Creativity can flourish within a structure that has become a person’s default. Individuals don’t have to waste energy wondering how to go about organising a sea of possibilities. Neural pathways are developed through doing the same thing over and over. It takes practice! But the results are worth the effort.
Let me share an example:
I’m excited because the Treverton Post-matric group, today participated in Session 9 in their Communication Skills course and excelled. I could see how far they have progressed since Session 1. And they could feel it, too.
Practising the PREP formula (structure) over and over has been an integral part of the course. They have applied it to a wide range of written and verbal situations, so it is becoming their default when faced with organising a sea of information. The possibilities are endless.
Today we were practising how to organise information in a hurry. We tried a few examples where each person was giving a random word and had to immediately present a structured impromptu speech. It wasn’t easy. An hour later, I gave them all a new word, the same word, ‘set’. They were given only two minutes to prepare a structured speech. I was astounded at the excellence and variety of their approaches. Creativity was there in abundance! So I then asked them to write out the outline of the speech. And these are provided below.
Please note – each was given the same word, ‘set’ and each was giving only two minutes (from scratch) to come up with their approach and fit it into the structure. It is amazing how differently each person approached the assignment.
These are organised in first name alpha order.
On your marks, get set, go! Don’t wait and let time pass you by.
Game, the first stepping stone to accomplish your goal. You may win or lose but the fact that you got started is the important part. Build yourself up, learn from your opponents, gain strength and skills to move you further.
Set yourself up. Do what work you want to do. There is no point in being unhappy with your current situation. It’s your opportunity to find what you are good at and use it as your advantage.
Match. Use your skills to win and bring back the gold. Hit the ball where you know your competitors won’t be able to return it. Become the champion that everyone looks up to. You have worked so hard to achieve what you wanted.
On your marks, get set, GO.
Live life today so you don’t miss tomorrow.
Set yourself free from others. Life is too short to fit in and to be the same as everyone else.
The place where you were born defines who you are. This is where the seed is planted as to identify your personality.
As you live and grow in this community you find your true value and talents. This energy will help you to make the right choices in life. Be the person you aim to be and try not to lose yourself by trying to fit in with the crowd. Be an O among the X's.
Once you have become the person you want to be, stand out. Be a tree among the bushes and bloom. Do things beyond what is required and bridge the gap.
Set yourself free from the world and be yourself.
Set yourself apart from the competition.
If you can achieve this you will stand out from the crowd and your good work will be noticed quicker than if you conform to the practices of everyone else.
Separate yourself from the competition by defining a strength that you possess that not many people have.
Annihilate your competition by being the best at your particular strength. Make sure no-one can match you or even come close to you at that one particular thing.
Train at your strength so that it continues to grow and improve so that no one will ever know your limit to how much you can achieve at your particular strength.
If your unique in a better way over all your competition, you will be picked every time.
Find your strength and work like hell at it.
Set: referring to a completed collection; the location where a cinematic sequence is shot; or the fixedness of objects or other intangibles, or abstract objects. This is how sets apply in life.
1st: Sets of vinyl are truly amazing: not just for their antiquated nature, but for the fact that they have a crisp sound to them, unmatched by the quality of any technology that we have at present. Giving us the obvious ability to see for ourselves that sometimes the old ways are the best, because they ensure that they do things the correct way, and in the greatest quality.
2nd: cinematic or theatrical sets, the locations created from fictional ideals, usually modeled on impossibilities or created through an expansion of existing concepts. This is the crystallization of dreams and fantasy, which each and every person has, or experiences. Do this in life as directors, actors, script writers and set builders do in their professions, build the set of your life and expand on the existing, no matter how much of an impossibility it may seem.
The concept of forever is pretty set: fixed, unchanging... Sad to say that in life the only time you have is a whole lot less than forever, every second compounds, and all that compounding leads to minutes, all those minutes compounding lead to hours and all those hours lost lead to days, months and years of waste, time that you will come to wish you had spent better, time you could have truly used, to make a difference in your life of someone else's. Youth wasted being idle, wisdom unused due to the lethargy of age and the inevitability to ever exert control over the passage of time; all you can do is prepare for it.
What is left of your life? Are there pieces left? Or is there a legacy? A completed set? Were you solid? Did you complete your challenges? Like Arthur and that sword set in stone. Did you do well to prepare for the passage of time? Life is Set, you are here, make the best of it, set your mark in stone. Embrace it.
SET nightclub is a very average club. I went there recently and I did not have the best time.
Small: The dancefloor is by far way too small to hold the actual amount of people that come in. For a club in such a great position (Rosebank), there should be at least 4 bars where it only has 2.
Expensive. The drinks at SET are through the roof!!! For one Castle light it is R30. I can imagine a double vodka and mix being at least R60.
The set up is bad. The main bar is on the dancefloor which is already too small. They have a tiny VIP area which is not even worth paying for as normal ticket holders get in their quite easily. The DJ booth is nowhere to be seen.
SET is a very average night club. If you want to spend all your money on an average night, go to SET.
Set is a word that if looked at in different circumstances, is timeless. It is used to define the sun sinking over the horizon at the end of every day. It is used to start a race as in ‘ready, set, go’ or ‘are you all set?’ And it is used to define a scene created for a movie or photo shoot and in this case it is timeless.
A sunset defines the end of another day and can bring out emotions such as passion, love, sorry, regret, worry or fear for what is to come. We see a sunset in a different light every evening because of what follows and what new beginning lies ahead. We see it as an end for what has happened during the day and now it is over.
‘Are you all set?’ is an expression that marks the beginning of so many things. You could be preparing to leave, you could be on the starting block of a race track, you could be waiting at the start line of the motor race track. In all cases it is a way of marking a beginning, a new beginning often of something great.
A theatre set is a set that changes and yet is timeless. A theatre set does not change itself, but it changes because of the people around it. The performance itself changes the set but the set itself can we kept forever.
Any set in the world is not the beginning nor end of any point in your life. And endings mean new beginnings and beginnings mean new ends.
Do not be afraid of the new ‘set’s to come in your life.
The principles we can learn from the seemingly childish game of Lego can prove vital to ensuring good teamwork between colleagues.
Start small – in Lego we all started off with small structures and as we built more, so we graduated to larger and more complex structures. When you assemble a new team, don’t give them the toughest job straight away – let them handle a few smaller ones and build a strong relationship.
Every block plays its part – take a piece out of the bottom and your structure collapses. Keep everyone involved, even if they play minor roles in the assignment. Leaving them out could result in these minor duties developing into major cracks.
Learn from mistakes – we’ve all had a structure collapse now and then. We know how not to place blocks after that. Apply this lesson in the work place, too. If something collapses, don’t do the same thing over.
The lessons we can learn from Lego can help us greatly when teaching in the workplace. I urge you to consider this message when in the office environment.
Well done, Treverton Post-matrics. You have excelled and I’m proud to share your contribution with our readers. As you travel forth, take these learning with you and use to enrich all domains of your lives. I look forward to hearing of your progress.
For more information on our Communication Skills course (12 4-hour sessions) or other training courses, please contact Brenda Eckstein on +27 82 4993311 or brenda@146.66.90.172