When was the last time you stopped to ask yourself why somedays you are telling yourself stories that you’re not good enough or a geek or a thought leader?  Do you wait until it all completely hits the fan before you begin to wonder?

There isn’t really a reason to think much usually. We drive pretty much the same routes, prepare and eat the same foods, and a host of other activities throughout the day at home and at our small businesses. Even our brains are designed to favor neural pathways that already exist and have been used before.

My brain made me do it? Here’s a quick neuroscience review. Our decision-making process uses more than the front parts of our brains. It also uses our emotional center and our memories. When we’ve done something the same way many times, we’ve learned that behavior. Our brains are constantly processing an amazing amount of data so we develop habits to keep things efficient and we pay attention to what’s in front of us. For example, I have been typing up to this point without thinking about how to type since I do it so often. I’ve spent my time concentrating on figuring out the theme and message of this post. Typing is a habit.

Habits are our auto-pilots. They simplify our actions and, like I said, our brains favor neural pathways that exist. The stories we tell ourselves are habits too. For example, one common fear that people express is that they will be discovered as frauds. This story usually includes that they will be discovered as incompetent technicians and foolish business owners. If you tell yourself a story like this, you are strengthening a pathway in your brain so you can develop the habit of believing you are a fraud.

One of my clients has a recurrent story that she will lose all of her clients if she makes a mistake. This is a habitual story (not based on any facts, by the way) that runs her decision-making and actions when she feels stressed. This is a great example of what Breanne Potter wrote about in The Danger of Mental Auto-Pilot. High emotions cloud our ability to gut-check and fact-check ourselves. Since we’re prone to going with our habits, it makes sense that we activate the auto-pilot of our stories.

It isn’t always a negative. Think about something in your small business that went really well. You might have a story that you rock the world or that you are making your dreams a reality. You may feel a high emotion such as joy, elation, or pride. We can automatically motivate ourselves and follow through on tasks.

It isn’t that habits are good or bad. It’s not even about the story. The key here is to check your stories every now and then.  It’s about the habit of telling yourself the story over and over as if it is completely, 100% true all of the time. You aren’t a fraud anymore than you rock the world. It’s all hyperbole. We make up stories in which we are archetypes and these help our story telling. The truth is really more on a spectrum so give your stories a check. Write them out or tell them to a trusted person so you can hear the story with new ears. You might want to keep them or simply change parts of the story.

Here’s an example of what that process could look like-Let’s say that you have been asked to speak to a group of small business owners like yourself on your area of expertise. You tell yourself that it’s going to go badly because they will all find out you know nothing and have been faking it all along. They will stand up and point at you while yelling, “Fraud, fraud.” Now, perhaps as you write all of this out, you discover that you are really nervous about speaking in front of people and it’s not about knowing your area expertise. You can stop the auto-pilot of your story and say, “Hold on here! I’m nervous about speaking. I know my stuff.” Now you can decide how to handle your anxiety about public speaking or go with your habitual story.

When do you have the auto-pilot storyteller on?

How would your story change if you were to tell it aloud to another person?

What stories do you want to keep telling yourself?

Before reading this post, think about an action you’ve been putting off. What is so daunting about this action? What is easy about this action?

In our last Twitter chat, #kaizenblog, we discussed the “Dangers and Advantages of Taking Action”. As always, it is well worth reading the transcript Transcript for #kaizenblog – AdvantagesDangersofTakingAction

The most interesting thing about taking or not taking action is what is going on in our thinking. That’s where this chat’s conversation focused. Most of us have the tools or know where to find them (or someone who can tell us where to find them). Taking the first step really is based on our thinking.

What are the dangers and advantages of taking information? Deb Morello jumped in with her response, “Believe advantages of when to take action and when not to take action is part instinct and part “learned skill” from experiences.” Patrick Prothe (@pprothe) Some don’t take action to keep their options open. For fear of making wrong decision vs. iterating, learning from mistakes. Also avoid action until they uncover one more data point to support their cause. & then delay further b/c of new info.” Prothe’s two themes were echoed by others as potential dangers. Josip Petrusa (@josippetrusa) tweeted, “Danger: A backlash, wrong decision. Advantage: leadership, strength. The circumstances of the situation are also important.” Stephen Denny added a further follow-on with this delineation, “Taking action subsets: taking an option (low risk, uncertain confidence), all-in (high risk, high confidence). Big diff”

There was a lot of discussion about how not planning ahead and not having enough information. The catch with not having enough information can be doubled-edged. The first is that not having enough information does limit good decision-making and critical thinking about a situation. On the other hand, as Patrick Prothe pointed out, it is easy to delay when you use your perceived inadequate information as an excuse to avoid moving forward.

Underlying much of this is a lack of confidence. But as Chanelle Schneider (@WriterChanelle) pointed out two other fears that may be behind a lack of action, “…fear of backlash or lost support.” With this in the background, there were recommendations to use critical thinking and do a risk assessment. Some of this may depend on the size of your organization and the type of task you are avoiding.

