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Why Metaphors Shift Team Behavior Better Than Rules

by jpanning | September 11, 2025 | All, Meetings, Projects | 0 Comments

Rules seem efficient. They’re direct. They make us feel like we’re in control. But here’s the problem: rules rarely stick. Project leaders often lean on rules to shape behavior:“Work together.”“Hurry up.”“Be ready for changes.” Teams may comply in the moment, but the...

Why We Keep Skipping Retrospectives

by jpanning | August 12, 2025 | Retrospectives | 0 Comments

Why We Keep Skipping Retrospectives (and How to Fix It) Retrospectives. Lessons Learned. After-Action Reviews. Different names, same idea—but here’s the thing: they’re often misunderstood. Most people picture a single meeting at the end of a project where the team...

Generative AI Prompting Formulas: The keys to your success

by jpanning | January 26, 2025 | All, Artificial Intelligence, Projects | 440 Comments

Most people think using AI is just typing a question and hoping for magic. But here’s the truth: The quality of your results depends on one key skill: effective prompting. Without it, you’ll get vague, unhelpful responses. With it, you unlock AI’s full potential....

Have you ever heard of erasure poetry?

by jpanning | December 4, 2024 | All, Projects | 147 Comments

I heard about Erasure Poetry on a blog I follow this morning. According to Wikipedia, "Erasure Poetry is also known as blackout poetry, is a form of found poetry wherein a poet takes an existing text and erases, blacks out, or otherwise obscures a large portion of the...

So what can be done to make meetings more productive and enjoyable?

by jpanning | December 4, 2024 | All, Meetings | 139 Comments

What’s the first word that pops into your head when you hear the word “meetings”? My guess is that most people’s response would not be “fulfilling”, “useful” or “progress”. In fact, my guess is that a majority of the responses would be categorized as negative like “ugh”, “waste”, or “too-many”. I know that’s two words, […]

There’s an art to designing a meeting and/or workshop.

by jpanning | December 4, 2024 | All, Facilitation, Meetings | 139 Comments

It's a balancing act to have the right discussions that result in the¬†desired outcomes. Trying to fit 5 lbs. of stuff into a 3 lb. bag will only end up with a mess and a lot of stuff on the floor. Here are 5 ways to prevent adding too much into a meeting or workshop....

Did you know, the hashtag (#) is technically called an octothorpe?

by jpanning | December 4, 2024 | All, Meetings | 1 Comment

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the "octo" prefix refers to the eight points on the symbol. The "thorpe" suffix remains more of a mystery. One theory is that "thorpe" comes from the old English word for "village" based on the idea that the symbol could be...

Do your team mates often complain that they don’t get enough emails? Here’s how you can make them happy by sending more.

by jpanning | December 4, 2024 | All, Meetings, Projects, Teams | 150 Comments

Email updates as an alternative to status meetings. Sending an email update to stakeholders prior to a status meeting may enable you to cut the status meeting duration in half or thirds. Emailed status updates are also a great way to address some of the reasons that...

Agile Retrospectives

by jpanning | December 4, 2024 | All, Meetings | 1 Comment

I've been reading the book Agile Retrospectives and have been posting on the topic of Retrospectives in LI lately. I love the idea of pausing for reflection in both our work lives and personal lives. Until we pause, we are often too busy to really think about what we...

What do people care about hearing in weekly status updates?

by jpanning | December 4, 2024 | All, Meetings, Projects | 167 Comments

As a follow-up to my post about sending email updates as an alternative (or improvement) to status meetings, here's list of what people want to see in their status meeting update emails. What to include in the email update. Project Milestones. List the project...

More than 40% of decisions made in meetings are overturned.

All, Facilitation, Meetings, Teams

The Standish Group believes there are two reasons this happens:📌 the people in the meeting📌the ones that were notWays to improve decision making in meetings:✅ Facilitate meetings so everyone has a say in the decision making process✅ Prevent the loudest few from...

You’ve likely heard about Brainstorming, but have you heard about Question-Storming?

All, Leadership, Meetings, Projects, Teams, Tools

Question-Storming focuses on generating questions rather than solutions. It encourages people to ask as many questions as possible about a given topic or challenge, promoting deeper exploration and uncovering new perspectives and insights.Here’s how to get started:✅...

Project managers: Are you using Short Bursts of Conflict to increase innovation within your team?

All, Leadership, Meetings, Projects, Teams

Short bursts of conflict, can:✨ Stimulate Creativity. Team members challenging each other's ideas pushes everyone to think outside the box. Imagine a conflicting viewpoints during a brainstorming session, about marketing strategy. This might result in a hybrid...

Are your conference rooms empty and your whiteboards looking old and grungy because everyone is meeting virtually now?

All, Meetings, Projects

If so, it's time to modernize your collaboration tools.Miro offers a dynamic solution for online virtual meetings, workshops, and collaboration. With Miro, you can:📣 Engage your teams and make virtual meetings more inclusive.📣 Convert meetings from boring to...

What if everything you thought you knew about X was completely off base?

All, Leadership, Meetings, Teams, Tools

X might be your project, your team, your strategy, or something else.What if the assumptions guiding your decisions were built on outdated data, misunderstood dynamics, or hidden biases?The reality is, no matter how confident we feel in our knowledge, there’s always a...

What we know we don’t know is scary, but what about what we don’t know we don’t know?

All, Leadership, Meetings, Projects, Teams

These aspects that are unknown to you and others are represented in the Unknown Area of the Johari Window.Project teams should be exploring new ways of working to actively seek growth opportunities.Here are three strategies to uncover hidden strengths and potential...

Facilitators as timekeepers

All, Facilitation, Meetings

Facilitators design meeting activities within time slots to cover instructions, activities, and wrap-ups. Keeping the activities within the allotted time keeps the meeting on track. When an activity goes over its' planned time it often results in: the compression of...

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