Hannah McDonald and her Ontario Grade 2 summer literacy students were talking about motivation. Their discussion turned to how they could help motivate the people fighting the fires in northern Saskatchewan. Soon an idea sprang forward! They decided to send post cards to these brave souls fighting fires for many days. Great idea – now how do you carry it out? Continue reading →

It’s happened! Recently we spent time with a small group of friends and their teenage children at a restaurant and were astonished at some of the lack of respect shown to others in the group. One of the teens (let’s call him Tim) looked at his mother and demanded she not interrupt him while he was talking. The stunned mother said nothing. Continue reading →

Recently a young man we worked with left his plumbing job – he is excited about the field, enjoys getting up in the morning for his job and likes the people he works with. In fact, he is hoping to work towards his apprenticeship by going to school in the fall. Why then did he leave? The answer is simple. Because he is young and mobile, he was constantly being sent to jobs out of town. The good part of this is his meals and his accommodation have been paid for by the company. The downside is he cannot get together with his friends in the evenings. Continue reading →

Many years ago the head of Saskatchewan Coca Cola said to me, “All these people here are my assets. If you take away my building and my machinery, no problem, we can be up and running quickly! However, if you take away my people, there is no way I can be running tomorrow.” People are your biggest asset, regardless of what your accountants tell you. The building, the equipment, the computers, staplers and pens are merely assets to the people who use them. Continue reading →