Thinking Visually

ABCs, just for me!

/ Susan Hendrich / Leave a comment

Here’s a triple shot of clever: not just teaching the alphabet and decorating a child’s room, but building a sense of context for how the child’s unique identity flows with the rest of the (alphabet) world. Nice, Kellie!

Kellie Van's avatar

Ok. So I know this word has been redundant in my blog but this project really is SIMPLE! Every nursery needs an ABC artwork so why not integrate your baby’s name into it and make it personalized?

It started with a black frame that I got from Ikea’s AS IS section. I had no use for it but b/c it was dirt cheap, I figured I would use it ‘someday.’ Surely enough, I did and it serves its purpose fairly well!

I had to paint the frames stark white b/c nothing in Zoey’s room is black. 

Got these white glitter (subtle) letters from Michaels. They always have 40% off coupons on their website so print them out and utilize them. 

From my scrapbook stock paper collection, I chose a pale pink as the background and a patterned blue as the letters for Zoey’s name.  

A quick glance at the…

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Freebie fun: Create word clouds with Wordle

/ Susan Hendrich / 1 Comment

Wordle is one of the coolest free toys I’ve seen in a while.  I’ll let author  Jonathan Feinberg‘s  description speak for itself and get out your way so you can read it then start Wordling…

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Here’s one I made for my colleague, Susan Jacobs, as a birthday surprise for her office door:

Wordle Cloud

So, what words will you use to create your own Wordle cloud?

Prioritizing? Try the “Five Ss” of Productivity

/ Susan Hendrich / 2 Comments

The “Five Ss” of Productivity

Today I’m using the “Five Ss of the Workplace” to increase productivity. The ‘5Ss’ are the Japanese words:

  • Seiri = organization : separate out all the things that are not necessary and eliminate them or tidy them away
  • Seiton = neatness : arrange the essential things in order so that they can be quickly and easily accessed and put away
  • Seiso = cleaning : keep machines and working environment clean (everyone’s job–no cleaners needed)
  • Seiketsu = standardization : make cleaning and checking a routine practice; maintain a pleasant environment
  • Shitsuke = discipline : standardize the previous four steps and constantly improve them; creating good habits

In a tidy and organized workplace, errors are minimized, work is speeded up and small problems are made visible.

These have been translated into five Ss in the English language:

  • Seiri –> sort
  • Seiton –> straighten
  • Seiso –> scrub, sanitize
  • Seiketsu –> systematize
  • Shitsuke –> standardize, self-discipline

Free Learning Job Aid Toolkit

/ Susan Hendrich / Leave a comment

Are You On The Move! Yet?

The Move! toolkit contains over 50 ‘one page’ job-aids with involving methodologies in five distinct areas : Individual, Team and Organizational Development as well as Project Management and Instructional Design & Facilitation.  You can browse through all the tools here.  Tons of helpful resources, and best of all…they’re FREE.

A. INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT TOOLS

Performance Management Process / Objective Setting SMARTT / Build-Up coaching session / GROW model for coaching / Coaching Styles / Constructive Feedback / Questioning & Listening / Behavior Wheel / ACHIEVE Model / Individual Development Plan / Checklist for effective coaching / Appraisal Interview /

B. TEAM DEVELOPMENT TOOLS

Team Work Model (GRPI) / GRPI Questionnaire / Action Centered Leadership (Adair) / Intervision / Meeting Management / Multi Voting / Brainstorming / Mind Mapping /Effective Decisions / SWOT Analysis / New Leader Expectation Activity / SADIE problem solving / SORA problem solving / Intake Teamdevelopment

C. ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT TOOLS

Consulting Process / Intervention Strategy / Business Needs Analysis / Stakeholder Analysis / Initial Customer Contact / Contracting Checklist / Force Field Analysis / Scenario Planning / SARAH coping with change / Change Loop / Balanced Scorecard / Community of Practice / Autonomous Motivation (Self-Determination Theory) / Confrontation Matrix / Environmental Scan

D. PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Project Process Map / Project Planning (GANTT) / Critical Path Method / Cause & Effect Analysis (Ishikawa) / Impact – Effort analysis / Risk Analysis / Project Learning Review / Stakeholder Activities / Focus Groups / Individual Interviews / Data Analysis / Responsibility Matrix

E. INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN TOOLS

8 Field Analysis (Kessels & Smit) / Learner focused versus content focused / Experiential Design model / Checklist Learning Activities / Types of Process Interventions / Guidelines for debriefing group activities / Involvement : look at training / Scenario Template / Statement Game / Checklist for instructional design / Learning Activities /