I learned that being totally truthful, especially about mistakes and weaknesses, led to a rapid rate of improvement and movement toward what I wanted. – RD

An exert from Bridgewater Associates Investor, Ray Dalio:

I learned that the popular picture of success—which is like a glossy photo of an ideal man or woman out of a Ralph Lauren catalog, with a bio attached listing all of their accomplishments like going to the best prep schools and an Ivy League college, and getting all the answers right on tests—is an inaccurate picture of the typical successful person. I met a number of great people and learned that none of them were born great—they all made lots of mistakes and had lots weaknesses—and that great people become great by looking at their mistakes and weaknesses and figuring out how to get around them. So I learned that the people who make the most of the process of encountering reality, especially the painful obstacles, learn the most and get what they want faster than people who do not. I learned that they are the great ones—the ones I wanted to have around me.

In short, I learned that being totally truthful, especially about mistakes and weaknesses, led to a rapid rate of improvement and movement toward what I wanted.

(from pg. 13, Bridgewater Associates, Principles by Ray Dalio)

Jim Harbaugh Effect: Changes in his first year to transform Michigan Football

Below are 4 things I noticed that Harboaugh changed when he took the head coaching job at Michigan.

1. Recruiting.
   1. Moving from regional to national focus. Harbaugh completed a nine-day, seven-state blitz of satellite camps, including several in the heart of SEC country.
   2. Brand – Then came “Signing of the Stars,” the national signing day event filled with pomp, circumstance and celebrity. Partnering with The Players’ Tribune, Derek Jeter’s outfit, Michigan had Jeter, a Wolverines fan, and Tom Brady introducing recruits. Ric Flair wooed and Jim Leyland hit the Dab with hip-hop group Migos.
   3. He has also hired prominent high school coaches as assistants, had his big, Signing Day blowout and recently agreed to speak at the commencement of one of the nation’s top high school football powers.
2. Coaching Staff.
   1. He’s filled his staff with veteran coaches. In addition to his 10 coaches, he also has 6 analysts, one for each major area of strategy.
3. Location strategy
   1. Widening the geographic scope and focus of recruiting.
4. Lengthen Practices.
   1. The maximum time allowed for practices in the spring is 4 hours. When he took the was hired, he watched game tape from the previous year and noticed in the 4th quarter the team was fatigued more than their opponent. So he decided to extend practice times to 4 hours. He also moved practices outside.
   2. Something that’s proved to be one of the biggest tests for players through Michigan football’s spring practice slate has been the sheer length of the time they’re on the field. Full practice sessions have lasted upwards of four hours, which is significantly longer than what many of the players have experienced before.
   3. “Practicing outside (is a major difference),” said redshirt junior Jehu Chesson. “We’ve never practiced outside in the spring, at least through my years here. We’ve always been in Glick, and it’s great to be outside and feel the sunshine. We’re on the field for a long time too. Just great competition, and if you love football you’ll love this.”

http://www.mlive.com/sports/2016/06/how_michigans_recruiting_is_ev.html

Do what’s scary, everyday, every moment (or at least most of them).

The obstacle is the way.

Summary of 16 Laws of Success

About: The work was originally commissioned at the request of Andrew Carnegie at the conclusion of a multi-day interview with Hill, and was based upon interviews of over 100 American millionaires across nearly 20 years, including such self-made industrial giants as Henry Ford, J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison.

Personal Introduction: As I transition into a new career and life phase, I want to anchor my transition in principles that will help me succeed. I downloaded the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill which references this list of Successful. I found each law and listed them below for an easy way to read the breadth of it. There are also some websites that have a similar list and they are listed at the end of this document.

