Podcasts about horshack

Les, Kurt, and Jason have reconvened to ask the important questions like, “Does Les get craft service during his tech rehearsals?” And “Did Wilford Brimley pull some serious tail back in the day?” Plus, Kurt reports that Blac Chyna wants Tyga to stick to their custody schedule! Then, the guys tackle their first animated show for the podcast, 1981's “Laverne and Shirley” (aka known as Laverne and Shirley in the Army to not confuse it with the live action counterpart). While this Laverne and Shirley doesn't have Lenny or Squiggy or Carmine Ragusa, it does have a pig voiced by Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter and giant space birds. Jason thinks the show may have been borne out of the last actor's strike while Les thinks this is the horniest cartoon he's ever seen. Take a look at the rocket that all of the characters are quite confident they can fly and judge for yourself!   Facebook : alifetimeofhallmark Instagram : lifetimeofhallmarkpodcast Theme song generously donated by purple-planet.com

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 788, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: a christmas carol 1: City in which the story is set. London. 2: This bird Scrooge sent the Cratchits for Christmas dinner was "twice the size of Tiny Tim". turkey. 3: "A partridge in a pear tree". "The Twelve Days of Christmas". 4: "Good tidings we bring to you and your kin, we wish you good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year". "We Wish You A Merry Christmas". 5: "And heav'n and nature sing, and heav'n and nature sing, and heav'n and heav'n and nature sing". "Joy to the World". Round 2. Category: pins 1: Louis Henry and Bruce Ancona hold a patent on one of these that'll hold your undies on the line. clothespin. 2: A dowel pin is used by these health professionals to support crowns. dentists. 3: Aye, matey, it's what's normally belayed on a belaying pin. line/rope. 4: In a gun, it strikes the cartridge, setting off the propelling charge. firing pin. 5: Ooh! Ooh! Horshack knows it has a split end that's spread after being put through a hole. cotter pin. Round 3. Category: school's out! 1: This summer I might try to hike this scenic trail that runs about 2,100 miles from Maine to Georgia. Appalachian Trail. 2: Before my job interview, I'd better polish up and type up this document, from the French for "summarize". Resume. 3: I'm working on Dad's old Saab so I can drive it, and I just learned it's a car from this country. Sweden. 4: With classes in this field next term, on the break I'm reading books by Meisner and Stanislavsky. Acting. 5: Let's go! I'm heading to this popular spring break city in Florida that's home to "Bike Week". Daytona Beach. Round 4. Category: nashville 1: This president's home, the Hermitage, is located on Rachel's Lane. Andrew Jackson. 2: In 1873 Central University was renamed this for the "Commodore" who gave it a $1 million gift. Vanderbilt. 3: This singer's museum near Nashville has a section featuring the Carter family. Johnny Cash. 4: From 1943 to 1974, Ryman auditorium was the broadcast site of this radio program. the Grand Ole Opry. 5: Nashville's Parthenon has a 42-foot replica of this goddess. Athena. Round 5. Category: car tunes 1: Prince drove this tiny title auto to No. 6 in 1983. "Little Red Corvette". 2: This "Little" Beach Boys vehicle can "do a hundred and forty with the top end floored". "Little Deuce Coupe". 3: He had a 2-part request in the title of his 1988 No. 1 hit: "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car". Billy Ocean. 4: As a metaphor for her Southern childhood, Lucinda Williams sang of "Car Wheels On" this type of road. a gravel road. 5: In 1976 Rose Royce did the dirty work and went to No. 1 "employed" here (Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa!). "Car Wash". Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

My guest today was not a village G.O., but he was a Club Med New York office G.O. and was a HUGE part of why my first season in Club Med Turks and Caicos during the summer of 1994 was so amazing. He worked for Club Med from September 1987 to 1995 at the Club Med corporate offices in New York City. He was the Director of Advertising and Sales Promotion in the Marketing Department. Everyone, please help me welcome, Anthony Salerno!! A cousin of Anthony's went to Club Med Paradise Island and raved about it so much that Anthony booked a vacation there in 1983, where he vividly remembers the very funny animator E.T.! After Paradise Island, he went on vacation at Club Med Martinique twice (1984 & 86) and Cancun (1985). Not wanting to leave his advertising job, but still enjoy a Club Med vacation, he applied and accepted Club Med's offer of employment. He had four weeks of vacation a year and was allowed to visit any Club Med he wanted. We talk about his start working for Club Med in 1987 and where we wound up crossing paths in Turks in '94. Anthony helped organize the INCREDIBLE “70s Celebration” in Turk and Caicos my first season and it was SO awesome!! Only the G.O.s, G.M.s and G.E.s that were there those 3 glorious weeks from September 2 to September 23, 1994, will understand how much fun it was to do the “YMCA” Crazy Sign with the actual Village People!! Anthony also brought in Ron Palillo (RIP), who played Horshack on “Welcome Back, Kotter”, Lyle Waggoner (RIP) from “Wonder Woman” and Barry Williams who played Greg Brady on “The Brady Bunch”, and many more. We talk about what it took to plan this massive event, but we also talk about what it was like filming a Club Med TV commercial in the various Club Med villages. Anthony also worked with French fashion photographer and former International Creative Director of Elle magazine, Gilles Bensimon. There were plenty of Club Med radio spots as well in the late 80s and Anthony worked with actors Frank Langella (Dracula/Frost/Nixon), Frances Sternhagen (Cliff Clavin's mom!), and Joe Sirola (Hang ‘Em High), the long-time voice of Club Med. Anthony also approached Archie Comics for them to feature Club Med in one of their issues and we talk about that as well. Anthony discusses the evolution of Club Med's famous taglines and the ad agencies that created them “The Antidote for Civilization” (Ammirati & Puris) and “Take Home A Club Med Vacation” (TBWA) and why these were replaced with, “Life as it should be” (Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer). Anthony also met his future wife at Turks that week, who was a G.M., and in March 2023, they will celebrate their 28th year anniversary! **My First Season podcast has always been ad-free and free to listen to and is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Samsung Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes. And if you like what you hear, please leave a review at Apple podcasts. Please check out his LinkedIn below: (1) Anthony Salerno | LinkedIn  

The guys take a field trip, body language illiteracy, a mean messiah complex, Andy passes the Horshack test, searching for SOTI targets, listener questions, and much more Spiraling.

Don't know who's idea this was (it was mine) but today we review most of the disco movies out there, the Linda Blair one is coming as we couldn't get a decent copy in time. First your fearless crew takes on (That's the way of the world 1975) a great Earth Wind and Fire movie that needs more Earth Wind and Fire, and more roller disco. Next up is (Saturday night fever 1977) Needed more of the Nanny and way less sexual assault. Omg, we'll always have the soundtrack, listen, don't watch. Onwards to (Disco fever AKA Jukebox 1978) With Casey Kasem and Fabian you can't lose, right? Moving along with (Thank god it's Friday 1978) With Terri Nunn and Jeff Goldblum you can't lose, for real this time! Next we ease on down the road with (The Wiz 1978) a great film that suffered because too many rad people of color were on the soundstage at once. Enter Racism. Next up we review a coked up Horshack and the greatest dance instructor ever in (Skatetown U.S.A. 1979) and I'm having the time of my life. Finally 70's movie fans, here's one from 1980 (Can't stop the music) which is technically true as I've had the song Magic Night stuck in my head for decades. But is it true that Leathermen don't cry? Ok we out, thanks so much for listening.

Sometimes life just isn't fair. (Actually, most times it's not…but I digest.) Sure, the vocalist and the guitarist get the lion's share of groupies and love. And yeah, occasionally, even the drummer might get some of the “leftovers”, but what about the BASS PLAYER, man? Because without BASSISTS to add the depth, dimension, and definition to the band's sound, “heavy metal” would just be…well it would just be sad…and, quite frankly, rather “bottomless”. It's time to learn proper shot etiquette according to Irish Booze Shamans, discover the maddening effect “chewing with your mouth open” has on others' mental health, find out additional applications for “beard oil”, squeal like a satiated pig and JOIN US as Metal Nerdery Podcast salutes the unsung heroes of the rhythm section, the masters of “filling in the bottom end”: HAIL TO THE THUNDER GODS AND BASS WIZARDS OF METAL!!!   Visit www.metalnerdery.com/podcast for more on this episode Leave us a Voicemail to be played on a future episode: 980-666-8182 Metal Nerdery Tees and Hoodies – metalnerdery.com/merch and kindly leave us a review and/or rating on the iTunes/Apple Podcasts - Spotify or your favorite Podcast app Listen on iTunes, Spotify, Podbean, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your Podcasts. Follow us on the Socials: Facebook - Instagram - Twitter Email: metalnerdery@gmail.com Can't be LOUD Enough Playlist on Spotify   Show Notes:   (00:01):  #itsfine and #shitting all over the #bassplayer #okayturnitoffnow #onthatnote / ***WELCOME BACK TO THE METAL NERDERY PODCAST!!!*** #notomicronASMR #zerocompletebullshitASMR and #relaxercookies and #potentialASMR /#awholeweek #timefortheclinky #trexpowersactivate #thankyou to #FireOnTheMountain and a quick #sidebar regarding #shotettiquette #tapthetable equals #oneforthehomies GIVE US A CALL AT 980-666-8182 / Checking www.brobible.com for the #explanation regarding the #demonglasstap #irishboozeshaman #fookthedemons / And now, Russell will address the #tricountymetalnerderybergvillearea with #thisepisodesbeeroftheepisode #thisepisode #thisone #confirmification #PipeworksBrewingCompany #alltherightreasons #BloodOfTheUnicorn #whatsthat #meaty #anicebigsixteenouncer #spewedinhisface #markthetime (check out that #albumcover) #instereo #sendusfreebeer #myfavoritepart is the #journey (waiting for the #MetalNerderyPodcastTributePodcast #noteven #antisexy #antihot #transformers #notenoughburps and the #implementation of #harmonyburps / #ThinLizzyBurpSoloASMR #ASMRBurpHarmonyCore #TheNewCore #coint / #crazyhair and #hope and #apathy #allseven #IDGAFAnymoreASMR and #comedyhair #atleastseven #underpassready and #thedustbowl #IDGAFAASMR #glare and #fiberoptics (10:33):  #SlappingTheBass #ThunderGods (NO, this is not a #GodOfThunder #KISS #Episode!!) and the power of #thebottomend  #MetalNerderySalues #GreatMetalBassists / A major component of #therhythmsection / Metal Nerdery's Preferred and Favorite #bassists / (EDIT:  Jack Bruce, NOT Ginger Baker!) and various other #ThunderGods / ***Just imagine…*** #JohnBonham plus #BlackSabbath equals #heavierthanballs and a #deeplytangentional moment and some #cringingcricketASMR #basscentric #fitting (16:22):  “Bass Solos, Take 1…” #CliffordBurtonTheBigRedBassWizard #CliffBurton from #Metallica ANASTHESIA (PULLING TEETH) #onmicburpsolotakeone (***GO BUY CLIFF ‘EM ALL if you haven't already!!!***) #thejimihendrixofbass / A brief summary of our respective top 3… #uhhyeah #GeezerButler from #BlackSabbath #ijustlearnedsomething and #rapscallioneyes to Russell #markthetimeASMR #perfectASMR #cantbeloudenoughASMR #wtfwasthatASMR  BASSICALLY (aka:  the #softintro to N.I.B.) #allovertheplace and the bassist as an extension of the drummer to help #fillintheholes to improve the #sonicsoundofthesong #somanyunneededwordsbutdontworryaboutit (24:12):  #SteveHarris from #IronMaiden #blessin #MCTentacleChoice WRATHCHILD #louder #dontdenythepowerof #thebassplayer #theresalotgoingonbackthere / #LemmyKilmister from #Motorhead (definitely a different method of #bassplaying) #soundsexactlythesame #atleastthreefingers and the various types of bassists / #abit #whenitsexcellentdoesitmatter #ohshit #allovertheplace ACE OF SPADES #legendary (see also bass as rhythm guitar) / And now, #Doro our #specialguest #christmasitisASMR #christmasjunky has infiltrated #MN33rdFloorInvertedUndergroundBunkerPoonStudios #chewingwithyourmouthopenASMR ***Is it annoying when I do this?*** #annoyingasfuck #deliciouscookies #markthetime #immature #markthetime / #RexBrown from #Pantera MEDICINE MAN #goodchoice #busybass (35:18):  #RobertTrujillo from #InfectiousGrooves #waytootalented VIOLENT & FUNKY #superbusy and #theoriginalIG #fingerplayer #markthetime / The difference between playing bass with a pick vs with a finger (***remember when Jason Newsted joined Metallica!?  The whole pick/finger debate…***) / #FlotsamAndJetsam #indeedly #JasonNewsted (***NOTE:  the song we were searching for with the incredible #bassshreddery was “Metalshock” from the “Doomsday for the Deceiver” album…around the 4:24 mark***) DOOMSDAY FOR THE DECEIVER and HAMMERHEAD #notwasis / #DavidEllefson from #Megadeth #justgrabone #iconic #loadher PEACE SELLS #whaddyamean / James' #yeah vs Dave's #yeah (44:00):  #MCTentacleChoice #DanLilker from #StormtroopersOfDeath SPEAK ENGLISH OR DIE #thankyouforthat #unsungthrashhero / And some additional #tangentionalality #GeezerHarris equals #FrankBello from #Anthrax LONE JUSTICE #Yes #youvegottoloveit / #LesClaypool from #Primus JOHN THE FISHERMAN and the wide world of #whatthefuckdom that is Primus and MY NAME IS MUD #scrotal and #heavyasballs #percussively and some additional #potential #tangentionalality with the mighty Metallica and some friends of ours from #backintheday who were #musicnerds and a joy to watch play #HFS #ubertalented (51:26):  Not a virtuoso, but definitely an anchor #TomAraya from #Slayer DDAMM / #Fieldy from #Korn BALL TONGUE #pingpongballs (definitely a #changeofpace) / #itsnotatoilet / #JustinChancellor from #Tool SCHISM #blessin #cleanbass / #JimmyBain from #Dio STAND UP AND SHOUT #presence and some #RogerGlover from #DeepPurple HIGHWAY STAR (***EDIT:  part of #TheUnholyTrinity of #British #HardRock and #HeavyMetal, including Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin***)  (1:00:27):  #BobDaisley from the #OzzyOsbourne #BlizzardOfOzz band #itsfine #yeahsauce FLYING HIGH AGAIN #whaddyawannahear #keeponsmokinthemjoints #nouse and an #honorablemention / #youdontremember #thefirsttime and a bit more #BobDaisley #tangentionalality / #GregChristian from #Testament PERILOUS NATION #agreatsummer #noteven #enjoythetime / #IanHill from #JudasPriest (and an almost immediate #tangentional #Horshack moment) THE RAGE / and a #quickie #MCTentacleChoice #wet #awwwman #MattCamacho from #Forbidden OFF THE EDGE (1:10:15):  #SteveDiGeorgio from #Death OVERACTIVE IMAGINATION (***also check out our Death episode!***) / #AlexWebster from #CannibalCorpse HAMMER SMASHED FACE #isgreghere #isthattheredorthewhite #glorious / #dontdenythepower of #DDVerni from #Overkill HEAD FIRST #waitforit / #pissfilledballs / #TopSixBassists per each #MetalNerderer / #TheMetalNerderyTopSix / #waitwhat #hello GIVE US A CALL AT 980-666-8182 #nohatred / #RudySarzo from #QuietRiot METAL HEALTH #waitforit #fourstringgoodness #soundsjustlikethat #mycrowd (1:25:50):  Best Bass Guitar songs #okay #seriously #burp #rageagainsttheconfused with #sticks or #icedicks #VikingFrostCockCore #itsgoininthenotes / What's the #dangole answer? #markthetime #TimCommerford from #RageAgainstTheMachine BULLET IN THE HEAD #igotlucky / #RageAgainstTheSoundMachineGarden / #newlevelofsuckASMR and looking for #abigfinish #thankyouforthecookies THANK YOU FOR LISTENING AND JOINING US!!!  #SteveHarris from #IronMaiden PHANTOM OF THE OPERA #theresyourbigfinish / #untilthenext #itsfine #grossmouthnoisesASMR check out our #enhancedfeatures #seeyounextthursday #gumhabit and #mansionhabit #talldenmarkianGFY / #beardoil and #pubeoil / #thebigfinish #relaxingsoundsASMR #threefingers #sogross #openmoutheatingASMR and #MetalNerderyASMR #oinkpig #sexpig #sexualnoises #oinkgasm #hahahahahaha #pigfuckerASMR #baconbangerASMR #theresnomoon #what

