The Untold Secret To Mastering the PYGMALION EFFECT and avoiding the GOLEM EFFECT

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been engrossed in a project that has come to a steady end with its testing phase. The basis of this project has been a perfect example of how the Pygmalion effect took place in a workplace environment. The Pygmalion effect is the positive influence either a (teacher, parent or manager) portrays, which allows the output behaviour of a student, child or employee to exceed expectations.

The Pygmalion effect is best understood as a reminder to be mindful of the potential influence of our expectations.

In 1961 in an experiment undertaken by Alfred Oberlander illustrated the effect of managerial expectations on productivity. In this experiment, he had grouped three sets of variable.

Variable one: consisted of all the superior workers, agents and managers.

Variable two: consisted of all average works, agents and managers

variable three: consisted of least able workers and managers.

In the experiment, Oberlander wanted to stimulate exceeding high performance of the superior group. Due to the selection process of (best) people, the gelling of like minded individuals created an aura of sound ability and the manner to go beyond normal capacity to solve problems effectively.

What is Pygmalion effect?

Let’s shed some light on this with an example.

Manager and Employee

Imagine being allocated to a project at work. The manager expresses high expectations for the project and shares the overall outcome that comes with the project.

The high expectations set by the manager provides an incentive for the employee to hone their performance. This enables the employee – to contribute additional hours on the project, going beyond to continue to work after hours, keeping tabs and double-checking the quality of the work. Setting high expectations plays a critical role in the employee’s behaviour and the overall delivery of the project. A manager’s high expectation led to improved performance and therefore improved outcome. The phenomenon known as the Pygmalion effect has taken place when positive expectations impact behaviour and performance.

What is Golem Effect?

The phenomenon known as the Golem Effect states low expectations leads to a decrease in performance or productivity.

The first instances of the Golem Effect were highlighted in the area of teaching. In 1982, researchers found evidence of the Golem effect in low-expectancy students of high-bias teachers subjecting negative treatment and performing less well than their class peers.

The Golem Effect isn’t subjective to one type of industry. Being in a position of work where I’m able to witness (manager/employee) relationships. The Golem effect can easily be portrayed whether it’s done intentionally or non-intentionally.

For instance, if a manager develops varying expectations of his team – he/she starts to assume that a particular employee is not as qualified, or is lacking skills. There is a certain degree of change in the way they would manage that employee.

The manager could potentially start: micromanaging, assign routine based work and would hesitate to provide the employee with responsibilities of high magnitude.

In the varying situation of how the Golem Effect can take place – a teacher, manager or a coach should take precedence on overcoming the concerning effect. This can be achieved via:

Practising the Pygmalion effect – building high expectations of the team and manifesting a trusting relationship.
Being self-aware of what’s taking place – understanding that having expectations of people whether they are low or high can truly influence how an individual behaves. Self-awareness allows one to consciously make the effort to find positive attributes about a person, which can be used as a means to set an attitude towards achieving positive expectations.

The Psychological Benefits of Writing

Whether you find yourself writing for fun, for self-help through journaling or just to develop a platform for creation to augment an audience. The method of writing is simplistic – a skill that doesn’t require any prior knowledge. The easiness of just picking up a notebook and a pen and descend into the flow of your thoughts as you cement your troubles or potential ideas. As an activity, I do underestimate its benefits. However, being accountable to write for my blog channel and my newsletter, writing has become an escape for discovery. In this article, I want to take this opportunity to explore various other benefits of writing.

Writing enlarges happiness and reduces stress

In the research paper, the effects of writing were examined on a group of 81 undergraduates. The students were tasked with writing daily for 20 minutes for five months. It was highlighted that writing about life goals was significantly less upsetting than writing about trauma and was associated with a significant increase in well-being. Writing is a form of meditation, a practice of self-healing. To communicate our deepest thoughts, to mind dump views that are off constant worry without being judged. Keeping that in mind – to practice journaling is a measurable way to monitor our thoughts as means of self-reflection. It helps us decode stressful information we encounter daily. The concept of Morning Pages has been ever-so useful because I’ve been able to contextualise ideas, goals and any form of worry. A research study called ‘The Gender Gap and Goal Setting’ found that people who wrote about their goals vividly performed better at achieving them.

So, the question we need to consider why does it help to write down about your goals?

