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Digg it UP - Accomplish 20 Times as Much by Avoiding Bad Assumptions That Misdirect Your Efforts
In using our communication skills and abilities how we say something is just as important as what we say. Body language plays an extremely important part of our communication. In fact studies have been done showing that when we interact in a communication process the receiver actually receives 7% of the message verbally. The other 93% is received based on the non-verbal aspects of the message.How we dress, our gestures, facial expressions, posture and body movements are also being received when we verbally communicate with someone. That is why it is very important that our actions and non-verbal signals match what we are saying. When our words do not match our non-verbal signals we confuse the person we are trying to communicate with. When the listener gets their signals crossed this is when misunderstanding occurs.The idea of dress for success came into being based on the idea of how people read a person's physical representation. Like verbal symbols and signs, non verbal symbols like your clothing choices send a message of who you are. For exa
STALLBUSTERS
Encourage Unmasking False Assumptions
A company had assumed for decades that advertising would work only when demand was highest for its seasonally consumed food, yet others promoted similarly seasonable foods all year around. Eventually, an advertising test was run during the lean part of the year, and sales promptly took off.
Here are questions to help you avoid making such false assumptions:
What are the things that your organization assumes will almost always work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will seldom or never work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will probably happen?
What are the things that your organization assumes will be unlikely to happen or will never happen?
On what beliefs are these assumptions based?
Have those beliefs been checked recently?
Are those beliefs still true?
Identify the False Assumptions That Need to Be Immediately Challenged
Some misconceptions require more immediate correction than others. Here are questions to help you set priorities for where to turn your attention first:
Which false assumptions have large potential consequences?
Where can your organization's actions make the largest difference in offsetting false assumptions?
<As we all work hard to grow in our careers, we must not lose sight of what is most important in life. Sure, it's great to drive a great car, live in a comfortable neighborhood and "keep up with the Joneses," but there is more to it all than that. At the root of everything is providing for our families, which are there for us through thick and thin. They are the real reason for our hard work and sacrifice.When you see wealthy neighborhoods, they are impressive. Big homes, well manicured lawns with gardeners to tend to them, and usually, an expensive car in the driveway. Behind every one of those lovely places is a hardworking person or people, who devote much time and energy to affording such a lifestyle. Some have to work harder than others, but in general it is a big job to keep the bills paid on upscale homes.As a child, we lived in one of those homes. It was seven stories tall and was built into the side of a cliff formed by glacial rock. Though it didn't have an elevator, all our neighbors called it, the "Elevator House" because it was tall
MISCONCEPTION: The Danger of False Assumptions Abounds
How is a misconception stall different from a disbelief stall? A disbelief stall is based on something that was once true, but no longer is. A misconception stall is based on a belief that was never true. Here are some examples of harmful misconceptions:
The future can be accurately forecast.
Competitors will stand still while we make rapid progress.
Agreement among colleagues means that issues are understood.
Customers will make the decisions in the same ways they always have.
All long-held assumptions and beliefs should be questioned. Ask yourself:
Is it really true?
If it isn't true, why do people believe it to be true?
What's needed to persuade people to change their beliefs?
Round Out Your View
When only an experiment will do, cross-check your idea in other ways to get a better sense of what you are about to try. Consider Columbus. While some feared sailing west across the Atlantic believing they would fall off the edge of the Earth, Columbus knew better. He had made a point of studying the early Viking explorations of North America. In fact, in 1477, 15 years before heading toward the Caribbean, Columbus visited Iceland to learn more about the northern "islands" across the Atlantic.
Apply Sophisticated Thinking
In his wonderful book, The Unschooled Mind (Basic Books, 1991), cognitive psychologist Professor Howard Gardner argues that people usually think at three different levels. Gardner defines the five-year-old's mind as the first level. Five-year-olds usually live in a world where others take care of them and keep them safe from harm. That belief persists when most people become adults and prevents many from becoming independent, fully functioning adults. Overprotection after age five makes matters worse. Another common example of the five-year-old mind is that confident people falsely believe that they are superior in every way to others. Ask any roomful of five-year-olds if they are terrific at something and almost all will agree.