31 Days of Halloween continues with the immortal story of savage bikers, laser rocks, and Horshack's crack in 1989's Hellgate. ENDING MUSIC: Little Dead Girl by The Bronx Casket Co. Support TWoRP Contact Us talkwithoutrhythm@gmail.com

This episode of Primetime Crimetime is a hard-hitting examination of game-show fixing as Cagney and Lacey team up with Cobra Kai and that one guy from Welcome Back Kotter who wasn't either Horshack or Barbarino. They also dress up for reasons that are never explained as pieces of fruit and wind up solving a crime where no one is arrested or, come to think of it, even clear on what actual crime was committed! Except for excessive use of unidentifiable New York accents.

Hello, friends! In the latest episode of When We Were Young, we are sitting on the sofa, there’s a TV in the corner, we are watching Major Nelson… and Mary, Lucy, Samantha, Herman, Horshack, and Sergeant Joe Friday, too. Does the phrase “Bewitched Be-Wednesdays” ring a bell? If so, you may remember that the mid-90s spawned a revival of classic sitcoms from the 50s, 60s, and 70s through Nick At Nite’s Block Party Summer programming, allowing a whole new generation of viewers to binge “oldies” like I Love Lucy, The Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie, Welcome Back Kotter, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show for the very first time. We revisited seven of these beloved shows to see which ones still taste just like candy, and which go down like a spoonful of Vitameatavegamin now that our TV palettes have matured. So fold your arms, twitch your nose, and toss your hat up in the air as we take you back to a long-ago era before we were young, when entertainment was sweeter, simpler, and way more sexist. Yeah… these shows have some ‘splainin’ to do! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WWWYshow, on Facebook at Facebook.com/WWWYShow and email episode suggestions to wwwyshow@gmail.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and review us on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts so more folks check out the show! Help us defray the costs of creating this show, which includes purchasing movies/shows/music to review, delivery food to eat our feelings, and producing & editing in-house at the MFP Studio in Los Angeles, California, by donating to our Patreon account at patreon.com/WhenWeWereYoung