There were two other perspectives that were important to include with the advantages and dangers of taking action. Diane Court (dc2fla) reminded us, “It’s essential to put considered action in perspective. Most of what we can do can be adjusted (not final, not devastating)” An additional aspect to what’s behind the choice to take action or not was put forth by Tom Asacker (@tomasacker), “Lack of action reveals lack of passion and purpose.” Mr. Asacker’s point is one that is commonly overlooked. How often have you not done something simply because it didn’t light your fire? Or you went through the motions because you thought you were supposed to?

The first part of the chat seemed to skew to the negative. Why do you avoid making decisions? Lizzie Pauker (@lizziepauker) answered, “So many responses go back to our emotions. Decision making sometimes  requires making check of emotions & be objective.” Josip Petrusa added partly serious, partly humorous response, “because it is easier to avoid them than deal with them, ha”  Ah, true! On the same vein, Alfonso Guerra (@huperniketes) stated, “Fear of success is powerful: people afraid of seeing what they’re more than they ever imagined.”

But what if our environment discourages taking action. There are many big corporations (and small businesses) who put bureaucracy ahead of anything else. This can be very daunting as Stephen Denny remarked, “Often in corporate situations, fear of approval/process/accountability/mgmt, etc” Makes you wonder how much is lost every day.

As I pointed out in my framing post, choice overload can act as a paralyzer. Sometimes it can feel as if all choices are the right ones. You want to do right. As Diane Court explained, “Choice overload…isn’t so much fear of action, as wanting to the “right” or “best” action 1st time out.” Deb Morello reminded us, “In the end u r true to yourself, yes, in whatever context – 4get about choice overload, what was your first instinct?” Is it that simple? Are we overthinking our choices of actions?

However, if we’re trying to act “correctly” due to passion, purpose, or some psychological issue, emotions are going to get caught up in the process. Stephen Denny tweeted, “Often huge diff betw dreams + execution. Preconceptions of outcomes/difficulty turn out differently.” Laura Crum (@LauraLCrum) pointed out, “Advantages [of taking action] are worth the effort but not until we can overcome our emotions.” Josip Petrusa added, “What’s interesting is right/wrong changes in every situation. Our ability to read situation first will decide our outcome.” So getting past all of this may lead to what we’re willing to tolerate. Some of the #kaizenblog participants stated they were willing to tolerate uncertainty, sleeplessness, and hard work. Perhaps if you aren’t willing to tolerate some or all of these discomforts, you aren’t ready to take action? As Caroline Di Diego  (@CASUDI) pointed out, sometimes we put of action because we’re not ready to handle the consequences of our choices.

 Alfonso Guerra’s earlier point about fear of success and the focus on the negatives of taking actions led to the third question of the conversation. What does success REALLY mean to you?

I5Design (@I5Design) responded, “The difference between leading and managing. Letting people succeed and fail (controlled failure) and guiding them to growth.” Other responses included feeling pride in one’s accomplishment, financial wins, feeling valued by organization, and making positive contributions to someone else. Bringing a holistic viewpoint (after all, we’re not always working), Tom Asacker contributed, “Success=love, pray, eat. In that order”

Given that we were talking about taking action, I offered the #kaizenblog participants (and the quieter members a well, aka lurkers) a challenge: State one action you will take this week that you’re putting off

• Chanelle Schneider: Pitiching ideas to “some major news outlets”
• Deb Morello : Taxes
• Patrick Prothe: Connecting with one person outside of regular network “F2F” and write more consistently
• Laura Crum: Work on my life/work/play balance
• M Zayfert (@mzayfert): Connect with those who I met during network mixers and conferences

For those that didn’t publicly accept the challenge but are doing it anyway, feel free to tweet or send a direct message about your progress. For those who publicly stated their challenges, I’ll check in with you later this week.

For additional tips on how to take that first step:

• Patrick Prothe: “To help with taking action, perhaps check out Action Method”  http://www.actionmethod.com/ 
• Alfonso Guerra recommended the Pomodoro Technique http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/
• I added, set a timer for 20 minutes so you can focus on your task. When the timer beeps, you can stop working or set the timer for another 20 minutes.

What do you believe are the advantages/dangers of taking action?

What does success really mean to you?

I invite you to take the challenge: Stated one action you can take this week that you’ve been putting off.

Taking action seems to intimidate a lot of people in business. Sure, we all know someone who seems to never procrastinate or doubt a decision. But for the rest of us…

There are loads of reasons why we avoid making  choices. In some cases, it is simply the phenomenon known as “choice overload.” Research is pointing to people faced with many choices and becoming unable to make a decision. Remind you of the menu at The Cheesecake Factory? If you haven’t been to that particular restaurant, they have a book for a menu.  A book?!

However, this could be very bad for your small business.It’s hard to take action when you have so much information to process but taking action is really about productivity. We tend to think productivity is great. We can enhance it with efficiency. We can measure it. And yet, if you change the word from productivity to action, some of us do the deer-in-the-headlights freeze.

