The number one motivator all trainers need to know about
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Human resources
What’s the number one things that drives all human beings? And what then is the number one motivator trainers need to know about when designing and delivering learning?
This thing is simple.
Create it in your training group and learning will happen much more easily.
Dismiss it as unimportant and you’re working against human evolution, making the brain work waaaaaay harder than it has to, taking precious energy away from learning (at least the kind of learning that you had planned).
Befriend it and you’re much more likely to create a smorgasbord of rich learning opportunities.
Ignore it and the smorgasbord of learning opportunities turns into something as appealing as dry bread and stale water.
“It” is belonging. Yep, it’s the number one motivator according to Jeremy Rifkin and the compelling, animated video below. The drive to belong creates ‘homo-empathicus’ where to ’empathize is to civilize.’
What does belonging have to do with training? Create a sense of belonging in your ‘classroom’ (no matter whether your classroom is a boardroom, a lecture hall or a plenary session at a conference) and your participants can relax into learning.
Important caveat: ‘belonging’ does not mean we all hug and kiss each other. Belonging simply means that participants feel welcome. It means issues of access and inclusion are considered.
Tags: belong, empathy, jeremy rifkin, motivation
The results are in: the collated creativity E.S.C.A.P.E. assessment (where do you measure up?)
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Creativity & innovation
How creative are you? Recently I wrote a post ’cause whether you’re a top notch exec, a front line staff or out on your own we’ve all got to delve deep into our creative juices these days. It’s the numero uno ingredient for success. Doing the same ol’ same ol’ doesn’t work anymore (not sure it worked ever).
The post included a short assessment for examining where your creative strengths lie and where you may be falling short.
The good news? Creativity can be taught, so whether you need to dig deep into your DNA to find it or whether it’s riding in your veins skin deep take a look at the collated results of the 6 question assessment. (And if you haven’t yet taken the assessment simply click the link above and you’ll be taken there).
Each question on the assessment related to an element of the E.S.C.A.P.E. model, I co-developed with the great Dolly Hopkins.
e = evoke
s = shades of gray
c = cobble
a = assumptions
p = praise and celebrate
e = engage
Here are the results in order.
More than 1/2 of the respondents had no clue or only a little clue about how to evoke their creativity. If you know how to call it out of hiding when you need it kudos, shake those pom poms. If you don’t know how to evoke your creativity, spend some time thinking about what sets the stage for your creativity to show its head. For example do you need a quiet environment, free of distractions or is a noisy, cacophonic environment more your taste?
More than 75% of repsondents shone at Shades of Gray or being able to look at things other than in a yes/no, black/white, either/or kind of way. This is huge for ramping up creativity. Not being able to look at things in shades of gray is the biggest killer of idea generation, as in: that’ll never work, we’ve tried that before, that’s too expensive. If you need to work on finding your shades of gray then shoo the critic who’s whispering in your ear from your shoulder and let anything go for now, knowing that you’ll be back later to weigh the pros and cons.
More than 75% of respondents were able to Cobble or be able to put disparate things together to come up with something new. An example is using the idea of a ball point pen to invent roll on deodorant. Who needs to invent the wheel – put things that have already been created together in a new way. If you need to work on your cobbling skills practice picking random words and creating a story for how they’re related e.g. what does a dessert hare have to do with a tape measure?
Respondents go against research findings which say that when something’s not working, we tend to simply repeat whatever we’ve been doing the same way, over and over (knocking our head against the wall in the vain hope that the wall will somehow move). In other words we can identify our assumptions and move on.
A critical skill here is recognizing when we’re making assumptions because assumptions will block our ability to ramp up our creativity. An example is a company, who in trying to reduce drinking and driving, asked themselves how can they could increase (yes increase) drinking and driving.
They turned the assumption on its head for a moment (that increasing drinking and driving would be a bad thing). This led to the invention of a machine that would simulate what your vision would be like after 1, 2, 3, etc drinks. The machines, installed in bars, were a hit.
