Pictures of My Baby, Delivered Today

No, I did not give birth to a boy or a girl.  I gave birth to a book.  I’ll be handing out cigars later.

But in the meantime, I wanted to share the photos of my new baby.  Here is the first copy of the Personality Poker book, hot off the press.  Previous photos were “glamor shots.”  These are the real deal. You have to see it to appreciate how cool it is.

Looking for Reviewers of the Personality Poker Book

Today marks 10 weeks before the release of the Personality Poker book.

And just a few hours ago I received 100 copies of the “galleys” (the uncorrected paperback proofs).

Over the next few weeks, we will be compiling a list of those in the media, including bloggers, who we think would be interested in receiving the book, along with a deck of the specially designed cards.

Unfortunately, I don’t know everyone out there who might be want to read this “masterpiece.”  Therefore, I am reaching out to see if YOU want to receive a copy.

If you are in the media (TV, print, radio, internet, etc) and would like a copy, please email us at info (at) personalitypokerbook (dot) com.

P.S. Be sure to read my article, Is Your Organizations Playing with a Full Deck?, published on the Pearson Learning Solutions website.

Everything Has a Personality

While developing Personality Poker, one thing I discovered is that lots of things have personalities: People, Political Parties, Products, Places, and Organizations (I could not find a “p” for this last one).

When you look at everything through the lens of a personality, you begin to see why individuals gravitate towards (or away from) certain people, companies, political affiliations, products, and geographies.

Contrary to convention wisdom, opposites do not attract.  Human beings prefer to be surrounded by people who are “like” them.

Therefore, the desire for “sameness” creates homogeneous personalities in everything we see.

Saying that people have personalities is nothing new.  Personality typing has been around for over 2,000 years, since the days of Hippocrates.

But organizations also have personalities.  In some circles, this might be referred to as a company’s “culture.”   The personality of a company impacts the people they hire and the methods they use to motivate and retain employees.  People who don’t fit the mold, never join or eventually leave.  The result? More of the same.  Although highly creative individuals may thrive in a company with an innovation-driven personality, they will most likely whiter in one which is overly bottom-line, short-term focused.  If you want to change your company culture, a good first step is to distinguish its personality.

The same is true with political parties, which are basically organizations with common points of view.  The Republican party has a very different personality than the Democratic Party.  Because like attracts like, the beliefs associated with each party get cemented. It also makes it difficult to understand and appreciate the perspectives of opposing party beliefs.

Even products have personalities.  The personality of an Apple MacBook is quite different than that of a Window’s based PC.  And the people who buy each product is a reflection of the individual’s personality.  A person who drives a BMW is making a statement about their personality.  Someone driving a Ford F150 is saying something quite different.  Yes, sometimes we buy  a product for its features and functions.  But more often, we buy things because they are a reflection of our personality.  [Or maybe we buy a product based on what personality we want others to think we are, such as buying a Ferrari during a midlife crisis].

Places (cities, states, and countries) have personalities too.  Although both are in Texas, Austin has a very different personality than Dallas.  Austin is weird (proudly so) while Dallas is more conservative.  Due to the perceived differences in personality, the influx of new residents into each city helps cement their personality over time.  What’s the personality of your hometown?  Does it reflect who you are?  Are there cities where you would not live because the personality clashes?

Maybe everything has a personality.  In a class I am taking, I am supposed to ask people a number of questions about me.  One of them is, “If I were on the cover of a magazine, which one would it be? And what would be the title of the article?” Nearly everyone I spoke with gravitated towards business magazines, saying that Fast Company, Wired, or Entrepreneur were the right choices for me.  Most felt that Forbes or Fortune were too serious.  Clearly that says something about my personality, and the personalities of the magazine.

It is fun to look at everything through the lens of personality.  And when you remember that we naturally gravitate towards those (people, places, products, etc) with similar personalities, you will begin to see why we make the decisions we make.