Are there dangers in taking action? Of course there are! You could end up changing the world as you know it. It doesn’t even have to be on the end-world-hunger scale. Our individual worlds have value as well. There are people in our lives who depend on us. We may be in an enviromnent where rocking the boat is strongly discouraged.

It works something like this. You start off with a predictable circle of comfort. No risk. Vanilla.  And then, you come across a very good reason to expand this circle of comfort. Its not nice and tidy. Change can be awkward and uncertain. Do you want to to rethink who you are and what you can do? This is dangerous!

Then again, maybe there are very distinct advantages to taking action. Your small busines grows into what you meant it to be. You discover you are powerful and talented. People acclaim your actions. Your ability to cope with change is strengthened. The possibilities are endless since our actions bear all kinds of fruit. Our perception that something would be too painful to manage turns out to be a complete nonevent.

This is where you sing the chorus to REM’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”

                                                                    “It’s the end of the world as we know it

                                                                     And I feel fine.”

The thing with taking action is it triggers our fears, our hopes, and our beliefs about our efficacy and our self-worth. There may be inertia because we’ve tolerated some kind of discomfort for a long time. There may be very good reasons to choose inaction. If you avoid decisions, do you avoid life as proposed by Jeff Stibel?

In this week’s #kaizenblog chat, we’ll be exploring “The Dangers and Advantages of Taking Action” so join us on Friday, August 20, 2010 at 12 pm ET/9am PT/5pm BST. Come join in on this conversation!

What does taking action mean to you?

What dangers or advantage do you see in taking action?

What keeps you from acting on what you desire most?

 iStockphoto BookMama

We tell ourselves all kinds of stories. The story of where you’ve been, where you’re going, who is going with you. Think of the cave drawings, the fairy tales, and the tales we embed in our daily conversations. So it’s not a huge stretch that we create stories about our businesses.

Some of our stories are fantasies-working with the uber-ideal client or having people get so excited about our ideas that they take on a life of their own.

Some of our stories are myths. Not that they are blatantly untrue but more like Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth where we try to get our heads around something profound and mysterious. Myths contain archetypes which are symbols of  or examples of types . We need the archetypes to make sense of our lives. Archetypes like villains, beasts, and heroes capture truth and illuminate how we can understand ourselves on a deeper level.

When it comes to running a small business, there is no shortage of archetypes. Here are a few:

• The ”I’m busy” small business owner This archetype is the one where the business owner works mega-hours and is busy all the time doing stuff. Some of the stuff makes money, some of it doesn’t. All of it is stressful and out of focus
• The Henny Penny small business owner You know this person. He or she can sound very much like the children’s story in which an acorn falls on the chicken’s head and she is sure the sky is falling. Without much thought or planning, this small business owner is running around in a panic. Everything is a drama and all of it a crisis.
• The Nerd Technically proficient, even awe-inspiring about how much he or she knows about his or her product, services, and the intricacies of the technology. However, this small business owner can struggle with the business side with the administrative, financial, and personnel tasks.
• The Entrepreneur Creative, larger than life and exotic with all of their ideas and high energy. This archetype is a mixed bag though. On one hand, the passion and creativity are essential to keep one’s business fresh, interesting, and responsive to the market. On the other hand, this person can become too enamored with continuously developing new ideas and lead the company in too many directions at once.
• The Wise Elder This can have less to do with age. It’s more about experience. This business owner makes  it look smooth and sophisticated. They can be generous with mentoring newer business owners. They develop new initiatives with their business while also maintaining a stable foundation for their business. They may also qualify as a Guru and be sought after by trade organizations or media to speak about their expertise.

Most of us have taken on any of the archetypes at one time or another. They are simply part of the experience of being a business owner and they help us understand our story. Leading a business is an expression of ourselves. The ways we interact with others, our philosophy of life, and how we use self-awareness are incorporated into our story. With such big themes, it makes sense for us to inhabit an archetype.

What archetype are you inhabiting right now?

Which one would you add to the list and why?

The economic bad news seems to be piling on lately. Ben Bernanke says we have a long way to go and there is still anecdotal evidence that people are losing jobs. And yet…there is growth and the US economy is not in recession.

But it doesn’t feel that way as Dawn Rivers Baker explained in her analysis in Small Biz Trends. If you’re the owner of a small business who is looking for financing and can’t get it, your perception is that things are very hard indeed. If you are a business owner who had one big client who has either cut back or ceased to do business with you, your perception is that people are slow to spend their money. If you are in an industry less affected by the economic turmoil, your perception of the current business climate will be on the other end of the spectrum.

I asked on LinkedIn,

Would you describe the current small business climate as sluggish but positive, chaotic, or anxious?

There seem to be contradictory news reports, indicators, and advice as to how to lead and manage your small business through the recovery. How does this affect the business vision and how you plan to go forth in the last quarters of the year? Have you changed any goals? And…how do you maintain your morale so you don’t burn out?