Writing down anything occurs at two levels:
- Written storage – writing down goals on external storage can be reviewed and accessed. I often use ‘sticky notes’ that are usually placed on my vision board.
- Encoding – the biological process where the information travel’s into our hippocampus to be analysed. This filters information concerning what gets remembered and what becomes eliminated. Writing improves the process of encoding, which helps us remember information for a prolonged time.

Writing increases the level of gratitude

To account for the blessings and positive endeavour’s we should practice writing these moments in our day. Gratitude practice through a gratitude journal creates an enlarging material to reminisce as we get older.

Here are a few things to consider regarding gratitude writing:

Enhanced positivity: Whilst reflecting upon the positive endeavours of our day, the natural inclination of such practice creates a positive mindset. By being thankful for the materialistic components of our life, we mitigate negative emotions.

Enhanced self-esteem: Practising gratitude writing improves one’s self-esteem; it improves self-belief. By not dwelling on the comparison spectrum with others, we appreciate the cards we hold that life has dealt us.

Improved sleeping pattern: Psychologically speaking, if the start of the day begins with positive reflection so, should the end of the day. To close off the accountability loop, reflecting on gratitude practice at the end of the day creates a reflection experience that is full of hope. In a continuous form of gratitude practice, a habit of self-reflection creates an energy of contentment and satisfaction. As a result, it reduces stress.

Writing improves communication

Improved communication engenders second-order thinking, which is the result of creating a web of connections. Through the expression of writing, the ability to deliver from simple to complex ideas becomes easier to do so.

Further points to consider:

1 Engendering a thinking bug

Writing often can form a thinking bug which allows us to construct opinions that enables us to view a topic or an area of interest in a holistic manner.
Practising to write meaningful reflection is a means to highlight and explore views we consciously think about and such views can direct how we approach day to day activities. For instance, part of my morning pages is to constantly remind myself – let go of my ego and stay humble in the process that life has laid for me. Such sayings act like a mantra that impacts how I communicate with people that I tend to come across.

2 Enhanced vocabulary and articulation

Writing often compliments an improved vocabulary. This is reflected in the way we articulate our thoughts in our everyday communication with others.
Acquiring feedback – through blogging or a newsletter channel, I’m positioning myself to create a surface area to impact my thought process, which acts to provide constructive feedback.
Improved vocabulary – the retention of improved vocabulary does take time. I have a list of words that I don’t utilise in my writing – this creates a level of thinking where I seek out words that better capture the situation I’m trying to describe.

Writing enhances learning

Writing develops a web of connection that creates new forms of learning. Trying to understand the complexity of what you have learned is better understood when we contextualise it through writing. As a result, expanding the knowledge base of various topics, which plays a critical role in not being left out of the conversation. In hindsight, writing can improve critical thinking.

In this published paper, the author highlights that writing improves critical thinking allowing individuals to critically evaluate ideas as a cultivator and an enabler for higher-order thinking.

The theoretical approach to writing as highlighted by Bangert-Drowns et al. stated specific type of writing influences the learning process. In the conducted meta-analysis, he emphasised that the presence of prompts stimulated metacognitive processing such as monitoring and regulation of one own’s learning process. With a self-regulation view, writing does not improve learning but acts as a medium that facilitates better cognitive and metacognitive analysis.

Writing creates memories

I have been practising the idea of Homework for life. It highlights the importance of story-worthy moment within the day as a growing process. It’s about building memories of the day to write about the moments that have added value, or elements of delight that makes the day a memorable moment. A habit of creating memories that can be recalled at moments of notice.

Unintended Consequences: the power of the Cobra Effect

Cobra effect is the attempted means to solve a problem that leads to an array of unintended consequences. Hence, worsening the situation.

In the colonial rule of the British in India – the British administration took notice to the anxiously increasing venomous cobras in Delhi. They took notice of the issue and advocated a bounty to be placed for every dead cobra. Initially, the strategy was effective – people brought back an increasing number of dead snakes. However, with time enterprising people feed off the financial incentive and began breeding cobras, as a means to generate an income. As the administration became aware of the opportunist, they scrapped the bounty. Eventually, the cobra farmers now possessed worthless cobras which were released back into the wild. Hence, increasing the overall population of the Cobras. This is the origin of the Cobra Effect.

