Faster Than 20

About Faster Than 20

Workouts, Tools, and Community for Leaders of High-Performance Groups

Publisher

Faster Than 20

Category

business · business · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Jan 2020

Latest episode

27 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

19 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   27 Jul 2026

   The Calculus of Living Your Values

   I have lived in California for most of my life, and so the importance and scarcity of water is engrained in me. Several years ago, my friend Kate (https://www.katewing.net/) told me that she and her husband had made it a practice to capture water from their shower in a five-gallon bucket as they waited for it to warm up. They would then transfer the water into a rain barrel in their garden. I loved that idea, but our bathroom is tiny, and the thought of storing a large empty bucket there seemed challenging. Nevertheless, the idea stuck, and over the years, I pondered different possibilities. Last month, I was passing the automobile aisle in a hardware store, and I saw a four-gallon oil drain container. You lay it on the side to capture the liquid as it drains, then stand it up when storing it. Because the canister is narrow, it’s compact, perfect for our bathroom. We’ve been experimenting with it for the past few months. It saves about 3/4 of a gallon per shower, so 1.5 gallons a day between me and my partner, which amounts to over 500 gallons a year. We use it to water our plants and to refill our bird bath. I find it immensely satisfying. I’m also pretty sure this is one of the least strategic ways for us to save water. We could instead: Take shorter showers Take cold showers Replace our thirstier plants (which we’ve already largely done) and our bird bath Eat less meat Install a gray water system Lobby for a city-wide water recycling program Even if there are better ways to save water, it doesn’t mean our bucket experiment is not a worthwhile activity. Kate, who has worked in ocean conservation most of her career and is now focused on data stewardship (https://www.intertidalagency.org/), has explained that beach cleanups do almost nothing at a macro level to actually keep our beaches and our oceans clean, but have a slew of other benefits, including giving people a greater sense of connection to the ocean. This feeling not only benefits the individual, it can eventually lead to major policy wins. Staying strategic (https://fasterthan20.com/training/staying-strategic/) is about balancing small experiments (https://fasterthan20.com/training/fail-fast-forward/) with larger goals (https://fasterthan20.com/toolkit/goals-success-spectrum/). Trying small things that are not likely to make a huge impact may result in other, unexpected wins. Our bucket experiment gave me a better sense of how much water we actually use and where. I learned that four gallons of water is heavy and unwieldy, and that, if we were to try another version of this experiment, we would use a smaller container. It was also just fun to think creatively and to repurpose an inexpensive household item in an unusual way. At the same time, this experiment could easily have become a gateway to compulsive, stressful behavior that resulted in very little actual gains. When you’re trying to live a values-aligned life, it’s easy to overwhelm yourself with small things that may not have any impact on the results you actually care about. I see this manifest in organizations all the time. I see groups preaching anti-racism while underpaying and overworking their multi-racial staff. I see leaders advocating for self-care while overwhelming their staff with constantly shifting priorities. I see leaders punt on making decisions in the name of inclusion, when what their reports actually want (and are often asking for) is clarity. The legendary basketball coach and executive, Pat Riley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Riley), is fond of saying, “Keep the main thing the main thing.” By all means, play, but don’t lose sight of your larger goals. Take the time to be intentional (https://fasterthan20.com/2014/01/be-intentional-but-hold-it-lightly/), check in with yourself and your peers, and adjust. Most importantly, be nice to yourselves. Just because it’s not making the impact you want doesn’t mean there aren’t other benefits. Photo by World Bank (https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/5320644247/). CC BY-NC-ND (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en)

2. 

   6 Jul 2026

   Discomfort Is Human (and Valuable)

