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Hope: CR Synder's model for hope illustrated by a climber looking at The Ogre mountain considering the goals, pathways, and willpower that gives them hope they can climb it

Hope: A Cognitive Model for Hope

I hadn’t given much thought to hope, beyond it being a nice feeling to have, until I heard of CR Snyder's cognitive model for hope. Snyder's model shed a new light on hope for me, explaining that to feel hopeful requires three key components. What is Hope? According to CR Snyder's cognitive model of hope (paraphrasing) an individual may be hopeful if they have: Goals they desire. If you don’t or can’t picture any future state you’d like, then you won’t have a lot of hope. Pathways. You need to see some ways that you may make step-by-step progress towards a goal. Willpower or agency. You need to be motivated and believe that you have the ability to succeed at your goal. With all of these, you can imagine feeling hopeful. Without any one of them and you probably won’t so much. GK Chesterton, never one to miss a witty line, gave quite a different take: Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate. — GK Chesterton Chesterton's tongue-in-cheek hope is fun, but without goals, pathways or willpower, it's not really hope as Snyder would see it. This sketch features in my book Big Ideas Little Pictures More The mountain is the Ogre, a wholly impossible-looking peak scaled by Doug Scott and others, for which I would have had zero hope to climb (no pathways, no willpower), and yet they remarkably did. I learned about Snyder's model of hope in Brené Brown's Dare to Lead. Related Ideas to Hope Theory Also see: Pillars of Hope Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose Flow Languishing Joy: the most vulnerable emotion Optimism Bias Discovering Truth and Beauty and Sharing it with Others Vorfreude: "before happiness" 5 Ways to Wellbeing How to Instantly Feel Better…I hadn’t given much thought to hope, beyond it being a nice feeling to have, until I heard of CR Snyder's cognitive model for hope. Snyder's model shed a new light on hope for me, explaining that to feel hopeful requires three key components. What is Hope? According to CR Snyder's cognitive model of hope (paraphrasing) an individual may be hopeful if they have: Goals they desire. If you don’t or can’t picture any future state you’d like, then you won’t have a lot of hope. Pathways. You need to see some ways that you may make step-by-step progress towards a goal. Willpower or agency. You need to be motivated and believe that you have the ability to succeed at your goal. With all of these, you can imagine feeling hopeful. Without any one of them and you probably won’t so much. GK Chesterton, never one to miss a witty line, gave quite a different take: Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate. — GK Chesterton Chesterton's tongue-in-cheek hope is fun, but without goals, pathways or willpower, it's not really hope as Snyder would see it. This sketch features in my book Big Ideas Little Pictures More The mountain is the Ogre, a wholly impossible-looking peak scaled by Doug Scott and others, for which I would have had zero hope to climb (no pathways, no willpower), and yet they remarkably did. I learned about Snyder's model of hope in Brené Brown's Dare to Lead. Related Ideas to Hope Theory Also see: Pillars of Hope Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose Flow Languishing Joy: the most vulnerable emotion Optimism Bias Discovering Truth and Beauty and Sharing it with Others Vorfreude: "before happiness" 5 Ways to Wellbeing How to Instantly Feel Better

4 Jul 2020

Sexy value

Sexy Value is what you get when someone can launch something that is not only cheaper but also better. It’s a near irresistible proposition. Most new things that are better don’t tend to also be cheaper—increased quality usually has a corresponding increase in cost. So Sexy Value is often made possible through a new technology or approach. It’s like when the first taxi apps started appearing. To me, the first experience was just so much better than what I was used to—no trying to catch a taxi in the rain, seeing when the cab would arrive and simple, non-awkward, no swinging by the ATM payments—and yet at the same time, it was also cheaper. Sexy Value is not the only way to compete. If you make something better, people will pay for the value it provides them. But you’re on to a winner if you can also do it cheaper. Sexy Value is a name, I believe, from Ogilvy and Mather. You might also like another model of theirs: The Big Ideal…Sexy Value is what you get when someone can launch something that is not only cheaper but also better. It’s a near irresistible proposition. Most new things that are better don’t tend to also be cheaper—increased quality usually has a corresponding increase in cost. So Sexy Value is often made possible through a new technology or approach. It’s like when the first taxi apps started appearing. To me, the first experience was just so much better than what I was used to—no trying to catch a taxi in the rain, seeing when the cab would arrive and simple, non-awkward, no swinging by the ATM payments—and yet at the same time, it was also cheaper. Sexy Value is not the only way to compete. If you make something better, people will pay for the value it provides them. But you’re on to a winner if you can also do it cheaper. Sexy Value is a name, I believe, from Ogilvy and Mather. You might also like another model of theirs: The Big Ideal

