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One of the great cinematic moments I can think of is the scene in ‘City Slickers’ in which Billy Crystal’s character talks to his friend about how, when they were kids, if they were playing a game and something happened that they didn’t like, someone would yell, “Do over!” He then says, “That’s what this is. My life is a do-over.”

Previously, Crystal’s character had been a sullen, bored, depressed “working stiff.” He was turning forty, and although nothing in his life was particularly wrong, none of it was quite right. His wife and daughter loved him, and his job was adequate, but he felt no sense of purpose or meaning.

On his wife’s prompting, he takes a trip to a working ranch, where he and a few friends drive cattle across the Wyoming plains and, along the way, encounter hardships, challenges, and some very dangerous situations. He faces the challenges, commits to an outcome, and pays the price of success. In the end, he gets his life back. He regains a sense of purpose, enthusiasm, and energy. He falls in love with his life all over again. He gets to do it over.

There is nothing whatsoever stopping you from having your do-over. Nothing, that is, except the conviction that it can’t be done.

Your outer life need not change at all. In the movie, Billy Crystal’s character goes back to the same life he left behind. All that changes is his inner experience but that’s all that needs to change. When you change on the inside, everything around you changes as well.

For me, the journey has been remarkable: remarkably good and remarkably difficult. I’ve encountered an enormous amount of my own negativity and have walked down more blind alleys than I can count. I’ve made progress which I’ve quickly undone through pride or fear, and I’ve gotten stuck for what seemed like lifetimes in the quagmire of confusion. I’ve tried in vain to resolve the paradoxes that any thinking person is bound to face as he or she begins to ask questions.

Although they’re ultimately unsolvable, few of them really need to be solved. Part of the journey of a successful, intelligent person is the recognition that ambiguity is part of the game, and the ability to live with ambiguity is a prerequisite to contentment and happiness. Besides, as mentalist and philosopher Roderick Russell says, “Life isn’t a puzzle to be solved. It’s a mystery to be resolved.”

What I’m suggesting is that the road is not a straight one. Many believe that successful people got there with no effort or discouragement. That isn’t the case. Virtually everyone, no matter how successful, has faced despair and failure. You should expect that you will too.

That’s good news, though, because it’s probably not just the material rewards which you seek. You seek a better life. And part of a better life is the ability to tolerate, even celebrate adversity. When you shift your consciousness so that you’re able to welcome any experience that arises, you’ll reap rewards that you’ll feel on the inside much more deeply than any superficial pleasures available from gaining an external prize. I recommend that you embark on this journey of self-creation with an attitude of openness to whatever comes your way. By doing that, you’ll find it much easier to get back in the race whenever life puts up a hurdle, and you’ll have much more fun.

Take a mental inventory

Take an inventory of your life as it is right now. What works? What doesn’t work? How much of your discontent is generated by your outer circumstances? How much is just a feeling from within? Where would you like to see yourself a few years from now? Do you have a clear idea, or is it vague? Are you starting from scratch, ready to create a life from nothing? Or, are you stuck in a life you don’t like, ready for a do-over? Have you faced disappointment thus far? And, if not, are you willing to do so in the future if that’s what’s necessary to accomplish your ultimate goals? What do you perceive to be the primary factor holding you back? Is it an outer circumstance or an inner attitude? Is it a habit of not taking the necessary steps?

Throughout this process, your success will be proportional to your level of willingness to take responsibility for your life. To the extent that you place the focus of your problems and their solutions outside yourself, you will fail to see progress and will likely relapse into old, stuck ways. To the extent that you own your life, the good and the bad, the glowing and the repulsive, and that you fail to yield to the temptation to blame others for your misfortune, you will succeed and ultimately change the environment in which you live.

The journey is exciting and manifold. If you’re willing to make the effort, you will be rewarded. While I can’t promise you a life without pain or challenges, and while you’ll still have those days when things don’t seem so great, you can create your life exactly as you want it. That’s your birthright. Are you ready for it?

