WorkSMART Blog

After the most divisive political season in our nation’s history, I think we’re all trying to figure out how to move on. We talk about unifying our divided country, about building mutual support and repairing relationships, but have little idea how to do it. The key to building relationships (or re-building them, as the case may be), has been and always will be through communication. We must start conversing again about topics that matter. “Conversing” means we’ll have two-way dialogues, where everyone makes an effort to ask questions, listen to answers, understand the diversity of our backgrounds and experiences, and respect differences. We must do our best to understand others’ perspectives with an open mind, so that we can together find common ground and mutually agreeable solutions to complex issues. If we disagree, let us do so respectfully. Let us move away from black and white, and find a silver that suits us all. Yes, silver, not gray, because it’s so much more appealing and reminds us to look for “silver linings” in the clouds. Whether or not our leaders talk to each other with civility, we must. We must take it upon ourselves to set the tone for the discourse that we want in our companies, homes, and communities. Finding our “Silver” Figuring out what questions to ask at a time like this is tricky. In the past, I’ve found it useful to consider the level of intimacy and understanding you hope to achieve, using these four levels as a guide: LEVEL 1: Icebreaker questions – surface questions to stimulate casual conversation LEVEL 2: Common ground questions – find shared interests and build new relationships LEVEL 3: Getting to know you questions – probing prompts to get to the real you LEVEL 4: Deep-Dive questions – deeper discussions to build intimacy and understanding or to address specific challenges If you want to steer clear of politics, starting with Level 1 questions will feel very safe, but won’t necessarily get you that far in building common understanding. Farthest place I’ve traveled Beautiful beach I want to see Animated film I’d view again Chinese food I always order Favorite candy treats Favorite nursery rhyme or fairy tale Museum I’d visit TV channels I like What makes me laugh For folks who are just meeting each other or need to find shared interests and common ground, Level 2 questions can be a good start: What do you like to do on vacation? How do you spend free time Who are the most important people in your life? For good advice, who do you turn to first? Where I wish I lived Something new I’d like to try or learn What do you worry about? Level 2: Common Ground As you build up to Level 3 questions, you move a little deeper to understand others’ motivations, goals, personality, and the experiences that shape who they are. Discussion prompts might include: A non-family member who had an impact on your life A proud childhood moment Your happiest time of life A stressful experience you lived through A time you got in trouble at school A time you went to the hospital An important turning point in your life The age at which you became an adult An experience that made you a better person Something you did that got you in trouble Level 3: Shaped by Our Past and Getting to Know You Starting with a foundation of understanding and mutual respect and a shared agreement of ground rules (i.e. that you will focus on listening, speak only for yourself, etc.), you can delve into Level 4 questions: How should we manage disagreements? Give an example of a goal we are all working towards How can we prevent negative energy from bringing us down? Which would be harder for you: looking different or feeling different? A behavior you encountered that you found disrespectful What would be hardest about being confined to a wheelchair? Level 4: Team Dynamics and Diversity In the past, political questions may have been perceived as Level 2 or 3 questions, but with emotions running as high as they are today, we’d have to categorize them in Level 4. Here are some that might help you toward a path of mutual understanding–remember, the goal is to get each person to speak from their heart about their own fears and beliefs, staying away from the rhetoric shared by any candidate: How do your political beliefs differ from your parents? As you think about immigrants and our changing demographics, what’s your greatest fear? Do you share the same political beliefs as family and friends? What are your core values? What worries you most about our nation? What’s your greatest concern about health care and insurance? What new energy form are you most intrigued by? What modern convenience do you think is most harmful to our planet? Assuming that black lives DO matter and the Police play an important role in our communities, what would you do differently? With respect to the job market, are you most concerned about: your own job, the overall unemployment rate, salary and wages? How do you view the role of the USA in world? How do you want non-Americans to think of the US? Opening our dialogue with questions like these will help Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents and others, folks with different beliefs, begin to understand what’s important to them–what they value and what they fear–without focusing on the poisonous rhetoric of the political candidates. NOTE: Except for the political questions, all conversation prompts are available on the Trainers Warehouse website, where you will find our line of “Silver Series” Thumballs.  

I have a friend who’s always said you don’t have to get to know someone in the first 5 minutes… or even the first few times you meet. It takes a lifetime to get to know someone. How true that is. And yet, for many, our tendency is to rush and learn as quickly as possible if someone we meet will remain an acquaintance or become a true friend. While people seem to be increasingly good at texting, snap-chatting, tweeting and facebook posting, conversation is becoming a lost art. Perhaps this is part of the reason why icebreaker questions and conversation prompts have proliferated online. Another explanation could be the fact that our lives are increasingly complex and the number of people we “connect” with has grown exponentially. In response, our tendency is to find communication shortcuts and determine as quickly as possible if we want to invest our precious time into getting to know someone better. Whatever the reason, we hunger for new questions to prompt conversations–prompts that are a step up from “Do you come here often?” 4 levels of discussion prompts In recent years, I’ve scanned through hundreds of conversation prompts that folks have posted online. Some I’ve found to be pretty good; but others, to be honest, are rather uninspiring. Admittedly, determining the right question to ask to start a conversation, is hard. The “best questions” to ask may depend on your goals, how well you already know the other person, the type of relationship you want to develop, and how intimately you want to connect with them. In other words, how deep do you want to get? When evaluating and considering discussion prompts, think of these four levels as a continuum. Differentiate easy-to-answer surface questions to deeper and more introspective let’s-get-personal questions: LEVEL 1: Icebreaker questions – surface questions to stimulate casual conversation LEVEL 2: Common ground questions – find shared interests and build new relationships LEVEL 3: Getting to know you questions – probing prompts to get to the real you LEVEL 4: Deep-Dive questions – deeper discussions to build intimacy and understanding or to address specific challenges Going deeper than icebreaker questions Through this lens, those discussion prompts that I initially found to be uninspiring are better understood as Level 1 “Icebreaker questions.” If you just want to scratch the surface or make light conversation, then there’s nothing wrong with a question like, “What’s your favorite fast food restaurant?” or “What’s your favorite cartoon character?” Such questions are not necessarily conversation starters or relationship-builders, but they can help you break the silence and get people talking to, and maybe laughing with, each other. For those who want to go a little deeper than simply talking about the weather or other superficial topics, Level 2 discussion prompts help people find common ground — that is, topics and interests they might share. These prompts should be easy to answer and not delve too deeply into inner secrets. The goal is to use these questions to determine with whom you might like to build deeper relationships. Moving down to Level 3, Getting to know you questions start to uncover the real person. While these may take a little more thought to answer, they are likely to reveal more about an individual’s goals, ambitions, and past experiences. Prompts that fall into these categories include: A high school regret, How your birth order affected you, Something I’d like to learn, A major decision, A memorable moment, etc. Taking a deep dive Level 4 Deep-Dive questions can grow more intimate or delve into a specific topic like stress, diversity, or team dynamics. In Mandy Len Catron’s New York Times essay, “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This,” she references a study by psychologist Arthur Aron who “succeeded in making two strangers fall in love in his laboratory.” The study went like this: “A heterosexual man and woman enter the lab through separate doors. They sit face to face and answer a series of 36 increasingly personal questions. Then they stare silently into each other’s eyes for four minutes.” 6 months later, the couple married! In his study, Aron categorized his questions into three levels. He skips over the more trivial icebreaker questions, starting with this one: “Given the choice of anyone in the world, who would you want as a dinner guest?”; and ending with, “Share a personal problem and ask your partner’s advice on how he or she might handle it. Also, ask your partner to reflect back to you how you seem to be feeling about the problem you have chosen.” The two core principles in his study are: As you grow more comfortable, you become more willing to answer personal questions. The experience of discussing personal topics truly does bring people closer together. “A lifetime” vs. “the right questions” While not everyone looking for conversation prompts is hoping to fall in love, many long for a way to connect more deeply with the people in their lives–at work, at home, and in the community. Depending on your goals, and how deep you want to go, you can find loads of discussion questions online, as I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, they’re generally not sorted by goals or levels of conversational intimacy. An easy and playful resource for discussion topics that are categorized by level is the Trainers Warehouse line of Thumballs. Each ball is imprinted with 32 specially selected prompts for a specific depth of communication. If the sequence of questions is not important (as it is in the 36 Questions), the spirit of play brought in by the Thumball can also help to reduce stress and foster increased sharing. To play, you might choose to have each participant answer a different question. Alternatively, have everyone respond to the same prompt before jumping to the next one. Thumball activities are also incredibly easy to facilitate. All you need to do is select the one best suited to your group’s needs. Although it might take a lifetime to truly know someone. Still, a handful of really good discussion prompts can get you pretty close, in a much shorter time. Read More Making “Big Talk” Safe 7 Tips for Formulating Great Questions

