I disagree strongly. I love RSS feeds. It allows me to browse through a truck load of updates / news and views in a matter of a few minutes. I would never be able to accomplish that by following any number of Twitter feeds or Facebook pages.

Most importantly, RSS feeds allow me to be in control. I choose what I want to read and browse. Relying on Facebook and Twitter makes the whole process more random.

My favourite RSS reader is Google and at last count, I had over a 150 feeds set up keeping me informed about everything I need to know.

Question the Sales/ Marketing/ Business pedigree

You cannot be a social media marketeer unless you are a marketeer. Just writing a blog, having 3767 fans and 2653 followers does not a Social Media marketeer make. Does this person have credible sales and marketing experience in general?

Question the digital pedigree

Does your Social Media marketeer understand digital? Digital and social are intertwined. Your Social Media Marketeer needs to understand digital advertising,  CPC, SEO, Analytics, Hosting, Software Development and more.

Question the Social Pedigree

Does your Social Media marketeer live social? Do not just look for personal experiences. Look for brand experiences and look for results (and yes look for blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts too)

Assets and tools

Has your Social Media Marketeer built / conceptualized / used tools and applications that allow for a more effective use of available platforms?

Just do it vs a Planned long term approach

Does your Social Media Marketeer use the work viral 4 times every 5 minutes? If yes, run away. Do you only get to hear the word ‘campaign’ and not a long term road map or plan? Social is a way of life, it is not about a flash in the pan campaign. It is about building assets for the long term. It is about having answers for eventualities.

Boxed in a Silo?

Is your Social Media marketeer boxed in the PR Silo…or the Advertising Silo…or the Digital Silo? It won’t work. Social Media spans across all three and much more. You need someone who understands all aspects of communication and has a good business sense in general.

Are they ready to talk about measurable results?

Or better still, peg their payments to those results.

Are they experts?

Does your Social Media Marketeer also call themselves ‘Social Media Experts’? If yes, run away.

Are they bluffing?

I am sure they are not, but do check them out on Google just for good measure.

Do they go deep?

When you ask them pointed questions and clarifications, do they spew jargon? Or do they answer in a manner that you can understand?

And finally – Are they talkers or doers?

The ability to create a great deck and talk smoothly do not a Social Media marketeer make. What have they done? Have they got their hand dirty? Have they led a team that has got its hands dirty?

I don’t have much invested in Google. The moment a better search engine comes along, I will switch. I have a lot invested in Facebook. Many hours have gone into adding content and curating my profile. The moment there is a new platform with more bells and whistles, I will perhaps not even notice.

Investment does not have to be time. It can be emotional (be a part of their special moments and memories), monetary (I own Wii and cannot buy X-box games), effort (I am comfortable with wordpress, I do not want to use Joomla) and so on.

What is the ROI for this Social Media campaign?

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

What is the ROI for running an ad in The Straits Times?

What is the ROI for a 30 second spot on Channel News Asia?

What is the ROI for the event held at Plaza Singapura?

What is the ROI for a Press Conference?

What is the ROI for throwing an exclusive party for top bloggers in Singapore?

What is the ROI for giving a pack of candy free with the widget you sell?

What is the ROI for the 56 sales leads generated at a Road Show?

What is the ROI for cutting down the telephone hold time for your customers by 3 minutes?

What is the ROI for 4763 ‘Likes’ on your Facebook wall post?

What is the ROI for your mom to have brought you up?

Google has answered back recently with its ‘+1′ button recently you can use it to influence search results.

And now, here is an application that will help you ‘Like’ Google search results on Google!

This nifty little application adds a FB like button to every Google result and lets you know how many people and how many of your friends have already liked this link. I am sure however that Google is not attaching much importance to the number of ‘Likes’ as of now in choosing which search results to throw up.

In the same screen shot, you can also see the Google +1 button and that, I am sure will be used to decide which results land up on top.

Battle of the Likes! Who will win?

