What is conflict? (or how big are your balls)
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Conflict resolution
What is conflict?
Conflict is universal. It’s something we all face in our personal and our professional lives. It’s something we all face in training and development. Show me a trainer who hasn’t faced a conflict and I’ll show you a moon made out of mocha.
All conflicts have three balls. The balls are different sizes in relation to each other, depending both on the particular conflict and depending on you.
How big are your balls?
Ball number one: Anxiety
All conflict produces some level of anxiety for the conflictees. For some, given the choice between facing a conflict head on or having a Brazilian wax, they choose the latter. For some the idea of getting up in front of a group to teach a workshop means having smelling salts (or today’s version, Rescue Remedy) handy. In both cases the anxiety ball is BIG.
Others are known as sh$t disturbers – in fact they’ll provoke a debate for the rush it gives them. For some the idea of getting up in front of a group to teach is a thrill, a distinct pleasure. In both cases the anxiety ball is small.
Ball number two: Suck
All conflict involves stuff we don’t like, things we’d rather not do. Some people have a tremendous ability to hoc pati filias regis (Latin for ‘suck it up princess). Others have little ability to face what they’d prefer to avoid.
A conflict may involve a morass of mess – working with an entire group of training participants who are there against their will and who are not happy about it. Or in the case of my friend & colleague Dyana Valentine, showing up recently to speak to 500 conference participants and realizing 15 minutes before taking the stage that the organizers copied the wrong handouts. In this case the suck ball is BIG.
A conflict can also involve minor irritants – like a slightly cold workshop room, starting a couple of minutes late etc. In this case the suck ball is small.
Ball number three: WIIFM
What makes you motivated to resolve the conflict, dig in your heels, hesitate, stall, procrastinate, move towards resolution, back off, back up or back in?
Ahh the taste of personal motivation. In every conflict our brains seek out ‘what’s in it for me’ (WIIFM). Sometimes it’s not about the anxiety it’s about there not being enough in it for me.
Your answer(s) to the above questions will decree what size your WIIFM ball is. Big motivation = big ball. Little or no motivation = small ball.
Next time you face a conflict consider what size your balls are. They can be a handful (or a mouthful).
What is conflict? Look to your balls to tell you.
Hats off to the fantastic team at Cameray for this concept.
Tags: conflict, dyana valentine, wiifm
3 resources solely to make you chuckle – may the farce be with you
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Humor & comedy
Did you know that Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. is both a training and entertainment company?
The latest Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. e-newsletter is out! Read the full issue here or sign up to receive your free monthly copy.
In every issue we include an article, related resources, resources on the lighter side and upcoming events. The last 2 blog posts talked about the article, where Diana Frances, VP of Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. & Director of Entertainment, pulls back the curtain on 4 lessons you can learn from life as a professional improv comedian and 3 related resources for adding humour to your day and your work.
This one focuses on the lighter side – 3 resources designed solely to make you chuckle;
- Time to take ourselves not so seriously- even if that means waiting for 140 turtles on the JFK runway (1:13 min)
- Are you or your employees playing mindless computer games at work? Look what can happen! (skip ahead to the 2:40 minute mark for a 1 min clip)
- May the farce be with you (1:02).
Tags: diana frances, humour
3 resources for adding humour to your day and your work
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Humor & comedy
Did you know that Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. is both a training and entertainment company?
The latest Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. e-newsletter is out! Read the full issue here or sign up to receive your free monthly copy here.
In every issue we include an article, related resources, resources on the lighter side and upcoming events. The last blog post talked about the article, where Diana Frances, VP of Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. & Director of Entertainment, pulls back the curtain on 4 lessons you can learn from life as a professional improv comedian.
This post covers 3 related resources for adding humour to your day and your work:
- Like the idea of adding humour but anxious about how to do it? One way is to bring in the big guns. See how it’s done – view an improv sketch
- Curious about how humour and culture intermingle? Check out Me Funny, by Drew Hayden Taylor & get some insight into how ‘humor has always been an essential part of North American aboriginal culture.’
- Want to spruce up how you can use humour in your training? Get Laugh & Learn: 95 Ways to Use Humor for More Effective Teaching and Training by Doni Tamblyn
How have you used humour strategically? Please let us know – we’d love to hear from you.
Tags: diana frances, doni tamblyn, drew hayden taylor, humour, improv, laugh & learn, me funny
Don’t Perform in an Exit! A true story from a professional improv comedian
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Humor & comedy
Did you know that Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. is both a training and entertainment company?
