Assessing and Developing Self as a New Product - 2013 (2) (1)

7/28/2019 Assessing and Developing Self as a New Product - 2013 (2) (1)

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Self-Study Project for MBA Seniors:

Appraising and Repositioning Self as a New ProductOzzie Mascarenhas SJ

AIMIT, January 21, 2013

Assess who you are, where you are, what you are, and why you are what you are and where you are, and

then you can map youre your entire future with much creativity, imagination, designful thinking, andexperimentation. In appraising and repositioning self as a brand new product for final permanent

placement (PP), each of us should remember and apply the following celebrated propositions:

Imagination is more important than knowledge(Albert Einstein). You cant depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus(Mark Twain). Imagination is the beginning of creation: you imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and

at last you create what you will(George Bernard Shaw) Discontent is the first step in the progress of man or a nation (Oscar Wilde 1854-1900) Its not what you dont know that hurts you; its what you do know that aint so (Will Rogers). If a man begins with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts hewill end with certainties- Francis Bacon Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts(Albert

Einstein).

In the industrial education system, argue Ackoff and Greenberg (2008), the right subject skills must bemastered in the right way and at the right time, with codes of well-defined, acceptable modes of public

behavior. One could see the impact of this mechanized system in the B-schools. Students and professorschallenging the B-school official curriculum could be labeled as unorthodox and mavericks. The dominant

form of learning in business schools, purged from rewards and punishments (e.g., grades and ranks) must gobeyond the instruction in yesterdays skills to learning through self-exploration and other self-motivatedactivities. Creative and innovative forays into physical, intellectual and spiritual territories, not encompassed

by the current official MBA curriculum, should be encouraged and recognized. The self Assessment and

Repositioning Project (SARP) outlined here is a venture into self-exploration and self-motivation. SARP is acreative and innovative foray into physical, intellectual and spiritual territories, not encompassed by thecurrent official MBA curriculum

With courses in Critical Thinking, Systems-Thinking, Creativity and Innovation Management and CorporateEthics, not to speak of other MBA Courses and their assignments, the AIMIT MBA senior should be able to

undertake this self-assessment and self-repositioning project as a preparation for BCP and PP. Accordingly,this self-assessment and self-repositioning project theSARP has two parts: a) Part I: Appraising Selfas aBrand New Product in Process or work-in-progress, and b) Part II: Repositioning Yourself as a Brand NewProduct.

Part I: Appraising Selfas a Brand New Product in ProcessThis is an introspective self-assessment project. In assessing yourself be open, sincere, as objective andself-critical as possible, gentler on yourself but less self-defensive. Consider yourself as an ideated,conceived, designed, carefully crafted, packaged (occasionally programmed and conditioned), trained and


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developed over the past years of your life. Apply the four P's of marketing to yourself: PRODUCT,PROMOTION, PRICE, AND PLACE.

1. Understand Yourself As A Product In Process:

A.

Review your roots and beginnings: infancy, upbringing, nursery and kindergarten experiences,primary, junior and senior high school years. "The Child is the Father of the man." Which of theseroots and beginnings most define you, constrain or restrain you, uplift you, empower you, and bless

you?

B. Analyze yourself as a PRODUCT IN FORMATION, and fill the 9 cells of the episodic self-analyticmatrix inTable 1:

Episodic scripts are narratives of significant and memorable events, indelibly carved in your memory;they describe the major turning points of your life that have tremendously formed and shaped you during

that stage of life. Such episodes can be inputs, processes, and outputs.

Typical episodic inputs are parents, siblings, neighbors, peers, friends, teachers, places, gifts, possessions,books, money, investments, jobs, wealth or poverty, health or sickness, and the like.

Typical process episodes are: kindergarten learning, primary and secondary schooling, undergraduateand graduate learning, sports and athletic programs, physical fitness and other body-mind-spirit-matter

development projects, new skills planning, new skills achievement processes, career-mapping, career-

planning, your first job, dating, moonlighting, your second job, migrating to other states, romance,

marriage, parenting, and the like.

Typical output episodes are: knowledge, skills, talents, competencies, values, achievements,accomplishments, health, habits, looks, interests, income, wealth, home, spouse, children, wisdom, joy,

peace and happiness.

Gnoti Seauton: Know Thyself

This is the hardest project of our life. Sigmund Freud argued that despite decades of years we live withourselves, we hardly know 30% of ourselves by the time we die. That is, 70% of our unique,irreplaceable, ir-repeatable and irreversible self gets buried with us unrealized and untapped. Thefollowing sets of 9 major and 136 sub-questions may help you define and find yourself:

Major Questions?

Who am I?What am I?Where am I?When am I?With whom am I?Why am I?How am I?Through whom am I?How often am I?

Who am I?

1. Am I my good (first) name?2. Am I my last (surname) name?3. Am I my parents? My father? My Mother? My siblings?


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4. Am I my grandparents, uncles, aunts, or other relatives?5. Am I just a number?6. Am I a registration number, my PIO card #, my Passport #, or my credit card #?7. Am I a wealth # such as lakhpati, a crorepati, a millionaire, a billionaire?8. Am I my possessions? My motor bike? My car? My home? My wealth?9. Am I my degrees? My education? My talent? My skills?10. Am I my achievements? My accomplishments? My investments?11. Am I my problems or my solutions?12. Am I my errors or my mistakes?13. Am I my successes or my failures?14. Am I fame or my shame?15. Am I me, my ego, myself?16. Am I a fake? Am I a mask? Am I authentic me?17. Am I mirror image of myself?18. Am I wishful image of myself?19. Am I a desirable image of myself?20. Am I a hateful image of myself?21. Am I a faceless image of myself?

