We’ve all had a conversation with someone who, though they didn’t move an eyelash or a single facial muscle, somehow clearly communicated the message: “The sooner I get away from you, the happier I will be.” On the other hand, a wide smile, direct gaze, and hearty handshake don’t always convey admiration.Sending the micromessages that convey your intended message requires a deep understanding of how others interpret truth or see through the pretence.

Setting The Stage

Micromessages can inspire confidence and enable an individual to stretch for higher goals, or they can undermine a worker’s self-confidence and cause him or her to second guess every decision. They have the power to do this with barely a spoken word.It’s not so much what we say that matters, but what the other person ends up hearing or inferring. We may think we’re sending the exact same message to two team members, but the message they receive may be very different and is affected by the nature of the relationship.

The Subtle Art Of Messaging

Almost imperceptible subtleties of sending and receiving messages define micromessaging and its power of influence. These micro messages tell us how much we are valued and respected by those who control our destiny in the workplace. Micromessages tell us exactly where we stand and how far we are likely to go. They are as intangible as the medium through which they are sent. Through them, we build loyalty or contempt, commitment or indifference, even inspiration or sabotage. Micromessages are the very soul of leadership, and leadership is the primary driver of performance.

Micromessaging And Leadership

Micromessages influence relationships both up and down the corporate ladder; they are not the sole property of managers and leaders.Just as you instinctively know how your boss feels about you, she also senses how you feel about her. Though neither of you may be aware of the messages being sent, the recipient unwittingly understands the micromessages and reacts accordingly.Once we’ve had the time to learn an individual’s style and behaviours, the accuracy of our interpretation of the person’s micromessages improves. Some learn faster than others.

Your Boss Knows Your Hate Him

Understanding the behaviours that underlie micromessages will dramatically increase your ability to control them, but total fluency will probably always be just beyond your grasp, as it is for all of us. Millions of years of mammalian behaviour drive us to react by envy, fear, jealousy, anger, greed, love, and countless emotions and instinct, which can be toxic to the effective building of relationships of all types.Positive micromessaging, on the other hand, can energize employee engagement and impact financial performance for the better.

Unspoken Communication

Observe how colleagues acknowledge one another and establish visual contact, how close they stand, and listened to the inflection of their words. At first glance, such greetings might appear to be repetitive, but when you take a closer look at the gestures, tone, inflection, and gazes, you can catch clues as to where everyone stands. You’ll spot some relationships that are close and personal, and others that appear somewhat strained.Sometimes even without uttering a word the micromessages of a silent greeting can spell out who is, and who is not, “connected.”

The Blind Spot

One leadership blind spot is the manner in which questions are asked. Questions often reveal what we want or expect the answer to be.Typically, the structure of a question falls into one of three forms: the assumptive no, the assumptive yes, and the neutral.You ask the question the way you want the answer to be. Sometimes questions can be statements and statements can be questions.Carefully consider the micromessages within the questions you are asked, as well as those you are asking.Meetings can waste precious time in a circular dance of questions chasing the wrong paths.

The Questions

At its core, the blind spot of leadership crops up when we say one thing but telegraph something quite different. Our blindness is not linked to intelligence or level. We forget that intellect and performance are not inextricably linked. Some of the smartest people are the worst perpetrators of microinequities. Corporate senior executives are often oblivious to the effects of microinequities because they are rarely on the receiving end of these messages. Actually, what they experience the most are microdeceptions, more commonly known as pandering and brownnosing.

Educated Culprits

Each of us has attended meeting after meeting with team members we like and admire.Without ever saying a word, she gets the message you unconsciously but repeatedly send: “Pat, you are so smart. You always cut through all the garbage and get right to the heart of the issue every time. People look up to you. You’re a role model.”In that same meeting, to someone else on the team you may have sent very different messages. Still void of a single word, he hears: “You really are a jerk. How did you get this job in the first place anyway? This team would be so much better off without you.”