More and more is being written about the science of WHY we fidget. From articles in Fast Company magazine, the Huffington Post, and Sunni Brown‘s TED talk on doodling, we better understand the prevalence and utility of fidgeting and doodling, especially for folks with ADD and ADHD. But I’ve been wondering if all of us could benefit from more fidgeting . . . especially when we’re reading online and driving — which we all do all the time! Let’s start with the basics, as described by Jessica Hullinger in her article, “The Science of Why we Fidget While We Work“: WHY DO WE FIDGET?  According to Roland Rotz and Sarah D. Wright, authors of Fidget To Focus: Outwit Your Boredom: Sensory Strategies For Living With ADHD: “If something we are engaged in is not interesting enough to sustain our focus, the additional sensory-motor input that is mildly stimulating, interesting, or entertaining allows our brains to become fully engaged and allows us to sustain focus on the primary activity in which we are participating.” In other words, the authors believe fidgeting distracts part of the brain that’s become bored so the other parts can pay attention to what we’re reading, hearing, or seeing. They say this “floating attention” could be an evolutionary trait that “dates back to prehistoric times when the ability to focus 100% on a single task was not entirely desirable and would result in a person missing the large ravenous beast hiding in the bushes.” WHAT DOES FIDGETING DO FOR OUR PRODUCTIVITY? Research shows a correlation between working with our hands and increased memory and creativity. A recent study found that writing by hand rather than typing on a keyboard helps us better process and retain information. And mindless doodling can boost memory and attention span. One 2005 study concluded that kids who are allowed to fidget during class learn more quickly than those who are not.” The next logical question is WHEN SHOULD WE FIDGET? Fidgeting is increasingly becoming an “acceptable” behavior for those with ADHD and others when: Learning Talking on the phone Participating in meetings Given how distracted everyone is these days, constantly checking for emails, instagrams, snapchats, texts, and tweets, I think there are many more situations that would benefit from more fidgeting. Fidget while reading Back in the day when people regularly read or studied from books — the kind that were printed on paper and bound — they could enjoy the tactile experience of fluttering the pages, lifting sheets, underlining key passages, or making notes in the margin. Now, with so much of our reading done electronically on computer screens and e-readers, with little or no tactile experience, it’s no wonder that studies report that reading speed and retention have declined, as did Ferris Jabr’s article, “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens,” published in Scientific American. I’ve taken to keeping a fidget toy on hand when I need to read a long article online and it definitely helps! Fidget while driving This morning, while listening to the radio on my drive into work, I picked up a couple of golf balls that were rattling around in the side pocket of the door. As I was fidgeting with them, rolling them around each other with one hand (the other was on the wheel, of course!), I realized why so many people are tempted by their cell phones when driving. The culprit is the same “floating attention” that can distract us at school or work. Although your old driving instructor might not agree (“both hands on the wheel at 10 and 2!”), maybe we can eliminate texting while driving, with the help of “car fidgets?” Fidget while you wait Remember the days when people would talk to each other while they waited in line? At the bagel shop, post office, RMV, retail shops, barber shop or hair salon, wherever, you’d strike up a conversation with people around you. Now, we tuck in our chins and look down at our phones to play a game, read an article, or post a message. A fidget on hand would let us re-engage with the world around us. Fidget while you pray I know it sounds sacrilegious, but honestly, it would probably help us stay more focused during religious meetings and events. Fidget while you chat Have you ever been sitting at a table or bar and found yourself playing with a straw, napkin, cork, salt or paper shaker? Do you find yourself feeling more at ease with a glass in your hand — not just because of the drink inside the glass — but because it gives you something to do with your hands? Have you ever reached for a cigarette for exactly the same reason? Once again, bring on the fidget toys! Where do you fidget? As you embrace fidgeting more and more, please share the ways in which it has helped you focus better, strengthen relationships, and live happier.

