THEN: Secretary of State (KY), 1996-2004; Candidate for Lieutenant Governor, 2007
NOW: JYB3 Group (Owner) -public affairs consulting firm; Miller Wells law firm (Of counsel)
Full Biography:link
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Jan 29, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Want to have a brighter future?
Here’s how.
Have a “Growth Mindset” –as opposed to a “Fixed Mindset.”Mindset is a simple idea discovered by Stanford professor, Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., in decades of research on motivation, achievement, and success.
Mindsets are beliefs individuals hold about their most basic qualities and abilities.In a Growth Mindset, people believe they can develop their brain, abilities, and talent.
This view creates a love for learning, a drive for growth and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishments.On the contrary, people with a Fixed Mindset believe their basic qualities, such as intelligence and abilities are fixed, and can’t be developed.
They also believe that talent alone creates success, and see effort as a sign of weakness rather than as a positive element of life needed to reach one’s full potential.
The diagram above shows how people with different views of intelligence behave in different situations.
(Thanks to Lee H. Baucom for teaching me about this theory and doing it in such a memorable and meaningful way).
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jan 28, 2013 at 2:15 PM ET
Lincoln and the power of story–and humor. And a lesson in leadership.
Throughout the movie Lincoln starring Daniel Day-Lewis, we are treated (as we should be) to multiple instances of Lincoln entangled in a tense and threatening situation only to hear him start his response with a story. The stories Lincoln tells are usually pithy, homespun, humorous and wise. They each sound at times like an Aesop’s fable all dressed up in grown up clothing. And often-times don’t even seem to be on point with the topic at hand. But work nonetheless.
This story-telling tic, or device, of Lincoln’s worked profoundly well for him. And for our nation.
The stories –and the time it took to tell them–communicated something much more important than an answer to the question posed. Which Lincoln would eventually get to.
First, the story was a distraction which defused an already overly tense situation. But the time Lincoln had finished his story, others present had had time to broaden their perspective and return to the ability to be reasonable rather than just react hastily. And the humorous punchline only helped punctuate this for the president.
Second, it brought everyone in the room together on an unrelated matter. Sure, everyone may be divided by the national conundrum they were debating, but for a few brief moments they were reminded that there was more than united than divided them by laughing together at a commonplace story. And if they could do that, perhaps they could agree on bigger issues. At least, I believe, that was the subconscious message achieved by Lincoln.
Three, Lincoln would re-establish through his story that he was “one of them” –just an ordinary fella not a slick, manipulative, self-serving politician. He could be trusted and was a person of goodwill trying to solve a thorny problem for reasons beyond merely self-interest. Like his familiar stories. He put his audience at ease with him and the process they were engaged with.
Read the rest of… John Y. Brown, III: Lincoln and the Power of Story
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jan 28, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Facebook and the levels of dopamine hits.
It’s a good feeling when a friend request on Facebook gets “accepted.” Of course, we are adults and perhaps shouldn’t acknowledge the affirmation rush we feel, but it happens and is pleasing.
But what about the “delayed acceptance” of a friend request?
This gets complicated. The “dopamine factor” (we’ll call it) is reduced the more time that passes before we are notified of the big “accept.”
A week delay is probably only about a 20% reduction in the dopamine delivery. It’s possible this were really busy or is just now checking Facebook for new friend requests. But the chances are they saw the request from you 5 days ago and weren’t excited enough about it to immediately accept but knew they would eventually accept when “other” friend requests came in and they could kill 5 birds with one round of accepts, so to speak.
A month delay, is concerning and delivers only about 40% of the dopamine an immediate accept produces. In this case, it’s likely the person decided not to accept you but then in the intervening weeks realized they needed to ask you for a favor or remembered you know someone important to them and don’t want you saying bad things about them for not accepting you on Facebook. Hence, the month delayed “accept.” The reason this is 40% and not lower is we know going in these people aren’t crazy about us and getting an accept in the first place is a bigger surprise, increasing the dopamine punch.
6 months or longer. It delivers about 20% of the maximum dopamine surge. Sure it’s offensive to know it took 6 months for someone to finally think of something redeeming enough about you to “accept” but the “relief factor” of knowing they eventually did come up with some reason to accept is worth a 20% hit. In fact, we are so relieved we don’t even need to know what the redeeming factor about us is. Just that there is one at all (for these individuals) is good enough.
1 year and 9 months? This is a tough one to explain. And is what got me thinking about this topic in the first place tonight. I haven’t figured it out yet. I’ll say a 25% dopamine burst. These are people you had written you off as undeserving of a friend accept. And about 639 days passed before they changed their mind…..and you have come back from the social dead to them, figuratively speaking. And coming back from death from anything is worth at least 25% of the maximum dopamine burst. I’m low-balling this one. ; )
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Jan 24, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
The McRib Code
The McRib sandwich is back at McDonalds . But there is far more to it than the simple reintroduction of failed fast food sandwich for about the 19th time in approximately 31 years.
