Christmas in Brazil in March & the road most taken
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Travel
I recently did a marathon. I drove 17 hours, from Rio Quente to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to present a cultural intelligence workshop at the United Nations World Urban Forum. When the impossibly white fat and fluffy clouds, which have floated in an endless sea of sky, have given way to an inky darkness great […]
Tags: brazil, Christmas, learning, matt andersen, rio de janeiro, rio quente, stuart mclean, teenage, united nations, vinyl cafe, world urban forum
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 […]
Tags: brazil, development, heath brothers, learning, made to stick, memory, normal, powerful learning, toucan, Travel
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 […]
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
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
Bobsledding – brake or steer? You can’t do both
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Conflict resolution
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 […]
Tags: 2010, bobsled, bobsleigh, change management, control, learning, olympics, vancouver, whistler, winter olympics
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 […]
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? […]
Tags: age of persuasion, albert einstein, cbc, cbc radio, change management, ikea, invention, learning, mess, mistakes, perspective, terry o'reilly, training & development
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
A sneak peak of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Social Responsibility
I was lucky enough to take part in the dress rehearsal of the 21st Vancouver Winter Olympic Opening Ceremonies. The same ceremonies that will be viewed by some 3 billion (with a b) eyeballs later today. I spent most of the time with tears coursing down my face. If you were there and if you […]
Tags: canadian, first nations, hallelujah, KD Lang, leap of faith, learning, olympics, opening ceremonies, pride, snowboard, vancouver, winter olympics
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