Pam A, Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer (from Princeton University and University of California, respectively), studied the impact of taking notes longhand versus on a computer. Writing Notes Is Better! Here’s what they found and published in the Psychological Science journal: “Taking notes on laptops rather than in longhand is increasingly common. Many researchers have suggested that laptop note taking is less effective than longhand note taking for learning. Prior studies have primarily focused on students’ capacity for multitasking and distraction when using laptops. The present research suggests that even when laptops are used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning because their use results in shallower processing. In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand. We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers’ tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning.” Involve More Senses In general, the more parts of the brain that are engaged in activity, the more memorable it becomes. Manual notetaking likely trumps computer notes because of our physical experience–we feel the weight of the pen, the smell and feel of the paper. The look of the words on the paper, etc. Read More Research on Doodling Applying Brain Science to Teaching

I’m so happy that trainers and teachers are finally embracing the reality that lectures are not the most effective technique to transfer learning. However, as we try to make the switch and commit to asking questions rather than telling answers, we can create discomfort for the learners. Knowing that discomfort and stress are the brain’s enemies, the question is what we can do to respond better to “crickets” (that is, nobody answers) or incorrect answers. Brooke McCaffrey, in her Education Week article, “Sticking with Students,” explains a different approach that communicates to students that you believe in them. Some of her strategies include: Providing wait time – not calling on a student too soon “Turn and talk” – discussing answers with a neighbor Give the students personal whiteboards, so they don’t have to respond verbally Give positive feedback about what is right about a “wrong answer” Address the entire class with cues for the “right answer” Give the right answer without sign of frustration or displeasure After trying these new approaches, McCaffrey found, “I changed the energy in my classroom. The quiet, shy students began taking more risks because it was no longer scary to supply a wrong answer. Wrong answers became opportunities for growth for all of us.” Here’s the complete article: “Sticking with Students: Responding Effectively to Incorrect Answers” by Brooke McCaffrey in Education Week, Jan 6, 2014 (published online) https://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/01/06/fp_mccaffrey_sticking.html?qs=Brooke+McCaffrey

I’ve been following a wonderful discussion on LinkedIn about workplace engagement. The focus of the conversation has been about how to get employees engaged. Following is my synopsis and organization of that very rich dialogue. I may not have captured every contributor’s direct words, but I think I’ve covered the gist of the many perspectives, and captured the overall themes that recurred throughout the discussion. Thanks to all who have shared their thoughts and wisdom. What is Engagement? Highly engaged employees: Exemplify a willingness to provide discretionary effort to serve as the company’s competitive advantage Voluntarily invest themselves into their work by contributing their time, energy, brain-power/thinking, emotion, etc. Are committed to their organization’s goals and values Are motivated to contribute to organizational success Enhance their own sense of well-being by contributing to the organizational effort Are willing to increase their discretionary efforts on behalf of the business entity How Do You Build Engagement? Communication & Listening Encourage employees to speak their minds Listen to and consider their contributions Make sure employees feel heard Give employees a voice; their input must be heard and respected Be transparent – share information about the company’s initiatives Alignment/Sense of purpose Get buy-in by showing them the benefits to them (WIIFM) Help employees know where they fit in to the company’s overall picture Create a shared vision Align interests, values, shared future, commitment and action Involve employees in the process so they feel ownership over what they create Align the company's mission with personal mission and goals Insist on employee contributions Involve employees in both defining the problem and solving it Allow employees to do something bigger than themselves and feel like they make a difference Fulfillment of Emotional Needs  Focus on emotional needs, not logic Help employees feel personally valued, supported, and acknowledged Create a sense of belonging Build collaboration, trust, and positive relationships Develop a work environment that is safe, happy and healthy Encourage peer recognition, acknowledgement, and frequent & honest feedback Identification of Shared Goals Develop meaningful, measurable goals (for some, financial goals are effective; for others, they aren’t Synchronize benefits to company and to the employee WIIFM (What’s in it for me) should coincide with benefits to the company Autonomy and Growth Make sure to match the right person with the right role Have ownership and control over what you’re doing Opportunities for growth Ability to take risks without reprisals Employees need to feel that what they do will impact the outcome People will continue to engage if they experience progress Culture and Leadership Encourage employees to enjoy co-workers Create safe, happy, and healthy workplaces Focus on good communication, shared values, respect, trust, and positive relationships with co-workers Treat employees as assets, not costs Develop a spirit of collaboration Hire competent managers who treat employees with respect Build collaboration Motivation and Recognition Interest and values should be intrinsic, but recognition is still important Employees should enjoy what they’re doing Celebrate victories along the way (not just at the end) Recognize and reward contributions through compensation, acceptance, and new responsibilities Show your team that you’ve noticed their growth and development: give recognition, appreciation rewards, tokens of appreciation, and feedback…frequently When Does Engagement Start? Begins with recruiting: find people who like to learn Begins with onboarding

Who doesn’t want to work in an office as fun as Google? With their conference bikes, huge slides that carry people from one floor to another, ping pong and pool tables, scooters, and funky décor, we hold Google up as the model of a fun workplace. Unfortunately, we don’t all have Google-sized budgets and resources to create the perfectly fun office space. But that’s okay. With no more than $100, you can bring some “oxygen” into the office and create a lively and energizing place to work. All you need is: Chocolate – A candy jar full of chocolate will bring people into your office; plus, eating chocolate stimulates the production of endorphins, which are good for your mood and your brain function. $20. Toys – Put a Desktop Fiddle Set on your desktop to set people at ease, relieve stress, and give you something to with your hands when you’re on long phone calls. An assortment satisfies a range of tactile needs and preferences. $22. Ping Pong – Get physical so your blood re-circulates to the brain. Games like ping pong also promote positive relationships among employees. You don’t have to stop work when you play. How about a Ping-Pong meeting to discuss odds and ends that need a decision or resolution? A nice Portable Ping Pong set is only $40. Cool water bottle – You’ve got to stay hydrated! Drink through a straw and you’ll drink more. $5. Duck Tape – Just like Duct Tape, it has multiple purposes. First and foremost, use DUCK tape as a reminder to act like a duck and let small problems roll off your back. Also, to measure stuff and make people laugh. Good humor is key to a happy office. $3. KUDOS– Create positive energy by telling people when they’ve done well, when you appreciate their efforts, or when they’ve make a “good mistake.” $6.5 A smile – Welcoming a colleague or a visitor with a smile creates immediate warmth. FREE or, if you want to keep a smile mirror at your desk as a reminder. $2. A frog – Mark Twain said, “If the worst thing you have to do all day is eat a frog, then the best thing you can do is eat it first thing in the morning.” A frog reminds us do our toughest tasks first. $1. TOTAL $99.50 With the last $.50, distribute a handful of pennies along with a message that you welcome their thoughts.

When the book Men are from Mars, first came out, I remember being fascinated by these predictable differences between men and women, how they communicate, and how they approach problems. In keeping with that theme, this video made me laugh out loud.

