Erica KeswinErica Keswin

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Writing & Media

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  • Harvard Business Review

    To Retain Your Best Employees, Invest in Your Best Managers

    Managers are really having a moment. Between the Great Resignation, a lingering pandemic, employees demanding flexibility, skyrocketing mental health challenges, a looming recession, and general uncertainty, more and more employees are turning to their direct supervisors for direction and support. Unfortunately, managers aren’t always prepared to meet their moment because they’re woefully under-trained and overworked while tasked with leading their teams during heightened turbulence. To retain your managers — and the employees who report to them — you need to invest in their development. The author presents three ways to do it.

  • IDEO U

    How To Create Powerful Workplace Rituals

    Rituals can make your workplace more human, further employee engagement, foster a sense of belonging, and help workers connect with one another and their work. Erica Keswin, a workplace strategist and author of Rituals Roadmap: The Human Way to Transform Everyday Routines into Workplace Magic, has spent years researching rituals and helping companies connect their teams and create a more human-centered workplace…

  • Harvard Business Review

    The Hidden Power of Workplace Rituals

    Employees rightly expect to be able to bring their feelings — big and small — to work. One important way to provide that support is through rituals. The author defines rituals using two important benchmarks. First, rituals go beyond their practical purpose, moving participants beyond transaction and into meaning. For instance, lighting a candle when the lights go out isn’t a ritual, but turning off the lights and lighting a candle at sundown is. Second, rituals are sorely missed when they’re taken away. The author presents a case study from a company that took a risk in real time and created a successful response to a tragedy, and over time, that response became a ritual. Here’s how they did it, and how leaders can better understand their own rituals — both current ones and those that have yet to be discovered.

  • Harvard Business Review

    3 Ways to Boost Retention Through Professional Development

    People’s lives and priorities are changing in dramatic ways before our very eyes. While increasing compensation, promoting from within, offering flexible schedules, and making remote work easier are always good talent strategies, there’s one lever leaders can pull that’s highly accessible, doesn’t have to be expensive, and gives employees something they really want: on-the-job professional development. The author offers three ways for leaders to prioritize learning and development in their organizations. First, incorporate learning into onboarding and give employees time for it regularly. Second, make learning a ritual. Finally, offer coaching to all your employees — not just executives.

  • Business Insider

    3 ways to stay connected and not feel lonely by ‘bringing your human to work’ while working from home

    What a difference a week makes. A month ago we could never have predicted the state of the world today — a global pandemic, sports games with no spectators, schools (including those of all three of my kids) having moved to remote learning…

  • Association for Talent Development

    Onboarding Rituals Help Employees Feel Connected

    In light of the Great Resignation—or as some call it, the Great Reshuffle—the stakes have never been higher for talent development, because companies likely will be conducting a lot more onboarding in the future. Thus, it is the right time for TD functions to improve the effectiveness of their onboarding process, which comes down to fostering a greater feeling of connection to the organization from day one….

  • Harvard Business Review

    In the Hybrid Era, On-Sites Are the New Off-Sites

    If your goal is to bring people together in real life at work — sometimes, all the time, or anytime — you need to design a day employees won’t want to miss. At the very least, it’s critical to be intentional about how you plan your company’s days in the office, not only to add incentive, but also to make it worth your employees’ and your company’s time. The author recounts her experience working with a company to design in-person, monthly “Superdays” and presents three elements of a successful on-site.

  • The Riveter

    The Citywide Self-Care Ritual I Treasure

    Rituals can transform everyday routines into magic. If you don’t believe me, look at what’s happening every night at 7 p.m. in New York City and a number of cities across the globe, including Vancouver, Portland, Los Angeles and Atlanta…

  • Thrive

    Staying Human While Working From Home with Three Teenagers is NOT an Oxymoron

    Welcome to Keswin Family Quarantine. Like many people, my husband and I are both working from home. Our girls, Julia and Caroline, are 17-year-old juniors in high school, navigating both online school and the college process. Daniel is a freshman in high school. And who could forget the family favorite, Cruiser, our labradoodle…

