unimagined futures

Searching for YOUR most valuable ROADS AHEAD
In a world relentlessly moving toward new and different futureS
This site provides the elements
for creating a "life time" work approach

Life lines

Who we are is a function of where we are in life (or maybe where we are on a life line).

If we sat in a chair and did nothing we would move further down the time line, but we would just be older versions of who we were when we stopped developing. Also we wouldn't have anything more to draw on.

(naming) People behavior

In order to make concrete the values of the positive revolution we need to name categories of behaviour.

Once we have these named categories we can talk about them and think about them.

We can set up nine categories of behaviour.

People who show a certain type of behaviour can be perceived as being in one of these categories.

There are four positive, four negative and one neutral category.

CATEGORY ONE: Behaviour that is constructive but also very effective.

The effective part is very important.

A person who is a leader and organizer.

Taken all together this is a person who can make things happen in a positive and constructive way.

Because of these qualities this is a person who contributes.

If a person has all these qualities but is not in a position to contribute at this moment, we might say 'potential category one'.

Find "contribution" in What do you want to be remembered for?

CATEGORY TWO: This is a person who is actually contributing a great deal at this moment.

Such a person may have none of the qualities of category one but nevertheless is contributing.

For example, a rich man who has inherited money may give a lot of money to help the poor.

A talented artist may use his or her talents to contribute to society.

A famous sports star may use his or her talents to contribute.

The contribution is great but the qualities of category one are not present.

CATEGORY THREE: This is someone who is hardworking, cooperative, helpful and also effective.

The difference between category one and category three is that in category one there are also the qualities of leadership, organizing ability and constructive initiative.

Someone in category three might be very good in a project team or when the task has been defined for him or her.

CATEGORY FOUR: This person is positive, agreeable, pleasant and cheerful.

This person does the job he or she is doing just well enough.

This person is nice to have around but is not very effective.

CATEGORY FIVE: Behaviour that is neutral, behaviour that is passive.

You cannot say anything positive about this person but you cannot say anything negative either.

A person who is apathetic and content to drift from moment to moment with no sense of involvement and no sense of control over destiny.

This is the neutral category.

CATEGORY SIX: This behaviour is critical, negative and destructive.

The person may be highly intelligent but uses that intelligence not to build but to destroy.

In a group this person does not make proposals but attacks the proposals of others.

In attitude this person may be gloomy or depressed or may not.

Some negative people enjoy being negative so much that they are not gloomy.

Category six people still believe that negativity is the best way towards progress.

CATEGORY SEVEN: Behaviour that is totally selfish.

Behaviour that is exploitative or corrupt.

There is a wide range of behaviour from simple selfishness to extreme corruption.

This person is not seeking to hurt others and may be within the law.

The characteristic of category seven behaviour is that it is totally selfish.

Category seven behaviour is the exact opposite of contribution.

CATEGORY EIGHT: This is the behaviour of the bully.

This is the behaviour of the person who seeks to get what he or she wants by demanding it from others.

The category eight person uses force to get his or her own way.

Both category seven and category eight people may be exploiters but in the case of category eight it is a deliberate exploitation of other people and the use of force to achieve that.

CATEGORY NINE: This is the behaviour of the outlaw.

This is the behaviour of the person who has no respect at all for other people or the rights of other people.

This is the criminal who has no conscience and no morals.

This is the sort of person who would murder for a small sum of money.

Note that category eight people may acknowledge the rights of others but are capable of infringing those rights from time to time.

Category nine people acknowledge no rights at all except their own intentions.

In time there may arise a name for each category.

For example the behaviour of category seven is parasitic so we might call such people 'cockroaches'.

The behaviour of category six is to draw their energy from others so we might call them 'ticks' or 'leeches' that live on the blood they suck.

There could be competitions for people to find the best names for these categories.

We can use the categories right away without special names.

'He's a category four person.

He is nice enough but he won't get anything done.'

'He is not really category one.

He does contribute but that is because of his position, not his constructive energy.

He is more category two—but that is very valuable.'

'I have heard that he is definitely category seven so we shall have to keep an eye on him.'

'You would not think so to look at her, she is so small and frail, but she is definitely category one.'

'We need to find a lot more category three people in order to get this project moving.

We are not short of ideas but we need action.'

'Don't invite her—she is pure category six.'

Once the categories are there we can use them to praise and reward behaviour.

We can use them to encourage behaviour because if someone knows that he or she is regarded as being in a certain category then that person will try to live up to a good image.

We can use the categories to blame people and to point out to them their failings.

We can use the categories to let people know what other people feel about them.

We can use the categories to encourage people to try to move upwards out of the category in which they are placed.

In moving upwards you do not have to move only to the category above.

For example, a category six person could jump to category three immediately.