   In my last blog post (https://fasterthan20.com/2026/06/in-an-ai-world-we-can-still-choose-the-hard-way/), I wrote about ways in which friction has been beneficial to my work and how, in this world of AI, we still have choices as to when and how we try to eliminate friction. I closed my post with the question: What are areas in your work or in your life where adding friction might actually help you? The post and the question resonated with several of you and led to some great comments and conversations. Odin Zackman (https://www.digin.org/) reminded me of the most fundamental friction in our work: Conflict. Much of collaboration work is about navigating conflict. One of the great benefits of the Tuckman model of group development (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckman%27s_stages_of_group_development) (i.e. forming, storming, norming, performing) was that it helped normalize conflict as a necessary part of a group’s maturation. But many leaders still make it a goal to eliminate conflict, sometimes rightfully, sometimes to their detriment. I knew of one leader who wouldn’t let her teams do retrospectives, because she didn’t want “things to get negative.” In a related vein, Gabi Fitz (https://www.thinktwicellc.com/) named a friction (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:7471655894142001152/?dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A%287472661889483841537%2Curn%3Ali%3AugcPost%3A7471655894142001152%29) that has many benefits and that AI may eliminate: Showing someone your work and asking for feedback. I have heard people say that one of the great things about working with AI is that you can ask it to push on a hypothesis or direction (AKA play devil's advocate), but I think this actually removes one of the most important experiences of friction: When we make ourselves vulnerable enough to the possibility of having gotten something wrong or being blind to our own bias or misrepresenting what someone's perspective is. It's a low level kind of conflict — friction — that builds humility and understanding. In our Staying Strategic workout (https://fasterthan20.com/training/staying-strategic/), one of the muscles we work on is sharing work early and often. When our participants practice this in the Collaboration Gym (https://fasterthan20.com/collaboration-gym/), it not only helps them tighten up their thinking, but it also helps strengthen relationships with other gym members, whom they don’t necessarily know well or at all. That’s not the primary point of the workout, but it’s a big bonus. As Gabi points out, the practice of building relationships also makes us better, smarter human beings. A common practice for consultants who are trying to help a team is to interview every member to understand what’s working well and what’s not. The idea is that people are more likely to be frank with an external person, which will help surface problems that need to be addressed. The consultant then summarizes what they learn and shares it with the client, which leads to next steps. I don’t do any of this with my clients unless I’m certain that a group is deeply toxic. Instead, I have members of the team interview each other and take notes that others (including me) can read. I then aggregate and synthesize the notes and proceed as normal. It’s extra friction for the client, and it means a loss of fidelity for me, since I’m relying on imperfect notes. (I give people the option to schedule a one-on-one with me if there’s something they want to share confidentially.) The benefit is that it gets the team talking and listening to each other, even if they are doing it imperfectly, which is the work they need to do repeatedly in order to align and also to strengthen those muscles and their relationships. (You can see a more specific example of what this can look like in our Working Agreements toolkit (https://fasterthan20.com/toolkit/working-agreements/).) Keep those examples of valuable friction in your work and life coming! And, in the spirit of Gabi’s insight, I’d encourage pushback as well!

3. 

   15 Jun 2026

   In an AI World, We Can Still Choose the “Hard” Way

   (https://flickr.com/photos/laszlo-photo/1726005818/) Much of my work is about making it easier (https://fasterthan20.com/2026/06/design-is-more-important-than-facilitation/) for groups to achieve their goals. Often, that entails finding ways to eliminate friction. But sometimes, the best way to help groups achieve their goals is to add friction. Consider exercise. Most of us don’t live in a world where we need to lift large weights above our heads or run long distances to get from one place to another. Technology has eliminated that friction in our lives. But many of us voluntarily reintroduce that friction, because we realize that it makes us healthier. When I’m co-designing meetings with others, I use a template (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kEIrx_TwgNbz5RjtgUj3DTqwGwJcvwcXdplPaNHjLR8) that helps me capture lots of information — intentions, tradeoffs, different scenarios, etc. This is great for having clear design conversations with others, but it’s distracting on the day of the meeting itself. When I’m facilitating, I need to be able to find specific information easily — timing, for example — and want extra whitespace where I can take notes. About a dozen years ago, I decided to tackle this problem. I thought it would be useful to have a tool that automatically converted a meeting design document into a format that was optimized for facilitation. I started by trying to figure out what that format might be. I created a new template (https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Jihm7Je6WdApHaxeBoPTgS2-v1BKDYT1TzmFfF5yeGw/edit?usp=sharing) and manually transferred and reformatted information from the old one, which took me a few hours. My team and I tested it and found it useful. It validated the idea of an automatic conversion tool, because we certainly were never going to spend a few extra hours manually converting the information ourselves. Except that I discovered something weird: Those few extra hours I spent copying the document over manually made me a better facilitator. Even though I had already spent days poring over a meeting design with my colleagues, the act of transferring the design from one template to another surfaced inconsistencies that we had missed. It also helped me absorb almost every detail of the design until I felt like it was part of my body. This enabled me to be even more present on the day of the meeting, which made it easier for me to adjust and improvise. The act of creating this new version of the design almost made the document itself unnecessary. In the decade since, I’ve spent hundreds of hours manually transferring my designs from one template to the other for all of my meetings. I’ve tried to encourage my colleagues to do the same, but they have all demurred. I get it, and I’ve never pushed anyone too hard. Most of them are doing fine without it, and the performance boost they might get from spending those additional few hours may not seem worth it. But it’s been worth it for me, and I have no plans of stopping. What are areas in your work or in your life where adding friction might actually help you? I think this is an especially important question to ask in this world of artificial intelligence. Technology has always been a catalyst for eliminating friction, and AI is continuing this trend in potentially transformative ways. However, we can still decide that eliminating friction is not always helpful and choose a different path. I shake my head when I work with teams and see blocks of back-to-back meetings on their calendars with no breaks in-between. When you are meeting with people face-to-face, you have to schedule time in-between so that you can physically get from one place to another. That extra time gives you the chance to breathe, grab a snack, go to the bathroom, have a followup conversation, or prepare yourself for your next meeting. It turns out that the friction of moving from one meeting to another gives us an opportunity to rest, and that humans need rest (and food and bathroom breaks) to be at our best. With remote meetings, we don’t have to schedule a break, and so most of us don’t. Then we’re left wondering why we’re exhausted at the end of our work days. Logistically, the fix is easy. The main thing preventing us from scheduling breaks in-between our remote meetings is culture, and culture is powerful. But at the end of the day, we still have a choice. We, in all of our imperfect human goodness, have a choice. We can look to eliminate friction just because we can (have you been in a remote meeting where the AI note-takers outnumbered actual people (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7463585604530823168/)?), or we can be thoughtful about what will most augment us flesh-and-blood human beings. What are you going to choose? Photo above by Laszlo Ilyes (https://flickr.com/photos/laszlo-photo/1726005818/). CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en).

