How to design a pep talk plus bonus: The one-minute pep talk generator for leaders:  Follow this recipe and deliver a pep talk Prepare your total pep talk - from start to finish. Follow the link and choose with sincerity from the 3 lists of Proclamations, Adjectives, and Team Descriptions. Once you have delivered your prelude, you can elaborate on it: 'When I choose the word (adjective)… it is because… and with the team description… I want to emphasize the importance of us being…'  With this 'generator' you have 15,625 different options for preludes. You can then choose to include one or more of the following 7 ingredients. The order of the ingredients is arbitrary. Remember to explain why you have called your team in:  □ Say something about the original reason What did originally set it in motion? What was the vision? What was the target?  □ Say something about the importance of the group Without YOU we will never succeed. Which competencies, experiences and skills ...

But what is a democratic conversation really?:  When it comes to describing what a democratic conversation is, it can very easily become both nerdy and long-winded. The article here should be read by everyone and especially those who geek out on conversations, examine them from all angles and evaluate them individually and compare them to other selected conversations. A. A place to start might be to begin by delineating what a democratic conversation is and is not. For example, it is not a soliloquy, a monologue, a lecture, a one man show, a TV programme, a film, an opera, a play, a radio newspaper. These one-way soliloquies do not allow for dialogue and feedback. B. A conversation takes place while you are fairly close to each other, in the same room, in the same car, each on his own phone. C. A conversation consists of strings of words that both or all understand. The words are pronounced clearly and unambiguously and without too many repetitions. D. A conversation includes sound...

Enjoy a one hour workshop full of active learning:  Try out a handfull of dialogue-focused tools (Thumball, picture cards, dialogue cards, coaching carpet) with your team. Book a one-hour workshop with Michael Meinhardt. He will guide you and your team through various methods and tools and involve everyone for weeks to come. A tool must be tested before a manager or a teacher can achieve a valuable benefit. Some tools are easier than others to invite to to introduce to present to involve in to let the participants use to facilitate  to review to end on a high note. Therefore, you are invited to try 4 great team tools in 60 minutes - either in your team or in your management group. The focus is on achieving a useful dialogue with the tools Thumball (icebreaker ball), picture cards (Dialoogle), dialogue cards (Icebreaker) and The Team Coaching Carpet. The trial trip with these 4 tools will be combined with several different methods for each tool. Order this workshop 'Testdrive w...

DIY group-workshop ‘Safe at work’:  When you are at work, at a leisure activity, with family and friends or in a place where you have to work with several people, it is paramount that there is a sense of security so that the words that are said and the body language that is used , does not create fear but rather a psychological safety. It is important that we humans can act together and work in practical harmony. So everyone dares to say what they mean, think and feel. All for the benefit of our lives and our development, and the projects we work with and the solutions we try to find. Now you can present your team to an internal workshop: Talk, investigate and decide The best technology out there is talking about it. Talk about fear. Talk about violation. Talk about bullying. Then everyone understands the whole thing much better. We will listen to each other. We will examine the contents and ingredients. We get closer to the words and their effect. And from this point, on a more in...

Bring this ball to your next meeting and throw it:  This is how it works: One throws the ball. Another catches it and reacts to the panel under the thumb. That's why it's called Thumball. Facilitation Tip 1: Explain ... To develop as a team, the group sometimes needs to step back and reflect on their relationships, their communication and their way of working together. Tailor your Thumball activity to meet your needs: Option 1: Have participants respond to the panel under their thumb, then throw the ball to the next person. Option 2: After the first participant has reacted to the panel other participants can also share their reactions or discuss how they can work together more effectively. Facilitation Tip 2: Formulate interaction rules Explain that conversations about the group's way of working together can become emotional. The goal of the Thumball activity is to raise the important questions and have the necessary conversations in a positive environment. In order for e...