Most of the times when it comes to a mid-week party I observe that some of my peers follow work hard and party harder style and end up skipping the first session of work the next day or not turn up at all. Indulgence is a key part in everyone’s life, it gives a sense fulfillment and at that moment of gratification the feeling is indescribable. The flip side of indulgence is that after the sense of fulfillment it creates an even more bigger void such the next time we need more of it. I dont know why but our brain and mind always likes to have a negative balance. The moment something is achieved then the bar is raised higher; this is what drives the economies and civilizations, it is deep within us.
Hara Hachi Bu – I came across this term when I was in school reading about why many people in Okinawa, Japan live very long (more than 100 years). I forgot what the term was but the message stayed on my mind. The message was that stop eating if you think you can take one more serving to feel full. The beauty of that message is that it is not true just for eating, it is true for anything we do. If we stop indulging in something before we feel satisfied then the negative balance already exists and there is no compensation done by the body and the mind.
Thanks to the book Presentation Zen, I was able to recall the term again. In the book it is mentioned that the same applies for presentations, finish the presentation at a place where it will leave the audience wanting for more. If done that way, the curiosity will drive people to dive deeper into the subject or to reach back to the presenter. Sports stars also have an unwritten rule that they retire at the peak of their career.
Deferred gratification is the key to help us have a self control. The cause and effect are not immediately related but there are long term case studies like the Standford Marshmallow Experiment which shows that deferred gratification is a good trait for a happy life and career. Hara Hachi Bu.
While playing cricket, it takes some time to get settled into the rhythm of the game and play well as a batsman. One thing I noticed while playing is, as long as I concentrate on my game I continue playing well. The moment I admire my own shot or think that I did better than what I expected, I lose concentration and the performance dips. This was not only evident in cricket, it was more pronounced when I showed up on stage plays at school, it is imperative that I remain focussed till the end of the event.
This began to worry me when presenting to a large audience because I used to feel good that if first part of my presentation went on fine and I would lose focus for few moments before I regain it. Presentations unlike writing takes a lot of preparation and it is one time write only style of delivery. The focus for a presentation should be being present for the entire duration however the presentation turns out to be.
Q. How to stay away from analysis, course correction or recovery thoughts while presenting?
A. Think of worst case scenario – the worst possible thing that can happen is that the presentation can go bad. This will bring focus onto delivering the presentation than analyzing it midway.
Q. What about recoveries from failure? Should not I be prepared for it?
A. Garr Reynolds in his book Presentation Zen talks about how connected we should be with the subject we are talking about, such that we can weave a story around the topic we want to deliver and be able to deliver the talk even without the slides.
Q. How do I know the pulse of the audience?
A. It is better to do some homework about the audience we are delivering the talk to if we are new to presenting than to try to get the pulse of audience during the talk.
Q. How do I get to think about my talk or admire it?
A. Someone in the audience should record it for us to help us retrospect our talk.
Ever wondered that some of the live wires at the office or school were not those kind when they just joined the place. It was something like they were waiting for a tipping point and their activities became live. I randomly selected a ted talk, How bacteria talk. Bonnie Bassler a biochemist, has observed that bacteria cannot turn on their behaviour until there is enough of them. But how does all the single cell animals know how many of them are around? The answer was that each type of bacteria releases a certain signature chemical molecule into their environment, based on the amount of that specific molecule a bacterium receives, they can determine the population density. This is called Quorum sensing which is also evident for insects where we think they could be intelligent but may be that they just rely on the density of their peers around to do certain tasks.
How can this apply to human behaviour? I have been lucky to move to different places and teams almost every year, which has made me observe teams get started and get going. In one of the teams I have been, we did not know that we had good number of musicians to form a band until we had some event coming in the office. The event allowed the release of signaling molecules from individuals searching for people with similar interests.
This is also true to interests in technologies and pursuing hobbies. As the workplace gets bigger it is more difficult to network and find the right group to be in unless there is enough quorum sensing. Just by someone in the team holding a regular weekly get together for a random topic can spark interests and get people to come together and switch to top gear. I observed that a group’s knowledge and skill level gets amplified if there is effective sharing, effective sharing happens only when people come together, people come together only if something is happening and something happens only if someone takes an initiative. We must make sure our workplace is conducive for quorum sensing to make the best use of everyone’s strengths and skills.
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea
Novi's 