Thoughts

I’ve spoken to several Executive Directors over the past couple of months who’ve started their stories with, “I’m so glad we….” They finished their sentence in various ways, ranging from “…were clear on our priorities” to “…invested in culture-building” to “…had the right people around the leadership table” to “…trusted each other.”

A few others have had the opposite story to tell, that began, “I wish we…” For them, the ending has often been some variation of “…figured out remote work well before now” or “…made those changes we talked about but never got around to.” I suspect there are likely other endings they are reluctant to admit out loud.

Continue reading “Glad We Did…Wish We Had”

When I facilitate in-person sessions, I frequently tell participants that I cannot guarantee that we’ll co-create a “safe space” together. They looked shocked. I go on to explain that the pre-existing power dynamics that will outlast our time together are outside of my control and inevitably affect people’s sense of safety in the room. What I can promise, however, drawing on the work of Amy Edmondson and others, is a session where people treat each other respectfully and have roughly equal airtime — two elements that do contribute to a psychologically safe session. Necessary but not sufficient conditions. Continue reading “Psychological Safety on Zoom”

Do you have something you’d like to launch but you aren’t sure if there’s an appetite for it or whether the details of your offerings are quite right?

Ask your audience.

It seems basic, but too often we behave as if we need to have all the answers when in fact, we have but one opinion and are often not representative of our own target market anyway. Continue reading “Co-Creation”

I’m learning that a well-led workshop is not primarily about using the software platform with the best meeting features.

Believe me, I’ve spent some time over the past four months learning the ins and outs of various applications, ranging from Zoom to MS Teams to WebEx to Mural to Miro to Lino to Stormboard…all in search of the best visual collaborative tool.

But once again, it comes back to people, not products or features. Continue reading “Minimum Viable Platform”

Become comfortable with discomfort.

It might sound good as a hashtag or on a T-shirt, but the above statement is utterly impossible. Discomfort is of course, by definition, not comfortable.

It’s one of the reasons we have default settings. They are comfortable. They save us time and mental energy. They eliminate conscious choice. To move away from them requires deliberate decision. As Dr. Jason Fox explains, our default is “selected automatically unless a viable alternative is specified.” Continue reading “A Default of Privilege”