tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81071047668567353062024-02-20T15:56:54.733-06:00the InteractionFresh ideas about workplace learningBeverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-6394140458618420872011-09-07T11:23:00.001-05:002011-09-07T13:13:48.970-05:00What really makes employees productive?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Powerful <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/opinion/sunday/do-happier-people-work-harder.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=do+happier+people+work+harder%3F&st=cse">article</a> in the New York Times over the weekend about employee satisfaction and productivity. The authors, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=bio&facEmId=tamabile">Teresa Amabile</a> of Harvard Business School and <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/steven-j-kramer-phd">Steven Kramer</a>, point out a connection that should be obvious but isn't: dissatisfaction on the job connects directly to a lower bottom line. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">Employee engagement may seem like a frill in a downturn economy. But it can make a big difference in a company’s survival.... </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">Conventional wisdom suggests that pressure enhances performance; our real-time data, however, shows that workers perform better when they are happily engaged in what they do.</span></span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">What do employees find most engaging? Amabile and Kramer's study showed a clear result: "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">of all the events that engage people at work, the single most important — by far — is simply making progress in meaningful work."</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Managers can facilitate this progress. But Amabile and Kramer found that they're missing the boat:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Unfortunately, many companies now keep head count and resources to a minimum and this makes progress a struggle for employees. Most managers don’t understand the negative consequences of this struggle. When we asked 669 managers from companies around the world to rank five employee motivators in terms of importance, they ranked “supporting progress” dead last. Fully 95 percent of these managers failed to recognize that progress in meaningful work is the primary motivator, well ahead of traditional incentives like raises and bonuses.</span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's a clear call to action: let's humanize the workplace, encourage creativity and meaning, and help people feel that their presence makes a difference. It's not just good-heartedness; it's good business sense. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo: Creative Commons</span><br />
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Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-54053071876007614612011-08-18T14:31:00.000-05:002011-08-18T14:31:41.507-05:00How to set priorities at work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw8ya8hjhKGdv-gYcMML0YVq1SAlPo9GR-Y01L_S3IdlliUntyHyR4wN86ntrUP8yE_NRsMoK62aN7fe3nIogqGLWv0by_g5kaXBf1Bi6EwjnXkdxa5Y__ADu8lSBsEgJ78BzbS0IidXc/s1600/Rule+of+Thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw8ya8hjhKGdv-gYcMML0YVq1SAlPo9GR-Y01L_S3IdlliUntyHyR4wN86ntrUP8yE_NRsMoK62aN7fe3nIogqGLWv0by_g5kaXBf1Bi6EwjnXkdxa5Y__ADu8lSBsEgJ78BzbS0IidXc/s200/Rule+of+Thumb.jpg" width="115" /></a></div><a href="http://erikaandersen.com/about">Erika Andersen</a> has an excellent post <a href="http://erikaandersen.com/2011/08/whats-your-real-job.html">here</a> about helping leaders figure out what they need to do themselves and what they should be handing off to others. It's a common problem we've seen, too: after a promotion, people often find it difficult to stop doing their old tasks and focus on the demands of their current job. Whether it's the school principal who keeps hanging out in the classroom or the executive who can't stay off the manufacturing floor, we all like to continue with tasks that we enjoy and do well.<br />
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Erika's rule of thumb:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Only do what only you can do</em>. In other words, only do those things that no one below you is capable of doing. And if you’re doing tasks that someone else less highly paid and skilled than you <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">could</em> do...but there’s no one in the organization to do them...consider hiring someone."</span></span></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Good advice for all of us, from one-person consultancies to CEOs of multinationals.<br />
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</strong><strong class="username" style="color: #222222; display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 13px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo: Creative Commons</span></strong><strong class="username" style="color: #222222; display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 13px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">By <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/akeg/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0063dc; text-decoration: none;">akeg</a></span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 12px;"><br />