To install this app on IE, Chrome or FireFox click here.

(EOM)

1. Brazil added more FB users in the last month (3.3 million) than ANY other country (including the United States!).

2. After a slow start, India is now galloping and is the 5th largest Facebook country in the world at 24 million people.

3. Among the top 40 FB markets, India has the lowest adoption rate at 2% of the population. (Wow! The potential!)

4. Philippines was the only market in the top 10 to decline! (stagnation)

5. With almost 53% penetration, Singapore is for the first time ahead of Hong Kong. (51.6%)

6. New Zealand was the most expensive market to advertise on Facebook with a cost per click of $1.76

7. It is more expensive to advertise on Facebook in Singapore ($1.07 per click) than it is in Hong Kong ($.57)

8. It is more expensive to advertise on Facebook in HongKong ($.57 per click) than it is in India ($.58)

9. The Texas Hold’em Poker page has more fans (41 million) than Facebook itself (39 million)!

10. There are now more than half a million Facebook Pages in existance. That is a lot of community managers!

In all of this excitement, Linkedin has sort of been treated like the poor cousin (Linkedin is valued at a paltry $3 billion), not worthy of so much hype and definitely not worthy of being talked about in the same breath as Facebook.

Linkedin does have a lot going for it though and I for one am not sure who the ultimate Social Networking king will be. Sample this…

1. User base: While Facebook hurtles towards 700 million users, Linkedin crossed an important milestone of its own. A 100 million users is nothing to laugh at. One could also argue that the Linkedin user base is ‘better quality’ because most of them are employees, college students and entrepreneurs and NOT bored housewives and curious kids.
2. Revenue model: Facebook makes most of its revenue currently from ads but given the opportunities, this can change quickly. Linkedin’s revenue model looks more ‘solid’ with paid memberships, ads and recruitment solutions each playing an important role.
3. Ads effectiveness: Facebook allows for an incredible amount of control and targeting options while running an ad campaign but Linkedin offers what Facebook cannot – the ability to target people according to their designations, industry and organization apart from many other options.
4. Credibility: The perception that Facebook is for fun and Linkedin is for work exists (and is somewhat true) and because of that a typical user is likely to be more influenced by what he/she reads on Linkedin compared to Facebook.
5. Groups: Facebook pages are incredibly successful and Linkedin has no answer to that product as of now. But again, Linkedin groups are so much more effective than Facebook Groups and Facebook seems unsure of how to position ‘Groups’ vis a vis ‘Pages’.
6. Purpose: There is a sense of purpose when I choose to spend time on Linkedin. I am either looking for people to hire, or checking out job opportunities or simply looking for collaboration opportunities. I do not go to Linkedin looking for cutesy videos and smart alec status updates. Does that make the time spent on Linkedin more valuable?
7. Linkedin API: Facebook’s killer move was to open up its platform to all developers and allow them to create applications. This resulted in a better experience for users and therefore more time spent on Facebook. Linkedin has been late to the party but seems to be taking the right steps. It has already announced changes and new interesting apps should be on their way soon.
8. Facebook Fatigue: Is it just me? I have come across many friends talking about how Facebook has now started to become boring and unexciting. Is the novelty wearing off? Linkedin on the other hand is not likely to be affected by the ‘fatigue’ syndrome because there is almost always a purpose and a reason when someone chooses to spend time on Linkedin.
9. Easier catching up: Linkedin has been slow while Facebook has been moving quickly and effectively in its quest to ‘Facebookize’ the internet. Linkedin is now catching up with its own set of ‘Share’, ‘Recommend’ and ‘Profile’ buttons and soon the Linkedin ‘sign in’. Along the way, Facebook has also educated users, developers and corporates and so in a way has paved the way for Linkedin to catch up faster.
10. Competition: Google has been trying unsuccessfully to create something that could compete with Facebook. They are surely not giving up. They will spend as many dollars as it takes to come up with an answer. Given their track record and the culture of innovation, they will surely be back after the disasterous Google Wave. Linkedin on the other hand does not have a direct competitor with such deep pockets. Plaxo and the others are still not comparable.

