The Art and Science of Thriving

What drives you to get off that couch and out the door?    How do you stop eating those donuts, when you want to start that diet you have been meaning to? How do you start that difficult conversation with the challenging person in your office? Start exercising, when you know you should but don't want to?    So much of this kind of situation revolves around motivation.  How do you get motivate...

What drives you to get off that couch and out the door? How do you stop eating those donuts, or drinking that wine, when you want to slow down? How do you start that diet you have been meaning to? These are the pressing issues in our mind so often. It all revolves around motivation.  How do you get motivated to do something hard? Can you motivate yourself to do something, regardless of how hard it...

Last week, in Episode #23, I dove deep into burnout – how it affects most of us, what it is, the neuroscience behind it, and when it happens. I only went a little into what to do about it. This week I am giving you a short but robust framework on how to manage burnout or overwhelm when you are in the middle of it.  This week’s podcast is a little shorter, and straight to the point. If are indeed o...

At night, have you ever had a feeling of dread about work the next day?  Ever feel like you can’t get engaged or motivated to do your work? Your just grumpy about doing it, and you don’t feel like talking to your colleagues about it anymore?  Maybe you feel like you are drowning in meetings and emails and don’t see a way out?  You could quite possible be sliding into burnout mode.  Burnout is now...

Have you ever felt stuck?  Ever felt like you weren’t getting ahead, or didn’t know what to do with your life to feel a little more engaged, a little more alive? This week I am looking at how many people feel stuck in life and what to do about it.  If you have felt stuck at some point in your life, you are not alone! It isn’t hard to find surveys that show that people all over the world are feelin...

Why bother thinking about high performance if you don’t want to be an overachieving, 80 hour workweek kind of person? I got this question the other day and I will tell you all what I told that person: there are so many benefits to thinking about high performance, even if you don’t want to be a “high achiever”, or a "top performer". And, by the way, seeking higher performance, or looking...

In today’s podcast, I will show you how High Performers are consistently more productive, yet also happier, less stressed, and more rewarded over the long term. Today’s topic is useful for anyone, regardless of whether you want to transform your organization for improved performance, achieve higher performance for your team, or achieve higher performance for yourself. High Performance research has...

To me this week’s podcast is super important and very inspiring. This week we explore how to achieve a thriving life.  In this podcast you will learn: What does it mean to “thrive” The components of a thriving life Why anyone can attain a thriving, fulfilled life The 4 basic components of a thriving life The 5 main steps to plan and implement their plans to achieve a thriving life Sign Up to Learn...

Have you ever felt like you had so much on your plate, you couldn't think straight?   Maybe you had too many back-to-back virtual meetings, with people knocking on your office door, or too many "to do's" with emails coming in and the phone doesn't stop ringing... If you have ever felt overwhelmed you are not alone. Various surveys have found about 60% to %74 of Canadians,...

This episode is all about the most important principles of when , what and how to communicate on your projects. Today I am sharing with you the 10 principles I use when I start to work on a communication plan for any of my projects. These 10 principles work regardless of whether your project is large or small.  I want to share communication principles, because regardless of the communication templ...

This week’s podcast is pretty special. It is based on peer-review neuroscience findings and has been found to be one of the protocols or habits repeatedly used by high performers in high performance research. With one simple protocol, you will be able to achieve higher productivity, higher performance, be happier and more fulfilled. This is a superpower that you can use at various points in your d...

What if I told you there was a really simple tool that you could use that could help you predict project success every time? And that this tool works on mega big projects as well as small projects? And that you can complete it in 10 minutes or less? In this week's podcast, I introduce this simple tool and tell you how to use it. Instantly Unlock Performance Now The "Thrive Hive" is...

How can you be consistently more productive, yet also happier, less stressed, and more rewarded over the long term? And how do you achieve all that while maintaining your focus, your energy, and your balance in life? Research shows that high performers are more productive: they constantly look to find new ways to improve their productivity, and are very deliberate in how they approach planning and...

Today’s Topic Achieving high performance requires planning, launching and managing projects. Most projects live or die on how well the people on your team do. But what do you do if your people fall of track on the project? This is more important for non project managers who aren’t used to managing people, but really anyone will benefit from this The principles and ideas in this episode works for s...

Just about every project goes off the rails at some point in time. Maybe its due to technology issues, or your team isn't clicking, or you end up taking longer than expected to reach milestones. But what do you do once you realize the project has fallen off track? Throw up your hands in despair? Grin and bear it? Dig in? I n this episode, we will give you the 4 main principles to think about...

I have found most community orgs can improve processes by up to 20%. But what does it really mean when you break it down? I have found 3 main ways to improve processes. You can use Lean Six Sigma for at least one of them, but you don’t have to. You can mix and match to some degree, but any way you slice you have to do at least one of these to get results. In this episode, I walk through the 3 main...

Transformation projects exist on a continuum of increasing change: from service improvement, to optimization, to introducing a whole new service model to the queen bee herself, a transformation project that completely rewrites how you deliver services. On the surface, it sounds hard. But over the last 22+ years I have come to realize that there are really only 4 areas where you can improve, optimi...

There is a very good reason why I spend so much time talking to Community organization staff about project management. Good project management skills help lead to successful projects, which in turn has direct and indirect benefits to your clients. Listen in to this week’s episode to learn the 6 main reasons why and how project management skills are so important for organizations. Want Some Powerfu...

In this episode we go over how to start your project off with a bang. It is important to take a moment or two and set things up properly so that your project can run as smoothly and efficiently as possible.  To achieve this, I start every project – regardless of size – with a “Project Foundations” stage. In this episode, we describe what this first phase is, and give you five really solid reasons...

In this weeks episode, I provide a little magic fairy dust. I help you find time to work on your project! This is typically one of the biggest constraints that busy people have when taking on projects. I go through the main reasons why you don't have time, but more importantly I provide 5 tried and tested ways to make managing project work take less time. Want Some Powerful Tools and Tips to...

Did you know there is one tool that can help you succeed at projects more so than just about any other? This unsung approach and tool is one of the least talked about control tools in project management circles, but is one of the most important reasons any of my projects have succeeded or failed. I am talking about a stakeholder analysis and engagement tool. It is simple to build, easy to use, but...

In this episode we will teach you how to create a checklist from the factors that lead to successful projects. These factors are pretty consistent across small and large projects; in this episode we will teach you what they are and how to use them to make sure you are setting up your project for success every time. Instantly Unlock Performance Now The "Thrive Hive" is a monthly membershi...

Most organizations have many projects on the go, and most of the time they don’t have the time or the budget to hire an external consultant to do the work. I recently read a stat that said that 46% of organizations admit to not fully understanding the value of project management, and even fewer actually have organized project management practices, but more than 90% are pretty sure they need more....

This episode introduces 5 steps to creating a project plan for just about any kind of project. You can use these steps for small projects or for big projects, and you don't have to have any sort of project management training to use this approach. Instantly Unlock Performance Now The "Thrive Hive" is a monthly membership to help teach, coach and support individuals, organizational t...

Have you ever struggled with figuring out how to plan and manage a transformation project? No idea of what to include? Uncertain if you are arranging things correctly? Well then today's episode is for you. I introduce you to a seriously useful 5-Step framework that you can use to plan and manage just about any transformation project.  You can use this framework on large, complex projects just...