Communiqué Archive

Leadership & Management

Insights and strategies for effective leadership and management in virtual and hybrid environments.

Should They Stay (Remote) or Should They Go (Back to the Office)?

Costly Missteps that Destroy Trust During Times of Change

Tips for Earning Trust During Times of Change

You call that a team???

Tips for Conquering the Whiplash of Change

What? So What? Now What? – Today’s Workplace Trends and Why They Matter

Overcome the Worst Facilitation Fears of Introverts (and Everyone Else)

Why Coaches Make the Best Leaders in a Hybrid World

What Today’s Managers Really Need to Succeed in a Hybrid World

Before Attempting Big Change, First, Root Out the Dysfunction

Flexible, Productive and Collaborative: A Model Hybrid Workplace

Expanding and diversifying the talent pool, cultivating connections in a hybrid world

If you want employees to be more productive, let them choose where to work

Restoring Lost Connections in a Virtual World

What is “Business as Usual” Costing Your Organization?

Creating a Level Playing Field Across Your Hybrid-Remote Team

To Manage Difficult Behavior in Virtual Meetings, Be Diplomatic Yet Assertive

Virtual Meetings: Why Bother Showing Up If You’re Not Really Present?

When You’re Suddenly Forced to Go Virtual – An Essential Checklist

The Virtues of Failing Fast, in a Forward Direction

Now That’s Radical! Build a More Collaborative, Productive Team With More (Yes, More!) Meetings

Unconscious Bias: Just Because You Can’t See It, Others (Almost Certainly) Can

Easing the Pain of an Abrupt Transition, from Afar

How Feedback Can Stunt Growth, Stifle Learning and Encourage Mediocrity

Daring Leaders Build Trust by Peeling Away the Armor, Choosing Courage Over Comfort

Create a 12-Month Plan in Just Two Hours, With a Little Bit of Magic

Damage done: Leadership lessons from a fairytale team

Moving from Ideas to Action in a Virtual World

Making the Most of Bittersweet Endings, Tough Break-ups and Brand New Starts

How Mindful Leaders Keep Calm Under Pressure, Inspire Better Team Performance

How to Make Introverts and Extroverts Happy, and How to Drive Them Crazy

Coping With Travel Restrictions: When Meeting Face to Face Matters, and What To Do When You Can’t

Prove You’re Trustworthy – Here’s How, and Why It’s Critical to Make the Effort

Virtual Meeting Makeover – From Pretty Good to Simply Great with a Few Simple Changes

How Restorative Justice Concepts Can Make for Healthier Workplace Relationships

Great Gift Ideas Everyone on your Team Will Appreciate Now, and Later

How Timeshifting Truly Transformed a Top-Performing Virtual Team

Managing Performance from Afar Made Easier: 10 Tips for a Happier Outcome

It’s What People Aren’t Saying That Leaders Most Need to Hear

Making Virtual Meetings Come Alive: It’s Everyone’s Job!

How to Create a 12-Month Plan in Just Two Hours

Breaking the Wall of Silence in a Virtual World

7 Tips for Avoiding Another Epic (Project) Fail

Don’t Leave Remote Participants Hanging: 8 Tips for a Meeting of Equals

Prevent Thoughtless Habits From Squandering Your Team’s Time

10 Tips for Uber-Efficient Meetings – Making Every Minute Count

10 Tips for Overcoming Facilitation Fears

When it Comes to Giving, Little Things Mean a Lot

To Keep People Focused, Insist That They Multitask

From Jaded to Jazzed: Quick Tips for Sustaining Happy, Healthy Virtual Teams

How to Prevent ‘Unfair’ Decisions from Tearing Teams Apart

Leading remote teams: Influencing without authority

Hello, Goodbye: Maintaining momentum when team members come and go

Recognize and address early signs of virtual team dysfunction to avoid irrecoverable problems later