4. 

   2 Jun 2026

   Design Is More Important Than Facilitation

   Facilitation isn't just what happens in the room. Time and care invested in the meeting's design can be far more impactful.

5. 

   13 May 2026

   What I Learned about Connection and Trust from Black Farmers and the CIA

   Last month, I went to New York and D.C. to attend two meetings that, on the surface, could not have been more different. The first was a tour of land owned by Black farmers in rural upstate New York (https://www.blackfarmersunited.org/), which I was attending specifically to see The Center for NuLeadership’s (https://nuleadership.org/) inspiring project, The People’s Land (https://nuleadership.org/nulegacy). The second was a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the similarly inspiring Intellipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellipedia), held in an “undisclosed,” high-security NSA (https://www.nsa.gov/) building in Maryland. The fact that I had been invited to either of these meetings felt unlikely and was reason enough to go. What I didn’t expect was realizing that these two groups had a lot more in common than was evident at first glance. For one, they were all patriots — real patriots, who cared deeply about this country and were trying to make it better for everybody. They were also all systems thinkers and change agents who fundamentally understood the value of community and collaboration, but were in environments that actively discouraged these things. Despite this, they persist and are succeeding, even if this success continues to be tenuous. Intellipedia In 2006, Mark Oehlert (https://markoehlert.substack.com/), who was then at Booz Allen Hamilton (https://www.boozallen.com/), invited me to participate in a workshop (https://eekim.com/2006/09/the-future-of-intelligence-part-2/) he was organizing for the CIA (https://www.cia.gov/) to talk about the then nascent world of blogs and wikis — how they were being used in companies and the world at large as well as potential hazards and impacts. (https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaycross/254460622/) A year earlier, CIA analyst, Calvin Andrus (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrus/), had written a white paper entitled “The Wiki and the Blog: Toward a Complex Adaptive Intelligence Community” (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=755904) that was stirring things up internally. The notion that intelligence agencies (where “need to know” is the mantra and where employees are regularly strapped to polygraph machines to maintain their security clearance) might adopt tools that encouraged openness and trust would have seemed ludicrous at any other time. However, the failures that led to 9/11 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks) five years earlier still weighed heavily on these agencies, and there were rising sentiments — both top-down and bottom-up — that our national security depended on their ability to collaborate more effectively. In a typical organizational way, the agency sought external “experts” to help them better understand what was happening, even though Andrus’s paper signaled that there were already people internally who understood these tools. Unbeknownst to us, some of these folks had already started actively experimenting with an internal wiki, which they dubbed “Intellipedia” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellipedia) and which ran on the same open source software (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki) that ran Wikipedia (https://www.wikipedia.org/). Several people had already embraced it, while many others were either mystified or upset about its existence. During our 2006 workshop. I noticed a few people sitting close to the front who kept squirming or nodding vehemently when we would say certain things. I finally pointed to them and said, “You seem to really want to say something. What are you thinking?” It turned out they were Sean Dennehy and Don Burke (https://servicetoamericamedals.org/honorees/don-burke-and-sean-p-dennehy/), the creators of Intellipedia, and they had plenty of insightful thoughts to share. I loved learning about the project, how people were using it internally and the challenges they were facing. The conversation was convivial and, at times, combative, and I learned a lot that day. This burgeoning group of internal activists was trying to do what felt impossible — create an open, collaborative platform inside of a necessarily secretive organization — and they were succeeding, despite severe pushback. Because of my roots in wiki culture, I felt a natural kinship to these folks, and they even gifted me a coveted Intellipedia spade (https://eekim.com/2006/09/intellipedia-shovel/), which I still have and treasure. That was my only “official” connection to the project, a tenuous one at best. I kept in touch with Don and Sean over the years, but I was still surprised and flattered to receive an invitation to the 20th anniversary celebration. They often credited that 2006 workshop with internally validating the work they were doing, which helped them overcome some internal obstacles. Having experienced these kinds of organizational politics many times over the years, I have no doubt that this was true, but I also suspect that they would have found a way to succeed regardless. Still, the fact that this lone touchpoint merited an invitation showed how much they valued contributions of all kinds, how they saw the whole person behind a contribution, and how much they invested in relationships. I have learned over the years that these attributes are not common. They are not just a mark of someone’s goodness, but an indicator of someone who sees and understands systems and how all the different