Vision, Mission, and Values Part 2: Creating a Vision
When you ask yourself, “What mountain do we want to climb?” What you are really asking is, “What big problem would we love to solve?” Or, “What kind of world would we love to live in?” If everything went right over the next 1, 3, 5, or 10 years, what would you have solved through […]
Growing a Community is Never Passive
What started as the magic ingredient needed to save their community became a logistical nightmare. Through a mutual connection, the head of a large community of e-commerce sellers invited me to lunch. The purpose of the meeting was to see if we could help them buck their negative member retention rates. The organization had steadily […]
Supporting Ukraine One Day At A Time
With devastation happening in Ukraine, we still find #TeamHuman moments. From a young girl singing, a violinist playing for her fellow bunker mates, a reporter helping the elderly, and an arena supporting a Ukrainian soccer player, we see you, we recognize what you are going through, and we are here for you. So keep your […]
Picking a Social Platform for Your Community Hub
For weeks, we have been posting content to our private Facebook group for student leaders, and even though it had over 2000 members, no one responded to any of the content. With each passing day, we felt disheartened, thinking that we were not great at creating engaging content. It turns out that wasn’t the case. […]
Is Your Team a Bunch of Dumb Rats?
While preparing for an upcoming program with a group of campus leaders, I asked the Director of Orientation if anything in particular stood out about her group of students. She replied, “I don’t know what it is about this year, or this group, but they just aren’t into it. They seem low energy, low passion, […]
8 Universal Factors of Employee Engagement
Engagement is a tricky thing to measure because there are many factors that can play into an employee’s overall engagement. Each company will want to measure engagement in its own way, based on the company values and culture. Apple will care about different things than Facebook. It’s important for leaders to understand the key factors […]
A Magic Trick for Remembering Names – And Why It Matters
After five hours of working with a group of 40 people, I ended my training with a little magic trick. One-by-one, I walked up to each person and said “Thank you for being here…Sandy. Thank you for being here… Seth. Thank you for being here… Randi.” I kept going around the room until I thanked […]
Is Your Power Making You Lose Your Heart?
Jonas recently was promoted to a manager position at a nationwide furniture store. One of his responsibilities was to oversee the internship program for the company. In his first performance review as manager, his biggest complaint was how taxing overseeing the internship program was for him. He ranted about how long it took for the […]
Fun Is The Easiest Way To Change Someone’s Behavior
A group of psychologists seated themselves between a staircase and an escalator in a U.S. shopping mall to run a study. They set out to answer two questions: What percentage of people choose stairs over an escalator when given the choice between the two? How would behavior change if people were made aware of the […]
The Failed Promise of Open Office Spaces
Innocently enough, a co-worker of mine recently asked me about a meal replacement shake I was having for lunch. While I was explaining the finer points of the ingredients, another co-worker overheard our conversation from her desk in our open office space and chimed in. Moments later, another co-worker made a sarcastic comment about my […]