Tag: ACEC

  • What Great Listeners Actually Do

    Good listening is much more than being silent while the other person talks.

    Chances are you think you’re a good listener. People’s appraisal of their listening ability is much like their assessment of their driving skills, in that the great bulk of adults think they’re above average.

    In our experience, most people think good listening comes down to doing three things:

    • Not talking when others are speaking
    • Letting others know you’re listening through facial expressions and verbal sounds (“Mmm-hmm”)
    • Being able to repeat what others have said, practically word-for-word

    In fact, much management advice on listening suggests doing these very things – encouraging listeners to remain quiet, nod and “mm-hmm” encouragingly, and then repeat back to the talker something like, “So, let me make sure I understand. What you’re saying is…” However, recent research that we conducted suggests that these behaviors fall far short of describing good listening skills.

    We analyzed data describing the behavior of 3,492 participants in a development program designed to help managers become better coaches. As part of this program, their coaching skills were assessed by others in 360-degree assessments. We identified those who were perceived as being the most effective listeners (the top 5%). We then compared the best listeners to the average of all other people in the data set and identified the 20 items showing the largest significant difference. With those results in hand we identified the differences between great and average listeners and analyzed the data to determine what characteristics their colleagues identified as the behaviors that made them outstanding listeners.

    We found some surprising conclusions, along with some qualities we expected to hear. We grouped them into four main findings:

    • Good listening is much more than being silent while the other person talks. To the contrary, people perceive the best listeners to be those who periodically ask questions that promote discovery and insight. These questions gently challenge old assumptions, but do so in a constructive way. Sitting there silently nodding does not provide sure evidence that a person is listening, but asking a good question tells the speaker the listener has not only heard what was said, but that they comprehended it well enough to want additional information. Good listening was consistently seen as a two-way dialog, rather than a one-way “speaker versus hearer” interaction. The best conversations were active.
    • Good listening included interactions that build a person’s self-esteem. The best listeners made the conversation a positive experience for the other party, which doesn’t happen when the listener is passive (or, for that matter, critical!). Good listeners made the other person feel supported and conveyed confidence in them. Good listening was characterized by the creation of a safe environment in which issues and differences could be discussed openly.
    • Good listening was seen as a cooperative conversation. In these interactions, feedback flowed smoothly in both directions with neither party becoming defensive about comments the other made. By contrast, poor listeners were seen as competitive — as listening only to identify errors in reasoning or logic, using their silence as a chance to prepare their next response. That might make you an excellent debater, but it doesn’t make you a good listener. Good listeners may challenge assumptions and disagree, but the person being listened to feels the listener is trying to help, not wanting to win an argument.
    • Good listeners tended to make suggestions. Good listening invariably included some feedback provided in a way others would accept and that opened up alternative paths to consider. This finding somewhat surprised us, since it’s not uncommon to hear complaints that “So-and-so didn’t listen, he just jumped in and tried to solve the problem.” Perhaps what the data is telling us is that making suggestions is not itself the problem; it may be the skill with which those suggestions are made. Another possibility is that we’re more likely to accept suggestions from people we already think are good listeners. (Someone who is silent for the whole conversation and then jumps in with a suggestion may not be seen as credible. Someone who seems combative or critical and then tries to give advice may not be seen as trustworthy.)

    While many of us have thought of being a good listener being like a sponge that accurately absorbs what the other person is saying, instead, what these findings show is that good listeners are like trampolines. They are someone you can bounce ideas off of — and rather than absorbing your ideas and energy, they amplify, energize, and clarify your thinking. They make you feel better not merely passively absorbing, but by actively supporting. This lets you gain energy and height, just like someone jumping on a trampoline.

    Of course, there are different levels of listening. Not every conversation requires the highest levels of listening, but many conversations would benefit from greater focus and listening skill. Consider which level of listening you’d like to aim for:

    Level 1: The listener creates a safe environment in which difficult, complex, or emotional issues can be discussed.

    Level 2: The listener clears away distractions like phones and laptops, focusing attention on the other person and making appropriate eye-contact. (This behavior not only affects how you are perceived as the listener; it immediately influences the listener’s own attitudes and inner feelings. Acting the part changes how you feel inside. This in turn makes you a better listener.)

    Level 3: The listener seeks to understand the substance of what the other person is saying. They capture ideas, ask questions, and restate issues to confirm that their understanding is correct.

    Level 4: The listener observes nonbverbal cues, such as facial expressions, perspiration, respiration rates, gestures, posture, and numerous other subtle body language signals. It is estimated that 80% of what we communicate comes from these signals. It sounds strange to some, but you listen with your eyes as well as your ears.

    Level 5: The listener increasingly understands the other person’s emotions and feelings about the topic at hand, and identifies and acknowledges them. The listener empathizes with and validates those feelings in a supportive, nonjudgmental way.

    Level 6: The listener asks questions that clarify assumptions the other person holds and helps the other person to see the issue in a new light. This could include the listener injecting some thoughts and ideas about the topic that could be useful to the other person. However, good listeners never highjack the conversation so that they or their issues become the subject of the discussion.

    Each of the levels builds on the others; thus, if you’ve been criticized (for example) for offering solutions rather than listening, it may mean you need to attend to some of the other levels (such as clearing away distractions or empathizing) before your proffered suggestions can be appreciated.

