3 Steps to Ideal Innovation

How often do you invest in a technology, feature, product packaging, advertisement or whatever so that you can keep up with a competitor? 

I understand. It’s human nature. As kids, we ask for things because our friends have them – and the following continues. That’s partly because our mindware (software) is programmed to follow others as part of our herd instinct. It’s also because we are pattern-creating beings. From the moment we’re born, our begins creating mindware programs to automate our responses to our world. Unfortunately, we create automated patterns that become outmoded over time, or are not applicable in different situations.

In business we clamor for that ‘me too’ thing. We get stuck in the status quo of competitive focus and a continual game of leapfrog, often dulling our ability to think and create out-of-the-box.

Ideal Innovation

Humans are designed for innovation. We’re the only animal that has the ability to foresee a future that is different than our present. We’re also the only creature that is capable of creating new programs and intersections within our mindware to drive new experiences and behavior. We can literally manipulate our world and what we see by shifting our mindware.

Here are 3 tips to inspire innovation in your teams:

1) Stimulate diversity.

Human minds learn from experience. By exposing our teams to a diversity of information and insights, we can increase our ability to think creatively. Instead of sitting inside your building in meetings discussing innovation – get out into your market and expose your teams to a broad array of new ideas and insights. Go outside of your industry to get even more new ideas.

2) Reduce stress and pressure in your environment.

When we feel stress or threats, we hunker into survival mind and our automated programs take control of our thinking and behaviors. To think creatively, we need to move into conscious thinking, using our prefrontal cortex. The more relaxed and safe we feel, the more our cortex engages. That’s why it’s critical that as leaders we create a safe, highly stimulating and low pressure environment to inspire innovation.

3) Create an innovation room. Imagine a place where people can go to create freely.

A place filled with whiteboards and markers, prototyping tools, great examples of innovation of our times and even play dough! In such a space, there is no wrong idea, no bad thinking. Everything is an opportunity to expand and think out of the box.  An innovation space can trigger the happy drug for our minds, dopamine. Once we are flush with dopamine – our creativity soars. 

The Bottom Line

Thanks to the knowledge of neuroscience, we now understand the inner workings of our minds; how we slip into survival mode, how we process our sensory information, how we develop our own mental programs.

We now understand how humans create new programs within our mindware to automate our response to our world. We also understand how to short circuit these automated programs to inspire innovation and creating thinking.

21^st century leaders  can innovate their way to business success by understanding how to motivate the human mind to think creatively, then applying this learning to their teams and themselves.  How cool is that?

Your Unconscious Mind: At Your Service

I know that many of believe that the unconscious mind is representative of the darker side of we humans. Probably because the scary movies, games and novels portray that evil lives in the unconscious. Plus our unconscious does harbor all of the less than helpful instincts, limiting beliefs and negative behavior patterns that bring out the dark side, the very dark side, in we humans.

The truth is that our unconscious isn't the dark side. It's actually simply following our lead. 

Our unconscious mind is programmed to serve us. Whether it be recalling a memory of that first big sale or swinging our golf club with our own special form - our unconscious serves up whatever we ask it for in any given situation.

That includes the behaviors and beliefs that don't appear to serve us on the surface. For example, our fear of snakes, knee jerk defensive reactions and that pesky sugar habit. The reality is - we asked for those behaviors thanks to our internal dialogues with our unconscious minds.

Clarity is the Key

Our unconscious minds need clear direction to serve us well. Very clear direction. That's why we end up with those pesky habits. You see, our unconscious mind doesn't hear a negative. Nor does it have it's own independent processor to decide what's good or what's bad.  It learns from us, from our experiences, learnings and the way we talk to ourselves. 

Which is why it's so important to be very clear when we talk to ourselves. Our unconscious is listening and learning to every word we say.  

• Ask for what you want. Be clear, concise and focused. Only say things that are focused on your goal. 

• Focus on what's working. Modeling success empowers your unconscious mind to positively serve you. The more successes you notice and focus upon, the more success your unconscious mind learns. The more successes it learns, the more positively it will serve you.

