If you are really going to make me add a 90-minute commute to my workday, I’ll have to work for an hour and a half less. Fine. As long as we’re not counting billable hours, I’ll exchange productivity for whatever benefits you decide result from water cooler conversation. Also fine. I’ll catch the bus, ride the elevator, park myself at my workstation, and wait for you to drop by my office with a creative idea that never would have happened if not face-to-face.

Knowing what to do is easy. Executing is hard. Insight activates different competencies than action. The analysis phase of problem solving is fun. Brainstorm alternatives. Weigh pros and cons. Eventually, though, you have to act on an option. Here’s where things get dicey. Taking action means being responsible for the consequences of that decision. Most often, this stage requires a tolerance for change.

For most of us, learning happens every day. Most often, lessons arise from experiences rather than formal teacher-student alliances. Focused attention to the environment always illuminates or validates. When we build a connection with our surroundings, new pathways to growth open up. The same is true for formal pedagogy. It is the connection between student and teacher that becomes the ecosystem for exploration and discovery.

During turbulence, the flight attendant’s role is to portray calm. Even if they are freaking out, their job is to stay poised under stress. Airline passengers watch them carefully because, if they appear concerned, it’s time to pull down the O2 masks. With great power comes great responsibility (Voltaire 1784/Spiderman 2002). Whether asserted 240 or 22 years ago, the message is the same: If you are in a position of leadership, grow up.

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.