21 November 2008
The tube in my cupboard once held a large amount, easily obtained. I squeezed and watched with pleasure as the paste poured out. Lately, however, it has been more difficult. I know it is there but it’s harder to find and is discovered only with significant effort. Recognition of my depleting reserves occurred some time ago, but my concern has been buffered, for each day the paste ultimately arrives. Even now, when the tube is flat and worn, I know that extreme pressure near the nozzle will produce “white gold”. Sadly, such effort produces false hope, for experience reminds me that one day even that will stop. My supply will run dry. © Jason DeVries, Lindstrom, Minnesota
November 2008
10 November 2008
The recent turmoil of the last few weeks with RBS, HalifaxBOS, Lloyds and all the other banks has meant that everybody are worried. This is the time when the strong get going and here are a few simple tips to get you going in the heat of the moment. One thing is to spread these tips out to your management and staff:
Personal Behaviour
- Use Positive language – don’t allow yourself, or your staff to talk yourself into a black hole. Just keep looking for the silver lining in whatever you are doing. It will help your peers and your team stay focused
- Stand up both physically and mentally, as with head up and proper breathing your body will react much better to the stresses and strains of what comes at us.
- Get enough sleep, which like posture is so easy to do but we seem to forget about. In stressful situations your body needs more time to relax and recharge your batteries. This is not the time to be burning the candle at both ends.
- Get some exercise... walk a few bus or tube stops... and at least get some fresh air in your lungs. If you can get some perspiration on your brow then even better.
- Watch the diet and keep off the comfort food. We know it only lasts for a few moments and then has a tendency to drag you down once the initial high has worn off. Be strong… and that includes the alcohol as well …
- Smile and laugh as much as you can as the endorphins that you release will do wonders for your immune system
Staff Behaviour – under more pressure and uncertainty, people’s behaviours default more to their norm, as the stress will use up pressure energy normally used to control emotions. The more sensitive the person the more stress they will feel and the more they will behave oddly. These changes will mean that people are working at or above their limit of competence. Things to look for are around changes in positive and negative attitude, slower decisions and maybe no decisions, more chit chat and less walk, potentially more bullying, more illness and longer recuperation, less energy and willingness to change, less pro-activity and more reactivity, less ideas and input from creative people
Departments – due to change in economics from “a spending growing economy” to “a saving economy” departments will default to their natural “fears”:
- Credit control will tighten up more than maybe necessary on potential customers and reduce credit limits
- Marketing will go for safer strategies and reduce advertising to pay for salaries
- Production will slow down to eke out orders, defects might increase due to worried staff and give longer lead times than is normal
- Un-structured sales teams will tend to over estimate future sales because they won’t know where the sales are coming from and structured sales teams will to under estimate future orders
- Accounts departments go slower as they double check their work for errors, pay expenses slower thus annoying staff and pay suppliers later for obvious reasons
- HR will reduce salaries, bonuses, flexibility on holidays and tighten up on acceptances for sick notes
©William Barron
Creating Insight
November 10th 2008
william@creatinginsight.co.uk
15 November 2008
Kinaesthetic, sensitve, creative people need to realise how pwerful these sensitive kinaesthetic feelings are when they are going up the career success ladder or building a business…
As a business coach and mentor I am in the enviable position of helping people align their natural talents, abilities and skills to the business they are in and the way they carry it out. I had never realised how important the level of kinaesthesia in individuals was in terms of their success, until mounting anecdotal evidence demonstrated that in a whole range of sectors and environments, this level of feeling and touching had a direct relationship with their success.
The definition of kinaesthesia in Encarta is “the perception or sensing of the motion, weight, or position of the body as muscles, tendons, and joints move” and certainly different levels of kinaesthesia in people comes out in a number of different ways.
I have already written an article on kinaesthetic people and the effects that Hot Desking and Open Plan offices has on them http://www.coachinginsight.co.uk/content/view/409/56/ and their ability to sense what is going on is more than just getting a sixth sense, gut feel, or an intuitive feeling about something, is crucial to many businesses. I have discovered that coaching kinaesthetic people is about helping them understand more about their gift and then developing it. Kinaesthesia is not in my experience found just in men or women but across the board, although ladies do tend to have a slight edge. It is so enlightening to be able to help somebody who is gifted with this sense and feeling to understand and use it more. This is one of the incredibly interesting parts of coaching.
