“I wonder why everyone looks completely checked out?” Susan thinks to herself, seeing nothing but yawns and phone checking among the 38 staff attending her late morning meeting. As the CEO of a technology startup, Terri couldn’t wait to share nine new revenue strategies she had for Q4. Yet despite all her enthusiasm for the rollout, she just couldn’t seem…
Read MoreIn the following Saturday Night Live sketch, we get to see just about everything that can go wrong in a Zoom meeting. Yet some planning and structure can turn the most average video-conference into an engaging and results-focused session that leaves no one wondering, “couldn’t this have been an email or a handout instead?” As a lot of working life…
Read MoreYou’ve just sat through your sixth Zoom meeting this week. You’ve been presenting, running gatherings, or just sitting and listening to others speak for what seems like endless hours on end. With reduced mobility, excessive eye-contact, and increased cognitive load, Zoom fatigue is real. A report by the Goodman Center found that videoconferences take up too much of working life,…
Read MoreWhen my kids were little, I’d get home from a long day at work and collapse on our living room couch. The minute my joints and tendons thanked me for this act, my youngest would come running to me from another room, sobbing. “My brother came into the room and took my sheepy toy and threw it and then yelled…
Read More“I can’t get Terry in finance to return my calls, he doesn’t seem interested in our new AI training program and must want our department to get less funding this year,” says Sarah, the head of talent development at a nonprofit, to one of her colleagues in marketing. A week goes by and Terry’s name and number pops up on…
Read MoreI have a secret to share. Just as there are movie critics, I’m a meeting critic. I don’t think there’s a meeting I’ve sat through in the past decade that I haven’t dissected like a 10th grade biology student examining a frog. It doesn’t matter if it’s a monthly scheduled meeting, an impromptu gathering among three people, or a general…
Read MoreDuring a crisis or other difficult event, you’ve probably had someone say to you “Breathe In, Breathe Out.” Or some other mantra reminding you to not relinquish your own needs by, for instance, “Putting on your own oxygen mask first.” These sayings are useful, as self-care builds resilience during both good and bad times. As a measured variable with lots…
Read More“To be playful is not to be trivial or frivolous, or to act as if nothing of consequence will happen. On the contrary, when we are playful with one another, we relate as free persons, and the relationship is open to surprise; everything that happens is of consequence, for seriousness is a dread of the unpredictable outcomes of open possibility….
Read MoreOut today in The Fulcrum, former elected official Joey Novick and I write that every political candidate and public figure needs improv training. Why? Here’s an excerpt from our article: “The term ‘improv’ can bring up many different associations, so it’s important to clarify exactly what we mean here. In the political world, we see two extremes that continue to…
Read MoreBack when I was in college, I spent several summers selling used pre-owned cars at a dealership in sunny Southern California. After a lot of moving and a career change, my dad found himself in the car business for several years and told me his workplace was always looking for frontline salespeople. My previous summer job involved wrangling rogue shopping…
Read More