    We suspect that in being a good listener, most of us are more likely to stop short rather than go too far. Our hope is that this research will help by providing a new perspective on listening. We hope those who labor under an illusion of superiority about their listening skills will see where they really stand. We also hope the common perception that good listening is mainly about acting like an absorbent sponge will wane. Finally, we hope all will see that the highest and best form of listening comes in playing the same role for the other person that a trampoline plays for a child. It gives energy, acceleration, height and amplification. These are the hallmarks of great listening.

    Authors: Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman

    Original Content Published by Harvard Business Review

  • Symphony: A New Language for Diversity & Inclusion

    WATCH Speech by Oshoke Pamela Abalu: TEDxBroadway

  • Guide To CEO Peer Networks

    Interchangeably called CEO peer groups or networks, these organizations generally arrange regular meetings in confidential environments where CEOs can share ideas, best practices, experiences and advice. High performing executives value the perspective of other leaders, as well as the wisdom that comes from the practical experiences learned by others in similar circumstances.

    To read this 2020 Report by Chief Executive Research, LLC., please click HERE

  • CEO and Senior Executive Compensation in Private Companies 2019-20

    Chief Executive Research surveyed 1,668 companies in April thru June of 2019 about their 2018 fiscal year compensation levels and practices, as well as their expected compensation levels for the remainder of 2019.

    We’ve received detailed data about compensation packages for CEOs and nine other senior executive positions, as well as comprehensive information about each company’s executive compensation policies and practices. The substantial response provided meaningful data for companies across revenue ranges, industries, regions, ownership types and levels of profitability.

    Detailed data from this survey is analyzed and presented in our acclaimed 2019-20 CEO & Senior Executive Compensation Report for Private Companies, for which we are happy to provide you, as a survey respondent, this executive summary.

    While most data sources on CEO compensation focus on large public companies, our research brings real-world insight into the compensation of CEOs of the approximately 6 million private companies in the U.S., not just the S&P 500. We invite you to consult the full report for complete compensation data broken down by company demographics and performance.

    To read this Executive Summary by Chief Executive Research, click HERE

  • Becoming a Recognized Expert

    Nowadays, it’s possible for virtually anyone to get their message out into the world. As a result, we’re often overwhelmed with an endless stream of information and noise.

    So if you’re a professional who wants to become known for your expertise, how do you stand out from the crowd?

    Ron Carucci is a fellow Harvard Business Review author and member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches, a partner in the consulting company Navalent, and a member of my Recognized Expert course and community. In a recent #LinkedInLive session that I had with Ron, we discussed what it really means to be a recognized expert in business today.

    To ensure you can join me for my next LinkedIn Live interview, follow me on LinkedIn. Click this link to my profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/doriec/ – and then click “follow.”

    Here are five pieces of advice from Ron about how you can start your journey as a recognized expert:

    Expand your audience. A few years ago, at the start of his journey, Ron realized he needed to grow his network – because as it stood, he was mostly in dialogue with people who already knew him, and he needed to get known by new audiences. He therefore doubled down on content creation, and actively began writing for Forbes and the Harvard Business Review.

    Create content to attract your ideal clients. One can’t simply create content and expect to go viral or suddenly gain a massive following. Ron says, “It’s not enough to write or put ideas out there, even if they’re brilliant. They have to be the brilliant ideas you want to represent you. That’s how you invite the kind of people into your life whom you want in your life.”

    Swim against the stream. Right now, consider what everyone in the news is writing about. Sometimes, it pays to do the opposite, such as Ron’s successful recent piece in the Harvard Business Review talking about ambition (at a time when almost everyone else was focused on writing about the pandemic).

    Get proactive with your social media engagement. We all appreciate the fanfare of a well-liked post, picture, or article, but every single reaction to your content is a potential opportunity, as Ron suggests. “Every one of those reactions, tweets, LinkedIn follows, the comments on the article, is a new relationship,” he says. “Just responding something like, ‘Hey, thanks for your engagement’ or ‘Hey, interesting question- what do you think?’ grows both your recognition and potential business down the road. I would leverage every one of those interactions far more aggressively. In terms of just being diligent and engaging, try to start a conversation with them.“

    Play the long game. Everyone envisions a “break-out” moment on their journey to success. The truth is, you don’t reach your goal by taking just one really good step. As Ron says, “We all think that maybe this article, maybe this video, maybe this TED talk, maybe this podcast will be the one – that breakout moment. There’s no such thing. Each of those moments becomes a diligent step on the journey to advance the cause. Be diligent in your content idea sharing, in your strategies, how you create content, whom you talk to, and what you talk about. That’s all really important. But prepare yourself for the psychological and emotional journey of resilience. This is a long game. The recognition part of the recognized expert is a long game. Don’t keep looking to your left and right and getting into the ‘Well, how come them and not me?’ It’s not about meritocracy. Don’t be looking for the merits of your ideas to stand above somebody else’s or not. That’s not what this is about. It’s about people getting to know you better.”

    By following the steps Ron suggests above, you can advance much further on the journey to becoming a Recognized Expert.