This growth for Linkedin though will definitely not be at the expense of Facebook. (I feel that Facebook is now on a different trajectory. It is no longer just a Social Network but a default platform/ carrier of content across different platforms.)

Facebook and Twitter seem to have exploded with spontaneous messages, pages and groups in support of Anna Hazare.

Will this enthusiasm last once the IPL kicks off?

It was therefore expected that once the political parties had a green light to campaign using Social Media, it was only a matter of time before they realized the power of Facebook to connect with voters.

Will the use of Facebook and other elements of Social Media level the playing field for the opposition? Certainly, there is the potential for that to happen. Though the election campaigns are still ramping up, here is a useful compilation of interesting ways in which Facebook is being used in this election. All the numbers below are as of 1st of April.

The PAP Facebook page

With 11,450 fans it is the largest political party page in Singapore. The page is being regularly updated and has a lot of active engagement and healthy discussions. It is a fairly simple page though and has only one custom tab talking about the party beginnings. It might be extremely useful to add some features that allow the PAP leaders to answer fans’ questions directly and quickly, showcase videos, sign up for an email newsletter etc. The page also has links to all the other PAP fan pages (for nominees, constituencies and / or GRC’s)

Tin Pei Ling

The recently made famous Tin Pei Ling has 472 fans and the barest of fan pages, but it was started only on the 30th of March so it is early days for it still. Her posts have invited a lot of tough comments but she has chosen not to respond to them yet – a move that could backfire.

Mah Bow Tan

Mr Mah Bow Tan is one of the most Social Media savvy ministers but he missed a trick when he started using his personal profile to start connecting with people. Having now realized the 5,000 friends restriction on a Facebook personal profile, he has now created a Facebook page as well but it only has 158 fans as of now.

Singapore Democratic party

The second largest political page in Singapore with 3,345 fans. it is a fairly active page with multiple posts in a day. The page is very active and they are also seeking contributions to their election campaign right on the Facebook page through paypal!

The Reform Party

The Reform Party Facebook page is not far behind with 2211 fans and considerable interaction. They seem to be getting a bit naughty though -by posting not too flattering comments about PAP leaders!

Singapore Democratic Alliance – Supporter

This page is not as active with only 900 fans and there are some people advising the SDA to give way to the Workers Party! They have interestingly used the ‘notes’ feature on Facebook as a blogging platform to clarify their views on various issues.

The Workers Party

This page is neck and neck with the Reform party in terms of number of fans and the interaction. There are a lot of pictures and instead of asking for money, they are recruiting campaign volunteers through the page.

National Solidarity Party

With 342 fans, it is a small page but has a lot of content and is frequently updated.

PAP mini pages

The PAP and a few other parties have also gone ahead and created pages for various candidates, constituencies and GRC’s. Though a move in the right direction, not much thought seems to have gone in to it with no common naming convention and many of the mini pages not being frequently updated. The main pages have links to all the ‘mini pages’

The Singapore -Elections page

This is a well run page by the people behind singapore-elections.com and they claim to be the only non partisan platform and to their credit they seem to be covering updates from all parties!

None of the pages above have built in useful features like Q&A applications, interactive videos etc. but I am sure that as the parties realize the power of this medium the pages will be more professionally managed and will have features that will make the pages more useful. I have a feeling that this space will get very interesting very soon! I’ll be watching.

• The first pipe was called marketing. One one end of marketing was the brand and on the other end was the customer. The pipe itself passed through TV channels, magazines, newspapers and other forms of traditional media. The flow was guided by advertising agencies, digital agencies, direct marketing agencies and research agencies.
• The second pipe was Public Relations. On one end was the corporate communication team and on the other end was the same customer. This pipe passed through journalists and influencers of all kinds. The flow was guided by PR agencies.
• The third pipe was Customer Service. On one end was the customer service team and on the other end was still the same customer. The flow was guided by internal teams and consultants.

