It was snack time at my house and my kiddo pulled a giant orange out of the fridge and told me it was a dinosaur egg.

 

In a previous life, I might have argued, stated the obvious.

 

Instead, I played along. 

This didn't always come naturally, but it's a skill I learned in improv. 

Accept what's given, build on other people's ideas.

 

That’s what I did – I acknowledged his reality and indulged in playful banter.

Why not eat dinosaur eggs for snack?

This technique has proved incredibly useful for:

 

• Family car trips (purple gas station where the gas costs a dollar, yes please) 

• Brainstorming sessions where teams use their imagination instead of crushing each other's ideas (possible and not just in dream land!)

• Business meetings that spur creativity and are filled with productive discourse instead of verbal tug of war (sign me up)

The next time someone offers up a new idea, whether at work, at home, on a long car trip, or in the kitchen, instead of telling them they're crazy or why it won't work, play along.

Accept their reality. Tell them what you like about their idea.

 

It makes life more fun. 

It ends arguments. 

It exercises your imagination.

It encourages creative thinking and spurs innovation. 

You may or may not be craving holiday cheer this season (and I support your decision if you’re not), but who couldn’t use some extra creativity and innovation?

Hi, I’m Madeline.

I help leaders and organizations tell their stories, lead their teams and make change in the world.

I combine a project manger’s sense of process and a creative’s sense of play to bring more clarity, creativity and collaboration to communication.

Get in touch at madeline@madelineschwarz.com

For the last few weeks, I’ve had this eerie experience waking up in the morning. 

Just before I open my eyes, I wonder whether the current state of the world is truly happening. 

For a split second I think maybe, just maybe, the twilight zone will end and I'll open my eyes to the New York I remember, to Brooklyn pre-coronavirus.

Raise your hand if you can relate. 

So how do you get out of bed when you'd rather stay under the covers?

Here are a few things that keep me going:

1. I have a 6-year-old.

Staying in bed is simply not an option.

2. I have work to do. 

Last week, I facilitated a workshop for the Jewish Museum that was supposed to be in person but moved online. I feel grateful that my work translates to virtual and that I have the luxury of staying home.

I love bringing people together for laughter and learning, and empowering others to speak up, share their ideas, and lead their teams. Work grounds me in purpose when the world has turned upside down.

3. I have people to lean on and people leaning on me.

I might be on physical lockdown but that doesn’t keep me from connecting with my community.

In March, I took part in Jenn Da Silva's Connect4Women challenge, to help women foster strong female networks.

When I wanted help spreading the word about Nancy Rhodes NYC Face Masks Initiative, I went to my network.

When I needed someone to pick up groceries for my brother (he's a nurse and has been sick with covid), I reached out to my network.

#Connect4Women is continuing into April so if there’s someone you want me to connect you with, reach out. That goes for everyone reading, regardless of gender identity.

And if we’re not connected on Linkedin, connect with me here.

4. Quarantine or not, I still have my creativity.

As my wise friend Jeff said, I’m pretty good at entertaining myself.

What I’m not so good at is homeschooling and teaching reading. So for right now, we’re focusing on activities that feed our creative spirit, things we both enjoy like coloring and crafting.

What about you?

Can I be helpful during this time?

If you’re looking for ways to talk about your work or yourself in authentic fun ways, join next week’s workshop Create an Engaging Presentation Chock Full of Personality. I’m teaming up with Danielle Zeitlin Hughes for 90 minutes of hands-on activities to help you create content that highlights your creativity - content you can use to update your Linkedin profile, write a new About page, or finally start that signature talk,

Tickets are here and limited to 15 people so grab an early bird ticket now.

If you want help engaging your team and communicating remotely, I'm here to support you. Email me at madeline@madelineschwarz.com.

One of the best parts of having a little kid is that you get to sit on the floor and play. 

You get permission to use your imagination and take time out of your day to play.

Sometimes the fun wears off when you're dressing and undressing a doll for the 657th time, but mostly I enjoy the play breaks.

Did you have a favorite toy as a kid?

My two favorites were legos and the 64-box of Crayola Crayons (oh, how I loved to arrange them in color order). 

I still love both of those things and I sometimes play with legos when my kiddo isn’t around (shhh). 

I also use legos in my workshops and classes.

I incorporate a lot of props and games because the best way to learn is the way we learned as kids, through hands-on play.

What if you approached public speaking like a kid? 

