Pinned8 Tools to Help to Navigate Tense Holiday DinnersWinning the Holidays with better Conversation Design — Family Dinner and an Argument The holidays are coming, and with them often come long, large and heavy dinners and potentially, uncomfortable conversations that can spill over into open battle. I want to give you some quick tips so you and your whole family can enjoy a nice dinner together. If you really want to…Communication5 min readCommunication5 min read
Nov 29, 2022Turn-Taking Rituals to Tame the Complexity of Group ConversationsThree’s a Crowd, Four’s a Mob Groups can move mountains if everyone is pushing in the same direction. More often, group conversations ping pong back and forth. The conversation flow gets stuck, drifts, or overheats. Why are group conversations so messy? Alignment and connection in one-on-one conversations is complex enough. In groups, these connections compound, fast…Leadership5 min readLeadership5 min read
Nov 1, 2022Three Questions to Ask Yourself before taking on a New ProjectTapping into Intrinsic Motivation — Originally posted on my blog here. A few weeks ago I stumbled on the lovely diagram below on twitter. It’s a simple flowchart to help answer that extremely essential and very common question: “Should I take on this new project?” The basic answer is: NO. You just don’t have enough time. …Management6 min readManagement6 min read
Aug 17, 2022How to host deeper connections with the Listening TriangleMindfully Slowing down the conversation — This essay appears on my personal blog. Lately, I’ve been hearing lots of friends and colleagues talk about slowing down a bit for the summer. If it’s summer where you are, and you have the means, that’s an awesome choice For example, if you’re in the Northeast of the United…Listening4 min readListening4 min read
Jul 29, 2022How to Dodge a QuestionFour Tips for for Artful Deflection — “What was your salary at your last position?” “Are you planning on having kids?” It happens often: we get asked a question we don’t want to answer, or that we don’t feel like we should answer. We can also get asked questions that we legally don’t have to answer (like #2!) In that moment, we have a few options. We can reply honestly or…Leadership3 min readLeadership3 min read
Jul 12, 2022Triple Loop Learning: Being, Thinking and Doingthis essay first appeared on my personal blog here. Learning happens on three levels. The most primal is single loop learning — doing something to get a result…and checking in to see if it got you closer to your goal. (Loop A, below) Think about following a recipe step by…Design Thinking2 min readDesign Thinking2 min read
Jun 30, 2022Key Leadership Skills: Conversational RangeWhy being able to speak to crowds, teams and yourself is essential — If you’d like to listen to this article instead of reading it, you can do that here. When you hear the word “conversation” the image that most likely lights up in your brain is of two people facing each other (or these days, in a zoom room). What happens if…Leadership5 min readLeadership5 min read
Jun 20, 2022Recipes, Cookbooks, and Chef’s MindsetThe Art of Facilitative Leadership — I love a good recipe. Take this one, from Food52, for Lemon Bars with a salty, olive oil crust. I’m not sure how I first stumbled on this recipe, but I do know that I nearly never make it…or at least, not in full. The crust, however, has become a…Design Thinking5 min readDesign Thinking5 min read
Jun 13, 2022Gender at WorkFour Tips for Defeating Mansplaining and Manspreading — THE BIRD OF HUMANITY HAS TWO WINGS The founder of the Baha’i faith is quoted as saying: “The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly.” I love this quote, but it’s a bit outdated since…Gender Equality9 min readGender Equality9 min read
Jun 6, 2022Minimum Viable TransformationHow many people does it take to change a culture? — No…this isn’t the start of a bad joke. It’s a real question! Margaret Mead famously said: “NEVER DOUBT THAT A SMALL GROUP OF THOUGHTFUL, COMMITTED CITIZENS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD; INDEED, IT’S THE ONLY THING THAT EVER HAS.” But how small of a group does it really take?! A 2018…Transformation6 min readTransformation6 min read
