TED talks - What Makes Them So Good ?

If watching amazing presenters giving awesome presentations fascinates you, then no doubt you've already checked out some of the brilliant videos on TED.com

At this point I must admit to having a moderate to heavy obsession with watching TED videos and I'll often try starting conversations about my favourite talks with friends, family and colleagues - in fact anyone who’ll listen really. This is mainly because I am a sad fan of TED and I've done what sad fans do - deconstructed the talks in great detail - and guess what? I’ve decoded the formulas of my favourite presentations.

But before I share the formula with you I will briefly outline what it’s all about - just in case there’s anyone reading this who has not come across the TED website before.

TED is a non-profit, knowledge -sharing platform dedicated to creating a community of people committed to communicating world-changing ideas. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and this title is reflected in the great variety of talks they host which include each of the three subjects. The talks are usually limited to around 18- 20 minutes in length and as a result are punchy and impactful. TED conferences are held around the world each year and videos of the talks are posted on the TED.com website.

So, here are some of my findings:

1. TED Talks tell a story. Preferably personal with a message people could apply to their own lives.

2. They end as powerfully as they begin so they leave a 'lasting' impression.

3. They tell us something fresh, new, and unique about a subject.

4. They approach their subject from an innovative perspective.

5. They don’t try to 'sell' us a story, they engage us in a story.

6. The content is rigorously structured with a focus on brevity, clarity and impact.

7. The message is usually contagious and could easily go viral.


8. They are always tailored to the audience in style, tone and form.

9. The presenter has thoroughly rehearsed the delivery – This results in a fluid, natural and confident voice tone, body language, stagecraft, ease in handling props and working with PowerPoint.

10. They often have a key phrase that we remember.

Obviously not every talk has all 10 of the qualities listed here but next time you watch the TED videos notice how many apply to the best of them.

If you are thinking of designing and delivering your own talk at a TED conference then you'll probably receive the TED COMMANDMENTS.

And here they are:

Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick.

Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before.

Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion.

Thou Shalt Tell a Story.

Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy.

Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego.

Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.

Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desperate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.

Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.

Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.

Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee

Finally, here is a list of the top 5 most viewed talks on TED for you to enjoy, and study for yourself:

Sir Ken Robinson - Schools kill creativity: 8,660,010 views
Jill Bolte Taylor - Stroke of insight: 8,087,935
Pranav Mistry - The thrilling potential of SixthSense: 6,747,410
Tony Robbins - Why we what we do: 4,909,505
Hans Rosling - The best stats you’ve ever seen: 3,954,776

I’d love to hear about your favourite TED talks and any top presenting tips you’ve discovered from watching the presentations, so do leave me a comment.

Happy TEDing!

Tom

Conformity vs Creativity - Is There A Gap?

Imagine a world where creativity is dying out. A time when we leave creative thinking to machines. When humans are just entranced, lardy skin bags full of offal sat in front of a bank of TV monitors neuronally connected to a computer terminal. Inhaling information and products like a crustacean scouring the ocean floor for plankton and mollusks.

Latest research out of Stanford University by Gerald Crabtree suggests that humans are becoming dumb to dumber rather than evolving super brains because our relatively safe, sanitized, civilized world has taken away the stress of Darwinian competition. This means our brains were much sharper when we were hunting the woolly Mammoth and gathering the mixed fruits and berries.

And yet a survey of 5,000 people across the US, UK, Germany France and Japan revealed that four out of five believe that economic growth in the 21st century will depend on our ability to unlock our personal creativity. But only a quarter of the people surveyed believe they are reaching their own creative potential at work.

So why is this happening? Why aren't people fulfilling their creative potential?

Apparently people feel under too much pressure to conform. To be productive and increase performance while maintaining the parameters of standardisation. In other words the people surveyed felt they were expected to prioritise conformity over creativity while there is still an expectation by business leaders that they should think creatively and come up with innovative solutions to problems. A clear case of cognitive dissonance.

50% of the people surveyed also said that the biggest barrier to thinking creatively was time. They are just too busy ensuring they attend to tasks that maintain profitability. So, what's the solution?

First let's flip this thought on it's head.

If time was the only barrier between you and increased profitability for you business wouldn't you try to find some extra time?

It follows then that if developing a higher capacity for creative thinking is vital for surviving the shifting sands of today's unpredictable market place it might be worth asking yourself this question.

Is there a gap between what you feel, think, say and do to produce the results required of you and what you feel, think, say and do to come up with innovative solutions?

If there is then where might you find some extra time to start exercising your creative thinking muscle?

Once you've worked that out you might like to try these 5 creative muscle builders:

1. Challenge some Assumptions - Have a long hard think and identify assumptions that you make day to day that both hinder and help you achieve success at work.

2. The Lotus Blossom Technique - Follow this LINKfor a cool creative thinking technique.

3. Random Word Technique - Define a problem then pick a random word. Now force an association between the word and the problem. For example your problem might be how to liven up your journey to work. The random word could be 'Frog'. List how many ways Frogs can move around. Hopping, swimming, crawling, floating on a Lilipad etc. How might you apply these ideas to come up with a more interesting route to work?

4. Polar Response - Look at your problem and create a list of ways you could make the problem worse. Sometimes a solution will emerge that you might not have thought of by thinking only about taking positive actions.

5. The See, Hear, Feel and Touch exercise. This is purely about developing your imagination by using your senses. Take a few minutes in the day to imagine an object that is personal to you. Using visualisation get a sense of how it feels to touch, it's weight and temperature. How it looks, how it smells and even how it sounds as you hold an image of the object in your mind.

So even though there's no wooly Mammoth left to chase and you've got used to grabbing a bag of mixed fruit and berries from ASDA, by practicing the exercises above for just 21 days you could start increasing the creative thinking capacity of your brain and help to close the gap between conformity and creativity.

Okay then?...Pass the remote!

The Entrepreneurial Mindset

Cartoon by Hugh Macleod at www.gapingvoid.com

Does anyone really need reminding that we are facing some heavy, socio-economic challenges on a global scale?

