Open your mind before your mouth
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Conflict resolution
Gotta love this photo from Truth Theory.
Imagine the conflict, the battles, the narrowing of minds & mouths that would be avoided if we could do this easily & naturally.
Imagine.
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: critical thinking, truth theory
Can you connect all 9 dots? In more ways than 1?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
Have you seen this exercise? Your task is to connect all 9 dots, without lifting your pen, & in no more than 3 lines.
It’s a popular exercise. I’d seen it years before when I saw this time around during the Social Innovation Safari. And that, was precisely my downfall.
I knew ‘the solution’ had to do with ‘drawing outside the lines’ so I spent all my time heading down that path.
I didn’t explore options, or more importantly, the assumptions I was making, namely:
– was there another kind of writing instrument I could use?
– could I manipulate the paper, not the pen?
– just how far outside the lines could I draw?
After some inner self-chastisement (for I try to be aware of assumptions & how to bust them) I loved seeing the new (to me) solutions.
It was a good reminder how easy it is to put blinders on & keep on keeping on, down the same ol’ same ol’ path.
In the end our group found no less than 4 solutions. How many can you find?
I’ll put our solutions in my next post. Til then, happy puzzle solving.
Tags: amani institute, creativity, social innovation safari
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication
This is classic Go Life Lens™. Jump in. Take a risk. Push the boundaries. Go for it. What have you got to loose?
(Inspired by my colleague & friend Jean du Plessis, the image is from Sweet Surrender.)
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: life lenses, perspective
Take university courses online for free
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Training & development, Uncategorized
I’m over the moon excited about designing four peace building & conflict resolution courses for the African Virtual University, so this blog post caught my attention from IFLscience – it’s a good review of MOOCs (massive open online courses), and give lots of links to examples.
Check it out.
Interested in the courses I’m designing? Great. Shoot me an email – laragan [at] rpsinc.ca
Tags: afrian virtual university, IFLscience, online learning, university
Rock is dead, long live paper & other funny perspectives on a classic game
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Humor & comedy
I found the cartoon above when I was looking for credit for the image below. I couldn’t find the latter but I’m happy that it led to the discovery of the former.
Always thought provoking & perspective enhancing. Step out of your frame & enjoy the view.
Thanks to my colleague Jean du Plessis who sent me the middle image & gave me my grin for the day.
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: humour, perspective
I teach. Oh how I teach. You?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Training & development
Love this image from Venspired, which I originally found on Instagram.
Sums it up.
‘nuf said.
You?
Tags: inspiration, training & development, venspired
Data visualization at its finest – building a bridge to knowledge from information
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Creativity & innovation
Someone, somewhere once said ‘don’t confuse information with knowledge.’
Today’s world is rife with the former & not so much with the latter.
At the click of a mouse anyone (with connectivity) can find out that last 3 presidents of any country, what the temperature will be this coming Saturday in any region of the world & the price of eggs in Stockholm.
What’s harder to find is how to store & sift, curate & comb, analyze & anchor that information into useful, transferable, helpful, practical knowledge.
Enter Azri, an organization that’s doing some pretty cool stuff with data visualization, all with the following aim:
Today, analysis of an explosive amount of data available to every organization is key to enabling them innovate, compete, and be productive. We help our customers unlock value from their data-sets to achieve success!
In other words they help people transform information into knowledge.
Check out this example – a million voices visualizing the world we want. You can see the data & sort it according to consultations, regions, countries & key words. How cool is that?
Tags: azri, data visualization, million voices
The benefits of seeing clearly- a funny video from Living Social
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Humor & comedy
I spoke at the Social Media Strategies Summit in London, where Philip Briffett from Living Social showed this video as part of his presentation. I laughed & then I quickly searched for it on the web so I could share it with you.
I completely relate, having reading glasses scattered throughout my home, office & car.
Have a peek. Have a laugh.
It’s amazing what happens when you see clearly & have a clear perspective!
(Initially you’ll see a video for some jewelry; skip ahead to the second video for eyeglasses & you’ll be rewarded!)
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: humour, perspective
The Rock.Paper.Scissors newsletter is out: 7 stages of innovation
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
Photo Credit: Mr. Theklan via Compfight cc
This month’s Rock.Paper.Scissors e-newsletter focuses on the 7 stages of innovation I learned from the Amani Institute’s Social Innovation Safari I participated in. Missed the article? Check it out here. (Not on my monthly e-newsletter mailing list? Sign up for free here.)
Are you clear on what you’re passionate about? What you’re burning to resolve or solve?
I recently took part in an intense, game changing, creative, soulful, thought provoking, 10 day ‘Social Innovation Safari’ put on by the Amani Institute where I learned 7 Stages of Social Innovation. The first step is called ‘burning’ where you align your whole self – your work, passion & purpose.
I loved the experience so much I put together a chart that describes each of the 7 stages for you, including the goals, how to get there & helpful tools.
Here’s a quick description of each of the stages. Click on the link below to get the summary chart.
1.Burning: aligning your whole self – your work, passion & purpose
2. Sensing: understanding the problem
3. Questioning: reframing the problem
4. Idea Networking: idea generation
5. Associating: reframing once again
6. Experimenting: prototyping
7. Impacting: solving with impact
Click on the link below to download your copy of a simple chart of the 7 stages, including a description of each, the goal, how to get there & helpful tools.
7 Stages of Social Innovation Summary Chart Including How-To Resources
Lee-Anne
Tags: amani institute, innovation, social innovation
If you run, you might find that you are running alone ~ Daniel Mbogo
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Conflict resolution
We seek solutions at the ground level as you will get no results if you impose things on people.
If you run, you might find that you are running alone. It’s much better to walk but ensure that you are walking together.
~ Daniel Mbogo, District Children’s Officer, Ganze, Kenya~
This quote was part of a longer article about ’empowering children to understand that they have a right to be free from sexual abuse.’ It was poignant & got me thinking.
A downside to Go Life Lenses™ are that they can move quickly …. so quickly they leave others behind.
Stop Life Lenses™, especially with emotionally loaded topics, may have the edge here, with their reflection & unhurried ways.
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: daniel mbogo, perspectve