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Location:: Cincinnati

About Me:: Ad/web agency ceo & creative director; Married with one cat and two hulking boys. Interests: biology of ideas, brand dna, environment, social change through marketing, companies as organisms

Website:: http://ideopia.com

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At 9:48am on October 12, 2008, Mark_Abrahams said…: Hi Bill,
Me now MIAPD.

But I'm still alive and kicking.

Just thought I'd share a quick hello with no demand for thinking ... just being.

Hope all goes well.

I aim, later, to report on my findings and my attempts to use the Tim Hurson 'Thinking Better' process. I'm still up against the survival / self interest barriers that stop people thinking and, therfore, keep on coming up with conclusions and proposals that, reiteratively, have been tried and have failed before. Along the way these apparent and self proclaimed brain boxes and leaders purposefully create a threatening, unhappy and unproductive workforce. Ho Hum. And then we have the money wizards - and look what they've managed to achieve! World wide abomination..that's what.

Hope you have things under control

Take Care
Mark

At 2:09pm on September 24, 2008, Barbara said…: Bill,
This is becoming a family thing. You, me and Mark that is.

Me not bored. Also not clear about invite to political ends.

Not being negative but I lack spare grey matter to invest.

I do have views about organisational failings and how good things are or could be. This is especially with regard to education. I am always one to tell it how it is. This may mean that I am not too much good for playing politics.

I aim to think the way to solutions and do what is required. It has worked so far. Lots of paperwork and emails are involved. Could do better.

I noted the Sam Kinison quote.

"Hi" to you too
Barbara

At 5:03pm on September 23, 2008, Mark_Abrahams said…: Bill,
My wife phoned me today and suggested we run away, chuck it all in, sell the house, buy a caravan, become gypsies, (drive across Europe, that sort of thing).
I said, "but we're not gypsies!"
But I knew exactly where she was coming from. And, obviously, so do you.

Back in the workplace, I'm now sort of working for a guy who confuses the concrete thinkers (builders and engineers - maintenance guys and the like) with his conceptual thinking. But yes, great companies allow the thinkers to run things..better. And for me, there's a less than well educated concrete thinker between me and the conceptual thinking guy. This spells disaster. But there is hope. Under review it is aimed to clear the organisational bottlenecks. That means my man above and me - and guess who could look like the under achiever? But the spotlight is on and the proverbial chickens could not only return to the roost but end up in the pot. Organisationally speaking, that is what is needed for the yoos and the mees to enjoy our work again. Clear the decks, bring in the thinkers, set up the doing to be rolled out in best fashion, get the f.......g job done.

Anyway, as a lover of life with no intention of ever doing away with it, the way forward is paved with opportunity and options. And ain't it just. Take away the frustrating and oft-failing machines and systems, the non thinkers, the problems of the world and nonsense celebs as described by the media hounds and what have you got. Peace. Or lies and more lies. Then again, we have always to be on our guard, as a united peoples, just in case the weight of our thinking and our vote (and more if necessary) is required to oust the potential Hitlers of this world. Unless we leg it, disappear into the desert or across the plains.

What a great world it could be. What a great world it is. Ain't it great to achieve, to produce, to think straight.

My best to you
Mark

At 12:33am on September 21, 2008, Mark_Abrahams said…: Bill - if you are short of time there's no need to respond to my 12:29 offering. Any time down the continuum will be appreciated.

Success to you
M

At 12:29am on September 21, 2008, Mark_Abrahams said…: Good to hear from you again Bill,
Responding, keeping it short, to both of your comments.

1. Thanks for the thoughts, I'm not too bad but the eye deficiency requires personal adaptability whilst my brain goes into auto mode and filters out what is failing vision.

2. Concerning Sam Kinison's "Tell us what to do and we will f****ing do it! I have to recognise my own faults. When given a task I am guilty of trying to fix everything else that needs fixing related to the task. I actually see that as one of my required roles but line managers don't get that. Sometimes they (he) is right through. I need to focus and produce better.

3. Music - as an ex muso and now composer of music that no one will ever hear, I can relate to the sound visualisation thing. Concerning beliefs - a CEO I worked for said "if everyone dropped their rigid belief systems (meaning religions, faith and stuff) then the world would be a much more colourful place". My take on this is that what we believe, in terms of possibilities and making things happen, if we really, really believe in what matters, following fine principles and with good, not God, in mind, then much more than we think is possible." We can call it "data-information-meaning continuum" if you like. It makes pure sense to me.

4. Does lack of understanding = "stress"? Not if you know, deep down, that the answer exists but you can't quite get to it or haven't got the time or support to keep searching. To me stress is still all those workplace things I referred to earlier but, simply (back to basics) stress is the frustration suffered mostly caused by others, because of the insurmountable hurdles that others present to us and that last straw principle that makes you swear inside or, if out of control, at whoever deserves it. Too much externalising though, can 'get you put away' - I jest..or do I? (note: I work in mental health so I have a bit of insider knowledge)

5. Concerning the "deadline game" toolkit, within the project setting we always have to have built-in flexibility. I'm working on this in terms of thinking better and as potential software development (construction industry, health service, education - all are in need of improved structured customer-service-targeted process). Oh but for more time and support. Costs - reputation and loss of profit and the threat of failure can prevent innovation (why recreate the wheel, don't fix what ain't broken etc). As for managing space-time realities and supplying something that works good..all down to people, teams and knowing how best to do stuff.

Capturing information, so preventing forgetting what the hell we did well before, is much easier nowadays. But therefore much more complex in terms of filing things away.