parts— many of which are invisible to most — contribute to the whole. The People’s Land Understanding whole systems and valuing relationships are also signatures of my friend, Kyung-ji Rhee (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyung-ji-kate-rhee-27650732/), who along with Chino Hardin (https://nuleadership.org/chino-bio), runs The Center for NuLeadership on Human Justice & Healing (https://nuleadership.org/) in the Bedford-Stuyvesant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford%E2%80%93Stuyvesant,_Brooklyn) neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. NuLeadership was founded by Eddie Ellis (https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/08/eddie-ellis-and-the-struggle-for-black-freedom/), who also started the New York chapter of the Black Panthers. Like many Black Panthers and other Black civil rights leaders, Ellis was targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO). In 1969, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a crime he insists he did not commit. Because of his horrific experiences in Attica (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attica_Correctional_Facility), he became a dedicated prison reformer, work that he continued until his death in 2014. In addition to founding NuLeadership, he mentored countless young activists, including Kyung-ji. NuLeadership is a hyperlocal organization, doing real work on the ground in Brooklyn, including forging stronger relationships. For example, in 2017, they brought together the community and the local police to discuss and prototype better ways to handle arrests for minor infractions. One community member and officer play-acted how arrests are typically handled, then walked through possible alternatives. In the process, they found an approach that met all of the different needs and discussed ways to possibly institutionalize them. A week later, that same community member was arrested as a “person of interest” for a crime that had occurred nearby. One of the arresting officers was the same person who had done the role play with this community member the prior week! While placing the handcuffs on him, the policeman whispered in his ear, “Don’t worry, I got you.” He then proceeded to loosen the handcuffs and stood by his side until the community member was released. When institutions fail us, relationships can still protect us. Over the past decade, NuLeadership has positioned itself beyond incarceration reform toward the more holistic goal of Human Justice. As part of this shift, Kyung-ji and Chino started thinking about the role that disconnection played in their work — disconnection from each other, our ancestors, how things work, our food, nature. They started imagining how they might fill this void in Bedford-Stuyvesant and what it might look like to own and work their own plot of land out in the country. Last year, their vision became reality. They acquired 20 acres about a four-hour drive from Brooklyn, which they have dubbed “The People’s Land.” (https://nuleadership.org/nulegacy) A mix of staff and community members are now living there. They have established some basic infrastructure, such as water filtration, and have started growing vegetables and flowers. The larger vision is to create a living and retreat space for people in their community to work the land and experience the healing effects of being in nature. They are building out every aspect of the space themselves, which is enabling them to acquire professional skills applicable both on the land and back in their communities. Two Groups That Couldn’t Be More Different or More Similar Because of my recent gardening and habitat restoration exploits (https://fasterthan20.com/2025/08/good-energy/), I was particularly interested in what Kyung-ji and Chino were cooking up. As I was planning my trip to D.C. for the Intellipedia celebration, I learned that The People’s Land was going to be featured on Black Farmers United NYS’s (https://www.blackfarmersunited.org/) Bridging Land, Agriculture, and Communities Conference (BLACC) 2026 (https://whova.com/portal/registration/RRh52t7Z1yAoaYsdqi7Y/) Farm Tour a week beforehand. It seemed too serendipitous to pass up, and I decided to fly to the East Coast early so that I could finally meet the team and see the project for myself. My connection to The People’s Land was even more tenuous than with Intellipedia. I am not a Black farmer, I don’t live in New York, and I had never worked with any of the organizations involved. I arrived at one of the stops on the tour before any of the NuLeadership team arrived, feeling like an interloper. The weather was frigid and gray, with buds barely forming on the still bare trees, but the participants on the tour made me feel warm and comfortable. Knowing that I was friends with Kyung-ji was enough for them to embrace me as one of their own. I loved getting to meet different people on the tour, to break bread with them and hear their stories. Farming is inherently hard work. It’s even harder if you’re a small, independent farm, and harder still if you’re Black and are battling deeply embedded systems of racism and a federal government that has declared war on those who are trying to fix these systems. Despite these challenges, this community is finding ways to support each other while doing amazing, important work in the process. The land was breathtakingly beautiful. Everyone on the NuLeadership team told moving stories about the challenges of living in the inner city and about how liberating it felt to be in nature and to live on and work the land. Listening to their descriptions while standing in the crisp, cool air, surrounded by singing birds and this wonderful community, I not only understood what they were saying, I could feel what