randori mind, control the chaos

Let’s continue with the concept that nobody is ‘broken’ but what we are seeing is a person who has not fit the pieces of their personal life puzzle together, yet. The concept is this, because somebody has not seen or felt how they ‘fit’, and how the events and people in their life fits with them, then they are off balance. What we then observe with ourselves and others is not broken behavior but off-balanced behavior. The off-balance feeling that becomes a motivator for individuals searching for the ‘right fit’ can also be frustrating as time passes, and often leads many into concluding that nothing either does or should fit. This expectation arises simply because, for these individuals, their life puzzle hasn’t been completed in the past and they give up on themselves, they give up hope. This lack of hope leads to the troublesome second step, when they then project past results of ‘not fitting imbalance’ into future expectations. This ‘I will, or it will never fit’ approach is the foundation for negative self-programming.

An individual’s source of negative self-programming can arise from adopting a group’s opinion, through observation and interpretation, or it may arise within your own personal thoughts and actions as noted in the previous paragraph. Regardless of the source, with constant exposure to a continuous stream of negative programming, you will believe that negative results are acceptable, and adopt negative outcomes as the status quo in your life. This leads to failure becoming the accepted norm, and may then spread with the self-fulfilling prophecy of “Why try, I’ll just fail anyway.”

Your acceptance of, or propensity for failure, if left unaddressed, will develop into chronic mental stress, affecting your decision making, mental processing, even the structure of your brain. All of these reduce your success potential.

Your alternative, which can turn your life and future into what you want it to be, is to understand how to learn from failures and come away from each situation with greater personal insight and perhaps even a plan to avoid that failure in the future. Also, introducing positive programming will counter the effects of negative programming and rewire your brain, producing new neural connections (neurogenesis), further increasing your success potential. There is no situation where somebody will always fail, unless they choose to program themselves and manage the situation to fail. Your ability to create and expand successful neural connections means that you always have the ability to succeed when you choose to begin the process.

There are a number of methods that you can engage to begin and then support your evolution into creating a successful life, one with purpose, inner and outer joy and a future that you want. The one that many people use has been applied for at least eight centuries. Eight centuries of success speaks for itself, and yet, even with the Internet this approach is seldom known or applied, except by a small group of individuals around the world.

The steps are direct, subtle and powerful results. If you want to give for the Christmas or Holiday season, pass along this log and let somebody know how to resume balance and direction in their life.

“Broken Windows” is a social theory relating to urban vandalism. It states that if windows in a building are broken and not repaired, the community will believe that this vandalism is acceptable. However, the immediate repair of the broken windows and taking steps to prevent future incidents sends a message that vandalism is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.

The Broken Windows Theory may also be applied to address and resolve individual negative programming. We’re human and personal guilt is a powerful motivator! We’ll spend hours, even days, seeking to discover what we did wrong. We look to find and fix our broken windows, in this case our personal problems, those behaviors or aspirations that we identify as the source of a past failure. We’ll even go so far as to find a rock and make a broken window to fix, such as locking onto a thought as the reason why something didn’t happen. These generated reasons often begin with, “If I had…” or “If I hadn’t…”. The facts are that our personal windows aren’t broken; they simply need a good cleaning to see what is possible, and hear the sound of success. The cleaning process is done by reducing and eliminating negative self-programming, the prior belief that we have broken windows and it is OK to have them.

Every person has a fixed and limited amount of time each day. It is also a personal choice to spend that time looking for flaws, your broken windows, or to move beyond and apply out time accomplishing beneficial results. Another way to look at this is to understand that we are not broken, but we may need to clean a few panes to see what our potential is. Success is a matter of perspective, how you see yourself fitting, in a positive manner, in life and your career. Following the analogy, it requires some effort to clean and eliminate the mistaken belief that we are broken and need fixing.

Repeating our failures comes from approaching each situation looking for broken people or broken connections. The success each of us experiences comes from either pure luck, which is rare, or from connecting with others in situations that are mutually beneficial. These connections arise when we approach situations and people, not searching for flaws, but rather with a forward looking and positive sense of ourselves.

