It Could Be Worse

Here is a lively icebreaker that focuses on the power of the negative word.

Participants form a circle.
The first person states something fairly negative "I have a broken tooth."
The next person says "It could be worse, it could be infected."
The third person carries on in this vein, "It could be worse, it could be turning black in your mouth."

Play the game around the circle as far as you can.

How I Would Use This
I think what makes this activity fun is the creative approach participants make as they make up worse and worse scenarios. After a few rounds I would bring the topic around to the discussion of the negativity spiral.

10 Answers Continued

Now I am going to try one again about a dish that I make to take to parties. Let see how it goes.

I would have a picture of this dish I make, or actually the dish itself.

1. Me.
2. Mostly eggplant.
3. No, too many people are allergic to them.
4. Just roast and mash.
5. Bits of French bread or maybe crackers.
6. Not very well. I like to make it and serve it within about 2 days.
7. Not when you get them on sale.
8. About 6 people
9. Sure, I will email it to you.
10. That's why I brought it.

So you see how this 10 answer activity works. As you read over the answers you try to think of the questions the person might be asking.

I think you could have a lot of fun with this in a training setting.

See the post Pergo and Me for the original idea.

Pergo and Me

Pergo is a flooring company. They have the coolest ad in which they feature 10 answers to questions. The thing is, the questions are missing,so when you read the ad, your mind automatically tries to forumlate the questions. Let me illustrate.

There is a picture of a lovely home with what looks to be a gorgeous wood floor. Across the page read 10 answers, here are the first three:

1. Despite appearances, no, it isn't.
2. Something altogether different: laminate. Remarkable suff.
3. Tougher, easier care, and you don't have to have a rich uncle to afford it.

So I thought I would try this myself. I am going to try it about my book Wizbangers.
So I would have a picture of the cover of the book and the following ten answers.

Wizbangers

1. Over 101 Wizbangers, how to use them and how to apply them.

2. Short snappy activities to energize your session.

3. Anyone really, but it is especially useful for speakers, trainers and facilitators, really anyone who ever does presentations.

4. How to energize the room in just a few short minutes.

5. Only a few simple materials that can be found around the house.

6. Not really, I mean I learned how to do them all, and if you practice a bit, you will really master them.

7. Well I did. Myself and a friend of mine who is a magician called Ken Bellemare. We had a lot of fun doing it too.

8. You can call me at 604 874-7390 or you can go to my website at www.calderonconsulting.com and look under products. That would be super.

9. Quite a few. We keep getting people borrowing them from their friends and then breaking down to get their own.

10. Only 24.95 US plus shipping and handling, and I will sign you up for a super newsletter full of ideas (only if you want)

The Eyes Have It

http://www.arseiam.com/fx/08.htm


I have never quite seen an effect like th eone in the site above. Very clever and a wonderful way to pass the time.

Stress and Six

http://www.vsg.edu.au/grafndx/weird.htm

Try this idea. You are basically coming up with a number and then coming up with an answer. so try it.

Now have you done it?

Let's talk about it.

How I Would Use This
When your mind is under great stress it seeks the simplest, most obvious solutions. This makes me think that working under stress may not help us be our most creative. So sit back, have a glass of wine, put the problem you are dealing with on the back burner and let your mind go. Now the answer of solution has a chance of coming forth from the fertile fields of your brain and not from the barren landscape that stress creates.

"Just as a dog guards a bone safely between its paws when not actively chewing it, creative people nurture an idea even when not actively thinking about it… Creativity does not result from mysterious visions that come in dreams, or from fortuitous circumstances. Creativity and persistence are synonymous. Constantly thinking about the problem, consciously and unconsciously, maximizes the possibility that a chance occurrence is likely to be useful in solving it." – Dr. Richard Cytowic, neurologist

This last quote comes from a wonderful newsletter I get called MondayMorningMemo@WizardAcaademy.com

Plop, Plop, Fizz Fizz

I read an interesting tidbit at a website the other day. I think we can take the point and re-apply it ina number of ways. Here is teh site and here is what they wrote http://wwkippy.proboards40.com/index.cgi?board=Mind


"The first thing I want to say is to make a remark about the process of habit-changing in general.

Here it is: LESS IS MORE.

Most people on a mission (say, to lose weght) fail because they take on too much, too fast, and like a Speedy Alka Seltzer tablet, fizzle out in no time.

The way to make permanent change is to make small changes, slowly, one at a time."

How I Would Use This

I like the idea of habit changing here and think it would apply to all kinds of situations. How about learning new skills, or bringing in new management techniques too fast, too different, how about getting all fire up about a new technology and try to introduce it too fast.

So grab an Alka Seltzer over this holiday season and try this for yourself. See what ideas you come up with.

Thumb Sucking Candy

http://www.bpmlegal.com/wthumb.html

The human mind is a wonderful thing, as evidenced by this website of weird and wacky patents. My favourites are the birthing table and the thumb sucking candy.

What we can create in our minds we can create. The question is "was that a good idea?"

How to Perform Strong Man Stunts

http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Coulter/Stunts/stunts-intro.htm

Here is a really old book called How to Perform Strong Man Stunts. The pictures are great, all muscled up men doing terribly strong things.

Now I can't say if these really work or if they are even safe, but it sure it interesting to read the instructions for these stunts.

Seems to me there is a little "scientific advantage" tip in each of them.

Happy Reading and don't strain your muscsles.

Handle With Care

Do you smash or mince your garlic when you cook? There's a difference?
You see garlic has volatile oils in it and when you crush that garlic the oils are released. As garlic's cell walls are smashed, its oils react with its natural enzymes, and the smell and taste become exceedingly strong. Is that a good thing? It might be if you are using the garlic right away because it will have a good strong flavour. But if these oils get on your hands it can be a bad thing because they become rancid and really stink.

When you mince or chop garlic, the oils aren't violently forced out but are left to slowly season your food as its cooks.

Who knew? So if you are using your garlic right away mince it tiny for salads and such. If you are cooking it a while you can leave it in bigger chunks.
As a rule, the more aggressively garlic is handled, the more aggressive and short-lived its flavour.


How Would I Use This

I don't talk about garlic very often, but I do find that everyone has their own method of preparing it. That last line, the more aggressively garlic is handled, the more aggressive and short-lived its flavour is food for thought.

There are times in life when we want an aggressive response from something or someone, but other times when we want to let people mellow to an idea. Knowing the secret in the set up, either with garlic or with people can make all the difference.

Concentration Games

This week I have led four workshops for student teachers trying to get ideas across about community building. There is one activity I use based on that old card game called Concentration or Memory that is a sure fire winner.

The great thing about this game is that you can adjust the content to fit just about any topic.

Here is how it works.

All the cards (say 24) are placed face down on a table.
Two teams of perhaps 3 - 4 people on a team.
One team turns over two cards to see if they match. (more about cards in a minute)
If they match they win the cards IF AND ONLY IF they can connect what is written on the cards to the topic of the workshop.
Next team plays.
Repeat until all the cards are gone.

So let's see how this works. I labelled the cars in twos with such words as CRIME, HOUSING, CULTURE, PARKS, RECREATION, TRANSPORTATION

Then I asked that when the cards were turned over the team had to state how the word related to the topic of the workshop - Population Growth. So, let's say a team turns over the cards that say Transportation. Well that's easy - with more people come more cars. But now the tricky part. Not only do they have to state one connection that in this case is negative, but they also have to come up with a positive. Let's try again - Transporation - Negative - more people more cars, Positive - Better subway systems and buses.
Get the idea!

So that's it in a nutshell. The teams have a lot of fun trying to remember where all the cards are, and usually whoop with delight when they find a match. Then they spend a bit of time in discussion about the topic.