I would lay money that anyone who is keeping up to date with world events will realise that many of the old familiar structures, systems and processes we know, and love to hate, are struggling and failing at an exponential rate.

In terms of education and the young, anyone who's currently dealing with 16 to 18 year olds thinking about what to study for a career for the future is probably struggling to give the best advice. The old job for life is genuinely now a thing of the ancient past.

What advice can we really give when the reality is that none of us have ever been in a world quite like this one before?

As local and global environments change many existing communities and cultures are coming under increasing pressure as a new kind of chaos looms large. New, unseen challenges are emerging all the time.

So... what we need now are new ideas. Ideas that stem from an evolved world view that recognises the diverse, impermanent and yet increasingly connected nature of living, loving and working on this planet in the 21st century.

The good news is that there are people in this world who can help us right now. In fact these people have always existed. They are the individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset. These are the people that make things happen. People driven by a need to acquire and achieve while learning and growing. Hungry for self actualisation at any cost they bring new realities into being and the results of their endeavours often lead to innovations that make life more interesting and in some cases much better, safer and more enjoyable.

We had a chat amongst ourselves at 4D and decided that we could definitely describe ourselves as entrepreneurs. We all have bucked convention and tried to live by our own rules in service of a will to discover the meaning and purpose of existence for ourselves. Regardless of the limits of our own four dimensions we have all adopted the 'act as if' approach to life in a state of positive delusion, believing anything is possible if a person is determined to follow their personal bliss.

So, we thought we might take some time to deconstruct the qualities that we at 4D collectively share as a team, and offer them as an insight into a type of entrepreneurial mind set.

Individually we all...

1. Strive to think creatively before coming up with a solid plan with clearly defined goals.

2. Are prepared to quickly adapt or change that plan if required.

3. Will take on arduous or difficult tasks if necessary.

4. Prefer not to compete, but rather try and take the road less travelled in order to be unique.

5. Treat failure as an opportunity to learn rather than a point at which to give up.

6. Try to remain courageous in the face of adversity.

7. Do something each day, however small, that contributes to our journey towards our goals.

8. Continue to develop our communication skills to the highest levels possible.

9. Try to remain alert, informed and open minded.

10. Maintain a strong personal and professional network of friends and colleagues.


We believe most people have the potential to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. If you are willing.

How many of these do you already have?

What qualities do you think should be added to our list?

Which would you like to develop yourself?

When and how will you start that journey?

How will you know if you're succeeding?

Get in touch, it would be great to hear your ideas.

New Book-Spiral Into Love

We are delighted to announce that Philippa Waller's new book Spiral Into Love is now available in paperback from Amazon.

Spiral into Love offers a unique approach to finding, building and sustaining loving relationships.

Being in a relationship can be challenging at times, we all know that, but whether you are looking for new love – or want to keep your current love alive and vibrant, you probably don’t have time for a ten-year self-development or partner-awareness programme. What’s needed is an immediate understanding of the dynamics of our relationships and some practical tools and tips we can put into practice straight away.

Philippa's approach takes a unique perspective on the dynamics of loving relationships by drawing on several theories of the bio-psycho-social development of human values, including Spiral Dynamics Integral and Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. The book contains an easy to use values diagnostic – the Spiral Profiler – that will help you identify which of the five main value systems are most dominant for you. After that, you will explore how each of the five value systems responds to each other when they are in a loving relationship and how each combination creates its own unique dynamic.

So, if you’re looking to find new love, rekindle old love, or check whether your latest flame is the one for you, then Spiral Into Love could well become your relationship bible.

How To Make Your Message Really Memorable.

Research has demonstrated that in everyday, interpersonal communication, people spontaneously generate images via hand gestures to accompany their speech. In this way they help to encode the speech into the listener’s memory by utilizing two cognitive aspects: words and images. Although many of these gestures are made unconsciously certain specific gestures can be isolated and defined. By using specific gestures to accompany your speech, with a little practice you can enhance the physical dimensions of your communications. This creates multi representations of meaning and can really make your message more memorable.

There are three types of gestures: Adapters, Emblems and Illustrators.

‘Adapters‘ are habitual movements that are performed with little or no conscious intent to communicate, for example, touching your hair, fiddling with a watchstrap, or pushing your glasses up the bridge of your nose even when they are perfectly positioned.

‘Emblems‘ are gestures that do not depend on speech, as their meaning is clear and culturally agreed, for example, thumbs up, raising the middle finger, or the ok sign.

‘Illustrators‘ are the category we are interested in and which are essential in effective communication. They are created as part of an intended act of communication and constructed together with speech. However there is no general awareness of a codified meaning – unlike emblems. This is because they can reveal or communicate meanings that speech cannot accommodate.

There are four key illustrators:

1. Iconic: These represent shapes of objects or people and movements of objects and people in space. For example, tracing a square in the air with an index finger while saying, “Have you seen a box anywhere around here?” Or, making a walking motion with two fingers while saying, “I’m just going for a walk”

2. Metaphoric: These are gestures made while explaining something. For example, while answering a mathematical problem an individual may make an arcing or pulsing motion with the hand as they describe the numerical route to an answer. Metaphoric gestures are a visual depiction of a process.

3. Deictic: Pointing at objects, places and people indicating temporal or spatial references are deictic gestures. You may even point at something or someone not visible to the listener, for example, pointing behind you while saying “My mother lives in the next street.”

There are also two viewpoints from which gestures narrate:

OBJECTIVE: These gestures describe an event from an observer’s point of view and depict the elements in a story as items. For example, describing someone running across a road by using the fingers to depict legs in fast motion. The objects and characters in the story are separate from the narrator.

SUBJECTIVE: The narrator acts out the story using gestures as part of a character performance. For example, describing someone running across a road, the gesturer would move his/her arms as if actually running.

