Making Your Gray Matter

September 2008

Contents This Month

· Odd Man In

· People Mapping

· Get Intu-it

· Quotations

· Update Your Email Address

· Refer Madness

Odd Man In

Are you struggling to come up with new or different solutions to a problem that doesn’t seem to go away? Part of the problem may be that you are too entrenched in the challenge and the environment surrounding it to be able to. So what can you do? Bring in an outsider.

In the book Paradigms, Joel Barker wrote about a prank in the incandescent lighting group of General Electric in the 1930s and 1940s. When a new engineer joined the company, the director met with and presented him or her with a new project – develop a coating that would minimize the “hotspot” from the filament.

After several weeks, each engineer dejectedly reported that they had failed. Everyone in the group laughed and said that it was a joke since the project was impossible. Then in 1952, a new engineer developed a coating that did the job! He was able to do something (and accordingly think something) that the “experts” could not.

If you are working to solve a problem that you have long struggled with, invite an outsider to “play along.” Make sure that all of that person’s ideas are given equal weight. While the outsider may not solve the problem, s/he will give wonderful insights and expose some of your assumptions.

If you want to really challenge your thinking, make the odd man in a six- or seven-year old child!

People Mapping

Idea Mapping is a natural for brainstorming. It’s perfect for reviewing for a big test. When you’ve honed your skills it’s great for taking notes in a meeting or class. Have you thought about Idea Mapping a person? Idea Maps are perfect for honoring or recognizing someone. I have Idea Mapped several people for different reasons:

• Performance review. I Idea Mapped myself in preparation for my performance review (when I was an instructor at EDS). I culled information from my computer files, paper files, customer interactions, training coordinators, student evaluations, and prior reviews. When the performance review happened, I walked my manager through the map. I also used it to build my case for getting a salary increase.
• Recognition. Two of my favorite Idea Maps were to congratulate people for 10 years of service at EDS. A very good friend of mine created a beautiful Idea Map for another very good friend. The author/artist spent a lot of time researching and preparing the Idea Map. I was honored to author the second map. The subject of my map was the author of the first map. If you would like to see one or both of the examples, email me and I’ll send you the jpeg.
• Thank you. When I first moved to the Dallas area, my sister was a big help to me. Several years later she moved back to Western New York. Before she left, I gave her an Idea Map that detailed many of my memories of our time in Big D and how much I appreciated her. On a more somber note, several people have told me how they used Idea Maps to brainstorm a eulogy they had to deliver. A couple people have also used the Idea Maps for their notes (instead of a script). They said that the tool helped them get through an already difficult time.

Get Intu-it

We’ve all spent years learning how to develop our rational, logical thinking processes. But how much time have we spent on our intuition? We can all think back to times when our intuitive voice told us something but our rational brain vetoed that voice. We later regretted it. Part of the reason is that we don’t practice our intuition, so we don’t trust it. Here are a couple of easy exercises – get intu-it.

· When the phone rings, guess who’s calling.

· When dining out, quickly glance at the menu and make your selection without reading everything about every entrée.

· Estimate how much mail you will have and guess some of the specific pieces.

· When meeting someone at a party, try guessing things about them. It doesn’t matter if you’re wrong; it’ll sharpen your intuition and make meeting people a little more fun.

My wife and I have learned to trust our intuition more and more because of our many successes. We chose our house after looking at only one other. We just knew the second house was the right one. I chose the wallpaper in the kitchen because I just knew it would go with the countertop (my wife had to trust her intuition to trust my intuition on that!). We also named our youngest son because we just felt he was a Reese. We arrived at our first son’s name with a much more logical approach and are equally as happy – just proves the importance of thinking in more ways than one!

Quotations

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” – John Maynard Keynes (British economist)

“It may be those who do most, dream most.” – Stephen Leacock (Canadian economist, writer)

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)

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