Are you someone who has the habit of crossing your arms? Do you furrow your brow so you have RBF? Have others told you you need to work on your attitude? Does this describe something you see in your colleagues? When someone else crosses their arms or furrows their brow does it make you feel […]
Nouns or verbs? Labels and categories are easier to talk about than social dynamics and behavioral patterns, but what are the implications of relying on them too much to explain people’s bahavior?
Recently, I had a skeptical reaction to a TED talk in which Adam Grant seemed to be encouraging us to categorize each other into three categories of people: givers, takers and matchers. It was my sense that people’s behavior is probably too socially-embedded and fluid to be captured through this sort of categorization. I also […]
Don’t start your journey until AFTER you have made sure your elephant knows where it is supposed to take you (working draft)
As human beings who sleep, wake up, do stuff, then go back to sleep, we all share a common dilemma: How do we make sure we don’t end the day feeling like it was a day wasted? I developed AFTER as a cuing mechanism I use at the start of my day to make sure […]
Can we really be categorized into givers, takers and matchers? Or are we just learners adapting to the cues we pick up as we wend our way across organizational minefields?
As I listened to this highly engaging and entertaining TED talk, I kept wondering what assumptions about organizations and people led Adam Grant to believe that it would be helpful to suggest we can (should?) divide our peers up into givers, takers and matchers. I believe he is onto something important, and I agree that […]
Purpose: the multiplier that turns THE GRIND into TRUE GRIT for MEANINGFUL GROWTH
True Grit = Passion + Perseverance x PURPOSE Purpose is the multiplier that makes hard work less of a grind. COMPELLING SENSE OF PURPOSE is the catalytic element that is often missing from exhortations that we show more GRIT or find a GROWTH MINDSET. PASSION and PERSEVERENCE can be very hard to maintain if you […]
Our emotions reflect the stories we generate to explain and survive the broad range of situations we encounter in life
Our brains seem to cue our affective states (including extremes ones like depression) through a continuous series of predictions of what physiological state will most efficiently promote our short-term survival. The symptoms are physiological, but the emotional label is psychosocial. The physical symptoms that accompany emotions – such as a racing or slowing heartbeat, flushed […]
Finding the place where we belong in a world in which boundaries are fading
The search to find the “place” where the “real” you feels welcome and comfortable can reach across thousands of miles and centuries of inherited experience. Moving to a place that is new to us can wake up new aspects of our identities that might have remained dormant if we hadn’t moved to the new environment. […]
Wellbeing is personal, social and – most of all – behavioral
“Everybody’s looking for this magic pill that’s going to change (feelings of low wellbeing), and what we really need is a shift in our expectations and a shift in our behaviors.” – Dr. Cynthia Ackrill, certified stress mastery educator — When it comes to wellbeing, we tend to look too far outside our circle of […]
How do you figure out what gives you a sense of purpose? (draft under construction)
In the APGCCM formula, P stands for purpose. There are various ways to think about purpose, but within this formula what I refer to as purpose is the pursuit of a potential outcome that seems likely to be significant, valuable or worthwhile. Some people are turned off by high-minded terms like purpose, while others may […]
Autonomy is illusory; what you really need is more experience of agency
We tend to say we want more autonomy (right to make choices regarding our own lives without external pressures or interference) when what we really want and need is more experience of agency (ability to take meaningful actions, make decisions, and influence the world around us). Conversations about autonomy tend to focus on our resistance […]