Tips for Naming the Elephant in the Room, Safely

“Whoa! What the %^&$ is happening here? Let’s knock it off right now!” Clearly, this is not the best way to call a time out when a meeting spirals out of control, especially when higher-ups are around the table. But remaining silent won’t stop a dysfunctional meeting in its tracks, either. Whether you’re the meeting […]

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What’s Worse: Principles Without Scruples, or Scruples Without Principles?

Just because someone has strong principles, they may not have scruples. And someone with scruples may not have principles. It happens more often than you think. Case in point: Marta is a senior ops manager for a Fortune 50 conglomerate. She believes the key to profitability is an unwavering focus on efficiency and shows no

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Costly Missteps that Destroy Trust During Times of Change

If senior leaders decide that a change must be made, how important is it, really, that employees buy into it? If it’s mandatory, why pretend that employees have a say in it? If the change is truly urgent, why slow things down to gain consensus? If it’s a done deal, why bother offering a rationale? Leading successful change

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Tips for Conquering the Whiplash of Change

The dust had finally settled on the company’s latest Return to Office policy. Although it took a lot of cajoling, after a six-month grace period, most employees were back in the office the mandated three days a week. People seemed mostly happy being back together in the same place, making meaningful connections with those they’d

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

Sarah slams down her tray and sighs as she settles herself across the table from Jerome, her fellow manager, to gulp down a 10-minute lunch, a rare luxury these days. “I am just so fed up with some of our newest team members, I could scream! If they ask me for feedback one more time…”

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6 Good Reasons to Take Games Seriously at Work

This was my first cross-cultural training workshop for this process control firm that had recently been acquired by two new parent companies, one German and one French. The language classes offered by the company were helpful to a point, but cultural differences were causing insurmountable problems, leading to mutual distrust, project delays, and rapid attrition.

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Creating, Restoring Lost Connections in a Hybrid World

The new employee roaming empty halls eager to find someone – anyone—to talk to The CEO who publicly boasts about inclusion before dismantling the DEI team The employee whose manager cancels their 1:1 meetings The team whose members constantly can’t agree on their primary communications channel The remote worker who’s always left out of important

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Real-world Strategies for Winning the Hybrid Game

“Hybrid work is here to stay” “CEOs predict full return to the office within 12 months”  “Return to office mandates not going as planned” Clickbait headlines like these can be really confusing and in many cases, simply not true. Instead of trying to make sense of pundits’ conflicting predictions about hybrid work, here’s a chance

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