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Wonder if Axl Rose had the same kind of fun’n'games in mind that Erwan Le Core or Greg Glassman had in mind when they designed their respective fitness concepts?
I dare to call myself fit. Spent my late teens in the gym, Muscle & Fitness was my bible and Arnold Schwarzenegger my God. My early twenties was all about martial arts, mixing Jiu-jitsu with western boxing and thai-boxing. The last ten years has seen my fitness level decline radically but I have tried to keep a decent level by periodically running, swimming, boxing and lifting weights.
The thing is, since I no longer have an ambition to become the next Schwarzenegger or Bruce Lee and I only exercise to feel good and to be able to manage daily activities without being limited by my level of fitness, I can’t push myself to give 100% in any specific sport. I want to have fun through-out the session and I do that by keeping a high level of variation.
In addition, back in the gym-rat days I found that although I could bench-press or squat heavy weights there was little use of this strength outside of the gym. It wasn’t easier for me to carry two heavy bags of groceries to the 5th floor than for the next guy. For this reason I loved martial arts, a lot more functional use of my fitness.
Over the last few years the concept of functional training has gone from rough military fitness training to branded mainstream movements.
I find the CrossFit and MovNat to be the two most exciting concepts in this area.
Continue reading “Welcome to the jungle, we’ve got fun ‘n’ games.”
 The concept of information is tricky since the scientific definition of the word is very different from the common, every day, use of the word. In science (information theory) information is a measure of the uncertainity of an outcome, i.e. a measure of the number of possible underlying combinations of data that a message could represent. In every day use of the word is an expression for manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds knowledge the the receiver.
I’ll put the concept of communication into perspective and discuss the framework and related concepts like information, exformation, incitation and excitation.
Information theory is a confusing concept. In science it is developed in the telecommunication industry and only concerned with the cost of transmitting information, totally excluding the meaning of what is transmitted.
A core characteristic of communication is that it is transmission of information in a reduced state. A popular example of this is the famous exchange between Victor Hugo and his publisher after the publication of Les Miserables in 1861. After completing the Les Miserables Hugo left Paris for vacation. Being curious about the reception of his book he sent a letter to his publisher only writing “?”. The publisher answered with “!”. And indeed the Les Miserables was a success. Despite the very limited information exchanged they both understood each other perfectly.
Continue reading Do I make myself clear?
Instinctive Drives is the most impressive personality tests I have come across (and I have done quite a few).
What I find so appealing wit the I.D. assessment is that is going in depth on why you have behave in certain ways, what motivates you, what are your instinctive drives, and then gives you practical and sound advice how to make the best out of your strengths and potential pitfalls.
The profile report is looking at four areas, your drive to Verify, to Authenticate, to Complete, and to Improvise. Each drive rated from 1 to 9, 5 being neutral and 9 indicating absolute strength.
- Verify: The drive to Get It Right. Being strong in Verify means that you probably need to understand the objective of something before acting, you prefer written documentation so you can study it in detail and you check and make sure things are on the right track to Get it Right!
More on Verify.
- Authenticate: The drive to Make It Real. If you’re strong in this drive you are likely to mean what you say, you expect things to happen as promised, you deliver sustainable solutions that are fit for use and purpose, and you are good at visualizing outcomes to Make It Real.
More on Authenticate.
- Complete: The drive to Keep It Whole. “Completers” are the kind who want clear expectations and make a detailed plan to ensure that they deliver to expectation and in time. They make sure they have time to finish the task in time (or they may not even start) and deliver solutions that fit well in the bigger picture to maintain harmony and Keep It Whole.
More on Complete.
- Improvise: The drive to Make It Possible. If you’re strong in Improvise you are driven by passion and excitement and you make quick decisions based on your gut feel. You probably take risks since you naturally say ‘yes’ to new ideas. You thrive in an fun environment with loads of things happening and you are good at inspiring others since you often make a strong and positive first impression. Since you’re very optimistic your natural response to a challenge will be: Make It Possible!
