Highlights of Stealing Fire

This book was an intriguing journey through achieving states of peak performance and experience. 

Ecstasis

Ecstasis is a state of mind that is described as being in “the zone”

• Plato described ecstasis as an altered state where our normal waking consciousness vanishes completely, replaced by an intense euphoria and a powerful connection to a greater intelligence.
• In this state, the conscious mind takes a break and the subconscious takes over. The conscious mind is a potent tool, but is slow, and can only manage a small amount of information at once. The subconscious is far more efficient. It can process more data in shorter time frames.
• As this occurs, a number of performance-enhancing neurochemicals flood the system. These chemicals amplify focus, muscle reaction times, and pattern recognition.

There are four signature characteristics of ecstasis (STER): 

• Selflessness – inner critic goes offline, get out of own way, expanded thinking
• Timelessness – sense of deep now, temporal processing energy is reallocated to focus
• Effortlessness – pleasure chemicals propel us past our usual limits of motivation
• Richness – our brain’s pattern recognition abilities amp up opening fresh perspectives 

Why It Matters

·        People have been found to be up to 500% more productive in these flow states.

·        The information richness of a non-ordinary state affords perspective and allows us to make connections where none may have existed before.  We can see more pieces of the problem we’re trying to solve.

The Four Forces of Ecstasis

Accelerating developments in four fields are providing greater access to and understanding of non-ordinary states of consciousness.

• Psychology – We have a better sense of our own development and, with it, the space to move beyond a socially-defined identity.  Clearer frameworks and data-driven models help navigate formerly obscure terrain.
• Neurobiology – Advances have clarified our understanding of what is happening in our brains and bodies when we experience a range of mental states, clarifying the mechanics of transcendence. Now, more than ever, we understand the knobs and levers being tweaked in the brain to obtain optimal states of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best. Stress chemicals are replaced by performance-enhancing, pleasure-producing compounds.
• Pharmacology – By treating the six powerful neurochemicals that underpin ecstasis as raw ingredients, we’ve begun to refine the recipes for peak experience and can access them on demand. Mind-altering substances deactivate key parts of the brain including the default mode network (“ego disintegration”) and create highly synchronized connections between far-flung areas of the brain (“mind expansion”).
• Technology – Bringing access to scale, experiences can be shared by huge groups, generating more data, and firmer conclusions with much less risk. Innovation provides wider and safer access to altered states.

The Sandbox of the Future

Non-ordinary states can heighten trust, amplify cooperation, and accelerate breakthroughs, fundamentally disrupting business as usual.  We can speed learning, facilitate healing, and provide measurable impacts in our lives.  Organizations like the Navy SEALs and Google utilize these developments to take a different approach on high performance and pursue ecstasis with a degree of precision that was not possible even ten years ago.  Throughout history, there have been attempts to “steal fire” and reach these states.  Finally, we can kindle the flame ourselves.

From the book: Stealing Fire - How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work by Steven Kotler & Jamie Wheal

Highlights: Organizational Physics

My favorite highlights from Organizational Physics by Lex Sisney.

An organization is a complex adaptive system with a finite amount of energy.  How an organization manages its available energy is what ultimately determines its failure or success. 

The laws of organizational physics show that success is a function of two things:  integration over entropy. 

·        Integration indicates the amount of new energy made available to the organization from the environment. 

·        Entropy indicates the amount of energy required to manage the “mass” (maintaining the organization, making decisions, and getting the work done).  Everything naturally falls apart over time.  Energy flows here first.  If too much energy is lost, the organization slows down and fails. 

Key Steps to System Energy Management:

1.       Build and manage powerhouse teams

2.       Choose the right strategy

3.       Execute fast

Leveraging Forces:

Every individual expresses their own unique combination of the four forces that operate within us: Producing, Stabilizing, Innovating, and Unifying.  Each of us has all four forces present in some form, but usually one or two come to us most naturally.  When one force is particularly strong, one or more of the other forces will be relatively weak.  When we operate from our genius zone, we experience high energy gains, feel deep engagement, high personal satisfaction, and elevated productivity.

Getting people in the right roles is key for the benefit of the individual as well as the organization.  Designing the overall structure in a system that leverages these natural forces to create overall balance maximizes the benefit to the whole. 

1.       There’s an inherent conflict between autonomy and the need for control.  Enable sales to sell without restriction (to speed growth) and centralize functions which control systemic risk (to protect the system). Make the most of these energies with a structure that harnesses both of them. 