Over 25 years ago, I joined the circus as a clown and did my best to make people smile and laugh. About 5 years ago, my dad and then business partner wrote an article about the benefits of smiling. In 2013, I launched Office Oxygen, so that people could smile more at work! So, when I came across Ron Gutman’s TED Talk about the Power of Smiling, I was immediately intrigued! The timing of my finding this video is also fortuitous, as I was recently swept in to a LinkedIN discussion about offering rewards and chocolate during learning events. While I’ve always been an advocate, many of the participants were concerned that incentives for learning minimized the importance of learning for the sake of learning. (The conversation was much deeper than this, but you get the gist). So, for all those wondering if jokes and chocolate are “worth it,” Ron Gutman’s TED Talk on the Power of Smiling offers oodles of research the benefits derived from smiling. Maybe we can forget the chocolate, prizes, and jokes and get to the punch line . . . the SMILE!

I come from a “type-A” family with lots of over-achievers. So, when I came across this article, I shared it with my sisters. An interesting conversation ensued about how each of us manages stress. For me, I think a little stress is motivating. Where do you fall in the spectrum? Thanks to Kim Marshall and The Marshall Memo, for his synopsis of this article. In this fascinating New York Times Magazine article, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman analyze why some people go to pieces under pressure while others thrive in competitive, stressful situations – why some people are worriers while others are warriors. “Stress turns out to be far more complicated than we’ve assumed,” say Bronson and Merryman, “and far more under our control than we imagine. Unlike long-term stress, short-term stress can actually help people perform, and viewing it that way changes its effect. Even for those genetically predisposed to anxiety, the antidote isn’t necessarily less competition – it’s more competition. It just needs to be the right kind.” Genetically predisposed? Yes, it turns out there’s a gene involved in stress tolerance – the COMT gene. It carries the assembly code for an enzyme that clears dopamine from the pre-frontal cortex of our brains. We work best when dopamine is maintained at a Goldilocks level – not too much and not too little. There are two variants of the COMT gene: one builds enzymes that slowly remove dopamine; the other builds enzymes that rapidly clear dopamine. All people carry the genes for one variant or the other, or a combination of both. Those who carry the slower dopamine-removing COMT gene have a cognitive advantage under normal conditions. But their stronger reasoning power (problem-solving, complex thought, foreseeing consequences, executive functioning) deteriorates under stress, when their frontal cortex is flooded with dopamine. Unable to clear the dopamine fast enough, their performance sinks to suboptimal. Conversely, people with the faster dopamine-removing COMT gene do less well in everyday conditions but excel under stress – they’re able to clear the dopamine and keep their brains functioning at optimal levels. A study of thousands of Taiwanese students taking an exceedingly high-stakes national examination found that those with the slow-acting enzymes (the worriers) scored 8 percent lower than those with fast-acting enzymes. In this exam, lots of A students literally traded places with B students. People born with the fast-acting enzymes (the warriors) “actually need stress to perform their best,” says Adele Diamond, professor of developmental cognitive neuroscience at the University of British Columbia. Under everyday conditions, they tend to under-perform, but stress raises their dopamine level. “They are like Superman emerging from the phone booth in times of crisis,” say Bronson and Merryman. “Their abilities to concentrate and solve problems go up.” How are the COMT genes distributed? Since we get one from our fathers and one from our mothers, one quarter of children have only the slow-enzyme variant, one quarter have only the fast-enzyme variant, and half have a mixture of both. Does that mean those with the slow-enzyme gene are forever cursed? Actually not. According to studies of Navy SEALs, pilots, and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, worriers can learn to handle stress with the proper training and preparation. In fact, say Bronson and Merryman, shielding slow-enzyme worriers from stress “could be the worst response, depriving them of the chance to acclimate to recurring stressors.” What they need is stress inoculation: put them in worry-producing situations without overwhelming them and give them enough time to recover. “Training, preparation, and repetition defuse the Worrier’s curse,” they say. One of the most surprising research findings is that when students get certain messages before a big test, it affects how they label stress – and that improves their performance. In an experiment at Harvard, undergraduates about to take a Graduate Record Examination (GRE) practice test were given a short note saying the purpose of the study was to examine the effects of stress on cognition. Half the students (the experimental group) were given an additional note saying that recent research suggests that “people who feel anxious during a test might actually do better.” It advised students that if they felt nervous, “you shouldn’t feel concerned… simply remind yourself that your arousal could be helping you do well.” Students who received the second note scored 50 points higher in the quantitative section than the control group on the practice test (out of a possible 800 points). On the real GRE, those who received the don’t-worry notes scored 65 points higher. The same experiment was replicated with remedial math students at a Midwestern community college. Did the notes make students in the experimental group more relaxed? Not at all. Researchers took saliva samples and found that students were just as nervous but they processed their anxiety differently, transforming it into a positive force that drove better performance. Another researcher, Wendy Berry Mendes, a psychology professor at the University of California/San Francisco, asks us to examine the mental state of high-school students waiting outside an SAT testing site. Some are in a “threat state” – shoulders hunched, rubbing their hands, stamping their feet. Inside their bodies they are experiencing vasoconstriction – a tightening of the smooth muscles that line their blood vessels. Their blood pressure is rising, their breathing is shallow, oxygenated blood levels and energy supplies drop, and hormone changes make them more fearful of making mistakes. Other students – their shoulders back, chests open, rising on their toes, blood vessels dilated – are in a “challenge state.” Their hormones are suppressing fear networks in their brains, their brains may be getting as much as two liters of extra blood a minute, and they’re excited to get started on the test. “As the doors to the test center open,” say Bronson and Merryman, “the line between challenge and threat is thin. Probably nothing induces a threat state more than feeling you can’t make any mistakes. Threat physiology can be activated with the sense of being judged, or anything that triggers the fear of disappointing others. As a student opens his test booklet, threat can flare when he sees a subject he has recently learned but hasn’t mastered. Or when he sees a problem he has no idea how to solve.” Genetic differences aside, the key difference is between competition that challenges and competition that threatens. “Standardized tests lack the side benefits of competing that normally buffer children’s anxiety,” say Bronson and Merryman. “Nobody has ever come out of an SAT test saying, ‘Well, I won’t get into the college I wanted, but that’s O.K. because I made a lot of new friends at the Kaplan center.’” So the trick is to give students practice at competition and help them develop the right mindset. “Children benefit from competition they have prepared for intensely, especially when viewed as an opportunity to gain recognition for their efforts and improve for the next time,” says Rena Subotnik of the American Psychological Association. In-class spelling bees, science fairs, and chess teams all help to build skills in handling stress productively. A student’s science project might not be the winner, the judging of their project might be stressful and scary, but the experience builds skills and performance. “Maybe the best thing about academic competitions is that they benefit Warriors and Worriers equally,” conclude Bronson and Merryman. “The Warriors get the thrilling intensity their minds are suited for, where they can shine. The Worriers get the gradual stress inoculation they need, so that one day they can do more than just tolerate stress – they can embrace it. And through the cycle of preparation, performance and recovery, what they learn becomes ingrained.” “Why Can Some Kids Handle Pressure While Others Fall Apart?” by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman in The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 10, 2013, https://nyti.ms/14EbYAG

