Next time you want to support an overwhelmed colleague, trade the hollow phrase, “Let me know if I can help…” for something more thoughtful. […]

Yesterday morning, I sent a brief note to the Lessonly team. The responses were encouraging, so now I’m sharing the same note with you: What have you really appreciated about work lately? Has a recent change made your job better? Has someone’s behavior really inspired you? And if so, have you shared your appreciation yet? […]

At work, unexpected things will happen. You’ll be cruising along just fine when, all of a sudden, your plan hits a dead end. You have to go back to the drawing board and reassess your efforts. Some teammates may have to start over completely. And that deadline you all expected to hit… yeah, it’s just […]

Have you ever encountered a confusing process or approach and wondered: Why do we do it that way? If so, this one-minute video about an experiment involving monkeys, ladders, and raincoats is for you. […]

For most of my life, I had the wrong idea about conflict. I thought it was inherently a bad thing. I thought it was something that should be avoided at all costs. It was only through repeated exposure to productive conflict that I learned the truth: Conflict is a fact of life and can be […]

More than eighty percent of people who build Lessons with Lessonly are not traditional trainers—they are just smart people, who have good ideas and trusted techniques to share with their teammates. You have what it takes to create a great Lesson. I put this post together—and the Lesson it stems from—to help you realize that. Nothing […]

In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle shares research that has me working harder to summon cheer and warmth in the moment—even if, on a given day, I am not feeling like my best self. Coyle cites an organizational behavior experiment done by Will Felps, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. […]

The difference between can and must is the key to understanding the profound effects of self-interest on reasoning. It’s also the key to understanding many of the strangest beliefs—in UFO abductions, quack medical treatments, and conspiracy theories. […]

When a person models vulnerability, they signal to their teammates that it’s okay to feel inadequate, to need help, and to not know the answer. […]

Psychological safety has a lot to do with how vulnerable teammates are with one another. When a person can openly and non-judgmentally share what they need help with, other teammates are more likely to respond in kind. This helps everyone learn faster and Do Better Work […]

I wrote last week about appreciation. As of late, I’ve been captivated by The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry. One of Lessonly’s customers recommended it to me, and it continues to move and challenge me. The “thin book” descriptor is accurate: It’s just sixty pages. But what it lacks in thickness, it makes up for in content. […]

In his strange and exhilarating book The Society of Mind, Marvin Minsky writes, “In general, we’re least aware of what our minds do best.” […]