“Whoever said, do what you love, the money will come, they got that right. Lots of work, mind you, in between. As we like to say, your passions determine your purpose. But it's your decisions that determine your destiny.” - Michael Wilkinson I’m pleased to have Michael Wilkinson here with me today for Episode 9 of the Control the Room Podcast. Michael is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, the largest provider of professional facilitation in the country. Michael, who grew up in the projects as what his sister described as a “Sesame Street Gangster,” eventually found himself at a New England prep school through an opportunity found through his job as a paperboy. After turning down an acceptance to Harvard Business School, Michael abandoned his 10-year plan to become undersecretary of Housing and Urban Development to begin a “faith-walk” that ultimately ended in his founding Leadership Strategies. In today’s episode, Michael and I talk about his path to the International Association of Facilitators Hall of Fame, what makes a facilitator great, and the six P’s of preparing for a meeting. Listen in to find out how Michael identifies and trains facilitators with great potential and how to ask the right questions in meetings. Show Highlights [1:38] Michael’s childhood in the projects of D.C. [5:39] Michael’s path to facilitation [10:30] What makes a great facilitator [17:17] Human connection in a virtual environment [26:07] Generating engagement when facilitating virtually [28:58] The only 3 reasons people disagree [35:16] The Six P’s of preparing for a meeting [40:56] Kumbaya facilitators [42:45] Asking the right questions [50:03] Leadership Strategies’ resources for facilitators Links | Resources Michael on LinkedIn Leadership Strategies Website About the Guest Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, a leadership training and strategy consulting firm that specializes in group facilitation. He is also the author of books such as Secrets of Facilitation, Facilitating Strategy, and CLICK: The Virtual Meetings Book. In 2016, Michael was awarded a place in the International Association of Facilitators Hall of Fame. About Voltage Control Voltage Control is a facilitation agency that helps teams work better together with custom-designed meetings and workshops, both in-person and virtual. Our master facilitators offer trusted guidance and custom coaching to companies who want to transform ineffective meetings, reignite stalled projects, and cut through assumptions. Based in Austin, Voltage Control designs and leads public and private workshops that range from small meetings to large conference-style gatherings.  Share An Episode of Control The Room Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Engage Control The Room Voltage Control on the Web Contact Voltage Control Intro: Welcome to the Control the Room Podcast, a series devoted to the exploration of meeting culture and uncovering cures for the common meeting. Some meetings have tight control, and others are loose. To control the room means achieving outcomes while striking a balance between imposing and removing structure, asserting and distributing power, leaning in and leaning out, all in the service of having a truly magical meeting. Douglas: Today I'm with Michael Wilkinson. Michael is the CEO and managing director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., a leadership training and strategy consulting firm specializing in group facilitation. Michael is the author of the bestselling The Secrets of Facilitation, and most recently, Click: The Virtual Meetings Book. Welcome to the show, Michael. Michael: It is my pleasure, Douglas, and thank you for introducing me to your audience. Douglas: Absolutely. It's a pleasure to have you. And I guess, speaking of the audience, I think they'd love to hear how you got started in this amazing work of facilitation. Michael: Well, as you know, because you've been there, and many who are facilitators know, there is no front door to facilitation. It's not like you can go to college and go, “I want a degree in facilitation.” Most people enter through the back door. The major entry ways, many come through H.R. Others come through the processing-quality side. Some come through the I.T., the consulting side; from the D&I, diversity-inclusion side. I was on the I.T. side. So I was one of those kids—in fact, if you back up my story a little bit, I'm a projects kid. I grew up in the projects of D.C.. So for those who know D.C., back in the day, Anacostia, the worst neighborhood in D.C., and I have to confess, at six, I was one of those bad kids, where we’re stealing from the local grocery store. Remember the corner grocery stores that used to exist? We would—and this is really bad—we would, at six years old, we were tying kids to trees and leaving them out all night. I mean, it was before gangs were gangs. My sister called this the Sesame Street Gangsters. It was just not good. And by the time I got to seven, we moved from what I call lower-lower class—the projects of D.C.—to lower-middle class, out in what’s today is Suitland, Maryland. And at that time, and people who believe that place doesn't matter, place absolutely matters. The kids in that neighborhood, they were building clubhouses. They had a chess club. And so me and my brothers, we started doing what they started doing. Even got a paper route, if you can remember the old paper boys, where you deliver papers. Had two paper routes, making money for my family. And the change, the big change, in life came when, at 14, the Post building, the Washington Post, sponsored interviews for private schools, and any of the carriers could come for an interview. I got interviewed, got accepted to a couple of the really big private schools in New England, started going to this New England prep school. My graduating class, 50 people, 50 people in the graduating class, including—and you won't know these names unless you were into that movement—but the Wares of Long Island, Paula Ware; General Patton's grandson, the Stacks of Greenwich is—do you remember all superlatives in the yearbook, “first to make a million”? Well, we had a superlative, “already has a million,” and there were two names. These are trust-fund kids. But I had gotten pulled into that environment. And as a senior, I did a study of grades and test scores. I was a psych major at the time. So a correlation in prep school of the—and I got the grades and test scores of my graduating class. Of course, the registrar stripped off the names, but he left them in alphabetical order, Douglas, so it was too hard to find Wilkinson. And to say my test scores were lower would be true, but an understatement. I was so much lower than the next lower person, I clearly took someone's place. Talk about affirmative action, they reached out and got me. They were looking for a black kid, and I was the only black kid in my graduating class. But I graduated fifth in the class, which means it wasn't really fair that I took someone's place. But it also wasn't fair that I hadn't had the preparation that all the other kids did. So once I got it, I just excelled. Went off to a New England prep school, and I came out. I was going to be undersecretary of Housing and Urban Development. I had a 10-year plan—even back then, Douglas, I was a planner—a 10-year plan to become undersecretary of Housing and Urban Development. I was going to go back to Harvard Business School. I’d gotten accepted. I’d asked for a two-year deferment. Decided I wanted to work for two years in D.C. so I could see how Washington worked and how the different agencies worked. And somewhere along the line, got the spiritual thing. So I'm a son of a minister, so I got really clear on getting directed from the Spirit, and had that what we call the bathroom experience, the second major shift in life. So they’re actually the third. The first, of course, was moving out of the projects. The second, getting the scholarship to go to New England boarding school. The third was hearing in the shower, from out of nowhere, “Michael, if your most important relationship is your relationship with Me, how is going to Harvard Business School going to help you do that?” There you go. There's 10-year plan down the drain, Douglas. So ended up, I quit my job, I told Harvard I wasn’t coming, and went on a six-month faith walk, where just—and things are great when you do a faith walk, Douglas, where these things are great 29 days out of the month. It's when that rent is due, that’s when things get really hairy. But it was one of the most important times of my life and learned some really important lessons. And the most important one, because I was asking, “Okay, God, you don't want me to do this 10-year plan. It was clearly my plan. Well, what do You want me to do? You want me to become a minister? You want me to go off on a mountain and contemplate my navel. Do You want me to stand on the corner and say, ‘Have you asked, talked about, thought about God today?’” And I got that direction, and a really important direction, that each of us is called to ministry. Ministry is service. That's what it's called for. Some people, it takes the form of the pulpit. For other people, it takes another form. Facilitation is my ministry. I ended up facilitating, 1985 is my first official facilitated session, in a session where we were doing requirements analysis, and it was going south. Vendor was presenting, just going all over the place. I was the youngest kid in the room. We have, you know, the consultants. I was with Ernst and Young, the youngest consultant on the team, but nobody was stepping up. So I just got up and said, “You know what, let’s structure this a little differently.” And so here with the client people, with our own consultants, and with this vendor, restructured the conversation and led it for that three hours going forward. Afterwards, someone said, “That was a great facilitated session.” Douglas, I was like, “What? What are you talking about? What's this thing called…” I had no idea. And then when they explained it to me, I said, “Oh, yeah. It's easy. Everybody is good at it.” And that's where I learned everybody was not good at this thing called facilitation that I had been gifted with some natural talents that made me instinctively good at it. And so I started doing it, started facilitating for my church, started facilitating for the nonprofit associations I was a part of. And then the fourth major shift in life came. This is the call that actually changed my trajectory again. Connie Bergeron—I remember. It was March 1991. She called and said, “Hey, we're looking for a facilitator. I've just been named head of Meeting Professionals International for the Atlanta chapter. I'm getting my officers together for a retreat. It's going to be on this particular weekend. Would you facilitate it for me?” I looked over my calendar, Douglas, and said, “Sure. I'd be glad to.” And, again, she said the words that changed my life, “And we’ll pay you.” Really? I mean, I was willing to do it for free because it’s fun. So she paid me. It was great. Two months later she called me back. Mentioned the pay word again. Three months later called me back. It was November of 1992, 1992, yes. I was, at that point, 18 months from becoming a partner at Ernst and Young. I turned to them, Douglas, and said, “I'm having way more fun on the weekends than I'm having during the week,” and left and started Leadership Strategies, the facilitation company. Do you like to say world headquarters, our second bedroom, which is great. Big plans, but just getting started. And it has been an amazing blessing. Today, we're the largest provider of professional facilitation across the country. We have 600 facilitators under contract. We have a core team of 27 facilitators. We've trained 28,000 people in facilitation skills; written six books on facilitation, the two you mentioned and four others. It is crazy. Here's this kid from the projects, and it's been just amazing blessing. Whoever said, do what you love, the money will come, they got that right. Lots of work, mind you, in between. As we like to say, your passions determine your purpose. But it's your decisions that determine your destiny. And so it was just a bunch of decisions that helped me along the way. And it's been just a tremendous blessing. Anyway, long story, but thought your listeners might enjoy understanding, how did I get here? because it's been a crazy, crazy ride. Douglas: Yeah. I mean, wow, impressive. And, you know, I think most facilitators can relate to this kind of moment of—well, kind of two moments that you described—the moment where you start to—these kind of natural talents start to click. You know, for me, it was always, I always found myself in meetings where people were disagreeing, but really they were saying the same thing but just in different ways, or they thought they were agreeing but they were saying different things. And I always had to interject and say, “Hold on for a second. I think you're saying this and you’re saying this,” and they're both nodding their heads. And then they stop for a second and realize that they were saying different things. And that happened enough and enough and enough that I realized that, man, that's something that I'm not seeing enough out of other people. And so I think that's something that's a hallmark of a facilitator, when you realize that in meetings, there's something about what you're observing or the way things are unfolding that really align with this ability to help move things forward in a natural and productive way. So I think— Michael: You really have touched on something that’s really important, and many facilitators may know it or not know it. When we were doing training early on, I was recognizing that there were people who were learning the techniques but missing some things that were going to make them a great facilitator, even though they knew all the same stuff that others knew or that we were training other people in. And I realized, and you put it well, that we talk about now seven key characteristics to look for. And people ask us, “Hey, we've purchased your training class. We're going to have a training for 16 people. How do I choose the 16 people in the class?” And we tell them, “Here's some target characteristics to look for.” We talk about seven, and we tell them, “Really it's three that's really important. And oh, by the way, the first two we can do nothing about.” So those three, just quickly, one is you got to like people, right? If you don’t like people, this is not something you should be doing, because people give you lots of reasons not to like them. So you really have to have a starting point, where you really like people. Two, you have to be able to process information quickly because there's so much coming and your mind has to be listening and processing at the same time and being able to differentiate, yeah, this is the same as that. This is different from this. This is…while you're listening, being able to process that. And if you can't process quickly, really, all you're going to be is a meeting manager. And great facilitators are way more than meeting managers because they're able to capture the spirit of a group; help engage them; and help guide them; can see down the road and around the corner, see the car or the truck that's coming that they're about to crash into, long before they're getting there, because they're processing while stuff is going on. So clearly, you have this skill, and then could recognize, a lot of people don’t, “Well done, sir. Applauding you. Well done.” Douglas: Well, yeah. You know, it's funny. I don't know how many times you've been speaking with someone that's maybe interested in learning facilitation or even a prospect or whatnot, and it turns out they're conflating facilitator and moderator. And I think that's maybe the big—and I think when you say meeting manager, it's all in that same bucket of, like, not facilitator. Michael: Yes. And it really, I mean, it really is because there are some people, people who are great speakers, think, “Okay, I'd be a good facilitator.” People who are great trainers, “Wow. I could be a good facilitator.” And we say, okay, let's separate this, because, as you know, facilitation has got convoluted with a bunch of stuff. So ATD, the Association for Talent Development, uses the name facilitator for trainers. And that's fine. Training facilitators, that's good. We can infer very much. But we are more group facilitators. In our business, it’s kind of interesting because what we find is in general, this isn’t completely true, but in general, our best trainers are extroverts. Our best group facilitators are introverts. One of my people who worked for us many years, she said something to me one day, and it's like, this capsulizes it well. She said, “You know, Michael, I like facilitating, but I really love training.” I said, “Okay, Leslie, I'll bite. Why do you really love training?” She said, “Well, when you're facilitating, you really have to listen to them.” And there you go. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You get where I get that? Really rings the bell of why introverts, who are, really, they value listening and processing a lot more than extroverts, who generally like expressing. And so if you generally like expressing, you may find that training is way more your passion than facilitating, where you're really listening, contemplating, and helping a group move in a direction and so on. Interesting, yes? Douglas: Yes. And, you know, I can find that really fascinating because usually we like to pair up someone who’s kind of a classical trainer— Michael: Yes. Douglas: —and has that air, that performance aspect with a facilitator in these training sessions, because then that person can put on the dog-and-pony show while the facilitator is making sure that learning's integrated, because if you're not listening and working with them, you don't know if it stuck. Michael: And so what's interesting, I’m going to take you a step further, and I'm really biased here, that I really think we figured out in our company or we'll wait to think about how to make training work, because we don't hire trainers to train people in facilitation. We hire facilitators to train people in facilitation because they understand and role model all the techniques. But then we teach them about how important it is, with one of our eight principles in our facilitation course, all has to do with energy and keeping the energy high because that's one of the hallmarks of our practice. So we have to be able to, we call it show time. As an introvert, I get my energy from within, and people often are surprised when they see me do my thing, and then at the end of it, it’s like I’m the thumb in the mouth. I need a blankie. It happened twice before I realized this was a bad idea, Douglas. Clients who, when I was about, I was going to facilitate a two-day training session. Let’s say it started on a Tuesday. The client said, “Hey. Why don’t you fly in Monday night, meet with the team, they’ll get to know you, and then we’ll get started Tuesday morning?” Douglas, I did that twice. I’d never do that again, never, ever, ever, because what happens is, because I'm a natural introvert, when they meet me Monday night, the side conversations. “This is our facilitator? Really?” because— Douglas: We got a meeting with this guy all day? Michael: —I’m quiet. I’m just, that’s who I am. But once I—I'm glad we meet with them Tuesday night, because after that, they've already seen me. And now they're asking me the questions, not looking for me to entertain them, because I'm not an extrovert. I’m an introvert. So very different. So it's what we do in order to make it work. Douglas: Well, and nowadays we're in the midst of a pandemic. So all the team dinners are a thing of the past. Michael: Well, actually, actually, think about it. It really is. We still need—the social engagement is central. And so we as facilitators have to recognize, how do we make that happen, even in a virtual environment? And so we do that. So we may have this session from eight to five, and then we have a virtual cocktail hour for everyone. We break for 30 minutes, everyone grabs their favorite drinks, and we have a virtual cocktail hour for 30 minutes, an hour, as we would if it was a real session. But it's an important piece, so we can't miss it. That's for sure. Douglas: Yeah. And the human connection is so, so critical. Michael: How are you all doing it in your business? How are you keeping the human connection going during this? Douglas: Man, you know, I think it's always been a part of the design. And I think as long as it's a focus as a guiding principle, when you're designing an agenda for a session, it'll find its way in. I think it's important to start there first, right? Michael: Oh, it always helps. Douglas: Yeah, yeah. And I love this notion of the cocktail hour. Everyone has demanding schedules in this virtual space, right? And so they might have kids to run off to— Michael: Absolutely. Douglas: —or they’ve slotted it in. And it's a lot different than, you know, having taken the effort to drive somewhere and like, “Okay, I’m here. Maybe I’ll just stick around for a little bit longer.” We always just make it clear that, okay, the plenary is done; we're going to be around a little bit longer because I know some people like to stick around. Because I like to refer to it as, you know whenever you're cleaning up the supplies, people stick around and ask you questions? Michael: Yes, yes, yes, yes. Douglas: In virtual, there are no supplies. You can just shut MURAL and Miro or whatever off, and we’re done. Michael: We’re done. Bye. Douglas: So I like to tell people, “All right. Well, now we're cleaning up, and we'll be around for a little bit longer. If you want to ask any questions, we'll be here. But don't feel like you have to stay if you have places to be.” Michael: That’s a great idea. Douglas, I’m writing that down. “Hey, we’re going to have a clean up or stick-around time for those who…” I like that. You’ll see a blog about that soon. I like that. Courtesy of Douglas. Douglas: I love the cocktail-hour notion, too. It's like, I'm just making sure we reserve that time for people. In fact, it was BBC released a report, and the headline was quite hilarious. It was like, “Research Finds That Most Meetings Are a Form of Therapy,” or “Most Meaningless Meetings Are a Form of Therapy.” And the point was, and you hear that and you're like, “Well, that seems kind of crazy,” but it's kind of interesting because it's like people gravitate toward having these meaningless meetings, these meetings that nothing comes out of them because they have this need to have connection. And so if you think about it, if we get really intentional about our connection during meetings and plan them in, then people don't have to plan these extraneous things that then waste time. Michael: Well done. Well done. And we think that the pandemic has changed a lot of things. Unfortunately, one thing it hasn't changed is poor meetings. In fact, they've gotten poorer in the sense that with this virtual thing that people actually think that, well, because it's a virtual meeting, it takes less preparation or because it's—and we are finding, just as in our training work, we've converted virtual sessions where maybe 5 percent, 4 percent of our business prior to the pandemic, now it’s 95 percent. And our facilitators are finding it’s way more work, whether it’s a virtual meeting or virtual training, way more work to prepare for it. Way more. And the key is, we call it the virtual details, that where before you would have, okay, let's say we have a process-improvement session. And so we're going to start with (a) introduction; then section (b) we're going to talk about how does that process work today? Let's say we're trying to fix the hiring process in the company; (c) we're going to talk about the problems and causes; (d) we're going to brainstorm potential solutions; (e) we're going to reformat the process; (f) we're going to put together implementation plan; and so on. Well, that's what we'd do if it was face to face. We'd go, okay, (b) here's what I'm going to do with the flip charts. I'm going to set them up. And we know instinctively to do that. Virtual, whole different world. We say with each of those agenda items, do what you normally would do. But you also have to figure out the virtual details. So (b) you know what, I'm going to do a poll; action (c) I'm going to use the whiteboard; action (d) I'll do annotations; (e) I'm going to use a breakout group with…and then we… So we teach a course now called the Zoom Plus. And what that is, is everyone is now using Zoom, and you know wow. All those people, Zoom meetings, they're not even using all the basic Zoom stuff. Annotation, whiteboard, breakout groups, and so on. So we show them. And we like to say, “We are going to play with the technique so that you do it. You’ll play with them. Then, we're going to take the camera and put it behind the facilitator so that you can see how the facilitator creates the polls, how the facilitator creates the breakout rooms, and then you're going to do it.” So that’s using the basic stuff. And then, Zoom Plus, the plus part of that is we then show them what our facilitators do. And these are 15 virtual-engagement strategies, things like rotating flip charts. How do you use—how do you have the groups rotate through? Last person standing, dump and clump, and all these other advanced engagement strategies, using them, doing them, and doing them virtually. All cool stuff. So we first tried to get them using the basics, which most people aren't using. And then we're showing them, here’s how you use the advanced strategies that will make your meetings absolutely stand out. And people, as we like to say, you know you've gotten there when you hear people go, wow, that was the best virtual meeting I ever attended. And unfortunately, as you can imagine, Douglas, it's easy to be the best, because most are so poor and boring. Douglas: The bar is so low. So low. Michael: It is. Exactly. You’ve had the experience. Douglas: So. Yeah. And, you know, I think there's so much—early on, folks were asking, “Oh, do we get a discount for virtual?” And I’m like, “Man, I’m thinking about charging a premium,” because it's not only the prep time, but, you know, having an assistant facilitator is so much more critical because someone has to manage the tech. Michael: Absolutely. And what we're finding is frequently—I would put it in the 20 percent time—the facilitator has an issue. So as an example, one of our rules is for client sessions, client sessions, you never underscore underscore. Use your microphone on the computer. You always call in over the phone. The reason is if something happens to one of the two, you still have the other. So for some reason, you lose Internet connection, you can still talk to them. Or some reason the audio goes out, you