By gesturing as if you were the characters and objects in your story you bring energy and life to the spoken word and create more memorable images in the listener’s mind. It is also important to consider the elements you wish to describe during a speech or narration.

Why not try consciously focussing your energy in the physical dimension of gesture and explore the effects. Though, perhaps you might start practicing with with family and friends before you give an important presentation!

Let's Get Physical !

Walking on two legs is what distinguishes us from our primate cousins and this physical skill led to our two species taking different paths - literally. Though it has been a stress and strain on our bodies, walking is largely responsible for our unique success as a species.

People walk in many different ways and how we walk can tell others a lot about who we are. Our confidence, our mood, our status, our attitude and our energy levels. When under threat from attack males will try to make them selves look taller, bigger and wider. When trying not to draw attention to themselves a person can make them selves appear smaller and insignificant.

If you've never thought about the way you move before you can begin to explore the physical dimension of bodily movement by trying the following exercises inspired by the great movement artist and analyst Rudolph Von Laban.

While moving around, going about your daily routines try:

Shape –Opening and Closing

Make your walk wider or narrower by widening or narrowing the gait of your walk and swing your arms further away and closer to your body. Then make your walk higher or lower by walking on tiptoe or slouching. Make the walk deeper by taking larger steps and exaggeratedly swinging your arms forward and back. How does this affect your mood?

Time –Quick and Sustained

Simply move faster and slower using different rhythms and energy levels.

Weight - Strong and Light

Explore how much energy it takes to create light or heavy movement by stomping and gliding around. If you dare, try a subtle version in public and notice how your movement affects you and others around you.

Space – Direct and Indirect

Feel how much energy and effort is required to quickly move in a straight direction and then suddenly change your trajectory. Then slowly amble around in an erratic way and feel how your energy and emotions are affected.

Flow – Bound and Free

Explore the energy required to tense and relax different parts of your body as you move around. For example- clench your fists, hunch your shoulders, clench your jaw, hold your limbs together, dip your head and hold it down. Then release your muscles and try and let your limbs hang loosely.

Again, notice how it makes you feel.

Does it change the way you think?

Use the categories above to help you identify how other people move and what messages they communicate simply by 'walking' into a room.

Notice movement that appeals to you. What is it about the style of certain people's movement that makes you feel a certain way - positive and negative- and think about how you might model their positive movements to achieve a similar impact?

Good luck and have fun playing in the physical dimension.

Project Management in 4 Dimensions

Once we have launched a project it's fairly easy to lose track, or even let things slip.
Having formed the team, made a plan, agreed the budget, set the objectives and accessed the resources we may assume that everything will go relatively according to plan.

However, I'm certain we all know that's not always the case, as anyone who remembers the Apollo 13 moon mission, Coca-Cola's Dasani water, London's Millennium Dome and the Channel Tunnel will testify.

Lack of focus and direction can destabilise a project quicker than boiling water under an ice sculpture. People can change roles, leave a department or even leave the company half way through a longer project.

Here's a quick 4 D checklist to help ensure your project is on track.

Physically:

Am I seeing all the behaviours necessary to make the project a success?
If not, what do people need to be doing?
How do I know people, teams, systems and processes are working in sync?
What must I actually 'do' today?
What specific behaviours do I need to do today to bring me closer to my objectives?
Who do I need to meet 'face to face' with rather than firing off an email or calling on the phone?

Emotional:

Am I still emotionally invested in the project?
How do I feel about it?
How should I feel about it?
Is there a gap? If so, what needs to happen now?
Is everyone still engaged and bought into the project?
If so, how do I know they are?
If not...Who do I need to re-connect with in terms of energising the drives and motivations of people and or teams?

Intellectually :

How do I know I have enough experienced people on the team? 97% of successful projects are led by experienced project managers.
Am I waiting for information or knowledge that may be holding me up?
Who do I need to talk to about information and knowledge today?
How do I know everyone has the information and knowledge they need to make the required decisions?
How do I know the organisational measurements I'm/we're using to monitor progress are still valid?
How do I know we enforcing them effectively?

Intentional:

Am I still clear about 'why' I am involved in this project and what it means to me?
Am I still clear about my role in this project?
How do I know everyone is clear about the value they are bringing?
How do I know everyone still has a shared commitment to make this project work?
Do we still have executive support? Research has suggested that lack of executive support is the main cause of project failure.
How do I know?

Great project management is all about rigorous planning, realistic expectations and scheduling, and most of all, frequent communication to facilitate continuous learning and improvement. Adapting and responding as and when conditions require.

Taking a 4D perspective now and then can help to keep things on track.

Crucial but Difficult Conversations

I've been preparing for a half day seminar/workshop coming up on the subject of having difficult conversations. I'm talking about the sort of conversations we know we need to have but may put off, avoid or perhaps never have because of anxiety and even real fear of confrontation and conflict.

I am calling the session 'Crucial Conversations in 4 Dimensions'.

Maybe not the most pithy of titles but I like the slight iteration and it's an honest introduction to what I shall be presenting.

Personally, in the last few years I've had a few crucial conversations that have been exceedingly difficult. However, I have noticed that I am much less afraid of having them than I once was. Though brave in the face of physical danger, maybe even foolish at times, when it came to emotional conversations the pattern of my youth was to run away without leaving even the briefest of notes as to where and why I had gone AWOL. In the unlikely event that anyone caught up with me, I would fly into a defensive rage to disarm the psychological assailant and then make a hasty retreat.

I was well into my thirties before I decided that I couldn't carry on this way. After some help from a good and wise friend and a period of rigorous, personal analysis, I understood something profound about the way I processed and expressed my experience of life. Intellectually and spiritually I have always been courageous and would digest and consider philosophical ideas, beliefs and concepts that would shake the psychic foundations of many of my peer group. I was, and still am very aware and awake to the physical dimensions of my being and that includes my own body and bodies in general and the shared environments in which I live and breath. However as far as emotions were concerned I was stultified, confused and in certain instances, emotionally retarded.

