Resilient Wednesday Weekly Memo

Later today, I’ll have the honor of introducing Bruce Kraus, the City of Pittsburgh Council President as the recipient of the 2017 STANDING FIRM Champion award. It was just a year ago that I received that honor for my work on behalf of STANDING FIRM, a non-profit organization that works with busineses to addresses the […]

When we picked out our new puppy a couple of years ago, we started searching for a name. As we researched, we came across Cody, which means “helper.” We both though that we could always use an assistant in our lives so our little white bundle became Cody. He’s been a pretty good at it

I conducted a new program this week for a group of professionals. Afterwards I gave myself a solid “B.” Not bad but not great. On the plus side, the program immediately engaged the audience through some good story telling, some small group participation activities, and some large group sharing. Everybody, including me, was having a

After the Viet Nam war, the children of that country’s poorer regions were suffering from malnutrition, a lack of clean water, and little health care. In a project undertaken by the Save the Children Foundation and discussed in the book, “Surfing the Edge of Chaos” Monique and Jerry Sternin moved to Hanoi to understand how

Later this week, I’ll be meeting, along with a small group of fellow consultants, with Dan Gilbert, a Harvard psychology professor who has written extensively about happiness. You may know Dan from the Prudential Insurance commercials on TV where he talks about planning for retirement. Gilbert’s early research was in the area of synthetic happiness.

A few weeks ago we heralded the Helpers of Houston and pointed out how helpers benefit from assisting those in crisis through the release of the stress hormones that bring a sense of connection and reduces the body’s anti-inflammatory response helping to bring a sense of semblance to even the most difficult situation. Since then,

I pulled a colorful leaf off of one my neighborhood trees and have it by my computer to remind me of the changing season. As if the fall colors aren’t enough, the early arriving school buses welcoming yawning students is a fail proof assurance that summer is over and we’re off to a new school

John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach for UCLA would begin each of his training camps instilling this (and other messages) into the minds of his young players. He must have been doing something right as the UCLA Bruins of the 1960s and 70 won 10 NCAA basketball championships and an amazing 7 in a row!

While our hearts go out to the victims of Harvey, we’ve heard story after story about the people who reached out to help those in need. Alison Regan and her family, who found themselves on dry ground in a Houston suburb, know they needed to help and took out their inflatable kayak and found 15

Our little pup, Cody is just over two years old, is a barrel of fun. Training him however…not so much. One of my biggest issues with him is his barking at the TV. When he sees anything with more than two legs, he goes into his high stress reaction, jumping and barking at the perpetrator,