The Right Way to Get Your Ideas Heard

The crossing light is already flashing red, reminding you to speed it up. You're in the middle of rush hour, fighting swarms of people, while simultaneously tapping out a message to wrap up that urgent issue back at the office. All around you — hustling and bustling — are people headed to the grocery store, to the gym, to... somewhere.
Nearby, you hear this voice, asking... "Do you have two minutes to...?"
Will you stop to listen? Not very likely, is it?
Work looks a lot like that busy street corner. Hustling to keep up, our colleagues are taking on more and working harder. Even strategic issues are getting shorted; we spend less than two percent of our time discussing strategic issues. Given this context, new ideas have a tough time being heard. It's no wonder that our colleagues resort to some aggressive approaches to get theirs on our radar screens. Here are some that I've seen recently:
Rapid-fire ideas. Don't pause to see if any of them are catching on — just keep going, guns a-blazin'. This is the Rambo approach, akin to Sylvester Stallone armed with the biggest-gun-you-ever-saw delivering a one-man barrage of shock and awe. Carried into work, it suggests that if you just fire off enough ideas, at least one will hit the mark.
Be super-friendly. Recognizing that trust and camaraderie can help get your ideas a moment of consideration, you work the relationships. This is the Sally Field approach (You like me! You really like me!). The problem is that the focus is on the personal relationship, rather than the merit of the idea.
Hijack the discussion. Just as someone else is putting forth an idea, use a contradictory word or phrase, such as "but," "no", or "I disagree." to interject. You could even do it more insidiously by saying "Great idea. We could also try..." As attention swivels in your direction, direct the conversation to your own idea under the guise of adding commentary. While you're at it, affectionately mention some of your previous ideas. This contrarian and dismissive approach — best exemplified for me by the movie critic Roger Ebert — is unfortunately commonplace. While acceptable with professional critics, it's just plain annoying at work.
As much as we'd like to deny we do this, we can at least admit to being tempted to use techniques like these to give our ideas a chance to be heard. Add (in the comments section) your own pet peeves from your work setting, and we'll have good collection of how not to do it. While any of these methods might be successful in the short run, they typically only result in surfacing the idea, which rarely influences others or gets acted upon.
And that is really is the point. Remember that the goal of offering a new idea is to move the organization forward. We want to serve the needed role of protagonist: someone who helps organizations become more competitive because of their ability to name issues, point to new horizons and create solutions. The goal then is to not only speak up but to be heard.
To be heard implies speaking up in such a way that the idea is given a chance to influence the organization and be acted upon. To be effectively heard, you need to recognize the context, plan your approach, and adjust your style to communicate ideas that, with any luck, will connect with the needs of the business.
Let me offer six better techniques to getting your ideas heard:

1. Be an anthropologist. There are so many tools for learning about people — what topics they track, what they value, how they approach their work, their opinions. Figure out what your colleagues care about. If they blog, read 'em. If they tweet, follow 'em. Their LinkedIn.com endorsements also tell a story. Observe, learn what makes them tick, andshape your idea to the receiver's perspective.
2. Have a perspective. Many people show up at meetings unable to offer a well-considered opinion. If you don't have an informed perspective, then you risk being labeled a Doer, someone ill-suited to being a protagonist. Doers don't need seats at the table; no, they can be told what to do via email. When we are working on tough problems — whether it is a new direction or a product or program — we will seek out the folks who are co-thinkers, to become co-creators of our destiny. If you want that role, then come ready to meetings, with a point of view. Sometimes offering a perspective can be as simple as knowing what questions you want to ask.
3. Create relevance. Every argument can benefit from relevant quantitative data. Figure out which facts matter and get 'em. Even in early markets where the data is still fuzzy, you can figure out if something is the size of a breadbox or a Humvee. Real customer stories and anecdotes are great; backing those up with facts is even better.
4. Choose your medium. If these are people who value numbers, use an Excel spreadsheet. If they value good graphics, invest there. Better yet, tell a story that weaves together facts of importance in ways people can get lost in. Facts go in and go out, but ideas that stick always have stories that create meaning and resonance.
5. Answer the question of "why not." When we can understand the risks, flaws and options more fully, we go from being just an advocate of one idea to being an advocate for the organization. Complex issues deserve each of us thinking about them robustly.
6. Be passionate. Our point of view is based on our experiences and observations; your idea may not be something that the rest of the group is thinking about yet. This means you're going to need to explain it to them. If you do it in a way that is about you being in love with the idea rather than about you being right, someone else just might fall in love with that idea, too. Being passionate does not mean having an outburst, but being clear-minded about your approach. A commentator on a recent post, wrote that the the best words are spoken with the most honest, curious (not challenging), and genuine voice. This speaks to a kind of ego-less-ness that is passionate about doing the right thing for the business.

