Hi Barb,

What kind of clean is a clean start?  Depending on who you ask, it might be a new day, a launch, a motor leaping to life or a clean slate? 

All the italicized words or phrases are metaphors.  A metaphor is a figure of speech, expressing one idea in terms of another.  

When we use metaphors, our brains fire up!  That's because metaphors act as the hidden architects shaping the blueprint of our thoughts. Just try saying anything without using metaphors....you can hardly get away from them!

My clean start in 2024 is about offering more courses and workshops for individuals alongside consulting services for organizations. For example: 

If your organization needs a jumpstart on 2024 ...
... check out  our Quick (and Fun!) Strategy workshop in January.

For navigating and healing communications in healthcare ...
... consider the Better Conversations for More Effective Healthcare course in February.

And for cocooning and finding your next steps during a personal metamorphisis ...
... join us at the Transitions and New Beginnings retreat in April.

Each of these is described more in the Courses and Resources section, below. 

Here's another clean start: To grease the skids for you, I've split my website so that bickfordcollaboration.com is geared toward those who want consulting services, and a new website, improveyourmeetings.com, is focused on people wanting to grow as leaders.

NOTE: Improve Your Meetings is a work in progress, so please turn a blind eye to any rough edges.  

For now, my events, courses and workshops will be listed in two places: on the Bickford Collaboration Home page (scroll down to see them) and on the Improve Your Meetings Events page. 

And -- one last new thing! -- if you are interested in a particular topic, such as communication or facilitation or healthcare, you can now sign up for topics.

Happy New Year!

Warmly,

Barb Bickford

PS -- Can you spot the metaphors in the next section? There are well over a dozen of them, and a few are just one word long.  Watch for words that don't make sense if taken literally, such as "explore".  Are you literally exploring, like you would explore a jungle? No.  And the "tools" are not literal tools like a hammer; they are useful ideas. The words "explore" and "tools" are metaphorical. 

Quick (and Fun!) Strategy: Jumpstart your 2024 plan!

If you are a leader of a group making plans for 2024, you can lead your group to cook up the essential pieces of a strategic plan in less time that you thought possible. 

Reserve Wednesday mornings, January 17 and 31, 2024 to jumpstart your 2024!  Registration closes Friday, January 12th!

Transitions and New Beginnings retreat

As a leader, you may help guide people through transitions such as retirement, losses, new jobs or health challenges. But what if YOU are the one navigating a transition? 

Give yourself the gift of time away on the weekend of April 5-7, 2024. We'll explore transitions by using art (no skill required!), gentle movement, conversation and more.  Learn more and register.  There are some FAQs to consume on this web page, as well. 

Better Conversations for More Effective Healthcare 

Poor communication in healthcare is a foggy lens, obscuring the clarity of patient needs and treatment paths. It damages health outcomes, patient satisfaction, cost-effectiveness and provider wellbeing. It leads to misunderstandings, mistakes and stress, getting in the way of being a happy, focused and effective practitioner, team or organization.

This course addresses the communication challenges of healthcare head on, and provides simple and practical tools that can help. I'll be assisting Judy Rees and Steve McCann, experts in clean language, to offer this course on Mondays and Wednesdays during February.  Learn more and register.

Recent blog posts
-- Embracing Life Transitions
-- Listening Skills: the Power of Curious Listening
-- What's better than good old strategic planning?

Our current workshops and courses

And a clean start ... that's a clean start ... like what? 

In Clean Language*, you can ask questions that invite people to answer with metaphors. This approach helps you, as a listener, to understand what the speaker really means when using a phrase such as "a clean start."

According to Bill Birchard, using metaphors can also help you, as a speaker, to be understood. Learn more in this article Want to be persuasive? Find a metaphor. 

Bill's article was like a cool drink on a hot day so I decided to play with metaphors in this email and in my upcoming meetings. I invite you to do the same.   

* If Clean Language is new to you, you can dip into this short description of the Benefits of Clean Language for Better Communication.

Want more tips? Access Ten Tips to Foster Online Engagement.

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