Check out the new site!

I will still do the occasional post here but most of my new online home is

ChangeAgentPublications.com

Please stop by, register and check it out!

Ride the flow!

~ Cliff Collard





Upcoming Change Agent: Events

There is a lot happening in the next week. Here is the
rundown:

What: ATEN Exchange Fair at Learning Man

When and Where:  Saturday, May 4, 11 am to 4 pm Where: Soma Vida Work/Life Balance Wellness Center, 1210 Rosewood Avenue

The Austin Time Exchange Network (ATEN) supports an alternative currency “bank” that allows members to provide services for each other in exchange for time credits (Hours) that can be traded with any other member of the network. Membership is FREE.

~ My PRESENTATIONS~

Don’t’ call it Money!  - This is about why dollars are NOT money, they are currency; and why things like time can be a currency, too. This will be short, 15-20 minutes and I will repeat if there is interest. 11:30 am

What is a Change Agent, anyway?  - This is an invitation to become a Change Agent and learn to thrive in the current environment of massive change. 12:30 pm

Creating a Personal Vision - Having a Personal Vision is a key part of creating the personal vehicle that allows you to navigate all the change going on in the world. 2pm

Workshops have limited capacity. Sign up, ask questions or get more information by emailing: atenexchangefair@gmail.com A schedule of all the workshops can be found at:   http://wp.me/PvHIQ-54

What: Web Site Launch!

When and Where:  May 1 - Online ChangeAgentPublications.com

The new website will become a hub and valuable resource for communities of Change Agents!

What: Part Two of Become a Change Agent available for free Kindle download

When and Where:  May 3-5 Where: Online at Free Kindle readers for most devices can be downloaded from Amazon.com:

Contact me on Facebook: cliff.collard@facebook.com  or Twitter:   @CliffChange

Top 25 news stories that didn't make the News in 2012

This list is worth reading.  Many of the stories have important implications for Change Agents! Click the symbol to check it out.

The 80/20 rule revisited

I have written about the 80/20 rule both in this blog and in my books.  It is a useful tool for may situations.

I learned something new about it today. It is also called Pareto Principle, after 19th Century thinker Vilfedo Pareto. He described the distribution of probable results and options as a mathematical function that is then graphed.

The resulting graph gets divided into the vital few and the trivial many.

Thanks to ongoing ITIL training for this insight!

ChangeAgentPublications.com launches May 1

30 days from today! 
Stay tuned for details!

Words are powerful - stop calling it money!

 

Words are powerful. It is very important to choose your words correctly when you can. Groups that want to control you often use words in misleading ways. that is why it is critically important to use the word money correctly. What most of us call money today is actually currency.

Currency is:

1. A medium of exchange - it can be freely traded for goods and services
2. A unit of account - Bills have numbers on them to indicate how many dollars that particular piece of paper represents. Accounting systems are based on this unit.
3. Portable - it is easy to transport
4. Durable - it doesn't wear out
5. Fungible - every one's money has the same value (the dollar in my pocket is the same as the dollar in your your pocket).
6. Divisible - it can be divided into smaller units

Money is all those things PLUS it is a store of value over a long period of time.

This is clearly not the case for dollars, euros or any other currency in common use. The dollar lost half its purchasing power since 1988 and 95% it value since 1913 (the year the Federal Reserve came into existence).

People make many, many decisions based on this declining purchasing power. As a retailer in the 1990s, I agonized over a supplier price increase that forced me to raise my candy price above 50 cents for a standard-sized bag of M&Ms. Recently, I put a quarter in a machine and got 6 M&Ms. This is inflation in action.

There are hundreds of examples of fiat currencies (those not backed by a durable asset) in the last 5000 years. All of them have gone to a value of 0. Mike Maloney covers this important Money vs Currency distinction in a lot more depth.

Key take-aways:

1. True wealth is your time and freedom - not money and even less so any currency. 
2. Start freeing yourself from economic voodoo! Stop calling those Federal Reserve Notes in you pocket and bank account money. Call it currency.
3. Words can bind you. Choose them carefully if you want to make changes!