This segment of the blog covers the ‘WHAT’ to identify and eliminate negative self-programming. Next week I will cover the ‘HOW’. Thank you for taking the time, do you understand that there are no broken windows.

I made a mistake, actually a huge mistake, in not seeing what my training did for the attendees.

I have written about professional change, delivered training and assisted a few hundred people to transition their careers. Most of these people succeeded and achieved the results that they desired. The mistake was not understanding what they took away. I thought it was skill, knowledge and practical abilities, but I was corrected two days ago.

I recently met one of the people who came to my first workshop while food shopping. After the surprise and a few brief catch up exchanges she dropped the bomb when she said, “Greg, the material was great and worked just as you said, but you know what I really learned? I learned that I can get a job.”

Seems simple enough, go to a workshop for career development and get a job. Then I realized what she really said was, “I learned to believe in myself.” Always wanting to verify thoughts I asked her the most important thing that she learned, her reply, “I learned I could do it.”
Believing in yourself, believing in your ability to make your future what you want it to be is the primary, the most critical of all steps. It doesn’t matter if you’re job searching or changing a light bulb when you cannot perceive that you can do the task you WILL make yourself correct.

This chance encounter was followed that night by a telephone conversation from a friend. He called to tell me about his decision to change careers, from high tech marketing to health care. His approach was to understand that he had value and to keep his eyes open for opportunity. He had been unemployed for over a year, slumped a bit emotionally and realigned his thinking to accept that change was necessary. He said that once he accepted this inevitability, his direction improved and he found what he needed. Again, a person calls and talks about regaining belief in himself.

My mistake — I believed that information, skill and methods, all logical things, make the difference in job searching. They are important, yet useless without two elements: belief and hope. Going forward these are the critical aspects that need development along with goals that set short and long term stability to life.

I recently received an e-mail from one of my readers. He responded to some of my prior thoughts as follows… “here is my point: The most qualified candidate does NOT get the offer. The offer goes to the candidate the interviewers LIKED the most. In lucky situations and probably rare scenarios, those 2 people are one in the same. The difficulty is that nothing can be done about chemistry! So, some content on Likeability might be great for a lot of job seekers out there. I research the interviewers to learn about them, but The Human Nuance can never be conveyed through biographical content or even phone conversations.”

I agree, the Human Nuance is critical, but I disagree with the fourth sentence, something can be done, because it can be generated and conveyed under most conditions. Conveying emotions and generating interpersonal connections within seconds is common. So what is the Human Nuance? It has two names: neural mirroring and The Law of Reciprocity. These are terms for the feelings that we regularly have and call by a variety of other names. Here is your proof in the form of a few questions.

Have you ever walked into a room, either an office or a home, and felt tension, or humor, or some other powerful emotion? Have you ever met somebody and immediately burst into a beaming smile? In all of these situations you’re receiving the Human Nuance; that immediate emotional connection to another. Here is the real solution, you have received something and reciprocated, the Law of Reciprocity in action, as you mentally and emotionally mirror what you have received.

How about that job interview? The same cause and effect are in action and have identical results. When you engage another person, the timbre of the encounter is determined within milliseconds by what you give to them. So how do you generate the desired outcome? You give to the person exactly what you imagine you want to feel. Yes, far easier to say than do in the situation. It is very possible for you practice generating the positive Human Nuance by greeting everyone in the manner you want them to feel towards you.

Words in a blog do not convey the emotion; this can only be sensed in person or in a lesser degree on the telephone. Effectively conveying this emotional connection is what I show, demonstrate and have attendees practicing during workshops. It is the ingredient that makes every encounter memorable, it is your choice whether the memory is positive or not.

The writer that started this response is correct. When you’re the best qualified candidate and generate the Human Nuance properly you’re hired because there are none more accepted. When you’re under-qualified you’re hired because there are none more accepted. So is it qualification or acceptance that makes the decision?

If you don’t have your JOLT you may not know why you’re having difficulty finding your next job. The JOLT directly impacts your life. Your solution is an adaptive response, as you will see.
JOLT is the acronym for the Bureau of Labor Statistics report that highlights job openings and labor turnover (JOLT). It is one of the millions of reports the Federal Government inundates us with daily. That answers the question ‘What is a JOLT’, now for ‘Why JOLT is important’.