A Different Kind Of Silent Messaging At The Workplace

Sometimes just putting the emphasis on a different word transforms the whole meaning of a statement.I didn’t say she stole the book.<ul><li>With the emphasis on “I”. It wasn’t me who said it.</li><li>Now put the stress on, “didn’t.” I never made that remark.</li><li>Now put the emphasis on “say.” She might have, but I didn't open my mouth.</li><li>The focus on the word she makes it clear that the listener only misunderstood who you were accusing.</li><li>Focussing on “stole,” I didn’t say she stole the book. She may have borrowed it.</li></ul> <ul><li>Focussing on " the book", it could have been something else.</li></ul>

Say Out Loud: I Didn't Say She Stole The Book

All our lives, we have been told that words are very important. The size of one’s vocabulary is often a sign of intelligence and education. A solid grasp of grammar and word usage is essential for acceptance in most business communities. Industries make millions selling courses designed to improve vocabulary and writing composition skills.Yes, words are important, but when you compare words to what’s wrapped around them in the delivery, they pale in comparison. The impact and influence of the unspoken messages being sent are even stronger than the words.

Words Are Important But...

Each business operation is coloured by the cultural context in which it operates. The same pressure from the top that might improve individual worker performance in Singapore might have the opposite effect in Ireland.Holding your body erect and puffing out the chest might be necessary for a boss to command respect in a Latin American culture, but the same stance could be read as bullying or arrogance in Ireland. Conversely, a slightly shy, round-shouldered American executive who always looks down might be judged an unworthy opponent, and therefore ineffective, in more macho cultures.

Messages Are Relative

Each of us carries patterns of behaviour and interpretation that take decades to learn. It is our cultural template. Everyone intellectually knows that behaviours vary across geographic regions, but when we actually find ourselves thrown into a culture vastly different from our own, intellect meets reality and we briefly go into culture shock. We develop an ethnocentric bias we are hardly aware of, driving how we filter the behaviours of everyone we encounter. Simply stated, most of us believe our way is “right,” and we tend to judge others by how they measure up to our standards.

Culture Shock: We Disregard Reality and See What We Want

When you step into a new job, you need to learn how the regional and corporate cultures manifest themselves in that environment.Businesses spawn jargon, style, behaviour, and other cultural norms, which individuals joining the organization need to learn and decide whether to conform to. A new hire’s compliance to the cultural norms signals to others that he or she is a member of the “tribe,” someone “in the know,” and connected.Conformance should never violate personal values. If the conformity is within the range of acceptability, it can be leveraged to enhance the business experience.

The Rookie

The real power of diversity is the skill of identifying what is unique about each member of the team and applying specific developmental and motivational strategies that amplify each performance. Until you are able to identify the unique characteristics that motivate people differently and apply that awareness as a catalyst to generate maximum commitment, support, collaboration, loyalty, and performance from the entire team, you cannot be a truly great leader.

A Truly Effective Leader

The definition of diversity includes factors like the way you talk, how long you’ve been with the company, how you dress, wear your hair, and even whether you have a tattoo, none of which help define the quality of what you bring to the organization. However, they do, in many cases, alter how well you are accepted and treated at work. These judgments, which we all make at one time or another, serve to divide us into ready-made camps of “Them” and “Us.”

Your Entire Being Alters Perception Of Others

People see us and promptly put us through a series of mental filters or checklists. The body we arrive in is what people most readily see: our race, gender, age, attractiveness, and other items that define our visible profile.Let the checklist operate as information only. Remove it from your filters and use the precision of micromessages for your lens instead. Assess tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, proximity, and eye contact, a person’s choice of words, syntax, and nuance, along with all indicators of what the message is conveying beneath the words themselves.

First Impressions Form Perceptions

In the workplace, we have a responsibility to ensure that all are given the messages, conditions, and environment to perform to the fullest of their potential—and to unlock talent that runs the risk of being underutilized. The practical application of the power of micromessages is not about being nice. It is about sending messages that are clear, direct, and fair.   Every micromessage a manager sends affects an employee’s perceptions of the company. These perceptions greatly influence how effective that employee will be while working for the company.

We Might Not Be Always Nice

If you really want to see microinequities in action, you need to go no further than everyday business meetings. You make a suggestion and it is met with a very bland, ho-hum response. Then, fifteen minutes later, someone else offers the same half-dozen as “six” and suddenly it shows profound insight. Of course, sometimes the reason for this phenomenon has to do with the quality of our communication. Our delivery certainly influences how others hear what we say, but there are often other influences at play. Many times those influences have to do with who is doing the talking.

