Removing Barriers to Collaboration
I know from experience that you can generate a lot of slides with a lot of info very quickly using PowerPoint. Most presenters go nuts with this tendency thinking that lots of information will make their presentations more valuable or perhaps make them look more knowledgeable or professional. In short, PowerPoint presentations tend to be [...]
Have you ever felt ‘stuck’ in a conversation with three or more people that just wasn’t going anywhere? People are droning on and on about this and that, leaving you bored and wishing you could just slip away? This is an all too familiar social situation – we’ve all been there and, chances are, we’re [...]
Like most people, I was never able to draw very well…just stick figures and scribbles. Then in my 20′s, I picked up a brilliant book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It very simply taught me to see things differently when I drew. And seemingly overnight, I was able to produce, what [...]
I still attend workshops, seminars, and speaking engagements where the presenter seems compelled to talk at the audience. Though I do believe they’re expressing a sincere desire to teach, enlighten, and inform others with the best of intentions, how often have you actually been inspired by shear quantities of information? I don’t give speeches anymore. [...]
The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play. –Arnold Toynbee– A close friend and I once attended something called The MillPond Festival in Bishop, California, that featured a rather eclectic blend of musicians from all over the US and Europe. One of several inspirations we received at this concert was presented [...]
Available distractions in facilitation and training environments are on the rise with the ubiquitous use of smartphones these days. I consistently hear challenges leaders have getting their participants to focus on the meeting versus being distracted by their laptops, cell phones, blackberries, and other culprits of multitasking. My thinking on this problem was expanded recently [...]
As we move into the end of yet another year together, I’ve been thinking about what I could share that would help to clarify and simplify our work in the world of group leadership and facilitation. It occurred to me that as life long learners, our field can get pretty complicated with all the models, [...]
This week’s article, Is Charismatic Leadership Good for Groups?, was inspired by a dialogue with my friend, Lynn Goldhammer, a Lieutenant Commander and Quality Performance Consultant in the Coast Guard. Our discussion got me questioning the value of strong, forceful, and charismatic leadership in the world of facilitation and training. It occurs to me as [...]
I once attended a seminar in Boulder with noted author, psychiatrist, and professor, Roger Walsh on Awakening Service (Karma Yoga) and Ethics. I particularly enjoyed a simple eight-step process one can use to approach life in a more awakened fashion. It occurs to me that this practice would be ideal for facilitators preparing to approach [...]
The continue with the holiday theme, I thought I’d send you something to stimulate your thinking around how you approach setting the ambiance for your gatherings. In the 1960′s, Timothy Leary coined the term “set and setting” referring to a context that influenced the outcomes of psychoactive and psychedelic drug experiments on his subjects. “Set” [...]
Recent Comments