Today we look at specific strategies to create deeper, richer conversations in our lives. 

“Strategies” sounds official.  Scientific.  It’s actually easier than that.  What follows are small, manageable actions we can take which may result in deeper conversations.    

Strategy one is to allow ourselves to be impacted by what the other person is saying.  “We can’t move the world unless we are willing to be moved by it,” suggests … continue reading

It’s easy to get lost in our own conclusions.

The other person?  They’ve got it wrong.  How frustrating!

Instead, what if we prime ourselves to be curious?

We wonder: How did the person we are speaking with come to believe that?  

This is a side game we can play, suggests Vid Deva, Religious Scholar and Program Manager of Stagen’s Advanced Leadership Program, which I’m participating in this year.  

“I … continue reading

“Most of us don’t listen with the intent to understand.  We listen with the intent to reply,” Stephen Covey tells us.

There is a better way. 

What if we intentionally, deliberately set ourselves aside, including our personal opinions, and approach every conversation with the idea that we have something to learn.  

“It takes effort and energy to pay attention.  But it’s worth it,” Celeste Headlee tells us in her TED … continue reading

100 years.

2021 marks the 100th anniversary of my grandfather founding our predecessor firm. 

What can we do to build and sustain an organization for the long haul?

Focus on workplace culture, Fred Kofman writes in his brilliant book Conscious Business.

It begins with leadership. Fred tells us the strongest determinant of an effective, healthy culture is conscious leadership. The most efficient way for an organization to improve is … continue reading

To build a business that succeeds over the long-term, Fred Kofman suggests we focus on three separate but complementary areas: the impersonal “It” (strong profits), the collective “We” (a thriving workplace culture), and the personal “I” (the personal well-being of all stakeholders).

Because the three elements are intertwined, it is possible to influence the overall system from any element, Fred tells in his powerful book Conscious Business.

But, where … continue reading

Yesterday we explored several elements of Fred Kofman‘s Conscious Business model which maps onto Ken Wilber‘s Integral, four-quadrant framework which analyzes reality according to individual/ collective (y axis) and interior /exterior (x axis).

So far, we looked at the external, impersonal “It,” essentially everything on the right side of the integral model.  This realm includes business results, growth, making money, and increasing shareholder value.

Next, we looked at … continue reading

To create an enduring, successful organization, we are wise to understand the different dimensions of business, writes Fred Kofman in his book Conscious Business. 

The first dimension is the one with which we are most familiar: business results, making money, increasing shareholder value, growth, and gaining market share.  The driving concern here is effectiveness, efficiency, reliability, and attaining maximum output with the minimum consumption of resources. 

To succeed, our … continue reading

“Some people say work is hell,” writes Fred Kofman in his brilliant book Conscious Business: How to Build Value through Values.

“I claim that work can be heaven. Heaven and hell are not realms of the afterlife, they are states of mind,” writes Fred.  “When you live and work unconsciously, situations seem hellish, but when you intensify the light of awareness, the same situations seem heavenly.”

Fred’s invites us … continue reading

It was 2002.  Tom Werner and his partners had just purchased the Boston Red Sox.  

“This was the oldest club in the majors, and we played at the oldest stadium in the country – Fenway Park,” Tom recalls in Peter Guber‘s Tell to Win.  “There was immediate pressure that Fenway Park had outlived its usefulness and needed to be torn down.  After all, it was built in … continue reading

Yes.  

It’s been a life-saver, certainly a business-saver for many of us over the past year as we’ve adapted and learned to communicate virtually.

So, what happens when the pandemic begins to fade?  What happens when once again we have the option to travel and communicate in person?

Will things go back to how they were pre-pandemic?

Highly unlikely.

And yet, in-person, face-to-face communication will likely still play an important … continue reading