The categories provide a language in which the members of the positive revolution can value the behaviour of other people.

It is important to make clear that the person is not locked into the category for ever.

These are categories of behaviour, not of character.

So we should really say: 'You behave like a category six person.'

There is always the option of change.

If a person shows no inclination to change then we perceive that person as within his or her category and treat that person accordingly.

By virtue of their positions teachers, doctors and journalists could be category two people because they are in a position to make significant contributions.

But a teacher may be category four or even category five.

Many journalists are category six.

The heroes and villains of the positive revolution are defined according to the values of the categories.

So people who are selfish are villains.

People who are constructive and effective are heroes.

The vices and virtues of the positive revolution are also defined by the categories taken together with the basic principles.

Being negative is a vice, so is being passive and apathetic (even though this is neutral on the category list).

Being effective is a virtue.

Being positive is a virtue but not as high a virtue as being positive and also effective.

A person need not be entirely within a category.

For example, you might say: 'Sometimes he shows category eight behaviour.' In this way the categories also become adjectives.

Could there be more categories?

Yes, and in time there may be.

For the moment it is enough to become familiar with nine.

Handbook For The Positive Revolution
Edward de Bono

A milestone along our life lines is the awareness that informed time-life navigation thinking followed by appropriate action can make a substantial difference. A part of this action is the design of our life management system (LMS) or life navigation system (LNS).

Conceptual resources and a work blueprint give us more to draw on and new choices. They also increase our range of vision and redirect our attention. Be sure to explore the Peter Drucker links.

We have life lines for every life area and dimension.

Every life line can have a work map.

As we move further down the time line what capacity changes (enhancements, additions, abandonments) would serve our long-term self interest?

Further thinking points:

All we really have in life is the time between now and when we die.
What do you have to DO (informed) to have the kind of life (informed) you want (informed)?
Can you get to tomorrowS by piling up more todays?
What's on your radar?
How do you balance destination thinking and destination "travel" (closing the gap between current location and desired destination)?

Life lines are determined by our mental patterns, but they are not the same.

Life lines are embedded in the Changing Social and Economic Picture

changing social and economic picture

The Nine American Lifestyles (only a "milestone" attention directing tool. Not referenced as indisputable science)

Start working on The Second Half of Your Life early in life.

Bob Buford: Make retirement the better part of your life.

Also see: "The Second Half of Your Life" in Chapter 21, The Essential Drucker and in Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker.

Jane Fonda's My Life So Far (letter to Amazon customers)

The settings and stages in George Foreman's life (from anger to joy) — Knockout Entrepreneur (Nelsonfree)

Loggins and Messina: The childhoods, intertwining, separation, indiidual paths, and reunion in the lives of Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina—from business partners to eventual friendship. logginsandmessina.com

Reinvention: Drucker makes an intriguing point about the need for reinvention. The person you are reinventing is no longer who you were when you were younger. It sounds obvious, but makes the most sense only in retrospect and with reflection. We must reinvent ourselves for our new circumstances. What we learned in school and through experience has brought us to a certain point, but now it's time for new learning and experiences.—Living in More than One World by Bruce Rosenstein

realities

One of the purposes of this site is to help with the challenges of moving further down your life lines before you become lost in unimagined futures. Starting points for this preparation—Time-Life Navigation.

Conceptual Resources for developing a work plan

Early Career Work

Managing Oneself

Living In More Than One World : how Peter Drucker's wisdom can inspire your life by Bruce Rosenstein

Managing Oneself for Effectiveness (Effective Executive: Preface)

What do you want to be remembered for?

Ideas on this page are part of a foundation for Life Design work

later

TLN Keywords: tlnkwlifelines

Brainscape enhancement and topic assessment

Donation: Click the button below to make a donation through PayPal. Just a few dollars helps with the books, software, web site hosting, and the time devoted to enhancing the work approach blue print available on this site. See the text site map for a view of the site's unique scope and resources. Also see links to external resources on my delicious page

Contact me (bobembry)

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Radar: attention :: enhancement :: organization

Life-TIME Investment System

(a road map and brainscape ^© for time investing)

For a world always moving
away from yesterdays
and toward unimagined futures.

Working on the familiar (routine tasks)
with the familiar (capabilities)
won't get you to tomorrows.

What follows is part of a
foundation for future directed decisions

Time investing is the only way to escape
the decaying worldS of yesterdayS — its not a one time event.

The 1850s, 1920s, 1950s, 1970s, 1990s … are gone
and they aren't coming back.

Many people seem to believe that a rising tide lifts all boats.
But does it, really?
Look around the worlds of yesterdays.
How much of the things being done then
had any lasting value?
(Disco, 8-tracks, B&W TV, rotary dial phones,
downtown shopping, fashion, bleeding, Blockbuster, …)

How much of what you're doing today is really
effective or future directed?

