Tag Archives: openness

Why don’t my friends think exactly like me?

By Steve | Published: September 26, 2012
I see some of my friends’ Facebook posts and wonder: I know he’s a good, smart, open-minded person. How could he possibly support that greed-head Romney? I assume my friends who support Romney wonder something similar about me. Most of us follow the maxim of not talking about religion and politics in social settings, but [...]
Posted in Life, Opinion, What I figured out | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Of special powers, ADHD, dyslexia and autism

By Steve | Published: September 21, 2010
Imagine your kid has special powers. She can read minds, has penetrating vision, superhuman hearing. She can go a million miles a minute. That’s my daughter, Kai: hyperactive, dyslexic, autistic. I was ironing her latest Fuse Bead creations tonight — a purple-legged octopus, an orange-and-yellow-tipped star, intricately patterned hearts, a tiny dog with the appropriate [...]
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Baking a pie and wondering what my grandkids will call me

By Steve | Published: September 5, 2010
I’m baking a peach pie and it got me into a reflective mood. My friend Dr. Mark Groshek posted this week about the fun he had with his nephews while they re-created the Titanic’s menu. I always have fun in the kitchen with my 9-year-old daughter, but this time I was going solo. Which meant [...]
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Three narratives told on Yoga Day

By Steve | Published: January 23, 2010
The Magician’s story In town only four days, she serendipitously had met the hostess of the Yoga Day USA open house just hours before. Now she stood in the suburban basement, surrounded by strangers sitting cross-legged on mats, and talked about her lineage. She is a descendant of ancient Jewish high priests and of Dakota [...]
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A book for resolve: Change or Die

By Steve | Published: January 1, 2010
Change or Die by Alan Deutschman was referred to me by a physician who is using its ideas to help her patients make life changes (thanks, Deb). It was an ideal read to usher in a new year, a new decade and a new phase in my career. Many of the change ideas were familiar to [...]
Posted in Book reviews, Leadership, Life, Organizational communication, Organizational culture | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Poet brings vision statement to life

By Steve | Published: December 23, 2009
Tears of pride welled up yesterday as I watched a corporate video. A corporate video! Diane Gage-Lofgren, our national VP of communications and PR, had asked a poet/performance artist  to bring life to our communication team’s new vision statement. A stroke of genius. I will forever have a visual and resonant image to add soul [...]
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Filmmaker’s advice for great business storytelling

By Steve | Published: December 18, 2009
Filmmaker Peter Guber (Rainman, Batman, The Color Purple) once used storytelling to win Fidel Castro’s support for filming in Havana Harbor. The official application form had been torpedoed, but El Presidente enthusiastically endorsed the project once he heard Guber tell of the harbor’s historic significance and Castro’s responsibility to the world to share that piece of [...]
Posted in Applied stories, Excellent stories, storytelling theory | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

My responsibility as a white guy

By Steve | Published: October 14, 2009
A sharp Metro State College student asked me about my earlier post on racism during my guest lecture yesterday. He seemed to get the gist of  my story, but I could tell he was confused. I think I was too cute in that post, and I liked my answer I gave him better: As a [...]
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A story for parents whose chicks are leaving the nest

By Steve | Published: August 20, 2009
Frank Sanchez saw that there were many parents among the auditorium full of entering college freshmen. As the convocation for new students drew to a close, Frank, my university’s associate vice chancellor of student life, shared this story: The eagle gently coaxed her offspring toward the edge of the nest. Her heart quivered with conflicting [...]
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What if you did PR for sausage makers?

By Steve | Published: June 18, 2009
On the bulletin board at the Longmont Times-Call in the ’80s there was a picture of four men marveling over a cold white lump of processed turkey. The men were agriculture officials from the Soviet Union and their object of fascination was the ingenious mash-up of turkey parts that normally are scraped into the trash [...]
Posted in Marketing and PR | Also tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

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