Don McLeod - shares his unique perspective with students from Thom Kearney's professional practice class.

1. Collaborative Monkeys
and other thoughts.
A presentation by Don McLeod to
ADV1691- Professional Practice
Professor Thom Kearney
Algonquin College, January, 2012.
1

2. The Art of Getting up in the Morning I need to get up in the morning to ask of
others and learn, discuss, ask questions,
I need to get up in the morning. be terribly wrong, listen, think, project,
I need the transition of dark to light. assume, verify, articulate and write.
I need the blue light from the sun. All that leads to production of new brain
The light distorted as it travels through the neurons. That is our nature.
horizon.
If I don't after two weeks my body will want I need to get up in the morning knowing
to sleep all day and stay up all night. that over the last week someone said
That is our nature. something with that incredible tone of voice
that means I have made other's lives better.
I need to get up in the morning. That means it is very likely to happen again
God is not going to get me up. in the next week. That is our nature.
A nagging spouse is not going to get me up.
Fear of consequences is not going to get me I need to get up in the morning to go to bed
up. at night at 10 p.m. for a full night sleep with
It will keep me in bed. the short and long term memory shuffling
I have to get my DNA to want to get up and that comes with dreams and restorative cell
face the day. That means I have to convince my own work that comes during sleep. That is our nature.
DNA, that as a collaborative monkey, I am
contributing. I get up in the morning because I know
I must prove to it I have meaning and each day will be exceptionally wonderful
purpose. It has to be real. That is our nature. and that takes my mind way beyond my
physical limitations, including that broken
I need to get up in the morning, to eat well, part of my brain.
to go for a 2 hour walk for the BDNF so I can As the poem I once read to my kids revealed
produce new brain neurons. That is our nature. to me; "Good morning, good morning,
its time to face the day, first we'll have
breakfast and then we will play."
Don McLeod Donnie_McLeod@bell.net

3. Don McLeod
Mysteries, Puzzles &
Huntington's Disease
Spot the source of the colour @ 483 nm

4. HD confused with
Rage Balance
fall
Cognition Paranoia
Cautionary tale from Nixon's era warning of Harper's

5. Animal studies show that an enriching environment delays the onset of Huntington’s Disease
1/7 mice with enriched environment failed motor tests compared to 7/7 controls
van Dellen A. Blakemore C. Deacon R. et al. Delaying the onset of Huntington's in mice. Nature.
2000;404(6779):721-2.
What is an enriching environment for us, - - - mouse + + + ?

6. mind
brain

7. At 55 I could retire without a pension. I did because of HD.
I was lucky, a habit, that the people I worked for created wealth and shared it because they,
unknowingly, created systemically trusting organizations.
I am working the mystery - what is a substrate for an enriched environment? I freely share what I
learn. I get funding from business for programs.
That is enriching for me, what about you?

8. My advice for young people, wasted on far too many older people.

9. Know what you are inclined to do and stretch that everyday.
Alfie Kohn “No, that is not want I think! Buy my 300 page $30 book, motivation is from within!”
http://www.alfiekohn.org/books/pbr.htm
http://www.alfiekohn.org/books/pbr.htm
The lesson watching motivation speakers is that they do what they enjoy doing with others.

10. Work with friends that do what you are not inclined to do, about 5 or 6 in one group at any
one time.

11. http://www.economist.com/node/9898270
http://www.economist.com/node/18678925
The traditionally taught group’s average score was 41%, compared with 74% for the experimental
group—even though the experimental group did not manage to cover all the material it was
supposed to, whereas the traditional group did.

12. Avoid people too selfish for your own good, use about 1 of every 12 as a guide.
http://douggeivett.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/review-of-snakes-in-suits/

13. Spot the career counsellor

14. Wait for 5 positive interactions before calling anyone a friend, from Cahners on activity based cost
to sell solutions.
Trust takes time and therefore has a cost. 5 interactions times $300 per interaction times 2 times
for 66% failure rate times 20 so cost is 5% of top line revenue = minimum value of a solution
customer is $ 60,000.00. Anything less should be a customer driven transactional purchase or you
are loosing money on every sale.

