Learning can’t happen without attention.  Our brains have to be sitting up, ready to absorb, in order to learn.  One way of getting our participant’s attention is by doing things differently.  By doing things creatively.

How much have the estimates changed of how much oil is pulsating into the Gulf?

A lot.  Loads.  More than you can imagine.

Paltry descriptions these.  They don’t have any teeth, they don’t resonate, they’re bland.

How about this …

April 25- estimates were at 1,000 bbl. a day

April 28- changed to 5,000 bbl. a day

May 27- increased to 19,000 bbl. a day

June 10- revised to 30,000 bbl. a day

June 15- doubled at 60,000 bbl. a day

Okay, fair enough, but how about showing me in pictures (Rorschach test notwithstanding)?  See picture on top of post.  That’s when my brain sits up and says ‘wah!  you gotta be kidding!’

Interestingly the numbers are from Time’s website, the picture is from the magazine.

How can you do things differently as a trainer to get your participant’s attention?

Caveat: if you take the Rorschach test from the link above and don’t like your results, see this link.  Doing things differently.

What would you rather do?

• get a bikini or chest wax (gender dependent)
• speak in public
• take a long haul flight with massive turbulence

For many the thought of speaking in public is only marginally less than dying.  Yes dying.  Or perhaps getting the hair ripped off your body or thinking that you’re going to plunge to your death in an airborne metal tube.

Public speaking is a fine art for those who make a living getting up in front of crowds to deliver training & development workshops .  An art that can be betrayed by quick, raspy breathing.  Betrayed by a throat that refuses to work properly and clamps in on itself like a turtle pulling in its head.

We’ve all seen someone desperately trying to cover up their nerves only to be betrayed by breathy breathing.

Here then are three lessons for heavy breathing made easy, aka public speaking with proficiency:

• Take a drink: and I don’t mean Scotch.  Rather always have water at hand.  The simple task of lifting a glass to your lips will slow you down.  The act of taking a drink and swallowing will relax your throat muscles and allow you to breath easier.

• Start with what’s easy: when listening to 13 year old Jordan Romero’s tale of climbing Mount Everest I was struck by the fact that it takes 70% of one’s energy just to breathe at that altitude.  On more normal levels, breathing takes about 5% of our energy.  When it comes to public speaking don’t waste 70% of your energy doing something that you can do in 5.  Start with what’s easy.  What you know best.  Which leads me to ..

• Know your stuff: practice can’t make perfect because you can never predict how someone new to your content will react, no matter if you’ve presented it 5 times or 500 but if you’re confident in your material your brain will less likely slip into lizard mode where it’s only concern is fight or flight.  When in lizard mode up to 25% of blood drains from your brain and heads to your hands. Why?  Because your prehistoric cave person is getting to fight.  Not exactly a recipe for higher level thinking and speaking.  Say no to the lizard by being confident in your content.  You’ll breath easier.

Practice the three simple steps above and you’ll avoid glossophobia (the fear of public speaking) and you’ll breath easier.

I was driving to pick up my hubbie from the airport and listening to Stuart McLean’s the Vinyl Cafe on CBC radio.  The tunes were great and I was bopping and singing along, a great big grin plastered wide on my face.

Stuart was relaying his tales of growing up in Montreal, and, as only he can, making the mundane magical.  He talked of being a young boy many years ago and holding a precious, crumpled one dollar bill which he carefully carried to the local record store.  Once there he asked for the Mosha Cup record.

‘Say what?’ the store owner asked.

‘Mosha cup’, Stuart patiently repeated.  And repeated.  And repeated, noting that the lines of confusion on the man’s face were not diminishing.

Finally the store owner got another employee and together they listened to what Stuart wanted.  Eventually a light bulb went off, a record was sold and Stuart walked out of the store listening to the men laughing.

He didn’t get the joke until he peered carefully at the record label and then his light bulb went off.

And so it is with creativity.

Our brains like to fill the knowledge gap, we like to have answers that sate our curiousity.  The problem is, when we’re trying to be creative, the answer itself can wreak havoc.

Once we have ‘THE ANSWER’ it prevents us from looking for other solutions.  Once we label something one way, we’re less likely to see it another.  A mosha cup is a mosha cup and could only be a mosha cup.

This happens a lot.  For years I thought the song lyrics to ‘Lay Down Sally’ by Eric Clapton were ‘Way Down South’.  When questioned I was pretty vehement in my defense of the ‘right’ answer.  I simply couldn’t fathom it another way.

And that’s the kicker.  How to fathom things in other ways.  How to identify and strip away the constricting bonds from our thinking and look at things differently.

Know what Stuart’s record was?  Here are some hints:

• it was #1 in 1957
• it was Elvis Presley’s second biggest hit in the U.S.
• it’s roots are in a bottle of pop

Still no idea?  Check the song out here.

Want learn how to look at things differently and ramp up your own creativity?  Check out the ‘Embracing Creativity; How to Rediscover your Creative DNA’ course I’m teaching at Langara College in Vancouver, B.C. on June 23rd.  Hope to see you there with or without your mosha cup!

Participants doing an exercise involving paper airplanes (yes, paper airplanes).

Do you have a training function in your job (or want to have one) and do you live in the Greater Vancouver area?

If so you might be interested in an upcoming workshop I’m teaching called Workshops that Work from April 21-22, 2010 at Langara College in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

What past participants have said about this workshop:

“Very engaging, interactive, hands-on and extremely helpful. This is a workshop that I would consider one of the best I have ever had.”

“Excellent instructor – would highly recommend this course. Extremely engaging.”

“Lee-Anne is an excellent instructor who really knows how to tailor her work to her students. I would recommend this to anyone. She is very talented and gives lots of practical examples.”

Training Description:

Learn the techniques and trade secrets of training to encourage greater impact, longer retention and increased creativity. Learn how to make your training more inclusive and not, as many people do, use training techniques based solely on how the trainer (that would be you) learns.

RPS works with you to actively demonstrate and provide lots of reflection time for increasing your capacity to ignite dialogue, discussion and dynamic exchange. Get going, move from good to great.

Taught by Lee-Anne Ragan, President of RPS at Langara Vancouver, BC.  For more information email Leslie Kemp at lkemp@langara.bc.ca, to register call 604-323-5322.  Cost $179 Can.

Interested but don’t live in the Greater Vancouver area?  Email me, perhaps we can work together to put a similar training on in your area for a group or groups that you can pull together.

We see what we expect to see.

The Heath Brothers, in their fantastic book Made to Stick, talk about our minds being like a sieve as opposed to a sponge – that to remember something it has to be big enough, memorable enough, sticky enough to get caught in the sieve.

My sieve got stuck when I recently saw a bland looking black bird carrying a very large, oddly coloured hot dog bun.

Huh?

Then my brain kicked in and remembered the fact that I’m in Brazil and realized that what I was seeing, wasn’t some unbelievably hungry bird with super strength carrying some behemoth sized bread but rather a wild toucan flying above me.

My radar had filled in the blanks.  I didn’t expect to see a toucan so my brain created something that was more ‘normal’ for me.

What do you expect?  And more importantly how does it colour your vision?