26 Jun 2020

Solstice

From the combination of sol (sun) and sistere (cause to stand or stop) the solstice marks the highest or lowest points of the sun’s path in the sky each year. In summer, for instance, the sun’s arc in the sky stops its daily ascent at the longest day of the year. There it reverses, beginning its descent to the autumnal equinox — with equal day and night — and eventually to its lowest point at the year’s shortest day, the winter solstice. At that point, its descent finished, the sun once again begins its slow climb towards the summer solstice. Also see: Equinox Seasons…From the combination of sol (sun) and sistere (cause to stand or stop) the solstice marks the highest or lowest points of the sun’s path in the sky each year. In summer, for instance, the sun’s arc in the sky stops its daily ascent at the longest day of the year. There it reverses, beginning its descent to the autumnal equinox — with equal day and night — and eventually to its lowest point at the year’s shortest day, the winter solstice. At that point, its descent finished, the sun once again begins its slow climb towards the summer solstice. Also see: Equinox Seasons

20 Jun 2020

Analytics maturity

There are lots of questions you can ask of data. I like this model as it gives a framework for the different types of questions you might ask. It was introduced to me as the data science pyramid with descriptive analytics — measuring what’s happening — being the foundation on which others are built. You don’t have to go in order, but it’s a nice approach to consider how the questions you’re asking of your data might evolve. To take our school Summer fête as an example, for a long time takings were all in cash and put into one bucket at the end for counting. You end up with one number for how much you raised. But you might move to collecting more descriptive data on the takings for each stall — whether the bar earns more than the tombola, for example. You then might be able to ask diagnostic questions like figuring out why one fête earned more than another with a different mix of stalls. If you know how many people came you might be able to make some predictions on the takings of a future fête based on number of people and stall types. And if you get fancy you might start to use your data to figure out how you could raise more money for the school in future. There are many ways to slice and dice data and the questions you ask, but I like the clarifying simplicity of this one. As far as I know, the framework is the Analytics Ascendancy model, or Analytics Value Escalator, or other such business sounding name from Gartner.…There are lots of questions you can ask of data. I like this model as it gives a framework for the different types of questions you might ask. It was introduced to me as the data science pyramid with descriptive analytics — measuring what’s happening — being the foundation on which others are built. You don’t have to go in order, but it’s a nice approach to consider how the questions you’re asking of your data might evolve. To take our school Summer fête as an example, for a long time takings were all in cash and put into one bucket at the end for counting. You end up with one number for how much you raised. But you might move to collecting more descriptive data on the takings for each stall — whether the bar earns more than the tombola, for example. You then might be able to ask diagnostic questions like figuring out why one fête earned more than another with a different mix of stalls. If you know how many people came you might be able to make some predictions on the takings of a future fête based on number of people and stall types. And if you get fancy you might start to use your data to figure out how you could raise more money for the school in future. There are many ways to slice and dice data and the questions you ask, but I like the clarifying simplicity of this one. As far as I know, the framework is the Analytics Ascendancy model, or Analytics Value Escalator, or other such business sounding name from Gartner.