There is a scarily fine line between being perceived as a self-serving scene-stealer vs. someone with valid ideas that need to be considered for the good of the organization. To be a protagonist, you've got to not only speak up and be heard, but to do it in a way that advances the organization's goals. That's the difference between street corner chaos and actually being heard.

Transparency and Mergers

When it comes to business growth, I have learned that communication is tantamount to internal and external success, especially when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. A merger or acquisition is a
sensitive process for all parties involved. Misinformation can abound, egos can be bruised and business relationships can be damaged.

In my experience, implementing a transparent communications program ensures that employees and the marketplace understand exactly how the deal will affect them. Without transparency, employees and stakeholders can lose confidence in the company. A flawless response time and communication routes are just as crucial when it comes to easing the concerns of employees, investors, vendors, customers and even the media. Here are some other lessons I learned:

Quick, Precise Response
When it comes to mergers, I make it a point to anticipate and respond to rumors as soon as a deal seems imminent. I do this by immediately identifying “key messages” that contain useful and comprehensive information. Initiating a proactive strategy—which includes face-to-face meetings with those most affected by the deal—a schedule of updates and a plan for eleventh-hour changes is
also essential when it comes to creating a smooth transition process.
To ensure the transition is unaffected by exigent circumstances, I identify communication vehicles that will effectively reach my target audiences. More importantly, I establish a plan for which communication routes should be employed first. Nothing is worse than having employees find out about a major change in the company from acquaintances. These concerns should be addressed long before the rumor mill kicks into action.

Internal Communications
When announcing a merger or acquisition, I try my best to provide accurate information and avoid making promises I can’t keep. Falsely assuring employees that jobs will not be lost is detrimental to the mergers and acquisitions process, as well as overall operations, employee morale and business. If time is taken to discuss the deal’s benefits and drawbacks, employees are more likely to respond positively instead of resisting change.
Over the years, I have found that employees expect straightforward and honest information; that’s no different when it comes to mergers or acquisitions. I try to anticipate questions that may arise and have a solid answer prepared for each. What’s more, I do my best to ensure that regular updates are communicated through management, Q&A sessions, staff meetings, company newsletters and e-mails.

External Communications
Alerting employees is not the end of my responsibilities. Stakeholders, customers, vendors, community members and other key audiences hold specific interests in a company. Utilizing media relations throughout the mergers and acquisition process can help me reach out to these groups. Furthermore, communicating with key media outlets offers a means for publicizing a name change, reducing customer loss and launching new market and/or services announcements. Fostering this relationship also allows me to better control the message that is being communicated about the company.
All in all, I’ve found that the perfect mix of internal and external communication plans involves implementing communications quickly, using all available communication routes and delivering clear and accurate messages. Companies that make communications plans a priority during a merger or acquisition will emerge from the process as an organization that stakeholders, employees and the media can trust. And trust is what good business is all about.

