21st Century Mentoring Opportunities...

Good Morning!

I bet that you have had many challenges this week...one of the most challenging is that the year is winding down and there is the temptation to take time off and rest...others are worried about what next year will bring...

The "year end" is a threatening time for many reasons...

It makes you step back and assess your accomplishments over the past year...and inevitably you feel like a failure...DO NOT allow the world to do that to you...

Many organizations (in good times or bad) are reorganizing for the year ahead and there is the chance that you'll be on the next reduction...BIG DEAL!

There is a temptation to stop...because noone else is working...DON'T

This is oftentimes is the best time for your to make huge headway...do not fall prey to complacency...

It is easy to use the holiday spirits and get off course...

It is also a time to be with friends and family...DO NOT get me wrong...YOU need to do that!

Yet...it is time for you to pick the vital few things and focus on them...use the season to your advantage to make BIG things happen and create a foundation for your legacy!

I am always on the look-out for opportunities to coach individuals who can take my advice and combine it with their experience and take themselves to the next level.  Of late...that face to face opportunity has ebbed...and I miss that...you know how I light-up when I find one of those situations...

Then I realized that there were many of those situations all around me!  Their faces had just changed slightly and I hadn't recognized them!

Shifting Gears!

I have been challenged by some huge out of the box thoughts this week...they (in all probability) are way-off course if taken for what they are saying...but dig deeper and find the lessons within them...allow them to free your brain.  They remind me of how we can allow arrogance to get in the way of truth...

Think about this one...(Sitzen Denken)

Our ancestors (of homo sapiens) first appeared on the earth about 4.5 million years ago...most of the initial variants became extinct as a result of a global catestrophe.  It is estimated that only about 40 females of child-bearing capability survived whatever it was...at the lowpoint...that is pretty scary!  We were more than an endangered species...

Homo sapiens (us) appeared about 100,000 years ago...and the intellectual development has just blossomed.  Think of where we have come from our stone age tools to the International Space Station...and our understanding of the universe and physics...and...whatever...

It absolutely boggles my mind...

In a flash...we have increased our intellect in logarithmic proportions...

Think of what our intellectual development would be if we are allowed to exist for 200 million years!

That is the point...

There have been creatures that did!

The dinosaurs...their reign was 2000 times longer than ours!

Shear probability tells me that the possibility that they were intellectually more advanced than us exists!

But my human arrogance stands in the way...they were just animals...lizards at that!

Do you realize that there is a period in which sea creatures existed that is 2000 times longer than the reign of the dinosaurs?

The statistical probability of them being more intellectually more advanced is HUGE!

But my human arrogance gets in the way...they were just fish and crawly things...

There was an obscure statistical theory once presented that attacked the significance of human intelligence...it mathematically showed that everything ever written can be done so by putting millions of apes banging randomly at typewriters (keyboards in modern terms).  All you need is time and randomness The significance of intelligence decreases in significance and it actually becomes just a part of the way things are...

Given enough time...language will randomly will develop...given enough time...intelligence evolves...

Time was on the side of the "fish and crawly things" and the dinosaurs...

Time changes the significance of human intelligence!

It is important for us to recognize that Nature itself has shown us that intelligence is just a part of the natural progression.  It is an attribute that evolves...it was given to humans...but why should we think that it was reserved solely for our species?  It is not an exclusive trait...

Given this logic...dinosaurs were smarter than us...

What are the ramifications? 

I do not believe that, but what I learned from this exercise is that it is important to consider various versions of reality and even obscure logical possibilities to avert biases even when there is no logical evidence direct proof that those possibilities exist!

It is about our seeing through the fog of arrogance...even when nothing is evident to prove that the obscure is true...

OR IS THERE?

If you think the last few paragraphs run the potential of getting me labeled as WEIRD...the next one will get me a tattoo!

While I was reflecting on the discussions that My Mentor and I had about the pyramids...I realize a human arrogance based paradigm exists in it also!

That paradigm is that we assume that the pyramids were built by humans!

Consider a lowly band of nomadic people roaming across the Nile Delta...suddenly they come across these huge monuments...at first they are apprehensive...and watch them from afar...and they realized that they were abandoned...or the builders were long since dead...so they moved in...and claimed them as there own...

About the same time some Yucatan natives got tired of Cancun and moved slightly inland...guess what they found?  Pyramids!  They watched from afar to ensure that the builders no longer resided there and they took them over...

There were a few druids skipping across the plains and what did they come across...a stone hendge...noone was around so they claimed it as their own!

I am not claiming that some extraterrestrials built them and took off...

But is to say...perhaps they were not constructed by humans...

Logic tells us that is is a stretch to think that humans can cut and handle 40 ton blocks!  That is 80,000 pounds or the equivalent of 2 fully loaded tractor-trailers...

What if they were build by a creature that handled 40 tons blocks like a child handles wooden building blocks?

Our arrogance forces us to believe that because the structures were advanced...they were built by humans...

Whether it be Stone Hendge or the Central American pyramids and temples?

What if the HUGE statues of people were decoys like the ones used by duck hunters?
What if man was nothing more than a remodeler who adapted the existing structures to their own needs...after finding the foundations prebuilt?

A little far fetched...but there is no proof or dating available related to the actual construction...it is all theory and speculation which has at its very foundation that anything done that appears advanced was done so by humans...

When you take into consideration the earlier part of the discussion...dinosaurs could mess with 40 ton blocks a lot easier than frail and underfed humans!

This is some weird science...and not meant to be considered as a theory of construction...but as a word of caution that specific types of arrogance can blind us from the truth! OR...at minimum taint the direction of thought in such a way that we miss reality entirely!

