Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Weird at Work
There is nothing like daily office attendance for teaching an employee how to fit in. That’s exactly why so many employers are fretful over the impact of hybrid and remote work on workplace culture, that nebulous term for the alchemy of knowledge exchange, human...
Meet the Dirty Digital Dozen
I grew up with a single mom who was half Wonder Woman, half Mary Tyler Moore: She managed to combine a significant career with raising a kid on her own. You know what she didn’t have to deal with? 7 p.m. emails. Digital communications tools like email, Google Docs,...
Why your rights shouldn’t depend on your employer
The Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe v. Wade also ushered in a new era for the workplace, and for how all of us—yes, in every country—relate to our employers and employees. Within hours of the decision, a string of major companies announced their intention...
The 3 questions everyone’s asking about hybrid
Like so many people, I’ve started my return to the world of in-person work. In the past two months I’ve delivered four in-person keynotes, enjoyed my first multi-person boardroom meeting, and attended a large client event. The audiences I’ve addressed could not be...
Are you ready for Peak Colleague?
“I miss seeing my colleagues and being able to bounce ideas off them.” “I get to work with much more skilled people, now that our teams don’t have to be made up of people who are all in the same place.” “I get so frustrated waiting for my co-workers to reply to my...
What we’re getting wrong with hybrid
Organizations are getting a lot right in the transition to hybrid work: Recognizing that most professionals want to keep working remotely at least part of the time. Taking a team-based approach to hybrid, because the right structure depends on the kind of work you do....
The dimensions of hybrid equity
Those of us who enjoy the professional and personal benefits of remote work are a large and lucky minority—but yes, a minority. Most estimates show that about 60% of North American jobs just have to be done in person. Not incidentally, these are jobs that are more...
Latest newsletter
To get the most from collaboration tools, customize
My latest for The Wall Street Journal outlines seven key considerations in picking software to help your hybrid team work more effectively.
Remote work is a learned skill
Nobody is born knowing how to work...
The Harvard Business Review
Weird at Work
There is nothing like daily office attendance for teaching an employee how to fit in. That’s exactly why so many employers are fretful over the impact of hybrid and remote work on workplace culture, that nebulous term for the alchemy of knowledge exchange, human...
Meet the Dirty Digital Dozen
I grew up with a single mom who was half Wonder Woman, half Mary Tyler Moore: She managed to combine a significant career with raising a kid on her own. You know what she didn’t have to deal with? 7 p.m. emails. Digital communications tools like email, Google Docs,...
Why your rights shouldn’t depend on your employer
The Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe v. Wade also ushered in a new era for the workplace, and for how all of us—yes, in every country—relate to our employers and employees. Within hours of the decision, a string of major companies announced their intention...
The 3 questions everyone’s asking about hybrid
Like so many people, I’ve started my return to the world of in-person work. In the past two months I’ve delivered four in-person keynotes, enjoyed my first multi-person boardroom meeting, and attended a large client event. The audiences I’ve addressed could not be...
Are you ready for Peak Colleague?
“I miss seeing my colleagues and being able to bounce ideas off them.” “I get to work with much more skilled people, now that our teams don’t have to be made up of people who are all in the same place.” “I get so frustrated waiting for my co-workers to reply to my...
What we’re getting wrong with hybrid
Organizations are getting a lot right in the transition to hybrid work: Recognizing that most professionals want to keep working remotely at least part of the time. Taking a team-based approach to hybrid, because the right structure depends on the kind of work you do....
The dimensions of hybrid equity
Those of us who enjoy the professional and personal benefits of remote work are a large and lucky minority—but yes, a minority. Most estimates show that about 60% of North American jobs just have to be done in person. Not incidentally, these are jobs that are more...
Latest newsletter
To get the most from collaboration tools, customize
My latest for The Wall Street Journal outlines seven key considerations in picking software to help your hybrid team work more effectively.
Remote work is a learned skill
Nobody is born knowing how to work...
OneZero
The Joy of Tedious Work
Coaches and strategists often encourage us to maximize impact by spending most of our time and attention in the zone where we make the greatest contribution. We’re told: Focus your days on the projects and tasks where you have something unique to add, or where only...
The Hybrid Worker’s Guide to Information Overload
The overwhelm that so many people feel when working from home—or when returning to the office, conferences or other group settings after a few years of relative isolation—is intimately related to the cognitive, psychological and sensory challenges of living in a state...
