IPD Blog | Mpls & St Paul

Eric Dormoh, JrJanuary 21, 2026Resiliency Insights - printable

Manager’s Toolkit: Promoting Resilience in the Workplace

Section 1: Conversation Scripts

Use these scripts as starting points for resilience-focused communication with your team.

1.1 Check-In with an Overwhelmed Employee

“I’ve noticed you’ve been handling a lot lately. How are you doing with your workload? Is there anything you need from me or the team to better manage things?”

1.2 Acknowledging Team Efforts

“I want to take a moment to recognize how you’ve handled the recent changes. Your adaptability and teamwork haven’t gone unnoticed — thank you for showing up with such resilience.”

1.3 Navigating Conflict or Tension

“I sensed some tension in the last meeting. Can we talk about what’s going on so we can clear the air and move forward productively?”

1.4 Encouraging Self-Care

“I want to remind you — taking breaks and setting boundaries is not just okay, it’s necessary. Resilience is built when we also take care of ourselves.”

Section 2: Resilience-Promoting Checklist

2.1 Weekly Resilience Check-In for Managers

Use this weekly to promote resilience in your leadership practices.

☐ Have I acknowledged team or individual efforts this week?
☐ Have I checked in on workload balance with at least one team member?
☐ Have I modeled healthy boundaries and self-care practices?
☐ Have I created space for feedback or honest dialogue?
☐ Have I celebrated a win, even a small one?

2.2 Team Resilience Culture Checklist

Assess your team’s culture through a resilience lens.

☐ Psychological safety is regularly reinforced.
☐ Team members are encouraged to take time off when needed.
☐ Workload distribution is fair and revisited often.
☐ Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities.
☐ Celebrations and recognitions are built into team routines.

Section 3: Team Activities to Build Resilience

3.1 Weekly Win + Learn Round

Description: During team meetings, go around and have each member share one thing that went well and one lesson learned that week.
Purpose: Builds a culture of reflection and gratitude while normalizing growth through setbacks.

3.2 Resilience Scenario Discussion

Description: Present a real or hypothetical workplace challenge (e.g., tight deadline, project failure). Discuss as a team how to respond resiliently.
Purpose: Promotes proactive thinking and peer learning.

3.3 Resilience Builder Bingo

Description: Create a bingo card with items like:

“Took a walk”
“Asked for help”
“Said no to an extra task”
“Helped a teammate”

Give small prizes for a row or full card completion.
Purpose: Encourages healthy coping behaviors and peer support.

3.4 End-of-Month Reflection

Description: Set aside 30 minutes monthly for team members to reflect on stressors, lessons, and successes.
Prompt questions:

What challenged you this month?
How did you bounce back or adapt?
What are you proud of?
What would help you feel more supported?

Eric Dormoh, JrJanuary 21, 2026Resiliency Insights - printable

Difficult Conversation Planner for the Workplace

Resilience in the Workplace

Name: ____________________________________________

Date of Conversation (if scheduled): ________________

1. What is the purpose of this conversation?

What do I want to achieve?

___________________________________________________

2. What is the core issue or challenge?

Be specific and objective (avoid assumptions).

___________________________________________________

3. Why does this matter to me (and/or my team/workplace)?

Reflect on how this issue impacts work, well-being, or collaboration.

___________________________________________________

4. What emotions am I feeling about this?

How can I regulate those emotions before or during the conversation?

Emotions: _________________________________________

Regulation Strategy (e.g., breathing, pause, reframe):

___________________________________________________

5. What might the other person be feeling or experiencing?

Practice empathy. Consider pressures, motivations, or blind spots.

___________________________________________________

6. What assumptions do I need to check?

What might I be assuming that I can clarify instead?

___________________________________________________

7. How can I express my perspective clearly and respectfully?

Use “I” statements and focus on facts and impact.

Examples:

“I noticed…”
“I feel…”
“I’d like us to…”

Write a draft opening statement:

___________________________________________________

8. What is my ideal outcome? What am I willing to compromise on?

Be clear on what success looks like and what’s negotiable.

Ideal Outcome: _____________________________________

Willing to Compromise On: ___________________________

9. What support or follow-up might I need?

Think about allies, next steps, or feedback.

___________________________________________________

Printable Version of Difficult Conversation Planner

Click Here For Printable PDF Version

Eric Dormoh, JrJanuary 21, 2026Resiliency Insights - printable

Workplace Stress Inventory Worksheet

Name: ____________________________________________

Date: _____________________________________________

Part 1: Identify Workplace Stressors

Check or list the stressors that apply to your recent experience.