What if you gave yourself permission to be imperfect?

What if you started at the beginning?

What if you experimented and failed?

When you release the need to be perfect, it opens up room to be creative. 

• Creative in how you express your ideas

• Creative in how you engage your audience 

• Creative in how you practice

Do you want more help delivering presentations that stand out so you can let your creativity shine through? 

I can help you and your team engage your audience, up your stage presence, and build your authority.

Let's chat. Get in touch at madeline@madelineschwarz.com.

Below are 4 communication strategies that I wish were in every employee handbook.

1. ACKNOWLEDGE AND VALIDATE

Imagine this scene:

Your Account Manager comes to your desk (or messages you on Slack) at 12:30pm to check on the deck that was due at noon. It’s not done and it’s pretty clear that you’re going to miss the 3pm client deadline.

Account Manager says: “It’s late. This was supposed to be finished at noon.”

You answer: “We didn’t have enough time and we can’t show it because it’s not approved.”

Things go downhill from there.

Sound familiar? I’ve been in this exact situation dozens of times.

Imagine if you instead answered: “It makes sense you’re nervous because clients look to you when things are late.”

2. PREPARE FOR THE TOUGH QUESTIONS IN ADVANCE

If you anticipate that your teammates or your boss are going to ask tough questions, prep for them ahead of time.

Here are few questions that often come up at the end of a presentation:

• How are you going to build that?

• We love it, can we see the next round tomorrow?

• It’s not quite what we’re looking for, can we see 6 more options tomorrow?

• How much will it cost?

Plan out your answers ahead of time.

If the project is going to cost 5 million dollars and the budget is 2 million you might want to have a few speaking points prepared about why it’s worth the extra investment.

3. REFRAME THE SITUATION

If you go into a presentation or a meeting thinking it’s going to be terrible, chances are good that it will be a waste of time.

If you think of those meetings as an opportunity to show off your best skills, get creative, and collectively brainstorm, it will probably be more fun (and make your whole team look good).

Designers, your account or project manager is not asking you how it’s going because they want to drive you nuts. There’s a lot of business on the line and they have clients breathing down their neck. Think about how you can help them do their job better and the information you would want in their shoes.

And project managers, your designers aren’t ignoring you because they are ignoring your project. They’re working on it, along with the 10 other projects on their list. How can you help them prioritize?

4. USE I STATEMENTS

When you feel yourself getting defensive, try to steer clear of accusations like “You’re stressing me out" and use this formula:

I feel ________________(emotion) when you __________________ (do this action).

Going back to the example presented in Tip #1, this might sound like:

"I feel nervous when the deck is only 30% done and it’s due tomorrow."

It removes some of the finger pointing and allows all parties to take responsibility for how they’re feeling.

Want more help navigating the murky waters of difficult conversations? Download 4 Skills to Master Tricky Conversations.

My parents divorced when I was young and my sister and I spent our summers and school vacations in West Virginia at what I affectionately call Camp Dad, compulsory cooking and sports camp.

In the evenings, we walked to the public tennis courts a few clocks away. After tennis, we came home and played Boggle.

Boggle with Bob Schwarz was no ordinary game of Boggle.

We were allowed to use words we couldn’t define with one caveat – we had to look them up in the big blue Webster dictionary (yes, there were once printed dictionaries in a land far, far away).

My dad would take notes and quiz us at the next day’s Boggle game, not my favorite part of the game but it built character as he would say. And he credits our high SAT verbal scores to years of playing Boggle.

Starting at age 8, as part of the custody agreement, my sister and I had to write weekly letters to my dad and send school assignments from our classes.

We would send graded papers and he would send them back, with comments.

More than once, an A+ paper from a teacher returned from dad with a mess of red ink.

My dad was a journalist at the Charleston Gazette for 25 years and I credit him with my writing skills, love of language, and zealous proofreading tendencies.

I recently read Brené Brown's books Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection and was struck by her writing on perfectionism. She defines perfectionism as:

“A self-destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: “If I look perfect, live perfectly, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.”

That hit me like a ton of bricks. While I identified as being a perfectionist, I never identified perfectionism as being so debilitating.

Stepping back from perfectionist tendencies after a lifetime of practicing them is hard.

Sharing my imperfect self in a very public way is scary. So as I hit publish on this blog post with some trepidation, I am reminding myself (and Dad if you’re reading), there are worse things than typos.