1. A Definite Purpose – A Definite Purpose will teach you how to save the wasted effort which the majority of people expend in trying to find their life-work. This lesson will show you how to do away forever with aimlessness and fix your heart and hand upon some definite, well-conceived purpose as a life-work. Without a purpose and a plan, people drift aimlessly through life.
2. Self-Confidence – Self-Confidence will help you master the six basic fears with which every person is cursed: the fear of Poverty, the fear of Ill Health, the fear of Old Age, the fear of Criticism, the fear of Loss of Love of Someone, and the fear of Death. It will teach you the difference between egotism and real self-confidence which is based upon definite, usable knowledge.
3. Initiative and Leadership – Initiative and leadership will show you how to become a leader instead of a follower in your chosen field of endeavor. It will develop in you the instinct for leadership which will cause you gradually to gravitate to the top in all undertakings in which you participate.
4. Imagination – IMAGINATION will stimulate your mind so that you will conceive new ideas and develop new plans which will help you in attaining the object of your Definite Chief Aim. This lesson will teach you how to “build new homes out of old stones”, so to speak. It will show you how to create new ideas out of old, well known concepts, and how to put old ideas to new uses. This one lesson, alone, is the equivalent of a very practical course in salesmanship, and it is sure to prove a veritable gold mine of knowledge to the person who is in earnest.
5. Action –  Action – As a matter of facts imaginations and purposes cannot yield anything unless action is taken to realize the purpose. Actions prove the practicability of our imaginations. When powered with clear purpose and strong leadership it yields desired results [requires further contribution and reference]
6. Enthusiasm – Enthusiasm will enable you to “saturate” all with whom you come in contact with interest in you and in your ideas. Enthusiasm is the foundation of a Pleasing Personality, and you must have such a personality in order to influence others to co-operate with you.
7. Self Control –  Self-control is the “balance wheel” with which you control your enthusiasm and direct it where you wish it to carry you. This lesson will teach you, in a most practical manner, to become “the master of your fate, the Captain of your Soul.
8. The Habit of Performing More Service Than Paid For –  The Habit Of Performing More Service Than Paid For is one of the most important lessons of the Law of Success course. It will teach you how to take advantage of the Law of Increasing Returns, which will eventually ensure you a return in money far out of proportion to the service you render. No one may become a real leader in any walk of life without practicing the habit of doing more work and better work than that for which he is paid.
9. Attractive Personality –  Attractive Personality is the “fulcrum” on which you must place the “crow-bar” of your efforts, and when so placed, with intelligence, it will enable you to remove mountains of obstacles. This one lesson, alone, has made scores of Master Salesmen. It has developed leaders overnight. It will teach you how to transform your personality so that you may adapt yourself to any environment, or to any other personality, in such a manner that you may easily dominate. Personality is the sum total of one’s mental, spiritual and physical traits and habits that distinguish one from all others. It is the factor that determines whether one is liked or disliked by others.
10. Accurate Thinking –  Accurate Thought is one of the important foundation stones of all enduring success. This lesson teaches you how to separate “facts” from mere “information.” It teaches you how to organize known facts into two classes: the “important” and the “unimportant.” It teaches you how to determine what is an “important” fact. It teaches you how to build definite working plans, in the pursuit of any calling, out of FACTS. It illustrates how the eyes of an accurate thinker sees only facts and not delusions of prejudice, hate and envy. It explains how accurate thought depends on deductive reasoning and creative thought.
11. Concentration –  Concentration teaches you how to focus your attention upon one subject at a time until you have found a way to master that subject and have put that knowledge into operation. He gives you techniques on how to ensure that your goal is concentrated on until you have completed that goal.
12. Tolerance. Toleration will teach you how to avoid the disastrous effects of racial and religious prejudices which mean defeat for millions of people who permit themselves to become entangled into foolish argument over these subjects, thereby poisoning their own minds and closing the door to reason and investigation. This lesson is the twin sister of the one on ACCURATE THOUGHT, for the reason that no one may become an Accurate Thinker without practicing tolerance. Intolerance closes the book of knowledge and writes on the cover, “Finished, I have learned it all!” Intolerance makes enemies of those who should be friends. It destroys opportunity and fills the mind with doubt, mistrust and prejudice.
13. Failure. Failure will teach you how to make stepping stones out of all of your past and future mistakes and failures. It will teach you the difference between “failures” and “temporary defeat,” a difference which is very great and important. It will teach you how to profit by your own failures and by the failures of other people.
14. Cooperation –  CO-OPERATION will teach you the value of team-work in all you do. In this lesson you will be taught how to apply the law of the “Master Mind” described in this Introduction and in Lesson Two of this course. This lesson will show you how to co-ordinate your own efforts with those of others, in such a manner that friction, jealousy, strife, envy and cupidity will be eliminated. You will learn how to make use of all that other people have learned about the work in which you are engaged.
15. Habit of Saving –  Habit of Saving will teach you the value of saving money.
16. The Golden Rule –  The Golden Rule will teach you how to make use of the great universal law of human conduct in such a manner that you may easily get harmonious co-operation from any individual or group of individuals. Lack of understanding of the law upon which the Golden Rule philosophy is based, is one of the major causes of failure of millions of people who remain in misery, poverty and want all their lives. This lesson has nothing whatsoever to do with religion in any form, nor with sectarianism, nor have any of the other lessons of this course on the Law of Success.