What am I?

22. What is my self-identity? My self-image?23. Am I maya? An illusion? A hallucination? A dream?24. Am I real? My real very self? Am I proud of myself?25. Do I really exist? Whats my existence?26. What is my human person? My personality? My character?27. How do I define myself? Classify myself? Categorize myself?28. How do I describe myself? How do I label myself?29. How do I brand myself?30. Am I a body? A piece of matter?31. Am I my length (my height)?32. Am I my breadth (my girth, my weight)? My torso?33. Am I my color?34. Am I just my looks? My just my awesome body? My dainty looks?35. Am I my hair? My well-groomed hair? My unkempt hair?36. Am I my beard? My French beard? My Italian mustache?37. Am I My eyes? My face? My best picture?38. Am I my voice? My sound?39. Am I my power? My muscle? My bravado?40. Am I my audacity? My bravery? My fortitude?41. Am I a soul? A spirit? Am I a breath (of God)?42. Am I my mind? My knowledge? My intelligence?43. Am I my experience? My intuition? My insight? My wisdom?44. Am I my unconscious? My Preconscious? My conscious? (Sigmund Freud)45. Am I my conscience?46. Am I my consciousness? My conscientiousness?

Where am I?


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47. Where was I born?48. Why was I born here and not there?49. Where am I now?50. Why am I here and not there?51. Where is my residence? What is my residence?52.

Who is my neighbor?53. What is my neighborhood?

54. What is my state?55. Why was I born in this state? And not that state?56. What is my geography?57. What is my country?58. Why was I born in this country? And not that country?59. What is my citizenship? Why not that?

When am I?

60. When was I born?61. Why was I born then and not now?62. Why was I born this day? And not that day?63. Why was I born this hour? And not that hour?64. Why was I born this month? And not that month?65. Why was I born this year? And not that year?66. Why was I born this decade? And not that decade?67. Why was I born this century? And not that century?68. Why was I born this millennium? And not that millennium?

With whom am I?

69. Who is my father? Who is my mother?70. Who is my brother? Who is my sister?71. Who are my maternal grandparents?72. Who are my paternal grandparents?73. Who are my classmates? My soul-mates?74. Who are my friends? My buddies?75. Who are my enemies? My arch enemies?76. Who are my workmates? My team mates?

Why am I?

77. Why do I exist?78. Why did I come into this world?79. Why was I brought to this world?80. Why did God create me?81. Why did God create me in his own image and likeness?82. What is the focused purpose of my life and living?83. Is my life purpose-driven day after day?84. Do I live for Christ? Do I die for Christ?85. Why and what have I done for Christ?86. Why and what am I doing for Christ now?87. What should I do for Christ in the future?


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How am I?

88. How do I live? How do I act?89. How healthy am I?90. How vigorous am I?91. How venturesome am I?92.

How sensitive am I?

93. How helpful and neighborly am I?94. How accountable am I?95. How responsible am I?96. How committed am I?97. How do I learn?98. How do I plan?99. How do I plan career mapping?100. How do I find myself thinking?101. How do I find myself thinking better?102. How do I find myself thinking and doing?103. How do I find myself thinking. doing and achieving?104. How do I find myself thinking, acting, and becoming?105. How do I find myself thinking, acting, becoming, and being?

Through whom am I?

106. Whence am I?107. Who conceived me?108. Who bore me in her womb?109. Who molded me, carved me, shaped and sized me?110. Who held me in her palm?111. Through whom am I what I am?112. Through whom do I say what I say?113. Through whom am I doing what I am doing?114. Through whom am I becoming what I want to become?115. Through whom am I growing and maturing as I should?116. Through whom do I find fulfillment?117. Through whom do I find self-actualization?118. Through whom do I find happiness and peace?

How often am I?

119. How often am I myself?120. How often am I my real self?121. How often do I fake myself? Mask myself?122. How often do I find myself doing things that I shouldnt do?123. How often do I find myself in places I shouldnt be?124. How often do I find myself with people I shouldnt be?125. How often do I find thinking thoughts I shouldnt think?126. How often do I find saying things I shouldnt say?127. How often do I find judging people I shouldnt judge?128. How often do I find myself condemning people I shouldnt condemn?129. How often do I find myself hurting people I shouldnt hurt?130. How often do I find cheating people I shouldnt cheat?


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131. How often do I find myself not forgiving people I should forgive?132. How often do I find myself not giving people what I owe them?133. How often do I find myself loving people whom I dislike?134. How often do I find myself generous to the poor and the marginalized?135. How often do I find myself helping the sick and the handicapped?136. How often do I find myself helping the elderly and the dying?

2. Price Yourself as a Product in the Current Market Place:Your price is a function of your current attributes, features, benefits, and values. Assess your value added(e.g., EVA, MVA) from infancy to the present. What immediate and future value/benefits can youremployer (or self, if self-employed) expect and harvest from you? Evaluate yourself as a brand new

product-in-process. How do you rate yourself (0 = worst, 10 = best) on the following twelve chain-values?

