April 16, 2026

Are You Listening? The Essentials of Real Listening

“Some lucky people seem to have a magic touch when it comes to getting people to buy into their plans, goals and desires. But, in reality, reaching people isn’t magic. It’s an art…and a science.  And it’s easier than you think.”   Mark Goulston, author, Just Listen Yes, we all know that listening is important. It is considered, by broad […]
June 27, 2024

Emotional Intelligence, 20+ Years On Part 2

Continuing the conversation started in Part 1 of this article – several key questions keep surfacing.  One is the often unspoken tension between EI (Emotional Intelligence) and what is typically thought of as “therapy.” For anyone who has been involved in a therapeutic process, it’s immediately clear that learning and applying EI principles is very different from being “in therapy.” […]
June 17, 2024

People at Work ~ I Want To Know More About You

Ask me what is most important. And I will reply, It is people, It is people, It is people Maori Proverb You read a lot these days about the need for new workplace models. There is a growing consensus that decades of rigid, bottom line management structures kill the culture necessary for real collaborative relationships. The old models are broken: […]
October 17, 2023

Switching on Compassion: News from Neuroscience

There’s lots of compelling information that has emerged from neuroscience about compassion. That’s good news because, frankly, we need it. You see, the really good news is that we’re hard-wired for compassion. Speaking at a conference in Telluride, Colorado, The Science of Compassion: Origins, Measures and Interventions, sponsored by Stanford University Medical School’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research, Stephen Porges, Ph.D. presented […]
April 11, 2023

Emotional Baggage at Work

In truth, we all start, somewhere, within a family system. The experience is universal and lifelong. We all bring it – we all have it. It is a matter of degree – and awareness. In every interaction we have at work, we bring our internal and interpersonal dynamics to the table. Family, culture, generation and other demographic imprints with us. […]
February 6, 2023

Emotional Intelligence is over 20 years old – what have we learned?

In 1995, Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ by Daniel Goleman was published. The introduction of Emotional Intelligence (EI) generated excitement and hope. It’s time to look at the progress and future of this work. As a student of psychology and social systems, EI (Emotional Intelligence) had immediate resonance with my experience and offered some of what I believed […]
August 11, 2022

Stop Driving Yourself to Distraction: Reclaim Your Sanity

“We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.”   ~ R.D Laing The Scottish psychologist, R.D Laing wrote these prescient words in 1970.  In our work we see an alarming increase of the effects of overwork and overwhelm on our clients.  Many of the […]
March 11, 2022

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 […]
December 6, 2021

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” […]