Webby Clare

Thoughts and other writings by Clare Conroy

How aiming for the ‘wrong’ solution can lead you to the right one

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One of my favourite brainstorming/problem solving techniques is what I call ‘double reversal’. [I know that the inspiration for this technique (and perhaps even the name) has come from something I’ve read but I have no idea where (perhaps de Bono?), so apologies for the lack of attribution…]

Here’s how it works (and how I used it in a session today)…

Firstly, state the problem question.
‘How can we ensure that staff use (and use correctly) the quality assurance checklist?’

Then reverse it.
‘How can we ensure that staff do not use the quality assurance checklist?’

And then brainstorm answers to the the reversed question.

  • Make the checklist irrelevant
  • Ensure it’s hard to find
  • Make it hard to use
  • Tell everyone it’s not important
  • Make it time-consuming
  • Don’t provide any context or reason for its use
  • Don’t tell new staff about it
  • Reward people who don’t use it
  • Make fun of people who use it

Then reverse each of the answers.

  • Make the checklist relevant
  • Ensure it’s easy to find
  • Make it easy to use
  • Communicate the importance of the checklist
  • Make it quick to complete
  • Provide context and reasons as to why it needs to be used
  • Include it in new starter induction processes
  • Reward people who do use it
  • Follow-up and call out those people who don’t use it

You get the idea….

By reversing the question and aiming for the ‘wrong’ answers I find it frees up people’s thinking. They immediately start to think more broadly and get a bit silly with their ideas (which makes it lots of fun). It’s likely that if you just brainstormed solutions to the ‘right’ question then you’d come up with many of the same ideas in the end, but I always find I tend to get more through the ‘double reversal’ technique (especially those ideas that seem so obvious that they’re over looked). This technique seems to work really well for those problems where you want to get people to behave in a certain way or take certain action. Try it. It’s fun.

Some problems to get you thinking….

  • ‘How to stop people from speeding on the roads’. Reversed: ‘How to get people to speed on the roads’.
  • ‘How to get people to recycle more’. Reversed: ‘How to get people to recycle less’.

Inauthenticity at work

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I’ve been experiencing lots of moments of inauthenticity at work lately. Moments when I feel like I’m being inauthentic. Moments when I feel others are being inauthentic. Moments when I feel that situations and interactions would be vastly improved by just ‘getting real’, taking a moment (event just a fraction of a second) to consider what others may be thinking/feeling/perceiving, and exercising just a little bit of humanity.

The PS News lands in my email inbox every Tuesday and lately I’m finding that many of the articles echo this inauthenticity. A recent article that stood out gave tips on how to remain professional at work when you are not feeling well. Maybe I’m being too harsh, or too unrealistic, but do we need an article to tell us how to hide the fact that we’re physically unwell from our co-workers and managers? Ummm, what about the implications in terms of presenteeism and reduced productivity? What about if we had a work culture where we were sensitive to that fact that sometimes people feel crappy (in a variety of different (and potentially more uncomfortable and embarrassing) ways) and that we’re adults and can treat these situations with compassion and discretion when required? Is that such an impossibility? Or better yet, what about we work in a way that reflects the values/approach of the Results Only Work Environment and work when we feel good, and don’t when we don’t. And as long as agreed outcomes were achieved, it wouldn’t matter when or where you did it. No more sitting by the door in meetings, with your emergency stash of painkillers, willing the day to be over so that you can get home and go to bed!

And today there was an article about how to decide if an unsatisfying job is worth keeping. Huh? There was much that frustrated me about this article – jumping between talking about careers vs jobs etc. But most of all, I was frustrated about the lack of options and optimism in the article. And I know it’s syndicated content and wasn’t written specifically for the PS News or its audience, but I though it lacked any kind of innovation or inspiration. How depressing is it to think that at the end of reading this article you might in fact decide that keeping your unsatisfying job is indeed worthwhile? Hmm… what about figuring out how to make your job more satisfying? What about figuring out what you do like about your job and trying to emphasise those parts while reducing the parts you don’t like (Marcus Buckingham‘s love it and loathe it exercise is a great way to start identifying these – google it for more detail)? What about some guidance or inspiration for figuring out what you do find satisfying so you can go get a job (or create a job) that aligns? I realise that there were a few useful tips in this article (eg. determining if it really is your job or something else in your life that’s making you unhappy) but on the whole, the tone seemed pretty negative…

