Rewards and habits

I was visiting Aubrey Daniels’ blog today and saw a fascinating video, below (link here):

This shows the power of “reward” in getting people to change their behaviors.  The challenge:  what is enough to get people to change?  They say that people generally change in order to move toward pleasure, or away from pain.

This is a good thing to keep in mind when motivating yourself and others – is there enough “pleasure” in the change you’re asking people to make?  And is it enough for them to want to bring others along?

Augment your reality with Layar

This week, I had a meeting with a customer in Vienna (Austria, not Virginia) and we went to lunch afterward.  The talk turned to iPhone apps, and he turned me on to an app called "Layar" that he says is in the category of apps known as "augmented reality apps."  I tried it out and I really like Layer (it's free, too).

So what the heck is Layar?

Let me try to explain.  Layar is an app that uses the technology in your iPhone to add a layer of information to your life.  Layar:

• uses the GPS to tell where you are,
• looks up relevant content on the internet based on your location and filtered by the content Layar you select (more on that in a minute),
• plots the data on a "grid" that it shows you on your iPhone screen, and
• dynamically updates your screen as you walk around, point your camera at things, etc.

That still isn't doing it justice, but if you envision Robocop or some other sci-fi movie in which information is populated in a heads-up display in real time, you'll get a sense of how Layar works.

My example

Here is what was going on when I snapped the screen grab at right.  I was walking from a train station to my hotel in Berlin, and I saw the ruins of a church and was curious what it was.  I started up Layar, selected the Wikipedia overlay, and pointed my iPhone at the church.

One of the little "W" icons had a blue line connecting it to the location of the church, so I tapped on that W, and it turned to a globe icon and populated the little text balloon you see at the bottom of the screen.  I was then able to go to Wikipedia to find out more about the church (it's a fascinating story, actually).  Now, I know what the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is, as well as some of the story of why it looks like it does now.

This app made the rest of my short visit in Berlin many times more enjoyable, and I'll be using Layar to help explore other cities I visit in the future. 

Multi-Layar choices

There are other Layars to choose, such as ones that help you find hotels, bars, businesses, nearby Twitter users, pictures taken nearby, etc.  It's a lot of fun to experiment and see what the Layars know about the area around you.

My only complaint?  As with any iPhone app that uses the GPS, using Layar a lot will cause you to drain your battery much faster than normal.

There are more videos and screen shots at the Layar web site.  If you have an iPhone, it's worth checking out, particularly since it's Layar is free.

Feeding at a new Trough

As you may have noticed if you've been to the site lately, I've changed hosting providers, altered my site design, and more. 

Along with those changes, I'm moving my RSS feed to FeedBlitz, which means a new place to point your RSS reader.

You can either use the "Subscribe in a Reader" link in the sidebar on the right side of the main site, click here, or manually update your RSS subscription so it points to http://feeds.feedblitz.com/genuinecuriosity

And, as always, thanks to each and every one of you for hanging out with me these past 4+ years!

Focus – is yours helping you or hurting you?

Some of you may know that I do some guest writing on the Joyful Jubilant Learning (JJL) community site.  If you don’t follow JJL, just wanted to let you know that my latest post, “Where are you focusing?,” went live a few hours ago.

Today’s post was inspired by a Johnny Cash song (which was a remake of a Nine Inch Nails song), which got me thinking about focus, and whether my current focus is making my life better or worse. 

In essence, the thinking is this:  When things aren’t going your way, it’s easy to get into a negative spiral.  You can’t control things around you, but you can control your focus and the way you frame your world.

Anyway, check it out (there is even a Johnny Cash video, which I highly recommend you watch). While you’re there, check out some of the other great thinking going on at JJL.

Teams – the 'me to we' way

Kare Anderson (that’s her, at right) commented on my post about teamwork the other day, and I wanted to bring that out of the comments because I think she has some great advice.

She describes some of the aspects of how Obama built teamwork in a post on “Moving From Me To We” (which, by the way is only one of her excellent blogs).  Here is an excerpt from her post, called “Build Strong Teams The Obama Way.”

1. Be specific about the top, actionable goal of the group.

2. Identify what needs to be done to reach the goal, then recruit individuals who have the specific talents or other resources to get those tasks done.

3. Approach each person by describing the goal, the specific way each one can help achieve it and why it would benefit that person; then describe the Sweet Spot of mutual benefit for all teammates to participate.

4. Review above 3 items with everyone when first meeting together; ask for improvements in the goal and if others should be recruited to accomplish it; then agree on who should facilitate the group.

5. Seek agreement on the Rules of Engagement by which your group will operate and on the timetable.

6. When the goal is met, de-brief on what worked and what didn’t, then discuss other possible goals for which some or all team mates may want to work together again. Why not start now where you face a problem or an opportunity? 

Excellent advice.  Thanks for sharing this, Kare. 

Be sure and click through and spend some time on Kare’s site – I learn a lot from her.