Nancy Love’s Weblog

We were in Istanbul yesterday and we ran into the guide we had on our trip 6 years ag0.  What are the chances of running into the only person you know in a city of 17 million???  I love the way the world works.  Istanbul is a fabulous city and the Turks are hospitable people.  The ancient history juxtaposed against the modern landscape is intriguing and comforting in a way.  It is a gentle reminder that civilizations have been working effectively to serve their citizens for many years.  It is also a reminder of wars and rumors of wars.  Everybody conquered Istanbul at one time or another.  The people and the language reminds of the Asia/Europe crossroads we are visiting.

Today we are aboard Sea Dream II in the Dardarnells.  Lots of Australians on board off on a tour of Gallipoli.  We are going to Troy to see th eTorjan Horse.  Pictures to follow.

Gloria Fuentes’ quote is at the bottom of my journal page so I thought I would use it as the title for today.  I am realizing that it doesn’t have to be a new idea.  I can’t always stimulate my brain to create.  Sometimes it just doesn’t want to work on anything new… it just wants to sit and veg…. So I can open a book and find an idea and use that one as a catalyst for thought production.

The journal for example is called create everyday.  I am guessing that the creative quotes in it did not come in a stream of daily sitting and thinking but were gathered from other thought leaders over an extended period of time and with a deliberateness of purpose and focus.  I can come up with 360 ideas in one day and then go without any for weeks on end.  The discipline of coming up with one idea a day scares me.

So think everyday and create when the spirit moves you.  Be gentle with yourself.  Be honest and open to new ideas and when they do come explore for the specifics that make it unique.  Think and talk and think and talk and in so doing make the world a better place.

At a Canadian Association of Professional Speakers meeting on Saturday I learned the  world’s systems crashed in 2008 and that we are still rebooting.  The reboot is taking a long time and we are having to learn how to do things differently as we experience and learn the new operating system.

I finally get it.  people have been talking about the new world order, the hyperlinked world and finally I heard it expressed in language I understand.  Thank you.

What does that mean for PULSE?  WEBinars.  At least once a week for two years for a certificate in leadership.  Blogging and BLOOKS.  Video conferencing and VOOKS.  More and more product for a line of superiour electronic PULSE stuff.

WE are off and running.

PULSE is working with someone to include more presence for us on Social Media.  What I need to know is what kind of information would serve our readers.  What do you need from us on Social Media?

We have a Face Book Presence and a Twitter Presence.  AND we are still so new at how to use them and how to understand the power of them that it makes my head spin.

It reminds me of working with someone who is hearing impaired.  They can sort of hear bits and pieces and they will contribute, sometimes forcefully to a conversation when they think they know what was said.  In fact they may have the details and therefore the intent of a comment wrong and yet they hold on to their idea passed on their perception of the situation.  

With social media I can’t hear what is being said.  To me it is still NOISE.  Therefore when I do comment it may or may not be appropriate.  I totally relate to people who have lost some capacity to deal with the world and are forced to try.  I have no capacity for comprehending what is going on in social media.  The more people you talk to the more confusing it gets.  Everyone approaches it differently and it seems to serve different purposes for different people.

I DON’T GET IT>>>>> We follow someone so that they will follow us.  We retweet other people’s tweets.  Will someone please tell me what the end game is???  He who has the most followers wins???  I know that even that is not static but moving.  All I see on my twitter site is my friends tweets and retweets.  I AM NOT LEARNING ANYTHING.  And I am frustrated.  Someone please help….  If you can help a relatively intelligent, relatively knowledgeable person UNDERSTAND what is going on in Social Media, you may be able to change the world…..

I have a newish car that I call Scarlett.  She is beautiful even with the slight hail damage that I am waiting to have fixed.  I felt ill the day I was driving home and the skies opened with golf ball sized hail.  There was nowhere to hide and Scarlett came away dimpled.  I was grateful to have her to protect me.

Anyway…Scarlett has GPS and helps me get to where I want to go when I don’t know how.  I appreciate that about  her.  She is helpful and protective and she and I are learning from each other.  One thing that sometimes happens is that Scarlett’s directions don’t match what I know to be true about the road systems her in Alberta.  There has been lots of construction here over the past year and new roads have opened up that I don’t think she knows about.  When I take her down a new road, she thinks for a moment and then says “Recalculating the route…”  and comes up with a new plan for me to follow.

