A man meets a guru in the road. The man asks the guru, “Which way is success?”

The berobed, bearded sage speaks not but points to a place off in the distance.

The man, thrilled by the prospect of quick and easy success, rushes off in the appropriate direction. Suddenly, there comes a loud splat.

Eventually, the man limps back, tattered and stunned, assuming he must have misinterpreted the message. He repeats his question to the guru, who again points silently in the same direction.

The man obediently walks off once more. This time the splat is deafening, and when the man crawls back, he is bloody, broken, tattered, and irate.

“I asked you which way is success,” he screams at the guru. “I followed the direction you indicated. And all I got was splatted! No more of this pointing! Talk!”

Only then does the guru speak, and what he says is this: “Success IS that way. Just a little AFTER the splat.”

There should be a clear beginning to any story, a defining moment that sets the entire train of events in motion so that the story seems to flow in a reasonable sequence from start to finish, a moment when a person realizes they are part of history.

Maybe if we follow a trail, we have already lost our way. My path is not your path, though we might walk near each other at times.

When our tires are stuck in a rut the wrong thing to do spin our wheels trying harder to go in the same direction. A lesson that applies to life.

http://ping.fm/ar5tB
This is a great article on creativity and education. We need to stop thinking about creativity as a class and as a way of learning

New book Review on Amazon. Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening.
I love this book. It inspired me and gave me some great ideas about how to approach bringing an organization together. The story is a fictional encounter between a Maestro (orchestra conductor) and a business executive who use the metaphor of conducting the orchestra to discuss leadership. The twist in this book is that the executive learns experientially by sitting or standing at different locations in the orchestra during rehearsals. He hears the instructions from the Maestro and then hears the changes in the music.

The messages are reminiscent of many leadership books and focus on the helping the individual bring their best self to the group so that the group. The language, however, cuts across the usual leadership language and engages the reader in musical dynamic. What does happen, for example, when we all listen to the oboe and play so that the oboe can be heard? What happens when we all chose to blend our individual talent with those around us? How does the world change when the music become more important than my performance as an individual?
The book is an easy, short and sweet read. It would be great to teams to read, or to use in a class on training teams. There is a link to the author’s website, who is a Maestro. I do not know what he charges to conduct for his workshops, but after reading this book I know that I would love to attend one.

Book review: Why we Make mistakes by Joseph T. Hallinan
The more I read about the brain the more I am amazed. This book focuses on the many ways that the brain seeks for meaning, and lead us astray in making decisions. For example, if we are asked our area code (three digits) and then asked when Attila the Hun lived, we will try to answer with a three digit year. Our brains find a baseline and move on from there.
We remember stories, but adapt them to our culture. We remember events, but tweak them to our own benefit or acclaim. Men over-estimate their IQ and women underestimate theirs, and then act with a confidence level based on this estimate. We invest our money in what we want to believe we will do, and not what we actually do (think about un-used gym memberships). We respond in positive ways to attractive people and ads, and act appropriately if there are pictures of eyes watching us.
And that world of marketing is on to us and designs credit card, commercials, lease agreements, casinos, and other ads know how to use this against us.
Interested? Read the book. Very fun and very informative. I recommend it to anyone interested in how thinking and problem solving actually works.
Elisa Robyn, author of Pirate Wisdom.