UVA Darden Ideas To Action

Life is full of negotiations. At work, we negotiate contract terms and conditions, flex time and pay raises. At home, we negotiate where to go on vacation, what to order for dinner — and how much screen time is too much screen time.

Given how frequently we negotiate, it’s perhaps surprising that one of the most important skills of effective negotiation is often overlooked or undervalued: listening.

“The stereotype of a great negotiator is skewed,” says Allison Elias, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. “People tend to think the more competitive and selfish you are, the better you’ll do. What they overlook is that some of the most astute negotiators actually use listening as part of their competitive strategy.”

Elias teaches courses about communication and negotiation in Darden’s MBA and Executive MBA programs, as well as for executive education audiences. But over the years, she found there was little practical guidance on how to listen well in a negotiation.

Until now.

Her new technical note, “Listening: A Negotiator’s Playbook,” introduces a three-phase listening framework designed to make listening teachable and actionable. And it’s not confined to work or business settings — it can be applied to everyday life.

“We tell people in class to listen to the other person,” she says. “But how do you really do that well? What’s the purpose? And why should you care?”

The note, she adds, fills a gap in the curriculum. “Renewing my mediation certification recently really emphasized the importance of listening in conflict resolution. And in negotiation too, you cannot be a great negotiator without listening well.”

Elias will be teaching the note in her fourth-quarter elective, “Negotiation.”

Her goal is to get students to think about how intentional one needs to be as a listener.

“When we prepare for negotiation, a lot of times we tend to over-focus on our own interests, our own planning, what we’re going to say,” says Elias. “But there could also be real value in preparing to listen, and brainstorming questions to ask the other person to try to understand them better and really listening to their answers.”

Why Negotiators Need to Listen

“Listening is not just a nice thing to do,” says Elias. “It has cognitive and affective benefits.”

In other words, when you’re listening intently, you’re learning new information that can help create or claim value in the negotiation. Listening also engenders a positive feeling between the parties and helps with relationship-building. “The consequence is that the other person feels respected,” she says.

Yet often, listening is easier said than done. When asked to describe a good listener, most people jump instead to what makes someone a bad listener, says Elias. They point to traits such as interrupting, responding vaguely or illogically, being distracted and fidgeting.

Being a good listener means more than just avoiding these behaviors.

“High-quality listening requires psychological presence, cognitive attention and emotional responsiveness,” Elias says.

How to listen: A Three-Phase Framework

Phase One: Prepare to observe and absorb.

Elias says one of the biggest obstacles she encounters when she teaches negotiation is a lack of curiosity about the other person’s perspective and world view.

“A lot of times I see people rush through the negotiation too fast, and students will say, ‘If this were real, I would have spent more time on it’,” Elias explains. “But if you’re really trying to understand another person, you’re trying to talk to them at length and ask them a lot of questions.”

She adds, “Sometimes we take too narrow of a view of what would be relevant in the negotiation, only focusing on the main issues on the table. If you can develop a curiosity about the other person, you’re going to be a better listener and more expansive about what you’re considering in the negotiation.”

The first phase of the framework is understanding that gaining leverage in a negotiation can begin before any words are exchanged.

“Effective negotiators prepare well by doing their research,” Elias says. “As they gather information and reflect on what they know, they also embrace the fact that there is a lot that they do not know.”

The core aim of this phase is to create conditions for openness. And to do that, Elias says, you must center yourself to quiet powerful cognitive traps, including confirmation bias.

Skilled negotiators bring an authentic curiosity to the discussion. “Embrace what you do not know,” she adds.

Phase Two: Engage and Interpret Signals

This phase is about being present during the conversation and taking note of various signals, including the dynamics of who’s who in the room.

“As effective listeners enter into a conversation, they take note of nonverbal cues such as the physical positioning of others in the room and their emotional states,” says Elias. “These observations provide additional information, perhaps about what has unfolded previously, to guide a communication strategy.”

Negotiators can absorb valuable information from all of these signals.

Doing so requires listening beyond words, attending to emotions and group dynamics, mirroring and paraphrasing conversations, and asking open-ended questions.

Phase Three: Monitor the Agreement as Partners

Elias says that negotiation courses tend to focus mostly on securing an agreement and neglect what happens next.