YOUR NATURAL ENDOWNMENTS:

1.

PHYSIOLOGICAL: e.g., PQ - physical fitness, height, weight, health, temperance, stamina, looks,fortitude, audacity, bravery,

2. PSYCHOLOGICAL: e.g., instincts, drives, mien and manners, imagination, intuition, character features,personality traits, temperament, ...

3. SOCIOLOGICAL: e.g., culture, caste, creed, ethnicity, nationality, social status, family heritage, socialinheritance, ....

YOUR NATURAL ATTRIBUTES:

1. AFFECTIVE: EQ - perceptions, awareness zones, moods, emotions, feelings, beliefs, attitudes, sensitive,conscientious, compassionate, ...

2. COGNITIVE: IQ, conceptual skills, reading skills, conceptualizing skills, problem identification-formulation-specification skills, problem-alternative-solutions investigation skills, theorizing skills,

research skills, research methodology skills, hypothesizing skills, questionnaire designing skills, scaledevelopment skills, data analytical and synthetic skills, consultancy skills, ...

3. ACTIVE : maturity, commitment, dependability, responsibility, accountability, work-capacity, team-working skills, relationship skills, endurance, perseverance, stress-coping skills, authority, leadership,

followership, loyalty, ....

YOUR ACQUIRED FEATURES:

1. PHYSICAL : strength, stamina, work-capacity, endurance, temperance, stamina, looks, fortitude,audacity, bravery, ...

2. SOCIAL: loving, personal, interpersonal, friendly, loyal, trustworthy, civility, citizenship, sociallyresponsible, ecologically responsible, ...

3. SPIRITUAL: SQ - faith, hope, altruistic love, humanitarian, religious beliefs, spiritual values, cardinalvirtues, prayer,

YOUR CORPORATE VALUES:


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1. ERGONOMIC-ETHIC: work-ethic, technical knowledge, expertise, experience, team-work, retraining toupdate skills, corporate social responsibility, moral values, ...

2. EXECUTIVE : temperance, prudence, honesty, integrity, efficiency, effectiveness, charisma, leadership, ...3. INNOVATIVE: creative, inventive, innovative, venturesome, proactive and daring.

3. PLACING YOU AS A BRAND NEW PRODUCT IN THEMARKETPLACE:

Where do you place yourself? Which industry? Which product or service line? In which company?Which country? Which state? Which city? Which department? What job-designation?

How have you placed yourself thus far? How have you represented your job skills, competencies,weaknesses, experiences, expertise, knowledge, track record, ...? Have you under-marketed yourself?

Or, over-marketed yourself? Have you overextended yourself? Do you market yourself dynamically,objectively, and honestly?

Analyze and assess your placement strategies thus far by benefits obtained, promotions realized,accomplishments achieved, recognitions received, skills developed, endurance-tested, coping skills

practiced, earned income, wealth accumulated, new values internalized, ethical and moral values lived,and religious values witnessed.

Do you consider yourself as a multiple product, positioned along many product lines? If so, undertakesome BCG product-portfolio analysis of yourself? Consult the BCG matrix inTable 2:

Thus, what part of you represents the "cash cow" (low growth, high RMS SBU (strategic business unit) in

you and why)?What part of you represents the "stars" (high growth, high RMS SBU in you and why)?What part of you represents the "problem child" (high growth, low RMS SBU in you and why)?What part of you represents the "dogs" (low growth, low RMS SBU in you and why)?

Cross-check your analysis with your significant other. Are they marked departures from how you seeyourself? Or, how do you want to be seen by others? How do they see your "stars," or "cash cows," or"dogs," or "problems"?Table 3may help you in this regard.

In this context, what is your self-concept? Ones self-concept is ones self-perception formed a) throughones experience with and interpretation of ones environment, b) influenced by reinforcements andevaluations from significant others, and c) ones attributions for ones own behavior. Ones self concepthas normally the following features:

DESCRIPTIVE: I tend to describe myself with usual descriptors (e.g., I am happy; I am satisfied; Iam contended; I am fulfilled);

EVALUATIVE: I tend to assess myself with various evaluators such as: I did well in school; I didwell in college; I did well in my neighborhood; I did well among my peers; I am successful in this

company,

DIFFERENTIATED: My self-concept is positively and significantly different from other self-relatedconstructs such as personal accomplishment, academic achievement, industry success, group success,

.


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ORGANIZED: I tend to structure and categorize the vast amount of information I have of myselfinto categories and relate categories to one another.

MULTIFACETED: Many categories structure my self-concept (e.g., I am my father, I am mygrandmother, my uncle, my coach, my professor, my profession, my failure, .);

categories increase as we grow from infancy to maturity, or may decrease, and the self-concept

simplifies after retirement.

HIERARCHICAL: my self-concept categories are hierarchized, each conditioning and defining theother.

STABLE: In general, ones self-concept is stable over time, unless one descends the hierarchy to livesituation-specific life that makes the self-concept unstable.

4. HOW WOULD YOU PROMOTE YOURSELF?

Knowing what you are, your worth, your added-value, your attributes, features, benefits and values, howwould you promote yourself to prospective employers? Assess your strengths and weaknesses in relationto your major peer-competitors. The matrix inTable 4may help your self-assessment.

