teaching flexibility to egyptian teams

Egyptians can be legendarily flexible: who hasn’t experienced such brilliant ad hoc problem solving as a coat hanger serving as a satellite antennae, a screw and pliars used as a corkscrew, thread to seal a leaky water joint or even a car steering wheel in place of handlebars on a bicycle? To name but a few.

But we’ve also experienced the incredible dogmatic inflexibility of someone who just won’t budge an inch and shift THEIR way of doing something to one that is obviously better, quicker and more appropriate. Or the type who having been shown a method and having appropriated it as THEIRS spend a lot of time manoevring and trimming reality to suit their method. There’s even an Egyptian story to cover it- a man finds a falcon and trims its beak and claws and finally pronounces- “At last you really do look like a pigeon”. Of course these characteristics occur in the West too, but there the culture of innovation is more entrenched and can be easily referenced and used to coerce intransigent team members. For a while I thought this 'situational inflexibility' of some Egyptians was unavoidable, just part of the cultural scene.

But the more I worked with Egyptians the more I saw that there was a way around this chronic inflexibility and it’s ally, lack of sensible initiative taking. One actually leads to the other: once you put TOTAL value on your way of doing things then taking the initiative- which by definition means doing something new- will involve a deviation from your methods and hence must be avoided at all costs.

The way out of the problem is to see it from the Egyptian perspective. To the chronically inflexible team member changing your method is seen as SELLING OUT.

That’s right- think of a writer in Britain penning poetry for a tiny magazine and someone suggests- “hey you’re a good writer why not try and do an episode of Eastenders?” Answer- total outrage, inconceivable, an attack on my integrity etc. or the avant guard composer who you suggest might pen a eurovision song contest number or even a film score. Or the conceptual artist you ask to do a mural on your kid’s wall of Disney characters…

Selling out.

To the 'situationally inflexible' Egyptian his integrity lies in having a ritualized pattern of work. A set of things he does at certain times and in a certain way. And he or she may well have been very creative in arriving at this pattern or not. But once it is in place the object is to stick to it. The more he can stick to this the better he has done, the less he has sold out. If he deviates, even if it results in a win for those employing him, he won’t be happy as his system has been breached, he has compromised his integrity. Now this may not be an exact explanation of what is happening but it works as a form of cultural comparison. We are all familiar with the concept of 'selling out' and have a grudging respect for those who don't. That respect, if transferred to inflexible Egyptian workers could be the injection of goodwill always required if you want to help someone change.

A ‘good day’ for a typical European team player is when hard work or a good idea results in a win either for them as an individual or for the team. A ‘good day’ for an Egyptian team player with an over developed sense of integrity is one where his integrity (his own way of doing things, his routine) has not been breached and neither has his team’s.The task, then, is to take these potentially very flexible team members who are mired in a false conception about what constitutes GOOD WORK which has made them inflexible in certain respects, and get them to view flexibility, initiative taking and bending to suit a new situation, in a different light. As not selling out but as being on the crest of a new and exciting wave of behaviour, linked perhaps with new and exciting forms of technology which are always eagerly embraced. ipod creating behaviour so to speak.

Part one is to explain all this.

Part two is to instill it through exercises, games and discussion.

are you stuck for ideas?

Building a lego model I was busting a gut to find one particular wheel. Instead of cursing with frustration, a fairly usual response, I decided to experiment and started a procedure for finding hard-to-find bits in the lego box. I scooped all the vaguely wheel shaped bits up into one corner. This freed me up, since I didn’t have to BE CONCIOUS as I searched, I didn’t have to kind of talk to myself saying ‘nope, that’s wrong, that’s wrong’- in other words I reset my mind to an abundance setting, the same setting you have when facing a blackberry bush groaning with berries- you just pick on automatic setting. Hoovering up all the wheel shapes I naturally unearthed the right one along the way, effortlessly it seemed. The lego experience set me thinking about creativity. One of the best tricks for helping you write scenes in a novel is not to try and think up a scene- instead make a list of ten possible scenes that will serve the purpose needed. Then pick one. It may well be suggestion three or four, too, not the first idea you had. But that’s a side bonus. The real benefit is it flips you from static mind to dynamic mind, where choices are made super fast, almost automaticly- rather than dithering over the blank page.

The world’s most prolific author, Dr Jose Ryoki Inoue of Brazil- 1075 books to his name (some as short as 10,000 words- but still!) once gave an utterly illuminating comment on his methods, “Momentum is everything- always keep going even if you have to move sideways like a crab.” In other words when he hits a wall he moves sideways like a crab until he finds a break in the wall and then he moves on. And there are always breaks, sooner or later.

Creativity is a dynamic process. Actually everything, when we do it well, is experienced as something on-moving and dynamic rather than static, or a series of succeeding static positions- everything from fighting a battle to cooking. But creativity suddenly leaps into overdrive when you honour its dynamic nature and align yourself with it rather than fight against it. We fight our best abilities usually by allowing the self-talking conscious mind to interfere and turn creation into a static event. There’s a great moment in the Simpsons when Bart tries to imagine the new Itchy and Scratchy movie because he can’t get to see it at the theatre- a bubble appears above his head and the characters appear but they just stand there mute, doing nothing. This is static creativity, staring at the blank page waiting for inspiration- enough to give anyone the heebie jeebies.

