A favorite pastime of mine during the pandemic has been to strap on my boots, pick up my hiking stick and head out into the Blue Ridge mountains with my puppy, Shanti. One of the benefits of living in Asheville, NC, is that the mountains, along with the many rivers and streams, form my extended backyard playground.

The Shope Creek trails can be accessed just up the road from me. Soon after turning onto the path, you come to a 15-foot-wide creek that must be crossed to reach the rest of the trail system. Clear water pours over rocks of all sizes there, and the stepping-stone path to the other side shifts a little with each rainfall. I let Shanti off leash to splash her way over, which she joyfully does every time. I, on the other hand, take extra time, using the stick to stabilize myself, gingerly testing each rock before taking a step.

Lisa: People were saying things would be back to normal in a few weeks, but we thought ’not so fast’. We wanted to serve our clients in being able to change and adapt, knowing the journey brought on by COVID could last months, or years.

Wendy: We could see that this time would have to be one of extraordinary innovation--planning for the future in new ways. There was a need for new competencies, client services and programs that were just-in-time to better support people. So, we put on our ‘futurist’ hats.  How might we be of service in staying ahead of what was unfolding? What would our clients need to lead in current time, right now?

Gratitude conducts us unfailingly and unflinchingly to the latitude of love, which is, by all accounts of those who know about these things, the mover and shaker of the universe. It’s a great address.  We should all keep a home there. Why is developing our gratitude skill set so important?

It is with pleasure we announce that Continuum Consulting has acquired P4 Consulting. The fit between the two companies in terms of focus, culture, management, and curriculum is both similar and complementary. Having already collaborated for so many years, it makes sense to combine the capabilities and assets of the two companies. We are excited about the expanded offerings available to our clients and the fun of two teams now working as one.

A year was up, and it was time to get my VW into the shop for the annual oil change and tire rotation. Waiting for someone to check me in at the dealership, I noticed an all-too-familiar look on the guy’s face who had come in just before I did. You know what I mean: the expectant looking around hoping someone will come to assist soon, the frequent glance down at his watch, and the tension on his face rising with every minute that passed. My assumption was confirmed when the attendant came in, and the man explained about his conference call that was about to start at 2:00.

Mind Your Focus and Focus Your Mind: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous and Back

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon, the kind that makes me itchy to close the computer, grab my puppy (Shanti), and hop into my vintage red BMW convertible for an adventure! It had been a really great week business-wise, and I was ready to celebrate.

Resilience. It has been the buzzword of the pandemic - the biggest test of resilience in our lifetimes for many of us. Times of ambiguity are one of the largest contributing factors to stress, and there is no more ambiguous time than right now. Not only have organizations had to exhibit extreme agility to adapt to environmental circumstances, but every individual contributor has experienced their own enormous shifts in the way they work as they seek to navigate the further blurred lines between work and life. 

In our last onboarding post, we said that great onboarding programs work to make new employees feel prepared for, welcomed, informed, accompanied, safe, and valued — to feel that they belong.

So leaders, in your experience:
What makes a difference in getting new hires up to speed?
What matters most in employee attraction and retention?  
What kind of culture are you growing, day by day?

Ultimately, whose job is it within the organization to make sure that the above happens in your onboarding program?

This is Part II in our Onboarding Series designed to help making the new hire process easier and more fulfilling for employees and employers. Read How to Successfully Onboard and Engage New Hires for Part I.

We recently posted our thinking on the clear difference between new hire orientation and onboarding, both so necessary in bringing new employees into new organizational environments, whether that environment is onsite, remote or a hybrid arrangement. Because of the new ways of working and interacting within our work teams, thorough onboarding is even more important now. Here are some helpful steps to help employees feel they belong and can perform at their best.

The pandemic provided me an opportunity to return to my pre-corporate nomadic ways, living in a different city every few months, transitioning from skylines to mountaintops, across time zones, cultures, and languages. In fact, I write this just having returned from one of my many sojourns; exploring the world while maintaining productivity and professional connection, juggling not only a full-time position but also graduate school. Even though it’s good to be back home for a little while, I’ll soon be ready to board a plane again.

People are leaving their jobs at a pace we haven’t seen in several decades. Not only is this eye-opening, but it’s creating significant organizational challenges around retention as well as attracting and onboarding new employees. Almost every conversation with our clients and colleagues involves some reference to these topics and requests for tips and tools to offset the trend we’re calling, the ‘big quit’.

Mother’s Day is coming up. The day we celebrate all mothers everywhere. But statistics rolling in this year tell us that a quarter of working mothers are considering leaving the workplace permanently.
Roughly, 1.5 million more women than men dropped off the job map due to childcare responsibilities in the past year, leaving women’s labor force participation at a 33-year low. The pandemic has made working mothers’ issues more visible and acute, but they’re not new.

The air was fresh, the sun was bright, and snow crunched underfoot as my dear friend and mentor, Steven Vannoy, and I set out on one of our cherished hikes along the foothills near Red Rocks Park in Colorado.
We hiked and laughed and talked about life and our families and, as is often the case these days, the conversation turned toward the global pandemic. Yet, instead of the common, often cumbersome, conversation related to illness and vaccines, Steve delighted me, as he consistently does, with a different question. He paused mid-step, turned to me and said, “I bet your business is thriving while many others are struggling during COVID. What do you think has made Continuum so successful?”

Since Continuum was founded in 1995, we have been dedicated to giving back to the communities where we live and work. From the beginning, we measured our success as a company by the Triple Bottom Line of making a positive impact on people, planet and profit. Apply for a grant. Become a donor.

Recently, I was facilitating a client video conference on Zoom. The speaker, a young woman charged with leading an organizational initiative, began to outline her project update. As she did, serious and focused on the audience, her toddler, dressed in blue pajamas with brown curly hair, climbed a wooden cabinet in the background. I gasped, anticipating a fall and loud wailing.

During Black History Month, after a year when the push for racial justice has been highlighted and accelerated in new ways, I’ve been reflecting on my own sadness that changes in our country, sought for so long, have not come easier. I am a white, educated, middle class woman who can freely walk into any store, buy a home in any neighborhood and be welcome, and drive around without fear of being stopped for no reason. It is a privilege to live in this day-to-day reality without fear. I want this for everyone.

The morning sunrise is a little bit dimmer today.
Beverly, an older wise woman, has been a dear friend and guide for me over the past twenty years. Whenever I am down, or when the earth feels shaky under my feet, or if I am confused about the next decision in my life, I have reached out to her. Just the sound of her voice would center me again.

I’ve been coaching a new leader who moved her family halfway across the country to take a dream job only to discover the week before she started work that everything had changed. It was March 2020 when the work world entered into pandemic lockdown, and so many of us began adapting to work from home.

Starting any new job is incredibly exciting, but it is not easy. Those first few weeks can be filled with mixed emotions ranging from excitement and joy to overwhelm, feelings of uncertainty, insecurity and the constant need to prove yourself. Starting the journey of a new hire in a virtual environment amplifies these challenges. As more and more companies decide to continue with remote work even as the pandemic subsides, the difficulties of being a new employee rise.

Have you ever stumbled across something that turned your world around? That’s what the odd-sounding philosophy and methodology called APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY did for me. And, it’s available to you, too.
In late 1996, my friend and colleague Ravi Pradhan called me late one night from the Albuquerque airport saying that he had just attended a four-day workshop on something called Appreciative Inquiry [AI]. The instructor, Dr. David Cooperrider, was a professor of Organizational Development [OD] at Weatherhead School of Management within Ca