How many times have you dreaded having a hard conversation, or over-thought how it might transpire in anticipation of it being difficult, uncomfortable, or unproductive? The inevitability is that most of us will have a hard conversation at some point in the not too distant future. So, what can we do to make them better? This article includes 4 practical approaches we can start using today to make our interactions more productive.

If you’re a leader kicking off a new project with your team, or ideating on a new product your company could launch, it’s essential to be intentional about how you plan for and guide collaborative sessions to make them a success. Apply these five facilitation learnings to your work to ramp up the effectiveness of your collaborative sessions, and have a more powerful impact on the teams you lead.

Design Sprints have the incredible ability to unlock the full potential of a team’s creativity and push innovation to new heights – that’s why they’re such a powerful leadership tool. After nearly eight years of facilitating Design Sprints, I can confidently say they’re just as effective now as they ever were. If you’re having a hard time getting over the commitment hump, here are 5 reasons why you really can’t afford not to Sprint with your team.

Don’t let the ideas and energy you’ve generated in your workshop stall out. End on a high note by facilitating the fifth and final part of a winning workshop: wrap-up activities. This article covers my favorite methods – the ones that outline a path forward to ensure your team maintains momentum.

In today’s installment of my series on intelligent workshop design, I’ll be sharing my favorite facilitation activities for idea generation – the ones that elevate brainstorming sessions from mere discussions to the kind of collaboration that produces actionable, viable possibilities.

Naming a new product isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to be painful. It can be tempting to slap an acronym on it and call it a day, but taking time to come up with the perfect name is truly worth the effort. Here are my tips for picking a great product name, and a guide to get you get started on the naming process with your team.

I quit social media 3.5 years ago and am opening up about the initial change and impact on my brain, some longer-term effects, and practices for eliminating or reducing the use of social media in your own life.

Most workshops and complex problem-solving endeavors are far more successful with a facilitator present. So, what is it about a great facilitator that unlocks this potential? Check out the three key abilities that a great facilitator brings to the table – think of them as the ingredients that, when present, make a workshop feel fruitful and satisfying.

In a perfect world, we'd have perfect professional chemistry with all of our colleagues. But alas, it's not a perfect world—not even close. Fortunately, even if there are certain stakeholders you mesh with less than others, it's almost always possible to overcome personality clash and find a way forward. Here are the tips I've found to be most helpful for working with, not against, your most difficult teammates.

How did a self-care promoting, work-life-balance advocate wake up one day and realize that burnout had gripped my life? And what could I do to escape the cycle and find a new, more sustainable way of being? This is the story of my “burnout intervention” and how I’ve spent the last year of my life making a concerted effort to break free from the toxic cycle.

There’s no magic button to eliminate unruly behavior among workshop participants, but there are a few things facilitators can do to get ahead of it. In this post, I share my four favorite ground rules that set teams up for better meetings and workshops, along with a few bonus rules that apply to virtual sessions.

Have you ever experienced a moment in a workshop or meeting when it became abundantly clear that your participants weren’t on the same page about the objective for your time together? It’s mostly avoidable if you make time for one very important aspect of workshop design. In today’s installment of this series on intelligent workshop design, I’ll be sharing methods and activities you can borrow to nail this part of the process.