 The answers were positive in nature, even enthusiastic. Ed Moloney responded:

To me it is simple. If the small business owner is looking at his or her business often from the outside in and asking for others to give their opinions to the best way to change things then I think the climate is good and opportunities are endless. I think people get caught up in the media or the negative of the government or the economy. They also focus to much on getting the work done and not enough on working on the buisness. The fact is most business owners are great at what they do IE accounting, car cleaning, cooking etc but may not be great business people. Fact is most business owners spend way way to little time prospecting for new business

Both Mike Welch and Gwen McCauley echoed the theme that small businesss owners have to work on their businesses. I’ve written about this in the past in many posts. Without taking time to keep track of the big picture of your business, how do see opportunities or keep your strategic plan fresh and timely?

 That’s what’s interesting about perception. Perception is created by our biases in our thinking. Our culture, gender, experience, and temperament contribute to how we see the world. Our perceptions feed our perspectives so we start seeing nuances in just how full or empty the proverbial glass is.

And these nuances in our perception are what makes it possible to weather bad and good times. Basically, we tell ourselves stories about our experiences. For example, if you perceive that your prospects are too reluctant to buy from you, you will change your behavior towards them. Maybe you’ll keep approaching them until you  become a spammer. Maybe you go through the motions but stop listening for when the person is leaning towards your product or service. Maybe you don’t even follow up with your prospects. The opposite perception could be that there are customers everywhere and they want to work with you. Your behavior will correspond to that perspective. When I asked a similar question on Facebook, Deb Carducci and Kate Hannisian both answered that they look at their customers to get information that will inform their perceptions.

Who should you believe? Your perceptions are important. It seems if you add an open attitude to gain additional information such as analyzing your action plan to see what can be improved or connecting with successful business owners, you are more likely to perceive what is possible.

How do you perceive the current small business climate?

Does keeping track of the big picture of your business keep you focused on how to maintain and/grow your business?

What strategies do you use to keep a positive perspective when facing adversity?

Join us for the Twitter chat #kaizenblog too discuss “Could Your Perception Keep You From Economic Recovery?” on Friday, August 6, 2010 at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT

One of the great things about co-hosting #kaizenblog is how much I get to learn! This week’s Twitter chat was no different! What do you think about branding for your business? Can you say if your brand is self-defining? Stephen Dennywas our guest host for this week. He had written an intriguing post about Eigen Values and branding, “This Sentence has 5ive Words”. According to Denny, Eigen Values are “a concept from the field of cybernetics that describes a thing that is self-defining.” In fact, Eigen is a German word for innate.

This has relevance for business as well. Denny explained in his post that “Eigen Values are what we, as businesspeople, do when we’re doing our best work.  We produce work that is synonymous with our brand values, our mission and our strategy. Always. In everything we do.” But how do we share that with our customers or even the world? And is this beneficial?

So we asked the #kaizenblog folks to explore “Make Your Brand Self-Defining.” There were a lot of interesting ideas exchanged during the conversation so it’s a good idea to check out theTranscript for #kaizenblog – SelfDefiningBrand_! Also throughout the chat, people offered examples of brands the do and do not self-define like Apple, Southwest Airlines, 3M, and many others.

How does creating a self-defining truism help/hurt your brand’s process of creating outputs? Stephen Denny began the conversation by explaining, “Self-defining outputs-websites, logos, etc.-that are absolutely unique/like fngerprint solidify a brand’s ID.”

• Caroline Di Diego (@CASUDI) “A self-defining truism like logo/slogan can help distinguish your brand from all others ~ like biometrics”
• John Reddish (@GetResults) “the more effort committed to brand clarity thru self-defining stmts the easier 2 remember brand’s central focus”
• Joe Sanchez (@sanchezjb) “Self-defining ‘truisms’ communicated externally, will be judged on authenticity and consistency. That can help/hurt”
• Eric Tsai (@designdamage) “branding=communication & meaning of ur communication is the response u get, visuals r subjective, words/actions mean more.”
• Chris Fife (@chrisfife) “With different medium limitations, selfdefining gets tricky. Like personalized license plates/handles are often misunderstood.”

Stephen Denny reminded us that “Truth is, we’re (as consumers) very busy. We don’t care much abt “brands” So consistency/Eigen behaviors R critical.”

There are often side threads that deepen the conversation about a topic. This follow up post by Stephen Denny picked up some interesting thoughts, ”Three Keys On Creating Self-Defining Brands-Kaizenblog, Eigen Values, + the Crucible of Public Debate”       

To make this conversation clearer, it seemed that examples would help. Which brands are so consistent that their stuff is identifiable even when you don’t know it’s theirs? Apple came up several times as was previously mentioned. Other brands that were mentioned were Tiffany’s, Target, Rolex, Starbucks, Mercedes, BMW, Google, and Beano.  On the other hand, Lois Martin (@LoisMarketing) and John Reddish noted that brands like Xerox and Kleenex have lost their ability to be identified in a unique way because we use the brand names as a generic reference to like products.

