Go Wild! Go GREAT! The Journey from Now to WOWTM

5 Ways to Beat the Mid-Afternoon Blaz!

I recently watched my young nephew transform from a member the walking dead into an human energy machine, after drinking his can of Red Bull.  I thought I was watching Superman emerge from a phone booth!   Now imagine if I could develop a drink for office employees that with a gulp of eight ounces would kick-start their machines (without the sugar and caffeine) during 3 pm downtime.  Ah, what would I call it ?  "Office Bull"  No, that would be something else.

                           Well, until I invent that million dollar beverage, let me share with you 5 ways to re-boot and re- energize during your low-point of the day.

1) Change Your Shoes--No Kidding.  Every shoe has a different energy source and a mid-afternoon shoe change will give you a lift.

2) Polar Bear Express--Take 10 minutes and plunge your face into a bath of ice-water or if you are more timid,  treat yourself to a  cool towel.  That 10 minute break will give you hours of afternoon energy.

3) Change Your View--Take a mini-vacation to walk outside, particularly during this time of year when we tend to get stuck indoors.  A breath of fresh air energizes both mind and body.  Besides did you know that when you've been working on something for more than 1 hour, you begin to lose brain power?  A 5 minute adventure in the great outdoors is great for brain power.

4)  Take a Nap!  Did she really say that?  Yup, and that's why leading companies are paying attention to employee recreation rooms to re-charge.  The building evidence that napping improves both health and mental focus is prompting companies to re-define the term lunch hour to include other forms of break-time-- complete with napping pods.

5) Plan and Play your Day! Plan your most important tasks for your best hour and save those routine tasks for that down hour.  PS: plop on some headphones with funky music and see what happens.  I have enjoyed nothing more than watching team members plow through necessary but routine tasks at 3:00 while grooving in their cubicles to "move that thang"

www.retreatscostarica.com

 

 

You Can Do It--Must Read for Creative Women!

As a Personal Coach and Speaker, I read approximately  6 books a week to keep current on issues related to personal growth.  I have to tell you  I rarely write reviews.  So why this book? 

"You Can Do it" by Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas is the Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-up Girls who "Dare to Dream, Dare to Learn Something New and Dare Do Something just for Themselves"  This is why I love this book for women and why I share this positive review.

A) Maybe because I was a girl scout myself  and  miss earning those Merit Badges. Okay, so now I earn a paycheck, but you know money doesn't give me the same ritualistic high as Mom sewing on a that well-earned badge for a newly learned skill.  Yes, there's even colorful badges in the back--You can earn 60 of them everything from "Flying Solo to Fire Walking, to Taking a Really Good Picture to be a Renaissance gal".  The Badges break down creative concepts for living into digestable and duable chunks.

B) The Book is artfully designed--it's fat, pretty and well organized for quick reference with mentoring resources including web-sites and community connections.  The quotations are inspiring and the quick ideas full of content.

C) But perhaps the number one reason why this is a must read book for women is the voice of the author.  A voice that is regretfully no longer with us.  Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas dreamed of authoring this book to inspire a community of women. A community that she herself discoverd as a young woman through scouting. Her message speaks to campfires of adult women around the world that "yes, you can do it" and "today is the day you begin" On September 11th, 2001 Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas was aboard flight 93.  It would be the day her incredible and beautiful life tragically ended.

In the merit badge for dancing in "You Can Do It"  there is a quotation "To live is to dance.  I would like to die breathless, spent at the end of a dance"  Josephine Baker

The pages of this book literally jump with the energy of this Life Dancer who in addition to her personal and professional accomplishments was above all a life adventurer and life long learner! On her 30th birthday Lauren learned to skydive.  While I don't believe for a minute that Lauren's  talents were "spent" when she was so needlessly taken from us.  I know that thanks to her sisters work in completing her baby "Lauren's "dream of inspiring women everywhere has been realized.  Yes, Lauren you left us breathless and Yes, I'm Working on  badge # 48---Pop the Hood and # 58 Make Love Last",

I am a forever fan of "You Can Do It' and the Woman who Dreamed and Dared we Women Warriors  to make a Difference.

