Rants, Insight, and Expertise
The YOU in You blog is an honest and candid look into our minds, so be prepared for strong opinions peppered with insight and expertise. Have a topic you’d like us to address? Let us know!
Beginning a group meditation practice at work can feel a little daunting. However, working through who, where, when, what and how questions will help to solidify your goal and to bring others onboard.
Lasting changes, particularly ones involving deeply held beliefs about the organization or “corporate culture” are successful because the internal dialogue of the people who make up the organization has shifted away from strong negative emotions driven by fear to positive ones about embracing the future.
Meditating with a group is a great way to start your practice, continue your practice and encourage others to practice. We hear people all the time who either want to start a meditation practice or they want to meditate with others. Here’s how to do BOTH!
If you are tasked with managing a change, it means you are the builder of the future, even if you aren’t its architect. Managing the emotional state of yourself, your team and your leaders is the “art” of change management. As a leader of a change in your organization, there are really three constituents you need to focus on to enable the transformation you’re in charge of…
I often get asked something along the lines of “What can I do to inspire my team to make this project a success?” I’ve seen some good transformations and some...well…less than transformational changes in my consulting career. Let me share with 5 things I’ve seen awesome leaders do.
I often hear how “young people” (around 18-35) are very comfortable and savvy using technology. In my experience I haven’t seen much difference between the learning needs of young adults and older adults. Yes, younger people are more comfortable with technology as general rule, but that doesn’t make them more skilled at using it and they have the same struggles as anyone else. There are a couple of key differences I’ve found between a younger and older audience:
Interesting chart showing how people; unemployed, employed, men, women, age groups, etc. spent their days in 2008.
Much is common sense sort of stuff. For example unemployed people do more household chores than employed people. I can relate to that, I do a heck of alot more around the house since I’ve been out of work.
Not long ago we built an enhancement for our web site. This is the story of a lesson learned.
The site we build is used by financial advisors to help view client accounts, perform maintenance on those accounts and link to information that would help them service or sell more accounts. These accounts consist primarily of mutual fund or brokerage accounts. The data comes from a third party we have contracted with to provide that data.
I have always felt uncomfortable around people who brag about how hard they work. Of course to proclaim my discomfort would brand me as some sort of anti-American freeloader so I tend to keep those thoughts to myself. To me work has always been a means to an end. I want to enjoy it, do it well, please my superiors, be paid fairly, etc. However, it is but one aspect of my life that I balance with the other things that I value such as family, friends, travel, hobbies, etc.
I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine regarding his organization’s need to integrate their “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) policy more broadly across the company. As a change manger he asked for my help.
I have a habit of signing up for workshops, talks, seminars and lately a webinar or two just to - well - witness learning. I’m fascinated with how people learn, what makes learning happen, the sequence of events and how to orchestrate the dance between teaching and learning.
And I love figuring out how to make the teacher-learner dance more alluring, interesting and inspiring.
Like the perfect mix of peanut butter and chocolate (remember the Reese's commercial from the 80s?) that’s what happen to me when an idea from Emma Basu and another from Rachel Yates took shape in my mind.
For me joining these two ideas felt delicious like peanut butter and chocolate.
PB + C = light bulb moment!
Here’s why.
Literally, blind spots are areas of the retina without receptors thus you can NOT see images that are projected in this area. In regular speak, it is when you lose understanding.
Let me illuminate.
I really, really, really care about how well participants learn your content. Understanding how people learn is at the core of my work. My tagline is, “Inspiring professionals with a passion to share.”
Because I care so much about how well your participants learn your content, I am telling, begging, pleading with you to NOT plan your course by your lonesome.
Today I’ll share reason # 1.
For every Course.
For every Webinar.
For every Workshop.
To create a dynamic learning environment these elements are must-haves in your instruction.
You know how teachers have a lesson plan?
Well, this is your lesson plan.
We’ve all sat in presentations where we noted that the presenter really knew their stuff but didn’t know how to teach it.
Why is that?
What do you want people who show up for your event, sign up for your training or watch your webinar to learn?
That’s my first question when I write content or work with you to help you write your content. Always.
Why?
If resistance is a “normal” response to change, how come it so frequently is seen as a negative response?