Mag:OH:Zine for Stuck People

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009

As Always, An Alphabetical "A"
Welcome to IdeA-Z, your mag-guide to strategies and creative solutions, break throughs for mind-boggling crunches and -guaranteed - finding the funny when you're stuck.
Each TUESDAY - your highest LEVERAGE day of the week (when you're most productive and alert!), IdeA-Z will showcase ways to get unstuck and unbogged. Let's just say, if you stay with me through to Z, your creative genius will be living with your creative muse. Now THAT's a partnership!
A = Alert
Being Alert is so obvious, you might not even notice when you're not. We'll cover the flip side - the Alpha State - where being oblivious becomes the strategy.
You might think that you see everything around you, all the time. Truth be told, you don't. Perception plays a huge role in how your brain connects old information to new, and ping pongs unrelated info in your thought channels. Your brain runs on limited energy (a 40 kw lightbulb's worth), so it tries to save energy by discarding ideas and knowledge as quickly as possible. Conscious Alertness increases your ability to perceive the world around you. Your thinking energy is focussed.
"Limited perception" is the number one reason that your creativity falls flat. Dis-Alert, Un-Alert, Non-Alert, Alert-less...lights on, no-one home...
Here's an example: take a really close look at the photo in this blog. Stare at it for a while. Notice anything unusual?
Hundreds of students walk through this University's stupendous building regularly. Do they see the reflections created to enhance the structure by the architect? Most don't... because their minds are tuned into other channels of thought. They take advantage of the "Function" of the buidling and miss the beauty - the "Form" - as it was originally imagined in the designer's own mind's eye.
Here's your "Creativity" homework assignment for today:
Go for a 10 minute walk. Outside. Stop by a leafy tree or kneel down on the grass. Find a spot - a 2x2 square - to stare at. As you look deeper and deeper, tiny details will emerge - life in the veins and the blades. It doesn't appear immediately. Or, try this: sit on a sidewalk. When is the last time you stopped to stare at an ant carrying a gigantic load?
You can apply the same method to solving a problem.

• Go beyond the surface information;
• challenge your perceptions about what's going on, and stop defending your own point of view.
• Look for the solutions from other directions. (What if you were the ant - what load would you be carrying - where? why? for how long?).
• The Alert State of mind brings you into the "now", and as you know, that's all you have: right?

Kids are Alert naturally. They pay attention to everything, don't they? They question, instead of relying on what they perceive to be true.
Link your childhood curiosity to your adult Alertness, and you'll find that your perceptions will expand. Solutions become more obvious...
Become A-LERT - we need more lerts!
See you next week for "ALPHA States"!
- Maggie
PS: Last week's photo: Yes, a Diner! Congrats to our Hawaiian winner.

The Man/Woman Paycheque Myth: Is It A Myth?

Gender Alert: How to Negotiate Your Raise

Equal experience. Equal qualifications. The reality? Jack negotiates a higher salary and benefit package than Jill. The compensation gap between men and women is not a myth.

Gender stereotyping is still alive and well, according to a working paper published by Harvard Business School in May 2008.

The authors contend that “men are generally perceived to have an advantage in negotiations over women because they are expected to be more effective at asserting their self-interest and claiming value for themselves, whereas women are expected to act in a more yielding and agreeable and less effective manner in terms of individual performance.”

Stereotypes make attempting to negotiate for higher compensation “a more socially risky endeavor for women than for men, because people not only expect that women will be more agreeable”.

They go on to say, that “male evaluators were significantly less inclined to work with a woman who initiated compensation negotiations as compared to one who did not, because they found her overly demanding and lacking in niceness.”

In other studies, research on expectations for salaries, the entitlement effect, shows that women tend to report lower career entry and career peak financial compensation than men. In general, “pre-negotiation expectations are highly predictive of negotiation outcomes”.

3 Tips for Effective $ Negotiations

1. Do your homework. (Don't just sit there looking like a lame duck - wait, it's a swan!)

• Research the range in your field, and determine your own set point of expectations for annual salary and benefits.



• Do not negotiate an hourly rate.



• Think in terms of “value” to the employer, and



• What you need to balance with others in your household.

2. Learn

• key negotiation skills and



• communication techniques, so that you are not caught off guard.



• Practice!

3. With the assistance of a Master Coach, for example,

• get feedback about your thinking style, including



• a personal inventory of your facial movements,



• body language, and



• voice inflections.

The Bottom Line?

If you want it, you have to ask for it. Negotiate well. Leverage brilliantly. Amen.

Now, how can I help you? Do this now:

1. Click on email subscribe for weekly tips on leverage. We do not share your address. Even though "ideas du jour" are posted daily in the list, you can expect 1 leverage email each week through RSS feedblitz.



