Think About It – Use the Word Drink to Trigger Motivation

July 12, 2019 ~ Orlando Ceaser

Think in moderation (2)
I was driving home from work and drinking commercials began to flood my mind. I did not question their arrival, because that is one-way creativity works for me, through random associations. However, it was rather curious, since I don’t drink alcoholic beverages. The power of their advertising messages interrupted and hijacked my thoughts. Advertisers will go through tremendous lengths to convince consumers to buy their beverage when they are thirsty. They are powerful enough to make you thirsty. Their messages were very pervasive and persuasive.

Advertisers study us to see what makes us tick, our needs and then they portray their product as the solution. Advertising has a powerful influence over our thoughts and actions. This influential medium, through the power of suggestion, sells billions of dollars’ worth of beverages of all kinds. They exploit our need to be sociable, free, important, accepted and included. They even have adorable consequences that we don’t think about. One day while driving with my three-year daughter, I was drinking an orange beverage, when she responded, “Daddy, you don’t suppose to drink and drive.”

I was preparing for a presentation and therefore, doing a lot of thinking about thinking. The notion of thinking about drinking was fascinating. I wondered if I could substitute the words think and thinking in place of drink and drinking in many of the ads. I engaged in a mental exercise to insert the word think or thinking into the language of commercials or sayings about drinking. The results were interesting. One classic tagline in drinking commercials advises people to drink responsibly. I converted that phrase to say we should think responsibly. It worked. The phrase eat, drink and be merry, became eat, think and be merry. This could show the impact that thinking has on happiness.

If we could successfully make the mental conversion from drink to think, every time we heard a commercial, that would be a powerful trigger. We could use it to reinforce thoughts and behaviors, whatever the beverage being emphasized. This could, therefore, be a bonus for many of us.

As I stated earlier, association is an important creativity exercise. In association, you identify, link or relate something to another object. This causes you to not think of one without thinking of the other. We could conduct this practice in many other situations. Additionally, association is an effective memory device.

Here are seven key phrases that we should look for in commercials about drinking and other drink related conversations. The original phrases will serve as a trigger, a subconscious response to the need to reference thoughts and ultimately behaviors to enhance our thinking. We can look forward to the instructive nature of this exercise and its ability to elevate the art of thinking in our everyday lives.

Think About It (3)
It is important to open to the creative process and through association, we may come up innovative ways to address and tackle important issues. But we must be able to consistently, think about it.

The Humility Obsession – Suppressing your greatness

June 7, 2014 ~ Orlando Ceaser

As children we were told to downplay emotions and not to brag about our talents. We were to temper our enthusiasm and refrain from taunting and trash talking. Too much celebrating was unsportsmanlike and might make the other players feel bad. Additionally, we did not want the other party to return the favor and celebrate in our faces. If we won, we should be humble and defer a lot of our positive comments to the performance of team. The more we could transfer the secrets of our success to the team, the better. Individual greatness was to be placed in the background. We should be graceful in victory or defeat. However, if we are not careful, this could work against us.

If we are talented, we should display the talent and refrain from arrogance, I get that. It is character building and appropriate to put team first, I understand the principle. But, unless we have a solid self image, a strong will and self confidence, we might develop a humility obsession, which could diminish our level of participation in various situations.
No one likes a braggart. This concept is clear. We are haunted by virtual and physical images of people being loathed for their “I am better than you” attitude. We have become so worried about being perceived as being stuck on ourselves that we run in the opposite direction. We feel out of place talking about our contributions, which could affect our self image and self-esteem. We don’t want to become unpopular. Therefore, some of us overcompensate and use excessive humility to project an incomplete, less potent version of our true self.
Have you encountered people with great ideas, but will not bring them up in meetings? They are not particularly shy or soft spoken. They often have many of these innovative thoughts, but do not want to come across as a know it all. They were told to be humble and this meant to keep a low profile.

A woman in the health club made the comment, “why can’t I see myself as my friends see me.” They told her that she was intelligent, creative and attractive, but she could not embrace those words for herself. She was caught up in the humility obsession and could not feel good about her appearance and intellect. Many of us tend to resort to self-deprecating words and behaviors because of the guilt we feel around placing ourselves at a higher level than those around us. We don’t want to be perceived as a target for ridicule which is often the case when people display a lot of confidence.

