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
180 degrees of first class
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Conflict resolution, Travel
I hurt my back. My physio said not to sit. I was about to board a long-haul, international flight to Brazil. Not a good combo. So, for the first time, I upgraded to first class. Who are the predominant first class fliers? It feels silly even to ask the question. Business folk of course. And […]
Tags: airplane, back pain, brazil, business class, first class, flight
Operation secret (Vancouver) Valentine
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Travel
In response to Kelly Diel’s Operation Secret Valentine, here’s my not so secret Valentine. As the world turns its gaze upon Vancouver to feast on the 21st Winter Olympics, and as the season for pink cupcakes draws near, I thought I’d share my love affair with my home town Vancouver. From the mountains encased by […]
Tags: chinese new year, cupcakes, diwali, downtown eastside, first nations, kelly diel, valentines, vancouver, Vancouver folk music festival, winter olympics
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
Are you using all your strength?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Communication, Social Responsibility, Travel
You can be sure the people in Haiti are. Using all their strengths that is. Sometimes we are oblivious to our most obvious strengths. A little girl was having difficulty lifting a heavy stone. Her mother came along just then. Noting the girl’s failure, she asked, “Are you using all your strength?” “Yes, I am,” […]
Tags: disaster, haiti, paradise built in hell, possibilities, rebecca solnit, strength
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
Perspective & the Problems of Privilege part 2
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Conflict resolution, Travel
Never doubt that there are spirits alternately laughing at and with you, supporting you, egging you on, helping you walk on eggs and sometimes throwing egg in your face. After my last post about feeling the angsty-post-Christmas blues I simply had to laugh at this over the top take on privilege in the form of […]
Tags: bbq, blues, change management, Christmas, invitation, perspective, privilege, problems, uganda
Thanks for the gifts: grace under grit and reducing baggage
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Communication, Travel
‘Tis the season to sweat about gifts. What to buy for who. Bumping elbows in sardine packed malls is the norm. For many, later today recycling bins will be overflowing with torn gift wrap. Piles of gifts will have been opened. Stuffed stomachs will vie for space on couches equally stuffed with visiting family […]
Tags: baggage, change management, Christmas, Dolly Hopkins, Doug Ragan, Dr. Seuss, gifts, Marrakech, Oh the places you'll go
What grows in the in-between time?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Travel
A good friend just moved to Scotland. My monthly dancing ‘date’ in fact. As I thought about her during the weekend of her trans-Atlantic move and pondered heading out to the dance floor on my own, I wondered about in-between time. During a big move there’s a time when one has no electronic connections. Land […]
Tags: in-between, scotland, time, wild time
Wild time
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Travel
In recent posts I’ve been writing about time and some mighty interesting Utne Reader articles on time. Whether we’re more important than our appointment book, how to expand time, living on Tokyo time and the politics of spontaneity. Now it’s time for some wild time. Jay Griffiths in this excellent article of the same name […]
Tags: jay griffiths, Jay Walljasper, lynnika butler, stephan rechtschaffen, time, utne reader, wild time