</span></span>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-8858914028894215222011-08-01T11:16:00.000-05:002011-08-01T11:16:36.684-05:00Good words<div class="MsoNormal">The expert is one who, having incorporated his tools, is unaware of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– <a href="http://www.headless.org/">Douglas Harding</a></div>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-18507012135809670532011-07-25T11:12:00.000-05:002011-07-25T11:12:10.138-05:00No "brilliant jerks" at NetflixEveryone talks about company values, but few do anything about them. <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/taylor/2011/07/news_corp_netflix_values.html">Here</a>'s a post by Bill Taylor of <i><a href="http://fastcompany.com/">Fast Company</a></i> magazine about how values really mean behavior. He quotes Netflix CEO <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066438,00.html">Reed Hastings</a>:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">"Values are what we value," Hastings declares in his presentation, and values "are shown by who gets promoted, rewarded or let go." Actual company values, he continues, "are the behaviors and skills that are valued in fellow employees."</span></blockquote>In other words, not platitudes framed on a wall, but what people consistently do and say - and how they do it and say it. Hastings and Taylor believe that<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">a great place to work isn't about free lunches or weekly massages. A great place to work is about "stunning colleagues," an organization filled with people who bring out the best in themselves and in everyone around them.</span></blockquote>So, even though I'm a little mad at Netflix right now over their price increases, I feel better knowing that they're trying to be human-hearted in corporate life. We need more of that.Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-69983893870855284742011-07-07T11:20:00.000-05:002011-07-07T11:20:49.417-05:00Practice helps us own our knowledge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKI9LjiLTSgYoSJNWfSB58yLtauB5qtm3i4SyLZFYS6yhiQWh_23-UVRwrN5NM2gNnZlJQ4QFzmpWB-5LgDGlMoHp-gvNjXR4zsWxDKeQTHuL6CkQ11CdIOc625Z4vHR3XJhBvBbkbIjA/s1600/flight+sim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKI9LjiLTSgYoSJNWfSB58yLtauB5qtm3i4SyLZFYS6yhiQWh_23-UVRwrN5NM2gNnZlJQ4QFzmpWB-5LgDGlMoHp-gvNjXR4zsWxDKeQTHuL6CkQ11CdIOc625Z4vHR3XJhBvBbkbIjA/s200/flight+sim.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">"The benefit of a flight simulator is that it allows pilots to internalize their new knowledge. Instead of memorizing lessons, a pilot can train the emotional brain, preparing the parts of the cortex that will actually make the decision when up in the air." -- <a href="http://www.jonahlehrer.com/">Jonah Lehrer</a>, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><a href="http://www.jonahlehrer.com/books">How We Decide</a></i> </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Great point. When faced with a situation that requires action, we rarely have time to think, "What was that approach we talked about during Day Three of management training?" We act from the gut. And we train the gut through practice.</span>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-55633075962687487572011-06-29T14:25:00.000-05:002011-06-29T14:25:48.257-05:00What do all those NPR people look like?<a href="http://www.gaelankelly.com/thoughts/2011/6/28/how-the-npr-voices-look-in-my-head.html">Here's</a> Gaelan Kelly's mental pictures of Carl Kasell, Jad Abumrad, Robert Krulwich, and other voices in our heads.Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-8238420281502701312011-06-22T08:30:00.007-05:002011-06-22T08:30:00.983-05:00The case for in-person learning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGO1bsTqUDftWBzNzc03bHw0Aee2IuR2FC6h-cLS8Z2JW1VRd_MF_PIyDcS7X95uAEqIqzE0sY9LZILiV0gAyGAyGOZS104WV-YEfY4I7ybYSC1Lw5PSYJm3aU-UEwLdubxyWYj0Hd9eg/s1600/Grace+Under+Pressure+photos+014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGO1bsTqUDftWBzNzc03bHw0Aee2IuR2FC6h-cLS8Z2JW1VRd_MF_PIyDcS7X95uAEqIqzE0sY9LZILiV0gAyGAyGOZS104WV-YEfY4I7ybYSC1Lw5PSYJm3aU-UEwLdubxyWYj0Hd9eg/s320/Grace+Under+Pressure+photos+014.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>Valuable blog <a href="http://mtxpk.com/2135/in-defense-of-classroom-learning-interpersonal-skills-need-to-be-learned-in-a-classroom/">post</a> by <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Deborah_Laurel">Deborah Laurel </a>on why interpersonal skills need face-to-face training. Her points 3 and 4 focus on practice, immediate feedback, and trial and error -- and how they help learners master and retain new skills.