Part II:Repositioning Yourself As A

Brand New Product

Imagination is imaging the future that you do not see but which you can influence right now. Once youhave decided on your target future, you need to figure out how to get there and how you will know when

you have gotten there. Moreover, how will you know you have arrived there, if you do not know how itlooks like? That is the purpose of productive imaginative thinking.

One way of reaching your target future is your imagining it now; by painting and canvassing a compelling

picture of what the target future might be; by establishing criteria that will help your determine whetherthe solution (means) you have chosen now will help you get there. Figure 1 captures this dynamic.Thus:

Given your self-assessment under Part I, what are your plans for the future? Say, what would you like to be in the next five years, next ten years, or in fifteen years? Why? How do you get there? What are your options to reach there? How would you know when you reach there? When and how would you stop and re-gear yourself for the next sets of years and strategies?

Assume you are at point A in 2013 and want to be at point B (your targeted future) in 2018. How do you

plan to get to B in 2018? As inscribed inFigure 1

, you may choose a linear incremental path AB, or azigzag path ACDB or a curvilinear path AEB, or any other paths or their combinations. The choice ofeach path for reaching your targeted future images a different growth strategy.

But what is A? How do you define A? Hence, describe the criteria of performance whereby you assessedwhere you are now at A, and applying the same or different success or performance criteria describe and


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imagine how your criteria will help you get to point B, your targeted future. Using Part I of SARP youshould be more or less able to measure your point A your balanced scorecard thus far. Table 5 is onemethod your current status A.

Do not imagine reaching B is going to be easy. Your colleagues will resist change by severalinterventions such as: It will never work. Things are fine now, why change? We will never get

there! or Why go to B, settle to something more practical.

Behaviors, individual or group, are like organisms in an ecosystem. They have an inexorable urge tosurvive. Behaviors such as feigned compliance, passive aggression, subversion, hibernation to overtresistance, seduction, and active aggression help us to thwart our extinction.

No matter how undesirable or dysfunction the present is, no matter how compelling the reasons are fordesirable change, most people and organizations would rather wring out the old than ring in the new. Old

behaviors are hard to kill. In general, individuals, groups, and organizations are very comfortable withtheir patterns and routines, and their so called best practices. After all, we have spent long years

developing them; its only natural we cling to them for security. We like a secure patterned life thatrepeats old ways of seeing and old ways of doing things. The more insecure we are, the stronger the

gravitational pull of the past. As a result, even the most well-intentioned and well-conceived changeinitiatives simply do not stick. The only way you can escape this gravitational tug or pull of the past is byimagining a compelling future (Hurson 2008: 129).

Your Position on the Market-Newness and High-Tech Capacity Grid

Consider the market-newness and human-resource-technology-newness matrix in Table 5:

How do you reposition yourself now? In which Quadrant, and why?

With what specific skills, values, habits?How unbeaten or less traveled is your path? What unforeseen risk? What certainty to reach there?With what costs and benefits?

What are your long-term product update, re-placement, re-pricing, retro-branding,and re-promotionstrategies to get to your desired quadrant?

How do you intend to move to your desired quadrant:

Sequentially from Quadrant 1 to 2 to 3 to Quadrant 9, if ever?Vertical descent: Quadrant 1 to Quadrant 4 to Quadrant 7 to Quadrant 9?

Diagonally from Quadrant 1 to Quadrant 5 to Quadrant 9?What are planned strategies accordingly?

Wherever you go, and whenever you reach your desired quadrant:

What human values will you espouse, live them, and witness all along?What real and lasting difference will it bring to your life that you can pack it to Heaven?What real difference will it bring on your family, your dear ones?What real difference to your country?What real difference to the world?


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Imagining a Compelling Future

Create a vision of the targeted future (TF) so compelling and so desirable that people would actually wantto reach it. Imagine the most compelling and exciting TF you can imagine; it will literally pull you

toward solutions.

Conduct an imagined excursion to your TF. Imagine you realized TF five years from now: what do youthink? What do you see in your imagined targeted future (ITF)? Begin with creative and divergentthinking. Suspend judgment and try to generate a long list of ideas or images what your ITF might be

like. Close your eyes and actually imagine being in the future your have targeted. What do you see inyour changed workplace? What do you hear? What do you taste, smell, touch and feel? What would beyour typical emails interactions or telephone conversations? Who are your new customers and clients,your new suppliers, bankers, investors, creditors and partners, your new employees and managers, andwhat do they see and feel?

Tell yourself a story about a day of life in your realized ITF: be as vivid and sensory as possible. The

more robust your description, the more compelling it can be. Do not worry about being surrealistic; just

imagine the ideal future you would like to see. What would life feel once your ITF was realized? Howwould the new workplace feel? Your home? Your neighbors? How might your relationships change

with your home, family, work, colleagues, and your friends? What would they think of you in your ITF?What might you think of yourself? What would your annual reports look like? What would you report to

your shareholders on the annual day of reckoning? Given your ITF, what would a typical press release beannouncing the launch of so many new products, services, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions? Whatwould your typical weekends be, your annual vacation cruises, and your annual corporate parties? Onceyou have generated a long list of ideas, then, use convergent thinking to choose the ideas that are mostmeaningful to you. Once you have gone through your imaginary excursion of ITF, now open your eyes

and start writing. Describe your imagined excursion and journey.

