idealawg

"Gratitude for Aptitudes" (and one more reason why goal setting is very individual

Below is an article I wrote nearly a decade ago. Over the last many years since writing it, I have learned much more about why goal setting is not one-size-fits-all. (A great new book was just published on personalizing your goal setting for maximum effectiveness.) In the article, I mention an aptitude Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation calls "foresight" or, as Highlands Ability Battery labels it, "Time Frame Orientation".

Some people have short or immediate Time Frame Orientation, others have long-range Time Frame Orientation, and many have something in the middle. A person with each Orientation has his or her own way of best and most effectively setting goals.

What's all that mean?

From the Highlands Training Manual:

Time Frame Orientation is a measure of the ability to naturally consider the impact of present actions on future plans. It reflects an orientation towards planning, goal setting, and accomplishing tasks.

Your Time Frame Orientation indicates the most natural frame of reference for making plans, thinking about your future, or considering the impact of what you are doing now in your life. Time Frame Orientation tends to fall into three ranges:

Immediate—today up to one year
Intermediate—one to five years
Long-range—five to twenty years

As an example, I test long-range in both the Highlands and Johnson O'Connor assessments. That Orientation has some advantages, including the ability to stay focused on a distant goal. On the other hand, I may procrastinate because, well, there's always tomorrow!

In working with clients, I have found that it is extraordinarily helpful, if not necessary, for people to know their Orientation if they want to set goals they will reach.

Now that article . . .

Learning in Denver: Finding a new way to convene people

Whether it be for continuing education, conflict resolutions, professional conferences, or other kinds of conventions, we need new methods for the new century. To be creative and engaged enough to meet the challenges and changes we now face, and will face, as the 21st century unfolds, we need some new ways and some new skills.

This morning, in my search for new ways and new skills, I was Googling Open Space Technology, and landed on the Web site of Art of Hosting. This organization combine four methods, including Open Space, to bring people together for a large variety of reasons. The four methods are:

• Open Space
• Appreciative Inquiry
• World Cafe
• Circle Practice

Only World Cafe is completely new to me. I have some knowledge of Appreciatice Inquiry, and have interviewed here and here both authors of Appreciative Intelligence. A good friend has experience with Open Space, and has agreed to tell me more about it. Without realizing it until digging deeper, I also have knowledge of Circle Practice for two reason. First, Christina Baldwin is a favorite author, and she is a prime mover in Circle Practice; I now recall that I have read something she has written about it. Second, CP is also called council, and I know a bit about about council.

Of course, I want to try them all out, and so am forming a group here in Denver to do so. We will have a session for each of the methods. Fortunately, we have some very knowledgeable local people so this should be grand adventure. Let me know if you care to join us.

Note (added November 21, 2010): I think our Denver group is going to concentrate on Appreciative Inquiry/Appreciative Intelligence, Open Space Technology, and Circle Practice/council. Related books I will read or reread include:

• Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture
• The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair
• Open Space Technology: A User's Guide
• Appreciative Intelligence: Seeing the Mighty Oak in the Acorn
• Appreciative Sharing of Knowledge: Leveraging Knowledge Management for Strategic Change

What relationships matter most in the legal profession? In other professions or endeavors?

A series just began in Slate about the myth of the lone genius. The author Joshua Wolf Shenk is going to look at creative partnerships, and asks the reader some excellent questions (see below). From "Two Is the Magic Number: A new science of creativity":

So this is the task of this series, to see how creative relationships work. I start with a few assumptions.

First, we can't answer the question with theory. Though science offers some context and insights, we need to look at real lives and see what lessons they offer and what patterns they suggest.

Second, collaborators exist across fields, and in many forms. I'll look for cases in the sciences, arts, business, and philosophy: Watson and Crick belong here alongside Gilbert and Sullivan, Engels and Marx. Hidden partners need scrutiny, as do the frontman and his sidekick, mentors and mentees, masters and muses. Let's define collaboration broadly, as a mutuality that shapes a body of work.

Third, this project won't come from a single mind. Of course, as with everything I've ever written, I'm dependent on my colleagues. But for a subject so vast, I need to invite new relationships—with each of you. If I'm right, your questions, observations, ideas, and criticisms will not only add to my work—it will change its character fundamentally.

