It’s the year 2004 and I had just sold an engagement to Morgan Stanley’s head of investment banking who was concerned about the emerging technologies available to his Managing Directors. With limited time available to explore the challenge, we asked the MD’s a single question, and it was this…

A favorite episode from the Emmy-winning streaming series The Studio features movie exec Matt (Seth Rogen) facing off with director Ron Howard to deliver a “note” on his latest film - movie industry-speak for feedback. Mayhem ensues…

These days it seems we’re exposed to a daily downpour of words, from the infinite reservoirs of streaming content to our own unfocused communications. To cut through the noise we create even more noise in our bid to be heard…

Earlier this week we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish New Year. Although I was raised in a moderately-observant household, only a few traditions have stayed with me because they are truly magical. One of these is the practice of Tashlich, a ritual for casting-away... 

This year I was hooked on US Open tennis. At some point – I think it was during a Djokovic match – I began to observe something interesting about these elite players. They were doing so much more than just moving around the court, striking a ball with a racquet...

What’s with the term executive presence?  Does it really matter if you are an executive or the others are executives? Do we really need that qualifier? Sure, it may imply that the situational stakes are higher but I will argue that as a term it’s both unnecessary and hugely unhelpful…

I had a professor in grad school who offered a critique of my writing that I have never forgotten: “Laura, just dial direct.”

Earlier this month I co-presented a workshop that I developed for the annual AIA Conference on Architecture and Design. Over the course of two and a half hours, we facilitated a conversation with 130 people and kept them engaged with a topic that can be frustrating and difficult, and one that is not often shared in a roomful of strangers…

If you live in the greater Boston area and you’re a Red Sox fan, perhaps you know there’s been a kerfuffle involving the team’s marquee player, Rafel Devers. The situation mirrors that in many kinds of businesses where a talented individual refuses to accept a new assignment or accommodate unexpected changes in their work environment…

Many, many years ago I wrote an essay for Design Observer called “What We Can Learn from Project Runway.” I’m not a big fan of reality television, but in that piece I confessed my love for the titular program. Fast forward twenty years and….

My all-time favorite take-a-chance story is the one about how I landed my first role at IDEO in the summer of 1996. It was the Spring semester of my first year at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and my classmates and I were scrambling to line up our summer internships. Well, they were scrambling - interviewing with investment banks, management consulting firms, and the big CPG companies. I was chasing a unicorn…

I recently caught up with Jane Fulton Suri, an IDEO Partner Emerita whom I first met almost 30 years ago. A psychologist by training, Jane is widely credited with establishing the ethnographic research techniques that underpin much of what is called human-centered design. All these years later I reached out to her to share an interesting discovery…

In these times of accelerated change, with new technologies, workplace modalities and an increasingly intergenerational workforce, high-quality L&D programming is more than a perk; it’s a business strategy…

I recently took up knitting again after a multi-year hiatus, and revealed quite a bit about my state of mind…

In a prior post I discussed five conversation types that every professional should know how to lead. But there’s another one: Conversation #6 - your conversation. You know, the big one. The one that needs to happen but often never does because it’s just too daunting…

Based on observations from over three decades as a designer, consultant and coach, I believe that five primary conversations serve as the connective tissue for all strategy, innovation, and change efforts…

Early in my career I was overly protective of my ideas, believing they were “the best.” I didn’t listen well to others when they tried to contribute their own thoughts because I was convinced I had “the answer.” I’m two steps ahead of you, buddy, was my thinking. I know what we should do and how we should do it…

When I was an architecture grad student, I would often manage the grind of design studio by taking a break in the evening to walk across the street to the Yale Reparatory Theater and see a Broadway-bound play. One that I remember from 1987 was A Walk in the Woods, a spartan production featuring two arms negotiators, a Soviet diplomat Botvinnik and his American counterpart Honeyman…

I was looking forward to connecting with my client Donna to debrief the results of her Leadership Circle Profile 360 feedback report, so I launched the Zoom meeting and awaited her arrival.  Her camera remained off, but when I invited her to join me on-screen she declined, sharing “I’m just not looking my best today.”

In 2003 I was part of a small team at IDEO responsible for developing new business with AT&T Wireless, the company’s original mobile division. The prevailing belief at the time was that smart phones were just a version of your desktop computer with far less real estate.  Our work proved this assumption to be inaccurate...