can convert to what's happening. So you actually want to have redundant backup. We often suggest that you have another computer connected. So you have two sessions going, one is the participant computer. So if something happens, you can transfer over quickly to make it seamless. So it's almost like you run out of flip-chart paper. You run out of flip-chart paper, you always have a spare right there. Well, how do you do that virtually? Douglas: Planning on the redundant systems, having the activity by activity, having what is the virtual equivalent of all of this? Have I taken the time to proof it and make sure it's good? I mean, that is a lot of extra work, and not to mention just the fatigue of these environments. And, you know, I recently spoke with someone. They were telling me that—I'm not sure where the research came from, so this is all anecdotal—but they were saying that any time we're typically working in a three foot kind of context, it's typically a fight or a mating scenario. Michael: Wow. Douglas: Because you don't get three feet in someone's face inside the meeting room. That would be awkward. But now we’re doing that with these computers and is very sometimes mostly charged, political, like, we're talking about some really intense stuff. And we go in, and we try to—one mistake we made early on was, let's have an eight-hour session virtually. And, you know, you can't do that virtually. Michael: Yeah, it’s much harder. Douglas: You have to do it much shorter. And so I think there's some training of setting expectations for clients, too— Michael: Absolutely. Douglas: —even ones we've worked with in the past. Michael: Yeah, yeah. And so I'm going to go a step further, because this will be—because you are correct that the virtual sessions, by their nature, the dynamic is very different. And I want to—everyone knows—not everyone knows—many are aware, and it comes out in our polls, when we ask people, what is the biggest challenge in virtual meetings? And we've asked this to thousands of people now through our webinars and so on. It always comes up with the same thing, and it's not even close. It's engagement, keeping people engaged, because people are multitasking, doing other things. And so as facilitators, that's got to be our number one focus. How do we keep people engaged? And here is something that we ask people to consider. We as a company, we do have, we have what we call the PDI Difference—Practical, Dynamic, Interactive. And the way we do that in face-to-face sessions is we ensure that if we're training people or having a facilitated session, there will be significant engagement every 20 to 30 minutes. Thirty minutes will not go by without significant engagement, and mostly 20 minutes. So somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes. Douglas, when you go virtual, cut that bad boy in half. You’ve got to have significant engagement every 10 to 15 minutes. So if you’re getting people together, if you are going 90 minutes between breaks, do the math. Even if you say, “Well, the beginning, there's obviously engagement. People are going.” And the end of that 90 minutes you have engagement, so that means you've got to have at least four others, at least four other engagements. And if all you know is the classic engagement question-answer, question-answer, man, that meetings will wear people out. That's why it's so important for people to have all these other engagement strategies—dump and clump, last man standing, rotating flip charts, all this other stuff, to help put in people's toolbox. And so really important for facilitators to recognize that it takes a lot more if it's virtual. And as you said, training our clients that, “Listen, you know, normally I would charge a day of prep for this, but it's virtual. And so therefore,…” Yeah. And making it clear it's extra. Douglas: Absolutely. Let's talk a little bit about the Secrets of Facilitation. Michael: Oh, my favorite book. Yes. Douglas: You have over 60 secrets in that book. Michael: It is. And really good stuff, I think, personally. Douglas: Yeah. I'm a fan. I have it on the bookshelf behind me. And, you know, beyond the basics, things like preparing and managing for dysfunction, what do you think the biggest secret that most people don't know? Like, what's the one that you’re just like time and time again does no one just…? Michael: There are a couple that come to mind, but let me focus on this one. And I'm about to make a statement, Douglas, that when I say it in our training classes—I mentioned we trained over 20,000 people—there are always people who go, “No, that can't be right.” And by the end of the teaching, they go, “Yeah, that's really true.” Here is the statement: there are only three reasons people disagree. Huge secret. There are only three. Every disagreement in the entire freakin’ world, there are only three reasons people disagree. Only three. Now, that's the good news, and that's really good news. But here's the bad news, and it's really bad news. If you have a level-three disagreement and you try to solve it with level-one techniques, you're going to fail. Level-three disagreements can't be solved with level-one techniques. Likewise, you have a level-one disagreement, try to solve it with level-two techniques, you are going to fail. Can't happen. So we as facilitators have to understand the three reasons people disagree. Have to be able to diagnose which reason it is and have strategies for addressing each one. Now, while that's a teaser, I probably should take a minute to say what are those three reasons people disagree. So let's break it down really quickly. So you probably have figured out one, two, or three of them. You want to take any guesses, Douglas, or you want me to reveal? Your shot. Douglas: Why don't you—well, you do the reveal. You do the reveal. Michael: Okay, I’ll do the reveal. So number one, and it's most disagreements, level-one disagreements, and you actually implied it when you were talking about learning that you were a great facilitator. That is, people disagree because of information. One has information that the other doesn’t have, and they’re arguing, bumping heads, even though once they realize and the information is put on the table, they'll realize they weren’t in disagreement at all. Level-one disagreements always end the same way. “Oh, is that what you meant?” There you go. And as we like to say, when you hear those words, your job is done, because they really weren't in disagreement. In fact, the book Crucial Conversations highlights that, they give it a name, violent agreement. They really are in agreement, but they were arguing. They were just using different words or one had information that the other didn't have. So you saw level-one disagreements, pretty simple. We as facilitators have to understand the difference between advocacy and inquiry. If you ever watched two people arguing, it's like they're fighting back and forth. Statement, statement, statement, statement. Each person is trying to advocate for theirs. If one of them would just step back and just ask the question, “Well, why do you say that? What do you mean by that?” they’ll then would clarify, and you would hear those words, “Oh, is that what you meant?” There you go. Resolved. So we have to move people from advocacy mode to inquiry mode, and you do that yourself by asking questions. In a business environment, there are specific questions we train facilitators to ask, because most level-one disagreements or business are based on either cost, time, who’s involved, or how it’s going to happen. And so we get the questions. Level-two disagreements are different. If the level-one disagreements are about information—again, we find most disagreements are level one—level-two disagreements are about values or experiences, that they have different values or had had different experiences that prefer one alternative over the other. They understand each other perfectly. They just value different things. Well, you can solve a value disagreement simply by identifying and isolating the key values. What are the key values that each person has? And then creating solutions, brainstorming solutions, that combine those values. It's not a compromise activity. It is a creativity activity, where, as we teach it, you can come up with some pretty novel solutions once you isolate those key values. It just works. In fact, we get more letters about that technique than any others because it really does work when you understand what you're looking to do. Level-three disagreement is different. It's not about information. It's not about values or experiences. It's about personality, past history with one another, or some outside factor that has nothing to do with the disagreement. It's not about the disagreement. They basically don't like each other. Can you solve a level-one disagreement by asking questions about the issue? No, because it's not about the issue. Can you solve a level-three disagreement by asking about the values? It’s not—yeah, you solve level-three disagreements differently. Take it to a higher source. You're not going to solve it at this level. You've got to take it up the chain. And so we talk about strategies for doing that. But most facilitators, that secret of understanding there are only three reasons people disagree, and so when you're listening to a disagreement, we train people to say, “Hey, next time you're listening to a disagreement, just say under your breath, ‘level two. Yeah, level one. Yeah, level three,’ so that you can get used to diagnosing what type of disagreement it is so that you keep that mindset of, okay, here's the technique I want to use to adjust this disagreement. So it's cool stuff and really one of those fun secrets out of the 60. Douglas: Yeah. I love frameworks like that, that can—are very actionable and we can kind of lean on them in the moment pretty easily. Michael: Well, you know, I find that the best facilitators are process oriented, Douglas. And I'm just going to give your listeners a heads up. If you were to see the prep work that Douglas had sent out to my office around the thinking that they've already done around how to have a great podcast, it was like, oh, my gosh, this is like a cookbook. All I have to do is this part. They're doing all these other pieces. And some great process thinking, very much appreciate it, because it makes it easy. In the same way, if you can give facilitators a process to use that's been tested, proven, that they can modify and make theirs, it makes all the difference. And that's one of the things I think we're good at: giving people processes. Douglas: Absolutely. If you could change one thing about meetings in general, what would it be? Michael: Oh, my gosh. Wow. You're asking big questions here. If I could change one thing about meetings. Yeah, I guess—yeah, that would have to be it. Douglas, the biggest challenge I find, and we find over and over again with meetings that other people are leading, is preparation. So few people do the preparation necessary. And quite frankly, it's not a lot of work if, as you would say, there's a framework for it. And so I'll just give your listeners a framework. We call it the six Ps. And it doesn't matter whether you are running a meeting for yourself or running a meeting for someone else, ask the six Ps, because once you know the six Ps, you execute on that and you can be really prepared. One, and you know it all starts with purpose. Douglas: Yes. Thank you. Michael: Why are we having this meeting? Douglas: Yes. Michael: Why are we having this meeting? What's the real purpose of the meeting? And then we say, “Okay, now that we're clear…” And so I'll give an example just to make it real for your listeners. Someone may come to us. “Michael, Michael, I’d love to have a team-building session for my team.” First P, purpose. “Really? Help me understand what's really the purpose of the team-building session?” “Well, I need my team working together better because, you know, we kind of snipe at each other sometimes. So I really want us to have a strong, bonding experience so that we can walk out of that room, moving together, working together, feeling better about each other.” “That's helpful.” Second P, product. “So what is the product you want to come out of that meeting?” “Michael, what do you mean?” “Well, think about it this way, in terms of the three Hs. When this meeting’s over, what do you want your team to have in their hands that they can see?” “Well, Michael, it’d be great if we had a team vision.” “Cool. Anything else?” “Well, maybe some team norms.” “Okay. Anything else?” “Well, maybe if we could walk away with what's going to happen if someone violates the norm, so we have that kind of…” “Anything else?” “No, I think that's pretty good.” “All right. Well, thank you. Well, let me ask you this. What do you want them to have in their head when the session is over?” “Michael, what do you mean?” “Well, what do you want them to know that they didn't know before the meeting started?” “Well, maybe I want them to know, hey, what makes a team great? What are the qualities of a great team and know how we assess against that, and what are the things we need to work on to be a great team?” “Cool, cool, great. So what do you want them to have in their hearts when the session is over?” “Michael, you getting soft on me?” “No, no, no. What do you want them to believe that maybe they didn't believe before this session was held?” “Well, I want them to believe that if we do these things, we’ll be a great team. I want them to feel committed to making it happen.” “There you go. Great. Well, so you’ve talked about purpose and product. Let me ask you this. Tell me about the people who are going to be in the room. Who needs to be in the room that we create these products and achieve this purpose?” “Well, I want my whole team there.” “Anyone else?” “Well, you know, do you think, Michael, my E.A., should be there?” “Well, let me ask you, do you think your E.A. is part of the team, work with the team? Is your E.A. part of getting things to happen?” “So, yeah, that's great.” “Anyone else? There we go.” “All right. Well, we talked about purpose, product, participants. Let me ask you this. What are the probable issues that we need to address? What are the things that we absolutely need to talk about if these participants are going to create these products to achieve this purpose?” “Yeah. We've had a couple of things happen over the last few months that we really need to talk about.” “Well, let's talk about what those are. Anything else we need to talk about? Great.” “Well, now let's talk about process. What's the process you're thinking we might want to take the team through so that we address these issues so the participants create the product and the purpose? Great.” And notice, by the way, Douglas, process is fifth. Many people think, “I want to hold a meeting. What's the agenda?” Wrong answer. There’re four questions you have to answer first—purpose, product, participants, probable issues—before you get to process. Never start with agenda. And then the six P is place, meaning—and it's all the stuff around the place. And in these days, the place is virtual. So let's talk about all the things around the virtual platform that needs to be. So we say when you have those six questions answered, the six Ps of preparation, you're now ready to do the work to get well prepared for your session. So we think that's a great way to address and make meetings so much better. Just most people don't do the work. They don't think about the six Ps. Douglas: Yeah, you know, there’re so many meeting—you talked about the lack of preparation, and it’s like— Michael: Yeah. Douglas: And so there's this weird spectrum, because on one end, no one's doing anything. So they're just kind of walking in blind, and they just threw something on your calendar called a meeting, and they're not even—so there's a lexicon and taxonomy problem. Michael: Yes. Douglas: And so that's a whole other thing we could get into. But then on the other hand, when they do the planning, their agenda’s just a list of topics— Michael: Yes. Douglas: —and it’s not thoughtful, it’s not informed by— Michael: Absolutely. Douglas: —the purpose. We were just talking earlier today about the problem with icebreakers and warmups, in that— Michael: Oh, my gosh, yes. Douglas: —people just throw them on the agenda, without thinking about the purpose and why they’re there. And I love this. I have this saying that if you can’t ask your participants after doing something like that, “Why did we just do that?” and have it erupt into a pithy conversation, you need to ask yourself, “Why did we just do that?” Michael: Oh, well said, Douglas. Well said. In fact, our company, in general, when it comes to icebreakers, we hate them because most icebreakers are just stuff. And we say, “It's good to break the ice,” but you want to break the ice with an activity that furthers the purpose and product of the session. If you say, “Hey, you know what, we’d like to spend a few minutes talking about your favorite vacation spot,” that's a great icebreaker if the purpose of our session is to choose a vacation spot. If it's not, leave that icebreaker at home. “Hey, you know what, we'd like to hear about your most embarrassing moment.” That is a great icebreaker if this session is about dealing with embarrassing moments. If it's not, leave that icebreaker at home. Whatever you use as an icebreaker, it should further the session result, not be something, as you said, that’s unpurposeful and inserted into the meeting. Facilitators have a bad rap of, “Hey, we help people hold hands and sing Kumbaya.” Read that from an executive standpoint, “We're great at wasting people's time.” That's how executives view the classic Kumbaya facilitators. Our job is to make sure every moment we spend with executives is productive. It's used to get to a result that they are willing to invest in. If they're not willing to invest, we have just added non-value activity. So non-value added activity is not helpful in a facilitated session. Douglas: Well said, my friend. So I would love to leave our listeners with one last piece of advice. And so if you could ensure every facilitator in the world had one skill, what would it be? Michael: That's easy. That's really easy. When you think about facilitators, when we walk into a room, our most important job is to pull out the most important information that's going to help this group get where they're going. That's our responsibility. To do that, we don't have to be good at asking questions. We have to be great at asking questions. We have to be really excellent at using questions to pull out the information that's going to help the group. As I said in one of my early, early ad set we put together, the ad said, “Hidden inside of your company are answers to some of the most important issues facing your organization. Your people have the answers. We bring the questions.” And so we teach something called the secret of the starting question. If you’ve ever facilitated a session and you asked this really great question and got complete and utter silence, if that’s ever happened to you, what we teach is, more times than not, the reason you got silence is that you asked what we call the “type A” question instead of a “type B” question. Type A questions lead people to silence. Type B questions get people putting up their hands, jumping up and down, trying to get you to respond to them. Or you're old enough to remember Welcome Back, Kotter. We called it the Horshack effect. “Ooh, ooh, ooh, Mr. Kotter. Mr. Kotter, call on me.” And that's what we want to get. And so, how do you get that? Well, it’s all in how you ask the question. And we call it the secret of the starting question. Now, just to give an example. Let’s go back to my hiring process. If we're in a room and we got a bunch of people, we're trying to figure out how the hiring process works today, that's one of the first agenda items. As a facilitator, we go, “Okay, great. We're all together. We're ready to get to that first agenda item. Let's get started. How does the hiring process work today?” Crickets. “Come on, folks. You know how it works. How does it work today? What are the steps?” Crickets. “Come on, guys. You know the…” There you go. Instead, you would ask what we call a type B question, and it sounds like this. “You know, we're ready to get started with documenting the current hiring process. I'd love for you to think about the last time you hired someone. Think about all the steps you had to go through, all the people you had to talk with, the forms or whatever you had to fill out to get that person on board. What are the steps in the current hiring process?” We call that a type B question. How is it formed? They're three steps. It's pretty easy. It's pretty simple, just not easy. Its first step is you start with an image-building phrase. “Think about the last time…,” or “If you were about to...” or “Imagine…” It doesn’t start with “What…” Here comes a type B question. You're going very direct. Or “Why…” or “How…” or so on. It starts with an image-building phrase because you're trying to create an image, because when people can see their answers, they answer right away. Then, you expand the image with at least two other phrases. Then, you ask the direct question. “Think about the last time you hired someone. Think about all the steps you had to go through, all the people you had to talk with,” and so on. Because when people can see their answers, they raise their hand. When people can’t see their answers, if you ask, “What are the steps in the current hiring process?” they're going to go, “Hm, let me think.” What are they doing? They're trying to imagine their answers. Why? Because you didn’t ask a question that helped them do it. Facilitation means to make easy. We've got to get them visualizing their answers. So that's just one of the things. We teach nine different questioning techniques. And if we could do that for every facilitator in the world—in fact, your audience have probably heard of TED Talks. If they were to go to the TED site and type in “secret of the starting question,” they would see me giving a TEDx Talk to the International Association of Facilitators on the secret of the starting question. Douglas: I love it. So good. It's funny, once you were starting to talk about the secret to—or the one thing that facilitators should know, and you started talking about questions, I was going to ask you, what is one of your favorite questions? But then, before I even had the opportunity, you gave us a framework for asking questions. So I'm still going to throw this at you for extra credit. Is there a question…? In fact, you threw out one of my favorites already, and that is, what did you mean by that? I think that's such a disarming question, especially if someone says something that is maybe judgmental or offensive in some way, and maybe there was no intention behind it, and we want to just give them an opportunity to unravel that or explain it. Michael: And it helps them do it. And that’s a great one. And I think one of the things you find is why questions and how questions are often challenging for people. And so you want to be careful, as we say, you want to focus on the tone. And probably my favorite, it's simple, is, “Help me understand, why is that important? Help me understand, why is it important?” because your tone could be, “So why is that important?” That’s a wrong tone. No, thank you. Yeah. So tone as you ask that question, “Why is that important?” is one of my favorite questions. There have to be questions because it gets to, oh, new understanding, because I'm thinking, perhaps if you could see my thought bubble, “What does that have to do with anything we're talking about?” And so sort of just, “Hey, help me understand, why is that important?” Douglas: Also, “Help me understand,” I'm taking the blame for not understanding it, which is great. It reminds me, too—I've been listening to a lot of masterclass. And Chris Voss has a really great masterclass, and he's a master negotiator— Michael: Oh, excellent. Douglas: —and author of that book, Never Split the Difference. And one of his points around not using why, he never asks any why questions when he's negotiating with a hostage. And it's because, remember when you were a little kid and something you broke, something by accident, and your parents were like, “Why did you do that?” So it's just like, it brings you back to those moments. So we don't want to psychologically hijack anyone when we're asking these questions that we don't really have much intent behind. Michael: There you go. Really important stuff. Questions are a key for facilitators. Really getting down a question framework for yourself, really good stuff. Douglas: Absolutely. And I encourage people to check out the type B questions and all the other great stuff, the six Ps, et cetera. It's really awesome stuff. And so if they were going to dig deeper into this, how can they find you? How can they unravel the secrets more deeply? Michael: Well, please, our website, www.leadstrat—that’s short for Leadership Strategies—leadstrat.com, and any of the resource pages. You can also, in our store, we have all the books—The Secrets of Facilitation is probably the one we’ve talked about the most, as well as Click: The Virtual Meetings Book. Those two are ones that in this pandemic people will find most helpful. And again, do check out— Oh, our gift to the industry, we recognize that as part of our—we’re the largest facilitation company in the country, that what we do, we typically do three or four free webinars a month. Most recently, we've been doing them on the virtual side of things, running effective virtual meetings, making Zoom hum, those kinds of things, just, really, free webinars. Of course, we do it because we know that once people get a taste of what we do, they may want to learn more. We’ve been doing them for over a decade now, these webinars. But please check them out. And you know what most webinars, Douglas, are thinly veiled sales pitches. For us, we go, “Okay. Please give us 60 minutes. You're going to get 55 minutes of real content, stuff you can use tomorrow. Then, the last five minutes we’ll talk about for those who want to learn more.” So really hardcore, hit-it content. And so it's really great. They get 400 or 500 people on every webinar, and so it's really fun stuff. Douglas: Excellent. Well, I can't wait to check one out. And, you know, it's been a pleasure to have you on the show today. Michael: Oh, likewise, being with you. It’s just been a fun conversation. Douglas: Absolutely. Well, thanks again, and we’ll be talking to you soon. Michael: All right. You take care. Outro: Thanks for joining me for another episode of Control the Room. Don't forget to subscribe to receive updates when new episodes are released. If you want more, head over to our blog, where I post weekly articles and resources about working better together