    To watch the video replay of my interview with Ron, click this link here.

    And if you’d like to see how far along you are in the recognized expert journey, sign up to receive a free PDF download of my Recognized Expert Self-Evaluation Toolkit.

    Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter! Make sure to comment below, share your questions and ideas, and click “share” so your colleagues can join in on the discussion, as well.

    Author: Dorie Clark

  • Evolving Forward: The Indivisible System

    How systems thinking, focused intention and trust are essential for our future

    Meatpacking plants are a microcosm of what we are all experiencing right now—the indivisible system. As the contextual environment more aggressively imposes itself into our everyday world, the resources we used to call upon, while necessary, are insufficient to get us through this real crisis. The leaders at meatpacking plants must operate on all cylinders and become agile sense-makers of their environment to address the needs of their workforce, the needs of the communities they operate in, and the needs of the world’s food supply. This is not the time to think about themselves, their professional development or their personal assessment results. They are in chaos and complexity, and the leadership strategies previously applied will no longer work. There is no going back, there is only evolving forward.

    “The concept of emotional intelligence (EI) is a 101 course for leadership right now.” This spot-on statement was made this past week at CCI Consulting’s monthly virtual Executive Coach Café— something that has been taking place for much longer than the pandemic. We were, like so many others in the industry, discussing coaching strategies that are particularly important to help leaders right now; some of whom are dealing with bottom-line crises resulting in their businesses precariously perched on the brink of insolvency. Other leaders are navigating the needs of virtual staff and the mechanics of returning to a face-to-face office environment while simultaneously adjusting to the legal issues involved with protecting their employees. Whatever the particular situation, the workforce is in dire need of help and support.

    But the statement made about Emotional Intelligence, or EI or EQ, has never rung truer than it does today because EI is not new. Most leaders already know about the 1995 book, “Emotional Intelligence,” by Daniel Goleman even if they haven’t read it or put its guidance into practice. Some are even aware of the 1990 John Mayer and Peter Salovey article that first used the term emotional intelligence, or the seminal work of Howard Gardner and Reuven Bar-On in the 1980s that dug into multiple intelligences and the psychological well-being and drivers of success outside of IQ and academic or hard-skill proficiencies.

    One does not turn on the EI switch and suddenly develop the capacity to marry self-awareness and the awareness of others any more than after one reads a book or listens to a TED talk and suddenly becomes attuned to the needs of psychological safety, authenticity or courage. All of these concepts require leaders—and all of us for that matter—to zero in on the foundation that allows these concepts to turn into everyday actions that move the needle on interpersonal effectiveness and leadership strength.

    Our society needs interpersonal effectiveness and leadership strength now more than ever. But, more important than that, we need to shift our perspective to the indivisible system we live in. To do that, we need to turn up the volume on the foundational skills of systems thinking, focused intention and trust.

    Consider these scenarios:

    Pre-pandemic: The office reception area was always sparkling, but the building scheduled individual offices and cubicles to be cleaned on a bi-monthly basis.

    Upon reopening: Your direct report walks into the office environment and wonders privately if the building manager allocated the proper resources to procure the ethanol or cleaning solutions necessary to disinfect their cubicle space or thinks that perhaps they diluted materials in favor of cost savings. They say nothing because at least they still have a job.

    Pre-pandemic: Your Asian American lab manager received an award for facilitating a successful clinical trial.

    Upon reopening: On her way to work, your Asian American lab manager was harassed and called names for bringing the novel coronavirus to America. When she came into the office, she said nothing and moved quietly to her workstation wondering if anyone at work felt the same way.

    Pre-pandemic: A key member of the senior leadership team launched a new initiative, setting the stage to acquire a competitor.

    Upon reopening: With schools still closed and summer camp postponed, that same key member was distracted by family concerns and schedules, as well as figuring out coverage for staff, and the acquisition opportunity was not only missed but they experienced a hostile takeover.

    If we peel back the surface…if we move deeper than the mechanical needs of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), social distancing, work schedules and remote technology, we will see that these things are simply tools. And who uses the tools? People. It is the experience of people that matter more right now than ever before.

    The three foundational concepts that can help to move all of us forward require strategies that involve:

    Systems Thinking – None of us likes to think of ourselves as living in a bubble and now, more than ever, we see how siloed thinking causes unnecessary conflicts and contributes to misinformation and delayed decision-making. Systems thinking is not new, but its perspective is enjoying a resurgence. People everywhere are noticing its value when addressing complexity and the VUCA environment. As we move through the current pandemic, it is critical to call on a systems perspective to help organizations and people adapt to change. Russell Ackoff defined a system as, “a whole, which cannot be divided into independent parts…the essential properties of any system, the properties that define a system, are properties of the whole which none of its parts have.” When adopting a systems mindset, we see that our internal or operating environment (yes, our bubble or our organization) exists within a transactional or stakeholder environment where we act and interact with those around us, beyond which exists in our contextual or global environment.

    To be a true systems thinker requires consideration that the changes taking place in this contextual environment place pressures that cause changes in behavior of the stakeholders in the transactional environment. And, as changes in the transactional environment take place, they naturally place pressures on the internal and operational environment of the organization.

    Ah…the pandemic. But not just the pandemic.

