Each week in our newsletter we include one question you can use as an ice-breaker for conversations with colleagues at the beginning of meetings, or to post on your internal workplace messaging platform. Some serious, some silly, but all with the intention of leading to further conversations and building community. Last year at this time,Continue reading “100 More Ice-Breaker Questions for Any Group Gathering”
Category Archives: Open-Ended Questions
Noticing Potential, Promise, and Authenticity
Formal, structured conversations have a particular feeling unlike any other. Think of job interviews. How many have you been a part of – either as the interviewee or one of the interviewers? Remember the tension in the air? The desire to impress? The fear of screwing up? Role-plays are a regular feature of my executiveContinue reading “Noticing Potential, Promise, and Authenticity”
Are Your Meetings Lectures, Show-and-Tells, or Labs?
How many meetings have you attended in the last few weeks? How many have you led? If you lead meetings, how did you learn to lead them? By emulating the meetings you’ve attended? Employees who are high performing often get promoted to management without any training in how to manage others – and, as aContinue reading “Are Your Meetings Lectures, Show-and-Tells, or Labs?”
What are Matching & Mirroring?
How often have you been with a close friend or family member and noticed after a while that you are sitting with the same posture, and matching each other’s tone as you talk? Do you notice this in others when you see best friends getting coffee together? Such behavior is often simply thought of asContinue reading “What are Matching & Mirroring?”
How to Work with a Difficult Colleague
Many things can contribute to work being challenging, but most of us have had at least one experience where the people you work with make or break your experience. Sometimes a coworker or manager can really add to your experience and you’re grateful to be working with them – if so, great! Other times youContinue reading “How to Work with a Difficult Colleague”
“I Wonder…”
Photo credit: Brad Switzer / Unsplash How often have you been involved in a conversation where someone (perhaps you) moves quickly to problem-solving, and in doing so, they treat the presenting symptoms of the situation while missing the underlying cause of the problem? You might even find that in many cases you’re rewarded for comingContinue reading ““I Wonder…””
Allowing the Right to Repair within Teams
Are you familiar with the “Right to Repair” movement? “They don’t make things like they used to” is an oft-repeated phrase, and there’s truth to it – with cheaper materials, planned obsolescence, and the proprietary nature of information and parts, it can sometimes seem impossible to fix something that’s broken. It can seem like theContinue reading “Allowing the Right to Repair within Teams”
A Moment of Rudeness
There’s a moment I think about almost every day, which I’ve never told anyone. In some ways it’s a small everyday moment, and I don’t like to think about it much – but it comes to mind often as I’m interacting with other people, and I find it both confronting and helpful, personally and professionally.Continue reading “A Moment of Rudeness”
A Surprising – or Obvious? – Verdict About Juries
Have you ever served on a jury? If so, what was your experience like? I’ve been called five times in all. In the first few days of 2025, I was called to serve on a grand jury. For a number of reasons I was released from serving, and I was grateful – In Massachusetts, aContinue reading “A Surprising – or Obvious? – Verdict About Juries”
The Sound of Silence: The Value of a Simple Pause
“And in the naked light I saw / Ten thousand people, maybe more / People talking without speaking / People hearing without listening / People writing songs that voices never share / No one dared disturb the sound of silence” – The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel, written by Paul Simon In turbulentContinue reading “The Sound of Silence: The Value of a Simple Pause”
Building Bridges Leadership 