For many years my parents took what some Brits call an evening “constitutional.”  They walked, hand in hand, around the neighborhood – just the two of them. Sometimes, they talked. Other evenings they said little, so I am told. Yet they always came home smiling.
Since then I’ve discovered that motion evokes emotion, for good and [...]

If a hotel can become famous for leading ducks across their lobby at 11:00 then certainly your business can become more well-known for some simple ritual that customers like to photograph and tell others about and reporters love to cover.
In fact it’s surprising that so few businesses and other organizations see the power of memory-making [...]

Life is getting better faster. Food is more widely available; we live longer; more people have money and violence, disease and child mortality are down all around the world. Yet there will be turmoil.
“The bottom-up world is to be the great theme of this century,” predicts Matt Ridley in his controversial new book Rational Optimist.
“Doctors [...]

Even though we know we are more likely to savor life and attract more opportunities to collaborate when we click with others, we often get in our own way – especially when we are distracted or worse.  Here are five concrete ways to connect with others.
1. Face the world as you want to be treated
[...]

What’s one of meeting planners’ biggest fears? A frowning audience – or worse. They need speakers who energize their audience.
They love speakers who motivate attendees to practice what they learn and eagerly share their successes with each other all year long – and at the next conference.
In this wobbly economy any organization needs their people [...]

I met my high school boyfriend when I was upset and swung open my locker door so fast I banged him on the head as he was leaning into his locker. Not everyone can take such a first encounter in stride let alone retort with a grin, “If this is how you treat strangers how [...]

“Cesar Milan says that when a dog sniffs you she’s gathering information. My dog is preparing an extensive dossier on me,” wrote Paula Poundstone.
Humor is a way to get information about each other.
How we evoke and respond to it says so much about how comfortable we are with ourselves and how flexible, open and fun [...]

After the Lakers’ stinging defeat to the Suns what stuck in my mind was the image of Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher staying behind in the locker room after teammates had left to hash over what happened. The intense conversation was their singular focus. That’s a sure sign of a strong partnership. How do they [...]

College basketball’s “Final Four” playoffs had few superstars. Tom Davis of NBC Sports wrote, “This is being billed as the ‘No Name’ Final Four.”
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said, “The megastar that you normally seem to find in these Final Fours isn’t there. I think it’s refreshing that you’re looking at four teams that ‘team’ is [...]

“’There was this joke that when the women who worked in the lab were stressed, they came in, cleaned the lab, had coffee, and bonded,” Dr. Laura Cousin Klein told Gale Berkowitz.  ”When the men were stressed, they holed up somewhere on their own. I commented one day to fellow researcher Shelley Taylor that nearly [...]