BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND-Andrew Hostetler

Now that we have finished with the Seven Habit and are into new material I have found that the habit that best fits me is to Begin with the end in mind. I have always started things to see them drag on and take long to finish. This has always happened because I never really focused on the end instead I would clutter myself with the many steps involved. Now when I pictures the end it is easier for me to put the steps in the correct order and without skipping and risk dragging the project on. Beginning with the end in mind is how I now look at school and I can see what needs to to be done in between to get there. This step reminds me of the movie Rudy. Ever since he was a kid he knew he wanted to play football for Notre Dame. Others told him he couldn't and that it wasn't for him. He had the end in mind since he was a kid and he was able to put off the negative things said and get to the end cause he had it in mind. Having the end in mind is what drove him to work hard and achieving what he had always wanted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsmzDL61oME

Andrew Hostetler

New Mind Beliefs

I started reading A whole new mind and it has really taken me by surprise but it all makes sense. At first I was a little apprehensive that the mind emphasis is shifting since that is altering ideas that I have been raised with and am used to. Like how I have gotten adjusted to taking tests and thinking that math and science are the most important things to know. Later in the book I got really excited though since my passion is in the arts and I want to become a graphic designer. So nice to hear that this is actually the direction where the good jobs are going since a lot of people say it is a waste to get and art major and that you will never get a decent job. So I decided to test this out and taught one of my friends about this whole concept last night and he didn't believe it at all. He said it is nice for a girl to learn art but men need to go into something that will earn more money for the family. This made me realize that it is going to take a lot to have people change their mindsets. I am excited to learn more about it though.
Karen Ungricht

Design In Business

I really enjoyed the guest lecture in class today about design, and one thing that really clicked for me was I realized the way I have viewed design has been very narrow. I have always thought of design as just an art form, by that I mean just the shape and look of a product. Today I realized just how important design is in every part of business; it's in everything from the way a product looks and feels in our hands, to the advertising and branding campaigns, even in the way employees and leaders need to think to be successful in a competitive marketplace. I have found myself looking at things and thinking about how it's design makes me desire that object more or less. But the most important lesson I took away from todays lecture was the need for us to develop a design pattern of thought that will enable us to think of new and innovative products and ways of doing things that will help us stand out from the crowd.

I have provided a link to a youtube clip of an interview with Roger Martin, he said something that really drove this topic home for me. He explained that allot of people never have the opportunity to develop their design thinking because their company has a set way of doing things and they don't give the employee a chance to develop something new. That creates a problem when down the road that employee becomes the CEO and then one day the way the company has done things for years isn't working anymore and the CEO has no idea of how to create something new to help the company stay ahead of the competition. It really got me thinking about how important this skill is. Just like we talked about in class Innovation is the biggest asset US businesses have.

Perspective

In class throughout the semester we have talked about our paradigms. So yesterday in class, Pam was talking about perspective. Well, my brother Jared Barnes has been artistic his whole life. So, when Pam was giving the analogy of drawing in perspective to the pencil it really made sense to me. My brother has been a very successful artist and he created a blog for our extended family members to teach them how to draw in "perspective". So I thought that I would share this link. Maybe some of you enjoy drawing and this will intrigue you or give you some tips, while others maybe its just interesting.

http://www.jaredbarnesart.blogspot.com/
JERIKA BARNES

Benchmark and p/pc

It was really exciting to get the results back from my benchmark. I loved seeing a little view of how others think I am doing in my life reguarding the 7 habits. I learned many things that will help me to more effectively find out ways that I can improve that hadn't before been aware to me and also it helped me to better see the good that I am doing to I am more motivated to become even better. One specific thing that I want to do better is work on p/pc to better balance my life. Sometimes I let things like sleep and exercise slip to accomplish other things instead but I simply need to better organize and prioritize my time. So from now on I am going to plan out my week roughly on sundays so I can get the most important things in there to accomplish and then every night I will plan for the next day by the hour so I can keep up with my matenience and keep getting the results that I want in my life.
Karen Ungricht

Broken

So after thinking about broken things in society I really think that our public transportation has some issues. Especially buses because it is so inconvenient that they only have few selected routes. They don't have enough that go to enough destinations that makes it very possible for someone to function well without a car. Usually after you get off a stop you still have to walk for quite a while to finally reach your desired destination. If anyone cared enough to fix problems with our public transportation then we could be like some of the foreign countries like Germany who save a ton of money from not owning a car. Not to mention you wouldn't have to worry about parking troubles anymore. Now my mind is much more open to the vast possibilities of improvements that can be made in the world and our society to make it a little bit better for all of us.
Karen Ungricht

Good to Great

The book that group one is reading is Good to Great, by Jim Collins. I haven't gotten very far in the book yet, but the first sentence left an impression on me. "Good is the enemy of great." I have never thought of how good could possibly be a bad thing. Good, however, limits us from achieving great. It is so easy to settle on good. I do it everyday. I strive to be a good employee, a good student, and a good follower of my religious beliefs. By being good at those things, I impede myself from being great. Good may be sufficient for some, but I believe we can be great with more effort. The rewards for being good will be good, and the rewards for being great will be great.