Workload & Time Pressure
☐ Unrealistic deadlines
☐ Heavy workload
☐ Constant overtime
☐ Task switching/multitasking

Workplace Relationships
☐ Lack of support from supervisor
☐ Conflict with colleagues
☐ Isolation or lack of belonging
☐ Poor communication

Job Control & Clarity

☐ Unclear job expectations

☐ Lack of autonomy

☐ Frequent changes without notice

☐ Micromanagement

Organizational Culture

☐ Lack of recognition

☐ Toxic environment

☐ Mismatch with values

☐ Limited opportunities for growth

Personal Factors at Work

☐ Imposter syndrome

☐ Fear of failure

☐ Burnout symptoms

☐ Difficulty balancing work/life

Other: ____________________________________________

___________________________________________________

Part 2: Current Stress Impact

Reflect on how this stress is affecting you.

How is this stress showing up physically or emotionally?

___________________________________________________

How is this affecting your performance or engagement at work?

___________________________________________________

How is it affecting your relationships or well-being outside of work?

___________________________________________________

Part 3: Current Coping Methods

List or check the ways you currently respond to stress (helpful or unhelpful).

☐ Talking to a colleague/friend
☐ Avoiding tasks or people
☐ Taking breaks or going for walks
☐ Ruminating or overthinking
☐ Exercising or meditating
☐ Emotional eating
☐ Seeking feedback or support
☐ Procrastinating
☐ Setting boundaries
☐ Other: ___________________________

Part 4: Resilience-Building Plan

Use this section to reflect and plan for growth.

What’s one workplace stressor I want to manage better?

___________________________________________________

What is within my control about this situation?

___________________________________________________

What small step can I take this week to address it?

___________________________________________________

What support, habit, or mindset will help me respond with more resilience?

___________________________________________________

Eric Dormoh, JrJanuary 16, 2026Resiliency Insights - printable

The 4 R’s of Workplace Resilience – Resiliency Insights

Free Expert Insights Webinar on the 4 R's

Click Here To Watch the Pre-Recorded 4 R's Webinar

1. RECOGNIZE

Recognize your response to Stress

Why it matters:
You can’t manage what you don’t notice. Awareness is the first step toward making change.

Ask Yourself:

Am I more irritable or withdrawn than usual?
Am I constantly exhausted, even after resting?
Is my work performance declining?
Do I feel disconnected from purpose or people?

Quick Tip:
Keep a simple stress journal. Track your daily mood, energy level, and triggers. Patterns will emerge.

.

2. REFRAME

Reframe your thinking

Why it matters:
Your mindset shapes your reality. Reframing helps reduce stress and opens the door to action.

Ask Yourself:

What’s another way to view this situation?
What’s within my control right now?
What am I learning from this challenge?

Quick Tip:
Reframe “I can’t handle this” to “This is hard, but I’ve gotten through hard things before.”

3. RESPOND

Respond with intentional action

Why it matters:
Responding—rather than reacting—restores a sense of control and clarity.

Ask Yourself:

What’s one small step I can take?
Who can I contact for support?
What boundary needs reinforcing?

Quick Tip:
Use the 90-second rule: Pause, breathe, and choose how you want to respond—not how you’re wired to react.

4. RECOVER

Recover with rest or reflection

Why it matters:
Pushing through nonstop leads to burnout. Recovery is a key part of sustainable resilience.

Ask Yourself:

When was the last time I truly took a rest?
What replenishes me emotionally and physically?
How can I build recovery into each day?

Quick Tip:
Take 2–5 minute micro-breaks during the day: stretch, step outside, or unplug briefly to reset.

Beth SchaeferJanuary 5, 2026Professional Development and Career Advancement Blog

You Can Lead Better Than AI | A 2026 Workplace Blog

The new year has begun, and in place of a workplace resolution, I am pondering my leadership goal for 2026.

These annual leadership goals are not official. They are not reflected in my performance review. They are not SMART because it can be tough to measure improved leadership (vs management) performance with a number.

So, how do you approach the goal of improving your leadership skills?

I started with self-reflection. I have spent a lot of time shoveling snow during December, so I used some of that time to ponder on what I could do differently to improve how I lead my team.

After reflecting on what I could do better, and mentally crossing off the items I have already tried to do better and failed, the list was quite short – OK – nonexistent.