From an organizational perspective, there is a greater opportunity.  If you are struggling to innovate, it might be because you do not have a wide range of personalities in your organizations.  Your company’s personality might be repelling potential and current employees.  As a result, you attract and retain only those who fit the personality.  This is the enemy of innovation.  But more on this in future blog entries…

When a Goal is Not a Goal

This post marks two major milestones for me:

• This is the 500th entry on this blog
• In 3 months, my Personality Poker book will officially launch

Yesterday I was talking with a good friend, Susanne, about the book and everything we are doing to turn the Personality Poker book into a best seller. I told her that we are shooting for #1 on the New York Times best seller list.  In fact, the project is code-named “NYT1.”

Susanne looked at me and asked, “Isn’t that a goal?”

Although that might seem like an odd question to ask, it was a great question to ask of me.  If you aren’t aware, my previous book, Goal-Free Living, discusses the power, creativity, and freedom that occurs when you break free from your goals. So clearly I am someone who is not a huge fan of goals, at least not in the traditional sense.

Here was my response…

“For most people the present is designed to give them a future they want.  For me, the future gives me the present I want.”

Here’s what I mean in English…

Most people relate to their goals as something to achieve.  They will do things in the present in order to get to their desired future.

As a result, most people feel as though they are making sacrifices now (i.e., it is hard work) in order to fulfill on their goal and achieve happiness in the future. In fact, according to a survey I conducted, 58 percent of Americans are consciously and willingly “sacrificing today for the future.”  Unfortunately, 41 percent say that “achieving their goals has not made them happier and has only left them disillusioned.”  And that is for the people who achieved their goals.  Those who do not achieve their goals are typically even more unhappy.  And, as we know, most people don’t always get what they want (there’s a reason why the Rolling Stones wrote a song by a similar name).  In fact, according to my surveys, 92% of people say that they fail to fulfill on their New Year’s Resolutions, the most common goal-setting ritual.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t have goals.  The issue is with how we relate to those goals.

For me, the future “goal” gives me the present.  That is, it provides a powerful “context” for the work I do now.  Here is an excerpt from the Goal-Free Living book that explains it with a simple example.

Context is not a place to get to; it is something that changes your attitude and perception today. It is a mindset. To experience the power of context, imagine that as you read this, your phone rings. You answer the phone and the person on the other end notifies you that you won the raffle you entered last month. You and your family are going on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii sometime next year. You jump for joy and become energized—now. Although this vacation is many months in the future, it changes your attitude today. This vacation hasn’t happened. It isn’t even real yet.

Imagine your future as a big and bold vacation. A vacation that is so exciting that you can hardly contain yourself now. A vacation that has you in action and playing hard every day. This is a vacation that you will never take. This is a vacation whose day will never come. Its sole purpose is to generate passion in your life today. A context. Something that calls you forward.

Now back to my New York Times #1 Best Seller “goal.”

For me it is not about actually achieving the result (although that would be nice).  Rather it is about playing full out each and every day.  I wake up every morning excited about what is going to take place that day.  Every day is a new learning experience with new insights and obstacles.  My “work” is never work and it is certainly not a sacrifice.  It is a joy. It is exciting.

Will I achieve #1 NYT best seller status?  In 3 months we will know.  But given that the future is giving me a powerful present, the result is less important than the process. There is no sacrifice.  Each day is a new adventure.

Special Offer

I strongly believe that this philosophy can increase anyone’s happiness and productivity…INSTANTLY.

Therefore, to celebrate my 500th blog entry,  I am offering my Goal-Free Living book for only $10 postage paid. Although it retails for $25, I want to get this into the hands of as many people as possible.

Please note the following restrictions:

• I can only offer this to US addresses (books will be shipped via media mail)
• You must be prepared to wait up to 4 weeks for delivery. If you want faster delivery, you can buy the book from Amazon.com.
• There are only 250 copies available at this price.
• The offer will end August 31, 2010.

I hope you will take advantage of this offer and give the gift of passion and productivity to someone you care about.

Doing Nothing to Enhance Creativity

We are in such a fast paced society that we are always focused on achieving our goals.  In business, these goals might be hitting quarterly earnings targets, sales quotas, or operating budgets.  Even innovation initiatives are goal-driven.  We measure ideas generated, time-to-market, and percent of revenue from new products.