Organization change events are with us for the roads ahead.

Amazon link: How The Mighty Fall

… the organization of the post-capitalist society of organizations
is a destabilizer.

Because its function is to put knowledge to work
—on tools, processes, and products;
on work;
on knowledge itself—
it must be organized for constant change.

It must be organized for innovation;
and innovation,
as the Austro-American economist
Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) said,
is “creative destruction.”

It must be organized for systematic abandonment
of the established, the customary, the familiar,
the comfortable
— whether products, services, and processes,
human and social relationships, skills,
or organizations themselves.

It is the very nature of knowledge
that it changes fast and
that today's certainties
will be tomorrow's absurdities. — Peter Drucker

Extrapolating yesterdays is hazardous to your future.

But what if you're currently doing great?

“Only fairy tales end
‘They lived happily ever after.’
Success always obsoletes the very behavior
that achieved it.
It always creates new realities.
It always creates, above all,
its own and different problems.” — Peter Drucker

You can only invest your time in the things on your radar

You can only utilize the things on your radar

What you primarily see around you is yesterday
and the dead past.

Without continuous, systematic on-going work
your radar will be infested with yesterday
rather than opportunities.

Because we live in a world that is always heading
into a non-linear future …

1940 Census

… we need a way to force ourselves
to look for and at things
that aren't on our radar (with some credible help)
and decide what to do about them.
At the same time we need a way
to narrow down the infinite number
things we could look at.
The previous ideas need to rest
on a solid foundation for future directed decisions.

The topics below are “top of the food chain” radar ammunition

It would be a really good idea
to read all of the following before clicking the links.

As you're reading remember the non-linearity of time.

All of the below are connected through TIME
and are moving in TIME

They are part of the elements
for creating a “life time” work approach
mentioned at the top of most pages.

They will help you figure out
where you want to go (your most valuable roads ahead)
and how to get there.
And then do it again …

This is a blueprint for a genuinely interesting life.

A radar list will be helpful in your exploration and life navigation.
It could include important, relevant topic areas and where you found them.
There is a limit to the number of topics a person can effectively calendarize.

One of the difficulties of getting to tomorrows
is having access to the right brain-addresses.
Your radar list should be your future brain-address book.
Every line in the image below is a brain-address
or at least a jumping off point toward the right brain-road to pursue.

Please don't ever begin to believe that
a permanent answer or magic bullet exists.
There is a constantly receding horizon — no final answer.
Just alternatives — appearing at different times.
Life is a navigation challenge
in a world moving toward unimagined futureS.

The pages below are meant to be explored and selectively harvested.

They are ATTENTION-DIRECTING TOOLS

They provide a form of LIFE “insurance.”

Having a complex mental landscape
combined with periodic abandonment and refocusing work
will prevent your from traveling the wrong roads for too long.

Every road eventually becomes the wrong road.

Having a complex mental landscape is also
some protection from those pushing “snake oil.”

Everything above and below is about time investing
for the purpose of time-life navigation.
All of it is part of a foundation for future directed decisions.

You should want to know how the world works
and how you can navigate this reality.

We are already embedded in
a knowledge society, a society of organizations, and a network society.

Attention !!! (refocusing attention always comes first) ::: LTIS for TLN — Quick Look ::: The World is Full of Options by Peter Drucker (a social ecologist) ::: Contents of books by Peter Drucker ::: What do you want to be remembered for? ::: Foundations for future directed decisions (What do you need to know before you decide … ?) ::: Knowledge: Its Economics and Its Productivity ::: The Daily Drucker (a foundational resource with an unparalleled field of vision) ::: TLN text site map (quick view of the Time-Life Navigation ^SM ^© site's scope. Over 500 html pages, 100+ PDFs, 1000s of images. Which of these elements are part of your future?) ::: Time-Life Navigation ^SM ^© (about living in a world moving toward unimagined futures) ::: Adventures in time (can you connect this idea with someone or a topic listed here?) ::: Adventures of a Bystander ::: Simplified TLN system view ::: The Unfashionable Kierkegaard ::: The Changing Social and Economic Picture ::: Economic Content and Structure ::: Knowledge System View ::: Selected TLN articles from the news (Society :: events :: stuff happening)

Work life brainscape: Early Career Work (for knowledge workers and ambitious knowledge technologists—a foundation for future directed decisions)   :::   Because life-time employment is gone Networking is necessary   :::   Résumé and Interview Planning for your years and the decades ahead   :::   New job game plan: when you get a new job, task, or assignment — this is very, very important   :::   Learning

Managing Oneself (as a unique INDIVIDUAL human being over a lifetime in a changing world—beginning NOW! This should be your foundation for everything else)

