Can’t decide over which idea to implement – which program to plan next? Or do you need a tool to help your staff decide on the various ideas they throw your way? Here’s a simple formula…

Yep, maybe the image of the Pink Panther can really help us to decide whether we should move ahead with this idea or program or abort the mission.

Take your idea.

Now ask yourself – or your staff: What’s Positive about implementing this idea? Overall what’s it going to get us if we actually did this one?

Next…what’s Interesting about this idea? Hmmm…this is really going to get us to think – why are we choosing this over something else. It’s also looking at the unique-factor of this single idea.

Then…what’s Negative about this idea? Okay, here’s where it hits the fan. This question isn’t meant to stop us in our tracks – or kill the big idea people in your group. It just needs to provide us a dose of reality for what we might expect.

And lastly…what are the Consequences? Break the mold – this can be negative or positive…trick your brain and start to drum up the positive consequences you might experience by choosing this one. Then flip the coin and go after the negative consequences.

This quick decision-making method can be useful to do in small groups – each one preparing a separate poster (or list) for all four PINK elements – or if time is of the essence, give each group one letter to tackle P-I-N-or K…and then do a large debrief.

At the end of it – you’ll know you’ve taken into important elements that can guide you to a better decision. Who knows, you just might starting seeing PINK!

Today I facilitated a workshop for a group of directors.  I seem to be challenged at times when people don’t want to recognize the choices available.  At times, some really feel comfort and, can I say joy, in being helpless.  When this shows up in a workshop – I can’t just let it go.  I need to bring it out and really just throw it on the table – so we can talk about it.  And I really get where this is uncomfortable to talk about, because misery loves company which is about talking about the other choices – beyond misery – we might have.  It’s not the type of company I care to keep, let alone enable. 

Today’s session provided for a really great opportunity to think about work and the choices one makes – or chooses not to make.  If we can talk about the difficult choices – like simply doing nothing, or choosing another job – doesn’t that empower us?  Empower us because we have choices?  

I hope that it does, because what I can’t hear, is “i have no choice, no matter what I do things won’t change.”  I don’t know about you, but this stops us in our tracks and puts us right back into that default future.   And then, yes, you get to be right – nothing will change.

Is that what you want? Not me, I choose to play a different game. One where there are options – all of them, even the ones I don’t want to say out loud exist.  That’s the game I play.  How about you?

Ever wish you could create a life worth living?  A life that is full of joy?

A life that is best described:  Juicy?

Create Your Juicy Life is a practical, hands-on approach to creating just that – a life that is full, ripe and delicious!

For a limited time, I am offering the first section of this new book online to you FREE.  Simply complete the contact form with your name and email and I’ll gladly send it your way.  I can’t wait for you to start designing YOUR juicy life.

In this book, you will be provided with exercises to create your juicy life.  Take stock of your current reality – and then CHOOSE.  Notice. and Act.

This book is great if you are feeling stuck, need a nudge, or just want to experience more joy in your life.

If you could get more JOY in your life – what might that be like?  Well, now you have some practical tools to use to answer the question – and EXPERIENCE the answer.

During a board of directors retreat I was facilitating on using Social Media technology we got into some great conversation. This group was embarking on how to best incorporate social media into their current marketing efforts.  You and your organization might be debating this same question,

“What if something better than (insert whatever tool you might be thinking of using) comes along?”

The questions need to be more about strategy than tools.

1. Decide whether or not to play in the Social Media sandbox.
2. Determine your purpose for answering Yes or No.
3. Then let’s look at tools to use.

Too often times the conversation shifts to using Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn without any clear purpose.  And then it’s tainted by our personal filters for how we engage – or not – using these tools.

The exercise I did with the board two-fold.  The first part was to have them take a flip chart paper and divide it into 2 columns.  On the left hand side:  How are we communicating to our clients today? The second column:  How do they want to be hearing from us? These simple questions led to a productive conversational shift in how to best get the message to your audience.

The second part of the exercise is here.  Download the  Social Media PDF Exercise
to use with your group.

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.  Not 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.

Spend a winter in Minnesota.

It was in the elevator at work today that I heard a colleague say “Isn’t it a great day out today?”  I’ve spent the last number of years in MN so I eagerly nodded and said, “Yes, it’s amazing what the bright sun and crisp glare of fresh snow can have on a day.”  That, and we both loved that it was 35 degrees today.  Yes, 35 degrees (F)!

Why is it, if you are reading this in sunny SoCal, you must think we have lost our minds.

Or, if this was June, and all things being the same:   35 degrees, sunny with fresh dusting of snow – I’d sound like a loon.

It’s all a matter of perspective – we simply got too comfortable in the deep freeze. And it wasn’t until we could thaw out that we could shift our perspective and see something from a different point of view.

Want to add some new ideas, new way of looking at things – shift your perspective.

Ask yourself these questions to glimpse into a new perspective:

• What would someone from Minnesota say about that?
• How might Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsey Vohn approach it? (also from MN)
• What might the courageous you say to this?
• How might (insert anyone other than yourself) do in this situation?

and let their perspective shape yours.  Who’s perspective would you like to learn from?