“Listening should not end when agreement is reached,” she says.

On the contrary.

“A lot of where value is created is in the phase after an agreement is created,” Elias says. “During the implementation phase, you need to continue to have curiosity, flexibility and awareness of the other person because there might be ways you need to tweak the agreement, or things that you hadn’t thought of before that need to be considered.”

You should also broaden your audience as the implementation phase unfolds. “Additional stakeholders who were not parties during the negotiation might emerge as critical to a deal’s success,” she adds.

The key takeaway from this phase is to maintain contact with more parties and remain open to adjustments.

Talk Less. Listen Better.

While listening is one of the most powerful tools a negotiator can bring to the table, we can all benefit from being good listeners. That means listening carefully and purposefully to other people.

Professor Allison Elias is author of the new technical note, “Listening: A Negotiator’s Playbook,” published by Darden Business Publishing (December 2025).

BY A.J. SIDRANSKY  For Cooperatornews Chicagoland

When a condo or co-op resident runs for a seat on their board, the decision to do so generally comes from a desire to ‘step up’ and participate in the governance of the place they call home, and the building or association community as a whole. 

Often, the residents willing to serve on their board aren’t necessarily those with finely-honed skills and formal education in law, finance, and practical business management. And they don’t have to be—with competent management, legal, and accounting professionals on their side, a board composed of ‘civilian’ members can absolutely meet its oversight responsibilities and run a solvent, functional building or association. 

But having said that, it’s also worth considering that a solid, practical base of knowledge in law, finance and management can be invaluable to a board, enabling them to interact more confidently with contractors and other professionals, make prudent financial decisions, and understand the implications of legislation and legal decisions impacting their community. 

A Little Knowledge…

Given that, what base of knowledge does a board member—especially a newly elected one—need in order to contribute most effectively to the administration of their community? Most experts agree that understanding financial reporting, and to a slightly lesser extent, the laws and regulations governing shared interest communities in their area are the biggest help.

“Every board member needs to develop a basic skill set,” says Steve Silberman, a CPA and partner with PBG, a financial services firm located in Glenview, Illinois. “At a minimum, they need to learn to read and understand a financial statement, rather than just relying on the treasurer. The board has a fiduciary responsibility over the financial information of the association or corporation, so all the board members need to understand their finances. 

“Revenue, minus expenses, equals net income,” says Jayson Prisand, an accountant and principal with Prisand Mellina Unterlack & Co, an accounting firm located in Plainview, New York. “That’s pretty much the starting point. The primary goal of maintenance or common charges is always to pay for expenses. It seems obvious, but if you don’t have the revenue, how can you pay for the expenses? Board members have a clear need to understand these basic processes. Cash and reserves and their differences are also important concepts in terms of short-, medium-, and long-term planning. Board members must know short-term concepts and goals for operating, and long-term concepts for capital projects. Especially in the current environment, they should understand inflation, and in New York City (and everywhere really), local regulations. It’s not an easy task.”  

“The other concept they need to understand is fund accounting,” Silberman continues. “Operating accounts are based on fund accounting. They must also understand what a reserve fund is. A major issue for boards is the possible co-mingling between operating accounts and reserves. That requires understanding the difference between accrual versus cash-basis accounting. Most board members, regardless of their overall knowledge of accounting, understand ‘cash-basis’ accounting, as that’s how a personal checkbook works; income is accounted for when received, and expenses accounted for when paid. By contrast, accrual is more true to [a community’s] current financial position, because it records income when earned and expenses when incurred.”

“Financial literacy,” says Mark Love, principal of M. Love & Associates, CPA, with three offices in Massachusetts, “requires knowledge of matters involving finance, accounting, budgeting, taxes, investments, insurance, debt, financial planning, capital planning, and even economics.”

Michael S. Simone, an attorney and principal of The Simone Law Firm, based in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, focuses in a little more: “Board members must ensure that their association has a budget, and then make certain to run a monthly budget variance report to monitor the progress of the budget throughout the year.  Understandably, everyone wants dues to be as low as possible, but an association needs to avoid having too many special assessments. Having special assessments every year is a red flag indicating that the budget is not properly funded. Furthermore, given the current stricter mortgage regulations, an association that does not have a properly funded budget might result in a potential buyer not being able to obtain a traditional mortgage.” Understanding basic accounting and financial principles is necessary for this.

