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The Infinite Woodpile

I grew up with a wood-burning stove in the living room. It did a fantastic job of generating heat in the winter, though it was less fantastic at...

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Delusional Anxiety: A DIY Rewiring Guide

Learning involves far more than just memorizing information. 

Learning is a process of change and adaptation that involves integrating new...

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Real Issues: Our Call to Grow

Pat Murray, a legendary executive coach and CEO group chair, defined a “real issue” as...

“any issue that causes everyone in the...

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Managers: Your Longest Cultural Lever

At your next all-hands meeting, look to your left, then look to your right. Odds are one of those people is either actively looking for a new job,...

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Our Unique Ability to Create Stress

The very peaceful-looking creature in the photo above is an agouti. About the size of a cat, an agouti looks kind of like a mini-capybara, to...

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One Bias to Rule Them All

Engineering school, plus a few decades in the medical device industry, has given me ample reason to spend lots of time thinking about accuracy and...

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The Tradeoffs of High Sensitivity

Successful photography demands constant attention to tradeoffs and compromises. My preferred subjects are birds, and they rarely agree to pose...

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Watching Thoughts Fly By

Did you know that every September, many birds transform themselves into completely different species?

Redstarts metamorphose into robins, summer...

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Clash Course: Navigating Workplace Conflict, Part 3/3

In Part One of this series on conflict, we looked at what we do that turns a difference of opinion into the sort of toxic confrontations...

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Clash Course: Navigating Workplace Conflict, Part 2/3

We’re talking about conflict.

Last time we looked at the origin of the word itself. Conflict is literally about bashing things together....

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Clash Course: Navigating Workplace Conflict, Part 1/3

To bash together.

That is the literal meaning of the word “conflict,” from the Latin com- or con-, for “with or...

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Lessons From Unicorns: Part 2 of 2

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Last week we introduced Patient SM. If you missed it, start here.

By age four, a rare genetic disorder called...

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Lessons From Unicorns: Part 1 of 2

In the year 1965, at an undisclosed location in the United States, a little girl was born with an extraordinarily rare genetic disorder called...

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The Many Worlds of Subjective Experience

I do not like cold water.

I was a swimmer in high school, and I vividly remember a particular morning practice the day after the pool had been...

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Leadership Lessons from the Waggle Dance

Through my hobby of bird photography, I have become adept at a very specific visual distinction: tree, or not tree.

I suspect we all have an...

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The Fearless Don't Need Courage

The summer air crackled with a strange energy as I sat on the deck with coffee. Nature has a lot to say if you know how to listen. She expresses...

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Practice Makes Progress

The intention of this blog is simple: help people feel better, so they can work better and live better.

It is exceptionally difficult to think...

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The Anxiety Equation

Our daughter, Abby, is an eventer. Don’t worry if that means nothing to you. It meant nothing to me ten years ago either. Eventing is one of...

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The Emotional Invalidation Spiral

Just the other day, Martha and I set out for a walk with our dogs, Ruby and Spark. Spark is two years old, and is highly enthusiastic about, well,...

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Making Big Decisions With Confidence

Drawing lines is easy. Knowing where and when to draw them is hard.

From time to time, work and life present us with difficult decisions that leave...

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Is Hybrid Work the Best Option?

Surely they are going to cancel.

I remember that thought as we entered the week of March 9, 2020. Our daughter was scheduled to swim in the...

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Lessons From the Edge of the Solar System

Although you might not have been around to see it open in theaters, you are almost certainly familiar with a film released in May of 1977 starring...

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To Be Deeply Seen

I’d like to begin this week’s post with a nine minute, forty-six second assignment. Grab your headphones or earbuds and watch...

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Untangling Immunity to Change: Part 4

Welcome back to our final installment in the Immunity to Change series!

In the previous parts, we defined our Stated Commitment (Part 1),...

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Executive Coaching, Corporate Training, and Group Facilitation

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Executive Coaching, Corporate Training, and Group Facilitation

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