Change

It’s gonna happen. The world has never been like this and never will again. So many things will be mixed up into different combinations meaning everything changes, sometimes the change is difficult to spot other times it’s unmistakable and urgent. Many of us spend to much time wanting or trying big change, let me list some words and tell me if big change is for you?

Earthquake,

Explosion,

Death.

Are you sure you want to be around or want to cause big change?

Most cultures have cottoned on to change as being constant (Wu Chang in Chinese) and things always changing like rivers (Heraclitus (Greek) and Confucius (Chinese)) and when dealing with it advice such as ‘every journey starts with a single step’ (Lao Zi (Chinese), and yes there are almost certainly examples from other cultures and very old too. Change is inevitable so you need to acknowledge it (it’s gonna happen anyway even if you try to ignore it!) so plan with it in mind.

I hopefully have given clear pointers that the big change does happen but it tends to have major consequences that are irreversible and scarring to the survivors. I suggest evolution not revolution. Taking small steps one at a time that will slowly and gradually change. Some times the Daoist; go with the flow (para phrase!) is useful, but also deciding to change towards a better situation step by step is easier than cold turkey withdrawal or jumping to a new action without preparation.

The concept of continuous improvement is encapsulated in Kaizen a Japanese name of an industrially applied method that transformed much of Japanese Industry from devastation after World War II to the top of many fields. Toyota is the face of this method with the development of the Six Sigma approach. Over the years Toyota used these ideas and gradually reduced waste, and improved their processes and products to become the biggest Car manufacturer where General Motors did not use small change philosophies and has gone from the biggest to bailed out bankrupt. So it’s slightly more than just theory. General Motors knew what Toyota were doing and even tried to work with them but failed to change themselves to a culture that embraces change.

So the general idea is to improve something maybe even a very small something that will lead to improvements. So having large warehouse areas with lots of stock is expensive, if you can arrange for smaller more regular deliveries just when you need them, you will not need as big a building to store them in, so smaller rent maybe? The impact is likely to be bigger than you think as other areas may be improved too. You may also reorganise the work area so everything is at hand rather than walking around all the time to get the pieces and tools needed. Now go home is your freezer large and full and a large electricity bill. Is your kitchen spread all over. So these two ideas that helped make a multinational massive organisation can also make your life easier with cost and space savings. Now look at all aspects of a business or home or what ever and look for small improvements that can save money, time, space or anything else. Productivity (you can produce more) or efficiency (do more with less) could save or increase what you want. The process is to regularly pick something to improve and each one will make things a little better but after you have made a few changes they will combine to make a larger noticeable effect.

Small changes can be seem in many areas of life (how principles and concepts work, learn them and apply in many areas). One you have forgotten from school maths is compound interest where interest on savings and debt is compounded. So a quick reminder if you put £100 in the bank and get 10% interest p.a. (We wish, but it’s easy numbers that’s all) then at the end of the year you have £110 the next year it is not £120 but £121. Only a small difference so far but the graph and your money go up quicker with the adding (compounding) of interest the interest on the interest is also added. This is a not very secret to how savings and wealth are best accumulated over time not by one payout. It has worked for Warren Buffet (from childhood pocket money to multi billionaire), it helps pensions work and the reason you can benefit a lot from clearing debt or paying off quicker if possible with compounded debt interest. It’s amazing the benefits of early started small savings can make after several years.

The same idea of small improvements is not just beneficial with business and personal finance. It can be applied everywhere and any time. So can you do something to improve your health, or your personal work approach or your relationships? It does not have to be big just a small change and make it now! Now get in the habit of regularly (say 1^st of the month) pick a small improvement and make it. Sure it may not be obvious straight away but after a year with other small improvements there will be noticeable improvements.

The way concepts and principles can be learned and applied is also compounded. So now prioritise what is the biggest factor and look for improvement there. So in health the big 3 are sleep, eat and move. Which is your biggest problem? How can you make a small improvement? So could it be no breakfast well pick a simple starter to the day even if it’s a fruit juice or piece of fruit as early as you can and make it a permanent habit. A month later you could add some more to breakfast or swap your 11 o’clock unhealthy snack for some fruit. What ever it is pick an easy change and make it. You can look up sleep hygiene and make a change there or just add some more movement like a little walk daily to your life. A small change in a major area may have a bigger impact than a large change in a less significant area as well as being easier and more likely to work.

You may not even notice the change but every step is in the right direction, and small steps are easier. As time goes by bigger steps may count as small steps to you but do not run before you can walk then those big change words Earthquake, Explosion, Death can be avoided as much as possible. Making change part of you rather than waiting till only drastic action can possible work and still most often does not or causing major problems by instigating the more difficult (and less successful) big changes.

These changes can be made in the quiet times so their automatic when the stress increases. It could also be explained as a journey where if you are off by a degree at the start you miss by large amount by the end. Each small course correction lessen the margin of error (missing) later on. Big changes mean a long journey in the wrong direction and more waste or damage especially if left to late.

Prioritise!