Sam Sherwood

Being a Good Listener

So i tried the listening challenge,  i know i'm late but better than never right? A roommate of mine had a horrible weekend and so i thought i would be a good friend and be a listening ear. I love to listen so i didn't think it would be so hard. Well she started talking and talking and i sat there and listened. I nodded when necessary and agreed with her at appropriate times. Sure there were lots of times where i wanted to throw in a couple stories that related to me, but i kept quiet. When she was done talking she asked how i was and so i began to tell her about my weekend. She did the opposite of what i did. Cutting me off, adding in stories that dealt with her and not really listening. So about 2 minutes into my side of the weekend i just left it at 'ya it was a good weekend' and the conversation ended. Good experience, eye opening into what a good listener really is.  -Lauren Bagley

Broken Marketing

As we watched the video on broken marketing in class on tuesday, I was reminded of a couple pictures my dad had taken on a trip to Africa. I will post them so you can see. They are clearly confusing and broken.
Paul Johnson

fmri scans

As I was reading our assignment in the book A Whole New Mind, I was intrigued by the talk of the left side of the brain vs. the right side. I loved the talk of the fmri scans, and did a little bit of research online about them. This is a picture of one of the scans he was talking about, with the different colors on each side of the brain.
I think it is so interesting how much the world really has changed. It is not enough anymore to just be smart. You need more. Creativity, drive, and proactivity. It is esseencial, but it is also hard to achieve. I think as we create effective habits in our lives, we will become more right sided in terms of brain use.

IT'S BROKEN !

"The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds." -R.D. Laing

Please click on the "comment" link at the bottom of this post and tell us what systems (business, government, education, etc) you've noticed that are BROKEN.

7 habits

During today's lecture, I sat and pondered each of the seven habits as we went through them as a class. It occured to me that I still have a long ways to go before I'm where I want to be in regards to each of the habits. In class, I never shared what i thought to be the most important of the habits, or which one stood out most to me. I wasn't called on to give my opinion, so i sat quietly, giving up a choice to be proactive and speak my mind. So i will take the opportunity to do so now. The habit that stands out to me would be the aforementioned; proactivity. As an introvert who like to keep to myself, I find it difficult to be proactive in many situations, however, that isn't to say that i can't become a proactive person. It is so important to be proactive in everything. I feel ashamed of how layed back i've been through all of high school, and now all of college. I haven't taken enough initiative in work, in school, and other situations of my life. I know i'm not alone because I can see other people traveling the easy road and being passive, letting life lead them wherever it may. Dr. Covey said "we are the creative force of our own lives." I hope to continue to become more proactive in creating and shaping my life into what I want it to be and I hope we can all do the same. Here is a videoclip of Dr. Covey further discussing habit one. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIh4qgwZeCM0

A Whole New Mind

As we finish up the book 7 Habits we begin our new book "A Whole New Mind"
Here is a video that is an introduction to this book...

communicate by listening

Over the weekend i tried to listen to people a lot more carefully; instead of just waiting for them to finish so i could say what i was thinking. I did it on two occasions and strengthened my relationships with those two people. They said they felt so good knowing that there was someone they could talk to. One of my best friends has been going through some personal stuff and he has never been an emotional person or one to talk about feelings and things. But when i was listening to him, he really opened up. I understand him much better and i know that he, and many others, appreciate people who listen and care about him and his feelings.

It's a Best-Seller for a Reason: The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Peopl...

As we finish talking about the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People book, i just wanted to post a little piece to sum up our past couple weeks. If we do nothing else productive in this class, (which i highly doubt) I would still be glad i took the class. I have learned so much about how to better my life. I loved this book because it made me recognize my faults and want to change them. It also gave me hope that I CAN change those faults. I love that. Stephen R. Covey did a magnificent job of using simple principles that everyone relates to change peoples lives. This book can and should change everyones. I feel like while reading it, it must change EVERYONE'S paradigm. Now it is our choice and opportunity to act on this paradigm shift we have experienced to make us better people. I hope that everyone was affected as much as I was through the words of this book and the words from our class.
Paul Johnson

Pam's Challenge.

I tried the challenge Pam gave us on Friday, to seek first to understand then be understood. When we were discussing this habit in class I thought that it would be easy to add this into my everyday life and that it would be an easy/ fast way strengthen my relationships with others. While in class I figured that it would easy to really listen to someone without just thinking about what my response will be without probing, or advising the situation. I thought that just repeating what they had said a little differently would be okay. While repeating what they had said differently helped them to know that I was listening, for me I found that it wasn’t helping me pay more attention to the subject we were discussing because I was just thinking about how I could reword it. I was wrong when I thought that this habit would be easy to incorporate into my communication skills. It is going to take some major practice with this habit to really feel comfortable with the way I communicate with others.

