Wang Chien (AD 756–835) eloquently wrote the above when he heard his friend was coming back from the war.  It came my way from a  friend (thanks Michelle for your muse).

It got me thinking about what creates distance and what creates closeness.

Distance is more than being physically far apart, it’s:

• not feeling understood or worse, feeling deliberately misunderstood
• not being able to understand, despite standing on your head for trying
• not resonating, not relating, not clicking with someone
• feeling like your colleagues are speaking a foreign language
• feeling like you’re being denied the secret code of inclusion
• feeling more uncomfortable than an ice cube on a hot summer’s day
• thinking you got it, but realizing you didn’t
• feeling awkward and being embarrassed

Perspective will do that.  It can be cannily inclusive or highly elusive.  Shrinking the surface of the world and bringing us together is about a mutually understood perspective.  Being able to see ‘other.’  Being able to include ‘different’.

Like a Destination Life Lens™ taking into account a Journey Life Lens’™ need for processing.

Like a Stop Life Lens™ holding his breath and jumping in, for the sake of a Go Life Lens™.

Like a Carrot Life Lens™ knowing not to step in and ‘fix’ what appears a mess, as things do really work out in the end for a Mountain Life Lens™.

Like a Head Life Lens™ trying really hard to listen and trust their intuition because she’s seen it work so well for a Heart Life Lens™.

~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~

When I do creativity & innovation training workshops, I inevitably come across participants who don’t think they’re creative, who don’t believe they have a creative bone in their body.

People, if you make it through a day you’re creative.

If you’re breathing you’re creative.

If you’re a parent you’re creative (especially if you’re a parent of a teen).

If you’ve ever started a new job, traveled to a new destination, created a new friendship, or created anything for that matter, you’re creative.

One of the stumbling blocks for people believing they’re creative is the assumption that to be creative means you have to create something entirely new.  We can’t all be Steve Jobs.  Lots and lots and lots of opportunities for creativity exist in what I call ‘cobbling’ – putting two or more disparate things together.

Who knew a comb could help you hammer & save your fingers at the same time?  Check out more examples below.

Want to find out your own creative strengths & gaps?  Check out my quick creativity assessment.

(Thanks to Rania for sending these pictures my way.  You can see more here.)

I escaped on a romantic, secluded weekend recently, to Lamu, a tiny island off the coast of Kenya.  Not only are there no roads, there is no pavement period.  Sandy paths, just wide enough for you & one of the many resident donkeys,  wend their way between buildings.

I found a small art store tucked between two buildings.  Entering the shaded rooms I found this lovely art.  It had a story to tell.  Are you listening?

It’s risky, said experience.

It’s impossible, said pride.

It’s pointless, said reason.

Give it a try, whispered the heart.

Oh the possible poetry of language.

And oh what a mess we can make of it, more mess and muck than clear communication.

Take jargon for example.  Professional jargon.  Like a dentist.  Like my dentist (that’s him above).

Despite the hardware in my mouth recently, I had to laugh when he turned to his assistant to talk about my ‘heavy, non-useful contact.’

Far from a large, lazy colleague, turns out a ‘heavy, non-useful contact‘ is a tiny bit of a tooth that can stick up and prevent a proper bite.

Check your perspective.  Check your bite.  Check your communication.

~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~

Creative Commons licensed on Flickr by: thebittenword.com

I have two words for you … ‘noisy jelly.’

French designers Raphaël Pluvinage and Marianne Cauvard have created a kit to make your own jelly, however this jelly has one major difference from the stuff you put on your PBJ.  It makes music.

Yep, make your jelly in the molds provided, put your jelly on a special board & make beautiful music.

When I teach trainers how to teach their subject matter expertise in interactive, engaging, creative, sticky ways, with methods that work with how our brains learn, not against it, I inevitably get ‘oh but _______ (insert subject matter expertise here) is too complicated to use those kinds of methods.

Sometimes ‘too technical’  will be substituted for  ‘too complicated‘.  Or ‘too boring.’  Or ‘too hard.’

Guess what?  Our brains don’t change how we learn based on the subject matter.  Good training & development principles apply to all subject matter.

Not convinced?  (And in case you’re wondering what else I put in my PBJ.)  Check out the video below.