Because the other three dimensions were functioning well, I managed to exist and achieve with relative ease. As long as things were going smoothly. But when the going got tough, I got going...in the opposite direction.

But these days I have to say, even at the risk of sounding a little too 'on message' I love a challenging conversation. An opportunity to put things right between myself and another is a genuine pleasure for me.

I put this down to developing a deeper understanding of where and how my four dimensions connect and disconnect when I am communicating with others. How I feel, what I think, what I believe and finally what I do as a result of both giving and receiving a difficult message. Even a highly charged, emotional one. My only regret was that I didn't feel this way when I was in my twenties and starting my first businesses. Oh, how things could have been different!

However, while I am not afraid to look back at the past and learn, these days I don't stare.

In the context of leadership, having honest and regular conversations is the key to employee engagement and, in our experience, though many leaders and managers claim to be committed to engaging and inspiring their people, many find it challenging.

The pre - difficult conversation assumptions we hold can often be negative and full of anxiety about people's reactions to us. Some take receiving a bad reaction very personally. A manager I worked with who had to confront an employee about their repeated lateness once said to me: 'I keep putting off talking to them because if they shout at me I will definitely lose my temper. And that scares me because I just don't know will happen then." That's just terrifying. It's was also a sign that her 4 dimensions were way out of sync. Fortunately they didn't remain so.

Crucial conversations can be honest but should be relevant, can be challenging but should be informative, can be direct but also motivational and this happens most effectively when we are both self-aware and aware of others in 4D.

When we are genuinely in touch with how we feel emotionally and how that affects our thinking, we can connect with intentions based on clarity around our deepest values, beliefs and drives, allowing those to inform the physical expression of our message.

Staying connected to your intentional dimension really is vital and, as a consequence, brings with it the appropriate attitude, words, tone of voice and physical behaviour.

No need for anxiety or fear, just the courage of your convictions...and a bit of conscious effort.

The Fear of Presenting to Senior Leaders

Many people we coach will express concern and, in some cases, even fear at being challenged by senior people while giving presentations at work.

This can be stultifying in terms of a person trying something a little different from the 'norm' when designing, preparing and delivering a presentation for fear of encouraging criticism.

However, our experience has revealed that many senior leaders in organisations like to be presented with new ideas and innovative solutions. In fact we often hear similar phrases to the following from most CEOs we work with:

"I would prefer it if my people would come to me with more ideas for potential solutions as well as their research and questions."

"I'm always interested in seeing and hearing how passionate someone is about the content of their presentation."

"I want my people to be authentic and honest with me and not just do and say what they 'think' I want them them to do and say."

"I want to be surprised."

Sometimes senior people will challenge us, not because they believe we are wrong or because they want to put us off our stroke or intimidate us, many times it's simply so they can test our response. This can be both conscious and unconscious.

So, next time you find yourself presenting in front of senior execs, re-frame the reason for the challenges you might receive to your ideas as the leader's test for the strength and resolve of your commitment to a message and your ability stand by what you believe.

If you've ensured that you are connected to your message by preparing and integrating the delivery and performance of the presentation in all 4 dimensions, then any challenge can be welcomed as a chance to demonstrate your confidence in and commitment to an idea, strategy or proposition.

2 Pies of Creativity

I think I’m creative. I’m not creative. What is creativity? My creativity has disappeared. I’m not feeling creative.

The mystery of our own creativity can drive us nuts. How can we tap into it when we need it?

The very action of making creativity ‘mysterious’ or confusing removes it from us and immediately makes it appear less accessible. So how can we de-mystify creativity. Well creativity is fundamentally about energy and brain connections. We have our own unique set of brain connections based on our experience, our learning and our understanding. These unique neural connections form our very own creative lucky dip – that we can add to anytime through further experience, learning and understanding.


That brings us to the question of energy. Those creative neural pathways need firing up. So then it’s a question of how we source that energy and this doesn’t necessarily mean going for a five mile run every time we want to get our creative juices flowing. In fact there are 6 potential sources of creative energy. And your ideal source might be different from a colleague or collaborator. So it’s important to recognize where you draw your creative energy from. Otherwise creative blocks result and it can begin to feel frustrating or in the case of a collaborative situation – both frustrating and personal.

So here are your six potential sources or what you might like to think of as Two Creative Pies :

Physical – this might well mean going for a five mile run, or simply going for a walk or removing the chairs from a brainstorming session and getting everyone on their feet. I was recently working with a rock climber who always solved his creative problems hanging by a finger nail from the sheer face of a cliff. If you’re a kinesthetic creative – removing a creative block might be as simple as removing the furniture.

Intellectual – if you draw your creative energy from the intellect then any new information could fire up your imagination and problem solving drives. This might mean taking a moment to read a page of a book, have a conversation with someone and share ideas, read the paper, watch a Ted talk, do a Sudoku or a crossword. Or even intersperse your creative meetings with learning a new language. N’est-ce pas?


Emotional – perhaps your creative flow depends on how you feel. Do you feel more creative when you feel happy, excited, in love? Or maybe your ideas come to you when you’re angry and work yourself up into a heated debate? What emotion do you need to feel and how can you stimulate that? A funny film? Buying a lottery ticket? Eating indulgent food? Hugging a friend? Phoning home? Telling a joke? Recounting a story? Meditating? Playing a silly game? Your emotions are an incredibly powerful source of creative energy. Think of the beautiful poems written in the name of love or loss.


People – some people will make you feel more creative than others. Do you know who they are? And do you consciously seek them out when you need to feel creative? Also – are you aware of the people around you or in your life who make you feel less creative? Are you conscious of limiting your exposure to these people when you need to be creatively fired up? If you feel blocked on a project think about who you can meet or who you can call, text or tweet to immediately feel more creative.