These three pipes rarely crossed each others path. As a result, the guides – advertising agencies, PR agencies, digital agencies and customer service teams never spoke with each other.

These pipes are now breaking down and merging into one. This one pipe is called the Social Media pipe. On one end are the customers and on the other end are the marketing teams, PR teams and the customer service teams.

The guides who never used to speak with each other are now fighting over who will have the rights to guide the new fat pipe. On most occasions they have to work with each other.

The merger of these pipes is beginning to have far reaching effects on the structure of marketing, PR and customer service teams and of course on the roles of the guides! The fun has just begun.

In the new world no one need to rely on The Straits Times and on CNN to be able to reach out to the world. They can do it for free with Facebook, Twitter or their blog. Marketers are also realizing that they can connect ( sometimes more effectively and genuinely) in their own words without relying on an army or copywriters and art directors to create the ‘message’.

The implications are that both the media and the communication agencies are more vulnerable and dispensable than they ever were. Will they adapt. Early signs are better for agencies than for the media!

Organizations are setting up ‘social media’ divisions and departments to understand what is happening and hopefully to sell more widgets. Training organizations and schools are launching courses and programs on social media. Advertising, PR and digital agencies are setting up practices, divisions and even companies specializing in providing social media solutions.

All of this is about to stop very soon. Social Media is dead. Social media is/ will become such an integrated part of everything that we do that the concept of treating ‘social media’ as a separate division / department/ company will make no sense.

What we need are better and faster ways of integrating social media into everything that we do rather than packing it off into separate silos.

The very term ‘social’ media makes sense only for those of us who grew up in an era when media was not social. The new generation growing up now has not really experienced media that is not social.

We do not need to create a social media strategy for our company, division, department, restaurant, or dog. All we need are ways to integrate social media into everything that we do.

Good bye message?

Message for Perez!

Message for Huff Post!

The first one!

The complete play list! Enjoy!

Creativity has long been looked upon as an activity behind the closet. No wonder many myths have developed around the creative process. Not to be left behind, there are many myth busters out there as well!

What myth proponents and myth busters refuse to see is that creativity is a very individual thing. It is not a subject of study amenable to rules and too many do’s and don’ts.

Here are some common myths about creativity along with my comments:

Myth 1: Creativity is inborn and only a chosen few are creative.

While it is true that creativity is inborn, it is not true that only a chosen few are creative. Everyone is born creative. In the process of growing up, educating ourselves and adapting ourselves to our environment, we slowly add blocks to our creativity and forget that we had it in the first place. The difference between a creative person and a person who is not so creative is not in the creativity that they were born with but in the creativity that they have lost.

Myth 2: Creativity can be developed by using certain methods, tools and techniques.

Methods are okay as stepping stones to creativity but eventually they act as mental straitjackets. They hinder creativity for the simple reason that creativity is not a predetermined path. It is about laying out your own path. While methods come from experience, creativity is a foray into the unknown. There can therefore be no formulas or recipes for being creative.

Myth 3: Creative people are weird.

Well, some of them may come across as ones but most are regular people who wear a tie and have bosses to report to. The truth is that everyone is creative in their own way. It may be a hard pill to swallow but even the most stuffy, straight-laced person is as creative as anyone else. It’s just how and how much one uses one’s creativity. So the statement “Creative people are weird” suddenly turns into “All people are weird”. And being a little different never hurt anyone anyway?

PS: Some of the most creative people are the bureaucrats and ministers in Singapore. (You surely need creativity to make rules, not to follow them.) You will agree that they are far from being weird!

Myth 4: Only the creative types have creative ideas.