The latest Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. e-newsletter just hit the stands, err inbox. Read the full issue here or sign up to receive your free monthly copy here.
In this issue Diana Frances, VP of Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. & Director of Entertainment, pulls back the curtain on 4 lessons you can learn from life as a professional improv comedian. There she is above – dressed as a chicken (all in a day’s work as an improviser)! In Diana’s words…
After almost every corporate event that I perform at, someone will say, ‘Man! I could NOT do what you do!’ To which I usually say, ‘Man! I could not do what YOU do!’ And because I’ll have just performed an improv show based on what that particular company does, I know for a fact that I could never be a claims adjuster, a financial advisor, a lawyer, a politician, a social activist or an internal auditor (all recent clients of mine).
People often want to know what it’s like making people laugh for a living. I’m not going to lie. IT’S FREAKING GREAT (when it goes well)! But when it goes bad, it goes reeeeal bad.
Think about your job. Now think about the worst day you’ve ever had on your job. Now think about hundreds of people standing around watching you fail at your job.
Thankfully, after doing improv professionally for corporate companies for as long as I have, I’ve become really good at making sure I never have a bad day; and I only hire other talented improvisers who rarely if ever have bad days. But sometimes we’re at the mercy of bad lighting, a terrible sound system, bad seating or a live auction that goes on too long and sucks the life out of the audience. These things are tricky to control and can result in a less than stellar event.
That said, those tough shows make you better and teach you how to guide the next client into organizing a problem free event. It also gives birth to great ‘hell gig’ stories. In the world of improvisers, ‘hell gig’ stories are the most fun to tell. We rarely share them with civilians, but for you I’ll make an exception.
Warning – this story contains one naughty word and involves the elderly. It’s a story of a challenging time I once had performing at a retirement home. The seniors at the home were wonderful; the situation that both they and us were put in was not.
Early in my professional career (a.k.a. 20 years ago), I was given a grant to fund an improv tour that went to retirement homes to educate and entertain seniors about the dangers of smoking. (Because that’s what you want when you’re in your twilight years – a sassy comedy lesson from a bunch of 20 year old jokesters).
For the most part, the shows went well. Particularly if they took place at assisted living residences where the seniors were mobile and mentally agile. However, mid-way through the tour we pulled up to what was clearly the most depressing building we’d ever seen. Most of windows had bars on them and when we entered we realized that the majority of the building was actually underground, much like the terrible basement suite I was living in at the time.
The nurses brought us to the activity room, where 20 seniors were waiting for us. But instead of creating a row of chairs for the audience and a performance area for us, the seniors had been situated in lazy-boy chairs, which were lined up around all 4 walls of the room, forcing us to either perform in the doorway, or in the middle of the room where we would be doing theatre in the round. We opted for the doorway.
The nurses immediately took off for a smoke break and we knew we were in trouble. This was not a typical retirement home – this was an extended care facility for people with dementia.
No one understood what we were doing. One lady kept asking if we were going to play the piano. Another was busy feeding pieces of a banana to an old-fashioned doll. Another woman rocked back and forth singing ‘The Green Green Grass of Home.’
We were young, and being paid to perform, so we performed. All of our scenes were about the ‘Green Green Grass of Home’ since asking for suggestions was out of the question. (Improv comedy incorporates audience suggestions into on-the-spot made up scenes.)
As we bravely launched into our third scene about green grass, I noticed an elderly man directly across from the doorway we were performing in. He was staring intently at us and seemed to understand what we were trying to do. We were about to discover that inability to walk did not hinder his mobility.
Suddenly he decided he’d had enough of these youngster’s shenanigans, because he yelled, ‘THIS IS BULLSH*T’ and pushed himself out of his lazy-boy chair. He was so keen to get away from our improv that he started dragging his body across the room and through the doorway we were performing in.
We were stunned. As I was young and committed to the scene, I turned to my improv partner and said, ‘Wow. This green grass sure does attract some mighty powerful slugs.’
So what did I learn from this experience that I have since applied to corporate improv shows?
- Always scout the venue to ensure it has a proper performance area and seating for the audience.
- Don’t take every paying gig. Sometimes improv is not the right fit for a particular event.
- Never underestimate the tenacity of a senior.
- Never perform in the exit.
So there you have it, a sneak peak from behind the stage curtain. And what does it mean for you and your work?
- Look to physical surroundings. No matter how good your staff are, if they’re not comfortable it will affect their work.