2. Send in a comment or a question - no strings attached. I'm your Coach on Call, and will respond to you personally, not publically.



3. Sign up for a workshop or coaching to increase your skills and your comfort levels in negotiating. Yes, you can, no matter how shy you might be at the moment. http://www.theideasculptor.com/ or 1 800 587 1767 in North America

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine at Egli's Sheep Farm, Dryden Ontario Canada. All Rights Reserved.

(Source: Webgrrls: “Gender in Job Negotiations: A Two Level Game, H Riley Bowles and K.L. McGinn 2008)

L E V E R A G E ! Your Turn to Help Me

Smll t Roses

We're in such a rush...we abbreviate our language, our thoughts...take shortcuts even when we sleep!...this week, it's time to STOP and smell the roses. Get your nose up to that bloom: Real Close. Don't hurry...take a long time. Be the bee that lingers...

See the veins running through.

Understand the design.

Examine the simple complexity of each petal.

Think about how systems unfold.

Place yourself inside. Gently...

Enjoy!


On a personal note...March 16 to 21...
Leverage, for me, means spending "self" time on a regularly scheduled basis. We are doing a road trip, our quarterly time out for the week. You won't find us easily, since we will be hunkered down on the shores of Lake Superior in a remote lodge in Minnesota. No putes, no emails, no cell phones. Yes: inspiration, nature, silence, fresh air and good wine.

So, I need your help! The "Ideas du Jour" are totally YOURS this week... check out the archives, get inspired, and send me your 7 - 7 word phrases that define LEVERAGE in your world. I'll post them next week!

BTW, roses say more than I love you! Roses mean, "I love me". Treat yourself, or someone you love to the magic of just one fresh bloom.

My grandma used to say, "Bring me flowers now, not when it's too late." That's a phrase that echoes "Leverage to love".

See you soon!

Maggie

2 Notes from Mother Nature

Nature’s Leverage Lessons

“Botanists say that trees need the powerful March winds to flex their trunks and main branches, so the sap is drawn up to nourish the budding leaves. Perhaps we need the gales of life in the same way, though we dislike enduring them.” - Jane Truax



Sage advice. Been through any gales lately? Are you itching for longer days and warmer air? Me too!

1. What we know:

Nature is a system, one that has highs and lows, cycles and seasons. We do too. You have your days of calm - even though it's sunny, it's also calm and cold. The storms that blow in usually have a warning notice; are you paying attention to what's happening around you?

One of my favourite quotes is, “What’s most obvious is most invisible.”

Nature’s ways of dealing with growth, stress, frustration and flexibility could guide us in figuring out our problems…but the advice is often invisible. We just don’t stop long enough to “wander and wonder”, listen to our intuition, challenge our own ingenuity, or let go of our “I” ego.

Read that again…it’s important!

2. What Mother Nature Knows & We Need to Learn:

Mother Nature knows about her "operating system". She knows what it takes to blow down some trees in your personal "yard of thinking". She knows how much fertilizer to spread to start up in the spring... let's just say that we all need to have some poop in our lives to get on a roll. That's not such a bad thing! Especially when you know how to use it to your advantage!

What stalls you? What excites you? What's holding you back? What's got you?

#1 TIP TO DO:

I suggest that you draw your "weather map", your personal list of what ticks you off and what moves your ideas forward. You'll see some trends there - some climate changes. Yes, these are metaphors. And using metaphors takes you from what you already know, to what you don't know consciously.

#2 Tip To Do

Keep checking in, because:

Next week, you’ll see another MAG OH ZINE post about “Intersections”, the crossroads of thinking that will emerge as breakthroughs for you. But first you have to write your lists, draw your weather map, get it out of your head and onto a big sheet of paper.

Next Leverage Tuesday, I will serve you some bright thinking on a silver cloud, based on The Medici Effect. It’s all about finding those places where the odd and the obvious intersect. That’s what I help you to do as a Coach on Call, but you can learn to do it all by yourself. Kind of like seeing the moon and the stars, and then noticing a satellite whizzing past the little dipper.

# 3 Tip To Do

What you need to do NOW:

Subscribe to this Mag Oh! Zine (look in the right hand column) and you will receive a complimentary, no strings attached copy of Frans Johansson’s book, The Medici Effect. I literally inhaled it the other day – it’s not often that the whole day whips by reading a business strategy book!

Only if you subscribe, will I send you the link! I urge you to do it now.

Post your comment and let me know what nature’s telling you?

Maggie

Your Coach on Call - no strings attached

Leverage HOW to WOW

How HOW Becomes WOW!

If you think that this blog is about solving problems by exploring the concept of “leverage” you’re right on! It’s about turning a “how” question that keeps you up at night, into the “WOW” that is buried somewhere within digging distance. Did the “H” words in the Idea Du Jour spark the turning point for you?

