What would Elijah say? I live and work in the heart of Sillicon Valley where AI is all anyone talks about. I recently met someone at my physical therapy office who moved ot town from Sacramento and she commented on how strange it was to see the topic on every single billboard. “Welcome to San Francisco,” I told her. Over here in the land of tech it can be easy to miss how strange this moment is for humanity and that maybe, just maybe, it’s not the only topic deserving of our attention. 

🔯 Jewish sleep-away summer camp made me the person I am today.  (I do not say this lightly - backstory + more here)

��‍❤️‍👨 Jewish sleep-away summer camp is where I made friends, went on my first hike and overnight in the woods, learned how to build a fire, trust-fell into my friends’ arms, experienced my first kiss, cooked in a commercial kitchen, and became an experience designer and leader, all by age 18.

Consider this statement: “It’s amazing how needs change when you’re 7,000 feet closer to the sun.” Sounds like a great metaphor for something, am I right? I do often find myself referring to how different things are in corporate life the “closer you get to the sun.” The “sun,” in this case, can mean “headquarters,” or “senior leadership.” Let’s be real, things feel different when at any moment you might find yourself in an elevator with your VP or if the program you just launched is visible to the head of communications as she grabs coffee.

The phenomenon that is Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson’s thriller series “Severance” took a while to land in my consciousness, much to my chagrin. When I learned that the entire story rests on the premise that a new technology — invented by the fictional Lumon corporation — can sever a person’s “work” persona from their “life” persona, I couldn’t believe I missed a sci-fi story that so perfectly encapsulates my own life’s work.

For the past 20+ years, the aspect of my identity I’ve been most judicious about sharing at work is my relationship with Judaism — Israel in particular. Aside from explaining what all the holidays mean and occasionally sharing a ritualistic culinary treat, I kept it on the DL. Why? So many reasons.

The future of work isn’t just about where we work — online, in-person, or a combination of both. It’s about how we help people feel connected and engaged at work no matter how the sands may shift beneath their feet.  How you design your workplace experiences can make the difference between an engaged and inspired workforce, and one that feels disconnected and despondent.

This is one of those weeks with a seeming over-abundance of networking opportunities and obligations. On Thursday, I will be attending Adobe’s annual “Adobe For All” summit focused on D&I in our workplace. Since people are flying in from all over the world for this event, several other team meetings and summits have popped up around it. While I’m generally outgoing and confident, I’m also fundamentally an introvert, which means heavy doses of social interaction sap me of energy. So this is all a pretty big lift. Is it worth it?

Turns out the answer is yes. I’ve written before about a term we use in Silicon Valley: “casual collisions.”

Lately, the idea of serving food at work has come under fire. Critics have suggested that when companies have on-site restaurants, it hurts the local economy. They’ve also dismissed the idea of offering food at work as an elitist perk.

I’m here to voice an alternative perspective: when it’s done right, a company’s food program can connect people at a time when disconnection is at epidemic levels.