Career Lessons from Climbing Mountains
A few weeks ago I attended and presented at Canada’s leading conference for career practitioners, Cannexus. One of the workshops that I attended was led by Rob Shea and Senator David M. Wells – it focused on the connection between…
How to be a Trustworthy, Messy and Diplomatic Collaborator
This is an article about how to be a trustworthy, messy and diplomatic collaborator. The Potentiality’s Cartoonist in Residence, Phil Skipper, has an interesting take on collaboration. Here is how Phil captured our team’s personal and collective definitions of collaboration: “Collaborating…
10 Professional Lessons from the World Cup
After nearly a month of epic play, the 2014 World Cup is over. Germany is basking in the glow of victory. Brazil’s football soul has been crushed. And the United States’ love of the beautiful game is ascending. Countless stories…
Building Collaborative Advantage
This article is part 2 in a four part series on collaboration. Part 1 focused on how to build a powerful professional network with entry-level talent. Here we present strategies and tactics for building the capacity and capabilities for authentic…
How Drawing Together Enhances Creativity
Collaborative drawing is a great way to build trust and foster creativity on your team. This article demonstrates how drawing together enhances creativity. A few weeks ago Vancity’s Learning and Development team worked together to create an impact map of…
Five Tips for Collaborating on Passion Projects
Kurt Heinrich and I have known each other for over a decade and we have worked together on dozens of projects ranging from road trips to fundraising campaigns to this website. In order to achieve success on a project the…
Four ways to keep a team motivated during summer
As a leader, you may have noticed that as the temperature has increased over summer, the motivation of your team has decreased. The reality is that between the Pina Coladas, the vacation plans and the neighbourhood barbeques, summer can be…
Three Ways to be a Team Player When You’re Not
“So I’m not really a team player, and if there’s one thing I absolutely can’t handle in a work context it’s interacting with people in a team environment”. Said no person in a job interview. Ever. And this is why…
Eight Ways to Practice Pragmatic Consensus-Based Decision Making
Whether you’re discussing the foundations of governance or how to take our an enemy sniper in Call of Duty, you’re probably talking about consensus-based decision making, which informs everything from family trips to important business decisions. Consensus-based decision making has been widely used, in everything from early democracy to organizational theory. But what exactly is consensus-based decision making, and how best can it be practiced?