<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; font-family: Tahoma, 'century gothic', Arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Interactive skills require whole body learning. In other words, just because a participant intellectually grasps the steps in a specific type of interaction does not mean that the participant is able to effectively handle the interaction in real life. The only way that learners will achieve confidence in their own competence is for them to practice their new skills in simulations that are as real to life as possible. </span></blockquote><blockquote> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #555555; font-family: Tahoma, 'century gothic', Arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">a. The participants can evaluate whether their verbal and nonverbal behaviors are consistent with each other, or whether they are giving inconsistent messages.</span></blockquote><blockquote>b. The participants get a chance to see how it feels to actually say what needs to be said to the other person.</blockquote><blockquote>c. The participant has to adjust to and handle unexpected responses of the other person.</blockquote><blockquote>d. It gives participants the experience of having to think on their feet.</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>I've got to agree! Practice that's designed to be authentic, realistic, and unexpected (combined with a chance to coach and be coached by peers) is tremendously powerful. It's the difference between reading a recipe and tasting the dish.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Jill Brazel</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">at a <a href="http://www.workplaceinteractors.com/">Workplace Interactors</a> program</span>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-76529963377979826342011-06-21T11:39:00.002-05:002011-06-21T11:48:59.132-05:00Good words<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: windowtext;">You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.</span> – <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_254038422"> </a></span><b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1919/wilson-bio.html">Woodrow Wilson</a></span> </span></b>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-69497102504565932472011-01-18T12:04:00.000-06:002011-01-18T12:04:36.603-06:00Top 10 mistakes in changing behaviorGood stuff from Stanford:<br />
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<div id="__ss_6401325" style="width: 425px;"><strong style="display: block; margin: 12px 0 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/captology/stanford-6401325" title="Top 10 Mistakes in Behavior Change">Top 10 Mistakes in Behavior Change</a></strong><object height="355" id="__sse6401325" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=top10mistakesbehaviorchange-bjfoggv3-101229143325-phpapp02&stripped_title=stanford-6401325&userName=captology" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed name="__sse6401325" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=top10mistakesbehaviorchange-bjfoggv3-101229143325-phpapp02&stripped_title=stanford-6401325&userName=captology" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="padding: 5px 0 12px;">View more presentations from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/captology">Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford</a>.</div></div>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-22715261311920673262010-12-14T09:11:00.001-06:002010-12-14T09:11:00.703-06:00From "Ha-ha" to "Aha!"New <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/science/07brain.html?_r=1">study</a> on puzzles, problem-solving and laughter, demonstrating that people find it easier to solve puzzles through a flash of insight after they've watched something funny. I love this from two points of view:<br />
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As a puzzle maniac, I agree that even thinking about a good one (cryptic crosswords are my drug of choice) induces a pleasant mind-state - something they found in the study. And that moment of insight when the answer suddenly appears is one of the great joys of life, to me.<br />
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And as a creator of leadership-skills practice sessions which always combine laughter with serious practice, I constantly see how insight follows the loosening-up process of watching a funny live scene. <br />
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Glad to have the neurology to prove it!Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-14167645969153161632010-11-16T10:37:00.001-06:002010-11-16T10:54:42.366-06:00Stepping up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7kBnOz-qdyJZAuxG9578qfBoBWHJs3YEZCXehBjMEM4utzjQr5Y9ywEh9K3c7IaPJOIOlQfD8Kfu0dD9FYmilnEKwQ4m0ic17eUC3ZNsNlg0HW0BRodEPo5mAeETh6zWfJ8ld9nryQs/s1600/baby-walking-sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7kBnOz-qdyJZAuxG9578qfBoBWHJs3YEZCXehBjMEM4utzjQr5Y9ywEh9K3c7IaPJOIOlQfD8Kfu0dD9FYmilnEKwQ4m0ic17eUC3ZNsNlg0HW0BRodEPo5mAeETh6zWfJ8ld9nryQs/s200/baby-walking-sm.