Hidden Meanings of gestures

Hidden Meanings

Watch what you say! A simple hand gesture could land you in a world of trouble. Here the thumbs up sign means "good going! " But in Bangladesh it's a taunt, and in other Islamic countries, it's the equivalent of an upraised middle finger. Finger Beckoning. Here we sometimes hail a waiter with index finger slightly raised and thumb loosely extended. In Japan it's rude to beckon a waiter if you motion with the index finger. And in Germany the waiter might well respond by bringing you two more drinks. "V" for Victory. It can mean "victory" or "peace," but in Britain if the palm faces inward, it's a taunt, especially if executed with an upward jerk of the fingers. As the story goes, over 650 years ago, the French disabled the English archers they captured in battle by cutting off their middle and index fingers. After the battles of Agincourt and Crecy, where the French were heavily defeated, the triumphant English gloated over their French prisoners by holding up their hands, first two fingers upright, palm inward, to show both fingers fully intact. Hands in Pockets. Think you can save yourself a load of trouble by shoving your hands in your pockets? Think again. Keeping one's hands in one's pockets while conversing is impolite in Indonesia, France and Japan.  Tapping Forehead With Fore-finger. It may mean "smart," but in Holland, tapping the centre of the forehead means "he's crazy." In Argentina our sign for "he's crazy" (circling a forefinger next to the ear) could be confused with their signal for "You have a telephone call." The A-Okay. Joining the thumb and index finger in a circle is an insult in many Latin American countries. When Richard Nixon was vice president, he is reported to have greeted a crowd south of the U.S. border with a double A-Okay sign. Imagine the reaction! A Frenchman reads the A-Okay gesture as meaning "zero" or "worthless." Stop Sign. Extending one hand, palm forward, means "stop!" right? In Greece it's the moutza, or hand push, which is a common sign of confrontation. And in West Africa the gesture is even more insulting than the upraised middle finger. Hook 'Em Horns. The pinkie and index finger raised up and the two middle fingers folded down is beloved of fans of the University of Texas Longhorns, but in parts of Africa this is a curse. And for millions of Italians it is the cornuto, signalling "Your spouse is being unfaithful." Yet in Hawaii raising the pinkie and thumb means "hang loose."

DIFFERENT MEANINGS

In Japan, you nod your head in agreement; your host smiles and thinks you're paying attention. In Egypt, you shake your head in disagreement; your host frowns and wonders why you don't understand. In Mexico, don't call her senora, which can imply aging; call her senorita. In Zimbabwe, don't ask, "Is it far?"; out of courtesy people will answer, "Not far." (Be specific and ask, "How long does it take by foot?") <> Beware what you offer your host. Pass up chrysanthemums in Argentina and Balkan (they denote funerals), clocks in China (the written characters resemble those for death) and red pens in South Korea (red ink conveys unfriendliness).  In Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries, eat and drink with your right hand; the left is considered unclean. Your mother was right. Don't point. But if in Singapore you must, use your thumb, not your forefinger, lest it be taken as an insult or obscenity. In Malaysia, curling the index finger is considered very rude. Scratching the air would be preferable for calling over a waiter. In Russia, don't shake hands across a threshold; it might invite bad luck. In Buddhist lands like Burma, don't pat a child on the head; it's the spiritually highest part of the body.

Have you hugged anyone lately?

You may laugh off the predilection of the psychiatry community in the USA for coining names such as dance or walk therapies, which are based, on pure common sense or on practices that have always been around in various cultures. But then you may feel like giving them a hug. For by calling it a therapy, giving it a name, and ardently promoting it, they often manage to create awareness about a healthy and wholesome habit that is endangered by the bustle of modern life. Hug therapy is a typical example.

Big deal, you say, when you hear the term for the first time. But try to recollect the last time you hugged somebody or somebody hugged you. In all likelihood, it was too long ago. Worse, the answer may be 'never' if you are the kind who flinches from physical contact.

So what are we missing out on?

