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?

However, life will surely change for my him in a couple of years. I can imagine a future where all that kids will take to school will be a handy tablet PC – much like the iPad. All the text books, syllabus and lots more will be preloaded into the tablet with the option of ‘buying’ content for a new class when required. All notes will be made on the same tablet. All assignments and exams will only require the tablet as well.

Kids (and parents) will be able to access videos, take mock tests, chat with the teacher and classmates – all from the same secure tablet.

Just hang on son!

1. Design creative.
2. Give creative and pot of money to media agency.
3. Run Campaign.
4. Deliver report at the end of the month.

We cannot run Social Campaigns this way.

1. Design 28 versions of creatives.
2. Run each version for 4 different sets of audiences.
3. Check effectiveness.
4. Tweak CPC bids.
5. Change borders.
6. Check effectiveness.
7. Stop ineffective ads.
8. Create 12 more variants of effective ads.
9. Check effectiveness.
10. Tweak ads.
11. Change background colours.
12. Check Effectiveness.
13. Deliver daily report.
14. Start again.

Social campaigns CANNOT be created, run and managed the same way as traditional digital campaigns. You need a team that understands advertising, the product, analytics, is patient, is creative and most importantly a team that has an incentive in driving down the CPC (or any other measurement criteria)

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.

Content is permanent, banners are fleeting.

Content is found, banners are displayed.

Content is a friend or a consultant, a banner is a salesman or a hustler.

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 majority of those who are using it as a customer service tool are however not using the full potential of what is possible. For many brands customer service on Facebook simply means replying to the fans’ questions, rants and complaints on the main wall (example – the AsiaRooms page), this is simply not effective because of the following reasons.

1. The responses get buried under new wall posts quickly and therefore not useful for fans who might have the same queries but on a different day!
2. The responses are not search-able and therefore the same questions need to be responded to many times
3. Since the responses get buried quickly, the community does not really get a chance to jump into a discussion and contribute
4. Any new fans who join the page will only see a main wall full of complaints and rants, not exactly the positive note that most brands would want to start off with.
5. It is extremely difficult to keep a track of the quality of responses over a long period of time.
6. SEO benefits
7. It is amateurish and appears (and is clumsy)

The alternative is to use a custom application to provide customer service. Apart from building one of your own, there are a variety of plug and play options that are available. Here are a few that are good.

• GetSatisfaction.com
• Assistly
• Parature
• Genesys
• Right Now

Another variation of ‘using a tool’ is to ‘listen’ to conversations/ comments on Facebook and then respond to them through the usual channels. Organizations like BuddyMedia, SalesForce.com,and LivePerson advocate this route but I am not a fan.

Having helped a number of top brands use Facebook for customer service and having experimented with a variety of methods and processes, these are some best practices that I have discovered along the way.

1. Use a custom application to run the show and for reasons mentioned above do not run customer service off the main wall.

• Flexible: Your chosen tool should be flexible to suit your needs and the needs of your customers.
• Intelligent and intuitive: The customer service team should not have to answer the same questions again and again!
• Scalable: If the number of queries shoots through the roof (which is actually a good thing) the tool should allow for more and more customer service professionals to respond to queries with zero or minimum additional cost.
• Work off multiple platforms: What if your Facebook page gets blocked, or if you have customers who hate Facebook. The tool that you pick should also work off your website, blog or whatever else you or your customers may prefer.
• Simple: Your community manager or customer service team should find it simple and easy to operate this tool. (Rule of thumb – it should mean less than 4 hours of training)
• Use the community as an asset: What’s the benefit of a Facebook page if you cannot leverage off the collective wisdom of your community to solve problems of your customers. Apart from the customer service team, all fans should be able to respond to queries that are posted by a user. This is a very valuable feature that instantly converts a standard support system into a community based support system.

I definitely recommend GetSatisfaction but I would to see them add the ability to have a multimedia response quickly.

2. A tool is just a tool

Using the best app in itself will not help to increase customer satisfaction. The right tool is simply one of the many factors that will result in success

3. Do not just import a set of guidelines

Most brands have a ’200 page manual’ on dealing with customer complaints and they assume that it should be possible to simply change the cover page and use the same manual for providing support on Facebook. Unfortunately, it does not work that way and there are many new aspects to take care of – some of them are

1. Response time: The expected response time on Facebook is a lot shorter than email or website based support systems.
2. Tone: There might or might not be a change required here.
3. Scenarios: The fact that these queries and responses are out in the ‘open’ there are so many more scenarios that can develop on Facebook that we should envisage while creating or modifying our customer service guidelines for Facebook

4. Do not just ‘add on’ a responsibility

The customer service team need a proper orientation, training and hand holding while they move into this new environment. Do not just add on another task to their to-do list.

5. Solve problems, not simply redirect them

You should not treat this medium simply to ask your fans to ‘write to this email ID’ or ‘call this number’ or ‘fill up this form’. In other words, do not simply redirect traffic to your existing platforms but actually solve problems right on this this new platform. Not doing so will be frustrating and will waste time for not only your customers but also your customer service team.

6. Be ready for an increase in ‘bad stuff’

Most brands expect a ‘decrease’ in overall complaints and issues when they enable customer service on Facebook and are surprised when usually there is a jump in the total number of complaints that come in. It is important to recognize that the Facebook customer service platform is not ‘causing’ an increase in the complaints but simply makes it easier for customers to find you and reach you!

7. Don’t be scared, be prepared

Most brands are simply scared of enabling customer service on Facebook (or even having a Facebook presence) simply because they do not want to deal with the complaints and criticisms that might follow. The right way to approach is issue is that when people complaint or share a grievance with us they are giving us an opportunity to set things right. If we do not ‘listen’ to these grievances it does not mean that they will go away. They will exist on forums, blogs, on Facebook and on Twitter and will do us greater harm.

8. Prep the top management

The customer service department in most organizations is not really the centre of the top management’s attention (unless something goes terribly wrong). Well that changes very quickly when you start solving queries on Facebook. Because it is out there in the open and because every CEO right now wants to figure out ‘how to use Facebook’ to run his or her business better (and also because the CEO’s kids probably try the customer service feature and send in some quick feedback) you will find that the top management suddenly has a lot more time for ‘Customer Service’. Nothing wring with that – there expectations need to be managed so that the truthful and ‘in you face’ feedback about the brand is not a shock to them.

9. Prepare for the backlash from the customer service team

The customer service team will resent the public scrutiny of their responses, the long time it takes to respond and the constant interference of the marketing, sales, PR and the senior management in their work. They need to be shown the bigger picture and explained why this is happening. It is very easy for them to feel frustrated and ‘rebel’ against this new fangled system that ‘does not work’!

