LinkedIn offered to rewrite my blog post using AI before I pressed the ‘publish’ key. While I declined, I wondered at what stage of the process I would cease to be the author of my own article. Presumably, the AI tool would make it more readable and likely reach more readers. A better blog could be achieved if I was willing to relinquish authorship. Beyond the philosophical debate around AI, it got me thinking about basic creativity and collaboration.

Parents, teachers, mentors, and consultants live life on the fragile surface of a pedestal. It’s only a matter of time before they become human in the eyes of their children, students, followers, and clients. In the beginning of the relationship, their wisdom seems out of reach. Eventually, the gap narrows.

Whenever two or more people come together, they share something. Connections between humans – of any size and shape – are each woven together with common threads.

…twenty years ago, right? And the second best day is…drumroll… today. This well-worn adage applies to almost anything we wish we’d known or done in hindsight. It’s the very nature of an epiphany – the sudden flush of clarity only lasts until you realize how obvious it should have been. Very few teams enjoy the gifts of launching their culture from scratch and building the right norms and values from day one. In reality, most teams are stuck fixing something that someone else broke.

It’s natural to crave power if you feel empty and weak. And there are countless ways to feed that monster. Most bullies would have to face the cold, dark reality of their low self-esteem if they didn’t have someone to push around. Making others feel small, excluded, or afraid is their currency. Unfortunately, they are all-too-often empowered by their work environments. Usually, the culprits are found in three ‘f-words.’

Our twice-monthly posts are designed to spark dialogue. The voice of the reader caps the blog posts for 2023. Based on these subjective analytics, here are the insights that prompted our readers to elevate conversations.

Those of us who keep bookmarks in more than one book are at risk for spending more time learning than we are actually applying the lessons to daily life. Many of the books I absorb and recommend to others (including the books I’ve authored) tell you what to do and why to do it. They don’t, however, activate change on their own. Insight and action are very different competencies.

The growth mindset approach doesn’t work very well with people who have decided to stop growing. It’s the classic H.R. interview when the candidate claims ten years of experience only to discover they’ve accrued one year ten times. It happens with individuals, couples, teams, and organizations – they sacrifice development in lieu of whatever the benefits of staying the same are. Sadly, it equates to the choice to die early.

There is simply nothing more fundamental to relationships and team wellness than trust. It is also the hardest element of connection to both earn and maintain. Since everyone has been burned at some point in their past, it often only takes a small breach to devolve the connection back to negative territory. The chance that a teammate will lower their guard again after a violation, no matter how minor, is slim. You had – and lost – your chance.

Who would you put up to bat in the bottom of the ninth with bases loaded and down by a run? Would you deploy the player who is eager for the chance or the teammate who fears pressure? Expectations influence outcomes. If you think your project is likely to fail, the chances of failure increase. Likewise, if you expect success, your odds go up. Why is this true?

When you consider the fight/flight/freeze options that our instincts select, remember that you don’t have a choice. When an emergency occurs, no one stops to consider their response options. Our next action (or inaction) is already wired into our neurology. You’ll either go toward, escape, or become a statue with all five senses consuming data. Look back on any crisis in your history and review your response if you are interested in learning how you are built.

The Tiffany Dome was originally crafted in 1897 when the current Chicago Cultural Center opened as the then Chicago Public Library. At 38 feet in diameter, the dome holds 62,000 pieces of glass inside 243 sections. A complete restoration was finished in 2008, allowing natural light to enter the space that had been blocked since the previous restoration in the 1930’s. Teams of all shapes and sizes can learn a few things from this wide-scale, multiphase project.