Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 07/10/2026One of my favorite things about consulting is getting to watch an idea become real. Especially when the idea starts somewhere extremely unceremonious. Like a voice memo. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 06/10/2026There is something strange about returning to a place where you used to work. The buildings are familiar. The streets are familiar. But you are not the same person who used to walk them. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 29/09/2026One question I like to ask about a strategic plan: If this actually works, what does it make possible? 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 23/09/2026When I was burned out in a job that didn't feel culturally comfortable, I had a pretty clear picture of what Point B looked like. And weirdly, one part of it was just...more camping. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 22/09/2026We are very attached to the idea that change happens in chapters. You are here. Then something happens. Then you become the person who lives over there. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 16/09/2026One of my favorite questions to ask a team is: "What does this season actually give you?" Not what does it prevent you from doing. What does it make possible? 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 15/09/2026A change initiative can be perfectly reasonable and still fail because you launched it at the wrong time. The problem isn't necessarily the plan. It might be the season your team is in. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 09/09/2026I have been thinking a lot about the stories we tell ourselves. The ones that quietly shape how we interpret criticism, conflict, relationships, and our own behavior. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 08/09/2026A lot of the teams we work with are tired right now. Not "I need a long weekend" tired. The kind of tired that starts changing how people communicate, make decisions, and show up for one another. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 02/09/2026A leadership ritual I have been recommending lately: Take a walk on Thursday afternoon and record a voice memo for your team. That's it. No slides. No template. No meeting. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 01/09/2026I keep noticing the same thing with overwhelmed leadership teams: Communication starts disappearing. Not because leaders don't care. Often because they are exhausted and have 47 things competing for their attention. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 26/08/2026A surprising amount of what gets called “poor performance” in the first few months of a job is actually a management problem. The task wasn't clear. The priority changed. Nobody explained who could make the decision. 111
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 25/08/2026I found an old document recently titled “Separation Agreement.” It brought me right back to the particular dread of helping a leader navigate the decision to let someone go. There is no fun version of this. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Here's the AI question I actually care about: What happens when a small, mission-driven team can access resources that used to require hours of consulting time, staff capacity, or a much bigger budget? 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 18/08/2026My feelings about AI are complicated. I’m intrigued by what it can do. I’m wary of what it can do. I’m still trying to figure out what "AIs gone rogue" actually means. A nuanced position! On the internet! How unusual. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Thinking about doing CliftonStrengths with your team? We are big fans. Silphium offers CliftonStrengths administration for teams from 4 to 100, and we can incorporate it into retreats, onboarding, team development, or whatever your organization needs right now. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Hear ’ye, hear ’ye! 📣 Silphium Collective offers CliftonStrengths administration for teams of 4–100. It’s one of our favorite tools for retreats, onboarding, and those moments when a team needs to understand itself a little better. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 06/08/2026Sometimes a client asks for a new project management system because they want more accountability. That's usually not where the real work begins. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 05/08/2026I grew up with two very different ideas about organization. One parent loved order. One insisted that mess wasn't a moral failing. I've spent a lot of time thinking about that. 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 29/07/2026One question I ask during almost every organizational assessment: How much uninterrupted time does each person actually have to do their work? The answers are usually uncomfortable. (1/5) 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 28/07/2026One line from a Harvard Business Review article stopped me mid-scroll: The best teams know when to work alone. That felt like someone finally put words to what I've been seeing for years. (1/5) 100
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 22/07/2026A team member compared organizational growth to tending plants. Some roots take months before you see even half an inch of progress. Quiet doesn't mean nothing is happening. Sometimes the most important work is the part you can't see yet. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 21/07/2026There's a difference between knowing urgency isn't sustainable and having your body believe it. Many of us still feel guilty when work slows down. That's not failure. It's conditioning that takes time to unlearn. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 15/07/2026A handwritten list isn't a sign that someone needs a better system. Sometimes it's evidence that they've already found one that fits how they think. The real work is building support around it, not replacing it. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 14/07/2026One of the first things I tell clients is that we're system agnostic. The best systems aren't the ones everyone else is using. They're the ones that fit how people actually think and work. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 08/07/2026I've learned that specificity is one of the healthiest habits a team can build. It's easy to label a problem. It's much harder, and much more useful, to name the thing itself. That's where real conversations begin. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 07/07/2026Two words come up in almost every culture engagement I lead: transparency and accountability. They're important words. They're also some of the easiest to misunderstand. The conversation gets better when we're clear about what we actually mean. 020
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 01/07/2026These days, every client engagement starts with questions, not solutions. What's working? What keeps breaking? What isn't being said? The gap between the presenting problem and the real problem is almost always where the work begins. 011
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 30/06/2026One of the biggest mistakes I made as a new consultant was believing the first problem I heard. It took me years to learn that the problem people describe and the problem they're actually living with are rarely the same. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 24/06/2026When I started Silphium, I made a simple decision: I would only work with leaders who wanted to change, not leaders looking for someone to absorb the cost of staying the same. I'm less interested in fixing dysfunction than helping people build something better. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 23/06/2026I spent years being rewarded for my ability to make broken systems work. What took me longer to understand was that every time I absorbed the impact of poor leadership, I reduced the pressure for real change. Sometimes competence becomes a shock absorber. 010
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 17/06/2026At Silphium, we do performance conversations around seasons, not quarters. Because people aren't machines. The hardest part of building a healthier workplace isn't changing the policy. It's changing the belief that our value comes from speed, output, and constant availability. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 16/06/2026I was five minutes late to a client meeting because it was a beautiful day and I lost track of time walking my dog. I almost made up a more "professional" excuse. Urgency culture runs deep. Even when we reject it, it still whispers that rest and joy must be earned. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 10/06/2026Organizations often ask for a retreat or a new system, but the real issue is usually deeper: unclear priorities, broken relationships, outdated assumptions. No tool can paper over that. Human problems need human answers. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 09/06/2026Early in my career, I sold software as if it could fix human problems. It took years to understand that most organizational issues live in culture, trust, and relationships. The tool is never the answer on its own. The real work is always human. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 03/06/2026Silphium Collective started with a simple truth: the teams doing the most meaningful work often have the least support. Fractional Chief of Staff work became my way of closing that gap. With the right scaffolding, people do extraordinary things. Work can be better. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 02/06/2026I grew up in DC back when it still had edges. It’s where I first learned what it feels like to work alongside people who believe the work matters. That early sense of shared purpose shaped how I think about leadership, structure, and what real support makes possible. 010
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 27/05/2026Before fixing productivity or staffing, ask: what does "better" actually mean? What do you want work to make possible? Without a clear vision, no system can support it. That's the work — moving from reaction to something more intentional and human. 000
Silphium Collective @silphiumcollective.bsky.social · 26/05/2026During burnout, a mentor said: write a letter from two years in the future to a real friend. Not goals — just your life, honestly described. When I wrote it, I realized the life I wanted wasn't far away. I just couldn't see it through the fog. 020
