21 Ways to Build a Better Normal in 2021
2020 is almost over. It’s been a year. The pandemic has ravaged and disrupted the planet. Calls for racial and social justice, which has always been present in our communities, have gained prominence. Our planet is still burning. Personally, my…
Three Ways to Evaluate Your Resilience in 2020
Well, it’s been a year. As 2020 winds down, many of us are united in our view that this year can go straight to hell. The global pandemic has taken nearly two million lives and disrupted countless others with unemployment,…
Nine Books that Enhanced My Range
Generalists will lead the future of work (it’s already starting). According to pioneers of the movement, Kenneth Mikkelsen and Richard Martin, the generalist “brings together diverse people, synthesizing ideas and practices, addressing the big issues that confront us in order…
How to have Better Year End Conversations
Performance reviews and year end conversations are ramping up around the world, which makes a lot of us uneasy because the experience can be clunky (HR systems aren’t slick like apps), emotional (money and personal identity are on the line!),…
10 Better Things to Say than “Be a Man”
“Be a Man”. We’ve heard the phrase jabbed at a dude caught in a circle of dudes (sometimes women are there, too) who are using peer pressure tactics. Or it’s a classic movie line aimed at motivating male protagonists to…
12 Ways to Positively Disrupt Your Workplace
Whether you work somewhere with nine or 9,000 employees, we’ve all been frustrated by organizations experiencing the malaise of average. When people stay in the same role or team for too long, get too comfortable with “the way things are”,…
Seven Innovation Lessons from The Martian
A few weeks ago, I listened to The Rewatchables team discuss The Martian. So, then I re-watched the movie. Obviously. The story of marooned astronaut Mark Watney, played perfectly by Matt Damon, is chock full of creativity, problem solving, and…
Three Ways Cooperatives are Advancing the Sustainable Development Agenda
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by UN Member States in 2015 and they are designed to “achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “explicitly recognizes co-operative enterprises as…
The Definitive Analysis of how Co-operatives Show up in Pop Culture
It’s Co-op Week in Canada. Unfortunately, the co-operative movement has a communication problem. Even though economists, journalists, academics, activists, titans of industry, and communities from around the world laud the traditional, yet disruptive, business model, co-operators often struggle to simplify…
Three Ways Sports Teach us to Manage Disappointment
A lot of us are taking losses these days. For many people and communities on the margins these losses might mean eviction, acceleration into poverty, or death. Many more folks in our communities have lost their job, failed their first…