Doing things differently as a trainer gets attention
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under creativity & innovation, training & development
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 [...]
Tags: attention, development, gulf oil spill, Human resources, learning, oil spill, powerful learning, rorschach, rorschach test, training & development
Doing things differently gets attention
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under training & development
I’m all about creating a sumptuous banquet of learning opportunities that participants can’t help themselves but dive into. One way to do that is to do things differently. Doing things differently gets our brain’s attention. “Hey you gray matter – pay attention – something unusual is happening.” Synapses fire, eyes sparkle and our participant’s attention [...]
Tags: corporate training, creativity & innovation, education, graph, jessica hagy, learning, this is indexed, training & development, venn diagram
How do you get creative? Why use a mosha cup of course
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under creativity & innovation, Human resources, training & development
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 [...]
Tags: cbc, cbc radio, creative, creativity & innovation, development, elvis presley, Human resources, langara college, learning, stuart mclean, training & development, vinyl cafe
Putting fun and evaluation in the same sentence
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Human resources
Evaluation terminology is enough to make you want to hide your head in the nearest toilet. And flush. Program logic models, median, mean, outcomes, indicators, activities, outputs, baseline, denominators, dissemination, focus groups, inductive, deductive and the list goes on (and on and on). Yet, program evaluation can be incredibly valuable and necessary. I’m teaching a [...]
Tags: activities, baseline, deductive, denominators, dissemination, evaluation, focus groups, indicators, inductive, learning, mean, median, outcomes, outputs, program evaluation, Program logic models, training & development, united nations
Myles Horton & the Olympic Flame
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under change management & wellness, communication
Myles Horton was a famous adult educator in the Appalachian mountains. He rode the rails with the hobos and learned valuable lessons from them, lessons that I’m applying during my volunteer work at the 2010 Olympics. Fire was valuable to the vulnerable men who hitched a ride by train. Fire kept you warm. It protected [...]
Tags: 2010, change management, creativity & innovation, hobos, learning, long haul, myles horton, olympic flame, olympics, training & development, vancouver
Why do we (need to) travel?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under creativity & innovation, Travel
I love to travel. Really love to travel. And now I know why. Jonah Lehrer in his post called ‘Why we travel’ says travel puts distance between who we are and what we know. When we’re surrounded by the familiar we’re surrounded by associations and assumptions that are as hard to get rid of as [...]
Tags: creativity & innovation, indiana university, jonah lehrer, lile jia, psychology, training & development, Travel
Job training, elves & bras
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under communication, creativity & innovation, Humor & comedy
“Hey you! Come here, come here!” Her voice, intense and commanding, sounded like it was being stretched taught across a gravel pit. It was my first day on the job. I was 17 and working in a centre that provided jobs for developmentally delayed adults. When I stopped and looked for the owner of the [...]
Tags: creativity & innovation, learning, training & development
Powerful training = powerful learning
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under communication, creativity & innovation
When was the last time you learned something powerful in a group setting? I’ve asked my workshop participants this very question hundreds of times and I can count on one hand the number of times someone relayed an example that took place in a university setting (see my caveat below). Powerful learning is relevant. Powerful [...]
Tags: adult education, book learning, brain based learning, education, experiential education, group dynamics, learning, popular education, powerful learning, training & development, university
My extended quirky to do list part 6 – my to done’s
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under change management & wellness, communication, Travel
My last 5 posts describe an extended, quirky to-do list tool that I use in my corporate training (click here to download a copy for you to use). It has 5 parts: (I love that out of the 5 categories only two are about adding things. Can we collectively breath a sigh of relief?) – [...]
Tags: accomplishment, africa, british columbia, celebration, change management, danielle laport, e-series, forum for women entrepreneurs, kool and the gang, learning, nairobi, skiing, tanzania, training & development, uganda, united nations, white hot truth
Arlene Dickinson: We’ve come a long way …. baby?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under change management & wellness, communication, Humor & comedy
Last night I listened to business owner, entrepreneur and TV star Arlene Dickinson of the Dragon’s Den at the Forum for Women Entrepreneur’s Gala Event. Her captivating journey to entrepreneurship is made more impressive by her humble beginnings. Years ago, being a single mom with four kids to feed made getting cash through the door [...]
Tags: arlene dickinson, branding, cbc, change management, dragon's den, entrepreneurship, forum for women entrepreneurs, fwe, gender, leadership, learning, passion, training & development, vintage, vision