Performant Mental Health, The Series — “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Contrary to popular belief Plato probably didn’t coin this phrase. Rather, Rev. John Watson (pen name Ian MacLaren) is believed to have championed the oft-quoted maxim starting in the late 1800s.¹ The original wording is slightly different: “Be pitiful…

Performant Mental Health, The Series — Editor’s note: COVID-19 was hardly on the map when we began writing this series. Today the Coronavirus is top of mind for nearly everyone. While this series isn’t focused on COVID-19 exclusively, we feel it’s important to provide resources to help you care for your mental health during this global…

Performant Mental Health, The Series — We’re so glad you’re here. 💛 Anxiety. Depression. Stress. Uncertainty. Sleeplessness. Isolation. Mental health and mental illness are tough subjects to talk about, especially in the midst of a global pandemic. Like the emotionally charged debate about how to pronounce GIF¹ (“gif” or “jif”?) there is much debate about mental…

Recently I had the opportunity to present “When We Align” at Front Conference in Salt Lake City. I shared three axioms for aligning teams: unity over uniformity, chemistry over culture, and people over process. At the end of my remarks I emphasized the human component of these axioms by sharing…

Instead of culture, let’s talk about chemistry in the workplace. — Disclaimer: I’m just as guilty of referencing ‘culture’ when describing teams, workplaces, and companies. Recently I’ve grown unsettled with the term. I offer a replacement: chemistry. Culture = similar things Culture suggests amalgamation and assimilation of similar things that begin similar or evolve to become similar. Historically when describing societies, it generally refers to…