2.       Functions focused on effectiveness should never report to functions based on efficiency.

3.       Functions focused on long-range developments should never report to those that drive daily results.

The 6 Laws of Organizational Physics

1.       An organization is a complex adaptive system.  It must be viewed as a complete system to gain insights into how it functions in its totality.

2.       An organization is subject to the first law of thermodynamics: there is a finite amount of energy.  If an organization has a high level of integration between its capabilities and the opportunities in the environment, the organization can receive an abundance of new energy and be successful.  If there’s no integration between them, then there’s no new energy created, and it will soon perish.

3.       An organization is subject to the conditions of its environment.  The driving principle of evolution shows that it’s not the strongest or most intelligent that survive, but those that are best adapted to their environment.  Because the environment is always changing, the organization must always be adapting.  Successful adaption requires constant realignment among the organizations capabilities to execute, its markets or customers, and its products.  This is the basis of its strategy. 

4.       An organization is subject to the laws of motion.  How an organization manages its mass determines the speed of its execution. 

5.       An organization must shape and respond to its environment and do so as a whole system, including its parts and sub-parts.  An organization has patterns or forces that exist all throughout it, from the smallest tasks and behaviors to the largest enterprise.  These forces can be mapped many ways.

6.       An organization is subject to the second law of thermodynamics.  Everything falls apart over time due to entropy (disorder or disintegration).  An organization’s available energy first flows to manage and counter the disintegrating force of entropy.  If entropy is high, then it costs the system a higher amount of its available energy to maintain itself and get work done.  If a business has a great market opportunity but suffers from high internal friction, politicking, and fighting, it takes a tremendous amount of energy to get any work done and the business can’t capture the external opportunity as a result.

Reference:

·        Organizational Physics book by Lex Sisney

·        http://organizationalphysics.com/2011/11/09/the-four-styles-of-management/

The Beauty in Diversity - Reflected through Spiral Dynamics

Spiral Dynamics is a framework that makes patterns visible.  It is an integral approach to thinking about the complexities of human existence by bringing order to the apparent chaos of human affairs.  It represents the emerging flow of human thinking and value systems that continuously change in the process of life.  It shows how people think about things, not what they think about.

This framework organizes information in a way that makes it easier to see the value of our differences. The spiral shows how waves of consciousness emerge and flow through individuals and groups.  Each level represents a system of core values or collective intelligences, applicable to both individuals and entire cultures.  They detail human development and growth in adaptation to challenges.  Each new level includes and transcends all previous ones.  No level is inherently better or worse than another.  They do become more expansive since each builds on all that came before it.  People are not locked into one single level.  Several can coexist, though one is usually dominant.

Each level has an important role in life and all are needed.  Each has a healthy and unhealthy expression...  The opportunity lies in moving people to the healthy expression in their role, not to become all the same. 

• Warm colors exhibit a focus on the external world and mastering it. 
• Cool colors focus on the inner world and coming to peace within it.  
• As individuals, most of us are mixtures of both as the spiral winds between the individual "I" and the collective "we".  

We are like pieces of a puzzle... each one equally as important and valuable. When we align with these factors, we leverage the value of our differences rather than fight against them.  We increase our ability to thoughfully design our efforts by engaging a person that perfectly fits a particular need and empowering them with the best tools and systems, setting them up for success and increasing our ability to impact the whole.

Scrum Organizational Framework

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks diving in deeply to Scrum.  As a fan of organizational and productivity methods, this one is AWESOME! :)  It falls right in line with the practices I use to organize myself and have built into my Daily Workbook, yet it expands into how to organize teams to be highly effective.

The Scrum framework challenges traditional project management based on the understanding that a project can meet the standard target measures of on time, on budget, and in scope, yet still not be successful.  When issues arise, one or more of these measures is often sacrificed and the product is what suffers.  This is a large contributing factor the failure rate of most IT projects.

Scrum allows for rapid progress to deliver maximum value.  It is great for software management and works well for the organization of any complex system.  

Here are some highlights about Scrum:

Purpose:  Scrum is a framework that enables agility to advance rapidly while dealing with complex problems.  It is designed to deliver products of the highest possible value while encouraging creativity and efficiency at the same time.  As a framework, this system is not complete by itself but is complemented well by agile and product management methods.

As this framework is used to solve complex problems, it employs Empiricism to create a level of flexible control.  Empirical Process Control Theory is not as defined as a typical process.  Knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is known.  This requires trust and courage as a foundation amongst the Scrum Team. It also has 3 pillars: transparency, inspection, and adaptation.  Throughout the Scrum framework, these principles are applied.