Episode #183: Welcome Back, Kotter - "Arrivederci, Arnold" Hey guys, Patrick and Kat are hitting you with another episode and it's another first-timer, the Gabe Kaplan led sitcom about a man who returns to his former high school... TO TEACH. Plus, the series that gave us John Travolta, and our personal favorite, HORSHACK!  Follow us on Twitter: @VeryPodcast

The Rubik's Cube first came to a toy fair in London 40 years ago today. I have never finished one, but the enthusiasts known as speedcubers can now solve an entire cube in seconds. Plus: did you know that Horshack from "Welcome Back Kotter" did the voice on the Rubik's Cube cartoon show? 9 fun facts about the Rubik’s Cube on its 40th birthday (New York Post) How the Inventor of the Rubik’s Cube Cracked His Own Code (Great Big Story on YouTube) Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon and it will help you solve Rubik's Cubes (probably) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Hour 3 Several audience members advance some conspiracy theories about the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein. Ryfun tries to reason out those theories and separate the possible from the fanciful. Plus student loans. Why are they necessary? WGIG-AM and FM in Brunswick, GA

This raunchy horror show delves deep into the story of a deranged killer as he slashes his way across a softcore podcast. Who will last the longest as the stiffs pile up and the killer plows through his victims? On Episode 362 of Trick or Treat Radio we discuss Deep Murder, the Horror Comedy starring Christopher McDonald, Jerry O’Connell, and directed by Nick Corirossi! We may be down a God this week, but we make up for it with some juicy discussions about upcoming TV series’, cruelty free Cannibal films and Eric La Salle! So grab the remote, scroll through the late night pay channels and strap on for the world's most dangerous podcast!Stuff we talk about: Ravenshadow’s intro prowess, Christopher McDonald, Requiem for a Dream, Ravenshadow’s art talents, Ellen Burstyn, Midsommer, Stranger Things 3, Daredevil, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Netflix exclusives, Good Omens, The Walking Dead final issue, Ellen Berenstein Bears, time jumps in TV, Fear the Walking Dead, Iron Man, Watchman, Dark Knight, Game of Thrones, the rise of quality television, Horshack, Clarksucker, Lobo, MZ’s sidewinders, Roughhousen, Pillsbury dough boy, Tales from the Podcast, Deep Murder, Jerry McConnell, Tales from the Crypt, Nick Corirossi, Amicus, Bill Hicks, full frontal male nudity, Lucio Fulci’s Conquest, Bonnie Von Rotten, Cowboys vs. Aliens, Nightmare Cinema, Lobosexual, boners are funny, Skinemax, softcore porn, XS/Nora West-Allen, Axel Braun, Tubi update, color version of Forbidden Zone, Keanu Reeves, Ravenshadow’s facial hair, the Marine look, Hellboy, Neil Marshall, Cannibal Holocaust, cruelty free cannibal films, Bruno Mattei, Cut and Run, Eric LaSalle, Soul Glo, the Trick or Treat Radio Seventh Anniversary show is coming soon, Bobby Valentine, Hesher, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Blues Brothers, The ‘Burbs, BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee, Adam Driver, Malcolm Eh…, and the Orgy of Violence.Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/trickortreatradioSend Email/Voicemail: mailto:podcast@trickortreatradio.comVisit our website: http://trickortreatradio.comUse our Amazon link: http://amzn.to/2CTdZzKFB Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/trickortreatradioTwitter: http://twitter.com/TrickTreatRadioFacebook: http://facebook.com/TrickOrTreatRadioYouTube: http://youtube.com/TheDeaditesTVInstagram: http://instagram.com/TrickorTreatRadioSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/trickortreatradio)

"The Long Night" - Jason, Kim & Mike have rapid reactions to The Battle Of Winterfell.