We all have this mental image of the ‘creative types’ complete with the goatee, piercings and the coffee mug. Well, these ‘creative types’ in most cases are creative and are able to come up with ideas but that does not preclude everyone else from being creative as well. The fact is, almost all of the research in this field shows that anyone with normal intelligence is capable of doing some degree of creative work. Creativity depends on a number of things: experience, knowledge, technical skills, talent, an ability to think in new ways and the capacity to push through uncreative dry spells. Intrinsic motivation is especially critical.

Myth 5: Creativity is spontaneous.

This is certainly true. We have all experienced that brilliant moment, when seemingly out of nowhere, we get some brilliant idea. It can happen, anytime, anywhere (it usually happens to me when I am shaving). But the opposite is not necessarily untrue. Creativity can be worked upon as well.

Ideas, concepts, images, tunes, and phrases do pop into consciousness for no apparent reason, but scientists have discovered that creativity is mostly conscious, hard work. Mozart’s ‘spontaneous inspirations’ were no accident. Mozart worked incredibly hard and was enormously productive. He came out of an era in which the musician was related to the craftsman. Craftsmen don’t wait for spontaneous inspiration. They get to work.

Myth 6: Creativity only applies to science and the fine arts.

This one I completely disagree with. Creativity can enhance and enrich each and every experience be it work, relationships, investing, sports and even accounting! To be alive is to be creative and to be creative is to be alive.

Myth 7: Pressure situations spark creativity.

To each his own is what I say. High pressure situations work for a lot of people. People come up with wonderful ideas with their backs to the wall. At the same time, relaxed situations and environments also tend to spur ideas in a lot of people. The key is to identify what works best for you.

Myth 8: Competitive situations foster creativity better than cooperative situations.

Reminds me of the capitalism vs. communism debate! Competition causes lots of ideas to be generated and sometimes companies create an environment where the employee with the best idea is rewarded. While this method does work, it works for all the wrong reasons. By keeping ideas to themselves, the employees don’t allow ideas to be refined by anyone else’s input. They just work silently on their own and hoard up ideas for the opportune moment.

Collaboration gives an extra something to even the best ideas. Without it, the idea is limited by just one person’s perspective. It could have been helped along by a couple of more minds.

Myth 9: Creativity is a specialist’s role.

It’s amazing how many people discount ‘professional’ creativity as something reserved for people like designers and writers. Not true! In fact, I’d argue that just about any job can be helped by a healthy dose of creative thinking.

Myth 10: Creative people always have great ideas.

Most creative people only have a few great ideas out of a barrel-full. It’s these few “gems” that make the process worthwhile for the dreamer. They too encounter failure like anyone else. But then failure drives them to try harder the next time.

]]> http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/myths-about-creativity/feed/ 2 http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/3-myths-related-to-training-and-learning/ http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/3-myths-related-to-training-and-learning/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:00:17 +0000 Shalu Wasu http://tickledbylife.com/site/?p=287 Myths have a way of perpetuating themselves. There are quite a few related to training and learning too. Everyone seems to believe in them. So much so that they have become sacrosanct and no one even bothers to question them.

When I heard some for the first time, it was in the context of a training program that I was myself going through. My first reaction was: ‘Wow! That sounds incredible.’ In the enthusiasm of the collective wows that were generated, I accepted the myths as truth.

But I soon realized I was not comfortable believing in them. Intuitively, I knew they could not be true.

Now all these myths seemed to be backed up by solid research though. So I wondered if I was being my usual arrogant self by questioning these supposed universal ‘truths’.

But I started my probe anyway and what I found really warmed my heart! These were myths for sure, very similar to urban legends that get popularized without any sound basis. Read on and join me in smashing them.

You remember 10% of what you read, 20% of what you hear, 30% of what you see and 90% of what you do.

This is a widely repeated statement by trainers all over the world. Maybe you’ve been subjected to this statement at some time as well. I hope you have not made it though! The round figures are easily remembered but completely wrong.

The findings can be traced to one D.G. Treichler, an employee of Mobil Oil Company, who put forth these figures in 1967.