Similarly, an incident took place in Hanoi under French Colonial rule. A bounty was initiated that provided a reward for each killed rat. As a result, people started to severe the rat tail as evidence for a dead rat to obtain the bounty. With time, Colonial officials started to observe rats with no tail’s roaming around the city. The Vietnamese rat catchers would capture rats, severe off their tail’s, and then release them back into the sewers to procreate. Hence, increasing the population of rats. This enabled the rat-catchers to generate revenue from the bounty program.

Another instance of the cobra was evident in the 1980s, Mexico City suffered extreme air pollution caused by the cars driven around by 18 million residents. The city instated Hoy No Circula. A law imposed to reduce 20% off the cars from the last digits of their license plates. The impact of imposing this law allowed some people to carpool, use public transports and taxis. However, those who undermined the government and contradicted against the law brought a second car with a different license plate. The purchase of the second car was even more detrimental. It was a cheaper running vehicle and contributed to air pollution at a higher rate.

How to avoid the Cobra Effect?

To avoid cobra effect is to realise the conventional thinking between two points is not an ideal means to solve a problem. If we find ourselves eager to jump into action to solve a problem, we underestimate the symptoms of the problem. When we consider the problem before acting on it, we become better at preventing it.

Take precedence over second order thinking

In the examples above the use of first-order thinking is a convenient method to solve the immediate problem without realising unintended consequences.

Ray Dalio suggests:

“Failing to consider second- and third-order consequences is the cause of a lot of painfully bad decisions, and it is especially deadly when the first inferior option confirms your own biases. Never seize on the first available option, no matter how good it seems, before you’ve asked questions and explored.

The use of Second-order thinking allows us to consider whether the initial solutions or our biases are acceptable. Consider second, third or nth order of consequences to favour a decision that is well-thought-out by asking ‘and then what?’. It suggests repeatedly thinking about the consequences of a decision like eating junk food every day and using that information to make a decision. In hindsight, you’re more inclined to consume produce that is health.

Gear up with thinking models

The development of mental models can assist us in visualising unintended consequences. They act as a contingency which defogs the shroud over bad decisions. One to consider would be the Pre-mortem analysis.

Defined as:

Pre-Mortem analysis is a technique to help prevent having to complete a post mortem on a total project failure. The purpose is to identify vulnerabilities in the plan. A Pre-Mortem analysis is a forward looking process rather than the backward looking process of a post-mortem.

By creating a model that enriches a solution don’t rush into implementing it. Acquire feedback through testing to validate the model. Challenge assumptions or signs of troubleshooting to improve upon the model.

Act within your circle

We have a circle of speciality that provides us with the opportunity to make well-educated decisions. However, if we act outside our circle, our competency level, our speciality – we begin to engender uncalculated risk that gives rise to unintended consequences. If you began fixing your car without consoling a mechanic, you’re acting outside your competency hence increasing the problem.

The ramification of unplanned decisions can be reckless, which could impact our personal and professional lives. We assume our decisions hold value, but the unintended consequences do not progress linearly. When adhering to make a decision contemplating the consequences is pivotal. Hence, the use of ‘thinking mental model’ can be useful.

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Annual Review: 2020

As I began to write this review for 2020, I wanted to highlight that the ever-increasing death tolls that continue to rise has left a mark in history. I want to take this opportunity to send out my condolences to the families who have been affected by COVID-19.

I applaud everyone who has upheld their responsibility for the safety of others and themselves. I further wish to send my humble gratitude to the front line workers who have risked their lives and continue to do so in tackling the overwhelming odds of COVID-19.

This review is a compilation of my learnings from the past year. It has taken me a while to cement my learning outcome to wrap off the accountability loop. This review is a reflection of my internal appreciation and gratitude for the countless online mentors, writers, and content makers who have been a source of inspiration.

I hope these lessons are just a few examples that could act as a source of wisdom for others.

Shoot, edit and repeat

Written by the author: Austin Kleon, the book Show you work expresses the meaning behind “document your work”. I started a YouTube channel: planning, shooting, and editing videos. I began adding value through my creation. I showed my process-based work to indicate that every process of a completed project is pivotal. As I continued my stream of creation I decided to hone my production value by investing in various equipment. I consider it as compound value investments – a new camera, lights, an external microphone have only added value to my creative process.

