Recently I was at a meeting where they brought in various teams from around our Company to showcase the work that they were performing. Unexpectedly, I recognized someone who I hadn’t worked with or seen in 13 years running one of the booths. We immediately hugged hello and fell back into an old level of… Continue reading Developing Great Teams With Small Investments
Category: Relationships
The Power Of The First Project
During a social network analysis class (not the Facebook type of social network), we were breaking down how work actually gets done in organizations when the instructor said, “People in new positions fail because they don’t have the network needed to do their new job” The quote meant a lot for me because I had… Continue reading The Power Of The First Project
On Choosing A Path
Ten years ago I was coming back from a business trip and found my self waiting at the baggage claim for the bags to start coming out. I had just spent 2 weeks inside an office in the beautiful mountains near Grenoble, France. It was an overnight flight, so I was a little groggy when… Continue reading On Choosing A Path
The Benefits of Serving Others
As I write this I’m sitting on the famous Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil about to go watch the World Cup 2014 match of Spain v. Chile at the fan fest down the street. In a few days I’ll attend the Russia v. Belgium World Cup Match in Maracana Stadium in Rio. My… Continue reading The Benefits of Serving Others
The Power of Small Comments
People often ask me how I was able to make the first switch within my Company from one group to another. I had been in the IT group for about eight years at that point and then switched over into our Consumer Products Marketing group. Up until that time, going from IT to the Marketing… Continue reading The Power of Small Comments
Using Urgent for Urgent’s Sake
One particular summer Friday a few years ago, I was fortunate enough to be working from a remote location at a beach town. I wasn’t supposed to be working that day, but an “urgent” (in quotes because it was someone else’s definition of urgent) project meeting came up that was four hours long that I “had”… Continue reading Using Urgent for Urgent’s Sake
Business Boot Camps
There are plenty of programs for students to learn more about career choices and industries in their field (think internships and co-ops). Why do businesses stop doing that for experienced people? What if you could build a bootcamp / externship-type program for your business where you bring in talent from other industries to work in… Continue reading Business Boot Camps
Online Learning Team Building Platform
I’ve been thinking about how to strengthen online teams… Many online courses require participants to form teams to complete some of the work. There are two ways to go about this: Create a team of people you already know Join a diverse team of strangers supplied by the platform If you’re with your friends and… Continue reading Online Learning Team Building Platform
Beg Forgiveness Cards
Getting your team to believe that failure is an option or that taking prudent risks are OK is sometimes hard. Most people in a work environment are trained to believe that things need to work out correctly all the time. If you’re trying to get your team to live into the phrase “beg forgiveness rather… Continue reading Beg Forgiveness Cards
Hackathons for People
I love Hackathons and think they should be used for everything from IRS forms to anti-bullying solutions. So how can hackathons work for people themselves? A hackathon for people is to find help amplify or find solutions for one person’s work, because it’s great and you want to help spread or deliver their idea. The… Continue reading Hackathons for People