However, the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science has laid claim to the figures, saying they are based on research in the early sixties and bizarrely adding that ‘we no longer have – nor can we find – the original research that supports the numbers’.

Though, there are many arguments against these figures, one that is most obvious is that all the percentages are perfectly round. What research into human behaviour ever resulted in four different round numbers?

In communication, only 7% of the meaning is conveyed through the speaker’s words, 55% through his facial expressions and the rest 38% through tone of voice.

I am sure you have come across this lulu too, especially if you have attended communication or NLP programs. In one sweeping statement, words are reduced to an insignificant role in the great game of communication.

Yet, when we think about this deeply, the fallacies start becoming obvious. Is it really possible that if I get lost in Shanghai and ask a passer-by for directions, I’ll have to work out the correct route mostly from their facial expressions and tone of voice, and not from the words they use?

The findings are attributed to research done by Mehrabian but, in reality, they are just a distorted version of what Mehrabian himself has to say on his website. He expresses the results of his research in the form of an equation:

Total liking = 7% verbal liking + 38% vocal liking + 55% facial liking

He explains that “this and other equations regarding relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages were derived from experiments dealing with communications of feelings and attitudes (i.e. like-dislike). Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable.”

We use 10% of our brain (or anywhere from 1% to 15% depending upon where you have read it).

This one is so popular, even Albert Einstein is usually roped in as one of the endorsers! The media too has played a role in orchestrating this myth. Many of us therefore look at it as given.

Scientists have tried for years to change this misconception. They have clearly stated that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that we use only 10% of our brains. In fact it is very hard to say what using just 10% of your brain means.

It could mean that I could cut 90% of my brain and be just fine or that I just use only one out of every ten nerve cells at any one time. Let’s attack this one with common sense.

First of all, it is obvious that the brain, like all other organs, has been shaped by natural selection. Brain tissue is metabolically expensive both to grow and to run.

It strains credulity to think that evolution would have permitted squandering of resources on a scale necessary to build and maintain such a massively underutilized organ.

Secondly, losing far less than 90 percent of the brain to accident or disease has catastrophic consequences. Various medical tests reveal that there does not seem to be any area of the brain that can be destroyed without leaving the patient with some kind of functional deficit.

Likewise, electrical stimulation of points in the brain during neurosurgery has failed so far to uncover any dormant areas where no percept, emotion or movement is elicited by applying these tiny currents.

Having dug hard and deep, I find no evidence at all to support this myth.

The most powerful lure of the myth is probably the idea that we might develop psychic abilities, or at least gain a leg up on the competition by improving our memory or concentration.

All this is available for the asking, the ads say, if we just tapped into our most incredible of organs, the brain. It is past time to put this myth to rest, although if it has survived at least a century so far, it will surely live on into the new millennium.

The next time you are subjected to this one, just ask the speaker politely “Oh? What part don’t you use?”

Read these interesting articles to find out more about these myths and other myths related to training and learning.

Myths about adult learning

Myths about coaching

We use 10% of our brain

Myths about communication

Myths about NLP training

Myths about train the trainer

This is perhaps the biggest difference between real life and school. But by the time we finish school we are so conditioned that we are unable to bridge the gap. We unconsciously try and avoid situations which could result in failure. We therefore live our life like the straight line stock!!

Failure and creativity

Fear of failure hampers creativity. It’s not unusual for an individual to present a new idea, see it fail, then never again try something new. Fear of adverse criticism narrows creative potential.

On the other hand, a truly creative person thoroughly examines the failure to identify what went wrong and why. He turns failure into a learning experience.

Every bit of solid theory and evidence demonstrates that it is impossible to generate a few good ideas without also generating a lot of bad ideas.

The greatest failure of all, of course, is not to attempt a new idea.