- Knowing what you and your organization’s gifts are and who to use them with (and who not to) is a powerful thing.
- Know your audience and expect the proverbial unexpected.
- Saying no to what is a ridiculous situation can be a good thing for everyone involved. Exercise that no muscle.
Tags: comedian, diana frances, improv, training & development
Train the trainer – training & development wise words from Seth Godin
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Training & development
Seth Godin & me, Lee-Anne Ragan, post Seattle talk (check out his Little Miss Matched socks).
How dare you waste the revolution! says Seth Godin, who is nothing if not evocative and provocative.
At a recent event he gave in Seattle I tuned into his thoughts on forward motion. It’s not about finding the right answer, we need to keep moving forward for how to ‘be’ in this revolution, this wave upon wave of momentous change.
Here are 7 tips I took away, which I’ve adapted for training and development:
1. Many of us are oriented to look for problems. There’s a whole other universe in looking for opportunities. When it comes to training and development this is gold. When participants are receptive opportunity strikes. Creating receptivity, through paying attention to access and inclusion issues, is a large part of training and development.
2. Factories are about doing what you did yesterday only a little faster and a little cheaper. Factories aren’t made for learning. Mass approaches (think 800 students in an undergrad class) aren’t about learning, they’re about the commodification of education. Great training and development is an art. A customized, one of a kind art.
3. What was once scarce is now abundant and what was once abundant is now scarce. Attention is the new scarcity. Getting attention is tough. Especially when being open to learning means being vulnerable (for to learn is to be vulnerable). Great training and development makes getting attention look easy. And a good chunk of getting attention is paying attention.
4. It’s not about finding strangers it’s about finding and serving your tribe. The goal for musicians is not to find new listeners but rather to create new music for listeners. Like 12 year old girls who want funky socks – a.k.a. Little Miss Matched who sell mismatched socks. Check out their goods on Seth’s feet above. Find and serve your training and development tribe.
5. Revolutions don’t bring maps with them, you have to draw your own map. If you say failure is not an option what you’re really saying is success is not an option. Sometimes the map will be wrong. Sometimes we’ll blow it in our trainings. How we react to mistakes, ours and others, says volumes about our map making skills and our attitude towards learning.
6. In the age of massive amounts of free content, people will continue to pay. People pay: to get to the front of the line, for concierge services, for status, for connection and to get inside the (finite) circle. How can you be a concierge of learning?
7. Only put one number on the whiteboard. Amazon’s key measurement is the number of paying customers. People pay attention and alignment is created when the number is clear, simple and known. How do you measure your training and development success?
My mind continues to reel with possibilities and ideas. I know I need to keep that forward motion, and take it one day at a time. In the words of Fivacious, who opened the event, one day at a time I’m gonna change my world….
Tags: attention, change management, commodification of education, effecting change, little miss matched, opportunity, revolution, seth godin, train the trainer, training skills
Bringing ease & efficiency – say it with me ‘ease & efficiency’ – to you & your life
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development
Who wants some ease? Some efficiency?
When time is tight, demands are high and stress is all you can see and feel around you … bring on the ease & efficiency.
When time is loose, demands are low and stress is a dot on the far horizon, still … bring on more ease & efficiency.
One night, when I couldn’t sleep, I challenged myself to make a list from A-Z of business tools that bring ease to my life. Being the lover of lists that I am, it came with ease.
So here, to share with you, are more than 26 tools that bring ease and efficiency to my life. I sincerely hope they do the same for you.
Want a sample? Check out typeit4me (it’s on the list), one of my all time favourites, passed onto me by Jodi Womack. Once you make abbreviations for text you frequently type, and input those same abbreviations into typeit4me, simply type the abbreviation and the program spits it all out for you.
Rather more elegantly than that, it lovingly displays your text, graphics, urls etc in word, wordpress, excel, etc. A phrase, a list, a page of information, it’s all there.
A thing of beauty, a thing of ease & efficiency.
Tags: ease, efficiency, jodi womack, typeit4me
Funny resources for Getting Organized in the Google Era
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development
- Take a lighthearted look about getting clear about what’s truly important – as unusual as it may seem on the surface. The Orangutan and the Hound Dog video (4 min).
- Stuck in a rut and don’t know it? Sometimes you just gotta stop and figure out a new way of doing something, instead of trying the same thing 6 times when that same thing’s not a workin’ (0.54 min).
- Ahhhh but procrastination can be so much fun (1.25 min)!
Enjoy! I’ll keep an ear out for your chuckles.