(While shoveling) I remembered that Strengths-theory says you should focus on improving existing strengths rather than addressing weaknesses. Since I have taken the IPD course Leading with your Strengths – based on the text Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Roth, I know that my leadership style is Execution – I lead by follow-through and being consistent. And, even though I agree with the theory, I am not inspired to form a leadership goal on my ability to “make things happen.” And I smile when I read, “As much as possible, avoid being in team situations with lackadaisical colleagues,” (p.216), but it does not inspire a goal either.

At this point, I decided to do some research on what leaders need to do for the future. One of the reasons the leadership topic is so interesting to me is that in leadership, best practice keeps evolving.

According to my research, here are the 2026 leadership trends (in no specific order) that you could use to help you set a goal.

1. Determining AI Work Vs Human-Centered Work

As a leader, you need to learn enough about AI to figure out how to balance AI-Generated work with Human-Centered work. When and how should AI do the work, and when and how should people do the work? And, as a leader, how are you coaching your team to use AI most effectively? And how are you influencing your organization’s AI policies?

2. Managing Culture

Culture management is a big arena. This means that you are directly shaping your workplace culture to be flexible and adaptable, innovative and focused on growth, inclusive and welcoming, and balanced to encourage wellness. You may want to pick just one of these cultural elements to set your goal. Review the Middle Manager article series for ideas on how to intentionally shape workplace culture.

3. Communicating Effectively

Yes, “better communication” almost always tops the list for what workers in organizations want from their leaders. The fact that it stays on the list year after year indicates that we have not figured this out yet. Communication is a big, often undefined, topic, so you probably need to be more specific about your goal than be better at communication. One IPD course that could help you out is Leading Teams through Change. You will learn how communication skills help your individuals, teams, and stakeholders make crucial transitions for your organization’s growth.

As my leadership goals started to emerge, I consulted my text Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Roth. The book contains development strategies for each of the strengths. Most of the suggestions for these strengths tell me to spend time developing my skills in coaching and mentoring others. This gives me a starting point for melding my strength of mentoring with the injection of AI into the workplace. Because my leadership style is Executing, I need a bit more pondering to put some concrete actions to that starting thought.

As I return to shoveling, I am pondering what jobs can be done by AI, and which jobs survive AI. While I have not checked with AI to see if this is a correct assumption, it does seem that an AI skill gap is that it cannot do the work of a leader. Fellow leaders, let’s be worthy of our work. Let’s set leadership goals to lead our teams in ways that AI can never match.

Sources:

6 Leadership Goals Every Leader Should Set for 2026

10 Essential Leadership Tips for 2025

The Biggest Leadership Trends for 2026 and Beyond

The Five Leadership Article You Should Read in 2025

Five Leadership Recommendations that will Reshape Development in 2026

Six Emerging Leadership Shifts and How to Leverage Them in 2026

IPDDecember 9, 2025Business Architecture Expert Insights, Change Webinar - Past Expert Insights, Expert Insights - archives, Other EI, past webinar, webinar

Business Transformation: Organizing Chaos | Past Expert Insights Webinar

Business Transformation: Organizing Chaos

Presenter: Mandy Spiess

Audience: ALL

Managers, team leaders, and HR professionals
Project Managers, Program Managers, Business Analysts
C-Suite
Business and enterprise architects
Employees seeking career development opportunities

Watch Video Here

Description:
This webinar will explain why business transformation has become a common requirement for many organizations, but can often be chaotic and unpredictable. This webinar will offer some practical tips and techniques, such as business architecture, to help plan for the unexpected.

Take-aways:

Understanding the need for business transformation
Putting a plan together for business transformation
Identifying, anticipating, and responding to risks and common challenges

More About the Presenter:

Mandy Spiess

More Information on Presenter

Mandy Spiess

Beth SchaeferDecember 9, 2025Professional Development and Career Advancement Blog

The Hidden Work of Supervisors When a Team Member Departs | A Workplace Blog

My new laptop does not like my old docking station. Even routine changes — like a new laptop or timesheet system — can derail a day. Supervisors often overlook these routine changes, but for team members, these transitions need to be managed.

As supervisors, we focus on honoring valuable departing employees. Many times, there is build up to their “last day.” Collecting equipment, transferring files, and conducting exit interviews all focus on the departing employee. The departure is viewed as a routine process, with the departing employee getting the spotlight rather than as a time of transition to support those employees who are remaining and doing the work.