Lisa REALLY wants Kevin to pick her...

Lisa REALLY wants Kevin to pick her...

Jason's dick, Horshack, Robert Englund's gotta take a shit, and the gang sit around the proverbial campfire to regale themselves with a few choice tales from a series of haunted hospitals!

Join us as we flop back 42 years and flip through a 1976 issue of Dynamite! This classic magazine for kids was a staple of school book clubs from the mid-70s through the early 90s, and we recently acquired a big stupid stack of them. For this week's show, we selected an issue of Dynamite with Fonzie on the cover, because of course we did. Inside we found a Henry Winkler interview (obviously), as well as an article about skateboarding, a weird (and probably fake) advice column, instructions for a magic trick that won't work, instructions for a gymnastics move that will kill you, an address to send a birthday card to Horshack, a celebrity look-alike contest ("Who do you look like? Cher? Edith Bunker?"), Count Morbida (a goofy pink vampire) and his puzzle pages, and of course, Dynamite Bummers. If you missed 1976 the first time (or just forgot most of it), this is your big chance to celebrate the Bicentennial, vote for Carter, and party at the moon tower. Meanwhile here in the modern world, we're celebrating National Grilled Cheese Day... but that just leads to bizarre school cafeteria memories from long ago. Okay, distant past, you win.

Thank Jason It’s Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives! On this episode of Kill By Kill, Gena & Patrick are joined by acclaimed filmmaker Rodney Ascher (Room 237, The Nightmare) to talk about TV’s Horshack, Ron Palillo’s incredible performance as Alan Dawes. As Rodney points out, “A friend helps you move, a good friend helps you move a body… what kind of friend helps you dig up a body?” In addition, we discuss the power of lightning vs. supernatural lightning, we chase mid-80s suspender trends, openly wonder if Jason’s powers make him an X-Man and finally, we attempt to pin a “double indemnity” style murder rap on the director. Why not? It’s fun! All that and we resurrect Choose Your Own Death-venture from the grave. Celebrate Jason’s re-birth-day with us today, won’t you? Never fear - new episodes of Kill By Kill are made available every other Friday! Have something to say? Reach out on Twitter @killbykillpod or email us: killbykillpod@gmail.com. Follow on IG @killbykillpodcast Artwork by Josh Hollis: joshhollis.com Kill By Kill is a proud member of the Ear Trumpet Audio Network.

With Episode 200 in the books, how do we possibly follow up that huge show? With Episode 201 of Trick or Treat Radio, of course! We’re not alone though, joining us in studio is Sam Furst, the man behind Monsters Are Good. Sam hangs out with us to talk about his awesome online horror shop and helps us review the 2015 flick from Tom Woodruff Jr, Fire City: End of Days. We also run down our upcoming panel schedule at SCARE-A-CON New England, we open some gifts we recently received and we play your voicemails! So grab your Monsters Are Good tote bag, slam evil and strap on!! Stuff we talk about: Art Bradish’s, noir ne'er do wells, The Force Awakens trailer, B’Wana Beast the New 52, I Saw the Devil, Guillermo del Toro, Cabal & Nightbreed, Preacher, trailers on the news, Episode 200, Big Daddy Roth, House of Seven Gables, Captain Hydra, Marz having trouble articulating to artists, the validity of title subtitles, the convention circuit, Count Orlock, Monsters Are Good, contemporary comic writing, Fire City: End of Days, Damnation, Brimfield Flea Market, Chug Jug, Italians in track suits, relevant references, Clive Barker, boners, The Phantom, Elm Street Kids Movie Club, Bite, CDR, Jason vs Horshack, lack of monster movies, Savage Dragon and Invincible, Owl Man, the Boston Punk Rock scene, tote bag, Lords of Salem, Ryan Lee, Marz mixes, Shawn Lewis, Rotten Cotten, The Cove Music Hall, B-Movies & Burgers, The Evil Streaks live, top ten horror of the 80s lists, making art for yourself, Planet of the Apes sequels, The JLI Bwahahaha Podcast, not liking Alkaline Trio, hanging out with Ravenshadow, the cool thing Sam got, Salem in October, Phantom Figures, bat rings, The Shadow film, Evil Presly, The Heroes of Africa, Rob Liefeld, Evil Jarvis, Grayson, and breaking news.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/trickortreatradio)

Jim and Eric talk every DC Comics Comic Book that came out this week and yes...Rebirth is finally here!  It's (almost) everything that Jim and Eric wanted and while Eric claims no comic is a perfect comic, he liked Rebirth more than this week's Cyborg.  It's also the end of The Final Days of Superman and the Darkseid War and everyone (including Jason Fabok) must bow down to Weird Science for their prognosticating skills.  Of course, Reggie and Chris are along for the ride and it's a long one as usual.  Enjoy DC Comics Comic Books reviewed: Justice League #50, Superman #52, DC Universe Rebirth #1, Grayson #20, Batgirl #52, We Are Robin #12, Superman: Lois and Clark #8, Secret Six #14, Teen Titans #20, Justice League 3001 #12, Scooby Apocalypse #1, Injustice Year Five #23, Deathstroke #18, Flash #52, Cyborg #11 and Omega Men #12 Email us @ weirdsciencedccomics@gmail.com Follow Us on Twitter @weirdsciencedc Follow Us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/weirdsciencedccomics Call the New Rant and Rave Line!!!  (641) 715-3900 Ext: 452328  Call anytime you need to get something off your chest about anything and everything!!!  We will have a new weekly segment with all of your calls. Click HERE to check us out on iTunes and be sure to give us a quick review If you want to send us mail, send it to weirdsciencedccomics@gmail.com and remember, we will read EVERY one on the podcast. Keywords: Comics, Comic Books, Comic Book Podcast, Comics Podcast, Batman, Superman, DC Comics, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Podcast, Comic Book, superhero, superhero podcast, DCU, DC YOU

http://searchforschlock.com/media/podcasts/sfs-084-SkatetownUSA.mp3 Download MP3 Fans of the "roller skating to disco music" sub-genre had it pretty great in 1979. They were still one year off from the wake-up call that was Xanadu, and in the meantime their biggest dilemma was whether to watch future webipod subject Roller Boogie or this, the feature film debut of feathered-hair enthusiast Patrick Swayze. This film is basically a who's who of moderately-recognizable TV stars of the 70's that have been completely forgotten: Ruth Buzzi. Flip Wilson in two roles. The Unknown Comic, also in two roles. Scott Baio from Zapped!. Marcia Brady. Horshack. To steal an obscure line from Bill Murray: "This is an elephant graveyard of faces you can not name." All of these titans of comedy have come together to make you laugh, yes, but also to dazzle you with the disco music and roller skating that your heart craves, now and forevermore. Original post located at searchforschlock.com.

Danko met up with Chris Slorach, bassist of Metz, during the Southside Festival this past summer to talk about Sub Pop Records, Ian Mackaye, Nick Flanagan, Wrong Hole, Project 9, Six Finger Satellite, Trans Am, Danko's first band – Horshack, … Continued The post Episode #107: Chris Slorach appeared first on Danko Jones.

Supernatural starchild/illustrator/PR maven/record collector Jess Rotter joins da gang to ring in the 50th Anniversary episode of the show with tales of violent headbanging sessions with Dungen, making t-shirts with Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter, dealing record collecting nerds, reliving the '70s, and the pratfalls of getting your band featured on omelet.com.  Lots of sundrenched serendipity on this fiftieth episode of WORST GIG EVER!

How do you offend a 249 year old bastard? Tune in to Episode 3 and let MonsterZero show you how! Michael Ravenshadow checks in to discuss some hot, fresh news in the entertainment world.Topics include: Daredevil, Japanese King Kong, Billary Clinton, Arnold and Kim Jee-woon, Dynamo's favorite Deadites song, podcasts we dig, terrible dubbing, albino alligators, Joe Kubert, Before Watchmen, kidnapless kipnapping movies, nerd boners, Horshack, Disney Marvel Knights? Stitcher Radio, Scooby goes to Wrestlemania, The Victories, Thriller: A Cruel Picture, London By Midnight, Extermination, Rue Morgue Magazine, Poe vs. Lovecraft and Pot vs. Beer, The Deadites Halloween Extravaganza, and Revenge of Bigfoot/Rufus J Pickle and the Indian.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/trickortreatradio)

Welcome Renegade Nation, what a crazy show today with Honey Girl. Pregnant women have used natural remedies such as a teaspoon of ginger or a mint to help battle morning sickness. But now, one medical professional believes you can add oral sex to that list. According to Gordon Gallup, a psychologist at SUNY-Albany, the best way to cure morning sickness during pregnancy is sperm. But not just any sperm, it should be the sperm of the person who got you pregnant Marriage Over for Chad Johnsom (Ocho Cinco)fucking funny!! Head Butts New Bride. Ron Palillo the actor who played Horshack on Welcome Back Kotter died today. RIP Ron Anal Tattoos Next Big Thing? Yes, This Woman Got Inked THERE CROCS FOUNDER In Crazy DUI Arrest’He’s Drunk as Crap’ Female Suspect Steals Purse From Upper Darby Church; Spends Money At McDonald’s Enjoy Renegade Nation and Thanks for Listening Richie Marla and Honey Girl