Instead, like scooping up all the vaguely wheel shaped lego bits you need to widen your arms and scoop up from the mega-abundance out there, stuff that will roughly suit your purpose. From being in critical mode- which usually slows things down to stasis- you are suddenly spoilt for choice, and you make the choice quickly because you have an abundance of material.

As with the Steve Jobs quote I posted earlier (‘creativity is just having enough dots to join up’) you always need to have an abundance of material. And that doesn’t mean you have to spend three years doing research- it may mean just changing your perspective on what you already have. What EM Forster called ‘table topping’- if you change the scale you suddenly have access to a whole lot more material. You can get the same effect by ‘dropping down a gear’ or one of my favourites which is ‘what would I do if I had only one day to deliver this’- using a time limit to force me to look wider and stop being a perfectionist.

When you have your abundance you can get into automatic sort-mode- that is- making decisions instantly rather than pondering- which just gets you back in the static zone. One reason why the one-big-idea book, story, article, talk, art work is so fruitful is that it aids the automatic sort procedure frame of mind- you just keep relating stuff to the one main idea rather than having to relate to several ideas- it doesn’t flip you into self-talking, the very death of the dynamic approach.

When walking a canoe down a shallow stream filled with rocks you can go really slowly – and still hit the odd rock- or you can go fast, making instant decisions- and you may well find you hit fewer rocks and bottom-out less often. Trust that dynamic mind, of which the static mind is but a pale shadow.

zenslacker #9

1.    Revel in being a recluse. Reflect on the fact that Darwin

rarely, if ever left his house after the age of 35. Tell others you are becoming a recluse. 

2.    Experiment with checking your email once a week. 

3.    Take an entire day to sew on buttons and mend clothes. Alright sew on one button.

4.    Dig the garden. No garden? Wade up a stream instead.

5.    Remember the only thing you really own is your state of mind right now.

how to be a parent #2

You want to be the best parent since the cranial expansion of homo sapiens produced 'modern' man several hundred thousand years ago.

That’s a lot of generations that have preceded you.

Naturally they all knew nothing. Which is why you haven’t even bought Dr Spock, the bible your parents swore by. But then they probably didn’t take parenting quite so seriously as you do.

This is the paradox. You think parenting is incredibly important yet you can’t be arsed to read anything about it or even ask anyone for advice.

I know- the above describes me.

Finally, though, I cracked.

It came about when we were still up at 1am with our little son playing very happily at our feet. I cracked.

This had to stop. I needed time for myself. For my wife. For my life. Our life. Life in general was being threatened by that which we both loved to bits. Loved, but were ignorant of.

Next day, he went to bed at eight after a bath and a little story. Conditioning. Old as Pavlov and his dogs. Get ‘em used to baths and stories and sleep will follow. He woke, not at 4am as we expected but at 8am, the same time as usual- but was less crabby than usual. He’d had a good night’s sleep for a change.

We live in an over stimulated and over stimulating world. We have electric light and TV and noise and city hum- so kids don’t drop off when they are tired. You have to decide, these days, for them. It’s an opt-in world we live in. Not opt–out like the good old 1960s or before. (What I mean is, if you don’t opt-in to certain arrangements, routines, practices- nothing happens- it’s just you staring at your screen waiting, looking out of the window.) So you have to find out and then opt in to certain childcare practices. After you crack, of course.

how to be a parent #1

Jeff and Denise were hippies. (This is a true story by the way). They let their kids do anything. They weren’t particularly close to their kids. They weren’t those lax but loving kind of parents. They just let their kids do anything they liked. When they liked. Total and utter freedom from the word go.

They had two children: River and Free (real names!). Free is now an alcoholic. He has never held a job down for more than a few months and he has been in and out of alcohol addiction counseling for years. River, on the other hand, has, from the same parental start become a world famous architect, happily married with two children of his own. Though in professional practice he goes by the name of James.

When you’re feeling you aren’t doing enough, or the right thing for your kids take heart, drop down a gear, cut yourself some slack. Even if you do absolutely nothing you’ll have a 50% success rate…

fear and the boss

Founder of Yoshinkan Aikido Gozo Shioda was so skilled he did not need to hurt people to make his aikido work. His top students understood this and flocked to him to learn. But those who studied under the top students were less perceptive. And since the top students sometimes hurt the junior students and did more obviously ‘powerful’ moves, there arose among the students a kind of whispered consensus that Shioda had been overtaken by his students. They whispered he wasn’t so good anymore.

Shioda understood what was happening. So he started hurting people again, as he had done before he was any good at aikido.

Respect came back from the unperceptive students, who were the majority. They said Shioda was again at the top of his form. Only the best knew, however, that this was actually a retrograde step, in a way, made necessary only by their ignorance.

Shioda made a choice: when you run a school you have to make a show too. People behave like children: you have to scare them a little – but only if you want to be the boss.

zenslacker #8

More and more people are zenslacking these days- isn't it great...

1.    Always be out without your cell phone if you are supposed to be waiting in for an important phonecall.

2.    Enjoy what is offered.

3.    Refuse to be impressed by money. Turn the conversation instead to the subject of ‘murderers I have met’. If you feel unable to fabricate having met a murderer talk about the overwhelming appeal of the colour yellow in all walks of life.

4.    If you can do it easily, without consuming the emotion, ie. not piously; then give away things that come to hand as gifts. 

5.   Often lie about your age. Pretend to be older too.

6.    On forms and CVs include a few pointless lies that are impossible to check.

7.    The mad modern world tries to process you. Avoid this by not processing others.