Connecting Digitally – Together Mode in MS Teams
These days it’s easy to feel disconnected, especially if you are working from home full-time. Gone are the casual hallway conversations, replaced by days filled with virtual meetings. As wonderful as it is to see other people (even digitally), virtual meeting fatigue is common. To…
Read MoreFacilitating Business Process Improvement in a Virtual Setting
At Highlands, we have helped dozens of clients improve their business processes through facilitated meetings, in person. With stay-at-home orders, we knew we had to adapt to a fully digital setting. Here are three of our many lessons learned: Choose the platform wisely. There is…
Read MoreInspired to Speak Up and Give
As we stand in solidarity with the Black community, all of us at Highlands Consulting continue to listen, reflect, learn, and act for change. Each of us seeks open dialogue with colleagues, friends, and family. And along the way, we have been inspired to donate…
Read MoreUnexpected Change
In just two short weeks, all of our lives have changed in ways we never predicted. This post from Jason Kottke offers a list of how we are all experiencing COVID-19 in different ways. It’s a 2-minute read that helped me think beyond my individual…
Read MoreTrees for a Cause
Highlands Consulting continued its tradition of donating decorated Christmas trees to the Sacramento Children’s Home this week. We organized into teams, brainstormed ideas, decorated the trees, and invited impartial judges to vote for the best tree! We were able to put our competitive instincts to…
Read MoreA Client-Focused Project Management Tool
Coordinating projects can be a challenge, even for seasoned professionals. During an engagement, you have competing deadlines, shifting priorities, client demands to meet, and a project team to coordinate. So how do you keep track of all that? You find a tool that works for…
Read MoreA Workflow Management Tool for Everyone: Kanban
Perhaps one of the things I love most about the consulting field is the ever-expanding, creative ways that project managers and teams look to increase communication and workflow efficiency. One of my favorite tools is Kanban. Developed in the late 1940s by Taiichi Ohno of…
Read MoreHuman Learning Theory… for All Ages!
All projects require learning of some kind – to work with a new team, to understand new processes, and/or to use new systems. As managers lead teams through the learning process, they can draw upon learning theories such as andragogy, constructivism, behaviorism, and cognitivism. But…
Read MoreConsultant Speak vs. the Nitty Gritty
For nearly 30 years, I’ve enjoyed working in the government technology industry, focused on serving the State of California. Along the way, I’ve met and worked with hundreds of amazing consultants with business and technical expertise. In recent years, I’ve become sensitive to what our…
Read MoreHow Many Balls Are You Juggling?
The Prosci ADKAR individual model of change (Awareness – Desire – Knowledge – Ability – Reinforcement) posits that people must first be aware of the need for a change before they can commit to it. Yet we all know situations where we firmly believe a change is…
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