Blog
Coffee Break
Insights, stories, and thoughts that you can enjoy in under five minutes.
Pocket Change: Strategic Optimism
December’s notes on disruption from 18 Coffees co-founder Caleb Gardner.
18 Coffees Holiday Gift Guide
Introducing the 18 Coffees Holiday Gift Guide! Each unique recommendation was curated by 18 Coffees Community Partners and comes from companies that are women-owned, LGBTQIA-owned, BIPOC-owned, or encourage sustainability.
Finding Your “Cookie Monster” Moment
When working with clients in change management bootcamps and training sessions, 18 Coffees walks through navigating the change lifecycle to help teams find their “Cookie Monster moment.”
Wake Up Wired: ESG’s Impact on Change and Success
18 Coffees’ senior engagement manager Phoebe Chen sat down with PwC sustainability senior manager Ellen Shieh and Dorothea Duenow, ESG reporting lead at UL, to dig a bit deeper and discuss ESG.
Finding Your Change Champions
As your organization grapples with change, it’s crucial to recruit change champions across levels and departments to serve as point people for actualizing the organization’s new blueprint.
When Identifying Leaders, Don’t Just Look to the Top
There are many people with influence in an organization. In times of change, don’t forget to look beyond your managers and CEOs.
ESG Provides New Opportunities for Employers to Show What They Value
Companies have an opportunity to take a stand in tangible ways, and they need to leverage their employees to make that stand sustainable and successful.
Top Three Resume Myths Busted
Building a resume is no easy feat. That’s why 18 Coffees connected with executive career coach Ashley Cash to bust three of the most common resume writing myths.
Hybrid Work: The Challenges of Combining WFH with IRL
After a year of remote work, corporations are slowly combining WFH with in-office time — but the transition to the hybrid work model still comes with its own set of challenges. As employers and employees alike continue to grapple with the choice to stay home or return to the office, there are three key considerations.
Trump is Gone, but Social Media’s Toxic Power Remains
The destructive potential of Twitter and Facebook is rooted in more than any one account. Here’s what we have to do next to keep it in check.
Wake Up Wired: All Things Social Media in 2020 with the Experts
Recently 18 Coffees held an exciting Wake Up Wired, our morning breakfast series, featuring social media leads from major brands to discuss how they’re navigating the once-in-a-generation crisis that is 2020 and COVID-19.
Writing Postcards for Democracy with Sister District
What can you do about the news besides late night doom-scrolling or raging on Twitter? If you’re like me, you’ve been asking this a lot in 2020. This summer, Community Partner Lauren Long gave us one concrete answer: write postcards!
As Volunteer Leader of Sister District Greater Chicago, Lauren is uniquely insightful about local races, and helped host a Postcard Party for our community to help us take action for races that matter. The interactive party was set up so that all attendees had postcard kits ready to be personalized and written before jumping on to a Zoom call together to learn more about candidates in key state legislative races, vent about the year, and put our rusty penmanship skills to good use.
18 Coffees at the Drive-In
On Friday, August 7, we brought together our Chicago Community Partners for a pop-up drive-in movie. It was a chance for everyone to take a moment to step outside their quarantines, see people in real life (from a distance), share a meal, and enjoy a movie together.
Change as a Core Competency
We aren’t prepared for the kinds of multi-layered transformations we’re going through right now.
Let’s start with us personally. We’re being asked to change on multiple levels: to switch up our personal behavior in response to a pandemic (wear masks, avoid activities we normally enjoy), while reconciling the negative roles we may have played in a perpetuating racism. (And that’s only in the last couple of months.) Our social context is collapsing in on itself, as we ingest and respond to massive amounts of data in practically real time.
We got a glow up.
At long last, our website got a little refresh. For those of you who remember, there’s no more dancing dots or chat bots, but we were pretty sure you wouldn’t miss them. We’re excited to give you, our Community Partners (aka CPs), your very own space. Access this CP-exclusive portal whenever you want and check out upcoming events, support causes, and stay involved.
While things may look different around here, some things remain unchanged.
Why Community?
As we launch a newly refreshed Community Partnership program, complete with new benefits and programming for our partners, it’s a great time to take a step back and answer a question that has been at the core of 18 Coffees since we founded the company: Why community?
Leading Through Uncertainty
As industries, businesses, and mindsets shift to recenter their proverbial gravity, I can’t help but lose myself in the possibility of what this change will bring. Must bring.
Restructuring Perspective: Adjusting to The New Normal, Remote Work, and Beyond
Over the past couple of months, we’ve collectively lost quite a bit. We’ve lost concerts, sports, birthday celebrations and weddings. Mani-pedis and haircuts, places of worship -- in all their various forms and locations, and places of community.