Strategy – Page 6 – Dasanj Aberdeen

Published March 16, 2016

Why It’s Important To Know Which Side of Your Brain Is More Dominant

I’ve been trying to understand my own interests for a long time. My artistic abilities and overall interest in art took shape in my early teens. I created drawing and paintings that took weeks, entered exhibitions and held one-woman shows. Art was a commitment and I reinvested any monetary earnings into supplies and materials to create more. I loved the process and each end product.

Here is one my pieces, inspired by the Pointillism painting technique developed by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in France in 1886.

At the same time, I noticed my increasing interest in business. I really liked the idea of learning the fundamentals of business in order to one day make better overall business decisions. I liked leveraging business to have an impact on the world. In particular, I liked using products and services to help people by addressing their needs. Similar to art, business allows you to start with a vision and bring your idea to life.

Similar to art, business allows you to start with a vision and bring your idea to life.

So what did this mean? I was interested in two areas that were seemingly unrelated and at opposite ends of the spectrum. Every time I shared these interests with others, they were surprised and intrigued all at once. These responses made me question what it means to have multidisciplinary interests and what was actually possible.

Business is more of a left-brain tendency while art is more of a right-brain tendency. Are you more driven by the left or right side of your brain? I’ve paid close attention over the years to be able to answer this myself and I’ve learned how getting to the bottom of how you’re wired is one of the most important things you can do on your self-awareness journey.

Getting to the bottom of how you’re wired is one of the most important things you can do on your self-awareness journey.

Here is why it’s important to know which side of your brain is more dominant:

Clarify what’s important to you. Once you know what you value and what is meaningful to you, life makes a lot more sense. You no long do for the sake of doing but you now have meaning for your actions. You can easily answer why and have more direction. Ultimately, you become more confident in owning your core.

Inform how you design your work and life. Now, you are better informed to make decisions about structuring your work and life. You can develop your criteria for what makes the cut. Ask yourself: Is this in line with my core? Does this make me feel true to myself? Does this align to my intrinsic needs?

Prioritize and supplement. As you assess your options, you can decide what’s truly a priority and what can be supplemental. Where do you need to focus your time and effort to reach broader goals? What do you love doing versus like doing? Use the 80/20 rule to allocate your time accordingly.

Leverage your strengths. We all do better when we operate within our strengths. So it is important to identify these as soon as possible so you’re more effective and improve your performance. Whether it is talent or skill, leveraging what comes to you naturally is smart and strategic.

Don’t worry. If you haven’t already figured out which side of your brain is more dominant, you can take a test to find out. I took a test here recently which took about five minutes. Here are my results:

In an upcoming post, I’ll share how this revelation has shaped my life and work decisions and what it means for me. Sign up for my newsletter here so the upcoming post comes directly to you!

Until then, I’m looking forward to hearing how the dominant side of your brain drives your interests and decisions! And if you take the test, I’d like to know about the results. Did it surprise you? Does it align with how you live your life?

Dasanj Aberdeen

Dasanj Aberdeen is an entrepreneurial spirit who embodies the combination of left-brain logic and right-brain creativity. She is a consultant and proponent of multidisciplinary education, approaches and pursuits. She writes about their benefits in modern times and integrating multiple interests into a sustainable and fulfilling lifestyle. She’s a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University with a concentration in Technology & Innovation Management, jointly delivered by the Fox School of Business and College of Engineering.

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Published March 6, 2016

Stay Ready, Make Quick Decisions, Reach Your Goals

Like most people, I enjoy order, structure and a plan. They give me a sense of predictability and security that make me feel comfortable.

But does a carefully crafted approach always bring the impact, value and reward we want? Better yet, does it maximize each of these? Sometimes having the greatest plan isn’t effective if it isn’t relevant and timely.

I’ve had some of my most impactful and rewarding experiences when I didn’t overly or directly plan them. Here are some examples:

Homeownership. One year ago, I closed on a new condo. It started with a viewing on Saturday and putting in an offer by Monday night. Prior to that Saturday, buying a house was on my long-term list of goals but nowhere near my short-term one. Although it is one of the biggest purchases people make in life, I am at ease with my decision despite the overwhelmingly, quick turnaround at the time.

Travel and experiences. About two and a half weeks ago, I booked a round trip ticket to London. I knew this was a possibility a while back but I was waiting for the right time before committing to it. Days prior to flying out, I also booked round trip train tickets to Paris and Coventry. I’m in London now and the experience has been awesome despite only three days in. I’m really happy I booked the trip and it has moved me to write this post.

