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Travel Me This—Part II, Keep Calm & Love Packing

To recap from Part I: 
Packing. What if I loved it? 
Do I love it now? Not so much. 
What’s in the way? Mostly, last-minute packing that takes too much time. So, after much thought, not to mention reading blog posts about packing and watching YouTube videos of smiling people rolling their clothes and stuffing… Continue Reading

Travel Me This—Part I, the Problem

After staying up late to pack (for the zillionth time—because Miss Procrastination usually tells me that there’s no good time for packing), I asked myself this question: What if I loved packing for business travel? Which of the following best describes your feelings about packing? Hate it Am I done yet? Don’t mind it Like… Continue Reading

Let’s Avoid Being the Facilitator from Hell

There we were, in a room full of smart, talented people. We’d been asked to give input for the strategic direction for an organization that we’d all been part of for many years. It was an invitation-only event, and people had traveled from all over the U.S. and beyond to provide assistance. Don’t Tie Up… Continue Reading

The Backfire Effect & Those Crazy Email Forwards

The day after I posted about the backfire effect, I received a forward from a good friend. You know the kind of message—full of heated passages about this or that awful thing that some person or group is supposedly doing. There’s a Blue Sky in There Somewhere I’m writing out what happened to show how… Continue Reading

The Backfire Effect: Holding on to Myths for Dear Life

When we point out to someone that a favorite myth isn’t a real thing, in many cases people will hold onto that belief even more than before. This is often true, even in the face of scientific evidence or facts that we might think are hard to refute. But wait, my whole idea is wilting!… Continue Reading

Introducing The Debunker’s Club

One of my ISPI friends asked a group of us if we’d be willing to help get the word out about The Debunker’s Club. It’s a new website and group of folks who are banding together to help clean up some of the myths, mistakes, and misinformation that are common in the learning field. Early… Continue Reading

This Idea Must Die: Fodder for Evidence-Based Practice

Podcasting is a fairly young idea. Anybody with a microphone and access to the Internet can put up a podcast. Given that, some are terrible, and some are really great. One of my favorites is Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything. You might think it would be boring, because “Freakonomics” sounds like “economics,” but no.… Continue Reading

Soft Skills Are Far from Easy

Once upon a time I worked with a training council inside a Fortune 500 company to assess training and development needs for the Finance organization. When the assessment results came back, nearly every topic on the list was related to management and interpersonal skills. Be Clear | Have Compassion The CFO said in response, “You… Continue Reading

3 Key Steps Toward Evidence-Based Practice

Let’s imagine that someone has asked you to make something better. This might happen because you play the role of a… Manager Project Manager Process Manager Training Professional Organization Development Consultant Performance Consultant Etc., etc. The something might be a problem, for example: Too many errors A time-wasting procedure A lack of necessary resources Slow… Continue Reading

4 Commonly Misused Plurals: 
Don’t Accidentally Make Your Audience Cringe

English is a concoction of words that hail from many sources. Ever evolving, some grammar, punctuation, and usage rules can be confusing. For example: The plural of ox is oxen, but the plural of box, is most definitely not boxen. Singular = iris, plural = irises or iris or irides, depending I agree with Grammar… Continue Reading