If you want more details about this game please email me at
debacalderon@yahoo.com

Have a great weekend all.

Calm and Angry Face

http://www.ianrowland.com/MiscPages/Mrangryandmrscalm.html


Now this is just plain fun. These two faces change expression as we move closer and further away.

How I Would Use This

First impressions aren't always right OR

How you see something depends upon where you stand.

It's All In The Name

Bet you've used a Q-tip in your time, right? Me, I have used a few thousand. Anyways, who invented this product and why? But the most important question is why are they called Q-tips? Who was Q?

Check out this fascinating website to find out how finding the right name for a product or service can really make the difference.

http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/q-tips/index.html

You'll never look at your Q-tips the same again.

Square Wheels

If your bicycle had sqaure wheels how useless would that be!!
Well not entirely useless, in fact, it might come in handy sometimes.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040403/mathtrek.asp

This articles shows you how a bike with square wheels is a great success on a particular roadbed.

What I Would Do With This

This makes me think that sometimes we reject an idea outright. Square wheels indeed, how stupid! And that is the end of the idea. But sometimes an idea isn't presented for the particular problem it can overcome.

These square wheel bicycles can come in handy when the terrain is rough and bumpy.
So never rule out a solution, just because you can't immediately see how it might be applied.

I've Been Framed

One of the simplest, cheapest props out there is the simple picture frame. There are so many ways to use one in a presentation. Here are two ideas.

1. Communication Skills
When teaching people that their presentations need a beginning, a body and a conclusion I like to hold up a picture frame to illustrate this concept.

2. Inide the Frame
There is a saying, you can't see the picture if you are in the frame. Use a prop to illustrate this and then discuss how sometimes it is important to just step back to see the whole picture. When we are inside the frame, we are a little too close to the action to be neutral or to capture the big ideas.

So pick up a frame, hold it in your hands, and just see what ideas come to you.

Albert Einstein Follows My Every Move

http://www.grand-illusions.com/einstein.htm

This is an illusion of Albert Einstein's head. You put it in the light in your office and amazingly the whole face follows you as you move around. Download the video if you want to get a good look at it.

I don't know how I would use this, but it would be great to buy one and then work it into a presentation. Sometimes that is how it is; you see a prop that you are enchanted with and just wait for a place to use it.

Sunflowers and Support

I am working on a new book called, What's the Object. It is a book to teach you how to use props in training and presenting. I think you will like it. I was working on an idea for using a sunflower, or a picture of a sunflower and talking about how it follows the sun. But when I did a little research I found that it didn't exactly follow the sun all its life and now I know why. You will too if you read on.

Bring in a sunflower head (or a picture of one).

Most people believe that the sunflower follows the sun from morning to night. That isn't quite so. When the sunflower is small and in the budding stage it needs to track the sun every day, it needs the warmth, the support and the power of the sun. But when it comes into its own, full flowering with its glorious yellow petals, it can stand by itself. The cells in its stem lock and the sunflower no longer needs to track the sun from morning to night. Instead it faces east to get the sun in the morning and then stays in that direction all day. In this way it protects itself from looking full face into the sun in the hottest part of the day.

How I Would use This
In many ways when we start out doing this job (fill in your content here), we need the support that our mentors give. It isn't uncommon to follow them around, do what they do, track their ideas through the day. But given a little time, we can find that we can stand on our own two feet and do the job with just a little help.

(Now the trick is to fill in with content of your own, may I suggest a few topics - child rearing, telephone support, relationships, etc.)

A Solemn Promise

Here is a way that I inject a bit of humour and energy into the housekeeping phase of my workshops.

When I am telling the group about the structure of the day I say this:

"We will be finished by 4 o'clock. You have my solemn promise on that. If we finiish any later, and I mean, even one minute later, I will take each and every one of you to Starbucks for the coffee of your choice."

This gets a good laugh. Then I really do watch the clock. As the workshop comes closer to 4 oclock the group will often remind me with a chuckle - "hey Deb, it's nearly Starbucks time." I enjoy the banter.

Now, what happens if it looks like I am going overtime?

In this super rare circumstance I tell the group that the workshop is over as I promised, but those who want to stay behind for more discussion, ideas, etc. are more than welcome to.

It works for me.

Draw It Out

I use this activity in an educator's workshop that focuses on sustainability and community, but it can certainly be adapted.

-Give each person a piece of paper and a felt pen.
-Give them two minutes only to create a symbol, icon or diagram that illustrates (insert your content here)
For example: You have two minutes to draw a symbol or icon of how you feel about the community you live in. It can be a negative or positive feeling, just pop it down in a symbol or icon. Drawing skills don't apply. Please don't write any words or letters.

-Then have the group divide into small groups and hold up their papers to show others in the group The others guess where the person lives.

Debrief:

Who had a symbol that no one figured out?
Who lives in the same community? Let's see your symbols. How are they the same, how are they different. (example: one person has a tree and another has a used syringe)
What do all the symbols tell you about this group?

Now I can see using this activity for a variety of tasks:

your job, your reason for being in the workshop, direction in life, computer skills that you already have, concern you have etc.

Try it, you might like it. Just remember limit the time to a few minutes and use big fat felt pens so the participants don't get hung up on artistic abilities or lack thereof.

What a Fascinating Bunch of People

Here is a simple icebreaker that gets things rolling and allows the group to learn a little about each other. You will need a few details about some of the participants in advance to create your list.

Read the list aloud, one item at a time. When someone in the group hears something that applies to them they come up to you and get a small miniature candy bar for a prize. Often more than one person will come up for the same category. Adjust the ideas to suit each group.

1. Was born in Moose Jaw.

2. Has a cat that was adopted.

3. Has worn a bow tie.

4. Is wearing an watch that they were given by their dad.

5. Has six or more siblings.

6. Has lost their luggage while travelling.

7. Likes sardines.

8. Was born on May 11.

9. Has run out of gas on a highway.

10. Has put dishwashing liquid accidentally into the dishwasher.

11. Has been a witness at a marriage.

12. Has visited Newfoundland.

13. Sews their own clothing.

14. Has sung a solo in front of more than 20 people.

15. Is the eldest in their family.

17. Has ridden in a helicopter.

18. Has gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel. *(just for laughs)

19. Has something in their freezer that is over 2 years old.

20. Has children that are twins.

21. Has seen the Rolling Stones in concert.

22. Drives a car with a standard shift.

23. Has had something they have written read on the CBC radio.

26. Has won a prize worth over $1000.

Dollar Store Glasses

I am putting together a new presentation called "Your Message Has Landed". While talking it over with my husband he came up with a little idea I would like to share with you.

You Need
two pairs of glasses

See these glasses (pick up a pair). These are my old glasses that I bought at the dollar store. They were cheap and more or less did the trick. But after a while, they didn't really fit my needs. I mean, why would they; they were made one size fits all? I had a problem with my left eye, that these glasses just didn't fix.

So I had to go to get a pair of prescription glasses, designed just for me (hold up a different pair) - not for the masses. They fit well and they take care of my particular problem."

What I Would Do With This
In the same way as you need to get your glasses made just for you, one size fits all won't work for getting your message across. You need to consider the needs of the listeners; sales groups, IT groups and management all have different needs and need different types of glasses.

Another Way to Use This Idea
When you are trying to show someone how what you do; the way you can customize things just for them or their organization will give the most effective results.

I think our home may be turning into Metaphor Central.

Where's the Cow

/www.naute.com/illusions/cow.phtml

Check out this wonderful illusion.
How I Would Use This

I am preparing a speech for a group of professionals and will insert this picture into their handouts. I will ask them to find the cow. I think most of them will find it, but some people always have trouble with it.
The point I am making is that the brain is always trying to create order. In this case it is faced with a black and white blob image and tries to find something it can recognize.