Who Is Saying It Matters, Not What Is Being Said

Micromessages are the central thread in every form of communication, including electronic communications. Our e-mails, voice mails, instant messages, phone conversations, and virtual meetings are all fully loaded. Everyone has had the experience of receiving an e-mail that made you furious, only later to learn you completely misinterpreted the message.When that happens, the one important lesson to remember is to ask questions. Misunderstandings can be cleared up when you identify and clarify differences in business practices or communication styles.

Ask Questions

The following microadvantages top-ten list can be a pivotal catalyst for turning around problem relationships. Use these ten steps to improve your use of micromessages for a positive impact: 1. Actively solicit opinions 2. Connect on a personal level 3. Constantly ask questions 4. Attribute/credit ideas 5. Monitor your facial expressions 6. Actively listen to all 7. Draw in participation 8. Monitor personal greetings9. Respond constructively to disagreements 10. Limit interruptions

Fixing The Micromessaging Problem

communication

Communication

books

Books

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Micromessaging: Why Great Leadership is Beyond Words

“These, then, are the ten rules of effective communication, all summarized in single words: simplicity, brevity, credibility, consistency, novelty, sound, aspiration, visualization, questing, and context.”

“Remember, everything you need to say should be up front. All that you want to say can come later.”

You can have the best message in the world, but the person on the receiving end will always understand it through the filter of their own emotions, preconceptions, prejudices, and preexisting beliefs.

It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear

<ul><li>Simplicity: Use small words</li><li>Brevity: Use short sentences</li><li>Credibility: Be credible in every word or statement you make</li><li>Consistency:  Iterate the same message, over and over</li><li>Novelty: breed excitement</li><li>Sound: the texture of your words matters</li><li>Aspirational: people forget what you say but not how you made them feel</li><li>Imagery: Visualize, the word “imagine” is an incredibly powerful tool</li><li>Question: Question everything, ask questions and provide the solution</li><li>Context:give background to why you’re here and why people should bother to listen to you – give relevance to the situation.</li></ul>

10 rules for successful communication

<ul><li>Never use a metaphor, simile, or another figure of speech that you are used to seeing in print.</li><li>Never use a long word where a short one will do.</li><li>If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.</li><li>Never use the passive where you can use the active.</li><li>Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.</li><li>Don’t assume that people know what you do, or are even aware of you.</li></ul>

Some “Don’ts” in communication

The single most-read portion after the opening paragraph is the postscript. The reason is easy to understand: <ul><li>The average reader looks to the P.S. to determine whether or not it is in fact a personal letter, and whether that letter has any relevance to his or her life. </li><li>If it isn’t, and if it doesn’t, the average person won’t read anything else. </li></ul>Make the postscript as human and emotional as possible.

The effectiveness of the postscript

Words have different meanings to different people. For example, “welfare” and “assistance to the poor” essentially mean the same thing. However, if you ask the citizens whether or not we are spending too much on welfare (23%) or assistance for the poor (68%), it’s clear that these two terms hold differing connotations. So while “welfare” brings up images of “welfare queens” and wasteful government spending, “assistance to the poor” reminds people of charity and Christian compassion.

Similar words can prompt different reactions among different people 

Effective communication isn’t about the objective meaning of your words, but rather how people understand them. It’s essential to consider their preconceptions, especially their beliefs and fears. One example is George Orwell who knew this well and used it in his book 1984. He wrote a passage that described Room 101 as a place where one confronts her greatest fears. Since everyone has different personal nightmares, Room 101 became associated with each reader’s individual nightmare.

Effective communication is about considering your audience

“Words that work, whether fiction or reality, not only explain but also motivate. They cause you to think as well as act. They trigger emotion as well as understanding.”