    Change is not linear, and we are seeing in real time that what we are experiencing around the globe requires us to address the contextual environment of the pandemic and the economy but, more importantly, the changes we need to make FOR people. Leaders must accelerate considerations for how technology and digital productivity can enhance and not replace workers. Leaders must address shifting ways of generating business value through agility, innovation and new customer strategies. And how about where our employees come from? Entire categories of people are impacted when geopolitical and economic powers shift, but more so when the well-being of people and purpose of work dramatically change.

    Re-envisioning work as opposed to returning “back” to the way things once were is the new mission- critical competency leaders must embrace now.

    Focused Intention – The game has changed and our global existence has come into sharp focus because we now understand that even if we work hard, develop ourselves to be at our best, provide opportunities for others, and focus on our mission and values, there are still things we cannot control. The word intention often brings to mind a goal or target, such as we find when we have good intentions. However, our good intentions don’t always have the intended impact with either people or outcomes. There has never been a better time to take a step back and think about the kind of person you want to be…how you want to show up as a leader, friend, colleague, parent and citizen. Then, if you are honest with yourself and solicit feedback from others, is this the person you are today? Is there a gap you can fill?

    There are those who choose activities that quiet the mind or activate the soul. Whatever you choose is not really at issue. What is at issue is that you place focused attention on your intentions and exercise behaviors that support them, reflect on how you did, and adjust where needed. Hopefully, your intentions are supportive to those around you.

    Trust – At the core of everything is trusting the “other” person, but also ensuring they trust you. Without trust, we cannot communicate; without communication, there is no trust. If we choose to widen our perspective and allow greater transparency in the system, we must open ourselves up to the ideas of others and fill the gaps of understanding to make sense of our global system. During times of uncertainty and fear, people need to feel grounded that their leaders and organization are reliable and have one another’s back. Recognizing our own assumptions and biases are a good start here. Are we making assumptions that those around us are not interested in remaining healthy and alive? Are others making the right assumptions about us? In a way, it is the same as wearing masks right now: I wear a mask because I care about you and want you to wear one as an expression of how much you care about me.

    Begin by treating everyone—and I mean everyone—with complete positive regard. And, if you can’t, ask yourself how to approach the other with curiosity and kindness. Learn how they are experiencing everything right now. Learn how they are struggling and laughing and tell them about how you are experiencing things right now. Together, and through courageous and caring conversations, it will be easier to build an environment where people reconnect with one another after we reduce our distance, where we all begin to challenge our own limiting beliefs, and where we can co-create whatever our future has in store.

    There are many important leadership tools out there, but without thinking in systems, intention and trust, everything else falls flat. Together we lead.

    Author: Adena Johnston, D. Mgt. MCEC Vice President and Practice Leader, Talent Development

  • Your Leadership Legacy Is Now

    How will you be remembered for leading through these times? What will people say about the way you showed up? What will be your legacy?

    Today and tomorrow – into the foreseeable future – will be painful and destabilizing as we manage through this pandemic. Our days will also bring new ideas and plans, and the chance to relate differently to others and to the world. Everything has changed and is changing every day.

    Will they say you were centered, calm and present in an environment of fear and uncertainty? Will they recall how you focused everyone on what was most important? Will they think back and remember how you communicated every day about what you knew, didn’t know and couldn’t know about the Covid crisis and its impact?

    Will others look back at how you took charge of details to solve urgent problems and then included others in the plan for getting through the worst days? Will they say how inspired they were by your vision for what your organization could be post-pandemic, a vision that was realistic and bold and challenged them to bring their best?

    Will they recall feeling connected to you and cared about? Will they talk about how you checked in often to ask about their families’ safety and how they were handling the stress of working from home? Will they hold in their minds the thought, “he was going through this with us?” Will they talk about how you were present and grieved with a team member who lost her mother?

    Will they say you showed your humanity, your fear for your own family’s safety and your own concerns about the future of the organization and business. Will they remember you saying, “I don’t know?”

    The future is not some far-off time when others will settle back in their chairs to review how you showed up as a leader when the world changed. Your leadership today will be talked about tomorrow and for days to come, and it will carry more significance, or not.

    So, don’t wait for history to remember you. Your leadership legacy is now.

    Author: Ken Giglio

    Ken Giglio is a highly experienced Executive Coach, Consultant, and Coach Supervisor focused on Mindful Leadership, the courage to confront and shift the self-limiting mindsets and behaviors that undermine personal, team, and organizational effectiveness. As Principal, he leads a global team of highly experienced executive coaches and supervisors who link leadership to an organization’s strategic business objectives. www.mindful-leaders.com

  • 5 Steps to Stay Focused When Teaching Online

    Try Balancing High Intensity Activity with Periods of Recovery


    It’s only noon; you’re halfway through teaching your third virtual class of the day, and you just can’t take it anymore. Even with the air conditioning on full blast and slurping down your third cup of coffee, you can’t stare at the screen any longer. You feel increasingly distracted, increasingly frustrated, and you’re not even sure why. Worse yet, you know your students are feeling the same way. In your gut, you know there has to be a better way to keep focused and energized.

