If you saw the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, you surely felt an experience of awe. Even if you weren’t in the path of totality—at my home we were at 96%—it was an awesome experience. The author (on the right) and others enjoying a near-total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 The eclipse could hardly be called unexpected; it had been predicted for hundreds of years. During the weeks before the event, a storm of media attention made it virtually impossible for anyone in its path to be unaware of this awesome event. So let’s remember, that for every expected experience of awe, there are countless ..read more

Seth Godin points out that many organizations fear connecting because their leadership fears losing control. Even though the control they think they have is a myth. “Organizations are afraid of connecting. They are afraid of losing control, of handing over power, of walking into a territory where they don’t always get to decide what’s going to happen next. When your customers like each other more than they like you, things can become challenging. Of course, connecting is where the real emotions and change and impact happen.” —Seth Godin, ‘Connect to’ vs. ‘Connect’ The importance of connection ..read more

I am not a psychologist or neuropsychologist. However, I have spent thousands of hours as an amateur, supervised by therapists, leading small group workshop explorations of individuals’ struggles to make sense of their lives. And I’ve learned that confusion about thinking and feeling is common. Especially for men. As I wrote in 2010: “…when I was growing up my education emphasized thinking…However, the educational agenda allocated no time for understanding or expressing my feelings…All of us in school had feelings, of course, and they greatly affected how and what we did. But no one encouraged ..read more

On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, I sat down with Martin Duffy and Paul Nunesdea on LinkedIn Live for an hour’s deep dive conversation about peer conferences: the participant-driven, participation-rich events I’ve designed and facilitated for over thirty years. You can click on the graphic above to watch the video of our engaging conversation. but I admit that I generally prefer to read transcripts of talking heads videos. So I took the time to create one for what I think was an incredibly informative conversation. Here it is—enjoy! Peer Conferences Unveiled—The Transcript! I’ve lightly edited this ..read more

This is not another success story about becoming a writer. Outwardly, I’ve succeeded. Since 2005, I’ve written three successful books on meeting design and facilitation and over 800 weekly blog posts on a wide range of topics. About half a million words so far. My books continue to sell, and this blog is the world’s most popular website on meeting design and facilitation. What I want to share is my struggle to become a writer, in the hope that it may inspire at least one struggling writer to persevere. Why? Because… • I suffered through a long period when writing a book seemed to be something ..read more

On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, at 10:00 EDT I’ll sit down with Martin Duffy and Paul Nunesdea on LinkedIn Live for a deep dive into peer conferences: participant-driven, participation-rich events I’ve designed and facilitated for over thirty years. They’ve called it “Peer Conferences Unveiled: A Conversation with Adrian Segar”. You will learn a lot from this free session if you’re a meeting industry professional and want to improve meetings. Our conversation will range from the big picture of peer conferences to specific details of some formats you can use to solve unique meeting needs. (And I’l ..read more

In the last two weeks, eXTwitter has become increasingly desperate to show you ads. Here’s what Elon did—and how to avoid ads completely. We know eXTwitter was losing money before Elon bought it in late 2022 and took it private. Forbes reports that usage of ExTwitter dropped 30% in 2023. And though we no longer have public information on profitability, eXTwitter’s revenue shows a continued decline. Presumably, Elon, the owner of the growing dumpster fire that is eXTwitter, has noticed that he’s losing a lot of money. So he’s attempting to grow revenue by selling more advertising, eXTwitter’s d ..read more

During a 1992 conference, I created the first of what I now call spectives. A spective is a plenary closing session that combines a retrospective (looking back at what just happened) with a prospective (looking forward into the future). My visual metaphor for a spective is the two-faced Roman god Janus, who was “the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings”. [Fun fact: The month of January is named for Janus.]Over the last 32 years, I’ve led hundreds of spectives and introduced the format to many event professionals and facilitators. Spectiv ..read more

Recently, I had a thought-provoking conversation with association maven and friend KiKi L’Italien. She said she had worked hard to avoid replicating in her marriage some unhealthy dynamics she experienced in her family while growing up. And she felt she’d been successful. But recently, she realized that she had incorporated these unhealthy dynamics into her relationship with her career. Like me, KiKi’s had a rich and complex professional life. She has switched several times between working as an employee and as an independent consultant in the association field. KiKi told me that some aspects ..read more

After a four-year gap due to the COVID pandemic, we eagerly returned to Anguilla for a two-week vacation. We love this tiny Caribbean island and have taken a welcome break from Vermont winter for fifteen years. I have written many posts about lessons from Anguilla gleaned during our visits, and this trip uncovered more. The trip For the first time in many years, Celia and I stayed in Anguilla without company. In the past, family members, and Celia’s women friends would join us for a week. But flights were so expensive that we couldn’t afford to bring family, and Celia’s friends couldn’t come f ..read more