giving thanks to your employees and coworkers

I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.
—John F. Kennedy

Ideas for giving thanks in the workplace, the classroom and at home:

Demonstrate your thankfulness by how you treat everyone you meet.
Don’t let others feel small or stupid around you. Let them be smarter.
Be generous with your praise and stingy with your criticism.
Don’t give the answer. Show them how to find it.
Help others find the strength in their weakness.
Be civil. It shows others you appreciate them.
Encourage others and applaud their efforts.
Give others the room to grow.
Complement the competition.
Give your best self to others.
Help others triumph.
Share the good stuff.
Walk your talk.
Laugh.
Listen.

Say Thanks.

using the ipad to enhance your work

We are lucky enough to have an ipad at home...technically it's my husband's ipad but that's neither here nor there. Anyways I have played around with it for a couple months now and it is my new favorite gadget of all time. I love how big the screen is in comparison to an i-phone, but how easy it is to bring anywhere. It has the functionality of any computer (you can create documents, presentations, spreadsheets, use the internet, among many other typical functions), and it has the access and ability to host the ingenious app store and all of it's wonderful apps! I have been reading so much more because of the ibooks app. I never thought in a million years I would ever use an e-reader. I love to highlight and take notes when I read. Well you can do that (very easily) on the ipad using ibooks. LOVE IT! Books are so much cheaper too. Ok I suppose I will stop rambling and explain some of my ideas for how one could use it at work, particularly in higher ed/student affairs.

Surveying- Ok I recognize being known as the survey person is pretty dorky, but hear me out. Do you need a quick data sample? The ipad is amazing for simple quick surveys. If your hosting an event in which you would normally have no way of surveying your audience, using a survey app on the ipad you can create the questions and its easy for participants to complete it. Most of the time people will be so intrigued by holding, playing with or using the ipad they are happy to complete a 5 minute survey on it.  Do you have a couple of logos, fliers or website designs your trying to decide on? You can load images, pdfs, videos, websites and just about anything else worth looking at onto your ipad. Bring it out to the food court or lounge with your three logo options up, and ask students which one is more appealing. This is just 2 examples but it's pretty obvious how many other options there are.

Paperless Resources- Its so bitter sweet when you come across that free 100 page e-book of training exercises. On one hand its a score!! On the other you shamefully walk away from the printer feeling so guilty for having printed 100 pages. With an ipad you can load any pdf into your ibooks. This way you can read it, keep it in a slim ipad instead of a bulky binder, highlight it and take notes on it.

Enhance your next meeting or presentation- I recently gave a brief presentation about core values and how to incorporate them into a work environment. There is a really good video Zappos did about their core values that I wanted to show. Normally I would have to lug my laptop along to show the video. This time I got it up and running on my ipad with the youtube app easily, and my bag wasn't weighed down by the laptop and charger. The video went full screen and its not much smaller than showing it on a full size laptop.

Membership forms and sign up sheets- If your office is hosting an interest session, or recruitment event the ipad can be a great tool to increase your sign up numbers. If someone is interested in joining the organization, filling out a sign up form or completing a membership application there is no need to wait until they receive the form in their e-mail in-box the next day. With advanced apps to create forms, even advanced enough to collect payment, this is very easy to do on the spot.

taking events to the next level

 Doodle- Have you doodled? It is a great, free, tool to poll anyone anytime. I have used it to figure out meeting times, identifying training dates and arranging conference calls. check it out @ doodle.com

With websites like ohdontforget.com and snaphow.com you'll never forget a deadline. Oh Don't Forget is a free service in which you can set up text messages to go to any number at any time of day and date with a message. Using Snap How you can set up reminder e-mails to be sent to yourself for any date and time.

 

Guest List App- Are you in charge of planning a conference for your department or an association? Charity golf tournament? Holiday party? Using guestlistapp.com to log RSVPs, collect registration money or donations, and maintain a very sleek professional looking online event page.

 I am a big believer that unity is an important tactic for building staff morale and building a sense of teamwork among staff members. Want to go one step further than the typical bowling or movie nights? Check out eventful.com for some unique ideas for your next staff outing... or if you are just looking for a fun night out friends.