10. Focus on opinions, not just complaints

A huge benefit of such a system is that it throws up not just complaints and issues but also ideas, feedback and product ideas. It is important to share them quickly and effectively with the right people in the organization!

While I believe that Facebook is a more effective tool than Twitter for customer service, Twitter has its own uses but that is the subject of another post!

The good news is that there are social networking sites that have been set up solely for the purpose of providing a safe and networking environment for kids. Here are a few good one’s!

1. Club Penguin: It’s run by Disney, is fun and extremely addictive. Parents need to approve a child’s account. (Also my son’s favourite)
2. Togetherville: Use can your existing Facebook account to create an account for your child. Targeted at children below 10. They will also charge you 1 cent on your credit card before your account can be verified.
3. WhatsWhat: This is perhaps the most secure social networking site for children. Parents need to submit their credit card info just to be able to set us accounts for their children.
4. Scuttle Pad: Targeted at kids from 6-11. They can only communicate via preset communication options.
5. Gianthello: Most Facebook like in its features, it provides the richest social networking experience and may be more appropriate for older kids.

Stay safe and have fun!

1. Auctions: Ebay could be in for a tough time if Facebook decides to add a ‘social auctions’ feature. There is big money to be made of course and Facebook’s base of over 600 million people means that they will never be short of the next used iPad to be auctioned off. Of course they will use Facebook Credits as the currency for the options.
2. Voice Calls: Can Facebook be the Skype killer? Facebook could offer a Social Voice service that could simply mean tougher times ahead for Skype and a lot more money for Facebook.
3. Shopping: Social shopping anyone? Currently there are fledgling attempts by many companies to try and sell products directly off Facebook Pages but it is inconvenient and clumsy. Facebook will certainly look for more ways in which it can make Facebook credits popular. Creating ‘Facebook Shops/Stores’ with features that make shopping social and fun could give Amazon a run for it’s money – or maybe Amazon will just open a store front on Facebook as well.
4. Paid Apps: iOS of course had massive success with the App Store. Facebook could be working on a similar model where developers could choose to sell apps using Facebook credits as currency of course and Facebook getting a cut from every app sold.
5. Music: They have already started selling movies. What stops them from selling music – watch out iTunes!
6. Pages: Brands spend thousands and even millions trying to build a large community of fans and nurturing the same. What if Facebook starts charging a thousands dollars a year for some premium Facebook Page features. I am very sure thousands of brands will happily pay up. A robust Analytics solution could be just one of the many premium features possible.
7. Private corporate networks: Could the Facebook network be replicated within organizations where all discussions and engagement are closed and secure. This would be a viable alternative to the variety of ‘employee communication platforms’ that companies use.
8. Transactions: Once Facebook credits takes off what is there to prevent Facebook from taking a swipe at PayPal and trying to dominate the online commerce market ( a lot of which may happen on Facebook Shops anyway!)
9. Deals: Watch out Groupon! This cannot be far away.
10. Paid Mail service: Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail Storage – all charge around $20 per year for email service. Many may switch to Facebook once this service is available!
11. Photos: Facebook photos was one of the first ‘killer apps’ of Facebook and contributed massively to its growth. Could it provide additional services for printing pictures , personally designed albums and gifting? Sure it can!

Have more ideas for Facebook to make money? Share in comments please.

So I am looking forward to this nice looking tablet! Find out more here.

It is interesting to consider what people will do with easily available video chat when it is NOT possible to hide one’s identity. Well, we are about to find out- http://apps.facebook.com/chatrounds. Read more about it here.

While this is a tremendously useful service in itself there are many other benefits to be gained from running a Listening program. We at¬† Ogilvy run many of the ‘standard’ monitoring programs for brands but we have also been innovating. Sample some of the ‘non monitoring’ Listening Programs’ that we ran recently.

1. For a software company, we went deep inside forums and Linkedin groups to get insights for the brand, category and were able to recommend a custom and potentially more effective social media plan based on the insights.
2. For a beverages company, we were able to track the online buzz and link it with offline activities. We were as a result able to predict what kinds of offline activities were more likely to generate buzz online as well.
3. For an Infant Nutrition company were able to generate insights that were useful to make decisions regarding their manufacturing strategy and location.
4. For a government agency, we were able to understand why a particular career option is not seen as interesting or rewarding enough by youngsters and their parents in Singapore.
5. For a telecom company we were able to resolve customer issues by participating in conversations online.
6. For another government agency we were able to identify individuals who were depressed and needed help.

I could go on, but the point here is that a Listening Program is a wonderful tool that can be used for many and often multiple objectives.

However that does not take away from the awesome success of the first campaign! (Sample this video from the first one that has almost 30 million views)

Too much of a good thing? Take a look anyway…

• 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.

It is evident that the big growth for Facebook will NOT come from countries that are on this list.

So which are the biggest countries that are missing? Check out the following table of countries with low penetration rates but a high population base.

China is missing because Facebook is banned and Korea and Japan have their own local Facebook equivalents.

The biggest growth for Facebook in the next 2 years may therefore come from India, followed by Brazil and Indonesia!

Good bye message?

Message for Perez!

Message for Huff Post!

The first one!

The complete play list! Enjoy!

“Our records indicate that you are currently the admin of a Facebook Page with a large number of fans, Tickled By Life To ensure a positive user experience, we require admins of large Pages to confirm their affiliation with the brand, business, person, or entity that their Page represents.”

A clean up is obviously a great move as there are a large number of ‘non official’ pages out there claiming to represent brands and companies. I cannot help but wonder if this move along with the recent launch of ‘Community Pages’(which will surely continue to be free)¬† is a precursor to Facebook asking customers to pay up for the privilege of running those pages.

Should Facebook charge page admins? I i think they should. In many cases Facebook pages have become an integral part of the brand’s communication strategy and it is only fair that if the brand is benefiting, it should be ready to pay for the privilege. One could argue that Facebook still makes money off pages because of the advertising opportunity that more pages create (Admins advertise for fans and fans interaction with pages creates for advertising inventory for Facebook)

It is most likely however that Facebook will introduce a new ‘premium’ category of pages and admins of large pages will be able to upgrade.

[fblike layout_style='button_count' show_faces='false' verb='recommend' font='arial' color_scheme='light']

I also gave a talk on the same topic as a part of the NTU – SAS breakfast talk series a few days ago!

Here is a quick update on things that i was involved in till a few days ago.

1. Tickledbylife.com is on hold as of now till my dad figures out a way to run the site and community with minimum involvement from his side!
2. Afterpackup.com is also on hold till Mona is able to squeeze out enough time to run this site and community from her side.
3. theAsianparent.com is being steered by my ex partner.
4. My scheduled open workshops (at NUS, Aventis and others) are obviously not going to happen now. My work at Ogilvy will will involve running workshops for internal teams and clients so hopefully i won’t miss this part of what i was doing!
5. I have had to pull out of my already limited teaching assignments at JCU and others as well.

