What Do You WantWhat Do You Want I've been having some great conversations lately exploring this question with people.   What do you want? When was the last time someone... Readmore

Your StoryYour Story Today I was coaching a client and asked the question, "What's the story you are telling yourself about that relationship?" The Story.  Yep, the story. I've... Readmore

Create A Culture of Innovation Create A Culture... I was facilitating  a workshop this morning for supervisors - front line, department directors and the like - on using innovation tools.  One of the... Readmore

Icebreaker or Exercise? It's just a word...Icebreaker or Exercise?... It's one word that can doom any successful training effort.  I was reading through some blogs today and came across an entry on Icebreakers.  It sent... Readmore

Why OrangeSlice?Why OrangeSlice? Picture a fresh cut Orange Slice.  Mmm... It's Fresh. It's Juicy. It's full of Energy and Life.  That's what we create through our events and coaching.... Readmore

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Be Olympic

This morning I saw an interview with Scott Hamilton talking about the women’s figure skating event last night.  He mentioned the phrase, 

“Be Olympic.” And then I quickly sipped my coffee and rushed out the door.

As I proceeded to be in the hum-drum of my drive, I thought, what does it mean to Be Olympic?

These 3 things will allow us to show up in a way where we can Be Olympic in the competition of our daily lives:Be Olympic

  • Find your courage - Look to the home town gal, Joannie Rochette, who’s mother past just two days before her time on the ice.  She didn’t just “show up” she is sitting in 3rd place after the short program.  How do you find your courage? If you were to be able to stand in your Courage what results might you ahceive?
  • Prepare for your moment – If you were like Aussie skater, Cheltzie Lee, you might not even have thought the 2010 Olympics would be your moment.  She got the call two weeks ago informing her she could compete after the skater from Israel was not going to be at the games.  Cheltzie skated the best short program of her life in the brightest spot light for her world. What daily habits do you have that are preparing you for your moment?  What do you still need to be doing so that when the spot light hits, it’s shining on you?
  • Get out of your own way – The Korean women in first place, Yu-Na Kim, took a nasty spill in practice the day of the short program.  A fall on her left side, from which I understand is not common and can be quite jarring – to the body and the ego. Going into her jump during the competition she let it happen – and landed it perfectly.  Where do you find yourself getting in your own way?  What landings might you stick if you could simply move yourself out of the way?

Everyday we make choices about how we show up – some conscious and some completely on autopilot and so far from our own awareness to detect that it was even a choice. How might you Be Olympic today?

Better yet, what might you get as a result?

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Your Story

Today I was coaching a client and asked the question, “What’s the story you are telling yourself about that relationship?”

The Story.  Yep, the story.

languaghappynessbook

I’ve been to a number of different personal development sessions where this concept comes out – Landmark Education, Coaching Certification, and the book Language and the pursuit of happiness.  This concept of story is something very powerful when you can just stand with it.  Live with it. Own it.  And then get to choose – how is it serving me?

Think about that relationship in your life where you might benefit from a deeper connection.  Maybe it’s your brother, you boss or barista at your favorite coffee shop.  What’s the story you have about that relationship?

Once you’ve become aware of the story that you have – get yourself clear about what it truly is. What if the story was written a different way?  (your brain might shift to autopilot and convince yourself it’s can’t possibly be another way than it currently is today, or it’s not possible to change – because they aren’t going to change!)  As a coach, I’m not really interesting in spending the time and energy around why it can’t change – I’m interested in “if you want the story to change, what can you do to rewrite it?”  Here’s how:

  1. Create the story you want to live in.  What is the story that would make you jump for joy, throw your hands up, pee your pants because – holy crap, I never knew it could be that good.  Describe that story.  Write it down.  What is the story you want to create?
  2. If you got to live in that story – what would be different for you? What does this story sound like? look like? smell like?  What does this story evoke in your heart, head and soul? (write down a few notes about this)
  3. And if you had that, what would you have? It might be a fuller relationships, a sense of letting go, peace, harmony…what else might it be for you?
  4. Move to action to live in this story.  Identify 25 things YOU will do to show up in a way that lives this new story. (BTW this list is about you, not the other person)

Doing this simple exercise to repair, renew, revive a relationship in your life might have a profound impact.  I don’t know if it ends happily ever after.  I just know today might be uniquely different from days in the story of the past.

