Are you a sieve or a sponge?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Travel
We see what we expect to see.
The Heath Brothers, in their fantastic book Made to Stick, talk about our minds being like a sieve as opposed to a sponge – that to remember something it has to be big enough, memorable enough, sticky enough to get caught in the sieve.
My sieve got stuck when I recently saw a bland looking black bird carrying a very large, oddly coloured hot dog bun.
Huh?
Then my brain kicked in and remembered the fact that I’m in Brazil and realized that what I was seeing, wasn’t some unbelievably hungry bird with super strength carrying some behemoth sized bread but rather a wild toucan flying above me.
My radar had filled in the blanks. I didn’t expect to see a toucan so my brain created something that was more ‘normal’ for me.
What do you expect? And more importantly how does it colour your vision?
Tags: brazil, development, heath brothers, learning, made to stick, memory, normal, powerful learning, toucan, Travel
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 day.
Travel can also make the most trivial details of daily living sorely trying. Brain cells fire incessantly trying to figure out how to make change in a foreign currency, whether or not to worry about that particular, unfathomable highway sign you just drove by at 120 km/hr or how to order something from a restaurant menu that’s written in a language that may well be Greek.
In this case it’s Portuguese.
I’m in Brazil for work and for play. After a shocking number of false starts, missteps and false steps things are flowing smoother.
While Portuguese sounds like a melodic mix of Italian and French, I find if I merge my French with a little Spanish I can get the basics.
Like parking.
Parking in French is estationnement. With an ‘e’. Parking in Portuguese is something similar. Hence the big circles with crossed ‘E’ mean no parking.
If you mix it up a bit, success follows. Like with travel. Like many things in life.
What have you mixed up lately?
P.S. if you’re fluent in French you’ll know that parking is stationnement, which I only found out when I was checking my spelling. Lucky me that I got it mixed up. Helped with the translation.
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 what do business folk want? To arrive feeling rested (e.g. to be able to sleep lying down) and to be able to work (e.g. to be able to plug in).
I wanted the same, though for different reasons this time.
To be able to lie down, so my back wouldn’t feel like it was being ripped in two. And to plug in … my heating pad and apply to said back.
There was a plug in my seat. It was of some very odd configuration, available only on this particular airline. The pragmatist in me said ‘nah’. I had the attendant heat up a rice filled bag I’d also brought (in case I found myself sans plug). Besides not having a microwave, which meant she had to heat it in an oven, which meant the tags got burned to bits, it worked.
After finagling with the electronic buttons I got my seat to go back … about 135 degrees. And my feet to go up about the same. There was tons of room. It felt more spacious than my closet of a bedroom (literally, it was a storage closet) during 3rd year university. However my head and feet weren’t occupying the same level. I felt like I was sleeping on a toboggan heading downhill.
45 degrees makes a big difference.
So does having a plug.
I don’t get why the airline wouldn’t offer business class passengers these basic necessities.
The divine vanilla ice cream sundae, with my choice of toppings, almost made up for it.
And yes, I’m now in Brazil. More about that, and finding normal, in the next post.
Tags: airplane, back pain, brazil, business class, first class, flight
Weight loss and business lessons
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
Today I’m celebrating my two year anniversary of having lost 30 pounds. I learned a lot during my weight loss journey. Mostly I learned it’s about common sense prevailing over wishful thinking, reducing the power I have to delude myself and accepting some givens without excuses.
I also learned about applying the journey to the world of business.
But first, loosing weight and getting healthy is about some givens. Facts. Things we can’t change, though we’d like to.
We can fool ourselves for a mighty long time with cockeyed ways of looking at it; ‘it’s not my fault, it’s in my genes, I have a slow metabolism……’ but no matter how you look at it, it’s about eating less and moving more.
Similarly succeeding in business is also about some givens, that we again, try mighty hard to get around. I liken it to Stephen Covey’s ‘law of the farm’. The law of the firm states that there are certain immutable truths, that no matter how hard we try to delude ourselves, we can’t get around them. For example you can’t plant corn and expect, even though we do, tomatoes to grow.
So here, in celebration of two years of carrying around 30 less pounds (hallelujah!), are some other lessons I’ve learned and how they related to business:
1. Drink water and plenty of it. Similarly hydrate yourself in business through focused attention on strategic things that really matter. Don’t allow your attention to be watered down by the many unnecessary, trivial things that vie for your consideration.
2. Move your body. Move it in various ways, frequently and with fun. In business the simple act of getting up from your office chair can increase creativity and innovation. How often do you sit so long that when you finally get up your legs are stiff? Change your view, change your focus, get moving, get out, get over it, get into it.
