Blog
Can I Pick Your Brain?
I get asked A LOT by colleagues, friends and potential clients if they can pick my brain. For a cup of coffee. Or perhaps over lunch. Or even in an email or phone call. All of my being wants to say "YES" to all of these requests! After all, I'm in the business of...
27 Tips to Increase Retention
I just recently participated in one of the most impactful and insight filled exercises of my speaking career. It was an activity that took 3 hours with 12 top notch speakers/facilitators during a weekend retreat. We divided the group in half and created two concentric...
4 Questions Under 4 Words Each to Spark Engagement
Recently, I gave an interactive keynote in Cartagena, Colombia for the Global Youth Entrepreneurship Summit. This amazing group from 35+ countries helped me re-learned a lesson I had forgotten: The simplest questions are often the most powerful questions American...
How to Connect to Content
If you’ve been following Will and me for any length of time, you know that we love this idea of “Connection Before Content.” But what about when you need to “Connect to Content?” You might have a big meeting, an upcoming retreat, or a workshop that requires people to...
How To Give People The Choice To Connect
Hey friend, Will and I have set the intention to get better at unpacking the ideas in our head to share them freely with you. We want to see more meaningful conversations in your world. More engagement in your meetings and gatherings. And more psychological safety...
Higher Education Needs Connection Now More than Ever
The following writeup was inspired by a recent conversation I had with a university client. I'm currently working with her institution through our Relationships through Retention program which is designed to increase student retention by building a culture of...
Cadence of Connection
In order to reduce the "time to trust," I believe that we often need to increase the "cadence of connection." Below I unpack a bit more on how to make that happen. If you were to chunk out your relationships into moments, into moments of connection, how many moments...
Ask Powerful Questions Audiobook Now Available
We are excited to announce that co-founder Will Wise's Amazon bestseller, Ask Powerful Questions, is newly released on audiobook! Narrated by Dan Radin with never-heard-before chapter introductions by Will, check out the excerpt below! You can grab your copy here (AND...
How Introverts Can Enjoy Networking Without Changing Their Personalities
We simply cannot keep Lori Saitz to ourselves. Lori is a phenomenal human being who professionally works with other quiet people to help them move past their fear of networking so they can find success in their business lives. Since her core expertise is meaningful...
Listening with Curiosity at Forbes
Chad Littlefield was recently featured in Forbes by Kathy Caprino, senior contributor. Kathy connected with Chad while first interviewing him on her podcast, Finding Brave. Catch the episode below to hear their conversation about how to ask questions to build trust...
4 Tips to Connect Your Team
Recently, I received the email below from a leader and I thought sharing this along with my response would be useful for others trying to merge two teams and blend two pre-existing groups to form one team. Or one "we." Hi Chad, Reaching out because I purchased...
Conscious Connections with this Great Conference Icebreaker
Below is a transcript of a dialogue that Will and I had with 800 leaders at Conscious Capitalism in Dallas earlier this year. From the very stage pictured above. We are sharing the transcript as well as the full video below in hopes that it gives you access to an...
55 Quotes to Spark Engagement
Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t. - Bill Nye (the Science Guy) - Quotes are just words, right? Well, I once had a mentor who used to say that "a choice of words is a choice of worlds." From all the organizations Will and I have dropped into, this...
How to Gently Eradicate Small Talk
Recently, I’ve become crystal clear as to why I am on this planet. I am here to "gently eradicate small talk." Nearly everyone hates it, it rarely helps us build trust, and—at work—it costs organizations a lot of money! Below is a transcript from my original TEDx talk...
A Journey of Connection
This interview was originally posted in VoyageATL, and I thought it was worth reposting as many people ask me, "how in the world did you get into this work around building trust and connection?" Chad, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and...
3 Ideas on How to Have Better Virtual Meetings
Too many virtual meetings are broken. Need some virtual meeting ideas? Whether you are in a remote team or just meeting with clients once a month over Zoom, Google Hangouts, or phone, collaborating through pixels can be tough! According to Gallup’s State of the...
12 of the Best Icebreaker Questions for Teams
I recently gave a keynote at a large company's regional meeting. As with most organizations, I noticed before my arrival and during my time with this company that there was a deeply rooted culture of "small talk" questions: How are you? What do you do? How was your...
How to Replace the Dreaded Q&A after the Keynote
Try to remember the last time you attended a Q&A session. I bet it went something like this: somebody got up to the mic, talked about themselves for two minutes, then said "so...what do you think about all that?" It happens at almost every conference or event that...