May 20th, cloudy Sunday afternoon. 12 beautiful women, from 20 to 70 years old, meet in a beauty salon in Porto, Portugal. The intention? Mixing the knowledge from Positive Psychology with the light taste of little pieces of chocolate.
A wonderful way that Catarina and Teresa, the owners of the beauty salon had to "give their clients a special gift". Not vouchers for free brushing or an half an hour massage, but a practical 3,5 hours workshop about optimism in life! Something that could give these 12 cheerful women a boost to their daily life, a space to think about themselves and an opportunity to hear more about the happy side of life.
No hurries, no strict agenda. All the time available to sit in the improvised training room (among hairdryers, brushes and massage oils and magazines), and hear about the "intelligent optimism", creativity, gratitude, perspective and savoring...Little pieces of chocolate!
Sharing life stories, finding and focusing on their strengths and debating points of view, with music, laughs and all the attention from who doesn't get tired and keep s a smile despite all. Brave women in action.
A great opportunity for THINKING-BIG to take the basic knowledge from books and articles about Positive Psychology to the most practical environment , inspiring and getting inspired by the truth of life.
"Life is not simple", they say, "but it's worth taking it with a Sunday great laugh!"
4 days. 4 hours each session. 10 open middle-management professionals. 4 mornings of training. From 30th of April till the 3rd of May, mornings were different, at MRW, in the training room full of light. "Positive Leadership" was being developed, discussed, put in practice. MRW is a Spanish company, truly people oriented and with a proactive HR (called "People") department. That's why, when they called asking for a training course on "Middle-management communication", it was easy to get their attention to the new research of Positive Psychology in Organizations. So, instead of the typical course focusing only on assertiveness, non verbal communication, goal-oriented processes, we used two sessions to talk about something else. Absorbing the knowledge from the studies presented by Kim Cameron, Sarah Lewis and Alex Linley, on Positive Psychology and organizations, the basics from Positive Psychology, presented by Seligman and Don Clifton among others, we built two interactive sessions focused on "How to be an authentic and positive leader". We talked about Flow, Csikszentmihalyi's concept, about Mindfulness, about "intelligent optimism", from Carmelo Vázquez and about the role of Positive Emotions on organizations. Many cases of companies already using positive practices were analysed. We also used the strengths approach, applied to management work and a very practical analyze of positive reinforcement to the team, based on talents. At the end, not only participants reported many specific applications to their work life, but also to their personal life. Personal values, life perspective and, of course, the importance of thinking big, were highlighted by this really interesting group. Step by step organizations change their perspective into a more and more people oriented mindset, helping people enjoy more their work, their relations and being....Authentically more productive. Hurray to MRW, who opens their doors to social innovation through training processes like this!
Today, at MRW's monthy forum, Edite Amorim as a guest speaker shared experiences, projects and ideas, inspired and inspiring THINKING-BIG for over 50 MRW employees. Great energy among the room!
Last Saturday, at JeniAL (Junior Enterprise National integration - Attitude and Leadership), THINKING-BIG presented two workshops on "Thinking Out, In and Above de Box" for junior consultants. The meeting point was the Instituto Politécnico in Leiria, a wonderful Portuguese city. The event was organized by a young and proactive team, and the participants fulled the room with their young will to know more about the "nonexistent crisis" about some ways to explore their own strengths. Laughs, some movement and a lot of stories and ideas in a sunny day, sharing experiences with future Portuguese Entrepreneurs. (Pictures by Nuno Rosa)
Last March 19th the amazing team from the company 2 ponto received 40 beautiful women to be introduced to a new product. But before, the surprise was a two hour conference about "No, it's NOT complicated!". A theme that touched the valuable things in life, some things to avoid and some practical things to see life in an easier and lighter way. For 2 hours, 40 beauticians listened, talked, shared, thought and even kissed, in a different and more motivated morning. (Pictures by Nuno Rosa and Sonia Santos)
The 1st National Conference on Positive Psychology took place in El Escorial, Madrid, Spain, from the 15th to 17th of March, 2012. In this conference, Edite Amorim had the chance to present the dynamic methodology developed through THINKING-BIG in a presentation called “Interpersonal body touch as a tool to develop positive emotions”.In this session, shared with two other great professionals (Hugo Nisembaum, from Brasil and César V., from Venezuela), over 20 people had the opportunity to hear about and also try a little bit of this methodology using movement and interpersonal touch. A great event, with some of the main names from Positive Psychology (PP), such as Carmelo Vázquez, Gonzalo Herváz, Antonella delle Fave, James Pawalski, Margarita Tarragona and the Portuguese researchers, Helena Marujo and Luís Miguel Neto, among many other researchers and practitioners in the field. (You can download the Power Point of this conference in this website directly in this text, clicking in the name or in the “ABOUT”, where the material from all the conferences presented till now is available).(Photographs by Merche Ovejero)
Last March 15th, Soulsight, a company specialized on Design Thinking, from Madrid, opened their doors to creativity in action! The team of designers, marketeers and architects put their computers away and created a “post-its” team, exploring other ways of feeling and developing creativity. For two hours we used music, movement, closed our eyes, used first impressions and spontaneous group dynamics to make us escape the usual mindset and explore other ways of using the right side of the brain. People in action, creativity at its best! ¡OLE EQUIPO!
March 14. A sunny day at ANJE (National Association for Young Entrepreneurs), in Porto, Portugal.
Almost 20 young entrepreneurs gathered for another session of their entrepreneurship Course, this time dedicated to the “Company’s mindset”. For 8 hours, we worked the themes of Communication and Networking, through theory, debates and practical exercises.
How to present your projects using your body and voice resources; how to manage communication within your company, with colleagues and clients; how to use communication to solve problems and explore other possibilities.
At the end of the day, tired and yet full of energy the members felt a little bit closer from their goals.
GOOD LUCK!
Edite Amorim, from Thinking-Big, was the guest speaker for two Training Camps about Entrepreuneurship at ANJE (National Association for young Entrepeuneurs), in Oporto.
For almost one hour, and right before dinner, around 20 young vibrant entrepreuneurs heard Edite Amorim's experience on creating and developing the project THINKING-BIG.
There were two Training camps (November 26th and December 17th), and in each of them, the space was full of open eyes and practical questions, to help projects grow.
Last 21st of January 2012, Varazim Teatro, in Póvoa de Varzim, turned the lights off and created a space for a training about Creativity and Innovation. A group of 10 different people, interested in the theme, gathered to learn and share some concetps. Bocks to creativity, activities to unblock it, techniques, processes,... With some great laughes and vibrant debates, the 4 hour session got great positive feedbacks. (Pictures by Rita Rocha)
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