3. Control portion size. It’s not sexy but it’s critical. Weight loss doesn’t happen without it. Similarly in business ‘start small and think big’ says J. Reiter, quoted in Tim Ferris’s 4-Hour Workweek. Control your workload, your focus and your vision = a successful business.
4. Pay attention when you’re full (and here’s the law of the farm ….) stop eating. Simple yet hard to do. In business have a life that’s not work related. Workaholics are overrated. I have a mentor (who is retired but nonetheless) says that he works 24/7 – 24 hours a month, 7 months of the year. Don’t forget to look up and look out. A life outside your work will end up informing and influencing your work for the better.
5. Accept the law of the farm AND substitute. I accept that I have not one sweet tooth but many. That’s not ever going to change. It’s a law of the farm. AND I’ve found some pretty nifty substitutions. Russel Stover sugar free chocolates are a given in my house (carefully stashed so the kids don’t inhale them). One or 2 of those and I’m good to go. Similarly figure out what you hate to do in business and find a substitute. I hate writing reports and it was a true epiphany for me when I discovered that there are actually people who truly love writing the suckers. Enter a wonderful alliance where I now thankfully, gratefully and with huge relief delegate that portion of my business.
Overall it’s about faith. Faith that you can take the leap and learn how to fly on the way down. Investing in yourself and your business makes the flight all that more intriguing and adventurous.
Tags: change management, chocolate, forum for women entrepreneurs, four hour work week, law of the farm, leap of faith, learning, russel stover, stephen covey, tim ferris, training & development, weight loss
More business savvy from Arlene Dickinson; don’t die at 60 with your millions
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness
Arlene Dickinson is smart, savvy and easy to listen to. She’s CEO of Venture Communications, ‘one of Canada’s largest marketing firms’.
At a recent talk she gave, she was asked for her top advice. Here it is, plain and simple.
‘Thank god you don’t live in Haiti [or more recently earthquake stricken Chile]. We are blessed to live in this country.’
More specifically:
– ‘opportunities exist to get through tough times, we have freedom and democracy, we have so much’
– ‘we have to look forward, that’s what entrepreneurs do, make it happen, there’s always a market’
– ‘it’s a marathon not a sprint – take care of your diet, sleep and exercise – stay healthy. The average millionaire in the US dies at the age of 60’
Are you sprinting or in it for the marathon? How do yo know?
Like this post? Here are two more about Arlene’s business philosophy.
Tags: arlene dickinson, business, chile, democracy, earthquake, entrepreneur, freedom, haiti, health, marathon, millionaire, philosophy, sprint, venture communications
Aim for regrets
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Conflict resolution
A while back I listened as Arlene Dickinson kept a large audience rapt with her business successes and her trials and tribulations. She’s the only woman on the wildly successful Dragon’s Den, “where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business concepts and products to a panel of Canadian business moguls who have the cash and the know-how make it happen.”
Arlene talked of years ago, riding up a ski lift with a young looking guy who was carrying a ‘weird looking board’. They chatted. The guy gave her his card as he wanted her marketing help.
Her thoughts? This will never fly. There’s no way these things are going to be allowed on the mountain. No way, uh uh.
The weird looking board turned out to be none other than a Burton snowboard, a company which has been ‘standing sideways since ’77’. Burton built the worlds first snowboard factory and is now the largest snowboard brand in the world.
What I love about Arlene’s story is that she goofed and kept going. Sure she has regret but none larger than the regret if she hadn’t pushed forward, as a single mom and hadn’t built a successful business. The Burton regret is peanuts by comparison.
Instead of regret being a measure of what we didn’t do and what we missed, perhaps regret should be seen as an indicator of a life fully lived, of chances taken, of new paths forged through densely shrouded forest.
If you don’t have regrets maybe you’re not stretching enough and playing it too safe.
Regrets don’t have to mean what we missed out on but rather can be a measure that we took chances, reached for the gold ring, tried new and scarily different things. We should aim for more regrets. While some ideas will go sideways (ergo the regret) lots more will be successful.
What do you regret? What does your regret indicate?
Like this post? Here’s another post on Arlene’s business philosophy.
Tags: burton, change management, creativity & innovation, learning, regret, snowboard
Bobsledding – brake or steer? You can’t do both
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Conflict resolution
Bobsledding circa 1910
As the sun sets on the biggest celebration Vancouver’s ever seen my thoughts are returning to the Olympic bobsled competition I watched recently in Whistler.
Run like hell for up to 50 meters, hop in, head down and then, if you’re the guy in back, you’re only role is to brake. The person whose back you’re nestled into steers. At up to 118 mph or 180 km/h.