Failure is not the opposite of success

Are success and failure opposites of each other? The answer is NO. The energy that creates great ideas also creates errors. Not achieving success is usually termed as failure. And ‘failure’ is so looked down upon that we sometimes avoid taking a shot at success. We forget that success and failure are actually neighbours or pals and success may only be an inch away from failure! Looking at failure as an antithesis of success is to lose our creative powers. In any case, if we are successful every time, it means our goal is not big enough!

If you aren’t allowed to fail, then you won‚Äôt risk anything. Then every idea has to be a “safe” idea, and you are no longer creating. You are simply doing it the way it has always been done.

A useful phrase to keep in mind is ‘THERE IS NO FAILURE, ONLY FEEDBACK’. This is a great thought that works especially well when we are trying out new things and thinking of new solutions.

We need not fear failure but we should try and learn how to fail intelligently!! When we try and not succeed, it is a good failure. The only ‘bad failure’ is not trying and not learning from mistakes.

You’ve probably heard this left/right brain dichotomy before. It goes something like this: the left hemisphere of the brain is logical, deductive, mathematical, etc., while the right hemisphere is artistic, visual and imaginative.

The idea stems at least partly from the classic studies of split brain patients performed by Sperry and Gazzaniga in the 1960s. At an intuitive level, I do not agree with this, so I decided to do some research and this is what I found.

There are some functional asymmetries in the brain, and it is true that certain regions of both hemispheres are specialized for particular functions. Speech illustrates this, but also shows that nothing is ever so simple when it comes to the brain.

In most right-handed people, speech is processed in both hemispheres, but predominantly in the left. In some left-handers, speech is processed either predominantly in the right hemisphere or on both sides.

All complex behaviours and cognitive functions require the integrated actions of multiple brain regions in both hemispheres of the brain.

All types of information are probably processed in both the left and right hemispheres, perhaps in different ways, so that the processing carried out on one side of the brain complements, rather than substitutes, that being carried out on the other.

Every mental faculty seems to be shared across the brain, with complementary contributions. It is the combination, not separation, that matters. The mutually exclusive model has all but disappeared from the literature.

People can no longer be characterised or caricatured as right and left brainers. This is now seen as a primitive form of simplistic labelling or phrenology.

It seems like a situation where some results from a study a few decades ago have been extrapolated, distorted and stretched to build this story.

So the notion that someone is “left-brained” or “right-brained” is absolute nonsense. It is like arguing that my left eye is better for movies and the right one is better for reading the newspaper!

Overall, I can’t care less about this whole thing. What matters to me, is not which part of my brain my creativity resides in, but the fact that it does and what I can do to nurture and enhance it.

Shalu is a Singapore based creativity consultant and trainer. His next creativity workshop – ‘Success though creativity and innovation’ is on the 30^th and 31^st October at NUS Extension. To find out more, click here.

]]> http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/right-brain-left-brain/feed/ 2 http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/serendipity-is-not-an-accident/ http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/serendipity-is-not-an-accident/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:54:57 +0000 Shalu Wasu http://tickledbylife.com/site/?p=266 “Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else.”

That is how the phenomenon of serendipity is generally defined.

But I am not quite at ease with this definition because it implies that serendipity is passive and we cannot do anything about it apart from just sitting back, doing our work and waiting for a eureka moment to pop up!

I look at the phenomenon differently. The key point here is who makes the discovery and how. It is a certain state of mind which registers a discovery when it is ‘primed’ to do so. Else the discovery would go unnoticed.

So there are really two elements – the discovery and the discoverer. They are not mutually exclusive. They do not happen in isolation. They arise together. That also explains why everyone is not ‘lucky’ enough to make happy discoveries.

Let us first see what stops us from making happy discoveries. We have been conditioned to see what we expect. Our preconceptions creep into whatever we come across. We don’t see things as they are but as we expect them to be.

Secondly, we force our preconceptions into whatever we do and want a task to go along predetermined lines. Too obsessed with how things should be, we don’t recognize lucky turns of events and new possibilities.

As a result, we block the unexpected, turn a blind eye to the unfamiliar and miss out on serendipitous happenings.

