They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. A new book might show that much of what we think is deviant behavior in children might actually be good intentions. My friend told me the story how his son was brushing his teeth. The boy got his hands all soapy and wanted to leave the room before he had washed the soap off. The dad didn't want the boy to leave until the soap was off. After the usual discussion, the dad asked the boy why he wanted to leave the bathroom. The boy said that he wanted to open the door and show his mom that he was using soap on his hands. The dad thought that the boy was being disobedient when all the boy wanted to do was to show that he was listening to his mom.
Marie-Nathalie Beaudion talks about this concept her book http://www.skillionaire.org/ talks about much of child's erratic behavior is actually a result of their brain still learning the best way to solve a problem. When child is first born, it has very few neurons and can not reason through a problem. Between the ages of 7 and 12, the child has the most neurons that it will have in its life but the path between the neurons is not clearly defined. The child may become easily distracted when it tries to solve a problem because each thought leads to other thoughts. As the child matures, the number of neurons begins to decrease but the path between the neurons becomes more defined and the person is more equipped to solve complex problems.
According to the book, your job as a parent, is to help the child reinforce the good neural paths. The best way to do this, is to listen to how your children work through problems especially when things go wrong. Instead of yelling at your child when they do something that makes you upset, try to understand the child's thought process to see what they were thinking. Often times, you will hear that they have several conflicting ideas in their head. By talking to them, you can help them sort through their thoughts and learn the best way to handle a problem. Next time they encounter the same problem, their mind will have reinforced the neural networks and they will be better able to handle the problem. See a previous article that I wrote on how people learn, http://latentvalue.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-people-learn.html. The article talks about how repetition of a thought or an action leads to excelence.
The process of getting a child to talk about their thought process is not easy and is even more difficult when you as an adult are angry but the results can be very beneficial not only to your relationship with your child but also to their development.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
How to Fall Asleep
I recently had trouble falling asleep because I was thinking about work too much. I then remembered that the mind has trouble concentrating on more than one thing at a time so I searched for a way to distract myself from the worries of the day. I came up with a solution that hopefully will work for you. The solution consists making up nonsense words in your mind preventing you from thinking about other things. Eventually, your mind drifts off. I will explain in more detail below, but first, there are two important steps you may want to consider when you have trouble sleeping because something is keeping you up. This posts assumes that you have a normally busy day and the reason you can't sleep is because you mind is active not because your body is not tired.
First, read Dale Carnegie's book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. This book is required reading for the Dale Carnegie course and a must read for anyone who is gripped with fear about what may happen in the future. If you are still unsure, you may want to consider that 193 reviewers out of 237 gave it five stars on Amazon.
Second, keep a notebook by your bed. When you have trouble sleeping, it is often because you are not sure how a particular event is going to unfold. While you may not be able to control the outcome, you can control your actions. Create a what-if scenario and then create an action plan if each scenario occurs. Then, write down the top three actions that must be performed depending on the outcome. Once you have clear path of action, you can relax because you know what must be done. You may not like taking a particular action, but in your heart, you know that it must be done. Then when you start to worry about the particular event, you just think about your action plan and you know what steps need to be taken.
Now comes the interesting part. The goal is to distract your mind so that no other thoughts can enter your head. You do this by creating up nonsense sounds or words in your mind that have no meaning and no connection except perhaps rhyming. For example, you would begin to say, "ba, ma, sa, tee, wee, pee, knee, nin, pin, rin...". The words should not tell a story or have any association with real life. As soon as you say one word, begin to say the next. If you find your mind wandering to a concrete thought, refocus so that you get back to saying the words.
When I first started to use this trick, the tempo of the words began to increase until the sounds came rapid fire and became distracting. I then realized that the sounds were much faster than my breathing. By slowing down the creation of new words to match my breathing everything came together. With each breath, I would create a new sound and this would be relaxing, my breathing would then slow with the relaxation and so would the speed of new sounds. Eventually, I was not aware of either my breathing or the sounds and I was asleep.
