A Fresh Perspective

When Do We Actually Need to Meet in Person?

As company leaders grapple with what a return to the office should look like, they should take the opportunity to think carefully about which parts of work should be done in person, which should be virtual, and which can benefit from a mix, then can design… Continue reading


A Time For Kindness: Supporting Employee Mental Health in the Era of COVID-19

By: Julia Gorham and Dan Waldman Organizations benefit from actively fostering kindness. In workplaces where acts of kindness become the norm, the spillover effects can multiply fast. When people receive an act of kindness, they pay it back, research shows … Continue reading


How to Nail a Hybrid Presentation

What can leaders do to make hybrid presentations more inclusive and more successful? What can we do to ensure that all participants — those remote and in person — not only feel included and addressed — but can participate fully and add maximum value to the discussion? The authors offer seven strategies for presenters and meeting leaders to more effectively engage everyone in their hybrid audience. Continue reading


Designing the Post-Pandemic Meeting

  by: Rae Ringel and Maya Bernstein Long before COVID-19, businesses around the world were grappling with a problem – how do you run a meeting when some participants are on the screen while others are in the office? Typically, … Continue reading


5 Steps to Stay Focused When Teaching Online

by Rae Ringel, Brian Tarallo, and Lauren Green   t’s only noon; you’re halfway through teaching your third virtual class of the day, and you just can’t take it anymore. Even with the air conditioning on full blast and slurping … Continue reading


VIRTUAL MEETINGS: It’s all about the numbers

The math is different when you’re planning for a virtual meeting! Here’s some rules of thumb to keep in mind. Cut your expected outcomes by half. If you were planning to do eight things with the participants in person, plan … Continue reading


Human Capital in the Age of Amazement: Reflections on Ted2018

When Muriel Rukeyser, American poet and political activist, wrote that “…the universe is made of stories, not of atoms,” she touched upon a particularly salient point in the enduring tension between humanity and science, and, perhaps even more pertinent, between … Continue reading


Plan a Better Meeting with Design Thinking

Maya and I are delighted to share our first published article in Harvard Business Review, “Plan a Better Meeting with Design Thinking.” There is great food for thought here for all of us about how to think ahead – and think … Continue reading


Look for the Offers

The Guest Blog Post is brought to you by Lisa Kay Solomon, Managing Director for Transformational Practices and Leadership at Singularity University.  Singularity University is a global community of leaders, innovators and change makers who are using exponential technologies to … Continue reading


Listen Up: The Easiest Way to Change Everything

We’ve heard a lot about listening during this presidential campaign season. Candidates like Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, John Kasich and Ted Cruz went on official “listening tours,” while others held intimate “town hall” meetings between rowdy campaign rallies. The candidates … Continue reading


The Power of Pause

We’re in it now. The fast and furious push before summer. Five day work weeks. Projects in full swing. Spring cleaning at home. The kids in final exams. We are buckled down, on our to-do lists, getting things done, going … Continue reading


Your Facilitation Playbook

Predictions suggest 115 million viewers will tune in for this month’s Super Bowl, the annual championship game of the National Football League. But even when the stands are empty, championships are made at battering practices punctuated by sweat-soaked pads and … Continue reading


What if Peyton Manning Ran Your Next Meeting?

We don’t hold meetings on a football field, but great quarterbacks do. Five-time league MVP Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos can teach us a lot about facilitation. He dedicates extraordinary preparation to his sport, but will shift his team … Continue reading


Give. Better. Feedback.

  Want to be a better boss, teacher, or overall human being? Learn how to give constructive feedback. Getting this skill right can be the difference between success and failure in your business and personal relationships.
If it were easy, there … Continue reading


The Power of Narrative: A Fresh Perspective on Driving Results

Storytelling is the oldest form of entertainment. Good stories tap in to our deep-seated need to make sense of the world. In today’s information age — with its relentless focus on data and ROI — it’s easy to lose sight … Continue reading


"Patterns if left unquestioned become our prisons."
- Dewitt Jones