    In-person classes and meetings are challenging enough; after all, there’s a reason why Patrick Lencioni’s book Death by Meeting was such a hit. Then came COVID-19 and everything moved online, presenting a familiar yet even greater challenge for educators: how can I ensure my classes are efficient and engaging in a virtual setting?

    The good news is that, right now, as we think ahead to upcoming semesters, we have the opportunity to change how we approach and design virtual classrooms. With a few simple shifts, we can make virtual classrooms more efficient, productive, engaging, and collaborative, all while ensuring our sanity and focus as educators. It may surprise you that we can turn to the nearby (likely closed) gym for tips on how to optimize online teaching—and make it more enjoyable.

    High-Intensity Interval Training: Not Just for the Gym

    Maximizing results in a minimal amount of time is a mantra echoed in the fitness world with a concept known as high-intensity interval training, or HIIT. According to Medical News Today, HIIT is exercise that involves short bursts of challenging activity followed by rest or lower-intensity exercise. Studies have found that even a short HIIT workout, done a few times a week, maximizes health outcomes including reduced body fat, improved cardiovascular and metabolic health, and improved mental health.

    Imagine yourself in a workout class. The sweat is pouring from your face and arms as you push yourself to do just one more sit-up. You hear the voice in your head telling you that you just can’t do anymore.

    Tell yourself you can do this! There is no magic pill, yells the instructor. You surprise yourself by completing two more sit-ups. Your heart rate slows as you sip water, wipe down your station, walk to the treadmill, and give the instructor a beleaguered thumbs-up.

    While many gyms are quickly adopting this trending technique, the idea of maximizing results by balancing intervals of performance and rest is grounded in the basic theory of human well-being. In The Power of Full Engagement, authors Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz talk about energy as a resource, a currency for performance. Loehr and Schwartz make the case that it is maximizing energy, not time, that will give you the edge you need to perform and renew.

    If balancing rest and movement supports healthier bodies, it can also help our mental focus and attention. Short intervals of a complex work or learning task followed by periodic breaks ensure that when we re-engage, we are cognitively ready to give our best effort to our work.

    5 Steps to Make Virtual Classes More Productive

    So how can educators apply the benefits of HIIT to their virtual classes? It’s a five-step process.

    Step 1: Get into the Right Mental Zone

    Virtual classes are different from in-person ones, but that doesn’t mean they have to be worse. Embracing a positive mindset is the first and most important step in changing how you approach virtual classes.

    For your students, you need to be a supportive coach. A positive outlook has a long-term impact on achieving learning goals. Reward students with a virtual high-five. Invite classmates to offer each other appreciative feedback.

    And for yourself, adjust your mindset about how much you can do in a class session. To be realistic, cut your expected outcomes and productivity goals by half. If you have four desired outcomes to achieve in an in-person class, plan to accomplish one or two virtually. In other words, retain the outcomes and activities that are most critical, so that you have the leanest, most essential program.

    Step 2: Hold Concise, Purposeful Class Sessions

    In a HIIT program, you might target arm strength on Monday and cardio and core on Tuesday. This ensures that you can work out consistently, building habits for success and not burning out any single muscle group. Apply this to your virtual teaching approach. Avoid squeezing a whole week’s worth of activity into one day. Remember that each activity takes longer online, while the attention span of your students shortens.

    You would never spend a whole workout watching your coach demonstrate the exercises. Participation—not presentations or lectures—is the most important part of a class session. Presentations are a one-way delivery, the equivalent of watching a YouTube video or the evening news. Reserve class time for participatory work that requires collaborative discussion.

    For long lectures, consider sending out a pre-recorded video or podcast. This enables students to engage with the content when they are ready to listen attentively. Then, when you do get together online, you can use your time discussing or working through the material.

    You might also consider creating a reverse classroom, where each small group learns a different part of the lesson and teaches it back to the entire class. In other words, think of your large class as several small group modules, and give students as much time as possible to get their hands (metaphorically) on the content.

    Step 3: Regulate Activity in Short-Burst Intervals

    Approach the design of your class session the same way you would design a HIIT program, in short-burst intervals like the ones shown in the figure below. Avoid presentations that run longer than 10 or 15 minutes before you have students engage in some way. Even a light activity, such as asking questions via the online platform’s chat function or taking a quick poll, is enough to hold focus.

    Favor small-group work and experiential learning whenever possible. If you have an hour of class time, think of ways to break it up into intervals of presentation, participation, reflection, and individual silent work and study, with the educator on hand to answer any questions that arise.

    Vary the activities you use to deliver content. Avoid too much frontal teaching or “talking heads.” Mix it up with engaging videos and breakout groups. Experiment with using an online shared workspace, such as a Google document or a MURAL board.

    You could splice up a long lecture into 15- to 20-minute chunks. Deliver a small chunk of content, then put the students into virtual breakout groups to discuss what they learned.

    Don’t forget to build in time to towel off and grab a sip of water. Ninety minutes is as long as a group can go without a break. A five- to 10-minute break every hour is recommended.

    Step 4: Set the Group Up for Success

    No one wants to do a workout they dread. Design your sessions to be ones people want to attend. Just as it takes time to transition from one workout circuit to the next, build in extra time for people to connect before diving into the next activity. Especially right now, people crave social connection. Build in five or 10 minutes for socializing in breakout sessions, if you can.