<ul><li>Consequences: What will personalize, and what will dramatize the result of your actions?</li><li>Impact: How can you utilize this word to make your listeners feel as if there will be a measurable difference?</li><li>Diplomacy and Dialogue: Use them to ease tension, to establish a sense of normalcy or goodwill.</li><li>Reliability: There are many people who believe that the reliability of something is more important than any other factor.</li><li>Mission: Your listener wants to know the how, what and why. </li><li>Commitment: What kind of personal mission are you going to undertake? Use commitment in the terms of personal commitment.</li></ul>

Important words

The nation's premier communications expert shares his wisdom on how the words we choose can change the course of business, of politics, and of life in this country In Words That Work, Luntz offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the tactical use of words and phrases affects what we buy, who we vote for, and even what we believe in. With chapters like "The Ten Rules of Successful Communication" and "The 21 Words and Phrases for the 21st Century," he examines how choosing the right words is essential. Nobody is in a better position to explain than Frank Luntz: He has used his knowledge of words to help more than two dozen Fortune 500 companies grow. Hell tell us why Rupert Murdoch's six-billion-dollar decision to buy DirectTV was smart because satellite was more cutting edge than "digital cable," and why pharmaceutical companies transitioned their message from "treatment" to "prevention" and "wellness." If you ever wanted to learn how to talk your way out of a traffic ticket or talk your way into a raise, this book's for you.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Words That Work

In its short lifespan, Wordle has already made the tricky transition from a cult phenomenon to an established part of our daily lives.Created by a software engineer in Brooklyn for his partner in October 2021, the online word puzzle game became a global overnight success.But the game’s swift pop-culture ascendancy, which led to it getting acquired by the New York Times for upward of $1 million in January, isn’t unprecedented. In fact, 100 years before Wordle entered the scene, an even bigger word puzzle craze swept the nation: the “cross-word mania” of the 1920s.

2022: Wordle Takes Over The Internet

The modern “word-cross” appeared for the first time in print in the December 21, 1913 edition of New York World’s FUN Supplement. Section editor Arthur Wynne, trying to fill the Christmas insert, drew inspiration from his native England, where Victorian newspapers and magazines regularly published word squares, acrostic puzzles where the same words can be read both across and down.Building on this prototype, Wynne debuted FUN’s Word-Cross Puzzle.

Word Cross In the 1920s

The word-cross—which eventually became cross-word, likely due to a type-setting accident, and later dropped the hyphen to become, simply, the crossword—wasn’t supposed to be a regular feature in the weekly supplement. Wynne found the prep work tedious, and typographers resented setting up the puzzle shape for print. But players were hooked; when the word game didn’t appear one Sunday, they demanded to know where it had gone, helping ensure that game stayed on as a regular feature for FUN.

The Word Cross Becomes Crossword

The editors of FUN supplement of New York World, who were trying to fill the Christmas insert, drew inspiration from native England, where Victorian newspapers and magazines regularly published word squares, acrostic puzzles where the same words can be read both across and downThe editors also began setting the puzzles a full week ahead, proofing them for errors and establishing uniform standards like only using dictionary words for gameplay

Making Crossword Sustain Its Popularity

<ul><li>The president of the British Optical Association blamed the crossword for eye strain.</li><li>A literary debate around puzzling also raged.</li><li>Some believed it was not taken seriously.</li><li>Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh "answered in the negative" when asked if they had any crossword books</li><li>Some claimed that the working of crossword puzzles is a childish mentality.</li></ul>

The crossword faced its critics in the 1920s

In its short lifespan, Wordle has already made the tricky transition from cult phenomenon to established part of our daily lives. Created by a software

history

History

Before Wordle, There Was Cross-Word Mania

As an analytics engineer, the business teams are your stakeholders. You interact with them every single day. You help point them in the right direction based on the analyses you present. You work together to inform and drive decisions in marketing, growth, and product.

The Analytics Engineering Job: Business And Engineering

You sleep, eat, breathe SQL as an analytics engineer. Maybe even more so than as a data analyst. SQL is the core of your <a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/is-dbt-the-future-of-analytics-d6ff93cbb20c">dbt data models</a>. You need to know the most efficient way to write and run your code so that these models are fast and dependable.You need to enjoy writing SQL. If you don’t enjoy this language, you may find the role repetitive and boring. Personally, I love writing SQL so it is enjoyable for me. I’m still learning new things every day, like the <a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/8-sql-date-functions-you-need-to-know-c6c887a8394f">datepart()</a> function.

Living On SQL

If you like to make decisions and are confident with your skills, you can have a lot of impact within the company this way. This is the backbone of a data-driven organization. How cool is it that you could be the one to build that?It’s extremely fulfilling to see the organization you’ve put in place used by other analysts and leadership teams. Your work as an analytics engineer doesn’t go unnoticed. It is holding up the work of everyone who touches data within the company.