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>British corporate change expert <a href="http://pcchange.ning.com/profile/DavidRBovis">David Bovis</a> wrote in a discussion on LinkedIn, "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">Neurologically / psychologically, we are 'designed' to learn from mistakes, and we learn quicker from environments that provide positive reinforcement, forgiveness & understanding following mistakes." He goes on to give the (wonderfully vivid) example of how we encourage babies learning to walk. No one ever says, "You little idiot, you'll never walk. Why even try again?" And yet our feedback and evaluation systems tend to focus on what we've done wrong, in a punitive way.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">That reminds me of <a href="http://marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/html/marshall/Marshall-Goldsmith.html">Marshall Goldsmith</a>'s wonderful <a href="http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/cim/articles_display.php?aid=110">Feedforward</a> exercise, which we've used with a number of different groups: clients, our religious community, and even just between Dan and me. Instead of focusing on the past (which we can't change, anyway), feedforward encourages us to consider ways that we can do better as we move ahead. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">If you haven't tried it, I urge you to check it out. Marshall's clever format helps stop our usual resistant brain-chatter and opens us up to true listening and real possibility. People report feeling truly cared for after the exercise and tend to come away with a few good ideas for improving their lives. One baby step at a time.</span><br />
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</span>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-56922849693379921782010-11-03T08:33:00.001-05:002010-11-03T08:33:00.227-05:00Good words<div class="MsoNormal">There are trivial truths, and there are great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true. - <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1922/bohr-bio.html">Neils Bohr</a></div>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-7761831104040119502010-10-25T15:30:00.000-05:002010-10-25T15:30:04.912-05:00The wisdom of crowds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHBN9oI8PQq46miUesEQTMxc0dditc0AcR54B9VzU33FwRhELYQ7hdwsbfjTi0CLaFiTCoLIIwqltMkpmnDGWH0bXb7kOTaumWE1paUDOLU4__5m76a2KPpxz8R0Muz84uRH6IleZAUwY/s1600/Grace+Under+Pressure+photos+019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHBN9oI8PQq46miUesEQTMxc0dditc0AcR54B9VzU33FwRhELYQ7hdwsbfjTi0CLaFiTCoLIIwqltMkpmnDGWH0bXb7kOTaumWE1paUDOLU4__5m76a2KPpxz8R0Muz84uRH6IleZAUwY/s320/Grace+Under+Pressure+photos+019.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Online training has become an accepted, often cost-efficient way of training in the corporate setting. E-learning allows people to work at their own pace, during their own available time. But what's lost?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">One answer is hinted at in a blog post by Jonah Lehrer at <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/frontal-cortex/">The Frontal Cortex</a>. The topic is buzz and how it works to sell products, especially movies. But near the end of the post, Lehrer writes: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"For too long, we’ve tried to understand ourselves in isolation, as we test people one at a time in the psychology lab or rely on their past preferences to predict behavior. But these conditions and algorithms are artificial. In the real world, we are deeply intertwined with each other, dependent on our social networks for all sorts of advice." </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I thought back to a recent workshop we gave, in which 24 newly-minted supervisors watched each other deal with various realistic management situations, live and impromptu. Participants commented on how valuable it was to see how other people handle things - even if their style is different from yours (or perhaps especially so!). Even though back on the job these folks will often have to act alone, the collaboration they experience in training helps give them a repertoire of possible approaches that they're more likely to remember when they need them.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We often emphasize the practice aspect of our workshops, and of course that's vital: nothing makes learning stick like actually trying it out. But the group process may be equally important for topics (like supervisor skillls) that involve social interaction. In a culture that still tends to overemphasize the individual, it's useful to reaffirm the wisdom of crowds.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Photo by Jill Brazel of a Workplace Productions program</span></span>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-41219384091297143372010-10-13T15:22:00.000-05:002010-10-13T15:22:35.236-05:00Good wordsEvery tradition is actually a successful invention. - Yo-Yo MaBeverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-41421379480453204652010-10-02T09:46:00.001-05:002010-10-02T09:49:11.869-05:00Good wordsPart of creativity means keeping your learning curve as high as possible, and part of teaching is learning. - <a href="http://www.yo-yoma.com/">Yo-Yo Ma</a>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-7784951022813783022010-09-22T13:39:00.000-05:002010-09-22T13:39:28.608-05:00Two to tango, four to square dance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvcB2Ex6o6g7R1jsYOiZdQLppULpoXEolgXbBlPC8w9btvRW0Y8lJsYzDQ3OLfcRiwVJPdos4ZU92vd8wd4omj_DmCYjCehpMoOZmfsAy11kjERQN4cV7fPfjeh4fy7Id6SmUMTE3qXg4/s1600/cat's+cradle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvcB2Ex6o6g7R1jsYOiZdQLppULpoXEolgXbBlPC8w9btvRW0Y8lJsYzDQ3OLfcRiwVJPdos4ZU92vd8wd4omj_DmCYjCehpMoOZmfsAy11kjERQN4cV7fPfjeh4fy7Id6SmUMTE3qXg4/s200/cat's+cradle.