A Travel Haiku
Travel to learn. Culture. Knowledge. Connection. Oh, and lobster rolls. - A travel haiku written to reflect on the Horn family's recent awesome trip to Nova Scotia
10 Professional Lessons from Dancing
In April 2015, 25 colleagues and I danced to Bruno Mars’s “Uptown Funk” as part of the entertainment for V After Dark, Vancity Credit Union’s annual employee recognition and celebration event. Here’s the video and a blog post about 10 professional lessons from dancing...
Five Ways to Triumph Over Jerks
This article tells the story of five ways to triumph over jerks and other mean people who will infect your community. Recently, I encountered a wide variety of jerks. Let me tell you, it took adaptability, creativity, thoughtfulness, and great leadership to win...
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!), and one-sided (managers...
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 realize their potential. Some of us might’ve...
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”, or resist what is possible...
Five Characteristics of the New Economy
Building the next economy will take a movement. Community builders, educators, economists, urbanists, policymakers, business leaders, cooperators, activists, parents, kids, neighbours, and even a few celebrities must unite to build a better normal through societal...
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 collaboration. Mark...
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...
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,...
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 exam, or are facing precarious...
Why Nerds Should Be Enthusiastic
In the past being a nerd was often seen in a negative light. Nerds were bullied and were the punch line of jokes from sitcoms to locker rooms around the world. These days, though, embracing and unlocking the potential of your Inner Nerd is a very positive thing and...
Three Leadership Lessons from How Steve Nash Played Basketball
Steve Nash was inducted into the Hoops Hall of Fame last week. He is my favourite basketball player of all time and he’ll go down in history as a transcendent innovator of the sport in spite of never making it to the NBA Finals. There’s a lot to learn about leadership...