December 12, 2017

Communicating Intentionally ~ the Basics

  Photo by Ali Kazal on Unsplash The Intentional Workplace blog began with this post. What could be more basic than to understand the nature of communication? But more important, how we communicate and why. The message was simple but seems to grow more important every day  – everything comes down to how we communicate.  All the things that we want and need start […]
December 6, 2017

Resolving Conflict: Going Beyond "Who Started It?"

“When patterns are broken new worlds emerge” Tuli Kuperberg What does a “who dunnit” in a work team have to do with a global conflict, or for that matter, any conflict? Looking at any major conflict one easily sees that they are usually convoluted, long-standing and seemingly intractable. Too often, most attempts at dealing with conflict boil down to these “strategies” […]
March 11, 2017

Listen, are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?  

Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver’s haunting question should become a mantra for life in the 21st century. Seemingly inured to stress, too many of us speed through each day without taking the time to stop and ask – what have I traded a day of my life for today? Jumping on the mindfulness bandwagon dozens of articles still ask, “Can […]
January 21, 2017

You are Hard-Wired for Altruism

Through the tragic events and natural disasters of the past decades we’ve seen  extraordinary outpourings of help and compassion for neighbors – and most important, strangers. Tragic events seem to galvanize our empathy and evoke great acts of kindness in response. In the past decade we have also been the beneficiaries of valuable findings from research to better understand the motives […]
December 5, 2016

Empathy Killers

In doing some research on empathy I came across this article and found myself  so “hooked” by it that I sat down to write this piece. Nicholas Kristof’s compelling New York Times article, Where is the Love, discusses the pushback he’s received from many readers on food stamp recipients, prison inmates and the uninsured.  Writing about hungry children, Kristof shares […]
December 1, 2016

Your Business Needs are Not the Same as Your Personal Needs

“People who are in touch with their needs do not make good slaves.”   Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D Needs are basic to life. Everything we feel and do is in service to our needs. In the moment to moment biological imperative to meet our needs we make choices – thousands of choices. Every choice we make is an attempt to satisfy […]
November 24, 2016

Talking Emotional Literacy

   “The publication of Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, marked a turning point in popular culture. Finally, emotions were deemed critical to human intelligence. Ironically, the book presents a model of emotional intelligence that is founded in the subordination of emotions to reason.” Miriam Greenspan, Healing Through the Dark Emotions Wine Connoisseurs know that there is a vast array of wines […]
November 21, 2016

Creating a Culture of Gratitude in the Workplace

We seem to get the “gratitude spirit” during the end of year holiday season. We hear the heart-felt stories about kindness and giving start to appear.  Tis’ the season, so to speak.   It’s a time when even the busiest and most cynical among us pause (even if only for a short time) and reflect.   But too often, the feelings of […]
September 30, 2016

Do “Sensitive” Men Get Overlooked in Business?

Let’s face it, there isn’t much written about “nice” guys and “sensitive” men in the workplace. One of the rare articles exploring ideas about your “atypical” workplace male was explored in the Harvard Business Review article, “Sensitive Men: It’s Your Glass Ceiling,” by Andrew O’Connell. The article raised some interesting questions and assumptions that present a starting point for the […]