In the same way, when we communicate with others, people are always trying to find order in our messages. So it is important that we help them follow the flow of our presentation. Openings that introduce the topic, transitions that help people follow where we are going and conclusions that wrap up the main points all help the listener find order. Without that order, all the words are just a jumble that are clear to only one person - the speaker.

Illusions are wonderful tools for making points. Google the words visual illusions and see what comes up.

O'Reilley on Advertising

Heard this fellow O'Reilly on CBC radio. He does a great show about the behind the scenes world of advertising and it is just fascinating. I got a great idea that I think I will use in my next big workshop.

To paraphrase O'Reilly (and he did put it much more beautifully) if I throw you 5 apples all at once you would probably fumble them and drop them. But if I lob you one perfect apple you should be able to catch it.

He was basically saying, "one ad, one message".

Now I think this applies well when you are thinking of the topic of communication. Instead of throwing 5 messages at someone and bombarding them, try lobbing them one well-thought out perfect message.

I feel that we usuallly don't spend enough time trying to figure out what the messages of our presentations really are. I know when I have nailed this down, my communication is so much clearer.

So I am going to try this at my next workshop. I am going to throw (gently) 5 apples at someone and then lob them one perfect one. What do you think?

Stones Unplugged

One of my greatest joys is working with professionals in science. Every year I work at a Science Camp for teachers and see some amazing ideas which I like to adapt.
One of the best ideas I got came from Jennifer Stonehouse of the Vancouver Aquarium.

Here is what we did:

Large group activity.
Everyone takes a small rock from a pile of rocks.
Instruct the group to "get to know their rock" Use all five senses.
Then have everyone say goodbye to their rock and put it back in a big pile.
Make a large circle around the pile of rocks.
Go and pick out any rock except the one that was yours.

(tip: there should be one rock for each person, no more, no less)

Now comes the good bit.
Instruct the group "We will pass these rocks around the circle until you come to yours.
If you can identify it, you can have it and step out of the circle."

(sounds easy enough, eh?)
But here is the catch.
Instruct everyone to place their hands behind their backs and pass the rocks behind their backs.
Pass them without seeing them until you find your rock.
The circle will get smaller and smaller.

How I Would Use This
When I played this game I thought I had it all figured out. I could spot my rock easily, it had a gold patch down one side that looked like a duck.
But when we were instructed to pass it behind our backs, like most people, I was dismayed.
AAAH! I didn't pay much attention to how it felt in the hand. I was busy looking at it so I could identify it later.

What this activity brings to mind is the idea that sometimes we are not as clear on the objectives as we need to be. So we focus on the wrong things, the wrong features or trivial details. In order to identify the rock, it would have been easier if I was concentrating on the way it felt.

I think this would be a great activity to try with a group of managers to introduce a discussion on setting goals clearly.

A Great Science Experiment Website

I get my ideas from a lot of places, but I really like this gentleman's site. He has great demonstrations and experiments and keeps his explanations simple. Try it and see if you can find any connections between your key learning points and these ideas. Think Big!

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiments/

Truth in Advertising

I was recently reading a copy of an old Mad Magazine. This is a great publication for silly ideas that can be transfoprmed into activities.

Here is what I found:

There is a selection taken from the classified ads of a newspaper. You know the free pet section, where animals are trying to be placed in homes. Well here is how a few of the ads read:

"I'm Bluebell. 6 months Siamese with amazing blue eyes. I will bond with your children and then dart outside first chance I get never to be seen again."

"Hi I'm Muffin. 7 month calico with a chronic ear infection that will have you chasing around your house for an hour three times a day with a small, but surprisingly expensive bottle of drops. I love seniors!"

Anyhow these funny little ads made me think of the potential of telling the truth in advertising. How can this be created into an activity. Hmmm. Let me think.

How about when you are learning about how to select an item to buy, say a house, or a musical instrument or a computer that you create classified ads of what NOT to buy. I particularly like the house ad as an illustration of bad neighbours.

Or how about relationships SWM etc. that shows you what NOT to choose in a partner.

Now the most fun might be describing jobs that look good, but have hidden aspects that make them less than desirable.

Anyhow, have fun with this idea, I think there is something really good here.

Grains of Sand

Got a great idea from the book, Sacred Balance by Dr. D. Suzuki.
He is talking about th ebook, Earth in the Balance, by U.S. Vice president Al Gore. Apparently the books talks about something called critical point, and here is how it is described:

"... described the results of research on the physical properties of growing sandpiles. When grains of sand are added to a pile one at a time, the pile grows until it reaches a critical point at which the addition of one more grain of sand causes avalances, slides, and massive changes. It is an apt metaphor for the way individuals can create suddent shifts in popular understanding and social action."

This is a great visual, don't you think?
Imagine demonstrating it or even just describing it. Think of all the key learning points you could make.

Here are few I can think of:

-one person can make a difference
-many together can move mountains
-one more negative comment can cause the erosion of self esteem
-one last piece of pie tips the scales

So, well, make out of it what you wish. It works for me.

Nature and Chess

"The Nobel laureate Richard Feynman once observed that trying to understand nature through science is like trying to figure out the rules of chess as you watch a game being played - but you can only see two squares at a time."

I read this in Dr. David Suzuki's book The Sacred Balance. I love it when people come up with creative ideas to describe concepts that are difficult to understand. As speakers and trainers it is essential that we find ways for people to grasp ideas in a way that is relevant to them.

So using Richard Feynman's quote what else could you use in the place of the words NATURE THROUGH SCIENCE The part about the chess game is wonderful and the idea that you can only see two squares at a time is really descriptive.

Here are some words I could substitute in: finances through the stock market, life through relationships. Well, you get the idea.

Further in the book Dr. Suzuki writes:

"The total knowledge base currently acculuated by scientists is still so limited that it can rarely be prescriptive; it is almost imposible to generate scientifically based policies or solutions for managing our surroundings when we know so little. It is as if we are standing in a cave holding a candle; the flame barely penetrates the darkness, and we have no idea where the cave walls are, let alone how many more caves there are beyond. Standing in the dark, cut off from time and place, and from the rest of the universe, we struggle to understand what we are doing here alone"

Creating idea pictures in people's minds makes the idea memorable and relevant.

Penny Drops

Received a new book from Jim Cain yesterday. A really good collection of Teambuilding Puzzles, all very usable. I learned a new twist for an activity I have been doing for years. Here is how I do the activity.

1) Give each group a penny and an eyedropper and a glass of water.
2) Ask them to estimate how many drops of water they can fit on to the penny.
3) Let them try.

Usually they are astounded by how many drops can squeeze on to the penny. Surface tension is what is holding the water droplets together in cohesion.

Now here is an idea in the book that I think is worth exploring "If you are wondering about the difference between the last drop that fits ont he penny and the next drop that doesn't we invite you to read: The Tipping Point - How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference"

Learn more about Teambuilding Puzzles by going to www.teamworkandteamplay.com

Funnel Fun

Here is a challenge that can be turned into a great learning moment.

Place a ping pong ball on a table and gently blow on it so it skitters all over the table. Then place it in a funnel and issue this challenge:

"By holding this funnel vertically up from your mouth and blowing in a long continuous breath who can get the ping pong ball to rise all the way out of the funnel, about 3 inches?"

This doesn't look terribly hard so you may have a few takers. Let them try. That ping pong ball isn't going anywhere. Because of air pressure factors, the ball is basically spinning in the cup of the funnel and does not move up at all.

Be careful of two things: no short blasts of breath allowed and clean the pipe of the funnel with alcohol or have a few funnels standing by if you let a number of people try the trick.

Key Learning Points
Things often look easier than they are.
Adding pressure doesn't necessarily get things moving.
Just because a technique works in one situation, doesn't mean it will work in all situations.


