Connection, Inclusion and Working Remotely

We don’t often talk about the consequences of working remotely from the perspective of the remote employee… but we should. Working remotely is a growing trend that’s not likely to reverse itself anytime soon, and it’s worth preparing yourself and your team for one potential unintended consequence. Our need to belong to a group, or…

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You’ve Just Returned From a Terrific Leadership Retreat….Now What?

Offsite meeting and leadership retreats, when they’re facilitated well, can be amazing. New energy, new ideas, deeper connections and clearer understanding are just some of the outcomes of successful retreats. But far too often, post-retreat implementation lags and is eventually replaced by new priorities and new focus, causing a gradual dissipation of energy, and a…

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In Gratitude….

I’ll forever be indebted to Marvin Weisborg. Marv is a brilliant organizational theorist and OD consultant (and an amazing jazz musician) who has helped transform companies, organizations and communities the world over. He has advanced the body of knowledge around organizational change through, among other things, his research on self-organizing groups. Marv has written and…

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Does Rudeness Really Matter?

In three experimental studies, Christine L. Porath provides an empirical test of how rudeness affects task performance and helpfulness. Different forms of rudeness—rudeness instigated by a direct authority figure, rudeness delivered by a third party, and imagined rudeness—converged to produce the same effects. Results from these studies showed that rudeness reduced performance on routine tasks as well…

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Gaming the System

What if there was a way to guarantee that the enterprise training you just invested heavily in would live on in the hearts and minds of employees? What if you could continually engage team members around important change, innovation, communications, or customer service initiatives? And, what if you could improve your connection to your customers…

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The Science of Human Development (part 2)

David Dobbs, in The Social Life of Genes, published in the Pacific Standard, posits that “Genes don’t make you who you are. Gene expression does. And gene expression varies depending on the life you live. We’re constantly building and re-engineering new cells. And that regeneration is driven by the contingent nature of gene expression.

” Dobbs…

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Compassion and Emotional Intelligence

Do your emotions drag you with them, or are you in charge? In a Google Talk by Chade-Meng Tan, he asks the audience to contemplate that question, illustrating the point with a parable about a horse and its rider. They pass a person on the road who asks the rider, “Where are you going?” The rider responds,…

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The Power of Appreciation

Appreciation is feeling that we truly matter, that we contribute to the greater whole and that someone genuinely cares about our contribution. It is a major driver of productivity and organizational growth. A culture of appreciation creates a workplace where people feel energized and inspired to do their best work. However, leaders sometimes struggle with…

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