they were describing. The NuLeadership team is just getting started. The soil is rough and compacted, the buildings need restoration, and they had spent the previous few months living in canvas tents through harsh winter conditions. Still, I could see how much they have already accomplished, how seamless they are as a team, and how excited they are about achieving their vision. They are already a model for others trying to do similar work. One week later, I found myself shedding layers in D.C., where the weather was in the mid-80s and the foliage was lush and in bloom. I hitched a ride with Don and two of his colleagues to the facility, which was about an hour outside of the city. The buildings were unmarked, but the high fences and armed guards suggested that this was not an ordinary place. The building itself seemed like any other nondescript, corporate space, with signs on the wall reminding people of their organizational values. Only the podium inside the lobby, the backdrop with blue and white balloons, and the large cake on the side suggested that anything out of the ordinary was happening that day. About 40 people, half of whom were no longer employees, milled around, greeting each other. Once again, I felt out of place coming into the space, but people seemed to accept me as if I were supposed to be there. I suppose the fact that I had gotten through multiple levels of security indicated that I wasn’t just a random bystander, but I think there was more to it than that. One of the core principles in the wiki world is, “Trust by default.” I think that anyone who is drawn to wikis already believes this principle, and I think that we are more inclined to form community as a result. Yes, these were spies and analysts, but they were also wiki people. Still, I was hyper conscious of where I was and of the portrait on the wall of that grotesque person who is actively trying to destroy everything I believe in. It felt somewhat jarring to hear speaker after speaker come up and extol what made Intellipedia successful and why. It was a celebration, but it was also a subtle admonition. The project has succeeded despite an overarching culture that still fears it and wants it to go away. The speakers told wonderful, self-deprecating stories, and the word “trust” came up repeatedly. As I heard them say the word again and again, I started having an out-of-body experience. I felt like I was at The People’s Land again, listening to stories from both places simultaneously. These two groups could not have been more different on the surface, and yet they were so similar in so many ways, and I felt like they were talking about the exact same things. Connecting with Each Other Can Make a Difference Why we do things matter. We humans are conditioned to accept things as “the way things are.” There is an ease and comfort to routine, especially when our day-to-day lives seem more or less okay. The act of being intentional, much less aspirational, can be an incredibly uncomfortable exercise, because it forces us to get real about the gap between what we want and how things actually are. When we do try to change things, it’s easier to rail against something that feels wrong than it is to try to build something that feels right. Both the NuLeadership team and the Intellipedia contributors have chosen to build something that feels right. Even when the rest of us claim to want the same underlying things, change threatens comfort, and for many of us, comfort is survival. My friend and colleague, Denise Collazo (https://denisecollazo.com/), likes to call the inevitable response to change as an organizational immune response. Even if something is for the better, if it’s different and uncomfortable, a group’s immune system will attack it. How things are connected to each other matter. Building something that feels right requires understanding how things are connected, and we live in a world where these connections are harder and harder to see. There is a mountain of research that shows how immersion in nature results in better health, and yet most of us have trouble believing this, because we don’t have a lived sense of it. Instead, we pour most of our money and energy into programs that are bandages, where the connection between problem and solution is shallower, but easier to see, and hence more comfortable. In order for public policy to become reality, it takes government agencies to move money and resources to people on the ground, people who often work for hyperlocal organizations like NuLeadership. These groups have miniscule budgets, which means most of us don’t realize they exist, much less the impact they have on our lives. When things break, we know whom to blame, but we rarely see the role that these groups and people play when things are working. It took a tragedy like 9/11 for many in the intelligence community to viscerally understand how the lack of collaboration could lead to American lives lost, and even this was barely enough to enable a project like Intellipedia to succeed. At the celebration, I heard speaker after speaker proudly point to the project’s impact despite ongoing resistance and minimal support. While those who helped the project succeed should feel proud, the rest of us should feel ashamed or angry when we underresource things that work. With whom we do things matter. Making positive change in the world is fundamentally hard, but both NuLeadership and Intellipedia reveal a path that can lead to success. It starts with finding your people. When we find each other and lift each other up, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. I was struck by the role that community continues to play for both of these projects, and I feel blessed to have been able to observe and experience this firsthand.