I’ve been doing some research lately on how to make work more fun and rewarding. I realize that teachers and trainers think a great deal about incentives. But these are also great lessons for any work environment! The Marshall Memo synthesized this Education Week article by Sarah Sparks who reported interesting findings on how rewards really work! “Sarah Sparks who reported some surprising findings on classroom incentives contained in a National Bureau of Economic Research paper and research by the Center on Education Policy: Students did better when they received a reward (a trophy or cash) before taking a test. “People value something more when they have it already and they are at risk of losing it than when they don’t have it yet and it’s something to gain,” explains Sally Sadoff, a University of California/San Diego professor. “The trophy is something they can hold in their hands; it made it more salient.” None of the incentives worked if students knew they wouldn’t get the reward for a month. “All motivating power of the incentives vanishes when rewards are handed out with a delay,” the researchers concluded. This might explain why Harvard professor Roland Fryer’s 2011 experiment with offering students cash for improved standardized test scores had no impact on achievement – but paying students to read books and take quizzes did. It’s more effective to reward actions rather than results. “It’s really important to reward inputs, not outputs,” said Alexandra Usher of the Center on Education Policy. “It’s important to reward behavior that kids can control, rather than just telling them to get better grades.” “Study Suggests Timing Is Key in Rewarding Students” by Sarah Sparks in Education Week, Aug. 8, 2012 (Vol. 31, #37, p. 18), https://www.edweek.org

For a long time, I’ve been aware that Trainers don’t consider themselves Presenters. Whenever Trainers Warehouse tried to sell “presentation” products, our customers were clearly not into them. These days, as I’ve been attending a handful of conferences, I recognize that the corollary is also true — Presenters do not consider themselves Trainers. While both are trying to impart information, the goals and processes of training and presenting are quite different. I began digging a little deeper into the differences and found an article by Dr. Denise Meyerson, explaining key differences. Following is an excerpt: The Key Differences Between Presenting, Training and Facilitating “How do I know what skills sets I need to present, train or facilitate? What are the key differences between these methods?” This is a question that we are frequently asked by trainers, project managers and other senior team members. In an organisational context, these three areas do cross over fairly frequently and there are also some differences in terms of definition and application. Presenters Presenters have information and expertise They deliver in generally a one-way stream to an audience The skills sets they need revolve around use of voice, design of powerpoint sessions and body language Use of Powerpoint slides for greater effectiveness Facilitators Facilitators are not attached to an outcome They need to be able to use a series of different processes to address the content Their key area of expertise is using and applying the right processes with the group to achieve the agreed end result Trainers Trainers have a key role in enabling participants to come to their own conclusions about content Trainers need skills in a range of creative training techniques to ensure that change takes place in learners Trainers need skills in imparting knowledge that sticks with their participants and embeds into long terms memory In order to understand which skill set is required, you need to look at the ultimate outcome of what you want to achieve with your group.” by Dr Denise Meyerson The thing that’s most interesting to me is that so many presenters are satisfied with the one-way stream of communication. I wonder if it’s because of expectations, expertise, or available time. All of the brain research I’ve read suggests that people absorb information best if they participate and move around physically. So here we all are, subjecting ourselves and each other to presentation after presentation, when most of what we deliver or hear will be forgotten within a few weeks time.

I came across this joint report by the Human Capital Institute, FORUM for People Performance Management and Measurement, and IRF Incentive Research Foundation, which examines the correlation between employee recognition and improved job performance. Among the facts highlighted, this one stood out to me. It’s taken from the Tower Perrin Global Workforce Study in 2007-2008, in which 90,000 workers in 18 countries were surveyed. Organizations with high employee engagement had a 19% increase in operating income and a 28% increase in earnings per share. In contrast, companies with poor employee engagement scores had declining operating incomes and an 11% drop in earnings per share.” Employee Recognition Works! Here are some of the other high-level findings from the” Value and ROI in Employee Recognition Report,” published in 2009: Recent studies by Gallup, the Corporate Leadership Council, Towers Perrin and others show that recognition is highly correlated to improved employee engagement with both the employee’s work and organization. Increased employee engagement has a dramatic positive effect on improving job performance and capturing business value. Organizations actively seeking to improve employee engagement, including through the use of formal and informal recognition, financially outperform their competitors. Unlike compensation and incentive-based programs, recognition programs potentially can create a positive cycle of ever-increasing employee engagement and motivation, with resulting improvements in job performance related behaviors to optimum levels with a limited investment.” To download a PDF of the report, Click Here. Top 5 Recognition Awards I also, found this 2011 Employee Recognition Trends report by World At Work’s quite interesting. Based on a survey of over 5,300 members, the types of items most frequently given as recognition awards include: Certificates and/or plaques Cash Gift Certificates Company logo merchandise Food For me, the moral of both reports is to keep recognizing our employees. It doesn’t take much . . . a word of kindness, a token of appreciation, a certificate, enrollment in a professional development experience . . . the important thing is that we do it!

When I read this idea I was struck by how versatile it could be. A great way to get your group up and moving, getting to know one another, and digging into their goals or the session content. The idea is that participants create a paper aircraft. They write their name on one wing and a question or expectation on the other wing (you can tailor this to your workshop needs). The idea was posted on the “Effective and Fun Training Techniques” LinkedIN group by Nandini Nayar Sharma. The Take-Off Have the group sit in any classroom formation you like. Give them each a sheet of paper and ask them to fold their sheet into a paper airplane or aircraft. Then have them write their name on one wing, and on the other, they could write one question or expectation pertaining to the program they’re attending. Now tell the class to get their aircraft ready for take off and blow the whistle. They need to fly their planes towards each other making sure it’s not a short flight to the guy next door. It’s fun to watch the planes go all over the place, crashing, lifting up high etc. Next, explain that this was a test flight and everyone needs to pick up one aircraft each again, and this time the take-offs must be simultaneous. You can get them to do this 3 -5 times. Creates a bit of buzz and laughter in the room. Each person reads out the name and question on the aircraft and you get to the who’s who. As a trainer, you can either manage the expectations through this activity or get the aircraft fixed on the walls with blutack, informing the class that we will come back to base (the wall) during and at the end of the workshop and answer the questions asked. This helps review the learning and how well the participants have absorbed concepts etc. Another “take” on the Take-Off exercise would be to have folks write reinforcement questions on the second wing. When participants pick up an aircraft they can read off the name, question, and give their answer. If they can answer correctly, they get a point; or they can hand it off to the group for a discussion.