Tags: douglas merrill, google, orangutan, organization, procrastination, rock.paper.scissors newsletter, rut
Training & development learning well June blog post round up
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Human resources, Training & development
Voila – here’s the Rock.Paper.Scissors’ monthly training & development round up. You’ll find all the blog posts for the month of June below.
Learn well in the training & development learning well.
Dive deep into the learning well or take a small sip. Shower yourself in training & development or just get your big toe wet.
Refresh & refreshing.
As you wish.
Tags: learning well, roundup, training & development
Resources to help you get organized in the Google era
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development
- Check out Douglas Merrill’s book here– it’s an easy, informative, entertaining read.
- Want more tips on how to stay calm the chaos? See one of our most popular e-newsletters where we review the book A Perfect Mess: How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place.
- Check out my list of Business Development Tools from A-Z – more than 26 tools to bring ease and efficiency to you and your life.
Enjoy!
Tags: a perfect mess, douglas merrill, getting organized in the google era, resources, rock.paper.scissors newsletter, tools
Getting Organized in the Google Era – or how to ski to Thailand
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development
My last post described 4 main takeaways from Douglas Merrill’s ‘Organizing in the Age of Google’. Here are four more, specifically related to his top tip –> Search.
If you only keep in your head what you truly need then what do you do with the rest? “Don’t file information search for it,” are perhaps the wisest words in the book. “Search sets us free from the clutter of our imperfect minds.” Amen and high five to that!
And just how do you search for stuff? Follow the tips below.
Search tip #1: keep as much in the cloud as possible
- When things are in the cloud (e.g. stored over the internet) they’re automatically searchable
- Douglas uses Google docs (which, if you’re not familiar with it, allows you to store information online and give access to whomever you choose) to take notes at meetings. He will even use a screen during the meeting that shows what he’s writing so people can see.
- I use Google docs all the time, for example, to explain ongoing tasks to my VA (Virtual Assistant). I also back up all my data to the cloud using Mozy.com. Easy peasy. Plus searchable and retrievable, in case my plane goes down in the Hudson with my computer like what actually happened to a Mozy user.
Search tip #2: email …. yourself
- Douglas regularly emails himself to keep things searchable (he calls email just a to-do list traveling incognito)
- By including key words in the email, it becomes imminently findable
- Examples he includes are the location of his will (no he doesn’t share the contents), a scanned copy of his will etc. If he can’t remember where his will is, he simply pops a few key words into his email search and voila up it pops. Magic (and better yet, easy on the brain)!
Search tip #3: scratch powder puffs and get power pdf’s
- Douglas isn’t a fan of everything electronic. Paper definitely has it’s place and a section in his book is devoted to how to choose between keeping information in electronic format or paper format
- The main benefit of electronic is that it becomes searchable and it’s the same with pdf’s.
- If you have key paper documents Douglas recommends scanning them into pdf’s which (are you getting the rhythm yet?) are then searchable.
- I have a file of notes from conferences and workshops I’ve taken that I call my “Learning Well” file. It’s now on the list to be scanned.
Search tip #4: Things
- Since the long ago days of the Apple Newton (an early PDA) I’ve yearned for a simple yet robust to-do list application and (can you hear the angels singing) Douglas delivers.
- Enter the Things desktop program (which I’ve yet to try as it’s a bit pricey) and the app (which I have tried and I’m in love with).
- Whether you use Things or not, find something that works for you to make lists, is searchable and gets stuff out of your head so you can make room for the juicy, creative stuff.
There you have it, a 4X4 tip list. A delightful read, I highly recommend Douglas Merrill’s of Getting Organized in the Google Era. He ends the book with a story of learning how to ski and being at the top of an intimidating steep run. A friend skis buy and says, “Turn off your brain and ski.” Instead of trying to calculate every turn down he did just that and had one of the best runs of his life.
His story reminded me of visiting Thailand and getting into a bright red rental Jeep for the first time. Traveling overseas is the only time I drive a standard and yet again, the gears were staring at me rather menacingly and this time I was with my young family. I was stressed, until I decided to turn off my brain, rely on muscle memory and just drive. And that’s just what I did, through Thai New Year’s crowds no less.
And that my friend, is what I wish for you. Get organized using Douglas’ tips and you’ll not only be able to have room in your brain (and body) to ski but even ski on over to Thailand.
Tags: cloud, douglas merrill, email, google, mozy, organization in the age of google, search, things, virtual assistant