Dr. Steve Taubman is a hypnotist and physician, and the author of UnHypnosis: How to Wake Up, Start Over, and Create the Life You’re Meant to Live. His writings and teachings guide people in the use of tools of transformation, and bring esoteric spiritual principles down to earth. Learn more about UnHypnosis by visiting http://www.unhypnosis.com

Yesterday at the dinner table, my eleven-year-old daughter asked me, “Aren’t there times when you absolutely know you’re right and the other person is wrong?” She had a disagreement at school that day and believed that her view was the truth. I said, “I used to think I was always right and that other people were wrong. Now I still think I may be right, but I realize that other people know things that I don’t. I’m more interested in learning than being right.”

This month I want to describe how you can use curiosity - a key principle of The Skilled Facilitator and Facilitative Leader approach - to increase your effectiveness. My clients often tell me that learning to be curious has significantly improved their relationships with others and the results they get.

Curiosity is the desire to learn. When you’re genuinely curious, you assume that other people may have information that you don’t have. You also assume that others may see things that you may miss. As a result, you consider your point of view open to change.

When I first started practicing the Skilled Facilitator approach, I was not genuinely curious. If people disagreed with me, I was curious about their points of view, but only so that I could use what I learned to better advocate my own point of view. I still believed that I was right and they were wrong. My colleague Peg Carlson made this clear when she said, “Roger, having a disagreement with you is like a war of attrition. I know we’ll end up doing what you want. It’s just a matter of how long I want to hang in.” I was just more sophisticated about hiding my belief, but it still guided my behavior. Does this describe you at times?

What I learned then is that it’s not enough to ask others about their points of view. If you’re not genuinely curious and if you’re not interested in seeking valid information, you will use your pseudo-curiosity to control others. And they will figure this out, even if you know how to say the right words such as, “do you see it differently?” or “what problems do you see with my suggestion?” To help her make the transition, my colleague Sue McKinney took to asking herself this question: “What would I say if I were curious?” It’s helped many of our clients build their curiosity.

When you’re genuinely curious, your questions come easily and naturally. When someone gives you negative feedback about your performance, if you’re genuinely curious, you can ask, “Can you give me some specific examples of times when I’ve done that? That would really help me understand better.” And if, when you get the examples, you see it differently, then you say so and still remain curious, exploring how the two of you see your performance in different lights.

My clients often assume incorrectly that they have to be less vocal about their own point of view to be curious about others’ views. Not so. As long as you’re as curious about others views as you are passionate about your own, you will be able to use your curiosity to work effectively with others.

Sometimes the structures we work in make it more difficult for us to be curious. One of my favorite examples is a client that has a performance management system in which your boss has to approve your direct report’s performance evaluation before you can discuss the evaluation with your direct report. This sets up a dynamic in which you can find yourself in a dilemma if you are genuinely curious about how your direct report sees your evaluation of him. If you’re curious and find out that your direct report sees his performance more positively, and if you realize that you had missed some important information that would have led you to increase his rating, the system makes it difficult to change the rating that your boss has already approved. As a result, you are likely to control the performance evaluation with your direct report so that you don’t learn anything that would lead you to change your mind. This is just one of many examples. As you look around your organization or the organizations you work with, look for other structures or procedures that inhibit curiosity.

Next month I’ll talk about a related principle underlying our approach - saying what you’re thinking, or transparency.

© 2005 Roger Schwarz

Roger Schwarz, Ph.D., is author of the international bestseller “The Skilled Facilitator: A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Managers, Trainers and Coaches” and co-author of the recent “Skilled Facilitator Fieldbook: Tips, Tools, and Tested Methods for Consultants, Facilitators, Managers, Trainers, and Coaches,” both available on Amazon.com and via other quality booksellers.

You can subscribe on our site to Fundamental Change, Roger Schwarz & Associates’ free, monthly ezine: http://www.schwarzassociates.com/ezine_signup.html In exchange for subscribing, you’ll receive a link to a free .pdf copy of “Holding Risky Conversations,” a chapter from our recently-published fieldbook.

We write Fundamental Change to help you create workplaces and communities that are simultaneously highly effective and that improve the quality of life.

Every month we:

* Address issues important to you as practitioners and leaders
* Share client examples and case studies

* Offer tips and tools for challenging situations
* Offer resources to help you become more effective.

If you try to hard to be happy, you just won’t succeed at it! Of course, no-one wants to be unhappy or miserable, but most of us end up taking the wrong route in life, in pursuit of happiness by simply misplacing ourselves and our mindset. We limit ourselves so much that the goals we have set ourselves are too high and we condition ourselves to believe that we must obtain our goals before we can be happy.