6. 

   30 Mar 2026

   Intergenerational Spaces Benefit Everyone

   A few weeks ago, my Winter cohort of Power and Love for Managers (https://fasterthan20.com/training/power-and-love-for-managers/) had its final session in Oakland. We closed the training with appreciations, and one participant said how much she valued being in an “intentionally intergenerational space.” That comment struck a chord for me. It was an accurate description, but I had framed my goals around diversity more generally and around experience rather than age. I’ve been pondering why I haven’t been more explicit about bridging generations in my work, when it’s been an important value for me from the beginning. I started going down this professional path in 2002 when I was 27. The early days were rough, mainly because the economy was bad and I didn’t have a track record, at least not the kind most people were looking for. The professional field was also small and mostly ill-defined. Saying I was a “collaboration consultant” drew blank stares. There were a few similar job titles, such as leadership and organizational development consultants and facilitators, and although there was plenty of overlap, none of those things described exactly what I was trying to do or how I was trying to do it. It was a struggle simply to survive the first few years, and I could not have done so without many mentors, including Doug Engelbart (https://eekim.com/2013/07/doug-engelbart/), Jeff Conklin (https://wiki.fasterthan20.com/view/Jeff_Conklin), Gail (https://fasterthan20.com/2025/12/remembering-gail-taylor/) and Matt Taylor (https://wiki.fasterthan20.com/view/MG_Taylor), and many others. They were generous and encouraging, but they also didn’t treat me as a charity case. They valued my experiences and how I thought about the world and the work, and they wanted to learn from me as much as they wanted to support me. These early experiences strongly influenced my theory of change as well as my personal practice. I knew what my mentors had meant to me, and I wanted to pay it forward. But I also recognized that we wouldn’t see better collaboration at a planetary-scale without many, many more skilled practitioners. Unfortunately, many who are drawn to this practice (often women and people of color) feel isolated and invisible. We don’t realize that trying to help groups collaborate more effectively is a “thing,” and that there are many others who are doing the same. If we could make the practice more visible and connected, we would all benefit. This would also mean making it easier for new people to enter the field, not just by sharing wisdom, but by creating professional opportunities where people could make a living while honing their craft. If the path to doing this work professionally is as hard as it was for me when I was younger, it will deter folks we badly need. Throughout my career, I’ve done my best to build the field through my work. I hire associates on as many projects as I can. Their roles are largely operational, not because senior practitioners are above this work (everybody on my teams “work the line”), but because I want them to value the importance of doing logistics well. Associates are also part of the design team, which means they are in most of the meetings I have with clients. I encourage them to speak up in those meetings, explaining that there is no mistake they can make that I can’t fix and that I will be more upset if they withhold an important observation or insight. Because I revoke all of my intellectual property (https://fasterthan20.com/2014/06/giving-away-my-intellectual-property/), people who work with me are free to integrate any of our tools and practices into their own work without worrying about fees or credit. I also pay associates more than market rate, because I’ve realized that your previous paycheck has an outsized impact on how future clients see you and how much they’re willing to pay you, especially when you’re young. I’ve tried to encourage my peers to adopt some of these practices, with mixed success. More than a few colleagues have told me, “I don’t have time to train younger practitioners.” My experience with associates is that any time I invest in my them comes back to me in spades. They add a useful dose of perspective, and they provide backup in case others have to step away. They also inject energy and joy into the work, and they bring their own unique skills and perspectives, providing the rest of the team fresh opportunities to learn. More recently, as I’ve tried to shift more of my focus on training, I’ve had fewer opportunities to hire associates. I’ve tried to make up for this by making my trainings free to folks who are 26 years old or under. Despite my emphasis on supporting less experienced practitioners, until recently, I didn’t think of myself as an “older” practitioner. I think what’s different now — besides turning 50 last year (https://fasterthan20.com/2025/08/good-energy/) — is that many of the kids in my life are now young adults. Before, I didn’t really look at people in their 20s much differently than I looked at myself. Sure, I was older, but they were essentially still peers. Now, I can’t help seeing them and thinking, “Wow, that person is the same age as my nephew!” I’m also acutely aware of how different the world is now from what it was a quarter century ago — darker, more volatile, more uncertain. I can only imagine what it must be like to have to face this as a 20-year old, and I feel a greater responsibility to support them. It was so much easier when I could just blame the Boomers! Fortunately, the benefits of being in intergenerational spaces are bidirectional. In this month’s Staying Strategic workouts (https://fasterthan20.com/training/staying-strategic/) at my Collaboration Gym (https://fasterthan20.com/collaboration-gym/), I had two people in their 20s participate. They also happened to be children of friends and colleagues, one of whom I’ve known since he was 10. I loved having them. They were thoughtful, earnest, vulnerable, eager to learn and engage, but also willing to contribute. The energy was different with them in the room, and I could see how much everyone else loved working out with them. The same was true with my Winter cohort of Power and Love for Managers (https://fasterthan20.com/training/power-and-love-for-managers/), where a third of our participants were in their 20s. Being around younger practitioners lifts my mood, challenges my thinking, and gives me hope. If they are this smart, this curious, this good, then we have a fighting chance to make things better in this world. It behooves the rest of us to do whatever we can to help them. Intentionally creating and being in intergenerational spaces is a great way to do this. Photo by Zoha Raza (https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoha-raza/).