Intention – this stimulus is all about the core values that drive and motivate you in life. In other words the ideas and beliefs that create your day to day as well as your creative intention. This might be question of reminding yourself what you stand for or why you are doing something. Is the problem you’re trying to solve deeply important to you? Is the creative project you want to drive forward something dear to your very being? Or are you part of a creative team and care about doing a good job for your colleagues? Will there be a reward at the end that will hold value for you? Or is it simply too important to risk failure? Tapping into your core intentional self can be a super speedy way to fire up your creativity at the deepest level.


Environment – you may well be someone who needs to be in a creative and stimulating environment in order to feel creative. This can often be the case for highly visual people like artists or designers. Our environment also gives us a sense of how much we and our creative ideas are valued. Being placed in a dark, windowless room and asked to come up with brilliant ideas can feel like severely mixed messages. Our ideas are valued but not our environmental well-being. Some people like colourful, busy, stimulating environments, others will find this distracting. All the research on creativity and environments have one common theme – that people are more creative in environments they have had some say over rather than enforced environments. This doesn’t necessarily mean we all need to be picking out carpet samples for our offices. It might be as simple as deciding where we can place your chair and your Starbucks ginger latte.


So if you feel your creative flame has gone out or find you are at loggerheads with colleagues on a project, take a couple of moments for a couple of pies and run yourself (and them) through the PIEPIE checklist.


Who said pies weren’t good for you?

What's the real difference between human being and human doing?

I was working with a client yesterday on a presentation they were planning.

The key thing I noted before we began working was that my client continuously used the words do, doing and done in phrases like:
"I have this presentation to do." and "I'm doing this presentation next week." and " After I've done talking through the presentation."

As many people are inclined to 'do' my client had written the content of the message first and then brought me in to help with the style, form and performance.

The challenge for my client during the session was that having written the content first, he had now learned it like a script and during the rehearsal kept stopping because he'd got a word wrong or missed out a sentence.

After a few minutes of this we stopped and talked about the difference between human being and human doing in the context of a presentation. When we 'do' a presentation we are generally going through a process of delivering a structured message
which opens with specific and relevant points of interest and ends with a finale that reinforces the key messages.

At the end our audience should be in no doubt about the reasons and benefits of having sat or stood, watched and listened to us present. And if we've 'done' that well, we will feel we have achieved our objective.

But what if something goes wrong with the 'doing' of the presentation?

Perhaps the venue has been changed, or maybe the environment where we planned to stand or sit has been shifted around.

Maybe the technology is different than we had planned, or worse, has crashed altogether and we can't show our amazing slides, play the funny or moving video, or dazzle them with our innovative use of audio.

What about if when we arrive and there are more or less people than we expected, or we are faced with an unexpected audience?

All these factors and more can undermine you and be the un-doing of a presentation.

However, when we are 'being' the presentation we totally embody the message in 4 dimensions.

This means that the first aspect we have to prepare is the 4th dimension - the 'INTENTIONAL' - expressing our intentions.

Why are you giving this message rather than someone else?
What does it mean to both you and your audience?
Why do you care?
What do you know about the content even without looking at notes?
What do you intend the audience to feel, think and do after hearing, seeing, experiencing you being your message?
What need does your message serve in your team, your organisation, the world?
What are the central, values, drives and guiding principles behind the message and how are you connected to them in 4 D?

In order for you to 'be' rather than just 'do' when presenting, not a word of content should be written, not one slide should be built or video selected before questions like these have been answered.

After your INTENTIONAL exploration, you should be able go to speakers corner in Hyde Park and deliver your message with nothing but the clothes you stand in.

That's human being rather than human doing.

So, if someone gives you a pre-prepared presentation to deliver, ask them why they want YOU specifically to deliver it.

If they say that you are the only person who is available, then ask them if it's an important message that needs to land with people.

If they say yes, then just politely hand it back and explain to them why it's best if you don't just 'do' it.

On the other hand if they say because you are the only person who can make this message stick, then tell them you will write and design your own version.

There is a real difference between being connected to a message and doing it with energy and conviction.

So, next time you hand over a presentation on a USB stick for loading onto a laptop, just say:

"Here are the slides for the presentation I'll be being later."

Coaching Questions - from 4 perspectives and in 4 Dimensions.

If you need to explore a situation or issue in life or work, why not try looking at it from the following perspectives?





• What do you believe about the current situation or issue? ( assumptions, ideas and intuitions)

• What do you feel about the current situation or issue? (think in terms of specific emotions - despair, anxiety, joy, optimism, enthusiastic- etc)

• What do you know about the current situation or issue? (tangibles, details, facts and figures)

• What have you done about the current situation or issue? ( actions taken, results, consequences-etc)

Then explore your future objectives from the following 4 perspectives:

• What do you need to believe about the current situation or issue that is different from what you believe now?

• What do you need to feel about the current situation or issue that is different from what you feel now?

• What do you need to know about the current situation or issue that is different from what you know now?

• What do you need to do about the current situation or issue that is different from what you've done so far?


Now think in terms of the 4 dimensions:

What are the obstacles in the way of where you are now and where you need to be?

1- Physical obstacles – Behaviour, environments, systems and processes.

2- Emotional obstacles - EQ, States of mind, emotions imagined and real.

3- Intellectual obstacles – Thinking styles and types. Multiple Intelligences and individual cognitive strengths.

4- Motivational obstacles – Values, Ideas, Beliefs and Experiences. Shared culture.


Once you've identified the obstacles you can begin thinking about what action you can take.

What is possible now?

What seems impossible? Why?

What is possible in the near future?

What seems impossible in the near future? Why?


Keep chipping away at the obstacles until you discover which dimensions need to be addressed and in what order.

Feel free to contact us anytime if you need any help.

The Secret of Success

“Success is not something you pursue it is something you attract by the person you become.Become a person who is attractive to success.” Jim Rohn

I really love that quote. It has informed my personal perspective on the secret of success since I first heard it some eight years ago.

However, not everyone shares the same secret.

Many successful entrepreneurs we speak to are often more motivated by the idea of the process and the journey towards a goal rather than the result. For these people achieving their ambitions is less satisfying than the struggle to get there.