More than a third of respondents didn’t have a way to praise and celebrate their creative accomplishments. Too busy moving onto the next goal me thinks. If we create a plan ahead of time though that’s a big motivating factor. Hint: it has to specifically celebrate creativity, not just completing the project, landing the account etc.
Almost 60% of respondents go about a creative project haphazardly, which leads to the last principle which is engage. When it’s time for the petal to hit the metal research shows a plan is a good thing, it’s a launching pad for boosted creativity. So get a plan, any plan and go forth.
Tags: assessment, creativity & innovation, creativity assessment, Dolly Hopkins
Are you a Terrier or a Labrador puppy trainer?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Human resources, Training & development
Are you an experienced trainer, wannabe trainer or have just started dipping your toes into the world of training? Either way you need to know if you’re a Terrier trainer or a Labrador puppy trainer. Here’s how to tell:
1. If something’s not working in a training do you look at it as an opportunity to learn something new, dig in and explore (acknowledging your fears about doing so but pushing through)?
2. If something’s not working in a training do you focus on getting through it as soon as possible perhaps by being cute and charming?
3. Are you tenacious when it comes to training, hanging in and hanging on and pushing through all the ups and downs in order to create an environment for great learning?
4. Does your yearning to be liked sometimes get in the way of creating optimal learning situations?
5. Do you take leaps of imagination and try new things in your training, being prepared to fail and possibly meet resistance from your clients and participants?
6. In your training do you do what is likely to be most popular and liked, sometimes taking the easy way out?
If you replied yes to mostly odd-numbered questions you’ve self-assessed as a Terrier.
Terrier trainers have an instinct for digging deep, they are confident and most of all tenacious. Nothing gets in the way of creating a great training, they’ll do almost anything to make a training magical so that it pops, is relevant and able to be put to use.
If you replied yes to mostly even-numbered questions you’ve self-assessed as a Labrador puppy.
Labrador puppy trainers need to be liked and as a result sometimes take the easy way out, not pushing the boundaries or exploring barriers. For example they may let inappropriate comments that a participant makes slide because it would be too uncomfortable or risky to bring it up. Cute, even adorable they look for opportunities to get scratched behind the ears and wag their tails.
What kind of trainer are you? More importantly does it match the kind of trainer you want to be?
Food for thought. Bones to chew on.
Footnote: the idea for this post came from a conversation with my social media mentor Julie Szabo from Capulet Communications when she was talking about needing to have a Terrier instinct for social media.
Tags: assessment, capulet communications, imagination, julie szabo, self-assessment, tenacious, trainer, trainer styles, training styles
7 automagical tips for bringing ease to your training
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Training & development
Have you ever spent more time preparing for a training than the actual training itself? Have you ever gotten flustered mid-training because you realized you’d forgotten a critical handout or supply? Ever do the same ol’ same ol’ training because it would take too much time to design something new?
Training is both an art and a science. Follow the 7 tips below and you’ll be able to focus on the magic instead of the mundane.
The art of training is magnified by the science of systems. Training tends to create magic when it’s built on a foundation of systems. In short you gotta get organized in order to do great training. The systems make the rote stuff automatic so you can focus on what makes magic.
Systems without the magic equals training that is boring. My mind is cringing at remembering a university prof who lectured from notes so old they were yellowed.
Training that is magic that doesn’t have an organizing foundation tends to be hit and miss. I’m remembering a captivating speaker who got so carried away that he didn’t cover all the content he was supposed to.
Here are seven tips for how to combine systems with magic, bringing automagic to your training.
1. Reach out to Ma Bell: If you frequently do training at a variety of venues get your client’s cell phone number and give them yours. There’s nothing worse than butterflies wings scraping the insides of your belly because you’re lost, can’t find the venue, the training’s about to start and you have no way to reach your client.
2. Make friends with a database: invest some time and create a simple data base with all the activities you like to use in your training down the left side and what topics they address along the top. Then go through your list and check off, for each activity, which topics they are relevant for. Keep the list up to date and continually add to it. Then when you’re looking for a new way to spice up a workshop you’ll have a plethora of ideas before your very eyes.
