Lessons in Conversation from the Academy
The academic world can be a vicious place. You might imagine universities and research institutions to be places of vigorous yet civil discourse, where provocative, cutting-edge opinions are discussed in a welcoming spirit that acknowledges that disagreement for the sake of growth and knowledge is the essence of the dialogue at hand. Sometimes that is true. Sometimes, however, it is a thin veneer
Do You Mistake Communication For Conversation?
We mistake communication for conversation. As I have remarked before here, we often belittle the richness of “conversation” by using that word unsparingly to describe any activity of personal interaction. This is particularly noticeable when we are considering communication via a virtual platform or other technological medium. The CEO of Slack, Stewart Butterfield, should be expected to have a nuanced view of this distinction, and he does. Sort of.
For New Year, Don’t Resolve To Simplify
You’ve probably made some New Year resolutions or, perhaps, set out your 2018 intentions. Many of you will have weighed the pressures of work and home and determined that 2018 will be a more efficient, productive, and less overwhelming year. Apps and tools, processes and behavior fixes offer the promise of a decluttered and simplified life. Don’t be too hasty.
Top Ten Books of 2017
Reviewing the books I read this last year it became clear that, consciously or not, they adventured both inwardly and outwardly, endeavoring to make sense of my own values, morals and mores in a landscape of social tumult and civic degradation. Perhaps, as books should, they say a little something about me as well as to me.
Celebrating My Fresh Website
Welcome to my refreshed website. What I thought would take a week to do has been in hiding behind a curtain for about three months! The goal of this new website, hosted by my friends at Flywheel, is to provide a more robust and versatile platform to share fresh thinking about
Conference Conversationalist-in-Residence
Over the next few days, I will be a conference conversationalist-in-residence. The 3 day WELCOA Annual Summit starts today and I shall be there as a visible, roving listener, catalyst, coach, provocateur and connector. Attendees will be able to talk with me to make...
We can hear 1,276 square miles. So why don’t we hear employees?
“I’ve heard sounds 20 miles away. If you do the math, that is the size of 1,276 square miles. Do you know what it’s like to listen to 1,276 square miles when the sun is rising?” – Gordon Hempton, acoustic ecologist Close your eyes. Close your mouth. Now try closing...
Good Conference / Bad Conference
Hello Conference Season! Good bye money and value… Most of you are going to waste a lot of money as the conference season gets into full swing. Why? Because too many conferences are still tied to a traditional model fit for the twentieth not the twenty-first century....
Onboarding’s Spectacular Failure – Build a Conversational Culture Instead
It remains remarkable that businesses continue to fail at onboarding, and not just fail, but fail spectacularly. Studies indicate that half of all new senior outside hires fail within 18 months, half of all hourly workers leave new jobs within the first 120 days and...
Books of 2016
In reflecting on what books I would select from this last year of reading, two features quickly emerged. The first is that I leant more heavily into the factual and creative non-fiction genres rather than fiction. Given that observation, I would welcome your...