“Just Noticing”: Observations Of A Blogger
Posted by Michelle Moquin on December 5th, 2010
“Just Noticing…”
- …When I am not feeling at my optimum health, I feel vulnerable and more sensitive to my emotions. Anyone else feel this way when they’re under the weather?
It’s Sunday morning, and “just noticing” that I’ve got a lot on my mind, but currently, I am speechless. Therefore, I am done for the day.
I’ll leave you with this quote that feels right for me at this time:
“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”
~ Sri Ram
Readers: Anything you want to say? Is there something you are “just noticing” or a quote that feels right for you today? Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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December 5th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
I feel that way too Michelle when I am ill. Actually I feel that way when I have my period. The world seems like a big pit waiting for me to fall into it.
December 6th, 2010 at 6:31 am
Solve Any Problem in 3 Steps
Ken Watanabe
Delta Studio
Five years ago, Ken Watanabe, a Harvard MBA who worked at one of the world’s leading consulting firms, walked away from a lucrative career to write a children’s book.
He was alarmed that school-age kids in his native Japan were good at memorizing large amounts of information but not very effective at applying it to real-life situations.
He wanted to teach them in a fun way to broaden and organize their approach to problem solving and become more proactive in shaping the world.
But something unexpected happened. Watanabe’s 110-page book became a phenomenon among adults in Japan… and the country’s best-selling business book of the year.
Since then, it’s been published in a half-dozen countries around the world, including, most recently, the US.
Bottom Line/Personal spoke to Ken Watanabe about his secrets to problem solving…
THE THREE STEPS
Good problem solving isn’t an innate talent. It comes from a way of thinking using a set of techniques that you can practice and improve upon.
Most people rely too much on their instincts when they try to solve a problem, especially when they feel flustered or overwhelmed. They tend to grasp at the first or second solution that pops into their heads, even if it doesn’t seem completely adequate.
I developed a simple, structured approach that works for addressing almost any kind of problem, big or small.
In fact, I’ve used the same approach helping my Fortune 500 company clients as I do trying to fix the pepper shaker in my kitchen.
Step 1. Identify your problem and the root difficulties causing it. People tend to think about their situations in such vague, universal terms that they get overwhelmed.
Example: You feel stressed and unhappy because you never have enough money each month. Stress and unhappiness are symptoms, not underlying problems that you can take action to remedy.
You have to analyze more deeply. Is the actual problem that you’re not earning enough money? Or is it that you’re spending too much each month?
To identify problems, I find it helpful to think of myself as a doctor trying to cure a patient. I list potential causes for a problem, arrive at a hypothesis for the most likely cause and focus on addressing that cause.
Step 2. Come up with multiple solutions. List as many as you can, no matter how improbable. This often leads you to creative and unexpected solutions.
Even if you think a particular solution may be the right one, get into the habit of challenging this conclusion. Ask yourself, What are the shortcomings of this solution? Is there a better way?
Step 3. Prioritize your actions and implement a plan. After you select a solution, you need to follow through on it and be prepared to modify it — or replace it — until the problem is resolved.
MY FAVORITE TOOLS
I find that jotting down my thoughts and creating graphic representations of them are essential to breaking down problems into manageable parts and making sure that I explore every possible avenue…
The Logic Tree. This is useful for clarifying your problem and its root causes.
How it works: Start with your problem in a box on the left side of a piece of paper. Ask “why?” you have that problem.
For each answer, draw an arrow to the right, and put it in a box. Now ask “why?” for each of the answers in the boxes. Keep repeating the process until you have identified all of the possible root causes of the problem.
The Logic Tree also can help you brainstorm a variety of solutions to a problem after you’ve identified the root cause.
Example: Say that you have determined that the root cause of your money problems is that you don’t track your spending well enough.
Pros and cons box. This is useful for evaluating which competing solutions are the best ones. The box allows you to line up and compare the benefits and drawbacks of possible solutions at a glance.
How it works: Draw three columns. Label the first “Possible Solutions,” the second “Pros” and the third “Cons.”
List each solution, and fill in its corresponding pros and cons. You can further refine the process by marking each pro and con entry using a star system.
Three stars is very attractive or very unattractive depending on whether it’s in your pro or con list, two stars is moderately attractive/unattractive, one star is marginally attractive/unattractive.
Count the stars. If they are in the pro column, more stars are good. If they are in the con column, more stars are bad.
MY PEPPER SHAKER PROBLEM
I had an expensive new pepper shaker that I had to shake and shake over my food just to get enough pepper out.
It was a small problem, but one that annoyed me almost every day. I thought about throwing it out and buying a new pepper shaker, but that seemed like a waste.
