Keeping Remote Teams Engaged

IN The Next RenAIssance: AI and the Expansion of Human Potential, AI expert Zack Kass believes “properly harnessed, AI could democratize education, revolutionize healthcare, and accelerate innovation,” but “for Al to truly serve humanity, we will be forced to solve radical new ethical dilemmas, unprecedented economic disruptions, daunting technical challenges, environmental collapse, dehumanization, the loss of identity, and above all, terrifying uncertainty.” Yet because AI is not a tangible tech – something we can see – we are naturally suspicious. How does it work? Kass writes that AI systems must begin to “show their work” rather than just spitting out an answer if t…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Deborah Gruenfeld on showing respect: “We often fail to realize that the ability to show respect and even submission can also be a source of power. Deference is treating another person in ways that acknowledge that their expertise and experiences are at least as important as your own. It does not mean you have less power than the person you are deferring to. It means you do not intend to use the power you have against your relationship partner. Deference is disarming, it signals an absence of threat, and it creates a foundatio…

WHEN Johann Wolfgang von Kempelen unveiled his chess-playing automaton in the courts of 18th-century Europe, audiences were spellbound. The “Mechanical Turk” was the first machine that appeared to think like a human. It beat anyone it played against, regardless of their playing abilities or social status. For decades, it toured the world as proof that human intelligence had finally been replicated by a machine. It took bribery to finally get von Kempelen to reveal the secret of his unbeatable machine. Hidden inside the cabinet, crouched among gears and pulleys, sat a human chess master. The intelligence had never been artificial. It had just been concealed. This may be …

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Nicole Vignola on self-talk: “If you tell yourself you’re having a bad day, your brain will find ways to reinforce that belief, and you’ll go about the rest of your day finding ways to prove that this day is bad. And so it is with negative self-beliefs. When you believe that you are not worthy, or not confident, or you have a negative belief about yourself, your body language follows that belief. Moreover, the brain perceives your behaviour as normal and stops paying conscious attention to it, and before you know it, you’ve sn…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Mark Crowley on being passionately curious: “Something insidious often happens when people become adults. We become almost anti-curious. One big reason for this is that our human egos prefer to feel knowledgeable and successful at all times. Not wanting to feel vulnerable to anything unknown or in flux, our minds silence otherwise solid reasons to seek new methods, approaches, or skills. ‘You’re already doing great,’ our egos assure us. ‘There’s no need to invest time and energy in anything new.’” Source: The Power of Employee…

WE’RE often told about the benefit of learning from our failures, but the reality is that it’s easier to say than do. Failure feels uncomfortable and exposing. Rather than sit in vulnerability, it’s much easier to move forward and replace reflection and regret with action and distraction. But leaving the learning behind means we miss an opportunity to grow. Our career resilience relies on being able to navigate hard moments with confidence and control and become better because of them. Whether it’s a presentation that’s gone wrong, a relationship that has broken down, or an important deadline that you’ve missed, our first response should be to pause, reflect, and learn f…

On her podcast A Bit Personal, Jodi Shelton asks NVIDIA founder and CEO who’s the smartest person you’ve ever met? Jensen Huang: “Who’s the smartest person I’ve ever met? “I can’t answer that question. And I know I know what people are thinking. The definition of smart is somebody who’s intelligent, solves problems, technical, but I find that’s a commodity. And we’re not, we’re about to prove that artificial intelligence is able to handle that part easiest, right? Yeah. And so, as it turns out, let me give you another example. “Everybody thought software programming was the ultimate smart profession. Look, what is the first thing that AI is solving? Software programmi…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Brad Stulberg on being patient: “Remember that doing stuff for the sake of doing stuff isn’t progress. It’s just doing stuff. Be patient, you’ll get there faster.” Source: The Practice of Groundedness: A Transformative Path to Success That Feeds—Not Crushes—Your Soul II. Cognitive scientist Maya Shankar on ruminating: “When a big change occurs, our negative thoughts can take on a life of their own, nestling into our psyches and stoking our biggest fears. This is known as rumination, and it can involve obsessively rehashing…

HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in February 2026 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month. Your Best Meeting Ever: 7 Principles for Designing Meetings That Get Things Done by Rebecca Hinds Meetings are broken. They are relics from a bygone era of top-down hierarchies and factory-like procedures—designed to issue orders, flaunt power, and keep the hierarchy intact. In today’s digital, collaborate-or-bust era, this model isn’t just inefficient, it actively harms employees and organizations. Drawing on decades of research and stories from leading companies like Google, Salesforce, Pixar, Y…

Here is a selection of Posts from January 2026 that you will want to check out: Interview with R.R. Reno, author of Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West with @jamesstrock Your Biggest Enemy of 2026 by @joshlinkner The invisible hand of decision by @DavidStroe Seventy Years of Steady by @KevinPaulScott Greatest Hits: On the Same Page Vs. Aligned via @TheDaily_Coach Being on the same page is a strategy for achieving a specific goal. Being aligned is a daily choice. It's about arranging all facets of an organization to best achieve the long-term purpose. The Devastating Power of GroupThink by @PhilCooke The 2026 Clarity Manifesto by…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Heidi Grant on feedback: “What happens when people lack a feeling of effectiveness? In the short term, it wipes out motivation. Research shows that when people are unable get any kind of feedback about how well they are doing on a task, they quickly become disengaged from it.” Source: Reinforcements: How to Get People to Help You II. Simon Sinek on trust: “Leading is not the same as being the leader. Being the leader means you hold the highest rank, either by earning it, good fortune or navigating internal politics. Leadin…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Jason Feifer on the good ol’ days: “If we’re surrounded by the belief that yesterday was better, we’ll become less open-minded to future opportunities. To prepare for an uncertain future, we need to release ourselves from the rosy memory of our past—and begin to build a new, more durable narrative about ourselves instead.” Source: Build for Tomorrow: An Action Plan for Embracing Change, Adapting Fast, and Future-Proofing Your Career II. Basketball coach Geno Auriemma on leading: “I used to think that I could affect winning…

AGGRESSION carries a negative connotation. It’s often described as an attribute of anger and a lead-in to violent behavior. But aggression can also be equated with the tenacity with which someone goes after their goals. In this sense, it describes somebody who pursues their goal with great passion, enthusiasm, or intensity. An example may be a young executive, in the process of trying to impress her bosses, who utilizes unconventional tactics to increase her clientele. Her increased status leads clients of one of her coworkers to transfer to her accounts. While her goal had been to increase her sales, she had no intention of hurting her colleague. But nonetheless her cow…

LEADERS are under tremendous pressure to stay ahead of the curve while increasing output and notching wins. The tendency is to rush from project to project, overcome hurdle after hurdle, and never stop for a breath. But truly successful leadership requires taking time for reflection between one project and the next. Rather than diminishing leaders’ effectiveness, pausing in between heightens their insight and power. In Tibetan Buddhism, in-between periods are known as “bardos.” In these intervals, the teachings tell us, “the intellect becometh ninefold more lucid.” Bardos offer us a rich opportunity to step outside our usual ways of seeing and discover fresh perspectives…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Ryan Holiday on social intelligence: “Our curiosity, our desire for understanding should extend not just to the person in front of us but to how people function within groups. Both because it is an endlessly fascinating topic and because it’s essential to getting things done.” Source: Wisdom Takes Work: Learn. Apply. Repeat. II. Michael J. Fanuele on inspiring others: “Passion and Reason work against each other. Passion is the energy that wants you jumping out of your seat. Reason wants you to sit and think for a little lo…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Performance Coach Julie Gurner on caring deeply: “You have to care deeply to be able to challenge directly, and … somebody has to know that you care deeply about who they are in their role, that you care about their performance, that this is coming from a place that’s meant to make them better. And if it’s not coming from that place, and it’s coming from a place of punishing or shaming or humiliating or dominating, it’s not a really effective thing to do. But people can take hard feedback from people that they know are in thei…

HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in Janaury 2026 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month. Intentional: How to Finish What You Start by Chris Bailey Setting goals is easy. Following through on them? A whole lot harder. It turns out, the secret to finishing what you start isn’t sheer willpower or the latest productivity hack. It’s becoming more intentional. With Intentional, bestselling author Chris Bailey distills a decade of deep research on productivity to deliver a profound, practical, and counterintuitive road map to getting things done. Forget extensive to-do lists and a never-endin…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Psychologist Shane Lopez on hope: “Hope keeps us in the game. With low hope, we stop interacting with the world. We pull back. Literally, we don’t show up. We just move through in a zombie-like state. We all go through periods of sustained low hope, and they don’t lead to anything good at all. But hope for the future—maybe even the distant future—is what keeps people focused and moving in a direction that makes sense for their welfare and the welfare of the organization.” Source: Decade of Change: Managing in Times of Uncertai…

Here is a selection of Posts from December 2025 that you will want to check out: From Manager to Strategist: How to Use Strategy Tools to See Your Situation Clearly by @artpetty The myth of 'just let your work speak for itself' Influence by @artpetty (Fitness Series #1) There’s an X-factor that too many good people overlook: influence born of relationships in the right places. Why Clarity Emerges From Chaos by Matt Lambert Design Is Not Dying by Bryan Chou The core value is no longer: “I made this.” It becomes: “I helped us choose this, and avoid many wrong directions.” The Destructive Power of “Microsteps” in the Wrong Direction by @PhilCooke Why Advertising on the Su…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Nicole Vignola on learning: “The first major underpinning of a growth mindset is that people with this mindset understand that learning is a valuable opportunity in the face of adversity. When people believe that they can improve and grow from failure and setbacks, they are more likely to engage in challenging tasks and persist through difficulty. When people know and understand that the brain is malleable and are willing to adapt to circumstance, they are likely to persist in the face of obstacles. This perseverance can enhan…

THE titles listed below, published in 2025, improve our self-awareness regarding relationships and communication the sine qua non of leadership and provide us with a wider perspective on innovation and the changes taking place around us. The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck by David Spiegelhalter (W. W. Norton & Company, 2025) How dangerous is our diet? How much of sports falls into the realm of luck? When authorities categorize a given event as “highly likely”—how likely is that, really? Whether we’re trying to decide if the benefits of a new medication are worth the chance of side effects or if artificial intelligence truly…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. L David Marquet and Michael Gillespie on focusing on our future self: “By changing our time-based point of reference, we inoculate ourselves from the present moment-biased effect of temporal discounting that we are otherwise subject to. The temporal distance reduces the importance and even the visibility of practical constraints. We do not feel them. When those practical constraints fade away, what we are left with is our ideal self. It is almost always a better human and allows us to focus on what we care most about, distinct…

SIXTY-SIX million years ago, an asteroid strike wiped out the dinosaurs and 75% of Earth’s species. Among the survivors was a creature that would teach us critical lessons about thriving amid disruption: the octopus. While other animals’ external armor was useless against this new threat, the octopus survived by being radically adaptable. It has a rare ability; it can edit its RNA to adjust to new conditions within hours. Today’s leaders face their own asteroid strike: artificial intelligence. And like that ancient catastrophe, AI is reshaping the business landscape with breathtaking speed. The question isn’t whether your organization will be transformed, but whether yo…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Paul J. H. Schoemaker on the value of scenario planning: “The purpose of developing scenarios is not to pinpoint the future, but rather to experience it. Scenario planning is not really about planning but about changing people’s mindsets to allow faster learning and smarter actions. The process of developing scenarios is one of gaining experience in a simulated future. When You feel the future deep in your bones, you gain a set of instincts that allow you to respond quickly and effectively to new challenges they unfold. The pr…

MOST leadership narratives talk about upheaval change as if it’s solely managed as a sequence: a plan, a timeline, a communication strategy, a rollout. Apply the favored change management steps, and all will be well. But when you’re inside a pending reorganization, merger, leadership removal, cultural overhaul, or sudden strategic pivot, you quickly learn something most leadership books never say: The hardest part isn’t the change. It’s the in-between. The stretch of time where what was no longer fits or exists, and what’s coming hasn’t yet taken shape, is an uncomfortable period of ambiguity, disorientation, and suspended identity for organizations, teams, and leaders …