In this journey of creating, I was consistent in my production of uploading a video per week – running with the idea that I need to focus on quantity, not quality. Learning from my mistakes I improved on my editing skills. I later became consumed in spending time scripting, researching around the topic to a greater depth. This halted my process of publishing every week. I ended the year with 22 subscribers.

Learning Outcome: Enjoying the process of learning doesn’t need to be a task.

Hold yourself accountable

Coding, web-designing, learning to play the piano – these were some of my goals that I engendered without any planning in 2020. I’ll continue to pursue these goals to build a sufficient competency in 2021 with accountable planning.

As part of my work, I was tested from the prospect of learning in an uncomfortable environment. In November and December, I became involved in external testing at a customer site. This opportunity was both my risk and luck play to expand my expertise. I became equipped with a unique experience of travelling to a new place, becoming accustomed to an unfamiliar working culture in the field. I took accountability for the opportunity and prepared myself as best as I could. I won’t digress I’d stepbacks that I consider as my learning curves.

Learning Outcome: Learning or being provided with the opportunity to learn is a form of risk or luck. It’s a risk because you’re challenged. It’s luck because you’re in a position to learn where others aren’t able to.

Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck—and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.” —Michael Lewis

Making a pact to read more

Here’s my list on Goodreads for my current selection of books. In the interest of setting goals, I targeted a goal of 15 books at the start of 2020. I began to read and listen to authors, understanding the insights of various kinds of literature that have impacted my growth set and my mindset in a new direction. I ended the year with a number higher than 15. I invested in tools like Kindle and Audible as my medium. I held myself accountable by creating my own biased summarizes of the books that I have read and making it available for others to review.

Here are some of my summaries to ponder on.

I find it intriguing to commit my time to summarize the valuable teachings of a book for those who are overwhelmed by their own schedule. A means to provide bias perception that highlights distilled teachings.

Learning Outcome: Make a pact and create a process that benefits ALL.

To invest for financial independence

I have come to learn that educating myself to hone my financial literacy is critically important. I began to unfold my fear of the unknown and started to act against it; I began to invest.

Don’t rest your money, invest it.

P.S. I am not a financial advisor. Anything I state on this topic is biased.

I experimented with ETFs with Vanguard and opened an investing account to invest on a long term basis. So far the returns are good due to dollar cost averaging.
I also started to understand the meaning of ‘Asset’ and ‘Liabilities’. I am now actively trying to build various streams of ‘asset’ based income. For those who are not familiar with the two terms, let’s clarify to provide more information.
- Your car is a liability if the sole purpose is personal. It’s an asset if there are multi-purposes of having a car like working as an uber driver.
- Your house is a liability. However, if you rent a room, the house becomes an asset because you’re earning an income.

Learning Outcome: Understand the psychology of money and how to use it for one’s benefit.

Self-invention through writing

Writing has become a new kind of meditation therapy. Commencing deep work for 60 minutes whilst listening to instrumental songs on repeat. As a practice, this feels quite a rhythmic routine. Early 2020, I began the journey of writing a blog post each week. I took no notice of the structure in my writing short or long-form; it didn’t matter. I wanted to build consistency, which reflected in every new post. I even decided to expand and stretch my writing cap with a weekly newsletter in the same year. I called it Monday Madness. Reflecting on the past week highlighting various snippet of values that I’d encountered.

Writing has allowed me to express my interests in a variety of topics. In the concluding months of the year, I decided practicing long forms of essays; minimizing my consistency in publishing a post to every few weeks. This entailed a greater depth of research, which enabled me to distil insights from scholars in the field, authors and other bloggers. Initially, it was tasking, but the joy in learning from others provided a refreshing new insight.

If you haven’t already considered, please visit my second home on the internet – Monday Madness.

Learning Outcome: Writing is my therapy.

How I viewed time?

I began viewing my time as a valuable commodity. I recently came across a quote:

The rich invest in time, the poor invest in money.
Warren Buffet

At the start of 2020, I started practicing the art of a daily schedule. I would allocate tasks and try to remain true to them within the day. I educated myself to hone my productivity with tools and techniques. I improved my weekly workflow to achieve more, to get things done rather than procrastinate.