Reaching out and touching someone, and holding him tight—is a way of saying you care. Its effects are immediate: for both, the hugger and the person being hugged, feel good. Touch is an important component of attachment as it creates bonds between two individuals. Hugging is simply a natural expression of showing that you love and care.

"Cuddling and caressing make the growing child feel secure and is known to aid in self-esteem," agrees Dr Bhagat, a psychiatrist. The tactile sense is all-important in infants. A baby recognizes its parents initially by touch. Malkani points out cultural variations pertaining to hugging: in the West, hugging a friend of the opposite sex is common, while in the East you see more physical contact between friends of the same sex.

Hugging comes naturally to Kajal Basu,a journalist. "It loosens you up and breaks the bonds of body as well as of society. The more ritualistic ways of greeting people, handshakes and namastes, are designed to keep us apart rather than bring us together," he argues.

R. Chandran, a reiki master based in Mumbai, India, says that hugging is a tool of transformation. "Hugging brings people closer to each other. If your relationship with somebody is not working, try hugging him 20 times a day and there will be a significant difference," he guarantees. Comparing hugging to reiki , the currently popular touch therapy based on the transfer of energy, he says the area of touch is much larger in the case of hugging and the contact is much more intimate, so the effects are subtler.

Touch has come full circle in the West this century. Time was when parents and hospitals were advised to leave a crying baby alone. Today the pediatricians and psychologists tell us to pick up and cuddle our children. Toys, even teddy bears, whose use has been increasing in the recent decades, are a poor substitute for the human contact needed by children.

Hugging is being used even as an aid in treating some physical illnesses, following research that it leads to certain positive physiological changes. For example, touch stimulates nerve endings, thereby helping in relieving pain . It is thus not uncommon for a chronic pain patient to be prescribed "Therapeutic touch" which involves placing the hands on or just above the troubled area in the patient's body for half-an-hour (shades of reiki). This pushes up the hemoglobin levels in the blood, increasing the delivery of blood to tissues, a study at the nursing department of New York University showed. Some nurses' associations in the USA have since endorsed therapeutic touch.

Any health problem makes the sufferer feel vulnerable, frightened, angry, frustrated and helpless. The patient usually needs to educate himself to make certain life changes. Hugging can give him the positive emotional state necessary to make these changes. In one study, pet ownership was seen to contribute to the survival of heart patients. The inference: the cuddling of pets has a soothing effect that reduces the stress levels in heart attack victims. 

 START HUGGING SOMEONE TODAY! =)

Who can you trust? Who do you believe in?

Are the people around you Unreliable? He/she can be your friend, staff or boss.
With these tips, you will never look at people the same way again. 

 

Stay away from people who have the following characteristics:

1. Continually touching his/her mouth unintentionally = liar. 
2. When he/she smiles, his/her mouth becomes uneven = cannot keep promise.
3. Sharp ear like Peter Pan = wicked hearted.
4. Sharp pointed nose = calculative and immoral person.
5. No eyebrow = Man is the only living thing that has eyebrows. If the person is without any eyebrow, he/she is clever but cunning.
6. Exposed jaw bone underneath the ear = no sense of gratitude.
7. Normally, people without pearl earlobes are ruthless people. They are unable to agree to you easily.
8. Protruding bones above the eyebrows = very demanding of themselves and they are very strong opinionated. If the bones are too protruding, the person is very short tempered.
9. Crooked nose = cunning and dishonest man.
10. If lips are too thin, he/she loves to tell lie.
11. Triangular eyes = want to take advantages from others. A lot of criminals have these eyes.
12. When he/she talks, the movement of his/her hands is significant = short tempered.
13. When he/she talks, he/she likes to hold his/her hands together and move about = cunning.
14. Upper part of the body is longer than the bottom part = lazy.
15. Eyebrows are too thick and too black = arrogant and short tempered.
16. If the cheeks of your staff are very high, be careful. He/she will overrule you one day. Cheek represents will-power.
17. Big mouth and cannot close firmly when he/she is not talking = liar.
18. Small mouth with thin lips = irresponsible man.
19. Bony face without much meat = immoral.
20. When he/she talks, you can only see his/her teeth at the bottom = liar. A lot of politicians have this type of mouth.
21. A lot of gaps in between the teeth = liar. Also, this type of people cannot save much money.
22. He/she cannot see eye to eye with you when you talk to him/her = liar.
23. Uneven teeth = liar.

