Everyone loves to laugh

I have conducted hundreds of trainings, taught over a dozen courses at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), as well as presented hundreds of times. In all these instances and well as when teaching my children I have learned that people love to have fun, love to laugh, and learn a lot more when they are doing both. Let's face it, when have you laughed when you were not having fun!

I find humor an outstanding tool to help keep people engaged in the topic I am trying to convey to them. And yet, most of the training I attend is boring as heck and as a result I often find my mind wandering. When working with my children I try to make everything into a game as much as possible.

Sometimes you have to let them touch the oven door

Despite our best efforts to share our knowledge sometimes my wife and I have to let our children learn from direct experience. For example, three of my children listened to us when we told them not to touch the oven door while we were baking. As you can already conclude one of my children did not listen to our advice. This was a safe learning environment as the oven door never really become hot enough to cause a burn but it is hot enough to be uncomfortable.

Despite our best efforts to create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and despite our best efforts to pass along our knowledge we sometime have to let folks try and fail on their own. Like my children, this should always be done in a safe way. I don't want my children to burn themselves and you do not want a person to make a mistake that could cause your company a lot of money.

So I often tell my customers, "sometimes you have to let them touch the oven door"

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

(a guide for Global Leadership)

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

These are the things I learned:

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

[Source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum. See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/ ]

Introduction

My wife and I have spent the last 11 years raising our four children. During this time I have often used analogies of situations I have come across with my children when talking with my customers about a challenge they have. I always hesitate with using these analogies as I do not mean them disrespectfully. I just find that the lessons I teach and/or watch my children learn have a direct correlation in the adult world. In fact, I think the world would be a better place if we all took time to learn from our children.

I have found in helping my wife raise our children, even an 11 year old, is that they are still very open about their feelings. When they are happy they laugh, when they are hurt they cry, when they are mad at me they let me know right away. Adults on the other hand typically try to hide a lot of their emotions for a variety of reasons. I posted one of my favorite topics from Robert Fulghum, ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN. This is especially poignant as my youngest just started kindergarten.

Over the last couple years I have found myself sharing the same stories over and over again. I recently starting joking with friends and coworkers that I was going to write a book. I even started working on the chapters. I figure a blog on this topic would be a better first step as I can write and share my thoughts as they mature in my mind.

I hope you enjoy these topics and maybe some folks will even take the time to share their thoughts.

Thank you,
Dan