• Monitor your self talk. Every single time you tell the story of your problems or woes, your unconscious mind imprints that story as truth. That imprinting impacts how you filter the data from your world - you literally will seek data to prove that sad story.  

The Bottom Line

Our unconscious minds are amazing supercomputers programmed to serve us. We program how our unconscious serves us in every moment of our lives. 

What program are you running? 

The Game of Blame

One of the distractions our Unconscious Mind (UM) uses is the blame game. 

When something threatens the status quo of our UM, it will often use distraction to avoid that threat. Especially when we're running old comfortable programs. Why would our UM want to give up those comfie old programs in the face of a threatening change? We're not wired like that.

We are wired to look for the problem, threat or other negative in our experience. It's only natural that our UM leverages that wiring when it feels the need to distract.

We've all played the Blame Game. After all, it's easier to seek a cause outside of ourselves for whatever is threatening us. If we focus our attention on seeking that external cause, we distract ourselves from the internal threat. 

But what if that perceived threat is actually an opportunity for growth? A chance to learn and change and grow? Our UM often sees such opportunities as threats and begins its distraction game.

That's why I have a rule in my life. I won't play the blame game. I made that rule when I began working with turnarounds. The blame game runs rampant in such businesses and its so counterproductive.

Focusing on placing blame is a waste of time and energy. Worse yet, it distracts us from stepping into whatever learning or knowledge we can gather from the situation that's threatening us. Instead of seeking the positive lessons from the situation, we distract ourselves so that we can stay in our comfortable status quo. 

The next time you catch yourself playing the blame game, just stop. Take responsibility for whatever the issue is if you have to - just get the blame game off the table. Then ask yourself:

• What lessons can we learn from this experience?  
• What can we learn that didn't work, so we don't repeat that behavior? 
• What were the successes we can model into the future?

Ah, now that the game is over - just look at all those lesson and opportunities to expand, right there on the other side of blame...

Reflections on Perceptions

We receive 11M bits of sensory information every second. Our mind selects 134 bits/second to actually process and act upon.  

How do we make that selection? Our personal filters*.

Every individual has a unique set of filters. We create them through our lives, building on each filter as we perceive and manage our experiences and learning. 

Our filters represent us as individual humans, and we can only perceive what we are. Whatever we decide to select in those 134 bits of life/second is also a reflection of something inside of us. Think about that for a minute, it's a big eye opener.  

Why Should You Care?

Your perception is your reality. Just ask five people to watch a 2 minute clip from a ball game and you'll get 5 different perceptions of the play.

Your perception can also guide you to learning more about your beliefs and your decisions. For example;

•  That annoying person you just want to smack in the face?  You see that annoying behavior because in some manner it represents a facet of you.  

•  The competitor that plays a dirty trick and makes you angry? You get angry because that trick resonates with something inside you.  

•  That amazing friend that has so many wonderful qualities that you reflect upon whenever you see them? That's right - those qualities are within you too.

Our mind has given us the opportunity to see ourselves through the information that we select, react to and act upon. That's the most powerful perception of all! 

Through the Looking Glass

That person you want to smack  is really a gift. That's right. By annoying you, they teach you something about yourself. Whatever their annoying trigger might be, if you look closely and are honest with yourself - you'll find that same thing inside you. Perhaps not to the same degree or extent or in the exact same form as demonstrated in the other person. But you will find a connection. 

Every bit of information we select from our onslaught of sensory data matches something inside ourselves.

What a great opportunity to learn about ourselves, to grow through that learning and to become better leaders, partners, parents, friends and more!  

All it takes is the commitment to pay attention to what we react to, to what gets us going. Within that reflection of our perceptions, we find ourselves.

A Personal Example

A client of mine used to drive me nuts with their selfishness. I reacted far too strongly - so I knew there was something deeper going on. My friends would say I am not a selfish person; in fact they sometimes complain because I give too much and they can't keep up. So what was up? This person drove me nuts! 

