Tag: resources

March 18, 2018 Diversity and Inclusion

Women’s History Month Initiative – Empowering Yourself and the Women Around You

Let’s get a little personal

Below is an email I sent to the women in my life. After having numerous conversations with friends, coworkers, former coworkers, yoga buddies, you name it, I started to realize that we’re all secretly living the same life. We’re struggling with the same things but we don’t know how to voice them, share them, accept a certain level of vulnerability on the way to self-improvement. I wanted to share these words, and this opportunity with my readers.

What is this initiative and what are the benefits of joining?

First off, in case you haven’t heard this today – you’re doing great! You’re working a part time or full time job, continuing to flourish as a human being and as a woman, and you are looking for even more opportunities to improve yourself.

I’ve dubbed 2018 “The Year of the Hustle”. I’ve faced struggles over the last 3 years, encountered roadblocks that shook me, and put many of my own goals on hold to manage other situations in my life. You might be in the same place, or trying to come back from it.

I’m grateful for the discussions I’ve had with all of the women in my life and it occurs to me that we’re all looking for ways to grow personally and professionally. That type of growth is best achieved with a system of support. So I’ve added empowering the women around me as a goal. I’m starting with a Slack group to bring together like-minded individuals and build a community of continuous development. By joining, you’ll have a chance to interact with and learn from the experiences of women just like you. Participate at a level that works for you; pop in when you need help or hang out to lend a hand to new friends!

Because I want this to be a safe and truly positive space for women, access to the group is by invitation only. Do you know any women who would benefit from participating in this project? They can request an invitation by filling out this form. 

The group will focus on the following 5 topics, with additional items added as needed:

Personal and professional goals Where do you want to be and how can this group help you get there?
Money Do you want to talk about salaries, negotiations, managing money and short/long term financial goals?
Time Do you need an accountability partner to help you stay on track? Are you investing the right amount of time in yourself?
Reality checks Feeling like the world is full of trash people? Struggling to find your happy place in an increasingly tumultuous time? That’s ok! Let’s talk about what you’re seeing and how you can make an impact.
Tools Find and share tools and resources that help you keep track of everything and discover new approaches to problem solving.

I’m super excited to get started and to see what we will accomplish together!

January 10, 2016 Professional Development

Finding the Ideal Solution: 3 Approaches to Problem Solving

As an avid learner, I can’t pass up the chance to learn new things. In this case, I took a Problem Solving course back a few years ago that did a great job of simplifying three the types of problem solving. 

First Approach:
Pretty Straightforward

The first category is referred to as the “stop it and mop it” scenario. In this situation, there is an event, behavior or condition that you need to stop from happening, as well as clean up the existing damage. Imagine that you are a landlord and your tenants are complaining about mice eating through the walls. To stop this, you hire an exterminator to find out where the mice are coming from and place baits or traps to catch them. To ‘mop it’, or clean it up, you have the exterminator locate likely areas existing mice might nest and place baits there as well. You also hire a contractor to come in and fix all the places the mice have chewed through. With these items in place, the problem should be resolved

Second Approach:
Some Concessions are Made

The next situation employs the “current reality vs ideal” scenario. In this case, what is happening in the now does not match up with predetermined expectations or goals. To demonstrate, we’ll use student enrollment as an example. You currently have 250 students enrolled in your school but the Department of Education has budgeted you for 300 students. This means you are 50 students short of the goal. There are two ways to approach the issue and the one you chose depends heavily on which holds the most acceptable outcome:

  • Option 1: Adjust the goal. Is it unlikely that you’ll get another 50 students? Is it possible to increase by 25 students instead? How will this affect your goals and budgets for the remainder of the school year? What about next year?
  • Option 2: Attempt to meet the goal. While this seems like the obvious first choice, it may not be possible. In this example, your pool of students is inherently limited by things like zoning, number of students eligible, class sizes and competing schools. This means that even if you recruit all remaining students, you may still fall short. However, this option might be easier to implement when dealing with products or services, as you can increase production, hire more staff, adjust hours, etc.

Third Approach:
Hard Work For Lasting Pay Off

The third approach to problem solving is the “opportunity for change” scenario. This is best applied to a situation where the problem is something with room for improvement. Perhaps you supervise a call center. You discover that employees spend an average of 5 minutes searching the company database for answers to commonly asked questions. While this might not directly translate into dollars lost, it does affect how many customers can be served. It can also have a negative impact on the way customers view your company. After all, how many of us have spent hours on the phone with the cable company trying to do something as simple as reset a router? This sort of issue, under the right management, can be turned into a learning experience for everyone. Determining whether staff needs better resources, guidance or training can improve or eliminate the problem altogether

To summarize, there are three main ways to categorize and resolve problems. At the most basic level, each categorization requires identifying what the problem is and then determining what the anticipated outcome is. Approaching adverse situations in this manner can help you structure processes and procedures to avoid similar issues in the future.

November 20, 2015 Tools for Success

Utilizing Multiple Intelligences to Problem Solve in Business

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences suggests intelligence is not solely defined by IQ. Instead, human beings learn and excel in areas for which they have an aptitude. The seven intelligences described are as follows:

  • Visual-spatial
  • Bodily-kinesthetic
  • Musical
  • Interpersonal
  • Intrapersonal
  • Linguistic
  • Logical-mathematical

In relation to problem solving, it is thought that assembling a team to include a combination of these intelligences can positively impact the team perspective and results.

To demonstrate the pairing of different intelligences, consider the process of presenting data.
You’ve done the research, come up with the numbers, and run a dozen what-if scenarios in Excel. You’re very proud of this complex document you’ve created and you can’t wait to share it.

But how?

To you it makes perfect sense but what about Dennis, who happily admits numbers are not his thing? Or Alex, who tends to drift off when presentations read more like academic papers? The truth is, just because they learn and interpret data differently doesn’t mean there’s anything personally wrong with your approach.

It does mean that you should seek input, maybe even theirs, to decide how to present
this material to better reach your audience. The addition of charts, videos, or a mnemonic device done to the beat of The Bee Gees “Staying Alive” can have a greater impact than just text.


Beyond the technical aspects in the above example, consulting with someone better versed in interpersonal relations and/or bodily-kinesthetic intelligence can assist you in keeping people like Alex mentally engaged. Reading body language and understanding the motivations of your audience
is a great tool to ensure that information is getting through to everyone.

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