And then Shenk asks some questions of the reader.

Which relationships do you find most compelling? Which bonds suggest

Reading new book GAMESTORMING: A couple of interviews with one of its authors

I am enjoying Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers. I am not wild about the book yet, but am only 55 pages into it. However the concepts being touted by the book's authors align with those I have been supporting for years: the recognition of the benefits of visual thinking and desire for increased use of that method of thought.

Here are two interviews of author Sunni Brown in which she discusses the benefits of doodling and visual thinking. First, on The Big Web Show. Show notes:

Jeffrey and Dan talk with Sunni Brown, noted information designer, about visual communication and debunk the myth that doodling is a distraction.

Next an interview with Deke. That program's description:

Martini Hour 077, In Which Deke Is Surrounded by Charming, If Foul-Mouthed, Women Who Defend Your Right to Doodle

My dear dekeArtistas, did you get in trouble for doodling when you were supposed to be paying attention in school? (I didn't, because I was all about the words, baby. But I might know a creature or two who did.) Good friend of the dekeLounge,

Theory of regulatory focus: Do your clients focus on promotion of aspirations or prevention of dangers?

Regulatory focus is a theory about whether a person (or group) is motivated by promotion or prevention. I sometimes find the distinction helpful, as do certain clients. The exercise of switching focus from one to the other also can be illuminating. In addition to working with clients with legal matters, the theory can be helpful in coaching, marketing, managing others, and teambuilding.

If the theory sounds intriguing, you may learn more from the below resources.

First: "Accentuate the Positive" (Program on Negotiation at Harvard newsletter). Excerpt:

Tory Higgins, a social psychologist, and his colleagues Lorraine Chen Idson and Nira Liberman have introduced the concept of regulatory focus. According to Higgins, when making decisions, people focus on either promotion or prevention. Those focused on promotion are primarily concerned with accomplishments, hopes, and aspirations, while those with a prevention focus care more about safety, responsibility, and obligations.

Second: "Regulatory Focus in Group Contexts" (dissertation) [pdf] (also here).

Abstract

Regulatory focus theory provides a theoretical framework that distinguishes between different response patterns that tend to emerge in the pursuit of individual goals. Previous research has revealed that individuals with a promotion vs. prevention focus each show a characteristic pattern of emotional responses and task performance. In the present research we will focus on collective task contexts, in order to examine our central hypothesis that intra- and inter-group processes may encourage the development of a promotion or a prevention focus in individual group members, and to assess how this affects arousal, emotion and performance in a group context. First, we will examine how personal and group regulatory focus interact to influence subjective and objective indicators of group effectiveness. Second, we will examine the interplay of

Our ubiquitous use of sports-speak in everyday conversation

Listen to conversations, the media, and advertising, and you will hear many, many words and phrases from the world of sports. We use them frequently to communicate, and this frequency is the topic of a recent article in SIVault. From "Time To Call A Reverse":

If you want to measure the depth of our obsession with the athletic, forget the gargantuan Super Bowl ratings or the willingness of grown men to shell out big bucks for replica jerseys. Just listen to the way our conversations are laced with sports-speak. We live in a world of knockout blows and three-strike laws. We think we're batting

Discovering Psychology: 26 videos giving an overview of historic and current theories of human behavior

Each of these videos is about a 30 minutes long, and they are all available for free in two different ways. At this Web site, they can be viewed in pop-up screens and you also can access supplemental learning resources, and from here they can be viewed as Google videos. The series is described:

Highlighting major new developments in the field, this updated edition of Discovering Psychology offers high school and college students, and teachers of psychology at all levels, an overview of historic and current theories of human behavior. Stanford University professor and author Philip Zimbardo narrates as leading researchers, practitioners, and theorists probe the mysteries of the mind and body. Based on extensive investigation and authoritative scholarship, this introductory course in psychology features demonstrations, classic experiments and simulations, current research, documentary footage, and computer animation. This series is also valuable for teachers seeking to review the subject matter.

Topics include:

Is LEGO® dispute resolution the next step for conflict professionals? Is above-the-neck mediation old-fashioned?