Imagination is more important than knowledge (Einstein). Giving ourselves permission to imagine

allows us to access a huge resource ofcognitive capacity that we often ignore (Hurson 2008: 131). Yourbest ideas occur during showers, sleep (dreams), while driving, or while golfing just because you let go

your guards and inhibitions. Your ideas freely flow because your gatekeepers are taking a tea break. Trygiving your gatekeepers a whole day off, and you might be surprised what you could discover. The ironyis that sometimes we think better by thinking less. Hence, daydream your ITF!

In an ITF excursion you dream of how things might be. Like a dream, it should not be constrained by

reality. In dreaming, therefore, your ITF do not worry about being rational, logical or even by what ispossible. The Nobel Physicist Niels Bohr is reported to have said to a scientist colleague who constantly

resisted his postulated theory: No, no, youre not thinking, youre just being logical (cited in Hurson2008: 134). The ITF does not have to be real or logical or even achievable; all it has to do is to pull yourcolleagues and you into the TF. It may not be possible to get exactly where you want to go, but without

the target there is no game, there is no thinking, there is no planning, and there is no strategy. How canyou arrive at your destination if you do not know what it looks like?

On the contrary, if you are apathetic about your excursion of ITF and if it fails to engage yourstakeholders, then, very likely your target future is not high enough or not challenging enough. May be


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you have not aimed high enough. Or, your imaginary excursion might have carried you far afield or totoo confining spaces, or so far away from the itch or problem you started with? You can always correct

and reposition your ITF excursion. May be you are not a good writer; then speak out your excursion. Ifyou cannot speak effectively, then, convey your thoughts in your language to someone and let them betranslated and presented. Or, if you cannot just imagine your TF, then get someone else with betterimagination to do it.

Making your ITF Realistic

In making your ITF a little more realistic, Hurson (2008: 136-141) suggests the DRIVE technique that is

sketched in the following Table. Do much divergent and creative thinking to respond to these and otherquestions you want to add. Do not judge; just list. You can eliminate irrelevancies and redundancieslater. [If you are working in a group, use 3M sticky notes to add to each list]. Table 6details the DRIVE.

Start with the right question. Use divergent and creative thinking to ask useful problem questions. List as

many questions as possible, and then use convergent critical thinking to filter the right questions andproblems. Look for catalytic questions in this shortened list.

Concluding Thoughts

Nothing is perfect. The world is full of things we can do better. Our lives are crowded with things we

can do better, more clearly, more creatively, and more productively.

We can all do better. The first step is to start thinking better. The ability to think better will soon become

the most significant and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) companies and individuals can claim.Thinking better is what SCA is all about (Hurson 2008: 10).

Unlike manufacturing, accounting, or telemarketing, the capacity to think better can never be outsourced.

Besides being innate, it can be learnt, nurtured and cultivated by anyone. Thinking better is a skill anyonecan learn. None of us starts out in life knowing how to think. It is a skill we all learn and during ourentire lifetime.

Some of us do better because of our wise grandparents and thinking parents, because of good schools and

teachers we enjoyed, because of good companies and training they provided, and mostly, because of goodmentors at the right time and for the right task.

If athletes can be trained to run faster and musicians to play better, surely people can be taught to thinkbetter. Teaching yourself to think better is the best form of learning. It can change your life. It can

transform organization. It can make the whole world better.

Regardless of your starting point, you can learn to use your mind better, to think better, and do

better. All of us have the potential to think better. The first step is to free ourselves from the

unproductive thinking patterns that hold us back (Hurson 2008: 5).


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Thinking better creates a better future. By thinking better, you see more clearly, you think more

creatively, and plan more effectively.

Thinking better provides better answers to the following questions:

Why is my life less than what I have learnt?

Why is my life less than what I want it to learn?Why is my life less than what I have known?

Why is my life less than what I want it to know?

Why is my life less than what I want it to do?

Why us my life less than what I want it to become?

Why is my life less than what I want it to be?

These are serious questions we must constantly challenge ourselves with. The answer to all these

fundamental questions of life is a simple problem: we have stopped thinking! Ironically, when wethink we assume to know much, and hence, we stop thinking, we stop seeking, and we stop

searching. The urge to know certain knowledge could be one of the most challenging obstacles to

learn and think. People, who claim to know, think they have all the answers.


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One way of reaching your target future is your imagining it now; by painting and canvassing a compelling

picture of what the target future might be; by establishing criteria that will help your determine whether thesolution (means) you have chosen now will help you get there. Figure 1captures this dynamic.

Assume you are at point A in 2013 and want to be at point B (your targeted future) in 2018. How do you planto get to B in 2018? As inscribed in Figure 1, you may choose a linear incremental path AB, or a zigzag pathACDB or a curvilinear path AEB, or any other paths or their combinations. The choice of each path forreaching your targeted future images a different growth strategy.

But what is A? How do you define A? Hence, describe the criteria of performance whereby you assessedwhere you are now at A, and applying the same or different success or performance criteria describe and

imagine how your criteria will help you get to point B, your targeted future. Using Part I of SARP you shouldbe more or less able to measure your point Ayour balanced scorecard thus far. Table 5 is one method yourcurrent status A.

