I’m a interrupter. Guilty as charged. I have been working to correct that obnoxious practice of verbal interruptions for some time, but I have yet to be fully reformed. I know cutting someone off mid-sentence is irritating. I know that…
Improv in the Workplace…..NOT what you think!
What are your associations with the word Improvisation? Who’s Line is it Anyway? The Groundlings? Those Improv Everywhere videos on YouTube? Whatever the word brings to mind, it probably involves entertainment right? It’s fun to watch people up there leaping…
Roll Your Eyes, but it’s “The Way We Do Things Around Here”!
I’m fascinated with rituals, defined here as the actions we do over and over to reinforce meaning. Some workplace rituals are pretty straightforward: inductions, celebrations, retirements are only a few of the more familiar. (Although, in trying to find a…
Your #1 Weapon Against Blind Stupidity…..
Curiosity is the opposite of fear. You hear that Love is the opposite – well ok, but in actual experience, love is too big a stretch. All kinds of people can claim they “love” the disabled or Muslims or old…
Big Mouth? Big Buck$! You Might Want to Rethink that Clever Putdown…
One of the benefits of being self-employed is the variety of workplace cultures I get to experience. Being a bit of an outlier in a company lends some perspective on best and worst practices, and the curious chemistry within particular…
Ditch the New Year’s Resolutions. Do This Instead.
We’re two weeks into January and I’m already looking for ways to get out of my New Year’s resolutions. I mean really, how pathetic is THAT? But a friend of mine, Deb Nelson, hooked me up with an alternative: Choose 3…
Are you a Head? a Heart? or Hands? How We Listen Determines What We Decide……
There’s plenty out there on how to deliver our message for maximum impact – but we are all listeners too. And how we listen and the filters we use in listening can determine much about what we absorb, the nature of…
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,…
“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…
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…