When is it okay to break away from from your core brand elements? This seems to be a process that has to be thought out as it can disconnect companies from their markets. There were a lot of thoughts about whether breaking away was a productive or destructive act for your brand.

• Amy Blake (@BlakeGroup) “Q3 Must have dedicated users, huge branding identity. Your brand is like “seal of approval” when extend products/services”
• Mary Ann Halford (@MaryAnnHalford) “Innovation and market changes make it ok to break away – e.g. IBM from mainframe to enterprise solutions”
• Tamsen McMahon (@tamadear) “A3: When what you are or what you do is no longer relevant. A good brand is an evolving brand.”
• Chris Houchens (@shotgunconcepts) “When you break away from core brand elements, you have broke the brand.”
• John Reddish “Launching new brand is often function of perceived market permissions – if + =brand extension, if – =new brand”
• Tom Asacker @tomasacker) “Brands are evolving, living ideas that add meaning and value to people’s lives. Nokia started in boots, paper.”
• Sametz (@Sametz) “Core elements aren’t a  brand prison. They are a brand foundation. You can pretty much build anything on a solid foundation.”

It was clear that everyone agreed that a brand reflected the organization. Becoming self-defining depends on interaction with one’s target market so you are distinguished from others like you. Your Eigen value depends on what happens internally as much as how you interact with the customer. Disconnects can happen with how you provide customer service as well as when you break away from your core brand elements. Stronger brands are consistent with their Eigen values because you know what you get when you interact with the business from pre-purchase to customer support.

Where can you make your Eigen Value stronger in your organization?

If your brand is really defined by you and your customers, how is your organization identifiable?

What’s your opinion about breaking away from your core brand elements?

iStockphoto VCTStyle

Have you ever thought about coincidences? It would seem that they are around us all of the time. You’re thinking of someone and they call you or you were wondering about a particular topic and you discover an article about that very same topic. So, what is this anyway?

As a basis for conversation, we used Creating Coincidence, a post by Gavin Heaton (@servantofchaos) which described the story of how a letting go of a balloon with a note introduced two girls named Laura Buxton to one another and how details of a story are included and excluded to create a pattern of information which we call coincidence. A little background scientific information for you…the human brain is wired to seek out patterns, causality, and correlations. So, even if there is no actual relationship between two events, we create a story of coincidence. (Of course, there are times when humans do come up with some wacky stories to explain things that happen to them.)

Diane Court (@dc2fla) contributed to the conversation by sharing an article, Enterprise 2.0: Infrastructure for Synchronicity written by Paula Thornton (@rotkapchen). How does Jung’s idea of synchronicity add to the discussion of coincidence and is there a place for all of this in business?

You can find the whole transcript for the chat-Transcript for #kaizenblog – Coincidence in Business

People seemed very engaged with this topic as the conversation started within seconds of people joining the chat when Bruno Coelho (@bcoelho2000) remarked, “I believe the best way to create Coincidence in Business is to plan for it.” Dana Meyer (@QuantFun) gave his summation with “Creating Coincidence=Collaboration +lots of INCIDENTS=try stuff+share stuff”

So with those articles in the background and people anticipating where this conversation would be going, we started with the first question. Are we co-creating the stories we think are coincidences. If yes, why? If no, what instead?

Not sure if it was a genuine coincidence or not but stories were brought up it in the first few minutes of the chat before I asked the question.

• John Reddish (@GetResults) gave his answer to the overall topic question- “From framing doc-All storytelling-campfire, marketing, branding – are episodic – designed to sell – yes you can create it!”
• Stephen Denny (@Note_To_CMO) “Interesting reading abt brain science why we gravitate towards stories. We shut down our motor systems + believe what we see.”

After I asked the first question, people just jumped right in with how stories do correlate with the phenomenom of coincidence.

• Stephen Denny- “Q1 When we “consume” stories, we know we dont have to act, makes us open. Yes, we help it along + fill in gaps”
• Tom Asacker (@tomasacker)- “In ‘How Pleasure Works,’ Bloom writes: ‘What matters most is not the world as it appears to our senses.’ “
• John Reddish- “Every branding initiative should reinforce “good stories” & coincidence among aspects so market can accept”

These tweets seemed to reflect Heaton’s point that we screen out information that doesn’t fit the pattern we consider a coincidence. There may very well be a way to manipulate the experience of coincidence since we are more likely to believe our perceptions.

The concept of synchronicity was woven into the conversation at this point.

• Rayna Fagen (@RaynaNyc)- “Seeing coincidences means u r present in those moments.”
• John Reddish- “synchronicity (particularly Yungian) is more “universe” intentional, conveyed coincidence more a creation.”
• Kay Whitaker (@KayWhitaker)- “We are absolutely co-creating these stories with our intentions.”
• Diane Court- “…synchronicity shares qualities w/ so-called coincidence.”