    And just like there is no one-size-fits-all workout, each person has different needs, attention spans, and energy for participation in an online class. Small-group breakouts give extroverts the space to talk through their ideas. Time for individual reflection gives introverts the space to think through what they would like to say.

    Step 5: Safety First—Warm Up, Cool Down, and Transition

    To work out without injury, we must warm up, know our equipment, cool down, and stretch. To lead a virtual class without “injury,” we must also take a few steps to ensure the well being of the class. This could mean incorporating agreements or ground rules up front to provide a safe space for collaboration. A few important agreements for virtual classes include the following:

    • Be present and eliminate distractions
    • Mute yourself when you’re not speaking
    • Use chat and virtual hand-raising when you want to speak

    The term “ice breaker” is often accompanied by eye rolls. Think of an ice breaker as a warm up, something that you do to help a group get ready for the hard work. You don’t run without walking first. You don’t lift weights without stretching first. A virtual ice breaker not only gets the group connected and ready to work, but also gives everyone a chance to play with the technology before beginning a session. Build in energizers (see sidebar) before each large content piece, as a way of warming up and maintaining a steady burn.

    Cooling down is just as important as warming up. In working with students online, this means three things:

    1. Summarize the learning objectives. Today, we learned about what led to the Great Depression.
    2. Clarify any remaining questions. Are there any parts of today’s lesson that were unclear?
    3. Announce the next topic and any upcoming assignments or examinations. Next time, we’ll look at what led to World War II, and your essay on life during the Great Depression is due Tuesday at 3 p.m. EST.

    Teaching and Learning at Our Best

    With the world in a constant state of uncertainty, it is hard to find things we can control. How we spend and share time in class is something that can be shaped. Applying the HIIT formula to virtual classes is one way of finding our balance, focusing, and performing at our best with the tools and resources we have.

    Original Content Courtesy of Harvard Business Publishing Education

    Written by: Rae Ringel, Brian Tarallo, and Lauren Green

  • Protecting Your Spirit During This Time

    Humans are naturally meaning-seeking, purpose-driven creatures — and these traits can help us stay resilient during challenging times.

    This marks the end of our three-part series on optimizing our mind, body and spirit during COVID. Today, we’ve delving into building resilience in the spirit. When we talk about spirit in this context, it’s totally secular and non-religious. What we’re talking about is at the heart of what resilience really is: fortitude, courage, and power. How can we spark these things within us in the midst of the pandemic? The answer lies in the wise Eastern saying: No mud, no lotus. Meaning, the challenge to cultivate these inner attributes is brought on by the challenge itself. 

    Humans are by definition meaning-seeking, purpose-driven creatures. 

    We thrive when we are leading purposeful, meaningful lives. And resiliency feeds off this energy. So to build a resilient spirit, we need to a find ways to create meaning and purpose during this pandemic. There have been so many examples of resiliency in spirit all around the world: on the balconies in Italy, the press briefings of New York’s Governor Cuomo, and in the relief efforts to get PPE to healthcare workers worldwide. The human spirit is the most resilient force on the planet!

    So today, I want to focus on three specific ways you can start building a resilient spirit by creating a sense of meaning and purpose in your own lives during this time:

    1. Step into a growth mindset, not a scarcity mindset.

    The stress caused by a pandemic creates a scarcity mindset. It’s our self-preservation mechanism in overdrive. Pandemics on the whole breed the scarcity mindset because it’s a survival tactic we as humans have evolutionarily developed. We are biologically primed to scan our environment for danger and act accordingly. It is inherently protective because it keeps us safe. But at the individual level, we have great power in outsmarting our biology to turn off our scarcity mindset and turn on our growth mindset. 

    At the core of the growth mindset is the belief that challenges can make us stronger, wiser and more able than we were before. The mere fact that you are reading this is proof that you are stepping into your growth mindset, because you believe you have the power to change and grow. 

    We can take concrete steps to cultivate a growth mindset by first managing our stress response using many of the tools we learned in prior weeks.  When we build resilience in our mind and body through the ways we’ve talked about before, we can step out of the fear zone and into the growth zone even in the midst of a pandemic (see below).  

    2. Watch the movie of your life

    Another way to build our spirit during this crisis is to become the observer.  Mindfulness experts talk a lot about this concept, but let me break it down into very Hollywood terms: Start watching the movie of your life. We’re not talking about an action-packed blockbuster here, we’re talking about our quiet inner ability to watch ourselves and really pay attention to how we’re living in the day to day during this pandemic. 

    Think of your life right now as a movie and you as the hero or heroine of this tale. Are you the lead character you want to be? Are you stepping into your power and intentionally working on your potential for calmness, peace of mind and inner strength? Are you making intentional choices to read and watch uplifting things, to spend time (virtually, of course) with people who make you laugh and bring you joy? Are you working on creating a calm, safe haven within yourself amidst the chaos of the outside world?

    We’ve talked a lot in the past two modules of how when we do better, we feel better. And with this doing, resilience has a chance to grow. It’s time to channel your Hollywood starlet and cultivate that Oscar-worthy, resilient performance. 