  • Medium

    We Used to Hide Behind Our Screens — and Now They’re a Lifeline

    My brother-in-law is a Rabbi. Two weeks ago, he held a zoom meeting with his team to update everyone on policies, protocols and how they were going to proceed in light of the coronavirus. They all did the work they needed to do, but also connected on a human level, sharing…

  • LinkedIn

    This Year Don’t Leave Magic on the Table: Bookend Your Life with Rituals

    Lady Gaga eats breakfast and has “mindful thoughts.” Jane Austen woke up and played the piano. Beyonce prays. Me? I walk to Starbucks for my grande, extra-hot soy latte. I travel so much these days giving talks and doing research for my next book on rituals at work that I don’t always…

  • LinkedIn

    Looking back on the rise of the Human workplace

    Ok, so the jury’s still out on the open office. And our tech definitely makes it hard to have time off, but the 2010s have utterly shifted the look, feel and mission of corporate life—for the better! I’d go so far as to call 2010s the #humandecade!…

  • LinkedIn

    Remix: Generational Magic at Work and Around the Table (Ok, Boomer)

    I know Thanksgiving is a couple days away, so you’re probably already obsessing about your menu, your travel plans, your hostess gifts or your nap. Or maybe you’re worrying about everyone getting along. As if political divisions aren’t enough, there’s this old-as-the-hills generational divide that’s taking on new life lately….

  • Forbes

    Got A Mountain To Climb? Create A Ritual.

    On a Sunday afternoon in September, 18 women and one man—mostly strangers—gathered in California to do something pretty crazy. We were technically on a “retreat,” but not the R & R/mani-pedi/soft-music-and-thick-towels type of retreat you might imagine. In fact, quite the opposite….

  • Forbes

    Sometimes Connecting Is More Valuable Than Cash: Bringing Our Sports Rituals To Work

    Monday, August 26th.  Thursday, September 5th. Maybe these dates don’t mean much to you. But to our family they signal some of our favorite things—this year the US Open started on August 26th, and September 5th was the kickoff of football season. We’re big fans of rituals of every stripe, but sports rituals have a special place in our hearts….

  • Forbes

    The Welcome Wagon: Onboarding That Helps People Feel Connected

    I remember getting ready for the first day of school like it was yesterday: Going shopping for my first pair of Jordache jeans. I thought long and hard about what I was going to wear on that first day, then I laid it out on my bed the night before while I packed my pencil case and lunch box….

  • Business Insider

    The biggest threat to a company is how managers treat people, says an exec coach. Here are 3 budget-friendly ways they can get better at their jobs

    The biggest thing separating your company and its optimal productivity isn’t some big scary global trend outside of your control; it’s just people — managers — and they way they treat other people.

  • Business Insider

    11 tips to help you move on from a job rejection

    It’s hard not to take job rejections, like any other form of rejection, personally. But separating yourself from the situation is the key to moving on after a job rejection says Erica Keswin, workplace strategist and author of “Bring Your Human to Work.”

  • LIFT Labs

    Erica Keswin Offers 5 Easy Ways to “Bring Your Human to Work”

    How can your workplace be more human? Author Erica Keswin dropped by LIFT Labs PHL to offer some answers. She’s the author of Wall Street Journal best-seller Bring Your Human to Work, and frequently consults with organizations and individuals to help them improve performance through relationship building.

  • Inc.

    3 Tips on How to Bring Your Human to Work, Every Day

    Erica Keswin’s “Aha!” moment happened a decade ago on a Bermuda beach. She signed into work with her Blackberry, in a lounge chair and said out loud “This is the life!”. The ability to leverage technology – and in some cases leave it behind- in order to bring more personal meaning and human purpose to work is essential.

  • Forbes - No, It's Not An Oxymoron: How To Create A Human Workplace image

    Forbes

    No, It’s Not An Oxymoron: How To Create A Human Workplace

    Do you ever wonder how to create a human workplace in an increasingly freelance, remote, contingent, and gigged-out world? You’re not the only one. And no, “human workplace” isn’t an oxymoron.

