Left Handers Day (August 13) is a great time to celebrate and understand differences. Which could lead to new perspectives. Actually any day is a good day for this.
Whenever you do it, here are 10 ideas for helping you and your team members:
- get to know each other better
- celebrate differences
- look at things from a different perspective
- try a different way
- remember that there is no right way (or right mind)
In the process, I predict you will also boost morale and productivity.
At your staff meeting today (or another day of your choice), do one or more of these things:
1.. Ask all the left handers to raise their hands. Say, “Happy Left Handers Day”.
2. Share the Quote of the Week for Left Handers Day.. Let there be banter between lefties and righties.
3. Approximately 13% of the world’s population is left handed. What percentage of your team is left handed?
4. Share all or your pick from our List of 50 Lefties (below). Add the names of lefties on your team to this list. Or write them on the board or flip chart.
4. Share a few facts and observations about left handers. These are adapted from http://www.lefthandersday.com/tour2.html
a) Left handers are more likely to be creative and visual thinkers.
b) There is a higher percentage of left handers in music, the arts and media in general.
c) Left handers are generally better at 3D perception and thinking.
d) Left handers are usually pretty good at most ball sports.
e) Left handers may seem clumsier. This may come from being forced to use right handed tools and machinery.
f) Left handers in business think differently and tackle problems in different ways.
Any truth to these?
5-8 Try some eye-opening, walk-in-my-shoes, dealing-with-change exercises.
5. If people have coffee cups or other beverages at the meeting, ask everyone to hold their cups with their left hands. Perhaps even propose a toast to left handers.
6. Have righties take notes with their left hand for the rest of the meeting.
Want to open eyes even wider?
- Ask them to take notes in a ring binder.
- Ask them to write with a fountain pen and watch how it gets all over their hands as they write.
7. Take it even further by asking right handed team members to try and do everything with left hand all day . Drink, write, use mouse, calculator buttons, etc. But please – not if there is machinery or heavy equipment involved.
8. Ask everyone to cross their arms in front of them the way they usually do. Then ask them to do it again with a different arm on top. How does it feel?
9. Close with the reminder that there is no one right way. No right mind. There are many ways to do things. Many ways to solve things. The best solutions may not be to the left. Or to the right. But somewhere in the middle.
10. When stuck or stressed, look for a way to laugh. As a reminder of this and all of the above , post the Quote of the Week for Left Handers Day..
List of 51 Lefties
- Akiva Fox
- Albert Einstein
- Alexander the Great
- Arnold Palmer
- Art Chansky
- Babe Ruth
- Barack Obama
- Beethoven
- Bill Clinton
- Bill Gates
- Billy the Kidd
- Brad Pitt
- Cary Grant
- Charlie Chaplin
- David Bowie
- Dennis Quaid
- Dick Van Dyke
- Frances Bolick
- Fred Astaire
- Gandi
- George Burns
- Henry Ford
- J. Edgar Hoover
- Jimmy Connors
- Joan of Arc
- John D. Rockefeller
- John F Kennedy
- John McEnroe
- Judy Garland
- Julia Roberts
- Julius Caesar
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Marilyn Monroe
- Matthew Broderick
- Michaelangelo
- Mozart
- Neil Armstrong
- Oprah Winfrey
- Paul McCartney
- Picasso
- Prince Charles
- Prince William
- Richard Pryor
- Ringo Starr
- Robert Redford
- Ronald Regan
- Ryan Watts
- Sylvestor Stallone
- Tom Cruise
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Winston Churchill
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