Monthly Archives: October 2013

Improve for The Business Stage Changes the Way People “Listen”

Posted on by

Thank you to Kat Koppett, who led Improv for The Business Stage earlier today. It was Positive Business DC’s first Webinar and has me thinking about approaching transformation and company culture a bit differently. You can read about my personal epiphany in Modern DC Business. What we’ll cover here takes a completely different flavor—the difference between “yes” and “but.” Linguists will tell you that “but” has strong negative connotations. Someone says “but” and we hear “no.” The word, “and,” however, is inclusive and without limits. Or is it? When discussing improvisational tools used within the context of business, Kat and Shannon (Polly) discussed how the Yes/And exercise becomes misapplied. The rule: You need to see, hear, and receive everything that’s happening and then use an offer—anything your partner says or does—including emotional context and gestures. You accept all that has… …

Upcoming Meetup on Positive Diversity with M.E. Hart

Posted on by

Positive Diversity: Lose Labels, See Past Stereotypes, Build a Brilliant Team Research shows that Diverse Teams are stronger in Innovation and Creativity. Selecting the right people is especially critical for small businesses and startups, where every individual represents a significant investment and a large percentage of your company. Identifying people with the skills and qualifications needed – that’s the easier part. The harder part comes next. Who will be a good fit for the culture you want to create? Will their work style compliment or conflict with other team members? And what about character? The science of Positive Psychology is giving us new insights and can help us in a process of answering the ever burning question: “How do I know if I’m picking the right person?” At our  Meetup on November 7th, M.E. Hart will lead us in exploring… …

Anchoring Bias and Positive Leadership

Posted on by
Reply

Part 4 in our “Cognitive Bias and Leadership” Series On our January 16, 2013 blog, we gave an overview of cognitive bias (our tendency to filter information through our own past experiences, likes, and dislikes) and surmised that it can lead to faulty judgments. So much of positive leadership hinges on good decision making, which, of course, affects company culture and workplace happiness. So, let’s expand the discussion. In the fourth of our series, I am going to talk about the Anchoring Bias. This bias is the tendency to favor a piece of information and “anchor on” or favor that information when making decisions, even though it may have no logical relevance to the decision at hand. With the Anchoring Bias, the information becomes our reference point to evaluate and make decisions. And, as you might guess, this can lead… …

Mindfulness Increases Your Chance of Promotion

Posted on by
Reply

It appears as if social science and neuroscience are coming to the same conclusions about human behavior… at least in some instances. In a Ted Talk entitled Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are, Amy Cuddy speaks about how adjusting your posture for two minutes will change hormone levels, which will either make you more powerful or less powerful. It’s interesting, because the postures Cuddy highlights are clearly instinctive power or submissive moves. The hormones involved? Testosterone (the dominance hormone) and cortisol (the stress hormone). As people interact with one another, those hormone levels translate to body language. This has serious consequences personally and professionally. As a leader, one of the most important skills I taught my direct reports was how to interpret body language during interviews. Of course, the skill applied to all interpersonal interactions, but it was really… …

PBDC Participate in Massively Multiplayer Thumb Wrestling

Posted on by

Yesterday, Donna and I journeyed to Richmond, VA to attend WomenEtc. by RichTech. We were originally inspired to make the trip to see Jane McGonigal, gaming guru and Ted Talk serial speaker extraordinaire. Jane’s life work has proven that gaming is not only has positive emotional and physiological benefits, she has demonstrated that gaming can also be used to improve the human condition. We’ll get to that part in another post. Jane’s presentation was everything we imagined it would be… and more. In the beginning, Jane boldly proclaimed that she would be able to get all 500 attendees to experience the 10 positive emotions associated with gaming within 60 seconds. Believe it or not, she did. So, what are those positive emotions, you might ask? 1. Creativity 2. Contentment 3. Awe and wonder 4. Excitement 5. Curiosity 6. Pride 7.… …

Is the Fun in Striving or Arriving?

Posted on by

By GUEST BLOGGER: Peter Worrell As an entrepreneur owner-manager, do you ever wonder, “Hmm…will I ever get this business to achieve a wealth creation event, someday? It sure would be nice to think that all of the passion, effort, and sweat, not to mention cash I have risked in this business, would result in a capital gain where I could get some serious chips off the table, and get out of my day-to-day responsibilities. Now that would be a great goal to achieve.” Wouldn’t it? Or would it? For seasoned, successful owner-managers, does the fun and flourishing in life come from achieving goals or striving for goals? Can the entrepreneur’s life arc mature to the point that you achieve a wealth building transaction, and then possibly take another step forward into a whole new arc of achievement? We believe it… …