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Secrets of Facilitation reveals the principles and techniques effective facilitators use to produce amazing results through groups. The author identifies 60 secrets that separate great facilitators from good ones. He then puts you right in the room through his case studies and numerous sample dialogues, so you can see and experience the techniques in action!

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Feedback: The Breakfast of Champions

By David Walton Earle

First appeared in Business and Industry Connection Magazine - June 2002

Wheaties has long been the cereal of champions or so General Mills would like us to believe. "Eat this breakfast and you will excel in athletic competition" is the implication. The ultimate proof is the latest Olympic champion featured on the front of the box. Good communication should also be the prominent feature on any jobsite, for feedback is to corporate success what a good breakfast is to the athlete.

Providing timely responses is the critical feedstock for good decisions, proper quality assurance, a safe worksite, and effective customer service. When stated with proper garnishments and in a timely manner, feedback can be the difference between success and failure. This is true for positive feedback or critical analysis; one is delightful and the other can cause uncomfortable feelings, yet both are incredibly valuable.

Employees who think their work has value and is worthwhile are more likely to be enthusiastic about their work than others who work only for a paycheck. It is sad to see a human spirit dying on the shop floor when they perceive what they do is not valued. In the book Man's Search for Meaning Victor Frankel was a Nazi concentration camp survivor. Here, prisoners had no rights, privileges, and if not immediately exterminated they were systematically starved to death. In this total depravity, Victor Frankel observed that the people who gave up were the ones who had lost meaning in their lives. If they lacked a reason to live, they were dead within 48 hours and not directly by the Nazis.

This realization speaks to the workforce today.

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