Wednesday 16 May 2012

Plan the End

A great ending in a movie is Everything.  No point in building up to a crescendo and then fizzle out to nothing.  In life, there has to be a great ending too.

The ending is everything.

Plan it, consider all of the possibilities and permutations, all of the factors that could take the glory away from you and give the kudos to someone else.

Think far ahead and you will know when to stop.

When you have the vision and the intelligence to look ahead on your timeline and you plan your moves you will stick to the plan and not be tempted to improvise.

Get rid of anxiety and vagueness because these two weaknesses are the reason so many people fail to conclude ther actions successfully.

If you see the ending you will not deviate from it.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Target The Source

In your life, be it business or private, you will come up against trouble.  The Dynamic-Life Academy shows you how to deal with individuals, agitators, who set out to poison your life.

There is a saying that you should remember and hold dear.  It's memory will serve you well.

"Shoot the Shepherd and the Sheep will Scatter". The Shepherd is a metaphor for your enemy, your agitator.  The sheep are a metaphor for your agitators followers, believers, team.

You have to do this early.  You must have seen the Alien films. They are great and I always get a kick out of watching them. Do you remember that scene in the first film when Cain (John Hurt) has that alien burst out of his chest?

I always think of how different it would have been if I had been on that spaceship. Just as the little alien runs across the table I would have twatted it with a sledge hammer and flattened it. Then, I would have said a line that would have been immortal:  “If we had let that out of the room it would have killed everyone!”
Roll credits!

The movie would have been over in a matter of minutes and the Alien would not have gone on a rampage, nor would the crew have been slaughtered.

In other words, do not wait for the trouble your enemy will surely cause to multiply.

Nor should you waste time negotiating with them.

You have to neutralize them, eliminate them, destroy them in order to cancel their influence.

If you strike at the source then the sheep will scatter.

If you do this the followers, believers, of your enemy will be disheartend and demoralised.  You will upset the 'natural' rhythm and balance.  Their center of gravity is gone.  There is nothing left for them to orbit.

Monday 14 May 2012

Is That A Friend Or An Enemy?

As unpallatable as this sounds, experience leads the Dynamic-Life team to advise that, you should be wary of your friends, to a certain degree and in certain circumstances.

If you are successful, as you would want to be I am sure, your friends will be prone to envy.

In many instances it is advisable that you should hire a former enemy.  They will be more loyal because they have a lot to prove.

You will also get true answers and advice.

If you have ever watched a TV talent show and heard a tone deaf singer you must have wondered who had told them they can sing and should go on the show.  So, who would have told them they were great?  Of course, their best friends!

You have more to fear from your friends than your enemies.

A friend of mine watches horror films and then tells me they are too scared to go to sleep in the dark so they leave the light on.  They won't go to ghost hunting weekends or even have a seance.

I made it clear to them once, " It's not the dead you have to worry about, they can't hurt you...it's the living you have to watch out for!"

If you are starting a business or looking to recruit and one or more of your friends are available, it's likely that you would employ them.  You know them.  Why on earth would you employ a stranger when one of your friends could be working with you?

The fact is, you do not know your friends as well as you would think or believe you do.  Friends agree with you.  They tell you how great you are.  Friends hide their unpleasant qualities so as not to offend.  Brutal honesty is not as good as it sounds so you will never get it from a friend.  If you DO, hold on to them, they are rare.

If you hire a friend you will soon discover some of these qualities and traits that have hitherto lain dormant.

You are to blame for this.  You upset the equation.  You upset the balance.

You are in business.  Or, you want to be more successful generally.  If you want a friend, get a dog.

Friendliness obscures things.  It clouds.  It obfuscates.

You have a real gold mine of talent at your fingertips, your enemies!

Exploit them.

Never ever let the presence of your enemy unbalance you.  you are better off working alongside, employing or even socializing with a declared opponent than not knowing whwer your enemies lie in wait.

Welcome conflict.  It shapes you, your relationships, your business, and your destiny.

"A wise man profits more from his enemies than a fool does from his friends." Baltasar Gracián

Sunday 13 May 2012

Live Your Life

Here's a quote that I think it sums up one of the main tenets of the Dynamic-Life Academy's approach to Human Potential Technology.