Will you take the challenge to get in the habit of calling dollars currency?

Roles vs Titles

Curtis Guilbot has a great post that describes the top roles in a business organization. These roles are different than titles. Check it out.

I discuss roles vs. titles in Change Agent: Visions. This is a good example of what I mean.

Next post: Thoughts about South by Southwest.

Become a Change Agent: Part Two: Visions Free Download this weekend!

There is a massive amount of change going on in the World today.  In order to navigate this change, you need to know where you want to go.  Without it, you get whipped around by all the forces of change or cling to the eroding shores of things that “UsedToBe”.

Become a Change Agent: Drive the Positive Change You Want for Yourself and the World! Part Two: Visions introduces you to the first and arguably most important pier of the Framework. Vision is like the rudder and keel of a sailboat. They provide relative stability and force that encourage movement in the desired direction.

You can download itfor free this weekend (March 9 and 10)

       

You can download a free Kindle reader for most popular devices

 

 

 

TEDxAustin FearLess was exceptional

The event happened on Saturday, February 9. It was a day of ideas, some of them interesting, some transforming.

Here is a link to the talks

Here are my personal stats:

• Pages of notes taken: 7.5
• Old acquaintances seen  4
• Fascinating new acquaintances met 6+
• New business cards collected 35
• Visionary ideas presented - a lot
• Ideas that I didn't get - a few
• Engaging conversations - countless
• Favorites - The "Wire" and "100 days of rejection"
• FearLess athletes met - 2

We owe Nancy and crew an unmeasurable amount of gratitude for the day!
And when can I have my invisibility cloak?

Do you have a TED memory to share?

Exerpt from my upcoming book on Vision

Here is an exerpt from my upcoming book, Become a Change Agent: Drive the Positive Change you want for yourself and the World  Part Two: Visions. Enjoy!

Why in the World Do I Need a Vision?

 

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

~ Proverbs 28:18

 
There are benefits to having a Personal Vision. There are costs or consequences for living without one.

Benefits

The first group of benefits helps the Change Agent choose the correct actions.

1.       A Personal Vision keeps the Change Agent focused on what really matters.

2.      A Personal Vision allows the Change Agent to make choices more effectively and confidently.

The second group of benefits helps the Change Agent retain focus.

3.      A Personal Vision helps the Change Agent flesh out what is important.

4.      A Personal Vision keeps the Change Agent on track in a crazy world.

5.      A Personal Vision cuts through the haze and confusion.

The third group of benefits helps the Change Agent find happiness.

6.      A Personal Vision helps a Change Agent love life.

Costs

Without a Personal Vision, it is easy to make bad choices.

1.       You get involved with people, activities and projects that you should avoid.

2.      You waste time and energy due to a lack of focus.

Without a Personal Vision, it is easy to be directionless and ineffective.

3.      Day to day life is focused on urgencies, crises and chaos.

4.      You do not have an independent voice and it becomes easy to get “run over”.

5.      You are unable to set true guidelines or boundaries.

6.      Life seems rudderless and directionless. There seems to be no map or future other than spinning your wheels.

Without a Personal Vision, life is one of waste and regret.

7.      You squander your talents.

8.     You dread growing old.

9.      You look back with regret and forward with fear.

10.   You are unhappy and have feelings of being overwhelmed, depressed and sad.

DO NOT LIVE THIS WAY! GET A PERSONAL VISION! Start to change your life with a Positive Personal Vision. 

What is your Personal Vision?

5 Characteristics of Weak Leaders (and How Not to Be One)

Micheal Hyatt's Intentional Leadership Blog is a though-provoking series of posts on leadership.  This particular post is one that I wish I had written myself.

Here are 5 characteristics that any leader or future leader should mindfully eliminate.

If there is a sixth point, it would be a failure to understand when you are in over your head and therefore failing to seek help. My favorite Aunt calls this leadership failure "being a dummy". Ego can make even very smart people dummies.

