Mind over Matter, and Matter that does (matter!)

I had the experience of working with a floor full of "Gen X" executives recently, and it was an experience I won't soon forget.

Supposedly, "Gen X'ers" come out of the egg expecting to run companies, earn $100k in their first year out of collage, and be mobile enough to have had at least five senior executive jobs by the time they turn 25 - and an attention span of less than 3 seconds!

What surprised me the most was they were all clearly focussed on metrics, specifically any metric that involved an assessment of their personal performance.

On a number of occasions I witnessed someone deliberately position themselves before their company, clearly believing that they could survive, but the company may or may not, and in any case, ti didn't really matter to them one way or another.

This somewhat ruthless attitude was completely foreign to me, having been brought up in the era where your loyalty to your company came only after that to your family.

But what really took me by surprise was their attitude to information.

Everything had to be "dot points", with the key elements first, and everything else relegated to the back - which never got read.

Now, to me, context is everything. As a negotiator, facilitator, and mediator, finding the "win-win" position is critical, and you usually can't achieve this if you do not deeply research the background and context to the discussion from everyone's point of view.

However, business is what business is, and as I see the outcome of this different style of thinking, I start to understand why younger people are obsessed with social media.

It is the great diversion from having to deal with reality!

I've suggested this before in another forum - for one weekend, get everyone in your family to turn off their phones, Ipads, computers, WII's, TV's, Ipods, everything electronic.

Have conversations, not stutter points. Relate to each other. Go for a walk. Visit someone. Do things together. Look back a little, from where you have come from, rather than race towards a diminishing future.

And use your Mind more - read, debate, discuss, create, prove you are a human being and not the willing slave of some piece of technology.

Well, what have you got to lose? A million "friends" on facebook?

On the other hand, you might just generate a relationship that will support you for the rest of your Life!

Atlantis reborn

I have seen the light.

What do you get when you mix mythology with technology, passion with spirituality, Gods with history, and ordinary people with extraordinary ideas?

Atlantis reborn!

I have just suggested this concept to a friend of mine who has a truly wonderful idea he wants to take to the world, to engage us all in conversations that will shape our future.

Atlantis can be anything, but when you talk to people about it, they all have this wonderful image in their minds about a long-gone mystical place that was supposed to be the epicentre of technology and wonder in its time.

And they all exhibit a certain sense of longing - many people seem to have a strong emotional tie to the stories and concepts surrounding the Atlantis myth.

In fact, at least three scientific teams are currently searching for the lost City - as have many people before them.

Atlantis tugs at our Mind, pulling us towards something fantastical and wonderful, drawing us in as if it where the very centre of gravity that shapes our world.

What does Atlantis mean to you?

Hope? Discovery?

I'm going to start the Atlantis Revolution, create a web site, and a dedicated blog. Through you, I am going to find Atlantis!

No middle ground

I wrote this to a friend of mine this morning.

"Mike,

In looking through all the blogs this morning, it occurred to me that we don't have to sit between polar opposites.

Nor do we have to compromise.

We simply have to take a stand, think out our rationale, smile, and offer suggestions as to how others might benefit from participation.

Pete"

My friend is wrestling with a new concept that he is seeking a name for, a process that can be both extraordinary and difficult.

While reading some of the blogs that I follow (not many, I'm jealous of my time) I suddenly had an insight when looking at the incredible photography you can find on "Extraordinary Light".

Renee has just posted some simply brilliant shots of really ordinary things - rusty sheds, crushed cans, wet fence posts - and produced her usual magic with natural light and her innate creativity.

Then I re-read one of Mike's blogs, and it got me thinking again about Time and Distance.

It got me to thinking about the Space between things.

Politics is the art of comprise - something I personally hate - and War is politics by other means - also something I hate.

But Politics is not a polar opposite, and War is.

So the conundrum is about the alternatives to War - negotiation, discussion, sharing, caring, respect, all of which are not polar opposites either.

Then it occurred to me that Leadership might well be the solution.

Leaders take people where they don't know they can go.

Leaders inspire, challenge, motivate, and create momentum where there is fear and homeostasis.

Leaders challenge the ordinary in us, and bring out the special, unique qualities that make us all different.

Renee's photography always makes my heart beat faster, yet makes me strangely calm. In her images I see creativity, inspiration, and an open and honest appreciation for what is natural but not obvious.

You have to look for the magic that she captures so brilliantly.

And that is the key. You have to look.

Desire, conviction, action, the last three steps in the Salesman's credo AIDCA.

Where is this going?

As I said to Mike, perhaps we don't have to sit in the middle between polar opposites. Perhaps all we have to do is take a stand, and stand by it, using our intelligence to provide a rationale that has appetite appeal and attracts like Minds.

And talk about things in a meaningful manner, with the objective of making a connection and not a position or a conquest.

As a very great friend said to me once when I was struggling to come up with the title for a book, "Pete, all the knowledge in the world is worthless if you don't share it".

There it is - share what you have, share what you know.

I'll start the ball rolling - if you would like the benefit of forty years of thinking and study into human performance, send me an email address, and I'll send you back a book called "Chapter 8".

It's about Leadership, Making Peace, and succeeding as a human being.

Or you can just go to earlier blogs here and copy it down in parts.

Over to you.