This week’s personal wake-up call came as an email, one of those pseudo chain letters which these days is called a meme. I loved it! It got me thinking, and turned a “how” into a “WOW” by challenging my traditional approach to goal setting.

Ready? Here's the instructions...time required about 3 minutes.

1. Take the book closest to you, and turn to page 123.
2. Count down 4 sentences.
3. Copy the next 5 sentences and post.
4. Add a comment about any insights/inspirations you may have had as a result. Just click on the comments button below to send.

Here’s an example, from “The Seven Strategies of Master Negotiators”, by Dr. Brad McRae, a colleague from Halifax.

“Equally important (to Buzz) is the need to balance toughness with being pragmatic as the following excerpt from his book Labour of Love points out.”

“Some of my critics like to call me “the labour boss who rattles boardrooms” – as if my only intention is to be stubborn and force a strike on management. That’s absurd. I’m better known in labour-management circles as a person who knows how to reach a settlement by reading the situation and moving demands around on the table until the deal begins to look too sweet for the employers to pass up. Our goal is to always get a deal our members can be happy with.”

Comment: The How = How do you balance toughness with pragmaticism? How does he read the situation? How does he move demands around on the table? How does the deal begin to look too sweet? How do we know what makes our members happy?

The WOW for goal setting: it’s the thinking and the conversations about the various dimensions of the How. If X is what you want, then what’s the continuum of “now, near and far” that gets you there?

Post YOUR page 123 here by clicking comment below. You can also subscribe and receive the updates every Tuesday....email on top right!

Sneek peaks! You'll have to check in here (add to favourites) for the Ideas Du Jour list - new 7 word idea leverage every single day!

See you next Leverage Tuesday, for the letter I!

- Maggie

Thanks for dropping by!
maggiechicoine@gmail.com

Gee...This is Simple

You know the saying, "Less is More"

...another phrase referring to LEVERAGE as a concept.

I'm saying "Concept", because most of the time, leverage gets ignored. Complexity takes over.

The "G" list in Idea du Jour should stir up some thinking about how to simplify your thinking...

Using less than 7 words in each daily inspiration, my goal is to train your brain to use unfamiliar activities to unlock the goodies... your synapses are waiting to be ignited, much like spark plugs in a frozen machine. The "Say It in Seven" tm technique forces you to condense your major thoughts into memorable actions. Try it! Not as simple as it seems at first glance.

BTW, subscribe to this Mag-Oh!-Zine and you'll get tips every Tuesday. Check out the archives for Why Tuesdays! Leverage Day!

If you are bogged, stuck or in need of inspiration, just ask, ok?

- Maggie

E = Energy

5 EEEEEEEEE Haaaaaaas!

When’s the last time you yelled out a hearty EEEEEEEEEEEEEE Haaaaaaaaaaaaa! That’s the sound of a good idea about to emerge into action. Theoretically speaking, most yippeees happen in private, or in the silence of your own head room. Probably not at a staff meeting! Even the best ideas, or germs of new thinking somehow get squashed by the atmosphere.

The “EEEEEE” list – see the IdEas Du Jour – all relate to Energy. Energy in your mind. Excitement type energy bursts while trying to find solutions and leverage. Celebrations when the project was awesome, or totally flopped!

We seem to take the EEEEEEEEhhhaaaaaaaaaas for granted. As Leaders, listen for the laughter. That’s the glue that keeps teams on track.

So, if you’re stuck, bogged or muddled, consider the variety of energies you can apply.

1. Energy of an eager beaver: set a deadline! Dam, build it!

2. Energy of an expert: outsource? Consult? Volunteer? Colleague?

3. Energy of editing: as Hemingway said – and I paraphrase, less is more. Less brings leverage!

4. Energy of enthusiasm: are the ya-butters and nay-sayers crushing your spirit and passion? Tell them to go away (but not before examining their “truth”. You might be missing something important and they are giving you clues!)

5. Energy of celebration: Go ahead, throw a, EEEEEHHHHHAAAAAAA party, even if you’re not finished yet. Or you’ve messed up. We need to celebrate more!


Hey, and if you can’t get that energy rocking and rolling, that’s what coaches are for! This week is International Coach Week! We are celebrating... for YOU that means

Complimentary Coach on Call just by emailing maggiechicoine@gmail.com

Ehaha!
Maggie

"Muddled Meadows" by Digital Artist Carol Cooper, http://www.compasswebworks.com/

More on Leadership Leverage: The Tuesday File at Lake Superior News.ca

This Cracks You UP

Pay Attention to What Cracks You UP!