 

For info here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Law_of_Success

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Law_of_Success

http://napoleon-hill-laws-of-success.com/

for Work/Life Decisions: You Explore the possibilities because you can’t steer a parked car.

I’m reading Rob Bell’s latest book about creating a life worth living. I’m about 1/3 through the book and the idea below is especially meaningful.

“The one thing that unites people I know who are on satisfying and meaningful paths is that they kept trying things, kept exploring, kept pursuing new opportunities, kept searching until they discovered their ikigai….

“Ikigai is a Japanese word for what gets you out of bed in the morning. Your ikigai is that sense you have when you wake up that this day matters, that there are new experiences to be had, that you have work to do, a contribution to make. Sometimes this is referred to as your calling, other times  your vocation, your destiny, your path.”

…and then from there they never stop figuring it out because they understand how absolutely crucial this is in creating a life worth living.”

You Explore the possibilities because you can’t steer a parked car.

 

 

*the above are a few exerts from How to be Here by Rob Bell. pages 56 – 59.

available: https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Here-CD-Creating/dp/0062360698

Art of Possibility – On Influence

This morning I read a chapter about Inviting people into something you’re excited about. Asking them to join you in something you love. The book is called the Art of Possibility it is about transforming professional and personal life with insights written by a world famous music conductor.

The author writes about his experience courageously asking a famous musician to come play at his show. He identifies the process as ENROLLING. Below are a few things the author writes and have been helpful for me.

“Enrolling is not about forcing, cajoling, tricking, bargaining, pressuring or guilt-tripping someone into doing something your way. Enrollment is the art and practice of generating a spark of possibility for others to share.

Our universe is alive with sparks. We have at our fingertips an infinite capacity to light a spark of possibility. Passion, rather than fear is the igniting force. Abundance, rather than scarcity, is the context.

So, the practice of enrollment is about giving yourself as a possibility to others and be ready, in turn, to catch their spark. It is about playing together as partners in a field of light. And the steps to the practice are:

1. Imagine that people are an invitation for enrollment.
2. Stand ready to participate, willing to be moved and inspired
3. Offer that which lights you up.
4. Have no doubt that others are eager to catch the spark.

A “no” can so often dampen our fire in the world of the downward spiral. It can seem like a permanent barrier that presents us with limited choices: to attack, to manipulate our way around it, or to bow to it in defeat. In other words, a “no” can seem like a door slamming instead of merely an instance. Yet, were we take a “no” less personally, and our-selves less seriously, we might hear something else. We might hear someone saying, “I don’t see any new possibility here, so I think I’ll stick with my usual way of doing things.” We might hear within the word “no” an invitation for enrollment.

Sometimes receiving a “no” is the most freeing response. It allows you to step back, re-evaluate, try again or move on. But either way, the possibility of NO should never grow so big that it extinguishes your decision to try.

Predicting Poverty by Satellite #GIS

In community based development, collecting household surveys are important, but the process is expensive. Some researches are Stanford are developing a method that could supplement or replace some types of household surveying.

Michelle Hampson of the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE writes,”By combining satellite images and sophisticated machine learning, researchers have developed a new technique to estimate the poverty level of distinct villages in developing nations, according to a study featured in the 19 August issue of Science.”

The initial testing results look encouraging!

Here’s a link to a video and more information: https://www.aaas.org/news/science-predicting-poverty-satellite

 

 

 

https://www.aaas.org/news/science-predicting-poverty-satellite

Three things you must do to thrive in the future of GIS

Last week I attended the Esri User Conference and I learned one BIG thing: The day of printed static maps as solutions are gone. The future belongs to data insights.  GIS is no longer about maps –  it’s about creating spatial insights.

Your value going forward is based on how well you:

1. can ask the “WHY” of your data. Not just show it (static map), but ask good questions of it.
2. can identify relationships and insights
3. can empower and inspire through services

If you’re known as the “Map Guy” your days are numbered. Instead of creating a career portfolio for a GIS Manager, instead focus on skills enabling you to become a Director, Enterprise Location Intelligence.

To do this focus on creating business insights based on location data and relationships. Be known for empowered solutions that create “Ah-Ha” moments. Create solutions that are: repeatable, customizable, accessible and deployable.

To get you started, I’ve outline 7 action steps below to creating GIS solutions that last.