Scrum’s values are the life blood of the framework.  They are: Commitment, Courage, Focus, Openness, and Respect.

Roles and Teams:  One of the keys of Scrum is that there are specific roles that people fall into.  By clarifying these roles, it eliminates ambiguity and speeds the team’s activities.

• Scrum Team – A Scrum Team comes together to deliver value.  There are only 3 roles officially on the team.  There may be multiple Scrum Teams for one product.  The more that a team can stay working together, the better their velocity can be.  Changes to teams cause a drop in productivity.
• Product Owner – Ultimately responsible for the value created by Scrum Team.  There is one product owner per product.  They are charged with maximizing value, being the voice of stakeholders, defining market strategy, and designing the product roadmap.  They own the Product Backlog and decide the priority of items within it.
• Developers – Responsible for technical quality.  The Development Team consists of anyone who builds the product such as Business Analysts, QA, etc.  The ideal size of a development team is 3-9 people.  Each Development Team is self-organizing, cross-functional, and all play the role of Developer.
• Scrum Master – Responsible for Scrum adoption by the organization.  They are a servant leader who serves the Product Owner, Development Team, and overall organization.  They serve by removing impediments to the Scrum Team, facilitating Development Team decisions, and ensuring artifact transparency.  
• Stakeholders – Stakeholders include anyone that interacts with and/or is impacted by the Scrum Team but is not officially on the team.  Their interactions with the Scrum Team are designed in a way that encourages participation at key intervals but also removes contact during times of focus.  This allows for optimal alignment of all parties and maximizes value created.

Events:  Scrum Events create regularity and enable transparency.  Each event is clearly defined with specific frequency, maximum length, and attendees.

• Sprint – Timeboxed period to create a usable and potentially releasable product Increment.  Consistent time periods of 1 month or less (shorter is preferred as the feedback loop is shorter and it increases the competitive advantage).
• Sprint Planning – Collaborative meeting of up to 8 hours where the Scrum Team plans the work to be performed in the next Sprint.  During this meeting, they review the Product Backlog, discuss capacity, forecast PBI’s, craft a Sprint Goal (brief, clear objective for the Sprint), and create a plan.
• Daily Scrum – Daily meeting for 15 minutes max.  Only the Development Team can participate although others can listen in.  The purpose is to align on the plan for the day to meet the Sprint Goal.   
• Sprint Review – Collaborative working session where the Scrum Team and Stakeholders can inspect the outcome of a Sprint and align on what to do next.  The Increment is demonstrated, the Product Backlog is reviewed, market changes are discussed, and timeline/budget are reviewed.  The Product Owner orchestrates the event and adapts the Product Backlog based on feedback.  
• Sprint Retrospective – Private meeting where only the Scrum Team can attend.  This meeting creates a virtuous cycle by reviewing the Scrum Team’s people, relationships, process, and tools to identify improvements that can be made.  It has rules similar to Vegas – what happens in the meeting, stays in the meeting. :)

Artifacts:  The tools used to facilitate this framework are called Artifacts.  Each has a specific owner, purpose, and well-designed activities.  Transparency in the artifacts is critical as decisions to optimize value and control risk are made based on the perceived state of the artifacts.  The artifacts in Scrum include:

• Product Backlog – Ordered list of all known things to create and/or improve the product including features, functions, requirements, enhancements, and fixes.  Each Product Backlog Item (PBI) has a description, order, estimate of effort, and value.  Always evolves and is never complete.  The Product Owner prioritizes items on the list.  Items high on the list are refined as they become closer to being included in a Sprint.  
• Sprint Backlog – Set of PBI’s that are selected for the Sprint that is updated by the Development Team as work is completed.  The Development Team forecasts what functionality is required to achieve the Sprint Goal.  It’s highly visible and real-time.
• Increment – Usable item delivered at the end of the Sprint (must be usable at the end of each Sprint).  A sum of all the PBI’s completed during a Sprint and the value of all Increments from previous Sprints.

Reference:

• Scrum.org
• Improving's class:  Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) 
• http://www.ambysoft.com/essays/brokenTriangle.html 

Time to Reflect and Relax

I met a ten year old boy at the Annual Swallow's Day Parade in San Juan Capistrano yesterday.  He was a great conversationalist and asked me casually when my Spring Break was.  I automatically replied with, "I'm old.  We don't get Spring Breaks."  It took me a day to consider that maybe I should rethink my approach.