One day his horse ran away. All his neighbours exclaimed how terrible this was, but the farmer simply said “Maybe.”

A few days later the horse returned and brought two wild horses with it. The neighbors all rejoiced at his good fortune, but the farmer just said “Maybe.”

The next day the farmer’s son tried to ride one of the wild horses. The horse threw him and the son broke his leg. The neighbours all offered their sympathy for his misfortune, but the farmer again said “Maybe.”

The next week conscription officers came to the village to take young men for the army. They rejectedthe farmer’s son because of his broken leg. When the neighbours told him how lucky he was, the farmer replied “Maybe.”

The same incident was being seen in a different light by the same people. The farmer’s friends were reframing the situation.

What seems to be lucky in one context turns out to be unlucky in another context and the other way round.

Here is another example. A college student breaks his leg during summer vacation. He is crestfallen because he can no longer play tennis and football with his family and friends.

A few days later, he realizes that he now has the quiet, alone time to learn how to play the guitar, something he had always wanted to do but had been too busy to attempt.

He discovers he has a great aptitude for music and becomes a decent guitar player by summer’s end. One year later, he changes his major to music. After graduation he embarks on a successful music career.

Years later, his friends recall how unfortunate his leg fracture was that summer, and he says, “Breaking my leg was the best thing that ever happened to me!”

From then on, whenever he is disabled by injury or illness, he recalls the lesson and is far less despondent over his temporary disability than he otherwise would have been, as he takes the opportunity to do something novel.

The same incident was being seen in a different light by the same person. The musician was reframing the situation.

Proactive Reframing as a Creativity Skill

Reframes are a different way of looking at things. Being able to reframe experiences and situations is a very powerful skill which can help to generate ideas from a different perspective.

In the first example given above, the reframe was triggered by an additional bit of information that was introduced in the story.

In the second example, reframing was done without any additional information. It was a case of more or less proactive reframing.

Such proactive reframing can enhance our creativity manifold. Here are some examples of proactive and deliberate reframing.

v During the 1984 campaign, there was considerable concern about Ronald Reagan’s age. Speaking during the

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/16-habits-of-highly-creative-people/ http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/16-habits-of-highly-creative-people/#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:04:48 +0000 Shalu Wasu http://tickledbylife.com/site/?p=225

“There is no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” - Lewis Carroll

Many people believe that 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 yourself and adapting yourself to your environment, you slowly add blocks to your creativity and forget that you 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.

How can you enhance your creative ability? One possible way is to observe the habits of creative people, identify the ones that you feel will work for you and then make a plan to cultivate them.

Here are 16 habits of creative people. If you cultivate some of them, you will feel an increase in your level of creativity. In the process, you will also feel tickled by life!

1. Creative people are full of curiosity.

Creative people are wonderstruck. They are tickled by the newness of every moment. They have lots of questions. They keep asking what, why, when, where and how.

A questioning mind is an open mind. It is not a knowing mind. Only an open mind can be creative. A knowing mind can never be creative.

A questioning stance sensitizes the mind in a very special way and it is able to sense what would have been missed otherwise.

2. Creative people are problem-friendly.

When there is a problem, some people can be seen wringing up their hands. Their first reaction is to look for someone to blame. Being faced with a problem becomes a problem. Such people can be called problem-averse.

Creative people, on the other hand, are problem-friendly. They just roll up their sleeves when faced with a problem. They see problems as opportunities to improve the quality of life. Being faced with a problem is never a problem.

You get dirty and take a bath every day. You get tired and relax every day. Similarly, you have problems that need to be solved every day. Life is a fascinating rhythm of problems and solutions.

To be problem-averse is to be life-averse. To be problem-friendly is to be life-friendly. Problems come into your life to convey some message. If you run away from them, you miss the message.

3. Creative people value their ideas.

Creative people realize the value of an idea. They do not take any chance with something so important. They carry a small notepad to note down ideas whenever they occur.

Many times, just because they have a notepad and are looking for ideas to jot down, they can spot ideas which they would have otherwise missed.

4. Creative people embrace challenges.

Creative people thrive on challenges. They have a gleam in their eyes as soon as they sniff one. Challenges bring the best out of them – reason enough to welcome them.

5. Creative people are full of enthusiasm.

Creative people are enthusiastic about their goals. This enthusiasm works as fuel for their journey, propelling them to their goals.

6. Creative people are persistent.

Creative people know it well that people may initially respond to their new ideas like the immune system responds to a virus. They’ll try to reject the idea in a number of ways.

Creative people are not surprised or frustrated because of this. Nor do they take it personally. They understand it takes time for a new idea to be accepted. In fact, the more creative the idea, the longer it takes for it to be appreciated.

7. Creative people are perennially dissatisfied.

Creative people are acutely aware of their dissatisfactions and unfulfilled desires. However, this awareness does not frustrate them. As a matter of fact, they use this awareness as a stimulus to realize their dreams.

8. Creative people are optimists.

Creative people generally have a deeply held belief that most, if not all, problems can be solved. No challenge is too big to be overcome.

This doesn’t mean they are always happy and never depressed. They do have their bad moments but they don’t generally get stumped by a challenge.

9. Creative people make positive Judgment.

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn. It can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a right man’s brow – a businessman Charles Brower

The ability to hold off on judging or critiquing an idea is important in the process of creativity. Often great ideas start as crazy ones – if critique is applied too early the idea will be killed and never developed into something useful and useable.

This doesn’t mean there is no room for critique or judgment in the creative process but there is a time and place for it and creative people recognize that.

10. Creative people go for the big kill.

Creative people realize that the first idea is just the starting point. It is in the process of fleshing it out that some magical cross-connections happen and the original ‘normal’ idea turns into a killer idea.

11. Creative people are prepared to stick it out.

Creative people who actually see their ideas come to fruition have the ability to stick with their ideas and see them through – even when the going gets tough. This is what sets them apart from others. Stick-ability is the key.

12. Creative people do not fall in love with an idea.

Creative people recognize how dangerous it is to fall in love with an idea. Falling in love with an idea means stopping more ideas from coming to their mind. They love the process of coming up with ideas, not necessarily the idea.

13. Creative people recognize the environment in which they are most creative.

Creative people do most of their thinking in an environment which is most conducive to their creativity. If they are unable to influence their physical environment, they recreate their ‘favourite’ creative environment in their minds.

14. Creative people are good at reframing any situation.

Reframes are a different way of looking at things. Being able to reframe experiences and situations is a very powerful skill.

