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This week I finally began watching the first season of Mad Men. Amazingly, I downloaded it through iTunes and bought the entire season in one click. What struck me, and I’m sure I’m not alone, is the sadness in male/female relations in the show. I understand that the division between who is and isn’t hip […]

Last week my friend and colleague, Denise Brown, blogged about her experience working at the Chicago Tribune in response to a New York Times article about that company’s culture. According to the article, the environment at the Tribune had become untenable thanks in large part to a new top executive, Randy Michaels. According to the […]

Last Sunday I attended a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, featuring Yoyo Ma and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. I’ve seen beautiful concerts, but this is the first time I’ve been moved to tears. It felt important, transformational, and it has stayed with me. What is it that is so important about transcendental […]

This morning a client who is job-hunting said, “I came to you because what I’ve done in the past isn’t working in this economy. I am open to trying a new approach.” Wow, what courage! When an accomplished professional with significant success is willing to try something totally new, to me it shows enormous strength […]

A few weeks ago we stayed with friends who served us steak. These friends are thin, healthy and full of energy. I was totally intrigued. So much so that I admitted that I’d never really cooked steak as an adult and the few times I did it didn’t turn out so well. You see, I’d […]

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been enchanted by the theme of crafting. On my vacation I discovered a copy of The Grapes of Wrath in the house and was surprised at how rapt I was. I absolutely plowed through it. I was amazed at how John Steinbeck told a story within a literary […]

Just back from two weeks of vacation and am feeling amazed. Before leaving I wrote about my intention to re-calibrate during this break. Wow, maybe it was that intention or maybe it was just creating a void, but I really did come home with a lot of clarity. My vacation was in France. I was […]

Today I leave for two weeks of vacation with my family. I love looking at the origins of words. In the case of vacation, the people who made up the word all those years ago knew that the key thought here is vacating. Vacating a home, presumably. But it also makes me think of vacating […]

On Monday evening I attended an event to celebrate the publishing of a Harvard Business Review article called, “The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging Markets.” The gist of the article is that in countries where multinationals are looking to grow their businesses (Brazil, Russia, India and China), they need women to do the work, […]

In the last few weeks I have had renewed energy around the bigger picture for my business. I want to help companies and individuals find real solutions to sustained happiness and productivity. One big piece of the puzzle is around asking companies to talk to their employees and find out how to bring more humanity […]