Because Laughing Matters
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Human resources, Humor & comedy
I’m teaching a workshop on Friday called ‘Because Laughing Matters‘ at the Every Woman conference in Whistler, British Columbia. This is a topic dear to my heart. And if it’s not dear to your heart it should be because: humour is strategic, it primes the brain for learning – when we’re laughing we’re using the […]
Tags: chuck hamilton, creativity & innovation, Daniel Pink, every woman, Ford, humor, Humor & comedy, IBM, laugh, laughing matters, learning, lizard brain, seth godin, whistler, Whole New Mind
Finding the ‘e’ in parking
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Humor & comedy, Travel
Travel both stretches the mind and the patience. Travel suffuses the spirit with all sorts of possibilities, possibilities that seem effortless and reachable. Creativity catches a ride in your suitcase to your far flung destination and ideas float as freely there as the lizard that my son mistakenly dropped in the pousada pool the other […]
Tags: brazil, change management, creativity & innovation, french, parking, portuguese, spanish, translation
Old men who wear hats are really bad drivers
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Diversity & culture, Humor & comedy
Say what?!?! Those exact words came out of a participant’s mouth during a training I was giving. The entire group agreed. Wholeheartedly. Emphatically. Vehemently. As strong as the moon’s pull is on the tides, their belief was unshakable. Seeing patterns in the waves of information we process every day is as common as craving ice […]
Tags: assumptions, bad drivers, Diversity & culture, driving, generalizations, hats, old men, patterns, radar
Cookie dough & the delicate balance of today & tomorrow
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Conflict resolution, Humor & comedy
Before I can blink, with a shake of his shaggy head, my teen inhales food. All the food. All the time. Hence I hoard. (Much to his shock, horror and dismay.) “Moooooooooooooooom!” (drawing out the vowel as only a kid can do) “Where is the cookie dough?” (Confession time; I love to make cookies however […]
Tags: cookie, cookie dough, future, present, teenage, teens
Stress relief a la country music & dill pickles
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Communication, Humor & comedy
In my last post I talked about my first day on the job, doing job training for developmentally delayed adults when I was 17 years old. I learned a lot about expecting the unexpected there. From helping an elfin older lady named Cookie do up her bra to customizing stress relief. Stress. It’s a killer, […]
Tags: change management, country music, creativity & innovation, developmental delay, pickles, stress, stress management, Wellness
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
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
My extended quirky to do list part 4 – what to stop doing
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Communication, Humor & comedy
Continuing the spirit of the requisite New Year’s musings, my last 3 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: – to do, to continue doing, to stop doing, to not do, to done […]
Tags: 4 hour work week, change management, four hour work week, learning, new year, resolutions, stop, stop in the name of love, supremes, tim ferris, to do
The Jungle Called ‘Teenagedom’
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Humor & comedy
How did I get to the middle without realizing I was on the edge? How did I enter this quagmire of parenting a teen without realizing what I was headed towards? Did I miss the signs? Is it like the odd time I missed using a box of hand me down clothes because my kid […]
Tags: change management, edge, jungle, learning, parenting, questions, teen, teenage, time, youth
Polite notice: am naked and waiting
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation, Humor & comedy, Travel
No, this isn’t a porn email, rather some overall musings on Kenya and Uganda. You often see public notices here start with ‘Polite notice….’ as in ‘polite notice; please check out by 10 am’. I like that, it’s poetic. Time runs thicker here. Am measuring time not in seconds or minutes but rather in hours […]
Tags: Kampala, maribou stork, questions, rps, shower, time, uganda