The second level of thinking develops when training, usually in high school and college, gives teens and young adults a grasp of sophisticated concepts that are counterintuitive to the five-year-old's thought process. Here's the problem: The student memorizes the concepts long enough to pass the examination. But Gardner argues that relatively few adults reach the third level of thinking where they can apply the sophisticated concepts to real-life problems. In the absence of that faculty, almost everyone reverts to the five-year-old's misconceptions for making decisions.
The person who can apply the principles learned in school to a real-life situation becomes a disciplinary expert. But those effectively working minds are few and far between in most organizations. Imagine what could be accomplished if you consciously shed your five-year-old's misconceptions, applied sophisticated adult reasoning to expert knowledge, and questioned common assumptions of the prevailing five-year-old mind.
I'LL GET RIGHT ON IT
Even if people attempt to apply sophisticated thinking, they will still jump to conclusions too often. If service was slow the last two times you went to a given store, you may decide this store will always offer poor service and don't go back. Two experiences do not constitute a trend. It's possible that the manager was away on vacation on both occasions and the rest of the employees took it easy.
The executives of one award-winning multibillion-dollar manufacturer were clearly intelligent, well educated, and widely admired for their decisions. Ever curious, these managers wanted to measure the quality of their decisions. They knew good decision making has to reflect solid statistically based data, and they wondered what statisticians would say about their decisions. Statisticians were assigned to follow the executives around for six months to watch them in action. Almost without exception the executives treated random events as representing what was typically occurring in the business.
Executives were constantly trying to eliminate these few random variations in performance. All this scurrying around kept the executives from having time to work on more promising opportunities for gain. Despite learning this profound insight, the organization faltered by continuing to mistake the actual trends. The lesson: Be sure you are focusing on the areas where action will do the most good.
This example also shows how wide the gap can be between perceptions of management quality and actual effectiveness, another example of misconceptions. You have probably noticed the frequency by which "widely admired" companies rapidly fall from grace as performance plummets.
When the CEO Speaks, People Take Action
Management authority Peter Drucker told us that one of the most dangerous beliefs in organizations is that an increase in brains comes with being promoted. Here's verification of that observation: Executive assistants at selected companies were asked by us what was the single, most important thing their CEOs could do better. The aides spoke almost as one in reporting that anything the CEO said was treated as gospel. Underlings, for instance, scramble to make changes even when the CEO was only asking an innocent question. The CEOs assume that the response would come at little or no cost from someone who already had the answer. Some executive assistants estimated that 25 percent of executive and managerial time in their companies was taken up with answering such casual inquiries and making changes that hadn't, in fact, been requested. The assistants wished someone would advise their CEOs to stop asking casual questions and making off-hand comments because the rest of the organization operates on the misconception that these words are major priorities on which careers will rise and fall.
STALLBUSTERS
Encourage Unmasking False Assumptions
A company had assumed for decades that advertising would work only when demand was highest for its seasonally consumed food, yet others promoted similarly seasonable foods all year around. Eventually, an advertising test was run during the lean part of the year, and sales promptly took off.
Here are questions to help you avoid making such false assumptions:
What are the things that your organization assumes will almost always work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will seldom or never work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will probably happen?
What are the things that your organization assumes will be unlikely to happen or will never happen?
On what beliefs are these assumptions based?
Have those beliefs been checked recently?
Are those beliefs still true?
Identify the False Assumptions That Need to Be Immediately Challenged
Some misconceptions require more immediate correction than others. Here are questions to help you set priorities for where to turn your attention first:
Which false assumptions have large potential consequences?
Where can your organization's actions make the largest difference in offsetting false assumptions?
Business writing today is much less formal than it was twenty years ago, mainly due to the influence of email. Most people use email as an alternative to face-to-face conversation where informality is key.Since we frequently use contractions when speaking, it's certainly acceptable to use contractions in most of our daily business writing. However, confusion over the correct form can complicate the issue.When we contract words, we make one word out of two. To show that letters are missing, we use an apostrophe in place of the missing letters. The apostrophe must go where the letters are missing! Do not becomes don't; I am becomes Im; cannot becomes can't. (Note that cannot is actually already one word--an exception to the two-word rule. It is incorrect to write I can not attend the meeting. It should be written, I cannot attend the meeting or I cant attend the meeting.)Apostrophes can be confusing because theyre also used to show possession: man's office
Apply Sophisticated Thinking
In his wonderful book, The Unschooled Mind (Basic Books, 1991), cognitive psychologist Professor Howard Gardner argues that people usually think at three different levels. Gardner defines the five-year-old's mind as the first level. Five-year-olds usually live in a world where others take care of them and keep them safe from harm. That belief persists when most people become adults and prevents many from becoming independent, fully functioning adults. Overprotection after age five makes matters worse. Another common example of the five-year-old mind is that confident people falsely believe that they are superior in every way to others. Ask any roomful of five-year-olds if they are terrific at something and almost all will agree.
