has seen ziliions of babies like his own before. And, that is quite alright given our limited worldview which is clamped between our perspectives of time and space.

So, that is what Insights is going to be all about_a tiny little snapshot through my personal camera. The lenses of my camera are named Clear Communication Skills, Creative Thinking and Conscientious Leadership. Compound all these together and measure the size of my worldview and you have the words "Change" and "Insights."