It’s an age old adage… if I do this, I will be happy, if I get that, I will be happier, if I achieve what I want to from life, I will be happy with my contribution and so on. But there are not many of us who actually sit and examine what we are doing by placing conditions on our selves in the pursuit of happiness.

From experience, I know this isn’t something we do with intention. If I had known where I was going wrong when suffering with sever clinical depression, then I am sure that I would have sorted myself out a lot sooner, there is no question about it. However, I didn’t know what I was doing and it most certainly meant that I couldn’t fix myself straight away.

I woke every morning as an adolescent with a longing. A longing to be anyone else other than who I was. I wanted to be a happy person, carefree and contented with life with no problems both financially and emotionally. If I made a wish on a shooting star, or blew the ‘fairies’ off a dandelion, saw a black cat cross the road or even made the wish with the chicken bone, then my one wish, each and every time was simply to be happy.

The thing is, in pursuit of happiness, we forget the now, we forget what we have, and we forget to stop and take stock of where we are in life and exactly what we have achieved up to this point. Blindly, we look onwards and keep grinding ourselves into the ground looking to the future for our happiness until one day, we will stop, look back and realise that we have actually lived our lives but we are still unhappy. Instead, in our quest to find the things that make us happy, we have simply let what would truly make us happy pass us by without acknowledgement.

The thing with happiness is that everyone wants it and no-one really knows the secret to why some people are happy and others not so. Theoretical studies about depression are merely only assumptions. No-one really knows why one person is depressed and another is not, why medications work for one person, yet not another and why cognitive behavioural therapy works well for one, but wouldn’t necessarily be suited to the next.

Ultimately, in all of the Therapy and Counselling sessions that I have received, what the sessions have undoubtedly boiled down to is that I am accountable for me; therefore I am accountable for my happiness. I am the one who has to figure out what upsets me. I am the one who has to understand why I cry. I am the one who has to deal with frustrations and I am the one in pursuit of my happiness therefore only I know what will make me happy.

Wanting to be happy is contagious. Everyone wants to be happy. The way we feel when we are happy, the way we react when happy and the way we behave when happy is much more our preference than to feel the opposite.

When a person laughs, the laugh is contagious, when a person smiles, the smile is contagious, and when a person is happy, the desire to feel happy is contagious too. So maybe the answer is this; if we all stopped trying so hard to be happy, we would feel it more often?

Ask yourself these questions, honestly. Are you trying too hard? If the answer is yes, then maybe the contagiousness of happiness has caught up with you too? Ask yourself, is it happiness that you want or are you just in love with the idea of happiness?

The Author maintains all rights and restrictions to this work.

Samantha C Weaver
Author of Saving Samantha: A Young Woman’s Escape from Childhood Hell (ISBN 1401910300)
http://www.samanthaweaver.com

In the domain of the fine arts more than elsewhere the creations are intimately connected with mental action and are distinctly marked as products of mind. Music, vocal and instrumental, the single singer or the multitude in the chorus, the one instrument or the great orchestra, the country boy whistling among the woods and hills or the grand opera in magnificent halls — music everywhere, in all its varieties and types, is a product of mental activity and is a most subtle as well as most powerful expression of the mind of the composer. The dreams of the sculptor which have been revealed in marble, those of the painter in the figures on his canvas, the beautiful in all artistic creations or expressions, are the direct result of the finest thinking of the finest minds. What a world of them there is in existence! Yet the crumbling ruins of the past point to greater worlds of them which have been destroyed by man and time.

Even a yet more important product of mind is the literature of the world; in quantity, overwhelming; in variety, bewildering; in quality, whether ancient or modern, such as to excite the interest wonder and admiration. There is no greater monument to the mind of man than the things which that mind has produced in science, philosophy, religion, and letters. This has grown like those ancient monuments to which every passer-by added a stone, and it will continue to grow so long as the human race exists.

Civilization with all that the word implies in every one of its unnumbered phases, its origin, continuance, progress, and present condition, is directly and exclusively a product of mind; and man owes to mind and its action all there is in the external world except the earth and its natural products. All religious, political, and social organisms have their root in mind, and they have assumed their present forms in consequence of the profoundest thinking of untold generations of men.