Rosemary Rein, PhD

Author, Go Wild-Survival Skills for Business and Life

www.retreatscostarica.com

   

Dead Wood & Relationships: 3 Lessons from the Banyan Tree

Last week while hosting a group retreat in Manuel Antonio,  Costa Rica, we came upon a truly spectacular resident of the rainforest :  The "Strangler Fig or Banyan Tree."  This amazingly adaptive tree can grow up to 148 feet in height and hey it doesn't even start out on it's own!   Rather the Banyan tree begins as an epiphyte on a "host tree" where it slowly at first,  begins to take nutrients from it's stronger roommate.  As years goes by,  the strangler fig gets more aggressive --wrapping  it's roots around the host tree, eventually robbing it of all of it's nutrients.  Oh no!  In the end,  after years together,  a "hollow center is all that remains of the welcoming host tree" who so willingly shared both home and healthy nourishment while the Banyan Tree stands tall.  Sounds strangely like a bad divorce?

How do we nourish a relationship without strangling it?  How do we remain strong, tall and confident and maintain our own identity, while enjoying a shared life with another? How do we not end up feeling like dead wood from people who literally suck the very life from us?

Perhaps there are lessons from the Banyan Tree where Buddha is said to have reflected from beneath her healthy roots.

# 1 The Banyan tree survives because of it's great adaptability, patience and the fact that it hangs out with a stronger tree that provide nourishment.  Who do you hang out with?  Do you spend time with people who are smarter than you, who support and encourage you?  It is said in 5 years, our psychology will be the blend of the 5 people we spend time with?  Yikes is that a good thing or a bad thing for you?

# 2: Every relationship changes.  Mind you, don't rob your host/mentor/companion of their life-force.  Give them room to breathe and live independently. Do you encourage that new growth that represents life's changing conditions or talk about and remind them "of the way they use to be?"  Adaptability is an essential ingredient to survival  in business, life and relationships.

# 3: Finally, take a lesson from our host tree and consider setting limits on the epiphytes who are draining you of your nutrients and life force.  Remember before you can nourish/take care of others, you need to first take care of yourself.  Don't end up the dead wood.

www.retreatscostarica.com

   

   

Opposites's Attract--Celebrate Fire and Ice

Happy Valentine's Day from the two Extremes of Living!

What a difference a week makes!  I was struck by two photographs I took within 3 days of each other as I downloaded my photos today. (jYes, both I and my digital camera chip are highly confused by the temperature change).  The first photo was last week in Costa Rica.  The second was my drive today on a lonely mountain road  amidst 12 inches of snow in Pennsylvania.

   

You have heard of the highly  experienced phenomena that we are often attracted to our opposites--some say because we yearn for the strengths in that person that we lack in our own personality.  Yes, it's the contrasts that indeed make life exciting and at the edges where we often learn our greatest lessons.

So celebrate the hot and cold moments of your relationships----yes, flashes too, be they physiological or inspirational.  Celebrate your differences and celebrate the changing conditions that truly make life exciting.

Oh and do  remember to change your scenery on occasion.  Imagine what the color of life would be if we only had one crayon!   Boring!

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Abrazos, Happy Valentine's Day and remember to....

Go Wild! Go GREAT tm

www.retreatscostarica.com

www.costaricatraining.com

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing”  Helen Keller’

“The Eskimo has fifty two names for snow because it is important to them.  There ought to be as many for love”               Margaret Atwood

Training & Employee Retention

News from ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) links training to Employee Motivation/Retention

Training Seen as the Key to Retaining Top Talent in the Workplace
Online Recruitment (02/07/07)

