Nearly three thousand people subscribe to Conversation Agent by daily email. If that's you, thank you for choosing that option. The current format was offered a while back by FeedBurner and is now unsupported by Google. So while it's not going away, the formatting is not ideal for readability. I don't like not having control, it doesn't allow me to serve you better.
Because I also read a lot of what's important by email, I understand the importance of a good layout. So I'm planning more options for people who prefer a similar experience to reading directly on the blog.
So if you subscribe by email, stay with it. That is not going away (as offered by the old FeedBurner). But in coming weeks we will offer a better daily reading option. We'll give you the heads up if you'd prefer that option.
Many readers also prefer to catch up on weekends.
Weekly digest option
Maybe you're not aware that in addition to conversations and tools on business, technology, behavior / social cognition, and other sciences Learning Habit is also a weekly digest of articles that appear here. It goes out weekly on Sunday morning.
This digest is about offering a point of view on mainstream conversations around topics that touch close to home to help us listen, reflect, and figure out where we net out on the issues, how they impact us, lessons we can draw, and so on.
For example, this past week we talked about what happens when our imagination is caught on fire, developing perspective on the election process, creating convergence in healthcare, and understanding resilience. If you're interested in seeing things in context, then the weekly digest is a good option for you.
Sign up to Learning Habit here.
Having said that, many of us are eager to go beyond reading.
Tools to practice
For people who are interested in pragmatic applications of what they have been reading here, it's a good time to be us. We can draw more enjoyment with less pain from speaking in public, for example, in addition to getting out point across.
Imagine if there were ways to increase personal value, so we can make an even bigger difference in the world, use our energy to time things better rather than get frustrated with little results, and become the best version of ourselves.
One of the things I said in my interview with Bill Fox of Container13 resonated with many:
Our operating system is the brain and how we interact with the world are the apps. Often, we do a lot of work at app level—so productivity, efficiencies, learning new tactics, buying shiny new objects, you name it. This approach doesn't work to evolve our operating system. We need to work at the operating system level. When we do that, then we have the ability to achieve smarter aims.
Achieving SMARTER Aims(TM) is the focus, and that's where we'll be learning how to do that.
When Bill followed up with me to talk about it, we discovered how our work intersects in how we both use conversation and interviews. But I have a stronger focus on offering tools and principles to “take control” at the operating system level. And here's why ― because the alternative is we let others take control and reprogram us ― or worse, our ignorance lulls us into a false sense of security (we think we know and we stop looking for better answers).
This is important. The more things change, the more taking control matters. But how do we go about remaining authentic to who we are, working from a place of strength, as we work to design the life we want? How do we not become “all cheesy in asking,” (as someone recently said)?
We do it through clarity and purpose. That's how we attract the people, ideas, and opportunities we need to make an impact. So if this interests you, if you'd like to learn how to use conversation as a tool to help get more of what you want (and stay away from what you don't want), sign up now.
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I had a conversation with a business owner recently, and he asked me, “how do we get noticed in the noise?” We all know intuitively that shouting doesn't work so well, even as we're tempted to do it out of frustration.
Maybe you asked versions of the same question. they look like this:
“How do we build rapport quickly?”
“What can we do to know who to trust?”
“How do I get better results?”
“How do I get a better deal when I'm in no position to negotiate?”
“How do we have meaningful conversations when there is no time?”
Here I'm going to flip the script on a prevalent metaphor we use, that of time is money. Exactly. So if we want to make money, we make time.
If something matters to us we figure it out. When we take the time to practice, to link our physical experience with the story in our head, then what happens is we improve, we increase our value, and then we matter. That's how it works.
What matters most to you?
Let me know in the comments.