Westside Toastmasters is located in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California - Westside Toastmasters on Meetup

Noticing

Go to the mall or to the grocery store and start noticing the characteristics of, and the marketing for, different products. For each product, ask, Is this product presented as if it were the center of the universe? (In other words, are its features trumpeted more than the benefits it offers? Is the product designed with the user in mind? Is it beautiful or utilitarian?) Or does it seem that the product is presented as fitting in as just one part of the customer's whole life? Make a list of what strikes you about a range of products.

Then leave the store and go to the zoo, or out into nature. Look at the animals and plants. Which of them act as if they were the center of their own universe, and which seem to have adapted to fit in with the grander scheme of things.

Now look at popular entertainment (music, books, television shows, movies), government policies, and even the other people in your life, and evaluate them by the same criteria.

Begin to arrange your lists into groups.

What do you notice?