It is interesting that we’ll almost, always hear a different definition for success from everyone that we ask to define it.

Some people will gauge success based on the amount of money they make, others the amount of friends they have. Maybe your success is measured by achieving skills at a sport, or simply being able to do things that make you happy.

Perhaps you've never even considered what success means to you, let alone thought about whether there's any secret to it.

Well, if you are interested in discovering your own secret to success the first step is to define what success looks, feels, sounds, smells and tastes like to you.

We're all aware that we are living in challenging times so at 4D we've recently thought long and hard about what questions might help a person to discover the secret to their success. The following set of questions are our first attempts.

Give them a go and let us know if they worked for you.

• If you were as successful as you think you want or ought to be, what would you be doing differently?

• Where would you live that is different from where you live now and why?

• What would you eat that is different from what you eat now and why?

• Who would you have as friends and why?

• Where would you go for pleasure and leisure that is different from where you go now and why?

• How would you be different as a person and why?

This line of self questioning can continue until you get to a point where you reveal the gap between what you have and who you are now and who and what you want to achieve in the future.

The suprise is that sometimes the gap is smaller than you might have expected.

Thinking about the gap between what you have now and what you want, the next question is this:

• Which things do you really 'need' to achieve in order for you to genuinely feel successful?

Make the list and focus on these final two questions:

• What and who do you know already that will help you get what you need?

• What and who do you need to know to get what you need?


Despite the many different ways people measure their success our research has revealed that there are four common elements shared by every successful person on their journey.

• Self Belief - They expect success.

• Creativity- They try and bring something into being in a way that has never been seen, heard or felt before.

• Persistence- They don’t fail at a task, they just stop or give up.

• They stay prepared so they can exploit even the flimsiest opportunities presented by random events and coincidences.

So...What's the secret of your success?

The 4th Dimension of Business.

Many people we talk to in business are suggesting that the economic challenges we face today are the catalysts for a new era.

It seems fairly obvious that in the West we are heading towards a global-centric stage of development and we will require a considerable amount of aligned energy and intelligence going forward if we are to succeed and recover from the current crisis.

At 4D we believe the new era is the era of 'human being’ in the work place and the further evolution of human potential in general.

As healthy business practices are the foundations of healthy economies and ultimately healthy societies, we feel this is an exciting time. If we get it right.

Most successful Western businesses have already successfully satisfied the needs required to flourish in 3 basic dimensions:

• Resources - Finance, knowledge, technology and workers.
• Organisation - Hierarchy, systems and processes.
• Status - Brand and market position through customer relationships and community.

But what's required now is galvanising the fourth dimension.

This is the collective energy and intelligence generated by the talent, attitude and behaviour of an organisation's people. This is the key differentiator in a competitive market place. The energy and intelligence of it's people is a company’s best asset and the greatest resource available is human creativity.

Ecology, sociology and psychology can tell us more about the workings of the human mind and our connection to the environment than at any time in our history. We are at the dawn of a new understanding of ourselves and the eco- systems that both created us and those we create and operate within. We can no longer ignore the fact that we are connected, in a profound and fundamental way to all of humanity and the environment. The actions of business can no longer operate in isolation from its people or the rest of the global system.

However, in the past people may have been expected to selflessly give up their values, ideas and beliefs and become merged with a whole in service of a tribe, a community, a society a nation or a company. This is currently becoming unacceptable to many people today and in the past few years has led to uprisings, continued dysfunction and the failure of nations, cultures and businesses alike.

We are now heading for an age where the focus is on personal awareness, realisation of potential and individual uniqueness and autonomy together with a greater sense of belonging and being part of something much bigger. This brings with it an enhanced sense of individual empowerment but, at the same time the need to take responsibility for our actions, create alignment and be mindful of the right use of power.

Here are some possible tenets for evolved, 4 dimensional thinking for business leaders.

Creative behaviour is innate, necessary and fundamental and expresses itself in an environment of growth, freedom and optimism.

Destructive behaviour is contingent, born of frustration and fear and expresses itself in an environment of stasis, restriction and authoritarian control.

Evolution is an absolute and universal law. Any organisation that does not evolve will be unsustainable.

Allowing an individual to pursue their own self-interest, but in a way that automatically benefits everyone else, whether they mean to or not, is the secret to the new evolution of business.

Ensure your organisation's culture makes everyone feel free to create, develop and evolve, important, needed, useful, successful, proud, respected, rather than unimportant, interchangeable, anonymous, wasted, underused, expendable and disrespected.

Bearing in mind that the work we do becomes part of our identity and the way others define us, our work must authentically express who we are on all levels. This requires, courage, honesty and an absence of fear.

Help people find meaning in their organisations. If we find no meaning in our daily activity we may eventually feel our lives to be meaningless.

Ensure as people develop they are given responsibility and power, rather than left in a state of passive dependency.

Organisations that share information across departments with increased employee involvement perform significantly better than organisations that are run autocratically.

Flexibility and adaptability will be significantly related to financial success in the future.

Leadership roles should be interchangeable and needs based not awarded on length of service alone.

Managers and leaders should be enlisted from experts in their particular field and lead based on their knowledge not on their ability to intimidate or wield power.

Companies that will succeed in the future will be those that are closer to a natural organism in the way they function. Committed to continued evolution for the good of all, both inside and outside of the business. Like the human immune system, the energised and evolving organisation is constantly aware, and reflecting on the patterns and habits of it’s systems and processes, checking for any dysfunction. This would require a ‘no blame’ culture in order to encourage the workforce to be vigilant and take responsibility to openly flag up and address challenging issues helping to keep the organisation open and healthy.

The 4th dimension of an evolving organisation is the energy and intelligence of people operating as an integrated whole.

And we could really do with some new ideas!