This has a lot of potential. With the use of multiple forms of social media to announce the live broadcasting of an event or training. You can use this site to stream a live broadcast of your event or training. Given the wide success of viral videos this is a great social media outlet to promote your events. Trainings can now reach further, literally. If you are hosting a training on campus, and others at another institution may want to join in you can just use ustream.com to stream a live broadcast of the training program. Check out ustream.com for more info or to set up an account.

innovation in recruiting

I have found that student affairs departments are not maximizing one of their most significant strengths. Most departments I have worked for are rich in culture and intrinsic motivators like flexibility of work hours, appreciation of creativity and rewarding relationships with students and colleagues. In comparison to my brief stint in the corporate world, these departments are a diamond in the rough and many are not marketing it enough. I came across the Zappos "culture book" recently. It is a compilation of testimonials from all the employees mixed in with pictures from fun employee events and memorabilia around the office. The department I work for not only has about 40+ professional staff members but probably close to 300+ student staff members and 15 graduate staff members. It would be easy to have each staff member write about a rewarding experience with a student or client, reason why they enjoy working in the department, etc. Bound it together and use it as a recruitment tool. It would be impressive for potential staff members of all levels: students, grads and pro staff alike.

vivid scribbles top 5- (little known) companies

 

Companies:

1. Baudville:   Inspiration for today's post. I receive an e-mail from Baudville with a link to a ton of free recognition resources. I have used Baudville as a supplier for all things recognition for a couple of years now. They continue to be innovative, and successfully serve as both a supplier and a resource. I feel, as a customer, that they are more than just a company selling recognition supplies, but they believe what their selling. check them out @ baudville.com
2. PaperClip Communications: This is great for anyone working in student affairs/higher ed. They have tons of manuals, training binders, activity books, and more recently have done a good job of providing substantial resources/webinars on hot topics and current issues. When working in my grad internship we purchased a couple of good activity binders and manuals from them. They are worth the money you spend on them. check them out @ paper-clip.com
3. Colleen Hammond Whitmore Productions (CHW)- There are two reasons why I love CHW. Quality and innovation. The president and founder combined her passion for acting and student development to design a consulting group that will develop and write socio-drama skits, as well as coordinate a three day visit for experienced acting coaches to come in and teach your student leaders the performance.check them out @ http://chwconcepts.com/index.html
4. Mashable- I may be reaching on this one. I don't know if this is necessarily a company, but it is a great website. Mashable is everything social media. It has tons of good articles, and is simplified so that you don't have to be a computer geek to understand or appreciate it. At this point I don't think anyone can "run their shop" without at least some understanding of this stuff. check it out @ mashable.com
5. Project Adventure- My first day on the job was a Project Adventure training with our unit. Project Adventure is a teaching organization with an emphasis on adventure education (ropes course, using props, team builders, outdoor education). The facilitator we used for the unit did a great job, and they work closely with many departments at the university. I always hear great feedback about their facilitators. They also offer products like props, books and equipment. check them out @ pa.org 

*I have not been solicited by any of these companies to write this content. No special deals or discounts, just plain old fashion word of mouth. They do good work, and I figured I am always looking for recommendations from co-workers so I wanted to offer my suggestions to others.

visual scribbles- engaging others with visuals

I am reading this book "visual meetings" by David Sibbet. It's awesome. The author is so passionate about the endless possibilities to enhance any work environment, meeting, training, workshop, etc. with the use of visuals. I have found it to be really helpful when thinking about the meetings and trainings I do with students and co-workers. Here are a few ideas I have taken from his book and manipulated to make it work for what I do.

 

Picture cards- I use a free stock photo site (sxc.hu) for my presentations and such. I have a bunch of stock photos saved on my home and work computer that I use for this kind of stuff. I printed them (four to a page) so they are 3.5x4 and will laminate them to make picture cards. Since they are all stock photos it will look professional (you can see a few of the examples I am using in the graphic above). I can use these for a variety of different meetings with my students. By spreading them around a conference table or a room we are in. I can ask the the group of staff I am meeting with (grads, leadership team, etc) to answer any of the following questions by picking the picture that best answers it.

• What picture best describes our organization?
• What picture best describes the issues/stressors going on right now?
• What picture best describes how you want to be motivated?

These are just a few examples, the questions can be anything. But think about it. If I asked a group of students to talk about the issues/stressors on the group, I can bet their answers without using the picture cards versus using them would be very different. By using a picture to talk about an issue, they can be more honest, descriptive and therefore a more constructive use of time. I look forward to using this technique out.

Post it visuals: Who doesn't love a post it? I love multi-colored post its of all different shapes and sizes.We use post its a lot when planning things out, and even use post its when selecting our staff (its our version of the NFL draft). I had another idea come to my mind of how we could use post its all summer long to keep our leadership, grad and office staff focused on always delivering a quality orientation program. I want to create a huge poster about 6 ft wide and 6 or 7ft tall on one of the walls in our orientation office. It would be broken into 3 main categories with an upper tier and lower tier. Ok as I am typing this I realize a visual of what is in my head might be helpful. This is what I am thinking of (similar at least)...