The solution works because you conscious mind does not know how to interpret the words you are saying. Your mind is engaged but there are no follow on thoughts that go in circles leading only to more worry or frustration. You are literally creating static or white noise for you brain. The brain is keeping busy but it does not know what it is doing. With no clear action direction, your consciousness begins to lose control and you enter into Stage 1 Sleep which is the transition from consciousnesses to un-consciousnesses. If your conscious mind can not track the thoughts in your head, it it cant be aware of whether you are awake or asleep. This then allows you to enter the other stages of sleep automatically.
In conclusion, if you are having trouble sleeping because you worry too much, two things you should do are read "How to stop worrying" and create an action plan about what you should do. The third trick that I recommend is to distract your mind by making up words that don't make sense When you time these words to your breathing, your mind and body are in harmony and you will soon enter the next stages of sleep.
If this technique works for you or if you have another technique that works better, please share it in the comments section so that my readers may benefit from your success.
Monday, January 14, 2013
How People Learn
I recently started a new job and the first couple of months were very frustrating Although I was very excited in the beginning, I soon became frustrated at not knowing my way around the company and who to call to resolve problems. I then remembered the Situation Leadership II model that I had learned by Ken Blanchard. The model states that people go through four stages of learning and as a manger you, should change your management style to match the stage of your employee. First, they are excited but clueless, next, they are frustrated and lost, in the third stage they are competent but do not realize it then finally they are successful and confident. This concept is similar to the adage about high-school students. As a freshmen, you think you know everything but you know nothing, as a sophomore, you know nothing and you realize it. When you are a junior you know everything but do not realize it and as a senior you know everything and you know it.
As the employee progresses through the stage, the manger varies the amount of encouragement and direction. In the beginning the employee needs little encouragement but a lot of direction. In second stage, the employee needs clear direction as well as a great amount of emotional support. In the third stage, the manager should provide strong emotional support but less direction. Finally, the employee can work independently with little guidance from their manager.
This model is very similar to the concepts in the book called "Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard. The book describes a similar pattern path that people take to reach success. In the beginning, you are excited, then you as you begin to practice, you get frustrated because the task is hard. If you stick with it, you become competent but reach a plateau. Finally after months of practice, with no change in results you have a breakthrough and reach a new level of mastery. Unfortunately, many people tend to stop at the second stage when things get tough. Imagine the person taking up golf. They go to the store and buy all the right clothes and the best set of clubs and after the first lesson they quit because they can't hit the ball.
So why is it so hard to learn something and why do we get so frustrated in the early stages? The answer lies in two concepts, Muscle Memory and Procedural Memory. When you first start to do a task like swinging a golf club, you brain needs to direct every muscle in your body involved with the task. At the same time your brain is recording each of the actions. With so many things going on at once, there are bound to be problems and you rarely hit the ball in a straight line. With consistent practice, your brain records the movements until they become second nature. You can then perform the task without thinking. Over time, your brain has literally become rewired. It is this rewiring process that causes so much pain and frustration. The same thing happens with Procedural Memory. When you drive the same route to work, you brain creates an internal map. After several weeks of commuting, you can leave your office and arrive home and not recall where you have been. Your brain has been working on autopilot making turns without your conscious input.
The important thing to remember from all of this, is that it is the repetition that leads to mastery. When you first start a task, your body and brain must focus all it's energy in order to be successful This concentration can even be mentally and physically draining. Without a good coach, you may fail at your task and become discouraged from trying again. With positive feedback, your body continues to refine the model and create a stronger and stronger internal ability. Eventually, you can perform the task without engaging your active brain and you are able to focus on higher levels of strategy to be successful.
Many products seem to ignore these stages of learning. How many times, have you tried a recipe from a cookbook once and if it did not come out correct, you gave up? Only by trying the same recipe several times can you become successful. To help you along this path, products should encourage the customer to repeat a process until they have become successful. For example, a cookbook could only have five recipes On each page there are boxes where you can record the date you tried the recipe how it came out and what you would do to change it next time. After cooking the same recipe for five times, the person should be able to do the recipe without looking at the book. There could be a series of such books. The first would be soups, the next casseroles, then breads and so on.