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Excellent article in <i><a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2267004/">Slate</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> that looks at creativity in partnerships and takes on the pervasive cultural myth of the lone genius. <a href="http://www.shenk.net/">Joshua Wolf Shenk</a> even takes on the whole notion of a separate "self" - an idea that's been questioned by such paths as Buddhism and Advaita. </span></i><br />
Do we really exist outside of relationships?<br />
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I've always been annoyed by the phrase, "We're born alone, and we die alone." I can't speak about the death part of it, but having given birth, I can say most emphatically that we're not born alone! Some woman (and likely a whole bunch of other people) are on the scene and working very hard to make that birth happen. And, as the article points out, babies are interrelating right from the start.<br />
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We Americans seem to be especially in love with what Shenk calls "the atomized person." I can't help thinking that this notion is partly responsible for the polarization of the country today, and the apparent loss of the sense of the collective good. If we saw harming our neighbor as <i>actually</i> harming ourselves, we might have a different view. In the piece,<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> <a href="http://psychology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/cacioppo/index.shtml">John Cacioppo</a> of the University of Chicago says: "We're ready for a Copernican revolution in psychology." </span></i><br />
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Which sets me to thinking about how what aspects of learning design may be based, unknowingly, on this underlying belief in individualism. Are there ways to do it better?<br />
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At Workplace, we adore collaboration. From the basic pair who run the company (Dan and Beverly Feldt, who are husband and wife); to our fabulous interactors; to our clients, whose great ideas are always incorporated in our "flight simulators"; to our focus groups and participants, whose grappling with the situations we present creates the learning - it's all glorious groups. Could we be the wave of the future?<br />
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Yummy food for thought. Maybe I'll go talk to Dan about it...Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-18591249306234267582010-09-08T10:56:00.000-05:002010-09-08T10:56:38.641-05:00Good words<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: .5in;">Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't as all. You can be discouraged by failure - or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that's where you will find success. – <b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson">Thomas J. Watson</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-2653715485377571182010-08-30T10:27:00.000-05:002010-08-30T10:27:59.987-05:00The clock is ticking, part twoI had a chance to try out the 10-minute rule at a program we did for Northwestern University last week. The workshop is called "Grace Under Pressure," and it focuses on how to recognize and relieve adrenaline flooding - the fight-or-flight response that shuts down your ability to think clearly. It's really cool material, mostly developed by <a href="http://www.conflictunraveled.com/Andra_Medea.htm">Andra Medea</a>, who wrote <i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0974580805?ie=UTF8&tag=learnthatstic-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0974580805%22%3EConflict%20Unraveled:%20Fixing%20problems%20at%20work%20and%20in%20families%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=learnthatstic-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0974580805%22%20width=%221%22%20height=%221%22%20border=%220%22%20alt=%22%22%20style=%22border:none%20!important;%20margin:0px%20!important;%22%20/%3E">Conflict Unraveled</a></i> and certified me to teach this stuff.<br />
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We have two fantastic interactors who demonstrate flooding and its solutions, and of course they're riveting. But there's also a lot of information on the physical signs and symptoms of flooding that I have to convey at the beginning of the workshop. Last time we did it, a participant complained about the "lecture" (!), so I wanted to tinker with this section to see if the 10-minute rule might help keep the learners more engaged.<br />