I was recently facilitating a FISH! for Schools session for 100 staff and educators and one person said, “this is great, but it just won’t work because we don’t have the support.” Legitimate concern from someone experiencing a change.  An obstacle. A roadblock.  You might even say resistance.

My response was, “You know what, you get to be right.”

That’s the funny thing with attitude.  We DO get to be right – each and every time.  If you believe it “won’t work” and “we don’t have support” you will undoubtedly find 59 ways between now and tomorrow to reinforce your point of view. And then, yep, you get to be right.

The same thing works if you said, “This is really easy, I can see how this fits.”  And yep, you too get to be right.  You will also find 59 ways to reinforce your belief.  That’s the crazy thing about our beliefs we will work really hard to prove ourselves right.

I’m not asking you to be pollyanna.  Just be USEFUL.  Is what you have chosen useful?  If yes – keep it.  If no, choose again.

Whichever attitude we choose to wear, there is going to be great comfort in that.  It’s like your favorite sweatshirt, it feels so good. The best thing about attitudes, is we can change it – just like that sweatshirt.

Try it out.  Today, choose to believe your day is going to really hard, rough and tough.  Just for the next couple hours, see how many times that can be reinforced.  Then just before your breaking point, CHOOSE to believe that the rest of your day is going to an absolute piece of cake, everything is going your way, and it’s really effortless.  And then, just be aware.  (a good clue is going to be watching all the traffic lights greet you with the bright glow of green!).

What will you choose?

ps…you’ll get to be right!

A while back, this question was posted on LinkedIn and I shared the following”

“I need to be totally engaged! For me this is about setting goals in the beginning of any learning program – classroom, self help CDs I listen to in my car – What do I truly want from this experience. I need to engage not just my mind, but the body. Get up moving. Try it out. Experiment. Run around – if applicable. Lastly, I need a group or cohort. Someone to bounce ideas off of, learn from and challenge my thoughts on ideas. This is key for me – both as a learner and facilitator. I believe the CONTENT of learning is created by the participants. With this belief, as a facilitator, I try to model what I need and encourage others to tell me what they need. This is where the juicy content and learning emerge. And then…it sticks!”

How do you learn?  What engages you?

I facilitated a workshop today for 200 teachers and administrators in PA using the FISH for Schools curriculum.  Teaching educators how to engage students in a way that makes them feel safe, involved, and ready to learn.

During the mid-afternoon break – I called this the Make The Difference break and set the intention for the next 15 minutes.  The intention was that everyone would be able to enter the room and in some way, shape or fashion would have had their day made.  I let the group know I was going to ask them when they came back from the Make The Difference break who was able to have their day made.

This was going to take ACTION. The kind of simple action that literally can change the way you and I think about things.  It’s the kind of action – that also heightens our awareness to the very presence of noticing and being aware.  So for the next 15 minutes educators and administrators buzzed about.  This was different.  I could feel something happening.  I felt the energy shift, but I didn’t know if the intention could be realized.

When people came back in the room.  I asked them to stand up if there day had been made, if someone engaged them differently over this break than before, did someone notice and make an effort with you.  And – really, to my surprise as this was the first time I tried this exercise -  200 people rose to their feet.

200 people decided to act. When I asked, “what occurred?”  one participant stood up and said I decided I was going to make the difference for people.  And it happened. By a simple decision to CHOOSE.

And 200 people noticed a difference that was made – in just 15 minutes.  Can you imagine the impact this can have on a district of kids?  Can you imagine the impact this can have on us all? And it stemmed from a simple CHOICE.

Take your own Make The Difference break today.  See what happens. Create that intention for you and those around you.  What do you have to lose?

Better yet, what do you have to gain!

Yesterday afternoon I got the chance to work with a group on Creativity. Spending Friday afternoon learning tools and methods for idea generation and evaluation. Seems like heavy lifting for late in the week. One of the concepts I discussed was the idea of adding Improv into the workplace. 

Using Improv in our daily lives to improve can be as easy as a set up to a very skilled comedian.  I find the more I can practice the skills of saying, “Yes, and” the better off I am of being more creative and productive in life.  Adding the every popular, “Yes, and” vs. the “Yeah, BUT.”  But stops the story every time. It doesn’t allow for idea generation or creativity. 

Here’s how you start:

Suspend your judgment.  

Easier said than done?  Not really if you are focused on truly listening to what is being said.  

Approach the conversation with a “build on” attitude.  

New ideas start with just a single thought, great ideas take that down the road a bit and build on it.  

Don’t let it end.  

Open yourself and your language up to discovering multiple options and possibilities.  Practice by saying, “Yes, and!” Catch yourself – or just note when others blurt out – “but.” 

Take it further now:

• What in your life can benefit from a little Improv? 
• Where have you said, “Yeah, but” in your life? 
• What would be the benefit of giving this a little “Yes, and” approach the next time around?
• What new things could you discover if you let yourself?