Try it, this might come in handy at your next summer barbeque

Circle of Thought

We did a Wizbangers workshop on the weekend and out of it came this activity. It is an idea that is fun and lively and gets things started off on an energentic foot.

Each partipant gets a piece of paper and a felt pen and draws a large circle in the middle of the paper then writes in it the theme of the workshop. For example - you might write in Leadership, or Communication or Attitude. Whatever works. Now ask each person to create six spokes coming from the main circle and write a word at the end of each spoke; a word that relates to the theme.

For example: Leadership - military, guidance, listener, age, caring, vision.
Then divide the group into small groups of three or four. Have each person take a turn and guess a word they think will be on the page of the person to their right. Repeat around and around the circle until you have worked through all the words.

Afterwards you can discuss which words were common to many groups, and which words stood alone. This is an exciting way to get people's ideas and opnions on the table and to find out how many are shared.

Shiny Coppers

Here is a fun thing to try.
Take a bunch of old, grimy 1 cent pieces, pennies or coppers and give one out to each participant.
Ask them to get to know their penny.
Examine the penny for design, date and general condition.
Then have them work in groups of four.
Give each group a small plastic dish and pour in a couple of spoons of the "Magic Liquid". (white vinegar)
Add a teaspoon of salt and stir the liquid.
Now have each of the four people bid goodbye to his or her penny and pop it in the liquid.
Wait ten minutes to see what happens.
Take the pennies out, rinse them and dry them.
They will be hardly recognizable, all shiny and new.

What is basically happen is the vinegar (being an acid) is just stripping the coating off the pennies. They all started out shiny and new, but over time their coats became dull and lost lustre. The vinegar and salt together bring the pennies back to their former glory.

How could you use this? Lots of ways. This could represent the skills of the participants; they were always there, but they needed a little spit and polish. How about the pennies representing lost values that have been reclaimed or regained?

Now I know you will get lots of your own ideas, but I need you to do something. Don't take my word about this experiment, go and try it and let them sit while you do some work on the computer. When you see the pennies all lovely and shiny I think you will be even more encouraged to come up with your own metaphors and ideas.

Floating Egg

When you perform a trick, so often it is the patter that makes the difference and connects to the key point. Look at the following trick and see if you can adapt the patter to make your key learning point.

The audience sees three identical glasses of water set up on the table. You also have three eggs on the table.
Ask for three volunteers. Have each of them hold an egg. While they are holding the egg ask each person to direct his or her thoughts to the egg. Person 1 - Think about something else that is neutral, not happy, not sad.
Person 2 - Think negative thoughts. Person 3 - think really positive thoughts.

When they have been thinking for a minute or so, ask each person to put his or her egg into a glass. (you show them which glass)

Person 1 egg will hover in the middle.
Person 2 egg will sink to the bottom
Person 3 egg will rise to the top.

Make your key learning point.
So, wanna know how to do it? It's all in the water in the glass. The sinking egg is in a glass full of plain water. That's easy enough. The rising egg is in a glass that is super-saturated with salt water (test it out). The hovering egg is the tricky one. Fill the glass half full with salt water. Then tilt the glass and slowly pour in plain water. Be careful not to mix the waters. Test this one out until you have it.

So, see how you can adapt this trick? What if the main point was that someone or something was always sitting on the fence, then you would emphasize the neutral egg part. Just think of all the options around creating this trick into something that works for you.

Blind Man and the Elephant

We all know the story about the blind men examining the elephant.
Each man examined only one part of the elephant, but not being able to see the rest of the elephant, declared the elephant to be entirely of this nature. Example: This animal is large and tree like. (having examined the leg)

Nidhi Kaila in India uses this story in an interesting way:

Nidhi writes:

"Whenever I’m doing a session heavy on theory, I start the session by telling the participants that theories, by themselves, are the 6 blind men of Hindustan, who went to see the elephant (we all know the story). A theory gives us a perspective to the concept, but no theory, by itself, gives us the whole concept.

If we put all the theories together, we might get a more wholesome idea of the whole concept, but this wholesome idea may or may not be accurate.

Exercise: Imagine that the 6 men of Hindustan realized that they were exploring different parts of an elephant, and decided to put their wits together and try and imagine the WHOLE elephant, because they know the description of each part.

Divide people into groups of 6 or fewer, and ask them to pretend that the blind men have decided to get together and figure out what the whole elephant looks like. Give them 10 minutes to do this activity. Then ask each team to present. Usually, you should find that people are either biased because they have seen a real elephant, or that they will not be able to describe a real elephant in total. That is what theory is like"

Driving at a Brick Wall

In an interview with David Suzuki, writer and journalist had this to say about global warming, better known as global climate change:

'It's like being in a huge car driving at a brick wall at 100 miles an hour and most of the people in the car are arguing about where they want to sit' (Jagodzinski, 1997).

I love this quote, because I love this picture. Images do so much to explain concepts to us. This concept of global warming seems very complex to most and the author puts our roles in it so well in that quote.

What types of ideas can you get across to your audiences in better fashion by creating words and images that they can hang on to?

And about this arguing where to sit in the car.... I still want to sit in the back.

Wordsearch Puzzle

Now here is a really smart idea. You want to make a word search challenge or game for your group, but your brain is tired. This guy (or gal) has got some software that will do it for you. I made one and got 11 words hidden in my puzzle that were 11 letters or less. There are lots of variations.

So you make the puzzle and then if you want to print it out, you make a paypal donation of any amount. Go figger. That is smart. I mean even if all the people using the puzzle are only paying a small amount, it has to add up.

Why didn't I think of this first?? Oh yeah, I am technically challenged, that is why.
So, give it whirl and tell me what you think.


www.worldvillage.com/wv/gamezone/puzzlegen

Look at all the other goodies you can get too at the home page.

http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/gamezone/p

Newsprint Comes Alive

From time to time I find other gems on some of the training message boards I belong to. This one comes from Karen Distler of Missouri

She writes, "For my business writing class, I begin with this icebreaker:

Find generic words in newspapers or magazines such as "sports," "holiday,"
"Sunday," etc. Highlight the word so it stands out from other words around it.
Cut up the pieces of newsprint and place the words in a big envelope--one
envelope per group of 5 participants. Ask each participant to reach in the
envelope without looking and pull out a piece of paper. Then ask the
participants to share something about themselves that is not work related using
the newsprint word in their sentence. Give an example: word is "shopping" "I
enjoy shopping at Wal-Mart." Or "My wife enjoys shopping but I don't."

For groups under 20, you can have each participant share with the entire group.
With a bigger group, you could do the same activity, but have them share with
their group members. Ask follow up questions to get to know your participants
better. For example: "Why Wal-Mart?" Or "What do you enjoy doing while your
wife is shopping?"

I think this sounds like fun, and the newspaper pieces are so much more visual than just using index cards. I was thinking about how I would adapt this icebreaker, and just imagine the possibilities. You could select words that could create certain reactions or move the discussion in a particular way.

Thank you Karen.

Making Numbers Come Alive

Often in presentations we need to give our audience numbers or statistics. So often I just glaze over when a bunch of numbers are thrown at me, and if the lights are off and the projector is going it is even worse. So, when I can, I try to make the numbers come alive, become real, become images.

I am reading a novel called Suspect by Michael Robotham. This book is just a good read, nothing deep, nothing special, but a paragraph caught my eye:

The narrator, a clinical phychologist, is talking about the number of people who hurt themselves. He writes,

"One in fifteen people harm themselves at some point in their lives: that's two children in every classroom, four people on a crowded bus, twenty on a commuter train and two thousand at an Aresenal home game."

I believe Arsenal is a football team.

