Okanagan Training Solution

8 tips for keeping and developing a winning brain

1. SELF-AWARENESS Train yourself to interpret other people’s gestures by watching scenes from a movie on mute. Then watch the scene with sound, to see how you fared. You can improve this skill over time.
2. MOTIVATION If you procrastinate, make large tasks more manageable by breaking them down into parts.
3. FOCUS If something’s not coming to you despite your best efforts, try relaxing and letting the brain work on autopilot.
4. EMOTIONAL BALANCE Practice managing your emotions by changing your perspective of a situation. If you think of a highly emotional event as a challenge rather than a problem, you can stay calmer.
5. MEMORY Edit your brain. Recognize and consciously purge useless information. Imagine sweeping it away, so you can concentrate on more useful data.
6. RESILIENCE When you’re in a tough spot, think of a “resilience role model” a parent, a teacher or mentor, and ask yourself what they would do in your situation.
7. ADAPTABILITY Try a few minutes of meditation a day to calm your thoughts. Studies show “regular yoga and meditation can increase cortical thickness in as little as eight weeks.”
8. BRAIN CARE Research suggests that 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, three times a week, can help strengthen your mind.

Mark Fenske and Jeff Brown

David Anderson
Okanagan Training Solutions
Priority Management Interior BC
250 762-5096 / 1-877-762-5096
prioritymanagement@shaw.ca
http://www.okanagantrainingsolutions.com
http://okanagantrainingsolutions.blogspot.com/

The word project can be misleading. Many people think of large scale building works or changes in information technology. Your project may not be as big as these; indeed, preparing and writing a report, developing an internet product alongside marketing and sales plan, relocating an office, or updating your kitchen can all be considered ‘projects’. However, what they have in common is that they all need careful planning. Here’s how!

Getting Started – Initiation
1. Develop a solid business case for your projects. Where appropriate, ensure you obtain ‘senior managers’ agreement before you start the project. Research points out that too many projects are started without a firm reason or rationale. Developing a business case will identify whether it is worth working on.
2. Ensure your project fits with the key organizational or departmental agenda or your personal strategy. If not, why do it? Stick to priority projects.
3. Carry out risk analysis at a high level at the initiation stage. Avoid going into great detail here – more an overview focussing on the key risks.
4. Identify key stakeholders at this early stage. Consider how much you need to consult or involve them at the business case stage. Seek advice if necessary from senior managers.
5. Where appropriate, involve finance people in putting the business case together. They can be great allies in helping crunch the numbers which should give credibility to your business case.

David Anderson
Okanagan Training Solutions
Priority Management Interior BC
250 762-5096 / 1-877-762-5096
prioritymanagement@shaw.ca
http://www.okanagantrainingsolutions.com
http://okanagantrainingsolutions.blogspot.com/

Dr. Peter Honey
Whenever you praise something someone has done you reinforce the behavior, i.e. make it more likely he/she will repeat it again and provide positive feedback from which that person can learn.

In this punitive world criticisms tend to outnumber praise. But we need a mixture of both. Since there is no perception without contrast, praise would be diminished without criticism and vice versa. Praise tends to have a motivating effect on people’s performance as well as doubling up as feedback from which to learn.

To praise in a way that enhances learning and development, adopt the following guidelines:

• Always give specific praise and avoid meaningless generalizations. Start with what you have observed or heard from someone else, then go on to spell out why you liked it.
• Always praise better-than-expected results or actions. For example, when people exceed their target, make an extra effort, are punctual when usually late, and so on.
• Always use ‘stand alone’ praise and do not dilute it with any criticism. The rule is when praise is deserved, give it; when criticism is deserved, give it. Don’t mix the two.
• Always praise as close in time to the person’s action as possible. Praising someone a long after the event is still worthwhile but has less impact.
• Always praise authentically, not because you think you should or only on special occasions or to impress a third party.

Praise is one of the most effective and yet inexpensive ways to motivate people. When you also realize that it helps people to learn it’s a wonder it isn’t more prevalent.
From praise people are likely to learn:

• That their efforts are recognized.
• That the world isn’t such a negative/punitive place after all.
• Which actions/behaviors meet with approval and therefore need to happen more often
• Which actions/behaviors don’t attract praise and therefore need revision.
• That if praise gives them such a warm glow, then perhaps they in turn should praise others more often.
• How to accept praise graciously without self-depreciation and embarrassment.

Remember that feedback, whether it be praise or criticism, is the essence of learning and development and that most of us would rather be ruined by praise.

David Anderson
Okanagan Training Solutions
Priority Management Interior BC
250 762-5096 / 1-877-762-5096
prioritymanagement@shaw.ca
http://www.okanagantrainingsolutions.com
http://okanagantrainingsolutions.blogspot.com/

Knowledge people must take responsibility for their own development and placement.
By Dr. Peter Drucker

In today’s society and organizations, people work increasingly with knowledge, rather than with skill. Knowledge and skill differ in a fundamental characteristic – skills change very, very, slowly. Knowledge, however, changes itself. It makes itself obsolete, and very rapidly. A knowledge worker becomes obsolescent if he or she does not go back to the classroom every three or four years.

This not only means that the equipment of learning, of knowledge, of skill, of experience that one acquires early is not sufficient for our present life time and working time. People change over such a long time span. They become different persons with different needs, different abilities, different perspectives, and, therefore, with a need to “reinvent themselves.” I quite intentionally use a stronger word than “revitalize.” If you talk of fifty years of working life – and this, I think, is going to be increasingly the norm – you have to reinvent yourself. You have to make something different out of yourself, rather than just find a new supply of energy.

Action Point: Ask those ahead of you in age how they went about “repotting themselves.” What steps should you take now?

David Anderson
Okanagan Training Solutions
Priority Management Interior BC
250 762-5096 / 1-877-762-5096
prioritymanagement@shaw.ca
http://www.okanagantrainingsolutions.com
http://okanagantrainingsolutions.blogspot.com/