The smartphone is a perfect feedback system to encourage people to continue practicing a new task until they have achieved mastery. The trick is to limit the task so the person can become successful in a small number of tries, provide some kind of feedback so the person can learn from their mistakes and to encourage the user when they are frustrated and want to give up (hint- have people upload their frustrations to a social network, it may prove very therapeutic).
By recognizing the stages that people go through when learning a new task and helping the user along the journey as their mind and body is transformed, companies can help people achieve goals that the person never thought they were capable of.
The Situational Leadership II Model
A managers style changes with the progression of the employee
As the employee progresses through the stage, the manger varies the amount of encouragement and direction. In the beginning the employee needs little encouragement but a lot of direction. In second stage, the employee needs clear direction as well as a great amount of emotional support. In the third stage, the manager should provide strong emotional support but less direction. Finally, the employee can work independently with little guidance from their manager.
This model is very similar to the concepts in the book called "Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard. The book describes a similar pattern path that people take to reach success. In the beginning, you are excited, then you as you begin to practice, you get frustrated because the task is hard. If you stick with it, you become competent but reach a plateau. Finally after months of practice, with no change in results you have a breakthrough and reach a new level of mastery. Unfortunately, many people tend to stop at the second stage when things get tough. Imagine the person taking up golf. They go to the store and buy all the right clothes and the best set of clubs and after the first lesson they quit because they can't hit the ball.
The right clothes do not a golfer make.
So why is it so hard to learn something and why do we get so frustrated in the early stages? The answer lies in two concepts, Muscle Memory and Procedural Memory. When you first start to do a task like swinging a golf club, you brain needs to direct every muscle in your body involved with the task. At the same time your brain is recording each of the actions. With so many things going on at once, there are bound to be problems and you rarely hit the ball in a straight line. With consistent practice, your brain records the movements until they become second nature. You can then perform the task without thinking. Over time, your brain has literally become rewired. It is this rewiring process that causes so much pain and frustration. The same thing happens with Procedural Memory. When you drive the same route to work, you brain creates an internal map. After several weeks of commuting, you can leave your office and arrive home and not recall where you have been. Your brain has been working on autopilot making turns without your conscious input.
The important thing to remember from all of this, is that it is the repetition that leads to mastery. When you first start a task, your body and brain must focus all it's energy in order to be successful This concentration can even be mentally and physically draining. Without a good coach, you may fail at your task and become discouraged from trying again. With positive feedback, your body continues to refine the model and create a stronger and stronger internal ability. Eventually, you can perform the task without engaging your active brain and you are able to focus on higher levels of strategy to be successful.
Many products seem to ignore these stages of learning. How many times, have you tried a recipe from a cookbook once and if it did not come out correct, you gave up? Only by trying the same recipe several times can you become successful. To help you along this path, products should encourage the customer to repeat a process until they have become successful. For example, a cookbook could only have five recipes On each page there are boxes where you can record the date you tried the recipe how it came out and what you would do to change it next time. After cooking the same recipe for five times, the person should be able to do the recipe without looking at the book. There could be a series of such books. The first would be soups, the next casseroles, then breads and so on.
The smartphone is a perfect feedback system to encourage people to continue practicing a new task until they have achieved mastery. The trick is to limit the task so the person can become successful in a small number of tries, provide some kind of feedback so the person can learn from their mistakes and to encourage the user when they are frustrated and want to give up (hint- have people upload their frustrations to a social network, it may prove very therapeutic).
By recognizing the stages that people go through when learning a new task and helping the user along the journey as their mind and body is transformed, companies can help people achieve goals that the person never thought they were capable of.
Friday, August 10, 2012
How to overcome the fear of writing
I clearly remember the first blog post that I wrote. I agonized for hours over what to write. I wondered how people would react. Each sentence was examined and re-examined. Throughout the entire process, fear prevented me from continuing. I am writing this post during a break between meetings and it takes me a tenth of the time. The biggest change that has happened is that I have already gone through the process of writing and posting blogs. I know what to expect and what to avoid but most importantly I eliminated the fear associated with writing a blog post.