"Live your life and forget about your age. That's the difference that makes the difference. A lot of people live their age and forget they have a life!"
David Moore - Dynamic-Life Academy

It was an off the cuff remark at a Seminar in London this month and when I said it I had to stop and think about it because it came from nowhere.  Just one of those occasions when, during a seminar, a question is asked and I make some sort of comeback.

But how right is it.  Have you noticed when you watch a movie from the 60s or 70s how old people look? You think they are 50 but actually they are 35!  All the joy and energy seems to have been sucked out of them and they are older than their years.

They are not living life, they are living their age. 

If you are going to do that why not pick an age that you really enjoyed and stick at it.  OK you may get older on paper but in the mind, where it really counts, you can stay 35 or whatever age is right for you.

Don't succumb to getting old in thought.  It will not serve you.

Take risks, take chance and seize the moment.

Remember, it is NEVER too late to have a happy childhood! ;-)

Wednesday 9 May 2012

IQ? EQ? IC?

I am about to turn this EQ and IQ debate on its head! 

What really is EQ, IQ and IC?

Your EQ is more important than your IQ. The IQ test may help you get a job but your EQ will help you keep it. A high IQ is around 135. A high EQ is immeasurable.

It is no surprise that there are many people with really high IQ’s working for people with really low IQ’s. The people with the low IQ also have a high EQ, Emotional Quotient, and this makes them the real leaders. They know how to get people to work together.

The high EQ people know how the whole game is played and they draw the best out of their people and they are not afraid to have the more ‘intelligent’ working for them.

Of course, the people with the high IQ know how long it takes two men to fill a bath with water halfway up a mountain in a thunderstorm but...that’s not going to improve business is it?

What would improve business?

Having the EQ skills to get the two guys to fill a bath with water halfway up a mountain in a thunderstorm in the first place!

Now although that is a great description of what EQ and IQ is (even if I say so myself ;-)) there is another definition of EQ, IQ and IC.  What's more...it's probably the most important and life changing definition there is.

What if you are working at a company and things are not going your way.  Or you may be doing something in your life but you just can't get it right.  You can't achieve what you want to achieve. Do you give up?  Do you continue to 'try' (yuck) but in your mind and heart you know that you have given up?

This is the new IQ in the world today.  So many people IQ (I Quit).  What's more, they have no idea how near to success they are when they do!

Are you the only person in your company, business, life, relationship that thinks IQ?  I bet not.  You see, it's contagious! 

Like a virus it infects everyone until, before you know it, unconsciously, EQ (Everyone Quits!).

Commit to one thing, if you commit to nothing else, commit to this...

IC!  This is the belief you need.  Your IQ and your EQ is blown away by this.

IC = I Can!

Your IC level (I CAN) is always more important than the IQ level (I QUIT) and will stop the rot of EQ in its tracks. Defeat will never be an option. So when logic is trying to point out all the excuses and reasons tell that little voice in your head that keeps telling you that you will fail, you will not succeed and you are useless to shut the fuck up. 
 
Say to yourself: My IC is unbeatable.  IC.  I CAN!




John La Valle - Pure NLP

This is a fantastic piece from John La Valle who is the co trainer and author, with Richard Bandler, of Persuasion Engineering.

Content vs. Process - a Business Perspective

John La Valle

In the natural occurrence of interacting with others, often something is missed that can have a dramatic impact on the success of each person. While most people are familiar with the terms "content and process, or even "content and form", these two contexts of application are best described as "What" and "How."In NLP terms, if we take an example of the visual modality, the "what", or content, becomes those elements, objects, that make up the image, whereas the "submodalities" of the image, the size, brightness, distance, etc. are the process. This is one way to "look at it."

Have you noticed lately that the new "buzz word" or "buzz phrase" is "it's a process, it takes a while."? That's no exactly accurate. Streamlined processes are just that: streamlined. When someone says, "It's a process . . it takes a while", or something like that, take that as an excuse that they are not getting the result and probably have no idea how to get it, or how to communicate well enough with others to help them get it. They have an opportunity to learn to communicate more precisely with others, and perhaps even with themselves.

But, how important does each of these, content vs. process, become in any dynamic relationship, including that of managing others, educating others, even including ourselves?

