Based on observations from over three decades as a designer, consultant and coach, I believe that five primary conversations serve as the connective tissue for all strategy, innovation, and change efforts…

Early in my career I was overly protective of my ideas, believing they were “the best.” I didn’t listen well to others when they tried to contribute their own thoughts because I was convinced I had “the answer.” I’m two steps ahead of you, buddy, was my thinking. I know what we should do and how we should do it.

When I was an architecture grad student, I would often manage the grind of design studio by taking a break in the evening to walk across the street to the Yale Reparatory Theater and see a Broadway-bound play. One that I remember from 1987 was A Walk in the Woods, a spartan production featuring two arms negotiators, a Soviet diplomat Botvinnik and his American counterpart Honeyman…

I was looking forward to connecting with my client Donna to debrief the results of her Leadership Circle Profile 360 feedback report, so I launched the Zoom meeting and awaited her arrival.  She joined shortly thereafter, leaving her camera off. But when I invited her to join me on-screen she declined, sharing “I’m just not looking my best today.”

In 2003 I was part of a small team at IDEO responsible for developing new business with AT&T Wireless, the company’s original mobile division. The prevailing belief at the time was that smart phones were just a version of your desktop computer with far less real estate.  Our work proved this assumption to be inaccurate...

Innovation writ large is essentially an investment in making change happen. But change will be limited if insights and understanding are missing from the design process. So instead of just handing our clients a solution to their innovation challenge, we would invite them to participate in the discovery process...

The inability to productively engage with conflict is what often stands in the way of making positive change a reality - even if that reality is a better work environment. Do we really need to call in lawyers to resolve disputes over microwaved fish? Why are we so adverse to resolving our own problems? It’s the perception of danger.

When the magistrate at a local district courthouse asked a couple if they’d like to try mediation, the response was “No, we’ve already tried talking to each other.” My co-mediator and I looked at each other and whispered incredulously, but what was that conversation actually like?

Every so often I’ll be asked if I’m willing to coach a leader who has been deemed “not coachable” by their organization. Without being provided any additional information, I can predict (with a fair degree of certainty) that one of three possible reasons has caused them to arrive at this unfortunate conclusion...

Not everyone knows that I’m a professionally-trained mediator (not to be confused with meditator :-). And not everyone understands why someone like me would voluntarily engage with conflict. Here’s my why...

As a coach I make very few requests of my clients but one of them is to come to each call with a topic in mind. But sometimes we can’t just get down to business, as is often the case with my client Dan...

Years ago, I was flying from Boston to Athens for a vacation. The plane pulled back from the jet bridge to begin the long flight, and then it abruptly stopped. And then we sat...

One of the most disarming exchanges I have ever had with a colleague came in the form of a simple question. He had just picked up the phone to answer my call, and I was quick to launch into the first topic of our meeting. But he interrupted me and asked an unexpected question...