I faced a similar situation writing my first book. I was not sure if it was good enough or how people would react. However, once I published the book on Amazon, Industrial Strength Techniques for Home Organization, I realized that my fears were unfounded. As I write my next book that will tie together much of the concepts from this blog, the writing process is much easier. Time is spent producing content rather than agonizing over thoughts.
Many of our fear come from not knowing what will happen and our imagination creates dangers that are far scarier than reality. Once we have gone through the experience once, we realize that most of our fears were unfounded. Entrepreneurs also must go through the fear cycle. The first customer pitch, the first VC meeting, the first hire. All of these events become second nature after having experienced them once.
The trick then is to get people over the initial hurdler of an experience so that they can move on and accomplish great things.
With this in mind, how can companies like Amazon help people overcome their fear of writing?
Soft Launch: One technique is to use a staging area where people can publish their work without exposing it to the world. This is typically used for technical reasons to help people correct errors but it should also be used to help people overcome the initial fear of uploading their first work. The soft launch would allow people to share their work with a small group of friends minimize the fear of public scrutiny that may stifle the creative process.
Priming: The second technique uses priming. When people describe how they are going to perform an action ahead of time, they are more likely to follow through with that action. Amazon could help people create a schedule for writing the book. To help break the project into smaller parts, people could upload individual chapters according to the schedule that they created.
Offer a Mulligan: In golf, it is not uncommon for people to mess up their drive on the first tee. A Mulligan is a do over and the second shot is usually much better. Amazon should encourage first time publishers to create a smaller book or a collection of short stories. Once people have the confidence of publishing one book, they can move on to writing their epic novel.
By understanding that first time writers often need help overcoming the fear of writing,
Amazon can take steps to minimize this fear and lay the seeds for the next great novel.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
How to add more value by doing less
I was listening to Rory Sutherland on Ted Talks and he mentioned Professor Ayelet Fishback and her work on the dilution model: How additional goals undermine the perceived instrumentation of a shared path.
Here is a link to the paper: The Dilution Model: How Additional Goals Undermine the Perceived Instrumentality of a Shared Path.
In summary, this model states that if a product or service performs multiple tasks, people have a perception that the ability to perform any one of the tasks well is diminished. The paper states the example of a coffee shop that serves both coffee and sandwiches. Sure people may have a need for both coffee and sandwiches and it would save people time if they could buy both at the same place. The problem comes when you ask people about the quality of the coffee. Research shows that since the café does not specialize in coffee, people will say the coffee is not as good as specialty coffee shops despite actual quality.
This same pattern is played out in many other multi function areas. Mr. Sutherland gives the example of the TV with built in DVD player. No matter what the technical specs say, people will think that the combination unit must have inferior quality to stand alone units and will thus buy the parts independently. One explanation for this bias is that people may belive that compromises are made in the design that would impact quality. Mr. Sutherland also uses the example of Google Search. Instead of adding the weather and news, Google Search does one thing only and this increases people’s perception of the ability to do that.
Of course a discussion like this is not complete without dragging in the leaders of minimalism; Apple. If you look at the early iPods you will notice that they all had limited functionality but did it very well. In fact, latter versions such as the shuffle actual removed features thereby possibly increasing the perceived quality of music play back.
It is important to note that context for a product should not be ignored. Ludwig von Mises states that it is impossible to tell the difference between the value created by the food and the value created by sweeping the floor. In the example of the coffee shop, eliminating sandwiches would increase the perceived quality of the coffee but the ambiance of the café must also be considered.
So how can the concept of goal dilution be applied to improving product value? The first step is to try not to be all things to all people. Minimize the product features to the core functionality that reflects the strength of your company. Next understand the ecosystem within which your product operates and try to fit into that ecosystem as easily as possible. If you make DVD players understand that you need to connect to a TV to work. In order to simplify that process, why not accept the fact that not everyone has access to the back of their stereo system and put the connections on the side. If you are a coffee shop, make sure you are located next to a complimentary product such as bagels.
Here is a link to the paper: The Dilution Model: How Additional Goals Undermine the Perceived Instrumentality of a Shared Path.
