A Failure Haiku
Feeling like failure. Learning happens everywhere. Failing is learning. - This is a Failure - or a failing is learning - Haiku because it's been a tough month and I've learned a lot (humans always do!)
How to Talk About Death at Work
For the last decade I’ve worked for two of Canada’s leaders in financial services (Vancity Credit Union) and pension administration (BC Pension Corporation). Through activities like estate planning and benefits changes many of my colleagues are required to talk about...
Four Ways that Tough Feedback Makes Work Better
Our team has written quite a bit about feedback – both how to give it and how to ask for it and act on it. But in our day to day work, we are often confronted with input and criticism that we immediately feel is unfair or incorrect. It falls outside a more structured...
How to Ask for (and Act on) Feedback
This article is about how to ask for (and act on) feedback. Because one of the best ways for people to realize their potential is to receive and act on feedback. Unfortunately, human beings are fairly terrible at accepting praise and listening to criticism. How to Ask...
How to Suspend Judgment
The potential of dialogue Meaningful dialogue is an elusive thing in our communities. Having a respectful conversation with someone about something on which we do not agree isn’t common. Yelling opinions over someone else or building a newsfeed that reinforces your...
Three Things that Need to be in an Employee Value Proposition
By 2020 the global war for talent will go to another level of competitiveness. Organizations of all kinds are riding the uncertain wave of global economic disruption that’s being driven by automation, climate change, migration, #MeToo, and other complex factors....
Eight Professional Lessons from the Movie Chef
Last week I re-watched Chef – written, directed and starring Jon Favreau – on Netflix. The film is about Carl Casper, the head chef at a high-end Los Angeles restaurant who loses his cool, loses his job, loses a lot of peoples’ respect, but then finds himself on a...
Three Things That Make Cooperatives Different
The cooperative business model advances economic, social, and environmental progress and demonstrates versatility and resilient. Even though nearly two billion people around the world are members and/or directly impacted by cooperative enterprises across virtually...
Six Coaching Streams that Your Organization Needs
Coaching unlocks potential in people and, when applied effectively at scale in an organization, across communities. Not all managers are naturally great coaches (though they can learn) and not every organization is setup to achieve the desired results from investments...
10 Better Descriptions than End-User
“End-user” is a common term that’s used for everything from technical projects to marketing campaigns. It’s a term that just feels weird and, frankly, misused to me. Across North America, communities are being devastated by the injuries and fatalities of opioid users....
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 family is winding down...
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, food insecurity, civil unrest, and sprawling...
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...