1. Identify Business Drivers
2. Identify decision points and data gaps
   1. fire hydrants (overdue for check up)
3. Create Data Templates (GIS Schema)
4. Organize Data users and decision makers
5. Create a few charts
   1. Hierarchy
   2. Business Process Map
   3. Workflow Process Map
6. Identify what information needs to be delivered where (platforms – web/mobile offline), and how (visualiations)
7. Develop then Deploy
8. Roll-out Beta, Implement and Improve

Also, design your system to provide you smart metrics of use. Create “administrative reports” which can tell you the “# of hits on a specific page” or the # of times a specific tool was used. This will help you identify popular features and improve them.

Be sure to subscribe below. I will share more on each of these steps in the coming posts about how to (1) ask WHY of your data (2) identify relationships and create insights and (3) empower and inspire through services.

GIS Visualisations for Evidence Based Humanitarian Aid

For seven year I’ve searched for the best ways to use GIS at an Humanitarian NGO.

GIS touches so many areas of our work including fleet tracking, GPS tagging, disaster response coordination, and more. One area I think is incredible valuable is visualization.

GIS gives us ability to see things and understand things better than before and better than if information was in tables (excel), graphs or charts.

I’ve literally search the globe to find the best uses of GIS.

On my project we’re focusing our global capacity around four types of GIS visualization. With the focus of understanding change over time (impact) in our ministry areas.

To be successful today we need to show that our work is making a positive impact (or if it’s making a negative impact, we need to understand why…). With geographic visualization, I can show change over time at a real place at a real time.

Before I describe the four types of visualization, let’s discuss some basic terminology.

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Understanding change over time with community surveys.

We use “Indicators” to understanding change in a community. These are questions we ask several community members to understand health services.

There are two ways to measure health change in a community.  The first are outcomes. The second are outputs.

1. An Outcome is benefit and change to which the outputs have contributed. The cause-effect relationship between output and outcome usually results in changes in knowledge and attitudes, which in turn lead to changes in people’s behavior. Outcomes are a measure of effectiveness.
   1. Example: Improved portion of a community with access to safe drinking water
2. An Output is the  tangible product or service delivered as a consequence of implementing one or more activities. Outputs contribute to achieving a higher-order strategic objective and are a measure of effort expended.
   1. Example: # of new protected water wells

I can link this ministry performance data to polygons to view where progress is being made.

1. Outcomes

There are two types of outcome visualizations.

1. Progress (% achieved v Target)
2. Progress (% achieved v Threshold)

Below is an example of visualizing the # achieved of % access to clean water in communities versus the National Threshold (Government established rate of acceptable health care).

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2.Outputs

Outputs are tangible, countable things. Examples include a new water well, a new school, # of training events. These are specific measurable things that contribute to the overall change described in the outcome indicator. Outputs are sometimes the same as public goods which are described in the next section.

1. Progress (% achieved v Target). I can view my # of completed water wells versus my goal to drill 10 news wells.

In the example below, I visualize the percent achieved toward my target in each ministry area. On the left the map shows the status in 2014, on the right it shows the status in 2016. It is absolutely critical to time-reference your data. Spatial-temporal relationships is the backbone for GIS change over time visualizations.

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3. Basic Resource Mapping

This is mapping public goods (facilities or institutions that contribute to well-being. This primarily helps us understand access to health services – understanding gaps and needs for basic health and human services.

Below is an example of an overlay with the Outcome and Basic Resource Map. The maps shows me the overall new access to clean water (identified through surveys with community members and the actual water points drilled.

Remember that the water wells are outputs themselves. It is helpful to do a baseline mapping before I begin any programmes in the area.

The final category has significant benefits to understanding my ministry area.

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4. Environment (Variable/ Situational Intelligence)

1. Risks/ Hazards (secondary data) – drought, floods, insects, disease,
2. Vulnerability (primary or secondary) – economic indicators
3. Population

I also put population into this category, but I haven’t found a great secondary data source for population counts attached to administrative areas.

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Summary

Using GIS to show change overtime is an exciting new way to get better insights into your work and show what’s happening. With these four approaches you’ll be able to:

1. Identify gaps in services in your programme areas allowing for significant positive change to happen.
2. Communicate positive change to community members and donors.
3. Understand where negative change is happening to you can make adjustments
4. Share your public good mapping with donors and parters for increased transparency and promoting open data.
5. Responsibly use the best technology to do your best work and help the most people.

 

 

GIS for Community Impact in Senegal

Last week I trained 19 Monitoring and Evaluation Specialists in Senegal. It was a productive trip and I was inspired by their desire to integrate GIS into Monitoring and Evaluation practices.

They challenged me to develop a framework for integrating GIS into M&E.

I know there are some great resources available through the MEASURE IMPACT project and I will be posting some here soon. Here’s a picture of the team in Senegal!