Overall, it seems that coincidence and synchronicity were not entirely exclusive of one another in this chat.

The idea of intention continued to pop up in other tweets. While it was not always framed as such, the idea of a focused idea and plan seemed to our participants to lead to fortunate coincidences.

• Andrew Mueller (@andrewmueller)- “Recently heard Philip Kahn Speak (borland) say he was very lucky..’the harder he works, the more luck he has.’ ” In fact, Andrew Mueller seemed to sum up this part of the chat when he tweeted, “hard work focuses energy and puts one on a path when unexpected connections happen.”

With the general stage set, it was time to get specific with how one might create specific coincidences in business. Are there consequences for this?  If we focus on marketing, what consequences are possible when creating coincidences?

• Rayna Fagen- “I believe behavioral targeting falls into that ‘Marketing manipulated coincidence.’ “
• Dana Meyer- “Coincidence breeds familiarity = stronger brain connections = more top-of-mind. Good gets better.”
• Bruno Coehlo- “A coincidence occurs when the unexpected happens. In Marketing this happens if you let your customers experience your product”
• Stephen Denny- “Comes down to letting your customers see themselves in your branding/experience. Let them fill in their own gaps.”
• Amber Cleveland (@ambercleveland)- “Specifically related to Twitter, sharing that really takes hold on subconscious level, that can result in biz relationships.”

For the most part, it seems that coincidence is in the eye of the customer. There seemed to be responses that were mainly positive but some tweets seemed to reflect some uneasiness with manipulating customers.

So, to see if coincidence plays a part in another aspect of business, there was a sub-question, Where is coincidence in strategic planning?

• Andrew Mueller- “It doesn’t exist. it is perception every connection is manipulated by your every action.”
• Bruno Coehl0- “Coincidence in strategic planning when you’re designing your dream Customer Experience.”

There seemed to be a lot of passion about marketing, coincidence, storytelling, and customer experience. This is worth looking at in the transcript!

We came to the final question for this chat, What role does synchronicity play in coincidence?

• Dana Meyer- “dictionary: coincidence almost = synchronicity. Synchronicity is time-focused; coincidence can be pattern match”

So, maybe there isn’t a role for synchroncity in coincidence as they seem to be very different experiences. And did we determine that you can create coincidence in business? It seems that the answer is yes. There is the role of planning with intention and taking action. This appears to lead to opportunities that might be experienced as coincidences. As for marketing, there seems to be ways to tell stories that encourage customers to view how they experience our products and services as coincidences.

Doubt as a tool for success? This is probably not the first thing you think of with doubt. Most people try to avoid doubt or chastise themselves for even questioning their own abilities or their decisions. But what if this is really not about undermining your performance? What if there is something more going on here?

Valeria Maltoni (founder and co-host of #kaizenblog) and I got curious about doubt after reading an article by Dan Pink, Can We Fix It Is the Right Question. Dan Pink used Bob the Builder to show how introducing doubt help create a good answer for your business. Pink also cites a research study that explains that “interrogative talk” rather than “declarative talk” are more likely to produce better performances. So all those affirmations you tell yourself may not be the best way to do your best. It seems to be more effective to ask yourself, “Will I do this?”

Well, with all of this in the background, we knew just the people who could grapple with the idea that doubt was more than a paralyzing emotion so we let the #kaizenblog community have at it. (You can read the whole transcript Transcript for #kaizenblog – Doubt!)

What are the pros and cons of expressing doubt about ideas/strategies/methods? This question seemed to set the stage quickly for an active conversation.

• Market Art (@X_youarehere) seemed to express humour and (maybe) some anxiety- “Is Dr. Fud here today? He is the authority on this too-common technique. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt“
• Laura Crum (@LauraLCrum)- “A1 Pro: opens up process/goals for exploration and new ideas. Con: sows uncertainty about abilities.”
• Anastasia M. Ashman (@Thandelike)- “A1 Expressing doubt about strategies/ideas/methods shows you have a grasp of downsides/ineffectualities.”
• Anthony Liang (@liangtfm)- “Q1 Pro: it lets you re-think through the idea/strat/method and see if it’s really the right way to go.”
• Christine Fife (@chrissfife)- “Well, one obvious point, expressing doubt makes you come across as negative.”
• WDYWFT (also know as whatdoyouwantfromthem.com and @WDYWFT)- “Pro doubt-you might uncover some reasonable judgement, Con doubt-you might not get idea off ground. Look at what-then how.”
• Jeannie Walters (@jeanniecw)- “A1-I think big PRO is authenticity. We all have doubts. It’s okay to express them”
• Bruno Ceolho (@bcoelho2000)- “Just make sure don’t get paralyzed by doubt and use it as an excuse.”
• Paul Pruneau (@Paul_Pruneau)- “Doubt is what needs to be overcome by data or evidence. Both take hard work.”