This is actually an exercise in approximation. When things are large and complex getting all the information is not possible. Checking you are on the right track can also be done with prioritising. The trick is to simplify life and the large problems of life. What ever people tell you. Not all things are equal! Some things have more influence and effect than others. The first point is identifying the top 3 most important things and working with them first. An underlying pattern is behind the Pareto principle where things (not all, but many) tend to have a large 80% proportion and a 20% smaller portion. What you want is to avoid majoring in the minors. Working too much on minor elements or issues and becoming ineffective, when working on a top 3 often puts you in a position to be effective. It is easy to get caught up in detail, many people do it to themselves but others are also very capable of distracting you to spend too much time on insignificant detail and not the solid elements. So there has to be an active process on finding out what the most important parts, actions or whatever are, then working on them primarily. If you have more time or the competition is strong then progress to the other less influential elements.

The first example is health. The first question is what kills and causes the most disease for your population? In the west 3 out of 4 people die of Heart disease, Cancer and Stroke, on top of this is the epidemic of diabetes where in the UK of the massive Health service budget 10% is spent on diabetes alone. For the list luckily if I want to prevent/reduce the chances or impact the top 3 killers the prioritise are the same that prevent Diabetes too. So:

1. Sleep right
2. Eat right
3. Move right

Not really any surprise and also no surprise that in the west we don’t do them! The 3 elements are interactive. They also will impact many other elements of health outside the top 3 as many medical conditions; physical and mental are improved by the top 3 elements. So sleep enough to improve performance like remembering things, learning things, not dropping things and inside keeping the blood sugar levels under control (the diabetes link) just for starters. Yes people who do not sleep enough with enough quality die earlier and have worse health. Eating is the same and no real surprise eat enough (not too much) and eat well. So cut out the treats you have every day and make sure you have healthy stuff each day. Many food stuffs are toxic in the amounts people take them. We all know alcohol and other drugs poison but too much in general and too much sugar also have to be dealt with by the body and it has it’s needs which might not be your wants. Moving right starts with good every day technique keeping the joints aligned using the body in a way that reduces damage traumatically and chronically. Learning to squat is helpful for lifting things but also walking with good foot and knee position. With technique improved just moving rather than the epidemic of sitting. This is the major 3, when you have made progress with these then looking at the next 3 factors for health or looking at a top 3 of sleep etc., will help less but can help solidify good habits. If you want to reach higher levels then optimising basic health and pursuing advanced goals in activities and sport will need more detailed looks at exercising and nutrition while maintaining health.

Self defense is the next area. The first priorities are:

1. Awareness
2. Avoidance
3. Communication

So the first stage is getting an idea of what happens in terms of violence and then what is happening now? So the good news is at present the west is less violent than it has ever been. So what are the big factors around violence, hick (pardon me) yes you’ve got it alcohol, the big factor effects any awareness and avoidance and any physical response. Location; where is violence most common? Where alcohol is consumed, is number 1 then when people are on their own so plan to reduce this time and avoid the worst times. Who suffers violence is the next question. Adolescence are more vulnerable but vulnerability is a factor. General advice is to not look or be like easy prey, for criminals or emotionally disturbed people. Another is understanding of how violence occurs. This could be described as communication, it occurs because one person needs/wants something you have got or they can get from you. It may be crime or ego or status factors. Here communication is a key factor where you need to communicate you are not an easy mark, but also showing respect to peoples ego and status. Dealing with violence most often can be talked out of helping solve the other persons problem and understanding what they want to communicate.

Notice in self defense I have not mentioned fighting it is not in the top 3 and yet it is what most people lead with as with health I did not mention Doctors because they are for when other things have gone wrong and would give the same top 3 if you asked. Heart specialists may make their money through heart surgery, but they would still favour fewer operations to do!

So generally what ever you are looking at you need knowledge of what actually happens, then prioritise the key elements for your attention and act in best order. The order of action is a detail worth looking at putting first things first. Very few people do any real research and reflection or planning so are guessing, then when time is limited they use it unwisely. Wasting it and being ineffective and they either redo or go down a path of hard work.

As I stated prioritising is approximating, so don’t forget it is not the whole. For more advanced performance you will need to look for balance, now the fewer elements to balance the easier it is, so try not to bite off too much and fall in the trap of getting over engaged with minor elements. To do a sport first you have to be on the field, next stage is to be on the right part of the field and third is subtle movements to get the best angles for performance. Getting a perfect angle when not on the field is useless and looks silly in the supermarket.

Finding out the top 3 can be done by using experts (real not imitators). If you need to know the top 3 for health I have no words for you as the information is everywhere and you have heard it before. For self defense my go to people are Miller and MacYoung in books, internet and in person. They communicate well and have more experience than I want. Over time you know more including about yourself and need less help but also know better when you need help.

Where IQ Fits.