--Kate Kendrick

Design

-Warning, this post contains content from a couple days from now-
I never realized how lacking my thought was in terms of "design". By "design" I of course mean the right brained, big picture, patern recognizing, gestault sense. I've been trying to apply design thinking directly, but im finding that it is more realistic to first train myself to think in a design oriented manner. The book "A whole new mind" gives methods for achieving this, like noting the design flaws or ingenuity inherent in a given object. E.g. the alarm clock sitting next to me is mostly well designed, with a large snooze button for clumsy, early morning swipes. However, the alarm settings (No alarm, alarm 1, alarm 2, alarm 1 and 2) which allow for two different programed alarms, can easily be mixed up. It takes the form of a single bar, sliding about half an inch for all four settings. Its frustrating to wake up to the wrong alarm whether its early or late, and this design flaw allows that mistake.
-If this post is missing any criteria, sorry-

Listening

I tried the listening skills that we were taught in class with a lot of people but one that really stood out was a girl that is in my ceramics class. She was telling everyone at our table in the class how she has had a rotten day. She said all the things that went wrong and then some of the other girls at the table went off on tangents from what she said about their own lives. I turned it back to her and asked how that made her feel and said back to her what I understood she had said and I could tell that she then liked telling me more and actually felt better even though it didn't directly solve her problems. It was awesome and I am going to use it more to truly listen to people.
Karen Ungricht

The Challenge

When challenged with this opportunity in class on Friday, I thought of a few different situations that I would be in this weekend where I could try empathetic listening. Friday night came and an unexpected situation was presented where I could apply seek first to understand. One of my close friends was having relationship problems and on my way over I began to prep myself to not give advice, probe, or put the guy down. All I was going to do was simply listening, right? Well it definitely was in no way easy or simple to sit, listen, and understand. At first it was a struggle to not have my mind constantly thinking of how I wanted to respond but it eventually got easier and I found that her situation was completely different than what I had first interpreted it as. She began to explain some of her fears and problems with this relationship and why she had developed these thoughts. I know that I understand her better now and we are closer as friends. She told me she was glad I that I listened because her family kept giving her advice and all she wanted was to have one person LISTEN and not interpret, advise, probe, or evaluate. It is amazing the feelings, ideas, and emotions that can be expressed in a deeper way if a person listens to understand first.

Michaela Ferguson

Empathetic Listening

When going over this topic in class I thought, sounds simple, but after trying it out I found that this is not always the case. Over the weekend we were extended the challenge to try applying this principle of empathetic listening and then give a report on how it went.

This last weekend my friend drove up to Salt Lake and asked if I wanted to go, the drive is about an hour and a half so it was a perfect time to try out this, “listening only” idea. The conversation began with small talk as they always do with nothing to exciting to talk about. By then end of the drive however, and after plenty of time trying not to probe or relate, I found myself seeing my friend more clearly, and caring more about what he was telling me instead of trying to see if I could relate to his experiences or give advice. The principle of Listening helps build character and a desire to understand others. In short, it creates better results in conversation and strengthens relationships.

Thanks Covey!

-Brady Walker

Easy Advice

It is so easy to give advice. I can listen to any situation and tell the person what I think they should do. But how hard is it to say nothing? It is one of the hardest things anybody can do. Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go on a roadtrip with my sister. For the first hour or two we just talked about nothing but eventually the conversation led to her relationship. She has been going out with this guy for over six months. Well it turns out that this guy will be graduating this semester and will be moving to Ohio but my sister doesn't plan on going with him. She wants to break up but at the same time she can't stand to think about not being with him. So for the next hour I just sat there and listened to her debate with herself. Every five or ten minutes I would add a little "yea" or "I see" but other than that I didn't say a word. I'm not going to say it was the longest hour of my life but holy cow! I learned WAY more than I wanted to about their relationship.

Listening is important and not giving unwanted advise is maybe more important. But I think we all need to be careful about who we decide to "listen" to. If you ask why, because once they start talking and you show that you are interested and listening, then you may never get them to be quiet.

Group One's Blog post on "how not to be a jerk"

We chose this video clip because of it's content, and also because it is given by someone who is relative to us in age. There are a lot things that we can learn from his simple council. As we discussed this video there were a lot of reasons why we think it's very informative. Here are some reasons why we think this is an effective video in teaching some of the principles we have discussed in class; namely the listening part of "seeking first to understand."

Some of the best ways to build trust in any type of relationship is just simply listen to the person talk about them. Think of it. When someone is really into what are you saying and expresses  genuine interest (not by speaking), do you want to just put up a wall and not talk to them anymore? No, we continue to talk. Sometimes we may find that we have talked to much about us or have disclosed things that we never thought we would have. Think of how effective this would be at a social gathering where maybe you could interact with a key leader in your company that you don't have much contact with. This could be a key opportunity for promotion, or maybe to learn a little more about the vision and goals of the company. You ask a few simple questions and then just listen.

As we have discussed in class, these principles not only will help us in the corporate world, they will help us with our friends, family, and even our spouse. 

He spoke of praising in public, and correcting in private. What are some ways that we can do both of those things in a genuine manner? 

 After watching this video, what are some types of communication that you haven't thought of before?

As he asked, have you ever been in an argument and been so mad that you didn't even know what the other person just said? What are some ways we can overcome this destructive habit?

Thanks for reading,

Mack, Nate, Blake, and Lendel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2tEOwNCrjI    Just copy and paste this link into your web browser