Book Review | Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills

One word that we frequently hear from our parents, teachers and boss is “ Observe” correctly.  Attentive observation will help to grasp the topic in case of studies, provides clarity in case of work. Therefore the way we look and observe needs a varied approach based on the requirements. The book ““Look – A practice Guide for Improving your observation skills” provides narratives on application on the relevance of anything we do.  Six Thinking Hat methods are widely used for driving creativity and solving problems in the organisations.  However when a student writes answers in the examination describing in his own words, he never gets the top score. This is because the teacher needs answers as she has thought at the school. Without imbibing creative thinking and appreciating creativity at the schools, organisations have to invest to teach lean and unlearn.

Observation is key for any improvement and investigation. Observations influence on how we act and opt. Moreover observations in everyday lead us to the thoughts that possibly modify, reshape, reform and transform our behavior or overthrow aspects of the world. Creative thinking has four steps – Focus, Provocation, Movement and Harvesting. Focus involves identifying what one wants ideas about. Provocation requires setting up of mental stimuli on the chosen focus area. Movement responds to provocations and challenges by deliberation. Harvesting captures the value of creative output by recognizing the newness of thoughts.

The Six Looking Glasses method guide to become more skilled observer by enriching the time spent looking. The six different type of looking are

1.  Binoculars Look

2.  Bifocals Look

3.  Magnifying glasses Look 

4.  Microscope Look 

5. Rose coloured Glasses

6. Blindfolds.

7.       

These six methods of looking is critical and applicable across the life cycle of human and organisation. In today’s world, every day we use these six looking glass method. We scroll on the messages in our what sup application for a Binocular look. For certain messages we use Bifocals look to interpret two alternate views of any given situation. We use Magnifying glasses look  to spot one thing to look closely to respond. We use Microscope looking for greater details involving scrutinizing and studying scene. We use Rose coloured glasses look to uncover the hidden opportunity. We use Blindfolds look to reflect and recall what was seen and how was scene. 

Book Review | Why We Work - Barry Schwartz

What if the human beings had an option to choose, energy without consuming any food then will there be the need to work and earn? Today we are in the smart technology world and motivating the Gen - Z workforce is really a challenge.  We are deep into a destructive foray regarding our conception of workforce motivation. We created an idea two centuries ago that people hate work and do it only for money and other extrinsic rewards. This human invention (which is what an idea is) is not a widespread food ingredient but a ubiquitous workplace element. It does cause heartache, disgruntlement, disengagement and low productivity. The science is in: It’s not human nature to hate work and treating workers as if they do causes damage to them and to business.

The industrial revolution had workers to do their job where in they lived in it, even if they hated their jobs. Understanding individual psychology and the attitude the person brings to a job is important, but so too is understanding how to create an environment in which people motivate themselves

Organisations have layers and segments. One of the interesting scrutiny on the engagement level, we find the bottom of the pyramid highly engaged. The reason behind this is they are able to empathises and relate their work to the cause.  You don't need to be working for an organization that saves lives to find meaning and purpose in what you do. You just need to be doing work that makes peoples' lives better.

The author narrates that we are in the legacy of FALSE RATIONALE on the job and work of “carrot and stick” approach that dominated the efforts in the work place. As long as the people were paid for what they did, it didn’t matter very much what their job entailed. Many believe that only certain kind of jobs permit people to find a meaning, engagement, discretion and autonomy and opportunity to learn and grow WHEN WORK IS GOOD. Job crafting needs to aimed of how the job could be linked to a meaningful purpose that meets the challenge demanding empathy, good listening and accomplishing the goals. People who see their work as “job” enjoy little discretion and experience minimal engagement or meaning. People with job see work as necessity of life, they work for pay, and they would switch jobs to earn more money.  People who see their work as a “career” generally enjoy more discretion and more engaged.  When we loose confidence that people have the will to do the right thing and we turn to incentives, we find that we get what we pay for. Therefore a decision has to be taken on HOW GOOD Work GOES BAD: Rules and Incentives over Integrity. It’s because of human nature.  Human nature as a battle between metaphors and THE TECHNOLOGY of IDEAS to drive behaviours. No matter what ideas people appeal to when they explain their lack of food, their bellies remain empty. The idea technology that dominates our age is a fiction; it is ideology. THE FUTURE OF WORK: DESIGNING HUMAN NATURE.

The book narrates, that it is not incentive that trigger the work. It is finding out a meaningful purpose on how our work is linked to the purpose. If we can craft our purpose to the job, the work becomes meaningful and joy. The book is very narrative of examples on being meaningful