Knowing Kenning

In this episode, Kenning Partner Cathy Boeckmann looks back on the enduring value of the streaming series Ted Lasso. She ponders the question, is Ted Lasso still relevant? Her answer is yes, and she suggests that 2024 is a great year for anyone to revisit the show as a support for personal growth. She shares three ways the show could have practical value for career inspiration: for facing challenges around new roles, for enhancing ...

In this episode, Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden speaks with Helen Chiang, head of Mojang Studios. Daryl and Helen’s relationship goes back many years, to the integration of Mojang, the Swedish creator of Minecraft, into the world of Microsoft’s Xbox. Despite the difficult reality of most acquisitions, they talk about how Helen and her team ensured continued growth and player satisfaction.  

Helen’s long career in gaming, she explain...

C-Level Leader Abby Kearns Shares Insights into Tech Roles that Build Leadership Judgment and What We All Need to Know about Risk

Julie Kantor and Felice Ekelman share advice for leaders who want a productive, happy hybrid workplace

Kenning partner Cathy Boeckmann talks with Julie Kantor, a business psychologist, and Felice Ekelman, an employment attorney, about their new book, Thrive With a Hybrid Workplace: Step-by-Step Guidance from the Experts.

In this conversation, Julie and Felice describe what makes their book unique: a dual focus on both the “institut...

Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden speaks with Philip Holt, head of Undead Labs, about his experiences running a gaming studio within the Xbox empire.  Philip explains his unusual introduction to the business of gaming, and why he found joining Undead to replace a charismatic founder both challenging and rewarding.  Daryl and Philip explore the deeper meaning of “State of Decay”, and how it might reflect on our own pandemic world.  

The...

Join Kenning Partners Cathy Boeckmann and Jerry Stauduhar as they speak with Mike Merrill about the challenges facing strategic business communicators today. Despite a wealth of data–or maybe even because it is so plentiful–drawing out the “so what” and generating business insights seems ever more difficult. Experts in technology, the creative arts, or medicine can do great work and gather excellent data, but they can find it chall...

Continuing our series with Assistant Coach Ron Adams of the Golden State Warriors, Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden talks with Ron about coaching across the generations.  A collegiate and professional coach for over 50 years, Ron has seen a lot of changes, but as he tells Daryl, he’s had to adapt himself in order to “stay in the game.”

How has practice changed over the course of Ron’s career, and what does it have to do with disruptions...

“The Guru of NBA Defense” is how Raptors coach Nick Nurse recently referred to Ron Adams, assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors whose time with the franchise has included 3 NBA championships.  Ron has coached not only Steph Curry and Kevin Garnett, but David Robinson, Ray Allen, and James Harden. In this wide-reaching conversation, Ron discusses with Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden how he builds rapport with players, especially...

Conventionally, we think of feedback as something we get from our immediate supervisor. But Kenning Partner Laurie Burkland Waller explains to Mike Merrill how we can use 360° feedback to broaden our perspective and ultimately provide us a competitive advantage. Laurie describes how Kenning uses both standard tools as well as custom interviews to gather feedback not only from senior leadership but peers and direct reports as well t...

How is leadership like time travel?  Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden explains to Mike Merrill an important tool he employs in his coaching practice:  “The Leadership Continuum”.  In this framework, Leadership is composed of three elements, all intrinsically associated with a facet of time:  Administration, with the past; Management, with the present; and Vision, with the future.   A good leader is one who can skillfully navigate throug...

On the eve of her announced retirement from Xbox Game Studios, longtime Microsoft veteran Shannon Loftis met with Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden to discuss her storied career.  Shannon talks about the early days of gaming at Microsoft, and what it was like to be a woman in that hard-driving environment.  She explains how Microsoft’s culture has changed in the intervening years, and how she has as well.  A timely talk by Melinda French...

Kenning Associates Partner Jen Lachance says that facilitating a meeting means “creating space for group level sense-making”.  With that benchmark in mind, she and fellow Kenning Partner (and facilitation veteran) Thom Shaw discuss some of the best ways to prepare for a meeting, conduct it, and what you should do once it's done.  How do you define goals and outcomes going into a meeting, and how can you create a sense of progress d...

Kicking off our Women in Tech Series, Kenning Partner Cathy Boeckmann welcomes Katie Brown, Founder and Chief Education Officer of EnGen.  Katie charts her course from academia, to EdTech startup, and now to a public benefit corporation.  Katie describes the dire need for high-quality English Language Learning for immigrants to the U.S. She explains how EnGen’s pedagogy, founded on real English language examples, can aid learners i...

Kenning Partner Laurie Burkland Waller speaks with Mike Merrill about leadership versatility, a trait she has found to be especially important for collaboration and effectiveness. Leaders with versatility have a kind of multilingual fluency: they are better able to adapt to stakeholders both inside and outside the organization and meet the needs of a particular person in a specific context. 

Laurie explains how the Birkman Method i...

Kenning Associates Partner Mark Ledden has worked with many coaching clients on problematic behaviors.  Speaking with Michael Merrill, he focuses specifically on behaviors where you know you have a problem, but cannot seem to fix it.  You may even exhibit the “ideal” behavior in other–typically less pressured–situations.

Mark provides 4 steps for remedying the problem behavior.  First, you need to identify the triggering cues:  whe...

Kenning Associates Partner Daryl Ogden talks with Mike Merrill about the 4 types of new jobs that he commonly encounters in his coaching practice, and how those finding themselves in transitions to these new roles can best navigate the challenges that await them.  

The first three are moves internal to a company:  moving laterally within a large organization; being promoted, often to lead the team you were once part of; and switchi...

In June of 2020, when it was clear that it would be a year like no other, Kenning Partner Mark Ledden started a conversation with his friend and mentor Barry Jentz. Barry, the founder of Learning & Leadership, Inc., is a coach, leadership consultant, and author of the book Talk Sense.

Over the course of his 50-year career, Barry has explored the way our brains are hardwired to treat people as if they are problems. As a result, even...

Mike Merrill talks with Kenning Partner Jerry Stauduhar about what Kenning has learned over the past year or so about best practices for virtual training.  Jerry talks about how Kenning adapted to the new Zoom realities, and some of the major lessons they learned in the process: Deliver your content in small bites; mix up the modalities you work in; and lean into the performance, especially with your voice.  Jerry finishes up by ex...

Kenning Partners Jennifer Lachance and Cathy Boeckmann discuss how you can get the most out of your end of year review.  They first look at two common but not ideal reflex reactions to feedback in reviews:  “Not Me” and “All Me”. Since neither of these stances engage much with what you are hearing, Jen suggests a different one:  “Let’s Talk”.  Here you approach the feedback with curiosity: you try to truly understand what your revi...