Get and Give What You Bargained for With Clear Agreements That Make Sense

Get New Team Members Up To Speed Quickly

Mentoring From Afar – Go the Distance To Grow Top Talent

Worth a Thousand Words: Connecting Virtual Teams Through Imagery and Metaphor

Drive Out Distractions and Reclaim Your Time

Six Management Practices That Don’t Cut It in a Virtual World

Cultivating Trust from Afar in Tough Times

Magic Numbers for Successful Teamwork

Guidelines for Great Global Team Meetings

Seven Attributes of an Exceptional Virtual Collaborator

Holding Back: A Counter-Intuitive Approach for Virtual Leaders

Leading vs. Managing Remote Teams

To speed decision-making, get rid of the noise

Designing a Distraction-Proof Virtual Meeting

Successful Virtual Collaboration Takes a Lot More Than Just the Right Tools

How to Tilt the Work-Life Balance in your Favor in a 24×7 World

10 Easy Ways to Disengage Your Virtual Team

6 Essential Guidelines for Making Better Decisions, Virtually

How Virtual Leaders Can Help Others Thrive in a World of Complexity

Balance Innovation and Expediency for a Supercharged Team

Untangle your Virtual Team with 10 Most-Needed Norms

Rewarding, Recognizing and Celebrating Achievements from Afar

From Bland and Boring to Captivating and Compelling

When Workloads Are Seriously Out of Whack – 11 Leadership Tips

9 Ways to Get (and Stay) Virtually Connected on a New Job

10 Top Tips for Leading Great Lessons Learned Reviews in a Virtual World

Tapping the Quiet Power of Introverts in a Virtual World

8 Great Year-Round (Free!) Gifts Everyone on Your Team is Guaranteed to Love

How a Simple Storyboard Helps Command Attention and Get Results (Virtually)

Draw Lines in the Sand to Jumpstart Virtual Team

Virtual & Hybrid Meetings

Best practices and tools for running engaging and productive virtual and hybrid meetings.

Creating, Restoring Lost Connections in a Hybrid World

Stop Letting Bad Behavior Derail Your Next Meeting

Real-world Strategies for Winning the Hybrid Game in 2024

(Free) Gifts that Keep on Giving Year-Round, at Work or Home

Timeless Tips for Designing and Facilitating Engaging Virtual (or Hybrid) Meetings

Why advancement, growth and visibility shouldn’t depend on work location

Getting Hybrid Right Takes Curiosity, Openness, Thoughtful Deliberation and (Lots of) Change Management

Tips for Creating a Remote-first Workplace to Make Life Easier for Everyone

Making Asymmetrical Meetings Work for Everyone

Seriously, Here’s How Improv Techniques Can Liven Up Any Virtual Meeting

Virtual Strategic Planning: The Silver Lining

Energize Your Next Virtual Meeting!

How to Create Opportunities for More Aha! Moments, for Yourself and Your Team

Stop Squandering Time With All Talk and No Action

Tackling Tough Issues Remotely, When Your Boss is the Problem

8 Ways to Stop Interruptions from Derailing Your Next Virtual Meeting

Eight essential ground rules for great remote meetings

Cutting to the Chase: 8 Essential Steps for Faster, More Engaging Meetings

Dealing with Disruptive Participants, Virtually

Virtual Meetings: Design for Worst-Case Scenarios for Best Outcomes

Structuring Successful Virtual Meetings: A Counterintuitive Approach

Team Collaboration

How to foster trust, communication, and collaboration in virtual and hybrid teams.

When Collaboration Becomes Way Too Much of a Good Thing

12 Tips for Building Trusting Relationships Across Your Virtual Team

Could You Be the Weak Link on Your Virtual Team?

Instantly Improve Your Team Communications by Overturning 9 Dangerous Myths

Stop Playing Favorites for a Stronger (Virtual) Team

Coalescing a New Team – Creating Ties That Bind

Proven in Practice – Top Tips Essential to Virtual Project Team Performance

Building Trust Within Virtual Teams – Small Steps Add Up

Overcoming Time and Distance to Stay Connected, Engaged and Energized

Who Moved My (Virtual) Water Cooler?

Nine Hidden Assumptions That Can Kill (Virtual) Collaboration

Productive Conversations

Techniques for facilitating constructive discussions, decision-making, and conflict resolution.

Facilitating Safe Conversations When Viewpoints Collide

Confronting Dysfunctional Behavior Without Completely Losing It

Confronting Conflict with Courage in Remote Teams

Bracing for Giving (and Getting) Difficult Feedback When You Can’t See Eye to Eye

How shared principles finally got a leadership team unstuck

How a Growing Pharma Blends Asynch, Real-time Communications to Boost Productivity

Practical Steps for Creating a Team Communications Map that Everyone Embraces

Create a Sense of Community with Questions That Connect

Stop Agonizing Over Tough Decisions to Save Your Sanity (and Maybe Even Your Pup!)

We Really, Really Need to Talk

When There’s No Going Back, Decide How to Move Forward

11 Tips for Avoiding the Toxicity of Relentless Positivity

20 Questions to Help Hybrid Teams Reduce Anxiety, Start Off Strong in 2022

To get people really talking, try these scripts

Active listening: Your influential superpower in a virtual world

Tips for creating win-win solutions virtually – Resolving conflicts when you can’t see eye to eye

Healthy Conversations Can Bring Virtual Teams Back To Life

Why Can’t Everyone Just Agree? 8 Tips for Building Consensus

Waffles vs. Spaghetti – Connecting Through Stories

When Things Fall Apart, Principles Can Bring Them Back Together

Ghosting Can Come Back to Haunt You – Here’s Why, and How to Avoid It

How to Deliver Tough Feedback in Ways Your Boss Can Hear It

Want to Accelerate Your Remote Team’s Project? Create a Communications Ecosystem!