For your team, it is an impactful transition because leaving your team is more than just an emotional moment. One easy tool you can use to manage this transition for your team is the Elements of Successful Change.

Vision

Will the position be replaced? How will the work get done during the short (or long) term? Are there more departures coming? Help your team see the future vision by providing them with the information they need to process the departure.

Skills

Does anyone on your team need new skills? If someone is taking over the work, are they already cross-trained? Does that need to happen before the departure? Help remaining team members maintain productivity by ensuring they know how to do the work.

Resources

Do your team members need access to additional software programs? Does a team member need more time to complete work while they learn a new skill? Does a team member need a schedule or shift change? Help your team avoid obstacles and frustration by getting them what they need.

Action Plan

Do you have a transition timeline in place? Have you shared that timeline and milestones with your team? Help your team see the endgame by letting them know what part they’ll play.

Incentives

Obvious incentives are bonus pay and overtime or promotion; however, many times those are not options, so ask yourself what the WIIFM* is for each of your team members? How can you ensure that you are using the correct motivation for each team member? Help your team members see value and purpose in their changing work.

*What’s In It for Me?

While some supervisors may say, “Hey, people leaving is just part of work; figure it out,” I say take 15 minutes to map out how your team will navigate an upcoming departure; it’s a small investment from you that pays dividends with your team by reducing frustration, minimizing disruption, and preventing additional departures.

Side bar or footnote? The Elements of Successful Change is just one tool you will learn in Leading Teams through Change. IPD offers this course through individual registration or for a group of supervisors at your organization.

IPDNovember 4, 2025Other EI, webinar

Be Routine to be Innovative | Past Expert Insights Webinar

Be Routine to Be Innovative

Presenter: Beth Schaefer

Audience: ALL

Managers, team leaders, and HR professionals
Mentors and mentees from all generations
Organizations interested in enhancing workplace culture and collaboration
Employees seeking career development opportunities

Innovation is one of the current buzzwords for business trends. Be collaborative, be adaptive, and be innovative. But, who has time to be innovative when we are all doing more with less? One of the keys to innovation is to turn up the routineness of your job. Attend this free Expert Insights session to hear why and get an early start on tools to organize your work in the new year.

Take-aways:

Understand how being routine can enhance your innovation
See and share examples of time management tools to foster routine

More About the Presenter:

Beth Schaefer

More Information on Presenter

Beth Schaefer

Beth SchaeferNovember 3, 2025Pandemics, Holidays & Other Stresses, Professional Development and Career Advancement Blog

It’s Thanksgiving: Do the Butterfly (Not the Turtle) | A Workplace Blog

Have you ever had a friend or coworker who was going through a difficult time? Maybe they had a life or work situation going awry, or maybe they just felt down, and could not really pinpoint why.

And, you wanted to help.

One of our first (and, not necessarily wrong) impulses is to spoil that person. You bring them a gift or some flowers or their favorite take out. Or you eat a quart of ice cream together. You look for a way to indulge them. You focus on them. You assist them in what I call “turtling up.”

Do not mistake me: I am a fan of “turtling up.” There are times when I feel the need to withdraw from socializing. When I feel overwhelmed, I find a weekend, and I turn down social engagements. I spend the weekend just hanging out at my house. I do not have to be anywhere at any specific time, wearing a specific type of clothing with a specific food to share or gift to buy. Having a whole weekend without any “shoulds” is very freeing. As an introvert, I find that sort of downtime to be re-invigorating.

However, if I were to do it every weekend, turtling up would not be a healthy choice for me. If you know someone who seems to be a perpetual turtle because of the stress in their life, consider helping them be a butterfly of kindness. Instead of indulging them with their favorite things, help them spread kindness and generosity to others. It’s the butterfly effect of kindness.

The mental health benefits of doing simple acts of kindness are well-researched. The American Psychiatric Association website has more detailed information if you would like to learn more, but, basically, we feel better when we help others. (This may be why we choose to indulge our friends who are feeling down, because it makes us feel better!). However, when you help someone focus on others, they:

Quit thinking about their own worries – even for a short time
Build their self-esteem
Decrease cortisol (stress hormone) and increase oxytocin (joy hormone)
Connect to you and others
Feel a sense of purpose and accomplishment

Thanksgiving, the season of gratitude, provides many additional opportunities to help others. So, do the investigating on behalf of your person, and find some ways to give kindness that they will find appealing and easy to do. Then, instead of a coffee or dessert meet-up, schedule a time to volunteer together.