There is untold and untapped talent within our communities and corporations that will not step forward because of an inappropriate perception of humility. Some of these individuals are not shy or insecure, but may be driven to holding back their greatness because they were told to be seen and not heard.
This humility obsession causes us not to be satisfied with certain aspects of our career achievement or personal accomplishments. A humility obsession makes us afraid to take credit for our success. We fail to disclose the full range of our competence. We may not acknowledge the value of our role in achieving and exceeding objectives.
There are numerous solutions to the humility obsession. First, we need to concentrate on our motives and our intentions. Secondly, we should bask in our blessings and realize our gifts are to be shared with others to entertain, educate and inspire them to take positive action. We concentrate too much on the fall from grace if we jinx ourselves by being too proud of our work. “It is best to be humble rather than to be humble.” This is the mantra we repeat in our heads. We have what we have because of fate, so we shouldn’t get carried away with our role in the process. However, we must be thankful for our blessings and not feel guilty. Thirdly, we need to stop and celebrate who we are and what we’ve done. Our positive achievements should be a matter of record and we deserve accolades for the discipline required seek and secure excellence.

In my seminars on the Know system™, I take approximately 10 words from the word know to illustrate the Know System™ Decision Making Model. One of the keywords found in the word know is the word “on”. We have to be on at all times, which enables the people and resources we need to find us. When we are on message, on fire, on target or simply turned on, we are closer to being fulfilled. This also unleashes the winning instinct within us which drives us to become successful.

Humility has its merits. I am not advocating arrogant, obnoxious or condescending behavior. We should not be self absorbed or condescending. It is true that a bad case of arrogance can propel people from you rather than draw people toward. However, we must not use the humility obsession to deprive us of participating in life to the fullest. We should not use it to diminish our progress, success or achievements or to deprive the world of our skills, talents and abilities.

Humility is good, but a humility obsession makes us feel inhibited and unnatural when we want to express our greatness. We need to be secure in to allow people to utilize their talents and abilities and celebrate excellence without fearing ridicule from others. Humility if improperly used prevents us from appreciating the work we’ve done and the results we’ve achieved. We are worried about what people will say about us. We don’t want to be that person who is arrogant. But this aversion to arrogance can affect our confidence and self-esteem in the long run and cause us hours of discontent.
Copyright © 2014 Orlando Ceaser

Insight – Leadership and the eyes of the poet

August 16, 2013 ~ Orlando Ceaser

I believe that I can learn from everybody and everything. Therefore everybody and everything can teach me something. That is sometimes the mantra of a poet. They are in search of understanding and an opportunity to contribute in a manner that is a valuable and hopefully, a unique expression of insight.

Insight is described by business dictionary.com as a combination of feedback and knowledge.

“1. Feedback; ideas about the true nature of something In business, product testing sessions are used to gather insight from people with different backgrounds, experiences and feelings, with the intent of finding out how consumers may respond.
2. Knowledge in the form of perspective, understanding, or deduction. Someone may come up with an insight after a long period of thought, or suddenly out of thin air as in an epiphany or sudden understanding. “Management had the insight to decrease its expenses amid falling sales before a scheduled earnings release, so that the company would be viewed in a more favorable light.”

Poets use their senses to cultivate their insight to gain a better understanding and appreciation of their world. They can be introspective, sensitive and deep thinkers able to view a situation from many perspectives. They like to experiment with different approaches in search of a fresh thought.

A poet’s insight is used to teach panoramic thinking. They use magnification and peripheral vision to evaluate many sides to an issue, problem, project or situation. Magnification allows them to see things on a different level and expose certain aspects that were never considered. This poetic viewpoint can therefore, help in brainstorming and innovative thinking sessions, whether alone or in groups. Leadership should capture this brilliance and use it achieve the vision and the mission.

Poets learn to;

• Deal with being different,
• Be reflective, alone and sometimes not appreciated
• Explore different approaches to achieve the ideal word painting
• Use ordinary objects to state their case or make a point
• Constructively use their mind and their senses
• Use memory mechanisms to recall lines, associations and patterns
• Develop an appreciation for the entire object
• Give voice to the other side of a situation or issue
• Search for another perspective
• and expressing inner feelings
• Take an inward journey of discovery to increase self awareness
• Use of structure and routines to organize thoughts
• Use journals, diaries and notebooks to record their observation and thoughts

The poet has inspirational words for winning, has a vocabulary for victory and can speak effectively against the pervasive language of losing. You want them linked to the vision and mission of the organization. Their words will immortalize and internalize the vision, mission and purpose. A poet summed up the vision and the spirit of the company by starting each day with a message to his wife, “I am going to save a life today.” He was a successful pharmaceutical sales representative.

