A Scratched Disc?

Thinking of new solutions to old problems

A Scratched Disc?

The room was filled with people.  And silence!  The silence was anticipated as well as disappointing.

It was anticipated because it was the same result I’d had for over fifty-nine years.  So, perhaps I need to change the work anticipated to expected?  It was also disappointing because I was trying to get a different result than silence.  Why was I still hoping for a different result when the progression of fifty-nine years loudly proclaimed failure?  My thinking pattern had become stuck!

Being stuck in one particular thinking pattern is akin to watching a scratched Blu-ray disc.  I was watching a movie on such a disc a couple of weeks ago.  The film was progressing just fine until it hit the scratch.  Then the story and pictures were frozen!  One still photo filled the screen with no movement.  The sound stopped.  The story stopped.

 It wasn’t until I tried several functions to get around the scratch that I could progress through the movie again.  Still, no matter how I tried, I was unable to view the scenes ruined by the scratch.  They were unrecoverable!

Yes.  Specific scenes were unrecoverable, but the story, in virtual entirety, was still mine to enjoy, see, hear and finish.  All it took for this wonderful result was a little change in the way I was interacting with the Blu-ray player and its cradled disc.

Small changes in the way we approach problems will make a world of difference and a different world!  The next time I met with the same people in the same room I had enjoyed a different result.  Here’s what I found to work:

First, recognize that you will likely get the same result by doing the same thing over and over again!  I finally asked myself, “Why have you been thinking that doing the same thing will somehow, magically give you a different result?”

Second, sometimes tradition, what we’ve learned over a lifetime, hasn’t worked well over several life times!  I’ve found that this is often the case.  Failing traditions can be overcome by changing asked questions.  What is the result I’m looking for?

Third, use information and experience from the past by applying it in a different manner.  Have you ever reread a book and gained new insight from the same, oft reviewed words or story?

Finally, have courage to change.  I’m often afraid to seek a new result by changing my behavior, even when my new thinking has opened opportunity.  What causes you and me to seek the perceived safety of a rut?

I looked at the people in the room, the people stuck in the rut I had created.  I worried about what they would think of me when my approach was changed.  Would they react negatively?  Would my new thinking cause a new problem?

The room was filled with people.  And silence!  The silence was short lived!  In one second, I heard, “thank you” from someone in the room!  I was not disappointed!  New thinking!  New approach!  Different result!

Can you think of new solutions to old problems?

Taming Chaos

“In 1912, Lester Wire, a policeman in Salt Lake City developed the first traffic signal in the United States.  He was the first to innovate through the use of red-green lights.  It was he who, when sharing my plight of being surrounded by and sometimes even threatened by cars in this very city, used his mind and wit to tame chaos into order.”

Taming Chaos

The rain was pelting my car windows as a rapid pace.  It was coming down hard and fast.  You know what its like.  As I was driving toward my destination I could hear the water hit the glass in front of my face.  I also heard it pounding on the top of the roof and, perhaps most impactful, I could hear and almost feel the crashing of water waves in the wheel wells.  The weather certainly had my attention!

I was surrounded by water and by cars so I was giving my driving complete attention.  That’s because at this very moment, my entire world felt as if it had been plunged into chaos.  Perhaps it felt this way because it was obvious that I was in control of very little.

I had no control over the amount of rain that was falling.  I had no control over the number of cars on the freeway.  And, I certainly had no control over the way others were wielding they automobiles all around me.  Even time, the weather enticed me to leave extra early, was slipping past at an alarming rate.  I was going to be late for my appointment.

I took a deep sigh as soon as I realized that I was, for now, in an appointment with unwanted chaos.  I could see little but the intermittent glare of red in front of me.  Tail lights!  They were almost hypnotic.

“Don’t follow the lights!”  I thought to myself, giggling, as one of my favorite movie quotes flashed in my mind.

It was chaos all right!  Rain, thousands of cars, and red light were a dismal signal of chaos in Salt Lake City.  I felt defeated.  That is, I felt defeated until all of this reminded me of one, small at the time, innovation involving traffic, red light and a policeman.

In 1912, Lester Wire, a policeman in Salt Lake City developed the first traffic signal in the United States.  He was the first to innovate through the use of red-green lights.  It was he who, when sharing my plight of being surrounded by and sometimes even threatened by cars in this very city, used his mind and wit to tame chaos into order.

I looked ahead again at the rain, cars and twinkling of reds lights.  I began to feel peaceful as soon as I realized that the most significant way I could deal with a world seemingly in undefeatable chaos is to recognize it for what it is, opportunity!