    3. Live a lifetime in a day

    As an integrative medicine doctor, living a lifetime in a day is a mantra I repeat often to patients. It’s a way to incorporate all the elements that make up an arc of a long, purposeful and meaningful life — work, family, solitude, vacation, and retirement — and building each of those into one single day. 

    For example, engaging in work could mean any project that brings you a feeling of productivity or achievement. Spending time in family life (whether you have a family or not) could mean connecting virtually with your tribe to feel a sense of belonging. Taking a vacation could mean doing something that brings you joy and levity and gets you into a state of flow.  And retirement could mean taking a pause in the day to reflect and take stock of your blessings. 

    By living a lifetime in a day, we learn to take the long view and zoom out.  And when we zoom out, we can paradoxically learn to zoom in on what matters most: people, love, connection, health and ultimately happiness, the most universally resilient life force of all.

    The spirit of resilience in a poem

    Here’s one of my most favorite poems about the spirit of resilience. Charles Bukowski wrote this in 1993, long before the COVID pandemic. If there’s one piece of literary genius that summarizes the resiliency of the human spirit, I think this might be it:

    Author: Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, Mind-Body Medicine Doctor at Harvard Medical School

  • Four Strategic Priorities for the Post-COVID-19 World

    To build resilience going forward, the first question to answer is not, “What’s in it for me?” but “What if?”

    By now, everyone knows that the shattering impact of COVID-19 has brought on a business crisis without precedent in recent memory. On one level, though, the pandemic represents nothing new. For years, we have been hearing and talking about the impending “VUCA” (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world. Over and over again, we were told to prepare for seismic change that was sure to arrive, to boost agility in anticipation of abrupt, profound disruption. COVID-19 was a misfortune long foreseen; only the dates and other specific details were missing.

    Regardless, the pandemic will fundamentally reshape how we do business from now on. Even if lockdowns end soon and the virus is staunchly suppressed never to return, its effect will linger. Now that the whole world has experienced the VUCA that only emerging markets used to face, it can never again be treated as an abstraction.

    So when business leaders share with me how their business strategies will likely change in the post-virus period, many say they’ll continue with initiatives they’ve already started, such as digitalisation or social responsibility, but faster and with higher intensity. I have to point out to them that this might not be enough. Some of their key strategic priorities will have to be modified in a radical way.

    To start, the basic purpose of business strategy is to steer companies towards sustainable sources of growth and profit. There are many tried-and-true frameworks for guiding strategy, e.g. Michael Porter’s five forces, which allows firms to orient their competitive position according to coordinates of threat and power. For decades, this classic way of thinking has provided a useful lens for analysing strategic moves of players within an industry. It no doubt remains relevant today. However, Porter’s neat chessboard does not account for whipping winds (think pandemics, political revolutions, climate change events such as the Australian bushfires) that may kick up suddenly and blow away the pieces. Anticipating the disruptive events that live outside Porter’s framework will be a major part of business strategy going forward.

    I see four new priorities that strategists will need to put on their radar for the years to come.

    1. Aim for survivability and resilience before economic efficiency

    It would seem meaningless to talk about an efficient dead organisation. In the post-COVID-19 world, contingency planning should be built into every link of the value chain to ensure survival. Instead of structuring partnerships on the basis of leverage and getting the better end of the deal whenever possible, firms will have to be much more strategic in choosing which alliances are essential, and which are transactional. Rather than “What’s in it for me?”, the first question ought to be “What if?” It may be necessary to forego some of the most lucrative partnerships in favour of those that can withstand a missed shipment or delayed payment here or there when fate intervenes.

    To increase reliability, therefore, redundancy will trump efficiency with regard to critical resources. Investing too much in one partner, supplier or market can be as bad an idea as betting your life savings on one horse. For example, many major multinationals may be regretting their decision to rely so heavily on China as the pandemic exposes fissures in the nation’s prosperous façade. Apple and Foxconn’s joined-at-the-hip relationship is causing trouble for both companies, amid a vicious cycle of COVID-19 factory shutdowns and declining demand for premium smartphones. The uncertainty will only intensify as the rivalry between the US and China continues to escalate. (More about politics below.)

    IKEA is an example of how a major company can balance long-term loyalty with diversification in the supply chain. The company deliberately maintains a large number of moderate-size suppliers worldwide, helping them improve production quality. It engages in nurturing, long-term relationships rather than squeezing every last cent.

    2. Quantify and plan for ecological and environmental threats rather than just describe them

    Today, many executives and analysts talk about various types of threats in a descriptive way, with very little in-depth forethought about how to deal with them should they arise. The good old concept of scenario planning is still with us, but very few businesses seem to practise it in a systematic and thorough way. Moreover, conventional risk assessment typically omits threats with no known probability distribution function, such as environmental devastation and sudden increases in refugee flows. And today’s businesses, already overwhelmed with “clear and present” business challenges, are hard-pressed to devote attention to what they consider low-probability events.

    But recent history shows that extreme upheavals are far from rare. In the last century, the world has experienced at least five dangerous virus attacks, from the pandemic of 1918 that infected about one-third of the global population to COVID-19 in the present. There were also at least two devastating nuclear reactor meltdowns, two world wars and several near-misses, numerous earthquakes and tsunamis, countless regional armed conflicts that threatened supply of essential goods. Climate change, overpopulation and rising worldwide inequality have only increased the likelihood of these threats occurring again in the future.

