1: “Why does this matter to you?”

That’s the question author, consultant, and facilitator Peter Block asked Daniel Coyle

They had just met. Daniel, a writer, had set up an interview with Peter. They met at a coffee shop in Cincinnati, which is where Peter now calls home.

“A rangy eighty-five-year-old, Peter had settled into his chair and gave me a fond, knowing smile, as if we’d met each other … continue reading

1: Darlene worked as a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, near Dayton, Ohio.

One day as she walked past an incubator, she sensed something was wrong.

“All of the machines hooked up to the child showed that her vitals were within normal ranges,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better.

The nurse caring for the baby didn’t seem worried.

But to Darlene, something seemed off.… continue reading

1: You’re angry. Lately, it feels like Phil keeps leaving the toughest or most unpleasant tasks for you to handle.

How do you respond?

You vent to your friends about always being the one who has to clean up the messes.

But what is it that you don’t mention?

“That you smile broadly when your boss compliments you for your willingness to take on challenging jobs,” Joseph Grenny and his … continue reading

1: “It’s a shame that everyone else is an idiot,” Tynan writes in Superhuman by Habit.

Pause.

“Of course, it’s important to remember that to everyone else, you are the idiot.”

It all begins when we realize that being positive toward others is a habit we can develop.

Tynan tells a story about a disagreement he had with a cruise ship staff member after he felt he was charged … continue reading

1: How do you react when something bad happens in your life?

“Your knee-jerk reaction to bad events can be to only see, and to dwell on, the negative, giving you a biased view that can affect your mood and paralyze you from acting,” Tynan writes in his book Superhuman by Habit.

When you think about positive, healthy habits, chances are your brain immediately focuses on work and productivity … continue reading

1: “I love professional wrestling!” the man said.

Jeremie Kubicek raised his eyebrows.  “Alright then,” he thought.

“The funny part,” he writes in The 5 Gears, the book he co-authored with Steve Cockram, “was that his answer was the last thing I thought he would have said.

“If he had stated, ‘I like to collect stamps,’ that would have matched up to my expectations based on what he … continue reading

1: Why pay attention to the stories you are telling yourself?

And why devote the time, effort, and energy to change these stories?

It’s not going to be easy, Crucial Conversations authors Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Emily Gregory warn us.

There are two reasons you may want to change the stories you are telling yourself:

Reason #1: Bad results.

Maybe you … continue reading

1: When Diane Button was new to end-of-life care, so many questions flooded her mind.

“I wondered if I would ever get to a place where I would feel comfortable stepping into the home of a dying person with ease and grace,” she writes in her wonderful book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.

Fortunately, she had a mentor. “Hospice chaplain Clarence Liu was was … continue reading

1: Then Intel CEO Andy Grove was sitting in a conference room with other members of the Intel team.

The topic? “Evaluations of a certain highly touted new software from a company whose other products we already use,” Andy writes in his legendary business book, Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.

Intel’s head of Information Technology shared the challenges her team … continue reading

1: It was the summer of 1985.

One of Silicon Valley’s most legendary meetings was about to happen.

“I was in my office with Intel’s chairman and CEO, Gordon Moore, and we were discussing our quandary,” Andy Grove writes in his book Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.

“Our mood was downbeat,” Andy recalls.

“I looked out the window at … continue reading