Three Problem Solving Traits of Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is struggling to make money in movie theatres around the world because it's fine, not awesome. The film follows Harrison Ford's iconic, world-saving, colonially/neo-colonially-problematic, whip-slinging, problem solving character...
Six Lifelong Learning Lessons from The Intern Movie
Last week I published a piece on lifelong learning lessons from the perfectly fine Google recruitment video and/or raucous, adventurous workplace comedy, The Internship. This week I will focus on another perfectly fine (except for the last 20 minutes, but this isn’t a...
Cormac McCarthy and creativity and influence
Cormac McCarthy has passed from this world at the age of 89 and he was an icon of American literature and his real and violent words and stark sentences unabashedly embraced the run-on sentence to paint a real and brutal picture of the world. From my perspective,...
The Unintentional Walking Boot Opening Listening Experiment
A little over a month ago, I partially tore my Achilles tendon and fully tore my calf muscle playing soccer. For nearly five weeks I have been conducting something called the unintentional walking boot open listening experiment. Let me explain. For nearly five weeks I...
A Recovery Haiku
Recovering slow. Torn Achilles in a boot. Having perspective. - A haiku about what it takes to be resilient when, well, we're getting older and the body breaks down...
Five Professional Lessons from Captain America: Civil War
Last Friday night Kurt and I saw Captain America: Civil War. The summer’s hottest movie taught us a lot about international diplomacy, teamwork, spandex, friendship, and ourselves, too. Here are five professional lessons from Captain America: Civil War that you can...
Three Ways to use the Waysfinder Model for Career Development
The Waysfinder Model provides a simple and flexible way to navigate worklife complexity. Its founder, Sonja Blignaut, suggests that the model expects multiple ideas or products to be simultaneously and collaboratively attempted based on the potentialities from each...
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...
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...