In summary, this model states that if a product or service performs multiple tasks, people have a perception that the ability to perform any one of the tasks well is diminished. The paper states the example of a coffee shop that serves both coffee and sandwiches. Sure people may have a need for both coffee and sandwiches and it would save people time if they could buy both at the same place. The problem comes when you ask people about the quality of the coffee. Research shows that since the café does not specialize in coffee, people will say the coffee is not as good as specialty coffee shops despite actual quality.
This same pattern is played out in many other multi function areas. Mr. Sutherland gives the example of the TV with built in DVD player. No matter what the technical specs say, people will think that the combination unit must have inferior quality to stand alone units and will thus buy the parts independently. One explanation for this bias is that people may belive that compromises are made in the design that would impact quality. Mr. Sutherland also uses the example of Google Search. Instead of adding the weather and news, Google Search does one thing only and this increases people’s perception of the ability to do that.
Of course a discussion like this is not complete without dragging in the leaders of minimalism; Apple. If you look at the early iPods you will notice that they all had limited functionality but did it very well. In fact, latter versions such as the shuffle actual removed features thereby possibly increasing the perceived quality of music play back.
It is important to note that context for a product should not be ignored. Ludwig von Mises states that it is impossible to tell the difference between the value created by the food and the value created by sweeping the floor. In the example of the coffee shop, eliminating sandwiches would increase the perceived quality of the coffee but the ambiance of the café must also be considered.
So how can the concept of goal dilution be applied to improving product value? The first step is to try not to be all things to all people. Minimize the product features to the core functionality that reflects the strength of your company. Next understand the ecosystem within which your product operates and try to fit into that ecosystem as easily as possible. If you make DVD players understand that you need to connect to a TV to work. In order to simplify that process, why not accept the fact that not everyone has access to the back of their stereo system and put the connections on the side. If you are a coffee shop, make sure you are located next to a complimentary product such as bagels.
Monday, July 2, 2012
How to build a software product roadmap.
One of the biggest challenges of software development is trying to decide what features to add to particular version. Here is a new model that will help you build a software product roadmap by considering the activities of the expected user group. This model focuses on two dimensions of activities, the duration or time to complete the task and frequency or how often a task is performed. Other dimensions such as task importance will be ignored for now as this model is focused on increasing worker productivity.
Typical Tasks of an MRP system
As you can see some tasks are performed frequently while others are rare but have a long duration However, each of these tasks require resources and are an expense for a company. Minimizing the time to accomplish these tasks will create value for a user and free a user up to focus on more strategic tasks.
It is important to make the distinction between user tasks and product functionality. This model is focused on where users spend their time without your software. Once the software is adopted, many tasks should decrease in duration and frequency. At that point, new tasks will emerge as users focus on new challenges.
Once you have identified where your target users spend their time, the next step is to plot the tasks on the chart similar to the graph above. Next, create a 45 degree line in the upper corner and then move the line to the lower corner based on the version of the software. Tasks above the line should be included in a particular version. Tasks below the line are reserved for future versions. Each task should then have an associated feature that will help the user minimize the time it takes to perform the task.
This method ensures that you can provided the maximum productivity gains to users with the minimal engineering resources. There is no sense in adding a feature if it does not solve a problem that the user encounters infrequently or can be done very quickly.
Product Roadmap that is based on where users currently spend their time.
One thing that becomes obvious in this model is the law of diminishing returns for software functionality. After several versions, you have simplified the majority of the users tasks and it is harder to show value. Microsoft Word is a good example of this. The majority of tasks such as cut and paste, spell check, grammar correction and bullets/numbers were released in earlier versions. All the future improvements are related to tasks that are done infrequently and have a short duration.
By using this model, you can focus your engineering resources on the biggest problems your customers are facing. Additionally, this model provides a framework for discussing the activities of the users that is much better than creating a list of what you want the software to do. If someone tries to add some functionality that is ahead of the version curve, you can give justification on why to hold off on the feature since it is ahead of the version curve. Similarly, if any tasks is being performed by the customer is behind a particular version curve, then you need to make sure that the task is included in the next version.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
What is Cozy?
