Thursday, November 18, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Effective Team Building
I have spent most of my career, regardless of what industry I was in, developing teams to help accomplish goals. Even if you work alone, you are still part of a team. Your vendors, clients, and support personnel all make up your team. And every team needs a leader. If you’re not leading your team, who is?
A great team will allow you to accomplish goals on a global level as well as within your organization. I call it “GO GREAT” – Global and Organizational Greatness! Making the decision to build a team will be the first step to new levels of success in your life and the lives of others. But, team building requires dedication and commitment. Teams rarely qualify as being “Great” on day one.
The team will require coaching and mentoring from a great leader. Course-correction will teach each of them how to tap into their full potential along the way. So what makes up a great team? There are four characteristics that great teams exemplify in their job duties, their leadership roles, their attitudes and behaviors, and in their ability to work together with all members of the organization.
Four characteristics of a GREAT Team:
Team members share the responsibility of ownership, leadership and growth.
Team members provide solutions for overcoming obstacles.
Team members commit to taking action.
Team members always exhibit positive energy.
Can you imagine the positive changes in your organization if a team of Great Thinkers displayed these four traits? In order to achieve global and organizational greatness, building a great team is not an option, it is a necessity. Building a great team is not something you try to do; it is something you do!
Here is the big question: How do you build a great team? A great team starts with a great leader. Think of all of the famous sports teams in the history of the world. They all had one thing in common – a great coach!
Being a part of a great team is an amazing experience. But being the leader of a great team is even better. I have led many teams that have achieved greatness, and each time it has been a personally rewarding experience. Achieving greatness for the benefit of others will change your life and the lives of those you help.
Knowing that you have made an impact in someone’s life is an unforgettable feeling. By helping others, you will move closer and closer to your greater purpose in life. Today, start forming your team.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Creating Inspiration
If you do any creative work, I’m sure you’ve experienced this dilemma: Should you ever work when you aren’t inspired, or should you wait for inspiration?
I’ve had to face this situation many times, whether it involved designing a new computer game or writing an original blog entry. Sometimes inspiration strikes me at the most inopportune times, like at 3am while lying in bed, but if I’m smart enough to take advantage of it, I can crank out volumes of productive work in a short period of time. Those experiences often feel timeless and transcendent, as if I’ve been tapped on the shoulder by some higher creative power. But other times as I sit at my computer, I feel empty, distracted, or uninspired, and if I tried to push through it, I’m still be able to get some work done, but I won’t produce solutions and ideas that are nearly as elegant or brilliant as the inspired work. Sound familiar?
I place a premium on the value of inspired work. Although I have degrees in computer science and math and have been trained in many left-brain problem solving techniques, I’m also left-handed and approach technical subjects from a right-brained perspective. I rarely use methodical, left-brained, step-by-step processes to solve problems. In high school I would often try to solve math or physics problems without using any of the formulas that were taught in class that week. I’d dismiss the left-brained solution I was expected to regurgitate and tried to approach problems creatively, especially the most challenging and complex ones. I’d take an advanced calculus problem and attempt to solve it using other tools like algebra or geometry or the laws of physics. And the interesting thing is that my solutions were often shorter and far more elegant than what the textbooks had intended. I believed there would be little value in learning to solve problems the same way everyone else did; such people would be a dime a dozen. But there would always be a treasured place in the world for the person who could solve problems creatively.
On the other hand, I also value hard work and discipline. I certainly have the option of barreling through and working even when I’m not inspired. But I greatly dislike using self-discipline for creative work. Discipline is fine for repetitive or highly uncreative work though, but it rarely creates elegant solutions. My left brain may be satisfied with a disciplined approach, but it’s anathema to my right brain.
I’m also impatient, so I don’t like waiting for inspiration to strike, especially when it seems to be taking an extended vacation.
One day I became curious and questioned why sometimes I felt inspired and other times I didn’t. Why would inspiration seem to abandon me for weeks and then pay me a visit when I was five miles into a 10-mile run? Was there some kind of pattern?
And most of all, could inspiration be created? Did I have to wait for it to arrive, or was there anything I could do to invite it? I studied creative problem solving techniques, but none of them seemed to work consistently, and sometimes they would take a long time to generate results.
Eventually I figured out that inspiration can definitely be created. I’ve been using this technique for many years, and it’s one reason I never run out of ideas to write and speak about. I feel as if I have an infinite supply. It’s very simple too.
Clarifying Intent
Whenever I want to feel inspired to do creative work, I stop and take a moment to clarify my intent. I get really clear about what it is I want to do, and then I verbalize that intent. Then I let go and wait, usually a few minutes at most.