Anyway, so we would have a post it for every component of the program and then conceptual things like morale, teamwork, etc. At the end of each week the group would come together and decide what belonged in which column, give reasons why it should be in that column, and then brainstorm either how to keep the awesome things awesome and how to improve the things that need to improve. We would have a whole separate panel (with different color post its obviously) devoted to the improving/keeping things awesome ideas. By keeping something like this up, it really gets the group engaged in big picture thinking, problem solving and keeps everyone focused. I am excited to try this out this summer.

Visual one-on-ones: Typically, once a semester in the spring and then once at the end of the summer we will do one on one meetings with all fifty staff members. They go ok, for those students that want the meeting make they make the most of it but for some it is 10 minutes in and out. I think that we could use visuals to make these more engaging.  The one chapter in Sibbet's book talks about using visuals in sales meetings and with clients. They talk about using visuals like time-lines to engage clients in a conversation about their goals. I'd like to try this with our students. Using a piece of news print and some markers, and the meeting to draw out time-line of where they are now and where they want to be at the end of their experience. Then plotting out what would need to happen in the middle to get there. The student could leave with a copy to have, or we could hold on to it to use at the end of the summer to reflect on their path.

are you a boss or a leader?

 

I think I will post this on my bulletin board and figured I would share for those that may want to as well.

The boss drives group members; the leader coaches them.
The boss depends upon authority; the leader on good will.
The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.
The boss says ‘I’; the leader says ‘we.’
The boss assigns the task, the leader sets the pace.
The boss says, ‘Get there on time’; the leader gets there ahead of time.
The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown.
The boss knows how it is done; the leader shows how.
The boss makes work a drudgery; the leader makes it a game.
The boss says, ‘Go’; the leader says, ‘Let’s go.’

– Author unknown

books inspiring scribbles

 

I have been on a book kick lately. My husband and I went to barnes and nobles the other night and I went home with 4 new books. I had about 8 that I wanted but he talked me into ordering 3 of them on the ipad because it would be half the price. It is probably all this reading that has me inspired to write many of these blog posts. Here are a few of my recommendations....for anyone looking for some holiday light reading:)

I have mentioned it in an earlier post (office imitates life). Drive by Daniel Pink is a great book about motivation. Pink makes a compelling argument for autonomy, mastery and purpose being central to motivating people. He uses examples like Google's "20% rule" to illustrate how one can implement these motivational strategies in their workplace. Working in higher ed, I have found that we need to be creative about motivation. Bonuses and commissions are not a part of the higher ed culture, and Pink claims that monetary incentives are no match for instilling autonomy. Very good read for those that supervise, and are looking for new ways to motivate their staff.

This is a very practical book. It has exercises and assessments to use with a team, and Lencioni's philosophy on the five dysfunctions of a team is right on. He outlines the five dysfunctions, and then each chapter gives the reader strategies to repair the dysfunction. Good for anyone working as a supervisor or leader of a group.

This book is just cool. I can't say much more than that. It gives the reader so many good ideas to maximize the meetings you have with co-workers and get the most out of the time spent in meetings and people that are there. Sibbet makes the case for using visuals in meetings and trainings, and it is a compelling case. He argues that people are much more likely to participate, feel invested in the topic/project being discussed, and will come up with more creative ideas if visuals are used in meetings. From post its to using news print grafitti boards around a room, I buy into what he's selling and I like the ideas he has for making meetings and trainings more visual and interactive.

Much like the "5 dysfunctions of a team" book, this is very practical. It is a very helpful book to pull off the shelf when you need to plan a training. It has some good technical things to keep in mind as you plan your training, gives the reader some guided worksheet type things to help you plan, and gives some in depth facilitation techniques. I found Goad's discussion about training/facilitating to difficult personalities to be very helpful.

I can't take total credit for this one. I saw it in my colleague's office (the cover design caught my eye), and he recommended it to me. It is a great book to have on your book shelf as a reference. It has a lot of great techniques and practical skills for designing your presentation and delivering it. Most of the emphasis is on design, but the info about delivery that is included is very helpful.

