This chicken was part of an intense contest with Burrell the Squirrel for Washington State Department of Labor and Industry Mascot. Things turned ugly when “compromising” photos of Burrell showed up on the employee bulletin board. In their infinite wisdom, management resolved the fight by putting Burrell in charge of all forest related departments and the chicken in charge of everything else.

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It’s not just the oak that’s twisted at this winery! They use rubber chickens to tap the creativity of their fans and draw attention to their brand. Check out this interview with owner (of both chicken and winery) Jeff Stai at: http://www.anotherwineblog.com/archives/8062

While you’re there you just might be tempted to buy a bottle of (and this is the unedited real name) Twisted Oak 2002*%#&@!

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Use your chicken as a Mental Warm up Exercise in a staff meeting. Create a simple competition over who can come up with the most uses for a rubber chicken, or, using an example such as the above, see who can invent the best caption for a photo of the staff flock.

Quickly assign teams (i.e. 2+ folks) by who is sitting together, who need to collaborate together, heck, use whatever floats your boat. A team competition will usually generate more energy and more answers.

Use this exercise as a fun way to warm-up your team’s “out of the box” creativity, before focusing them on a serious issue. If you use it before a brainstorming session  it can also be a way to remind them of the rules of brainstorming.

Used at the beginning of a meeting, it lets you start on time, with something fun and relevant, but not so critical that it has to be repeated for late comers. Plus, when late arrivals realize they’ve missed out on the fun, they’ll make more of an effort to be time for your next meeting!

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Contributed by Doug Linde

Rubber Chicken CPR
CPR is an important workplace skill – no matter where you may work. Here is a link to a YouTube video that will teach you how to revive a rubber chicken with cardiopulmonary resusciatation. You will need 1 rubber chicken and some alcohol to follow along.

http://first-aid-talk.com/rubber-chicken-cpr

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Rubber Chickens Speed up the Learning Curve:

by Admin on February 10, 2010

Rubber Chicken facilitates learning a language!

Brian Anderson is a Tutoring Director in Madison Wisconsin. He has a blog called the Literacy Network. He was asked what to do in a language class when a learner wants to, or, for clarification reasons, needs to revert to his or her first language during a class. Here is his answer:

One strategy used by a teacher of Ojibwa language in a Wisconsin reservation is very interesting. All classes are held exclusively in Ojibwa language. However, in her classroom hangs a rubber chicken. The chicken has a sign on it that says,
“FOR EMERGENCY USE ONLY!”

If a student can’t say something in Ojibwa, he or she may grab the rubber chicken and hold it over their head while speaking English. After saying what needs to be said, the student hangs the chicken back on its hook. The unmitigated silliness of the rubber chicken gag gets learners off the hook, so to speak, when they can’t express themselves. Perhaps you can have a policy like that, where one has to do some silly act in order to revert back to the first language.

For the rest of this post, go to: http://literacynetwork.blogspot.com/2010/03/using-learners-first-language-good-idea.html

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Create a peaceful work environment

by Admin on January 5, 2010

Just put the chicken on your desk and people will leave you alone. They intuitivly know you're having a fowl day.

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Chicken Stress Reducer

by Admin on January 5, 2010

As a Thumping Chicken, this is what Thadeus lived for!

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Rubber chicken rubbed the wrong way

by Admin on January 5, 2010

It had been a normal IT conference when suddenly the chicken attacked!

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