How to Disrupt HR, And What's Size Got to Do With It

It's time to Disrupt HR! Tune into this video of my recent presentation at DisruptHR New York (it's only 5 minutes long).

Don't Leave Culture To Chance | Colette Ellis | DisruptHR Talks from DisruptHR on Vimeo.

I shared my Don't Leave Culture to Chance presentation in May of this year at the Design a Happy + Healthy Company Conference. For this Ignite talk, I was challenged to share a disruptive idea related to company culture and talent management.

My disruptive idea is a bit cheeky (yes, a reference to size was made); yet I believe completely relevant to the discussion of how (and when) do leaders need to "worry about" defining company culture. Take a peek and let me know what you think.

Also, if for no other reason, you can watch me #fail at making the Vulcan salute!

Is Your Company Happy & Healthy? Learn 3 Ways to Measure on May 20

You're invited to the Happy & Healthy Company Conference | Presented by CMYK Ventures

Join me on May 20 from 9:30 am - 3:30 pm to discover new strategies and partners to help you design a happy and healthy company. Enjoy a healthy breakfast and lunch, watch inspiring talks, and meet over 50 founders and leaders who manage Talent, Culture, People, and Recruiting programs at leading NYC companies including Industry Standard, Luminary Labs, and ustwo. 

I'm excited to be one of the Keynote Speakers, sharing strategies to define a culture that engages and inspires employees even as your company grows.

Learn strategies for improving internal communication, collaboration, happiness, and wellness. Meet business vendors to explore services that cater to workplace happiness. Participate in discussions and workshops on themes related to organizational design, including:

• Human Company Design
• Planning for Change
• Common Play
• Diversity & Inclusivity 

Get help to manage HR, recruiting, operations, snacks, perks, interior design + more! Register now to join us on May 20th -- see you there!

Sometimes You Need to Slow Down Before You (re)StartUP

I've been encouraged by the recent focus on the mental health aspects of being an entrepreneur, particularly as a certified stress management coach and well-being consultant.

As I've mentioned before, unresolved chronic stress can lead to serious physical conditions, including: digestive problems (ME!), fertility problems, urinary problems, and a weakened immune system.

People with chronic stress also are more prone to anxiety, headaches, insomnia, and even depression. It's a given that stress is part of the Founder Hustle. Yet, we often feel the need to hide our stress and anxiety from others in order to appear in control, on point -- like we're crushing it! This pressure can take its toll on our health.

You may have noticed that I've changed the branding on this blog: Slow Down to StartUP.

It's based on my personal experiences as a founder, and the stress management work I've done with other leaders. It's been important to acknowledge that, along my journey, I've had to "slow down" in order to (re)start each time I've launched something. From all of this, I have defined this four step process to "slow down" on your journey to do great things in the world. It's relevant if you're just starting-up, OR if you're coming back from a pivot or a setback, and are (re)starting-up:

1. Learn your stress triggers and go-to stress coping behaviors

A stress trigger is any incident that causes you to have a stressful physical or emotional response. When you feel stressed out, it may feel like you’ve dropped the ball in some area of your life – business, finances, relationships. If your roles/responsibilities are not balanced or are in conflict with each other, you may experience heightened stress. It's important to figure out what are your stress triggers – it's your first step to make a change in how you respond. To slow down, make time over one week to track your stress triggers as well as the coping behaviors you typically engage in when you're feeling stressed out. For example, think about how you'd complete this sentence: "When I get stressed out, I usually ..." Then, make note of whether your coping behavior is proactive for your health, or could be counterproductive to your well-being if you were to keep doing it over a long period. There's no judgment here -- you're just gathering helpful information to better understand the way you deal with stress.

2. Use deep breathing to manage your physical response to stress

When you experience stress, your body releases hormones such as epinephrine, nor-epinephrine and cortisol that increase your blood pressure, speed your heart rate, and raise your blood sugar levels. These physical changes -- also known as the fight-flight effect -- can help you respond with greater strength and speed to escape a threat. However, when you're in a state of stress, the threat often is not REAL but PERCEIVED in your mind. And, yet, your body can get stuck waiting and expecting for the threat to appear. A basic element of relaxation is your breath, and it's always accessible to you. Deep breathing can reduce your physical and mental fatigue, and can promote a state of calmness. To slow down, get focused on your breath as a new, proactive way to respond to your stress triggers. Here's a different way to complete the former sentence: "Now, when I get stressed out, I like to take three deep breaths to calm down."