When I was growing up, gymnastics and skating were my passions. While I loved my sports, I always regretted never playing on a real team–the closest I got was being one of three sisters. Nowadays, I have two young boys who are completely into team sports–baseball, basketball, and soccer are among their favorites. Usually, when we arrive at the field or the gym, the energy is palpable. When a team works, it works! But like most kids, my boys have also been on teams that simply never gel. The same happened to our Boston Red Sox last summer. When that happens, nobody wins! The same is true for teams within organizations and teams of students working together. Whether you’re building a high-performing corporate team or engineering an effective learning environment, your attention to how the team forms and works together can make a huge difference in the groups’ overall success. If we use Bruce Tuckman’s model for small group development, introduced in 1965 and amended 10 years later (that’s when he added “adjourning”), I think we can improve both learning environments and team performance. Following are the characteristics of each stage: Forming (group comes together) Leader plays a crucial role Individuals roles and responsibilities are unclear as participants start testing the leader and each other Storming (conflict and polarization) Team members vie for position as they attempt to establish themselves in relation to other team members Clarity of purpose increases but plenty of uncertainties persist Cliques and factions form and there may be power struggles Norming (cohesiveness develops) Group agrees on shared goals Roles and responsibilities are clear and accepted Big decisions are made by group agreement. Smaller decisions may be delegated to individuals or small teams within group. Commitment and unity is strong Team engages in fun and social activities Performing (focus on goals) The team is able to work towards achieving the goal. Disagreements occur but now they are resolved within the team positively Roles become flexible and functional, and group energy is channeled into the task. Structural issues have been resolved, and structure can now become supportive of task performance Adjourning (break up of group) Group completes tasks and reduces dependency on each other Teams feels good about their accomplishments Team experiences the loss of breaking up and moving on Applying the Model Tuckman’s model has been widely used and analyzed. Many have reflected that the stages are neither as distinct from one another or as linear as the model suggests. For trainers and teachers, the most important takeaway is the acknowledgment that whenever we ask groups to work together (even if the task is as simple as “share your insights and report back as a group,”) they will experience the forming-storming-norming-performing stages in some form. We should consider how we can ease the early-stage challenges, so they can quickly reap the benefits of later stages of working together. In light of this model, we might: Facilitate their selection of a “leader” Help them identify goals or challenges Be clear about their purpose and process Encourage the sharing of ideas Maximize the long-term benefit of the relationships they built during the session

I’m always on the lookout for data supporting the use of playful, stress-reducing learning techniques. This article was synthesized by Kim Marshall and posted in his wonderful weekly journal, The Marshall Memo. Of the five happiness-enhancing activities listed below, the one found to have the greatest impact was to “write a positive message to someone in your social support network.” As trainers, perhaps we can build such an activity into the end of a learning session. Have participants write a positive message to someone else in their group, identifying a new idea they picked up from them. The synthesis of the article follows. How Mindset Affects Happiness – and Productivity In this intriguing Harvard Business Review article, corporate CEO and author Shawn Achor says that when anxious managers pester their employees with urgent demands and frequent meetings, they “jack up everyone’s anxiety level” and activate the part of people’s brains that processes threats (the amygdala), which steals resources from the part of the brain that handles problem-solving (the prefrontal cortex). This is why a negative management style is counterproductive: it results in unhappy employees and continuous damage to the organization’s mission. High-pressure, intrusive managers often take their cues from two misconceptions about employees’ happiness: • Misconception #1: That people attain a happy state when they’ve accomplished something worthwhile: Once I achieve my goal, I’ll be happy. This belief can make a boss demanding and uncaring about people’s feelings, thinking they’ll be happy when they’ve done good work. “In fact, it works the other way around,” says Achor. Happiness precedes success. “People who cultivate a positive mind-set perform better in the face of challenge.” • Misconception #2: That how happy people are is largely inborn – some people are naturally cheerful and some people are sourpusses. This belief leads all too many bosses to scorn the “touchie-feelie” stuff because it doesn’t make any difference. But people’s general sense of well-being is “surprisingly malleable,” says Achor. “The habits you cultivate, the way you interact with coworkers, how you think about stress – all these can be managed to increase your happiness and your chances of success.” So he urges managers to take the time and effort to create a more positive culture: “Research shows that when people work with a positive mindset, performance on nearly every level – productivity, creativity, engagement – improves.” And he says that training our brains to be more positive is not very different from training muscles at the gym: specific activities and new habits can literally rewire the brain. Working with a tax company during a very busy and stressful filing season, Achor asked employees to choose one of the following activities and do it every day for three weeks: Jot down three things you’re grateful for. Write a positive message to someone in your social support network. Meditate at your desk for two minutes. Exercise for ten minutes. Take two minutes to describe in a journal the most meaningful experience of the past 24 hours. After three weeks, researchers assessed these tax workers’ level of optimism and life satisfaction and found it was significantly higher than that of a control group – and the advantage was still there four months later. “Just one quick exercise a day kept these tax managers happier for months after the training program had ended,” says Achor. “Happiness had become habitual.” Of the five activities above, the most effective was the second – engaging positively with people in a social network. “Strong social support correlates with an astonishing number of desirable outcomes,” writes Achor. “igh levels of social support predict longevity as reliably as regular exercise does, and low social support is as damaging as high blood pressure.” This works in both directions – providing social support and receiving it. One study found that people who help coworkers who were overwhelmed by their work, pick up slack for others, invite colleagues to lunch, and organize group activities are not only happier but more successful. In another experiment, Achor asked 11,000 employees in a large health-care organization to adopt the “10/5 Way” – when they walked within ten feet of another person in the workplace, they were to make eye contact and smile. When they walked within five feet, they were to say hello. Most people complied, and this simple intervention led to measurable improvements in unique patient visits, patient recommendations, and medical-practice provider scores. “Social support appears to lead to not only happier employees but also more-satisfied clients,” says Achor. Stress is another cause of unhappiness and health problems. There are lots of stress-reduction programs, but some of them get people even more in a tizzy as they worry about all the ill effects. Achor believes that stress is an inevitable part of work – and in fact, it’s often the crucible of personal and professional growth (there’s evidence for this in the biographies of successful people). What’s important is our attitude toward stress. Achor recommends that the next time we’re feeling overwhelmed, we should make a list of the things that are stressing us out and then sort them into two groups: those we can control and those we can’t. “Choose one stress that you can control and come up with a small, concrete step you can take to reduce it,” he says. “In this way you can nudge your brain back to the positive – and productive – mind-set.” “Positive Intelligence: Three Ways Individuals Can Cultivate Their Own Sense of Well-Being and Set Themselves Up to Succeed” by Shawn Achor in Harvard Business Review, January-February 2012 (Vol. 90, #1-2, p. 100-102), no e-link available

