Icebreaker questions you can use anywhere

Whether you need an icebreaker for a classroom, boardroom, or living room, we’ve got you covered. Here are some options that get people to open up without making them feel like they’ve been put on the spot.

How to reduce workplace loneliness

Loneliness in general is rampant; studies conducted before the pandemic suggest that three out of five Americans are lonely, and a dearth of meaningful workplace relationships are a huge contributor to that. I’d imagine that given the spike of social isolation during the pandemic, those numbers are even worse now.

And in terms of the impact of loneliness on the workplace specifically, according to recent research, only 20% of employees “strongly agree” that they have a best friend at work. But if that percentage could budge to just 60%, companies would yield 12% higher profit, end up with 36% fewer safety incidents, and gain 7% more engaged customers.

So, if you’re in a position to influence the culture of your workplace, what can you do to create a culture of social connection at work?

Ashley KirsnerApril 1, 2021pandemic, covid, covid19, covid-19, loneliness, lonely, lonely at work, lonely at the office, office loneliness, office, work, work loneliness, working from home, alone, connection, team-building, team-building events, team building that isn't cheesy, team building events that aren't cheesy, Skip the Small Talk, Skip the Small Talk blog, blog, blog post, blogpost, work boundary, work boundaries, work-life balance, work life balance, research, psychology research, psychology studies, loneliness stats, work loneliness stats, loneliness at work stats, online team-building, online team building, online team building events, online team-building events, online team-building event, online team building event, workplace loneliness, reduce workplace loneliness, how to reduce loneliness, how to reduce workplace loneliness, how to fix loneliness, belonging, best team-building event, best team-building events, best team building event, best team building eventsComment

The surprising secret to productivity

If you’re American, chances are that you’re bad at resting.

It’s not your fault; it’s deeply engrained in American culture that we need to “earn” our rests.

But we have it backwards.

We can’t expect to be productive in order to earn our rests; we actually NEED rest FIRST in order to be productive.

Ashley KirsnerMarch 10, 2021productive, productivity, hacks, productivity hacks, Skip the Small Talk, Skip the Small Talk blog, Skip the Small Talk blogpost, Skip the Small Talk blog post, blog, blog post, blogpost, psychology, psychology research, alone with my thoughts, alone with your thoughts, meditation, meditating, rest, restfulness, sleep, get enough sleep, meditate, resting, art, capitalism, American culture, America, American, how to be more productive, how to be productie, how to be productive, how can I be productive, how can I be more productive, I feel distracted, distracted, distractions, how to lower distractions, how to get rid of distractions, work, workplace, workplace advice, work advice, how to do better at work, how to be a better worker, how to be a better employee, how to add value, how to add more value, add value, add more value, take a break, how to take a break, how to rest, how to get rest, doodling, spending time in nature, nature, the surprising secret to productivity, secret to productivity, productivity hack, how to be more productive at work, capitalist Comment

How to write better e-mails

“Tuesday at 3 pm is great. Thanks for your flexibility. Looking forward to chatting then.”

Imagine that the above e-mail pops into your inbox. Do you get the impression that the message’s author is actually looking forward to talking to you? It probably depends on context, of course, but stock language like, “Looking forward to chatting,” or, “Thanks for your patience,” or even, “Sincerely,” are so overused that they’ve mostly lost their meaning. Those phrases and others like them are the “small talk” equivalent of e-mail; they’re polite, they usually don’t offer meaningful content, they don’t require a great deal of thought for either person in the interaction, and they are often the easiest mode of communication for people who don’t know each other well. (We’ll focus on work e-mails in this blogpost, but everything here applies just as much to other types of e-mails or online messages.)

TIPS, STORIES, AND insPiration