Juliet Funt Author of ‘A Minute to Think'; Fortune 500 Leadership Advisor on Competing in The Age of Overload

Are your talented teams drowning in meetings, emails, decks, and to-dos without the foggiest clue about how to reduce the pile? Today’s organizations are aggressive in their goals, and in the haste created from this pressure, often submit employees to a miserable experience of daily work. Too many conflicting priorities, unquestioned urgency, and boring, soulless work degrade the employee experience. This paradigm results in burnout, disengagement, and turnover. The solution isn’t as simple as giving them more money. Bringing employees back to vitality and meaning in their days requires a significant paradigm shift in how we perceive activity vs. true productivity. This session offers a roadmap to this shift, providing practical tools, strategies, and frameworks to reevaluate, prioritize, and streamline your team’s workload, thereby improving employee experience. Empower your teams to focus on what truly matters, and you’ll see more smiles and better results.

Organizations are providing resources for mental health, and that’s good. But despite all of the yoga, therapists, and puppy parties (yes, really), there’s a problem. Rarely are these solutions going upstream to address the chronic, predictable, and solvable conditions and norms that make folks so stressed in the first place. Healthcare costs soar, and people remain unhappy. As a remedy, this session shines a light on the concept of ‘white space’ - unscheduled, open sips of time that offer a much-needed breather and a platform for restoration. Drawing inspiration from Juliet Funt’s acclaimed book A Minute to Think, the session explores strategies to reclaim and make effective use of this margin. It also offers tools to alleviate burnout and exhaustion, simplify work, curb the flow of digital pestering, and reduce the weight of meetings.

Rarely does one encounter a professional team that isn’t overwhelmed with responsibilities. Driven by ambition and pressure, leaders often take on more than is necessary and then pass this overload on to their teams, exacting a heavy toll. Teams don’t just need to prioritize tasks; they need to strategically reduce them and allocate time where it matters most—to the essential actions that drive the business forward. This skill is what we call Strategic Choice. Many think of Strategic Choice as plastic surgery—a painful operation that nips and tucks and leaves things looking better forever. More accurate is the model of a haircut—an ongoing maintenance activity that keeps things trimmed as they grow. The corporation will always be adding, so we must always be cutting. In this session, Juliet guides participants through a series of targeted exercises to identify and eliminate the tasks, or task subsets, that consume unnecessary time and resources.

Hybrid work is here to stay, as are the communication challenges accompanying it. As teams spread geographically, the dynamics of interpersonal communication morph, necessitating a transformation in our traditional strategies to maintain connection and efficacy. Additionally, leaders must set shared norms that streamline the quantity of information and allow for the boundaries that keep teams vital and engaged. This session delves into the fundamental aspects of communication crucial for hybrid work success. It provides insights into our virtual presence, expressing ideas clearly and persuasively across various mediums and on strategies to foster a cohesive team dynamic that transcends geographical dispersion. The session also outlines the perfect balance between synchronous and asynchronous communication, optimizing productivity while mitigating the risks of communication overload in a hybrid work environment.

In today’s competitive business landscape, and after years going numb while staring at screens, audiences need to be WOWED. More than ever, professionals of all kinds must be able to communicate their ideas and messages effectively. They must be able to connect, inspire, and charm - even on the driest topics. Creating compelling presentations that resonate with clients, stakeholders, and employees is critical to achieving business objectives and driving growth. Effective presentation and storytelling skills build credibility, establish trust, and inspire action among target audiences. With the rich menu of skills taught in this fast-paced session, your teams can develop the skills necessary to create engaging presentations and stories that capture the attention of their listeners – leaving a lasting impression.

Many executives, sales teams, and other professionals have spent decades learning to be engaging and effective in front of others—in person, that is. But when presenting, or even conversing, through the tiny, intimidating lens of a webcam, many find their impact evaporates. They distract with body movements, fail to make eye contact, show up in dark, cluttered, or unprofessional settings, and drone on while reading slides to people who can read. Creating a connection and logical content flow in a virtual meeting is harder than it looks. Incomplete learning plans to correct this deficit often focus on technology or sales flow but fail to upgrade the presenters’ talents, charisma, and capabilities. This course teaches every professional to be in control, confident, and capable virtually. It’s perfect for any professional whose online presence affects the brand or bottom line.