Too Much Togetherness Is Killing Team Productivity
When the group broke out in a fight over who got the green kayak, I knew it was bad. At one point in my life, I ran an academic and life skills summer sleep-away camp. You know, the kind with friendship bracelets, ropes courses, and a suspicious amount of bug spray. The kids would show […]
Your Team Needs To Act More Like Vampire Bats
No, I’m not telling you to ask HR to start putting pints of blood in the break room. Stay with me.. Vampire bats have a bizarre survival strategy that’s surprisingly relevant to your team. In the wild, if a bat fails to feed one night, it doesn’t just cross its wings and hope for better […]
Would You Spill Your Feelings to a Robot? Your Team Might Already Be Doing It
Turns out, the most empathetic ‘person’ on your team might be a chatbot. I was recently working with a company exploring ways to support employee mental health as a way to increase employee engagement. Their HR lead put it bluntly: “Our EAP (Employee Assistance Program) is a ghost town, and no one wants to be […]
How to Break Up Office Cliques Without Breaking Your Culture
The one rule we had to repeat every year to our staff was, “No summer camp love connections!” This was part of a 10-day summer program I helped run for high school and college students. We trained the staff on how to help the students connect, but never too much. Why? Because if two students […]
11 Creative Ways to Celebrate a Birthday via Zoom: Building Human Connection in a Digital Workspace
When our team closed our physical office during the COVID pandemic and first transitioned to remote work, our birthday celebrations became an afterthought as a quick message in the group chat or a shout out during the virtual daily team huddle. Overall it lacked the kind of love, care, and appreciation that came from in-person […]
Stop Blaming Your Team, You Might Be The Issue
The dude was sleeping… right there in the front row of my keynote speech! After over 20 years of professional speaking and 1000s of programs, I’ve never seen someone pull a full-on nap during one of my talks—especially in the front row! My first reaction was to call for a bucket of cold water. For […]
Save your money: Build a strong team culture with Micro-Actions
Take a moment and look at this table with marbles on it. Do you see over 50 marbles or less than 50 marbles? When it comes to engagement and building a Culture of Connection™, it actually doesn’t matter which answer you choose. The simple act of picking a number and potentially finding others who share […]
Escape the Office, Ignite Your Strategy: Why Offsite Retreats Are Worth Every Penny
A client recently faced a dilemma: host their upcoming strategy retreat in their familiar (and free!) office space, or splurge on an offsite location. It was a classic case of “save money” vs. “spend money.” After some discussion, they chose the latter. This reminds me of a time when a university invited me to speak […]
The Remote Work Engagement Crisis: How Leaders Can Turn the Tide
AI Crashed My Virtual Team-Building Party. I recently found myself staring into the abyss—or rather, a grid of blank Zoom squares. I was hired to inject some life into a remote team struggling with disengagement, so I eagerly anticipated 20 faces ready for connection. Instead, five sent their AI note-takers (rude!), seven hid behind camera-off […]
Is Your Company Culture Rotten to the Core? Here’s How to Fix It:
Is your company culture more toxic than a reality TV reunion? Every company has a culture, whether they realize it or not. It’s the personality of your organization, the shared values and beliefs that shape how people behave. And just like people, cultures can be healthy or the workplace equivalent of that coworker who microwaves […]