So, now that I’ve had a little rant about other people’s writing (and I realise that often it’s much easier to criticise than create) what am I going to do about it? I’m going to challenge myself to write an article for submission to the PS News. A more positive, inspiring article. I’m not sure about what… Perhaps about the perils of sitting at your desk (not really very upbeat at all), and the fun ways that you can get more movement into your work day (that’s the upbeat bit).

For my 30th (part 2)

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So, today I turned 30 and so I thought I should provide a little update on where I got to with my ‘before I’m 30’ challenge that I blogged about it my last post…

Over the last 10 days, I’ve tried out a number of crowd-funding / donation platforms and contributed $25-$30ish to the following:

A couple of quick reflections…. Fundbreak and Kickstarter are my favourite models. I love the creative blurbs, videos and rewards that project creators have come up with. I think they create a connection between the creators and backers and allow backers to get a strong sense of what they’re contributing to and really feel part of the project. Both sites are beautiful and easy to use (which always helps).

I actually found searching for a project to fund on Kiva quite difficult. I was simply overwhelmed by the volume of available projects and the similarity between many of them. There is a comprehensive search functionality but there are just so many to select from… I would have liked to fund a ‘green’ project but unfortunately there weren’t any projects available. Also, the loan I funded had already been pre-disbursed (which means that the funding from Kiva supporters is used to backfill the loan)… I understand that this is probably a necessary part of how the micro-finance industry (and Kiva) needs to work but, in my opinion, it does tend to diminish the connection between the funding recipient and the donors. And maybe it’s not feasible given the volume of loans on the Kiva site, but it would be great to see more stories featured about the recipients and the impact that the loans will have.

For my 30th…

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I’m turning 30 in about 10 days (gulp!), and so I’ve decided to start a little last minute ‘before I’m 30…’ project! Basically, what I’m going to do is give gifts of $30 to support individuals/organistions that are using web-based crowdfunding platforms to raise funds for projects/initiatives/products that I think are cool.

I’ve known about sites like Kiva and Kickstarter for ages, and think they’re great. I tell lots of people about them and think that they are an exceptional tool for using the internet to connect entrepreneurs and investors at a micro-level but with a potentially huge impact. But I’ve never used one of these sites myself. Time to put my money where my mouth is so to speak, and consciously direct my online attention to things that I care about.

Sites I’m looking at…
The different sites/models that I’m looking at using are:

  • GlobalGiving: an online marketplace that connects you to the causes and countries you care about. You select the projects you want to support, make a contribution, and get regular progress updates – so you can see your impact. All donations go through the GlobalGiving Foundation.

    GlobalGiving works on a pretty traditional charitable donation model, but makes it easy to search a range of different causes by country or topic. Each donation amount is matched to an outcome (for example your $50 donation may provide stationary and books for 6 months to an education centre in India) so that you can see the kind of impact that your donation will have.

  • Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending. Kiva is based on a lending rather than donation model. Entrepreneurs repay their loan and once their payment is received, Kiva uses these funds to credit the appropriate lenders with their loan repayments. Lenders can re-lend their funds to another entrepreneur, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds via PayPal.

  • Kickstarter allows project creators to seek funding for their projects. Every project has a funding goal (any dollar amount) and a time limit (from 1 – 90 days) set by the project creator. When the deadline is reached, there are either of two results – either the funding is successful, or the funding is unsuccessful. Funders make a pledge to a project in exchange for rewards which are determined by project creators. Every Kickstarter project must be fully funded before its time expires or no money changes hands. Project creators keep 100% ownership.

    RocketHub is a similar platform although seems to be aimed more at creative projects. Both Kickstarter and RocketHub are dominated by US-based projects, so it’s great to see the recent launch of Fundbreak – Australia’s first crowdfunding platform.