7. 

   24 Feb 2026

   “Velocity” for Humans

   A few years ago, I took an introductory class on Bonsai (https://eekim.com/2024/02/pruning-downward-branches/), the art of growing miniaturized trees in pots. The first thing they taught us was that, with the exception of tropical species, trees needed to be kept outside. Why? Because trees sleep during the winter, and if they are constantly kept awake with artificial light and heat, they will eventually die. It made sense once I understood the reasoning, but I would not have intuited this on my own. I’m clearly not alone, judging from the countless number of posts on various Bonsai forums from folks who are mystified as to why their trees, which they tended to lovingly indoors, end up dying. I’m sure some of this is because of general nature blindness (https://fasterthan20.com/2025/08/good-energy/), but I think another factor is society’s dysfunctional relationship to rest. I was reminded of this when a friend was telling me about how the leaders at her work — a large tech company with thousands of employees — are constantly throwing around the word “velocity.” All of the internal messaging is about going faster, never easing up. Not surprisingly, there is a high-level of both burnout and apathy there. When urgency feels artificial, people tune it out. I’ve seen similar cultures at countless nonprofits, but for different reasons. The stakes feel higher, because people’s lives often depend on the work. Resources tend to be scarce, but leaders look to do more with less rather than invest in greater capacity. The resulting burnout is predictable, and yet the cycle has proven difficult to break. Most recently, I’ve been hearing about a new, but similarly pernicious pattern induced by artificial intelligence. Despite AI’s promise to do our hard work for us, people who are using it regularly often find themselves even more exhausted. My friend, Greg Gentschev (https://www.gentschev.com/), recently observed: The funny thing about using AI for projects is that I feel decision fatigue. Everything gets done so fast that it’s hard to keep up. I think this is going to be a common complaint going forward. Using AI can feel like managing a bunch of mostly competent, very fast interns who work nonstop, 24-hours each day. There are more to things to review (https://siddhantkhare.com/writing/ai-fatigue-is-real), more things to respond to, more decisions to make, and no natural barriers (like your team needing to sleep) to stem the tide. We’re like those poor Bonsai trees being kept awake by artificial light and heat. We, too, need to rest, or else we, too, will die. It’s crazy that anyone would feel compelled to explain this core human need, but the pace of de-humanization in our society is bringing new meaning to “velocity.” So what can we do about this? First and foremost, we can re-assess the stories we tell ourselves. As everyone who is actually a high-performer at their craft knows, sustainability and “velocity” are not at odds with each other. Ask any marathon runner (https://eekim.com/2014/07/the-practice-of-generosity/). Rest and recovery, along with mental and emotional well-being, are critical for us to be at our best. Telling ourselves otherwise is not only counter-productive, it establishes the foundation of a toxic culture. Second, we can name our intentions clearly (https://fasterthan20.com/2014/01/be-intentional-but-hold-it-lightly/). In my work with groups, I often see leaders confuse poor habits with lack of agency. We tend to replicate what we’ve experienced. If no one before us models a healthy, balanced culture, we’re unlikely to do otherwise, regardless of what we actually want. We assume that everything is the way they are, because that’s the only way they can be, when in reality, we tend to have more choices than we realize. Which leads to the third and most important thing we can do: Establish new habits. My training, Power and Love for Managers (https://fasterthan20.com/training/power-and-love-for-managers/), along with my work with dysfunctional teams, focuses on establishing Working Agreements (https://fasterthan20.com/toolkit/working-agreements/) and thinking through structures and processes that support them. If your intention is to create an environment that feels welcoming and supportive, then how you onboard new team members or how you run your meetings matter. Being super clear about roles and having clear cycles of stress and recovery will do way more for achieving human “velocity” than excessively preaching about it. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to go fast. Indeed, sometimes our work requires it. But “velocity” doesn’t require shedding our humanity. Leaning into what actual human beings need to go fast will do wonders for your group’s culture and results.

