Some time ago, I picked up my daughter from the bus at the end of the school day.  It did not take long to realize something was wrong – she was unusually quiet.  After a while it came tearfully spilling out.  “We did a group project at school and I did most of the work and she [another person working on the project] got a higher mark than me and she didn’t do as much as I did and it’s not fair!”

What could I say?  It was bound to …

Seems like everywhere you turn – in the entertainment world at least – there is a zombie of some kind to contend with.  You even have your choice of a variety of books on how to survive a zombie apocalypse if you are so inclined.  The movie World War Z came out last year and contributed to this theme.  It was a somewhat different take on the whole idea and there was one particular moment in the movie that caught my attention.

The main character’s role in the film is …

Problem solving or decision-making is a key element for strong teams, good leadership, and for creating a great place to work; but it can be tricky.  There are plenty of methods to choose from and we each have our favourites.  We can make a ‘pros and cons’ list or something similar.  We gather information, do our research or a market analysis, talk to others, even throw darts at a board; all sorts of things to aid our moving forward. But sometimes we get stymied.  We have information to work with, …

A presenter at a conference I recently attended told the story of how his mom thought that it was important for him to learn how to cook when he was growing up.  She decided that the place to begin was with a ham.  As she was preparing the ham she cut the end off and the presenter asked his mom why she did that.  She mumbled that it had something to do with allowing the juices to flow well, the salt to seep out, etc., and then admitted that she …

The past month or so in southern Alberta has been something to see.  The flooding that Calgary and the surrounding area experienced was truly astounding and has left a mark.  The vast majority of us have never seen something quite like this first hand before.  I am sure by now many of you have heard or read numerous comments about what has gone on in the face of such adversity, but I did want to share a couple of stories and things I have noticed.

The raw power of nature …

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original.  And by the time they are adults most kids have lost that capacity.  They have become frightened of being wrong.”

This quote comes from a somewhat well known presentation delivered by educational specialist Ken Robinson at the 2006 TED Talks.  (It has been viewed almost 17,000,000 times;  see http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html if you are interested).

A number of you have heard me use this quote in my team building workshops and presentations in the context of wrestling …

Some friends and I were sitting around and talking about the pack rats we knew in our lives.  Usually the people we were talking about were parents or siblings who loved to collect things.  Our discussion revolved around the emotional investment that often went with this desire to collect and the issues it raised when it came time to disperse the items they had acquired.

One person in our group was not wired this way.  She just did not collect things although she did have a couple of items that …

It was one of those not so uncommon winter trips on the QE2 highway between Calgary and Edmonton.  A friend and I were heading north during a snowstorm and the conditions were becoming more and more of a concern.   I was driving and at one point we hit a whiteout and I literally could not see anything.  It was as if someone had thrown a white blanket over the windshield of the car.  We went into the whiteout driving in the right hand lane and came out of it driving …

I will admit that patience is not one of my best virtues.  And when I combine this deficiency with other personal characteristics I find myself in some interesting scenarios.  For instance, I am also something of a fast walker so I am often led to ask, why is it that people who tend to walk slower also walk right down the middle of the aisle at the grocery store?  If they want to leisurely consider the goods stacked around them so be it, but do they have to take up …

Things have changed a little.  A while ago my son Sam was telling me about a new video game in which the character you play is an escaped, mutant lab experiment.  Whatever happened to just having some larger dot with a mouth moving through a maze eating smaller dots?

Do not ask me how (I’m not sure there is a satisfying explanation), but Sam’s comment got me thinking about the different ways in which we are now able to communicate with each other.  It was not all that long ago …