The second level of thinking develops when training, usually in high school and college, gives teens and young adults a grasp of sophisticated concepts that are counterintuitive to the five-year-old's thought process. Here's the problem: The student memorizes the concepts long enough to pass the examination. But Gardner argues that relatively few adults reach the third level of thinking where they can apply the sophisticated concepts to real-life problems. In the absence of that faculty, almost everyone reverts to the five-year-old's misconceptions for making decisions.
The person who can apply the principles learned in school to a real-life situation becomes a disciplinary expert. But those effectively working minds are few and far between in most organizations. Imagine what could be accomplished if you consciously shed your five-year-old's misconceptions, applied sophisticated adult reasoning to expert knowledge, and questioned common assumptions of the prevailing five-year-old mind.
I'LL GET RIGHT ON IT
Even if people attempt to apply sophisticated thinking, they will still jump to conclusions too often. If service was slow the last two times you went to a given store, you may decide this store will always offer poor service and don't go back. Two experiences do not constitute a trend. It's possible that the manager was away on vacation on both occasions and the rest of the employees took it easy.
The executives of one award-winning multibillion-dollar manufacturer were clearly intelligent, well educated, and widely admired for their decisions. Ever curious, these managers wanted to measure the quality of their decisions. They knew good decision making has to reflect solid statistically based data, and they wondered what statisticians would say about their decisions. Statisticians were assigned to follow the executives around for six months to watch them in action. Almost without exception the executives treated random events as representing what was typically occurring in the business.
Executives were constantly trying to eliminate these few random variations in performance. All this scurrying around kept the executives from having time to work on more promising opportunities for gain. Despite learning this profound insight, the organization faltered by continuing to mistake the actual trends. The lesson: Be sure you are focusing on the areas where action will do the most good.
This example also shows how wide the gap can be between perceptions of management quality and actual effectiveness, another example of misconceptions. You have probably noticed the frequency by which "widely admired" companies rapidly fall from grace as performance plummets.
When the CEO Speaks, People Take Action
Management authority Peter Drucker told us that one of the most dangerous beliefs in organizations is that an increase in brains comes with being promoted. Here's verification of that observation: Executive assistants at selected companies were asked by us what was the single, most important thing their CEOs could do better. The aides spoke almost as one in reporting that anything the CEO said was treated as gospel. Underlings, for instance, scramble to make changes even when the CEO was only asking an innocent question. The CEOs assume that the response would come at little or no cost from someone who already had the answer. Some executive assistants estimated that 25 percent of executive and managerial time in their companies was taken up with answering such casual inquiries and making changes that hadn't, in fact, been requested. The assistants wished someone would advise their CEOs to stop asking casual questions and making off-hand comments because the rest of the organization operates on the misconception that these words are major priorities on which careers will rise and fall.
STALLBUSTERS
Encourage Unmasking False Assumptions
A company had assumed for decades that advertising would work only when demand was highest for its seasonally consumed food, yet others promoted similarly seasonable foods all year around. Eventually, an advertising test was run during the lean part of the year, and sales promptly took off.
Here are questions to help you avoid making such false assumptions:
What are the things that your organization assumes will almost always work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will seldom or never work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will probably happen?
What are the things that your organization assumes will be unlikely to happen or will never happen?
On what beliefs are these assumptions based?
Have those beliefs been checked recently?
Are those beliefs still true?
Identify the False Assumptions That Need to Be Immediately Challenged
Some misconceptions require more immediate correction than others. Here are questions to help you set priorities for where to turn your attention first:
Which false assumptions have large potential consequences?
Where can your organization's actions make the largest difference in offsetting false assumptions?
