Sometimes, you’re dealing with a number of new employees or volunteers, or you’ve brought together people who don’t usually work together, you may want to employ an activity rather than posing the same question to everyone in the room. 3 things in 3 minutes The design firm Ideo recommends this exercise for when you want to “break down barriers.” Everyone in the room has to partner up, preferably with someone they don’t know well....
1. What was your first job—or worst job? Everyone has an answer to this question, and it doesn’t put the onus on a new employee or volunteer to entertain or divulge personal details. 2. What are you reading, listening to, or watching right now? This question is low-stakes and can span books, podcasts, music, television, and more. (In other words, it doesn’t put pressure on a new employee to think of a book title that made President...
A generation that acquires knowledge without ever understanding how that knowledge can benefit the community is a generation that is not learning what it means to be citizens in a democracy.
-- Elizabeth L. Hollander (1817-1885) |
We must drop the idea that change comes slowly. Today changes come fast; and we must adjust our mental habits so we can comfortably accept the idea of stopping one thing and beginning another overnight. We must discard the idea that past routines, past ways of doing things, are probably the best ways. On the contrary, we must assume there probably is a better way to do almost everything. We must stop assuming that a thing which has never been...