John Mackey on Being Human at Work

Energy and Intelligence in 4 Dimensions

The 2nd Dimension - Emotions

The 2nd D in our 4D human being framework is the emotional dimension.
This is all about how you feel emotionally day to day and also how you make others feel by the things you say and do.
In terms of personal development we have found that this dimension can be the most challenging for people and in some cases it's just plain avoided.
Daniel Goleman has written extensively on the subject of emotional intelligence and his work is definitely worth looking at, and even re-visiting if you're already familiar with it.

So, in this post I'd like to look at the Positive psychology movement. The central philosophy of positive psychology is to help people to become happier rather than trying to help depressed people get back to where they were before depression set in. The followers and practitioners of positive psychology say their findings demonstrate that happy people live longer, have more friends, are more productive and generally stay in better health for longer. They also suggest that positive and optimistic thinking more often leads to positive outcomes.

The thinking behind positive psychology was developed by psychologist Martin Seligman, of the University of Pennsylvania. He began to change his view of and approach to traditional therapies because he believed psychologists tended to focus solely on identifying and managing dysfunction and depression rather than offering techniques to create happiness and contentment.

He felt that if he took a depressed patient and removed all the negatives from their lives most of them would be in neutral and perhaps feel empty rather than happy. He felt psychologists needed to offer more so, he began his own research by focussing on identifying the elements that constitute a happy life. Looking at the behaviour and personal qualities of people who claimed to be happy.

The principle behind positive psychology are not new. The idea that if we remain optimistic and enthusiastic about life we'll achieve success was first, commercially proposed by Norman Vincent Peale. However a resurgence of this type of thinking is a welcome change. It seems obvious enough that if we keep a positive attitude to life we will have energy available to pick up on opportunities we may have missed in a neutral or depressed psychological state.

So how do we do it?

According to positive psychology optimism is an emotional attitude that can be learned and developed. The remedy is simple, we just focus on the things we have talent for, whatever that may be, from creative pursuits like art and music, to sport, literature, cooking or communicating. Identifying and acknowledging our personal strengths and those of others rather than pointing out our failings and what we are less able to do. Keeping front of mind our past and current successes rather than the disasters and failures. Looking back at the past for a reference, but not staring.

The traditional, psychic archeology of psychoanalysis is no longer a favoured route for today's psychotherapists who work with the more modern methods and principles of brief, cognitive and behavioural therapies. From the PP point of view continually reliving painful and difficult memories just re-energises and strengthens them by keeping the neural pathways to these thoughts and ideas open and in our consciousness.

One of the foundational techniques of PP is to wake up in the morning and write down all the things that are good in your life. This can help to set the emotional tone and psychological temperature for the day. Simple things (if they are true for you and represent your experience) can be seen as gifts when we consider what it might be like to experience the opposite of statements like:

I am pain free.
I have more than enough energy resources to face the day.
I have a warm comfortable place to sleep.
I am not under the threat of violence.
I have people in my life who care.
I have enough food to eat.

Over time this habit of positive affirmation helps to reframe our mindset and can make us more resilient to the trials and tribulations of life. In fact, studies by Ernest Rossi suggests that self suggestion can create a self fulfilling prophecy at the level of the neural pathways in our brains and DNA and over time a thought can become an unconscious, psycho-physical behaviour.

So, perhaps, instead of living each day in the haze of free floating anxiety at the thought of global economic collapse, nuclear war and other stories of doom and gloom, we could be experiencing an underlying sense of happiness and realising a renewed optimism.

The practitioners of Positive Psychology suggest that happiness may be found in one or a mix of three routes:

The Pleasant life
This life is about instant gratification, acquiring money, status and superficial pleasures. Though pleasant while it lasts this happiness is unsustainable because we humans can quickly tire of people, places and things without a deeper purpose.

The Good life
Is about learning growing and energising our talents and our strengths, focussing our energy on bonding and building relationships with others. Creating social networks, joining special interest communities in order to learn and share our values, ideas, talents and experiences with like minded others.

The Meaningful life
This life is about using our talents, strengths and abilities to help others and enhance their lives in ways that are meaningful for them. The focus is directed less on ourselves and more on other people.

It is suggested that a combination of all three is ideal but the last two are most desirable.

It is important to know that positive psychology is not meant to be an alternative to traditional therapy but rather an additional, complimentary path to follow.

We can begin to tap into emotional energy using some of the exercises and processes grounded in PP that focus on our mental strengths and positive emotions. Feeling well emotionally leads to thinking well intellectually and a desire for full engagement in all our activities, both social and professional.

And, an added bonus is that the emotion of 'desire for positive engagement' can raise our energy levels in all 4 dimensions.

Being Human at Work

Watch this truly inspiring video by Gary Hamel on the future of being human at work.

What Matters Now?

Due to the increasing volume of books usurping me from my living space I made a pledge in January not to buy anymore hardbacks this year. Instead I was going to stick to downloading ebooks onto a Kindle.

But my will weakened at the airport recently and I bought Gary Hamel's new, 'hardback' book 'What Matters Now'.

The trouble started when I was walking around WH Smiths and noticed the bright orange cover with the bold white text. The headline was almost audible. WHAT MATTERS NOW! I had enjoyed reading Gary Hamel's previous offering-The Future of Management- so was curious to read the back cover. I then read the inside flap, picked out a couple of chapters and was hooked.



Cut to shot - Me speedily heading towards the checkout, clutching a heavy hardback book that would eventually contribute to reducing my living space to a small section in the bottom shelf of a large overloaded book case.

I bought the book because I was struck by the fact that the values, ideas and beliefs he espouses are almost in perfect alignment with the intentions, motivation and mission behind our company 4D Human Being. As he is considered to be ranked the #1 most influential business thinker today it gave me a sense of comfort and even more certainty about what we have been trying to do with our work. And that feeling alone was worth the price of the book.

From the Inside Flap

"This is not a book about one thing.It′s not a 300–page dissertation on leadership, teams, or motivation.Instead, it′s a multi–faceted agendafor building organizations that can win in world of relentless change, ferocious competition, andunstoppable innovation."

