It’s inevitable. No matter what kind of work environment you’re in, there will be conflicts. The key to managing interpersonal conflicts in a workplace setting lies in the communication skills you use to defuse the situation and de-escalate people when things get heated. Everyone handles conflict differently. Some shy away, avoiding a confrontation at all costs. Others face … [More]
Kyu Utsunomiya & Troy Watkins, Conceptually Social
Help doesn’t just happen, however badly it’s needed — as the situation in Texas last month made abundantly clear. Our leaders should be recognized for the effort to provide aid to help businesses remain functioning and especially at the local level to orchestrate that relief. March of 2020 caught so many of us off guard and unprepared. As partners in a small, local Phoenix … [More]
Feedback: March 2021
Question: For many nonprofits, the pandemic’s economic impact squeezed them in between increased demand for their services and decrease in income coupled with physical operational limitations. How has your organization responded to these challenges in order to continue to serve its mission? Dana Bailey Chief Operations Officer Homeless Youth Connection Sector: … [More]
Now is the Time to Launch a Mentorship Program
When I consult with corporations and higher education institutions about establishing mentorship programs, I’m often asked about the benefits. Let me take a brief moment to tell you the bevy of reasons that your company should consider such a program — and why now is a better time than ever before. First, why me? As I researched and drafted my book, Teach to Work: How a … [More]
Making Great Strategy
Making strategy requires undertaking major — often irreversible — decisions aimed at long-term success in an uncertain future. All leaders must formulate a clear course of action, yet many lack confidence in their ability to think systematically about their strategy. They struggle to apply to their unique contexts the abstract lessons offered by conventional approaches to … [More]
Digital Makeover
Digital Makeover (How L’Oréal Put People First to Build a Beauty Tech Powerhouse) examines L’Oreal’s successful people-driven digital transformation. Professors and authors Beatrice Collin and Marie Taillard set out exactly how L’Oréal turned itself into a digital and tech powerhouse by building on its legacy to reimagine relationships inside the company, and with its customers … [More]
Integrated Tactical Planning
Integrated tactical planning is an essential process for regularly re-aligning product, demand and supply plans in the short term, thereby giving the executive team the confidence that operational activities are being well managed unless they formally hear otherwise. This cross-functional re-planning process is vital to responding to change, increasing competitiveness and … [More]
The Power of Calm
Let me be the first to admit I am a personal “work in progress.” There are moments in my career I am proud of and others I regret. Most of the regrets come from the times I was hurt or angry and tried desperately to avoid feeling those emotions. Yet the emotions always won. They would show up in my body, my stomach aching as I repeatedly played the triggering conversations in … [More]
Behavioral Patterns Impact Communication
Two years ago, when setting out to write The Search for Why, the tools we had at hand were not up to the task to adequately answer the question of why we do what we do. So, we set out to use the best science from the related fields of data science, neuroscience and behavioral science to build a Model of Why. Since the dawn of civilization, the greatest thinkers in the world … [More]