I decided to find out whether thinking through the problem in a structured way would allow me to find a more satisfying solution. A pepper shaker, of course, is trivial in the scheme of things, but the process used to solve the pepper shaker problem can solve any problem.
In this case, identifying the problem was easy — I wasn’t getting enough pepper from my pepper shaker.
Possible root causes…
I need too much pepper on my food. I rejected this because I really like pepper on my food and didn’t want to change my preferences. My tastes were not the issue.
I wasn’t shaking the shaker long enough or hard enough. I dismissed this cause, too, because I felt that giving one or two vigorous shakes should be sufficient.
The small openings on the top of the pepper shaker were too small. Yes, this seemed like the most reasonable cause. I decided to pursue this line of thought and develop solutions.
Possible solutions…
Buy a new pepper shaker with larger openings. I had already rejected the idea of buying a new one.
Increase the amount of pepper that was coming out of the shaker. Yes, this seemed promising, but how to do it?
I had to continue generating more refined solutions.
Possible refined solutions…
Increase the number of holes in the shaker by poking more of them. I didn’t want to do this, because it would ruin the look of my nice pepper shaker.
Make each existing hole bigger. No, again for the same reason.
Use more finely ground pepper. Yes, that seemed like the smartest, most practical idea.
I then put the solution into action. I called the store to check whether it carried finely ground pepper — it did. I stopped by the store on the way home from work.
Personal interviewed Ken Watanabe, author of the best-selling Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People (Portfolio).
He is founder and CEO of Delta Studio, an education, entertainment and media company in Tokyo, where he is developing an educational TV show and a “brain game” for Nintendo. Formerly, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Co. http://www.ProblemSolvingToolBox.com
December 6th, 2010 at 7:03 am
A fellow and his date were playing tow-handed strip poker and the girl finally had to remove her bra. “I hope you don’ think I’ve been bluffing you.” she said, as the shed the heavily padded garment.
“Let’s put it this way,” retorted the obviously disappointed winner. “I’ve never known any other girl to play her nipples so close to her chest.”
December 6th, 2010 at 7:04 am
I was watching the series Broadwalk on HBO and it occurred to me that we, white males, have enjoyed running this country forever.
We have been the last 43 Presidents in a row. And what have we to show for it? Besides taking a great opportunity and squandering it with greed there is really nothing to show.
I watched as the 18th Amendment was passed and women had to go through hell to get the 19th passed. All the while we white men were enjoying being the only race that counted in the country.
What did we get out of it besides modifying history to tell us and the rest of America what a great country we made for them?
We got to enforce what were hypocritical values. We outlawed liquor. We did this with no intention of ever stopping it for the elite of us.
This is what we do today. As white men we pass laws that we as the elite of the white men don’t expect to have to obey.
So we either give our selves a pass via a legal exemption as in the special breaks in the tax laws, the exemption to the xray search at the airports, etc, etc, or we just ignore the law and the law refuses to prosecute us as in all the criminal events our legislatures on all levels of government commit and get away with.
So no we have this black man as President. It is so galling to the white elite males that they have ground the country to a halt financially to force him out.
Besides being told that white males have been great stewards of this country, why don’t us whites really look at what they have done.
They have given our jobs away to foreign countries. They have refused to provide for a health care system that would cover the majority of the country. They have refused to police white men who they have given almost absolute control over the pocket books of the American people.
I have named but a few of the serious detriments that our 43 white male stewards have presided over.
This black has in less than 2 years done what those 43 had not done in more than 200 years. He provided help care for the majority of American people. He provided a measure of control over those that control our pocketbooks that as never been there before. He has etc, etc(you check) that has long been needed.
So what do we as white Americans rant about? We want our country back. Translated, we want to return to white male stewardship because we are told by white males that that is best.
I for one have seen the truth. What are your eyes looking at?
Henry
December 6th, 2010 at 7:09 am
Congratulations to the both of you Evelyn and Harris.
Hafa Adai
Anna
December 6th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Hafa adai Anna. I am from Shenyang in China. I will be coming to Guam on the 19th of December 2010 for a week via Continental Airlines. I hope to meet you.
I will be staying at the Leo Palace Resort. Please let me know if you can meet with us. My friends and I are big fans of Michelle’s blog.
Bai
December 6th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Hafa adai
Henry I see you know of what you speak. Especially about who the law applies to. When the republicans were caught stealing votes to retain the governor’s office the law said what amounts to that yes they stole votes but they may have stolen them to give the competition votes.
To overturn Gov.-elect Eddie Calvo’s victory, Democrats will have to prove not only that there were numerous illegal votes cast in the recent election, but also that those votes went to the Republicans.
The theft of the people’s right to choice is now a given to the Republican Party.
Peter