Do not imagine reaching B is going to be easy. Your colleagues will resist change by several interventionssuch as: It will never work. Things are fine now, why change? We will never get there! or Why go toB, settle to something more practical.

Behaviors, individual or group, are like organisms in an ecosystem. They have an inexorable urge to survive.Behaviors such as feigned compliance, passive aggression, subversion, hibernation to overt resistance,seduction, and active aggression help us to thwart our extinction.

No matter how undesirable or dysfunction the present is, no matter how compelling the reasons are fordesirable change, most people and organizations would rather wring out the old than ring in the new. Old

behaviors are hard to kill. In general, individuals, groups, and organizations are very comfortable with theirpatterns and routines, and their so called best practices. After all, we have spent long years developingthem; its only natural we cling to them for security. We like a secure patterned life that repeats old ways ofseeing and old ways of doing things. The more insecure we are, the stronger the gravitational pull of the past.As a result, even the most well-intentioned and well-conceived change initiatives simply do not stick. The

only way you can escape this gravitational tug or pull of the past is by imagining a compelling future (Hurson2008: 129).

Consider the market-newness and human-resource-technology-newness matrix inTable 5:

How do you reposition yourself now? In which Quadrant, and why?

With what specific skills, values, habits?

How unbeaten or less traveled is your path? What unforeseen risk? What certainty to reach there?

With what costs and benefits?

What are your long-term product update, re-placement, re-pricing, retro-branding, andre-promotionstrategies to get to your desired quadrant?

How do you intend to move to your desired quadrant:

Sequentially from Quadrant 1 to 2 to 3 to Quadrant 9, if ever?


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Vertical descent: Quadrant 1 to Quadrant 4 to Quadrant 7 to Quadrant 9?

Diagonally from Quadrant 1 to Quadrant 5 to Quadrant 9?

What are planned strategies accordingly?

Wherever you go, and whenever you reach your desired quadrant:

What human values will you espouse, live, and witness all along?

What real and lasting difference will it bring to your life that you can pack it to Heaven?

What real difference will it bring on your family, your dear ones?

What real difference to your country?

What real difference to the world?

Imagining a Compelling Future

Create a vision of the targeted future (TF) so compelling and so desirable that people would actually wantto reach it. Imagine the most compelling and exciting TF you can imagine; it will literally pull you

toward solutions.

Conduct an imagined excursion to your TF. Imagine you realized TF five years from now: what do you

think? What do you see in your imagined targeted future (ITF)? Begin with creative and divergentthinking. Suspend judgment and try to generate a long list of ideas or images what your ITF might be

like. Close your eyes and actually imagine being in the future your have targeted. What do you see inyour changed workplace? What do you hear? What do you taste, smell, touch and feel? What would beyour typical emails interactions or telephone conversations? Who are your new customers and clients,your new suppliers, bankers, investors, creditors and partners, your new employees and managers, andwhat do they see and feel?

Tell yourself a story about a day of life in your realized ITF: be as vivid and sensory as possible. Themore robust your description, the more compelling it can be. Do not worry about being surrealistic; just

imagine the ideal future you would like to see. What would life feel once your ITF was realized? Howwould the new workplace feel? Your home? Your neighbors? How might your relationships change

with your home, family, work, colleagues, and your friends? What would they think of you in your ITF?What might you think of yourself? What would your annual reports look like? What would you report toyour shareholders on the annual day of reckoning? Given your ITF, what would a typical press release beannouncing the launch of so many new products, services, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions? Whatwould your typical weekends be, your annual vacation cruises, and your annual corporate parties? Once

you have generated a long list of ideas, then, use convergent thinking to choose the ideas that are mostmeaningful to you. Once you have gone through your imaginary excursion of ITF, now open your eyes

and start writing. Describe your imagined excursion and journey.

Imagination is more important than knowledge (Einstein). Giving ourselves permission to imagine

allows us to access a huge resource ofcognitive capacity that we often ignore (Hurson 2008: 131). Yourbest ideas occur during showers, sleep (dreams), while driving, or while golfing just because you let go

your guards and inhibitions. Your ideas freely flow because your gatekeepers are taking a tea break. Trygiving your gatekeepers a whole day off, and you might be surprised what you could discover. The ironyis that sometimes we think better by thinking less. Hence, daydream your ITF!


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In an ITF excursion you dream of how things might be. Like a dream, it should not be constrained by

reality. In dreaming, therefore, your ITF do not worry about being rational, logical or even by what ispossible. The Nobel Physicist Niels Bohr is reported to have said to a scientist colleague who constantlyresisted his postulated theory: No, no, youre not thinking, youre just being logical (cited in Hurson2008: 134). The ITF does not have to be real or logical or even achievable; all it has to do is to pull your

colleagues and you into the TF. It may not be possible to get exactly where you want to go, but withoutthe target there is no game, there is no thinking, there is no planning, and there is no strategy. How canyou arrive at your destination if you do not know what it looks like?

On the contrary, if you are apathetic about your excursion of ITF and if it fails to engage yourstakeholders, then, very likely your target future is not high enough or not challenging enough. May be

you have not aimed high enough. Or, your imaginary excursion might have carried you far afield or totoo confining spaces, or so far away from the itch or problem you started with? You can always correct

and reposition your ITF excursion. May be you are not a good writer; then speak out your excursion. Ifyou cannot speak effectively, then, convey your thoughts in your language to someone and let them be

translated and presented. Or, if you cannot just imagine your TF, then get someone else with betterimagination to do it.