<Employees spend almost half of their lives in office. It is like a second home to them. However, the only difference remains in the fact that in maximum part of the working population in UK spends sitting in the office. And it is due to this fact, selecting the right kind of office furniture becomes an integral activity. Not only to provide the employees a good working condition, appropriate office furniture, like computer desks, also lends a touch of professionalism to the ambiance.An employee is a great resource. Not just the aptitude, but this resource also comes with the attitude factor which makes this resource the ultimate and the best. But at the end of the day, an employee is a human being and it is the primary duty of the employers to take care of their staff and their well being. The right kind of computer desks, adjusted at the right heights, with a support at the back of the chair is a must to keep employees fit and healthy.At the same time we can not discount the importance of space in the office. It is very important to ha
The person who can apply the principles learned in school to a real-life situation becomes a disciplinary expert. But those effectively working minds are few and far between in most organizations. Imagine what could be accomplished if you consciously shed your five-year-old's misconceptions, applied sophisticated adult reasoning to expert knowledge, and questioned common assumptions of the prevailing five-year-old mind.
I'LL GET RIGHT ON IT
Even if people attempt to apply sophisticated thinking, they will still jump to conclusions too often. If service was slow the last two times you went to a given store, you may decide this store will always offer poor service and don't go back. Two experiences do not constitute a trend. It's possible that the manager was away on vacation on both occasions and the rest of the employees took it easy.
The executives of one award-winning multibillion-dollar manufacturer were clearly intelligent, well educated, and widely admired for their decisions. Ever curious, these managers wanted to measure the quality of their decisions. They knew good decision making has to reflect solid statistically based data, and they wondered what statisticians would say about their decisions. Statisticians were assigned to follow the executives around for six months to watch them in action. Almost without exception the executives treated random events as representing what was typically occurring in the business.
Executives were constantly trying to eliminate these few random variations in performance. All this scurrying around kept the executives from having time to work on more promising opportunities for gain. Despite learning this profound insight, the organization faltered by continuing to mistake the actual trends. The lesson: Be sure you are focusing on the areas where action will do the most good.
This example also shows how wide the gap can be between perceptions of management quality and actual effectiveness, another example of misconceptions. You have probably noticed the frequency by which "widely admired" companies rapidly fall from grace as performance plummets.
When the CEO Speaks, People Take Action
Management authority Peter Drucker told us that one of the most dangerous beliefs in organizations is that an increase in brains comes with being promoted. Here's verification of that observation: Executive assistants at selected companies were asked by us what was the single, most important thing their CEOs could do better. The aides spoke almost as one in reporting that anything the CEO said was treated as gospel. Underlings, for instance, scramble to make changes even when the CEO was only asking an innocent question. The CEOs assume that the response would come at little or no cost from someone who already had the answer. Some executive assistants estimated that 25 percent of executive and managerial time in their companies was taken up with answering such casual inquiries and making changes that hadn't, in fact, been requested. The assistants wished someone would advise their CEOs to stop asking casual questions and making off-hand comments because the rest of the organization operates on the misconception that these words are major priorities on which careers will rise and fall.
STALLBUSTERS
Encourage Unmasking False Assumptions
A company had assumed for decades that advertising would work only when demand was highest for its seasonally consumed food, yet others promoted similarly seasonable foods all year around. Eventually, an advertising test was run during the lean part of the year, and sales promptly took off.
Here are questions to help you avoid making such false assumptions:
What are the things that your organization assumes will almost always work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will seldom or never work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will probably happen?
What are the things that your organization assumes will be unlikely to happen or will never happen?
On what beliefs are these assumptions based?
Have those beliefs been checked recently?
Are those beliefs still true?
Identify the False Assumptions That Need to Be Immediately Challenged
Some misconceptions require more immediate correction than others. Here are questions to help you set priorities for where to turn your attention first:
Which false assumptions have large potential consequences?
Where can your organization's actions make the largest difference in offsetting false assumptions?
<Style, durable, fun and affordable is all about Indoor and Outdoor area rugs of today that are in trend. They have been rebel for outdoor decor and they are ideal for your homes inner-self as well! Today our choices are just not limited to gritty, weather beaten mats and tired old Astroturf squares for our patio or poolside area. Now options are available for dressing up your outdoor areas with panache or go for even more casual feel.You can try a western theme for your barbecue, may be think about a patriotic feel for the fourth of July. Indoor and Outdoor area rugs come in a very huge variety of designs and they could be altered in a matte of moment. Whatever area rug design you choose, area rugs a versatile and add a nice touch for your outdoor living area.Todays indoor and outdoor area rugs are a get through concept. Imagine a area rug thats functional, attractive, available in many sizes and could hold out the outdoor things, kids, pets and other indoor activities. Indoor and Outdoor area rugs could do just that and could be done in st
This example also shows how wide the gap can be between perceptions of management quality and actual effectiveness, another example of misconceptions. You have probably noticed the frequency by which "widely admired" companies rapidly fall from grace as performance plummets.
