“What convinces is conviction!”

LBJ once said, “What convinces is conviction.”   Just back from a tour of colleges, I was struck by just that, as was my 16-year old high school junior.  The information session speakers and tour guides who really, really believed in what they were saying made their sale.  Their prospective customers, in this case, students, left their campuses convinced that they wanted to attend that school and no other! Conversely, the speakers who were just going through the motions left their customers (and their customers’ parents aka check-payers) less than inspired.   The difference was palpable!    No amount of debriefing to discuss a school’s attributes could overcome the impression left by the conviction-less speakers.   The damage was done.  A mini marketing case study!

Clearly, public speakers need to find their conviction.  So do managers whenever they’re kicking off a new project, delegating work or providing feedback.  Flat, less-than-excited, information-only communication leaves your audience — whether seated in a large auditorium, conference room or office — feeling uninspired and unmotivated.  The end-result will be equally uninspired.  

Some of us are overflowing with conviction (which can sometimes be a negative if we close ourselves off to new possibilities or other ways of thinking…but that’s fodder for another blog).  Others are still searching.   There’s no question that it’s worth the effort to discover what excites you, what you believe in to your core, what you feel so strongly that you want to share it with others .

Change is Not Always Good

I like starting my day with a cup of coffee, The Boston Globe and the local news on WCVB-TV followed by Good Morning America or The Today Show.  Later in my office, I read the New York Times online. I subscribe to Time, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Vanity Fair and More — so there’s always a magazine I’m still reading before the next batch arrive in the mail.  I watch the nightly news either live or recorded, and listen to the first few minutes of the 11:00 news before closing my eyes.  

But we we witnessed the end of the Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle Post Intelligencer, we are now anticipating the end of The Boston Globe.  We are told that the tough economy only hastened what was inevitable as fewer and fewer people are reading newspapers, which has drastically reduced much-needed advertising dollars.  

I’m all for change.  I’ve embraced social media.  I can’t imagine living without the internet.  I love searching for any information whenever I want it.  I get some of my news online.  But change is not always good…if this change means losing a major daily newspaper in one of the top media markets.

Open to Options

A recent tweet from @SirHendrix on Twitter correctly suggested that “strategic thinking is thinking in options, not being bound to fixed ideas.”  Yes!  Ironically, I would say the same about creative thinking.  Being open to options, open to possibilities, wondering why, asking “what if?” — all helps us think both more strategically and creatively.  

Sounds so simple, but it takes re-training ourselves away from the quick and easier, template, formulaic, fill-in-the-blanks way in which so many of us think, operate, write, make decisions, plan and manage.  

I work really, really, really hard at considering my options when making decisions vs. reacting with a knee-jerk response (though my two teenagers might say I need to work even harder…)   Years of experience, maturity and wisdom have certainly helped me come to a wide range of fixed ideas.  But, what if….?   What are we really trying to achieve and why?  Have I thought about….? What would Joe or Joanna suggest?  How would it alter my decision-making if I make the problem bigger or narrow the scope?   What’s the most optimistic way to think about potential outcomes, and what is the worst possible thing that could happen?   

We all need to rewire our brains so that we stop and wonder, and resist deferring to the way we’ve always done things.    Experience and accumulated wisdom are invaluable — but we are only at our strategic and creative best when we open ourselves to possibilities we haven’t yet considered!

Unplugging

Yesterday my internet provider challenged me to find ways to be productive without access to e-mail, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or blogs.  As the repairman struggled to find the source of my problem, I confess that I was initially a bit disoriented at being so disconnected.    Of course, I wasn’t completely cut off thanks to my still-working Blackberry so my clients were able to reach me….but my routine wasn’t the same.  Despite my baby boomer status (which means I came later-in-life to the internet and social networking), I love searching online for whatever information I crave about anything or anyone.   For whatever reason, I really like overstuffing my already cluttered brain with the endless knowledge I find thanks to my internet connection.

 Unplugging for a day was an adjustment, but, I’m happy to report that it was a healthy and productive one.   I remembered again how much of my work I do offline, untethered to the outside world via my internet connection.  At least my laptop still worked…At least I wasn’t worried yesterday about the Conficker worm…