Stumped for New Ideas? Play This Game!

(Check out the Quick Video of this blogpost in the Monday Mindset Minute!)   My client “Nancy” stares out of my computer on our zoom call. Her face is sad, stressed, and anxious. The date of the pitch contest where she’s expected to promote her new business is drawing ever closer, and still she struggles […]

“Yes-And” Gets Your Team Innovating!

See if this sounds familiar You are managing a working team in the now ubiquitous hybrid scenario. Your group has been tasked with generating some new ideas for the next phase of an ongoing project.  While the person you report to is expecting “great ideas”, you can see some roadblocks. Among them: Time: Can the […]

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 into space with no net!  My connection with improvisation is a bit different – I’m […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]