The Freak Factory - David Rendall

Freak Factor TV - Conquer Stress with Fanatical Obsession

Did you ever wonder why rabid sports fans can endure sub-zero temperatures for hours at a time but most of us shut down at work if the temperature drops below 70 degrees?

Yes, there are other reasons besides massive alcohol consumption.

Find out how to conquer stress with fanatical obsession in the first two videos on Freak Factor TV, my new YouTube Channel.

Limitations are Liberating

Shaun Cassidy is an artist in residence at the McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte, North Carolina. He led a one-hour creativity exercise during a workshop that I attended recently. During the activity he said that "seemingly negative parameters can actually help you to be more innovative."

 

Cassidy’s perspective is supported by significant evidence. Social theorist, Barry Schwartz, in his book, The Paradox of Choice, explains that when we have too many choices, we struggle to make decisions. He encourages us to “learn to love constraints” because “as the number of choices we face increases, freedom of choice becomes a tyranny of choice. Routine decisions take so much time and attention that it becomes difficult to get through the day. In circumstances like this, we should learn to view limits on the possibilities that we face as liberating not constraining.”

 

Ironically, more options don't liberate us, they paralyze us. As Erich Fromm explained in Escape from Freedom, “people are beset not by a lack of opportunity but by a dizzying abundance of it.” It is counter-intuitive, but limitations, not options, are what liberate us.

 

Similarly, behavioral economist, Dan Ariely, argues that the common strategy of “keeping our options open” is a bad one and that we should “consciously start closing” some of those options. This is true because “they draw energy and commitment” away from activities that promise greater success.

 

Our weaknesses and limitations are not bad because they rule out options for us and make it easier for us to focus on the areas where we can be truly successful. Limitations are liberating.

 

Erik Weihenmayer is the first and only blind man to reach the summit of Mount Everest. “When asked if anything was possible, Weihenmayer answered, ‘No, there are limits. I mean, I can't drive a car. But there are good questions and bad questions in life. The bad questions are what if questions. What if I were smarter, or stronger? What if I could see? Those are dead-end questions. A good question is, ‘how do I do as much as I can with what I have?’” Similarly, John Wooden said “do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” As managers, we need to acknowledge our employees’ limitations and make sure that we don’t let what they cannot do interfere with what they can do.

Dave likes to talk . . . do you like to listen?

I'm terrible at being quiet and listening. That is why I was so pleased when Jeff Brainard, from Catch Your Limit Consulting, asked if I'd  be willing to do a Freak Factor CODcast interview.

Catch Your Limit is a great example of how the freak factor can be applied to  organizations. They are the world's only consulting firm that specializes in "management, marketing and fish cleaning services" and their CODcast, not podcast, stands for Creativity on Demand. I'm hoping to share Jeff's story with you all soon.

We talked for about an hour and discussed a little bit of everything, including: scissors, baseball, marriage, Hardees Thickburgers, parenting, Lance Armstrong, school, careers, outsourcing, interviews, management and the outrageous rewards for being the best.

Below are some specific questions the interview might help to answer.

- How can fixing your weaknesses actually damage your strengths?

- Why should you go farther in the direction that people tell you not to go in?

- What do the people that like you the best, like the least about you?

- How can you get a head start on success?

- Why is Shaquille O'Neal so bad at free throws and why doesn't it matter?

- Why was Michael Jordan bad at baseball?

- Why won't Lance Armstrong ever win a marathon?

- Why do you have to be willing to be the worst in order to be the best?

- What can Hardees Thickburgers teach us about our career?

- Why should you let your kids do poorly in school?

- How can the Freak Factor improve your marriage?

- How should you respond to the interview question about your biggest weakness?

- Why should you outsource tasks that you don't like to do?

- Why bother trying to be the  best?

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Did you notice the new tabs at the top of the blog?

I've added links to my Facebook page, Linked-In profile and these Free Resources:

• podcast
• eBook
• self-assessment

Let your employees drive

Daniel Pink is one of my favorite authors. His new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, will be out in December.

However, if you don't want to wait, you can watch him present an overview at the TED Conference.

What is so "surprising" about what motivates us? Pink's main point is that incentives or extrinsic rewards are ineffective. In fact, he cites research that shows how incentives can actually reduce performance. Specifically, as work gets more complicated, incentives become less helpful and actually become harmful.

Pink is concerned about the mismatch between what social scientists have discovered and the way that managers attempt to influence behavior. "There's a mismatch between what science knows and what businesses do." He argues that organizational "decisions about talent and people are based on assumptions that are outdated, unexamined and rooted more in folklore than science."

For example, research shows that "intrinsic motivation beats extrinsic motivation every time." But how can managers use that knowledge to get the job done? How can they align their motivational strategies with scientific principles? Pink has three suggestions:

1. Autonomy - "If you want engagement, self-direction works better."
2. Mastery - People's skills, interests and talents have to match the work.
3. Purpose - The work has to be meaningful.

He cites examples, like Google, that allow their employees to use up to 20% of their time to work on projects of their own choosing. Not surprisingly, when given this freedom, employees naturally choose tasks that are meaningful and that fit their personal style and strengths.

He also praises Best Buy for pioneering the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE), which encourages employees to work when, how and where they want to as long as they achieve the necessary results.

Pink's presentation fits nicely with The Freak Factor. As our daily work becomes more and more complex, organizations can't simply employ external rewards and punishments to force employees to do work that doesn't match their strengths and weaknesses. Instead, companies need to adapt the work environment to match the natural motivations of employees and look for the intersection of the company's goals and their employees' talents.

"The solution is not to do more of what we've already done. We need a new approach." That new approach starts with an understanding of our employees' unique needs and motivations, not with efforts to make everyone the same.

Are you ready to try this new approach? Are you ready to move over and let your employees drive?

Are you mental?

I was watching a new show tonight called Mental. It follows the story of Jack Gallagher, a new director at a psychiatric clinic. Jack caught my attention in the first episode when he stripped naked to help a delusional patient.

Later in the show, he discovers that the patient, Vincent, used to be a talented artist. Unfortunately, the medication that supposedly fixed his mental illness also destroyed his creative abilities. The pills made Vincent normal and helped him to be a good employee in a warehouse, but took away his true talents.

The following conversation takes place in a meeting to discuss treatment for Vincent in which Jack argues for taking him off of the medication.

Carl: The pharmacology has been successful for a dozen years. Why deviate?

Jack: You call it a success. I say the patient has been crippled.

Nora: You mean creatively?

Jack: He was a gifted artist and for the last 12 years he's been stuck in a plumbing warehouse, moving boxes from one pile to another and that's about to get worse. He's about to get filed away in an institution for life.

Later in the show. Jack is talking with Vincent after he's stopped taking the medication.

Jack: How are you feeling?

Patient: I'm feeling. Everything seems really different.

Jack: The medication didn't just take away your ability to paint, it also took away the passions, the pains, the highs, the lows, everything that made you human.

It is certainly possible to repair or even eliminate our weaknesses. The question is, at what cost? What talents are we destroying in the process of fixing our apparent shortcomings? Make sure you are ready to pay the price before you start renovating your life.