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TOP 10
Signs You Drink Too Much Coffee
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10. You speed walk in your sleep
9. You haven´t blinked since the last lunar eclipse
8. Your eyes stay open when you sneeze
7. You sleep with your eyes open
6. You have to watch videos in fast forward
5. You chew other people´s fingernails
4. You can type 60 wpm with your feet
3. People get dizzy just watching you
2. You´re so wired you pick up AM radio
1. You grind your coffee beans in your mouth
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Featured Event: Iceberg, A Team Building Simulation
Your team is on a 2-day meeting at a remote location. There are no cell phone signals or land lines; ensuring a focused meeting. Or so you thought.
A distress signal has come in and your team has been asked to help a cruise ship that is steering towards an iceberg! The crew has been incapacitated by food poisoning and the passengers have no experience at sea.
The ship is adrift and heading into iceberg territory. Your only communication with the cruise ship is through a fax machine. Your team is their only hope.
To succeed, your team must: set goals; define roles and organize themselves for the tasks ahead; establish communication proto-calls; determine which activities are important or detrimental to reaching those goals;
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assign activities to the most appropriate people; balance competition with cooperation; and monitor the feedback mechanisms available to them.
Don´t forget, they must also complete a fun and challenging set of activities intended to highlight the skills of high performance teams, including: building a working prototype of a steamship; erecting a receiving tower made of straws, and solving mathematical, visual, and verbal problems.
The best simulations will affect a deep and lasting impact on your team or organization. Iceberg will readily accomplish this.
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Tips to Managing Office Conflict
Office conflict isn´t out of the ordinary within companies and finding ways to deal with it is a necessity—not only for the sake of your stress level, but also for the organization.
Office conflict most often comes from differences in work styles and opinions, but what you need to remind yourself is that there is nothing wrong with that.
If everyone thought alike and had the same ideas not much creative thinking would occur.
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Of course there are good ways and not so good ways of going about handling the situation at hand.
We all play different parts in teams—what needs to be done is to find the best strategy to help everyone move forward. Here are some tips to get you on your way.
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- Clear the air - Sometimes having a non-confrontational type of conversation will do the trick. Express yourself, but don’t forget to listen. Maybe some miscommunication occurred and speaking directly to the person may help clear up the confusion.
- Mum´s the word - If the issue does not involve you then walk away. Office conflicts can become significantly worse when everyone has an opinion.
- Don´t be a ´tattle tale´ - Assess the situation carefully. Can you handle the problem before resorting to involving your superiors? And also, don´t involve others, that’s just asking for trouble.
- Don´t point the finger - Attack the problem not your co-worker. Try to strategize as a team.
- Take notes - If a problem or issue has escalated to the point that supervisors need to be involved make sure you have documented events and/or specific complaints.
- Walk it off - Was something said that just urked you? Is it possible that you took something the wrong way? Or maybe your co-worker is just having a bad day. It happens. Sometimes it´s just best to say nothing and move on.
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Symbol Test
Here´s a quick and fun test! This personality test breaks personalities into 5 different groups. Are you the adventurous type or a creative thinker? Are you conservative?—no surprises for you! Do you pride yourself on structure and organization? Or are you the planner—always with a goal in mind?
If you´re interested in finding out, here´s what you need to do. First take a look at the 5 shapes. Pick your favorite. Then pick your second favorite. This should be done fairly quickly don´t put too much thought into it. Did you pick your favorites yet? If you answered yes you´ve just completed the test! Wasn´t that easy!? Now for the answers…
click here and find out what this means for you.
*This test and other tests are available at: www.personalitytest.net
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Recomended Reading
Stress Management for Dummies
By Allen Elkin, Ph.D.
Book Description:
Is your job tying your stomach in knots? Do you toss and turn in bed at night? Are your ulcers having ulcers? Face it you´ve got too much stress in your life, and it´s time to give yourself a break.