An example intent would be the one I used for this blog entry. At first I sat down to write at 4:30am and felt wholly uninspired. I had a list of ideas to write about, but none of them seemed too inspiring to me. So I formed the (very simple) intent, “I intend to write a creative new blog entry that will benefit many readers.” Then I released the intent and waited. Within about 30 seconds, I had the idea to write on this topic, and the words flowed with effortless ease.
Here’s my current theory on how this works. My intent acts like a thought wave that projects out into the universe, and after a short period of time, that wave reflects back to me in the form of creative ideas. It’s like a dolphin using sonar to echo-locate objects, except that I use it to echo-locate creative ideas. I feel as if I’m putting out a specific form of sonar into some imaginary world of pure thought. When my intent collides with an idea that resonates with it, it creates a reflection wave back to the source, which I perceive as an idea or impulse. The first ideas that pop into my head are the ones I go with.
Intents don’t work the same way as goals. If you constrain your intent too heavily, then you won’t receive any reflection back because nothing will resonate with it perfectly. So try to keep your intentions open-ended and high-level unless the specific details are truly important to you. If you create intents that are too rigid, you may eliminate the possibility of a holistic solution. For example, if you focus on the intent to solve a low-level problem, and your creativity still feels blocked, it could be that you aren’t supposed to solve that problem at all – you need to rework something at a higher level to eliminate the problem entirely.
I find this approach works incredibly well. Whenever it seems like it isn’t working, then I know it’s because my own thoughts are creating an interference pattern and canceling each other out. I’m putting out conflicting intents – understand that every thought is an intent. That’s when I need to back up and form a higher-level, more general intent that can escape the low-level noise. If you toss a pebble into a calm lake, you’ll see waves rippling out from the source. But if you toss a pebble into rough waters, the ripples will be gobbled up with the existing waves. So in that case you need to go to a place where the waters are more calm, rising above your own conflicting thoughts, especially those involving fear, worry, or stress.
For example, if I came up with a blank after putting out an intent for creative writing ideas, I’d step back and form a new intent, like, “I intend to use the next hour in service to the greatest good of all.” That’s a more general intent, and it can help bypass any blocks. Perhaps I’m feeling blocked because I don’t feel I should be writing at all right now. Maybe there’s something more important I need to do. Intents work holistically, so it’s important to allow for plenty of flexibility.
So begin with a specific intent, and if you don’t like the reflections you’re receiving, keep backing up and forming new intents until the reflections suit you.
Once you master this process, you should never have to push through creative work when you aren’t feeling creative. While you can still produce some output during those times, you probably know that the work will seem lifeless and uninspired when you look back on it later. Clarifying and focusing your intent only takes a few seconds most of the time, and you’ll begin to see that your intentions always manifest when you’re completely clear about what you want.
So don’t wait for inspiration. Use this simple technique to actively invite inspiration and unleash the flow of creative ideas.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Books Rhymes
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Result Day
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Some Interested Scietific Experiments
Monday, January 18, 2010
An Innovative Program to Improve Physical Fitness of Young Children
Making Children Intelligent
Creativity is developing new ideas or solving problems. The world, as we know it today, has turned out to be that way because of some highly creative people. They are the highest paid employees of a company and they are always in demand by the biggest corporations of the world.
Creativity is a very broad term and one can express it in many different ways. The world will always be indebt to Dr. Howard Gardner for telling us the eight different ways in which we all can be creative. In his book, The Frames of Mind, Dr. Gardner explains the eight ways in which individual can express creativity and make a lasting contribution. He recommends an educational program that can expose children to all the eight creative avenues and suggests that people should take up the profession in which they can be more creative.
Here is a brief description of each of these eight ways of creative expression:
1. Verbal linguistic Intelligence
It’s the creativity of words and sentences. This type of brain activity makes us to speak or write in a unique style.
2. Mathematical Intelligence
This is the logical or scientific way of doing things. People who act creatively in this area are able to come up new scientific ideas, computer programs, and hardware.
3. Spatial Intelligence
That’s the type of mental work that makes us to produce artwork of all types. It can be a new dress, an animation, an interior or a graphic design.
4. Intrapersonal Intelligence
The intelligence of self understanding or actualization is named as Intrapersonal intelligence. Setting objectives to overcome personal shortcomings is done with the help of Intrapersonal Intelligence.
5. Interpersonal Intelligence
This type of acumen helps us, first in understanding, and then helping others. We use interpersonal intelligence in solving others problems, leading, managing or teaching.
6. Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence
Creative use of our body requires this type of intelligence. It is something we need while playing, driving or acting.