3. Fill your hip pocket: always bring extra activities that you can do if you find yourself with extra time (which are commonly known as ‘hip pocket activities’). Even if you never use them they’ll help build your confidence.
4. Underline underline: make things easy for youself when you’re up in front of your audience. In your agenda underline the spots that have accompanying handouts. If you’re nervous or things have gone sideways your brain won’t have to work hard to look for where the next handout is.
5. Highlight highlight: again, make things easy for yourself. Highlight the bits of your agenda that have an accompanying powerpoint slide. Easy peasy means you can focus on the more important stuff rather than frantically trying to match up your agenda to your powerpoint.
6. Beat the clock: put the time that each section of your workshop is planned to happen (e.g. 10:00 am to 10:20). And because we all know that time shifts when we’re training, I also recommend putting the amount of time that each section of your workshop is likely to take (e.g. 20 min). Both will help you partition your time accurately.
7. Supplies: on your agenda break down the supplies that each workshop needs into two categories – the ones that you as the trainer will bring and the ones that your client is supplying. Be detailed. This helps the aforementioned butterflies not trying to escape your stomach through your nose because you’re all prepared and don’t realize mid-workshop that you’ve forgotten something critical.
Training is hard enough without worrying about the mundane. Use the 7 tips and you’ll be able to focus on creating magic.
Footnote: I’ve borrowed the word ‘automagical’ from my social media mentor Julie Szabo from Capulet Communications. Thanks Julie.
Tags: agenda, automagic, capulet communications, jason gulledge, julie szabo, preparation, seminar, workshop
3 simple lessons in public speaking – (heavy) breathing made easy
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Training & development
What would you rather do?
- get a bikini or chest wax (gender dependent)
- speak in public
- take a long haul flight with massive turbulence
For many the thought of speaking in public is only marginally less than dying. Yes dying. Or perhaps getting the hair ripped off your body or thinking that you’re going to plunge to your death in an airborne metal tube.
Public speaking is a fine art for those who make a living getting up in front of crowds to deliver training & development workshops . An art that can be betrayed by quick, raspy breathing. Betrayed by a throat that refuses to work properly and clamps in on itself like a turtle pulling in its head.
We’ve all seen someone desperately trying to cover up their nerves only to be betrayed by breathy breathing.
Here then are three lessons for heavy breathing made easy, aka public speaking with proficiency:
- Take a drink: and I don’t mean Scotch. Rather always have water at hand. The simple task of lifting a glass to your lips will slow you down. The act of taking a drink and swallowing will relax your throat muscles and allow you to breath easier.
- Start with what’s easy: when listening to 13 year old Jordan Romero’s tale of climbing Mount Everest I was struck by the fact that it takes 70% of one’s energy just to breathe at that altitude. On more normal levels, breathing takes about 5% of our energy. When it comes to public speaking don’t waste 70% of your energy doing something that you can do in 5. Start with what’s easy. What you know best. Which leads me to ..
- Know your stuff: practice can’t make perfect because you can never predict how someone new to your content will react, no matter if you’ve presented it 5 times or 500 but if you’re confident in your material your brain will less likely slip into lizard mode where it’s only concern is fight or flight. When in lizard mode up to 25% of blood drains from your brain and heads to your hands. Why? Because your prehistoric cave person is getting to fight. Not exactly a recipe for higher level thinking and speaking. Say no to the lizard by being confident in your content. You’ll breath easier.
Practice the three simple steps above and you’ll avoid glossophobia (the fear of public speaking) and you’ll breath easier.
Tags: development, glossophobia, jordan romero, learning, mount everest, public speaking, training & development
Assess your perspective & find your blind spots (all without visiting the eye doctor)
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Human resources, Training & development
We all have 20/20 vision …. in some areas, just as we all have blind spots … in other areas. Do you know yours?
The challenge is how to identify where we shine and where we’re blind.
By the time you’ve begun reading this you’ve already been faced with an onslaught of sensory input. Everything from ads, car horns, billboards, music, emails, tweets, newspaper stories, people talking, phones ringing etc. All vying for the privilege your attention.
What gets caught by your attention and brought onto your radar is largely a product of your perspective or what you consider to be and not to be important.
