One more thing about virtual events

Keep it simple.  Virtual platforms are loading on more and more features, and that can be a great thing. But don’t be fooled—your 1) compelling content and 2) attention to how you engage the audience are going to count for way more than the virtual bells and whistles.

Two perfect times to consider what to say next

Helping our clients think about intention, or the outcome you hope to achieve with what you say, is key to our coaching work.  There are two perfect times to use intention. One: before you begin a high-stakes communication. This could be a speech, a negotiation, or a difficult conversation, anything where you might be nervous ... Continue Reading

Everything can’t be a crisis.

If you’re the leader, a big part of your job is to prioritize. You’ve got to get that broad view of the situation, assess what’s going on, and triage. When you fail to do this, when you act like everything is the most important thing, you are abdicating your role and leaving your team in ... Continue Reading

Creating Virtual Events–#2

Creating and producing a virtual event in 2021 is not like creating and producing the in-person event you did in 2019. Please, trust me on this. Everything you are planning will take more time than you think it will. Everything you are planning will take more practice than you think it will. Everything you are ... Continue Reading

Creating Virtual Events–#1

Ignite CSP has been working with a client for the past few weeks on designing and producing virtual events. There are a couple of big take-aways I want to share. A great thing about virtual events is they are easy to attend. We don’t have to pack, travel, get a hotel, or even leave our ... Continue Reading

Judging vs. understanding

“I judge them all the time, yet I don’t understand them.” Someone I was talking to recently said this, and the sentence really leapt out at me. There’s a lot here, and it’s so intensely human. At last I hope it is — I’m definitely guilty of it myself. I wonder if a more revealing ... Continue Reading

The cost of meetings that don’t matter

Ignite CSP’s workshop model is highly interactive. In virtual meetings, we ask people to have their cameras on, to come off mute to participate, and to engage in the chat. We use breakout rooms for small group work and coaching.  In a recent workshop, one participant never turned their camera on, never spoke, never engaged ... Continue Reading

The wise world of sports

“If you do it in practice, you’ll do it in a game.” I don’t know who said this originally, but it’s a piece of sports wisdom that jumps right off the page at me. When I came across it recently, the person saying it meant that if you do it right in practice, you’ll do ... Continue Reading

Doing the work.

Doing the work entails first determining what the work is. I am not always great at this—I tend to underestimate (sometimes badly) how much it’s going to take to get something done. Case in point: the brand-new workshop I agreed to design, thinking, “That will take, what, four hours?” Two weeks later, the workshop unfinished ... Continue Reading

A clean slate.

A new day. A new year, a new start, a new opportunity. A clean slate. But a clean slate is often just smudged. If you look closely, you can see the vestiges of what used to be written there.  What does it take to truly start anew this day, with the resources and energy and ... Continue Reading