All the wonderful people who made wonderful discoveries were able to find a connection between the outcome of an experiment and something which was bubbling in their brains because they had an open mind.

If we have an open and receptive mind, we will start seeing what we generally don’t see. Then we will let a task proceed the way it wants to by its own momentum instead of forcing our preconceptions into it.

Then the possibility inherent in the situation will come to surface. Noticing that possibility is what serendipity is about. What we get in this way can be much more than what we were looking for.

What it boils down to is this. The happy discovery does not happen by itself. It is brought into being by a mind that is able to notice it. It co-arises with an open mind.

In other words, an open mind evokes serendipity. Serendipity is therefore not really a passive phenomenon. It is not an accident but an art that can be cultivated. That is how I look at serendipity.

However when it comes to creative thinking, ambiguity is a good thing, even a great thing. If we are too specific with guidelines and rules to solving problems, it doesn’t give us much leeway to generate new ideas.

Generally we are uncomfortable with uncertainty. When we are in this state, we feel irritable. We try and resolve the uncertainty and become comfortable again quickly. We feel compelled to appear more certain, confident and decisive than we really are at that time. So we would rather leap to a conclusion and then focus our energies in defending it. This, most of the time is the sub optimal solution.

By its very nature, life does not lend itself to close scrutiny. It is fuzzy, indeterminate and paradoxical. There are contradictions everywhere. Wanting to understand life is to expect it to be straight, neat and orderly which it is not. We can say just one thing for sure about the world: “I don’t know.” When we are okay with the ambiguity and paradoxes of life, we know that there are no standard answers in life. We break loose fresh perspectives and look for several possible answers. In the process, we turn more creative.

In fact this article itself is paradoxical – We started by saying that ambiguity is bad and then we said it is good! That’s how life is. Learn to enjoy ambiguity.

So what should we do to get comfortable with uncertainty?

1. Accept that uncertainty is certain

2. Enjoy being confused. Be comfortable without a solution!

3. Be a ‘find outer’, not a ‘knower’

4. ‘I don’t know’ is a GREAT ANSWER!

Sometimes, it is not the circumstances, but our own mind which pushes us to come up with a solution quickly. Our mind is rushed perhaps because it is lazy (or efficient!). It wants to stop working as quickly as possible or maybe because it wants to reestablish the feeling of being effective and in control as quickly as possible. It wants us to choose the first good option. It wants to take decisions quickly.
Being patient allows us to use our unconscious mind’s resources in a better way.

In a research done by Milton Rokeach, it was shown that many people’s creativity was enhanced when they were asked to slow down. When they were prevented from delivering their first answer to a problem, they usually came up with a better answer later.

So the lesson is, when we are not clear, delay the decision and enjoy the options that will seemingly start popping out from nowhere!

In another interesting study by Daniel Goleman, 4-year-old children were left alone in a room (one at a time) with a candy for about 10 minutes. They were told that if they did not eat the candy while they were alone, they will be given 2 pieces of the candy later. In a follow up done many years later, the children who were able to resist temptation in this exercise scored higher on intelligence tests, were emotionally more stable, had better relationships!

Even though our culture today encourages instant gratification, practicing the ability to wait has its own benefits.

•    Being comfortable without an instant solution makes the mind welcoming and spacious, taking away the feeling of strain and urgency.
•    Accept that there will be times when you will not be able to solve a problem by trying to solve it. Sow the seed in your mind and let your subconscious mind work on it for some time.
•    Let the ideas percolate to the top on their own.

The voices of intuition, hunches and insights are at most times not too strong. By being patient, we allow ourselves the best chance to be able to hear these voices which may have valuable ideas.

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Shalu Wasu is a creativity consultant and trainer based in Singapore apart from being guest faculty at select institutes. To attend his one-day open programme on creativity on 15th January, 2009 at NUS, Singapore, please visit www.lifeahoy.sg or contact shalu@lifeahoy.sg.