Free report: Solving Workplace Toxicity.
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The Switchback Gold Letters

Leadership lessons told the way people actually remember them: as stories. Steven Falk writes about teams under pressure, the people you lead and the person you are when it counts.

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Three Switchback Gold Letters issues under the Gold Letters masthead Cover of the free report Solving Workplace Toxicity
What's in every letter

A story, a framework, and something to try on Monday.

A real story

Hand fallers on the west coast, fire crews in Alberta, a hockey parent heading for the coach, a family at Thanksgiving. Each letter starts with something that actually happened.

A framework you can use

The Gap, the Switchback Brain, the Four Quadrants, Targets. The same hand-drawn tools taught in the Foundation Course, applied to that week’s story.

Something to take to your team

A question, a habit or a conversation to try on Monday. Short enough to read on a coffee break, useful enough to forward to your crew.

From a recent letter

Read how it sounds.

This one is about The Gap: the space between what happens and what you do next, and why that space decides how a hard moment turns out.

Switchback Gold Letters
from Steven Falk

The GAP

The gap can be a micro-second. It can be a minute. It can be a day, no matter what, it's the game changer.

In minor sports if you get a coaching certification, they'll tell you this is how the gap works...

You gave one kid on your team just a little less time on the field, but their parents are losing their minds of course, because their kid is going pro. So they're ready to meet you on the side of the field or by your car or halfway down the hallway.

And are they in their rational brain at this point? No.

P.S. Don't forget, people can change, and the power of success is in TEAM.
From the archive

More from the archive.

Framework · The Gap

The GAP...

“The gap can be a micro-second. It can be a minute. It can be a day, no matter what, it’s the game changer.”

Forestry · Safety

Save a life… LISTEN

“Here is a story for the ages. When my colleague/friend described this moment you could almost cut the air in the room.”

Leadership

FIRE SIDE: A 30 Minute Leadership Retreat

“It’s a midsummer camping trip. The sun has set, the kids are tucked away, and you and your good friends slowly return to the fire.”

Resilience

The Canoe vs the Bunker

“I grew up next to the Pacific Ocean and with that came all the folklore and stories. As a kid I could answer the 3 big questions.”

Resilience

KEYLINE RESILIENCE: A Lesson from Permaculture Farming

“Let’s try using a permaculture farming practice as a metaphor for human resilience.”

Leadership

The Great Oxymoron: Dreaming / Leaders

“As leaders we push ourselves to measure everything: margins, inventory, people, projects…”

People can change. The power of success is in TEAM.

Every Gold Letter ends with those two lines. Join free and the next one comes to you, with the Solving Workplace Toxicity report as a welcome.