Samba lessons from Brazil
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Travel
I was recently in a traditional Samba club called Democraticos in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. I was in Rio to do cultural intelligence training for the United Nations and one night, post-conference, a bunch of us gathered in Lappa, a district of Rio. Think people. Lots and lots and lots of people. People filling the […]
Tags: brazil, creativity & innovation, dancing, following, leading, learning, rio de janeiro, samba, united nations, world urban forum
Teambuilding Brazilian Style
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Creativity & innovation, Travel
Raucous cheering filled the air which competed with the hum and thrum of the rain forest. Wild toucans flew about the forest canopy while 6 foot long arapaima fish swam below the tangle of arms and legs that were trying to coordinate themselves down the river. In Rio Quente, Brazil, a thermal river and water […]
Tags: brazil, collaboration, cooperation, creativity & innovation, learning, rio quente, team, Teambuilding, training & development, united nations, world urban forum
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 […]
Tags: brazil, change management, creativity & innovation, french, parking, portuguese, spanish, translation
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 […]
Tags: burton, change management, creativity & innovation, learning, regret, snowboard
Best case scenario
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Conflict resolution, Creativity & innovation
“Your mind will automatically go to the worst case scenario. So practice the best case scenario.” Wise words from my massage therapist. I love when my attention is caught and held by something that shakes up my preconceptions. That highlights patterns of thinking that I wasn’t aware of. When my synapses sparkle. With all due […]
Tags: amygdala, awfulizing, best case scenario, change management, creativity & innovation, jill bolte taylor, learning, lizard brain, seth godin, stroke of insight, worst case scenario
Start small & think big; creme brulee over soya sauce
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Creativity & innovation
A taste of two worlds. And a time honoured lesson. I was trying to put soya sauce on my sushi the other day and having a devil of a time. The little package of soya sauce didn’t have a small pre-cut in it designed to make it easy to open. While yesterday my taste buds […]
Tags: 4 hour work week, change management, creativity & innovation, creme brulee, four hour work week, learning, marie morin, perspective, tim ferris
Myles Horton & the Olympic Flame
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Communication
Myles Horton was a famous adult educator in the Appalachian mountains. He rode the rails with the hobos and learned valuable lessons from them, lessons that I’m applying during my volunteer work at the 2010 Olympics. Fire was valuable to the vulnerable men who hitched a ride by train. Fire kept you warm. It protected […]
Tags: 2010, change management, creativity & innovation, hobos, learning, long haul, myles horton, olympic flame, olympics, training & development, vancouver
Why do we (need to) travel?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation, Travel
I love to travel. Really love to travel. And now I know why. Jonah Lehrer in his post called ‘Why we travel’ says travel puts distance between who we are and what we know. When we’re surrounded by the familiar we’re surrounded by associations and assumptions that are as hard to get rid of as […]
Tags: creativity & innovation, indiana university, jonah lehrer, lile jia, psychology, training & development, Travel
Stress relief a la country music & dill pickles
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Communication, Humor & comedy
In my last post I talked about my first day on the job, doing job training for developmentally delayed adults when I was 17 years old. I learned a lot about expecting the unexpected there. From helping an elfin older lady named Cookie do up her bra to customizing stress relief. Stress. It’s a killer, […]
Tags: change management, country music, creativity & innovation, developmental delay, pickles, stress, stress management, Wellness
Job training, elves & bras
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Creativity & innovation, Humor & comedy
“Hey you! Come here, come here!” Her voice, intense and commanding, sounded like it was being stretched taught across a gravel pit. It was my first day on the job. I was 17 and working in a centre that provided jobs for developmentally delayed adults. When I stopped and looked for the owner of the […]
Tags: creativity & innovation, learning, training & development