I was talking with my sister not too long ago, and we soon found ourselves discussing a variety of problems in the world. Sometimes it seems like there are so many things going wrong today, it’s hard not to get overwhelmed. How can one person possibly make things better? Luckily, my sister was able to [...]
Today’s political climate has left me angry, uncertain, confused, and disenchanted, but also engaged, amused, and hopeful—sometimes all at the same time. I have had to dig deep and take a hard look at my underlying assumptions about the world, how I live, what I believe in, my privilege, and what it means to be [...]
While doing complex process reengineering and IT projects at Waste Management, I learned a valuable lesson: slow down to go fast. This can be a hard lesson for people to learn, since the time we spend understanding a problem, planning an approach, and finding the resources we need can seem inordinate when we’re under pressure [...]
I was in a yoga training a while ago, and we were discussing the issues that get in our way and hold us back in our lives. One issue that came up is the need to be right. The teacher shared this helpful quote: “Do you want to be right or do you want to [...]
“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.” - Richard Rohr This quote has been a reoccurring theme for me in the last couple of weeks, both personally and professionally. Even as a kid, I knew that there were times when I chose the way [...]
Recently, a friend was telling me about a situation that was troubling him. In detail, he described his version and perspective of another person’s motives and what she had done to him. I realized how many times in my life I had done the exact same thing. Spent time, energy and a good deal of [...]
We all have our own internal biases and conditioning, which impact how we view the world, and the beliefs we hold to be true. While meeting with a colleague, I was recently reminded of one of my favorite constructs – The Ladder of Inference, created by Chris Argyris. The bottom rung of the ladder is [...]
Have you found yourself telling others how busy you are all the time? Daily commitments can definitely add up and begin to feel overwhelming. But when saying you’re busy becomes your mantra, you can actually start to believe you have no control over your time. Instead of making smart decisions and being proactive about spending [...]
You have a superpower that you’re probably not aware of: your presence. Thinking back on your encounters with particularly angry or peaceful people, you might have noticed how their emotions seemed to rub off on you. Turns out, that’s a real thing. Research has shown that people unconsciously and automatically mimic the emotional expressions of [...]
“If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” – Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper [...]