The IQ normal distribution is not everything but it does represent a lot particularly in western society. It is a relative measure as it compares to other people not an absolute measure. It does not measure everything. I have mentioned the different intelligences that Howard Gardener uses and feel they have practical merit. A simple idea is that if you want something from a height you can ask a tall person to do it. It will be easier for them, although it can be funny to watch a shorter person try unless it’s yourself of course! Some people are better at different things. Another example may be musical or empathy where some people with little practice are much better than others with years of experience. They seam to grasp the basics quicker and easier which allows the more advanced to be built on top. Those with ‘lesser talent’ are slower to pick up the basics and need to work harder to progress and sometimes just cannot develop in these specific ways.

So IQ is not a test of everything and it has had a history where it has improved is validity and reliability. Some of the original ideas of test were cultural rather than intelligence. So what does a higher IQ suggest? It suggests the person will generally be better with vocabulary and language, they will use words better and more accurately and be able to use more of them to explain anything. They tend to have the same advantage mathematically leading to logical aspects. As they have an advantage in the basics as things seem obvious to them, they can then combine these elements to more abstract levels. This is where they lose others who cannot follow at all or at least as quick. Some cannot follow even with time and explanation. I would like to say that this is the same pattern with other intelligences some people can physically or musically just do and do really quickly and then with some practice go beyond others understanding and abilities very quickly. The first example from maths is algebra where the first step into abstraction loses many, here the use of letters representing numbers rather than numbers confuses. Of course here teachers need to develop themselves to teach this well to help the less able to progress. Later these basics of language, maths and rational thinking are applied to other subjects especially in academic centered learning (in schools). Science is best tackled when the strong skills in the IQ strengths have been squired.

The teachers position is of a person that does know and understand (hopefully) trying to teach someone who does not, where the job is harder and different where the learner has less ability let alone less motivation. Getting to the GCSE equivalent is very useful for lots of tasks in the rest of life but some will never get close to this let alone excelling.

Another way of looking at IQ as it is normally distributed is to use another example the first is height. How many men do you know who are over 6’6” that group are the tallest 1% (1 in a hundred) of men. At the other end of the distribution; how many men do you know who are less than 4’6” they are the shortest 1%. Such is the distribution that 68% are close to the average (5’9”). So now play basketball against the 6’6” man, who wins? I have chosen the height example because it is easy to see the rarity of the 1% and how the difference could be practically different. The taller person will find some things easier than the average (and 99% of the population) and the shortest will find other things easier. When you relate this to IQ the highest 1% have IQs over 130. The difference is not as easy to understand and recognise it is not obvious but it is still there. How this relates to the real world may be measured in time where one person takes 2 weeks to solve a problem and the higher ability person does it in 10 minutes. So who is going to be the best at something is the prepared person who had the initial talent or attribute. The person without the talent or attribute will probably never be able to do the same things. All men may be equal but are not the same. There is of course potential and realising that potential. Many have shown hard work can get over many obstacles but more potential means fewer and lesser obstacles.

IQ can also be looked at as positioning if you are in a good position things are easier higher IQ puts you in a better position than lower IQ for some situations or problems. Still not a certainty, but better. Experience is similar once you have learnt some (real) lessons (beware of bias and fallacies) you are in a better position to understand, decide and act. There are many obstacles and frictions that provide resistance. Being in a better position is one major way of improving your chances. IQ is one way nature helps some in to some better positions. This highlights is uncomfortable point that some will find being in a good position very difficult while others find it easier. Working out that some things are very unlikely may mean a different route or approach. Being realistic is hard when some are just not likely to succeed at a specific task as the resistance is too great. Sometimes seeing the normal distribution (bell shaped) as a physical hill that cannot be realistically got over or even seen over (both directions) preventing understanding let alone change.

Realism and pragmatic considerations need to be allowed for. Gaining an understanding of ones own abilities and disabilities and how that impacts options is important. When it comes to reach then the taller and longer armed have an advantage, but have other advantages and disadvantages. IQ is the same some people are going to be better at mathematical and language tasks and applying them at more advanced (e.g. complex) levels. Society has evolved from primate hierarchies and has social and power dynamics that affect people’s roles including who makes decisions. Encouraging the more talented and experienced into these positions produces better results even if the others cannot understand that. These are valuable positions in society desired for many reasons. Other roles are less valued and key influences select people for roles. Giving opportunities for people to understand themselves and develop their strengths and societies using their strengths to best affect is not a new idea but not over common. Sometimes laws are made to improve selection of people for roles but it cannot be as effectively implemented if it is acted on by people without the strengths to recognise these differing strengths. This meritocracy of talents approach would be more productive, but the value placed on some roles by less able people distorts any process, motivating them to gain these roles when others would perform to higher standards. These forces need to be lessened by improving self awareness and understanding of others in the individual and appreciating and valuing other equally valuable roles in society. Elections cannot select the most able person for the job as the electorate do not have the expertise to select the best person, on top of many other distortions effecting selection. Many employment appointments are made in ineffective ways leading to the next appointment being made by a less able selector.

Above are some ideas of how to explain perspectives around IQ, where many misunderstandings abound. The costs of these misunderstandings can be large, and invisible to many.