My growth was in learning that deep down I believed I was selfish. My mom didn't want an only child spoiled brat. So she went out of her way to tell me I had more than my fair share. She embedded the belief that I had to always give to others. Which explains why I used to give so much more than was balanced, and why I was annoyed by the selfishness of my client. I believed I was a selfish person - no matter how I behaved and how much I gave.

That simple awareness had a huge impact on my interactions with others and with myself. I shifted out of giving, giving, giving and into being able to give and receive. By the way, I also cleared up the knot in my gut about my client. 

The Bottom Line

Our perceptions are mirrors into ourselves. From the way we perceive others to the way we perceive the world, the facets we choose to focus and act upon are mirrors into our own beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.

What can you learn about yourself with this power or perception? How can you be a better leader, parent, partner and friend? What can you learn from the reflection of your perceptions? 

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* Our filters include time, space, language, memories, decisions,, values, beliefs, attitudes and meta programs. Each and every one created and molded uniquely by our life's experiences and learning. 

Are You Asking for What You Want?

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. ~ Buddha

I was taught that asking for what I wanted is a greedy, selfish and pushy approach to life.  A lot of human have a  similar belief system. I think it's one of the major differences between big time successful folks and the rest of the world.

Yes, some of those folks are greedy, conniving and act without integrity. We've seen that in Wall Street, big business lobbyists and our government. But that's only a percentage of those who win big success. Many successful folks are honest, decent people who simply win big. Why?

Because they ask for what they want. They step up and do what it takes to reach their goals with an expectation of winning. Challenges are merely temporary diversions that they can and will overcome. No matter what happens, they stay focused on what they want.

Neuroscience has proven that our unconscious minds do not hear negatives. Saying "I don't want to fail," is a powerful way to tell my unconscious mind that I do, indeed, wish to fail. My unconscious misses the negation - then acts to serve me by giving me what I requested... failure. 

I know that sounds like it's coming from a new age perspective. But it's being proven true, right now, thanks to neuroscience. What we think is what we create.

Can it really be that simple?

Researchers have proven the validity of quantum theory. At that moment of creation, when energy turns to matter, we determine what we will see. If we expect to see a particle of matter, we see it. If we expect an energy wave, we see that. 

Our unconscious minds act in accordance with quantum theory. Out of 11M bits/second of sensory data, we select what we notice and act upon. We choose our reality based on what we've told our unconscious mind to notice through our thoughts and focus. 

Our minds will even distort our sensory information to make it fit into whatever we have programmed our minds to expect. Yes, it's true. We literally bend our data to match our programmed beliefs.

•  If we focus on what we don't want - our mind bends information in that direction and we react with fear, negativity, depression and that feeling of hopelessness.  

•  If we focus on asking for what we want, our unconscious bends the data so that we step onto that much more positive path and move forward.

Yes, it is that simple. 

The evidence of the power of our unconscious mind to select and create our reality is growing. It's time to accept the fact...we are what we think.

What are you thinking, right now?

There is no Failure, Only Feedback

I'm sure you're thinking that failure is a to-be-feared part of life. It's an understandable thing that you'd feel that way because we've all been programmed to believe so many bad things about the F word. So many things.

What if you could step forward into any situation minus the flinch brought along by those darned f-words? 

You can, you know. It's all in your mind. 

Failure is simply a word. Society is the reason it has so much charge, so much energy, so much pushback. When you change the way you feel about the word itself, you can release the charge  et voila - you're free.

One of my favorite presuppositions of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is that there is no failure - there is only feedback. I simply love that approach to life. Since I started walking that talk - many many things have changed in my world. 

A Personal Example

Last week I took my cowhorse Pearli to a big show. It was our first time with the big guns, and we were both nervous. Then I got some big feedback.  I disqualified (DQ'd) in my run. I made a mistake in the pattern when Pearli decided to act up in the arena. She caught me by surprise and I just plain lost track as I focused on managing her. And so, we got a big fat 0.

I brought out the baseball bat and started hitting myself over the head, HARD. I felt like I'd totally and completely failed. Even though my friends all said it was a great job handling my pissy mare and to give myself a break - I just kept hitting myself with that bat.