Reframing allows you to look at a situation from a different angle. It is like another camera angle in a football match. And a different view has the power to change your entire perception of the situation.

Reframing can breathe new life into dead situations. It can motivate demoralized teams. It helps you to spot opportunities that you would have otherwise missed.

15. Creative people are friends with the unexpected.

Creative people have the knack of expecting the unexpected and finding connections between unrelated things. It is this special quality of mind that evokes serendipitous events in their lives.

Having honed the art of making happy discoveries, they are able to evoke serendipity more often than others.

16. Creative people are not afraid of failures.

Creative people realize that the energy that creates great ideas also creates errors. They know that failure is not really the opposite of success.

In fact, both failure and success are on the same side of the spectrum because both are the result of an attempt made. Creative people look at failure as a stopover on way to success, just a step away from it.

]]> http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/16-habits-of-highly-creative-people/feed/ 48 http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/how-to-purposefully-increase-our-natural-creativity/ http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/how-to-purposefully-increase-our-natural-creativity/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:59:40 +0000 Shalu Wasu http://tickledbylife.com/site/?p=357

There are three different kinds of creative responses.

Back-to-the-wall creativity

There are times when you are stuck in a difficult situation. Your back is to the wall. Your survival instinct comes into play very strongly. There is no option but to find your way out.

Suddenly your mind becomes very creative. It is as if you had a huge reserve of creative energy which is now available to you in one powerful burst. You do your best to come out of the predicament you have got into. And you do.

You can call this sort of creativity back-to-the-wall creativity. You are compelled to be creative because your survival is at stake. You find a solution because you can’t afford not to.

Manna-from-heaven creativity

You are driving on a highway. The weather is great. The landscape is beautiful. There is something in the air that connects you to some childhood memory. Soon your mind starts flitting from one memory to another. You feel very good.

Suddenly, something wells up in you and you are struck by a perfect solution to an unresolved issue. Or it can be a blockbuster of an idea capable of changing the course of your life. How it happens is a mystery.

You can call this sort of creativity manna-from-heaven creativity. It happens unexpectedly. It is a godsend. Some connections are made and magically an idea knocks at your door.

Conscious-and-purposeful creativity

You want to design a new product or launch a new service. Or maybe you are just looking for ways to enhance productivity. You consciously look for a creative solution. You collect all the information.

You get other people’s views.

You look at the problem from several angles and examine it clinically. You spend sleepless nights racking your brains. Then after several days of hard work, you hit upon the perfect solution. You are happy that your efforts have borne fruit.

You can call this sort of creativity conscious-and-purposeful creativity. This is the result of effort, hard work and discipline. It is a cool-headed, deliberate attempt to arrive at a creative solution.

It is all well-earned!

All three kinds of creativity have their due place in life. While the third kind is the result of your own sweat, the first two kinds are seemingly dependent on outside circumstances.

Interestingly, when you use the third kind of creativity more often, it sharpens your creative responses and builds some kind of a ‘reserve’ of creativity in you. It has the effect of enhancing your overall creativity including the first and second kinds.

While the third kind of creativity is obviously ‘well-earned’, the first two kinds are no less so because eventually they too are more or less dependent on the ‘reserve’ built by the third kind!

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

1. Get the audience to stop looking at the screen IMMEDIATELY.

There are times when you feel that you are losing the audience Рwhen ironically they are too busy checking out your wonderful slide! You are about to make an important point and you want the audience to focus on what YOU are saying and not look at the slide that you have put up! The solution is simple – press the key ‘B’ for the screen to go black or ‘W’ for the screen to go white. All heads will turn towards you! Hit ‘B’ or ‘W’ again to bring back the slide show.

2. Know how the slides will behave when you are making them!

When I am preparing a presentation, I do like to check how the slide will behave in the slide show mode. The fastest way to check out the slide is to hold down the CTRL key while clicking the slide show view button; this will open a tiny preview window showing that slide in slide show mode.

3. Draw on the screen for a dramatic effect!

Sometimes it can be valuable to be able to draw on the screen during your presentation to illustrate a particular point or item. Press the Ctrl-P key together to display a pen on the screen. Then, using the mouse, draw on the slide as you wish. To erase what you have drawn, press the E key. To hide pen, press the Ctrl-H key combination. This one is my favourite! It is simple, is very effective and it usually leaves the audience dazzled!

4. Insert YouTube Videos in your presentation

Inserting regular videos in presentations is simple, but how about YouTube videos? Using videos at any stage in your presentation can liven things up very quickly! Since YouTube is the biggest repository of videos, once you are able to insert YouTube videos you will never be short of an interesting video for your presentation. Here is how to go about it.

1. Identify the video and the url on YouTube
2. Go to www.mediaconvertor.org and paste the url
3. Follow the simple instructions to download and save the file (download it in the AVI format)
4. That’s it! Now you can insert this video like any other normal video. (Insert ‚Äì> Movie ‚Äì> “Movie from file” to put the YouTube video in the current slide)

5. Oh! But I never received the ppt.

If you are tired of people telling you that they never received the ppt file which you had emailed to them for the third time, probably the size is too high and cannot go through their mail box! If zipping up the file is not helping, try changing the BMP files to JPEGS. Sometimes, as you’re working on a presentation, you’ll notice that the file seems to get bigger for no reason. To get rid of this “bloating”, save the file using “File/Save As” and give the file a new name. ¬†This can reduce the file size up to 50%.

6. Use any symbol you want

Till recently I was not able to insert these and then I came across this simple solution!

• To insert the copyright ¬© symbol, enter (c).
• To insert the Trademark ‚Ñ¢ symbol enter ™.
• To insert the registered ¬Æ symbol enter (r).

You can make your own special symbol shortcuts in Tools > AutoCorrect (copy from character map and paste into replace with…).

7. Leave handouts when you finish but make them special

In ‘Avoiding Death by PowerPoint’ I recommended never distributing handouts before the presentation. In the same article I also pushed for slides with little or no text (only pictures). It may be a great idea though to leave a handout that would reinforce or strengthen your key points. Now, slides with no text are great for presentations but do not make good handouts! I like sending my PowerPoint slides to MS Word and then creating my handouts (if any). Here is how to go about it.

1. Choose Send To from the File menu.

2. Select Microsoft Office Word from the resulting submenu.

3. In the Send To Microsoft Office Word dialog, choose the Outline Only option to send only the content.

4. Click OK.

Once your content is in Word, you can apply formatting and printing options that aren’t available to you in PowerPoint.

If you use PowerPoint 2007, you can use the Publish command to send content to Word. Choose Publish from the Office menu and then choose Create Handouts In Microsoft Office Word.

