Much is made in educational circles these days about social-emotional learning and intelligence (SEL). Schools everywhere are scrambling to address the social and emotional needs of youth, developing and implementing curriculums, and creating policies. The workplace is also getting on board as more and more businesses are realizing that the key to a successfully run organization is having employees who can solve problems independently and possess solid interpersonal skills.

I think schools, however, get a bad rap. Increasingly, they are asked to do more with less. Everyone wants our students to achieve their full potential.  Educators are faced with the awesome and daunting task of providing learners with the skills for success. There is a lot of emphasis on what we need to teach but very little on how to do it. How do you engage, inspire and lead students through the maze of stuff that is thrown at them and help them make sense of it? How do you help them retain what is important?

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October 10 is World Mental Health Day. According to the World Federation for Mental Health, it is a day to “celebrate awareness for the global community in an empathetic way, with a unifying voice, helping those feel hopeful by empowering them to take action and to create lasting change.”

My contribution to the cause is to use and show people the ACT Matrix so they can promote their own mental health and show it to others. 

To do that, you can do the mental health loop.

Draw this diagram, otherwise known as the ACT Matrix.

Ask yourself, “Who is important to me?” Recall your important people and jot them down in the lower right. Next ask, “What kinds of yucky stuff (like fear and anger) shows up inside of me and gets in the way of what I want to be doing?”. Jot that down in the lower left. Now ask yourself, “well, what do I do to get away from that yucky stuff that I don’t want to have?” ( scrolling on facebook is a great move to get away from stress ). Finally, ask yourself, ” What...

Do you have difficult people in your life? ( I see you nodding your heads up and down and a few of you are holding your head in your hands ).

The Prosocial matrix is a great tool to defuse difficult people who can get you down from time to time. In this video you will learn how to set up a very flexible way to have difficult conversations and maintain your sanity.

This is a safe approach with no harmful side effects:)

Appropriate for all ages, shapes and sizes.

We are in the middle of a heat wave. Hot has taken on new levels of meaning.

I returned home last night to discover  the air conditioning unit in our home that has been serving us well has succumbed to the blistering temperature. Our HVAC expert is performing emergency services all over town and we must wait out turn.

A story immediately forms inside me, a story of misfortune and loss and a longing for coolness and comfort. My internal misery meter inches upward. I can notice it showing up in me as well as my wife and our children. Then I pause, take stock and think of ways to adapt to the inevitable.

Break out the fans, rearrange the sleeping quarters and watch a little TV. My niece shows up after working later in the evening and we all catch up for awhile before turning in. Discomfort is along for the ride but not driving the car.

I get up early and take my son to his summer job as a golf course groundskeeper. He notices he doesn’t want to go and we notice together...

This is a webinar I developed along with Donna Read, a fellow Prosocial Matrix Trainer.

If you want to know how to assess where your organization stands and how to influence teams toward healing and change, I look at how to apply Frederic Laloux's Reinventing Organization book and research to the Prosocial Matrix process and create powerful contexts for change.

Let me get real here. We all want a life, a job, a relationship that is problem free , or at least something pretty darn close to it . 

Reality informs us that life is not a constant state of ecstatic wonder. On the way to valued and vital learning, working and living, we encounter problems. All kinds of problems.

So why is it that that we spend so little time learning what works for becoming a successful problem solver?

Problems will continue to present themselves in our lives but they don't have to bog us down. Creative problem solving is a skill and one that anyone can learn with some practice. 

The Prosocial Matrix is a great tool to generate solutions that work in any setting. Check out my webinar and find out what it takes boost your team's problem solving skills to the next level.

Everyone wants to make smart choices. The question is, how do you know which choice to make? We can spend lots of time deciding, let somebody else choose, or close our eyes and pick. Getting better at making choices that work is a skill and anyone can learn and this is what I am up to here at Evolving Solutions.

I help individuals and organizations make wise decisions for profitability and health so they can be productive and have a healthy workplace at the same time.

This is a webinar introducing one aspect of the work I do. Here I show individuals and work teams how to use the prosocial matrix to make wise decisions. If you are new to your job, looking to help fix or help out your team,  or looking to up your game, check it out. It works.