Live In The Time of Quarantine It’s Been a Year Thinking about an anniversary we didn’t expect to celebrate. On Saturday, January 30, I was catching up on some work and thinking about how much I miss the proximity of my team. We haven’t been together in about a year. Of course, we talk and email constantly. We text a lot. We use video conferencing. […] Written by BPH February 10, 2021May 6, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Thoughts from the Zeitgeist Lift Every Voice The lessons of Black History Month. Do you have a favorite version of the inspirational anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”? There are some amazing renditions on YouTube; I love hearing the uniquely stirring interpretations by Aretha Franklin, Al Green, and Alicia Keys. Ray Charles’ is classic! And I recently discovered that the COVID-era version […] Written by BPH February 4, 2021May 6, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Live In The Time of Quarantine Diversify Your People Portfolio It’s a business decision. I’ve written about diversity before and I’m pretty sure this won’t be the last time. It’s something I’m passionate about, because it matters on so many levels. That’s why I’m always caught off guard when people assume that corporate diversity initiatives, like the ones we have at Freeman, are somehow designed […] Written by BPH January 29, 2021May 6, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Live In The Time of Quarantine Resiliency and Resolve Gearing up for the next marathon. I am by nature an optimistic person, but I have to admit that 2020 pushed me about as hard as I’ve been pushed in recent memory. That’s probably why I greeted the dawn of 2021 with an almost superstitious sense of optimism — as if a single night’s sleep […] Written by BPH January 15, 2021May 6, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Live In The Time of Quarantine Unplanned Obsolescence Relevance is the outcome of choices and actions. I like to imagine that years from now I will be socializing with colleagues and, like old soldiers, we will recount stories from the darkest days of our careers way back in 2020. It’s taken a toll on everyone, in more ways than we can begin to […] Written by BPH December 18, 2020May 6, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Thoughts from the Zeitgeist Baby Steps Our preferences aren’t as logical as we think. Marketers have long obsessed with building brand loyalty, but the foundation of that loyalty may not be as logical as we’d like to believe. A recent Fast Company article reported that the researchers at Johns Hopkins who studied a group of babies found that when they randomly […] Written by BPH November 13, 2020May 6, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Unexpressed Expectations = Planned Resentment Recovery begins with a realistic recalibration. There’s a psychological phenomenon that I refer to as “unexpressed expectations = planned resentment.” In all walks of life — social, business, family, recreational — people are disappointed, become angry, and are sometimes disillusioned because an outcome falls short of their hopes and dreams. And they don’t connect their resentment with […] Written by BPH July 28, 2021July 28, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Next Big Thing Isn’t Hybrid events are a transition to something better. During the deepest days of the pandemic, we learned that the Number One search query on our Freeman website was “hybrid.” This term had become shorthand for the sort of stop-gap live/virtual event format favored by the industry as it regrouped following pandemic-driven event cancellations. In March […] Written by BPH June 30, 2021June 30, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
This Is My Job Seeing the people who aren’t there. I’m old enough to remember leaders who felt totally justified in dismissing discrimination and other vital social issues as, “not my job.” There was a sense not only of entitlement but actual indignation that these “bleeding-heart” issues should be raised in a business context. The history of American business […] Written by BPH June 7, 2021June 7, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A Good Problem to Have Ramping back up in the new world order. It seems ages since we started having those tough discussions about furloughing our amazing team members. And now we’re approaching summer again. At long last, our clients are talking about the return to in-person live events. That means our leadership team can make plans to ramp up and […] Written by BPH May 26, 2021May 26, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
