I received following paragraph in an email other day. Please read it first, then we'll talk about it...

According to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr ltteers in a wrod are, olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer be at rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but wrod as a wlohe.

Interesting isn't it? What's it got to do with facilitation? Good question. My commitment to write and publish useful content on this subject every week is a strong inspiration for me to look for connections anywhere and everywhere. Fortunately, with everything in universe ultimately connected, you can always find them. Here's what I see.

The paragraph I ask you to read above has three striking characteristics that I believe are connected to facilitation and how groups function.

1) Each word in paragraph is contained in a consensual manner. By that I mean, first and last letter of each word are "correct." By correct, I mean that each of us who can read English language and can spell, agree on the proper characters that begin and end each word. Without that agreement, words would be unintelligible.

2) The words form a coherent paragraph that define a clear context. If words were randomly joined without conveying something that made sense, it would become gibberish. Consider this sentence:

Wrod rset porbelm tihs taht iprmoetnt frist is ltteer be wouthit mses huamn bcuseae lteter.

This is a random selection of some of same words in above paragraph that aren't arranged to convey any meaning. Without context of coherent speech, it's far more difficult to decipher meaning of individual words.

You're A Mathematical Genius, You Know!

(c) Copyright 2003 by Murdo Macleod

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This may come as a surprise to you.

But truth is, you really are good at mathematics.

You see, every day you solve complex problems by breaking them down into tiny little "baby steps".

And just like world's most powerful computer or greatest ever mathematical prodigy, it's this step-by-step process that enables you to do practically anything.

Let's see this process in action with a couple of examples:

* * * Example 1 - Calculating Dreaded Sales Tax

The sales tax rate varies around world, but here in UK it's 17.5%. Urgh! What kind of figure is that?

Let's look at it again and see how we can tame beast by breaking it down.

17.5

It consists of 10, plus 5 plus 2.5, doesn't it?

And those numbers form a distinct sequence. In other words... "10, plus half, plus half again".

Now that we know this, we can do something really clever...

Suppose you want to calculate 17.5% of 40 UK pounds. How would you work this out? (Stop! Don't even think of reaching for that calculator!)

Start with 10. 10% of 40 is 4. Add half (2) and half again (1) and you get 7.

So you proudly announce to your colleagues... "So by adding 17.5% sales tax to our £40 product, total retail price will be... £47."

They look on amazed.

Let's take another example and show how simple math really is...

* * * Example 2 - Help your daughter with her homework.