There is a natural inclination to procrastinate and I’m no different to it. To hold yourself accountable in the moment of procrastination by reminding yourself – what should you be doing with your time? provides a much needed reality check.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned on being productive:

Learning Outcome: Be conscious of how you spend your time.

Building my networking

One of the primary goals I had set out for myself in 2020 was to meet new people. I was able to achieve this as I became involved with a network marketing company. In the last three months, I have met many new people, it’s refreshing to witness individuals who share a similar drive to myself. I grew relations that I consider to be a catalyst to my growth in the coming year.

Learning Outcome: Meeting new people, new ideas and new relations enlarge your circle of growth.

Thank you for taking your time to read this review – I hope you had an amazing start to the New Year and wish you the best for your endeavours in 2021.

Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash

The parable of the Mexican Fisherman and the American Businessman

Written by Timothy Ferriss, the four-hour workweek never fails to leave thoughtful references that provide an impact worth remembering for a lifetime. In this instance, I like to share what I found on page 252 of the updated and extended edition.

Tim shares:

An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”

The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”

The American scoffed. “I have an MBA from Harvard, and can help you,” he said. “You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, and eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middle-man, you could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening up your own cannery. You could control the product, processing, and distribution,” he said. “Of course, you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles, and eventually to New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “Oh, 15 to 20 years or so.”

“But what then?” asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time was right, you would announce an IPO, and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions!”

“Millions – then what?”

The American said, “Then you could retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play guitar with your amigos.”

The takeaways from this one-page story alone have provided much clarity:

Live a simple life.
Don’t wait till retirement to enjoy your time with your family and friends.
Proceed in a way – where you find enjoyment in spending your time doing what you love.
Find balance between the two entities ‘enjoy the perks that the fisherman experiences’ with ‘the mindset to invest my time and energy of what I enjoy doing’.

I hope you find value in this post and for that reason do let me know what you took away from this story in the comments below.

Benefits of reading fiction

Reading is a well-practised norm that is entertained by the millions. As a one-directional reader, my focus for many years has been non-fictional reading on subject matters like productivity and self-improvement. The disadvantage of such approach, I neglected fictional reading which engenders the following:

Simulation of vivid content through descriptive language.
Entice readers with characters and places and transport them in imaginary places.
Mental simulation of emotions.

My last experience of reading fiction was Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince. As a 10th grader, I was captivated by the story plot and, the obvious thought of putting the book seemed unnatural. Overtime, I became disengaged from reading fiction because of the idea that reading fiction didn’t provide any useful output. It was just a simple activity to waste time.

So to change the outlook of my thinking, I began to investigate the benefits of reading fiction and here’s what I have found.

Benefits of reading FICTION

Reading fiction has known to improve social cognitive skills in individuals. In this study, researchers identified exercising the default subnetwork involved in theory of mind. The default network – is a network which is known to support our capacity to simulate hypothetical sciences, spaces and mental states.

When participant read literacy passage, it was revealed certain distinction in the subnetwork of the default network. There were two in particular to draw attention:

Medial temporal lobe subnetwork responded to vivid passages
Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex responded to passages with social and abstract content.

This proposed dynamic relationship between neural function and experience is supported by neuroplasticity literature, which has demonstrated that repeated engagement in cognitive processes can lead to positive changes in the neural networks supporting those cognitive processes (Draganski and May, 2008; Klingberg, 2010; Anguera et al., 2013; Lovden et al., 2013; Merzenich et al., 2014). Thus, here, repeated engagement in social simulation vis-à-vis fiction reading may lead to beneficial changes in the default network, which may carry concomitant benefits for social ability.

And, this was further supplemented by (Mar 2004, 2011) who suggested fiction reading engenders simulations of vivid and social content, also recruits the default network. The overlap between reading fiction and simulation is viewed as a point to invoke vivid descriptive language to transport readers to imaginary places and engage readers with characters, actions and mental cues.

Also, in this article, the author highlights that there are two strands of psychological and neurophysiological impact when readers practice fiction reading. This gives rise to different kinds of effect.

Firstly, the persuasive power of fiction (PPOF) – changes the beliefs and cultural encyclopaedia of readers. PPOF is the degree of transportation – to what extent the readers become immersed in the text that they are oblivious to their immediate environment and enter the fictional world. In other words, it reinforces readers to question the facts and causes of events.

