In a recent post I wrote about the role of discomfort in group dynamics. Trying something new is generally not comfortable. Trying to communicate in a different way is not comfortable. Finally digging in and dealing with hard stuff that you’ve been avoiding is not comfortable. A certain level of discomfort can be necessary for […]
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These two M words crashed together in my mind as I lay pondering the meaning of the universe one recent night. I’d been working on a presentation about motivation for a local Toastmasters chapter on the same day that I’d had a meeting with the president of another association of which I am a member. […]
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My CalSAE colleague Shelly Alcorn writes a great blog called Association Subculture. She recently posted a great “back of the napkin” story sketch about association membership. So I decided I needed to draw mine! (Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger image.) When I went to library school in the 90s I joined a […]
After breaking my leg two years ago, I wrote a blog post chronicling the lessons I learned from hobbling around on crutches. (Read the full post here.) They can be summarized as: Slow down. Be patient. Prioritize. Ask for help. Economy of motion. Be creative. On crutches again after foot surgery, I have a couple […]
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Many of our resolutions, personal or professional, are about things that we’d like to DO. Some are about things we want to STOP doing. I rather like this little piece by Jeff Haden at Inc. on ten things to stop doing in order to be happier at work: blaming, impressing, clinging, interrupting, whining, controlling, criticizing, […]
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It’s that time of year again, the annual contemplation of character flaws and failures that culminates in New Year’s Resolutions. Now, taking some time for self-reflection and making achievable, concrete plans for improvement is indeed a useful enterprise. But sometimes I wonder about the resolution or two that reappears year after year…how realistic is it […]
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It’s now been five weeks since I broke my ankle. Five weeks of navigating the world on crutches. Some of the lessons I’ve learned during my temporary disability: Slow down. I can’t zoom around at my usual frenetic pace or I will fall flat on my face. I have to watch the ground for tripping […]
Those of you who followed my Art Every Day doodles may be interested in Saturday’s world-wide Sketch Crawl! A bunch of folks going out to draw and then gathering afterward to share. (Kinda like a pub crawl but with less beer.) I joined folks in Santa Rosa, but you can look up your part of […]
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Recently I was given the valuable opportunity to practice what I preach! A client was not entirely happy with the work we’d done together and gave me very frank, specific and detailed feedback about it. While grateful for their honesty, I was somewhat taken by surprise. This conversation was an excellent chance to review these […]