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I redesigned this chunk it so that I changed direction about every 9 minutes, bringing in the interactors, discussion, etc. I also made sure that I explained BEFOREHAND exactly how the information would be useful to the learners. (I'm an awful nerd sometimes, and I tend to get enthusiastic and not notice that listeners may be thinking, "And you're telling me this WHY?")<br />
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The redesign worked beautifully! In fact, one of the participants, commenting on the half-day program as a whole, said, "I don’t think any of us were bored for even one second."<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP4qya5uBn57RwX1H9GkzwN4C2BY6ckWije0wt6fQ8VcyrB8dLCEfQ-uekb35GWU9SsddJe6mpi1plGLSYCn7wKieuOSA_TYla2b2bn90JiXi2m4XsG3OwL8uyNkBMw_1yY0y2o56yWlI/s1600/Jack+and+Ta-Ta+GUP+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP4qya5uBn57RwX1H9GkzwN4C2BY6ckWije0wt6fQ8VcyrB8dLCEfQ-uekb35GWU9SsddJe6mpi1plGLSYCn7wKieuOSA_TYla2b2bn90JiXi2m4XsG3OwL8uyNkBMw_1yY0y2o56yWlI/s320/Jack+and+Ta-Ta+GUP+cropped.jpg" /></a></div>Granted, most of this was due to Ta-Tanisha Jordan and Jack Hickey (pictured above), and their skill at demonstrating conflict and calm. But at least I didn't get in their way!<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Photo: <a href="http://www.jillbrazel.com/">Jill Brazel</a></span><br />
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</div>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-46714342368461033152010-08-18T11:32:00.000-05:002010-08-18T11:32:35.995-05:00The clock is ticking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid6CR19p7hGy3Y5DtUULqstIM2WodLfLDV9lGnEMdp3MhRTbO2YFQzy6XLwGlgXDO9aLs_vkeuoJSuhVABD2Qz4nJH1R80QPg8Cp7tSvBqGte30En_JRppgU1MGRestjVHVe8yRVV-B_o/s1600/brain+clock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid6CR19p7hGy3Y5DtUULqstIM2WodLfLDV9lGnEMdp3MhRTbO2YFQzy6XLwGlgXDO9aLs_vkeuoJSuhVABD2Qz4nJH1R80QPg8Cp7tSvBqGte30En_JRppgU1MGRestjVHVe8yRVV-B_o/s200/brain+clock.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Found this interesting item on John Jamison's <a href="http://imagilearning.com/content/imagilearning-creating-future-learning">ImagiLearning</a> <a href="http://imagilearning.com/content/may-i-have-your-attention-please">blog</a>: <br />
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<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">There is something about the human brain that causes it to begin to refocus every 10 minutes. So after doing your best for 9 minutes, spend the next 60 seconds doing something to re-capture the brain's attention, to 'hook' it into sticking around for the next 10 minutes. If you lecture for 60 minutes...or create online courses...chunk them into 10 minute 'modules' divided by a 60 second "hook"...something that will cause the learners' brains to say, "Say what?" This buys you another 10 minutes.</span></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> Don't know what research this comes from, but it's interesting enough to try out. I'll watch in my next training program to see if folks get restless in 10-minute intervals. Anybody notice this in their own classroom work?Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-25392638111846873872010-08-11T10:27:00.000-05:002010-08-11T10:27:03.709-05:00Good words<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Tell me and I'll forget.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Show me and I'll remember. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Involve me and I'll understand. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">- <a href="http://www.friesian.com/confuci.htm">Confucius</a></span></div>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-366353399195702852010-07-27T16:26:00.000-05:002010-07-27T16:26:08.761-05:00Vulcanizing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ZctXYECQ-0woUdskrCraEbdHmhcjoJ9RBXSjVx-cmFBxX-ihwbclxA7m9-bovD4obh8Gd1QbK4z676K9AtlBXLXK1LB8FmRxwwM0oCLf7E4o5vtpjb8j-frgLwoWs1RBdw0lXiPete0/s1600/Spock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ZctXYECQ-0woUdskrCraEbdHmhcjoJ9RBXSjVx-cmFBxX-ihwbclxA7m9-bovD4obh8Gd1QbK4z676K9AtlBXLXK1LB8FmRxwwM0oCLf7E4o5vtpjb8j-frgLwoWs1RBdw0lXiPete0/s320/Spock.jpg" /></a></div>This brief <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19220-we-humans-can-mindmeld-too.html">article</a> in <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/">NewScientist</a>, <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19220-we-humans-can-mindmeld-too.html">"</a>We Humans Can Mind-Meld, Too," says people listening to a story produced the same brain patterns as the narrator -- just a few seconds later. In a few cases, the listeners' patterns even preceded the storyteller's. (I've experienced that myself: watching certain television shows or movies, I can often say the next line before the character does. Poor writing, not my genius!)<br />
