Blog
The Collaborative Worker is the Most Valuable Asset of the 21st Century Company: Why Knowledge Was Never Enough
“This will never work!” That is what the executive sponsor told me when I suggested creating dedicated cross-disciplinary teams that spanned across functional departments at the company. Heavily influenced by traditionalist organizational thinking, many of this...
Best practices are dead. Long live better practices.
I used to be in love with the idea that there is a best way to do something. Perhaps you love that idea too? I’ll be honest, I find deep comfort in the concept of best — the best deal, the right answer, the perfect fit, the best choice. Exhibit A: Brandi Olson and The...
Reframing Your Midday Lull in Productivity Is Actually the Key to a Better Work Day
It’s the middle of the day and you’ve already been in a few meetings and crushed the first part of your to-do list. You feel a yawn coming on and immediately leap from your desk. Up first, 50 jumping jacks. Actually, make it 100. Lunch is a quick salad — no carbs...
Modern Management’s Fetish That’s Getting in the Way of Your Success
As a Western society, we are steeped in the belief that being a high-performer means doing more, all at once. We’ve been conditioned to attach enormous value to being endlessly busy, and we conflate being busy with being important. We’re expected to wear the long...
The Actual Reason Everyone Is Exhausted at Work and the Problem with Juggling Water
I’d like you to imagine something. As your manager, I’ve just given you a pitcher of water and tasked you with taking it from one side of the room to another. Accomplishing the goal is important, but quality also matters, so you can’t spill a drop. Oh, and of course,...
4 Ways to Cultivate Human-Centered Accountability in Your Organization
When I teach organizations how to build self-managing, high-performing agile teams, one question ALWAYS comes up. It’s always a variation on: but how will we hold people accountable? Accountability — it’s an always-favorite buzzword in the workspace. A panacea for the...
The Cultural Illusion That’s Keeping Your Organization Inefficient
During a recent live podcast discussion, my client had a confession for me: Her organization was in the process of shifting to a 4-day work week and the mood of the team wasn’t what she was initially expecting. Sure, there was a little excitement over the thought of...
The Active Ingredient Every High Performing Team Needs
How do you create the spark that elevates a perfectly decent team to a truly high performing team? How does a team create a dynamic that allows everyone to consistently show up and ship their very best work? And how do you create conditions so fulfilling that your...
How to recognize and cultivate psychological safety in your organization (and why it’s vital that you do).
“How can leaders recognize whether their organization cultivates psychological safety?” I was recently asked this question during a panel discussion, and I was thrilled the topic made its way into the conversation. Because the cultivation of psychological safety —...
What can you control when the future is unpredictable?
Welcome to December, where winter has arrived in my part of the far northern hemisphere. It’s impossible to predict exactly when the snow will arrive and how the winter season will settle in, but every single year snow eventually comes. This year is no exception. I...
Prioritize Your Change Capital Investment
I'll give you a quick example of how I saw this play out for an organization that I've been working with for the last year. This is a data analytics firm, and they had been planning on doing a big organizational redesign. They were going to take their hundred...
What Is Your Baton?
I love track and field events. I am captivated by the speed, strategy, and in the case of the relay races, by the collaboration required to pass a baton at record speeds. But, watching the 4x400 relay race at the 2016 Olympic Games, I couldn’t keep my eyes off all of...