When I was a kid, I collected buttons — not the kind you sew on clothes, but the kind with a pin on the back. I had buttons for gymnastics (my childhood passion), “Big Mac attacks,” political campaigns, you name it. I had hundreds of them. More recently, I’ve been collecting motivational quotes because trainers often need them to adorn their classrooms and motivate learners. I started my collection over 15 years ago and continue to add to it. I’ve also tried to capture “favorites” listed online by trainers and educators. Because there are so many, I hope the categories help. Attitude “Doubt is a thief that often makes us fear to tread where we might have won.” ~ William Shakespeare “The best attitude is the sense of gratitude” “If it makes you happy to be unhappy, then be unhappy.” “Life is what you make it” “Attitude not aptitude, determines altitude.” ~ Jesse Jackson “I can have any kind of day I want.” “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, …” ~ The Little Engine that Could “Enthusiasm is contagious. Be a carrier.” ~ Susan Rabin “When life give thousands of reason for struggle, just show millions way to smile.” “What I do best is share my enthusiasm.” ~ Bill Gates “My goal in life: to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.” “Life’s not about waiting for the storm to pass… It’s about Learning To Dance In The Rain.” ~ Vivian Greene “Frogs have it easy. They can eat whatever’s bugging them.” “’The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them.” “You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth”. ~ Evan Esar “Happiness is a perfume. You cannot pour it on others without getting a few drops on yourself.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson “If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes.” “Whenever you are in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.” ~ William James “Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance towards the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point.” ~ Harold B. Melchart “Laughter is a form of internal jogging. It moves your internal organs around. It enhances respiration. It is an igniter of great expectations.” ~ Norman Cousins Change “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something; build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” ~Buckminster Fuller “If you don’t change your direction you might end up where you’re going.” “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” ~Nelson Mandela “Nothing changes if nothing changes.” “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. ” ~ Anthony Robbins Communication “I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” “Good communication is when your words, your voice and your body speak the same language.” “Knowledge is power but communication is empowerment.” “The word that is spoken is never the same as the word that is heard.” Confidence “Never argue with an idiot for they will bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” “Some people will like me and some people won’t, so I might as well be myself because then I know that those who like me, really like me.” Hugh Prather “Stand for something or you will fall for anything” “If you believe, you can.” “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt “You are the difference, that MAKES the difference.” “You were born an original, don’t die a copy .” ~ John Mason Effort “Better to try and fail, than fail to try.” “The difference between ‘try’ and ‘triumph’ is just a little ‘umph’.” “Start from where you are. Work with what you have. Do what you can.” “Don’t spend too much time on the bed, because only prostitutes make money there!! Get Up.” “Excellence begins with the perfection of the basics.” Raytheon “The harder you work, the luckier you get!” “I’m like a duck: calm above the water, and paddling like hell underneath.” ~ Fred Shero “It’s not what you’ve got but what you do with what you’ve got that matters.” “Just do it” ~Nike “The mind is like the land, it gives you precisely what you give it.” In other words, “You get what you think about most of the time.” “The worst form of failure is failing to try.” “Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.” “Expect Nothing. Blame Nobody. Do Something.” “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well’.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr. “One doesn’t cross a river without getting wet.” “The biggest room is the the room for improvement.” “Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.” “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” ~ Brian Littrell Leadership “A great leader motivates people. A mediocre leader helps motivated people A bad leader helps no one. “ “The ultimate measure of a leader is not where he/she stands in moments of comfort, but where he/she stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr. “It’s difficult to inspire others to accomplish what you haven’t been willing to try.” “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” “I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that. Then I realized, I was somebody. ~ Lily Tomlin “When you’re getting kicked in the rear, it must mean you’re in front.” “First rule of leadership: to lead the orchestra, you must first turn your back on the crowd.” “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” ~Carl W. Buechner “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” ~ John C. Maxwell “Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” ~ Samuel Johnson “Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty.” ~ John D. Rockefeller “Leadership is Action, Not Position.” ~ Donald McGannon Learning “It’s what you learn after you know it all that really counts.” “Live as if you will die tomorrow; learn as if you will live forever.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi “If you think you can’t afford learning…….try the cost of ignorance!” “A smart man wants to be understood, a wise man wants to understand.” “The human mind once stretched by a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes “It’s not how smart you are, it’s how you are smart.” ~ Howard Gardner “Learning is a process not an event.” Alison Tucker, Buckman Laboratories “Learning is a treasure that follows its owner everywhere.” Unknown “Dry lectures never satisfy a thirst for knowledge.” “You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help him find it within himself.” ~ Galileo Gallilei “You can never learn less…you can only learn more.” ~R Buckminster Fuller “The only thing worse than training good employees and losing them, is not training your employees and keeping them.” ~ Zig Ziglar “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” ~ Tom Bosch /Dan Stanford “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” ~ Marcolm Forbes “It’s never too late to learn . . . and it’s never too early either.” “If you study to remember, you will forget. If you study to understand, you will remember.” “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” ~ Confucius “Learning is not a spectator sport.” ~ D. Blocher “When you’re through learning, you’re through.” ~ John Wooden “People can take away a lot of things from you . . . but they can’t take away what you’ve learned.” “You can give a person a fish and feed them for a day, or teach them to fish and feed them for a lifetime.” Proverb “Training is a process, not an event. It begins long before participants show up and continues until we see results in the workplace.” Bob Pike Motivation “If not you, who? If not now, when?” Anon “It’s better to die for something, than to live for no good reason.” “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” “You make a path by walking on it.” An African proverb “You only have one life to live, and this is no dress rehearsal!” “Do the right thing. Do it for the right reasons. Do it with the right people. Do it at the right time. do it in the right order. Do it with intensity. Do it for the right results. Do it in the right way.” “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” ~ Winston Churchill “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.” “Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is a quiet voice at the end of the day, saying… ‘I will try again tomorrow’.” ~ Mary Anne Radmacher “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” ~ Zig Ziglar “If you think you are too small to make a difference! Try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room.” Organization “Plan the work. Work the plan.” “Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” ~ Robert Schuller “If you cannot afford to do something right the first time, when can you afford to come back and redo it?” “Measure twice, and cut once!” “Spectacular achievement is always preceded by spectacular preparation.” Perseverance “Never, never, never give up.” ~ Winston Churchill “Don’t wait for your ship to come in. Row out to meet it!” ~ Unknown “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” ~ Nelson Mandela quoting Marianne Williamson “When you fall down, get up.” “The best way to have a good idea, is to have a lot of ideas.” ~ Linus Pauling “The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.” ~ Arnold Glasow “Try again.” “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” ~ James Joyce “Be like a postage stamp. Stick to it ’til you get there.” ~Harvey Mackay “Behold the turtle! He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out.”~ James Bryant Conant “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce.” “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.” ~ Mahammad Ali “A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.” ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca “Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.” ~Hal Borland Risk Taking “Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb, that’s where all the fruit is.” Mark Twain “Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still.” “Nothing great has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances.” “Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.” ~ Dalai Lama “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” ~ William Shedd “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” ~ Albert Einstein “If you risk ‘NOTHING,’ you risk ‘EVERYTHING’.” “The other side of disaster is opportunity.” “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” ~ T.S. Elliot “Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” ~ Jack Canfield “The impossible: What nobody can do until somebody does it.” “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” ~ Ken Olson, founder Digital Equipment “Sometimes you just have to take the leap and build your wings on the way down.” ~ Kobi Yamada “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” ~ Christopher Columbus “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” ~ Ken Robinson Success “Every organization is perfectly designed to get the results it is getting.” “Being open to new ideas is a universal strength of the truly successful.” “Half of being smart is knowing what you’re dumb at.”~ Solomon Short “It’s always the right time to do the right thing.” ~ Martin Luther King “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” ~ Seneca “When I play hockey I don’t skate to where the puck is; I skate to where it will be.” ~ Wayne Gretzky “Whether you think you can or think you can’t–you’re right.” ~ Henry Ford “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ~ Winston Churchill “There are many paths to the top.” “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.” “Some people dream of success . . . others wake up and work hard at it.” “Life does not consist of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.” “Even if you’re on the right track you’ll get run over by a train if you just stand there.” “Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” ~ Albert Einstein “Success each day should be measured by the seeds sown, not the harvest reaped.” ~ John Maxwell “Success comes in cans, not can’ts.” “In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt “The Road to success is always under construction.” Teams “Build bridges not walls.” “Winning is not everything; it is far better to play the game squarely and lose than to win at the sacrifice of an ideal.” ~ Andy Smith “The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.” ~ Unknown “Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional.” ~ Max Lucade “To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.” ~ Brandi Snyder Time “You may not have time in this life to do everything you want, but you have plenty of time to do what’s MOST important.” ~Sanaya Roman Additional Motivational Quotes Resources Pinterest is a great source for quotes with interesting graphics. Here’s my collection on Pinterest. Vince Lombardi has a wonderful collection of quotes covering teamwork, commitment, success, discipline, leadership, winning, excellence, mental toughness, habit, passion, and truth. 55 Inspiring Quotes with great typographical presentation

