Multi-polar Disorder and Steve Jobs

Keynes, a British economist who pioneered modern macroeconomics, when accused of being a flip flop, retorted, "When facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

Konosuke Matsushita, Panasonic founder, quoted an ancient Japanese saying, "The sage changes his mind at least three times a day."

Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, in a recent BusinessWeek interview, said that Jobs was sold on one direction in one moment and a nano second later, sold on in a totally opposite direction. At first, Cook thought of this as "strange." Gradually, though, he came to see it as a rare gift and a talent. He wished his fellow CEO's and national leaders could be as flexible of thoughts as Jobs was.

Contrast them with Hitler. When told of Russia's superior monthly tank production statistics, Hitler accused his cabinet of sabotaging his war efforts.

Bipolar is a well known disorder, defined here. Multipolar disorder is a term I coined just now.

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” says F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Bohr also wonders at our ability to hold paradoxical views in our mind at the same time, a la Yin and Yang style.

What if we can hold more than 2 views?

What if, like Feynman's scientists, we subscribe to 6 or 7 perspectives at the same time?

Switch | How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

on July 26, 2010

I'm refering to Switch by the Heath brothers, who don't need any introduction. It's a fabulous book that I heartily recommend to anyone.

The authors believe that change involves three aspects: your conscious rational mind(the rider in their terminology), your non-rational emotional makeup(the elephant in their terms), and the environment(what they call the Path). I am going to summarize only the first 2 sections below.

Direct the Rider

Reason: Without such direction, the rider will lose focus, over-analyze, spin the wheel and deplete its small reserves soon. Thus, we need to

1. Give the Rider a destination postcard.
2. Remind it of what is already working, of those signs that herald the miracle you are expecting.
3. Pre-load it with Critical Success Factors in a situation and the processess

Arouse the Elephant

Reason: Without such motivation, the elephant will remain inert and lazy or it gets spooked and demoralized soon. Thus, we need to

1.  Show the elephant a graphic stuff/scenario to incite fear (for short-term specific actoion) or joy (for longer- term not so clearly defined actions)
2. Shrink the task to reassure the elephant
3. Grow the identity of the persons involved.

Changing Hearts and Minds, Our New Year Gift

We're posting this as Our New Year Gift to our readers. This is one of the best stories of the world, and here it is given a unique and so far, the best interpretation.

There are 3 important books in Taoism: Lao Tzu, Chwang Tzu and Lieh Tzu. Our story comes from Lieh Tzu. There are many translations and I've read at least 3 translations of the story.

The Story

Once there were 2 men. Each has his own strengths and weaknesses. One thinks and makes plans very well but cannot see through his plans. The other is a determined finisher but his mental powers are weak and his thoughts are narrow.

With their permission, a doctor operated surgery on both and put one's heart into the other.

After a few days, they healed, regained consciousness and went back to another person's home, not to their original homes.

Other Interpretations

Man should not play god. We should be content with our natural, innate strengths or weaknesses. We should not interfere with nature.

My Interpretation

A rich, powerful story deserves a rich, powerful treatment.

1. Changing hearts seems to be easier than changing minds.
2. One's loyalty, love, attachment, belonging will stay with the heart. You can easily enlarge your employees' brain with NLP, neuroplasticity/etc/etc. But they will use their new found knowledges and mental acuities to serve their pre-training love.
3. If you cannot finish, see through things, you may need a stronger heart or a narrower mind. Can you narrow your scope, your aim?
4. If you are too eager, too determined, too sure to do something, make sure you've thought through things. Have you considered the second-order, if not the third-order, consequences? Any forethought, foresight?
5. You can definitely change your own heart and mind. Be creative, no need to rush to an operation theatre!