So what’s next?

It occurred to me that I should add one more thing to my list of impromptu decisions while I’m here.

Website launch. The first step with this site was setting it up and publishing blog posts. The next step is a public launch where I openly share it with my readers. To-date I haven’t set a hard date for the launch. But since I’m here on this great, experiential journey and sharing how some impromptu decisions have worked out for me, I’ve decided to launch and share this new website while here in Europe! I’m looking forward to getting started and moving toward the goals I have for this website!

Getting and staying ready. So how do I make it possible to jump at opportunities as they arise? It does take some legwork which I plan to expand on in an upcoming post. Will Smith said it best and this is how I like to run my life:

If you stay ready, you don’t need to get ready.

Until then, I plan to share some of my trip including tips and overall experiences. So stop by! But one quick way to have these tidbits come to you is to sign up to my newsletter here:

Best,

Dasanj Aberdeen

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Published February 20, 2016

How I Use Visual Communication To Inform, Educate and Persuade An Audience

These days, we’re bombarded with information, noise and it is increasingly challenging to capture people’s attention for long periods of time. While communicating an important message, you’re likely competing with social media newsfeeds, phone apps or emails. Even if you’ve mastered the art of storytelling, it is equally important that your visual aids are powerful, effective and bring your overall message to life.

Imagine you’re spending 2 minutes on each slide for a presentation and your audience looks up from their current distraction for an average of 10 seconds. The risk of not maximizing those 10 seconds is too great especially if this is a meeting that has been scheduled well in advance and with an audience that can impact next steps. If the success of the action items following the meeting hinges on their willingness to act, your goal during that time is to communicate your vision and message clearly, make it stick, get you audience to buy-in and inspire them to act.

Your goal during that time is to communicate your vision and message clearly, make it stick, get you audience to buy-in and inspire them to act.

How do you ensure that your message is communicated during that short amount of time? How do you get your audience to understand your key takeaways? I’ve spent some time working on this area myself and compiled a list of key techniques I use for more impactful visual content:

You may notice that this process incorporates flexibility. Even for business purposes, I lean heavily on my creative side to improve my effectiveness. I strip down the barriers of how things should be and I’m less afraid of trying new communication styles and techniques. If an approach is impactful, clearly communicates the message and makes it stick, I will use it.

The resulting content has been well received by my clients and colleagues. It has also provided value as fresh, differentiated content that is simple and digestible.

What approaches do you use to get your message across? I’d be interested in hearing. I’d also like to know how the techniques listed above work for you!

Dasanj Aberdeen

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Published February 2, 2016

Never Stray From Your Core

In business, core competencies are a combination of learning and resources that distinguishes a company in the marketplace and are critical to the company’s success. This concept was introduced by C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel and has three criteria:

Provide potential access to a wide variety of markets
Make a contribution to the customer benefits of the end product
Are difficult for competitors to replicate

In the same way that companies prioritize their core competencies, individuals can leverage the concept to achieve greater success. You can hone your core competencies to obtain opportunities, provide value and position yourself as the go-to person. When you focus on your strengths, you have greater impact and success.

I caught up with a friend from high school not too long ago and she gave me a life update. Here is a portion of the conversation where she shared her new area of study:

Me: That’s so awesome! And that sounds like you! The learning doesn’t have to stop outside of school with resources these days such as blogs, technology, talking to people in the field so keep going!

Her response: I love that everyone that has known for a long time says the same thing when I tell them my path and respond with a “that is so you!” I feel like the people that knew me back when we were growing up will always know me.

Me: Times change but fundamental things don’t! Always stay close to your core. We all do better when we do.

Years ago, I wouldn’t have understood what this means in practice. There’s something amazing and powerful about operating in your zone, where you’re fully equipped with the right experience, talent, knowledge, skills and passion to excel at a function. The right mix and know-how enables you to not only meet but exceed expectations and makes it difficult for others to compete. This is how you’re truly able to communicate your value and differentiate yourself.

There’s something amazing and powerful about operating in your zone, where you’re fully equipped with the right experience, talent, knowledge, skills and passion to excel at a function.

When you operate in a zone where you’re using your core strengths frequently, you have a head start, build momentum and benefit from practice over time. On the other hand, if you’re trying hard to improve a weakness, you need additional support to have an impact and more effort to have a powerful outcome. Meanwhile, competitors who excel in this area have a more seamless process.

Always stay close to your core. We all do better when we do.

Dasanj Aberdeen

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