That's when my trainer stepped in. He reminded me that she had been a brat with him as well, that we knew this was a test run and that I'd done great to keep her calm and finish the pattern. We also got the feedback we needed on what to expect from her so we now have a plan for the next show in 2 weeks.

He helped me shift my failure into feedback. By the way, when I got home and watched the video - it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. I ended up with really strong feedback for me and I feel better positioned for the next show. 

From Failure to Feedback

The shift from failure to feedback takes a time, focus and commitment. We have to reprogram a habit in our brains that's been imprinted for our entire life. Just like any other habit - it takes 30+ days to change. 

The first step is to decide that you will commit to live in feedback mode. Commit to make the change.

Then - make the change, just like we did in my example with the horse show.

•  Catch yourself with the failure feeling. Pay attention and catch yourself responding to the potential of failure or the after the fact feeling when the baseball bat comes out to whack yourself.

•  When you do catch yourself, stop and breathe. (Deep breathing can and does clear your mind) Now, step out of the situation so that you're viewing it objectively. Sometimes that takes a lot of focus, but you can do it.

•  Now, look at the event and make a list of all the good things that happened, the things that went right, the lessons learned for the next time. Focus on that list of positives whenever you think about the event or experience. 

•  Do the same for any other experiences or events with an F-word feeling. Keep repeating this process for at least 30 days, and perhaps longer.

Practice Makes Perfect

Like anything else with our minds, repetition is the key to change.

As an exercise, recall events or experiences when you felt like a failure or when you didn't move forward for the fear of failure. Practice the above exercise on each of those events or experiences. Set the positive learnings from each experience firmly in your mind. Then, whenever you think about those events, focus on the positive results. If a negative tries to come into your mind -  shift  immediately to the positives. 

You can shift away from the fear of failure and into embracing the powerful feedback we all receive in life.

It's all in your mind...

Freedom from the F Words

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.... ~ James Joyce

It's alright - I'm not talking about THAT F-word.  I'm talking about the other ones...fear and failure. These two words, individually or when combined into a single emotional belief, limit us from reaching for our ultimate potential. 

For me, failure has a big charge thanks to childhood programming that equated even one mistake with punishment and horror. All I have to do is think about failing and a big ball of terror erupts in my belly, prodding me to wonder if I should even try. 

Society programs us that failure is proof of our personally being bad, unworthy and more. Many of us will not do something we really want to do thanks to the fear of failing. We won't try that new sport, dance in public, step up to ask for that promotion or step out of our status quo safety zone.  Such is the power of the potential of failure.

When we do fail, it can overwhelm us for hours, days, weeks and ever years. Just look at the impact of the most recent economic upheaval on our businesses. I wish I had a dollar for every time I hear the phrase, "We can't do that because of the economy."  

The imprint of failure lingers with us far longer than the imprints of our successes.  We can thank our unconscious mind's programming to focus on problems for that truth. Failure of any sort hangs with us, nags at us, sticking in our guts as we sink a little, contract a little more...and take less risk the next time. With enough failure, we totally stop moving forward and settle back into our fears... of more failure.

There is No Failure, Only Feedback

One of my favorite presuppositions of Natural Language Programming (NLP) is that there is only feedback. Failure is feedback. That's a great way to think about business and life if you ask me. 

The reality is that failure is a gift. We can learn from it, grow from it, test new ideas and expand even as we fail. 

What would a world devoid of the fear of failure feel like? Check back Wednesday for some tips on how to shift from Failure to Feedback.... and free yourself from the F Words forever!  

Change Your Perception, Change Your Business Reality

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. ~  Robertson Davies

On Wednesday we chatted about how our unconscious mind uses meta programs to process data from our senses, and why those meta programs tend to keep us stuck in the same perceptions and patterns.

The good news is there are options to consciously shift our perspectives. The fastest way is to rest control away from our unconscious mind. By forcing our unconscious to activate our conscious logic, we sidestep the meta programs and step into fresh perspectives. Here are three tips to do just that for your business - and your life.