Reading stories can work as a powerful means of modifying readers mental encyclopaedia and changing their attitudes; it can even influence their personality traits.

And, secondly, the potential of fictional stories to improve the reader’s cognitive abilities. The improvement in social cognition to understand other human beings, their emotions, intentions and thoughts and actions.

Overall, reading fiction provides a social cognitive advantage that I need to start developing to a greater extent. And, reignite the desire to immerse into the vividly imaginative work of great authors such as J.K. Rowling, Ernest Hemingway, and Kazuo Ishiguro are just a few, to begin with.

Also, check out my weekly newsletter called Monday Madness. Sign up! to get your weekly dose of madness 🙂

The Hoffman Process

Entertaining the idea of default activity during my lunch break at work, I immersed myself in my routine of listening to my go-to podcast: The Tim Ferris Show. During his interview with Blake Mycoskie, who enticed the listeners with the concept of the Hoffman Process. A triggering point and more, importantly, an indication for my curiosity to cascade down into a rabbit hole of research. Here’s, what I’ve found.

What is the Hoffman Process?

In 1967, Bob Hoffman created the Hoffman Process. The basic idea of this process is to realise the transition point to what life was and what life could be like after the Hoffman Process.

The theory behind the Hoffman Process

Our upbringing is impacted by our parents and caregivers from the day we are born. Bob Hoffman recognised children unconsciously emulate the negative behaviours, attitudes, moods, and insecurities of their parents or caregivers to be loved or do the exact opposite to grab their attention. This gave rise to Negative love syndrome.

The foundation of the Hoffman Process is described by four pillars of self also referred to as ‘Quadrinity’. This includes:

1. The intellect

2. The Emotions

3. The Body

4. The Spirit.

And, true healing begins when all four pillars are engaged in one harmony, which gives rise to the structure of awareness, expression, forgiveness, and New behaviour.

What is Negative love syndrome?

It’s considered as an inter-generational pain that is passed down from generation to generation. It is part of our childhood programming that entails negative moods, attitudes, and behaviours that we practice over and over again. And ultimately, the practice of such emotions, behaviours, and attitude impact our social surroundings on an everyday basis.

Here’s a short snippet video to help you understand the Negative love syndrome: CLICK ME.

The science behind the Hoffman Process

In this study, it was indicated after one week of the Hoffman Process, the participants experienced a decline in the negatively affected symptoms like depression and an increase in positive outcomes like empathy, emotional intelligence, forgiveness, and well-being.

Furthermore, a long term study carried as part of a dissertation on the effectiveness of the Hoffman Quadrinity process by Christiane Windhausen in 1997.

She found that:

The ratings on the Frankfurt Self-Concept Scale showed that the Quadrinity graduates, in all cases, had not only made a rapid improvement but had also remained stable throughout subsequent tests and studies. The study produced highly significant data regarding the corresponding improvements on handling general problems-management scale (FSAP), confidence in behaviour when facing decision-making (FSVE), and in general self-worth ratings (FSSW). The data also proved that the Quadrinity Process produced significantly greater changes in its graduates than a controlled group undergoing a comparable three-month group therapy at the Fliednerkrankenhaus Hospital.

Her study also highlighted effective long term improvements in ‘social resonance’ – meaning people that underwent the Quadrinity process were more open towards other people. They expressed themselves greatly and had intense experiences.

Additional resources

As a point of resource to consider while reading about the Hoffman Process, I recommend checking out the ‘No One is to Blame‘ written by Bob Hoffman in 1988. Alternatively, the tools and strategies provided in ‘You can change your life‘ by Tim Laurence also provides an outlook on the Hoffman process. It’s currently part of my reading list.

Also, check out my weekly newsletter called Monday Madness or alternatively sign up to get your weekly dose of madness.

What I learned in my first year at Emerson

Man, time flies! One year at Emerson and the question I asked myself:

What have I learnt in my first year at Emerson?

I had been contemplating writing this blog post for a while, so I figured I keep it simple and highlight three areas where I have improved extensively.