Visions from TEDx Austin - looking back and looking forward

I am excited about attending TEDx Austin’s FearLess conference this weekend. It will be a day where I see example after example of how Personal Visions that are activated make positive changes for the World.

Last night’s “preshow”  Happy Hour was a fantastic series of conversations with other Change Agents on topics including complexity theory, education, gamification, ecommerce and solar power for Africa. Most of the time, I was in a group of 4 people. I got so engrossed in conversation that I never found the cheese tray.

Last year’s conference centered on the theme “Beyond Measure". It opened with Chris Riley saying, “We are going to share amazing stories with the world today!” and it was true beyond measure. Here are just a few of the speakers with messages that I loved:

·         A guerilla guide to improving urban landscapes. Jason Roberts – How to build a better block.

·         Emergency Shelters. A revolutionary design for those displaced by natural disasters by Michael McDaniel.

·         Preemptive Love – Violence unmakes the World. This can be fixed one person at a time. Jeremy Court discovered that something like 1 in 7 Iraqi children are born with a broken heart, litterally. These are birth defects can be corrected surgically by Turkish doctors (Turkey and Iraq are historical enemies). US Iraqi war veterans are seeing it in their children, too. This guy would have recieved the Nobel Peace Prize if I were awarding it.

·         There were so many more amazing presentations Check out the playlist.

If you only have time to watch one, please watch Jeremy Court, Preemptive Love. This story has so much heart and is an example of how ancient hatreds can be bridged.

What is your favorite TED Talk?

Jettison your baggage!

Jettison your baggage! That is so much easier to say than to do! You work really hard to detach yourself from things that no longer have any value in your life only do discover a new version of the same valueless stuff rushes in to fill the void.

 I cleaned out a bunch of old archives over the weekend. You SHOULD do this once a year but I had not actually done it in about 3 years. There were boxes and boxes of old records that had absolutely no connection to my life today. Business records from entities that no longer exist, legal papers, and paperwork related to the move to Austin.

I realized that the pounds and pounds of paper in the attic was only part of the weight I was dragging around. In particular, some legal papers reminded me of a grudge I had been carrying with someone that is no longer a significant part of my life (she is a relative and other members of my family create second-hand contact).  Her bitterness and venom still occasionally affect me today – and it is my fault because I allow it.

Part Two of “Become a Change Agent (publication date is mid-February) discusses the liberation of lifestyle design. Here are some more thoughts about the “Elimination” step:

There are some things that you should actively remove from your life.

·         Baggage that drags you down – Physical things that you are obligated to spend time and effort maintaining but you do not get much use or pleasure from them. People that bring out the worst in you. People that are dangerous or destructive.

·         Stuff that doesn’t matter – Most “UseToBes” fall into this group. Do you engage in activities that do not interest you just to be part of the “in” crowd? Find activities that really interest you and meet people that help you define what “in” really means.

Things that are not part of your day-to-day life but you should keep anyway.

·         Good memories – As long as they do not create an attachment to “the good old days”. Adopt a mindset that those were great experiences but the best is yet to come!

·         Artifacts that retain value- This is not just value of the economic sort. Some things retain value to you alone and those are things you should keep.

There are things that are difficult to eliminate. I call that stuff that resurfaces

·         If you eliminate something big, there are typically “loose ends” that come up.  Accept that fact with the knowledge that the “loose ends” eventually stop.

·         Serious grudges. We are human. Even when you forgive, it can be hard to forget, especially if you must have contact with that person.

 

·         People or groups that “need you”. You must be patient while they readjust to life after you. Sometimes, a gentle push in that direction is required.

What can you let go of TODAY, RIGHT NOW that will make your outlook on life better?

What are the characteristics of a Change Agent?

A Change Agent is someone that thrives in the current environment of massive change. He or she does that with a vehicle that harnesses the power of that change when the change's flow is favorable. The Change Agent also has the tools to help recognize when to temporarily seek shelter from unfavorable changes. Most important, a Change Agent understands that absolute stability is an illusion.