  :::   Career and Life Guidance from Peter Drucker   :::

  :::   The Essential Drucker   :::
("A coherent and fairly comprehensive" introduction to management)

  :::   Managing Oneself for Effectiveness (a step up the performance ladder — The Effective Executive Preface !!!!! Outline !!!)   :::

  :::   The Educated Person ("defines society's performance capacity")   :::

  :::   Living in More Than One World
How Peter Drucker's Wisdom Can Inspire Your Life by Bruce Rosenstein   :::

  :::   CEO   :::   Board member   :::

  :::   Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It   :::
  :::   What Got You Here Won't Get You There both by Marshall Goldsmith   :::

::: The Second Half of Your Life (important to start by your mid-30s) :::

Career evolution : Professional Grade (another door)

Organization evolution (essential to creating and maintaining a healthy, modern society. Somebody has to want it and do it. From working in a basement or garage to Built to Last) ::: Management, Revised Edition ::: Managing the Non-Profit Organization ::: The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization ::: The Definitive Drucker ::: Leadership ::: Production (from "specs" to user reality) ::: Managing the Small Business ::: Managing the Family Business: see December 28 and 29 in The Daily Drucker

Apple: Apple II, Lisa, Mac, Laptops, iPod and iTunes and other online stores, iPhone, iPad, iCloud …
always aiming high

Innovation and Entrepreneurship ("This is a practical book, but it is not a "how-to" book. Instead, it deals with the what, when, and why; with such tangibles as policies and decisions; opportunities and risks; structures and strategies; staffing, compensation, and rewards. Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. … The test of an innovation, after all, lies not its novelty, its scientific content, or its cleverness. It lies in its success in the marketplace. … A successful innovation aims at leadership … successful entrepreneurs aim high. They are not content simply to improve on what already exists, or to modify it. … Successful businesses, businesses that are today in the right markets with the right products or services, are likely ten years hence to get three-quarters of their revenues from products and services that exist today, or from their linear descendants. In fact, if today's products or services do not generate a continuing and large revenue stream, the enterprise will not be able to make the substantial investment in tomorrow that innovation requires.") ::: Innovation ::: Entrepreneurship ::: Entrepreneurs and Innovation

Life lines (a view from above) ::: Life design (as your verb or noun) ::: Financial investing (developing an informed capacity) ::: Life management system (LMS) (a conscious navigation system from yesterdays to tomorrows) OR Time-management

Practical thinking (knowing what to to do) ::: Mental patterns (our self-organizing information system. In the final analysis the future of society depends on what's between our ears) ::: More thinking resources by Edward de Bono

Using conceptual resources (as brainroads ^© and brainscapes ^©)
Conceptual resource digestion process ::: TLN conceptual resource file listing ::: Concepts and ideas …

Calendarization (from topic introduction to what's the next action—really?)
What's next? in your life and time
Where will your current time usage lead?

Larger

bobembry contact info (suggestions or whatever) ::: Conceptual resource assistance ::: Partners wanted ::: Resume (Bob Embry) ::: Personal (Bob Embry) ::: Bob Embry's Time-Life Navigation © Blog ::: Twitter | Bob Embry ::: Twitter | ti4tomorrows ::: Facebook | Bob Embry ::: LinkedIn | Bob Embry ::: delicious | bobembry ::: googleme (unexpected ways to view site connections) ::: TLN search (semi-functional Google site search)

The URLs to my site are going to change before June 30, 2012. Apple is discontinuing their hosting service. The new domain is http://rlaexp.com/. Also you will still be able to find the site by Googling either bobembry or "Time-Life-Navigation" or "Life-Time-Investment system"

"To know and not do, is to not yet know"

tlnview tlnkwview

At the present time this is a prototype site. I add, remove, and redesign content based on my own unfolding comprehension of the time-life navigation ^© (TLN) landscape . This means that you might want to periodically revisit relevant pages.

Site design goals (beta—September 2010): My minimum goal is to provide enough "sign-posts" that serious site users don't find themselves in major negative situations because they didn't get the TLN memo. My desired goal is to provide "sign-posts" to a meaningful life—both for individuals and society. One supreme sign-post is to set your sights on achievements that really matter, that will make a difference in the world. The second half of your life is the major opportunity for full effectiveness and fulfillment.

Many of the books that were available when I first started working on what I now call "time-life navigation" have gone out of print or are hard to find. You can still use the content of the book outline pages to identify topics of interest and to search Amazon Books for topics or phrases.

tlnkwtime ::: tsm ::: tlnkwradar ::: tlnkwquick ::: tlnkwdrucker ::: tlnkwceo ::: tlnkwleadership ::: tlnkwbobembry