8. Confused between different versions of the same presentation? Identify differences in a jiffy. (This trick does not work in PowerPoint 2002/XP)

Many times, I end up with multiple versions of the same presentation – modified for different audiences/occasions. So much so that I forget what were the changes made in each of the versions. This is the easy way out.

• Load both presentations into PowerPoint.
• Make sure you’re on normal slide view (edit mode).
• And both presentations are on page one.
• Set the page zoom to “Fit”.
• Here’s the interesting part . . . Hold down the CTRL key.
• Press the “Tab” key.
• Press it repeatedly or even hold it on.
• Any changes between the two presentations will stand out like a sore thumb!
• You can repeat for all slides.

9. A great looking summary or opening slide in no time!

1. Open your presentation in PowerPoint.

2. Click the “View” menu.

3. Select “Slide Sorter”.

4. PowerPoint will then display a miniature view of all your slides in your presentation. You may like to choose a smaller viewing size to display all your slides. This is done by clicking the “edit” menu, select “zoom” or by clicking the “zoom” button Then enter a really small number, like 25.

5. Select every slide that you would like to include in the summary slide:

To select multiple slides, press and hold: – use the “shift” key for PowerPoint 97 – use the “Ctrl” key for PowerPoint 2000 2002 XP while you select the slides you would like to include with the left mouse button

6. When you have selected all the slides. Click the “Summary Slide” button.

7. PowerPoint will then create a summary slide from all the “titles” of the slides you selected. It will be placed in front of the first slide that you selected.

Unfortunately, this feature does not exist in Office 2007. If you use office 2007, you will need to create a summary slide manually.

10. Changed you mind about the case (upper case/ lower case)? Avoid any rework.

I often start by using upper case in my presentations only to change my mind later and switch to lower case. But I no longer need to do any rework! To save rewriting all the text again in the correct case, PowerPoint has a handy function to help you cycle through various case settings of your selected text until your text is as you wish it to be.

To change the case settings of your text:

• Select the text.
• Press Shift+F3
• Continue to press Shift+F3 until the correct case settings appear on your text, for example, ALL CAPS, or ALL LOWER CASE, or grammatically correct text.

11. Oh! As I mentioned on slide 21…(which was 42 slides ago)

While making a presentation there may be occasions when you need to refer to an earlier slide. Usually that means pressing the back key many times till you reach the desired slide. This process is clumsy and not professional and can distract the audience. Here is the solution:

Hit the slide number you want to display and press ‘Enter.’ Note down the current slide number to use when you want to resume the slideshow (good idea to keep a printout of your slideshow for slide numbers).

12. Get rid of the irritating pointer

During a presentation, it is very annoying to have the pointer (the little arrow) come on the screen while you are speaking. It causes movement on the screen and draws the audience attention from the presenter to the screen. The pointer comes on when the mouse is moved during the presentation. To prevent this from happening, after the Slide Show view has started, press the Ctrl-H key combination. This prevents mouse movement from showing the pointer. If you need to bring the pointer on screen after this, press the A key.

13. Presenter view

PowerPoint has a great feature called Presenter View, which allows you the presenter to see a different view of the presentation from your audience. In Presenter View, your monitor shows not only the slides, but also your notes as well as the current elapsed time in the presentation. This makes giving a presentation far easier. To enable Presenter view, go to the Slide Show ribbon and check Use Presenter View. In that same section, you can also change the monitor which the presentation is shown on. (The Use Presenter View checkbox can only be checked if you already have a second monitor connected and enabled)

14. Become a super-presenter with these short cuts!

Some of these may be obvious for many of you but I hope you find something new here! Once you get used to them, these tricks will save you a lot of time.

• Ctrl +A: Select all
• Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V: Cut, Copy and Paste the selected object (respectively). Works even better when you use it together with Alt+Tab.
• Ctrl+Z: Undo.
• Ctrl+B: Make the selected text bold.
• Ctrl+I: Make the selected text Italicized.
• Ctrl +T: PowerPoint will bring up a Font dialog box, where you can easily change your fonts, style, size, color effects, and color.
• Ctrl+H: Go to the next hidden slide
• Shft+F3: Whenever you change your mind about using upper case or lower case, (I do this all the time) use
• Shift+F3 to switch case from UPPER, lower, and Initial Caps.
• Ctrl+Home, Ctrl+End (Function+Home or Function+End in some machines): In Outline view, move to the top and bottom of the presentation, respectively. Within a slide, move to the top or bottom of the placeholder text. In slide show mode, move to first or last slide.
• Ctrl+S: Save a presentation.
• Ctrl+M : Insert a new slide. It is automatically copy the layout of the current slide.
• Ctrl+D: Make a duplicate of the selected slide (or selected object). This command is much faster than a copy and paste.
• F7: Check spelling, prevent embarrassment I love it!
• F5: Run a slide show.
• Page Down: In a slide show, move to the next slide.
• Page Up: In a slide show, move to the previous slide.
• Esc: In a slide show, press Esc to end the slide show.
• F6: Switch to the next pane (clockwise)
• ALT+SHIFT+ ARROW KEYS: Promote a paragraph / bullet point, demote a paragraph / bullet point, move a bullet point up or down.
• F4 or CTRL+Y: Repeat your last action
• CTRL+BACKSPACE : Delete a word
• CTRL+K: Insert a hyperlink
• Ctrl+Shift+>: Increase font size
• Ctrl+Shift+<: Decrease font size
• Ctrl+Spacebar: Remove formatting from selected text

I hope you could find something useful from my bag of PowerPoint tricks. Do let me know your favourite PowerPoint trick in the comments below.

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.

I realized I was “different” through occasional reminders such as this:  when walking to school in New York many years ago, someone yelled, “Ni Hao Ma?” (i.e. How Are You?) from a block away.  I looked back and a fellow college student I didn’t recognize started waving frantically and flashing his electric smile and blazing white teeth at me.  I wondered what I’ve done to deserve such warmth and friendliness from someone I didn’t know.  Was it simply the color of my skin?

I learned in a flash that you could turn your “weaknesses” into your strengths.  In PR terms, you could brand yourself through your USP, your Unique Selling Proposition.  Instead of denying my background and experiences, I decided to embrace them.

I would carve a career and eventually launch my own PR firm leveraging my understanding of Asia and Asian companies to support them in penetrating the American mainstream.

I would pitch to reporters in my natural accent influenced by all the places I have lived.  And because it was slightly different from a pure American accent, the reporters seemed to remember my voice and my pitches, and soon became my friends and willing contemplators of story ideas.

Can you think of people you know who have turned their weaknesses into strengths?