So why am I telling you this?. Well, the first part of the paragraph, one in fifteen people was sort of interesting, but when I could picture the classroom, the bus, the train and the game, I got a completely different impression.

So I challenge you to look in your work where you are using numbers and see if you can bring them alive with images.

By the way, did you know that here in Vancouver we make enough garbage each year to fill the BC Place Stadium to the rafters twice? Go figger.

Double Blind Tests

www.planet-science.com/news/#6

Today I refer you to this excellent website which explains about a scientist who created double blind clinical trials. Now this has me thinking. In a double blind test, not only does the participant taking the test (let's say a drug) not know if he or she is getting a real drug or a placebo, neither does the person giving them the test.

So, human nature being what it is, I imagine there are lots of clues that we give away as we give tests and lots of clues we pick up as we take tests. Just food for thought.

Now off to take an aspirin (or is it really an aspirin)

MInd Reader Metaphor

Here are the two ideas I have for a metaphor for the activity found in Mind Reader.

1) When we make assumptions we stop looking for solutions.

2) It isn't always just about us. (the focus is only on your card)

Anyone else?

Mind Reader

My friend Raymond Nakamura sent me this site:

http://www.gamesforthebrain.com/game/mindreader/


I really enjoyed playing with this activity and think it is a wonderful metaphor. I will let you play with it first, and I will put my idea for a metaphor into the next posting. In the meantime, what would you use it for?

Asked and Answered

I have been working on some ideas for adding zip to the review portion of a training.

I am not sure where I first saw this idea, but it might have been at this site: http://www.eureka-tp.com/
This fellow has some amazing ideas, all of them extremely practical, and has made an art out of fine tuning fun and exciting training.

Activity

Let's say the group has been working on a topic for half the day and there was quite a lot of information dispersed. At the end of the morning I give out index cards. Half the group gets question cards and the other half get answer cards.

Then everyone walks around looking for their match. Once the match is found, we discuss the questions and answers and bring up any additional points.

For example: let's say I am teaching a class on how to enter contests. Here are a few question and answer cards. Go ahead, try to match them up for yourself.

Questions
How many times can you enter a contest if it says "one entry only"?
How can I get my name and address and details filled in on forms automatically?
Do we have to pay tax on our winnings?
Is there any mailing costs I have to pay on a prize?

Answers
In Canada we don't pay tax on our winnings.
You can enter it only one time or you will be disqualified.
You shouldn't have to pay mailing costs, but you might have to pay customs.
Roboform fills in contest forms automatically.

Should be an action-packed, fun way to create a review and give people an opportunity to add their comments.

100 Words

Quick now, can you think of 100 words that do NOT contain the following letters:
C,J,K,M,P,Q,Z.

Are you coming up with some of the words? Good.
I can do it faster. Ready, let's go.... I will give you a headstart of ten words.


..................

Here are my words, one, two, three, four, five...... and so on until I get to one hundred.

I am not sure how I would use this activity, but it might have something to do with systems. Got an idea for this activity, let me know, just post your comments here.

By the Way : June 18 is our next Wizbanger Workshop in Vancouver. contact me at info@calderonconsulting for more details.

Ride a Bike

You have to see this bike. It is really a marvel and looks likes lots of fun for teamwork sessions.

http://www.conferencebike.com/


Just take a look.

Name Those Planets

Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

Did you know the order of the planets without having to read it here?

Okay, look away from the screen and name the planets again in order.
Could you do it?

Sometimes a learning aid can be indispensable. I have used a mnemonic since I was a small child; perhaps you know it too.

My very easy method, just set up nine planets!

I take the first letter of each word and it stands for the first letter of the planet. You just have to remember that Mercury comes first.

There are so many ways to help people learn, mnemonics, rhymes, stories and the like. Get creative with chunking the information that you are giving the participants and see what they can remember.

If you have any ideas on how to get people to remember information that you use in your presentation, please feel free to post them.

Very Important Memo and Communication

Here is an idea I heard about, but, sorry to say, I can't remember who told me.
Key Learning Point: Miscommunication and how easily it happens.
Setup: One large group, three volunteers.

Make up a VIM, a very Important Memo from someone terribly important to the group. Could be the president of the university, the CEO, a star of the industry or whoever. Make sure the memo has lot of detail in it, facts, instructions, descriptions, details, details and details.
Ask three people to volunteer and send two of them outside of the room. With a lot of pomp read this memo to the volunteer left inside. Make sure he or she understands that it is a VIM and they need to pay attention to all the details. Once they have heard the memo there is no going back to check details, they have to catch it all the first time around. No note taking is allowed.Then ask one of the volunteers to come back into the room. In front of the rest of the group, have the first volunteer repeat back everything from the memo that they can remember. Repeat this with the last volunteer, the second one tells the memo as he or she remembers it and then the third volunteer recites it to the whole group.

Meanwhile, the group listen for areas of accuracy and places where the details are hopelessly lost.
Lead to a discussion of communication, how it can be watered down, and how we can ensure that all the people get all the information they need. You might also use it to look at which details got across to the group and why.
If you have a unique way of creating this same point, or another way of using this activity, let me know.

Here is a memo I would use:

To all trainers
from Presentation Wizard, Deb Calderon on May 13, 2005.
I want to make sure that you will all be available for an all group training session in Vancouver on June 18th. This training session will cover the following aspects of training: warm ups that work, how to get groups learning and laughing, how to add hot spice, what to do when things are lagging and how to handle props. There are only 30 spaces in the workshop and last time it was a sell out with over 35 people showing up. The workshop takes place in a very nice room at Slocan and Grandview in Vancouver which is on Vancouver's East Side near the boundary with Burnaby. The nice thing about the room is that is it held in a housing co-op so lots of light and window. You will even get a cup of coffee and a cookie, perhaps vanilla, but more likely chocolate.
I will be presenting with Ken Bellemare, fellow Presentation Wizard, who is the co-author of Wizbangers. He is not only a trainer, but a magician too. The workshop will start at 9:30 and go until 12:30. We like to keep the costs really low so that as many people can come as possible, so it will be a really good deal. Conact me at 604 874-7390 to get more information, or if you prefer, email me at debcalderon@telus.net
Cheers
Deb Calderon

Keystone Moments

Quick - what is a keystone?
You've heard of it, but what is it?

According to Westwind Design a Keystone is: In unit-masonry (e.g., stone block or brick) construction, the keystone is the central stone which completes the construction of an arch and permits it to carry vertical loads. The keystone is wider at the top than at the bottom, so that it acts like a wedge which uses the weight placed on it to force the other blocks forming the arch together, thus preventing them from falling.

When I think about the keystone or look at pictures of one, I realize that within the arch it doesn't look exactly like the other stones or bricks. It is is wider at the top. I am not sure where I am going with this metaphor, but I think it is interesting that this wedge is required to maintain the force required to keep an arch standing.

What would be a keystone within an organization? Could it be a particular person, an event, an activity, or a vision. Without the keystone the rest of the arch would not stand, yet it is added at the completion of the building of the arch.

So, think about keystones, where they are in our lives and what they mean. The amazing thing about the keystone is that it helps all the other stones or bricks maintain a pressure that allows them to stay upright.

Shakleton's props

A wonderful film comes from A& E television and is simply called Shakleton. It stars Kenneth Branagh as Sir Shakleton on his journey to the south pole. I highly recommend it as a film which features a outstanding characteristics of a leader.

Now the props.

There is one point in the movie, in which Sir Shakleton tells his crew they must abandon their ship as it is ice-bound. The expedition will proceed on foot until it reaches the water. At this point, he tells the crew that they can only carry 2 lbs each of equipment including their journals.