David Gibson gave me permission to share this terrific exercise on coaching and giving appropriate feedback. All you’ll need is about 12 marker pens and a box the size of a waste paper bin or the waste paper bin itself, plus 3 volunteers. Conducting the exercise is fairly simple: Ask the 3 volunteers to leave the room. Let the group know that they are to remain silent throughout the next part of the exercise. Ask Volunteer 1 to return. Give Volunteer 1 the 12 pens and ask them to close their eyes and not to re-open them until you say it’s time Place the box 3-4 meters away from your volunteer. Let the volunteer know that there’s a box in front of them and that they are to throw as many of the pens as possible into the bin. Instruct them to start (while everyone else remains silent). Thank the volunteer and ask them to take a seat. Chances are that none of the pens will actually go into the box. Now you will move on to Volunteer 2. This time . . . Tell the group of observers, “You may now offer feedback but non-specific feedback. For instance, after throw 4 you say ‘the first throw was closer,’ or ‘you throw like my grandmother,’ or ‘ nice throwing action, nice try’ (even if it isn’t). Ask Volunteer 2 to return. Give Volunteer 2 the 12 pens and ask them to close their eyes and not to re-open them until you say it’s time. Place the box 3-4 meters away from your volunteer. Let the volunteer know that there’s a box in front of them and that they are to throw as many of the pens as possible into the bin. Instruct them to start and encourage the non-specific feedback from the group. Thank the volunteer and ask them to take a seat. Chances are, again, no pens will go into the box. Time to move on to Volunteer 3. This time . . . Give the following instructions to the group of observers, “Offer specific feedback, now. For instance, ‘a little harder,’ ‘more to the right,’ ‘more to the left,’ etc. Ask Volunteer 3 to return. Give Volunteer 3 the 12 pens and ask them to close their eyes and not to re-open them until you say it’s time. Place the box 3-4 meters away from your volunteer. Let the volunteer know that there’s a box in front of them and that they are to throw as many of the pens as possible into the bin. Instruct them to start and encourage the group to give specific feedback. Thank the volunteer and ask them to take a seat. On this third try, chances are the pens started to go into the box. Debrief Ask volunteer 1 how it felt – they are likely to respond with such things as, I had no ideas where I was throwing the pens or where the box (target) was, so I just kept throwing randomly. Ask volunteer 2 how it felt – they are likely to respond with, it was a bit confusing as I was asked to repeat like throw 1 but that was 5 throws before and I couldn’t remember, I liked when they said it was nice but nice in what way, it would have been better if they could have given me specific information. Ask volunteer 3 how it felt – they are likely to respond, it was great getting specific things to try, the first throw was random but after that I felt like I was getting closer to the target with each throw and nice to have a cheer when I actually started getting the pens in the box. Ask the group to work in teams and generate a list of what great feedback should include:Expect them to come up with advice such as: feedback needs to be given or no change will happen; feedback should be specific and timely; feedback should be positive, actionable and meaningful. Thank you David for this suggestion and contribution! David Gibson is currently a Training Facilitator for Eureka’s Train-The-Training workshops at Eureka! in the UK. READ MORE ON COACHING & FEEDBACK Constructive Criticism, an Oxymoron