Jessica's Monthly Management Memo: May 2025

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Hi Reader,

I've spent time with hundreds of managers this month in various workshops; I've felt a palpable energy for healthy productivity and sustainable leadership. A rejection of hustle culture; but with a nuanced interrogation of what it takes to be in a leadership role that requires stepping up at times but finding ways to ensure that the "push" pace isn't required week over week. Engaging in those conversations with so many of you has been an honor and a privilege.

Let's get to your Monthly Management Memo - as always, with something bold, something new, something borrowed, and something to pursue.

🔥Something Bold - Sometimes fancy decision and responsibility frameworks are too much​
​Sometimes using formal tools like MOCHA or RACI to define project roles isn't the right approach. Don't get me wrong - I think those tools are indeed a best practice of project management, and I talk about how to use them well in every project management workshop I lead (which is a lot - this is a hot topic in 2025!).

AND...sometimes you don't have the positional privilege to implement a tool like that for a project you're working on. Or the culture vibes are off, and you might get some rolled eyes. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You DO need clear roles and responsibilities for a given project, though. The aim is that if I were to come to your team and say, "Who's the person leading on X? Who's responsible for Y?" that you'd all have the same answers.

You can use a formal tool to get that level of clarity. But you could also have a 5-10 minute conversation that results in a list like this:

June Community Event Responsibilities

• Guest List & Event Program: Jamal
• Graphic Design: Joe
• Flash Mob: Jess
• Venue Liaison & Food Vendors: Josephine

That simple approach will get you most of the way to where you need to be with role clarity.

🆕 Something New - Make a T-Chart to Save Your Team Meetings from Update Overload
​I've been facilitating many conversations lately with teams rethinking their meetings (how are they working? how could they be better?), and one pain point keeps coming up: how do we handle updates in meetings?

None of us wants the dreaded "this meeting could have been an email" situation where you share basic updates. But at the same time, people do find value in talking through what's happening across different parts of the team. So, how do you balance efficiency with actually keeping everyone in the loop?

Here's what I suggest: Make a T-chart with your team. On one side, put things you want to generally share in writing. On the other side, things that are worthy of a live discussion during precious meeting time. Start with some obvious examples to get the conversation going. Examples for the "updates to share in writing" column: "We finalized the menu for next week's event - click here if you want to see it." Things for the "discuss in a meeting" column: big strategic questions, important updates that might spark conversation (like when a senior leader is transitioning out of the organization and people will have questions).

Then have a conversation where folks can add more examples to each side - the obvious ones first, then discuss the trickier ones. Maybe some updates go in writing unless a certain condition is true, then they're worth meeting time. The goal is to create meaty examples you can refer back to over time, so everyone has shared clarity about how you're spending that precious meeting time in the highest value ways.

🤝🏼 Something Borrowed - You're Taking Breaks Wrong​
​Daniel Pink wrote better than I ever could about how critical breaks are: "You’re not burned out—you’re just taking breaks the wrong way. Here’s how to fix it, based on science. Want to perform better? Take better breaks. Breaks today are where sleep was 15 years ago—underrated and misunderstood. But how you take a break matters. Most people think more work = more productivity. But research shows that strategic breaks are the real key to staying sharp. The problem? Most of us take breaks that don’t actually help. Scrolling alone at your desk? Not it. Here’s how to take a break that actually works:

• Move, don’t sit – Walk, stretch, or get outside instead of staying glued to your chair. Movement resets your brain.
• Go outside, not inside – Fresh air and sunlight restore energy and boost creativity.
• Be social, not solo – Breaks are more effective when taken with someone else.
• Fully unplug – Leave your phone. No work talk. No emails. No scrolling. Just a real reset.
• Try this: Take a 10-minute walk outside with a colleague. Talk about anything but work. Leave your phone at your desk.

Breaks aren’t a luxury. They’re a performance tool. Treat them like it.

🏃🏾‍♀️Something to Pursue - Say What You Like
​Challenge yourself to add at least two positive comments to every document you review. Instead of only marking up problems or ways to improve drafts (which is easy to do as your default mode), try intentionally calling out things you genuinely liked too. A great turn of phrase here, a wise structural choice there, a particularly clear explanation of something complex. Guess what happens when you give feedback this way? You start getting way more of those good things in future drafts. It turns out people don't just want to know what's wrong - they want to know what's working so they can do more of it.

Bring your team; I'll bring my A-game. I love helping teams with workshops on productivity, team culture, and effectiveness at work. Find out more and book a free chat to see if I can be helpful to your organization.