Psychologist Amy Edmondson says, "Every time we withhold, we rob ourselves and our colleagues of small moments of learning. And we don't innovate.” I share 3 benefits of saying "I don't know" and 3 things we need to build a culture of psychological safety.

Daniel Kahneman famously says, "What I see is all there is." We should focus on the things we don't see, things we don't hear. How? We ask questions. I was inspired to reframe 8 questions I've been thinking about to be more people-centric.

I share a personal example of a values-based rehearsal strategy and share some takeaways from thinking about the importance of matching values in teams.

Do you feel like you yearn for our work to matter? for us to feel safe to speak up and take risks so we can be better in our work? for us to to feel valued by those we work for and with? Do you want to figure out exactly how we can achieve these things? If this sounds like you, respond to my call to action!

James Clear writes, "Dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it... It is the anticipation of a reward, not the fulfillment of it, that gets us to take action.” Let's use that biology to our advantage in strategizing what we do and say in rehearsals to keep everyone highly motivated.

Sometimes we have to lead a group of strangers. When we encounter challenges, we don't often feel psychologically safe to speak up, take risks, or share half-baked ideas that may not work. Amy Edmondson explains that situational humility plus curiosity is what leads to psychological safety within groups of strangers.

We are conditioned us to believe that the default relationship status between a conductor and orchestra is one of conflict and distrust. We can turn this around by believing we can trust them to want us to do well and that they can trust us to want them to do well. And as leaders, we are responsible for taking the leap to trust first.

61% of us hide who we are at work. We hide our background, our likes and dislikes, and we unconsciously try to conform to fit the norm. We have become performative so we can be recognized, get validation, and feel belonging. What can we do about it?

Simon Sinek shared a simple idea that changed my life. He called it the golden circle and challenged how we believe we should operate within it: we all know WHAT we do, most of us know HOW we do it, and very few of us know WHY we do it.

Google is famously known for implementing the "20 percent time" policy within the company. Gmail resulted. Choice and creation are two factors crucial to the success and impact of these initiatives. It's an investment that will ensure continued innovation and growth.

Malcolm Gladwell speaks of two interesting ways to look at a problem: it can either be a puzzle or a mystery. Applying it to the context of auditions and how we hire: are auditions puzzles or mysteries for those making decisions? Do we have not enough information or too much information?

Malcolm Gladwell talks about overconfidence in the context of how and why experts fail. One idea he explores is miscalibration. I reflect on how simply asking for help can mitigate the gap between what we think we know and what we actually know.

Could we always empathize with others? The scientific answer is no. German psychologist and social neuroscientist Tania Singer found that, "We are wired for empathy, but only toward those who we believe are behaving well.” What does this mean for us?

One thing we don't often do when we stand up on the podium is to ask, "How can I help?" We often enter the room asking, "How can they help me? How can I get them to do what I want?" Thinking about all this made me wonder - what is it that we help the ensemble with anyway?

The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created - like IKEA furniture. I share 3 reasons why this is and 3 ways to help musicians see what we're building together.

We are visual beings. We believe what we see. When we see fancy press and reviews, we think we know a person's worth. I wrestle with the idea of reviews, testimonials, customers. I suggest three ways we can balance outside and internal reviews.

I once heard Robert Spano say that a conductor is just a glorified chamber music coach. What does a coach do? One of the things that they don't do is to provide answers all the time. I take a cue from Michael Bungay Stanier's book The Coaching Habit where he says, "Tell less and ask more. Your advice is not as good as you think it is."

As musicians, we assume that our innate love for our work means that our lives are great and we should feel nothing but happiness in doing the work. The truth is that we are not immune to feeling lost or unfulfilled like in any other profession. It is possible to forget why we love it.

Surgeon Atul Gawande spoke about how when we focus on avoiding failure, we by association also avoid considering plans for rescue. This is because we don't want to believe that we are capable of failure nor have the need for rescue. The reality is that things go wrong all the time, and there are 3 ways in which we fail to rescue.

Artistic organizations often strive to improve by focusing on their audiences--a customer-centric approach. I consider how I might take two actions for an employee-centric approach.