Episode 60: Today's Social Work Podcast is on social skills training with children and adolescents. My guest, Craig Winston LeCroy defines social skills as "a complex set of skills that facilitate the successful interactions between peers, parents, teachers, and other adults" (LeCroy, 2009, 653). Social skills include everything from dress and behavior codes, to rules about what, when, and how to say or not to say something. Social skills training is a form of behavior therapy, and as such focuses on behaviors, rather than thoughts or feelings, as the targets for change. Traditional behavior modification is often thought of in terms of task completion, for example, using star charts to get kids to clean their rooms or do homework. But in social skills training, behavior modification principles are used to teach people skills that help them to be successful in social situations. I encountered an example of social skills training last week with my 2 1/2 year old daughter. My daughter's daycare is really good about letting us know what the kids did during the day. My wife and I often use that information as the basis for conversations with our daughter. During dinner, we'll ask questions like, "Did anyone plant flowers today?" to which my daughter has typically has yelled out an enthusiastic, "me!" Last week we were playing this game and I asked, "Did anyone pretend to be a train today?" For the first time since she could talk, my daughter sat there in silence. Was she ignoring my question? No. She was answering my question non-verbally. She was raising her hand. My wife and I were shocked. You're probably not shocked to learn that at home, my wife and I don't raise our hands in response to questions. So, who is teaching her to raise her hand? The next day, I went to pick her up from preschool, a classroom that she transitioned into about three weeks ago. The class was sitting in a circle and her teacher was asking the class questions. My daughter and her little friends were all answering by raising their hands. Clearly this is where she had learned this very specific social skill – that you answer questions by raising your hand, not by shouting. I don't know how her teacher did it, but I suspect that she used basic behavior modification strategies such as explaining the new behavior, modeling it, and consistently reinforcing it by rewarding those who did it, and punishing (either by calling out or ignoring) those who did not. I also suspect that my daughter learned by watching her older classmates do it. While part of me was sad to see that my daughter's enthusiastic "me" had been converted into a very calm, silent, and socially acceptable raised hand, another part of me understood that becoming Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter was not in her best interest. Now, I can tell you that when I was working with kids who were getting expelled for talking back to their teachers, arrested for provoking the cops, or getting beaten up because they managed to say exactly the wrong thing to the wrong person, hearing a parental anecdote about a toddler raising her hand would have left me wanting just a little bit more. So I asked one of social work's leading experts, Craig Winston LeCroy, professor of social work at Arizona State University, to talk with us about social skills training for children and adolescents. Professor LeCroy has developed and tested social skills prevention and intervention programs, including a social skills-based prevention program for adolescent girls (LeCroy, 2001), a social skills program for training home visitors (LeCroy & Whitaker, 2005), and an empirically based treatment manual outlining a social skills program for middle school students (LeCroy, 2008). In today's interview, Craig defines social skills training and emphasizes fit between social skills training and the ecological and strengths orientation of social work. He talks about the how social workers can effectively train youth in social skills, giving particular emphasis to the concepts of overlearning, role playing and modeling. He talks about providing skills training in groups, as well as an alternative to traditional expressive play therapy - individual child skill therapy. Craig emphasizes that successful social skills training requires knowledge of specific situations and can therefore be very culturally responsive. He talks about how early social skills training programs focused on juvenile delinquency, and discusses some of the existing evidence, particularly around modeling, to support social skills training as an effective intervention. Craig talks about his current research on using social skills in a universal prevention program with adolescent girls called "Empowering Adolescent Girls." We finish our conversation with a discussion of resources around social skills training. One quick word about today's social work podcast: I recorded it using a Zoom H2 recorder on location at the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) annual conference. If you listen closely you can hear the sounds of San Francisco in the background: a clock chiming, busses loading and unloading passengers, and even some pigeons congregating outside of the interview room. They don't detract from the interview, but I wanted to give fair warning in case you were listening to this podcast anywhere were those sounds might be cause for alarm. So, without further ado, on to Episode 60 of the Social Work Podcast, Social Skills Training with Children and Adolescents: Interview with Craig LeCroy, Ph.D.

Episode 60: Today's Social Work Podcast is on social skills training with children and adolescents. My guest, Craig Winston LeCroy defines social skills as "a complex set of skills that facilitate the successful interactions between peers, parents, teachers, and other adults" (LeCroy, 2009, 653). Social skills include everything from dress and behavior codes, to rules about what, when, and how to say or not to say something. Social skills training is a form of behavior therapy, and as such focuses on behaviors, rather than thoughts or feelings, as the targets for change. Traditional behavior modification is often thought of in terms of task completion, for example, using star charts to get kids to clean their rooms or do homework. But in social skills training, behavior modification principles are used to teach people skills that help them to be successful in social situations. I encountered an example of social skills training last week with my 2 1/2 year old daughter. My daughter's daycare is really good about letting us know what the kids did during the day. My wife and I often use that information as the basis for conversations with our daughter. During dinner, we'll ask questions like, "Did anyone plant flowers today?" to which my daughter has typically has yelled out an enthusiastic, "me!" Last week we were playing this game and I asked, "Did anyone pretend to be a train today?" For the first time since she could talk, my daughter sat there in silence. Was she ignoring my question? No. She was answering my question non-verbally. She was raising her hand. My wife and I were shocked. You're probably not shocked to learn that at home, my wife and I don't raise our hands in response to questions. So, who is teaching her to raise her hand? The next day, I went to pick her up from preschool, a classroom that she transitioned into about three weeks ago. The class was sitting in a circle and her teacher was asking the class questions. My daughter and her little friends were all answering by raising their hands. Clearly this is where she had learned this very specific social skill – that you answer questions by raising your hand, not by shouting. I don't know how her teacher did it, but I suspect that she used basic behavior modification strategies such as explaining the new behavior, modeling it, and consistently reinforcing it by rewarding those who did it, and punishing (either by calling out or ignoring) those who did not. I also suspect that my daughter learned by watching her older classmates do it. While part of me was sad to see that my daughter's enthusiastic "me" had been converted into a very calm, silent, and socially acceptable raised hand, another part of me understood that becoming Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter was not in her best interest. Now, I can tell you that when I was working with kids who were getting expelled for talking back to their teachers, arrested for provoking the cops, or getting beaten up because they managed to say exactly the wrong thing to the wrong person, hearing a parental anecdote about a toddler raising her hand would have left me wanting just a little bit more. So I asked one of social work's leading experts, Craig Winston LeCroy, professor of social work at Arizona State University, to talk with us about social skills training for children and adolescents. Professor LeCroy has developed and tested social skills prevention and intervention programs, including a social skills-based prevention program for adolescent girls (LeCroy, 2001), a social skills program for training home visitors (LeCroy & Whitaker, 2005), and an empirically based treatment manual outlining a social skills program for middle school students (LeCroy, 2008). In today's interview, Craig defines social skills training and emphasizes fit between social skills training and the ecological and strengths orientation of social work. He talks about the how social workers can effectively train youth in social skills, giving particular emphasis to the concepts of overlearning, role playing and modeling. He talks about providing skills training in groups, as well as an alternative to traditional expressive play therapy - individual child skill therapy. Craig emphasizes that successful social skills training requires knowledge of specific situations and can therefore be very culturally responsive. He talks about how early social skills training programs focused on juvenile delinquency, and discusses some of the existing evidence, particularly around modeling, to support social skills training as an effective intervention. Craig talks about his current research on using social skills in a universal prevention program with adolescent girls called "Empowering Adolescent Girls." We finish our conversation with a discussion of resources around social skills training. One quick word about today's social work podcast: I recorded it using a Zoom H2 recorder on location at the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) annual conference. If you listen closely you can hear the sounds of San Francisco in the background: a clock chiming, busses loading and unloading passengers, and even some pigeons congregating outside of the interview room. They don't detract from the interview, but I wanted to give fair warning in case you were listening to this podcast anywhere were those sounds might be cause for alarm. So, without further ado, on to Episode 60 of the Social Work Podcast, Social Skills Training with Children and Adolescents: Interview with Craig LeCroy, Ph.D.

It's a long episode this week, but hopefully you'll find it entertaining. Kenneth "Slim" Miller joins the lineup of CJ, Phil and Greg Sewart this week to talk about Street Fighter, arcades, Watchmen and video games. More specifically, we discuss game tapes like Street Fighter IV, Bomberman Live, House of the Dead Overkill, Peggle DS, Top Trumps: Doctor Who, Watchmen The End is Nigh, Legacy of Ys Books I & II, Mass Effect, Star Ocean 4, Dead Rising Chop Till You Drop, Phantasy Star Portable (or more specifically, the PS3's AdHoc Party app) and more! Plus we've got a Game Club segment all about Beyond Oasis.Thanks for listening! Don't forget to visit our new web site at www.playeronepodcast.com. You can leave us a voicemail by calling 713-893-8069 or you can send a comment via MP3 to our email address, playeronepodcast@gmail.com. Don't forget to join our forums if you haven't already!This week's music:"There Are Only 152 Pokémon" by PlayItLoud!"Leviathan" by Falco Lombardi".....Its OK You're Safe Now" by Falco Lombardi"The Dine and Dash" by morgieporgie