The most recent International Workplace Survey by specialist financial recruitment company Robert Half International reports that firms are more often using training and development as a means to motivate and keep leading talent. The survey was performed among more than 2,300 human resource and finance managers throughout 12 nations and offers an insight into global workplace patterns. Internationally, 73 percent of human resource and finance managers think training is the top way to increase workplace retention, followed by career development initiatives (37 percent), and monetary compensation (31 percent). Training classes are most widely supported in Switzerland, at 93 percent, and Luxembourg, at 91 percent, while in the Netherlands and New Zealand, training seems to be less popular, at 58 percent and 63 percent, respectively. Throughout Europe, managers are employing a broad range of strategies to help lessen employee turnover. Twenty-eight percent of managers in Germany and 26 percent of managers in Luxembourg are trying to get workers more involved in team-building activities, while 44 percent of Spanish managers and 26 percent of Italian managers suggest a willingness to involve employees in corporate decisions. Robert Half International managing director Continental Europe Ian Graves says while training and compensation are still popular tactics to lessen employee turnover, what he finds interesting is the growing tendency by accounting and finance companies to get workers more involved in the wider operations of the company.

Utah-Goes Wild! Goes Great!

Utah!  Goes Wild!

Yea!  The new license plate of Utah!  Go Wild! Go GREAT!  tm .   Since the publication of my audio book, "Go Wild-Survival Skills for Business and Life" by Park University, it seems everyone is going Wild these days.  This plate was sent by my spanish speaking training colleague and Utah resident, Evan Glassett.

PS:  Don't go reality show on me.....Going Wild doesn't mean doesn't mean going crazy!  Going Wild means reverance to and connection with nature  and through that connection achieving a better understanding of our relation and responsibility to each other and the universe.

Have you Gone Wild? Gone GREAT?  We're looking for companies and individuals who have battled their jungle and not only survived but thrived in overcoming adversity and challenge.

Tell us your Go Wild Story!

 

Customer Service Best Practice: Case Study: The Macaroni Grill

While recently dining at "Macaroni Grill" one of my favorite chain restaurants for not only great food, but a fun atmosphere and attentive staff, I found one more reason to give this restaurant top marks in Customer Service. 

"Eye Glasses" carefully lined up on the front counter, to facilitate menu reading of anyone over the age of 30.   A small courtesy so we don't have to go digging for our spectacles.  I realized how this small touch made a difference,  when I later  arrived at my hotel room that night  and received a map of buildings and room numbers.  Trust me, the type was so small,  only Superman with his X Ray vision could have seen it.  The result was irritation that I could not find my room and having to return to the front desk for help.  I advised the manager that while I usually charge for the advice, this one was on the house to help future guests.  Simply increase the font side!  Nothing worse than a woman traveling alone, struggling to find her room in the dark.  Oh yes, the signs for room numbers on the buildings was equally small.   Think small courtesies, Not Small Print.

Customer Service is designed to make things easier for us!  In fact a key component of improving customer service is the ability to look for pain and solve that pain.  One customer pain in every industry is "Wait Time" Take the Pain out of Wait Time! Macaroni Grill know this.  When they put you on a telephone hold for example, they teach you Italian.  They also bring the best homemade bread with olive oil to your table, so the wait time is actually a decadent indulgence.  Look at every place a customer waits and find ways to entertain them and take the pain out of wait time.  Bring out samples, provide Internet access for checking e.mail.  I have one client in which customers are now begging to be put back on telephone hold.  They simply added a jeopardy game and customers are saying "wait, put me back on hold.  I know the answer".

Provide a fun and entertaining environment and hire people with personality!  The servers at Macaroni Grill are amazing because the management follows a best practice of "hiring for attitude and training for skill".  Yes, the waiters at MG will sing Happy Birthday in Opera and they have great social skills!  It's evident as they  put a big bottle of wine on your table and with their crayons, artfully sign their name on your table,  explaining the customer  honor system for marking how many glasses you drink.     Unless you are running a mortuary, improve your customer service by creating an environment that is "alive" and well, frankly "fun".  Ask yourself, how do I feel when I walk in here? Am I in a better mood as I leave than when I arrived?   

Congrats Macaroni Grill for your continuing "Wow" Customer Service.