Singing over Webex

by Jim Smelley

Once a week, our company has a TIE meeting where we bring everyone together to “TIE” everything together. This week, we tried an experiment. One of my colleagues, John Justice, had a birthday so we tried to do what many companies would do . . . sing “Happy Birthday.” And since we are a virtual company, we tried to do it over Webex.

I wouldn’t recommend it.

It was the most aweful sound I’ve heard since my 7th grade history teacher ran her fingers across a chalk board. It’s impossible to hear anyone else and sing at the same time. It’s impossible to be anywhere near close to pitch. We love what Webex can do for us . . . but don’t sing. Thank GOD we weren’t recording this particular meeting!

P.S. John hung up half way through the singing. He just couldn’t take it.

The Magic of Mortals

Daily we wake up to new developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Across sectors and industries, automated solutions prove highly successful in surpassing the capacity of the human brain for certain tasks, improving...

Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leaders have been trying to crack the code on talent development for years. Recent studies have shown, however, that strength-focused leadership [read: intentionally elevating the qualities that already come naturally to us] is the clear winner for developing talent...

Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

Listen to any earnings call or executive presentation and you will likely hear the terms “top line” and “bottom line.” These are words used to describe a business’s performance. According to Investopedia, the words are defined as follows: Top line refers to the...

Your Personality Is Showing

There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization's SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting. Search terms related to "MBTI" — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel...

Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Hello. My name is Monique, and I’m a change manager who hates change. After years of receiving “consulting therapy” from various mentors, I am now able to say these words out loud and proudly. But for a long time, it felt more like an admission of guilt. I mean, who...

Creativity as a Cure

The topic of creative solutioning has been front and center these days as we talk more and more about organizational adaptability in the face of dynamic and uncertain times. For example, I recently read about a project that got me thinking about specific priorities...

Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Big news over here as we close out the year - we have been acquired by Pariveda, a 750-person consulting firm in 12 markets across North America! We are now “Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company” and I’ll be serving as the Managing Vice President continuing to lead...

Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Dallas, December 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pariveda, a leader specializing in solving complex technology and business problems, announces the acquisition of Thought Ensemble. With the addition of Thought Ensemble, Pariveda now provides holistic business strategy,...

Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

It was about a year ago that we first started hearing about Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB19-085) and I knew it was going to be national news. We’d just gotten past the “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, and our lovely state was trying to break new ground...

« Older Entries

Singing over Webex

READ MORE