Tuesday
Sep282010
The use of heroes
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 9:20AM
A Hero was from the beginning a demi-god in Greek mythology, I wouldn't go as far with my list of personal heroes, but they have clearly inspired me for a number of years.
Photo by Beverly & Pack, Flickr CC
Recently I held a talk about my five Heroes:
Nic Marks is the charismatic founder of the Centre for Wellbeing at the New Economics Foundation, he was also an advisor to the UK Government in the Foresight Project. His positive view on how to create a happy future has inspired me, and many more, to look for ways of bringing about change by looking for the good and not through guilt. I've written about the Foresight project in an earlier post, and the five proven ways to happiness.
Sugata Mitra is the Indian Government Official, gone scientist. The man behind the incredible "hole in the wall experiment", where he installed a computer in a New Delhi slum and discovered that children will teach themselves. His discovery made me reflect on my role as a trainer/teacher, it has made me work in ever more cooperative ways. These days I believe that, until recently, knowledge had to be stored in books and channeled through teachers to reach students. Now, with the Internet giving everyone direct access to facts and research, the teacher's role has to be the coach who helps students overcome self-limiting thoughts.
Dan Pink is the former law student who studied motivation, the man who arrived at the conclusion that "Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose" are the three keys to what makes us tick.
Simon Sinek is one of the men that popularized the connection between brain-function and behavior. His descriptions on how the central parts of the brain, the limbic system, controls decision making and feelings, whereas the neo-cortex is associated with language and logic, has helped me structure my thoughts on how to be a better leader.
Finally, the most surprising hero might be the Portuguese captain Bartolomeu Dias, in 1486, on the King's orders, he found the way to Africa's Cape of Good Hope. In the face of adversity, in totally unchartered waters, Dias forged on and opened totally new perspectives. What especially fascinates me is the theory that at the Cape of Good Hope, he measured the height of the Sun at midday, helping those coming after him avoid the tough journey along the African coast by going out to sea until reaching the correct parallel.
This, my very personal, list of people that have inspired me on my journey to investigate leadership and human motivation is far from complete. If you have persons like Dr Martin Luther King and Gandhi on you list of heroes you might get daily advice by asking yourself "what would he have done in this situation?". My list does no readily lend itself to that kind of reflection, it's more like a "what did he find in the literature about this problem?" kind of thing. Another odd thing about my list is the lack of women, who did I miss?
How do you think that a list of heroes can help in your life, not at all - or maybe a great deal?
Photo by Beverly & Pack, Flickr CCRecently I held a talk about my five Heroes:
- Nic Marks
- Sugata Mitra
- Dan Pink
- Simon Sinek
- B. Dias
Nic Marks is the charismatic founder of the Centre for Wellbeing at the New Economics Foundation, he was also an advisor to the UK Government in the Foresight Project. His positive view on how to create a happy future has inspired me, and many more, to look for ways of bringing about change by looking for the good and not through guilt. I've written about the Foresight project in an earlier post, and the five proven ways to happiness.
Sugata Mitra is the Indian Government Official, gone scientist. The man behind the incredible "hole in the wall experiment", where he installed a computer in a New Delhi slum and discovered that children will teach themselves. His discovery made me reflect on my role as a trainer/teacher, it has made me work in ever more cooperative ways. These days I believe that, until recently, knowledge had to be stored in books and channeled through teachers to reach students. Now, with the Internet giving everyone direct access to facts and research, the teacher's role has to be the coach who helps students overcome self-limiting thoughts.
Dan Pink is the former law student who studied motivation, the man who arrived at the conclusion that "Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose" are the three keys to what makes us tick.
Simon Sinek is one of the men that popularized the connection between brain-function and behavior. His descriptions on how the central parts of the brain, the limbic system, controls decision making and feelings, whereas the neo-cortex is associated with language and logic, has helped me structure my thoughts on how to be a better leader.
Finally, the most surprising hero might be the Portuguese captain Bartolomeu Dias, in 1486, on the King's orders, he found the way to Africa's Cape of Good Hope. In the face of adversity, in totally unchartered waters, Dias forged on and opened totally new perspectives. What especially fascinates me is the theory that at the Cape of Good Hope, he measured the height of the Sun at midday, helping those coming after him avoid the tough journey along the African coast by going out to sea until reaching the correct parallel.
This, my very personal, list of people that have inspired me on my journey to investigate leadership and human motivation is far from complete. If you have persons like Dr Martin Luther King and Gandhi on you list of heroes you might get daily advice by asking yourself "what would he have done in this situation?". My list does no readily lend itself to that kind of reflection, it's more like a "what did he find in the literature about this problem?" kind of thing. Another odd thing about my list is the lack of women, who did I miss?
How do you think that a list of heroes can help in your life, not at all - or maybe a great deal?
Reader Comments (5)
[...] for the speakers of the day, that gave little importance to truth. Problem is, according to the research of Simon Sinek, one of my five heroes, it might be very effective. The decision making part of the brain does not process logic, only [...]
Great post J!!!
http://www.youtube.com/user/BetterLifeCoaches
Thanks Paulo, doing my very best to live up to expectations!
[...] Dan Pink talks about three components to motivation – Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. Together they make a good basis for scoring motivation. Another way of looking at motivation is using the SCARF method with its five components, maybe a bit more complicated but it includes the important discussion about “status”. [...]
[...] feeling that you can control your life is an important factor in happiness, both Dan Pink with his focus on “Autonomy” and many other researchers have came to that conclusion. To have that sensation of being [...]