Setting Up Systems

Analytics engineering is perfect for the person who is interested in engineering and business. Make sure you enjoy both parts because you’ll be working with both teams each day. This will give you the chance to develop your business-related communication skills and technical skills.

The Bottomline

Love data analytics and software engineering? Then becoming and analytics engineer could be the perfect next step in your career.

career

Career

computerscience

Computer Science

3 signs analytics engineering is the job for you

Emotions can derail communication. When people get upset at one another, they stop thinking rationally.
Emotions are not an obstacle to successful negotiations. They are a means. Good negotiators know how to identify emotions and influence them.

Use emotions to influence

The quickest way to establish rapport is to repeat the last one to three words your counterpart just said. This will make them feel safe enough to reveal themselves. It will also slow the conversation down and give you more time to think.

Mirroring

Before you decide to get your point across, hear the other side out first.
Demonstrate that you are trying to understand their feelings using phrases like "It sounds like you're afraid of..." or "It looks like you're concerned about..."

Empathise strategically

Every yes is a concession or can feel like it. However, allowing the person opportunities to say no gives some form of control and put them at ease.

Guide them to say no

Summarise and reaffirm how your counterpart feels and what they want.
It should be done based on the feelings and passions driving them that they are blind to.

Trigger a "that's right" response

Don't try to force your opinion on your opponent.  In negotiations, the more the other person likes you, the more they are willing to be flexible. A win-win situation produces the best results.

Work together

From mirroring to encouraging them to say "no,” Chris Voss, founder and CEO of The Black Swan Group Ltd, shares his tried and true tips for negotiating. Get social with Inc. on: Facebook: http://on.inc.com/ilqUryJ Twitter: http://on.inc.com/8FGInRj LinkedIn: http://on.inc.com/gt7KsIn Instagram: http://on.inc.com/wLObvE2 Pinterest: http://on.inc.com/8lPoT0r

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

videos

Videos

How to Navigate Emotions During Tough Negotiations, According to a Former FBI Negotiator | Inc.

During complex tasks, staying sharp can be difficult. When you desperately need to focus, it can be tricky to stop a wandering mind. However, there are tools we can use to stay alert and power through.

How to maintain peak concentration

Taking a break from a problem for a time can lead to a breakthrough. But looking at your email or Facebook can make it harder to return to the task. If you need a break, it is best to take "smart" breaks. These are activities that are relaxing, not distracting. <ul><li>Briefly sit with your eyes closed.</li><li>Going for a ten-minute walk</li><li>Stretching or doing push-ups</li><li>Drinking a glass of water</li></ul>

Take "smart" breaks

A task can be perceived as effortful when we are really calculating opportunity costs. For attention-demanding tasks, the brain needs to focus on one thing and ignore the rest. Yet, it prefers lower-value activities. A way to discourage getting stuck on low-value activities is to reduce tempting alternatives.

Wean yourself off your phone

At times, you may get stuck. To get out of it, switch to a "meta" task, meaning shift to a more abstract layer of a problem such as figuring out why you're stuck. For example, if you are writing an essay and don't know what to write, switching to a meta task would mean writing about how you don't know what to write. This activity can help you articulate your difficulty that could lead to a solution.

Shift to the "meta" task

The Yerkes-Dodson Law is a U-shaped connection between general arousal and execution. Research found that when an individual is too alert or too relaxed, performance suffers. Simpler tasks benefit from high alertness, while high alertness can hurt the performance of challenging tasks. This means finding the right degree of stimulation to keep focused, for example, a noisier coffee shop or a quiet library.

Apply the Yerkes-Dodson Law

In his research, Edwin Locke found that specific challenging goals created better performance. However, some limitations apply. <ul><li>For complex tasks, a goal-oriented approach may slow down performance. For novel tasks, a playful attitude may be more successful.</li><li>Goals only work if they're achievable.</li></ul>

Set specific, achievable, short-term goals

It is challenging to stay focused when you are constantly interrupted. Your boss sending regular emails, a deskmate talking, a three-year-old continually interrupting. The key to improving focus is to negotiate your environment ahead of time. Communicate what you need and make concessions to keep your relationships smooth.

