Don’t be a parrot or a human ventriloquist
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Employee retention
Ever get the sense you’re listening to a talking head, someone who is is parroting someone else’s words? Does your boss ever expect you to be a human ventriloquist with him or her pulling the strings and you voicing their stuff?
Welcome to the world of unengaged employees. Of staff caught in a maze blindly following those ahead, with all bodily appendages crossed, hoping to get to the cheese one day.
While being a parrot or a human ventriloquist is easy (press auto pilot, disengage brain) it’s also soul sucking. As the New Year begins to unfold , here’s to forging your own trail, voicing your own opinions, living your own values …
…which can all be more easily done if your radar is tuned into understanding different perspectives, into making sense of what can sometimes seem like Latin – ‘You want me to do what? what are you talking about?’ ‘Speak English! Oh wait you are speaking English, but it sure doesn’t sound like it!’
Or from the perspective of the Life Lenses™ (on a bad day):
- ‘all you’re doing is saying mushy/feeling stuff- I don’t get it’ (Head Life Lens™ to Heart Life Lens™)
- ‘well all you’re doing is focusing on the facts – there’s more to life than what you can see, touch and taste’ (Heart Life Lens™ to Head Life Lens™)
- ‘get your head up- I don’t care what angle the staple is at on the proposal, we have more important things to worry about’ (Mountain Life Lens™ to a Carrot Life Lens™)
- ‘just answer my question then, give me specifics, get your head out of the clouds’ (Carrot Life Lens™ to a Mountain Life Lens™)
- ‘oh mother of mertle, we don’t have time to read 10 more reports before making a decision – just decide!’ (Go Life Lens™ to a Stop Life Lens™)
- ‘I’d be better able to make a decision and move forward if I didn’t feel like you were rushing me and asking us to jump off a cliff without knowing what’s down there’ (Stop Life Lens™ to a Go a Life Lens™)
- ‘you’re so focused on the goal you’ll do anything to get there, whether or not it’s the right way to be heading’ (Journey Life Lens™ to a Destination Life Lens™)
- ‘that may be so but you have no direction, you’re aimless, directionless’ (Destination Life Lens™ to a Journey Life Lens™)
Explore your own perspective – where you shine and where the dark spots are, what you tend to notice and what you tend to miss. Then shift and stretch so you can better understand others.
In the meantime enjoy the following clip of a real human ventriloquist.
Tags: engagement, life lenses, paul zerdin, perspective, self-assessment, ventriloquist
Note to self – what’s your sentence?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
Me, I turn static into static electricity.
Tags: Daniel Pink, note to self, sentence
3 easy, free, funny planning tools to help you get the year you want part 3
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development
In terms of looking ahead to help unfurl what the new year will bring we’ve covered the serious stuff – an article on how to get the year you want and 6 resources to help you do just that.
Now it’s time for the fun and funny.
- If you need some conviction check out Taylor Mali’s video (3:04 min) (or see below)
- Good planning means taking on a variety of perspectives. Here’s one – an Indian Mona Lisa (2:26 min) (or see below)
- This one comes with a Warning: if you don’t like f*bombs stay away from this video. If you want a hilarious take on what overcoming adversity that the new year can bring check out Colleen Wainwright’s (aka the Communicatrix) video (2:43 min) (or see below)
Want to read about the other perspectives & planning resources designed to help you get the year you want? Download the full article here.
Or see the Rock.Paper.Scissors e-newsletter ‘Easy, free planning tools to help you get the year you want’.
Some conviction with Taylor Mali:
Perspective? How about DaVinci’s Mona Lisa as an Indian sketch:
The boulder song, f* bombs included:
Tags: colleen wainwright, communicatrix, new year, perspective, planning, planning tools, taylor mali
6 easy, free planning tools to help you get the year you want part 2
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development
In my last post I wrote an article about looking back over our shoulder, to the year that was, and looking forward to the year that is yet to be.
Here are a bunch of resources to help you with your 2011 planning:
- From Dyana Valentine – what’s your business end tradition.
- Chris Guillebeau’s how to do an annual review. (I recently met Chris on the last of his 63 city book tour stop; watch for an upcoming blog post.)
- To stay atop of the curve: 2011 list of top learning resources
- For some help with pesky details: a free copy of my social media benchmarking template.
- Relax, planning doesn’t have to be perfect; see the book A Perfect Mess & my review of it.
- Vowing to get help Getting Things Done? Check out elance.com for a plethora of online talented professionals to draw on or get your own virtual assistant.
Want to read about the other perspectives & planning resources designed to help you get the year you want?
Download the full article here or see the Rock.Paper.Scissor’s latest e-newsletter ‘Easy, free planning tools to help you get the year you want’ which these resources are drawn from.
Tags: a perfect mess, annual review, chris guillebeau, david allen, dyana valentine, elance.com, getting things done, social media, virtual assistant
Easy, free planning tools to help you get the year you want
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development
What we see depends mainly on what we look for. ~ John Lubbock
Where I work & play, this time of year the daylight hours are short, the wind blows strong & the rain falls frequently (interspersed with the odd snowfall that brings the city to a standstill). It’s a time made for glancing back & looking forward. A time for reflection, for planning.
My invitation is to take some time to do just that, glance back & look forward.
I’ll use Life Lenses™, a self-assessment tool designed to let you see where your perspective shines & where the dark spots are. To help you further I’ve included a resource for each of the eight lenses or perspectives.