Notwithstanding the recognition of all these facts, it has remained for the scientific men of the present day, through their own intellectual attainments and discoveries, to enlarge immensely upon this recognition and to show the complete supremacy and universality of mind in another domain. The horizon is rapidly widening in the direction of the mind’s relation to man himself; and, as a result of the more recent discovery of facts, man is beholding undreamed of possibilities which he may achieve through his own mental understanding. From the vantage ground already gained, mental and moral possibilities are rising to view in the near distance beside which the attainments of this and all past ages shrink into insignificance.

Only in these more recent years has it been clearly perceived that mind action is first in the order of occurrence, and now — more than ever, our understanding of mind/brain are extremely important. Using modern means such as instructional DVD’s, or educational videos, or interactive learning software, promote mental activity. None of these should substitute reading, but with the power of the internet you can download reading material to support what you are learning therefore increasing the number of ways that you engage the senses. However before we use any tool we must engage in the observation of the way we learn and how best we perform based on the tools we use. For a human being to live completely her own understanding is extremely important.

Paul Hegarty is the owner of http://www.learningfromdvds.com/ A guide to educational DVDs with price comparisons, reviews, and free E-books. Read this month’s incredible e-book on “How To Draw And Paint”. Grab your free copy today.

“Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions.”

Peace Pilgrim (1908-1981) American Teacher and Spiritual leader and Peace Prophet

My house is in chaos! The children have taken to keeping to their rooms and have to weave their way around obstacles when they want to go anywhere else. Are we moving? No, although it might be easier for everyone if we were. What is taking place is a DECLUTTERING! After a talk I gave at the end of last month, in which we discussed Motivation and those things that could be holding you back, I decided it was time to once again follow my own advice and clear out all those things I’d been hanging on to, especially those that I was keeping ‘just in case’. This is also a nudge to all of you who have been thinking about it but haven’t quite got round to starting your own decluttering.

So this brings me to the topic of possessions and their effect on us. What are your surroundings like? Are they full to the brim of anything and everything and a lot that you’d forgotten you even owned, or is your home and workplace a haven of order and system where everything has a place and is in that place? Well, we can all aspire to the last, but I think that most of us are either in the first, or somewhere between the two. What can you start to do today to sort out your possessions and stop them possessing you?

With decluttering, timing is everything. Firstly identify the areas you need to address. Then decide how much time each day you are prepared or are able to commit to the process. Which area is causing you the most grief? Start there. If it’s a large area and you feel overwhelmed it will help to break it down into smaller areas. For example, your desk can be considered to be made up of the work-top, the drawers and if you have one, the integral cupboard. Decide which would be the most useful of these to get started on. If necessary use a timer to focus. It is amazing how much you can achieve in bursts of ten or fifteen minutes!

What have you been putting off? Is it that hall closet that you don’t even open the door of anymore because you’re afraid the contents will topple out and squish you? Or is it the messy drawer in the kitchen that seems to devour everything that you put in it and never spits them out again? Or that pile of paperwork that is growing beside or even on your desk that threatens to turn into an avalanche? Stop putting it off! Get started. Allocate yourself enough time and get going.

If it is other people’s stuff that is causing you grief, it is time to set policy! How are you going to handle it? What do you expect from the owner of that stuff? Are you prepared to negotiate with them to achieve a happy solution? It might be a bit tough to get this process started and you may have to be consistent with your reminders, but in the long run you will feel less stressed and more in control of the situation. Just ignoring it and hoping it will go away will achieve nothing!

Decluttering takes action and activity. By doing something each day and by setting systems in place to help you avoid a build-up again, you will feel so much more in control, and much more able to carry out your daily activities more efficiently. You could do a different area every single day. Within a very short time you see results. You’ll be able to function so much more efficiently.

KEEP AT IT.

Do you like living with disorder and chaos? (Apologies to those of you who are already organized and orderly!) What will be the effect on you if you leave things as they are? And if you put in the effort and get things sorted. What will the effect on you then? Wanting the result will help you go the pain of getting there. Can you picture how it will be when you have finished? If necessary, close your eyes and do just that.

