When Looking is not Seeing

An illiterate father and his educated son went on camping.  After pitching the tent, they both went to sleep.  At the break of dawn, the father wakes up his son and asks “Look up to the sky.  What do you see?”

“I see millions of stars,” the son said.

“What does that tell you?” asked the father.

“Astronomically,” the son said with pride “it tells us that there are millions of planets.”

The father gave his son a smack and said “somebody stole our tent!”

Why did the son miss the obvious?  Can too much education blur the brain in looking for something beyond the ordinary?  In “Thinking Between The Lines”, K,R. Ravi cited several reasons why we miss the obvious, to wit:

• We think too much even when we do not know how to think
• We look but do not see
• Some of us are so full of ourselves that we have no time for other viewpoints, no time for even plain commonsense
• We are afraid to challenge our cherished opinions and beliefs
• We have ceased to look at the world through fresh eyes, with a sense of wonder

When confronted with an issue, do you have the proclivity to complicate matters with your theories and concepts which you have acquired from higher education or specialization?  If the answer is yes and you still get stuck, maybe you are missing the obvious.

Whether the concern is personal or work related, I always bring to mind what Albert Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”  If I am giving instruction to a custodian I hear “simplify, simplify, simplify” echo inside my head.  I make a conscious effort that if I can explain it to a kid and the kid understands me, then it is a clear instruction.

If I am proposing an idea, I use Edward De Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats” to make sure I look at the idea from different points of view.  Example: What is the advantage of the idea?  What’s the downside?  What information do I have?  What’s the opinion of others?  How can we make it better?  What’s the next step?

(This blogger is grateful to K.R. Ravi for the permission to cite from the book "Thinking Between The Lines." Mr. Ravi is South Asia's first Dr. Edward De Bono certified public trainer in Lateral Thinking.)

Leadership Quotes

There are a lot of leadership quotes in the internet and in literature.  I would like to share some of my personal favorite quotes.

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams

"The quality of the leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves." - Ray Kroc

"Not all readers are leaders, but all effective leaders are readers." - Harry S. Truman (italics is mine)

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.  The last is to say thank you.  In between, the leader is a servant." - Max DePree

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself.  When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." - Jack Welch

"We must become the change we wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." - Proverbs 29:18

"People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision." - John Maxwell

"Live out your imagination, not your history." - Stephen R. Covey

"The attitude of the leader influences the attitude of the team." - Arnel H. Sugay

On Mentoring

The philosopher Socrates mentored his student Plato.  Aristotle was mentored by Plato.  Socrates, Plato and Aristotle: the three great minds in philosophy.

Great leaders develop leaders.  The only way to develop other leaders is to become a better leader yourself then, mentor others.  
Good leaders grow more leaders not followers.

Trivia: Did you know that Aristotle mentored Alexander the Great?

On Kaizen

People who want to learn and are serious in getting better always ask for feedback. This is true for athletes, students, workers and even leaders.
 If you want to stretch yourself, apply kaizen, a never-ending improvement. Small changes, if done regularly, would result to a big change.
 You can ask your boss “on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest, how would you rate me as a worker?” If your boss says, “6” ask “how do I make it to 10?” This is a way to level expectations between you and your boss.
Ask your child, “On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest, how would you rate me as a parent? What do I need to do to score a perfect 10?’
If you are not a good worker or parent, expect to get hurt with what you will hear. Continue listening and commit yourself to change for the better. This practice of asking questions will be difficult for arrogant and insecure leaders.
 Listening and asking for feedback is a humbling experience. If you are not serious in changing and improving, do not ask for feedback. It will just be an exercise in futility.
Not all change will lead to improvement. But there will be no improvement without change.

"Feedback is the breakfast of champions." -Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson, "The One Minute Manager"

Living a balanced life

In one of my training sessions, I asked my participants if they keep a planner. About half of them said they do. When we talked about the contents of their planner I was not surprised to hear work-related agenda.

Shall we not also plan for our family and friends? How about our health and spirituality? Is your personal and professional growth in your planner?

Did you know that we spend more time planning our holiday than planning our own lives?

In Habit 7 (Sharpening the Saw) of Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, he talked about the four dimensions of a balanced life: physical (exercise and nutrition), spiritual (value clarification, purpose), mental (reading, writing, visualizing) and social-emotional (relationship with others).

As the year draws to an end, let us strive to create balance in our goals by including the four dimensions in our agenda.

Recommended link: http://www.stephencovey.com/

Watch your language

I encountered the following in a learning session and I saw it again in one of the social-networking sites.


In one school, a teacher wrote the following in the chalkboard:

"A woman without her man is nothing" The teacher instructed the students to punctuate it correctly.

All of the male students wrote:

"A woman, without her man, is nothing."

All the female students in the class wrote:

"A woman: without her, man is nothing."

Did you notice how punctuation and perspective changes everything? This can happen at work or at home. Have you communicated with people using jargons? People tend to assume that "we speak and understand the same language" and that we have the same perspective.

When I was new in my job I did not know " 201 file." nor "SOP." One professor in college said, "this is very simple" but it was complicated for me.

To avoid confusion be clear when speaking to new employees or people coming from a different background or department. What you know, they don't know.

What if you're wrong?

During the 1950’s no athlete can run a mile in less than four minutes.  1954 marked a momentous event in sports when Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3:59.4 (source :Wikipedia).  When the world record was made there were athletes who broke Bannister’s time.  What was thought as physically impossible then, had been shattered.  It took one man to prove to the world that it can be done. 
When people think it is possible then it becomes do-able.
When someone makes a suggestion do you say “impossible” or do you look into the possibility of making it happen?
Before sneering at a suggestion, try asking yourself “what if I were wrong?”

“We must discard the idea that past routine, past way of doing things, are probably the best ways. On the contrary, we must assume that there is probably a better way to do almost everything.  We must stop assuming that a thing which has never been done before probably cannot be done at all.” –Donald M. Nelson