5 Ways to Snag that Slippery Innovative Solution
Let’s say you have a sticky wicket problem – you’ve tried everything you can think of and those wickets are still sticky. You and your team have been wracking your brains trying to fix the wickets and at this point, you might be tempted to either hand it off to someone else….preferably someone who OWES […]
“The Martian” Inspires some “Otherworldly” Teamwork
My husband and I went to see “The Martian”. Aside from an intriguing story, terrific, subtle humor in the writing, the tech and special effects (and ok, Matt Damon), I was reminded what happens when we have experiences that completely infuse us with inspiration…. and often that inspiration is a fiction – in this case, […]
3 Quick & Easy Strategies to (Sneak) Mindfulness into Your Work Day….
As I begin this post, I’m aware that I have been trying for 4 hours to get enough quiet so that I can concentrate and write. My first impulse is that my schedule, my commitments, my world is doing this to me! But I was the one to make the decision to follow an old […]
3 Bias Busters to use BEFORE you make that Next Important Decision….
I get to facilitate a fascinating discussion on Explicit and Implicit Bias in a University setting next week. The focus is on implementing more diversity in hiring for tenured faculty positions – particularly in STEM subjects, which, over the last 20 years, have shown a whopping 5% improvement in populating University faculty with instructors other […]
Your Group on Conflict: 7 Questions that Reveal Team Chemistry
I had a problem. An important element of my newly invented facilitation tool Shift/POV was not being received as well as I had hoped. And no matter how I tried to rework the marketing language, the instructions, the methodology, somehow, the Random Factor insight prompts were not being perceived as particularly useful to facilitators in […]
Learn from My Mistake: 5 Questions that will Save Your Big Idea!
There are times when I’m not a very subtle person. I get enthusiastic about a new brainstorm and want to share with others right away. Why I don’t know better after decades in this world, I don’t know. But maybe writing about it will help me – and you! – in laying the groundwork for […]
A Sense of Place…. How well do you know where you work?
I first notice the contrast in light – dark blue mountains in the background as the storm clouds grumble away – slapped into submission by strong western sunlight. And the lake surrounded by hills – the blue mirroring the mountains, but broken by brilliant white peaks – sailboats! The foreground is bathed in the textured […]
3 Ways to Unlearn from Experience…
When I was growing up in Colorado, my dad was a rock climbing instructor and just about every summer/fall weekend would find us up in the Rockies dangling from ropes hundreds of feet above the ground. I still know how to knot the rope around my waist, and if I ever find myself disposed to […]
6 Ways to use SILENCE in Your Next Meeting & Why You Want To…
I have a brilliant colleague – maybe you do too – who will NOT stop talking. A group of us drove with her from Portland, ME to Boston for an education event, and she proceeded in her 1-way “conversation” for the entire two-hour drive. I kept wondering how she was able to carry on this […]
Love em or Hate em…Games have Impact in Adult Learning
People have interesting reactions to training “games” in the workplace. And interesting varieties of history with them, often predicated on whether or not they have “won” a particular game, and whether games were effectively used as learning tools in their formative years. In the professions – depending on the industry, people seem disinclined to accept […]