Culture in the hybrid workplace
What does hybrid work do to our organizational culture? How do we help nourish a sense of culture within a distributed team? Why do I feel so disconnected from my colleagues, or so isolated in my time at home? These are questions I hear when speaking with...
Tune up your burnout busters
Combine meeting and walking. If you don’t need to be on camera, or need to take only minimal notes, go for a walk during the call. I’ve found that these meetings often allow me to be more creative—and make a stronger personal connection—than what happens on a...
R.I.P. social media. Long live hybrid work?
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has sent me into mourning — not just for that once-beloved social network, but for social media in general. And with that grief has come something like recognition: recognition that my optimistic view of hybrid work parallels the...
What Mastodon means to your work
Just four weeks ago, I posted that I was officially, permanently worn out with social media. But it only took three weeks to change my mind. And four weeks for me to see that a better version of social media could create better workplaces, too. Hope looks like...
How to learn from hybrid mistakes
Don’t be surprised if you make some mistakes during the transition to hybrid work. I’m not just talking about mistakes in how you transition to a hybrid work arrangement: I’m talking about garden-variety operational, service and professional errors that happen as a...
Why it pays to blur work and home
The less we see each other in the literal sense—the less time we spend co-working in the same physical location—the more our culture and bonds depend on seeing each other in the metaphorical sense, as full humans. And we can’t do that if we continue to patrol the...
JSTOR DAILY
The Joy of Tedious Work
Coaches and strategists often encourage us to maximize impact by spending most of our time and attention in the zone where we make the greatest contribution. We’re told: Focus your days on the projects and tasks where you have something unique to add, or where only...
The Hybrid Worker’s Guide to Information Overload
The overwhelm that so many people feel when working from home—or when returning to the office, conferences or other group settings after a few years of relative isolation—is intimately related to the cognitive, psychological and sensory challenges of living in a state...
Culture in the hybrid workplace
What does hybrid work do to our organizational culture? How do we help nourish a sense of culture within a distributed team? Why do I feel so disconnected from my colleagues, or so isolated in my time at home? These are questions I hear when speaking with...
Tune up your burnout busters
Combine meeting and walking. If you don’t need to be on camera, or need to take only minimal notes, go for a walk during the call. I’ve found that these meetings often allow me to be more creative—and make a stronger personal connection—than what happens on a...
R.I.P. social media. Long live hybrid work?
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has sent me into mourning — not just for that once-beloved social network, but for social media in general. And with that grief has come something like recognition: recognition that my optimistic view of hybrid work parallels the...
What Mastodon means to your work
Just four weeks ago, I posted that I was officially, permanently worn out with social media. But it only took three weeks to change my mind. And four weeks for me to see that a better version of social media could create better workplaces, too. Hope looks like...
How to learn from hybrid mistakes
Don’t be surprised if you make some mistakes during the transition to hybrid work. I’m not just talking about mistakes in how you transition to a hybrid work arrangement: I’m talking about garden-variety operational, service and professional errors that happen as a...
Why it pays to blur work and home
The less we see each other in the literal sense—the less time we spend co-working in the same physical location—the more our culture and bonds depend on seeing each other in the metaphorical sense, as full humans. And we can’t do that if we continue to patrol the...
THE VERGE
How to train your own AI in 15 minutes
The non-geek’s starter guide to building the skillset of the future with a custom GPT Managing people has long been the path to advancement. Now, the same is true of managing AIs. In many professions, there’s a point at which the only way up or forward is if you take...
How to plan what you can’t imagine
What career or professional decisions would you have made in 2018, if you'd known that in just two years, the world of work would look dramatically different? There are no do-overs for us as prisoners of linear time, but we can use our pandemic-era experience of...
Collaboration lessons from Die Hard
This article is just one long spoiler for the movie Die Hard. If you haven’t seen it, you should—it’s a classic! Unless you hate seeing gunfire; then you should really not see it. We often talk as if online collaboration is a new challenge, one minted by hybrid...
Meet your new robot cheerleader
The best thing an AI can produce? Better, happier humans. We should expect nothing less. And that means harnessing AI for joy, as well as productivity. That begins with using AI to boost your own professional or personal motivation. Just last week, I stumbled onto a...