Archive for TLC Thinking Learning Creativity
Authentic Creative Living
Posted by: | CommentsAuthentic Creative Living is about making sure the life you are living is your own, not someone else’s version of what your life should be….
The tricky thing is, no one is born with an instruction manual of how to live our life’s purpose. So it appears that part of our human adventure is to tune in -remember- who we truly are then play it out in the expression of a life well-lived on earth. Sometimes that takes the path of putting together the puzzle pieces, recognizing fractal patterns, that show up on our life path….re-membering…putting the parts together to make sense of them for us.
Re-membering Who I Am
How many stories can we all tell about friends (or family or….even ourself?) who realized mid-stream that THEY never really wanted to become a doctor, lawyer, candlestick maker. . That had been what their parents wanted for them, or what Read More→
Enhance Productivity by Harnessing Brainwave States
Posted by: | CommentsHuman brains are electro-chemical powerhouses. Maybe you’ve heard about brainwave states- Beta, Alpha, Theta & Delta, which represent the electrical output of our brains. Each resonates within a specific frequency range, thus allowing humans access to different aspects of mental activity. Science now reveals that while we shift between these states naturally, we can also stimulate each state by guiding our brainwaves to the respective frequency. This is known as ‘entrainment’, and is gained through external sound and light pulsations or mental calming techniques like meditation. There is both an art and science to making best use of brainwave activity in boosting productivity and performance.
Alpha, slowed to 8-12 hertz is familiar to us as the slightly dreamy waking state, or pre-sleep twilight zone. Alpha state, also achieved through entrainment, meditation, slowed deep breathing or most any activity that takes us deep into concentration, opens us to a state of light relaxation. We are able to access more of our Read More→
InSight Frames Thinking Tools- Overview
Posted by: | CommentsOver the past month, we had a chance to overview the 10 InSight Frames thinking tools which will allow you to develop your thinking to be faster, better & easier. While there is a brief learning period to get familiar with each of the 10 tools, they are simple and easy to use and gain results from.
I agree, it takes some focus and deliberate effort to use the tool approach to thinking, but from my own experience, one you know how to think using tools like these, you can cut through mounds of information and make use of what you need from it much more readily.
Remember too, that the tools are best applied when you have a clear thinking focus issue (single and simple or complex). Very often, the act of defining or refining your thinking focus is half the battle in moving your thinking and action plans forward.
One more time, as a review.
1) Spotlight Frame- focus which can be broad or narrow (relative terms)
2) Periscope Frame- heads up and looking all around to identify relevant factors
3) Bifocal Binoculars Frame- tuning into Read More→
InSight Framework for Better Results
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Love in a Cup
How cool is this- drinking tea and ‘feelin’ the love’! How did this happen- liquid holds no shape… but guess what, not only the saucer is heart-shaped, but so is the cup. So the heart shape of the cup holds the tea as heart-shaped.
In the same way, information makes its way into our brains through the portals of our senses, and is then shaped both by our vantage point, or perspective, and by our perception. The same information coming into two people’s brains will have filtered through several layers of processing before a thought or feeling even hits their mind. And it will appear different to both based on their filtering. In turn, once the information inputs hit the brain and cause either a thought first then a feeling, or a feeling leading to a thought, each person will interpret the information their own way. It will appear ‘true ‘ to them, based on their own filtering. And then, they will act on that information, maybe with the same actions, maybe different. An outsider mlight see two people behaving the same and wrongly assume they have the same motivtion or intention. We just can’t tell what someone is thinking, we can only see the outward behaviors. The above process explains the InSight Framework, moving you from Read More→
Pitter Patter of Perception
Posted by: | CommentsIn a moment I’d like you to click the link below, then close your eyes and just listen. See what it sounds like to you. Then open your eyes and be amazed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=05ip-N0H1Ig
Our human capabilities are so vast and amazing, such that we have only begun to scratch the surface of what is humanly possible. One downside of living in a high tech world is that we seem to have lost some of the sense of magic and wonder at simple delights. We’ve squeezed the humanity right out of our lives.
It’s not a big surprise to learn that the most popular places to work nowadays are not only the most profitable, but the MOST Read More→
Thinking on Your Proverbial Feet
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We all know the traditional thinker pose- leaning over in deep rumination.
There’s a place for that. AND, there’s a place for rough and ready, up on your feet, quick thinking. Becoming comfortable with thinking tools is one method that helps you with both approaches to effective thinking.