A few examples of how noticing the effects of each can offer the opportunity to be more effective:

If the content is "what" is said, and the process is "how we say it", then how we say something is unarguably where we have the most probable opportunity for more success. Suppose I ask you to say this sentence aloud: "What are you doing today?", using a flat intonation, notice the effect. Now, without changing the content, keeping it the same, and changing "where" in the sentence you would place more emphasis where the work is bolded, notice how easily you can change the meaning of the sentence:

"What are you doing today?"
"What are you doing today?"
"What are you doing today?"
"What are you doing today?"
"What are you doing today?"

And suffice it to say that there is no process without content. No message to convey, no words, nothing else to change.

Just think, you can listen to your favorite CD or MP3 through your portable player, but notice "how" different it sounds through you home theater system!

In business, for example, one of the more challenging problems is not only the recognition of these dynamics, but sometimes the overdoing of the process.

I get lots of opportunities to facilitate difficult situations, often between manager and employee(s). Simply put, the employee is given something (the what) to do, or what needs to be done. Most people don't mind this. It's generally known as an assignment. When the manager also includes the "how to" do it, the employee soon becomes disgruntled. Generally speaking, most people don't mind being told how to do their job as long as they are "in training", but once they are qualified, they want to liberty of doing their job the way they deem fit, etc. Now, while this doesn't mean they will always do it "correctly", when they don't, this means there is another opportunity for correction.

In the case when I get an inquiry where the potential customer calls and tells me "what" they want me to do, then continues on with "how" they want me to do it, I decline the opportunity.

So, why is it that someone's job performance ratings are determined by 2 things: what they do and how they do it. Where is more emphasis placed when it comes time for that salary increase or bonus? It's usually on both: what they accomplished and how they did it. It's also usually in the "how" they did it that was at the bottom of their successful accomplishment. In any well formed job description are 2 categories: responsibilities and role. The definitions:

Responsibilities: What the individual is required to do.
Role: How they expected to carry this out.

I can tell you now that most people have no idea what their role is for their job. When I was first a training manager in a company many years ago, my defined role was that of an internal consultant, and that role was clearly defined by my director. He expected that we carry out our jobs in Human Resources as internal consultants, and not as the "people police."

Another example: Kathleen and I were once commissioned to put together some training manuals for a company. This was based on our ability to elicit information and then present it in a way that made sense to the everyday person. Our first question to ourselves was, "How are we going to carry out this project most successfully?" The client company piled all of their manuals on us, including those from equipment manufacturers, vendors, etc., which well described their expectation of "what" should be in those manuals. But the real key was not what was going to be in the manuals, but "how" to get the employees to use them!

And so Kathleen and I decided that we would have the employees put together the new manuals. We would organize the employees, facilitate them, teach them how to elicit good information from others, give them tools for getting the information recorded, facilitating their own meetings, reaching deadlines, etc. etc. Basically, this became a large, although well organized, and well run "team building process", as well as culminating in training manuals that the employees themselves put together. We only had to publish the manuals to look like training manuals. And, of course, be responsible for the process for which we were hired and to help deliver the results.

Now you may ask, "So what good was this process?" First, all the employees had to work together to accomplish this. Second, they had training manuals that they all agreed on. Third, they didn't have to use the training manuals much because they all became trained "in the process" of putting together the training manuals. And fourth, they now had training manuals they could "use" if and when they had a question and fifth, they had credible, useable manuals when they had to train new employees because they were proud of the manuals!

Then there are meeting dynamics: What is the meeting for? How will it be conducted? And I can go on and on. The danger with paying too much attention to the process is just that. Some organizations (and governments) pay so much attention to the process that it becomes a game and nothing gets done, decisions don't get made or executed. They devote the process to the process and become overburdened with "how to do this."

Some very high performance managers we know have some of their subordinates read their mail and respond for them. Do you think this a a good "way" to develop people, or is it taking the lazy way out? Would you have them read everything? Respond to everything? Have meetings with them first to discuss "what" they've read and "how" they might respond? Is this a good career developmental process?

When subordinates have made a decision, do you argue with the decision? Do you ask "what" they decided then argue? Do you ask them "how" they decided this?

Remember, the content must be there, or there "no thing" to communicate. The process must be there in order to carry it out successfully. Both are necessary, and so now the quality issue becomes the marriage of both.

There are so many opportunities for looking at the dynamics of interactions, I'm wondering what you will notice next and how you will make changes to it for yourself.

NLP is more about "process".

PureNLP is the website you want....http://www.purenlp.com/