Making Your Gray Matter

May 2009

Contents This Month

· G/NSG/WDK

· Remember More, Highlight Less

· Quotations

· Update Your Email Address

· Refer Madness

G/NSG/WDK

Dog? Cat? Hamster? This question has been a constant topic in my house as my sons (9 and 5 years old) are longing for a pet other than a fish. We narrowed it down to those three (my wife used her “pocket veto” for the lizard!). We decided to have a little fun with it as a family and used a decision-making tool I often teach in workshops. The tool is Plusses, Potentials, Concerns.

Since we were going to use this as a family, I changed the wording a bit. We did Goods (G), Not-So-Goods (NSG), and We-Don’t-Knows (WDK). Everyone got post-it notes and we hung up some flipchart paper in the house. On one night we spent several minutes generating all of the Goods we could think of. We wrote one idea on each small post-it. We started with cats, then proceeded to dogs, and finally hamsters. The next night we repeated the process with Not-So-Goods for each animal. Along the way, we combined post-it ideas that were the same idea making sure not to group ideas just for the sake of grouping them.

On the third night, we started voting. We each got eight smiley-faced stickers to vote only on the Goods. We could put only one sticker on each post-it (or post-it group). The rule was “If we were to have a dog/cat/hamster, this idea is an important reason we would want one.” There were more post-its on the Goods Dog page that got stickers than the other two. There were also more multiple vote ideas from the Dogs page. Cats came in second.

We then repeated this for the NSGs. Everyone again was given eight smiley-faced stickers. This time the guideline for voting was, “If I didn’t want a dog/cat/hamster, this would be a big reason why.” More votes were cast for NSGs for cats than the other two. Dogs and Hamsters were about even. Dogs were the winners.

We never did do the WDKs. But these would have been items requiring more research. We chose not to do these because we had been talking about this and asking friends for quite a while. I’ll let you know what decision-making tool we use to decide the breed!

Tools similar to this can easily be used in a work environment too. It gets everyone involved and creates some energy. If you do use something like this at work, treat other people and their ideas as you would have treated your own families’ – with dignity and a sense of openness and curiosity.

Remember More, Highlight Less

Why do we highlight things that we read? To make that passage stand out, and to remember it better, of course! Have you ever noticed how we tend to highlight entire paragraphs and halves of pages? Does that really help it stand out? Is a yellow/green/pink five-sentence passage really easier to remember than a white five-sentence passage? NO!

Change the way you highlight to help your memory and recall. There’s also an easy way to make what you highlight stand out even more. Highlight less and use more colors. By using more colors you can engage more of the part of your brain that processes colors.

Highlight less by eschewing the practice of highlighting paragraphs or even complete sentences. If there is something that you want to highlight, pick out the two or three words within the key sentence (the key sentence is the one you think is the key sentence) that trigger your recall of what the idea is. By changing your highlighting this way, you also force yourself to think about the ideas behind the wording and make a connection with them.

Quotations

“The right answer to the wrong question won’t solve the problem.” – workshop participant from Raytheon (I’ve seen similar quotations, but like this the best)

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky (Canadian Hockey player known as “The Great One”)

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

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