There was some back and forth throughout this part of the chat about whether expressing doubt was really about negativity or a more simple uncertainty. In the midst of these tweets were other thoughts that doubt could lay the ground for further understanding, better solutions, and humility.

• MaryAnn Halford (@MaryAnnHalford)- “how you language your doubts can make it more proactive versus negative.”
• Diane Court (dc2fla)- “With big stakes initiatives (& small too) there is always uncertainty. Good leaders encourage raising concerns, unknowns, risks.”
• Bill Lublin (@billlublin)- “The devils advocate is doubt-without doubt we have mindless optimism and bad planning.”
• Stephen Denny (@Note_To_CMO)- “To paraphrase Northrup, better to assume we’re 1 step above apes than 1 below angels. Doubt gives room to grow.”

Despite how fascinating this part of the conversation was, it was really time to take a look at the possibility that there is a dark side to positive thinking. With positive thinking being urged on us all, how are we creating a taboo for having/expressing doubt? Even within the #kaizenblog chat, you could see people trying to determine whether or not doubt sucks our motivation and leaves us with a poor sense of self-efficacy or even paralysis.

• Sian Phillips offered this concern,”…Surely if you doubt yourself that brings in negativity which is not good?”
• MaryAnn Halford- “I think it is more than being self-critical – I think it is more likely healthy skepticism.”
• Laura Crum- “A2 – we sometimes eliminate forums for expressing doubt, making it difficult/socially sanctioned”
• Stephen Denny- “Q2 Positive thinking isn’t always smart, is it? You need critical questioning w/o the personal attack that often accompanies it.”
• Rich Becker (@RichBecker)- “Doubt is the wrong word. I prefer a path of extreme openness to prevent us from becoming entrenched.”

There seemed to be a reframing that doubt could mean nothing more than uncertainty or perhaps even reflection. Doubt, in and of itself, seems to be hard to tolerate.

How does doubt introduce conversation about how specific business problems could be handled?

•  Caroline Di Diego (@CASUDI)- “Doubt can be balanced view ~ not so much you stopped from doing anything”
• Valeria Maltoni- “You need to use biz resources wisely. Cannot always try/do all to know if it works”
• Patty de Larios (@PattydeLarios)- “Doubt in business (should) open the door for different points of view”
• MaryAnn Halford- “the “doubt” conversation needs to focus on the analysis and how to leverage it to make things possible”
• Craig Wiggins (@CraigWiggins)- “First is “Should we”, then smart people can figure out the “how”. Start with the q: ‘is it worth doing?’ “
• Lois Martin (@LoisMarketing)- ”Having such a conversation opens minds for fresh ideas, identifying weak links in the chain”

There was an interesting thread in this section about how BP could have responded differently if they used doubt in their internal conversations with more regularity. If someone in a different section of your business (ex. engineers at BP) provides information that might illuminate how things could go badly, would you allow that into your thinking and conversation before the final decision is made?

In the final part of the chat, humility was introduced as a a piece of how one might be able to use doubt. What is the link between humility and doubt? This turned out to be a tough question to answer in 14o characters.

• Craig Wiggins- “Real humility can accept the doubts of others without defensiveness, and be open to being ‘wrong.’ “
• Anthony Liang- “You have to know how to bring up questions for conversation rather than arguing/plain disagreement”
• Diane Court- “Humility means one openly listens, considers questions/doubt & credits team for resulting improved process”
• Patty de Larios- “Humility is like saying “Many roads lead to Rome.” It’s knowing there is more than one “right” way”

This chat was remarkable! It was something to see everyone play, experiment, and discuss the idea that doubt does not automatically mean a negative and using it effectively actually betters the business. While writing this recap, it was difficult trying to decide which tweets to use as there were so many important points made. Read through the transcript (posted above) to see all of the ideas.

How is doubt really another part of critical thinking?

What do you believe about doubt and how do you use it in your business?

Embedded in this #kaizenblog chat was the suggestion to do a Tweetup. If you would like to do this, leave a comment and let’s see how we can organize this geographically. Can’t wait to meet you all in person!

Doubt has been on my mind lately. Interestingly enough, Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge, founder and co-host of #kaizenblog) emailed me with the idea of discussing doubt as a tool for building a thriving business.  Since we both find Dan Pink interesting, she sent me a link to this article, Can We Fix It Is the Right Question To Ask. Aside from loving the theme of Bob the Builder (there are young people in my life), it was interesting to see someone suggesting that doubt is useful and not to be avoided. Hmm…

Dan Pink writes, “Instead of puffing up himself and his team, [Bob the Builder] firsts wonders whether they can actually meet their goal. In asking his signature question -Can we fix it- he introduces some doubt.” This leads to a conversation of possible options and then a decision is made. The key piece here is the conversation, whether or not it is a “self-conversation”, that is started by doubt.

To me, this is most intriguing! An internal conversation, a ”self-conversation” could allow doubt to be used productively. Why do we avoid doubt? I worry that positive thinking, The Secret, the Law of Attraction may be creating an unfortunate taboo. If we keep focusing on how we’re so special, so wonderful, so magnificent, how do we deepen who we are as people?