LEGO® products are being used in corporations to build teams, products, and ideas. Using the toys in this way started at the LEGO® company over a decade ago. From "Lego Toys: A Diagnostic Tool?" (ManageUp!) [click for newer link to article]:

Here’s how it came about. Back in 1996, the chairman of the Lego toys company, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen was looking to improve his company’s strategy process. He approached Johan Roos and Bart Victor, both professors at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland to help him. While looking for alternatives to the conventional strategic planning process, they realised that the answer may be in the actual Lego games themselves. And so Lego Serious Play was born. The professors were drawing from Constructionism theory – a school of thought, attributed to Jean Piaget and Seymour Papert, which postulates that the learning process is greatly supported by physical construction. ...

In essence, Lego Serious Play is a form of business consultancy that aims to foster creative thinking through tangible interaction. ... [T]he real time strategy became a managerial mainstay for other corporate bigwigs like Daimler Chrysler, Roche Pharmaceutical, SABMiller, Tupperware, Nokia and

Join me? Hope some of you are planning to attend! This is going to be an excellent conference

I am very pleased to be presenting a program at this event. Teresa Byrd Morgan has designed a very, very clever annual conference of the Solo & Small Firm Section of the Florida State Bar. The theme was inspired by the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

Teresa is calling the conference "Everything You Need to Know to be a Successful Attorney You Learned in Kindergarten (A Post-Law School Refresher Course)." I hope some of you will join us in Orlando March 26 - 27. Click to get more information in the brochure [pdf]. Or at the Florida Bar Web site.

I am looking forward to seeing Julie Fleming again and meeting Susan Cartier Liebel, both of whom are also presenting at the conference.

Some of the programs being offered (including mine in green):

• Share Everything - Marketing Your Firm from an Abundance Perspective
• Play Fair and Don’t Hit People - Practicing with Professionalism
• Put Things Back Where You Found Them and Clean Up Your Own Mess - Managing a Successful Law Practice
• Don’t Take Things That Aren’t Yours - Maintaining a “Squeaky Clean” Trust Account
• Say You’re Sorry When You Hurt Someone - Defending a Malpractice Claim with Grace and Professionalism
• When You Go Out In the World, Watch Out For Traffic, Hold Hands, and Stick Together - Practicing Law is a Team Sport
• Live a Balanced Life - Learn Some and Think Some and Paint and Sing and Dance and Play and Work Every Day Some - “Having Fun and Being a Successful Lawyer” is Not an Oxymoron
• Goldfish and Hamsters and White Mice and Even the Seed in the Styrofoam Cup - They All Die. So Do We. - Planning for the Getting Out of (and into!) Your Own Law Firm
• Be Aware of Wonder - Remember the Little Seed in the Styrofoam Cup: The Roots Go Down and the Plant Goes Up and Nobody Really Knows How or Why - Welcoming the Magic of Technology Into Your Law Practice
• Remember the Dick-and-Jane Books and the First Word You Learned? The Biggest Word of All - LOOK! - Finding Your Perfect Clients

I know a few lawyers who could benefit from Make-Believe Play Practice: If the firefighter hat fits . . .

A new method of teaching young children incorporates much play. The creators of the Tools of the Mind program believe playing is the best way to increase the kids' executive function. What's executive function? This definition comes from an article about the program "Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?" (New York Times).

Originally a neuroscience term, it refers to the ability to think straight: to order your thoughts, to process information in a coherent way, to hold relevant details in your short-term memory, to avoid distractions and mental traps and focus on the task in front of you.

As you might imagine, executive function is very important.

The ability of young children to control their emotional and cognitive impulses, it turns out, is a remarkably strong indicator of both short-term and long-term success, academic and otherwise. In some studies, self-regulation skills have been shown to predict academic achievement more reliably than I.Q. tests.

How could play increase the ability to think straight? To me, the answer to that question is the most intriguing aspect of the program.

Vygotsky [Tools of the Mind is based on his ideas] maintained that at 4 or 5, a child’s ability to play creatively with other children was in fact a better gauge of her future academic success than any other indicator, including her vocabulary, her