The poet may be the introvert in the room, deriving their energy from absorbing everything around them and processing it later in the day. They are the creative ones, who are insightful, observing and analyzing problems. They may see things that others don’t see, mainly because they are looking. In my book the Isle of knowledge, I tell a story about my friend Buttons from my childhood. During our walks around streets and alleys on the West side of Chicago, Buttons was always finding money and other things of value. I tried to match his skill with little success. His secret was that he was always looking down and therefore, had a greater opportunity to find things. He was looking where the treasure was located. The poet is always looking for treasure in the places where they reside.
Poets are always observing, always using their senses, connected and involved in the world around them. A poet likes to experiment. She is always working with different styles, words, formats, illustrations and images. You need to find them and include them in the high-performance functioning of your team.

You may have heard that poetry and business to not go together. However, if leaders practice this reality it may hinder you in identifying and harnessing this valuable human resource. This power, if channeled properly, will improve the culture within your business.

You want to know the poets, because this knowledge can cause an exponential rise in productivity. Leveraging their talent will help you unlock your greatness. You can utilize this talent within yourself and produce a chain reaction of the skill in others. Max De Pree, former CEO of the Herman Miller furniture company, tells a story in his book Leadership is an art, which is a part of the Herman Miller company history. One day the founder of Howard Miller went to the house of a recently deceased employee. The man’s job was a millwright for his furniture company. While visiting his home, the widow asked if the young manager would mind if she read some poetry aloud. After listening to her read beautiful poetry he asked the author of the work. She replied that it was her husband, the millwright. At that moment the young manager wondered,” was he a poet who did millwright’s work, or was he a millwright who wrote poetry?

Max Dupree goes on to say,” understanding and accepting diversity enables us to see that each of us is needed. It also enables us to begin to think about being abandoned to the strengths of others, of admitting that we cannot know nor do everything. This simple act of recognizing diversity in corporate life helps us to connect the great variety of gifts that people bring to the work and service of the organization.” Unlocking your diversity greatness means you are maximizing the creative talent within yourself and the members of your team. This will help you extract and multiply the greatness around you.

The poet was always looking for ways to explore other opinions, described the people and environments in a new way and using language to encourage and celebrate success. The poet may not actually use the gift to write words of verse or disclose this talent of others. However, it is evident in the way they go through life and perform their vocation. They have a desired to find a creative outlet, especially if their skills cannot be used at work.

It is crucial and beneficial to view the world through the eyes of the poet. Their insight is talent on your team that can add to your success and overall effectiveness. Leaders must recognize the poetic perspective as an aspect of diversity and the ways people present themselves at work which could make the world a better place.

New Year’s Resolutions – Take 13

December 31, 2012 ~ Orlando Ceaser

New Year’s resolutions are an annual rite for millions of people around the world. We approach them with the regularity of the calendar change. Many people optimistically tackle the most important challenges of their lives and hope that the New Year will finally lead to a different result. Conversely, many people have abandoned resolutions or speak of them with apprehension and skepticism. This jaundiced view is due to the fact that historically they have been unsuccessful. This may have been due to entering the activities with insincere effort or expecting to fail.

Despite our history, we create newer versions of our resolutions. We stand optimistic, masochistic or realistic about our chances of success. One thing is assured; we know the first of the year is a great time to start a new objective, because we have a clean slate. It is a new week, a new month and a new year.

Truthfully speaking, we keep some resolutions longer than others. Some actually make it well into the New Year before fizzing out. We feel comfortable, experience some measure of success, but revert to former bad habits. This modicum of success keeps us addicted to the resolution process. Premature evacuation and abandonment of our effort dooms us to failure. Suppose we try an alternative method based on changing our perspective.

We watch movies and have seen out takes, bloopers and retakes. We know that movies differ from plays because in a movie or commercial, they can stop the action and repeat the scene. However, in a play the actor can improvise and keep moving. The audience may not notice the error. In a movie/ commercial, you will hear the director say, “Action” and scene begins. The director says “Cut” when the scene is not going according to plan. If there is a mistake, they can;

Provide immediate feedback
Give the actor the missing information, i.e. the lines they forgot r the emotion they want to see performed a certain way
Offer support and encouragement by challenging the actor to stay focused and review their character’s motivation
Start the retake in a timely manner. The director doesn’t say, “I don’t like that, let’s do it over next year.”

What if we used the same director’s approach with our resolutions? We could set up the resolution, knowing the result we want to achieve; allow it to run and when we make a mistake, instead of abandoning the project, we should take it from the top and start over. We would finish more goals and achieve better results if we adopted the “do it over until we get it right mentality.” We tend to regard resolutions as disposal entities, instead of a work in progress. This level of dedication and persistence to the resolutions will enable us to reach our goals.