What’s it worth to you to see how you can rewrite the stories of your life  - or better yet, what are you risking if you don’t?

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Create A Culture of Innovation

blueI was facilitating  a workshop this morning for supervisors – front line, department directors and the like – on using innovation tools.  One of the objectives for the workshop was to provide this group of leaders with tools on how to cultivate ideas from staff and create a culture of innovation. A large order for a fairly complex system where the culture can be seen as “please don’t make me change.”

I introduced Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats model to the group.  This method of idea evaluation allows participants to be comfortable approaching new ideas from their natural perspective (possibility, caution, historical-based, and everything in between) while creating a space for each of the perspectives to be valued.  Here’s how it works:

There are six different hats – each one has a color associated with it.  They are as follows:

White Hat – based on facts, figures and historical data

Red Hat – look at decisions based on gut reaction, intuition and emotion

Black Hat – this is the lens of skepticism and caution by highlighting the weak points in the idea

Yellow Hat - this hat keeps things going with the eyes on positivity and answering the question why this can happen

Green Hat – the creative juices flow while wearing this hat, new ideas, patterns and relationships start to form here

Blue Hat – known for the concern on process; this hat is usually worn by the facilitator or meeting chair

Any highly effective group would bring these perspectives to their evaluation discussion.  Usually what happens though is people get stuck in wearing the most comfortable hat – and keep it on all the time.  This might squelch conversation, derail, or shut people out in the decision making process. So that all perspectives can be heard – and even better decisions can be made – use this method the next time you need to evaluate an idea or decision.

Process Note:  Everyone must be wearing the SAME hat at the SAME point in the conversation.  Start by spending 5 minutes wearing the White Hat to evaluate your idea. Be sure everyone keeps this hat on during the first five minutes.  Next, switch the conversation and ask participants to put on the Red Hat.  And for the next 5 minutes use this hat to get at gut reactions, intuition and emotions around this idea or decision.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat with each of the remaining hats.

Notice the following during this process:

  • how the conversation changes as people change the hat they wear
  • how the energy in the rooms shifts with each switch of the hats
  • which hat you are really comfortable in
  • which hat drives you crazy to have to wear (and try to bring this perspective to your next meeting)

Using this might just increase involvement and engagement with your group because each person’s perspective is valued and can be heard by just changing hats.  What effect might this have for you and your team?

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Icebreaker or Exercise? It’s just a word…

It’s one word that can doom any successful training effort.  I was reading through some blogs today and came across an entry on Icebreakers.  It sent chills down my spine and I just froze.  ice_cubes_xs2Not really the the feel I go for when starting a workshop or retreat.  It reminded me of a Train-the-Trainers workshop I facilitated last week.  The trainers were talking about Icebreakers.  I asked them “How does your staff respond to when you engage them in an icebreaker?”

They admitted, that more times than not it was a struggle and often heard a gasp as the eyes rolled around in their group members. I through out this ideas – “what might be different if you called this an exercise?”  Hmmmm…What’s the diff?

To start:

  • Your group is going to go into autopilot and check out when they hear the dreaded “icebreaker”
  • The EXERCISE is going to be related to the content of the training.  This is where I think icebreaking goes awry.
  • I’m not going to ask you, as a participant, to do anything I hate doing as a workshop participant.  That’s a pretty good gut check for me to gauge the feasibility of any opening exercise.

One of my favorite exercises to do in the beginning of the workshop is around the learning objectives themselves.  Download the PDF Exercise for  a simple step-by-step approach to starting your next training off with a SPARK, not a deep freeze.

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