Here are some of my local favorites, but you probably already have your own too:

Feed My Starving Children – Schedule one night to pack food that gets sent around the world.

Hope 4Youth – Shop for and drop off needed donation items for homeless youth or cook a meal.

My Very Own Bed – Make blankets or deliver new beds that go to children who need one.

PinkySwear – Write a letter of encouragement to a child with cancer.

Another strategy is to volunteer as a group of coworkers or friends since it does not single out the person you would like to assist in being a butterfly of kindness. Considering using this website HandsOn Twin Cities, to find an option that works for a group of people to help others, have fun, reduce stress, and build connections.

When someone is feeling blue, helping them to spread kindness has triple the benefit:

You feel good helping the person in your life
They feel good showing kindness to others
The person(s) who receives your kindness feels love.

Go forth during this season of gratitude and use the power of the kindness butterfly—you might not miss turtling at all.

Beth SchaeferOctober 1, 2025Leadership and Strategy Blogs, Most Recent Blog

Middle Manager Series Wrap Up – Grounded in the Middle | Middle Management Blog

Grounded in the Middle

By Beth Schaefer

I started this series by talking about how much I enjoy my job being Stuck in the Middle. And, despite all the Middle Management dilemmas that I have been writing about, I still love my role in middle management.

I hope that the series has helped middle managers by:

Affirming your importance in your organization
Acknowledging the work you do
Providing ideas on how to sustain your quality performance

And maybe even…

Providing information that you can use to influence your organization to appreciate you or support you with process that helps, rather than hinders, your work.

As I think about how to “tie a bow” on this series, let me leave you with some tips to build resiliency and stay grounded as you continue in your role of being the shock absorbers for your organizations during these times of change, ambiguity, and added pressure.

7 Suggested Resiliency Practices for Middle Managers

Name your stressors

Acknowledge what is hard and difficult about your work and do not pretend that it is easy.

For me, new software implementations continue to disrupt. They require my team to muck through the unknown often only equipped with open-source videos from YouTube, eventually, define new processes that works, draw up a swim lane, streamline the new processes, and then document the processes. It just takes a lot of time and the gains are not always clear.

2. Build a support network

Connect with peers who are also middle managers and understand the challenges of the role.

For me, I have a fellow Middle Manager that does a Zoom coffee chat with me about every 3 weeks. We are remote workers who live in different states, but that does not prevent us from being mutual mentors. I also have some leaders higher up in the organization that I lean on to help me navigate the office politics – something I would avoid entirely if I could.

3. Manage Your Energy

Identify what drains you and what fuels you. Consider bookending your days, when possible, with the fuels.

For me, whenever possible, I like to start my day (not by checking email because there is plenty of research on how that is not productive) with the fuel of writing. I sit quietly with coffee and write these articles, write website content, write training proposals, write project plans, write procedures… there is actually quite a bit of writing as a middle manager. I like to end my days using the fuel of my people with team meetings or with direct report check-ins. These often include laughter and intentional naming of positive nuggets at work or in life for daily mini-celebrations at the end of the workday.

4. Rely on Routine

Build routines so that you do not need to put energy into managing every minute of each day.

In addition to project management software to help keep me organized, I have a weekly to-do list that I fill out each Friday afternoon for the next week. This to-do list comes with built in routines – such as sending a project update email to my instructors each Wednesday morning. The easier I can make routine things, the more brain power I have for the unique challenges.

5. Normalize Setbacks

Talk with your team about past successes that first started with setbacks.

For me, this is hard. I can be easily discouraged. I sometimes need to rely on my team to help me remember when something that is optimized now was once a struggle that experienced lots of stops and starts before “sticking.” Our Expert Insights webinars were once irregular, postponed, and not well-publicized, but now they are part of our department framework.

6. Practice Space and Grace

Provide a safe space – emotionally – for your team to vent emotions. Provide grace for mistakes with support to prevent mistake repetition.

For me, I find it much easier to give others Space and Grace than myself. However, the beauty of Space and Grace is that when you give it others, they give it back to you.

7. Watch free IPD webinars on Building Resiliency

Use the webinars for yourself, but send the links to your team members who may need some respite from workplace pressures. Show them you care.

And finally…

While this is not a researched tactic, sometimes I ask myself, “Who else could do this role with my legacy of knowledge of the products and process, my passion for the work and quality customer service, my intentional efforts to develop the people around me, and my dedication to this role and not the next one?” And, seeing the short list, I keep moving forward to tackle the challenges of the Middle.