Global perspective – what sound does your heart beat?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under communication, creativity & innovation
From a global perspective, what song does your heart beat?
Something with choreographed symbols and full on symphony or are you more African beat and wild abandon?
Perhaps the husky, whiskey soaked hue of the blues or the smoky eyes and dark night blues?
Take a look, lend an ear.
And repeat: what sound does your heart beat?
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog,
which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: global perspective, heart beat, song
The Rock.Paper.Scissors newsletter is out: funny resources related to interview with Emmanuel Jal, international hip hop star
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under change management & wellness, Conflict resolution
Creative Commons licensed on Flickr by: law keven
This month’s Rock.Paper.Scissors e-newsletter focuses on what Emmanuel Jal, international hip-hop star & former child soldier had to say when I sat down with him. Read the entire issue here. Not on the monthly e-newsletter mailing list? Sign up for free here.
Emmanuel Jal. If he’s not on your radar, he should be.
The following resources, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, build on the themes raised in the interview I did with Emmanuel Jal.
- Root causes of conflict: see this hilarious video for the surprising lumps & bumps of conflict we can be clueless of (watch what happens when she gets out of bed) (it’s a mere few seconds long).
- Role of humour: see Improv Everywhere’s clip below on not taking ourselves too seriously.
- On change: see how a giraffe caught in quicksand, the clip below, can make you howl & teach you about change at the same time
Tags: change, conflict, emmanuel jal, humour
Training & development learning well January blog post round up
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, change management & wellness, creativity & innovation, Diversity & culture
The first month of the new year is about to slip by. Sit up, take notice & look back before looking forward. If you didn’t catch all the posts this month simply usher yourself down to the well & click as you wish.
Learn well in the training & development learning well.
Dive deep into the learning well or take a small sip. Shower yourself in training & development or just get your big toe wet.
Refresh & refreshing.
As you wish.
- The Rock.Paper.Scissors newsletter is out:
Tags: change management, creativity, culture, emmanuel jal, forgiveness, jen louden, learning, to do
Freedom for creativity? Freedom from creativity? Is this a playground or a jail?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under creativity & innovation
Freedom? Restrictions?
Limitations? Guidelines?
Safety? Security? Sanctions? Sanctimonious?
The signs surrounding the playground that swam by me as I jogged my way around Washington Square in New York City a while back got me thinking.
Do we need rules to set us free?
Is this a safe space within a jungle? Or is it a sterile void where creativity fled long ago?
Perspective. You be the judge.
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: creativity, new york city, perspective
The Rock.Paper.Scissors newsletter is out: resources related to Emmanuel Jal, former child soldier
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under change management & wellness, Social Responsibility
Creative Commons licensed on Flickr by: Andrew Rusk
This month’s Rock.Paper.Scissors e-newsletter focuses on what Emmanuel Jal, international hip-hop star & former child soldier had to say when I sat down with him. Read the entire issue here. Not on the monthly e-newsletter mailing list? Sign up for free here.
Emmanuel Jal. If he’s not on your radar, he should be.
The following resources build on the themes raised in the interview I did with Emmanuel Jal.
- Check out Emmanuel Jal’s website, Gua Africa charity &/or his film War Child.
- For a resource related to change see Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise video
- For a resource related to inspiration see Tara Sophia Mohr’s There is another way
Tags: emmanuel jal, maya angelou, Tara Sophia Mohr
The Rock.Paper.Scissors newsletter is out: what a former child solider has to say about forgiveness & more
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under change management & wellness, Diversity & culture
Emmanuel Jal & Lee-Anne Ragan
Emmanuel Jal. If he’s not on your radar, he should be.
This self-described ‘modern day nomad’ was born during the vicious, war torn times of Sudan. After witnessing gruesome murders & being recruited as a child soldier from the ages of seven to eleven, he was rescued by a British aid worker & smuggled into Kenya.
When most kids were cuddling teddy bears his closest ally was his AK47. While that would make a memorable story in itself, fast forward to today.
Now he’s an internationally renowned peace activist, campaigning against the use of child soldiers, the subject of the award winning film War Child, founder of the charity Gua Africa & a world famous hip-hop artist (he performed at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday party).
I had the privilege of interviewing him at last year’s Vancouver Folk Music Festival, just after South Sudan became Africa’s newest country. Draw your chair close & listen up, with his captivating combination of humbleness & tenacity, he’s wise beyond his years.
1. On art influencing activism
Emmanuel says “music has become .. the painkiller … a healer to a lot of issues that I’m going through. Music is what I use to support the causes that I believe in because I find that through music it’s easier … when you’re known as a musician you can easily pass out information faster. And people won’t get bored of you depending on how you do it.”