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These findings seem like neurological support for the well-documented phenomenon of entrainment, when people in conversational sync spontaneously mirror each other's movements and rhythms. Guess we do it on the brain level, too. Does this explain why my sister and I so frequently say the same thing at the same time? We even do it while instant messaging.<br />
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So, fellow trainers, how can we encourage this shared neurological dance with our classes? And does this give you new ideas about the effectiveness of story in adult learning?<br />
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Wait, I know what you're going to say...Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-21260999143223641692010-06-02T12:19:00.000-05:002010-06-02T12:19:23.584-05:00What really motivates us?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-A_T3gNZ9sTJQqf26Y_OV95JiP-G22uEIasdXnda_m9oMcL3v4IS7ffK_ipK3PTi5dsT9gKbTApXmoi5WIQPqsdv8dQcgJaAuLOxBS7RPs2zDMagOj4g_HOuP_PlDWMjqyZdGLgESZ98/s1600/lego+robot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-A_T3gNZ9sTJQqf26Y_OV95JiP-G22uEIasdXnda_m9oMcL3v4IS7ffK_ipK3PTi5dsT9gKbTApXmoi5WIQPqsdv8dQcgJaAuLOxBS7RPs2zDMagOj4g_HOuP_PlDWMjqyZdGLgESZ98/s200/lego+robot.jpg" width="200" /></a>Cool <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127352130&ps=cprs">story</a> on NPR yesterday: an interview with <a href="http://web.mit.edu/ariely/www/MIT/">Dan Ariely</a>, author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Upside-Irrationality-Unexpected-Benefits-Defying/dp/0061995037">The Upside of Irrationality</a></i>, about how effective money is as a motivator. More money, more motivation? Sometimes. More money, less achievement? Also true: we're more likely to choke when the stakes are high.<br />
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And how important is it to see our work last? Ariely devised a fiendish experiment about that, too.<br />
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If you have eight minutes, listen to the interview. It's fun, and there are surprises lurking.Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-58059698638942416752010-05-05T10:20:00.000-05:002010-05-05T10:20:36.049-05:00Good words<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">To confront a person with his own shadow is to show him his own light. - <a href="http://www.cgjungpage.org/">Carl G. Jung</a><br />
</div>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-22263747321811709332010-04-30T12:45:00.002-05:002010-04-30T12:46:55.739-05:00Getting to "Aha!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnkvajbXg9Tx4QQM3V9abw7DE3dN0dAopqEmuAAHoS4yHPJCsz3WgilHScrRlFY8X8qJsvKAhfDm-pqWyfaiAdR5oHoiufWfwqkHhaHNLfndElnZAS2IonY9KhMu-nxp9azC_OYe5glso/s1600/butterflies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnkvajbXg9Tx4QQM3V9abw7DE3dN0dAopqEmuAAHoS4yHPJCsz3WgilHScrRlFY8X8qJsvKAhfDm-pqWyfaiAdR5oHoiufWfwqkHhaHNLfndElnZAS2IonY9KhMu-nxp9azC_OYe5glso/s200/butterflies.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>Great blog<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=124631891&gid=97638&srchCat=WOTC&articleURL=http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/2010/04/10-ways-to-help-left-brainers-tap-into.html&urlhash=-S_y"> post</a> by <a href="http://www.awakeatthewheel.info/">Mitch Ditkoff</a> on helping the fiercely left-brained learn to be more creative. I especially appreciate his emphasis on giving linear thinkers a mental map of the brainstorming process to reduce their anxiety.<br />
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I also like his suggestion that those leading creativity sessions mention repeatedly that chaos and disorder precede breakthroughs; so many people take that wheels-coming-off moment as a sign that they're lost, rather than as evidence that they're finally beginning to get somewhere.<br />
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</div><div>Most of us are heavily rewarded throughout schooling and career for being orderly, linear thinkers. Predictable. Correct. Logical!</div><div><br />
</div><div>New research (and a lot of old intuition) is showing that this left-brain approach is only a tiny part of the real capability of the brain -- and not the smartest part, either.</div><div><br />
</div><div>As trainers, we can help people trust their mental resources by giving permission to be playful, non-judgmental, and experimental. And by setting aside time for analysis and logic, when they're appropriate -- but not letting them run the show all the time.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Image via Creative Commons</span></div>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107104766856735306.post-9861503698632597942010-04-21T16:20:00.002-05:002010-04-21T16:26:34.153-05:00Good words<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; "><a href="http://www.leonardbernstein.com/">[Leonard] Bernstein</a> was always able to take big risks. He never fell off the first rung of the ladder, he always fell off the top rung. - <a href="http://www.sondheimguide.com/">Stephen Sondheim</a></span></div></span>Beverly Feldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02272610577272965638noreply@blogger.com0