We are indeed a goal-driven society.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  But there are times when this obsession can be counter-productive.

In previous posts, I talked extensively about the “Performance Paradox” (the link brings you to several articles on the topic). This is the phenomenon whereby a hyper-focus on your goals is the very thing that prevents you from achieving them. Dan Pink also wrote about this concept in his recent book, Drive.

Yesterday it was a beautiful, sunny day here in Boston, so I decided to walk the ocean near where I live. I spent most of my time walking up and down the beach, listening to my iPod, and eating a delicious lobster roll. As I started to walk back home, I decided to walk into the water and just stand there. I did nothing for about 20 minutes. The picture above is what I looked at (you can click on it for a larger version). I just stood there. My mind wandered. At first I wondered what others were thinking of my “statue-like” position. Then my mind drifted towards work…in particular the marketing efforts for my new book, Personality Poker. I let my mind meander, but I stayed focus on the book. After about 5 minutes, a flood of ideas started to come through. By the end of the 20 minutes, I had more ideas than I had in the previous few weeks.

I have been incredibly busy lately. And I never felt I had the time to reflect. But what I realized very quickly was that I needed to detach myself from my goals in order to help me achieve the goal of a New York Times best seller. The more I hyper-focused on the work I needed to do, the less it seemed I could develop new ideas and solutions.

As I walked back home, I realized very quickly that the phenomenon I experienced is something I had written about many times before. I forgot the value of doing nothing.

In my book, Goal-Free Living, when discussing the process for clearing the mind, I wrote…

The word Mushin is used extensively in Japan. It means silent mind, empty mind. A mind that is void of thought patterns and mental chatter. The ability to listen to that inner voice is critical on the journey to self-awareness. It is said that Aristotle used to lie in bed with a ball in his hand so that when he would fall asleep the ball would drop and bang a copper plate below. The noise would wake him up, keeping him in a quasi state of sleep and consciousness. This is where he generated his best ideas and insights.

In Personality Poker (due in stores November 2010), I provided some of the neuroscience behind this…

A particular area of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is most active during conscious thought. This is among the most advanced parts of the brain, parts which separate us from other animals that cannot analyze and calculate the way humans can. However, when we are in a state of “flow,” this part of the brain is quiet, and we move into a more playful mindset. Flow casts the human brain back to a more primitive state where thoughts and sensations come through without being controlled, judged, or censored. Anyone who meditates knows what it’s like to be in this state, as the purpose of meditation is to go behind the judgmental veil of that prefrontal cortex and enter a state of flow. When the conscious part of the brain is activated, the flow state is interrupted. Interestingly, in children, the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed, which allows them a more natural state of play.

Research by Northwestern University neuroscientist Mark Jung-Beeman shows that people who are in a good mood not only tap into different parts of the brain, but also solve more problems through “flashes of insight.” Playfulness helps to put us in a good mood and enjoy a more relaxed frame of mind. Studies have shown that people in this state generate more unusual ideas when brainstorming. This explains why we get so many good ideas while showering or half-dozing; a relaxed frame of mind is conducive to insight, helping us bring forth new knowledge or ideas without forcing them. Like playfulness and a positive mood, the “drowsy” brain induces a relaxed state and encourages insights. How many times have you been bombarded by an amazing idea or thought, or solved a problem in your mind just seconds before falling asleep? This “stroke of genius” is a flash of insight thanks to your brain’s calm state.

I realize that businesses are designed to provide financial returns to the shareholders. And as a result, there is a lot of goal-setting going on.

But in order to achieve long-term goals, innovation is a must. And one component of innovation is the development of creative ideas. And sometimes the best way to develop those new insights is to stop focusing on innovation.

So, take time to do nothing. Sit and stare out the window. Relax. Meditate.

And if your boss asks you what you are doing, tell him/her, “I am quieting my dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in order to be more innovative.”

I’m sure after that, they will stop asking you questions.

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