If you think about all the great developments in society...and assume that they can only be accomplished by people with PhDs...you will be tainted in the same way!

Be ever conscious of even the slightest hints at human or organizational arrogance...they can taint your efforts in discerning the truth!

Shifting Gears!   
The Power of Possibility thinking

During the late 1980's and early 1990's the heros were the "nay sayers"...and those who could identify the weaknesses within ideas and recommendations and relentlessly pound on them until the real heros gave up!

These people were lauded...

The creative people retreated and were cloistered...

Then the climate changed again and the "nay sayers" were shown for what they really were!

"Killer phrase" emails went viral!

The "nay sayers" couldn't stand for their loss of stature...

In a counter attack...they changed their language (ever so slightly) so that they could jade their demented strategy...they began using terms like "positive pushback" and "challenge"...we have opportunities...not problems...and so on...

I am sad to report that the "nay sayers" still exist...

Some outdated and dying organizations still promote "nay saying"...but let me assure you that these people are passe!  This management methodology is poison..."Nay Sayers" are a detriment to organizations...especially to those who wish to survive in the 21st century...

A 21st century organization can not afford to have anyone waste valuable time and resources...pushing back on ideas and concepts...or challenging them...Time arguing senseless views is one type of waste...

The 21st century organization needs people who can take an idea and make it reality...or take it to the next level...

Let me put this into an example that makes it easier for me to communicate...

Surviving in the 21st century is like challenging one of the top 5 mountain peaks in the world...

You are finalizing your trip....and now...you have to select a climbing partner...

What kind of partner are you going to choose...?

One that says...As we are climbing Mount Everest...I will push back and challenge you all along the way...(The Nay Sayer)

...or...

A possibility thinker who says that he or she will help you make this happen? in fact we'll get to the K2 peak?

Is my point clear?

That is why I recommend that you make the word "but" extinct in your vocabulary...and replace it entirely with "AND."  "But" is the purvey of "Nay Sayers" and the word of "push-back!"

I refuse to hire people who promise me pushback and challenge!  It is a waste of my valuable time and energy...I have mountains to climb!  I do not need people who create resistance...I need path clearers!  Their presence is there to make things happen and make them better than I could ever have!

Possibility thinking is part of my CIMM (Continuous Improvement Management Methodology).

We can not afford to be like the 20th century losers and promote we can't do that because...this does not mean that we can not voice your concerns...Find the problems and bring with them the way to show how you can adapt...That is possibility thinking!

Animals that can adapt...survive...animals that can not go the way of dinosaurs...

The last thing that I want is a climbing partner that pushes me backward as I near the summit...

Shifting gears...again!

I find inspiration and lessons to be learned in the most unique places and experiences or the experiences of others...

As of late...Napolean!  I refuse to reference a personality without a knowledge of that individual...I was about to use his "name in vain" when I decided to research him further...

The Napolean that we know from history is a tyrant and his name used by psychologists for a "short person disorder" and we know little of his 40 to 50 major military victories,,,but his "Waterloo."

What I discovered was interesting...the history of Napolean was primarily a "slur campaign" propagated by British historians.  Napolean was an embarrassment to the British empire so much of what is written and recorded was done so by the British, with defaming him in mind.

I found some interesting information about him on the opposite end of the internet too!

Realizing that the truth is probably somewhere halfway in between...I read those also...

What inspired me was not the military genius or his Napoleanic code (which was brilliant) or his vision, but one year of his life...while he was in exile.

Napolean was ousted from power as Emperor of France and exiled to the island of Elba.  Elba did not have to be a prison...it was worse...just being dropped on its shores was a death sentence.  Elba had 12,000 inhabitants.  Ships would not stop there...it was the worse of the worse...

Napolean's wife and son were sent to another city...so they were separated...

Napolean could have fell into depression...or retirement...but instead...he set about to unify the island and help it be, what it could be...I can see him saying..."Well all I have is Elba to help...France didn't want me...I will do what I can do with what I can do it with..."

In one year...Napolean created a centralized landfill, a public water system, a sewer system, build a navy, and army, 2 or 3 iron mines. a smelting factory...and many other things...

The 12,000 inhabitants became unified...a nation of sorts...

IN A YEAR!

Napolean then returned to mainland Europe to find his wife and son and during his trek...was again recognized as Emperor of France!

Great leaders do not take sets backs...they do what they can do...with what they have...

If you can't have France...OH WELL!  Help Elba!

Great Leaders are appreciative for what they have and earn the right to move on to bigger things...by first showing appreciation for where they are...

High aspirations are great...but there is so many great things to extract from the present...learn to be TOTALLY engaged in the here and now...use it as a stepping stone back to your mainland!

Keep the right motives in mind!

Napolean did amazing things in 1 year!  Elba is still a jewel...and Napolean is the reason!

Enough Said!

The Christmas season is a time to reflect and be thankful!

I was thinking back to what last year was like!  We were on a high...and lifting higher...

The "Project Science Fair" was presented in Alpharetta...it was showing the organization...what we could do at minimum!  The sky was the limit...it was an awesome day...

It was a time of soaring...What a great thing to be thankful for...

Do not forget that time in your life...look back a year and see how far you have come!

I am constantly thankful for the opportunites that I have been given and where that has been taken by great players like you!

I am constantly thankful for what I have now...and I am constantly striving to do the best with what I have!

You should consider this also...

You should not move on until you have proven that you can do amazing things with what you already have!

Take this time to identify the VITAL few things that you need to do great and beautiful things with...

Everyone is an exile...turn your Elba into a gem!

Enough Said!