Making your ITF Realistic

In making your ITF a little more realistic, Hurson (2008: 136-141) suggests the DRIVE technique that is

sketched in the following Table. Do much divergent and creative thinking to respond to these and otherquestions you want to add. Do not judge; just list. You can eliminate irrelevancies and redundancieslater. [If you are working in a group, use 3M sticky notes to add to each list]. Table 6details the DRIVE.

Start with the right question. Use divergent and creative thinking to ask useful problem questions. List as

many questions as possible, and then use convergent critical thinking to filter the right questions andproblems. Look for catalytic questions in this shortened list.

Concluding Thoughts

Nothing is perfect. The world is full of things we can do better. Our lives are crowded with things

we can do better, more clearly, more creatively, and more productively.

We can all do better. The first step is to start thinking better. The ability to think better will soon

become the most significant and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) companies and

individuals can claim. Thinking better is what SCA is all about (Hurson 2008: 10).

Unlike manufacturing, accounting, or telemarketing, the capacity to think better can never be

outsourced.

Besides being innate, it can be learnt, nurtured and cultivated by anyone. Thinking better is a skill

anyone can learn. None of us starts out in life knowing how to think. It is a skill we all learn and

during our entire lifetime.


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Some of us do better because of our wise grandparents and thinking parents, because of good

schools and teachers we enjoyed, because of good companies and training they provided, and

mostly, because of good mentors at the right time and for the right task.

If athletes can be trained to run faster and musicians to play better, surely people can be taught to

think better. Teaching yourself to think better is the best form of learning. It can change your life.

It can transform organization. It can make the whole world better.

Regardless of your starting point, you can learn to use your mind better, to think better, and do

better. All of us have the potential to think better. The first step is to free ourselves from the

unproductive thinking patterns that hold us back (Hurson 2008: 5).

Thinking better creates a better future. By thinking better, you see more clearly, you think more

creatively, and plan more effectively.

Thinking better provides better answers to the following questions:

Why is my life less than what I have learnt?

Why is my life less than what I want it to learn?Why is my life less than what I have known?

Why is my life less than what I want it to know?

Why is my life less than what I want it to do?

Why us my life less than what I want it to become?

Why is my life less than what I want it to be?

These are serious questions we must constantly challenge ourselves with. The answer to all these

fundamental questions of life is a simple problem: we have stopped thinking! Ironically, when wethink we assume to know much, and hence, we stop thinking, we stop seeking, and we stop

searching. The urge to know certain knowledge could be one of the most challenging obstacles to

learn and think. People who claim to know, think they have all the answers.


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Table 1: Narrative Assessment of Self as a Product In Process

LIFE-STAGE INPUTS PROCESSES OUTPUTS

BIRTH TO 6

YEARS

Episodic Scripts Episodic Scripts Episodic Scripts

7 TO 18 YEARS Episodic Scripts Episodic Scripts Episodic Scripts

19 TO THE

CURRENT YEAR

Episodic Scripts Episodic Scripts Episodic Scripts

Table 2: Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) Product Portfolio Matrix

Market Demand

Growth Rate For Your

Products

Relative Market Share (RMS) of Your Products

HIGH LOW

HIGH

STARS:These require substantial cash

or energy to sustain high

growth and high RMS

PROBLEMCHILDREN:

These drain your cash or

energy; hence either give them

up or gain strength via RMS

LOW

CASH COWS:These require low investment

to retain RMS; hence cash

them quickly

DOGS:These do not generate cash;

hence liquidate or phase out


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Table 3: Checking Self-Image via Significant Other

How I

How My Significant Other

Sees Me


Wants To See Me

We Agree We Disagree We Agree We Disagree

See Myself Ok:Lived

Harmony

Tension

Ok:

Lived

Conformity

Pressure

To Conform

Want To

See Myself

Ok: Mask

Pretense

Desire To

Non-conform

Ok:

Ideal

Normative

Non Consensual

Values, Ideology,

Or Norms

Table 4: Your Strengths/Weaknesses Grid

Assess

Yourself

In Terms of

Your:

Assess Your Immediate Peer-Competitors

In Terms of Their:

Strengths Weaknesses

Strengths Competition;Price War

Opportunities;

Capitalize Them

Weaknesses Improve Your Self by working on yourstrengths and ignore weaknesses

Eliminate or Build

on Your

Weaknesses


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Table 5: Measuring your Self-assessment Point AA Weighted Scorecard.