Then he holds up a tray filled with all kinds of his personal belongings and turns the tray over, letting all his personal items fall onto the ice, making him the first person to let go of his extra baggage. He goes on to take a bible, given to the expedition by a member of the royal family, takes 3 pages from it as a remembrance, and then discards that also.

What a powerful message. He could have, as leader of the expedtion, simply given the orders to the crew. But by using the real items or props in a live demonstration, he makes the point so much more effectively.

Movies offer us all kinds of teachable moments. This one jumped out at me because of the props. Do you have any favourite movies for making key learning points?

www.calderonconsulting.com

Anti Gravity

Here is an idea that comes from our Wizbanger book - http://www.calderonconsulting.com/products.html

It is a great way to energize your training, and create memorable key learning points.

Anti- Gravity #82 of over 101 of these activities

key learning points: trust, faith

Hold a water glass upside down to make a dramatic point.

Here's What You Do
Fill a glass with water right to the brim and place an index card on it so that the entire surface is covered. Holding the card in place with your hand, turn the glass upside down. Do this carefully and quickly. Slowly remove your hand from below the index card. The water should stay in the glass supported only by the index card. Air pressure from outside is holding the card against the water.

This trick can be used to illustrate trust; trust in the process, trust in the situation, trust in the operator, etc.
Invite a volunteer to join you in the demonstration and turn the glass upside down above the person's head.

Keep in mind that occasionally the card will slip and water will spill out, so make a big production out of dressing your volunteer in a raincoat and hat. Practice this trick to perfect if before you use it in a presentation.

A variation: Write a word that represents something powerful to your group on the index card. Examples: love, commmitment, partnership, loyalty, the company name, etc. Then show the group that the word is so powerful that it can hold back the water (let the water represent something negative, e.g. evil, hysteria, the competition, the falling dollar, stress, rap music, what have you)

Okay, I just threw the rap music bit in - it isn't really in the book.

Anyway, I learned this trick a long long time ago. I have used it in a number of situations and it really gets the audience's attention.

The Printed Page

I've only made two really public predictions in my life: that cd's would never replace records and tapes, and that the information highway or internet would never catch on. So there you have it.

But recently I was thinking about handmade books. See, I am a card maker by hobby and I like nothing better than getting my hands on some paper for some cutty-cutty, paste-paste therapy.

But did you know that it wasn't until 1450 when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, that books no longer had to be copied and illuminated by hand.

Now when the first book rolled off this press, (the Bible, by the way) you would think it was a day for rejoicing. And it was for some. But others were very wary of the whole thing. They worried that printing was a black art, it seemed too unlikely that pages could be printed that fast. They were concerned about the change and the lack of control of what was in these books.

Also unhappy were the copyists and illuminators who were now out of work. People at the top of their careers, as master craftsmen, really, no longer had careers. This all sounds a little familiar to me, how about you?

This reminds me a little of the impact that the internet and world wide web is havng on the world today. We have many concerns about who is affected and what is happening to that information. We probably all know someone who know longer has the same job because the work they did is done differently, or perhaps done somewhere else, because the internet can make that possible.

But just as the printed book turned out to be a pretty good thing, once the transition was made, maybe we can look down the line and see that the internet may also turn out to be a good thing.

When books were first printed by machine they suddently became available to more than just the rich. Prices werfor the books dropped and they were printed in different languages besides Latin in Europe. Through the books people started to exchang information around the world, leading to new developments, inventions and thoughts.

So, I was pretty much totally wrong about the internet. It did catch on, and you know that because you are reading this today. Perhaps we are in the transition period right now.. Change takes time, and big changes and improvements can take a great deal of time.

So next time I make a prediciton, don't back me on it; I will probably be wrong. But everytime I find myself resisting any type of new technology I think back to the invention of the printed book and just wonder.

Try It, You Might Like It

I have had the same telephone company for years. Now there was a time when this was the only telephone company around, but now there are others vying for my business. They routinely call me up and try to get me to switch to their services. I am sure their services are excellent, but I just don’t bother to listen through the promotional information.
So, why do I stay with this one telephone company; simple, it is the one I have always used.

So I wondered why and how human beings ever get around to making change. In the book Mind Hacks, there is a very good understandable scientific explanation of what it takes to get someone to change. This section talks about a study done on university students.

Half of the students were given mugs with the university emblem on it. The other half didn’t have mugs and when they were offered a mug to buy, they only wanted to pay $2 for the mug. But the group that already owned the mugs didn’t want to give them up and didn’t want to take less than $5 for their mug. Now this is interesting in that the mugs were only worth $6. The second batch of students placed a higher value on the mugs perhaps because they already owned one. So what does all this have to do with making change?

You can spell out all the amazing things the change will do for a person once they make the change, or you can just get people to try it. Once they try it, they will, it seems, be more likely to make the change for longer.

So what would it take for a phone company to get someone like me to change service? Hmmm. I guess they would have to let me try something for free for a while with no hassle to me.

In the same vein, I worked for a time overseas as a food demonstrator in a large grocery store. We have all seen these folks, giving out their tidbits to weary customers. What I know from having done this job is that just getting a sample of the food makes a lot of people pick up that salami, or bag or chips, or cake. According to the idea in Mind Hacks these people, once they have tried that particular product, are more likely to make the change to picking it up again and again.

This makes me think about how we as trainers can encourage people to change. How about we let them step into the shoes of how we want the change to look or feel. I am thinking if we want people to create harmonious teamwork, how about we let them work in a harmonious team for a while. Maybe we have to send them to Sweden or something for a month with Ingar’s harmonious team, but it might work.

Or if we want to our children to enjoy a simpler life, we get them to try it for a while to see how it fits.

I remember years ago there was a program that brought children brought up in war-torn parts of Ireland to countries like Canada for a short break. I believe the thinking behind the program was to let the children live in a different, more peaceful atmosphere for a change. I wonder the experience left a positive mark on the children.

So according to Mind Hacks “People don’t like change. If you really want people to try something new, your should just coerce them into giving it a go and chuck the idea of persuading them first off.”

Talking Magic

Whenever I talk magic with my friiend and co-author of Wizbangers, Ken Bellemare, I get new ideas. I love doing magic but I am not very good: maybe you can relate. So I look for magic tricks that the average klutz like me can do.

Here is one that I do from time to time. See if you can adapt it for your needs. You can do it small or do it big for a large audience.

Three Card Choice

Lay out three cards, a jack, a queen and a king.
Ask a volunteer to choose one of the cards and tell you which one.
Then amaze him by saying: "I knew, just by looking at you that you would choose that one (say the queen) because here it is right in my wallet.Then open your wallet and show him. He will search through your wallet for the other two cards if he is as smart as I am, but they won't be there.

Then make your keypoint: Always anticipate the needs and choices of the customer or audience.

How do you do it, you ask me? Well if the volunteer had chosen the king I would have said more or less the same thing, but I would have shown him the card (the king) under my coffee cup. If he chose the ace I would have shown him that I knew he would pick that one because here it is on top of my clipboard. You basically have a copy of each of these cards stationed somewhere around you and just have to remember where each one is.

I find that those little miniature cards are great for this trick.

But wait, there's more. Let's say you want to explain how this trick is done for your group. That is great too, and it can create another interesting key learning point: be prepared to go the direction the customer chooses.

Well perhaps that is enough magic for right now. If you have any magical ideas just leave your comments.

All Dried Up

Here is a new twist on an old activity. This is featured in my book, Presentation Wizardry, 33 Simple Safe Science Tricks for Speakers and Trainers - www.calderonconsulting.com I will start with the original idea from the book and then share the twist with you.

Original Idea

All Dried Up

Make water disappear.

What You Need
3 disposable cups
1 container of slush powder or lightning gel from a magic store

Getting ready
Put about 1 tbsp. of slush powder into the bottom of one of the cups.
Don’t let anyone see you do this.