Adaptability

In the past 12 months, the exposure to working in Emerson has been surreal. Following a rotation program before COVID-19, I had to adapt to various aspects of the business. I currently enjoy my experience in the manufacturing department, which entails work that requires a more hands-on approach. I had the exposure to build, plan and execute various tasks within the scope of the project. I honed my ability to delegate tasks where necessary amongst the multidisciplinary team or even took it upon myself to complete it. Being adaptable was a critical part of my learning and a major attribute to helping the team out during COVID-19.

Open-mindedness

Coming into each rotation required a sense of open-mindedness. There is a challenge in the work that gets assigned as it allowed me to push myself outside my comfort zone. But also, through my initiative of ferreting around and asking engineers if I could help out. I was able to build a diverse range of networking amongst different business groups.

However, there were elements of monotony and the advantage in such monotony – it allows you to reflect and come up with ideas to make the process much more efficient.

I realised quite early in my rotation having this mindset was critical for two reasons:

a. I opened myself to the idea that every opportunity provided a learning element.

b. regardless of the type of work that I was assigned, I took accountability in completing it and made sure I over-delivered.

Never make assumptions

In the past year, these words have become a pavilion response. And, the way I have learnt to counteract it is by:

Asking questions all the time

The process of asking questions became the default to understanding the task or project at hand and to minimise the following:

Making assumptions which in hindsight causes misunderstanding.
Lack of information can lead to an increase in setup cost.
Avoid Sunk cost bias – the tendency to continuing to invest time, energy and money in a loss proposition for something that can’t be recouped.

Also, guys check out my weekly newsletter that I publish every week called the Monday Madness.

You’ll find my weekly snippets to things I’ve enjoyed during that week.

The Gift of Feedback

Google defines feedback as:

information about reactions to a product, a person’s performance of a task, etc. which is used as a basis for improvement.

The idea of feedback is to deter an individual from repeating the same mistakes. And, that’s the beauty in showcasing your work to the world because you welcome feedback from people with different walks of life.

You would find those creative minds who would look at your work objectively and analyse the smallest of details whether that be your surrounding or the material you’re advertising.

In doing so, they go out of there way to provide feedback, which is TRUTHFUL and IMPACTFUL.

So I’ll share a snippet from one of my Youtube video’s:

This viewer’s feedback was so impactful – it allowed me to leverage various changes into my surrounding inorder to captivate my audience.

I actioned the following: I ended up buying artwork, grabbed a few of my mother’s indoor house plants, and jazzed up my space. I let you be the judge of it when I shoot my next video.

Drawing back the curtain on my creative hustle; my workplace is scarce to only a few people at the moment and working alongside them has enabled me to acquire feedback like being preached from a holy book.

I’ll share an instance, somewhat of a learning curve.

I was told this story because I acted in a way where I was giving someone an ultimatum to make a decision. In light of the feedback that was provided through a story, I realised the fault in my way. Heeding on the advice of these men I have started to collate my personal account of life advice, in the hopes that I can pass it onto the next cohort of graduates.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

My acceptance with saying YES

In a recent podcast episode, Derek Sivers highlighted his anecdotal experience of saying YES to his earlier career opportunities. This approach compounded overtime and provided him with a pool of opportunities as a singer.

As a graduate engineer, I have realised by saying YES I’ve strayed away from the concept of ‘ I need to know ‘x’ before I can do ‘y’. Instead, I’ve slowly started to adopt the mindset that I have enough to achieve ‘y’, I just need more time.

By practicing this approach, I found myself with increased opportunities at work and commitment towards my side hustle. And, as a result, I have noticed the following:

Opened communication which has enhanced my networking.
Working outside my comfort zone has opened doors to array of skills
Being adaptable and taking accountability of various projects.
Utilise my time efficiently.

I recently came across this statement and it fitted quite well with the idea of saying YES.

In this podcast, the speaker highlights that there are two kinds of people.

Window openers VS Door knockers.

Window openers – these individuals when deciding on what they could do with their time, they would like to see the desired outcome for their time behind the glass before opening the window.

Whereas,

Door knockers – these individuals who knock on the door without knowing the desired outcome. Door knockers open themselves to the world of opportunities and are open to learning from their experiences whether that is good or bad. They increase their surface area of learning and expose themselves to a newer skillset.

By combining both: A Door knocker chooses YES more often than they say YES.

I use this as a reminder, my default statement to approach any new opportunity and welcome the challenge it brings.