3. Adjust the way you think about your situation

We collect and store in our minds various beliefs. Some of your beliefs may have served you well in the past, others may have led to less positive outcomes. Over time, you stop noticing that you have these underlying beliefs, even though they still shape your current reality. For example, if you perceive a task as being difficult or unpleasant, that's most likely how you will experience completing it. Your beliefs are not static -- you can alter your underlying beliefs to create new experiences. Allow yourself to let go of beliefs that no longer serve you in this phase of your life. To slow down, begin to notice your thoughts and words -- especially the words you "speak" in your self-talk. Yes, you do talk to yourself -- and it's OK! Tune in when you hear yourself say: "I have to ..." as the words imply a burden or, perhaps, even resentment about the task. Start to flip the script on your self-talk, and speak about all the things you get to do in your life.

4. Make a conscious choice to reduce your stress triggers

Admittedly, this can be the most challenging step of the process as it often involves taking direct actions that may affect other people. The first three steps are focused on your triggers, your reactions, and your mindset. This step suggests you examine your stress triggers not just for their impact on you, but to consider how you can minimize or eliminate them altogether. To slow down, consider how can you adjust, delegate, or eliminate tasks (and relationships) that previously caused you to become stressed out. When communicating with the key people in your life, have assertive and compassionate conversations about your goals and needs. Remain open to new ideas and allow flexibility for trial and error. Spend more time with people who resonate with your mindset and support you in achieving your goals.

Stay tuned for more resources for the Slow Down to StartUP process, and let me know how I can best support you on your journey!

How Co-Founder or Team Conflict Isn't as Bad as You Think

How often have you put your best foot forward only to have it stomped on by someone?

There you are, every day, with so many people making demands on you:

• Team members looking to you for answers you aren't always sure of
• Clients thinking only of what they want and not of you really at all
• Founders or senior leaders challenging you with increasingly demanding expectations

Then, there is everyone else, who needs something -- usually sooner than you are able to easily provide it. And, there you are S-Q-U-E-E-Z-E-D in the middle, being pressed on all sides…

It can be very frustrating thinking that you have said or done the right thing only to find that the other person doesn't see it that way. When the other person doesn't respond in the same way as you would, it's irritating and can cause lots of anxiety. And, this anxiety can affect your ability to be most effective at what you're creating.

It leads us to one overriding fact … work relationships are confusing! [Don't even get me started on personal relationships!]

But, what if it could be different?

PRIOSYS® on Vimeo.

When there is team conflict or a lack of rapport with a colleague, we tend to get judgmental. We begin to presume things about the other person. Instead of remaining open minded, we tend to close ourselves to other perspectives.

What if, instead, you viewed team conflict or lack of rapport as an OPPORTUNITY to see issues from perspectives other than your own? 

We all manage our everyday demands differently depending on our priorities -- what we feel to be important at that time. 

If you could figure out how to quickly recognize and adapt to your team members’ priorities, you would be less frustrated when communicating, and more able to overcome your differences. IMAGINE what that would do for your own productivity (and sanity) ... not to mention the productivity and camaraderie of your team. 

How much more could you create and innovate with that level of morale? 

"If two people on the same team agree all the time, then one is useless.  If they disagree all the time, then both are useless." -- Darryl Zanuck

Share your comments and questions below. Or, contact me if you're ready to get started and would like a demo of priosys®.

Learn Top Time Management Mistakes You Can Avoid on April 30

Your TIME is your greatest asset. It's the one thing you can't get back -- once it's spent, it's gone!

What if you could develop new habits and a mindset about how to manage your time (including “time wasters” and distractions) so you could focus on what's really important to you?

Join me on April 30th for Tik Tock on the Clock: Time Management Made Easy. I'm offering this primer workshop because I've heard that founders and leaders like YOU who are out there in the arena, making things happen can use a little more focus and organization.

What will you get out of attending?

• Discover how you REALLY spend your time so you can reclaim your schedule and get more done in less time
• Reveal your true intentions so you can refocus your attention on what’s most important and get pumped up about doing it
• Find out what’s causing your indecision so you can reduce anxiety, make decisions faster, and stop procrastinating 
• Eliminate clutter and distractions so you can achieve your goals faster and crush them

This workshop IS for you if you're an ambitious rock star, who wants to be more self-aware; if you feel like you're not making fast enough progress, and want to expedite success in your life and business.

Tik Tock on the Clock: The workshop don't start till you walk in ... if you're on time! :-)

Sell Tickets Online through Eventbrite

Coordinating Care at Merck Social Health Hackathon

Here are the ideas from today's Merck Social Health Hackathon! We're creating 1-Health an app to coordinate care for caregivers. Our logo is

The Problem: 
Today, there is no dedicated platform among allied health professionals and doctors who are treating patients with chronic conditions, nor between caregivers (e.g., parents caring for children with special needs or adults caring for aging parents. As a result, patients receives treatment and other providers don't know what has occurred. Caregivers don't always understand medical terminology or protocols to help their loved ones adhere to treatment plans.

