Welcome to The Switchboard Exchange, a summary of content that has crossed my path and captured my curiosity. I’m sharing the highlights with y’all. I hope these posts will also make you think, grow and be inspired. Below are the three themes I focus on in this edition. Learn more in the linked posts and takeaways.
📝 Communications
💙 Culture
🌱 Growth
📝 Communications
✂️ Cut Negative Words
Wes Kao, former Co-Founder Maven, shares communications tips for removing unneeded words. Here’s one example:
To improve your writing, delete these 9 words:
#𝟰. 𝗗𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀
When you say “not,” your reader has to think of what is—then think of the opposite. It adds cognitive load.
🚫 “I could not be more proud to...”
✅ “I am incredibly proud to...”
✏️ Track Your HMW for Life
Matthew Dicks, Author of Storyworthyhas teamed up with Pete Sena to create an app to make tracking the moments of your future storytelling simpler.
It's the most important thing I teach, and everyone who does Homework for Life quickly realizes the way it changes the way you see your life and gives you more stories than you have time to tell.
We discussed fostering resiliency in a rapidly evolving world, the importance of aligning our culture around shared value, and the super skill of curiosity.
In 2025, HR’s real mission is to become the ultimate culture detective—digging into what’s real, what’s missing, and what’s quietly eroding performance.
This is my favorite "Something To Think About" quote so far from Adam Grant's daily calendar. Can you relate? 😂
Pessimist: The glass is half empty!
Optimist: The glass is half-full!
Proactive Person: Actually, the glass is full. I refilled it while you were arguing. You're welcome. 😂
🌱 Growth
⌛ Intelligent Failures
Amy Edmondson, Professor @ Harvard Business School; Author of Right Kind of Wrong shares an incredible visual of her speech at a conference.
“At the Association for Talent Development (ATD) conference in Washington DC last month, here's a fun (and functional) overview. Such remarkable talent from artist Renatta Algalarrondo, who so effortlessly captured ideas from my talk in real time!”
🥋Lessons Learned from jiu-jitsu
Bruno Valle, Senior Director, Performance Management & Talent Development @ Lennar talks about picking up a hobby later in life and what it’s taught him.
"Staying calm under pressure is required to make good decisions."
Much of jiu-jitsu is spent trying to escape submissions or an opponent’s control, sometimes under opponents weighing hundreds of pounds. I’ve learned to pause and think under pressure. Don’t panic. Take a breath. Assess the situation (quickly!) and then act.
🏆 Measuring Success
Bill Carr , Co-Author Working Backwards, Ex-Amazon VP of Digital Media, reflections on the season of reviews and the many ways measure success.
At Amazon, performance ratings had two equal components: what you accomplished (results) and how you did it (leadership). They were weighted 50/50. This ensured that people were measured both on their performance and their leadership.
Thank you for tuning in to this edition. If you’d like to contribute a learning for a future newsletter, reply to this email or comment below. I’m always grateful for your support growing this community of caring communicators and connectors. If you enjoyed this article, give it a heart, consider sharing it with a friend or posting a learning on LinkedIn. Signing off. — Julia
Thank you for delivering another great newsletter article! I downloaded the Homework for Life app. I have been keeping track of stories for a while in my notes but this is a great way to do it and get creative!
Thank you for delivering another great newsletter article! I downloaded the Homework for Life app. I have been keeping track of stories for a while in my notes but this is a great way to do it and get creative!