I have combined the DaVinci Code formulas and validated them through Nostradamus’ projections that reference a similar irregular phenomenon.
And it is not pretty.
How bad?
Almost enough to make you want to go Mayan.
After you’ve eaten a 2 for 1 McRib. Just know there more at stake. ; )
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Jan 23, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Remember, the the “art of negotiation” is really the “art of problem solving.”
To get what you want in negotiating, however, you have to first be able to give the other side what they want, too.
Negotiation isn’t about who can yell loudest what they want until the other side capitulates. It’s a process of understanding until the wisest —and often most creative—resolution of the problem is discovered and properly disclosed and proffered. And you can’t do that unless you know fully what the other side “really” wants–both what they say they want and what they actually want (the two aren’t always the same….not because the other side is concealing something but because they may not have fully thought through the process themselves and can answer clearly and candidly.)
A great example I’ll never forget from my MBA program went something like this. Two companies in different industries were negotiating for a rare orange available in scarce supply from South America. They went to war in negotiations for the orange, escalating the price and trying to undermine the others need and use for the orange. Each needed more than “half” the supply and were willing to pay premium pricing for it. The two sides exhausted the different ways of dividing up ownership of the oranges between the two but none were satisfactory. And then, at the end of this disastrous and destructive and costly negotiation, it is discovered that Company A needs only the rind of the orange and Company B the pulp. But neither side took the time to find that out about the other before it was too late and both companies paid exorbitant prices and didn’t get what they wanted.
Why?
Ignorance of the situation.
Or more pointedly, self-absorption and an unwilling to try to “solve a problem” rather than merely “getting mine.”
This is a great life lesson and business lesson to understand what each side is really needing and seeking. Knowledge is power. And smart. And ignorance is so very costly and wasteful. And ultimately humiliating and does a disservice to all involved. It’s never enough to know only what you want. The key, ironically, to the most successful negotiators (problem solvers) is that they also know what the other side wants –and how to deliver it to them.
If you enter a negotiation without a strong sense of that understanding, you aren’t really negotiating or problem solving. You are just making petulant, uninformed demands.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Jan 22, 2013 at 4:00 PM ET
Watching Silver Linings Playbook.
Albert Camus once wrote that fiction is a lie through which we tell the truth.
This movie is a story that tenderly and impeccably reveals the truth about life and the world we live in. All of us.
It’s supposed to be a brilliantly authentic and deadpan depiction of the world within the world of those laboring under the weight of mental illness. But it’s really not.
Silver Linings Playbook seems to me to be something more real and less mysterious. About finding extraordinary moments amid the utterly banality of life made possible by those who find ways to cope most graciously with a world insanely obsessed with the delusion of sanity.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Jan 22, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Sometimes what seems to be a confident answer turns into a cause for worry.
Last week I was asked by a client, “Is there any way in the world –anything that could possibly happen—that means this deal won’t go through?
I flippantly joked, “Yes. If the Mayans were off three weeks in their prediction of the end of the world.”
We both laughed.
But since then I keep worrying, “What “IF” the Mayans really were off three weeks?! And the world does end. And this deal doesn’t go through. I am totally sc***d. I will have lost my credibility with this firm and probably not get renewed for this year.
Gosh, I sure hope the Mayans didn’t have a tendency to be off 3 weeks in their predictions.
I mean, the Mayan culture seems like the kind of culture that if they were going to get something wrong, they would at least get it wrong on the right date. They seemed to be sticklers like that.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jan 21, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET
Happy Martin Luther King Day
A man who taught us about the importance of fighting for — in a humble, appropriate and civilly disobedient manner– the God-given freedoms bestowed on each of us.
Even if others who claim they are the actual bestowers of these freedoms, in fact, are usurping them.
“Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, I am free at last” has become the universal rallying cry for all who have ever found freedom from bondage, political or personal.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jan 21, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
I’m easy, cheap, and proud of it.
On Facebook anyway.
Is that a bad thing?
I just found out about “deactivated” accounts of people who are Facebook friends and that you should probably delete or “unfriend” them since they are no longer active on Facebook.
That made sense until I got my real lesson from the process. Some of the “friends” I discovered with deactivated accounts included names like:
Jon Doe
A Fish Sandwich
Carissa Carmos Wayfm Shinefm (totally made up name)
John Doe (with an ‘h’)
And more…
It’s not my fault that my friendship with a fish sandwich or an imaginary person didn’t work out. At least I tried. If they were having fun at my expense, heck, well….it’s their loss.
And besides, I can comfort myself by knowing I was probably the best friend that fish sandwich had in its entire imaginary life. At least the longest. We were apparently friends for several years.
On the contrary, people with a Fixed Mindset believe their basic qualities, such as intelligence and abilities are fixed, and can’t be developed.
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