I have been all about Zappos lately. Ever since another one of my colleagues talked about the Zappos CEO and philosophy on work culture in a staff meeting I have been on a huge Zappos kick. I regularly check out the Zappos insights blog, ordered a free copy of their employee handbook (the Zappos culture book), and bought this book (delivering happiness). I am only a few chapters in so I haven't gotten too deep into the whole culture discussion, but even learning Hsieh's story has been very intriguing. His dedication and passion for his work makes me feel a little less silly for how psyched I am about my work. Really looking forward to getting more into his philosophy on work culture, and reading the culture book I ordered. Definitely a great read, especially for those that supervise a large staff and/or are working on improving the work environment for your employees.

scribbles on the wall

Looking for a way for your staff to post anonymous feedback, or quick little notes of encouragement?
 I like wallwisher.com, it is easy to use and serves the purpose.

This is an example of a wall I made to show our unit in a staff meeting, but if you go to the website you can learn more about it.

spread the word- positive values

Have you seen these ads? Check out values.com for faculty and administrators. They have a lot of good ideas for spreading the message of positive values on to college students. They also have a lot of other good stuff if you check out the different parts of their site.

do you maximize student affairs internships?

 

Feeling a little stretched thin? Graduate interns could be a low cost, high impact answer. Here are a couple of different options...

• Is there a grad program in your area related to your field/profession? Most grad programs not only facilitate an assistantship matching process, but if your budget can't handle that they almost always offer a practicum or field experience program. Most grad students will work for free for an entire semester as part of a field experience or practicum class. If your lucky the grad program will make it a requirement that all students in the program complete two of these practicums.
• NODA interns-NODA is the professional association for orientation professionals, and they facilitate a wonderful internship matching program. The average stipend is housing plus $1000-$3000, and in my experience the quality of students applying for NODA internships are awesome.
• ACUHO-I interns- Very similar to the NODA internship program, but ACUHO-I is the professional association for housing professionals. 
• ACPA GPIP- ACPA does a graduate preparation internship program. ACPA is one of the two largest professional associations for student affairs in higher education, and they offer this program to serve as a clearinghouse for institutional members to host graduate student interns in a variety of functional areas.
• Federal Work-Study Program- The federal work-study program gives funding to graduate students as well as undergraduate students. I love this program. FREE WORK! I have had some great experiences with work-study graduate students. Ours typically get the full allottment for grads which is $4000, and essentially the grads can work 20 hours a week for 10 weeks each semester.

the orientation apprentice

I have had a love/hate relationship with The Apprentice. I liked the older one's, but in the past couple of years it kind of turned into a circus. However, the most recent season has been pretty good. It gave me an idea.
Our office staff helps us throughout the academic year to prepare for the summer orientation program and contributes to our orientation leaders selection and training programs. Our leadership team is hired in the fall semester and works with us through the spring semester as senior level undergraduate staff members with parts of the orientation program and primarily serves as peer supervisors to our OL's. Both the leadership team and office staff compliment each others' efforts and it is important for both groups to bond within their own group as well as bond with each other. Every Friday our NSO office staff has weekly staff meetings.We also have meetings with our leadership team.

Each Friday we could  have a playful competition between our leadership team and and NSO office staff  to crown the Orientation Apprentice at the end of the semester. The key would be filming it and posting it to the NSO fan page for people to follow.

It will be important for both groups to bond with each other so some friendly fun competitition helps to bring them together.

Posting the video on facebook will be a fun thing for our fans to watch, and the student's friends will follow the videos too.

"the office" imitates life

Those that know me, know that I am about as big a fan of "the office" as they come. My dream is to mix my passion for training/teaching and love of "the office", and teach a whole 3 credit leadership course to college students solely using scenes from the office as a springboard for discussion. Tonight's episode illustrates my point beautifully. I have been reading "Drive" by Daniel Pink, and it's a must read for any supervisor, leader or manager. The point that Pink is driving home in this book is that autonomy and empowerment are two critical components to an employees motivation. Think about it, leaders and managers scratch their heads to find the best way to motivate employees, but the truth is that if given the chance to really invest themselves in their own idea and run with it that would be all it takes to light the spark. In tonight's episode Michael has the opportunity to put an end to a joint venture between him and Ryan, and rightfully so since Ryan is running everyone's money into the ground. However, Michael publicly tells Ryan that he believes in him to make a good decision (empowering him) and puts all the responsibility on Ryan to make the right decision (autonomy). Ryan makes the right decision. Not to totally ruin a very funny and entertaining show with my nerd alert over here...Dwight also crowns himself hay king, Kevin gets lost in a kiddie hay maze and Jim pulls a hilarious prank on Gabe. Below is Daniel Pink's ted talk about motivation...enjoy

