Hey, it's Rachel Cook, your modern mentor. I'm the founder of Lead Above Noise, a firm

specializing in helping teams and organizations create better working experiences that deliver better

results. So recently, my kids have gotten curious about the TV that I watched as a kid,

and I've started showing them some of the old episodes of the classic

sitcoms of my childhood. And my kids have some questions. Like, where is all that annoying

laughing coming from? Or why is the phone stuck to the wall? Or why didn't they just order it on

Amazon? Or why didn't that person just say the thing that needed to be said? You can see how the first few questions really just reflect the crazy reality of the 80s and 90s

I still struggle to explain.

But that last question is, it's kind of a kicker.

I mean, so many episodes of so many shows were basically just about a ridiculous misunderstanding that occurred only because

somebody didn't say the thing, and hilarity ensued. This one was a little harder to explain away.

In the era of the sitcom, the not saying the thing made for comedy. But in the workplace, where this

happens all the time, the impact is really not so funny.

It's often counterproductive, even toxic.

I run a lot of off-sites with a lot of teams that are struggling to deliver results or collaborate

effectively or drive innovation.

And so often, much of this is solvable with the right conversation.

And my job during these off-sites is to create a space in which the unspoken can be safely

spoken and then addressed, resolved.

And one of my favorite tools for making these conversations happen, it's the stinky fish

canvas developed by Hyper Island,

because, you know, a stinky fish stinks. The longer it sits, the worse it smells. And when one shows up,

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