1. From the Mountain Life Lens™ perspective:
2. Mountain’s opposite the Carrot Life Lens™ perspective:
The Carrot Lens gives us depth & details. Systems, systems, systems. In 2010 I spent some time getting my social media systematized. Now it’s a (painless) breeze to enter my analytics for each month. What systems did you implement in 2010? What systems are calling in 2011?
Here’s a free social media-benchmarking template if that system is calling your carrot.
Want to read about the other perspectives & planning resources designed to help you get the year you want? Download the full article here.
Or see the Rock.Paper.Scissors e-newsletter ‘Easy, free planning tools to help you get the year you want’.
Tags: carrot lens, e-series, John Lubbock, learning resources, life lenses, mountain lens, planning, social media, social media benchmarking, strategic planning
Confessions of an introverted trainer
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Conflict resolution, Training & development
I adore being a learning and development specialist. Being with people. Lots of people. Different and diverse people.
And with them, creating a process that unfurls the heads of confusing question marks into tall and proud exclamation marks. I get it! I never thought of it like that. That’s why my (insert your choice of: boss, partner, friend, colleague here) does that.
I also adore being alone.
Learning and development is my passion.
And, at the end of the day, I look forward to some quiet, alone time.
Learning and development is what I’d do even if I didn’t get paid (the true litmus test).
Learning and development also feeds a reverse need in me for being solo. For restoring, for hibernation, for seeking and finding caves, for soothing stillness, for calm. I’m a better trainer, partner, mama, friend and all-round human when I’ve had some solo time.
My proclamation –
- Being alone is not a synonym for being lonely.
- In this busy, frenetic, crowded world of ours seeking solo is not a sickness.
- It’s in fact yin to the yang.
- When you’re happy in your head, alone is [more] than ok.
- Being an introverted trainer isn’t an oxymoron, in fact it’s a gift to my participants.
Sound weird to your ears? Here are some lessons for how to be alone.
P.S. I get a delicious little thrill knowing that Tanya Davis participated in a training I did some years ago.
Tags: alone, andrea dorfman, how to be alone, introvert, learning & development, tanya davis, trainer
Top 100 Tools for Learning in 2010
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Training & development
Since 2007 Jane Hart, of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has been putting together an annual list of top learning tools. The completed 2010 list is at the end of this post and the emerging 2011 list is here.
I tried out a couple that were new to me;
- Glogster, for making posters (slide #25 from the Slideshare presentation below)
- Wallwisher, on online whiteboard (slide #26)
- Livebinder, organizing online resources into virtual 3 ring binders, see the video here (slide #64)
- Mindmeister, a mind mapping tool, here’s an example, a public map of how to win friends & influence people (slide #76)
- Voki, creates speaking characters with your own voice; now this was really fun; see the character I created in less than 5 minutes (by way of full disclosure know that my avatar matches my own hair & eye colour, but other resemblance is a bit of a stretch) (slide #82)
Tags: centre for learning & performance technologies, glogster, jane hart, learning & development, livebinder, mindmeister, tools, voki, wallwisher
Attention! Attention! A test of your attention.
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development
The Heath brothers have written in Made to Stick that our brains are more like a sieve than a sponge. Instead of soaking up what catches our eye, we’re more likely to strain out things that don’t catch our attention, leaving behind the big chunky bits in the sieve that is our brain.
Watch the clip below and follow the instructions, then continue reading …
Did you see the gorilla? If you did, a hearty thump on a hairy chest to you. If not, we can commiserate together. I was so focused on the white t’s, thinking there was some kind of trick, that I didn’t see the hairy beast.
If big, hairy apes don’t get caught in the sieve I wonder what else we miss. And what impact that has on our work, our coworkers, our clients, ourselves.
Find out more about Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris’ work at the Invisible Gorilla.
Tags: assessment, attention, chip heath, christopher chabris, dan heath, daniel simons, gorilla, made to stick
Looking for inspiration? Try an ad (especially these unusual ones from Fast Company)
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
The roots of engaging training can be found anywhere. You do however have be on the lookout.
Some of my ideas have come from advertisements – yep ads. When I say I’m going to be talking about hairy, naked guy (above specimen) I can see participant’s question marks dancing in the air. (Curiousity being a trainer’s best friend.)
I took a picture of this ad and it serves me well when I’m talking about the effects of stress, how training is affected, how our brains operate when we’re under pressure, the part of the brain called the amygdala or any other number of things.
Here are some provocative ads. See if you can draw inspiration from them …
Inspiration can be flimsy and delicate, so keep a catch-all design book with you to jot down when inspiration strikes.
See more unusual ads from Fast Company here.
Tags: amygdala, creativity, curiousity, fast company, inspiration, stress
There are years that ask questions and years that answer
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Diversity & culture
In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God author Zora Neale Hurston writes there were years that ask questions and years that answer.
Besides being a sentence that made me jolt to a stop and ponder, it’s a great way to frame the new year. Which will it be for you?
Which worldview will broaden your horizons and bring you closer to the edge. The edge of curiousity, of wonder, of exploring ‘other’ (no matter how bravely or cautiously)?
And which worldview will narrow your perspective, reinforcing what you know to be right and true to the exclusion of all other?
Which worldview will quietly or boldly ask questions? Questions that wrap their curlicue tail around your noggin, leading you to an expanded view, where exclamation marks crackle and pop like a kid’s cereal, leading to new answers and even more questions.
And which worldview will dampen curiousity, stomping on questions, content with the known, the comfortable, the same, the safe?
I wish for you a year with insightful questions and temporary answers.
Tags: answers, perspective, questions, their eyes were watching god, worldview, zora neale hurston