I'm very thorough with my daily and weekly plans, yet totally neglect planning extra curricular activities.  I realized that I do want to have Spring Break and Winter Break to look forward to.  We hardly take vacations.  We recently booked a trip for few days in Palm Desert and it has already worked wonders to give me something to look forward to.

So here is draft one of my annual activity calendar:

• January
• Jim's Birthday Dinner
• February
• Parent's Weekend - Valentine's Trip (Vegas)
• March
• Jason & Jill's Birthday Dinners 
• April
• Spring Break - Family Trip (Palm Desert)
• Dad and Alli's Birthday Dinner
• May
• Family Weekend - Camping Trip 
• AJ's Birthday Party
• June
• Family Beach Days
• Family Picture
• July
• Washington - Family Trip - July 4th
• August
• Luke's Birthday Party
• September
• Parent's Weekend - Getaway (Havasu)
• October
• Family Activity - Zoo or Museum
• Emily's Birthday Dinner
• November
• Thanksgiving Break - Holidays at Home; Family Gatherings
• December
• Decorate the House/Tree (Dani's Birthday Dinner)
• Colin's Birthday Party
• Winter Break - Holidays at Home; Family Gatherings

To be continued.  Would love your suggestions. :)

My Favorite Movies

Movies can trigger new thoughts and deliver personal experiences.  The can transform your mind for
a moment in time, or beyond. :)

My collection of must-watch films:

1. The Arrival.  This one intrigued me deeply and opened up some new levels of thought. #bigpicture
2. The Last Samurai.  I loved seeing the other sides of things and the big "thinker" comment toward the end. #lifelessons

Recipe: Upside Down Apple Cake

This dessert is to die for.  Make sure to use a baking dish that is at least 9x13" so you don't have a mess in the oven... :)

Ingredients:

Cake:

¾ cup butter, softened

1½ cup sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup milk

1½ cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2-3 apples, peeled and cut into ¼-inch slices (recommended: Granny Smith or pink lady)

Sauce:

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C and grease a 9x13” or larger cake pan.
2. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
3. Whisk in 3 eggs and milk until fully incorporated.
4. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk until combined.
5. For the sauce, melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, and stir in the brown sugar. Bring to a boil and continue to stir for 30 seconds, or until vigorously bubbling.
6. Pour the sauce into the greased cake pan.
7. Arrange the apples on top of the sauce in a circular pattern.
8. Pour cake batter on top of apples and smooth the top of the batter.
9. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until the cake is done (the top will spring back when gently poked).
10. Cool for 10-15 minutes and loosen the sides of the cake by running a butter knife around the edge.
11. Place a plate upside down on top of the pan, then invert the pan, flipping the cake onto the plate. 

This is a modified version of a recipe from Buzzfeed.

Transitioning Away from the Bottle

This week my one year old transitioned away from his baba. :)  I know this can be tricky but the advice his doctor gave worked very well so I wanted to share it.

The first day we stopped giving him his old milk.  We started filling his bottle with whole milk.  We did this for three days.  I worried about how this transition would go as the new milk was now cold, but he was hungry and didn't care (he's not a picky eater).  We noticed no change at all with the switch to whole milk.

On the fourth day, we changed the bottle itself to a sippy cup.  First I tried one of the hard sippy cups and that didn't go over so well.  I then switched to the softer nipple sippy cup and he hasn't fussed since.  I didn't have to go back to the bottle at all.  We have successfully transitioned.

He now eats sitting up in my lap rather than laying down on his boppy.  It's nice because we have some cuddle time.  He eats fairly fast.  I didn't change the quantity at all.  As he gets the hang of holding it by himself and eating other food more, I think he'll slowly wean off how often he has the milk.  For now it's business as usual.  No transitions to the overall schedule.

I did add in some more structured meal times as the milk is likely less filling.  Here is his current schedule:

6:30am - Wakes up, has milk (6 oz. whole milk)
7:30am - Eats - usually a small bowl of oatmeal or cereal
8:15am - Has milk, goes down for a nap
9:45am - Wakes up, goes for a walk
11am - Eats breakfast - eggs and fruit
11:45am - Has milk, goes down for a nap
1pm - Wakes up, plays in his play area
2:30pm - Eats lunch - meat and veggies
3:30pm - IF he has another nap (rare), it starts no later than this
5pm - Dinner - whatever we're eating
5:45pm - Bath time
6pm - Read a book, has milk, bed time

He sleeps very well.  He's out for the night unless he loses his binky here and there.  We transitioned him to sleeping all night at 4 months per the doctor and that went really well too.  :)

With my first son I had a total different approach.  I didn't learn the value of the schedule - for the child - until much later.  I let him eat what he would eat and adjusted my food schedule to him.  He is the pickiest eater I know.  Lesson learned. :)

Recipe: Sausage Rigatoni Bake

Everyone in my family LOVES this dinner. The white cream sauce is the secret weapon.  It's easy to make and sooo yummy.

