Here’s something everyone already knows, but no one does enough of. In August of 2009, the mountain rescue team I volunteer for was called to recover the body of a man who died on the summit of a 14,000 foot peak. The mission was remarkable because of the heroic attempts of the hikers who were on the peak at the time to save the man’s life after he had an apparent heart attack; they performed CPR for 45 minutes, working together as a team. (If you’re interested in hearing more about it, here’s a previous blog entry on the subject) We made a big deal out of it; we sent commendations to the hikers from the county Sheriff, we wrote an article about it for the local newspaper, and we posted the story on our blog and social media sites. Then, three months later, this past December, we were called…
People often ask me why the focus of my training and consulting business is on teambuilding. “Isn’t that kind of a narrow specialty, given all the things you…
Bill Clinton was interviewed for Newsweek’s end-of-year issue, and he said some very interesting things. “…you have to believe that in an interdependent world, what we have in common…
Much has been written lately about the benefits of volunteering, and how it can help job seekers make valuable connections in their job search. I’d like to add a point…
As I get older and branch into different areas in my career, I notice a trend in how people handle internal and external communications; it became particularly obvious…
I’m a volunteer on a local mountain rescue team and for years, our process for prospective members has been, well, “loosey goosey” to say the least. People show…
We all talk about how diversity can engender creativity and innovation in a work group or team, but my observation is that in many organizations, we seek out diverse…
Every organization I’ve ever been involved in seems to have the same challenge: no one wants to give each other honest feedback. When someone’s behavior bothers us, we…
Whitney Johnson’s article Can Nice Girls Negotiate? on the Harvard Business Publishing website made me mad. Not because I disagree with her; it’s her topic that gets me…
A fascinating article in last week’s edition of Newsweek explores why Israel produces more successful tech companies and more cutting edge technology than anywhere else in the world. Read the…
I know some of you will roll your eyes at this, but I love workplace holiday parties. Or rather, I love holiday workplace parties in organizations where the…
Sometimes when teams are not functioning well, we search for deeper answers than we need to. Sometimes it’s just a matter of revisiting group norms and making sure…
I was in a teambuilding session earlier this week, leading an exercise in “balancing inquiry and advocacy”. If you’re not familiar with the work of Peter Senge, this…
I was in a teambuilding session recently, asking the participants a question about their group norms, and one of the newer members of the team said, “I’m still…
I was a ski instructor for about six years, and one of the first things I learned to tell new skiers was, “Your skis want to go where your eyes…
Sometimes people challenge me about being a diversity awareness trainer, especially on the specific topic of generational diversity. They say that talking about various types of diversity is…
I’ve seen a lot of blogs and articles and Linkedin discussions about gossip over the past six months. Most of the articles I’ve read focus on the destructive power…
I spent this past week facilitating a series of meetings for a government group of scientists who were going through a reorganization. Most had been based in regional field offices…
Never heard of adventure racing? It’s the best metaphor for corporate teamwork that I know. A group of people, usually four, must travel from point to point to…
I don’t think I’ve ever worked in a organization where people didn’t complain that meetings were boring and they hated them. (Unless it was because meetings were adversarial…