Bobsledding was invented in the late 1800’s when the owner of a resort in San Moritz, Switzerland was trying to find things for his wealthy guests to do. Enter the rejigged delivery sled et voila bobsled. Only problem was the bobsledders were having too much fun sliding down the village alleys and lanes …. and smashing into folks. Enter the dramatic reason to build a dedicated course.
From my icy perch at Whistler I watched the sleds roar around the track – you could hear them come thundering down from some distance away. Occasionally sleds tipped over and still kept swallowing up the track at an alarmingly fast rate.
I wondered what it must be like to be the guy in the back. The guy who puts on the brake. Who says ‘whoa’. Who’s role is to stop the sled, or slow it down. And all of this without being able to see.
How many of us have our heads down and are focused on the brake? As in ‘Nope, can’t do that’. ‘That won’t work’. ‘We tried that before it crashed and burned’.
How many of us give up our role of steering, of having control over the direction of our lives? It’s easier to follow the pack’s course. Less risky. Less chance of failure. Less chance of sticking out like a sore thumb.
I say the stuck out thumb is the one that gets the ride.
How can you stick out your thumb, steer your own course and leave the braking to someone else?
Tags: 2010, bobsled, bobsleigh, change management, control, learning, olympics, vancouver, whistler, winter olympics
Beating the dual drums of familiarity & excitement
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Conflict resolution
I was reading an article on stewarding online communities the other day and it talked about balancing comfort and familiarity with newness and excitement.
I think we all need comfort and we all need excitement. What varies is our individual ratios of one to the other.
Some of us like to eat the same thing for breakfast, take the same route to work, do our work in a routine way, take the same vacation at the same time of the year in the same place with the same folks. Those routines are comfortable, knowable and knowing to some. Pushing these folks to do something new can be anything but exciting, rather something to be dreaded.
Welcome our custodians of tradition our bearers of familiar rhythms and predictable cycles.
Others crave difference, the thrill that comes with being edgy and trying something new, whether it be a new idea, a new hobby, a new vacation destination, or a new way of doing something simply for the sake of newness. Unpredictability is something they yearn for and seek out. Pushing these folks into a routine can cause untold headaches and rebellion.
Welcome our seekers of adventure, our experimenters, our celebrators of change.
During the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics I’m sure this ratio is something coaches, athletes and officials are acutely aware of. The desire for the familiarity of home coupled with the edginess brought on by adventure and novelty.
And you? Where do you sit? What drum do you beat with most frequency, that of familiarity and comfort or the one that’s new and exciting?
Tags: adventure, change management & wellness, comfort, excitement, familiarity, routine
Curious definition of stress
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Conflict resolution
I went to a talk at my kids’ school the other night about drug abuse prevention. Interesting material and great presenter.
One of the things that caught my attention was the presenter’s definition of stress.
Before I tell you what it was, what’s yours? Definition of stress that is.
The dictionary calls it “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.”
Sounds significant.
The presenter called stress the result of emotions that aren’t dealt with.
Simple. Clean. Manageable. This means that emotion we don‘t deal with or acknowledge is a shortcut to stress.
I like that she didn’t say you have to necessarily solve your stress inducing problems. She didn’t say bliss out and force a smile on your face.
She did say acknowledge.
As in my shoulder hurts again. I feel under pressure.
As in my scalp is tingling. I’m chock full of anticipation.
As in my chest feels tight. I’m scared.
As in my heart feels bigger than my body. I’m full of love.
As in my throat feels tight. I’m sad and about to choke up.
Dealing with your emotions hits as home run. Dealing with your emotions is a direct path to reducing stress. Clearly.
And you? How are your emotions connected to your stress level?
Tags: change management, drug abuse, emotion, learning, strain, stress, tension
Fail forward
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Communication, Conflict resolution
When Albert Einstein was asked what the best source of invention was he replied ‘mistakes’ (as heard on Terry O’Reilly’s Age of Persuasion).
The only time we don’t make mistakes is when we’re sleeping (found on an IKEA postcard).
Why then do we deny mistakes? Cover them up? Hide from them? Are embarrassed by them?
Is it fear of not fitting in? Feeling like a fool?
I still remember, from grade 10 science class, that getting a burn from steam is worse than getting a burn from touching something hot. I remember because I initially got the question wrong. The act of correcting it seems to have seared (no pun intended) it in to my brain.
Here’s to mistakes in all their glorious messiness. Here’s to failing forward.
And you? What mistakes have you made lately?
Tags: age of persuasion, albert einstein, cbc, cbc radio, change management, ikea, invention, learning, mess, mistakes, perspective, terry o'reilly, training & development