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What? So What? Now What? – Today’s Workplace Trends and Why They Matter

Leave a Comment / Newsletter: Leadership and management (general) / By

Earlier this month, Margie’s company mandated that all employees be onsite at least four days a week, up from three. Some are following the new mandate begrudgingly, while others are ignoring it, for now. Kelly’s company, meanwhile, has announced a permanent “employee choice” policy, where employees and their teams decide where and when they work. …

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Confronting Conflict with Courage in Remote Teams

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“Fine! Have it your way. Again. You always do.” “Hey, you had a chance to speak up, and you still haven’t told us why you oppose this proposal. We can’t read your mind.” “Has it occurred to you that I’m not the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? Maybe I’m the only one who’s willing to speak out.” …

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Timeless Tips for Designing and Facilitating Engaging Virtual (or Hybrid) Meetings

Leave a Comment / Newsletter: Planning and leading engaging virtual meetings / By

“Hi Nancy, I hope you can help me. We just had to cancel our 2-week-long program kick-off meeting in New York City, and now we have to figure out how to run the whole thing virtually. I’ve been looking all over for someone like you. Can we talk?” Even though I got such emails when …

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Overcome the Worst Facilitation Fears of Introverts (and Everyone Else)

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Admit it. You’ve done your share of commiserating about some perfectly awful meetings you’ve had to endure. In fact, you’ve been such a vocal critic of poorly-run meetings that your manager anoints you as the perfect person to facilitate a do-or-die budget planning session with your team, group VP, CFO and a few other high-level decision-makers. If …

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Bracing for Giving (and Getting) Difficult Feedback When You Can’t See Eye to Eye

Leave a Comment / Newsletter: Essential communication and collaboration skills for virtual teams / By

If I ask you whether my presentation that I’ve labored over for weeks was any good, your slight nod after a long hesitation tells me that I pretty much bombed, despite your verbal assurance that “it was fine, really.” I really can’t tell if you are trying to spare my feelings or if you have …

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Why Coaches Make the Best Leaders in a Hybrid World

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The cafeteria on the 9th floor is mostly empty as James and Ceci plunk down their trays at a table near the window, out of earshot. They began on the same day six months ago, both newly-minted grads starting their careers in the company’s corporate marketing department, working for different managers. As new employees, they’ve been …

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What Today’s Managers Really Need to Succeed in a Hybrid World

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Every day brings new fires Amy has to put out. Yesterday it was yet another corporate policy calling for mandatory office time, prompting employees to ping her throughout the day. Earlier today, two of her top employees let her know they’re thinking about leaving. And she positively dreads her all-hands meeting tomorrow, when she’ll have …

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How Great Facilitation Leads to Better Decisions, More Revenue and Less Waste

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No doubt, making go/no-go decisions for billion-dollar projects requires careful consideration, but this was getting ridiculous. Marc’s 20-person Engineering team, scattered across multiple time zones, was on the hot seat for recommending large-scale exploration projects for this European-based global oil and gas leader. For many of these projects, time was of the essence. This was …

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Before Attempting Big Change, First, Root Out the Dysfunction

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Roger, a newly-hired Chief Development Officer for one of New York’s biggest hospitals, was eager to meet his team. He called an All-Hands meeting for his 65 employees for Monday at 9AM on his first day, with coffee, bagels and fruit set up in the in the executive conference room. His excitement slowly gave way …

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Why advancement, growth and visibility shouldn’t depend on work location

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“If you don’t work at the Mothership, you’ll never get ahead. That’s how I see it.” The “Mothership” in this case was the gleaming new HQ building outside of Boston where hundreds of corporate staff members for this growing software company came to work each day. The HQ campus had everything an employee could ever …

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How shared principles finally got a leadership team unstuck

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Senior leaders from a family-run Boston-area insurance company were frustrated that their 90+ corporate employees were refusing to return to the office full time. “We want to get back to being a family, just like we were before COVID,” they said. Employees and department managers saw it differently. “We’ve proven that we can be even …

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How a Growing Pharma Blends Asynch, Real-time Communications to Boost Productivity

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This is one of a series of Field Spotlights where I share experiences, tips and observations from company leaders who are fully immersed in the transformation to hybrid. “In the last few years, we’ve acquired three other companies whose products complement ours. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve had to integrate certain operations without being able to …

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Rethinking “culture” in a hybrid remote workplace

Leave a Comment / Newsletter: Navigating across cultures / By

How many times have we heard employers claim that their organization’s “culture” may be irretrievably lost if people continue to work remotely? We don’t buy it, and we’ll explain why here. But first, let’s explore what’s really behind this questionable claim. Joining me in writing this edition of Communique is Pari Namazie, Managing Partner at the boutique …

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Flexible, Productive and Collaborative: A Model Hybrid Workplace

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This is part of our ongoing series of Field Spotlight Communiques with senior leaders who share successes, challenges, tips and observations for making a successful transition to a hybrid remote workplace. “Prior to COVID, our employees worked mostly face to face, five days a week. On March 13, 2020, everyone suddenly started working remotely. Today, …

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If you really want to be inclusive, here’s how to walk the talk

1 Comment / Newsletter: Essential communication and collaboration skills for virtual teams / By

“Employees tell us that we’re not doing a great job when it comes to creating an inclusive workplace. Is this something you can help us with?” (Chief Human Resources Officer) “What does inclusive mean in this context, and why is it important to people?” (Us) “I suppose they mean they want us to treat everyone …