Our current president Barack Obama did not have the pedigree of a Kennedy, but he leveraged his bi-racial background and his humble international upbringing to win hundreds of millions of supporters around the world.  Take a moment to contemplate your “weaknesses.”   Perhaps they are really your strengths and can be turned into your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) with a little creativity and panache?

1.    Do not work with your mail box open.

Do NOT leave your mail box open when you are working. You will end up checking every new mail that arrives and deal with it immediately. Give more respect to your work. Do not let emails disturb you and break your flow unless your work IS checking mail. I am NEVER able to stick to my schedule if I work with my mail box open. Also, if you are working on something important and an important mail pops in, not only does it take away focus and attention but is also a waste of time because you are anyway going to respond to it later after you have finished the task on hand. Just knowing that an important mail has come in does not help at all!

2.    Using MS Outlook (not outlook express) to manage all your email accounts – company, yahoo, gmail, ymail, etc.

There are huge benefits of doing this. Doing this alone saves me 15-20 minutes every day.

• You do not need to login again and again into separate accounts to check mail.
• When you are sending mail, Outlook allows you to choose the email ID you want to send from.
• All your mails are in one Outlook account. Therefore if you need to take a back up or transfer account to another PC, it can be done in one shot rather than taking multiple backups.

3.    Use rules to manage incoming emails.

For example my mails coming in from different sources – key customers, partners, Linkedin, Facebook, Mybloglog, Yahoo groups, etc., all get deposited into different folders that I have designated for the same. Makes it easier to respond to and find old emails.

4.    Check mail at predetermined times.

Bunch up checking of mail at predetermined times. I try to limit this to twice a day and I do not stretch beyond thrice. I usually do this at my ‘low productivity time’ – usually afternoon or late at night, thereby using up more productive time for better things.

5.    Check mail ONLY when you have time to respond.

The worst situation is having an email pop in that requires a response which may require some time to think. In this situation I simply used to add the mail to the to-reply list and get back to whatever I was doing. This is such a waste of time. Now I only check mails, when I am prepared to respond to them at the same time – however, difficult/inconvenient/time consuming it may be.

6.    Bunch up low priority email.

Examples of low priority mail are – messages from Facebook, Linkedin, Yahoo groups, newsletter, forwards etc. I let these mails bunch up automatically in pre-designated folders and deal with them even less often – once a day and sometimes once a week.

7.    Using Auto Response

Most of us attach undue importance to being able to respond quickly to emails. Thus, we are constantly struggling with eating food with one hand while replying on our Blackberry with the other. If we are travelling or otherwise unable to access mail for more than 24 hours, simply use an auto response with a number where you can be contacted in case of an emergency.  Separate auto responses can be configured for different people as well and that makes this feature even more effective.

8.    Do a regular clean up of the folders.

Doing a regular clean up (I do it roughly once a month) has 1 minor and 1 major benefit.
• I delete all unwanted mail and keep things light (minor benefit).
• I am able to get ideas about
o What leads to go after.
o Which friends have I not been in touch with.
o Which customers am I neglecting.

9.    Scan through junk folder before emptying.

Sometimes useful and legitimate emails land up in the junk box. Through experience I have realized that the best way to deal with this is to do a regular scan through the junk folder before emptying it. I have found some gems in there.

10.    If you HAVE to, mark it unread.

If there is an email that you are simply unable to respond to and you need to respond to it later, mark it unread so that it does not get missed out.

11.    Write mails now and auto send them later!

Outlook also offers a feature to write a mail and send it at a pre-determined time and date. I find this very useful in certain business situations, not to mention sending happy birthday mails. The mail stays in the Outbox till the magic hour arrives.

–

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.

When still a baby, the elephant is tethered by a very thick rope to a stake firmly hammered into the ground.

The elephant tries several times to get free, but it lacks the strength to do so. After some time, the animal gives up trying, believing that it cannot be free.

At this point, the trainer changes the thick rope to a thin one but the elephant makes no attempt to run away. Even when the elephant reaches adulthood, it continues to be tethered by a thin rope, reconciled to its captivity.

As you grow up and gain experience, you absorb assumptions which then drive your life and limit your choices. They are similar to the elephant’s thin rope tied to a post. You can break away from them with a simple tug if you want to but you don’t.

As you acquire more and more experience, your repertoire of blind assumptions grows too, correspondingly limiting your choices. Your experience becomes a hindrance in your being creative.

Here is a list of 15 elephant tethers that possibly hold you back from being creative. Look at them and do identify the ones that apply to you. Are you willing to do something about them and break free?

Tether 1. What will people think?

Your selfconsciousness is one big hurdle in your being creative. You don’t even try to do so many things in life because you are afraid of making a fool of yourself. You waste a lot of your energy in protecting yourself and presenting a ‘good’ image.

You had no such inhibitions as a child and therefore you were naturally creative. It is perhaps the fear of the unknown and what might happen that makes you selfconscious. It holds you back and hinders your creativity.

When you walk into something in spite of the fear, it simply vanishes because by then the unknown turns into the known. The trick is not to think in terms of conquering fear but being with it.

When you let go of your selfconsciousness, you turn more creative.

Tether 2. But I’ve never had any great ideas!

Most people don’t have enough opportunities to bring out their creativity. So their creative abilities remain untapped. It seems to make no difference because not being creative is not too inconvenient.

Being creative is actually a search for a better way and in today’s world most solutions come ready-made. Most of the things that you do have been researched and the ‘best’ ways to do them have been arrived at.

Most people follow the standard ‘best’ ways without questioning Рhow to clean teeth, how to reach office, etc. They do a great number of tasks automatically.

Trying a ‘different way’ may in fact be inconvenient in most situations Рdriving speed, the route to office, how to tie your shoe knots, standing in the queues, etc.

Most of these automatic ways are perhaps good. By sticking with them, you are able to accomplish many tasks without thinking. They save time but you end up with the habit of not thinking afresh.

Over time, you develop attitudes and assumptions which prevent you from thinking creatively, locking you into the existing ways of thinking and doing things. You become a prisoner of familiarity. You never have great ideas.

As a result, even when the need arises for you to think differently and generate new ideas, you are unable to do so.

Tether 3. What is the right answer?

One of the worst aspects of formal education is the focus on the correct answer to a question or problem. When somebody asks a question, you generally give an acceptable answer instead of an original one fearing it might be wrong.

While this approach helps you to function smoothly in society, it hurts creative thinking. Real-life issues are ambiguous. There is no one single answer to any problem. There can be several answers if only you think about them. They may all be contradictory and yet correct.

Tether 4. I don’t want to fail.

The fear of failure is something that you learn in school…and it never just goes away. All through school, you perhaps take hundreds of tests, exams, assignments, etc. You are in one big trouble if you fail even once. You are scared of failure.

