Kimberlee Castillo Yee

We are so lucky that we live in the age of technology. With smart phones and computers, we have access to instant information or people all over the world. But what we have gain in access and speed, we are losing something very important, face to face communication. My kids have grown up with technology. They both are at ease behind the computer and find no problem send a text message or email. I recently had to contact several college students to pick up their order of girl scout cookies. One after one, I called them on their cell phones and not a single one answered their phone. When I started text messaging them instead, they all replied within a matter of minutes. Yet none of them would answer their phone. What does this say about this generation? Are we teaching them that it is easier to send a text than talk to someone? Since face to face communication is the basis of human communication, how are they building strong or lasting relationships? It is no wonder that we are seeing mo...

I was fortunate to work with a good presenter a few months ago on a workshop on conflict resolution. Michael brought up an interesting phrase, "blame storming". His definition was when teams get together and decide who to blame for the mistakes of the team. Now those of us who have been teaching leadership skills for many years, understand that this is not a good function of a cohesive team, but as managers and team leaders, do we foster this practice? Have we created an environment that does not allow mistakes to be made? Yes, we all know that no one is perfect, but is perfection the expectation? If we want our teams to be accountable for what they say and do, we need to give some latitude for failure. I have learned more from failure than I learned from success. Post-it Notes adhesive was designed from the failure of another product. Encourage your teams to take risks. We would much rather have "brain storming" than "blame storming".