How does an unlikely organization go from top-down, traditional and struggling to grow to become an award-winning organization – recognized by Inc, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, among others – that works in a radically collaborative way? In mid-October 2017, we partnered with former CEO Tom Walter from Tasty Catering to tell his company’s story […]

The first months of 2017 have been BUSY! Lots of people asked for our elevator pitch. (Even our families didn’t know exactly what we were up to.) So we got smart. We teamed up with genius visual artist Sarah Moyle to create this 7-minute video. We sincerely hope this video gives you – and your team […]

2016. What a year. Before we leap into 2017 armed with hope, lessons learned, and breathless curiosity about what comes next – we want to reflect on what inspired us in 2016. Imagine walking into your favorite bookstore. You step in from the cold, scan the shelves on your way to your favorite section, and […]

Kelly Ritchey-Davoren has had unusual – and unusually successful – practice as a culture-building leader. During one period as an operations executive at The Decurion Corporation (one of the most paradigm-shifting companies you’ve never heard of), she and her teams improved critical metrics while launching 5 new locations and prototyping a new culture that unleashed […]

Well, this is fun. Three years ago, Karen Dawson, Ian Prinsloo and I started experimenting with a hunch. It went something like this: A heap of smart people have spent a whole lot of time trying to crack the nut of organizational change: how do we pull it off, so we can be more [INSERT […]

Because you’re here, I know you are one. That goes for us at the Deeper Funner Change Project, too. This site is for all of us. Backstory: for the past few years, I’ve been indulging a dream. I’ve scaled back on consulting work to take a learning sabbatical and do a doctorate in organizational change. […]

Here’s one more “mental sorbet” post – a sampler of interesting reads on leadership, listening and change to refresh your brain. Here’s an oldie, but a goodie, recently brought to my attention in a post by Canadian leadership blogger Tanveer Naseer. He cited the controversial Joshua Klein TED Talk on the adaptive power of crows […]

I’ve worked with very few leaders over the past three years who aren’t ramped up, stressed out, and working hard to hold things together between work and life. They are trying to slice through email, texts, instant messages, and all of the other updates that come their way. They talk about the need to create […]

“Leadership: Disrupting your own people at a rate they can stand, for a purpose.” – Alexander Grashow When was the last time you got to watch someone else do your job? To take a break from your role and learn from watching someone else – ferociously talented – do it? This week, I did.

It’s become so obvious to me over the past few years: if you want real change, that means bringing something new into being that didn’t exist before. And to do that, you can’t just jump straight into “performing” whatever that new thing is. You’ll need both rehearsals and a series of micro-performances to get there […]