In Session: Leading the Judiciary FJC

Esther Sternberg, author of Well at Work: Creating Wellbeing in Any Workspace, shares research on how our work environments impact our health and productivity. Dr. Sternberg provides guidance to leaders on how to integrate the seven domains of health into workspace design, fostering healthier employees who are more focused, productive and happier to be at the office.

Dr. Sternberg is a professor of medicine, psychology, planning and landscape architecture, and nutritional sciences and wellness at the University of Arizona. She has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization and the Vatican; in the U.S. she has advised the National Academy of Sciences, Department of Defense, and Congress. She is also the author of two previous books, The Balance Within and Healing Spaces.

Helene Creager (C.D. Cal.), informed by her time as central California’s Critical Incident Stress Management Team, shares not only what officers need to know about the science behind mindfulness, compassion, self-compassion, and positive neuroplasticity, but how to incorporate them into our daily lives as well. Drawing upon her twenty-three years as a U.S. Probation officer, including as a founding member of the National Wellness Working Group, Creager makes the case that intentional self-care is crucial in creating satisfying personal and professional lives.

Karen Dillon, co-author with Rob Cross of The Microstress Effect: How Little Things Pile Up and Create Big Problems and What to Do about It, describes their discovery of the little noticed day-to-day stressors causing significant impact on even the highest performing employees, and how failing to address them can lead to burnout. Karen Dillon is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review and coauthor of three books with Clayton Christensen, including the New York Times bestseller, How Will You Measure Your Life?

Today on In Session: Leading the Judiciary, Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering, shares a purpose-driven and people-centered approach for designing meaningful, and memorable meetings that people want to attend. Parker is a facilitator and strategic advisor trained in the field of conflict resolution and has spent 20 years guiding leaders and groups through difficult conversations about community, identity, and vision. She studied organizational design at M.I.T., public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and political and social thought at the University of Virginia.

Leidy Klotz, author of Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, shares how subtracting before adding can create better outcomes, especially when we are clear about what we want to accomplish. Klotz’s innovative research shows how subtracting doesn’t necessarily mean doing less; rather it’s an important first step for individuals and organizations that want to improve processes and solve problems.

In addition to several research articles, Leidy’s work has appeared in the journals Nature and Science and been featured on NPR’s Hidden Brain podcast. He is an interdisciplinary professor of engineering, architecture, and business at the University of Virginia whose research focuses on the science of design.

Woo-kyoung Ahn, professor of psychology at Yale University and author of Thinking 101: How to Reason Better to Live Better, discusses how our brains are hard-wired to make quick decisions in order to keep us safe. These cognitive shortcuts can lead to misguided decision-making and stifled innovation in the short-term while costing us time, energy and money in the long run.

Ahn received Yale’s Lex Hixon Prize for teaching excellence in the social sciences in 2022, and her research was funded by the National Institutes of Health. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science.