Get creative with your storage options and also how you intend to dispose of what you don’t need or want any longer. Draw floor plans. Design simple and efficient systems. Can some of the things you’ve been hanging on to be used in other ways? There is so much scope for you to be creative.

Decluttering is all about getting rid of, or rationalizing, rather than getting more. In fact you will be gaining something, but the cost is time and effort, rather than monetary. What you’ll gain are surroundings that are more conducive to working, or relaxing. You’ll have more space to function and those things that you do decide you want to keep will be there for a reason - either because you really do need them or because you really love and appreciate them. You will possess your possessions rather than them possessing you.

Kate Harper is a Motivation Coach based in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland. Check out her website http://www.harpercoaching.com

She works with people from all over the world who are seeking change in their lives. If that is you, please take a look at Kate’s website. Her special interests are the promotion of Wellbeing and Self Confidence through her coaching.

“The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult.” Madame Marie du Deffand

Take your first step today and contact Kate.

Go here to get my free 7 day mini e-Course on Procrastination - http://www.harpercoaching.com/HC_e-Courses_Menu_Page2.htm

As the story goes, a single college-age guy went to the airport one day to pick up a friend. As he waited for his friend to come off the plane, he noticed a man hurrying through the crowd, calling to the woman and two children standing next to him. The woman and two children were calling to the man as well. The man rushed up to the woman, took her in his arms, looked into her eyes, said “It’s been too long!” and gave her a big kiss. As he bent down to hug each of his children he said “I’ve missed your faces so much.”

As this touching scene was happening right in front of him, the young man couldn’t help but watch the moment. The older man caught his gaze, and in an embarrassed tone, the young man said, “I’m sorry for staring, it’s just such a beautiful scene. You must have been gone a long time.”

“Yes, I was,” he answered, “two whole days!”

The young man responded with “Wow, I sure hope I have a family like that someday.”

To which the older man replied, “Don’t just hope, decide.”

Don’t just hope, decide.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with hope. It’s a good thing. Losing hope is a bad thing. Hope deferred makes the heart sick.

It’s just that too many of us only hope things will change, get better, etc., and then that is all we do. Faith may move mountains, but you had better bring a shovel. We hope, but we don’t do anything, we don’t decide.

Just hoping and not deciding to take the necessary actions leads to excuses. Excuses such as the worn out words, “Well , I tried.” Once you decide, however, there are only two possible outcomes. You either get what you were aiming at or you create good reasons (excuses) why you did not succeed.

Instead of hoping you can get in better shape this year, decide to get in better shape this year.

Don’t just hope you will become a better parent or spouse this year, decide you will become a better parent or spouse this year.

You could hope to save some money this year, or could decide to save some money this year.

Don’t just hope … well, you get the point.

Once you have decided, then it’s time to make a specific plan for how you are going to get there. Making a plan does not have to be a complex and burdensome task. Making a plan can be as simple as saying, “I’m here, I want to be there.” Then comes step one, step two, step three, step four and so on.

I know that may sound overly simplistic to you. I guess I could complicate it with lots of squishy psychobabble, but why?

You might not know what the steps are, and that’s fine. If you don’t know what the steps are, don’t use that as an excuse. Find out. Read a book on the subject. Find someone who has done or is doing what you want to do and find out how they did it. Hire a counselor or coach to guide and motivate you.

Once you get started, watch out for three of the deadliest words that can derail you in a hurry. These three deadly words are “Just this once …” Just this once I’ll not go to the gym, watch television instead of listening to my spouse or child, spend the money set aside for saving, etc.

The problem with “just this once” is it rarely stays just this once. Just this once becomes just one more time, a new pattern is set, and pretty soon you forget all about what you were wanting to do.

Hearing yourself say “just this once” needs to become a big red flag of warning to you. So the next time you are tempted to give in to just this once, turn these words on their head. Tell yourself that “just this once” I’ll stay consistent and keep going with the plan.

Remember how simple it can be. I’m here, I want to be there. One, two, three four.

Don’t just hope, decide.

Visit SecretsofGreatRelationships.com for tips and tools for creating and growing a great relationship. You can also subscribe to our f*r*e*e 10 day e-program on how to enrich your relationship today, from relationship coach and expert Jeff Herring.