I have spent most of the last year working on the concept of “Become a Change Agent”, drawing on my experience in the workplace. I am writing a Kindle miniseries on the subject. More about Parts One and Two at the end of this post. I was not always a Change Agent. I tried to cling to the “UsedToBes” in my business and it caused me to work harder and harder for a shrinking return. I did not learn to embrace change until I was well into my second career in Information Technology.

There are several characteristics that make anyone a Change Agent:

1.       A Change Agent holds Vision.  It is important to have and be mindful of a Vision. You need a Vision to know where you are going. Change Agents review thier Vision constantly to make sure that actions are consistent with the Vision.

2.      A Change Agent knows about change and harnesses its power. The title of Part One in my “Become a Change Agent” series is “Understanding Change. A Change Agent stays in the flow of change to amplify his or her effort. You must be able to understand the flow before you can harness it.

3.      A Change Agent is resilient. That mean he or she has the ability to persist, recover or thrive amid disruption. So do the groups that the Change Agent influence.

4.      A Change Agent inspires others, primarily by sharing an infectious Vision and expressing the appropriate amount of gratitude.

5.      A Change Agent leads by doing and example. The Change Agent does NOT sit in the corner office and bark orders!

6.      A Change Agent is able to humbly assume the role of resourceful follower when the situation arises.

7.      A Change Agent co-creates. Creative collaborations with others create strong interpersonal bonds. Unity is a powerful force for positive change!

8.     A Change Agent knows that adaptability is the new wealth. Change Agents constantly seek and choose options because they know nothing is permanent – good or bad. The ability and willingness to adapt conquers fear.

9.      A Change Agent produces more than he/she consumes. This is a cornerstone of personal responsibility. It is also the only way to ensure long-term sustainability of your customer base.

Here is a link to PartOne of my Kindle miniseries. Part Two is Now available. If you sign up for the mailing list, you will get an opportunity to download Part Two for free in early May!

Are you a Change Agent?http://amzn.to/VtNhV4

Multitasking versus focus and mindfulness

Multitasking is in many ways the opposite of focus and mindfulness. The ability to multitask has always been assumed (i.e. the ability to walk and chew gum) but it is seemingly REQUIRED in today’s workplace. It is severely overrated and it is the cause a lot of the dysfunction that is obvious without even thinking in “Dilbert mode”. Focusing with laser-like intensity is the way to accomplish the most in the least amount of time.

 

I once worked in a place where you were considered “out of date” if you did not take a laptop into a meeting. What I quickly discovered is that most of the meetings were unimportant. (Holding relevant meetings is a topic for another time.) The actual multitaskers inevitably wasted everyone else’s time with “I missed that, could you repeat?” Again, the subtle message was that the work being done on the laptop (and frequently, it was FaceBooking) was more important than the meeting.

Here are some important points to keep in mind about multitasking:

·         You are not a computer. The circuitry and code of a CPU is designed to rapidly change focus from one job/task to another.  The human brain is not. We must go through the process of finding our place with each switch of focus. This is actually time consuming (which means you can get more done by focusing on tasks one at a time).

·         Benefits of focus in problem solving. Focus allows us to do a better job of sorting out the facts. It might even seem like a focused individual is not doing anything during a very intense session of “figuring things out”.  In reality, they are channeling their inner Sherlock Holmes.  Maria Konnikova has just published an excellent book on the subject of thinking like the famous fictional detective.

·       If a face to face conversation is one of the tasks, doing anything else during the talk is a subliminal message that the other issue (IM, phone, filing papers) is more important than the other person in that conversation. Choose to be present. Choose to tell the other person that you value the fact they made the effort to show up “live and in person”.

·         Increased Stress. Constant, long term multitasking can overstimulate your “fight or flight” responses. This causes several hormones, cortisol, noradrenaline and adrenaline. The stress to your system of these “false fight or flight” responses is bad and there are all sorts of associated health risks that come with prolonged stress.

