Training Tips and Ideas 

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Why use visual aids?

Tips For Using Flip Charts

Use Brightly colored markers.

Break away from traditional red, green, blue and black markers.

General Color Rule - No more than three per page.

Always print letters two to three inches high. If your using a marked flip chart, capital letters should be three squares high, lower case letters should be two squares high.

Underline or change color for emphasis.

Limit each page to one topic, key idea or phrase.

Condense participants responses (a perfect way to clarify) before you put it on the paper.

Use abbreviations where possible. Write notes for yourself lightly in pencil. This will help you keep on track. Leave a blank sheet of paper between visuals that are pre-prepared.

Use Clear or masking tape tabs or paper clips to flag key pages so you can easily refer to them.

Always use flip chart paper that has graph paper lightly printed on it. It's a sure fire way to keep your lines straight and your letters the same size.

As a general rule red should only be used to highlight. It is hard to see if you are color blind!

Lessons From Geese

 

Lessons from Geese we had thought was transcribed from a speech given by Angeles Arrien at the 1991 Organizational Development Network and was based on the work of Milton Olson. However in our research we found  on: http://suewidemark.com/lessonsgeese.htm that Lessons from the Geese, was actually written in 1972 by Dr Robert McNeish of Baltimore. Dr McNeish, for many years a science teacher before he became involved in school administration, had been intrigued with observing geese for years and first wrote the piece for a sermon he delivered in his church.

 

Sue Widemark offers her scientific research behind each fact. If you like the story , we encourage you to read more on her site.

 

Fact One: As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird following it. By flying in a V-formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if it flew alone. That’s a fact. Seventy-one percent greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they’re going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the trust of one another.

Fact Two: Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stay in formation with those who are headed where we want to go and be willing to accept their help, as well as give ours to others. 

Fact Three: When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position.

Lesson: it pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. With people as with geese, we are interdependent on each other’s skills and capabilities and unique alignments of gifts, talents, and resources.

 

Fact Four: The geese in a formation honk from behind to encourage those in front to keep up their speed.

Lesson: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging and not something else. In groups where there is great encouragement against great odds, the production is much greater - the power of encouragement. At the center of encouragement is “courage,” and the root of courage is a Latin word that means “heart.” Maybe honking strengthens the heart.

 

Fact Five: When a goose gets sick, or wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it is either able to fly again or dies. Then they launch out on their own with another formation or catch up with the flock.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we too will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong. 

Oxymorons

Government Organization	Alone Together	Personal Computer
Working Vacation	Tax Return	Healthy Tan
Same difference	Living Dead	Taped Live
Plastic Glasses	Tight Slacks	Peace Force
Virtual Reality	Dodge Ram	Work Party
Microsoft Works	Long Shorts	Business Casual
Cold Sweat	Artificial Intelligence	Nothing Much
Almost Done	Young Adult	Silent Scream
Almost Perfect	Instant Classic	Modern History
Deafening Silence	Jumbo Shrimp	Non-dairy Creamer
Definite Maybe	Least Favorite	Old News
Friendly Takeover	Military Intelligence	Only Choice
Good Grief	Minor Miracle	Pretty Ugly
Same Difference	Silent Scream	Sweet Sorrow
Tragic Comedy	War Games

 

The Cookie Thief

 

By Valerie Cox in "A Matter of Perspective"

 

Source: Chicken Soup For The Soul, copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

A woman was waiting at the airport one night,

With several long hours before her flight.

She hunted for a book in the airport shop,

Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

 

She was engrossed in her book, but happened to see,

That the man beside her, as bold as could be,

Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between,

Which she tried to ignore, to avoid a scene.

 

She read, munched cookies, and watched the clock,

As the gutsy "cookie thief" diminished her stock.

She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,

Thinking, "If I wasn’t so nice, I’d blackened his eye!"

 

With each cookie she took, he took one too.

When only one was left, she wondered what he’d do.

With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh,

He took the last cookie and broke it in half.

 

He offered her half, as he ate the other.

She snatched it from him and thought, "Oh brother,

This guy has some nerve, and he’s also rude,

Why, he didn’t even show any gratitude!"

 

She had never known when she had been so galled,

And sighed with relief when her flight was called.

She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate,

Refusing to look back at the "thieving ingrate."

 

She boarded the plane and sank in her seat,

Then sought her book, which was almost complete.

As she reached in her baggage, she was gasped with surprise.

There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes!

 

"If mine are here," she moaned with despair,

"Then the others were his and he tried to share!’

Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,

That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief!

 

 All I Ever Really Needed To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

 

From: All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

 

Published by Ballantine Books 1993

 

"All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sand pile at Sunday School.

These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life ~ learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - Look.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together."

 

The Parachute Story

 

 by Charles Plumb  http://www.charlieplumb.com/

 

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason.

Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate, was a jet fighter pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal

and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.

The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept pondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform - a Dixie cup hat, a bib in the back, and bell bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said good morning, how are you or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor."