Ingredients:
1 pound rigatoni noodles
1 pound ground beef
Salt & pepper  to taste
Garlic powder to taste
2 eggs
12 oz marinara sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

White Sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups of milk (whole milk is best)


Directions:

1. Cook noodles.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. In a skillet, brown the ground beef with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  Remove from pan and drain.  Set aside in small bowl
4. In the same skillet, melt the butter and mix with the flour to form a paste. 
5. Add the milk gradually, bring to a boil, and thicken into a creamy sauce.  Once done, take off the heat.
6. Beat the eggs.
7. Once the noodles are cooked, strain the water.  Add in a small amount of butter and mix.  Then pour in the eggs.  Mix well.
8. Pour the noodles into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
9. Add the following layers:  marinara sauce, ground beef, mozzarella, white sauce, and Parmesan.  
10. Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden brown.

This is a modified version of a recipe from Buzzfeed.

Chores Checklist

This is a chores checklist template that you can easily modify for your kids.  I used this for the older boys a while back.  Time to revise!  This time, it won't be a checklist - just a reminder for the fridge since they're older.

Download Chores Checklist Template by clicking this link.

Favorite Quotes

"Work is love made visible" - Kahlil Gibran

“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how” - Nietzsche

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly." - Richard Bach

"If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?" - Rumi

"To have a child... is to forever have your heart go walking around outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone

“The secret of success is found in your daily routine.” - John Maxwell

Health Reference: Fever Basics

This is compiled info from various sources saved for quick reference when I'm freaking out because my kid has a high fever.

Guidelines on temperatures:

• If 101 and feeling well, just rest.  No medicine needed.  The heat works well to kill the irritant in the system.
• If 101.5 and/or not feeling well, give medicine.
• If 105, call doctor.  No need to call for anything lower but do watch it often if anything above 100.
• 107 is near death.  The body does not shut down on it's own.  You need to watch very carefully.

Treatment:

• Drink lots of water and rest.
• Can give either Tylenol or Motrin per instructions on the box; if needed can rotate both at same time.  They do not interact with each other.
• If need to rapidly bring down temperature, put into room temperature bath (perhaps for 103 or higher temperature).
• Cannot go back to school or do anything active until the fever has been gone for at least 24 hours.

Recipe: Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise Sauce

This is a recipe we make on weekend mornings when we want a fancy breakfast.  The whole family loves it! 

Ingredients:

1 hash brown patty/person eating (8)

Breakfast Sandwiches:

2 eggs/person eating 

1 E

nglish muffin/person eating

1 package ground sausage (1 LB) or Canadian Bacon or sliced ham

Hollandaise Sauce:

3 large egg YOLKS (remove from egg whites)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 stick butter – cut in half, firm

1 teaspoon vinegar

Directions:

1. Brown sausage, Canadian bacon, or ham in a frying pan on medium heat.
2. Brown hash brown patties in a frying pan with a little bit of oil on medium heat.
3. Fill a medium saucepan with 3 inches of water and set on medium heat.  You want this to get to a simmering boil.
4. In small bowl, whisk together the 3 large egg yolks (having removed from the egg whites) and lemon juice.
5. Pour the egg yolk mixture into a small saucepan and heat on the lowest heat possible.  Add half of the stick of butter in and continue to whisk this mixture so that the butter is slowly melted into the Hollandaise mixture.  
1. If it ever starts to curdle, remove from heat and add 1 tablespoon of water or two and whisk quickly.  This has to be continuously stirred until serving as to keep the appropriate texture and temperature.
2. Add the other half of the butter in once the first half has melted.  
6. When there are 4 minutes remaining, add the vinegar into the boiling water.  Then add the eggs.  Only allow them to boil for up to 3 minutes and then scoop them out with a slotted spoon onto a warm plate.  They need to remain slightly undercooked to end up perfectly poached.  They will continue to cook after removed from the pan.   The goal is that they pour out when cut open.
7. Toast English muffins (just once, light toast only).  

Each person should have two English muffin halves on their plate, each topped with a spoon full of Hollandaise sauce, then sausage, Canadian bacon, or ham, then a poached egg, and topped with Hollandaise sauce.  The hash brown patty can be served on the side.  

Goes awesome with mimosas!