·         Exceptions that make sense. Simple tasks can be combined, especially if one of the tasks is waiting. A good example is filing while you wait on hold. You know exactly what the next filing task is, so there is no significant effort in finding your place.

Do you remember when multitasking made you mess something up or when focus allowed you to succeed?

Vision from a high fashion model

Kim Luret is currently an American living in Paris, an author, speaker, coach and owner of her own Paris-based modeling agency. She was an international high fashion model for over 12 years on the runways of Paris, New York, Milan, Tokyo and elsewhere. Kim worked personally with icons of the fashion design world including Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld, Gianni Versace. 

Helping the latest generation of aspiring models reach their highest potential has been a long time focus and driving passion for Kim. You can read her latest project, Kim Luret's Modeling Success Series, on Amazon Kindle.

Kim graciously spoke with Cliff by phone recently on the topics of vision and overcoming fear. Her story will be a case study in my upcoming book, Become a Change Agent: Drive the Positive Change You want for Yourself and the World! Part Two: Vision.

Cliff Collard – You described discovering your desire to become a model as if the desire “hit you between the eyes”. Could you elaborate?

Kim Luret – It was more like being hit by a mallet. I was 15 years old. When the desire hit me, I just knew it even though I had never thought about it before. This was a mindful revelation. I didn’t know anyone else with such a desire and it certainly was not mainstream at the time. It came out of left field. Prior to that, I said “Veterinarian” any time someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.

CC – Fear is such a powerful de-motivator. Do you have specific advice for young people to overcome fear?

KL - Everyone faces fear. It is up to each individual to make peace with it and accept it. Fear and jitters are the same thing. You need to put it behind you and remember that everyone is afraid or nervous. Spirit never speaks to us through fear. What can change is how we respond to it. It is OK to be scarred but you must act anyway. You will find that the sky didn’t fall. Overcoming fear increases your self-esteem.

CC – Anything specific for peer pressure or ridicule?

Kim – Remember that if people try to put you down, the real thing they are trying to do is tear you down to thier level. In most cases, if you remember that they can’t do it, peer pressure gets quickly put into perspective. People think mostly about themselves, they typically could care less about you.

CC – How about fear of the unknown?

KL – Accept the fact that there will always be the unknown. It is ok to have a problem. It is not OK to let the problem have you. Faith in God is an important key.

CC – Could you describe how you tried to kill your dream of becoming a model?

KL – Emmitt Fox said, “Take the unknown to the extreme, what if the world ends? Well, you won’t be around to care now will you?”

I was extremely self-conscious about my looks. “I’m not attractive. My braces are ugly, I’m too tall. My hair is frizzy.” I tried to ignore it. I only told 5 people and only my friend Marian was supportive.  Most responded with “Are you kidding? “So I drifted to college with no plans other than a degree in psychology and nothing I did caused me to get the “passion” bug. I let 4-5 years pass and time suppressed my interest in modeling.

CC – In the end, what (in addition to the Modeling School Director’s encouragement) triggered your inner voice?

KL – I really have no idea what the trigger was. I heard a voice, “Only you can make your dreams come true. Fan the fire of your dream. Own it. Never doubt it!” This Voice came out of nowhere and was clearly not my own, nor did it sound like anyone familiar to me. This happened as my roommate was dialing the number to set up her own interview for a modeling school. That voice made it imperative that I go to the interview as well. I then met the Director and her words of confidence made me understand the voice must be heeded.

CC – How do you encourage others, particularly strangers?

KL – I tell them you have to “Bring It” constantly. People will believe about you what you believe in yourself.  It is important to have a clear, strong self-image. This is the alpha and omega of making peace with and getting along with yourself.

CC – any final thoughts?

KL – Rumi said, “The one important thing in this life is your reason. If you accomplish 100 other things in this lifetime, they are only of peripheral importance”

CC – Thanks Kim! I think your experience will provide a valuable model (pun intended) for others.

KL - Thank you for your time and the opportunity to share thoughts and ideas with you.