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 […]

Will Collaborative Basketball Disrupt the NBA?

Few things excite us more than seeing collaborative leadership infiltrate pop culture. It’s happening more and more. And no collaborative organization is grabbing more headlines or heartstrings than the record-breaking Golden State Warriors.  This year’s NBA season just began, and the Sunday New York Times is already speculating. Our first post is a catch-up on […]

15 Improv games to develop leadership skills and ensemble thinking in your group (part two)

Way back in March (remember March?), we posted “15 Improv games to develop leadership skills and ensemble thinking in your group (part one)” in response to collaborators near and far who asked for some of our favorite improv games to have handy when getting ready for a meeting.  Here it is, the thrilling conclusion of “15 […]

Declaring a holiday

A billion years ago (or 25), I lived in Norway. Far, far to the north in the ice deserts of Finnmark – 35 kilometers south of the Barents Sea and 500 meters from what was then the U.S.S.R. One of the many things that delighted me about my time there was a particular spontaneous annual […]

15 Improv games to develop leadership skills and ensemble thinking in your group (part one)

There’s nothing like a last minute push to plan a meeting. You’re dying for that perfect game you played that one time (when? where?) to shake up your staff meeting, but you can’t quite remember how it goes. Unabashedly philosophical rant We – like all facilitators who use improv – are often asked for game […]

“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 […]

Habits, and how to notice what you’ve stopped noticing

Flickr user Ginny, https://www.flickr.com/photos/ginnerobot/with/3226941566

What do Barack Obama and Albert Einstein have in common? Besides stinging intellects and “they-said-it-couldn’t-be-done-so-just-watch-me” spirits, both fill(ed) their closets with similar items to eliminate decisions about what to wear. As Obama says, it’s less disinterest in fashion, and more preoccupation with running a superpower: “I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating […]

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 […]

No is the new yes: Workplace communication must-have

Nancy Reagan just say no

When I see something three times in three days I figure it will be useful to say something about it. What’s dropped by so often? No. It started Friday. I was talking with a dear friend and colleague I lunch with regularly for peer coaching.  (BTW, if you lead anything – including your own life […]