Measure 01:Narrative Assessment of Self as a Product in Process

LIFE-STAGE INPUTS PROCESSES OUTPUTS

Measure 01

Max Scores

BIRTH TO 6 YEARS Episodic Scripts (2) Episodic Scripts (3) Episodic Scripts (5) 10

7 TO 18 YEARS Episodic Scripts (2) Episodic Scripts (3) Episodic Scripts (5) 10

19 TO THE CURRENT

YEAR

Episodic Scripts (2) Episodic Scripts (3) Episodic Scripts (5) 10

Measure 02:Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) Product Portfolio MatrixMarket Demand Growth

Rate For Your Products

Relative Market Share (RMS) of Your Products Measure 02

Max Scores

HIGH

LOW

HIGH

STARS: (8)

These require substantial cash or

energy to sustain high growth

and high RMS

PROBLEM CHILDREN: (2)

These drain your cash or energy;

hence either give them up or gain

strength via RMS

10

LOW

CASH COWS: (4)

These require low investment to

retain RMS; hence cash them

quickly

DOGS: (1)

These do not generate cash;

hence liquidate or phase out

5

Measure 03: Checking Self-Image via Significant Other

How IHow My Significant Other

Sees Me


Wants To See Me

Measure 03

Max Scores

We Agree We Disagree We agree We Disagree

See Myself Ok:Lived

Harmony (6)

Tension (4) Ok:

Lived

Conformity

(6)

Pressure

To Conform (4)

20

Want To

See Myself

Ok: Mask

Pretense (6)

Desire To

Non-conform

(4)

Ok:

Ideal

Normative

(6)

Non

Consensual

Values,

Ideology,

Or Norms (4)

20

Measure 04:Your Strengths/Weaknesses GridAssessYourself

In Terms ofYour:

Assess Your Immediate Peer-Competitors

In Terms of Their:

Measure 04

Max Scores

Strengths Weaknesses

Strengths Competition;

Price War (7)

Opportunities;

Capitalize Them (3)

10

Weaknesses Improve Your Self by working on yourstrengths and ignore weaknesses (3)

Eliminate or Build onYourWeaknesses (2)

5

Total Score from all Four Measures 100


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Table 6: Market/Technology Newness Matrix

Your JobMarket

Features

Human Resource Development

Technology

OLD BUT SURE:Old skills,

Old values,

Old habits,

Mechanized,

Watch and learn;

You ask WHY?

IMPROVED:Current skills,

Current values

Current habits,

Computerized,

Watch and think

You ask WHAT?

RADICALLY NEW:Totally new skills,

Totally new values,

Totally new habits;

Self-programmed;

Experiment and learn.

You ask HOW & IF?

OLD MARKET:With traditional

jobs, Beaten paths,Proven records,

Least risk,

High job clarity,

Steady money

Quadrant 1:

Status Quo

Quadrant 2:

Status Improved

Quadrant 3:

Status RadicallyNew

IMPROVED

MARKET:Retrained jobs,

Challenging paths,

Difficult track,

Increased risk,

Low job clarity,Higher incomes

Quadrant 4:

Status Quo

Expanded

Quadrant 5:

Status Improved

And Expanded

Quadrant 5:

Status Radically

New And

Expanded

NEW MARKET

WITH:New challenges,

Unbeaten paths,

Unchartered Seas,

Unforeseen risk,

Low job clarity,

Increasing power

Quadrant 7:

Status Quo

Further Broadened

Quadrant 8:

Status Improved

And Broadened

Quadrant 9:

Status Radically

New And

Globalized


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Table 7: The DRIVE Technique to Realize your Imagined Target Future

Acronym Strategic Questions to AskDo What do you want your eventual solution to do?

What outcomes are you looking for?

What must be accomplished?What do you want to happen?What might your stakeholders want to happen?Have you created a powerful motivation to reach your imagined target future (ITF)?

Are you sure you are asking the right questions and getting the right answers?Are you sure your ITF is not answering the wrong questions?

[E.g.: enhance employee morale, energize passion and commitment among supervisors, increase sales, increasereturn or repeat customers, increase profits, increase market share, increase ROI].

Restrictions What changes or impacts must you avoid?What outcomes must you make sure do not occur?

What must you prevent from happening?What outcomes you must avoid at all cost?What ecological hazards you must desist from?

What employees, groups or departments you must not alienate?What cannibalization of your own markets or products you must avoid?What industries you should not enter?

What markets or countries you should avoid?What critical legislations you cannot violate?What corporate fraud you should totally avoid?What bribes or kickbacks you must refrain from offering your clients?

Investment What resources are you willing to allocate and how much?What scarce resources are you willing to invest into your ITF?What are your minimal and maximal cutoffs in doing so?What are your minimal and maximal cutoffs in investing in a given market?

What are your minimal and maximal cutoffs in investing in a given industry?What are your minimal and maximal cutoffs in investing in a new product or brand?

What are your minimal and maximal cutoffs in investing in a given project?

Values What values must you live by in achieving your solution?What are the defining values of your organization that cannot be compromised in realizing your ITF?

Are these real values and not simply empty rhetoric?What are you willing to live with?What are you not willing to live with?

Do your values include such things as work and family balance?Do your values include such things as uncompromising customer service and green manufacturing?

Essential

Outcomes

What are the nonnegotiable elements or outcomes of success?What are the things that absolutely must happen for you to consider the solution a success?What are your metrics and measurables?What are the nonnegotiable elements of success?

Have you ferreted out all observable success criteria for determining essential outcomes?Are you sure they are not too many or too few success criteria (c. 3-8) such that your ideas get filtered for asolution quickly and efficiently?Are you sure your essential outcomes are not compromising your values?


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Figure 1: Imagining your Target Future

B

BD

Performance

E

A

C

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

ere

unow?

point

at is

Where do you

want to be five

years from now?

At point B? What

is B?


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References

Assessing and Developing Self as a New Product - 2013 (2) (1)

Documents

Transcript of Assessing and Developing Self as a New Product - 2013 (2) (1)