14 Jun 2020

Net Promoter Score

Pitched as the one number you need to grow your business, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a way to find out from your customers how many love what you’re doing enough to tell their friends vs how many are ambivalent or negative about your business. The resulting number, your NPS, ranging from +100 to -100 has been shown to be an indicator of companies’ future success. To calculate your NPS ask your customers how likely they would be to recommend your business to a friend—or variations thereof—and give them a scale of 0 (not likely) to 10 (very likely) to answer with. Those who answer 9 or 10 are your biggest fans or Promoters. Those who answer 7 or 8 are passively satisfied—they like your business but are unlikely to shout about it. And those answering 6 or below are your Detractors. If they talk about your business it could well be negative. Your NPS is your % of Promoters minus the % of your Detractors. For example, if you received 100 responses, 35 as 9s or 10s, 37 as 7s and 8s, and 28 as 0–6s then your NPS would be 35 minus 28 = 7. Keep track of your NPS over time and you’ll get a sense of how your business is doing. Follow up with qualitative feedback, for instance, “Why did you give this rating?”, and get a recipe for improving your business. Simple. Learn more in the original Harvard Business Review article, “The One Number You Need to Grow” by Frederick F. Reichheld.…Pitched as the one number you need to grow your business, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a way to find out from your customers how many love what you’re doing enough to tell their friends vs how many are ambivalent or negative about your business. The resulting number, your NPS, ranging from +100 to -100 has been shown to be an indicator of companies’ future success. To calculate your NPS ask your customers how likely they would be to recommend your business to a friend—or variations thereof—and give them a scale of 0 (not likely) to 10 (very likely) to answer with. Those who answer 9 or 10 are your biggest fans or Promoters. Those who answer 7 or 8 are passively satisfied—they like your business but are unlikely to shout about it. And those answering 6 or below are your Detractors. If they talk about your business it could well be negative. Your NPS is your % of Promoters minus the % of your Detractors. For example, if you received 100 responses, 35 as 9s or 10s, 37 as 7s and 8s, and 28 as 0–6s then your NPS would be 35 minus 28 = 7. Keep track of your NPS over time and you’ll get a sense of how your business is doing. Follow up with qualitative feedback, for instance, “Why did you give this rating?”, and get a recipe for improving your business. Simple. Learn more in the original Harvard Business Review article, “The One Number You Need to Grow” by Frederick F. Reichheld.

6 Jun 2020

Submarine shower

Life on a nuclear submarine is life under some pretty intense constraints. For one, there’s not naturally any fresh water and any time you use it the waste water builds up in the tanks and then has to be expelled, and when you expel it that makes noise, and because nuclear subs don’t want to give away their location they do their best to minimise the number of times they have to do that. That means taking care of all fresh water. The other reason to take care of fresh water usage is that they have to make it the whole time — any fresh water for cooking, cleaning or drinking has to be made from sea water. If you drink a glass of water on a nuclear submarine you’re probably drinking the most expensive glass of water you’ll ever drink because it’s been desalinated by a nuclear submarine. Hence the submarine shower with a total of 20 seconds of water: 10s with the water on, turn it off while you soap and scrub and finish with 10s of rinsing. That’s it. For me it’s a nice reframe in how much you actually need when you take a shower, and it still works. So if you fancy saving water and energy you could give it a try. Submariner Tom Lewis even wrote a song about showers on submarines.…Life on a nuclear submarine is life under some pretty intense constraints. For one, there’s not naturally any fresh water and any time you use it the waste water builds up in the tanks and then has to be expelled, and when you expel it that makes noise, and because nuclear subs don’t want to give away their location they do their best to minimise the number of times they have to do that. That means taking care of all fresh water. The other reason to take care of fresh water usage is that they have to make it the whole time — any fresh water for cooking, cleaning or drinking has to be made from sea water. If you drink a glass of water on a nuclear submarine you’re probably drinking the most expensive glass of water you’ll ever drink because it’s been desalinated by a nuclear submarine. Hence the submarine shower with a total of 20 seconds of water: 10s with the water on, turn it off while you soap and scrub and finish with 10s of rinsing. That’s it. For me it’s a nice reframe in how much you actually need when you take a shower, and it still works. So if you fancy saving water and energy you could give it a try. Submariner Tom Lewis even wrote a song about showers on submarines.

30 May 2020

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