This week, we’re diving into our first value: STAY CURIOUS LONGER  Inquire and interrogate. Humility fosters learning. Failure promotes innovation.Great questions even over good answers. This value is a “practice what you preach” opportunity for u…

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At Box of Crayons, we help organizations transform from advice-driven to curiosity-led. We do our best to stay true to our values and incorporate them into our work each and every day. Our five values are:  STAY CURIOUS LONGER  Inquire
The po…

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If we’re being honest, we spent a lot of this year binge-watching television shows (Tiger King, anyone?). And while we resorted to Netflix a lot, that’s not all we watched. It seemed like every time we opened our inbox a
The post Box of Crayons’ Top Fi…

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In a year of isolation, podcasts offered us all a chance to connect with inspiring stories, people and conversations that matter. And there were so many good interviews offering deep dives into fascinating topics. Given what Box of Crayons does,
The po…

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We know you’ve heard it time and time again, but 2020 was a year that challenged everyone — and the challenges continue. We did our best to be resilient and encourage innovation. One thing we champion at Box of Crayons
The post Box of Crayons’ Top Five…

The first week of May 2017, my son refused to get into the community pool shallow end and stand on a platform, where he was to start his first swimming lesson (to note, this was in fact the very same
The post Learn Something New (Especially When You’re…

Learning culture. Everybody’s talking about it. Does your company have one? How do you “create” one? Who’s “in charge” of it? And, like with any corporate culture goal, the “learning culture” speak comes with a lot of jargon. Unfortunately, industry-sp…

When my son was almost six years old and in grade one, he’d only been reading for about two and a half months. Part of his learning included nightly reading. One night, about halfway through the book, he said, “Mama,
The post 4 Learning and Development…

Michael Bungay Stanier’s book, The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, was recently named one of the Top Must-Read Leadership Books of 2020. The list recognizes books on leadership that are “must-reads….

Things are weird. We’re in a global communal amygdala high-jacking. The amygdala — the part of the brain involved in experiencing emotions, which triggers our fight, flight or freeze response — is in full swing! Conversely, our poor prefrontal cortex
T…

I remember thinking, “I know something that she doesn’t know. I want to ask a question to make sure we aren’t about to make a costly mistake.” But I didn’t. I could have shared important data, but I didn’t want
The post Is Your Organizational Culture P…

Curiosity’s bad reputation They don’t think about it as a powerful way to build individual or organizational capacities. And even as their leaders might pay lip service to the idea of having a “learning culture” or encouraging “innovation,” most busine…

Advice and assumptions are killing your company. This might not be immediately obvious to you (and apologies for stating it in such stark terms), but let that sink in for a moment. Because even if it’s exaggerated, we at Box
The post From Our CEO: We’r…

A few months back, an article in HBR proclaimed the power of questions. It’s not a bad article, and it mentions lots of sensible things: more questions are better than fewer; some questions are better than others; open questions are

Ron Carucci is co-founder and managing partner at Navalent. In this interview, he poses an intriguing question aimed at gauging self-awareness and getting a leader in touch with their desire for impact.

Ron Carucci is co-founder and managing partner of Navalent, where he works with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change for their organizations, leaders and industries. In this episode, Ron explores the importance of picking client partner…

Do you remember work in the year 2000? Email was still a blessing, and we hadn’t yet become attached to smartphones. We were connected, but not hyperconnected. We were busy, but not roll-out-of-bed-and-read-your-emails-while-brushing-your-teeth kind of…

Simon Batters is the group manager for People and Culture at Wise Group. In this episode, he reflects on how and why the company shifted away from a traditional ratings system to a process that fosters conversation and connection between leaders and te…

Michael Leckie believes that our ability to learn and engage with our fellow human beings is the catalyst for transformation. In this interview, he reflects on giving people the tools and the space that can spark change.

Feeling stuck? As a designer, Ayse Birsel relies on creativity. In this interview, Ayse shares her favourite question that seeks to understand what inspires other people and how this can be used to help them design their lives.

