From Top Down to Radically Collaborative: Deeper Funner Change interviews Tasty Catering

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 […]

Unleashing collaborative intelligence in your team

Collaborative intelligence

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 […]

What’s an “Elephant Whisperer”?

**Contributed by Deeper Funner’s own Elephant Whisperer, Karen Dawson Comedian Jim Gaffigan grabs audience members in the middle of his stand-up routines by saying in a stage whisper what they are likely to be thinking: “Does he really eat that much bacon?” If Gaffigan saw someone reading my business card, he might whisper on their […]

“Permission to practice badly!” Creating culture through practice-in-action

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 […]

The most important innovation for your team to work on (and a few starter exercises to help them do it)

Ian Prinsloo

You know Ian Prinsloo is a master of creating ensemble in business because he says it with a French accent. Ensemble, he says, making you wonder why you ever pronounced it any other way.  Prinsloo, an accomplished theatre director with a 30-year career (and Deeper Funner collaborator), works these days with social services and nonprofit clients from […]

How unicorns motivate employees

mary kay car from pinktruth.com

Contributed by Deeper Funner’s Superhero Jessica Wallenfels – who knows a thing or two about leaping tall buildings because she wants to. That pink Cadillac Mary Kay salespeople were once set up to vie for? It might be a smooth ride, but compensation is actually not the number one employee motivator. A 1968 article in […]

A useful idea: change as creating

A Useful Idea by Karen Dawson, Ian Prinsloo and Julie Huffaker

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 […]

Hello, Changemaker.

Julie Huffaker paddleboarding with whales

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. […]

50 years of experience says: Kickass meetings start with single tasking

Last night, I had dinner with a group that included mindfulness warriors Wendy Palmer and Pamela Weiss. Wendy coaches leaders at places like NASA, Old Navy and Twitter in embodied leadership, while Pam takes mindfulness into corporate environments like Genentech and Pixar. As we ordered our salads, I couldn’t help but be aware that 50+ […]

Soul of wit, etc.: A brief-but-mighty workplace lesson, learned at home

It is not in my nature to be brief. Fortunately, I have a dear friend and colleague who does a much better job.  After hearing me describe in detail a big, hairy change challenge my partner and I are taking on together, she grew silent. “This isn’t a coaching conversation,” she said, “but two questions come […]