March 11, 2019
In a series of articles, we’ve explored some reasons to consciously act on developing our empathic skills. We cannot expect to extend our empathy to others in the fullest sense unless we are capable of giving it to ourselves first. The reality is that we are often as hard on ourselves as we are on others. We’ve often joked that if we sat […]
March 1, 2019
Every day countless words are dedicated to writing about the economics of work. The conversation about the future of work is a perennial “hot topic.” But when it comes to exploring the meaning of work, the search engine slows down. It’s a challenging task because what we call work has changed dramatically in the last generation. Just as when the […]
January 11, 2019
Do you know about the marshmallow test? No, it’s not about seeing how many marshmallows you can toast and eat by the fire. It’s the classic Marshmallow Study conducted in 1968 at Stanford University by clinical psychologist Walter Mischel that became one of the longest running experiments in psychology. The initial study examined 600 children to see how they would […]
October 14, 2018
“Fear is an aggressive predator of joy and creativity in the workplace.” Terence Deal & M.K. Key The price tag on fear is high – for business and our own well-being. Emotional contagion is real. Fear is catchy. Old fears get easily activated. The way we talk to ourselves is a critically important factor in how we activate our fears. External […]
October 7, 2018
Despite the worn-out demands that the workplace is no place for “”personal feelings,” people bring all of their unresolved emotional baggage to work – and there is little we can do about that. Outmoded collective beliefs that endure like – work life and personal life should be separate – speak to a lack of knowledge about the new science of emotions […]
June 11, 2018
“The question in an imperfect competitive reality is: how do we move forward together? Kevin Roberts, CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi It’s not rare for us to hear some people we work admit – I just don’t care about some of the people I work with. Thankfully, these people are not the norm. Without question, the endless […]
December 12, 2017
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 […]
February 4, 2016
Trust is a fragile and complex thing. It’s a dynamic process made up of our thoughts, beliefs, values, feelings and most important – our actions. It is often indefinable, highly personal and mostly an unconscious process that governs the why and how of what we do. Although trust, at all levels, appears to be at an all time low – […]
October 11, 2015
Ever since I began to work in the business world, the term “soft skills” always felt off to me. The more I come to appreciate the complexity of human dynamics, the more off it feels. In my experience, there is nothing soft or easy about mastering people skills. In fact, when I look around, especially in the workplace, clear and effective […]