An interruption-free environment

Difficult work can make you want to quit after a few minutes. However, the urge to give up is seldom constant. The desire to quit arrives at predictable moments. If you can identify those moments, and you can disable them. If you want to give up before you began, set a timer for twenty minutes and only allow yourself to quit when the time is up.

Find your quitting triggers

Taking a twenty-minute nap can refresh your mental performance. The key is to avoid getting into the deeper stages of sleep that cause grogginess.

Master the Power Nap

Your working memory corresponds closest to a mental bandwidth. It's the things that you're thinking about now. However, working memory is in contrast to long-term memory, which is everything you know and remember. Working memory is limited. One way to cope with limited working memory is to offload it on paper.

Minimize mental overhead

When it comes to our focus, we may try a task, realise our mind is wandering and correcting ourselves. Except this makes it even harder to focus. One solution is mindfulness meditation. Let the distraction come and go without paying too much attention to it.

Don't suppress your unwanted thoughts

Do you find yourself scrolling feeds when you should be focusing? Here are ten tools to keep your mind sharp, even on the toughest tasks.

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

problemsolving

Problem Solving

timemanagement

Time Management

The 10 Best Tools to Stay Mentally Sharp at Work

Companies are leveraging data and artificial intelligence to create scalable solutions — but they’re also scaling their reputational, regulatory, and legal risks. <ul><li>Los Angeles is suing IBM for allegedly misappropriating data it collected with its ubiquitous weather app. </li><li>Optum is being investigated by regulators for creating an algorithm that allegedly recommended that doctors and nurses pay more attention to white patients than to sicker black patients. </li><li>Goldman Sachs is being investigated by regulators for using an AI algorithm that allegedly discriminated against women by granting larger credit limits to men than women on their Apple cards. </li><li>Facebook infamously granted Cambridge Analytica, a political firm, access to the personal data of more than 50 million users.</li></ul>

AI: Scaling Solutions Vs Risks

Just a few years ago discussions of “data ethics” and “AI ethics” were reserved for nonprofit organizations and academics. Today the biggest tech companies in the world are putting together fast-growing teams to tackle the ethical problems that arise from the widespread collection, analysis, and use of massive troves of data, particularly when that data is used to train machine learning models, aka AI.These companies realized one simple truth: failing to operationalize data and AI ethics is a threat to the bottom line. Missing the mark can expose companies to reputational, regulatory, and legal risks, but that’s not the half of it. Failing to operationalize data and AI ethics leads to wasted resources, inefficiencies in product development and deployment, and even an inability to use data to train AI models at all.

Failing To Operationalize Data And AI Ethics

<ul><li>The academic approach: this means spotting ethical problems, their sources, and how to think through them. But it unfortunately tends to ask different questions than businesses. The result is academic treatments that do not speak to the highly particular, concrete uses of data and AI.</li><li>The “on-the-ground” approach: it knows to ask the business-relevant risk-related questions precisely because they are the ones making the products, but it lacks the skill, knowledge, and experience to answer ethical questions systematically, exhaustively, efficiently and institutional support.</li><li>The high-level AI ethics principles: Google and Microsoft, for instance, trumpeted their principles years ago. The difficulty comes in operationalizing those principles. What, exactly, does it mean to be for “fairness?” Which metric is the right one in any given case, and who makes that judgment? </li></ul>

Standard Approaches To Data And AI Ethical Risk Mitigation

<ul><li>Identify existing infrastructure that a data and AI ethics program can leverage. </li><li>Create a data and AI ethical risk framework that is tailored to your industry.</li><li>Change how you think about ethics by taking cues from the successes in health care. Leaders should take inspiration from health care, an industry that has been systematically focused on ethical risk mitigation since at least the 1970s.</li><li>Optimize guidance and tools for product managers. </li><li>Build organizational awareness.</li><li>Formally and informally incentivize employees to play a role in identifying AI ethical risks.</li><li>Monitor impacts and engage stakeholders.</li></ul>

How to Operationalize Data and AI Ethics

AI doesn’t just scale solutions — it also scales risk.

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

A Practical Guide to Building Ethical AI

For many people in creative professions, a lack of stimulus and isolation hampers work. Yet for some, a lockdown and being completely alone with oneself is a boon for real creativity.
Such contradiction makes understanding creativity hard, but the two main factors for creative thinking are openness to new experiences and being comfortable with one’s own thoughts and inner voice.