I was recently looking for the modern replacement of the the Volkswagon camper van. I considered the Mercedes Sprinter, the Nissan NV, truck campers and truck shells. Somehow, nothing seemed to give the same feeling as the VW bus and I couldn't understand why. The only conclusion that I can come up with is that the VW bus is cozy while the other solutions are either too big or too small.
Above is a classic Volkswagon camper bus. Notice that the average person cannot stand up straight when they stand inside without the pop-top. When you stand near the doorway, you can see the entire inside of the bus. There is very little room to move around inside and yet the doors seem to invite you in to sit down at the table to eat.
Now look at the Dodge / Mercedes Sprinter Camper Van. It is easy to stand up inside and walk around. Large windows let you easily see the world. Sure, the van is much more comfortable but is it inviting?
Another classic is the truck camper that allows you to stand up, sleeps four and includes many of the comforts of home such as sink, fridge and stove. However the scale is much larger compared to a person. You need to climb up the stairs to get in. When you stand next to the camper, you can not reach the top or see inside the windows.
Each of the above solutions have their purpose. Truck shells and campers can be removed in the off-season while motor homes always include a kitchen sink but are they cozy?
I talked to a friend of mine who used to travel by overnight train with his family in India. He said that the sleeping compartments where quite tight and that you shared the compartment with several other families. Despite the close quarters, he met several lifetime friends on those trips and looks fondly back at those days.
One explanation for the benefits of the cozy effect is the concept of physical proximity and the Mere Exposure Effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect). This states that people form stronger relationships when they have more frequent interaction with something or someone. If you have ever spent time in a VW camper bus with other people, you know that it is impossible to move without bumping into someone else. Of course the truck camper shell takes this idea to the extreme but there must be some limitation on how close you want to be next to someone on a continual basis.
If we are to assume that people value human interaction and that close proximity encourages human interaction, then we should also assume that people would value an environment that encourages interaction, hence our attraction to cozy.
The next step is to identify some key elements that contribute to cozy. I propose the following:
Elements that create a cozy environment:
Classic Volkswagon Camper Bus
Above is a classic Volkswagon camper bus. Notice that the average person cannot stand up straight when they stand inside without the pop-top. When you stand near the doorway, you can see the entire inside of the bus. There is very little room to move around inside and yet the doors seem to invite you in to sit down at the table to eat.
Dodge / Mercedes Sprinter Camper Van
Classic Truck Camper
Another classic is the truck camper that allows you to stand up, sleeps four and includes many of the comforts of home such as sink, fridge and stove. However the scale is much larger compared to a person. You need to climb up the stairs to get in. When you stand next to the camper, you can not reach the top or see inside the windows.
Fully outfitted truck shell camper
Truck shell campers like the one above offer far less space but easily fit onto most trucks.
I talked to a friend of mine who used to travel by overnight train with his family in India. He said that the sleeping compartments where quite tight and that you shared the compartment with several other families. Despite the close quarters, he met several lifetime friends on those trips and looks fondly back at those days.
One explanation for the benefits of the cozy effect is the concept of physical proximity and the Mere Exposure Effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect). This states that people form stronger relationships when they have more frequent interaction with something or someone. If you have ever spent time in a VW camper bus with other people, you know that it is impossible to move without bumping into someone else. Of course the truck camper shell takes this idea to the extreme but there must be some limitation on how close you want to be next to someone on a continual basis.
If we are to assume that people value human interaction and that close proximity encourages human interaction, then we should also assume that people would value an environment that encourages interaction, hence our attraction to cozy.
The next step is to identify some key elements that contribute to cozy. I propose the following:
Elements that create a cozy environment:
- Ability to see entire space.
- Roof height that is close to head level.
- Forced proximity to other people.
- Shared experience.
- Little empty space.
- Entrance way that starts wide and then narrows.
By incorporating these elements in automobiles or communal spaces, companies can create a feeling of coziness that customers value and are attracted to. Once the space has been created, people will fill the space and create interactions far beyond what the company could have offered through product features.
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