The clues to identifying kinaesthetic people is obviously in the words they use like feeling, sensing, comfortable, ifThe what is going on is more than just getting a sixth sense, or gut feel, or an intuitive feeling about something. I have discovered that coaching kinaesthetic people is about helping them understand more about their gift and then developing it. Kinaesthesia is not in my experience found just in men or women but across the board and I don't to firing somebody who is gifted with this sense and feeling is one of the interesting parts of coaching.
The clues to identifying kinaesthetic people are obvious when you think about it and can be broken down into what you feel, see and hear. Dealing first of all with identifying clues in terms of feeling, kinaesthetic people are transmitting and receiving information at a cellular level and therefore other kinaesthetic people can pick up this transmission and will know when a warm feeling person is nearby or in the room. This sensing obviously varies between individuals.
Non-kinaesthetic people are able to get a sense of what is going on but it will probably be from visual and audio clues. Visual clues start with the clothing that people wear and invariably kinaesthetic people have soft clothing as you would expect, which is not necessarily fashionable but comfortable. Items like wool, cashmere and cotton are normally used by kinaesthetics. The fit of clothing is another giveaway because it will invariably be loose fitting. Other giveaways are constant movement and possible fidgeting, especially if they are sitting down, as they try and get comfortable. The comfort of chairs is crucial and you will often see kinaesthetic people touching and feeling the cloth of the cushions or rearranging the cushions on the sofa to make sure that it feels right. By the way kinaesthetics tend to select sofas and comfortable chairs over stools and hard chairs. Another visual giveaway is the need to feel, turn over and touch objects such as key fobs, watches and jewellery or anything that they might have been given. This need to be literally "in touch" with their surroundings is crucial to their well-being.
In terms of listening kinaesthetics use words like feeling, sensing, comfortable, warm, smooth, touch, clammy, vibration, smooth, pressure and loaded. These words can be heard continuously dotted around their sentences.
So what does all this mean for kinaesthetics. Well without doubt in terms of clothing and interior design they were always plump for comfort feel and smooth materials and will try to get away from sharp edges, acute angles and coarse fabrics. They will also ensure that they are warm with no draughts and comfortable heating. In terms of engineering, male kinaesthetics will find that they have an affinity with hydraulics and have a sort of sixth sense feeling for:
• the hum and vibration of pumps,
• the frequency and flow of liquid within hoses, pipes and filters,
• the heat dissipated by motors and valves as to what is working properly and what isn't
• the purity or grittiness of oil
All of this might seem to be almost inconsequential but to the hydraulics engineer it is almost like the doctor or nurse feeling the pulse and measuring the heart beat of a patient. Therefore kinaesthetics in the medical field are crucial for understanding what is going on inside humans. Those doctors and nurses that seem to have the magic touch literally do have the magic touch because of their kinaestheticness.
In cooking and food preparation, kinaesthetic people have an ability to understand texture, smoothness of mixtures and sauces and temperature and intensity of heat needed for a specific dish. They know instinctively when something has been beaten enough, light enough, hot enough and smooth enough. A classic example of this is that I always use to marvel at the way my mother was able to make Yorkshire pudding rise amazingly in the oven, whereas me with the same ingredients would have puddings as flat as the proverbial pancake.
So if your business is involving with liquids or materials, which involves texture and flow in any way – engineering, hydraulics, health, food, drinks, chemicals, marine, agriculture - you should be measuring the kinaestheticness of your staff. The more kinaesthetic your staff, the more you will have an unconscious and intuitive advantage over the competition and have some extremely unique selling points that will differentiate dramatically your offer when compared with those of the competition. Please contact me for more information on how to identify, develop and use the kinaestheticness of your staff to greater effect william@creatinginsight.co.uk
©William Barron
Creating Insight
November 15 2008
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