Fantasy/Controversy or My Reality: a collection of poetic
writing that comes from the heart. Written by a mother as her
own escape from her chore filled day, the anthology is very
riveting and it makes you contemplate.

After expressing my own thoughts I was able to relax and get
clarity and appreciate my life in this fun way. As the author, I
must confess that ever time I read this book, I find a new jewel
in it. I would like for readers to find some satisfaction and
lose all their cares about the things that they regret in life
from reading my book.

Designed to put the pep back into your step and a zing to remove
anything that’s distressing, this anthology will make your day.
Through the captivating verses you will be inspired and
motivated. These heart felt poems are about the good, the bad,
the happy and the sad with an up lifting twist. Clearly written
for all to understand, this expressive literature was meant for
everyone. If you are in need of an encouragment; order your copy
today on line.

Diginity: one of the 150 poem featured in Fantasy/Controversy or
My Reality:

Dignity

As another day dawns, As life triumphantly moves on, As the sun
brilliantly brings forth Light to our eyes and warmth for our
face, We as a people with courage embrace Our challenges with
honor, not disgrace.

For it is not what we do, it’s how we do it! It is not what we
say, but how we say it! It is not where we are from, its our
destination! It is not how we look, but how we see ourselves!

It is about dignity, self-respect and pride, That makes us lift
our heads up high, Refusing to surrender, when attacked from
every side.

For more information about this book and the author visit her
web-site at http://home.earthlink.net/~rgarnes

I’ve spoken to many people who’ve told me, “I’ve tried millions of ways to do this, and I never succeed!”, or “I’ve tried thousands of ways, spoken to 400 people, tried 300 times and yet nothing in the form of success comes my way!”. Ever heard those kind of lines? Well, think about it. How many people who say they try thousands or million times actually do try that much? Very few, if any at all.

Take the example of an inspirational man by the name of Colonel Sanders. At the age of 65, after his business got forced to close down, he was only living on his $105 social security cheque each month. He got mad, but instead, of heading down to the social security offices, he asked himself, “what can I do that will be valuable for other people?”

With this one question, came his success answer. Colonel Sanders was a great cook, but he just had to get people to know it. His speciality was the wonderful chicken recipe he knew. So he decided to get in his car and drive around to the restaurants asking whether they’d buy his recipe, and he thought, if it’d sell well, perhaps he’d get a percentage of their takings. His approach didn’t succeed, and he got responses such as, “Why would I want to buy an old man’s recipe?”

Each time, he changed his approach slightly, and continued giving it his best shot. For two years, he drove around his old car, across the USA, knocking on doors and selling his recipe. Guess what was spectacular - he had visited 1009 restaurant owners and all turned him down. At 1010th one, he succeded. To this day, we know him as the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC. You can read the full story here: www.kfc.com/about/colonel.htm

How many people do you think would actually wait that long, and persist for a thousand, even a hundred times, to be totally successful? Very few, if any. If you look at the most common people in the world, they would not be denied. They will not take no for an answer. They are concrete in their goals, and will strive and persist until they attain them.

I have grown up to learn that NO PROBLEM IS PERMANENT. Nothing will stop me from allowing the problem to pass and then moving forward to achieve what I want. I have consistently reminded myself to focus on the solutions, rather than the problems, helping me to overcome any barriers. All this has helped me develop my goals of being a percussionist, my even bigger dream of helping people as a life coach at a young-ish age, and much more.

I say this not to boast about my work, but to boast about the power of focus and persistance. Think about the things you have really wanted to achieve. What is the one most important thing to you? How will you determine when you have been a success in your music career? When you are 80, what is the one major thing you want to turn back and be really proud of in your music?

I have one simple thing to say here in response to that: Remain committed, take action consistently and ensure you focus on the solutions, not the problems.

Hiring a life coach will ensure you stay on track, define your goals easily and actually move forward to achieving them in a timed manner. Hiring a life coach brings reality closer. It did for me and every other person who has worked with a coach. Treat yourself to a coach and reap the seeds within you.

As a musicians coach specialist, I am available to work with you on a one-off or consistent basis. For further information about personal coaching, please read this. You can click here to find out about our services.

