Psychology of Personal Decision-Making

 Exercises – ▪ Try to relax ▪ Paper airplanes ▪ Some questions ▪ Drawing  More TED! – ▪ Adora (lectured to by a 14 year old!) ▪ Derek Sivers “The reverse is also true!” ▪ Tim Brown on “Play and Creativity” (12:06-on)  Openness  Flow  Creativity and Decisions

 How many of you:  Can sing?  Dance?  Draw?

 Eysenck (1995) – Creative achievement:  Cognitive  Environmental  Personal

 Facets of Openness:  Imagination (“world is often too plain and ordinary”)  Artistic interests (“love beauty in art and nature”)  Emotionality (“aware of own feelings”)  Adventurousness (“eager to travel”)  Intellect (“playing with ideas”)  Liberalism (“ready to challenge authority”) ▪ Love ambiguity and chaos

“It’s like opening a door that’s floating in the middle of nowhere and all you have to do is go and turn the handle and open it and let yourself sink into int. You can’t particularly force yourself through it. You just have to float. If there’s any gravitational pull, it’s from the outside world trying to keep you back from the door”

 Completely involved in what you’re doing –  focused, concentrated  A sense of ecstasy-  of being outside everyday reality  Great inner clarity –  knowing what needs to be done and how well we’re doing  Knowing the activity is doable –  that our skills are adequate to the task  A sense of serenity-  no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego  Timelessness –  thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes  Intrinsic motivation –  whatever produces flow becomes its own reward

 Getting flow!  What are you really good at (even sometimes) that is also challenging?  What can you add to this to make fireworks? ▪ Have you ever combined the two? ▪ If yes, When was last time you did this? Tell us! What else could you add? ▪ If no, When can you?

 1) Is this a new idea?  2) Is it useful?

 Fear of new ideas (associated rejection feelings)  We don’t want to feel bad/incompetent  Inability to think of new ideas  Automatic Processes ▪ Patterns of data everywhere ▪ Perspectives can be like a “broken record”  Priming ▪ A set way of thinking about things to “help us” be more efficient thinkers

 Answers might be in places you wouldn’t really think to look first  Penicillin  Recipes  Large Hadron Collider  Activates long term memory to create stupid ideas

 Turns stupid ideas into workable solutions

 Ask:  What is “good” about this stupid idea?  Avoid negative criticism ▪ Simply stops thoughts  Try keeping your thought stream open

Stupid Idea “Stepping Stone” Don’t Judge Only Positive Thoughts Potential Solution Evaluate Solutions Positive and Negative Thoughts

 Mood  Observation  Creative Conversation  Devil’s advocate ▪ Corrects groupthink  Giant fighter’s strategem  Networking ▪ Who else should I talk with? Who would disagree?  Breaks  Checklists

 Articulating a future vision: Expressing an idealized picture of the future based on organizational values  Inspirational communication: Expression of positive messages about the organization. (Builds motivation)  Supportive Leadership: Expressing concern for followers and takes their needs into account.  Intellectual stimulation: Encouraging employees to think about problems in new ways  Individual consideration: Praise and acknowledgement of effort for achieving specific goals.

 Articulate a future vision: ▪ Express an idealized picture of the future based on YOUR values  Inspirational communication: Write positive messages about YOU. ▪ Builds motivation  Support your circle: Express concern for your close friends, ▪ Takes their needs into account, and they’ll do what they can to return the favor.  Intellectual stimulation: Put yourself in situations which force you to think about problems in new ways ▪ Travel!  Individual consideration: Reward yourself for achieving specific goals. ▪ Skydiving??