More on Improvise.
The personal report you receive after taking the assessment is supplemented by a “manager report”, a one-pager with tips for your manager (partner, friends, etc) on how to leverage your strengths and how to avoid making you stressed and vulnerable .
The I.D. assessment is developed by Australian company Link-Up, founded by Paul Burgess, I recommend that you read more about Instinctive Drives on I.D. Central where you also can order online access to take the test.
Me? ID:6673
How to get you started getting things done instead of just pushing into uncertainity?
 Get organized There is an established concept called Getting Things Done, GTD. This is the 101 on GTD!
The concept of GTD has as many variations as users for the simple reason that we all are wired differently. Nevertheless there are some “best practices” to get you started, implement it and refine as you get used to it.
For many David Allen is the man to look up to when it comes to getting things done (GTD). Although the principles of GTD is a lot of common sense David Allen has structured the approach and boiled it done to three main models. He has even registered Getting Things Done and GTD as trademarks.
His version of GTD is summarized by himself as follows (from his book “Ready for Anything”):
“Get everything out of your head. Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up — not when it blows up. Organize reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories. Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you’re doing (and not doing) at any time.”
The principles of GTD are used by numerous companies in the time management business and all aim at giving you a system for managing tasks so that they are prioritized correctly, actioned in a timely fashion, none is dropped and you sleep better at night!
Continue reading Enough excuses – stop procrastinating now!
A brief and inspirational narrated slide show on Inspirational Leadership by Carmine Gallo, presented by Business Week.
Checkout Business Week for more interesting content.
Cisco Systems is undoubtedly one of the most successful companies in the last 25 years. From the formation in 1984 Cisco has g
one to a yearly revenue of around 40 billion USD, has the No.1 or No.2 spot in all of the solution markets they are in and has an impressive track-record of very successful acquisitions (around 130 to date). The current market-cap of 100 billion USD is only at fifth of the all-time high on April 11th 2000 when Cisco hit a market-cap of 503 billion USD and made the Guinness Book of Records for the highest market-cap ever of any company.
It all started with a cat!
There are many stories about how Sandy Lerner and Len Bosack founded the company and the central character in the story told at Cisco’s new hire training I attended back in 2001 is a cat. The cat of Sandy and Len.
Sandy and Len were a couple and both worked at Stanford. Life must have been pretty good but they had one major challenge complicating their life – remembering feeding their cat (the story doesn’t give a name to the cat). This little shore was further complicated by Sandy and Len working in different parts of the campus so figuring out if the cat had been fed or not was often difficult. Both Sandy’s and Len’s departments’ had email services for their respective Local Area Networks but the two LANs were operating different protocols rendering them incompatible.
This little conundrum spurred the cat-loving couple to modify one the switches to operate with multiple protocols, bridging the two LAN technologies and allowing for emails being sent between the two.
Another story which may be closer to the truth involves the inventor William Yeager from which Sandy and Len licensed the code with which the built the Cisco IOS. Sandy’s and Len’s accomplishment was not has inventors but rather in seeing the commercial potential of the packet-switched multi-protocol router.
The Beatles
It took Sandy and Len a lot of knocking on doors be fore they had convinced anybody else of the potential of the router. They may have sought inspiration from the success of the Beatles who where refused by numerous record lables before finally signed to EMI by George Martin.
In 1986 Cisco finally managed to raise funding of $2.5 million from Sequoia Capital after 77 unsuccessful proposals to other venture capitalists. Cisco went IPO on Feb 16th 1990 for USD 18, closing at USD 22.25 on the first day of trading. Since then the share has split a few times and one original share has turned into 288 shares. If you had bought one share at the IPO for it would have been worth around USD 23000 at the peak during the Internet boom and around USD 4900 today.
Is JC going for a new Guinness record?