There is power in recognizing when we are onto something really big in our work. I see this all the time with my small business clients as they step into new roles that combine the roles of visionary and manager. They wonder deeply if they have the talent, the “right” vision, the best way to communicate with their direct reports. At the same time, they don’t doubt that they will do it. They use coaching to go through the process of asking themselves the questions that clarify their thoughts, emotions, strengths, and weaknesses. There is a humility here knowing that you don’t have all the answers and that asking “can we fix it” creates the opening to see the best way forward.

 Are we truly alive if we avoid negative emotions?

Is doubt that negative?

What if it is really doubt, in addition to belief, that makes executing our strategies possible?

There is a lot of talk about creativity and innovation. Everyone’s got to have these to build these amazing businesses! Be new! Be original! Be…what really? Is this truly necessary?

Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge, founder and co-host of #kaizenblog) and I decided to take on the idea of creativity in 21st century business for our #kaizenblog chat. In preparation for the chat, I did a little research and discovered 2 videos that talked about the importance of creativity in the 21st century. There are some who say that the “knowledge workers” are morphing into something else while others focus on how we will use the abilities of the right half of our brains more so than ever before. It’s worth checking out Dan Pink’s take on creativity here. Another person who has a lot to say about creativity is Ken Robinson who says the current education system kills creativity. If you are curious about how the conversation evolved, read this Transcript for #kaizenblog – Creativity.

It seemed to make sense to start at the beginning and ask, how do you describe creativity? More than just thinking up new ideas, it seemed important to find out what we all embed in our definitions of creativity. 

• Lizzie Pauker (@lizziepauker)- “Creativity to me is all about innovation, new perspectives & thinking ‘outside the box.’ “
• soumyapr (@soumyapr)- “Creativity is the ability to add disruptive change without losing the core value of an idea”
• John Reddish (@GetResults)- “Creativity is going beyond or within to find new/innovative ways to expand consciousness /work-and we always need that.”
• Andrew Fowler (@guhmshoo)- Remarkable content”
• Joey Strawn (@joey_strawn)- “Creativity is the ability to show old things in a new way and the desire to create something from nothing.”
• Caroline Di Diego (@CASUDI)- “Creativity is continuous innovating ~ looking for new and better ways 24/7 365.”
• Laura Crum (@LauraLCrum)- “I think creativity is the ability to not be so focused on the path ahead that you lose the scenery options.”

The descriptions at time seem to contradict each other  and that is what is intriguing about creativity in general. Perhaps it is one of those things we know it if we see it? Another aspect that almost everyone made a comment or retweeted another participant’s comment regarding how action is integral to the creative process. Linda Naiman (@alchemize) seemed to capture this when she tweeted, “If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.”

I suppose we could have continued the discussion that described creativity as there were references to how target markets define the value of the creative idea, if passion plays a role, and if challenge does provide the spark for creativity to occur.

So we came back to the idea that the 21st century will demand we use the skills of the right brain. If you are not familiar with these skills, let us pause for a moment to review them. The left brain is responsible for analyzing, logic, sequencing, objectivity, and looking at parts. The right brain is responsible for noticing patterns, connections, intuition, and subjectivity. If right brain skills are truly more dominant now, how does that shape the use of creativity?

The responses seemed to reflect the tension that can polarize many into being in the right brain camp versus the left brain camp. While there doesn’t have to be an either/or answer, the tension is worth noting.

• Amber Cleveland (@ambercleveland)- “W/ more right brain dominance, creativity should increase, but you still need left brain skills to support.”
• Joey Strawn- “I agree! There needs to be marriage of the halves, while ideas need to come, there must be logical uses.”
• Richard Becker (@richbecker)- “Creativity is seeing from a unique perspective. The right brain stuff is the boundaries we do it in.”

There are boundaries to right brain thinking? It seemed natural to ask how is the application of creativity the same or different in the 21st century? This part of the discussion picked up on the earlier theme of challenge perhaps providing the spark needed for creativity to occur.

•  Amber Cleveland- “Creativity in 21st cent. is different b/c we have more tools, the same b/c we push our boundaries just like those b4.”
• Joshua Pearlstein (@jpearlstein)- “It is the same, you have to be creative faster.”
• “Richard Becker- “Creativity today isn’t all that different from Iron Chef. Limited ingredients often make for more interesting dishes.”
• Caroline Di Diego- “Failing is def an ingredient for creativity ~ too much fear of failure NO creativity.”
• Stanford Smith (@pushingsocial)- “In the Whole Mind World – Management=Knowing how to inspire creativity and how the heck to get out of the way.”

It doesn’t seem like we got any particular answers. It is clear from everyone’s responses that creativity is a necessity in  business, maybe even as we go forth as a society. It was also clear that we embed a lot of ideas into the concept of creativity.

What is your description of creativity?

What is the intersection between 21st century thinking and creativity?