Toolbox for Thriving With Humans
An Expanding Collection of My Top Energizers, Exercises & Sources for Meaningful Collaboration & Personal Growth
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Silent Eye Gazing
This is a paired presence exercise that strips interaction down to its essentials. By removing words and roles, participants practice staying present with another person — without performing, fixing, or withdrawing.
Raisin Exploration
This is a simple attention exercise that slows experience down to reveal how quickly the mind rushes, labels, and disengages. By working with an ordinary object, participants practice presence, curiosity, and sensory awareness.
Meditation’s Impact on the Brain
Compelling neuroscience showing that attention and emotional regulation are not fixed traits but trainable skills, with measurable brain changes appearing after just weeks of consistent practice.
Mark Bertolini on Authenticity
This video shows why leadership isn’t earned through titles or polish, but through presence, authenticity, and the courage to lead without armor.
Loving Kindness
Loving-Kindness isn’t about being nice or soft. This practice trains compassion as a stabilizing force — reducing internal friction so clearer thinking and better collaboration can emerge.
Friend vs. Self
A short reflection exercise that reveals the gap between how we treat others in difficulty and how we treat ourselves. It helps participants develop a more effective inner coach without lowering standards.
Focus On The Breath
A simple guided mindfulness practice that trains attention by returning, again and again, to the sensation of the breath. It helps participants stabilize focus, regulate the nervous system, and reset presence.
Deep Listening
Deep Listening is a structured partner exercise that separates speaking from listening to train attention, presence, and empathy. It builds trust and psychological safety by letting people experience what it feels like to be truly heard.
Whose Bag?
What can you learn about a person without asking them a single question? This exercise trains empathy and collective sense-making by turning everyday objects into clues about identity, values, and meaning.
Coke Bottle Ideation
Creativity often stalls not because of a lack of ideas, but because of self-censorship. This fast-paced exercise breaks functional fixedness and helps groups practice speaking before ideas feel finished.
Love Questions
Love Questions uses carefully sequenced questions to help people connect beyond roles and titles. It builds trust, empathy, and psychological safety by pairing self-disclosure with deep, uninterrupted listening.
Visualization as a Leadership Tool
Visualization helps leaders rehearse how they want to show up before high-stakes moments unfold. It strengthens presence, emotional regulation, and intentional action when pressure would otherwise take over.
Journaling as a Leadership Tool
A simple but powerful way to externalize mental noise, reduce reactivity, and regain clarity before decisions or conversations. Journaling turns unexamined thoughts into conscious choice.
Why Our Attention Spans Are Shrinking
Why does focus feel so hard today? This episode breaks down the science of attention, distraction, and practical ways to protect cognitive energy in a hyperconnected world.
Neuroscience Of Spirituality
A science-based exploration of spirituality as a measurable human capacity — not a belief system. Lisa Miller explains how meaning, awe, and connection strengthen resilience, mental health, and how we navigate suffering.
How Vulnerability Can Make Life Safer
This episode reveals how emotional openness and encouraging vulnerability in teams led to fewer accidents, better communication, and stronger performance on what was then Shell’s largest offshore oil rig.
Brain Writing
Brain Writing creates psychological safety by removing performance pressure from ideation. Ideas compound through written “yes, and” contributions instead of competition or persuasion.