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Expanding and diversifying the talent pool, cultivating connections in a hybrid world

Leave a Comment / Newsletter: Leading effective virtual teams / By

This is one of a series of Field Spotlight Communiques where company leaders who are fully immersed in the transformation to hybrid share tips and observations. For this issue, we interviewed two senior leaders. I’ve highlighted some comments that I felt are especially noteworthy. “My manager wants coming into the office to be a ‘pull,’ something people …

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If you want employees to be more productive, let them choose where to work

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This article is part of a series of Field Spotlight Communiques where I share tips and observations from company leaders who are fully immersed in the transformation to hybrid, including a wide range of companies and industries, including pharmaceuticals, software companies, nonprofits and engineering firms. “Our company’s motto is: Our purpose is people, workforce and …

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Tips for Cultivating a Culture of Trust Across Hybrid Remote Teams

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“Why do we have to commute to the office three days a week when we’re doing the same work we were doing from home? I get the feeling our manager doesn’t trust us.” “My employees seem much more productive in the office. I can drop in any time and see how they’re doing and give …

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Getting Hybrid Right Takes Curiosity, Openness, Thoughtful Deliberation and (Lots of) Change Management

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“My advice for senior leaders who are moving to a hybrid model: Don’t do it in a vacuum. These are decisions that can’t be unilaterally decided in an executive boardroom. Once you’ve made your decisions, don’t underestimate the level of change management required. You need to build your coalitions and communicate ad nauseam. It’s one …

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Practical Steps for Creating a Team Communications Map that Everyone Embraces

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“Why did we have to wait until our weekly team meeting to discover that three people couldn’t deliver on time? If we’d known earlier, maybe we could have done something about it. Now we’re looking at a two-week delay, minimum. We have to find a better way to communicate important stuff outside of our team …

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Create a Sense of Community with Questions That Connect

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“Let’s go around the room and have everyone share a fun fact.” You cringe as you wait your turn, wondering which fact you can use that: You have not already used the dozens of times someone has asked this same question Is intriguing but not intimate Is interesting but not shocking You’re just glad you …

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Why Culture Must Transcend Work Location for Healthy, High-Performing Teams

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Dear Senior Leaders, To be blunt, I’m weary of hearing you say that your organizational culture will somehow be lost or diluted if you move to a permanent virtual/hybrid model. I’d really like to know what you really mean by “culture” and how you see it reflected across your organization. Maybe you’re envisioning: The updated …

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Leadership Tips for Retaining Top Talent During a Time of Turbulence

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For this edition of Communique, I invited my long-time colleague, the senior talent management professional of an international healthcare company, to reflect on why 2022 has been so messy and to advise leaders about how they can best stabilize, motivate energize and retain their top talent as we all prepare for yet another year of turbulence. Many …

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Everyone’s Feeling Stressed, and Here’s Why

Leave a Comment / Newsletter: Leading effective virtual teams / By

July can be a great time to reflect on how far we’ve come and the progress we’ve made during the first six months of the year. For this Communique, I’m reporting on trends I’m seeing in terms when it comes to how well (or not) organizations are making the move to a remote/hybrid world. Spoiler alert: While …

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Stop Agonizing Over Tough Decisions to Save Your Sanity (and Maybe Even Your Pup!)

Leave a Comment / Newsletter: Decision making, consensus building, conflict resolution and productive conversations / By

I came this close (holding thumb and index finger ¼” apart) to returning our pup, Honey, just three days after we adopted her from a shelter a year ago today. (And believe me, I am no novice when it comes to raising dogs from puppyhood. Honey is my fourth.) So why did I feel that adopting this little …

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We Really, Really Need to Talk

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Like many of you, I was gutted when I heard the news about the massacre at Robb Elementary School this week. My mind went completely numb. I had trouble putting one step in front of the other. I could find no words to convey my horror, anger and profound sadness. Despite the number of school …

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Tips for Creating a Remote-first Workplace to Make Life Easier for Everyone

Leave a Comment / Newsletter: Leading effective virtual teams / By

Let’s face it. Designing and implementing a high-performing hybrid workplace isn’t for the faint of heart. In fact, it can be one of the hardest things a leader will ever do. It can be so confounding that some organizations initially announcing a move to hybrid are backpedaling, despite the almost-certain loss of employees and even …

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Maintaining True Equity in a Virtual/Hybrid World

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In announcing a new hybrid work policy, the senior leaders of this mid-sized financial services company promised that “all people, regardless of work location, will be treated equitably.” All 250+ headquarters employees were offered some degree of flexibility, with the details to be hammered out with supervisors. About one-third of the employees opted to return …

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When There’s No Going Back, Decide How to Move Forward

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“When the dust finally settles…” “As soon as we get back to normal…” When we hear comments like these from our wishful-thinking clients, we tell them that try as they might, there’s no going back. There’s no such thing as “normal” anymore (and we’re pretty sure there won’t ever be anything resembling a static workplace …

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11 Tips for Avoiding the Toxicity of Relentless Positivity

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When Sue confessed to being anxious about the impending project deadline, her manager dismissed her concerns, assuring her that he just knew that Sue would find a way to pull through – she always did! John was still having a hard time putting one foot in front of another six months after a painful break-up. …

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