I like that about Scarlett.  She isn’t angry or confused she just recalculates and we move on.  I wish it were that easy for people.  I have noticed that for some people it is.  They just CHANGE their plans…. no issue.  For others it seems impossible to recalculate or move away from the original plan.  These people demonstrate a loyalty to a plan that is fierce and can be destructive.  It is sometimes difficult to understand this need to stick with a plan unless you ask the questions about the significance of the plan and then ask about other paths to get there. 

A plan is just something to base change on.  That’s what a friend of mine always says.  I’m guessing that like Scarlett, he recalculates the route and keeps moving toward the destination.  He also says “order, counter-order, chaos” … you can change the plan once but not twice is what he is telling me.

People should be more like cars….

Sitting in an airport wondering about delays…. Why do they happen and why do we not plan for them… Okayu why do I not plan for them. My day is planned to the minute and when a plane needs a new windshield it does blow my plans. Now I will be late for the webinar in Calgary.

Things happen for a reason! I firmly believe that. I am sitting here waiting for the reason to become clearer … I don’t want to miss the webinar. I don’t want to let my colleagues down but I am curious about the universe and how it unfolds. This is my opportunity to practice finding the opportunity in the crisis.

Reframe, reframe, reframe. Switch it to the positive. That is the opportunity today. With any kind of luck I will get to San Diego sometime today.

It is great to be at the office early and to have the sun shining in Calgary.  It has been a wet summer here and many people are complaining about the lack of summer weather.

Complaining fascinates me.  It seems to take up time in conversations and to what end?  We can’t change many of the things we are prone to complain about i.e. the weather, the sports teams, the traffic, etc.  What I have noticed is that a complaint is a give a way as to the BEACH – Beliefs, Expectations, Assumptions, Concerns and Hopes – of the complainer.  It tells you what they feel strongly about and what bothers them.  It indicates, if you are listening carefully, what’s missing for them.  Sometimes it is power and control that they are seeking, some control over some aspect of their life.  Other times it is peace and an easy way of being.  Or they are looking to find a perfect world where everything complies to the standards as set for weather, teams and traffic.

All nine of the PULSE BEACHs are identifiable in complaints.  (Power, Peace, Perfection, Connection, Success, Differentiation or Creativity, Detachment, Security and Excitement)  Listen and learn what people are looking for and identify it for them if you can and if it is appropriate.  Watch them think and then smile.  It is a great way to make their day and yours.

Good morning, Calgary.  Enjoy the sunshine.

We are in Paris at the Westin.  A company I will call XYZ Company is here too. I thought it noteworthy enough to comment here on something that I have noticed about the attendees.  There are probably 3-5 hundred representatives or employees of the company here and ALL of them are tall, muscular males.  Gladiators!!!  Interesting …  they fight the management fight. I found a word on their website that describes one of their services that I had never heard before –  “wargaming”.  I understand it to be part of the simulation activities.  hmmmm.

Sooo, I think what they do is create advantages for companies in competitive markets.  The problem is that more and more we need to be collaborative markets where everyone ones if the game is to continue.

I am troubled by the gladiator image and approach.  I think that I may have some ideas from my work that would add value to the management strategies that they have in place but I am not sure they will see it that way.  Given the criteria I saw on their webiste, I am guessing that both gain thinking is not necessarily part of what they do.

Is business still war???  Are we still in deficit thinking mode???

Working together is a simple idea with alot of power in it.  There are ways to have your needs AND my needs met.  There are always ways to identify unique and common criteria for a future together and create a sustainable plan of action. A company needs to reflect the diversity of their clients.  The scary thing is that I believe that XYZ Company does….  CEO’s – the kind that have been raking in bonuses on the backs of little people – also look like gladiators.

I could be dead wrong about XYZ Company.  They are obviously successful. The only hint of a crack in the armour was in the elevators where people were less guarded and seemed genuinely concerned with what was going on at the meetings, with the company and with their clients.  Still hyped on success brings success, they were showing a brave face to each other but the body language when the elevator doors closed was different.

Gladiators, keeping their sponsors happy, going for the kill.

Where are the peace makers???  Where is the diversity in the world of business and in the world of consulting?

You can’t leave the peacemaking to the non-profits.  They can only do so much.  “Love Difference”  for example is working to unit organizations around the Mediterranean.  It promotes intercultural dialogue but the true power of intercultural dialogue is in the business opportunities that are created.

The success stories we do not hear enough about are there.  Volkswagen has built a plant to assemble cars in the middle east on the border between Israel and Jordan.  Workers from both regions work side by side.  When the livelihood of the warring parties is earned collaboratively then a real difference can be seen.  Business has a vital role to play and a very large hammer, economic advantage, to play it with.