  • Hearth & Home

    Workplace Culture

    In the Fast-Paced Technology World, Human Touch is Making a Comeback

  • Real Leaders

    Get Real and Become Human

    True sustainability is like the marshmallow test for business. I call it playing the long game, and as important as it is, playing the long game is not easy. (1.6MB PDF)

  • Forbes

    Success Secrets From The World’s Best Service Business

    Erica Keswin talks with Michael Schein about how technological disruption is not, in fact, what determines a company’s success, but rather whether it is able to integrate new technology with in-person connection, and why one particular Fortune 100 company exemplifies the approach.

  • Training Industry article photo

    Training Industry

    Taking Professional Development Personally: 3 Strategies for a Better ROI

    When most managers think of professional learning and development, they think of opportunities for their direct reports to improve skills that will help them in their current jobs. After all, the company’s paying the bills, so it makes sense that managers will want to see results when the class is over or the conference attendee returns to his or her desk.

  • Quartz at Work

    How to tell if your company’s values actually matter

    During a keynote at a recent conference, I asked the audience to raise their hands if they worked for a company that has a mission and set of values. All of the hands went up. Then I asked them to keep their hands raised if those values actually meant something. Only about a third of the hands stayed up.

  • Grow

    How to Use Technology at Work the Right Way

    Ever gotten a Slack message from someone sitting 10 feet away and wondered why he couldn’t have just walked over? Or been in a meeting and caught colleagues surreptitiously tapping away at their phones under the table? Or, worse, found yourself getting distracted when your phone buzzes during a meeting, then being completely unprepared when your boss asks you a question?

  • CNBC

    5 easy ways to find happiness at work

    Let’s face it. Left to our own devices (excuse the pun) we’re not connecting — especially at work. The key to finding happiness at work is to honor relationships — with our colleagues, our customers, ourselves and the world.

  • Fast Company

    CEOs: You’re incredibly powerful–use that power for good

    Big business drives so much more than our economy: it shapes our culture and society. And more and more CEOs are acting like the important thought leaders they should be, taking responsibility above and beyond pleasing their investors and boards.

  • Quartz at Work

    Giving employees meaningful development opportunities doesn’t have to be expensive

    A millennial, a GenXer, and a baby boomer all walked into a bar. The millennial was talking about how he wanted to find a job where he could have “real impact.” The Boomer rolled his eyes, and actually said, “I hate managing millennials.”

  • Forbes

    Going To The Extreme: Gathering As An Art With Priya Parker

    Are you the type of person who obsesses over guest lists for parties, girls’ weekends, or meetings at work? Are you losing sleep over who to invite, worried about alienating new friends or colleagues, but hesitant to mess with the tried-and-true dynamics you’ve grown to love/hate?

  • Forbes

    Finding The Sweet Spot Between Tech And Connect – At My Son’s Bar Mitzvah

    In September 2015 Congregation Rodeph Sholom gave me the date for my son Daniel’s Bar Mitzvah — April 14, 2018. At the time, Daniel was ten years old, playing ball in the park, having playdates with his friends and his Bar Mitzvah seemed like a lifetime away.

  • Forbes

    Because Life Happens When We’re All At Work

    Work is more complicated today than it was for our parents and in many ways more stressful. Women now comprise up to 50% of the global workforce. Add to that the fact that full-time workers are working more hours than ever, and both men and women are putting in more time as parents.

  • Forbes

    How to Make A Room of Thousands Feel Small

    We’ve all been there. The so-called networking event where we’re invited to connect with people, but discover that we’ve entered a ballroom filled with thousands of people who are all craning their necks to listen to one speaker several hundred feet away. I’m here to say: this is no way to connect.

  • Forbes

    The Soft Stuff Is The New Hard Stuff: Why Vulnerability Is Good For Business

    I recently returned from a conference where Brené Brown was the kick-off keynote. Addressing 2,800 of us smart, savvy, socially-minded, progressive HR professionals across industries, Brown had an important message: Vulnerability is good for business.

  • Fast Company

    What you can do when your boss is going through a personal crisis

    Being at work when your boss is going through a personal crisis can feel awkward–but as an employee, there are steps you can take to make it easier for them.

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© 2023 Erica Keswin

250 West 55th Street, 37th Floor
New York, NY 10019

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