7. Musical Intelligence
Creation of new music comes through this intelligence. Great musical geniuses make an abundant use of their musical intelligence.
8. Naturalist Intelligence
Mastery of nature, may that be of plants, animals or resources, is achieved with the help of this intelligence. Naturalist Intelligence is what geologists, biologists, and zoologist use quiet frequently.
The most important purpose of early education is to introduce all eight kinds of brain activities to children. By doing this we give children opportunities to get a ‘feel’ of all eight types of intelligence. This helps the weaker intelligence to boost up. Moreover, by involving children in activities designed around various intelligences, we help children to discover their true potential. It also helps the caregivers to identify the weak and the strong intelligence of a child.
All teachers should know the strategies used to develop each of the eight intelligences. A certain amount of time should be given in the classroom everyday for activities that develop these Multiple Intelligences.
Unfortunately, many times teachers are unable to conduct activities that can make children to express their creativity in various ways. A study was done to find out why teachers fail to incorporate activities around Multiple Intelligence into their daily teaching practice. This study identifies syllabus as the number one hindrance in doing that, since most syllabuses are not designed with Multiple Intelligence in mind.
Most books used in the classroom are focused towards building an understanding of a concept or practice of a certain skill. Development of intelligence is seen as an additional feature which is often missing in the books.
Children are unable to make a proper use of the skills and concepts acquired through formal education, because we fail to make children creative. In the classroom, children only ‘get a hang’ of a certain skill or a concept; there learning doesn’t enable them to think outside the box, therefore they are unable to make better use of newly acquired knowledge. Most children can’t create something new with the help of skills and concepts acquired since the intelligence required to do creative thinking is not developed at an early age.
Teacher’s performance is usually evaluated on the basis of the syllabus covered in the classroom. They are expected to test the learning of children in reference to the books subscribed. That narrows the task of a teacher towards making the best use of books and workbooks only. It is difficult to gauge a teacher’s performance around Multiple Intelligence if activities related to it are not part of the syllabus.
In order to solve this problem, we should adopt a syllabus that has activities around Multiple Intelligence, along with the exercises that develop age appropriate skills and concepts.
But if such syllabus is not available then all the efforts should be made to make these activities a part of the lesson plan. Annual assessments should also evaluate the amount of creativity developed in children in each of the eight areas of Multiple Intelligence.
Here are some of the activities around different intelligences that should be looked for when selecting a syllabus. These activities are in addition to the skills and concepts that children are expected to acquire through the syllabus. Teachers should make sure that these activities are done in the classroom beside the book related work, incase the syllabus used by the school does not include these activities.
Verbal Intelligence
There should be stories that can be read and narrated. Books should include creative use of common and environment related vocabulary. Opportunities should be provided to develop free creative expressions.
Mathematical Intelligence
Children should get a chance to compare things e.g. big and small, tall and short, hard and soft etc. They should be encouraged to find a logical conclusion to a story and asked to make prediction keeping in mind a given situation. They should be asked to think about the various color combination created by mixing basic colors.
Spatial Intelligence
There should be plenty of activities for children to draw and color creatively. Children should not be restricted to a certain space or choice of colors; rather they should have the opportunity to come with new color combinations and art forms.
Intrapersonal Intelligence
Children should be able to put themselves in place of a character and then think if they would have done things differently. They should be asked to make a plan for an activity given in the book. They should get a chance to speak, and make presentations as much as possible around the materials provided in the workbook.
Interpersonal Intelligence
The books should include positive interaction between different people. Children should be introduced to various professions and service providers around them. They should be taught how to ask questions and interact with people that they see in their books.
Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence
There should be activities in the books that can encourage children to move their bodies creatively. This is done with the help of rhymes. It is also done when children are asked to act like a specific character.
Musical Intelligence
Children should be asked to make tunes of the rhymes provided in the books.
Naturalist Intelligence
The books should include the natural elements as much as possible. Books should be based on animal characters found in the environment. There should be some exposure of plants, trees, and water bodies in the books. Children should be asked: a. about the behavior of different animals introduced in their books, b. children action in a specific environment shown in their books.
Conclusion
Teaching skills and concepts is a basic requirement of educational activity. Development of intelligence, however, does not come only through teaching of skills and concepts. It requires the development of Multiple Intelligence. The syllabus should include activities around Multiple Intelligence in order to make children creative.
Meeting Global Standards of Education
Size Does Matter
About us
- Color's up Montessori School
- Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
- We are a teem of well dedicated and motivated educators who are delivering education with full passion. Our focus is to ctreate leadership qualities into the students and make their personality with full of confidence.