You know how sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time and something totally absurd happens and it turns out to be one of the funniest things you’ve ever seen and then you keep telling the story over and over again until you’re now celebrating your 100th birthday and the same thing is still funny?

OK, I broke the “Say It in Seven™” rule for the opening sentence. But here’s the HOW TO… that unplanned, seemingly insignificant episode stuck with you because you are open to the possibilities.

The “C” words in the Idea Du Jour (see column on the right) – your leverage points – all refer to the positive effects of allowing more space in your filters.

My recommendation?
1. Ask yourself more questions – that’s a coaching secret – and don’t rush with the answers. Simplify. Look for the obvious. Crack yourself UP by combining and canceling, colouring and cooling down. Don’t rush (this process)….hush………….

2. Listen. Don't talk so much. Watch as well as hear. Listen for the obvious; sometimes what's most obvious is most invisible.

3. Write stuff. Every day. Comedian Red Skelton wrote lists every single night before going to sleep. Everyday comments and happenings became his inspiration. Even if it doesn't make sense today, someday it might.

As a coach on call, all you have to do is email me and I'll send you a complimentary checklist of questions. Maggiechicoine@gmail.com .
BTW, subscribe to this feed (see below, way below!) and you'll get these leverage points automatically every Tuesday.

Keep on cracking,
Maggie
www.theideasculptor.com

Join us for Leverage Tuesdays

More about 7 Ways to Slap Your Forehead

See the list on your right!

The Ohhhhh!!!!!! Moment can be elusive; when you need a trigger to get your innovation going again, this is the place to be!

This first set of 7 ways to leverage your ideas… aka slap your head!… all start with the letter A. What’s with that? I’ve categorized this blog alphabetically and numerically as well as using the calendar week, starting with a Tuesday. Analyzers and organizers with strong left-brain tendencies will appreciate the logic, won’t you? The blog postings will be rambling notes and stories, specifically for the emotional touches and the abstract why the heck not right brainers. Ask me about the HBDI if you’d like to learn more about all of this.

Let’s take a look at these 7 points on this 1st list.

Speaking out is a common stuck point... One of yours?
When I teach communication skills, such as how to design presentations, how to get your point across at a meeting, how to negotiate with your boss or your mother, I encourage you to use a mind map. The central focus point of the map houses your key concept. State this concept in 7 words or less, and don’t just stick with the first phrase that comes to mind. You have to work at fine-tuning the concept, because all of the remainder of your content springs from these few key words. This method is called, “Say It In 7™”. Think about cartoon strips: a few words say it all!

“Say It In 7™” needs a strong metaphor attached to it. Use a powerful verb that implies action. The phrase is more than an advertising slogan or a headline. It’s the core of your message.

Try at least 10 different versions! When I birthed the “Say It In 7™” technique, I started with the idea of
§ “just use a few words to say it”
§ “start with a key idea”
§ “stay with a key word”
§ “central message key to central map”
§ “seven words are the max”
§ “In focus with 7 words or less”
§ “Start with a key concept”
§ “Just say it”
§ “Say It In 7™”

Analyze and recombine a variety of elements. Reading over my list above, you’ll notice that all of the versions contributed to the final product. I find it helpful to write ideas on stickies, re-cluster to analyze. Can you make the phrase even shorter and snappier? Abbreviate it. Switch the words around. Make it into a question. Change the verb... there's power in strong actions. And ask a bunch of others for their comments, such as kids and older people. Intergenerational input points out the best features, and suggests options for your weaker ingredients. Listen for the negatives...there are clues about what you haven't totally considered yet!

You might have the best idea on the planet, but it’s all in the timing! Chew over the potential impact of launching your product, confronting your manager or presenting a new recipe to your family on the wrong day or at a strange hour of the day. Think about the BEST timing, for you and for anyone else involved in your venture. Just because you’re so excited and can’t hold back, doesn’t mean they will be!

Which brings us to Ahhhhhhh time! Let the concept rest for a time. Like roast beef fresh from the oven, it’s important to let the juices sit where they belong, just for a while. Slicing too quickly makes your dinner, and your concept – tough and dry. The flash of creative thinking is only the beginning of the process. Don’t rush…hush….

Your to do list? Subscribe to this for automatic updates to the inbox of your choice. (Scroll down until you find my photo at the end of this blog. Total time required: 20 seconds!)

We'll drop by on Leverage Tuesdays! Got a question? Just ask! Or email!


Oooooh!ly yours,
Maggie

TGIT!

We declare...official LEVERAGE Day is....TUESDAY! Best day of the week for meetings? New projects? Quiet dinners with family? Least expensive date night? TUESDAY! Research shows... so keep tuning in for the finale of a week's worth of ideas du jour, every Tuesday.
- Maggie
PS: Go to the post on LEVERAGE below!