15. Find the freedom to exchange a million little random ideas and make a million little mistakes
to avoid catastrophe.
Kathleen Forsyth “If you have the humility to be wrong you have the key to learn almost
anything, you will find others desperately need to correct your assumptions, all 3 trillion”.

16. Avoid jobs doing puzzles if not automated they be outsourced for $10 per hour.
“Underlying the notion of a simple, controllable production system was the notion of the
simple, controllable employee. In the factory model of management, it was easy to
monitor workers and measure their output. Because the work itself was not terribly
interesting or motivating in its own right, managers intuitively relied on what Freud
called “the pleasure principle,” the idea that human beings are motivated to seek
pleasure and avoid pain. Thus supervisors used a combination of carrots (more pay for
more tasks completed) and sticks (reprimands or the threat of job loss) to motivate
employees. These behavioral strategies were very successful, but they produced an
unfortunate legacy that still characterizes many workplaces today—an undercurrent of
fear.”
The Competitive Imperative of Learning by Amy C. Edmondson
“Those same theories would drive our invasion of Iraq forty-five years later,
championed by RAND-affiliated actors such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Zalmay
Khalilzad, and Donald Rumsfeld. But RAND’s greatest contribution might be its least
known: rational choice theory, a model explaining all human behavior through self-
interest.”
http://www.abellaweb.com/

17. Delight in jobs of mysteries. This is where you will find quality of life.
“There's a reason millions of people try to solve crossword puzzles each day. Amid the well
ordered combat between a puzzler's mind and the blank boxes waiting to be filled, there is
satisfaction along with frustration. Even when you can't find the right answer, you know it
exists. Puzzles can be solved; they have answers. But a mystery offers no such comfort. It
poses a question that has no definitive answer because the answer is contingent; it depends
on a future interaction of many factors, known and unknown. A mystery cannot be answered;
it can only be framed, by identifying the critical factors and applying some sense of how they
have interacted in the past and might interact in the future. A mystery is an attempt to define
ambiguities. Puzzles may be more satisfying, but the world increasingly offers us mysteries.
Treating them as puzzles is like trying to solve the unsolvable—an impossible challenge. But
approaching them as mysteries may make us more comfortable with the uncertainties of our
age.”
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/presence_puzzle.html
You can't solve a mystery alone! Aloneness leads to loneliness leads to depression a
Neurological Degenerative Disease, I have one, you don't need one.

18. If strong, find work in a selfish culture and destroy it from inside. You will know that by observing
that knowledge transfers will be at the slow rate of 12 people per meeting. Knowledge will be
corrupted by self interest.

19. If weak, like me, work in the growing number of firms that see the advantage of a culture of
fairness needed for sharing for beating competition which cannot change and vulnerable to a
fearless, learning and responsive younger managed business. Firms were alignment of fit for
function of collaborative monkeys appreciates the DNA of most of us, not all, can be used to
create fearless organizations. You will know that by observing that knowledge transfers will be
at the fast rate of less than 6 people per meeting. Knowledge will travel up in times of external
threats instantly. They will be fearless firms. Investors will invest in these firms instead of fear
driven firms because fearless firms will contribute towards 30% more to the bottom line.
Do more than co-operate, collaborate.
Bob Broomfield “Hire those who can and want to do the job, not a task for HR. Avoid people too
interested in money or advancement. The financial advantage is 30% more contribution to the
bottom line relative to others. The executive advantage is upward communications in times of
external threats.
Niki Halle “I never worked so hard, had so much fun, made so many friends or was pushed
beyond what I thought I was capable of doing”

20. Envisioning a adhocish, face to face and sufficient wealth creation machine.
Problem – Solution – Implementation – Problem...
Substrate

22. Could you help me? Talk about this, preferably face to face
over coffee, beer etc. adocishly in groups of sixish.
If any of this helps you please donate to the
Huntington’s Society of Canada .