The September JOLT told every reader that the unemployment picture was far from rosy, and the trend appears to remain headed downward. You can read the details at the Government site, available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/jolts.pdf . The information indicates that we have 2.4 million total job openings in the USA and we have 15.1 million unemployed people. This simple math is at the fingertips of every newscaster and politician, yet nobody wants to say the reality. If every available job, from fruit picker to CEO, was filled today we would have nearly 13 million unemployed people, not to mention the marginally employed and underemployed. Another way of saying the reality is that for every job there are seven unemployed people.

This report tells every reader that pursuing the position you left, in the geographic region where it existed, may be a fruitless pursuit because the job is probably no longer available. It’s gone, either moved or it is filled by a lower paid employee, either way it is gone. Long-term job seekers are left only a few options to earn an income: Move to follow the job or career, or continue applying and competing for the few available remaining positions within your commuting range, and then the third choice. How do you generate a family income in a market that has shrinking opportunity in nearly every segment? You transition into a field that has growth and where your experiences can give you the edge over other candidates. This third option is one that works well for those who understand how to shift their career path.

Career transition is the logical and adaptive response to evaporating job opportunities. Transitioning careers, while at first daunting, can be a huge relief when done properly. There are two obvious reasons for this, the job seeker regains hope for their future, and they also resume earning an adequate income. Most people transition with guidance from those who have successfully accomplished it or who successfully guide others on a regular basis. The assistance is available; the opportunities for an income are available. Your first step to regaining your life is to adapt to the country’s and your economic reality.

Have you ever met a person and wondered how they managed to get their job?

I recently chatted about this very question with a friend. He was frustrated because he had been on more than six interviews and had not received an offer.  My friend started the conversation by remarking that he knew in two companies where he had interviewed, less competent candidates had been hired. I understood his frustration. We struggle to understand why some people, who seem under qualified, get hired and we begin questioning our capabilities. This seems to happen frequently, especially with the expanding pool of highly trained professionals competing for a diminishing number of openings.  Twenty minutes into our conversation, we concluded that getting hired results from three factors: Who you know in the company, what your qualifications are and how well you interview. We saw this as a Venn diagram, where three unequal circles of skill overlap. This sliver of employment possibility was seen as asymmetric and often weighted differently for each applicant, and their three basic circles of skill.

Networking into a company is a relatively easy way to connect with a hiring manager. However it may not get you hired because connections don’t or can’t always compensate for a lack of skill. The proof is the rising number of unemployed who are networked into numerous companies through face-to-face meetings, former employee groups and LinkedIn.  Why are do so many qualified professionals remain unemployed?  It isn’t solely because they don’t network or have connections.  This is one circle of the Venn explanation covered, the variable effect of connections balancing skills.

Well-trained and experienced professionals instinctively rely on their skills and experience to open doors. The gatekeeper or hiring manager may not accept them based on acumen and experience for a number of reasons. They may not agree with the technology base the applicant describes, or may consider it dated for a newer technology. They may not understand the technical vocalizations or the applicant’s manner. In other words, they don’t like the candidate. Technical skills and experience comprise the second Venn circle, and this too has significant value, it doesn’t always dictate the outcome.

Interviews are not inclusion processes; they are exclusionary, meant to keep out those who apparently don’t ‘fit’. The ‘doesn’t fit’ and ‘don’t like’ judgments are powerful negatives that will derail every interview. The interview tipping point is when you get people to like, to accept you. This is a matter of your first accepting their perspective; understanding their needs and offering real and applicable solutions to the person.  This mutual acceptance is called, interviewing well. This is the third, and arguably most important of the Venn circles.

So, why do people who seem under qualified get hired? The answer, they have some marketable skills and possibly a tenuous connection within the company. Their most impressive skill is that they convince every manager they talk with that the best candidate choice is standing in front of them. These individuals have a great third circle.

