Are You a Blue Thinker? Or Green…Or Red?

If you find yourself in a group faced with a task of creating something new this might help!

Blue, Red, & Green Thinking

I am grateful for this idea to Nigel May Barlow, author of Re-Think-How to Think Differently.

He talks about three stages of creative thinking:

Blue - Blue is for IDEAS- with the sky being the limit! Blue type questions are Well, why not? and What if we…?

Red - Red is for STOP, like traffic lights. It’s the selection, evaluation, fine tuning and prioritising stage, choosing your best ideas.

Green – Green is for GO, deciding who is going to do what, by when, planning in the milestones.

In any group of people you are likely to find a scattering of all these types. Some will be more comfortable with a particular colour than others. if you get too many in one category you may miss out some of the valuable stages.

For example, a room of Blues may generate some fabulous ideas but never actually get around to putting them into action! Whereas Reds will never allow enough discussion of ideas as they push to get something agreed. And the Greens will be busy planning who is doing what before Blues have finished being creative!

What colour are you? How does it show itself in you?

Make Time for You

Here’s a quick exercise to help you think about how effectively you use your time. It’s not about being busy all the time, filling every moment, but more about making time for you, and your development.

Take yourself to a quiet place with a notebook and pen. Just sit for few moments and reflect on what it is you feel you never have time to do. These are usually things that will bring you pleasure, but sometimes they are things you think you ‘ought’ to do.

Don’t over-think this exercise, just jot down whatever comes to mind; it’s for your eyes only. Ask yourself : “What Things Do I Never Have Time For?”

Now look at your list and ask yourself the following:

• Which of these are for me?
• Which of these do I think I should be doing for other people, or because everyone else seems to have done it (like read ‘War & Peace’!)
• When do I think I will do these things?
• What is stopping me doing them now?

Amaze Yourself!

Will you do something amazing this week?

So here we are in the dog days of summer, and in the UK at least a bank holiday week end is in the offing. Lost of people are on holiday, you get loads of ‘out of office’ replies, and no one seems to be around to do any meaningful work.

For those of us at work it can be a really dead time, or it can be a time you really make work for you! When you start on the road to achieving your dreams!

Dreams

The end  of August always feels like the end of the year for me – too long in the world of education I guess! September still feels like the start of a new term; all the excitement of new school clothes, bags, pencils, protractors (that dates me, who has those now?) and books full of blank pages to write upon!

Can you use this week to amaze yourself? To put something worthwhile on the next blank page in your book? Take the time to do something for you. To really think about what you want to achieve over the next few months?

In this relatively slack time, can you spare a moment to set yourself some goals this week, maybe one small thing to do each day that will stand you in good stead, and take you nearer where you want to be?

Unfulfilling Work

Maybe work is not fulfilling at the moment, but it pays the bills and it’s a tough economic climate so alternatives are thin on the ground. But now is a good time to take stock of what you really want to do with your life. And get prepared so that when the climate improves, as it will, you are ready to roll!

Love your job

Perhaps you love your work, whatever it is, and want to improve and progress. Where do you want to be? What opportunities might there be for you to progress? If not right now, when things improve? Can you gain some experience that will help? Do you need to sign up for an evening class? Get some mentoring? Shadow someone in the organisation? Join a networking group?

Retirement Dreams

Or maybe you have some long held dreams about what your retirement will be like? Have you done anything practical towards achieving those? Do you know what is possible? Have you shared your dreams with your ’significant other’? Write down what it is you want and then use this week to take those first steps towards achieving it.

You Are Amazing!

Go on, amaze yourself! Make this week count. Don’t waste this time, take some control of your future now and plan to live the life you want!

Why Do Female Doctors Earn Less?

Lying in bed reading the newspapers is my indulgent Sunday morning activity although often the stories make me splutter into my tea.

One such was this report on female doctors hitting a glass ceiling in the UK -this link will take you to the story.

Why?

Splutter over, I mused on what makes it so, particularly the comment that ‘women do not put themselves forward’. There are lots of obvious reasons like child care etc but actually, although most people now would not dispute that women are equally as capable as men, the world of working practices has not caught up.

Change The Way We Work

Work and working practices have been designed by men and suit men. Historically it’s how it happened. Women and ethnic minorities were not around when the basic principles were established. But if we were to design many of our old established professions to suit BOTH genders (not just make them female friendly which sounds somewhat patronising, but really think about a system that is open to everyone in our society), I believe the equality issue would fade. Modern companies that have taken this more inclusive route have found that both women AND men benefit.

What Do You Think?

Do you think your profession/job/career would be significantly different if both genders had devised the working remit? Please do share your thoughts with us.

What Do You Best?

In terms of work, what is it that you do best? What makes you feel good about yourself? When do you feel most confident and competent?

Research

It’s important to know. Research on what makes a great workplace* placed having a daily opportunity to do what you do best high in a list of positive factors. In fact, it was number three in 12.

Money is a motivator, of course, but for most of us money alone is not enough and it rarely comes out top in any survey of what motivates people. Work is usually so much more than simply a means to earning a living. We need to get something meaningful from it.

Self Worth

And one of those things is the feeling of self worth that comes from doing what we’re good at, at least once a day. If you are not currently getting that feeling of self worth from work, maybe it’s time to explore other avenues? Perhaps there are other ways of meeting that need, like voluntary work, a second job following your passion?  First stop is to see if work can provide it, but if not, try looking beyond the boundaries of paid employment and see what is out there!

Do you have an opportunity to do what you do best every day?

*Gallup, Buckingham & Coffman. ‘First Break all the Rules: What the world’s great managers do differently’.

Do You Say ‘Thank You’ Enough?

I have recently returned from the US where I flew with United Airlines. On our return flight there was a problem with our ticket. It was entirely our fault as there was a time discrepancy between out itinerary and the actual ticket! We arrived after our flight had left- mea culpa!

But thanks to the excellent guy on the check in desk it was no problem at all. He was calm and extremely helpful and got us on the plane we thought we were catching with the minimum of fuss and embarrassment. We thanked him profusely and he said, not at all, we had been lovely customers! Not only did he sort us out but he managed to compliment us in the process!

Remember Your Thank Yous!

I have just written to United Airlines thanking them for the excellent service we received, but I nearly forgot to do it. I was actually on Twitter talking about how good they had been when I realised I hadn’t actually told the airline! And it reminded me how much longer lasting our memory of bad experiences can be and how quick we are to share the negative stuff.

Which is not an argument for never complaining about bad service, but a reminder to acknowledge all the good experiences too.

Saying thank you sincerely and often matters. We all need to get some positive reinforcement when we do a job well, help someone, show kindness, whatever job we have and whatever status we are. Every parent knows the value of rewarding the behaviour we want to see more of in our children, and this principle holds true whatever age we are.

So, in that spirit,  who is deserving of your thanks today?