The consequences of not dealing with stress range from poor health and broken marriages to premature death: not a very cheerful outlook.
Thankfully, all kinds of stress reduction approaches are available today: from breathing and posture to imagery and meditation. These new ideas have taken the world by storm—and taken the pressure cooker off the fire for millions of chilled-out people around the world.
Review:
I read this book over 5 times, and it just amazes me how this book is so clear about clearing up stress in my life.
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There is a wonderful sense of humor in this book. The author, Alan Elkin, must be a funny guy.
I hope that he will write many more books. If you have any stress in your life, or if you even just want to laugh hysterically over and over again, please read this book!
This book and book review available at
www.amazon.com
Do you have a book you would like to recommend related to the work place that you thought was great? Send us an email
Mary Beth
with a short review and we will pass on the word in a future issue!
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Goal Setting 101
When it comes to setting goals, deciding on a goal is the easiest part. The hard part is all the in betweens. There are lots of things that need to be considered when getting started and all of these little things are what will help you reach the goal. Here are some helpful tips to get you on your way to success. Good luck!
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- Be realistic - When it comes to deadlines and actual goal objectives make sure you´re reasonable.
- Create steps How can you reach your goal without taking into consideration all the steps in between? Make it easier for yourself to reach your goal by having steps (how about mini-goals?) and a plan in place.
- Don´t quit! - So maybe you got a bit off course. That´s o.k.! Start again. Bumps in the road can only help you the next time around. Remember what Thomas Edison said. “I have not failed. I´ve just found 10,000 ways that won´t work.”
- O.k. …quit - Many times in life we find that what we thought we wanted really wasn´t right for us. Think of it as not giving up, but more as moving on to bigger and better things.
- Keep track - One of the best tips to keeping yourself motivated and staying on track is to keep a record of your progress and the steps you´ve accomplished. You´ll be amazed to see how much you´ve achieved.
- Reward yourself - There´s nothing wrong with a little incentive. It´s completely up to you on what type of reward you give yourself after reaching not only your goal, but also completing big steps within your goals. The point is to keep yourself motivated.
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Laughing As a Stress Reliever
Arthritis, headaches, restless and sleepless nights…do you suffer from any of these problems? Try laughing it off…seriously.
Recent studies have shown that laughing not only has relieved some of these problems, but it also has numerous other benefits. Here are some facts and case studies results:
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- Children laugh about 400 times a day. Adults average 15-17 times a day.
- Laughing stretches muscles throughout the face and body.
- Considered a type of “internal jogging” or “internal workout” that stimulates and releases neurotransmitters and hormones. Breathing at a faster rate sends more oxygen to the tissues.
- Eases headaches, body aches, and other muscular pains.
- Relieves arthritic pain.
- Decreases asthmatic attacks.
- Increases stamina.
- Lowers blood sugar levels for diabetics.
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Causes serotonin levels to go up—an effective depression antidote.
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Ensures good sleep
- Some clinics have laugh therapy for patients to aid in recovery.
- 10-15 minutes of laughter burns 50 calories.
These may just be case studies and not all cold hard facts, but no one has broken a funny bone yet! Plain and simple, laughing just makes us feel good. Whether you´re laughing with family and friends, watching a funny movie, or reading the funny pages, it´s all good for you. Laughter is a great distraction from everyday problems. It doesn´t matter what´s making you laugh just as long as it does.
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Share Your Success
Do you have a success story you would like to share with other readers?
Did you try the 21 Day Challenge from the previous issue, or perhaps something else?
If so, email your story to:
Mary Beth
This column will be dedicated to your successes. We hope that you find the tips and articles in our newsletter useful.
Thank you and enjoy!
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Fallen Phrases
Quote of the Quarter
INSTRUCTIONS: Place the letters below, one in each box in the column directly above it, to complete the phrase.
The answer will be in the next Newsletter!
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Click puzzle for full size image.
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Answer to Issue 1 puzzle: "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." – Plato –
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