How to Win Friends and Influence People When You’re Invisible

For Insightful Conversations, Learn How to Ask Great Questions

Wait! Was that Supposed to be Funny?! Depends!

Can’t We All Just Disagree? Reviving the Lost Art of Civilized Disagreement

Wait, What?! and 4 Other Essential Questions that Expand Thinking and Spark Conversation

Make Better Decisions with Less Pain, Virtually

Why Conversations Sometimes Feel Impossible and How to Bring Them Back

Combat Rude Behavior with Radical Civility

To Get People Talking, Try Asking the Right Questions

Fire Up Your Communications Mojo in a Virtual World

Avoiding the High Cost of Ambiguous Decisions

Just Because You’re Silent, You May Not Be Really Listening

7 Ways to Keep Stakeholders Close in a Virtual World

8 Steps for Facilitating Constructive Conflict, Virtually

Taking the Pain Out of Consensus-Building in Virtual Meetings

Speaking the Truth Not Always Easy in a Virtual World

Networking in a virtual world an essential skill for success

Real-time conversations crucial for networking in a virtual world

Open Communication, Mutual Respect Keys to Intergenerational Harmony

Building Relationships, One Conversation at a Time

You’d Be a Great (Virtual) Communicator If Only You Could Just Be Quiet

Speaking the Truth Not Always Easy in a Virtual World

Tools & Technology

Reviews and recommendations for technology to enhance virtual and hybrid collaboration.

How Video Meetings Mess with Your Head and How to Make it Better

Turn 9 Common Virtual Meeting Misconceptions Inside Out

Flip Your (Virtual) Meetings – Learning from Our Best Teachers

10 Tips for Picking the Best Tech Tools for Your Next Virtual Meeting

Ten must-know email tips for teams to make an impact and get results

Inclusion & Well-Being

Supporting mental health, inclusion, and equity in virtual and hybrid workplaces.

If you really want to be inclusive, here’s how to walk the talk

Maintaining True Equity in a Virtual/Hybrid World

Speaking up against microaggressions: Why it’s worth the risk

You say you want to be more inclusive? Prove it.

To Build Trust Within Virtual Teams, Psychological Safety Is Everything

How Inclusion and Integrity Foster More Productive Conversations, Reduce Bias in a Virtual World

Overcoming the Painful Loss of Casual (But Vital) Connections in the Time of COVID

The Dangers of Empathy Unexamined

How Asking for Help Beats Magical Thinking Every Time

How to Help Remote Colleagues Feel Less Lonely and More Connected

How Mindfulness Keeps You Present, and Why It Matters

The Real Costs of Persistent Multitasking: 9 Tips to Minimize Damage

Navigating Across Cultures

Strategies for overcoming cultural barriers and working effectively in global teams.

Can’t we all just get along (with Gen Z) in the workplace)?

6 Good Reasons to Take Games Seriously at Work

Rethinking “culture” in a hybrid remote workplace

Tips for Cultivating a Culture of Trust Across Hybrid Remote Teams

Why Culture Must Transcend Work Location for Healthy, High-Performing Teams

Leadership Tips for Retaining Top Talent During a Time of Turbulence

Adapting to a New Culture Takes Curiosity, Humility and Patience

Head Off Problems Up Front, Before Cultural Differences Can Get in the Way

How to Stop a Cultural Collision in its Tracks

The Impossibility of Designing a “Perfect” Virtual Meeting in a Multicultural World

Using Technology to Transcend Cultural Barriers

Galvanize global virtual teams with clear operating principles

Mobilize Global Virtual Teams by Avoiding 8 Common Landmines

Navigating Through Invisible Cultural Tripwires

For High Impact Global Communications, One Size Never Fits All

11 Expert Tips for Crossing the Cultural Chasm

Building Trust Calls for Different Approaches Across Different Cultures

Brainstorming across borders: How to stimulate creative thinking from afar

Continuous Learning in a Virtual World

Methods and tools to support growth, training, and learning in remote environments.

Emerging from a COVID Cocoon Without a Playbook

What Have You Learned About Your Culture During the Covid Crisis?

Responding to the Covid-19 Crisis: Fast Learning, Decisive Action and Targeted Communications

To Design Really Engaging Virtual Learning Programs, Throw Away the Old Rules

Want Virtual Learners to Stay Engaged? Insist They Multitask, and Other Big Tips

Improve Performance in Troubled Times through Distance Learning

Accelerate On-the-Job Learning With (Virtual) Peer Roundtables

Real Cultural Assimilation Takes Patience, Time and Willingness to Adapt

Moving to the Virtual Classroom: 8 Steps to Keep Learners Engaged