Were going to share right now, and were going to dig into Gods Word together. Living Free is our topic. Were studying the 12 steps of recovery. We said that were all in recovery; every last one of us is in recovery from something. We all need to be healed in some area. We have memories; we have all hurt others; weve all been hurt by others, so we are all in recovery today. These steps are for all of us. We talked about Step 1, which is to admit we are powerless. That has to do with saying, God, I cant. Step 2 has to do with He can. Step 2 is about faith; its about knowing that we need a power greater than ourselves to bring restoration to our lives. Step 3 today is to make a decision to turn our will over to the will of God. Step 3 is about surrender. Step 3 is about saying, I cant. It seems to me like if were going to get stuck, we usually get stuck in Step 3. If theres going to be one we struggle with, its usually going to be Step 3. I think it has to do with one word; it starts with a D and ends with a T. Do you know what that word is? It rhymes with shout. Doubt. We struggle with doubt. We have doubts about the Lord. Is He willing? Is He powerful enough? We talked about that last week, doubts within ourselves, all kinds of doubts. There might be intellectual doubts, just questions that you have that need to be answered before you can turn over. You see, its impossible to turn over something so important and precious to you unless you know the person youre turning something over to is trustworthy, right? So you have to have those doubts addressed. It could be psychological doubts. Sometimes people have a hard time turning their lives over to their Heavenly Father if theyve had an abusive earthly father. They project that onto their Heavenly Father, and they struggle with that-psychological doubts. Emotional doubts: sometimes well be doing fine in our faith, but when our emotions are down, our faith is down, and we have doubts because we put so must trust in our emotions. It could be theological doubts, those questions: How do I know the Bible is the Word of God? How do I know Christ was the Son of God? Or that Hes been raised? So there are theological questions that need to be answered. Theres all kinds of different doubts that you and I might be dealing with. The first thing were going to have to do is come clean and acknowledge that we have doubts. One of the things we do as Christians is we tend to look at doubts like a secret sin that we dont talk about. I was watching a show called Wife Swap, and its not as bad as it sounds. Its about families that trade wives, usually extreme opposites. One went from a household where she had no rules at all, no etiquette, to a household where the mother was an etiquette teacher. What was her name again? Ms. Lydia. And Ms. Lydia taught her children to swallow their burps. When youre at a table, swallow burps. Their table was a belch-free zone. The other lady was let it all hang out. Her kids were like the louder, the better. So Ms. Lydia taught them how to swallow their burps, this new mom did. She believed if you belch, thats just shameful-thats just wrong, so we tend to swallow our doubts. We tend to think if we articulate our doubts; people will think less of us. Its similar to our not wanting to admit that were struggling with some aspect of our faith because we want people to think highly of us, so we keep that inside. We dont want to admit that were struggling with doubt. The truth is we all struggle with doubt, even you whove been believers for decades. You struggle with doubts. There are periods in your life when you ask questions. You have philosophical doubts, theological doubts, and you struggle with them. The first thing you have to do is you have to acknowledge that. You have to talk about that. In Mark 9, theres a gentleman who brings his son to Jesus. His son is possessed of a demon. Theres no cure; theres no answer. This has been going on since childhood. The demon comes on the boy, and it tries to destroy him and kill him. This is a terrible situation. The father is powerless over the situation. The son is powerless over the situation. They believe Jesus can help them. His struggle comes in Step 3 of turning over his faith and letting go, letting Jesus perform this work in his sons life. Listen to what Jesus says, How long has this been happening? The father says, Its from childhood. Itll throw him in the fire and put him in the water to kill him, but if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. If you can? said Jesus. Im not sure you can. Im not sure youre willing, but if you can…and Jesus jumps on that and says, If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes. Immediately the boys father exclaimed, I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief. Can you relate to that statement? See, doubt really is an inner-struggle. Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Sometimes you hear people say, Well, theres faith, and the opposite of faith is doubt. No. The opposite is unbelief. The opposite of faith is an unwillingness to believe. Thats not his problem. He says, I believe, but I doubt. I have unbelief. I struggle. See, I would go so far as to say not only is doubt not the opposite of faith, doubt is very much a part of faith. Doubting Thomas: he said he didnt want to believe Christ rose from the dead. No. He did but he struggled intellectually with what they were saying because Thomas knew he was dead. So its an intellectual doubt, a stumbling block, Unless I see Him and can put my finger in His side and see the scars in His hands, I will not believe. Doubt is something we grapple with to bring us to faith. All through the scripture, disciples, men and women, had doubts that they struggled with. You and I, first thing were going to do, were going to be able to fully turn over (Step3) acknowledge that not everything is okay. There have been some things that have happened in our lives that cause us to have doubts and struggles. Were going to watch a media right now that talks about that. Brenda put this together for us. I want us to reflect on the words of the song and the meaning of the song as it talks about our humanity, our struggle in our faith. Then were going to look at a very unusual case study and see how he dealt with his doubt. Lets go ahead and play it. (The song is Im Not All Right by Sanctus Real-see bottom of text for lyrics and link to song.) When I say John the Baptist, what do you think of? Do you think of somebody a little crazy? Somebody with a wardrobe malfunction, right? Strange diet, locus and honey, the first Atkins diet. Think of somebody in your face, somebody out there, and all those things are true. One thing you dont think about John the Baptist is you dont think about doubt, do you? Did you know John the Baptist struggled with doubt, the thing weve been talking about this morning? He did. He struggled with doubt. He questioned whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. In Matthew 11:1, Jesus begins his Galilean Ministry. When John heard (John is in prison by the way because he had confronted Herod, and Herod didnt like it and had him incarcerated) in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? In other words, youre not acting like I thought you should act. Youre not doing the things that I thought you should do as the Messiah, so Im wondering, do we have the right guy? Are you the one Ive built you to be? John had turned over his whole ministry to Jesus. In John 3, Johns disciples are coming up to him and saying, Hey, everybodys following Jesus. What are we going to do? Were losing power. Were losing ground. John says, Thats exactly the way its supposed to be. He must increase, and I must decrease. Im not worthy to carry his sandals. He is the man. He is the one who came from Heaven. Hes the real thing. I was just here to announce his coming and get out of the way. Im rejoicing that the bridegroom is finally here, John 3. And now, hes scratching his head. You see, when Jesus comes on the scene, the Holy Spirit said to John, Whoever you see the Holy Spirit ascend on as a dove and remain, Hes the Messiah. So, he sees Jesus, and the Holy Spirit remains on Him like a dove, and he says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He announces to everybody, This is the Son of God. You can read that in your Bibles. This is the Son of God, he says in John 1. He just tells everybody. In Matthew 3, he talks about what he expected the Messiah to be. Lets turn there really quick, Matthew 3, page 957. You get a little taste of Johns preaching style. In Verse 7, the Pharisees and Sadducees are coming to him. These are important people. These are the religious elite; the Conservatives were the Pharisees; the Liberals were the Sadducees; but both groups were men of means. Youre thinking John is going to be on his best behavior because if it gets these two groups as part of his following, its really going to help the economy of his ministry. He could buy some better clothing, maybe eat some better food, maybe move out of the wilderness and get a condo in the burbs of Jerusalem. Lets be nice to these guys-these are powerful men, but when he sees them coming, he says, You brood of viper! Not a good start. You poison the snakes. Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Whats coming? Wrath is coming. Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Do not think you can say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. In other words, dont trust in your religious affiliation and background-heritage, to be your salvation. Thats a good lesson to learn. Dont trust in whatever church membership you have or church affiliation or the faith of your mom and dad. John says, What about you? What is the condition of your heart? Have you repented? Are you following the Lord? He says, The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come One who is more powerful than I… You havent seen anything yet! You think Im tough, wait until you see the next guy! He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. What does fire signify? Judgment. Purging. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and He will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. You take the winnowing fork, and you lift the wheat into the air. The chaff would blow away, the wheat would fall down, and youd gather that up, use it, and then youd burn the chaff. When He comes, Hes going to judge. Hes going to separate, and if youre not on the right side, youre going to burn, baby. So hes got a hell fire and brimstone message, and he says, Wrath is coming. The next guy makes me look like a puppy. So Jesus comes on the scene, and what does Jesus do? Is it wrath? Does He roar? Does the Lion of Judah roar? What does He do? He starts healing people and helping people. His teaching is extremely different from Johns. He starts talking about the lilies of field as theyre clothed, how God supplies for the birds, and how He loves you too, the hairs on your head are numbered. He talks about how Hes a good God. Johns scratching his head. Hes saying, Come on! Get rid of the soft stuff! Tell them what they need to hear! None of this feel-good stuff! Hes teaching differently. Hes helping people. Hes forgiving sins. He thought Jesus would come and punish for sin, bring judgment. But what he didnt understand was Jesus hadnt come to bring the wrath of God onto people. Jesus had come to take Gods wrath against mans sin onto Himself. He had come for redemption, not for judgment. John didnt understand that, so he sends a note from prison, Are you the Messiah, or did I make a mistake? Should I look for somebody else? Jesus does all these wonderful miracles, and what did He say after He was done? He said, Shhhh. Dont tell anybody. Dont let anybody know I did that for you. Remember the man last week who He healed from Leprosy? What did he say after He healed him? Dont say a word. I dont want anybody to know. He did that all through the Gospels until the time was right. Hed say, You need to be quiet about what happened today. John is saying to the whole world, Hes the Son of God. Hes the lamb of God. And Jesus goes, Shhhh. Be quiet. Not My time yet. Jesus did something very interesting in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 4. We really dont have time to turn there, but sometime read Luke 4 because it parallels Matthew 11. We will turn there, Matthew 11. Right yourself a note to look up Luke 4. Matthew 11: How is Jesus going to respond to Johns doubt? Whats he going to say? Jesus replied, Go back and report to John and say you turncoat, you betrayer, you unfaithful doubter. How could you question me? I disown you! No! Thats not what He said. He says, Go back and tell John the blind receive their sight.; the lame walk; those who have Leprosy are cured; the deaf hear; the dead are raised; and good news is preached to the poor. He answered the question. You say, What do you mean He answered the question? In Isaiah 61:1,2, there is a prophesy about Messiah. It says, When the anointed One comes, (thats what Christ mean-Anointed One, Messiah-same word in the Hebrew. Christ in the Greek, Messiah in the Hebrew-both words mean anointed one), heres what He will do: The blind will see; the lame will walk, etc. Jesus read this in Luke 7 as He began His ministry in Nazareth, His hometown. He goes into the Synagogue, and they hand Him a scroll from Isaiah, and He starts to read Isaiah 61:1, 2. He reads this passage right here about what the Anointed One will do. Then He rolls it up, and He says, Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. In other words, Im the fulfillment of this Messianic Prophesy. Im the person Isaiah wrote about-Me. That didnt go over real well. Hometown boy, who do you think you are? It says they grabbed Him, and they wanted to throw Him off a cliff. It says Jesus just passed through their mitts because it was not His time. How would you like to be at the front of that line? Whered He go? What happened? He was gone. He stopped short. As Hes reading that scripture in Luke, He stops right in the middle of the verse, right in the middle of Verse 2 of Isaiah 61. He stops halfway through. He leaves out a phrase. The phrase is this: And to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God. Judgment and wrath. When Jesus quotes that prophesy from Isaiah in Nazareth, He reads from the scroll, He stops mid-sentence and leaves out the rest of the verse, To proclaim the day of vengeance of our God. Is that an accident? No. Because He had come, in His first coming, not to bring vengeance and wrath, but to bring redemption. The wrath would come on Him, not on people. John didnt understand that, but now He did. Its a good thing. Did John swallow his doubt? Nope. John didnt swallow his doubt. You and I dont swallow our doubts. Dont pretend its not there. You address your doubts. What is the specific area the doubt I have comes from? And then you address the doubt. Get your answers. Thats what John did. Thats healthy. Whenever I hear people express doubts to me, do I go, Ahhh! No! You have doubts! Having doubts and addressing those doubts is a part of faith, not of unbelief. Its a part of faith. Its a part of our struggle as Christians. Is Jesus going to think less of John now? Lets find out. Look at Verse 11. This is after John questioned if He was in fact the Messiah. He says, I tell you the truth. Among those who are born of women, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Does that sound like Jesus thinks less of John the Baptist? Does that sound like someone whod say, Boy, I used to think he was a great guy, but he just really lowered himself in my eyes when he started doubting like that. You doubted Me, for goodness sake. No, hes not as good of a guy as I thought. Hes not as strong of a follower as I once thought he was. Jesus esteems him. Friends, its a lie. Express, pinpoint the area, talk about it, and get your answers. Pursue healing, because once doubts are answered, then action takes place. When action takes place, were able to turn our lives over more completely to the Lord because those doubts and those questions are answered. Do not be afraid of doubts. Sometimes Christians are afraid of their doubts. They think, Somethings wrong with me. Im doubting something about God. Im doubting something about my faith. There must be something wrong with me. We are afraid of our doubts. Do you know what Ive found in my life? When doubts are addressed, when questions are answered, my faith becomes stronger or weaker? Stronger. Every time my faith has been rocked, Ive gone after the answers to the questions. When I was 17 years old, in English class, Mr. Connally said, You can write your paper on anything. You can use any source but the Bible because it contradicts itself, and its unreliable. Eww. Eww, like Horshack (from Welcome Back Kotter), Mr. Connally, Mr. Connally, Ive got a question. And he dissected me. He tore me apart. I was no match for this guy intellectually. He began to raise all kinds of questions about the Bible that Id never heard before. You know what I did? I went and God answers because I had doubts after talking to him. I went and talked to my professors, and I came back and said, Ive got some answers for you. In front of the whole class, I was able to share those answers. I remember being a student, studying for the ministry at Trinity. Remember old Dr. Linton I talked about last week. Dr. Linton brings in a liberal scholar who says Genesis is just symbolism, just allegory. Its an allegory of what happened. There really wasnt an Adam and Eve. There really wasnt a garden. Its just a story so we can understand our sinful condition. And then I thought, Well, Dr. Lintons going to beat him up. Hes tearing us up, but Dr. Linton will set him straight. And he didnt. I was thinking, Dr. Linton, take care of this guy. He said, You guys go back to your dorms, and you study these questions. Hell be back tomorrow. I went back. I was in Genesis. I was there! Williams! Wanna go shoot some buckets? No, no, no. Im in Genesis. Wanna go get some pizza? No, right here. Im staying right here. And the next day, I came back to class and so did the rest of my peers, and we nailed that guy! If its an allegory, why did Jesus refer to him as a real person? Why does Paul refer to him as a real person? And that is a real event. Why is He listed in the genealogies of Abraham and others? We just had questions that left him scratching his head and having some doubts when He left. You become stronger. You know, were all worked up about the DiVinci Code. Were going to address this in two weeks in our church. This movie thats coming out says Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. They had children. Theyre still living in France, their descendents. Mary Magdalene is the Holy Grail. Its craziness. The secrets societies and Leonardo DiVinci, Sir Isaac Newton and so on. This is the only time Ive ever seen liberal scholars and conservative scholars in agreement; I have never seen this before, but right now liberal scholars and conservative scholars say, These people that believe this are nuts. There is no evidence. This is just out there. This is far-fetched. This is crazy. You know what I believe? I believe this film has just as much potential, and you might think Im nuts, but just as much potential to bring people to Christ as did The Passion of the Christ. Do you know why? Because people have their faith questioned, and it raises doubts. What do they do? They say, Ive got to find out. Ive got to know. Im sure theres going to be some that its going to hurt because doubt is a dangerous thing. If you know nothing about your doubts, you just let it linger and live within you, it will paralyze you; it will impede your growth. It will cripple you, and it will spread. But if you address those doubts, I think youre going find people whose faith becomes stronger, not weaker. Youre going to find people coming to Christ because theyre going to start investigating this and thinking about whom Jesus is. Watch, watch and wait. It happens every time. Dont be afraid of your doubts because your doubts can be turned to areas of great faith. The ushers are coming forward, and theyre going to be distributing the communion. Hold on to the elements. Hold on to the bread, the cup, do not partake them. If youre here this morning, and youre a believer, youve made a commitment to Christ, youre welcome to receive with us today. You dont have to be a member of our church to partake; we will not exclude you. If youre not sure if youre a Christian, or you know youre not, let this time be a time of meditation, reflection for you. We want you to know how glad we are that youre here and how much we hope and pray that youll come and join us next week. Artist: Sanctus Real Album: The Face Of Love Song: I'm Not Alright If weakness is a wound That no one wants to speak of Then cool is just how far we have to fall I am not immune I only want to be loved But I feel safe behind the firewall Can I lose my need to impress? If you want the truth, I need to confess Im not alright Im broken inside, broken inside And all I go through It leads me to you, it leads me to you Burn away the pride Bring me to my weakness Until everything I hide behind is gone And when Im open wide With nothing left to cling to Only you are there to lead me on Cause honestly, Im not that strong Im not alright Im broken inside, broken inside And all I go through It leads me to you, it leads me to you And I move, and I move, and I move...closer to you And I move, and I move, and I move...closer to you And I move, and I move, and I move...closer to you And I move, and I move, and I move... Im not alright Im broken inside, broken inside broken inside, broken inside And all I go through Leads me to you, leads me to you Im not alright, Im not alright, Im not alright...thats why I need you http://www.christianrocklyrics.com/sanctusreal/imnotalright.php