vivid scribbles top 10 training websites

1. paperclip communications- manuals for student leaders like RA's and OL's, ice breaker binders, programming binders, leadership activity binders, and many more publications covering hot topics in higher education and student affairs.
2. the thiagi group- tons of free exercises to use for reflection and debriefing activities
3. idea bank- a lot of quotes and anecdotes to use in workshops and presentations for trainings
4. understandingrace.org- activities and information to use for social justice trainings
5. personality pathways- handouts, information, exercises and resources to use when you are doing an MBTI assessment as part of a training
6. leadership self assessment- laundry list of questions one can use to build a leadership assessment instrument
7. essential resources for creativity- 163 techniques, 30 tips and a free pdf book for creativity training
8. counseling related topics- listing of virtual pamphlets and information on topical issues like anxiety, stress management, eating disorders and violence
9. conflict resolutin tips and tools- worksheets, handouts, resources and exercises related to conflict resolution on the college campus
10. designing inclusive trainings- do's and don'ts for inclusive training programs, includes tips for designing workshops for participants with disabilities and using gender neutral  language

common language

There are a lot of leadership and personality assessments out there, in addition to management/customer service philosophies. From strengths quest to the fish philosophy there are a lot of choices. My office has tried a few, but I think the best options out there create a common language. True Colors is one of my favorites, primarily because of the simplicity of it and how it can create a common language among an organization.

True colors is a personality assessment, and the result of one's assessment outlines four colors each representing a personality type respectively and ranks them based on your personality.... I am not doing it justice. Here is a direct quote from the website...

True Colors™ is a model for understanding yourself and others based on your personality temperament. The colors of Orange, Green, Blue and Gold are used to differentiate the four central personality styles of True Colors™.

Each of us has a combination of these True Colors that make up our personality spectrum, usually with one of the styles being the most dominant.

So for instance my true colors are green (very high) then orange, gold and blue (very little). This might seem complicated but with a half day training and everyone in your organization having done the assessment it is a great way to foster conversation about conflict resolution, motivation and group dynamics. Using the colors is less threatening. It's easier to say, "well he is gold and you are orange so your approach to getting the work done is very different". I find these conversations to be very helpful and much easier to have with staff and colleagues. While I like the MBTI and strengths quest, I find 4 letters or 5 strengths to be much more difficult to remember and even more difficult to use as a common language among members of an organization. 

Another simple approach I like using to create a common language...

Admittedly, this is a little on the cheesy side but hear me out. Two years ago we read this book (just click on the bucket to connect to the amazon page for the book) in the orientation office, and the phrase "how full is your bucket?" became a part of my daily conversations with the senior level student staff. The bucket represents someone's level of happiness, and encourages the reader to do things that fill the buckets of those around you. I warned you this was cheesy, but if you can see past it, it does provide an organization with a common language and can enhance the experience of its members.  When I would ask a fellow staff member, "how full is your bucket?" they knew what I meant and could easily reply. If they said "low!” I knew I needed to do something to help them out and boost their mood. I like this because it is a question with only five words; it gets better results than the generic "how are you?", and helped the staff help each other.

something to do during finals

Look at these people's faces. I want to find a high traffic area on campus during finals and do this...

happiness at work

This is a great find. I am working on brainstorming some new ways to improve the Orientation Leader experience. I have been looking at a lot of the Zappos stuff, but came across this blog which led me to the workbook. It's a free workbook focused on "happiness" at work.
Worksheets and downloads

no longer forgetful



I love this site. It is totally free, and you don't need to set up an account. You just fill in your cell number (or the person you are reminding), date and time of reminder and the text message.

Ways I could use this...
- Fun recognition texts to my students over the summer (when summer orientation is daunting...)
- Happy birthday messages to colleagues and friends
- Remind myself to set my alarm early to get to that morning meeting
- When we go on retreat our students do skits in their color teams...schedule a text to go to team leaders giving them their theme/mission for the skit competition.
- Over the summer we run the same program 16 times so it gets repetitive. I could text a few students the word of the day and challenge them to get the whole staff to know the word without actually straight up telling them.

other thoughts? post a comment...

experiential learning

" You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a lifetime of conversation."
- Plato

Want some ideas for experiential training programs? Teambuilding .com is a great website with a laundry list of experiential training programs. The price isn't too bad either.

teambuilding.com

first scribble

I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see. - Duane Michals


Vivid scribbles is about taking inspiration from a variety of different sources and making it work in any work environment.