*It may not be always right, it's just for your reference.

Older but Not Wiser? The Psychology Behind Seniors' Susceptibility to Scams

New studies help explain why, despite having more experience, senior citizens often make unprofitable financial choices.

The invitations come in the mail, covered in large print: "Investment Workshop—Free Gourmet Lunch!" "Avoid the Biggest Financial Mistakes Seniors Make!" "Protect Your Financial Security!"

At the lunch, the salmon is accompanied by an investment pitch, with reminders that "there's a high rate of return," and "only a few opportunities are left."

Many of these free lunch seminars are scams aimed at retirees. Nearly six million seniors have attended such seminars in the past three years, the senior advocacy group AARP estimates—although conventional wisdom says that there's no such thing as a free lunch. Despite their years of experience, however, older people are more likely to err in their financial decisions by overemphasizing potential benefits and downplaying potential risks. Now insights from psychology, economics and neuroscience may help us understand why and how those errors occur.

Older adults aren't as upset by possible financial losses as young people are, psychological research has shown, and Stanford University researchers found in a recent brain-imaging study that seniors' brains don't anticipate a loss as much as younger ones do. That might be leading them to make less rational—and therefore less profitable—choices. But the news isn't all bad; a better understanding of why these mistakes happen may make it easier to prevent them.


How aging affects financial choices
Economists have studied how aging impacts real-life financial behavior. Harvard University economist David Laibson and his colleagues looked at a variety of choices people make about loans and credit cards, in a study in 2009. They found that people on the younger and older ends of the age spectrum ended up making more mistakes—that is, decisions that cost them money—than did middle-aged people. For home equity loans, for instance, 25-year-olds and 80-year-olds had loans with annual percentage rates of about 6 percent; 50-year-olds had rates of 5.5 percent. On average, across the different types of choices, people made the fewest mistakes at age 53.

Good financial choices require both strategy and execution, an understanding of how financial systems work, and the mental acuity to find and choose the best option. Strategy becomes easier with age, Laibson suggests, but the execution gets harder. "Experience brings improvement," he says, "but after a point, that accumulation of experience starts to get overwhelmed by decline of cognitive function."

This hypothesis matches up with what psychologists know about cognitive aging. "There's a pretty straightforward story," says Scott Huettel, a cognitive neuroscientist who studies decision-making and aging at Duke University's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. "More or less all of our cognitive abilities decline throughout the life span." A large body of research has shown that a wide variety of skills, including memory, analytical reasoning and processing speed, decrease as we age. The one thing that stays constant or even increases, Huettel says, is crystallized intelligence, a person's accrued knowledge about the world—in other words, experience.

But it's not just memory and reasoning that matter. "We use our gut feelings and our emotions to guide us to make decisions," says Mara Mather, a psychologist who studies aging, emotion and memory at the University of Southern California School of Gerontology. Contrary to stereotype, older people generally feel more optimistic than young people do, and are more likely to focus on the potential upsides of a situation. As people age and begin to feel that their time is limited, some researchers suggest, they seek out emotional fulfillment. This tendency to focus on the positive changes the decisions older people make.

Brain changes and bank changes

The Stanford team of psychologists and neuroscientists, meanwhile, are studying how those cognitive and emotional effects of aging play out in the brain during financial decision-making. Functional brain imaging can be notoriously difficult to interpret on its own, but combined with behavioral research, it may help researchers answer the question: As people age, what changes in the brain are tied to less change in the bank?