As someone who’s seen him perform live onstage, no one but no one could be bored watching him. See what I mean with this video of him performing my favourite song Emma. He’s like a mystic Sufi energizer bunny.
How it applies to you & business: find your strategic stage & use it. While it may not be a literal stage we all have ways at our disposal to pass out information faster. What’s yours?
2. On activism influencing art
“My activism is actually inspired by what I went through because I was born in a war torn country. I lost my childhood. And so the fact that I’m here, I find I have the responsibility & I’m a voice for those who can’t speak for themselves. And that’s why I take it really seriously.”
How it applies to you & business: what inspires you? Blend your inspiration with your responsibility to give back & make a difference.
3. On conflict
Poverty, greed & economics are at the root of conflict Emmanuel says.
“You know poverty brings a lot of conflicts in different ways. When your stomach is empty you’ll be forced to steal. But ethnic cleansing … happens when ideologies are built by a different group so they could have more to themselves. And so in my country it’s a long, long story but the root cause I take it as economics. Religion is just a tool but … the bottom line it’s poverty. It’s the resources. It’s the economy that’s actually causing all these things.”
How it applies to you & business: the root causes of conflict are hidden. Dig deep to find the true cause of conflicts you’re facing. Find the true root & you’re halfway there to managing or resolving the conflict.
4. On effecting change
Change takes nurturing. It takes time.
When I asked Emmanuel what it was like to have helped create a new country he said “It’s exciting, it’s [a] new baby that needs to be taken care of. I can’t wait to be part of it & help it grow.”
Change takes education.
Emmanuel recounts “my change happened when I was rescued by a British aid worker called Emma McCune. As a young man I was still bitter. One of the things I had in my mind was if I go to this lady’s country [Kenya], I’m going to learn how to fly a plane & come back & go to war. And because I hated Muslims & Arabs & I wanted to revenge for my family. But when I was in school & I was educated, I was helped. I came to discover people like Nelson Mandela, I came to learn about Martin Luther King, I came to learn about Gandhi.”
Change takes faith & forgiveness (of yourself & others)
“And so these leaders played a big part in my life & also reading the bible as a Christian I’m advised to forgive. The first investment I did for myself was to forgive. When I forgave I was free. So forgiving myself for my past because I was, I was cursing for the things that I’ve done. And then I realized look it wasn’t my fault you know so I had to forgive myself & forgive those who have hurt me. So it’s a two way thing.”
“Forgiveness will elevate you to a form of power that you don’t actually know as a person until you experience it because you become free.”
Change takes attention to scope & loss
Emmanuel raises money to build schools. He figured he’d eat one meal a day to raise money & it would take about a month to raise enough cash to build a school. It actually took 662 days. Yes, he spent 662 days eating one meal a day. “We put kids that were learning under the trees into classes.”
The lessons around change? Scope & loss.
He figures change is about loss. “What are you willing to lose to make the world a better place? Somebody got to lose something, we all have to lose something.” We need to know what we are willing to give up in order to gain. For him it was eating.
And for the kids he speaks to? “And so I tried it out & I found some kids, some kids say ‘Look I don’t have money but I normally have games in my house… I’m going to lose my PlayStation because that could put another kid in school.’ So kids become so creative. Another says, ‘Okay I’m going to lose at least a chocolate bar a week because that’s like 50 cents.’ 50 cents can feed a family.”
Change is also about scope.
“[With] people & social media giving $1, $2. I’d rather raise $1million from 1million people than a one-off donation from one person.”
How it applies to you & business: effecting change takes nurturing, time, education, faith, forgiveness & attention to scope & loss. To start, pick 1 or 2 of these elements & see how they apply to a substantive issue you’re trying to effect change in.
5. On passion
“Passion I have is what keeps me going. You know like for example I want to build a school , I want to build a legacy of Emma McCune who rescued me. I want to give other children a chance to go to school. Sometime when I feel like I want to give up but these things whenever I see or remember they give me so much energy that I want to keep on going.”
How it applies to you & business: what’s the root of your passion? What keeps you going? Find your well & draw deep.
6. On the role of inspiration
“So I don’t need to tell them what to do, all I have to do is inspire them & do something. And when they listen they want to do something.”
How it applies to you & business: inspiration plays a huge role in effecting change. Draw a direct line between what you’re trying to influence & inspiration.
As our interview wound up I asked Emmanuel if he had any words of advice. He said “Just look. Look for those who care. I’m looking for those who care, those who are willing to make a difference. Those are the people I’m looking for. Those who are fortunate enough, have got a greater responsibility to make this world a better place.”
So get out there. Find your tribe & effect some change. Need some inspiration along the way? Check out www.emmanueljal.com, http://twitter.com/EmmanuelJAL or Emmanuel’s charity www.gua-africa.org for more information.