It’s official: the full version of The Truth & Lies of Performance Management has now been released. You can download the complete report here. To celebrate, we’re launching a micro-learning series to accompany the report. It’s designed…

Desiree Adaway, Principal at The Adaway Group, is a seasoned nonprofit consultant and facilitator. Her work involves helping people, organizations and institutions change their company culture by addressing the norms, policies and behaviours that maint…

Todd Gilchrist is VP of People, Legal & Privacy at Alberta Health Services. In this role, he’s observed a connection between employee engagement and patient outcomes. A clear “people strategy” can help employees reach their full potential and ulti…

Mark Thompson, founder of Sir Richard Branson’s entrepreneurship centres, New York Times bestselling author and executive coach, shares his go-to question for unleashing possibilities and potential in others. You’ll want to add it to your leadership re…

With the need for more frequent feedback, many organizations are reviewing their approach to performance management by equipping managers with the skills to be able to give higher-quality, more frequent feedback. The problem is, HR leaders have tried t…

Scott Morris was the Executive Vice President of People at Singularity University. In this interview he reflects on how an environment of trust fosters bidirectional conversations and alignment between supervisors and employees, driving employee engage…

Ayse Birsel is a New York-based designer and the creator of Design the Life You Love, a book and coursework that teaches designers and non-designers how to create a meaningful life. Tune in to explore how design is inherently optimistic and why having …

The traditional approach to performance management (PM) has not reached its potential, and now your organization has committed to changing its current PM approach. Now the question is this; do you involve the C-suite or not?

We all know that the world of performance management is upside down at the moment. But before you think about reinventing your approach and your processes, you need to tackle three big questions. Discover more in this article and video preview of Secti…

Lauren Letta is the Chief Operating Officer of Charity: Water, where she has been a driving force in building its entrepreneurial-minded team and employee-centric culture. Embedding the principles of collaboration, transparency and integrity into their…

In the first section of our new research report, entitled Is the Revolution Real?, we interviewed over 120 senior leaders from organizations around the world. One of the key findings is that the future is here, but it’s unevenly distributed. Learn more…

As Director of Organizational Development at Freedom Mortgage Corporation, Lev Hojda identifies and evangelizes best practices throughout the organization. Here he reflects on how there might be new ways of defining and doing performance management.

As a Marketing & Publicity Strategist, Selena Soo knows the value of relationships and helps others connect to influencers. In this interview, Selena reflects on how the fastest way to reach your goals is through nurturing networks. This episode e…

Leadership development firm BlessingWhite that indicated that 73% of managers had some form of coaching training. Yet only 23% of people being coached thought that the coaching had a significant impact on their performance or job satisfaction. What’s g…

No doubt you’ve heard the rumours… Performance management is in turmoil. Ratings are being abandoned. Employees are frustrated. HR is frustrated. Everything’s been turned on its ear. See what’s actually happening in this article, “How is Performance …

Meet Mark C. Thompson, the founder of Sir Richard Branson’s entrepreneurship centres, New York Times bestselling author and executive coach. In this interview, he shares how “business as usual” is essentially dead and buried, and, as leaders we need to…

For any senior leader looking to change their organization’s approach to performance management and coaching conversations, this section contains six key insights, trends and practices that are worth noting.

Mark Edgar, SVP Human Resources at RSA Group, expands upon the future of work and how performance management is evolving. He discusses the importance of shifting behaviours, getting senior-level buy-in and the need for keeping things simple.

Cameron Hedrick, the Chief Learning Officer of Citi, shares what’s happening in performance management at Citi, as well as draws on his experience in other organizations. Listen in as he addresses the importance of courageous conversations.

An exciting new podcast has launched! Hosted by Michael Bungay Stanier, Performance Management Stories shares the successes and struggles of senior leaders who have walked the path to evolve performance management in their organizations. Learn more…

Garry Ridge is the CEO of the WD-40 Company shares how his organization shifted its focus from ratings to development and encouraged its people to be more coach-like.

In Section 4 of The Truth & Lies of Performance Management, you’ll find proven tactics for helping coaching take root in organizations — and stick.