According to BoozAllen the average tenure of a North American CEO in 2006 was 9.8 years. John Chambers has already beaten that by far. He has gone from clarity to clarity during the over 14 years in the role and successful navigated Cisco through both recessions and hey-days. Moreover, when JC speaks the world listens. Cisco’s peers and competitors watch every move he makes and the governments take his advice.
He has received recognition for his leadership in magazines such as Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People,” one of Barron’s’ “World’s Best CEOs,” the “Best Boss inAmerica” by 20/20, one of BusinessWeek’s “Top 25 Executives Worldwide,” “CEO of the Year” by Chief Executive to name a few. In addition Cisco is one of the top 10 companies to work for in US, UK, Germany, France, India, Australia and several other countries.
The secret to success unveiled
Not really, but the interview with the Washington Post clearly shows two of his key traits – learning agility and the thrive to continually improve. JC talks about leadership, the difficulties of moving such a large corporation from a command and control leadership style to one of coaching, and about his own thrive to become a better leader.
Be inspired!
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator, or simply the MBTI, is one of the most common and widely accepted personality tests on the market.
I’ve done the official test 3 times and various free versions of the test 2-3 times. I’ll share my four letter profile further down.
The objective of the MBTI is to indicate preferred behavior (as opposed to actual behavior). So, what is your natural inclination. In a room full of people you’ve never met before, would you (a) introduce yourself, or (b) wait to be introduced?
You may have a professional role where you’re expected to take the lead and be extrovert so you have conditioned yourself to meet that expectation but is it truly you?
It’s important to remember that the MBTI is, as the name states, an indicator. I would recommend using as a starting point for reflection and conversations around personal development and team building. Don’t treat it as science and don’t make hiring decisions based on the MBTI.
Read about MBTI from the source, the Myers & Briggs Foundation.
The best free online test I’ve come across on the web is from SharedPaths.
So, back to my MBTI type… The first couple of times I did the MBTI I came out as ENTP or INTP with very weak E/I. Now, almost 10 years later I am still pretty neutral on E/I and I still have a strong T: I come out as an ISTJ. How can it be so different? In my early twenties I was probably more answering from what I would like to be whereas I am more true to my natural inclination answering the questions nowadays. Guess that’s what’s called “growing up”.
There’s few things that lead to as much frustrations as misaligned or misunderstood expectations and since it can be so easily avoided don’t even think about it – just be S.M.A.R.T.
S.M.A.R.T is an acronym widely used in all forms of people management with a couple of different read outs, a few examples are:
- Specific, Significant, Simple
- Measurable, Meaningful, Manageable
- Achievable, Attainable, Actionable
- Realistic
- Timebound, Timely, Trackable
I prefer to read it as Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, Timebound.
Follow the S.M.A.R.T. concept and both you (tracking progress against the goal) and the person delivering on the goal will be much happier along the way and in the end.
- Specific: Well defined so it clear to all what should be achieved.
- Measurable: Define how you’re going to measure if the objective is met.
- Agreed: Agree with the person who is going to deliver on the goal and agree who he/she is going to report progress to.
- Realistic: Define the scope and resources so that it’s realistic to achieve the goal. You may need to adjust either the scope or the resources to make the goal realistic. Also agree how you prioritize scope and resources so that should you have challenges along the way you know where to first look to adjust, most commonly: Do you reduce the scope of the deliverable or do you add resources to complete in time?.
- Timebound: Define the deadline and if it’s goal to be achieved over longer time also some milestones for review of progress.
Practically then? I use S.M.A.R.T. as a mental check list. I have tried to use it as table but find it cumbersome and that I often got stuck trying to fill in the table correctly rather than setting the right goals. I have S.M.A.R.T. in mind in every discussion around setting goals, delegation and also accepting goals, projects and activities and carefully check for the five components of S.M.A.R.T. making sure to raise any unclarities before moving on.
Easy and it will spare you alot of headache.
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