Fun | PeopleSense Consulting

Making the most out of what you have

On May 31, 2011 / Graceful Leadership, Motivating / 8 Comments

Resting her head, she was quiet enough to be napping!

There are lots of times when we expose Grace to new experiences. Of course some she enjoys more than others. We took her kayaking several times last year, and she tolerated it, but it was clear that she prefers land over water.

She does have a bit of a smirk here, but she was annoyed at the fly who kept buzzing her. I put the towel over her to keep the sun from baking on her too long. She loves her sunbeams, but it did get hot at times.

This past weekend, we went out again. This trip was different. I got this sense from her that, while she wasn’t totally comfortable with the whole ‘this-boat-rocks-too-much’ feeling, she had resolved to make the most of it. She limited her whining (thank you, Grace) and settled in to observe our surroundings. Her gaze followed the flying birds overhead and the grazing turkey on the shore. When we stopped to listen to the fish smack on bugs, she feigned interest, too.

We stopped after an hour or so and all made way to a wooded area to have our sandwich (she got treats, too) and she was able to stretch her legs while chasing a chipmunk or two. How bad can a day be when you get to do that? She found ways to incorporate her favorite activities into the excursion.

Ahhh, enjoying the ride!

Grace offered good advice for all of us from this trip. Go with the flow. Roll with the punches. Find things you enjoy even when you’re asked to do things you don’t always want to do.

Learning takes time and can be scary, especially when you are supposed to know what you are doing!

On April 5, 2011 / Graceful Leadership, Training / 4 Comments

When Grace and I entered our agility class last week, it immediately hit me that learning takes time, repetition, and patience. I was walking around the agility room in familiar territory, feeling good about that. Yet I was simultaneously starting to worry if Grace and I would do well – or would we falter? Would we remember what we had learned from last year? Did I know when to do the front cross instead of the back cross? All sorts of questions started running through my head. I was feeling the pressure.

It was a bit scary. And all this for a fun agility course! In some ways, coming back was even more intimidating to me than when we went to our first lesson last year. At that point, expectations were low. Grace and I had no idea what to do and we relied on Rachel to instruct our every move. We were given lots of time to learn and pace our progress, without a specific deadline for mastering a particular skill.

But this time, I could feel an artificial expectation I had placed on us. It was clear that Grace wasn’t bothered by any lofty goal-setting. She wore a big smile and easily made her way around the equipment, prancing over the A-frame and skipping over the hurdles, whether she was supposed to or not! She was having fun and it helped me to remember not to put pressure on the situation.

With practice, she gracefully hops through the circular shape!

When we train others in the workplace – in fact when we are being trained – do we put unnecessary expectations on where we should be? I do believe we need goals, which are critically important to know where we are going and to stretch us past our comfort zone. But I also see, far too often, situations in the workplace where a manager has an unrealistic expectation for what a person should be accomplishing when they are learning a new behavior or skill. It takes time, repetition, and patience. (Oh, I already said that. But I think it bears repeating.)

Often, our training efforts get off to a great start because there is a strong focus and commitment to the effort, and we start to get lulled into complacency, believing the person being trained is all set. However as reinforcement and encouragement begin to wane, results suffer. Lucky for me and Grace, Rachel continued to provide that much-needed support. Having that guidance calmed my nerves and settled me back into having fun, which gave me the environment where I could learn openly, without being afraid of making a mistake. It is a big help to think of that now when I see someone moving through a new phase of their learning. In what ways can you encourage yourself, and others, to learn new behaviors?

It’s (s)NO(w) April Fool’s Joke!

On April 1, 2011 / Change, Graceful Leadership / 9 Comments

Grace running ahead of me this morning through the heavy, wet snow falling on April Fool's Day

The weather forecasters prepared us for this. But Grace didn’t see it coming. The look on her face this morning as she exited the door was like: “Come on. You-have-got-to-be-kidding-me. Enough of this!”

But like any good trooper, she persevered and made the best of it while we were out. She even had a little fun, but was definitely ready to come back in much quicker than normal (right now she’s happily curled in her warm bed).

I think that changes in our weather patterns often make for more productive work days. The six inches of heavy, wet snow we awoke to painted a new landscape for us and it automatically entices us to think differently about the things we’re about to do. Some (like myself) love the snow, others (like Grace and my husband) are ready for spring. But all of us are going to approach the day differently today than we would have without this storm.

I know I put that bone here yesterday!

Found it!

It’s easy to get stuck looking at the same things in the same way. The volume of work keeps us running at a frantic pace and it’s hard to slow down, to get a fresh look. So take advantage of nature’s way of slowing us down. If it’s sunny and warm where you are, look for another way to mix up your day.

Can we go inside now?

There are lots of ways to change things up that don’t require building snowmen (though that would be an interesting thing for a team to do that wants to examine how they work together!). Start a meeting with an icebreaker topic that you’ve never done before. Or stop by and chat with a co-worker for five minutes and ask: “What’s the best thing about working here? What could we do better?” Be open to the ideas. What treasures are buried that you can unearth by using a new approach of thinking about it?

Go have some fun today!