All I dared to ask for was a quote. After all, I was approaching the Paul Sullivan, world-renowned wealth columnist for a newspaper many people recognize nearly as well as they recognize their own face in the mirror: The New York Times. I hoped Paul Sullivan would answer a few questions that would show others…

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Story Lab

That virtual networking event you’ve spent weeks planning is probably missing a huge opportunity. Online meetings fall into patterns that few of us question. But Eva Niewiadomski, founder of Catalyst Ranch, a creative meeting and event space in Chicago, has observed that it’s commonplace to squander the first few minutes of virtual networking events. “I haven’t seen…

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For six years, I taught in a major gifts strategy program at Kellogg School of Management while being a major gift donor myself. One thing puzzled me greatly. Fundraisers mostly learn from other fundraisers who are very rarely major gifts donors themselves. How do they know if their messaging actually resonates and their fundraising strategy actually works?…

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Before Covid hit, my family often traveled to Germany. There, we found “Asian” restaurants in many small German towns. I had to chuckle at the generalization. Did these restaurants serve East Asian food? South Asian? Chinese? Indian? Thai? I considered, too, how even the flavors, textures and colors of what gets called “Chinese food” vary…

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Win major gifts for your college or university

Have you ever been surprised by news so positive, you had to pinch yourself to make sure you weren’t dreaming? Quite a few colleges and universities were in this position recently when they started receiving $10, $20 and $50 million dollar donations, all from a mystery donor. Finally, this past Tuesday, the stealth donor was revealed.…

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One of the many repercussions of the pandemic is the way it has destabilized workplace culture. “In a situation like this, everybody is in their little bubbles,” Cynthia Wang, a clinical professor of management and organizations at Kellogg School of Management, told Kellogg Insight recently, “and it’s hard to actually reinforce the shared values and goals of people…

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How do you convince a healthcare customer that your product can cover everything they need in order to capture and calculate daily Covid screenings for their entire staff? And not only that… to be able to visualize this data for their leadership? And then, in the end, to be able to share meaningful data with…

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Our workshop participants work hard to master key storytelling techniques they can use in their workplace. Once they have this tool in their leadership kit, they often ask me how they can make the most of every opportunity to tell stories. After all, once you’ve invested in learning a skill, it only makes sense to…

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Performance reviews can be nerve-wracking for everyone involved. Massive career decisions hinge on the results. When we are the ones being evaluated, can we make the process less anxiety-inducing? More importantly, are there ways we can make sure our accomplishments get the notice they deserve? Fortunately, the answer to both questions is a resounding “yes”–…

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