1. Shuffle the Deck

Our unconscious mind seeks patterns. It will actively create patterns to make our information processing more efficient. The problem is that these patterns direct us to see what we expect to see in our business data. That's why we miss subtle shifts until they become more disruptive, why we don't see the trends and issues coming at us until they reach a substantial threshold.

Shuffling the deck means changing the way we present our business data to our minds. It's a simple shift with big results. Why? When you change the way you present your data, your unconscious mind sees a new format that doesn't match what it expects. So it calls for help from your conscious mind.

For example, instead of using that same excel spreadsheet - make a scattergram or different form of visual chart. That will trigger your unconscious mind to shift.

We already do this today. Think about the different formats you try for the data you're presenting to your boss or board of directors. We seek the best visual format to best show what we want our audience to see.  

2. Look for What's Going Right and Model It

Our unconscious mind is programmed to looks for what's wrong. That's a caveman suvival program that's still highly active in our modern world. We look at information and seek our what's wrong, a problem or a threat. That means we tend to only see problems.

By shifting to seek what's going right we shift from our unconscious into conscious logic. Then we can explore the why around what's going right, then model those aspects of success in other areas of our business. We also find new insights inside our data that present us with new opportunities and potential for business growth. 

3. What If? 

By asking What if, you interrupt "what is" and open your mind to new potentials. "What if we shifted to a new sales model?" "What if we packaged our products in a new way?" "What if we invested in that new opportunity instead of revamping our current offering?"   

By asking "What if?" we force our unconscious mind to step out of its patterns and onto a blank whiteboard. And that means the conscious mind has to get involved.

For example, sometime in the not so distant past some vendor first asked, "What if I deliver my book through the internet instead of on paper?" The rest is history...

The Bottom Line

When we shift out of our unconscious automation and into conscious thinking - our perceptions and reality can and will change. 

Try the above for a few weeks and let me know what happens. I'd love to hear about your success!

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A pattern interrupt is a technique that disrupts an in-process habit of thinking or behavior.  

Big Data, Quantum Theory and Your Unconscious Mind

Every 2 days we create a quantity of information equal to the volume of information created between the dawn of civilization all the way to 2003. WOW.

But even the largest data warehouse can't match the biggest data in our world. That data is happening right there inside you. It's called your unconscious mind. 

•  In a single day the average person is exposed to the same amount of information as a person in the 15th century was exposed to in a lifetime. 

•  In the first day of life, a baby receives a volume of information equivalent to 70 times the information housed in the Library of Congress. 

•  Every second, you receive and process over 11M bits of data from your five senses. 

• Your mind stores that data in your neuro connectors around your body. Now get this. There are over (10 to the 10th power) to the 11th power neuro connectors in your body. How's that for storage! 

What Do We Do With ALL that Data?

Your unconscious mind processes and stores the data inputs you receive using the processes of deletion, distortion and generalization to filter our data inputs. Note, I said your unconscious mind, not your conscious mind.  Your unconscious mind is guided by meta-programs in its data management processes. This is where individual perception comes into play.

Meta programs determine whether we perceive a situation as scary or exciting, as threatening our exploratory, as supportive or competitive. Our meta programs form our internal representations (aka perceptions and memories) and direct our behavior and beliefs. Each of our meta programs and filters evolve differently, based on the experiences in our lives and our responses to those experiences. This explains why three different observers of an event will have three different perspectives on the event itself.

Our Unconscious Meets Quantum Theory

In alignment with Quantum Theory, our unconscious minds select to focus on only a fragment of the information available to us, based on what we expect and what matches our programs. We delete all the rest of the information, including the options and choices that are associated with that information.

•  We Delete information that we deem unnecessary or irrelevant. Which means we delete options and choices - selecting only the information that matches our programming and expectations. That's how we choose to experience a specific option out of all of the choices and options offered by the information we receive.

•  We Distort information to make it match our programs, to mold it into the familiar. We therefore see what we expect to see, not what's necessarily the reality in the data or representative of all our available choices.

