Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” is our satisfaction chart which makes us feel whole and accomplished as a human being. There are five levels in Maslow's pyramid, from the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are:
- Physiological (food and clothing),
- Safety (security),
- Love and belonging needs (friendship)
- Esteem,
- Self-actualisation.
Nowadays, we are controlled by the media, especially social media where we are constantly following other people’s opinions. We really need to learn how to think free and start loving and respecting each other. Patience is to let the season do their work as you can’t hurry the spring, you can’t rush the summer, and you can’t shorten the winter. You just need to have patience with the unfolding of things from the beginning to reality, from nothing to something. I think that it’s all about humanity. We can make our own reality, it’s a choice.
Right and wrong
You believe X and I believe Y, but I need to convince you that my Y is the right solution. Does your attitude affect my outcomes? When something doesn’t feel right then the cause is always the other person. 100% of the time you are making decisions about what looks right and what doesn’t based on different information. Whenever you disagree you have to make attributions for disagreement, I mean you have to explain to yourself. Why is it we disagree and it’s basically a story we make up in your own mind about what is the cause of this disagreement (*Professor Lee Ross’ “fundamental attribution error”). And the simplest version is that we disagree because the other person is wrong.
*The fundamental attribution error is the tendency people must overemphasise personal characteristics and ignore situational factors in judging others' behaviour. Because of the fundamental attribution error, we tend to believe that others do bad things because they are bad people.
Silent and listen
Image c/o Adobe stock photos
Maybe you’ll stand up and applaud a speaker you agreed with or just sit staring in silence after listening to a speaker you didn’t like. Now I think you are beginning to understand the complexity of listening and the great potential for errors. Acoustic ecologist, Gordon Hempton defines silence not as the absence of sound, but as the absence of noise from modern life. What do you think?
“The biggest threat to innovation is internal politics and an organisational culture which does not accept failure, and/or does not accept ideas from outside, and/or cannot change.”
Awakening slowly
Heading into a new year is a great time to take stock of where you've been and where you want to go. Studies show that self-awareness is a foundation for better decision-making, higher performance, and more effective, authentic leadership. As we grow spiritually, raising our consciousness, many of our painful experiences are simply growing pains. Everyone has perception, for example, when I see a tree, I see its beauty, the colours of the leaves, its shape, how it fits into the landscape. Another person frets because the tree is blocking their sea view. Each person’s perception is created from experiences, education, and belief systems. In this sense, we each live in our own world, defined by our perception and as we strive to improve our circumstances, we must strive to improve the world.
““We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.””
From the fringes
Image c/o The Guardian
Sometimes a pause gives purpose the opportunity to find you as when people have a vested interest it stops them from speaking the truth. Sustainability by using less becomes a tricky conversation as this goes completely against capitalism. Although we might not like the answer, and change is always uncomfortable, it’s tough to argue that there’s even a contest. Great design and a joined-up user experience matters more than ever in our lives today. I think by bringing design thinking to the core by understanding your customer strategy will help you position potential solutions. Contact me via e-mail for 1:1 sparring and coaching sessions in 2023.
Focus on one small goal
The concept of Zorro Circles is a metaphor for how we can follow our ambitions and achieve our goals by tackling the challenges we face one by one. Gradually, as we become ready, we can complete what we set out to do. I think the basic idea behind the Zorro Circle is that we should limit the scope of our efforts to a small area and as we gain resources, knowledge, and confidence, we expand our circle of control. And embarrassment is a powerful motivator for improvement and the more public the embarrassment, the greater the motivation.
Somebody's opinion
There will always be two types of people; those who become accustomed and accept the system, and those who will always fight for the truth. And my life experience has taught me is that truth is highly subjective. There may be an objective truth and we humans can't know it because we are condemned to the bias of our own experiences, biases, and preferences. As professional marketers we all believe that we make decisions rationally, but we are as likely as anyone to be influenced by external biases. And social proof has consistently been shown to be one of the most powerful behavioural biases.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ”
Just imagine
Why can’t we just train people to become curious and thirsty for knowledge? We can! And if we do this the number of other things, they can learn is unbelievable. We have seen that bit by bit on the internet there is a body of work that lets the employer know you’re worth hiring now. We are going see more and more free stuff and more and more expensive stuff. Just imagine if there was a portfolio system where you are hired and fired on the basis of your work. Just imagine if there is this type of relationship in place where people who know you and trust you also hire you. The education system of the future or should I say, the hiring of people in the future will look less like where you went to school and more and more what have you built, who did you work for and what would they say about you.
Hindsight is 20/20
Hindsight bias is when a person looks back at an event and believes they predicted the outcome, even if they failed to act on that "prediction." For example, on Saturday evening France will play a football match against Denmark, very fewer people are sure of the outcome of the game, but on Sunday morning, many more are willing to claim they were positive the winning team was indeed going to emerge the winner.
This is because we construct a situation where we fool ourselves into thinking we knew more about an event before it happened. The idea is that once we know the outcome, it’s much easier to construct a plausible explanation. Unfortunately, this leads us to think that our judgment is better than it is, and we become less critical of our decisions and makes us overconfident about future predictions.
“Life can only be understood by looking backward; but it must be lived looking forward.”