I am encouraged by the number of people who flock to the health clubs the first week of January. Obviously they made resolutions regarding health and well-being. They have a workout goal linked to better health, losing weight or fitting into certain clothing before spring. This is very apparent in my spin classes at the health club. Many people with good intentions; give up quickly; judging by their disappearance after only a few short sessions. But others view it as a movie and experience as many retakes as necessary to reach their goal.

As you approach the New Year, let’s use the director’s technique to resolutions. Roll the tape, Action! Cut! But next time don’t stop until we have the finished project. Take as many retakes as possible to make our resolutions, a reality. We have the time, so just tweak our perspectives and motivation and make our 2013 resolutions a successful entry into our life practices.

A Crisis in Creativity

March 29, 2012 ~ Orlando Ceaser

Growing up in a city provided many opportunities to engage in creative play. Television was not a major part of our lives and we did not have computers, smart phones and video games. However, we had our imagination and constantly challenged ourselves to do something new and different. We did not say we were looking to be more creative, but we were always looking for ways to fill our time with enjoyable activities. These earlier actions and activities prepared us for a business word where new ideas were part of our modus operandi.

One day my son said to me, in this technological driven world that he was bored. I instinctively responded, “If you are bored, it is your fault.” I went on to elaborate. “You have a brain. It is the same kind of brain that inspired Einstein and a host of famous inventors and entertainers. “I told him about the many games we played and the fact that we made our own toys to stay busy and creative. I advised him to use that beautiful brain and think himself out of boredom or live with the guilt. Needless to say he was not impressed. But reflecting on this area of creativity revealed the crisis that exists in many areas of our lives. Creativity used to be the way we filled our days and solved our problems, and it must, once again play a role in our lives.

Sameness, popularity and assimilation have caused us to abandon alternative creative options. In pharmaceutical product development we went through a phase where tweaking the features of a molecule was the preferred route. Rather than the long creative product development cycle of arriving at a new compound, opted for the convenience to make it once a day. We changed the delivery mechanism from tablet to capsule to liquid, whichever gave us a marketable competitive advantage. These products were called me-to drugs. We had moved away from creativity, to settle for what was safe and comfortable.

Popular television shows, such as situation comedies, news programs and reality shows were instantly copied. There is a surge in sequels and previously successful programs and formulas that have been updated for a new generation. I have lived through countless versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Cinderella and The Three Musketeers. The 3 Stooges have returned to the big screen, as I write this blog. We are taught to assimilate more than to differentiate. Follow the proven formula is the safe way to success rather than develop something new, different and risky.

I spoke to a young man who had his jeans sagging beneath his buttocks. We determined this to be a way of creative expression and individuality. I admired his desire to be fresh and creative but, reminded him that it did not reflect his individuality, because a number of people were doing it. Of all the creative things he could think of, if the only thing that came to mind was to drop his pants, we had a crisis in creativity.

What is missing from our lives and education, which can account for this crisis in creativity? We did not have formal classes on creativity when we were in school. However, we seemed to have time for extensive play that enabled us to think and create for ourselves. Companies like W.H. Gore are giving employees time to think and play at work to regain some of this creative spirit.

As children we had the seeds of creativity planted and nurtured in us. Or at least the environment allowed us to cultivate and harvest our dreams and intuition. We also;

Read more which gave our imagination a chance to roam, as we visited different worlds in our minds
We played more and invented our own games with simple resources and good ideas
We made some our own toys to supplement those we got from stores
We role played different sketches and scenarios that we created on the spot
We spent in museums, parks, zoos and field trips
We experimented in science classes and participated in arts, music, band and chorus (That’s why I am troubled when schools talk of eliminating these from their curriculum because of budgets. We will pay the price later and we may be paying it now.)
We studied, but we played a lot – sometimes we played more than we studied
We wrote stories, poetry and plays

A classic video program by Dewitt Jones is “Everyday Creativity” mentions the need to break the pattern, don’t be afraid to make mistakes and that there is more than one right answer. These thoughts can help us to frame our minds to look for that which is new and different to enhance our lives. We can also, pass this way of thinking on to our children. This would encourage them to blend creativity with technology to continue to change the world.

We were constantly stimulated and encouraged to read and think for ourselves. We wanted to be in the “In” crowd, but we also wanted to stand out and be special. Being creative was a way we could achieve results that made us the center of attention. The sum of all of these stimuli and inputs influenced our think and caused us to look creatively to solve the problems in front of us. Celebrating the diversity of our talents and experiences will allow us to unleash the virtually untapped creativity within each of us. This will help us eradicate the crisis in creativity that appears to be infiltrating many sections of our work and play.