I’m always on the look out for fantastic design and ways to communicate. These logo’s embody much of what I look for in clever design that is memorable, fun and makes a point.
http://designshack.co.uk/articles/graphics/50-fantastically-clever-logos
Author: thelanterngroup Page 4 of 26
Here are the most popular team building programs from the last two years – lots of bonding and fun to be had with all of them!
our most popular team building activities
Back in 1997, when The Lantern Group started almost 70% of our work focused on team development. We did everything from on-going team development consulting with managers, to team assessments, to experiential ropes courses, to developed a number of fun and effective team building events. Over the years, our focus shifted to other aspects of the business and our team development work decreased until for the last few years it comprised just under 10% of our revenue. 
But this year, something has changed.
Since February we have received more inquiries about doing team building programs than we have in the past two or three years combined. These are both big and small programs – from groups 200 plus to small executive teams of 8-10 people. The managers and VPs that we’ve talked to have indicated that they want to do something to help increase the effectiveness of their team while also providing them with a fun activity that can be a diversion from the everyday stress they have been under.
Normally I would just count my blessings and be thankful for leads coming in. But this drastic increase has made me wonder, “why?” Why the increase? Why now?
I have a few theories:
1. Pent up need – because of the recession, companies did not have budget that they could use to help build their team and improve bonding.
2. Changes in the teams – either through layoffs or attrition, team dynamics have changed and there is a need to improve how people work together
3. Need to have fun, but with a message – again, due to the recession, many companies have had people working under significant stress, longer hours, with more responsibility. Astute leaders see that there is a need to let their people unwind and yet they want to make sure that there are some learnings and insights to be had
4. Work itself has changed – the very nature of work has changed with more people working off-site, more technology, more need to collaborate in new ways. Good leaders use team development programs to help sort that out.
What are your thoughts? Do you think there is a growing need? Please leave a comment.
I came across this and it really moved me. While I am grateful for a lot of things in my life, I don’t know if I could be this positive, this upbeat, this grateful if I did not have arms and legs. What a powerful message for us all to realize that our attitude comes, not from the things we have or don’t have, but in how we approach life. Do you approach life like Nick Vujicic and see the possibilities or only the limitations. I can achieve only a small fraction of his outlook on life I will be a much better person. Enjoy and learn.
Do we dream too much about our goals?
A recent post on PsyBlog outlines the distinct difference in performance between people who “fantasize” about future success and those who “expect” future success. The blog article was based on research by Oettingen and Mayer (2002) in which they concluded, “Positive expectations (judging a desired future as likely) predicted high effort and successful performance, but the reverse was true for positive fantasies (experiencing one’s thoughts and mental images about a desired future positively).”
The PsyBlog article explains the difference between expectations and fantasies as follows: “Expectations are based on past experiences. You expect to do well in an exam because you’ve done well in previous exams, you expect to meet another partner because you managed to meet your last partner, and so on” while “fantasies, though, involve imagining something you hope will happen in the future, but experiencing it right now.” The difference might seem small, but in fact, had a big difference in outcome. People who had high expectations about finding a job did much better in actually finding a job than those who just fantasized about finding a job. See more results here.
Which leads us to our potential problem with incentive programs.
Do we end up communicating to everyone that they can achieve the highest payout or reward? If we do, then does that lead to fantasizing about the reward instead of expecting the reward? I’m not sure.
On one hand, I know that in the communication work that we do, we typically use examples and highlight top earners – the ones who achieve in the top 10% of participants. How does that communication play with the 50% of participants who are in the bottom half of earnings and probably will not achieve that level of success? We show pictures of what people can buy with their earnings – a new boat, travel to a tropical island, new coach bags, a 62 inch t.v. Are we inadvertently leading these people to fantasize about what they can do with that extra $20,000 when they don’t have the history to expect that they’ll ever earn it?
Companies often use annual reward trips, short-term contests or non-cash incentives that reward the top 5% or 10% of performers – do these by their nature create a split between those who expect to earn them and those that just fantasize about earning them? Does this then lead to poorer performance by those who just fantasize about winning them with no real expectation of actually winning?
This is just one study, but it resonates with other information on this subject from Locke and Lathum; Badovick, Hadaway, & Kaminski; and Bandura to name a few. So what does it all mean?
Are there solutions for this besides just chucking the entire incentive system out the door?
Of course. When we take a holistic approach and think about this differently.
A few ideas that would help include:
- When communicating incentive plans, make sure that you provide examples of what average performers can earn as well as top performers.
- Highlight realistic increases in performance when using now and then comparisons – don’t make the growth so great that it seems unrealistic.
- Communicate specific actions that people can do to achieve the desired performance level.
- Make sure that you have opportunities for people to earn something at various levels of overall performance. Don’t just reward the top 10%. Hang a carrot out there for people in the bottom 50%.
- Utilize tiers when creating contests or incentives if there are large differences in average territory size / market share / potential.