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory- he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety. 

His experience reminds us all to prepare ourselves to weather whatever storms lie ahead. As you go through this week, this month, this year...recognize the people who pack your parachute.

 

IQ Test

 

Is there a Fourth of July in England?
Yes, it comes after the third of July!

How many birthdays does the average man have?
1 Just one!

Some months have 31 days; how many have 28?
12, all of them!

How many outs are there in an inning?
6, three per side!

Is it legal for a man in California to marry his widow's sister?
No - because he is dead!

Divide 30 by 1/2 and add 10. What is the answer?
70, (30 divided by 1/2 equals 60! Takes some thinking.....

If there are 3 apples and you take away 2, how many do you have? 2, you took them, remember?

A doctor gives you three pills telling you to take one every half hour. How many minutes would the pills last?
60 - Start with the 1st pill, 30 minutes later take the 2nd, then 30 minutes for the 3rd.

A farmer has 17 sheep, and all but 9 die. How many are left? 9

How many animals of each sex did Moses take on the ark?
0. Moses didn't have an ark, Noah did!

How many two cent stamps are there in a dozen? 12. There are 12 2 cent stamps in a dozen!

 

Click here now for a test without the answers that you can use in class.

 

Put Fun to Work and Boost Morale  ~ By Donna Cutting

 

 

Glance around at your employees. Do they look relaxed and happy or stressed, bored and disgruntled? Are they smiling or grimacing? Is your company culture burning them out or firing them up?

If you want higher morale and lower staff turnover, it’s time for you to put FUN to work on the job! Smart companies know that a little playfulness at work can provide a spirited environment that is conducive to productivity, creativity, and ultimately, profitability. 

How do you bring some joy to the job? Spice up your Atmosphere, check your Attitude, and show some Appreciation.

Atmosphere

 

There are several ways you can create an atmosphere that sets the tone for fun. Start with the decor. What does your employee break room look like? Does it send an “I care” message, or does it say “ I couldn’t care less”? Let your team members paint their room the color of their choice. Add cheerful table cloths. Stock the refrigerator and cupboards with condiments, sugar, salt, pepper, and utensils. A filled toy box and some cartoons on the wall can make this the perfect place for employees to unwind and let off some steam. Likewise, toys placed on your desk or elsewhere in the office serve to let your employees know that it’s okay to lighten up and laugh at work.

Company celebrations go a long way towards creating an energizing environment. Southwest Airlines is famous for it’s celebratory corporate culture. Kevin and Jackie Friegberg, authors of Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success maintain that CEO Herb Kelleher and his employees have “Dressing for costume parties down to an art form.” This practice, among others, has landed Southwest Airlines a top five spot within Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list for four years in a row.

Celebrate company successes, personal achievements, holidays, birthdays, and anything else you can think of. 

According to the company’s website, employees of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream have even celebrated Barry Manilow’s birthday.

Attitude

 

All of the trinkets and parties in the world do not mean a thing if they aren’t coupled with a caring and respectful attitude. One employee shares that the company she worked for held an elaborate staff appreciate lunch. The problem was, however, that most of the managers neglected to tell their staff members about it. Throughout the lunch hour, half of the company’s employees continued to walk right past the buffet table, assuming it was a marketing event, only to discover, too late, that it was meant for them. Needless to say, they felt less than appreciated.

Ask yourself these questions: Do I let my staff know they are valued? Are they empowered to make decisions and supported when they need help? Do my Leadership practices build better teams or divide and conquer? Better yet, don’t just ask yourself. Ask your staff. 

 

Appreciation

 

Studies continually show the number one incentive desired by employees is appreciation for a job well done. Take a tip from three Tampa Bay supervisors, and communicate your thanks creatively.

One director of a housekeeping department buys lottery tickets for her staff whenever the pot is large. She also bought T-shirts for her crew that read “We Really Clean Up”. The shirts are proudly worn every “Casual Friday”.

The Administrator of a large retirement community often requires her department heads to work overtime for special events. However, the following week the staff in question will find a small gift on their desk with a coupon for a “Free Day Off’. Knowing that their boss understands their time is valuable, the employees don’t complain about having to work extra hours on occasion.

Another company has a mobile appreciation plaque. Every Monday morning at the staff meeting, employees vote on who should receive the award to display on their desk for the week.

It’s not difficult to add fun to your workplace. Just pay attention to Atmosphere, Attitude and Appreciation and watch spirits and productivity soar.

The article Put Fun to Work and Boost Morale was written by Donna Cutting.

 

Donna Cutting, President and CEO (Chief Experience Officer) of Donna Cutting Presents!, is a nationally recognized expert in employee engagement and extraordinary customer service. A stage actress turned author and professional speaker, Donna helps leaders create places where employees get Standing Ovations and customers get Star Treatment.

 

She is the author of The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Red Carpet Customer Service, published by Wiley.

 

You can reach her through her web site at www.donningcutting.com

 

 From our Spring 2001 Newsletter

 

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