Because we can’t pay attention to everything we filter things out and bring others upfront onto our radar. This internal filtering system affects:
– everything you say, do and react to,
– what you value and see as important
– what you miss, don’t see and don’t acknowledge
Yet your internal filter is largely unconscious.
Our perspective is so much a part of us that it seems invisible, like a pair of glasses or lenses that we’ve worn for so long they all but disappear from our awareness. Their influence however does not diminish. We all wear these lenses and these lenses affect what comes onto our radar easily, naturally and comfortably as well as what never makes it onto our radar.
The problem with perspective is that we all assume our own is normal, natural and right. When someone doesn’t ‘get’ us and our perspective, we get frustrated pretty fast. We often simply end up doing more of whatever it is that isn’t working, in the vain hope that something will eventually get through to the dim wit we’re trying to communicate with.
And speaking of dim, we rarely think to shine the light on our own dim or unlit areas of our perspective.
Enter Life Lenses, a self-assessment tool.
Life Lenses is about figuring out:
– what on earth your client was talking about at that last meeting
– why your boss is placing such importance on something you find unfathomable
– how to move forward on a team project with your colleague when you have a different view
– getting a handle on your competitors and even
– understanding what motivates your spouse and kids
Imagine the possibilities that open up with that kind of expanded perspective.
Imagine the worlds that open up when you can shift perspectives.
Life Lenses are about you walking a mile in my shoes AND me walking mile in yours. Life Lenses are about you seeing the world from my perspective and my seeing the world from yours.
The language of Life Lenses helps everyone to identify blind spots. For example when we need to be more ‘mountain top’, which is one of the Life Lenses whose strength is seeing patterns, trends and big ideas. Alternately applying a ‘carrot top’ lens (the opposite lens to the mountain top) would help an individual, team or organization to focus on critical details and systems.
Life Lenses help to prevent conflict by depersonalizing challenging situations. Instead of saying “she’s driving me nuts with her incessant attention to details that aren’t important” (which can be a weakness of a carrot top lens), you can switch to a mountain top view temporarily.
The lenses are extra accessories, glasses that can be put on when needed, to view the world from a different perspective, in order to get along better with a colleague, be more creative, solve a conflict, be more effective and more.
Far from creating yet another prescriptive, limiting box Life Lenses is about you assessing where you shine and where you need polish. After all you’re an expert in your own life, Life Lenses simply gives you the language and tools to amp up your perspective and gain a whole new view.
To find out more about the Life Lenses:
- listen to this 10 minute Dyana Valentine interview with Life Lenses author Lee-Anne Ragan
- attend the upcoming Life Lenses workshop July 9th in Ojai California
- download the one pager description
Tags: assessment, Diversity & culture, dyana valentine, life lenses, perspective
Beauty comes …. beauty goes
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
My last post was about
Important stuff. Serious stuff.
And…
because I like whimsy and because 1 of Rock.Paper.Scissors’ founding principles was and continues to be humour and improv, there’s always another side.
Tongue firmly planted in cheek, where are you on the beauty continuum?
Tags: beauty, dove, dove beauty campaign, evolution, learning, modeling, reginald pike, yael staav
What’s beautiful is in the eye of the editor
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
Beauty is captivating. Beauty is compelling.
False beauty draws us slyly to its side. All the while whispering empty promises.
“Buy this ______ (fill in the blank with your choice: car, lipstick, dress, watch….) and you’ll be like me.“
True beauty reflects beauty back. Welcomes us up onto the same pedestal.
The dictionary definition of beauty is oddly crass and stilted – “a combination of qualities that pleases the intellect or moral sense”.
Take a second look. Because we can all do with more true beauty in our lives.
What’s beautiful to you? Why?
Tags: beauty, dove, dove beauty campaign, evolution, reginald pike, yael staav
What’s real? Take a second look to find the White Hot Truth
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Communication
What appears real in our hurry flurry world often isn’t. Authenticity is big. Being real is in.
Not being true is passe. Being fake is to be a flake.
How do you tell the difference though? What appears shiny and true can either be a golden nugget or a trashy piece of styrofoam.