What you do
1. Place the three cups, A, B, and C side by side on the table.
2. Show the audience the water in the container
3. Tell the audience you are challenging them to follow the water.
4. Pour the water from cup to cup, shuffling the cups around as you do this.
5. The trick is to only pour water in the cup that has the slush powder in it at the very last minute. Until then leave it empty.
6. Turn the cups over. No water should spill out.



What’s going on?
Slush powder is amazing. That’s because it can turn water solid nearly instantly. The scientific name for slush powder is polysodium acrylate. It is produced by the polymerization of acrylic acid and subsequent hydrolysis of the polyacrylic acid with an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution. (What a mouthful) This is the stuff they put in diapers.


Wizard’s ponderings
Asking the right question is an important part of being creative and solving problems. On the road to asking the right question, we ask other questions that may seem less important. However, every question has its place. Dare to ask silly questions.

Applying this trick in other ways:

What you see may only be a small part of what’s really going on.
When you stop sharing your knowledge it can dry up.
You see the results, but don’t always know how they happened.

Twist - the idea was sparked by something my friend and colleague, Ken Bellemare said to me

Do the trick and then ask people to write down quickly how they think the trick was accompllished. There will be all kinds of ideas; fake cup, sleight of hand, etc. Then ask the group to get into small groups and compare ideas to come up with one idea they can all support.

At this point you can ask them if they need any more information. Likely they will say that they need some thoughts confirmed or denied through a Q and A.

Keypoint: In the beginning I asked you to just jump to an idea. Was it the best idea? Probably not because you didn't have enough information. By joining with others you had a chance to get feedback about your idea and compare it with the thoughts of the group. But the key element missing still for many of you was the opportunity to check out your thoughts via feedback from the person who did the trick.

In the same way, when we come to a decision, it is always easy to jump to a quick conclusion or assumption. But by taking other important steps; comparing our ideas, showing them the light of day and, most importantly, by checking out our ideas, thoughts, conclusions and assumptions we get thenecessary information we need to make right decisions.

How many times have you seen people jump to solutions or conclusions without all the necessary information.

A is For Awesome

This activity is number 8 from my book Wizbangers, which I co-wrote with Ken Bellemare. There are over 101 of ideas like this one. Hope you like it and you can find a way to use it in your presentations.
For more details about my books check out my website at www.calderonconsulting.com

A is for Awesome

reviewing ideas, sharing ideas, creative solutions

Use the alphabet to instill some A, B, C fun.

Give each small group the task of coming up with a word for every letter of the alphabet. Each word must be relevant to the topic of the day.

Example: for a communications skills workshop – A is for awkward, B is for bashful, C is for clarity, and D is for …you get the idea. Other alphabets you could ask your group to create:

People in your network
Personal strengths

Barriers to success Opportunities

A variation: You might find some people prefer working alone and are happier creating their own alphabet.


People in the drama and improvisation world often use this activity to carry on a conversation; each person in turn has to continue the conversation by making a comment with the next letter of the alphabet.

Wine Wine Wine

I think food can be a trainer's best friend. There are so many ways to use it in a sesssion. Food can be a great prop or a little reward, an incentive or a reviewing tool. Here is one way I would use food (or better yet wine) in a session:

Hold up two wine glasses and declare that they are wine.
Have a volunteer smell one and confirm that it is wine. Make witty comments about wine.
Have volunteer smell the other one, nasty.... it is vinegar.

So, I ask the group "Why is one of these acceptable and the other is not?" Are they not both wine?

Thiis leads me to my keypoint (pick one):

Sometimes it is a matter of timing to get the most effective results. (the vinegar is over age)
Labelling can cause us to overlook positive qualities (vinegar is highly prized around the world today)
Appearances can be deceiveing.

So, if you use food, drink or anything edible in your sessions, let us know what it is and how you use it.

Catbird

Here’s a lively story from the world of nature.

You may have heard the expression “in the catbird seat” meaning that a person is in a great position. Turns out the catbird is an American thrush that is called a catbird because it has a call that sounds like a cat meowing.

The catbird does have the best position as it sits high up in the trees at the very highest limbs. The bird stays safe from predators on the ground and has an excellent vantage point for seeing all around.

So when we say someone is in the catbird seat that is what it means.

You might be surprised at how many of our expressions come from the world of nature.

Moonlight

I was watching the movie, The Firm by the book by John Grisham. Kathy Bates stars in it and I think she is exceptionally good. She is talking about her role as a friend of a presidential candidate and she describes it like this: (to paraphrase) He (the candidate) is like the sun and I am like the moon. The only light I show is reflected from the sun. Without the sun I have no light of my own.

This made me think of how this story, or scientific moment could be used. I am still working on it, but I think it has something. Here is how I am thinking - what is a great power in the world? What is a small power in the world that gets it's strength only from the great power? Is that good? Is that bad? What point can I make?

Anyhow, today is a glimpse into the inner workings of my mind and how I come up with ideas, similes and metaphors. If the moonlight metaphor speaks to you, or if you have any ideas to develop it, just add your two bits.

Swing Low

Swing Low

Here is an activity that is bound to impress.
Have each of your participants make a simple pendulum from a piece of light string and a light weight, like a button or paper clip.
Then have each person draw a large X on a piece of paper.
Each person holds their pendulum over the X, keeping his or her arm stretched straight out, without leaning on a table or any other object.
Review the rules: Clockwise is Yes, Counter-Clockwise is No.
Demonstrate:
Ask your pendulum a question to which the answer is YES. More than likely it will swing clockwise. Try again for NO.

What is Going On?

Well remember when you played with a Ouija board when you were young? It is the same effect and it has a name; the ideomotor effect. Even though we aren’t aware of it, we make tiny muscle movements with the hand holding the pendulum. But we really can’t believe that we have made any movements, so we tend to disassociate ourselves with being the cause.

How I Would Use This?

There are so many ways to use this activity.
I would focus on the concept of self-causing. In this case, we just don’t feel these tiny movements, yet we are still behind making the pendulum move. Where else in life does this happen to us? What else happens in our lives, that we can trace back to our own cause.

Another way of using this activity is to play around with the power of thought. As we think yes or no, so our body responds, whether we want it to or not. What other thoughts does our body respond to? How might negative thoughts impact our bodies?

Source: Brain Hacks, Stafford and Webb

It's All In the Hips

Working on book #3, Presentation Wizardry Volume II, www.calderonconsulting.com and thought you might like to see a draft of one of the activities or ideas.

This, very simply is an energizing moment for a group. It is fun and lively and changes the pace.


It’s All in the Hips

Key Learning Points
Uniqueness
Niche
Right place

What Happens
Knock a matchbox over with your nose

Connection
Using our unique strengths can create better teams.

What You Need
one matchbox

What You Do
Instruct your volunteer:
"Kneel on the floor.
Extend one arm in front with your elbow touching your knee reach out along the floor."
Where his fingertips end place a small matchbox on its end.
Continue with the instructions.
"Put your hands behind your back.
Bend over and try to knock the matchbox over with your nose."

What’s Happening
Men and women have different centres of gravity. Men, with their broad shoulders usually have their centre of gravity higher than women. Having a lower centre of gravity, women have an advantage in this activity because they don’t become overbalanced.

Sample Patter:
As we can plainly see, some people are better equipped to do this job than others. Although the men in the room might want very much to win this round, most of them simply cannot because of the build of their bodies.

Now I realize that there isn’t much call for employees who can push matchboxes over with their noses, but this activity does make a point: Knowing what we can do that others can’t is a start to finding our niche.

What helped you find your niche?


