More Faces. Less Facebook.
Take a minute and think about your three or four dearest friends in the world (excluding your intimate life partner). Now be honest: When was the last time you had an in-depth, heartfelt conversation with each of them? Yeah, when I asked myself this question about a year ago I was disappointed in my answer […]
Dancing With Surprises
Several years back I had the opportunity to work with a co-op founded by a group of artists who had all formerly experienced homelessness. I was invited to facilitate a strategic planning meeting involving the entire co-op membership. We met in their rented warehouse on Skid Row in Los Angeles. One key question facing these […]
IN MY TOOLBAG: Stick the Landing: How to Wrap Up Your Meetings for Impact
In the world of gymnastics, the dismount is the last thing a judge sees before determining an athlete’s score. When an athlete concludes their routine with perfection commentators often say that they “stuck the landing!” Too often, leaders bring people together to have important conversations or to make critical decisions but they fail at sticking […]
ON MY MIND: The Myth of the Leader as “Talker-in-Chief”
Years of research show that top-down declarations and being “talked at” demotivates people, discourages the expression of diverse perspectives, and stalls organizational learning and change efforts. This leaves me puzzled when, at least a few times a week, I receive emails promoting professional leadership workshops on how to say things in ways that will sound […]
ON MY MIND: Coming Back Together (Part 1)
Nearly everywhere I look I see communities, families, and friends mired in division, derision, and despair. Increasingly, we talk about those who are working toward different outcomes not as our opponents but as our enemies. And when it comes to enemies, we feel self-justified in doing whatever we must in order to win. We live […]
FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Moments of Impact by Chris Ertel and Lisa Kay Solomon
What’s the best way to address complex challenges facing your organization? Bringing smart people together for truly strategic conversations. I know I don’t have to tell you this, but the reason for the reminder is a lament that I often hear from leaders: I thought I did everything right. I put a logical agenda together, […]
ON MY MIND: Strategy Development- What’s the Real End Game?
Over the past 25 years, I have facilitated about 300 strategy conversations across more than 70 industries. When I think about the client organizations that went on to be most successful, one insight stands out: They were more focused on the quality of their conversation and the thinking being generated than they were on creating […]
IN MY TOOL BAG: The Power of a Project Charter
Your project team, task force, or committee got off to a fast and enthusiastic start but lately, it’s struggling to make progress. For every step forward it feels like the team takes three steps backward. You keep hitting bottlenecks and having to revisit decisions you thought were made. Team members are becoming frustrated with one […]
IN MY TOOL BAG: The Meeting Scorecard
More often than not, when I ask leaders, “How’d your meeting go?” they look at me sheepishly and answer with something like, “I’d like to think it went well. Nobody complained.” Despite the fact that meetings are an important business process in most organizations, “nobody complained” or “we made it through the agenda” are not […]
IN MY TOOL BAG: The After Action Review
After introducing a new technology, finishing a big project, or concluding a major meeting, many of us act on an impulse to move to the next thing on our list or go on vacation. But pivoting too quickly to “what’s next” denies you and your team the opportunity to learn and improve. The best sports […]