Be bad and connect with others
“Being bad” in the context of business meetings means breaking traditional rules about presentations. Being yourself—which probably involves making conventional “mistakes”—will help you win over the individuals listening to you speak. That’s the premise of the...
Follow through to support dots, spans and paths
A behavior designer I’ve been working with was beating himself and his field up for not providing really good follow through for people. According to the behavior design field, helping someone “follow through” means you assist them in creating or finding structure to...
Try these meeting-improvement tools
The new book, Let’s Stop Meeting Like This: Tools to Save Time and Get More Done,” should become a go-to resource for anyone who wants to improve meetings. Authors Dick and Emily Axelrod can help you reduce meeting pain three ways: First, they show you how to use...
Take actions against chronic stress, not high heels
Does this happen to you at work? Getting emails at all hours on non-emergency issues? Being expected to work on the weekends without your consent? Hearing colleagues boast about pulling all-nighters? An executive I coached confided that the Executive Team members...
Have execs pass tests to be “Chief Explaining Officers”
“The badness of this email has rewired my brain’s circuitry. All I understand now is business-school jargon and death. Sweet death.” – Kevin Roose in Microsoft Just Laid Off Thousands of Employees With a Hilariously Bad Memo for New York Magazine. In his play-by-play...
Bark up a new tree for behavior change
Do you think behavior change is hard? Many do. And if you feel you’re spending a lifetime looking for effective ways to change behavior either yours or others’, you’re lookin’ in all the wrong places. (Yes, you can hum along to Johnny Lee in his classic country song...
Make, not manage, change
Are you a slasher? Specifically, a leader/change maker? The changing face of work and workers emboldens slashing. In her book One Person/Multiple Careers: The Original Guide to the Slash Career (Volume 1), author Marci Alboher explained that slashers integrate their...
Are you hearing enough?
What does it mean to “listen” in a virtual world? It’s definitely different than in real life, and probably more compromised than I’d like to admit. Here’s what got me thinking about this. While emailing a colleague last week, I asked her if she had “talked” to Erin...
Why “SAFETY: Zero Injuries” succeeds and “Speak Up for Safety” fails
Words matter. However, words and other aspects of communication do not reliably spur action. Those who want to believe that communication is the answer to everything—especially inspiring others to change their behavior—need to dispel themselves of this dangerous myth....