Immediate interviewing opportunities will remain limited in the near future, making it imperative to capitalize on every telephone or in-person opportunity. You can attempt to get hired based upon astounding knowledge and training, references from Noble Prize winners, or by dating the chairman’s son or daughter. For mere humans, you can learn to be engaging and generate interpersonal acceptance. When you engage correctly, the person you’re talking with will understand your transferable skills and experience and unhesitatingly agree that you are the best candidate.  You will make your three circles intersect and receive an offer letter.

To hear how great interviews sound, or to take an interviewing quiz…  7 Minute Interview

Placing the best, most affordable and hopefully most desired product on the market is every businessman’s goal. Sometimes we prevent ourselves from reaching the optimal levels of product development because we take the product and process far too seriously.   The route to this end may be something other than what is taught in MBA classes.

The optimal development outcome is to deliver a product under budget, over functional and ahead of schedule. Is this really enough? What about quality standards? Achieving those Six Sigma performance levels, reaching the statistically minimum accepted level of defectives should bolster product acceptance. Yet, even with this level of quality there needs to be more. There are the marketing efforts to convince people that their lives are better, more fulfilling and less stressful when they use this new product. Companies employ legions to generate market buzz and customer testimonials. There are far easier methods to make your products the most sought after on the planet. After all, what is high quality and how is it really valued by consumers.

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 per pound in United States. The coffee is grown in Indonesian and produced in a singularly unique manner. Civets, native cats, are fed raw coffee berries, which are digested except for the coffee bean. The bean passes through the digestive system and is defecated by the animal. We are told that the beans are then collected, washed, and given only a light roast so as to not destroy the complex flavors that develop through the process, and offered for sale. These are the facts known to every civet coffee consumer.

What is the connection to American product development processes? Despite the combined efforts of major US corporations, a few marketing geniuses from Indonesia have shown the simple way to success. The United States spends more than $320 billion annually on R&D, to remain at the leading edge of technology and maintain market share. The Indonesian coffee growers simply catch a few more civets and feed them coffee berries. The United States spends billions more on developing distribution channels for our product supply chains. The civet coffee growers, they use small one pound cans costing less than a dime apiece and have buyers beating a path to their door. Finally we spend additional billions on advertising and marketing, trumpeting the new and improved products. The civet coffee growers simply describe how their product is organically processed. Consumers buy every gram of civet coffee that is produced annually, while in the US, there are continuous streams of overstocks and failed products.

Let’s add an additional aspect to this analysis, honesty. By law American products need to be thoroughly tested, extensive records maintained for three to seven years, and insurance bought to cover liability. The directors and executives of companies are held accountable for the accuracy and details of their product development and QA records. Yet, for all of the experience, professional education, money and effort American corporations cannot exceed the results of a few simple coffee growers. Let me describe the irony in a civil manner.

 I will use the first person for illustrative purposes. Fact: I am coffee drinker, and for personal consumer satisfaction, I am willing to pay up to $600 for a pound of coffee that was extracted from the feces of a cat. OK, so the growers claim it is washed, but what is the cleanliness standard of a person who crumples dry cat droppings for a living? If I buy it ground, how am I to know how well it was washed? Could there be a case for labeling the product as completely organic? Then, the growers claim it is delicately roasted so as to not disturb the delicate flavors. Again, the root question, why do I believe somebody who grabs beans from a litter box and claims they’re tasty? For all that I the consumer know, that roasting could simply be to eliminate surface moisture. The addition of preserving that delicate bouquet could easily be nothing more than a tag line.  It certainly beats, “We give it a few minutes in a clothes dryer with some wood shavings so our packers don’t complain about the litter box smell.” And yet with the facts clearly and audaciously stated, year in and year out, the entire crop is sold with production restricted only by the appetite of the native civet.

So, when you’re working eighteen hours a day, struggling to deliver that critical, next generation product, ask one question. Is it the need for perfection that drives product acceptance or is it something else? Processing and selling litter box clumps for $600 per pound seems to indicate that success is possible outside the perceptual box of perfection.  Sometimes the ‘best’ is not what you think it is, and sometimes it certainly doesn’t sound perfect, but that is to your ears and way of thinking. In the end, the best of anything is what others believe. It is through their perception and needs that a product is accepted as superior and even coveted. Sometimes it is just to show that they are capable of drinking anything.

Greg Chenevert