Tags: activism, art, change, conflict, emmanuel jal, forgiveness, inspiration, passion
A ludicrously easy, perspective changing way to better tie your shoes
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under change management & wellness, training & development
How long have you been tying your shoes?
Me – I remember knocking on a neighbours door and then realizing my shoelace was untied. For the first time I tied my shoes all on my own. I was so excited I ran home to tell my home, forgetting about the door I’d just knocked on.
Opportunity knocks in strange places.
Here it’s in the form of a Ted video. A very simple, very easy change to how you tie your shoes results in shoelaces that don’t untie.
Doubt me? Take a look. In a mere 3 minutes or less you’ll be trying your shoes differently.
Why the shoe video? Because it’s a perspective changer. A new way to look at an old scenario.
That’s the gift of perspective – a new view.
It’s the gift of teaching & development – change & growth.
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: change, training & development
What is culture? 5 ways people from different countries learn differently (& 5 ways we all learn the same)
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Diversity & culture, Travel
There will always misinterpretations of culture (like the photo above).
I’ve done training & development work in Canada, the U.S., India, the Philippines, the Arctic, Japan, Mexico, Kenya, Saskatchewan, Uganda, Tanzania, Brazil, Spain, France, China and soon, Egypt with workshop participants from more than 80 countries. Currently I’m living & working in Kenya.
As a result I get asked about culture, about whether people from different countries learn differently (or something similar) fairly often.
I thought it was high time I answered in a blog post.
My answer? Yes … and … no.
Yes, people from different countries learn differently. Culture is a what makes us human & what makes training & development so interesting. Ignore cultural differences at your peril. You’ll end up in a pickle pdq if you do.
Here are 5 factors that my antennae are attuned to when I’m in a different cultural context than my own (note, this includes diverse organizational cultures, not just diversity related to race and/or ethnicity).
- gender – I look for how gender issues are addressed, what’s on people’s radars & what’s not.
- environment – I notice how participants relate to their physical environment, including how they relate to each other. For example how close are they to each other when they talk/sit/interact?
- power – is power actively shared or are systems more hierarchical? How do decisions get made? I look to see how power issues affect how people work & learn.
- authority – how do people respond to authority? This is often evident regarding how participants see me as the trainer – am I accepted carte blanche simply because I’m the trainer (at least on the surface) or will people engage & challenge me?
- formal / informal – I can often tell how formal or informal a workplace or training situation is by how people are dressed, the kind of language they use,
AND
No, people from different countries don’t learn differently. I’ve found that no matter where in the world I am working, participants respond positively to & learn best through these 5 factors:
- the strategic (note strategic is emphasized) use of humour
- training processes that tweak their curiousity
- teaching styles that are engaging
- material that is relevant
- having opportunities to practice (transfer learning to the workplace)
Tags: authority, cross culture communication, culture, environment, gender, informal learning, power, transfer of learning
Fresh perspective = creativity + words that dance
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under creativity & innovation
Creative Commons licensed on Flickr by: chany14
What if words could dance?
What if content could sing?
What if training & development could taste?
A whole lot more creativity, that’s what.
Here’s what can happen when you bust out & think out loud, out of the proverbial box….
Creativity. Never gonna give you up. It’s a must. A ‘gotta have’. A go to. It’s calling from your very own DNA. Will you heed the call?
(Thanks to my teen for sharing the link with me. He’s my ever-present font of creativity & frequent source of blog post ideas.)
Tags: creativity
Learning enhancing yogurt
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under training & development
Learning. It’s possible to do it even in the wee hours of the morning.
Before a ridiculously self-imposed early morning flight from New York to Vancouver this past fall I found myself grabbing the above yogurt for the plane ride. When I pulled it out to eat I was greeted with a delightful surprise. (Note the early morning reference; it had to be good to have me delightfully surprised.)
Here’s what I saw when I opened the lid:
Firmly putting aside all dour thoughts of a seductively crafted, sneakily placed marketing message, I chose to be delighted.
Delighted at the surprise. Delighted at the unexpectedness of it. Delighted at the story. Delighted at the thought provoking learning.
See below for a closer look at the story. I just had to share it with you so I cleared away said yogurt as much as I could for this snap.
And it was. Ambrosia that is. It tasted TERRIFIC!
There I sat, winging my way home, entranced by a story, taste buds dancing, soaking up an opportunity for an early morning feast of learning.
The Carrot Life Lens™ in me loved the detail. The Journey Life Lens™ loved the process of discovery. The Heart Life Lens™ in me loved the way it made me feel. The Go Life Lens™ loved the spontaneity.
And you? What’s your story? What have you learned lately?
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: learning, life lenses, story