First, lists. Most motivational and goal-setting experts advocate the power of writing things down. Somehow the process helps us remove the power from the intangible and makes it seem less onerous. Writing also has a cathartic effect.

My favorite story about writing things down was from comedian Jim Carrey, who told the story of writing himself a check with a lot of zeros and dated for a future year. He folded the check, placed it in his wallet, and carried it around for years. One day he discovered that his goal-setting check corresponded to the royalties from a recent blockbuster movie.

I used to love the Ben Franklin Balance Sheet approach but found that it can be a wee bit limiting at times (e.g., cramped space; propensity of cons to overshadow). Ben's approach is to take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side list all the pros, and on the other all the cons. Tally them up and voila, the column with the greatest number of entries is the winner.

Yet, not everything in a list is weighted equally. Therefore there are benefits to using a straight list sans columns, especially one emphasizing the positive point of view. Whenever deviating from Ben's columns, I start with a list of the pro's on a single sheet. Usually, I won't even have to look at the cons because my definition will be clarified by the time I end.

Case-in-point: One day, while vacationing in Hawaii, I had a complete meltdown. I know no one will feel sorry for me here, but two dives every morning and eighteen holes of golf each afternoon are exhausting. I was taking pills for seasickness and wearing the patch. In addition, I was diving using nitrox (a special mix of nitrogen and oxygen). I screwed up on my dive tables the day before, when I had an incident of getting lost from the dive boat via currents and following a sea turtle. Later that day, I was playing golf up in the hills (elevation is tricky when diving) and to top it off it was raining and I wasn't dressed for it (Note: Hawaii has 11 climate zones; there are 13 in the world). Anyhow, my point is that I had pushed my body and taken all kinds of medications which got compressed in my blood stream. Sprinkle in some personal windmills of frustration back home and it all added up to one big fuss on my behalf. The next morning I got up and was really down on myself, and everything else. No matter where I went for Internet access, I ran into troubles with one thing after another. My mood was horrible.

Yet I couldn't put my hand on exactly what it was that bothered me. It seemed like everything bothered me. Finally I pulled myself up to a park bench overlooking the ocean and pulled out my trusty notepad and pen. I wrote on the top of the page, "What is working in my life today?" I was in such a state that I said and wrote "Nothing!"

I stared at my page and fussed. I would not let myself go into all the things that I felt were wrong. First things first. I had to focus on what was working. After I wrote "Nothing" on my page I realized that it was a lie, as I was enjoying the ocean breeze. So I wrote that one down. "Ah yes, I enjoy the ocean view, and I'm lucky to have eyes to see it." I kept going and scribbled on the better part of two pages. By the time I got up from my spot, I was centered again. I refused to look at the negative, since the positive was so easy to overlook and take for granted. The funniest part of that day was that pure magic unfolded on several fronts during the second half. "Yes Virginia, there is perfection in the universe. It's just not always obvious." Writing it down illuminates the obvious.

The second technique I found to work is feelings or trusting the gut. My biggest decisions about what works, e.g., selecting a college, have always resonated from the inside out, no matter what my lists have said. Whenever I've casually queried successfully coupled folks, they admit, "It just felt right." No more having to justify, search, reason, etc. We live in a world that honors the cerebral, but we are biological beings and need to honor the cellular intelligence inherent in our DNA.

The only feeling I would strongly recommend not acting on is anger. "I'm so angry right now that I'd like to go over there and punch my boss," a waitress said to me when discussing how to define what works. "Okay, go ahead, but what happens after you punch her. Courts, police, lost job, and sundry other potentialities await you after you react to her. Is that your definition of working? Why not channel your anger, not bury it. Redirect it so it works for you."

There's a reason why the head is an appendage to the body while the heart is protected in the body's core chest cavity. At times, the brain is like a closed, looped circuit. We can go around and around and go mad with a particular thought. The heart is like a release valve. Once we feel something, even pain, after a while we become free. Feeling love in the heart allows us freedom to grow, "ah now this works, and how can I make it work better..." (see Valentines Day).

Lists and feelings only go so far, especially for teams. Here tools from programming, project management and quality control can come in handy. From bar, flow and pie charts to scattered diagrams. The trick is to emphasize the positive.

I've developed a methodology for teams which I refer to as "Creative Pie." This simple yet powerful technique allows teams to visually understand what works from an integrated perspective. The Creative Pie is composed by establishing Creative Standards, plotting them along a simple x-y grid and then converting the grid into a pie chart.

For instance, first we start by defining the points along the x-axis (horizontal plane). These points become our Creative Standards and represent the categories associated with "what accounts for something working," e.g., return on investment (ROI), turnover, stakeholder wealth, market share, projects completed, conflicts, community development.

We then establish a numerical score for the y-axis, from low to high, which represent not working to working (e.g., scale of one to ten with one being the lowest working and ten being the highest working).

Okay, now. For each Creative Standard category, assign it a goal (e.g., ROI = 15%, turnover = 0%, stakeholder wealth = $10/share, market share = 40%, projects completed = 100%, conflicts = 0, community development = 10% increase in credits where credits might be defined as unsolicited thank you letters).

Evaluate each category goal and assign it a "y" number. Then plot it. This will give us a graphic representation of how well it's working. Converting these charts into pie charts shows us which sections are working best relative to the others. I would argue that the goal of your Creative Pie is to have equal slices, each one representing 100% of working.

Remember, individual, team or society, without first defining what works, it is unlikely that we will achieve ongoing creative efforts which add up to a process of continuous "working betters."   top