“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.”
Plutarch
Trying to fill people’s brains with facts and knowledge is not an effective way of teaching. If we as trainers, coaches and facilitators can create a spark inside others, so that they will actually love the process of learning, then we’ve done our jobs well.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic if you’re willing to share them with me.
A good tactic to get others to open up is to ask more open-ended rather than closed-ended questions (those that ask for only “yes/no” answers). How else can we make sure that our conversations are more interesting and dynamic?
But what are these open-ended questions you might ask?
Open-ended questions have a husband or one of his 6 wives!
Husband = How?
Wives = Who?, What?, When?, Where?, Which? and Why?
So instead of asking, “Did you have a good day today?”, try “What did you do today?” or “What was the most interesting thing that happened to you today?”.
And instead of asking, “Did you enjoy your online session?”, try, “What did you enjoy most about your online session today?”
Looking for a digital timer for your online meetings? Mike Clargo has a great selection on his website here.
You can use a timer as a stand alone timer. You can add it to PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Outlook or Evernote. Or you can use it in Whiteboard, Jamboard, Teams, Zoom, Trello, Social Media or your virtual webcam.
As I’ve not yet used one myself, do tell me if you’ve given one a try.
We’ve spoken about how to start an email before, but how do we address people correctly in our emails and letters? (We call these words ‘honorifics’, by the way.)
We use ‘Mr‘ to address men, ‘Mrs‘ for married women, and ‘Miss‘ for unmarried women. However, we now see more use of ‘Ms‘ (pronounced ‘miz’) for both married and unmarried women—so it says nothing about a person’s marital status. And we now use ‘Mx‘ (pronounced ‘mix’ or ‘mux’) as a gender-neutral alternative—for people who don’t want to be identified by their gender.
(By the way, in British English, there is no full stop after Mr, Mrs, Ms and Mx. In American English there is.)
The German word ‘gerne’ (or ‘gern’) can be rather difficult to translate.
Let’s look a some examples.
Ich singe gerne. – I like to sing.
Wir möchten gerne Ihre Meinung hören. – We would like to hear your opinion.
Ich gebe Dir gerne meine besten Tipps. – I will be happy to give you my best tips.
Gern geschehen – You’re welcome.
Du kannst uns gerne anrufen. Feel free to call us.
Are there any sentences with ‘gerne’ that you struggle with? Remember, you can always ask me.
“Start each item on your To Do list with a verb that represents the next physical action you need to take to move the project forward.”
David Allen, author of “Getting the Right Things Done”
If you’re like me, you like making lists to help you stay clear and focused. And you prefer using pen and paper to using a computer or tablet.
Rather than writing down a list of projects or ideas, David recommends that we write down the actual steps that need to be taken.
I’ve been experimenting with this strategy, and love it!
How does it work?
Instead of writing, “Offer Michael”, I’ve written, “Prepare an offer for Michael.” “New blog post”, has become, “Write a new blog post for 9 July”.
Perhaps you’d like to give it a try and tell me if it works for you?