Who knew capacitive sensors could be so fun?  Someone who knows good training & development that’s who!

Thanks to my pal Melanda Schmid for forwarding the video.

Creative Commons licensed on Flickr by: JD Hancock

A loooong time ago I took an in-depth training on being a literacy instructor.  I loved it.  I loved it as much for what it taught me about teaching people to read and write, as for what it taught me about design.

Yes, design.

As a learning & development professional I am all about design.

Yes, design.

No matter how good my content is, if it doesn’t look good (we’re talking written content here) brains switch to snore because I’ve made learning too tough.

One of the biggest lessons I learned from my literacy training was the importance of white space.  White space gives our brains a change to breathe, a chance to distinguish one chunk of content from another, a chance to organize learning.

So so simple yet so so forgotten.

As in PowerPoint presentations.

Here’s a hilarious take on PowerPoint presentations … a long time ago, before death by PowerPoint by Darr Reynolds, who blogs about professional presentation design.  Check it out.  Your presentations will thank you.

Whether it’s on a blog, a handout, or in a PowerPoint, make sure you leave space.

• Space between paragraphs.
• Space along the borders of the page (have wide margins).
• Space between sentences (a.k.a. short paragraphs).

Let your text breathe.

When I set out to design Life Lenses™ it was partly due to feeling boxed in by other assessments, assessments which often don’t leave you room to grow.  In fact, if you change what you assess as it’s seen as a bad thing.  Like being right handed or left handed, some assessments claim you can’t be both.  You’re X or Y.  Period.

Almost every time I take Myers Briggs I end up with different results.   And even though I’m certified to give the MBTI assessment I find it generally confuses folks.

Getting back to the right/left handed idea, I may not be able to write with my left hand but my left hand certainly isn’t useless.  Same with Life Lenses™, which assesses how strong you are for each lens, including whether you’re a tweener and/or extremer.

Tweeners are those who assess right on the border between two lenses.  With a little nudge they could move over and become the other, opposing lens.

Extremers are those who have assessed very strongly with one or more Life Lenses™.  They’re not on the border, far from it, they’re on the extreme.

So how about it, are you consistent with yourself?

Ellis’ quote is our saving grace for if there’s no growth we’re dull or worse yet, dead.  Here’s a toast to inconsistency, with all it’s muddling, human, foibles.

~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~

In this month’s Rock.Paper.Scissors’ newsletter I review Danielle LaPorte’s hot new book, The Fire Starter Sessions.  Read the other posts with the entire review, or 3 real resources for success or keep reading for some funny resources that will help you amp up success on your own terms (or at least get your chuckling while you plot your success).

Read the entire newsletter here or download a hard copy of the article.  Not already receiving our free monthly newsletters?  Whatsamatter you?  Sign up  here.

Success … on the Lighter Side

If you didn’t catch all the posts this month simply peruse & click what’s below.

Here they are – laid out like a breath of fresh, spring air – here’s the Rock.Paper.Scissors’ monthly training & development round up. You’ll find all the blog posts for the month of April below.

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:
• The Fire Starter Sessions – a soulful practical guide to creating success on your own terms
• 3 resources to amp up your success on your own terms

• The Journey Life Lens™ of Loie Fuller’s Danse Serpentine (1896)

• 3 ways to keep your composure when things go sideways … go with the ring .. er..flow

• The issue in a nutshell – moving is knowing in motion

• Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone ~ Picasso

• Crazy making bureaucratic, hair-tearing out form

• Four funny change management resources related to ‘Switch – how to change things when change is hard,’ by the Heath brothers

• What is perspective? It’s like magic. When you live by yourself, all your annoying habits are gone! ~ Merrill Markoe

• Change management resources related to ‘Switch – how to change things when change is hard,’ by the Heath brothers

You’ve got to hand it to the brains behind the video below. A new perspective is magic … or is it?

When it comes to perspective, we’re constantly, unconsciously comparing our view to others.

• ‘other’ can be odd
• ‘different’ can be downright weird

But when someone else is looking at our perspective, it’s us that can be the odd one out (though of course we see ourselves as ‘normal, natural and right’).

Look what happens when the view is changed. Darth Vader is pretty powerful, perspective and all.

~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~