When the CEO Speaks, People Take Action
Management authority Peter Drucker told us that one of the most dangerous beliefs in organizations is that an increase in brains comes with being promoted. Here's verification of that observation: Executive assistants at selected companies were asked by us what was the single, most important thing their CEOs could do better. The aides spoke almost as one in reporting that anything the CEO said was treated as gospel. Underlings, for instance, scramble to make changes even when the CEO was only asking an innocent question. The CEOs assume that the response would come at little or no cost from someone who already had the answer. Some executive assistants estimated that 25 percent of executive and managerial time in their companies was taken up with answering such casual inquiries and making changes that hadn't, in fact, been requested. The assistants wished someone would advise their CEOs to stop asking casual questions and making off-hand comments because the rest of the organization operates on the misconception that these words are major priorities on which careers will rise and fall.
STALLBUSTERS
Encourage Unmasking False Assumptions
A company had assumed for decades that advertising would work only when demand was highest for its seasonally consumed food, yet others promoted similarly seasonable foods all year around. Eventually, an advertising test was run during the lean part of the year, and sales promptly took off.
Here are questions to help you avoid making such false assumptions:
What are the things that your organization assumes will almost always work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will seldom or never work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will probably happen?
What are the things that your organization assumes will be unlikely to happen or will never happen?
On what beliefs are these assumptions based?
Have those beliefs been checked recently?
Are those beliefs still true?
Identify the False Assumptions That Need to Be Immediately Challenged
Some misconceptions require more immediate correction than others. Here are questions to help you set priorities for where to turn your attention first:
Which false assumptions have large potential consequences?
Where can your organization's actions make the largest difference in offsetting false assumptions?
<It is a fact that at one point in time or another nearly all entrepreneurs need a bank business loan, either to start up the enterprise, expend it, or to bridge difficult times when the consumer turns fickle. Of the many lenders and types of loans available, a bank business loan will probably be the best bet for starting the venture. A bank business loan is often the best way to establish and maintain your venture's credit rating, if it is fastidiously repaid.But, if you are experiencing financial problems, is a bank business loan a good idea to use to get current on the debts? Just what is a bank business loan and what is the application procedure? A bank business loan is an unsecured loan that does not require collateral of any kind. It is based entirely upon the credit rating of all of the involved partners; the prospectus or the plan that was developed that outlines the venture, including both the financial liabilities and the anticipated income. You will have to provide well-organized and scrupulous detail, together with a good credit rating
STALLBUSTERS
Encourage Unmasking False Assumptions
A company had assumed for decades that advertising would work only when demand was highest for its seasonally consumed food, yet others promoted similarly seasonable foods all year around. Eventually, an advertising test was run during the lean part of the year, and sales promptly took off.
Here are questions to help you avoid making such false assumptions:
What are the things that your organization assumes will almost always work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will seldom or never work?
What are the things that your organization assumes will probably happen?
What are the things that your organization assumes will be unlikely to happen or will never happen?
On what beliefs are these assumptions based?
Have those beliefs been checked recently?
Are those beliefs still true?
Identify the False Assumptions That Need to Be Immediately Challenged
Some misconceptions require more immediate correction than others. Here are questions to help you set priorities for where to turn your attention first:
Which false assumptions have large potential consequences?
Where can your organization's actions make the largest difference in offsetting false assumptions?
When would you need to act to get the most benefit or avoid the most harm?
What is the minimum evidence to indicate that you should act immediately?
Use Assumptions That Reflect Actual and Critically Sensitive Conditions
Open your mind to new ways of thinking about a volatile, unpredictable future with these questions:
What assumptions have worked best in the past for organizations that operated in circumstances somewhat like yours?
Which of these assumptions fit your organization's values and style?
Which of these assumptions would be received enthusiastically by users of your offering, customers, employees, partners, suppliers, shareholders, lenders, and the communities you serve?
Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved
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