By the time you finish school, the fear of failure has seeped into your system and you avoid situations which could result in failure. You are extra-careful about whatever you take up. You play safe.

The fear of failure does not let you try new things, crippling your creativity.

Tether 5. That’s not my area.

Creativity requires finding connections between unrelated things. The diversity of your interests and experiences enhances your ability to find connections.

When you explore completely unrelated areas, you are pleasantly surprised by the interrelatedness of almost everything. You start seeing new possibilities when you discover new connections.

In an era of hyper-specialization, the scope of work is getting narrower and narrower. Loss of creativity is the immediate casualty.

When you just stick to your area, you hinder your creativity.

Tether 6. I don’t like uncertainty.

If you are not confused, you are not thinking clearly – Tom Peters

When people are confused, they feel compelled to resolve the situation quickly, making it systematic and orderly again. They are likely to miss the key issues in their haste to do so.

There is something in the culture or perhaps in the education system, which makes people want to be ‘knowers’ rather than ‘find-outers’.

This attachment to ‘knowing’ makes you feel jittery and inept when you ‘don’t know’. This tendency is so engrained that even small kids begin to lose their curiosity in order to become ‘knowers’.

However, when it comes to creative thinking, not knowing is a good thing and ambiguity is a great thing. Certainty is the enemy of creativity.

If you are certain about something, you don’t have much leeway to generate new ideas to solve problems.

Tether 7. That’s the way it is done!

The need for standard ways of doing things is perfectly legitimate. But then it gives rise to an ever increasing number of rules that govern people’s lives.

While some of the rules are legitimate, some are totally unfounded. They are not very different from the thin rope that tethers the elephant.

Tether 8. Everyone says so.

When all think alike, then no one is thinking. — Walter Lippman

The desire to belong is a powerful one and at times it leads to ‘groupthink’. This herd approach is probably a relic from the cave age. It is important to have a mind of your own in order to be creative.

Tether 9. How can a boss lose face ever?

Bosses are generally hung up on being always right. It is unimaginable for them to be proved wrong. They just can’t afford to lose face. Such over-protection of their ego hinders their creativity.

Employees almost always tend to go along with bosses. While harmless minor disagreements are okay, they are careful not to have a difference of opinion when it comes to larger issues.

No boss can be creative if he is surrounded by people who can’t dare to contradict him. He will be provoked into thinking creatively only when his views are challenged by someone.

Tether 10. My work is so boring.

One of the perils of over specialization is repetitive and uninteresting work. It makes you resentful, robbing you of your creative urges.

Tether 11. Smart people respond quickly.

When quick response is valued, you avoid deep thinking missing out on the finer points of an issue. You start giving out readymade answers. In trying to be smart, you sacrifice creative possibilities.

Tether 12. I feel safe when I am like everyone else.

People start off as unique beings. They are very different from each other as children and young adults with their very own likes and dislikes.

Yet, as if by magic, they get into a common mould after they reach their thirties. Their likes, dislikes, wants, needs and goals somehow begin to converge. They seem to become more and more like one another.

As a result, their creative abilities suffer.

Tether 13. I have strong views and firm opinions.

There are people who pride themselves for having firm stands and being inflexible. They have strong views and unshakable opinions. They are too judgmental.

Being judgmental means blocking or ignoring other points of views. It means reducing your options and leaving your mind with much less to work with. It is then reflected in your ability to generate ideas and solutions.

When you are nonjudgmental, you have an open mind. You have more choices. Being nonjudgmental reduces the surface functioning of your mind, stimulating its deeper functioning.

Then you allow your unconscious mind to throw up more ideas into your conscious mind. You are more creative.

Tether 14. Why keep thinking unnecessarily when I have found the answer?

Such is the hurry to find a solution that people are satisfied with the first one that comes to their mind. They stop thinking further.

However, if you don’t share your ‘first’ idea and keep thinking more and more, the subsequent ones are sure to be better.

The more you think, the more the chances to find better solutions. You never know when you will hit the jackpot.

Tether 15. Self-fulfilling prophecy

Two similarly qualified groups of engineers in a company were exhibiting different levels of creativity.

The two groups were alike in all respects. In the research subsequently conducted by the company, there was only one finding.

The difference between the two groups was that engineers on one group believed that ‘I am creative’ and engineers from the other group believed otherwise.

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/49-weeks-to-nirvana/ http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/49-weeks-to-nirvana/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:35:53 +0000 Shalu Wasu http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/?p=3327 I have decided to incorporate a new habit/attitude every week for the next 49 weeks. Every week, I will try to add on/inculcate a new habit or attitude. All these 49 may not be for you. Do pick up the ones that resonate with you and add some of your own too!

I will of course keep updating my progress. So can you.

1. Exercise

Everyone knows regular exercise can do wonders for your body and mind! Start small, keep it simple and keep going!

2. Learn to reframe any situation

A reframe is a different way of looking at things. Being able to reframe experiences and situations is a very powerful skill which can help to generate ideas from a different perspective. Read this article – Reframing a situation for creative ideas.

3. Figure out what time to get up

People fret so much about what is the best time to get up in the morning. Getting up early seems to work for a lot of people, but it is not for everyone. The only way to find out the hours when you are most productive is to experiment. So try getting up early for a few days and try moving to a different pattern every few days. Stick to the one that feels most natural and productive. For me, getting up early has never worked, so I work late and get up late.

4. Remove blame from your relationships

Stopping the blame game will remove negative energy and pay rich dividends. Check out these articles – On living life and building relationships without blame, Mars and Venus as each other’s teachers.

5. Patience is bliss

I admire people who do not lose their patience. I am what a lot of people would call a very patient guy, but I see a lot of benefits in developing this habit even more. The good thing is that patience is a skill that can be cultivated. “It’s in my genes” is not a good excuse.

6. Empathize

There is a very old American Indian saying that we should not judge a man till we have walked for a mile in his shoes.

When we look at any situation from our point of view, we are looking for options, ideas and solutions from one point of view. However if we try and look at any situation from another person’s point of view, the options, solutions and ideas that we will get will change and most of the time for the better! If we can make it a habit to look at each situation from multiple points of view, the options, ideas and solutions available to us will also multiply. This is particularly so in situations related to personal relationships. When we have a sense of empathy, there are greater chances that our solutions will be WIN-WIN rather than WIN-LOSE.

7. Passion rocks

Everything seems to fall in place if YOU have figured out what drives you. If you have lost your passion (or never had any) for your work or relationships, figure out a way to get it back. (Changing jobs is 112 times easier than doing the same to your relationships though!) Check out this article – Passion is your real wealth!

8. Eat healthy

Again, a no brainer but so important. Your body (including your brain) is made up of the food you eat. What do you want it to be made up of?

