A conversation toward improving work and life
You’ve seen this before, haven’t you? A family or group of friends together at a restaurant, everyone focused on smartphones, tablets, or the sporting events on TV – but not interacting with each other. Perhaps your meetings at work are sometimes like this. Everyone is connected but not necessarily with each other. What happens when we disconnect from all of those distractions? We have a chance to reflect, think more deeply, find meaning in our … Read More
Whether we set out to intentionally learn something new, or just experience the world day-to-day, we are always learning. Sometimes it’s a small and subtle understanding, other times it’s an “ah-ha!” moment. How can you make the most of your learning opportunities every day? In The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance, Josh Waitzkin tells his own personal and fascinating story of achievement, as he reached elite levels in both chess … Read More
I’m sure you’ve heard this statistic – the most common reason people leave their jobs is their immediate boss. Gallup surveys show this again and again. Disengagement with the boss leads to disengagement with the job and the organization. So, as a leader in your organization, what are you doing to engage your team? One key way to engage team members is to invest in them. More than salary and benefits, how can you … Read More
How many meetings have you sat in this week where the minutes dragged by as the group crawled through agenda items at what felt like a snail’s pace? Were attendees interactive or disconnected? How productive were you? Here is a simple and fun activity that will re-energize any group, and at the same time allow members to build stronger connections with each other. This activity works great at the beginning of a meeting as … Read More
Assumptions. They’re dangerous, and yet we make them all the time. When meeting someone new, for example, we may make assumptions about the person’s thoughts, actions, behaviors, or beliefs, simply based on external factors such as: age, appearance, clothing, skin color, or the type of work the person does. Our perceptions are filtered by our own self worldview, usually without us even being aware of it. Our previous experiences and personal histories influence the … Read More
Yesterday we brought home a new puppy. Exciting and wonderful – yes! Absolutely. And also, perhaps, just a little bit scary. Any change, whether perceived to be positive or negative, holds unpredictability. Is this experience going to be as wonderful as we think? How will this change our lives? Change means risk. In her podcast Creativity and Risk Taking, Amy Climer talks about how we experience a sense of risk when the outcome of what we … Read More
Abandoning a goal. Ouch! For achievement-oriented folks, that’s a tough idea to swallow. But are there times when it might be the right thing to do? I’d say yes, actually. Here’s why. I love audacious goals. And aiming high can often take you much farther than you might otherwise have reached. So it’s hard to reconcile a basic philosophy that “if you can dream it, you can achieve it” with giving up on a … Read More
I watched the NFL Hall of Fame induction ceremony the other day and was repeatedly struck by how often inductees brought up the roles others had played in their success. Whether it was family, coaches, or teammates, the theme running through all of the speeches was that the inductee would not have achieved the level of success that he had without these others who played critical roles in that success. Whether it was … Read More
Have you ever thought about your brain’s remarkable capacity to solve problems? How does it do that?? And how can you develop habits that make the most of your creative capacity? Tim Hurson answers those questions and more in Think Better: An Innovator’s Guide to Productive Thinking. Hurson offers a six-step process to improve the way we think about problems and how to solve them. Using practical tools and techniques within each step, you’ll discover how to … Read More
Teambuilding. What do you think of when you see or hear that word? In my experience, the idea of teambuilding generates mixed responses: some people dread it, some are elated, and others fall everywhere in-between these extremes. Why such varied responses? When I ask people about their experiences with teambuilding I find that while most have extremely positive experiences, some unfortunately do not. What makes the difference? Here are five ways to make your … Read More