The Dangers of Conventional Wisdom

30/04/2012

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Q: “If everybody is doing something, it must be correct, right?”

Q: “Surely 80% of the population can't be wrong, right?”

Q: “Should we question convention?”

Q: “If we do will we be labelled as rebellious non-conformists?”

A: Wrong, wrong, yes and maybe.


I recently heard a lovely story which demonstrates the need to question conventional wisdom. The story is about a woman frantically trying to get the Christmas dinner completed for an ever gathering number of family and friends. During the preparation her 14-year-old daughter asked her why she was cutting an inch off of what seem to be a perfectly good joint of beef. The mother replied that her mother had always done it that way. The mother went on to explain to her daughter that after the off-cut piece of meat had been cooked her grandfather would enjoy eating it after it had been fried separately in a pan on the stove thus supposedly to ensure that the joint was up to standard for the family Christmas dinner.

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Lie to Me ....... don't.

16/10/2011

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The recent television series Lie to Me featured popular actor Tim Roth as Dr Cal Lightman of the Lightman institute, an organization specialising in assisting individuals and organizations in identifying threats to business and security from deception and lies. Dr lightman and his team are experts at reading facial expressions or microexpressions through FACS or Facial Action Coding thus identifying when someone is lying or being deceptive in anyway.

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"Involve to Evolve"

14/10/2011

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I was talking to a new contact at a business breakfast recently and our conversation had progressed to the, “so what is it that you do” stage.
“I’m a Life Coach and a Goal Mapping practitioner”, I answered.
“Oh!” he said, “there seem to be an awful lot of you guy’s out there these days…..why do you think that is”?

To be really honest I had never thought of it like that. I had never done any market research into Life Coaching as a career; it’s simply what I have always loved doing and since one is only ever going to be successful at what one loves doing the most, I guess that was my reason. But if there really are so many life coaches, motivational speakers and personal development professionals out there…….then why?

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You Got Sand In Your Eyes?

13/10/2011

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We’ve all heard that familiar question, “you got rocks in your head?” Of course it’s rhetorical; we all know that’s not possible, except for Goliath who literally did have a rock in his head. Such questions are usually asked after someone has performed really badly or has made an especially bad decision based on little or no thought. The statement is merely an expression used to highlight a major gaff.

This morning I began to think of all the sayings which, absurd though they are, reveal an underlying truth. Let me throw another rhetorical but revealing question into the mix. How about, “you got sand in your eyes?”  Just as “rocks in your head” is supposed to suggest that there is no room for your brain, so “sand in your eyes” would suggest that you may have had your head in the sand and missed something crucial.
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