    Businesses should thus dedicate more resources to quantify various types of threats although there is no broad consensus on the best way to do this. The main goal is not to be accurate, but to train the organisation to plan for various “unimaginable” events. What does not get measured does not get done, as many business executives often claim. Thus, deep qualitative analysis and scenario planning should be complemented with a number of computer-assisted algorithms providing data and various simulation models. Leaders will have to learn their way around AI and machine-learning tools – such as heat mapping algorithms that can quantify political risks based on social-media sentiment analysis – in the course of strategic decision making.

    3. Build a strong organisational immune system rather than maximise short-term profits

    When it comes to measuring and anticipating threats, technology is an important part of the package, but it can’t overcome a deep-seated antipathy to hard truths. In the business world to come, advantage will belong to firms that convey bad news upwards quickly rather than flinching from it.

    Companies that can spot problems when they look small, learn from them and build preventive measures rapidly possess what I would call a strong organisational immune system. Just as our white blood cells identify and destroy invader cells early before they wreak havoc in our bodies, companies need long, sensitive feelers and hyper-responsive capability at all levels of the organisation to stay in the pink of health.

    The downfall of Nokia’s smartphone business is a perfect example of how immune-compromised organisations collapse from within. Well before the iPhone came along, a “culture of fear” had set in at the Finnish firm. Senior and middle managers had developed a poisonous habit of sugarcoating and avoiding the serious problems with their devices and proprietary OS. Nokia had ample time and resources to develop a competitive response to the iPhone, but those advantages were squandered as toxic internal politics left management spinning its wheels.

    It should be said that some top managers believe that using fear will lead to higher economic performance by reducing organisational complacency and inertia. This might have worked reasonably well in a fully controllable and predictable environment in which it is impossible for people to report good news only and hide bad news as long as they can. In today’s volatile context, however, it will result in priceless early warning signs going unheeded.

    According to some observers, a Nokia-like scenario may have been behind China’s delayed response to COVID-19, stemming from long-standing misalignment between the central Communist Party authorities in Beijing and local officials, who knew of the virus in its early stages but lacked incentive to report it quickly. The result – massive human and economic harm – speaks to the high costs of complacency in this new world. Under the revived Nokia, the new board sought to build an organisational culture based on the following motto: “No news is bad news; bad news is good news; good news is no news.”

    4. Integrate government politics rather than focusing only on business economics

    Globalisation had a good run. The notion that the world is flat – unencumbered travels, international business deals, outsourcing to the lowest-cost countries, trade deals, etc. – had few high-powered detractors for several decades leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. Ever since the advent of Brexit and the Trump presidency, however, the idea of business without borders has been on the retreat. As I write this, international air travel is all but frozen entirely, and global supply chains have been chopped to bits. Nation-states, already making a comeback before COVID-19, will likely increase their leverage over multinational businesses in the months and years to come.

    Beyond national security, firms in sectors deemed “essential” to national public welfare – covering a wide range of sectors from food to medical supply, machinery and electronics equipment, transportation and energy – will be the first to feel the pressure to localise. Governments have learned the hard way that it can be dangerous to depend on foreign trade for items that make or break crisis response, such as the reactive agents that are key to COVID-19 testing or even low-tech medical gowns and face masks. They will be keen to maintain or rebuild these precious supply chains on their own soil. This could carry significant implications for businesses that seek overseas expansion. Firms should expect even more severe and close governmental scrutiny and rejection of their proposed joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, R&D collaborations, even in non-defence related sectors.

    This seeming adversity could create big opportunity for some firms that integrate government politics into their business strategies. For one, homegrown innovation capability will be valued by national governments and benefit from higher economic and regulatory support. Additionally, rising patriotism – creating “good” jobs for your own people – could benefit these firms in their own countries, much like Alibaba and Tencent and Baidu have profited in part from relatively low foreign competition in China.

    What’s bigger than Big Business?

    You may have already noticed some interrelationships between these four priorities. Indeed, in the post-COVID-19 world, these four levers typically operate in combination, rather than in isolation.

    Broadly speaking, strategy after COVID-19 will be less about beating your economic competitors, and more about how businesses can contribute to combating a larger, shared enemy, like climate change, pandemics or perhaps socio-political woes such as inequality. There’s nothing new about this. The US in World War II, for example, saw tremendous cooperative effort between businesses, as well as between the private and public sectors. The COVID-19 “new normal” may actually be a return to an older equilibrium between business and society, and wide stakeholder collaboration.

    It will hopefully serve as a meaningful wake-up call for societies and businesses to take bold, radical actions that could propel humanity to a superior quality of life.

    Author: Quy Nguyen Huy is the Solvay Chaired Professor of Technological Innovation and a Professor of Strategic Management at INSEAD. He is also a director of the Strategy Execution Programme, part of INSEAD’s suite of Executive Education programmes.

    Acknowledgment: I am grateful for feedback from INSEAD Knowledge managing editor Benjamin Kessler, as well as strategy professors Guoli Chen, Felipe Monteiro, Daniel Simonovich, Phebo Wibbens and Christoph Zott.