Making time to reflect helps. Doing an exercise from Danielle LaPorte’s (of White Hot Truth) Firestarter E-book is even better. Here’s a taste of an exercise you’ll find in her book. Figure out how you want to feel and you’ll be able to tell the real deal.
STEP 1:
How do you want to feel in the realm of your career/livelihood/ vocation/work/wealth?
Do a stream of conscious riff. Concepts, words, feelings, images. Put them all on paper. Fill up both sides if a tsunami of desire floods you. Invest in yourself. Want what you want. Go.
STEP 2:
Pattern recognition
Study your list of desired feelings in your vocation/work/career/wealth. Read it over a few times. Read it out loud if you’re inclined. Sleep on it. Take it for a walk. What jumps out at you, feels warm, feels YES!, feels really important and valuable?
Circle the words or concepts that really turn you on.
The objective of this exercise: narrow your list down to 3 to 5 desired feelings.
Whittling it down, making tricky choices: Having a tough time choosing between, say, “creative” and “artistic”, or “strong” and “powerful”? Try this:
- Look up the definitions of words. Each word is its own planet and knowing the actual definition and origin can be instantly illuminating.
- Repetitive questioning. This is a potentially annoying, galvanizing little mind trick: keep asking yourself how a feeling feels. Get underneath its skin. Like this: “So, what does confidence feel like? (Answer with the first thing that comes to mind.) It feels like winning. What does confidence feel like? It feels like being certain. What does confidence feel like? It feels like …. clarity. Bingo. What you really desire to feel is clarity.
- Write each word you’re considering on its own sticky note, even if it’s ten words. Stick them on the fridge for a day, or rimming your computer monitor and see how they make you feel. You’ll start to see how “confidence” is really summed up with the word “strong” or how “beautify, classy and elegant” are present in one word: “graceful”. Toss the sticky notes that don’t make the cut and see what you’re left with after a few days.
- Set a deadline for yourself. “By Saturday, I’ll be clear on my core desired feelings in my career and that’s that.”
- Don’t sweat it. This isn’t a test. You can change your mind later, have an a-ha moment, recalibrate it all when you wake up.
When you’re clear on how you want to feel finding the authentic amongst the fake is easier because you’ll be more authentic yourself. Things get clearer.
Want to get in on more of Danielle’s offerings? Simply click the image below and you’ll be taken to her Firestarter page. And yes, if you buy the e-book I do get a cut. I offer up the best to the best. I hope you take advantage and enjoy it.
Tags: authenticity, change management, creativity & innovation, danielle laporte, firestarter, learning, white hot truth
Make time to fall, fail and flounder
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Change management & wellness, Human resources
Do you have something that you want to delegate but are holding back because it’s going to be tough? Need to hire but putting it off because orientation will take too long?
I recently hired a VA (Virtual Assistant). I’d been wanting to do this for a long time but had held back because I knew the learning curve was going to be steep and bumpy.
Til one day I said to myself, the learning curve is going to be steep and bumpy AND imagine the road on the other side.
So I anticipated bumps. I expected bruises. I did not initially expect a smooth ride.
This helped. A lot.
Because I was expecting things to be a little rough it wasn’t surprising when it happened.
The first company I hired was awful with a capital A. They didn’t do things that they advertised on their website. Their customer service was lousy. They promised something in an hour and hours later it still wasn’t done.
So I changed paths, quickly.
I hired Get Friday. The sign up was smooth, the VA they assigned me has worked hard to get oriented and complete assigned tasks well and on time. He’s even sent me a mother’s day card and information about things going on in my community. I am besotted. He brings ease to my work life and by taking care of details, he makes space for me to do work that only I can do. The non-delegatable, strategic stuff.
Expecting to flounder made it less painful when it happened and got me to a smoother ride faster.
If you’re holding back on delegating something or hire someone plan to fall, fail and flounder. You won’t be caught unprepared when it happens. When it does simply get back up and get on with creating more ease in your life.
Tags: delegate, delegating, Get Friday, hiring, planning, VA, virtual assistant