Healing power of putting pen to paper

Article in Daily Telegraph this morning that confirms my thoughts about how writing things down can sort issues out in your own mind and help you feel better. Dr Matthew Lieberman says it could play a role in why many people write blogs or bad lyrics to songs. Next time you can't sleep, are concerned about something, can't figure something out - get out an A4 pad and write down your thoughts. Just write what comes into your head. See the amazing effect this had. When you look at MRI scans of the brain it looks like the brain is sorting things out when people are writing things down. Negotiate better deals, thoughts with yourself.

Derek Arden the pop not a psychologist

All Party Parliamentary Group on Management

I attended the Chartered Management Institute meeting last night and these are the soundbites I took away -

Lord Eatwell - President of Queens College Cambridge - Economic advisor

Issues we face now are because of failure of management and leadership
No one stood up to the management of the banks
None of the RBS or HBOS management were qualified bankers. No ACIB
Fall in exchange rate caused by £350bn of foreign funds in our banking system having left this country. This represents one third of GDP
A place at Cambridge for a foreign student is now 50% of a place at Harvard, used to be 2/3rds
There will be a redistribution of talent, maybe engineers rather than financial engineers?
Cash injections could lead to quite serious inflation. However there is queue to buy govt. bonds. Printing money is when bonds are issued but them held by the authorities themselves.

3i – Patrick Dunne - Director - Communications

3 things to look for on talent, when you are choosing people to run new businesses

1 – Judgment. On people and commercial situations
2 – Interpersonal skills
3 – Antennae – to put your finger on the key issues

Ruth Spellman – CEO - CIMgt

Attitude and personality are as important as skills
Who has had training in risk?not many people
There is a rebirth in apprentices

Pop psychology

The financial times writes about pop psychology and how succesful sports stars often had lucky charms. Pele the best footballer ever, once gave away one of his football shirts to a fan. He believed his game suffered as a conseqeuence, so he dispatched a friend to get it back. A week later a friend handed his shirt back. His game improved.

The friend never told Pele that it was not his original shirt. Bobby Moore, Bjorn Borg and many other sports superstars had rituals that they always went through before a match. In pop psychology these are called anchors that psyche the brain into positive thinking. What are yours? Use them. - Derek Arden - pop psychology