© Kavit Haria, The Musicians’ Coach

Kavit Haria is The Musicians’ Coach. Kavit is the director of
InnerRhythm, a company that prides on providing success solutions for
musicians worldwide. Kavit sends out a musician development newsletter to
over 2000 musicians in 16 countries every fortnight to help them achieve
their desired results. Sign up now and experience the huge benefits from
www.innerrhythm.org

What do creativity managers do?

Replace the word management with the word optimisation.

That’s what creativity managers do: they optimise the quality of the idea pool (creativity) and the implementation process (innovation).

There are many methods of optimisation and the creativity leader must be aware of all of them, in other words, he or she must synthesise them for optimal effect.

Areas [within creativity] that need managing include motivation, organisational culture, organisational structure, incremental versus radical effects and processes, knowledge mix, group structures, goals, process and valuation.

Areas [within innovation] that need managing include idea selection, development / prototyping and the art of commercialisation.

It is worth noting that 4000 good ideas result in 4 development programs, which in turn results in 1 winner.

Idea Valuation

Idea valuation is the first step of innovation (idea selection, development and commercialisation).

There are a number of valuation approaches:

What types of ideas have previously been most successful? For example, solution spotting has a higher success rate and a lower failure rate than need spotting.

What is the fit with the firm? Does the firm have the strategic, technical and other competencies to fully bring the idea to the market?

What is the position relative to practical impediments? What is the likelihood of the idea pushing past all development obstacles?

How do we make the go or kill decision to decide between projects? Investing in one good idea robs another of the opportunity of proving itself. Resources are never limitless.

Who is the consumer and how will s/he benefit? Market research has a role to play.

What are the benefits of failure? Failure today may help build the competencies that lead to a winning solution next time. Ridley Scott created a commercial failure with Blade Runner but went on to a commercial success with Gladiator.

Learn more…

Download the MBA research, learn about this topic at http://www.creativity-management.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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According to the American Dream Project, the average American works between 43 and 51 hours per week. Does that make us more productive? No. In fact, the United States is ranked 8th in productivity behind countries like Norway, Italy, and France. Yet people in those countries work fewer hours. So what will make us more productive?

First, it is important to understand that the average person is only productive 5 hours a day, yet our average workday is 8 hours with fewer people taking breaks and vacations than ever before. Second, it is also important to differentiate between the higher living standard of Americans and happiness. Our higher living standard is due mostly to our long work hours and higher spending patterns, yet that standard does not make Americans more productive, nor does it make people happy. In fact, it only serves to make us more exhausted. The American Dream Project goes on to explain that this exhaustion decreases our productivity while pushing us into activities that are not necessarily correlated to happiness, but just escapism.

So how can employers maximize productivity while decreasing stress? Focus on your employees. According to the Great Place to Work Institute, the companies with the happiest employees are also the most productive. However, contrary to popular belief, money does not buy happiness in the workplace. In fact, there is very little correlation between making over $50,000 per year and happiness in general. For most people, happiness is about low stress, trust, and a feeling that they matter.

If happiness comes from trust and a feeling that they matter, then what are some things an organization can do to foster those feelings? Primarily, a company needs to have a management team that builds that sense of trust and caring. One way to bring about the caring environment is to provide services that enhance the employees’ lives, like a concierge service.

Concierge services provided as an employee benefit gives employees a tangible view that their employer cares about their personal needs as well as their productivity. This promotes loyalty and productivity. It is a useful and inexpensive way to provide for employees needs, and it will help in lowering employee’s stress levels. In fact, one company funded a study that showed 62 percent of employees would like help in getting things done and believed that the help would lower the stress in their lives. Also, 50 percent of those surveyed would pay to have more time with their families.

Those statistics reinforce the American Dream Project’s assertion that happiness is not necessarily tied to money, but to lifestyle. If you feel like your company could use a little boost in productivity and employee loyalty, then maybe it is time to really look at what your employees need. Check out concierge services to add just a little light into your employees’ lives and see how your work environment changes to a positive, productive workplace.

Tracey Crockett is the Chief Lifestyle Manager of Chores, Errands ‘N More, a full-service concierge and lifestyle management company located in Upstate South Carolina. The company’s sole objective is to enhance the quality of life for its customers. More information can be found at www.choreserrandsnmore.com, or by calling 888-509-5533