Social – Stephen Gay

Everything the Buddha Ever Taught in 2 Words

stephen — Mon, 20 May 2019 19:50:49 +0000

I loved this article posted by Benjamin Riggs titled, Everything the Buddha Ever Taught in 2 Words. It’s an old one, but a good one. “The point of Life is Life, to participate in the melody. Melodies are streams; they are flowing. You cannot frame them or dam them up. When you do there is no flow. That is death.”

He continues to discuss “The only way to participate in the melody is through simple awareness. Simple awareness is fluid. A simple mind loses its sense of self in the music, whereas a self-centered mind keeps trying to pause the music. We are trying far too hard to hear what we want to hear, rather than moving to the music, living. We stand back as a spectator, a listener trying catch the beat. We want to grab a hold of it, own it, identify with it.”

The Science Of Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences, Not Things

stephen — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 16:25:31 +0000

Love this article from Fast Company on “The Science Of Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences, Not Things”

“There’s a very logical assumption that most people make when spending their money: that because a physical object will last longer, it will make us happier for a longer time than a one-off experience like a concert or vacation. According to recent research, it turns out that assumption is completely wrong.”

“One of the enemies of happiness is adaptation,” says Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades. “We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them.”

Masterful Conversations Workshop from ChoicePoint Consulting June 5 & 6, 2013 – Boulder, Colorado

stephen — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:24:28 +0000

Masterful Conversations Workshop from ChoicePoint Consulting

June 5 & 6, 2013 – Boulder, Colorado

Program Overview

Have you ever struggled to provide difficult feedback to a direct report? Do you find it difficult to raise a tough topic with your manager? Would you like to be able to transform conflict with a peer into a productive conversation?

In this dynamic and interactive course, participants are introduced to the key tools and elements that facilitate masterful conversations while preserving important relationships. Masterful Conversations helps you learn the core skills and mindsets necessary for initiating and leading a difficult conversation.

Participants gain an understanding of:

Balancing advocacy and inquiry
The ladder of inference
Practice using reflective listening
Emotional triggers and their impact on conversations
Empathy with another person’s strong feelings while not agreeing/disagreeing with the other’s point of view
Managing one’s own judgments and strong feelings and transforming those for productive purposes in the conversation.

Modules

Masterful Conversations workshops typically include the following modules

Personal Case. A personal case is the transcript of an actual conversation that a participant has recently had. Participants are asked to choose a conversation in which they did not get the business results they wanted or the professional relationships involved were damaged. These cases provide specific data that each participant will use to identify their listening tendencies. We will use the cases in a number of ways during the workshop, including identifying patterns of less effective action in each participant’s communication habits or style.

External Skills and Behaviors

Focuses on what we say and do when we communicate. In this module, we focus on advocacy (telling our story about a situation), inquiry (trying to understand the other party’s viewpoint), and acknowledgment (testing your understanding of the other person’s key messages).

Understanding Mental Models This group exercise surfaces participants’ subjective values and assumptions that inform their diverse moral reasoning and partisan perceptions. Using a shared scenario open to multiple interpretations, participants grapple with their varied reactions to the narrative, illustrative of the dynamics of mental models. This is followed by a brief lecture on mental models as the underpinnings of our perceptive process.

Internal Thoughts and Feelings. This module introduces participants to a series of tools for managing their internal monologue and reactions as conversations escalate. The distinction between observations and assessments is taught and applied to their personal case. The ladder of inference is a robust tool for understanding the dynamics embedded in managing divergent points of view as well as a roadmap for handling conflict

Managing Our Own Feelings in Conversation. This module introduces participants to the concept of an emotional footprint: each individual’s emotional triggers and reactions; their own emotional repertoire and range; the clues and symptoms that they are off balance; and tools they can use for managing their own emotional responses to a tough conversation. This module increases participant’s self-knowledge in the feelings domain and provides strategies for calming down and maintaining greater equilibrium in conversation.

Managing Other’s Feelings in Conversation. In this exercise, participants explore the practice of empathy — the ability to identify with the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of others. Through role playing, they learn to listen for the meaning of the other person’s points of view and demonstrate that they have heard what was conveyed. Participants also practice tracking non-verbal behavior, becoming attuned to signals such as facial expressions, voice tone, body language, affect, and eye contact. The art of empathy is one of mirroring as well as attunement and this unit offers participants to enhance their skill at responding empathically in acute situations

Role Reversal Exercise. In this exercise, participants study a real conversation of their own, either historical or upcoming, from the perspective of the other person in the conversation. Working with a partner, participants are taken through a number of steps that include enrolling them as the absent party to see what it is like to be on the other side of the challenging conversation. This introduces participants to a process they can use, going forward, for preparing for an upcoming conversation.

Redesigning the Left-Hand Column Case. Working in pairs, participants spend time redesigning their personal case, actively examining the driving dynamics, assumptions, and filters they are bringing to the difficult conversation. Enhanced personal awareness and greater familiarity with models of conflict resolution result from this experience.

Purposes of Conversations. This brief talk highlights the benefits of preparing systematically for a business conversation by clarifying your purpose and aligning your strategy to that purpose. The final exercise of the class asks the participants to produce an action plan for their continued learning and practice as well as a strategy for addressing the specific case they have been examining during the training.