What Matters Now is Gary Hamel′s impassioned plea to rethink the fundamental assumptions we have about management, the meaning of work, and organizational life. He asks, "What are the fundamental, make–or–break issues that will determine whether your organization thrives or dives in the years ahead?" The answer is found in five paramount issues: values, innovation, adaptability, passion, and ideology.

Values: With trust in large organizations at an all time low, there is an urgent need to rebuild the ethical foundations of capitalism. What′s required is nothing less than a moral renaissance in business.

Innovation: Innovation is the only defense against margin–crushing competition, and the only way to outgrow a dismal economy. In too many companies, innovation is still a buzzword, rather than the responsibility of every single individual. This must change.

Adaptability: In a world of accelerating change, every company must build an evolutionary advantage. The forces of inertia must be vanquished. The ultimate prize: an organization that is as nimble as change itself.

Passion: In business as in life, the difference between "insipid" and "inspired" is passion. With mediocrity fast becoming a competitive liability, success depends on finding new ways to rouse the human spirit at work.

Ideology: Today, businesses need more than better practices; they need better principles. Bureaucracy and control have had their day. It′s time for a new ideology based on freedom and self–determination.

If you can, grab a copy, grasp a coffee, grope around for some spare time and have a read.

It's time to get a surreal attitude

Do you ever feel like it’s time to do all the things you want to do, become the person you know you can be, just generally stop wasting time? Well now might be just the time to do it.

For some of us, a big barrier to making the impact you want to make or the life choices you know you could achieve is the assumption or belief that you are shy or ‘introverted.’ If you were asked to name your top 5 list of shy introverts I’m guessing the name Salvador Dali probably would be missing. In fact he was a ‘morbidly shy’ person in his youth who could barely be in company of others without blushing.





But one day Dali was advised to ‘pretend’ he was an extrovert. To ‘act as if’ he was a flamboyant, confident and celebrated painter. And guess what? He soon became one.

Dali had clocked that regardless of how self-conscious he felt inside, by adopting the ‘attitude’ of a successful artist – the clothes, the body language, the persona – he began to transform into exactly what he wanted to become – a successful, notorious and celebrated artist-extraordinaire. His work may have been surreal but his extroverted persona was as real as real could be.

As this article in Psychology today discusses “You Become What You Pretend To Be.” The secret is attitude. Your attitude influences your behaviour and your behaviour influences your attitude. If you start to act ‘as if ‘ you are the person you want to be then you will change your physical behaviour. You then begin to feel and think differently in the emotional and intellectual dimensions and before you know it your ‘intentional dimension’ will have integrated with the other three dimensions and you will believe in yourself and all that you have become. It’s still you. Just you with ‘attitude!’

From my earliest school day memories, ‘Having an attitude’ was often endowed with incredibly negative connotations. ‘Having an attitude’ usually meant ‘that child doesn’t work hard enough, they’ll never be an A grade student.’ But perhaps it’s time to challenge those disapproving finger-pointy curmudgeons of one’s rebellious youth and start to adopt an attitude. An ‘attitude’ of confidence, of success. The attitude of whatever you want to become.

Attitude might just be the new A grade. The time never looked better to get some serious attitude and start working it very hard.

Why being human is the only way to win.

If like us you're sick of having to endure endless automated telephone voices programmed to deal with your customer service needs then you are waking up to the tip of a deep iceberg that is threatening to sink your humanity.

Over the last 3 decades there has been an increased attempt to remove the human factor from business at nearly every level to increase efficiency, productivity and profits. But this is changing as more and more of us crave the human touch. Empathy, autonomy, someone to listen to us and work with a purpose that makes us feel valued.

In the face of an increasingly low cost (and exploited) labour force around the globe the Western world is waking up to the fact that our old management models are leaving many organisations floating dead in the swamp of economic collapse.

We are realising that our humanity and it's creative expression is the only thing that can differentiate us from being robots or even worse - 'human resourses'.

On this video from www.managementexchange.com bestselling author Seth Godin describes the fork in the road that every worker and company faces today. Are you racing to the bottom or exerting your humanity?

The MIX is a great idea, why not join in the conversation?

Here is some blurb from the site:

"The MIX is designed for all those who are frustrated by the limits of our legacy management practices. It's for all the inspired thinkers and radical doers who believe we can — and must — find alternatives to the bureaucratic and disempowering management practices that still rule most organisations."

Are you in?

Qualities of a Leader

Every now and then we like to collate the latest thinking on a subject and create a condensed but integral list of highlights. This week we've pulled together some of the latest research on desirable, leadership qualities and translated them into terms we can understand and communicate.

So, in no particular order here are the qualities considered to be vital for leadership in the 21st century.

Ambition - A desire for success with respect to career progression, status and productivity.

Initiative - The willingness to take action by exerting additional effort to exceed expectations.

Energy - A high degree of stamina and the ability to maintain a high rate of activity is revealed as a key determinant of effective leadership.

Need for power - The satisfaction a leader derives from exerting influence over the attitudes and behaviours of others is a key driver of successful leaders. The motive to influence is associated with seeking positions of authority, being attuned to the political climate of the organisation, and the assertiveness needed to direct group activities and advocate for desired changes to the organization and as such, is a frequently proposed antecedent of effective leadership.

Honesty/integrity - The correspondence between a person's words and deeds as well as being truthful and non-deceitful. People are less likely to be influenced by someone they do not trust.

Creativity – Coming up with novel and innovative solutions to problems to effectively resolve business issues together with an ability to challenge followers to consider alternative approaches to address organisational challenges.

Self-monitoring - The ability to understand and manage your feelings, thoughts and behaviours in each and every situation. Positive and negative.

Flexibility - The ability to alter one’s behaviour depending on the demands of the situation.

Interpersonal skills - An understanding of the dynamics of human behaviour and groups, together with an ability to communicate effectively at every level.

Problem-solving - The ability to think logically and to exercise sound judgment to resolve organisational issues.

Decision making - The ability to take decisive action when facing ambiguous challenges.


There are still many old and familiar themes here so the work continues.