The world and working in it will continue to evolve at an astonishing pace with technology growth and artificial intelligence (AI). Oxford economics says that 47% of today’s jobs will be gone in 10 years. And that means that essential skills – empathy, communication, speaking, decision-making and good judgement – will be critical for the jobs of… read more →
In spite of what Mom said, I frequently ride in cars with strangers. I travel a lot so I’ve come to rely on and trust Lyft and Uber. Now, normally I’m not a very good passenger – I much prefer to be the one driving. But I’ve become comfortable with being picked up by strangers… read more →
The title above is one of those cute, arrogant bumper sticker quips that people sometimes wish they could say to a difficult person they’re dealing with. Dumbing it down is a term that you hear from a lot of professionals describing the same basic process of reluctantly simplifying something complex for a non-professional audience. It’s… read more →
The United States is in a bad mood. I was talking with a group of smart people recently who agreed that there’s a general sense of malaise these days. I’m not suggesting there isn’t good reason for it, but we’re taking inconsequential things and ourselves pretty seriously these days – maybe too seriously. People are… read more →
Running better gatherings of people is an exercise in understanding human behavior. Here are the simple basics.
You either already are, or will be, dealing with true-blue narcissists, those folks who are … shall we say … unnaturally fond of themselves. Here are some thoughts for you.
I really dislike the Bears, Lions and Vikings. People and the groups we belong to don’t like other people and groups who aren’t like us. This can bloom into hate. Science says, in part, it’s biology, and we can learn to believe differently.
Ellen Degeneres, the comedienne and talk show host, regularly uses the line – and titled her book, My point…and I do have one. The point here is to get to the point. In speaking, presenting or facilitating any group of people, decide the single, simplest point that you need to make, then make it.
In addition to actually doing this work, we train a lot of other people to do this work. Invariably, people come into training workshops looking for the magical, new, cool thing that will fix all of their problems in dealing with the public. Here’s the secret sauce.
Millennials, who are now assuming the lead in government and other institutions, have the dubious honor of fixing the problems created by the past and current crop of managers. They think and work differently than their predecessors. Leading and motivating start and end with communication and that’s a learned skill. If you’d like to dial your leadership… read more →