Flipping the Org Chart
Fiona Passantino, November 2021
The people doing most of the talking and ideation should be the ones out doing the work, interacting with the customer. The people doing the most listening and implementing should be the leaders. This means that the traditional, top-down org chart needs to be flipped on its head. Seven easy ways to build a high-functioning team.
Another employee survey? Fine. But this time, do something.
Fiona Passantino, October 2021
Post-covid, the Great Resignation. Keeping employees happy and not quitting is now a matter of business survival. Five tips on making employee engagement surveys work.
Communicating Psychological Safety in the Workplace
Fiona Passantino, September 2021
Constructive conflict is good for a company. A functional creative process weaves in friction, tension, a clash of ideas and converging solutions. It’s OK to disagree, even in a heated way, as long as we turn it into a constructive process.
The Return
Fiona Passantino, August 2021
At this moment in our history, we have been given a unique, defining opportunity to re-think our definition of the physical office and fashion it into something truly human-centered.
Now is the time to embrace the “New Normal” and design our workplaces with empathy and intention.
Re-inventing the Re-org
Fiona Passantino, July 2021
Imagine your own casually dysfunctional family. At home you have high-performers and low performers, people who are more detail-oriented and those who prefer to see the big picture. There are some who don’t quite fit the group culture and some that are visibly more engaged than others.
The “reorg” is a passive aggressive firing spree that a company engages in when it wants to trim the fat, reduce costs and “go lean”.
Death to the Hostage Video
Fiona Passantino, June 2021
Proof of employee engagement is something freely offered, not asked for. Spontaneously created – short videos showing off new facilities, mom-to-be sendoffs, team acknowledgements, thanks for hard work or extra hours – the resulting videos, memes and giffys are pure gold for employee engagement, employer marketing, onboarding. They are authentic and positive, which is the source of their value.
CSO the CEO’s new BFF
Fiona Passantino, May 2021
As the post-pandemic world rebuilds itself, we will need to get serious about signaling our seriousness about diversity, inclusion and belonging to an ever-wider group of people. Visual communication is the key to speaking to us all; universally understood content that is highly effective and fits our new, digital context in lockdown.
Human2Human Communication
Fiona Passantino, April 2021
As our world becomes ever more complicated and our way of life more fragile, we need the skills of the ancient Storyteller and the tools of the Epic and metaphor to deliver us the information we need to survive as a tribe, and to inspire, to align and to remind us of who we are. In the time of Covid-19 we are deep in an unfolding Epic of our own. Our human ability to be the signal amidst the noise of our current media landscape of pseudo- and hyper-connected social media.
Next-Level Crisis Communication
March, 2021
Covid-19 is exactly the kind of crisis humans have difficulty understanding. Slow-moving yet omnipresent, lethal, silent, invisible. It has made us isolated, disconnected and alone. Our ability to overcome this enemy is based on our capacity to effectively communicate its seriousness and the means to keep it from spreading. This article lays out six easy steps for effective, next-level Post-Covid Crisis Communication for the Next Big Thing.
Communicating Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
February 2021
Covid-19 has shown us what it means to be isolated, disconnected and alone. As the post-pandemic world rebuilds itself, we will need to get serious about signaling our seriousness about diversity, inclusion and belonging to an ever-wider group of people. Visual communication is the key to speaking to us all; universally understood content that is highly effective and fits our new, digital context in lockdown.
Lessons from Mythology for Post-Covid Communication
January 2021
As our world becomes ever more complicated and our way of life more fragile, we need the skills of the ancient Storyteller and the tools of the Epic and metaphor to deliver us the information we need to survive as a tribe, and to inspire, to align and to remind us of who we are. In the time of Covid-19 we are deep in an unfolding Epic of our own.