•  We Generalize information to make it fit into our known buckets. Even when it doesn't really belong there. What we already know to be true becomes a self fulfilling prophecy as we shove round pegs in square holes to make the information fit into something comfortable for our minds.

Out of a gargantuan array of optional realities, we select the experience a) we expect b) that's familiar and c) that's comfortable out of all the options available to us. 

The Bottom Line

Our unconscious minds decide what specific data we will see and respond to within our world, based on our past experiences and resulting meta programs. When we change our meta programs, we can shift the way we analyze, filter, respond to and store all of our experiences in our world.

Thanks to neuroscience, we can empower ourselves with more choices and options in the way we view and respond to life.  We can change the way we process all of the available data in our world....and change our lives as a result. How?  By evolving the programs in our unconscious mind. 

How cool is that? 

Here's a very simple way to begin to shift how your unconscious mind processes all your data, forming your perceptions and responses.

Ask questions! The simple process of questioning activates your conscious mind. There's your first shift! It works in business and in life! 

10 Truths About the Unconscious You

The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind. ~ Auden

What if I told you that your unconscious mind actually controls your conscious mind?

Not exactly what you had in mind, now is it?

In my studies of neuroscience and neuro-practices, I've learned truths about our unconscious minds that literally blew me away. Many of the beliefs I'd been taught for decades became little more than urban myth. 

I want to share some of these powerful truths with you. The more we understand about our minds, the easier it becomes to step into our full potential. Our minds are designed for each and every one of us to create BIG potential!

Your Unconscious Mind(UM):

1) Processes all of the data inputs from our five senses.

That's now around 11M bits/second, which is a lot of info to handle. More than any supercomputer out there can manage. Your UM uses deletion, distortion and generalization to manage all that data. We'll talk more about this process on Wednesday.

2) Is the master of your conscious mind.

In fact, your conscious mind only gets involved in data processing and responses when the unconscious mind calls upon it. That's when the UM decides it needs logical input to analyze something that's new and different, that doesn't fit the known patterns. Until then, your unconscious rules.

3) Is symbolic.

Your UM stores all of your memories in symbols and images - not in text or paragraph form. That's one reason why visual is a stronger communication/memory system than simple text. 

4) Enjoys serving you, but needs clear direction.

Your UM is programmed to serve you. It runs all of your body's systems, instinctually responds to danger and more. It's designed to serve you but it also needs very clear direction. That's where we humans sometimes get in trouble.

5) Does not process negatives.

That's right - your UM does not hear that negation or negative. When you talk or think about what you do not want to happen, it's the same as telling your UM to go out and get that very thing. That's why it's so important to say what you want.

6) Takes everything personally.

Since perception is all about our own unique meta programs and processes that are used to analyze, store and respond to information - everything is personal to your UM. Each of us has to consciously strive for objectivity, stepping beyond our unique programs and perspectives to see various viewpoints.

7) Controls and maintains all perceptions.

Our initial perceptions are formed in early childhood. Between the ages of 0-7, every single thing that happens in our world becomes a truth to our UM. We then build on those initial perceptions and they become like fly paper - attracting more experiences that match the perception to make it true.

8) Works on the principle of least effort.

Our minds want to use the least resources possible to manage inputs, run our bodies and more. The smaller the effort, the more mental capacity we have for emergency processing - like when that woolly mammoth charges us or when all heck breaks loose in our business. 

9) Maintains instincts and generates habits.

The more we can respond out of habit or instinct, the less energy our UM has to use. We create habit after habit to allow our minds to have excess capacity for those all important moments. The challenge is that those instincts and habits often get in the way of our own best path.

10) Is programmed to constantly seek more and more.

This is why there is always more and more to discover, why we never stop learning and expanding. It's the function of our UM to expand and as such, so does mankind. 

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I'd love to know how many of the above truths you knew before you read this post. I had inklings of a few but didn't really know the reality! How about you?  

Check back over the next few days.  I'll be sharing more about how our unconscious mind works when it comes to procesing all our data.  

Photo courtesy of Huffington Post