Program Cost:

$850 per participant.

To register or for additional information, please contact Amy Mechels atamymechels@yahoo.com / 303-501-5165 or Ron Kertzner at ron@choicepointconsulting.com / (303)-449-0081.

Google Think Insight – Mobile Search Moments Study

stephen — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:57:36 +0000

Great new PDF from Google Think Insights

Mobile Search Moments Study

The headline – “As consumers increasingly turn to their mobile phones, it is critical for businesses to understand the range of “mobile conversions” that can occur, such as phone calls, store visits, or purchases on other devices. In partnership with Nielsen, Google analyzed over 6000 mobile searches and the actions that resulted, drawing precise and measurable connections between mobile searches and the online and offline conversions that they drive.”

The Mobile Consumer 2013 by Nielsen

stephen — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:48:27 +0000

At Mobile World Congress 2012, Nielsen shared out a PDF documented focused on the Mobile Consumer. Mobile-Consumer-Report-2013

From the introduction:

“Mobile The Next Media Powerhouse”

“When the first call was placed on a handheld mobile phone in 1973, the
prototype device used was capable of less than 30 minutes of battery life
and took 10 hours to re-charge. Fast-forward some 40 years later and
mobile device ownership has reached critical mass around the world.
Today, these devices serve as the primary communications and media
vehicles for many and play an increasingly important role in the daily
lives of consumers in both developed and high-growth economies.

To better understand today’s mobile world, we’ve selected data from the
following countries – Australia, Brazil, China, India, Italy, South Korea,
Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States – for an indepth
look at mobile consumers and how they use their devices around
the globe.”

DollarShaveClub.com – Our Blades Are F***ing Great

stephen — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:15:20 +0000

Given the popularity of the “DollarShaveClub.com – Our Blades Are F***ing Great” video… it needed to be shared (and captured for the records) on my site.

Visit the site www.dollarshaveclub.com

I think Chris Taylor at Mashable sums up the strategy the best…

“Dollar Shave Club is the brainchild of Michael Dubin, the suave guy explaining the concept. Granted, not every founder could carry off a performance with this much deadpan humor and well-timed stunts. But Dubin seems a star in the making, whether or not the Club takes off.

If there’s one lesson we’d like CEOs to learn from the Dollar Shave Club, it is this: don’t take yourselves and your product so seriously. Either that, or pretend to take yourselves and your product so seriously that you go over the top and venture into the world of parody. Have fun with it, and your potential customers are much more likely to pay attention. “

Warm Up Games for Teams

stephen — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:28:26 +0000

The things we have to learn before we do them, we learn by doing them. – Aristotle.

Team Building activities and Icebreakers are designed to help groups develop effective communication & problem-solving skills. Why use icebreakers?

Create a positive group atmosphere
Help people to relax
Break down social barriers
Energize & motivate
Help people to “think outside the box”
Help people to get to know one another

http://wilderdom.com/games/

http://www.skillsconverged.com/FreeTrainingMaterials/tabid/258/Default.aspx

http://www.thiagi.com/games.html

Rapid Experimentation in San Francisco

stephen — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:35:03 +0000

An exterpt from the article:

The Craigslist Slapper Experiment

When are you most productive? Depending on your personality, you might not need alone time—you might need a team.

Humans are social animals—we aren’t designed to live and work alone. Now that the average worker’s job is to sit in front of a computer,—often with no supervision—it’s no surprise that we are only productive a three days each week. Having worked mostly alone, on my computer, I found that the majority of my time is spent unproductively.

IXDA Conference in Toronto: How to Design Social Experiences by Paul Adams

stephen — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 05:08:01 +0000

My notes from IXDA Conference in Toronto: How to Design Social Experiences by Paul Adams

With Social experience yo bring along your friends, interests and friend”s interests. We are building systems. Facebook is not a website, it’s a system. The amount of information being published is increasing exponentially. To filter this sea of information. People are turning to their friends.

Social Design

Framework: Identity (Me), Group (Us) and Connections (Everyone)
Me: Help people tell the story of their lives.
Us: Help people build relationships with people they know.
Everyone: Help people connect with new people.

Build relationships with many lightweight interactions overtime.Feeling not facts. (the most commonly shared item). People don’t share facts, they share feelings. (i.e. the before and after photos graphics of Japan tsunami)

Design Tips

1. Explicitly design for personal identity or social identity (focus on one).
Personal Identity: A product that helps new parents catalog and share the first year of their babies life
Social Identity: A product that helps new parents connect with and get advice other new parents
2. Show people things they have in common with each other.
3. Design lightweight ways for people to interact. (i.e. comment and like button)
Lays Facebook campaign (I’d eat that!)
http://allfacebook.com/lays-crowdsourcing-chips_b95110
4. Design for feelings, not facts. (Generated feelings (i.e. Lays chips)
5. Give suggestions for who to communicate with.
6. Design the feed story first.
7. Design the friend’s experience (don’t focus on just the user, but beyond the customer. We are not isolated as one person)

Design Process

1. Build a hypothesis based on social science research (you don’t have to do research anymore)
2. Build a simple product
3. Launch it, real identity, real friends
4. Measure. iterate. Analytics, primary and research.
5. Push code daily/weekly (@ Facebook they push code twice a day)