You’ve been introduced to the Goggles Frame of taking a 360 degree objective look around at Positive, Negative and Interesting Factors of any thinking focus issue. I discussed using this tool for assessment, evaluation and comparison in a variety of situations.
Here’s another use of this handy-dandy tool for when you are called upon at short notice either to stand up and give a short briefing, “could you just update us…..?” Or when you need to facilitate a group discussion, making sure there is some balance in views expressed in order to fairly explore a topic…or maybe even in a longer, more detailed written report or article.
Within the time frame you have-whether 2 minutes or 2 hours, you simply Read More→
Quick & Dirty Comparison Tool
Posted by: | CommentsThe Goggle Frame is simple, yet has many uses. We discussed its use in assessing or evaluating a situation before it happens. This can yield insights that reveal key actions to be taken, gaping holes in the knowledge base, potential value conflicts or conflicts of interest, and more, all of which can be dealt with ahead of taking further action.
You can also use the Goggle Frame after an event for a quick or in-depth evaluation- what worked well, what didn’t go so well, what interesting or cool things emerged. Again, you then put this information to use as you need it.
Another powerful use of the Goggle Frame is to compare people, or alternative items or choices on anything. For example, you can use Goggles in comparing and then choosing from candidates who are interviewing for a position. Read More→
Goggles Vision Sensitivity
Posted by: | CommentsSpecialized goggles for seeing in the dark rely on heat sensitive sensors. They pick up signals not otherwise paid as much attention to except in certain cases. The Goggles Frame allows us to do that, pay conscious attention in more detail to what is going on anyway, but with an eye to picking up nuances. This is both a strength and a weakness of this and other thinking tools. You can gain deep insight just by looking purposefully and rigourously at what is already out there, which can give the complacent sense ‘we already do this’. Yes, but not really, in most cases. As Leonardo da Vinci lamented in more detail, “we look but don’t really see.”
Goggles has us role play by looking equally objectively at positives, negatives and interesting perspectives of a thinking focus issue. This gives, effectively, a 360 degree, 3-D look at an issue. This assessment can be done quickly, say in 3-5 minutes, or be delved into at great depth and detail over months.
We can practice the thinking Frame itself by using a ‘silly’ example. Read More→
Goggles Let Us See All Around
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Thinking tools allow us to ‘catch a cloud’…put borders or frameworks on intangible, often fleeting thoughts, in the shape of the functionality of the tool. Goggles Frame is one of these tools.
In the same way a child will learn what a hammer DOES (bangs nails or other protruding bits) when he learns what it IS, we can learn what thinking tools do, what their function is in handling information, when we learn what the tool is.
I had the great good fortune to work for many years with Dr. Edward DeBono, the world leader in teaching thinking as a skill and creator of the concept of lateral thinking. (That’s his brain-based version of creativity, which we’ll get to another day.) I continue to be a student studying the deeper & wider issues of cognition and human potential, and was also the first Accredited Master Trainer of DeBono in Education worldwide. I have since trained successors, as I left the UK to return home to the US.
The DeBono method of thinking contains several batteries of tools, including DATT- Direct Attention Thinking Tools, Six Thinking Hats- a systems approach to thinking, Lateral Thinking- for creativity and innovation on demand, and some others. The tools are simple, and given names so it’s easy to remember them and connect their function with the name. Some have hand motions first used in the noisy, dark coal mines of South Africa when multiple tribes spoke various languages, and the tools became one of the first means of communication with each other. Each is designed to assist in expanding perception in order to gain a wide range of insights and perspectives from which to think more broadly and make more informed decisions.
One of the most useful tools, sometimes referred to as the Swiss Army knife thinking tool, is Read More→
Snap Judgement can Reveal Your Values
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Prism Splits the Spectrum
I explained that the Prism Frame is a thinking tool that has us focus on positive and negative values- things we want and value vs. things we want to avoid. It is possible, as with all things related to ‘thinking’, to think about it too much! Especially when it comes to values or decisions of any sort, the choice usually runs deep and touches an emotional core we don’t often show at first, or in public.
So just to practice a quick ‘touching base’ as to values about the following issues or thinking focuses, write down the first few things, both positive and negative values, that come to mind when you think about these items:
- a boss (even if it’s yourself): (+) (-)
- an office/work space
- your workplace culture
- a life partner
- a vacation
- your health
Here’s another exercise to practice ‘snap judgement’ on your values, as defined here:
You get a hurricane warning to evacuate Read More→