- Include different measures – not just top line sales (e.g., % growth, new account growth, market share, etc).
- Offer opportunity for sales people to self-select their goals (within specific guidelines) and provide different rewards for them based on the goal they pick. For instance, you could say, if you pick a 3% growth goal you earn $X, if you pick a 5% growth goal you earn $XX, and if you pick a 8% growth goal you earn $XXXX.
While we all like to dream, we might need to ensure that our incentive programs offer a little more grounding.
So what do you think – is this all just ivory tower research that has no application in the real world, or is it something that we need to take into consideration? Let us know your thoughts and leave a comment.
Many of you have read the guest post by Kristen Swadley where she reviews her research on the 4-Drive Model. Here is her Senior Honors Thesis presentation which goes into the details of her study and provides a wonderful overview of what her research uncovered.
Kristen Swadley – Senior Honors Thesis Presentation – Spring 2011 from MSSU Honors on Vimeo.
Enjoy
My 5-year old son is starting to become afraid of “monsters” in our house. This has not been a problem until just a few days ago – but now he is reluctant to go anywhere in the house alone. It culminated last night, when he wanted a specific book read to him before going to bed. That book was located in our 3rd floor attic bedroom. We were on the 2nd floor when the 5-year old requested this book.
“Ok. Go get it and I’ll read it to you” I said.
“I can’t” he said very quickly.
“Why not? Do your legs not work?” I asked teasingly.
“I’m scared – I don’t like being alone” he replied seriously.
“But I’m right here and you just have to go up the stairs that are right over there” I said pointing to the stairs just 20 feet away.
“Can you come with me?”
“No – I’m right here and you’ll be fine.”
“But I need you to come with me.”
After 10-minutes of this back and forth conversation that included discussions on what type of monster it was, the fact that monsters were imaginary, and the fact that he would be no more than 50 feet away from me at any point in his under 60-second journey and within easy calling distance, he was still firmly planted on the couch not willing to go get the book by himself. I even tried my best motivation and psychology tactics to get him to go up by himself (incentives, peer pressure, challenge, etc..) – to no avail. Then he said this most insightful statement:
“Just because its imaginary doesn’t mean that I’m still not scared.”
Wow…that’s when it hit me, I wouldn’t be able to rationally talk him into going upstairs to get the book. No matter how many facts we agreed on. No matter how well reasoned my arguments were. No matter how simple the solution was. He was going to still be scared.
I needed to respond to him on an emotional level. I needed to make him “feel” safe. I needed to hold his hand or walk halfway up the attic stairs or go up first and clear the attic of any monsters before he was ever going to go up in the attic alone.
Imaginary Monsters
And sometimes we and our employees are the same way. We make up monsters.
We extrapolate all the bad things that could happen and they get blown out of proportion. We understand all the rational discourse on why the company needs to change, but in our guts we are scared by that. We get caught up in the emotion of how we feel about what somebody said to us and not about what they actually said or meant. We spin our wheels in the mud worrying about not getting a project done instead of just working on it.
And no matter how rationale the argument is against this imaginary thing – we are still scared. When people are scared – we don’t work well. We don’t go up the stairs to get the book. Instead we sit in our cubes and wait. We spread rumors and try to get others to believe in our imaginary monsters too. We worry and fret and stress.
Our brains trick us because we are not rational beings.
We are emotional beings. Our imaginary fears and worries are not going to dissipate with rational discourse or well reasoned arguments or even facts. Sometimes the only way over it is to have someone figuratively hold our hand, or walk halfway up the stairs or go chase out all the monsters first.
Too often as leaders we miss this fact!
The Not So Shining Knight
As leaders we want to be the shining knight that comes in and vanquishes all the monsters. So what do we do – we focus on the facts. We layout well reasoned arguments. We rationally explain away all the potential downfalls.
Our communications highlight all the great benefits of the new program – but don’t address the emotional side of things. We discuss program rules and miss out on leading people through an example of what it is going to be like. We provide all the facts on a new change initiative but don’t go out and show them how we have to change as well.
We don’t bring in the human side of things.
We need to get better at holding hands. We need to work on our empathy. Communication, no matter how good, won’t solve all our problems. As leaders, we need to lead. We need to go up the stairs first. We need to put skin in the game. We need to feel the pain too.
We can’t always talk people out of being scared – even when they are scared about imaginary monsters. As a leader it is not about being right or getting the facts straight. It is about emphasizing with what your team is going through and being there for them. It means that we have to start thinking and acting with our more with our heart and less with our head.
That’s what makes great leaders.
Let us know what type of imaginary monsters you face…leave a comment.
Is employee motivation centered in the brain or in the heart?
Is it a spreadsheet or a love song?
Rationale or emotional?
Do we need to show them the money or show them the love?
Which is more powerful – working together or competing?
Of course this is a false dichotomy – it is both. But which one is more important? Which one would you pick if you had to invest all your resources in just one?
Leave a comment and let us know what you think…