8. 

   20 Nov 2025

   Foraging for Ginseng: Self-Reliance and the Stories We Tell Ourselves

   Nine years ago, I found myself hiking through the Kentucky Appalachians foraging for ginseng with my then 75-year old mother. She had met a dealer in Los Angeles who spent half the year in Kentucky foraging for the precious root and who occasionally brought others along on his expeditions. My mom wasn’t in the best… [Read more …] (https://fasterthan20.com/2025/11/foraging-for-ginseng-self-reliance-and-the-stories-we-tell-ourselves/)

9. 

   15 Aug 2025

   Good Energy

   In a time of destruction, create something. A poem. A parade. A community. A school. A vow. A moral principle. One peaceful moment. —Maxine Hong Kingston, The Fifth Book of Peace (2003) Earlier this year, my partner and I were spending an evening with friends, enjoying a beautiful dinner. We mostly avoided talking about current… [Read more …]

10. 

    4 Feb 2021

    End-of-Year Journey Mapping: How my 2020 Went and How 2021 Is Looking

    Four years ago, I started organizing a small end-of-year gathering with other Bay Area collaboration practitioners to celebrate and make meaning of the year together. We would spend the first few hours of our session mapping how our individual years went using an exercise called Journey Mapping, then we would share our respective stories with… [Read more …]

11. 

    12 Nov 2020

    What I’ve Learned About Building Collaboration Muscles

    It’s now been seven years since I first started exploring a simple hypothesis: Collaboration is a muscle (or, rather, a set of muscles) You strengthen these muscles by exercising them repeatedly (i.e. practice) Our current orientation toward collaboration is knowledge-centric, not practice-centric. No one expects anyone to get good at playing the guitar by handing… [Read more …]

12. 

    24 Jul 2020

    Doing “More” Is a Terrible Goal

    When I was in my early 20s, I used to play pickup basketball with a guy who was 20 years older than me, but didn’t look it. He was in superb shape, and he never seemed to get injured. At one of our games, I sprained my ankle, and when I was healthy enough to… [Read more …]

13. 

    2 Jul 2020

    Do the Work

    It’s been one month since a white police officer in Minneapolis murdered George Floyd, a 46-year old Black father of five. I’ve found the subsequent response remarkable for its intensity, unprecedented diversity, and impact. While I’m moved by how many people and organizations seem genuinely compelled to act, I’m also vexed by some of the… [Read more …]

14. 

    20 May 2020

    Case Study: Designing and Facilitating a Small Nonprofit Board Retreat with Zoe Tamaki

    Over the past two years, I helped designed and facilitate two annual board retreats for a small nonprofit with my colleague, Zoe Tamaki. I don’t typically do one-offs like this, but the executive director was a friend of mine, and I was looking for an excuse to work with and learn from Zoe. After last… [Read more …]

15. 

    4 May 2020

    The Emperor Has No Clothes: Acting Strategically While Recovering from Process Trauma

    A huge part of my job over the years has been helping groups recover from Process Trauma (and its ugly cousin Consultant Trauma). It’s caused when a group goes through some kind of process, such as strategic planning, and has a horrible experience. It almost always results in the group deciding never to pursue that… [Read more …]

16. 

    13 Apr 2020

    Online Collaboration Isn’t Just About Meetings

    COVID-19 has forced many of us to reckon with a working world where we can’t be face-to-face. I’ve been heartened to see how collaboration practitioners have been responding overall. I love seeing folks tapping the wisdom of their own groups before looking outward and sharing their knowledge freely and broadly. I am especially happy to… [Read more …]

17. 

    23 Mar 2020

    Freaking Out Is Part of Systems Change

    We are in the midst of a global pandemic. Re-reading those last two words still feels bonkers to me, even though it’s been almost three months since the first reported case of COVID-19 and almost two weeks since the World Health Organization (WHO) made its official declaration. I had been casually tracking Coronavirus from the… [Read more …]

18. 

    12 Feb 2020

    From Go-Go-Go to Going Slow: Lessons from My Own Painful, but Ultimately Successful Journey

    I discovered weights freshman year in college, and as a weak and skinny kid, I found them to be a revelation. One of my friends had played football in high school, and he and I would work out together often. He worked out hard — at least five days a week — and I liked… [Read more …]

19. 

    16 Jan 2020

    Confronting Despair, Building Muscles, and Saving Democracy (and the World)

    For the past 18 years, I have begun almost every introductory conversation about my work with the following questions: What was your best experience collaborating with others? What would your life be like if all of your collaborative experiences were at least as good as your best? What would the world be like if everyone's… [Read more …]

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