Wizard’s Tips



Activities like this one illustrate some of the differences between men and women. Rather than go to a male versus female point, concentrate on linking the concept of specific skills to unique individuals.
Choose your volunteers wisely. Not everyone wants to get down on the carpet in front of the group. Check for clothing limitations. There is always someone, though, who would relish the job.




Cautions
Warn the volunteer not to wipe out into the carpet.



Other Bright Ideas
It is important in life to know what we can do, what we can do if we really try and what is beyond our ability to do no matter how hard we try.

Mind Hacks

Heard this speaker on CBC Radio talking about how the brain works and had to order his book. I was not disappointed. There is a lot in here that we trainers and speakers can use to make our learning points.

Mind Hacks - Tips & Tools for Using the Brain by Tom Stafford and Matt Webb.

What is really great is that they tell you about a function of the brain and then give you an example from real life; like when you are walking on an escalator that is broken and you can't quite find your footing.

I am going to digest some of these ideas and try to turn them into activities.Here are some of the Hacks that appeal to me: Grab Attention, Blind to Change, Keep Your Balance, When Time Stands Still and Bringing Stuff to the Front of Your Mind.

One thing I have noticed, and I probably have been guilty of it too, is using fairly suspect data or "scientific" information to prove a point. So, it is great to find a book, created by scientists about the brain.

By the way, do you know who invented the lightbulb?
If you are like most people you would think Thomas Edison, but not so. He advanced the lightbulb from a patent he bought from two Canadian inventors, Woodward and Evans. Now, he did add some remarkable changes, but it is interesting to see how something as magnificent as the lightbulb was more or less a team effort. It is also interesting to note, that only the last fellow got the credit.

That's all for today. I will be creating activities from these Mind Hacks for quite a while.
Tomorrow a word about Magic.

Where to Learn Showmanship

If you want to become an excting presenter visit a science centre in a town near you and do two things:

1) check out the exhibits and
2) watch any live shows.

I have learned so many wonderful tricks at Science World in Vancouver, British Columbia. The presenters of these shows have to find a way to take complex ideas and boil them down to something the average member of the public can understand. You will be surprised at the connections you will be able to make between what you see and key learning points you want to make in your own presentations.

It is important to come outside of our own worlds to seek inspiration in new places. So, if you haven't visited a Science Centre in a while, call them up, ask when the shows are and head on down with your notepad. The presenters are usually happy to talk for a few minutes afterwards while they are cleaning up.

How do I know all this? I did hundreds of shows on the public stage at the Science Centre over ten years. It was fun, educational, inspiring and a great learning experience.

Tabletop Science

Here is a website that I have glanced at from time to time. This fellow seems to have a lively attitude towards fooling around at the table and learning a little bit of science at the same time. http://www.doscience.com/act_archive/index.html

Maybe you can figure out how to link one of these activities to your next banquet talk to make a point.

Now these aren't technically, low-effort props because they do take a bit more effort, but they could be great fun for a large group.

I believe that you never know where your next great idea is coming from; and it likely isn't coming to me while I sit at my desk.

I need to find new stimulus, look at magazines, go for a walk, play with some play-doh, cook something (that is where I thought of the funnel idea). So, how about you? Where do the great ideas and the not so great ideas hit you?

Table Props

Got my mind on the banquet table today to see what kind of props we can use to make key learning points. So, let's see what's on the table, knife, fork, spoon, coffee cup, water glass, plate, centrepiece, side plate, tablecloth, serviette - and then there's the food. What catches my eye is the centrepiece. What is a centrepiece for, exactly?

Let's look at it. Centrepieces aren't really necessary and don't have any real function, but they are usually a part of a banquet. Think back to the last banquet wedding you went to, or evening conference banquet. Someone spent a goodly amount of time on that centrepiece.

A centrepiece is like a rallying point. We all sit around the table in posiitions of equal rank, and the flowers or candles or whatever is in the middle defines us as a group. A group that is separate from other groups and tables. The nature of what is in that centrepiece is important too, as it tends to reflect something about the reason for being at the banquet. Balloons say something very different than long stemmed roses in a centrepiece. A clown doll surrounded by flowers cuts a different image than a paper wedding cake with sparklers.

This makes me ask the questions: "What for centrepieces do we have in our lives? How do we define our groups? What would be in the perfect centrepiece for your family, your work team, your company, your community."

An interesting activity would be ask a particular group to design a centrepiece. They could make them on paper or really go out and make them, perhaps for a culminating dinner or luncheon. Maybe each group could make the centrepiece for their table that best reflects their experiences at the presentation, conference, training or workshop.

Well, that is enough on centrepieces. Tomorrow let's look around for more low effort props and see where the imagination takes us.

creative thinking

Found a really super book, Jump Start Your Brain, by Doug Hall. This fellow was a master marketing inventor and creator for Proctor and Gamble and has all kind of amazing ideas. He has a ton of activities that help create better ideas. Here is the gist of one of them.

Ask people to brainstorm a bunch of ideas on chosen subject: e.g. healthy eating. They will come up with a bunch.
Now give them a bunch of words for stimulus, like, say.... family, game, filing system, scrapbook, (you figure out some more that you think would start the brain jumping) and see how many more ideas they come up with. I really love this idea.

So, this fellow, Doug Hall, has a ton of ideas, each one better than the last. He is also pretty open about his failures, which I really respect. He tried to bring to market an idea called "Stinky Pig" a game for kids kinda like that one called "Operation". If the tweezers touched any part of the pig while removing stinky items inside it, the pig let out a bart from its rear end, a powerfully strong aroma. Surprise, surprise, this idea just didn't pan out.

So, put this book on reserve at the library or do Doug a favour and go out and buy it. The trick, I believe, is to actually put into practice some of his ideas. That is what I am working on.

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So let's continue with this money idea. So far we have established that you can tell the difference between a five dollar and a ten dollar bill because you know the values of each one.

What happens when we are not sure of the values?
Take out two more currency bills. This time they are foreign currency; something your audience is unlikely to recognize. Perhaps you choose Saudi Riels or Chinese money.

Hold up the two bills and ask the same question - WHich one whould they choose. Now it seems obvious that people don't have enough information to make a choice.

Debrief this.

Some points I would make:

How can we get the information we need to make a choice?
What makes us make quick decisions when we clearly don't have enough information?
Does everyone in your group hold the same values for each item?


Let's categorize this activity the following way:

Low Effort Prop/money/values and decisions.

Tomorrow we will look at another low-effort prop.

Money as a low effort prop

So today's idea is about money. A friend and colleague shared an idea about holding up two bills of money; say, for example, a ten and a five dollar bill, then asking the question, "Which one would you rather have?' Now most people will choose the ten. So let's figure out why. Because we know what the ten can buy, essentially, we know it's value.

Now let's lead this to a key learning point: It is important to understand the essential value of something when we are choosing or making priorities. Sometimes this means we have to work to find out what the true value is, but it helps clarify the situation when faced with a choice.

Now, that is an easy way to use money as a prop, it is an excellent low effort prop.

Tomorrow I will introduce some foreign money to show you a twist on this activity.

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Low Effort Props

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There are many books about how to use props in presentations. But one particular challenge is how to use props in business presentations that have a more serious tone.

I have been giving this some thought and decided in my next newsletter to focus on this concept.

Each of these props I will call Low Effort Props. These are the guidelines:

-must be commonly found in the training or presentation room
-must make you look like you are not really trying too hard
-must make a relevant key point

So, as I take a look around me I see all kinds of things that could be used. All the training supplies, all the writing supplies, all the food and refreshment objects and personal items on our clothes and bodies.

I will focus in my next newsletter on the common water glass, but I am also thinking of money, cash, dollars and cents.

There are thousands of ways to use cash to make points. I will be thinking about it. Why don't you think about it too and let me know if you have any ideas.

Until then, focus on Low Effort Props.