Bill, when and if time allows, I'll be back on the Hub posing the questions "what makes a good leader? Are leaders born or created?" Ruling out the "what are the chances of that" element and the "born with a silver spoon" scenario, this may prove to be illuminating. Someone else I know has this as a dicitation question but I thought it could be interesting to Hub members, if only I had the spare time. I'm also busy learning about education (and this is where my wife Barbara_Hub member 100_and friends come in - she sends her regards by the way and may take a while to get back to you_ she's a bit stressed and totally engrossed by work stuff)

and finally:

6. So what about better thinking, honing the process, structuring the way we approach things, the way we think before we do. Certainly, our stressed deadline management is a new way of tackling things (if not a bit dangerous if we don't know what we are dealing with or the damage we could inadvertently bring about). Bringing conceptual thinking and concrete thinking together, following scoping, function, form etc and complicated ways of thinking things through... this only causes stress to concrete thinkers. As leaders, we may need to think this through some more, apply the thinking process better and develop a manageable toolkit so that we better understand and don't forget what the hell we are doing.

OK, so not so short_but I tried. The trouble with thinking and then trying to explain it is demonstrated above.

All the best
Mark

At 1:27am on September 6, 2008, Mark_Abrahams said…: Hi Bill,
Still MIA?

Would be happy to hear from you.

Mark

At 4:30am on August 30, 2008, Mark_Abrahams said…: Hi Bill
How goes it?

Please note that I've closed the discussion thread "Stressing About Stress".

Hopefully we can keep the thinking alive and I'll be happy to hear from you anytime.

Cheers

At 8:05am on August 24, 2008, Barbara said…: Hi Bill,
I'm Mark's wife.

I may not find too much time for the Hub and the thinking but friendship is a good place to start.

Thinking about things,if you contact Mark (Abrahams) he and I will talk and aim to correspond.

NRR

At 8:42pm on August 23, 2008, Mark_Abrahams said…: Hi Bill,
Its good to know that the Abraham-ovitz missing in action list is a figment of our imagination in time.

Now that I am back at work (following major eye surgery and never to be the same or as fit again) I am back in the world of work related stress and dealing with a prick of a manager who has his head so much up his own arse that, despite his flowery ability to sound good, is the cause of much stress and failure in our organisation. As for me, I'm often so far out of the box and in forward planning mode that my head could easily be up the arse of somebody I've never met. So I must recognise my own deficiencies and get back to the job at hand. We must all, above all else, target our day job roles, tasks and targets.

What follows is a bit longer than I intended. This was supposed to be a short 'hello, good to hear from you' message. But, as usual, I just got to thinking.....

Concerning using stress, it is the greatest tool in our survival kit for firing up our thinking process ... bur only as long as our first thought is "how do I survive this?" and "do I really want to be here, now, doing this?"

We mustn't get 'stress management' mixed up with 'production management'.

To me, the imperative is that me and my team, colleagues and senior management (how ever it stacks up) fully understand the workings of our minds and, as clearly as possible, what stress is. Only when we comprehend something fully can we control it. So, by setting out to form a stressful scenario or to built a job to a crescendo, we could inadvertently be lighting the blue touch paper. Without allowing control freakism to take hold, we must be aware what our actions bring about and, by knowing the people around us, how they will react to certain pressures.

My beliefs and thinking surrounding all of this is built from the foundations laid as a result of my own experiences and my reactions to those I have come across in my 56 years. I now want to add the thinking of others, especially by reading those books and institutions that I have discovered or those that have been recommend to me by those I feel I can trust.

I like very much your deadline setting and the thinking to bring about or enable stress rather than avoiding or alleviating it. But this is also management technique applied to people you know and with ideation as that core objective. The breaking point you suggest may exist will possibly never come to pass if you and your team achieve what you aim to do, allowing you to clear the decks and move on to the next idea. I'm a bit anal when it comes to systems and frameworks but my thinking is that if we can find a mothership method of managing information by using technology run by the right people, then it creates the free thinking time for us to have fun with the process rather than being burdened by it.

Perhaps, when we are more available to take this thinking forward, we can hone in on those variables you mention. But you know what?...the variables are a mixture of perceptive, objective and subjective which, for each thinking individual in the world is different. The only way we can facilitate this theory in the workplace is, ultimately, to know the inherent and integral strengths and weaknesses of the people around you, so that each and every one can give their best and feel good about it. The key to it all is support. My wife (who is an educationalist) and me (the health nut with the fat gut and a specialism in mental health) have a mantra which I can recommend. It is "support, support and then support some more". Under those terms the best can be gotten from us weak and fragile humans. But you gotta be able to give a lot for this to work. Some are better at taking (the bastards) but you just gotta accommodate and facilitate all types.

See you soon and good luck with it all. Perhaps you could join us on the lateral thinking trail (see Groups). This sort of stuff (i.e. me thinking things through from a different perspective and even from the other side of the world and in a parallel but slightly varying culture) fired up by your friendship and your contact and communication, is the sort of lateral thinking group we could do with. But I haven't finished with the Stressing About Stress" thing yet. It may take a couple of months or longer.

All the best

At 10:42pm on August 2, 2008, Mark_Abrahams said…: Hi Bill,
This is but a quick acknowledgement and appreciation of your contributions and support.

I hope we can do more, perhaps reaching towards the tangible and linking with others.

I, too, have enjoyed our exchanges and hope that our foundations may find a platform.

All the best
Mark