My New Year’s Resolution to do something new everyday garners interesting reactions. Some question my rules. (What happens if you skip a day, do you have to make it up? Do you plan them out a week ahead of time? You did three different kinds of different puzzles, does that really count as three things […]
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My approach to New Year’s Resolutions for 2014 has been heavily influenced by the book I Dare Me by LuAnn Cahn. For an entire year, Cahn did something new every day – something she had either never done before in her life, or had not done since childhood. I’m not sure why this idea has […]
I spent all day Saturday doing landscaping work with my cohousing neighbors. I actually don’t like gardening all that much. I have very little experience or knowledge, having lived all my adult life in trailers, apartments, and condos. But the foliage was threatening to take over and so the troops were assembled and armed with […]
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In a previous post, I shared a list of Twenty Declarations – things I absolutely know to be true. I’ve added to them over time: 21. Ain’t no way out but through! 22. Don’t pre-plan your bummers. 23. You can’t think outside the box if you don’t know what box you’re in. 24. Creating and […]
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Meetings and presentations are a necessary part of doing business; too often they are dry, boring, unfocused, or simply unproductive. Gain a strategic edge by sharing your vision and creatively engaging your audience using visual facilitation tools. Why rely on words and text for so much of our group work and communication when 75 percent […]
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Some interesting research indicates that our body posture and movement affects our behavior. For example, expansive body postures – like standing tall with with hands on your hips – increases confidence and assertiveness. One study showed that people who hunched over a smart phone or tablet exhibited less assertive behavior immediately afterward than those who […]
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I continue to think about the definition and use of this word safety, which we facilitators are charged with creating and maintaining. (See previous post here.) A family camping trip this past weekend gave me opportunities to consider the issue in a different context. We camped in the woods near a large lake; swimming, fishing […]
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In a recent post I wrote about the role of discomfort in group dynamics. Trying something new is generally not comfortable. Trying to communicate in a different way is not comfortable. Finally digging in and dealing with hard stuff that you’ve been avoiding is not comfortable. A certain level of discomfort can be necessary for […]
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I love this blog post on creating trust within your workplace; the author’s key point is that if you act as though your workers are trustworthy – assuming positive intent, not micromanaging them, allowing them to make decisions – they are more likely to BE trustworthy than if you are continually vigilant for signs of […]
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