One of my favorite take aways from my Influencer Training is Vital Behaviors. Vital behaviors are the smallest set of actions that lead to the results you want. They are the few high-leverage actions that if you keep doing, produce the outcomes you’re after. Vital Behaviors are key to change efforts whether you are trying to change yourself or something larger (your team, your organization, or the world.)

Who doesn’t want more time? We all want more time to do the things we want to do. The reality is, we have to make the most of the time we’ve got. The real problem is we spend time on the wrong things, we do things the least efficient way, or we simply let time expand to fill its container (see Parkinson’s Law.) The real key to improving time management is first changing how you think about your time and taking steps to own how you spend it.

One of my mentors shared a lesson with me from the book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable . His lesson was this: If you miss the train, don’t chase it. Catch the next one. Missing a train is only painful if you run after it.

I was listening to a Tony Robbins Power Talk the other day about guarding your mind. In it, he mentioned a simple formula: (I) X (F) = Personal Reality. I is information and F is focus. In other words, your personal reality is based on the information you focus on. I think the simplest thing to remember is just like you are what you eat, you are the information you feed on.

The six sources of influence model is a powerful model for change. I first learned about the Six Sources of Influence from my Influencer Training at Microsoft. The Influencer Training is based on the book, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything , by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. The more I walk through the model, the more I appreciate it.

Sources of Insight is 10 months old! She’s growing up so fast. (If you ask me, I don’t think she looks a day past 6 months.) What started out as my practice blog is turning out to be my real blog. Anyway, it’s time for a quick check in on results. This is actually a good time for a check in since it’s review time at Microsoft and I’m already reflecting on performance.

I’m going to give you a hat. Whenever you need it, simply put it on. This hat will help you get the best results in your life.

When triggers happen that cause you to react, add a pause, and put on your metaphorical hat of effectiveness. When you put this hat on, you’re shifting gears. You’re shifting from reacting to responding.

At Microsoft, we use the term “frame” or “framing a problem” in the context of project management. You might hear somebody ask, “what’s the frame?” or “how have you framed the problem?” A Frame is simply a way to partition a problem. The heart of a frame is coming up with a context to understand the dimensions that matter and figure out how to prioritize and scope. I use frames a lot here on Sources of Insight to chunk bigger problems down, as well as to organize and share information. It’s a lens.

Do you choose your response or act on impulse? Impulse says, “eat the M&M” or “pull the lever”, or “hit the snooze button.” It feels good in the moment. It’s bad for you in the long run.

This is a follow up to my previous post, Influencer Training Day 1. These are my notes from day 2 of Influencer training. It turned out to be way tougher to write up than I expected. I had a lot of notes and we covered a lot of material and I wanted to boil it down as simply as possible. This is actually my third variation and I think it’s the cleanest so far. Why would I spend so much time trying to get this right? Because I think it’s some of the most powerful information for changing you, your environment, your team, your work, or the world.

This is too cool not to share. During my Influencer training, we watched a video on delaying gratification. Apparently, people that can delay gratification can do better in school, get more promotions, have better relationships and lead a more successful life. Rather than do what they want in the moment, they choose what’s right for the long run. That’s the will part.

In my previous post, I wrote about the power of Hot Spots. In this post, I’ll show you how I apply Hot Spots to life. These are the categories I use for skilled living. This is the big picture. It’s how I chunk up my overall time and energy. There are certain areas in life that if I invest in, I get rewarded. On the other hand, if I ignore these categories, I get penalized.

Hot Spots are a simple approach I use to organize and prioritize where I put my focus. They help me put the spotlight on what’s important. Hot spots are a heat map for my opportunities as well as for my pain or friction. By focusing on the hot spots, I can unleash the best results. The sum is more than the parts. I can use hot spots to identify, clarify, and simplify where to spend my time and energy, before I maximize and optimize. It’s first stepping back far enough so I can see the forest from the trees, but then getting close enough to know the differences that will make the difference. It’s figuring out where my levers are in the system.

I have the privilege of taking some extreme training on influence. It’s a pilot class based on the book, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything. Influence is about changing hearts, minds, and behavior to produce meaningful, sustainable results. The beauty of the model is that it scales up and down from personal life style changes, such as losing weight, to global changes, such as eliminating diseases. I like it because it’s a simple lens to look at those persistent problems where change seems impossible. Rather than bump your head against a glass ceiling or spin your wheels without traction, it’s a systematic approach to diagnose and implement change.

Productivity is a spectrum from day dreamer to achiever. What if we named these various flavors of productivity? Then when you recognize you have the wrong hat on for the job, you can switch hats. For example, maybe you’re thinking “details” when it’s really time for “big picture.” I’m calling these personas, but they’re really just behavior or thinking patterns. I’m highlighting some of the more common personality personas that you’ll easily recognize.

I’ll use personas as a simple way name the different types of behaviors. Anybody can be a mix of some or all of the various personas. No persona is good or bad. Some are more effective than others depending on the situation. The key is to use the personas as a lens on behavior.

Inspire … “To breathe life into” …
… That’s how one of my instructors defined it.  Now, I have a new respect for the word inspire.  I find myself asking, “how do I breath life into others?”
Photo by km33068.

The 20 percent spike is a distinctive strength. It’s unusually powerful. Using your 20 percent spike generates exponential results. It’s a way to amplify your impact and maximize results. My 20 percent spike is information artistry. I use this skill to create, organize, and share complex information in a simple way. At work, it helps me write more effective books. At home, it helps me learn faster and turn insights into action. From a service standpoint, it helps me unleash the best in others.

I’ve been thinking of my life as a business. Without getting too carried away with the analogy – after all, life’s way more than business – it gives me a helpful frame, along with patterns and practices, to draw from. Rather than think of a business that makes money, I think of a business that creates value (the mark of an enduring business.) In this case, value for yourself and others.

Unleash a version of your best self — quickly find your purpose, values, and personal success patterns.

Whenever I hear people debating whether life is an intelligent design or an evolutionary process, I can’t help but think that evolution is an intelligent design! When I think of design, I don’t think of veneer or appearance. Instead, I think of it as the soul of a thing, a sort of creator’s signal of intention.