The rain was pelting my car windows as a rapid pace.  It was coming down hard and fast.  You know what its like.  It reminded me that I was driving toward opportunity!  I could hear the water hit the glass in front of my face.  I also heard it pounding on the top of the roof and, perhaps most impactful, I could hear and almost feel the crashing of water waves in the wheel wells all reminding me that Chaos is opportunity.  The promise of Opportunity certainly had my attention!

The Being Change Dividend

“Nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. According to IBM, the build out of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours.” – David Russell Schilling

The Being Change Dividend

I first learned of the famous physicist Buckminster Fuller and his “Knowledge Doubling Curve” about fifteen years ago while working to increase my professional skills while participating in a sales training series.  Dr. Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve” when he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today things are not as simple as different types of knowledge have different rates of growth.

For example, a few years ago when he wrote about the “knowledge curve,” David Russell Schilling, who enjoys research and writing about cutting edge technologies that hold the promise of improving conditions for all life on planet earth, said “nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. According to IBM, the build out of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours.” 

“When one combines this knowledge tsunami with its accompanying pace of economic, social and political change happening, seemingly everywhere, is it any wonder that many of us are simply living in an overwhelmed state of being?”  I thought to myself as I scanned news headlines over the past week.

“Swarm of earthquakes continues to rattle Soda Springs, Idaho.”  “Could three hurricanes cripple large portions of the United States?”  I was reading and wondering at the news and that’s when I had a new thought.

“It seems as if the universe is working to get our attention!”  I muttered to myself as I pondered my part in all of this.  “I’ve been thinking of myself as simply being affected by all of this change and upheaval.  What if I simply shift my view ever so slightly?  What if I use my core belief that the purpose of life is to be schooled and combine it with this ever increasing pace of change?”

Everything around us is actively participating in change, whether it, or we, want to or not.  It could be argued that you and I are being forced to change as a result of our commotional environment.  So, I asked, “Would embracing change in a proactive way alter our perception of continuous change?”  I’m not sure yet!  And, I’ve begun to embrace a new approach.

This new approach is to begin to look at our engulfing commotion and actively ask, “What can I learn from this?  How can this experience help me to become better?”  Actively asking these two simple questions has already begun to pay huge dividends.  Its what I call the “Being Change Dividend.”

The “Being Change Dividend” simply means that rather than fearing what is happening, you and I use the two simple questions in combination with naturally occurring change to increase our own personal growth!  It means we can develop ourselves into something much more powerful than with could without becoming the change!  And, that’s a good thing!

Fresh, Crisp Pages

“One day I’m going to write a book about it!” – Cassandra Banks

Fresh, Crisp Pages

“Are you a writer?” I asked Cassandra in response to her statement about wanting to write a book about her life.

“No, I’m not a writer.” She said.  “I just want to have others benefit from what I’ve gone through.

“I’m not a writer?”  I thought as the words were floating on the breeze into my ears.

If ever there was a perfect example of someone taking a crumpled, abused sheet of paper life beginning and turning it into a hardbound, gilded masterpiece storybook life it is Cassandra!

“I grew up in a six foot wide travel trailer with my alcoholic, drug addict father until I was thirteen.” She said as talked together.  “That’s when my boyfriend’s mother adopted me.”

“How did that go?”  I asked.

“It was alright.  But, she had a hard time dealing with me sometimes.  I left to go out on my own when I was eighteen.”

I looked over to her and saw intense emotion expressed on her beautiful face.  It transformed her!  Well, perhaps it was me who was being transformed by who she had become and the life she had created for herself.

I saw her childhood pain and struggle cloud across her face, trying hard to erase the woman she is now.

“My daughter is pregnant and having my first grand child!” She brightly said.

Her inner sun broke through her clouded face.  Her eyes steeled.  And, her determination was fully illuminated by her bright, infectious smile!

“I’m so excited to be a grandmother!”

Cassandra is excited about her work and her life.  When I asked her what she liked about her job she said, “It’s in my DNA!  I love solving problems for our clients that others don’t think can be solved!  I love learning new things!”

I was learning new things about the vivacious woman I knew.  Rather, the woman I thought I knew.  Over the course of our morning together she had completely rewritten my understanding of who she is.

“Are you a writer?”  I had asked her.  Yes!  Cassandra’s story is one that started on a crumpled, abused sheet of paper.  And, she has shown the entire world that everyone writes his or her own book.  The fresh, crisp pages of her book are voluminous as compared to her beginning chapters!

“Look at you now!”  I said to myself as I gazed at Cassandra’s infectious smile.  “You are a great writer!”