Author: Erika Bjune
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Three Design Choices That Improve Workplace Wellbeing
Every year, a new wave of workplace wellbeing content rolls in, usually packaged as a trend forecast or a benefits strategy. Some of it is genuinely helpful. Some of it accidentally turns wellness into one more thing employees are expected to “manage” on their own time. What I see on the ground is simpler. When…
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Building Infrastructure for Self-Managing Organizations
I’ll be honest, I’m spread thin right now. Building infrastructure for self-managing organizations across multiple channels and services centered around my recent book, Organizing for Impact, is definitely a lot. Some days it feels like too much, like I’m trying to gain visibility and traction with seven different things at once, and doing none of…
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Why I Keep Fighting for People-Positive Workplaces
Every week for the past year and a half, I’ve shown up to write about something most organizations still treat as optional: creating people-positive workplaces where people can actually thrive. I published a book. I launched a Substack. I wrote blog posts exploring everything from dehumanizing corporate language to the mechanics of distributed decision-making. I’ve…
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Looking Toward 2026: Making Friends with Uncertainty
“In these uncertain times…” How many times have we heard that phrase lately? How many times have we written it ourselves? At some point, if everything is always uncertain, the phrase loses its meaning. More importantly, it reveals that we’re not actually struggling with uncertainty itself but rather our relationship to it. We’ve been taught…
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Stop Planning to Avoid Failure. Start Planning to Create Possibility.
Picture a planning meeting where most of the energy goes into identifying what could go wrong. People talk about risks, contingencies, and backup plans. The conversation focuses on how to protect against failure rather than what you’re trying to create. This is fear-based planning, and it’s incredibly common in organizations. While it may feel responsible…
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How Self-Criticism Undermines Collaborative Leadership
After a difficult meeting where your decision was questioned, do you ever replay the conversation in your head with a running commentary of harsh judgments? “I should have seen that coming.” “That was a stupid thing to say.” “I can’t believe I didn’t prepare better.” This internal voice feels like accountability. It feels like holding…
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Being Human At vs Being Human With
I was talking with a friend the other day about social media and influencer culture, and something came out of my mouth that I’ve been turning over ever since: “It seems like with social media, we spend a lot of time being human at instead of human with each other.” The more I sit with…
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The Year-End Goals That Can Actually Wait
December arrives, and suddenly everything feels urgent. Projects that have been progressing steadily for months now “must” be completed by December 31st. Teams work unsustainably to hit arbitrary year-end targets. We know intellectually that January 1st is just another day. Nothing fundamental changes when the calendar flips. Yet we feel compelled to close everything out,…
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Supporting Your Team Through Year-End Giving Season
December brings the giving season to nonprofits. For many organizations, a significant portion of annual funding arrives in these final weeks of the year. Some nonprofits receive 30 to 50 percent of their annual donations between Thanksgiving and December 31st. This creates genuine pressure, especially on fundraising teams. Development staff navigate intense workloads, time-sensitive donor…
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How Gratitude Builds Leadership Resilience
When most people hear “gratitude practice,” they picture journaling about sunshine and rainbows while pretending everything is fine. They think of forced cheerfulness, performative thankfulness, and the pressure to be positive even when things are genuinely hard. That’s not gratitude. That’s toxic positivity masquerading as self-help language. Real gratitude practice looks different. It acknowledges difficulty…