Spending or Investing?
When did paying the piper become a better investment than paying attention? A recent client discussion about the significance of leadership development, particularly emotional intelligence among the partners, and the frustration that getting the time invested to elevate the firm was elusive. A separate event occurred where a client email miscommunication turned into a [...]
Who’s the Thief?
If your accounting manager was shaving money off into their own account each month - would you terminate immediately upon discovery? If your receptionist was taking home firm silverware every day and not returning it - would you terminate immediately upon discovery? If your project has a team member that has checked out of [...]
Rewarding Busy
I’ve talked about the downside of using “busy” as your answer to “how are you?”. The vague answer implies that whatever you are doing is more important than the person who is engaging you. And it has become a badge of honor to “be busy”. In reality, we are creating a stronger sense of [...]
Disconnecting Productivity from Paranoia
It has been three years now. Three years ago we started this rethinking where we work, and how productivity is beyond a single shared space. We are still adapting, and many of us struggling with not seeing colleagues, missing ad hoc conversations that were both bonding and learning opportunities, and general feelings of loneliness [...]
Change Champions
Here we are, once again, talking about change. Not the quarters and dimes in your (virtual) pockets, but the very real and necessary progression for internal processes, performance, and people. We look for early adopters to help catapult the rest of our folks forward, and I wonder if we rely on the same people [...]
Finding Happiness
In 1998 the psychology world began exploring what it would mean to have a fulfilling life after many years of focus on unhappiness and mental unwell-being. By the year 2000 more than 400 articles had been published on happiness, and how to achieve it. Most of those were focused on what to do to have the [...]
Meeting Mania
According to Harvard Business Review the average workday increased about 8% in the pandemic, or about 50 minutes per day. Emails were up about 5% per day and people had about 13% more meetings each day (although each meeting shortened by 12%). I enjoy exploring our world of work through the data we gather about our [...]
The Economics of Time
"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." - William Penn I was part of a practice group retreat recently where the topic of conversation was about how we relate to time. I have talked about how we try to compete on time, which is finite and offers no competition because the [...]
Controversy or Courage?
Malcolm Gladwell recently slammed the work-from-home concept, and he has taken a lot of heat as a result. I have read a few of the articles that rendered him out of touch and elitist in his comments, and wonder if there is more than the polarized approach of adopting his perspective or repelling it. The [...]
Perfect Imperfections
A stroll through my kitchen for a refill of my water led me to overhear a meeting between my wife and a colleague. The question they were discussing was this: “Are you comfortable with imperfect movement on this project?” The response was, “let’s talk about that”. I went back to my office and pondered the [...]