Exploring the edges
Jamaica is a beautiful island located in the Caribbean. According to travel guides Jamaica famous for so many things, for example, reggae music, Bob Marley, Ursain Bolt, Blue Mountain coffee, rum, etc., etc. Both my parents are Jamaican and as I was born and raised in London, I have never explored the possibility of Jamaican nationality. It appears that so many professional footballers are in the same situation. There has been so much written in the media about the forthcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar, so I thought I would change the narrative as I’m not sure whether to boycott or not. What about you, will you be watching?
Do as you're told
Education and learning are not the same thing. Mass education was the ingenious machine constructed by industrialism to produce a constant flow of factory workers. Learning is the lifelong process of transforming information and experience into knowledge, skills, behaviours, and attitudes. Education is what we do for compliance and it’s about cohesion and you get a prize as a reward, that’s how they get you to do what you are supposed to do. I think that there are some educators who are also teachers and help with learning and there are also a lot of educators who are creators of an obedient system.
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. ”
Everyone has a story
As humans we have been raised to keep a tough appearance, not to share information, be guarded and scrutinise everybody who’s in our life. My education at home revolved around, “the more you know the further you will go” philosophy.
Someone said, “I don’t know how you do it.”
I said, “I wasn’t given a choice.”
I think even if the hero has no choice, it’s still taking courage to be courageous, and we all need role models who model these heroic traits for us.
“If you really think the economy is more important than the environment, try holding your breath while counting your money.”
Being in motion
Cultural consistency stresses adherence to a code for the business and cultural fit emphasises an aspect of the culture that will attract employees and partners who are similarly inclined. Cultural diversity focuses on promoting inclusiveness and celebrating employees and partners for their differences as much as their similarities. I specialise in going into companies and seeing the existing culture, then fine tuning it to ensure that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet. Every business has to find their own protocol as the company structure and culture will determine what feedback loop approach works best. And I think the way a company designs their feedback loops will make a difference as to whether the responses actually get incorporated into actionable actions. Contact me via e-mail if you would like some help with this process.
Vision drives everything
Whenever you are the first one out of the gate, you will have to break through that metaphorical plate of glass. I mean you will have to go through deep scrutiny and answer questions, for example, “What does this mean? Why did you say (or write) that? Are you insulting us? etc., etc.” Selling a service is vastly different than selling products, and the main difference is that a product business sells physical, tangible objects, whereas a service business provides value through intangible skills, expertise and time. Image and message are sometimes more important than execution. Even though I think that if you can show your products in a picture, illustration or in real life, it will help your presentation. Vision drives everything and without one, you will get lost.
It matters
All first impressions are non verbal, for example, when you walk down the road, your subconscious mind will automatically begin to categorise the people you see in your preconceived frameworks. I think that first impressions are when we become a blip on other people's radar not when we open our mouth. It's an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises but only performance is reality.
“Before you talk, listen.
Before you react, think.
Before you spend, earn.
Before you criticize, wait.
Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try.”
Tribes and scribes
The most basic human desire is to feel like we belong, it’s so powerful. Everything you say and everything you do has to prove what you believe. When you are in an environment where you don’t feel you belong, you seek out anyone who may share the same values and beliefs as you so that you can start to form trusting relationships. This is why I think this cannot be recreated over our computers, it’s our biology as human beings that gives us this ability, and it’s this ability to read each other which has enabled us to evolve. I don’t believe you can replace these human experiences and human feelings over the internet. Contact me via e-mail and let me know your feelings around this topic.
And the other side
We all want engaged employees who want to deliver, not just for the organisation but also for themselves. We are now seeing more stories about how organisations are getting very hands on about building a bottom-up processes, where teams of employees are working with managers at the customer interface level, helping individual employees work out how they can connect to the corporate purpose. Understanding the dreams of the people in the organisation and how they might be the key to motivating your employees. This will ensure that the organisations purpose is something that their employees can really engage with in a meaningful way, as this helps them as they decide to give their full effort at work.
Become a better listener
Active listening is different from hearing or even paying attention, hearing is something we do without thinking and without consciously trying to. I think a deeper level is when we listen for context, so here are some tips on how to improve your listening skills:
1. Talk less
2. Do not interrupt
3. Maintain direct eye contact
4. Put your phone down
5. Listen with your eyes and look for the unsaid
6. Remain interested
7. And if you are waiting for a pause, so that you can speak, then you're not actively listening
Generosity is a boomerang
Life gets so much better when you expect less as I think time generosity is grounded in empathy and emotional labour. In my world, generosity does not mean free; generosity does not mean lowering the price of what you do or giving it away. Generosity means showing up with emotional labour to do difficult work that some people think you might not need to do. This means that when someone is truly generous, they are bringing extra effort into something that may not work.
According to research from scientists at CalTech and Harvard who tried to figure out why giving feels harder for some than for others, and they found that the decision to give or take simply comes down to how much importance you attach to your interests versus someone else’s. Therefore, if you’re the type of person who considers other people’s needs as much as your own, self-sacrificing tends to be automatic. On the other hand, if you typically place more value on yourself, then giving feels more onerous.
See and be seen
Lawrence Weiner © 1972
Why can’t we be seen until we learn to see?
I think to see mean that you have empathy, it means to realise that no one cares about you and your opinion, they care about themselves and their own opinion. If you can’t see them for who they are, and for where their fears, desires and dreams are, they will ignore you because they only want to hang out with people who see them. Being seen is an unlimited need that people you serve have and if you can see them and understand them, you can tell them a story that they want to hear and they are more likely to engage with you. You cannot be empathic to everyone, you cannot see and understand everyone, so pick who you are going to see and understand and do that.