Making Your Gray Matter

March 2009

Contents This Month

· Take the Weight Belt off Your Brain

· HMW – A Testimonial

· Idea Mapping at the Library

· Quotations

· Update Your Email Address

· Refer Madness

Take the Weight Belt off Your Brain

I used to have back problems that caused me to see a Chiropractor every couple months for an adjustment. I have also lifted weights regularly since college. When I was in college my track and field coaches insisted we wear weightlifting belts when lifting. A few years ago I heard an exercise guru on a radio program talking about how wearing weightlifting belts weakens many of the smaller stabilizing muscles in the back and core. So I decided to stop wearing the weight belt. As you might guess, I haven’t seen my Chiropractor since!

So why do I mention this? I’ve come to think of this story as a metaphor for how many of us use our brains. We strenuously exercise the left side of our brains while placing a restraining device (weight belt) on the right side of our brains (stabilizer muscles). To a certain extent, I think we are weakening our entire brains because we aren’t using our stabilizing muscles.

Find ways to incorporate more of your brain’s stabilizer muscles in your daily activities.

· Use colors in your notes. Incorporate more than black, blue, and red.

· Doodle with a purpose. Go beyond filling in the “o” on the agenda in your next team meeting. Draw shapes and designs incorporating angles and curves.

· Listen to some music for 5 minutes while not multi-tasking. Focus in on the music played by different instruments for 30 seconds at a time.

· Daydream about a specific memory as vividly and thoroughly as you can (even if you make up details).

· Idea Map someone.

HMW – A Testimonial

About six months ago I gave a short presentation on creativity to some prospective MBA students at SMU. It was a presentation I’ve given dozens of times and always enjoy it. Several months later, I received an email from one of the attendees who told me of how he had applied one of the techniques he had learned. He occasionally worked with the manager of a local restaurant and used the HMW (How Might We?) technique. Below is part of an essay he used in his application to the MBA program.

…One of the strategies for innovation Dave talked about was a method called “HMW” or “How Might We”. I thought I would give it a try and started asking people around the restaurant that very question, “How-Might-We make the restaurant run more efficiently?” I was amazed at all the different answers people came up with, including basic solutions to things that I would have never even thought of. I started thinking to myself that getting all these opinions was really helpful. It would be great if I were able to get a group together, maybe once a month, to come up with suggestions, bounce ideas off of, test new menu items, etc. I toyed around with this for a while, wrote a proposal, and pitched it to my boss. I wish I could put into words how the look on his face made me feel. I had come up with my own innovative practice and it could not have been more gratifying. Surely the restaurant will benefit greatly from it, but at the same time it is a big confidence boost for me to know that I had such a positive impact on the business. Last week, I checked in to see how things were going; he said that they had just had their first official “Restaurant Round Table”…

When was the last time you asked yourself HMW or HMI? If your struggling with something, change the way you approach the challenge by asking that question. Then come up with as many answers as you can before you start paring down your solutions. You may end up being as pleasantly surprised as the young man who shared with me his story.

Idea Mapping at the Library

I used to believe that it took several weeks before someone is comfortable enough with Idea Mapping to be able to use it in a group environment. Leave it to one of my “students” to teach me otherwise. While doing a 50-minute breakout session for the Montgomery County Memorial Library Services in January, one participant really latched onto Idea Mapping. She was so excited by its potential that she used it less than two weeks later.

The session was my favorite as it has so many useful applications (both professionally and personally) and saves time.

… I used idea mapping with several staff members to generate ideas and a plan of action to quickly implement job searching library programs for our patrons. In a matter of 15 minutes we had our game plan. This week we fine tuned the details and assigned people to each activity/idea and will start actual planning and implementation. It was wonderful to have a game plan so quickly.

If you want to use Idea Mapping in a group environment like this, make sure everyone knows how the technique works and some of the “why.” Use multiple colors (you could even color code the participants). Try to adhere to the rules of Idea Mapping as closely as you can, but don’t let that conformity stop or stem your flow of ideas.

Quotations

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.” – John Wayne (American actor)

“Genius has somewhat of the infantine; but of the childish not a touch or taint.” – Robert Browning (British poet)

Update Your Email Address

Don’t miss an issue of Making Your Gray Matter. If your email address is going to change, let me know about it.

Refer Madness

If you had a good experience in my workshop/seminar, share it with someone you know. If you provide me with a lead that generates new business for me, I’ll pay you (or your favorite charity) $250 (less if it is less than a full-fee engagement).

If you belong to a professional organization that needs a speaker or If you know any business or non-profit organization (including your own), that could benefit from my workshops, presentations, coaching, or needs a facilitator:

1. Tell your contact about me.

2. Tell me about your contact. Call me at 972-378-0937 or write me at dgunby@mindimensions.com

3. Wait for your check (if I get your contact’s business)

If you would like to be removed from this distribution list reply to this email with “unsubscribe” in the subject line.