It's important to note that increased activity in a particular brain area doesn't mean that area is making people think or feel a certain way. Brain imaging lets neuroscientists associate a mental activity—like a thought or a feeling—and a brain region. The data do not inform on causation, but when brain scans are matched up with behavioral results, they can help scientists suss out which brain areas play a role in that thought process or emotion.

The researchers found that younger and older adults felt equally good when expecting a gain, and they showed the same increase in activity in the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain important in anticipating rewards.

When expecting a loss, however, younger and older adults responded differently. Younger adults reported being more upset and showed higher blood flow in the insula, a part of the brain implicated in negative emotions. As the amount of money at stake increased, so did negative feelings and insula activation. The older adults, on the other hand, didn't feel as bad as younger adults did, and showed less activation in the insula.This doesn't mean that older people don't care if they lose money.Rather, it shows their bias toward the positive at work in their brains.They weren't getting as anxious about the prospect of losing money as the younger adults were.

Whereas looking on the bright side is emotionally beneficial, it has drawbacks in financial decision-making, when it's important to consider possible losses. Think of the "high rate of return" promised at the lunch seminar. Sounds great, but big returns usually require big risks. If they're not worrying about those risks, the seniors at that seminar might be more likely to sign up, even if the investment isn't a good one overall. The same could be true for a range of financial decisions. Seniors might shrug off a credit card's high interest rates, for instance, if they're focused on a program that offers great rewards.

The risks of random choices
In a more recent study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience in January 2010, Samanez-Larkin and the other researchers asked younger and older adults to participate in an investment game, again while in an MRI machine. On each turn, people could choose among two types of stock, randomly deemed either "good" or "bad" by a computer, and a bond, which always yielded $1. The participants, however, were not informed which stocks the computer labeled bad or good. Whereas the good stock yielded a $10 gain half the time, 25 percent of the time it would yield nothing, and in the remaining percentage, a $10 loss. For the bad stock, the probabilities of gain and loss were reversed, with a loss occurring half the time, etcetera. People weren't told the outcomes of each stock after each turn, but deduced them as the game went on—much the way people pick stocks to invest in based on past performance.

The researchers found that older people were just as skilled as younger people at balancing the safe bonds with the riskier stocks. In other words, they didn't make many mistakes because they acted in a risk-averse manner, as is often assumed of older people.

But when it came to choosing between the good and bad stocks, older people were significantly more likely to choose the bad one than younger people were. Before making a risky decision, all subjects showed increased activation in the nucleus accumbens, the same region that was activated by expecting a gain in the previous study. Now they were expecting the reward of a risky, but ultimately profitable, choice. But in older adults this pre-risk activity in the nucleus accumbens was much noisier, with more variability in its strength and timing.

This variability in nucleus accumbens activity could be linked to difficulty in picking the right stock, says Brian Knutson, a Stanford neuroscientist working on the study who researches emotion and decision-making. Older people "might be choosing more randomly when they take risks," due to fuzzier signals in the nucleus accumbens that don't clearly differentiate the good stock from the bad.

Anyone who invests in the stock market takes on some risk, but they generally do it expecting to make a profit. This study suggests it can be particularly hard for older people to differentiate profitable risks from unprofitable ones. Even if their current, more conservative portfolios will probably earn more than the new investment being touted at the lunch seminar, older people might be more ready to risk them after being misinformed by scammers because they are too optimistic about the chances of profitable returns on risky investments.

But a clearer understanding of the obstacles to good financial decision-making that older people face suggests some ways to clear the path.  Providing clear information about the average payout of a stock—which many investment companies do—can help older people tell goods risks from bad, Knutson says. If older people know they're prone to focus on the upside of their financial decisions, taking the time to think carefully about possible losses might help them avoid costly choices. And since they're more likely to err, older people can benefit from listening to a trusted advisor before making big financial decisions—and, perhaps, by throwing out any free lunch invitations that come in the mail, or at least attending and ignoring the scammers' pitch while eating lunch on their dime.