Our Value Proposition:
1-Health app will create enhanced communication between medical providers and allied health professionals to promote holistic health and improved adherence to treatment plans.

This is our team: Wendy, Lulu, and me! Looking forward to presenting our idea in a couple of hours.

1-Health team hard at work!

Startup Founders Get Lean in Sydney

The past few months, I've had the pleasure of planning, organizing, and launching the second Lean Startup Machine Workshop in Sydney, Australia! The 3-day workshop was held 19-21 April at Fishburners, a local co-working and tech start-up space.

Now that I've recovered from my jet lag, I thought I'd share an inside perspective on what it can take to truly test your start-up or business idea BEFORE writing a line of code, or buying any inventory, or hiring your first person, or ... you get the idea. Here's a sample of what went down ... down under!

The Stats

• 56 entrepreneurs
• 20 mentors
• 10 ideas
• 5 speakers
• 5 judges 
• 2 winning teams who benefited from over $2,500 in prizes

The Story

We started on Friday evening with the high energy of ideas being pitched and teams being formed -- 20 app, product, and service ideas were culled down to 10 teams based on group voting. 

Natasha, Pascale & Coach Colette

Lessons from launching successful start-ups were shared in our Fireside Chat by Sydney entrepreneurs Pascale Helyar-Moray (founder StyleRocks) and Natasha Rawlings (co-founder StreetHawk App & Springboard Australia member).

Teams spent the remainder of Friday night beginning to define their problem and customer hypotheses, and initial customer assumptions using the Validation Board.

By Saturday morning, 10 teams had become 9 as one team of three people disbanded because a team member decided not to return to the workshop. Just like in the real world, when you think you've got everyone on board, someone jumps overboard; and then you have to either reiterate, pivot, or (in this case) abandon ship.

We encouraged teams to spend the majority of Saturday 'getting out of the building' to have real conversations with real potential customers. Teams begin to learn that their ideas are essentially useless until they're validated (or invalidated) by customers who are actually living/dealing with the problem. 

My 'Saturday-tough-love' coaching to any team who was resisting going out and yet still struggling to find "the 'right' answer" was: "You're not going to find it in here standing in front of the board, talking to yourselves. Get out there and ask some more people some more questions!"

Sebastien Eckserley-Maslin on Customer Dvpt

Hamish Barney on MVPs

Shihab Hamid on Landing Pages

Lean Sydney 2013 Mentors

In addition to hands-on coaching from me and our 20 mentors, teams heard relevant presentations on customer development, building MVPs, and launching landing pages to solidify their understanding of Lean methodology.

The Breakthrough

On Saturday night, the energy was much lower as many teams seemed frustrated by the feedback they were receiving from target customers. Perhaps their perceived problem wasn't really a problem at all, or maybe it wasn't an urgent problem that their proposed customers cared enough about to solve. These are not uncommon experiences for an entrepreneur -- it just doesn't often happen in a 24-hour period!

How an entrepreneur responds to this feedback is crucial: do you continue to hold onto your idea (e.g., it's such a great idea, and did I tell you how I came up with it) or do you listen to your customers? We witnessed this struggle through Sunday morning, until some of the teams had the breakthrough as described below:

".. we stopped trying to change the customer to fit [our] solution (wasting time), and started ACTUALLY looking for [their] pain points." 

The Finale
On Sunday, it was all about making last iterations and pivots; and collecting data from online MVPs and landing pages to find out how much validation (e.g., signups, pledges, and/or letters of intent) each team had gained.

We told the teams how they could win Lean Sydney 2013 -- by sharing their findings in a short, yet compelling presentation that demonstrated how they apply the methodology and validated (or invalidated) their key assumptions.

Tom Frazier on Pitching Tips

Our Lean Sydney 2013 judging panel included renowned Sydney entrepreneurs Jodie Fox (founder Shoes of Prey) and Matt Barrie (founder Freelancer.com), and Lean Sydney 2012 founder James Nathan (Food Orbit).

And, the winners were .... @pixcapp (helping online retailers create better images) and GoTix (helping business travelers find last-minute tickets to shows and sporting events). The grand prize included a cloud hosting package from Ninefold, marketing plan consultation, and free desk space at The Hive (co-working space at Pollenizer).

To practice what I'm preaching, here's feedback from one of the attendees to validate the value of the Lean Startup Machine workshop experience:

"It teaches you really good techniques for validating business ideas, so you can see if you have a valid business before wasting lots of money on it building a solution."

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Sydney -- getting to know the start-up ecosystem there, and seeing a bit of the city. I'll share more about my personal adventures in Oz soon!