In this latest section of The Truth & Lies of Performance Management, you’ll discover how to manipulate two PM levers in particular: the C-suite and technology.

This latest section of The Truth & Lies of Performance Management is now available for download. Section 2 of the report, The Three Questions to Start Your Revolution, frames the questions you’ll need to tackle if you want to start your own revolu…

Think coaching is a “feel good” HR initiative? Think again. In this episode of The Coaching Habit, Sally Bonneywell outlines how coaching can be a strategic tool that moves your organization closer toward its business objectives.

Launching February 19, 2018, a new podcast, Performance Management Stories, where we find out what’s really going on in the performance management revolution. Join Michael Bungay Stanier as he talks to senior leaders who are doing the hard work in thei…

Ruth Ann Harnisch is an activist, a philanthropist and a movie producer and has recently been described as the “the punk rock fairy godmother of feminism.” Tune into this lively conversation about the value of coaching, feminism, diversity and favouri…

From how simplicity is the key to spreading ideas to an exciting new approach to partnership coaching, tune in as Jim Knight, President of the Instructional Coaching Group, discusses how to create an impact in learning.

Behind every great coach, there’s a collection of good questions. And, Laine Joelson Cohen doesn’t disappoint. Discover her best question. (You’re going to want to start using it right away!)

I’m very excited to be speaking to Eric Klein. He has been part of my mastermind group for the past 10 years or more, and a real pioneer in mindful leadership and coaching. He was talking about bringing mindfulness into the workplace before “mindfulnes…

Tune in to discover Marcia Reynolds’ favourite coaching question. (It’s a great one!) Marcia is a prolific author, sits on the Global Board of the ICF and was its fifth global President.

Debriefing should be a significant part of any project because, oddly enough, we learn more from an event or project once it’s all over than we do during its execution. And yet we often finish something and move on without

After 10 years of heading Leadership Development at Walmart, where he was responsible for CEO onboarding, executive development and intelligent management across all levels of the organization, Neil Pasricha now serves as director of the Institute for Global Happiness.

Have you ever wondered which way is the best way to build the leaders and entrepreneurs of tomorrow? This week’s Twofer looks at two proven approaches to helping employees reach their leadership and entrepreneurial potential. Employee Engagement: Coach for Success

Stop taking it all so seriously!

If you follow this blog, it won’t come as a surprise that I’m an advocate of going against the grain and challenging our default settings. That’s how some of our greatest visionaries and innovators found their success. And that’s precisely

Make sure your goal is defined, so you’ll recognize success when you see it.

If you’ve been a long-time listener to this podcast, you know that I’ve interviewed an eclectic bunch of people over the years. Sure, there’s been thought leaders and authors, but I’ve also talked to advocates for disability rights and a

Business is all about people. If you want to succeed in business, it behooves you to know how the human mind works and to examine why people respond the way they do. That understanding, of course, doesn’t apply only to

Sometimes the best thing to do is to walk away. Turn around. This is not your problem.

I’m generally an accommodating person, so saying no hasn’t always been my strong suit. It’s all too easy to shove another yes into the bag of our overcommitted lives, trusting that in a Harry Potter magical sort of way it

None of us got to where we are today without help. We all look to others for guidance and example. And if we’re really lucky, we just might cross paths with a great coach or mentor who helps define the

If not now, when? Today is the day.

Coaching is a topic that’s near and dear to everyone here at Box of Crayons. With this week’s Twofer, I want to open your eyes to a new perspective on coaching. These two articles show how much you can gain

Every decision we make changes outcomes. Those outcomes might be small, affecting only a given day or even just the next hour. Other times they can impact careers or the rest of our lives. And it’s not just about choosing

By now you might have finished reading or listening to Do More Great Work. What happens now? How can you continue to get more out of it, or use it again and again when you need to make things happen?

My first job after university was with a creativity company. It was a pretty fantastic. I could (and did) show up wearing multiple earrings, long hair and trousers made of purple and red paisley. Now the company is the biggest

Say thanks. Acknowledge the work of others. Celebrate milestones. It’s all good.