I saw a great bumper sticker the other day… “Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.” I looked it up, and it is attributed to Hubert H. Humphrey, a mid-20th century American politician who passed away shortly after I was born.

I say it was “great” because in the two seconds that it took me to read it, I immediately felt a resounding “yes!” that lifted my spirits, (stuck in traffic and brought down by the weight of the world as I tend to be). And, that, dear readers, is the beauty of a good quote. It only takes a second to look at it and know if you agree.

Sometimes when I am having difficulty making decisions (do I want to go camping this weekend or not?), I flip a coin. Heads, I’ll go camping. Tails, I’ll stay home. I flip the coin and, aha! Heads! I immediately feel my heart sink. And then I know. Then I’m in touch. I really don’t want to go camping. Decision done. I ignore the actual outcome of the coin toss for the far more valuable insight it gave me into my own feelings.

Using quotes in your workshops and meetings can have the same effect. It can help people get in touch with their thoughts on a subject in a way that is immediate and compelling. And, luckily for us, with sites like BrainyQuote.com, this resource is just a few clicks away.

Here is an example, in case you are wondering how quotes could be used.

Imagine you are running a workshop on… oh, I don’t know, let’s say Supervising Staff. Now I’m just going to type “Leadership” into BrainyQuote, copy a couple of quotes…

“Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire teammates and customers.” Robin S. Sharma

“No matter how good you think you are as a leader, my goodness, the people around you will have all kinds of ideas for how you can get better. So for me, the most fundamental thing about leadership is to have the humility to continue to get feedback and to try to get better – because your job is to try to help everybody else get better.” Jim Yong Kim

“I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.” Queen Elizabeth II

Now I will put each of these on an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper and tape it up on a wall of the room we are in. I will ask participants to read the quotes to themselves and then go stand by the one that “resonates” with them the strongest. You know, the one that makes them go, “Yes!”

Once they are grouped around their chosen quote, I will ask them to talk, as a group or with a partner, about why they selected that quote. Next I will ask them to discuss (with the same group or partner) how the quote they selected relates to their work supervising staff.

I’ll then invite them to sit back down and ask for a few volunteers to share out what they heard their partner say about the quote they were standing near. This makes for a much richer conversation than if we had just started with, “Good supervisors do x” or even, “Discuss your supervision style with a partner.” And, it doesn’t take a whole lot of extra effort on your part as a facilitator, because those quotes are so easily found online.

So my challenge to you with this post is a pretty simple one: Use quotes in your next meeting or workshop to launch a conversation or topic. This activity can be done in 10 minutes! It can work as an icebreaker/warm up activity, as a “brain break” midway through an event, or even as a closing conversation. Try it out and let me know how it goes!

Because, “When someone asks me to do something, something new, something I don’t know about, and if I haven’t done it, I’ll say yes. Just so I can try something new. You never know what you might like.” – Osric Chau