The Invisible Mentor

Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ Category

I realized that I have not had any tips and tricks or resources blog posts in a long time so I decided that it was important to start off the new year right.

Whenever you have to conduct country research, a good place to start is at the CIA Factbook website. At this website you’ll find information on the history, geography, people and so on of the specific country,  and if you’re going on vacation, or even on business, you’d like to learn about political stability. CIA Factbook gives you these types of information. Another place to gather country information is Country Reports.  For next steps refer to the blog post How to Analyze Information.

And while you are surfing, two cool websites are National Geographic and Planet Earth on Discovery Channel. Are these websites helpful? What are three of your favorite websites?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Photo credit: Via Apture

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Every day we are bombarded with problems to solve and decisions to make, and the quality of our solutions and decisions are only as good as the information they are based on. With so much information at our fingertips, how can we systematically analyze the information for better results. As a professional with over 15 years experience in research, I constantly have to analyze the data gathered, so the information requested by my client is streamlined and not overwhelming. Here is a simple process that could help you:

Analyze Information

• Skim and Scan
• Determine accuracy, relevance and reliability of information
• Differentiate
• Identify propaganda, bias
• Recognize omissions and faulty logic
• Recognize interrelationships

Step 1. Review the questions

Review the questions generated before the information was gathered. Why was this particular information necessary? What questions was it supposed to answer? What kinds of decisions will be made based on this information? Renew your understanding of the central issues and key questions.

Unanticipated results should not be ignored. Putting information together will often raise important, unforeseen and relevant questions. Note these for future reference and point them out when presenting the results.

Step 2. Organize the information

• Gather together all relevant information that has been collected
• Sort information into parts which belong together
• Some may have already been analyzed. Some may be partly analyzed, and some may need analysis

Step 3. Decide how to analyze information

Analysis could simply be adding up numbers and averaging them, or comparing information to examine the relationship of one thing to another or two things together. Pay attention to the source of the information.

Step 4. Analyze the information

• Look out for biased information and faulty logic
• Take note of similarities
• Contrast information by setting two things in opposition to show the differences
• Relate pieces of information to establish relationships between and among them
• Take note of emerging themes
• Identify gaps in the information
• Do you have the information you need to solve the problem or make the decision?

Step 5. Integrate the information

Put the analyzed parts together in a way that tells the complete story. It is impossible to gather all the information you will ever need, so there are times when you have to make intelligent assumptions.

Note: Pay attention to where you collect your information. Good sources are government websites, university sources, commercial online databases, which you can readily access from most public library portals, community watch dog agencies and reputable consumer groups are a few that readily come to mind.

What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed.

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How to Read to Solve a Problem

An important aspect of professional success involves participating in mentoring programs. And now more than ever, employees need mentors to guide and advise them as they navigate flattened corporate structures.  In the absence of, and as a complement to traditional mentors, professionals can mentor themselves, utilizing Invisible Mentors, in the form of books by and about successful people as well as interviews with successful people. An invisible mentor is a unique leader (role model) you can learn things from by observing them from a distance.

Shift Your Mindset Then The Impossible Becomes Possible

To get invisible mentoring from a book, it has to have many of the elements below:

• Provokes thought
• Provides a deeper level of understanding and heightened awareness
• Ignites passion
• Awakens deep-seated emotions
• Provides practical wisdom
• Chronicles events for strategic guidance
• Provides formulas and intellectual frameworks to use
• Be about a change maker
• Solves everyday problems
• Shifts the reader’s mindset

  Invisible Mentor interviews work best when interviewees are:

• Willing to share wisdom, knowledge and experiences
• Old enough to have learned important life lessons
• Accomplished
• Enlightened and understand that the world is bigger than them
• Inspiring
• Willing to help others succeed
• Engaging
• Well-read
• Articulate
• Problem solvers
• Change makers
• Passionate
• Easy to understand

The easiest way to choose Invisible Mentors or a Personal Board of Invisible Mentors is to ask colleagues, family and friends for suggestions and recommendations for books to read and interviews to listen to. Ensure that the list is diverse, containing books that are off the beaten track and interviewees who are unusual suspects. Seek divergent views to stand apart from the crowd. You can find suggestions on The Mentors‘ and Library pages.

Make a list of 10 Invisible Mentors

Photo Credits: Avil Beckford

 Related articles

• Create Your Board of Mentors – January is National Mentoring Month (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Interview With Invisible Mentor Jeanne-Marie Robillard, Senior Account Executive, National Speakers Bureau, Part Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Interview With Invisible Mentor Jeanne-Marie Robillard, Senior Account Executive, National Speakers Bureau (theinvisiblementor.com)

Spotting the Opportunities Among the Clouds

Do you commiserate with your friends and peers about missed opportunities? Or, do you constantly find yourself saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?” If you answered yes, it doesn’t have to be that way.

If you modified your approach slightly you will start to believe that you are one of the luckiest people around. The Graham Wallas Creativity Model is a great tool to problem solve and generate great ideas. I have used this tool in ways that I am sure that Mr. Wallas never intended when he wrote the Art of Thought in 1926.

 Outlined in the book is a 4-Step Process: Preparation, Incubation, Illumination and Verification/Implementation. You are probably thinking what does a creativity model have to do with spotting opportunities, and that is a reasonable question.

 Recently, I applied for and won a Digital Media scholarship. I was excited and grateful because I had identified gaps in the skills I needed to create and run a successful blog over the long-term. The scholarship would fill many of those gaps. I prepared for the course by developing The Invisible Mentor Concept Paper, going through the agenda and identifying the workshops most relevant to me, yet still being open and expecting the unexpected.

 When I felt like I had prepared enough for my course, I let the information sit or incubate and I worked on projects. Because I was prepared, and no longer focusing on my needs, while I was at the course, over a period of 6-days, I had many aha moments – illumination – and was able to spot many opportunities which I am now working on (implementation/verification). Had I not gone through the process, I would have missed many of those opportunities because I would not have thought that they applied to my situation.

 The Graham Wallas Creativity Model will work equally well for you if you make it a habit and experiment with it. Perhaps you will find another use for it that you can tell us about.

 What are your thoughts?

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While reading, interact with the words on the pages and bring them to life. Scan internal memory banks for related information. Nothing exists in a vacuum so find ways to connect the new information to the old and form something completely new. Connect two pieces of information that appear to have nothing in common. Play with the information and expand your thinking.

Blog about the book as you read to start a conversation.

Process what you are reading as you are reading. How can you apply one concept from the book to make life easier? Think about it and read in motion. What are your thoughts?  What are other ways that you can read in motion?

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