For my 1st $30…
I’ve made a donation via GlobalGiving to provide affordable sanitary pads for 1500 Ugandan girls. It was at the 2009 Social Enterprise World Forum that I heard Lillian Masebenza talk about how girls in many African villages were missing 5 days of school per month because they didn’t have access to basic female sanitary products. For all that we might invest in establishing educational facilities in developing communities and in driving cultural change that promotes the value of educating young girls, if these girls are missing almost a quarter of their school days then they remain hugely disadvantaged.

Drive and passion

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The distinction between drive and passion is crucial… Passion pulls you toward something you cannot resist. Drive pushes you toward something you feel compelled or obligated to do. If you know nothing about yourself, you can’t tell the difference. Once you gain a modicum of self knowledge, you can express your passion. But it isn’t just the desire to achieve some goal or payoff, and it’s not about quotas or bonuses or cashing out. It’s not about jumping through someone else’s hoops. That’s drive.

Randy Komisar – The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life while Making a Living

Which of your lives is real?

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So I looked to my right, where my real life was, MacBook, Apple Sac for it, personal phone, diary of ideas, Escape From Cubicle Nation, and then looked straight forward where my fake life was, a crappy lap top with blackberry in tow.

You know when you identify with something so strongly it almost makes a ‘thud’ when it hits you? This post from Escape from Cubicle Nation had just that effect…

My buzzing brain

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My brain is buzzing. Almost to the point of being overwhelmed and noisy and anxious. I’ve been at a Train the Trainer course for the last three days and I’m feeling excited and exhausted and full! Like with most training courses or seminars I go to, I found that the most dramatic and deep and powerful learnings weren’t from any explicit piece of new information or knowledge I was given, but rather from the connections and realisations that arose from having time, space and stimulation to engage in good self-reflection.

So, I wanted to share some of the things my brain is currently buzzing about (in the hope that it might quieten the buzzing a little, and that through writing them down I might see some new connections and get some new insight and motivation about what I do about it!)….

One of the points in Ken Robinson’s ‘The Element’ that really stuck with me was about the difference between imagination and creativity.

Imagination can be entirely internal. You could be imaginative all day long without anyone noticing. But you would never say that person was creative if that person never did anything. To be creative you actually have to do something. (emphasis added)

Creativity is a step beyond imagination because it requires you to actually do something rather than lie around thinking about it. It’s a very practical process of trying to make something original.

Because it’s about making things, creative work always involves using media of some sort to develop ideas.

To develop our creative abilities, we also need to develop our practical skills in the media we want to use.

This year, I’ve been very conscious of ensuring that I move from thinking to doing. I’m excited about learning new practical skills. I need to find and develop my media.

I think I’m a visual person, but I also think I suck at drawing. So, I’m going to learn to get better at it. This week I’ve signed up for the visual vocab newsletters from Donna McGeorge and from Graphics Made Easy and have learned how to do quick sketches of a book and a sunrise. Doing this ‘Train the Trainer’ course is also part of developing my practical skills in a new medium. Previously I found myself quite turned off the idea of training and facilitation. I thought it was something I wasn’t good at, something that I wasn’t interested in. I guess I was scared. I knew what good training and facilitation looked like. But didn’t believe I could do it. I’m still not convinced that I’ll ever be a brilliant trainer or facilitator, but I’m definitely not going to get any better by thinking about it. I’m excited about the prospect of doing it. I’m excited about learning and getting better at a skill I value. And I’m excited about the possibilities and opportunities that having this skill creates.

My brain is also buzzing about David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Kenyon College commencement address which I listed to today…

I’m also thinking a lot about stories. And how stories can be used in training and facilitation and professional development. And questions too… I love questions. I’ve been thinking about the seminar by Michael Marquardt that I went to last month, and Thought Questions, and all the resources and articles about questions on Chris Corrigan’s website which I want to read…

I feel like I have all of these little snippets of thought running around in my head. I just jump from one to the other and never really explore any in much depth. I think a coach or someone to debrief with would be good for that. To ask the questions that push me further. Or maybe I should commit to doing a blog post on each topic and use that as a means for delving a bit deeper.

Okay, that’s enough for one post…. Brain chatter is temporarily relieved….