One day a guy named Charlie Todd orchestrated a “no pants” subway ride. Seven friends stationed themselves at different subway stops in New York City, and one by one they boarded the same subway car, wearing boxer shorts and no pants on a cold January day. They pretended not to know each other. At the eighth stop, a woman boarded the train with a large canvas bag and announced she had pants for sale, and each of the seven men bought a pair, saying something like, “Thank you, that’s exactly what I needed today.” A hidden camera records the hilarious reactions of some of the passengers on the car that day. Todd’s Ted talk video goes on to showcase several more absurd and entertaining public stunts by his group “Improv Everywhere,” including 70 orchestrated dancers in shop windows, people dressed like ghost busters running through the NY public library, and…
It has always intrigued me, ever since college, that when you are inspired by a new idea or a new field of study you begin to see references…
Lots of people have written about Marissa Mayer’s startling decision to ban telecommuting at Yahoo over the past few weeks. I think the best articles are the ones…
Several years ago I blogged about work-life balance and said that everyone has a different idea of what it really means. Actually, it was a rant about how…
A recent Wall Street Journal column by Bruce Feiler, Family Inc., lists some great examples of families taking workplace team building and productivity models and using them to…
My topic today is a little out of the norm for me: travel advice for my fellow business travelers. Over the past year, I have discovered some fantastic…
Here’s a TED talk worth watching: http://www.ted.com/talks/karen_thompson_walker_what_fear_can_teach_us.html. Fiction writer Karen Thompson Walker talks about what fear has in common with storytelling: characters, plots, imagery, and suspense. Many…
I used to write goals every January with my good friend Susan (not her real name), whom I’ve written about lately. We would each come up with four…
Recently I heard from an old friend whom I hadn’t talked to in a while. He had moved back to the east coast from Colorado and dropped me…
The Accidental Tourist is one of my favorite movies, and I especially love the part when William Hurt’s character says something like, “I’ve come to realize that what…
It amazes me that I often still facilitate workshops and meetings in which the majority of participants have never heard of TED. So in case you’re one of…
I get a lot of requests for virtual team building classes to teach managers how to effectively manage a team that is not co-located. At first I thought…
Of all the workshops I facilitate, my favorite thing is the last day of a presentation skills class, because that’s when I spend all day watching the participants…
Why is it so hard, sometimes, to get out of the mindset that we are powerless to change our circumstances at work? When I teach a team building…
After a long struggle, including surgery, 15 different medications and about $5000 in vet bills, my dog Jave is blind and we have given up the fight. Jave…
I have been besieged by unbelievably bad customer service experiences recently. Yes, I teach customer service workshops and yes, I believe that probably does make me a little…
Monday morning, 11:00 AM I struggle to keep up as Teri Smith and Don Mann run faster. The sun shines through the trees and lights up the leaf-strewn…
Recently I started trail running, mountain biking and paddling after a three-year hiatus. My focus has been on hiking with my dog these past few years, but due…
A couple months ago I read Daniel Gilbert’s new book Stumbling on Happiness, and I’ve been troubled ever since. I read it because it seemed like everyone was…
This is Jave, the new mascot for Tango Training’s sister company New England Crane School. Why does he look so serious? The published answer, to be found in…