A Practical Guide for Managing Your Message Mix Even the best communicators can lose track of their message mix. Some messages are missing. Others are overused. A few may be working against each other without anyone noticing. The Ground Rules   offer a simple way to check your coverage. Each “ground” represents a type of message and a posture you can take in different situations. Together, they form a checklist you can use to: Audit your existing messages to find gaps or redu

What Happens When “Chill” Stops Being Liberation and Starts Being a Coping Mechanism? Every generation rewrites the art of taking it easy. In the late 1960s, “chill” meant opting out—rejecting the war, the rat race, and your parents’ haircuts. By the 1990s it meant rolling with absurdity while the world splintered into digital fiefdoms. Today, it hovers between mindfulness apps and ironic emojis.   Over time, the meaning of “chill” keeps shifting. And that history is written

What Happens When We Say, “Let’s Find Out” Together The other day I asked ChatGPT a question that a child might ask:   Why do squirrels have such long tails? The answer surprised me. It explained that squirrels use their tails for balance, for warmth, for communication, even as a kind of parachute when they fall. I’d never thought about most of that. What struck me wasn’t just the completeness of the answer, but the feeling that I’d just learned something quietly marvelous. I