Creativity In Isolation

Creativity needs stimulus, but also an optimum load of boredom to thrive. Too much boredom will make one lethargic, as in the case for imposed isolation of lockdowns across the world. One has to find the unique boredom sweet spot.
Creativity is not a linear process, and one needs bursts of isolation and stimuli to weave the creative content.

Creativity: Stimulus And Boredom

One can try to redefine what kind of stimuli would be useful in the creative process, as it is easy to get stuck in the old methods of finding creative sparks.
<ul>
<li>If the outdoor stimulus is not possible, one can try inner experiences like journaling, mindfulness and meditation.</li>
<li>Journaling your emotions, for example, is proven to help creativity.</li>
<li>One can reconnect with old friends, or look up old pictures on their PC and phone to recall moments that can spark creativity.</li>
<li>A good walk in the park also helps declutter the mind and process thoughts that are stuck inside.</li>
<li>It is important to not be stressed about being creative.</li>
</ul>

Finding New Processes

Some people find isolation helps them tackle creative projects, but others find the lack of stimulus leaves inspiration in short supply.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

creativity

Creativity

How to be creative in isolation

<ul>
<li>An activity must have a clear set of goals and progress.</li>
<li>A task must have clear and immediate feedback.</li>
<li>There must be a good balance between the perceived challenge of the task and the individual's own perceived skills.</li>
</ul>

To enter the flow state

These are tasks that tend to have high consequences (e.g., rock climbing or public speaking), clear feedback, and take place in a varied environment.

Tasks that encourage flow

When you are experiencing flow, it seems like the task at hand is almost performing itself.
But there's still a sense of personal control over it, and working on it feels very rewarding.

Flow = focusing on the present moment

We experience the "flow state" when a given task becomes effortless and time slips by without our noticing. It's an absorbing, intrinsically rewarding state that we enter when performing certain tasks.When in the flow state we experience mindfulness and actions and awareness merge, so that it seems like the task is almost performing itself. Despite this, there's still a sense of personal control over the task at hand, and performing it feels intrinsically rewarding.

The flow state

Arguably, the most important criteria in the pursuit of flow is to pick intrinsically rewarding tasks that have high consequences (e.g., rock climbing or public speaking), clear feedback, and take place in a rich and varied environment (so not your office cubicle).

Choosing an activity to enter the flow state

<ol><li>The activity must have a clear set of goals and progress, which adds direction and structure to the task.</li><li>The task must have clear and immediate feedback, which enables the person to adjust while performing the task.</li><li>There must be a good balance between the perceived challenge of the task and the individual's own perceived skills. Lacking skill for a challenge produces anxiety, while being over-skilled leads to relaxation.</li></ol>

To enter the flow state...

Flow only happens when you've got the right level of skill for a task with the right level of challenge. Specifically, Csíkszentmihályi identified three components necessary to enter the flow state: The activity must have a clear set of goals and progress, which adds direction and structure to the task.

What's the flow state about?

When starting a project that requires time, energy and resources, the cost-benefit ratio is a good rule for deciding if the plunge is worth it.
One has to think about the risk in terms of probability, while also keeping in mind what is at stake: Will the effort, time, money and resources that are spent go down the drain or will all of it still provide value in case the primary goal is not reached?

Risky Business

Taking risks is a way towards potential growth, even if it is not according to the original plan.
When entrepreneurs fail at their startup, a large chunk of them still benefit by:
<ul>
<li>New connections and friendships</li>
<li>New job opportunities</li>
<li>A pivot towards another company.</li>
</ul>

Risk As A Way Towards Growth

One needs to take into consideration that any risky decision has the probability of failure, keeping in mind the potential benefits of not reaching the goal.
The ideal decision model should:
<ol>
<li>Calculate or research about the baseline likelihood of success.</li>
<li>Take a self-assessment of one’s own ability.</li>
<li>Take into account the situation where the results of the decision are less than required.</li>
<li>Take into consideration the opportunity cost.</li>
<li>Ask oneself if the activity being undertaken is providing joy even without any outcome.</li>
</ol>

Decision Modeling

Many of the most important decisions you'll make in life won't be guaranteed. Don't make this mistake when evaluating risk.

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