What would you call a consulting company dedicated to better teamwork? To helping people work better together? Focused on stuff like “courageous collaboration,” Team Health, and building happier, healthier organizations? After many weeks of brainstorming, all I know for certain is: I have no freaking idea, because apparently I really suck at naming things. But […]
Don’t Bluff
The flip-side of impostor syndrome is often bluffing and pretending. Try to resist the impulse. So much of contemporary leadership and management is actually just… acting. Organizations hire people from central casting who look the part; they look and sound like leaders — even if they don’t actually know better than others what the hell […]
Icebreakers in the Age of Corona
Jenny Wang, a psychologist quoted in this New York Times story, recommends these starter questions for meetings and virtual hang-outs: Coping What is something you’ve been putting off doing that you now suddenly have time for? What shows/movies have been helping you cope? What’s one small thing you’re doing to bring a little joy or […]
Leadership as growing up
“The Mom & Dad Dynamic.” It’s one of the “Team Toxins” I see in organizations all the time: a culture of unconscious infantilization. Leadership as “I’m the grown-up here and you’re not.” Or even: “we’re all one big family here!” (Which, if your family is anything like mine, is no picnic.) No matter the stated […]
Is capitalism a religion designed to make us feel guilty?
We talk a lot about the central importance of Purpose for healthy teams and organizations today. But as Frederic Laloux argues, often all that lofty talk about “purpose” is really just a fig leaf for business as usual. Look past the shiny motivational posters and rhetoric about “making the world a better place,” and you […]
Love your problems
They are beautiful, and tell you something about your hidden strengths Digital strategist Tom Critchlow on the great improvisational art of consulting and problem-solving in organizations: When you find a problem, look for the hidden strengths around it. “The key is not to hunt for problems but to hunt for systems. ‘Problems’ are often just […]
Trust vs Burnout
We’re in the midst of a burnout epidemic. But what if the causes run deeper than just “too much work?” What if the burnout epidemic is as much a crisis of meaning as a crisis of exhaustion? That’s the argument organizational scientist Amy Edmondson makes in this excellent article by Anthony Wing Kosner in Dropbox’s […]
Why org charts should be drawn upside down
I love this insight from Ivar Kroghrud in the New York Times about why you should draw your org chart upside down: “I draw our organizational map upside down, because it’s not the leader and manager who do the work. The manager is there to give direction and make it possible for the others to […]
Words That Work
When you’re facilitating, coaching or managing, try these magic phrases and questions (pulled from this outstanding Twitter thread): Instead of asking “Any questions?” at the end of a talk or presentation, ask: “What questions do you have for me?” or “What questions does this raise for you?” It can dramatically increase participation. Ask: “What did […]
The FINE Formula
Keep your improvements FINE-grained for better results Author, consultant and retrospective guru Esther Derby’s new book on the power of “micro-shifts” has a useful rule of thumb for your next team meeting or retrospective: the “FINE-grained” principle: “Good experiments are FINE grained: they provide fast feedback, are (ideally) inexpensive, require no permission, and are EASY.” […]
How to stop being so f**king hard on yourself
This “Experience Cube” technique can help you start strengthening your weak muscles — without even really trying All leaders — every last freaking one of them — have strengths and weaknesses. Effective leaders and teammates aren’t good at everything; they don’t pretend to be the Übermensch. They just develop good self-awareness about what their strengths […]
SCARF
Diagnose friction and office drama