9. Cut down one recurring task every week

It could be putting your bills on auto pilot, some money automatically getting deposited into your savings account, creating rules for your email to get deposited into different folders, electronic payments instead of depositing cheques, delegating responsibility and authority, or outsourcing.

10. Make friends with failure

Failure has such negative connotations, and yet failure is what brings us closer to success every time. Many times failure is essential for us to move on to the next level. Find more in this article – I love to fail.

11. Get comfortable with ambiguous situations

Generally we are uncomfortable with uncertainty. When we are in this state, we feel irritable. We try and resolve the uncertainty in order to be 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.

12. Be curious

A curious mind enables you to see what most people generally miss. By keeping your curiosity and a sense of wonder alive, you spur your mind to create new channels of thought. You find new connections and become more creative. Check out this article – Is curiosity a cousin of creativity?

13. Live with a purpose

Have a ‘big goal’ in life. Life without a big goal is dull, meaningless and boring. After you have determined your ‘big goal’, make sure that every day takes you closer to the big goal.

14. Have fun on the way

It is important to work towards big goals and even more important to have fun on the way. The goals are a means to have fun on the way!

15. Have a soulmate

To live is to relate. When you have a relationship of deep affinity, empathy and mutual trust with someone, you have a sense of completion and life suddenly starts feeling rich and bright.

16. Take on debt

Yes, you read that right! Very few people have grown very rich without leveraging. So, be cautious but take on healthy debt. Just make sure your returns are more than the cost of money though!

17. Enjoy the simple pleasures

The simple pleasures are more satisfying, longer lasting and often free! So try sleeping in late, lie down in the grass, stomp in a puddle, call in sick and go for a movie, help someone anonymously. A good idea is to make a list of 25 of these and make sure you do tick off a few every day!

18. Learn to say No

Being able to say NO is perhaps the most useful productivity tool out there. Check out this article for more on this subject – Say NO and feel great!

19. Peace-of-mind fund

Again, something basic but very useful if you have not already worked on it. Having an emergency cash fund that will last you 6 months will give you an extra punch in your next discussion with your boss!

20. Cut down on the news

Watching or reading most news is useless and depressing. A lot of it is an attempt to influence your mind anyway. Give yourself a break. Stop watching or reading news. If something is worth knowing, you will get to know!

21. Create family time

Just do it. You know in your guts that it is the most important thing. Go with your gut feel. Do not allow your conscious mind to win on this one.

22. Be yourself

Don’t waste your energy in wearing masks. Paradoxically, no transformation is possible without self-acceptance.

23. Learn to lose!

Losing an argument (and not feeling bad) is absolutely wonderful for relationships. You’ve got to try it and see for yourself. But remember, the key is losing an argument and not carrying any negative feelings forward.

24. Get out

A lot of us have forgotten the great outdoors! When we are not in our cubicle, we are probably watching TV or surfing the net. The same is true for kids. Spending time in a park or near a lake is therapeutic!

25. Delegate

It’s better for both of you! Find out more here – Dare to delegate.

26. Boost your self-worth

You are what you think. Stop comparing. You are one in six billion with unique strengths. Take some time to appreciate yourself for all your wonderful qualities. It may be worth it to check out what qualities all your friends see in you! Also, keep it in mind that you are never too small to make an impact!

27. Do not fear rejection

The fear of rejection is worse than the rejection itself! Check out Dealing with rejection in your job, you are approved! Certified, signed and stamped by YOU! and Fear of rejection

28. Use email efficiently

It is not uncommon to save many hours a week by being more efficient with your emails. Check out - I save 1 hour every day by using simple email tricks!

29. Hang around young people once in a while

Apart from making you feel energetic, this will trigger off a lot of ideas and probably open up your mind to what is the next big thing.

30. Learn how to present better

Presentation skills are very important. The good thing is that most of us have lousy presentation skills and so it is easy to stand out! Take a look at my first attempts at standing out – Avoiding death by Power Point.

31. If you smoke, quit!

I do not need to read any more. Read this if you are not convinced. – Kick the butt. Get a Life!

32. Brand yourself

In the world that we live in, it is important to treat yourself as a brand. Read this article – Success through Personal Branding!

33. Learn mind mapping

Mind maps are helpful in generating tons of ideas quickly. Read – My journey with Mind Maps.

34. Be more creative

“The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” – George Lois.

Creativity can solve almost any problem. Read these popular articles. Why be creative?, 16 habits of highly creative people and 15 elephant tethers that stop you from being creative!

35. Be good at saying sorry

When you say sorry something magical happens and the world conspires to make you win! Look people in the eye when you say sorry.

36. Be fantastic at saying thank you

Repeat.

37. Keep learning something

Never stop challenging yourself. You could learn a new language, build a website, start a blog, or write a book.

38. Imagine

Some people call it day dreaming! It just works wonders as relaxant and of course it helps in boosting your creativity. Imagination is visualizing something that is not there. It is seeing something with your mind’s eye. It is the bridge between ‘what is’ and ‘what can be’! Check out – Is imagination another cousin of creativity?

39. Stay Positive in negative situations

“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

40. Be aware that you are procrastinating

Procrastination itself may not be bad. It may simply be your mind telling you to go slow or maybe your subconscious mind does not agree with a rational decision that the conscious mind has made. Just be aware so that it may not become a bad habit. This might help – Understanding and Overcoming Procrastination

41. Review your day

A very useful habit that helps to keep the focus and helps to plan the next day. Just 2 minutes before going off to sleep may be enough.

42. Do not bust other people’s ideas

Even the ability to come up with ideas of your own does not give you the right to bust other people’s ideas. Read this useful article. – Idea Busters at the work place!

43. Keeping in touch with old friends

This is something that I am very bad at. My plan is to make one phone call to a forgotten friend every week.

44. Don’t keep doing ‘something’

Being busy sometimes becomes a habit. We feel uncomfortable when we are doing ‘nothing’. Don’t let that happen to you. It is simply wonderful not to be doing anything (sometimes!).

45. Smile

Something so basic and yet so powerful!

46. Assume the other person genuinely likes you

You will be surprised at the remarkable change in your relationship.

47. Break your regular patterns

Don’t let your brain get too comfortable! Shake it up every now and then. Take a different route home, cook something no one has ever cooked before, go for a movie during lunch time.

48. Get to the root

Every problem usually has 2 solutions. A temporary fix and a permanent solution. A permanent solution may require more time and effort initially but it is in almost all situations, the better choice.

49. Learn to unlearn

Sometimes it seems that the whole world is trying to teach us something. It is overwhelming and can get you into a rut. It is important to do a regular clean up exercise. Check this out – The power of unlearning

See you in Shangri La!