Are All Board Members Equal?

Do all board members require the same level of knowledge of financial, management, legal and accounting issues? In a word, no.

However, according to Prisand, “Those board members who don’t have the most in-depth financial knowledge shouldn’t necessarily be the treasurer. The treasurer should have a solid grounding in financial data in their background. That’s not to say they couldn’t otherwise do the job, but you’re managing money—everybody’s money. There is always reliance on the management company, but don’t give them carte blanche. Overall, at least one person on the board needs to have a more complete, more complex understanding of finances and financing.”

Love concurs. “To be sure, at least one board member, generally the treasurer or the president, should have a moderate to semi-high level of understanding and awareness of these financial matters.”

Another area about which board members should have basic technical understanding is what their governing documents say and require relative to the financial management and maintenance of the property. “The first thing every board member should look at and understand are the bylaws and declarations of their association,” says Silberman. “The bylaws, etc., hold information about financial audits, what to do with excess cash from operations, and other details of financial management under the laws and regulations governing the association.” A law degree is not necessarily required for this, but as with the treasurer’s position, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have an attorney on the board. If that’s not possible, the community’s legal counsel can be tapped to provide any needed clarification.

Training Available

There are several organizations whose mission it is to help educate board members in the unique aspects of governing a building or HOA—including this publication, and its companion annual and biannual Expos, which offer rosters of free educational seminars, expert panel discussions, and legal advice booths. (Visit coopexpo.com for more information, registration, and descriptions of seminars.) 

Another valuable resource —and the largest U.S. organization devoted to board education—is the Community Associations Institute (CAI). “CAI has over 40,000 members,” says Simone. “Their courses are offered both online and in-person, and are an excellent way to learn more about the role of being a board member. Further there is a web forum group where associations post problems and issues they are being confronted with, which is another way to learn from other potentially similar association’s issues.”

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Along with these, “Boards should avail themselves of all manner of tutorials, workshops, seminars, and education courses on financial, operational, and management of an HOA,” says Love. “There are hundreds available at many organizations dedicated to the shared-interest sector.”

Spreading the Knowledge

In cases where a building or association is fortunate enough to have an accountant, attorney, financial or real estate professional as a board member—or even as a non-board resident—is it advisable for that person to help board members understand what can often be complex matters? The answer might depend on the community.

One co-op shareholder on Manhattan’s Upper West Side who is a professional commercial mortgage broker shares anonymously that in the 30 years he’s lived in his building, the corporation has refinanced its underlying mortgage twice. On both occasions, while not serving on the board, this shareholder offered his expertise to review the refi and advise the board in their decision making. The board turned down his offer both times—and in his opinion, they made serious mistakes, including the prepayment clause on the original refinance some 20 years ago, which precluded the corporation from taking advantage of lower interest rates when they had the chance.

On the other hand, Silberman says, “Boards could and should take advantage of members’ knowledge base. Depending on the size of the community, they might also have a finance committee or subcommittee apart from the board that would allow those with financial background but not on the board to serve on that committee, thereby bringing more people with knowledge into the equation.”  

Prisand cautions that sometimes a little knowledge can cause friction. “I work with all types of people on boards. Senior fortune-500 types to housewives. Sometimes those with knowledge can present a different kind of problem; they think at too high a level. It’s not plain vanilla—every building is different—but it’s important to keep it fairly simple.” In the end it ‘takes a village’ to effectively run a village.

A Pressing, if Not-so-New Issue

Another issue has come to the fore for boards in the aftermath of the deadly Surfside, Florida, building collapse in 2021: reserves, and reserve studies. The high dollar amounts—and high stakes—make this yet another area where board members need to have at least a working knowledge and basic understanding of both their building’s physical condition, and the financial planning needed to properly maintain it. 

According to Silberman, “Boards should plan for a reserve study, and a plan for investment of those funds. They need an investment policy, and should understand the financial and accounting principles underpinning that policy, including why and how reserve money is invested, its safety and liquidity, and yield. If you’re funding a reserve project, you’ll have a better idea of why the money is invested the way it is.” That knowledge of investment strategy is a good partner to understanding the financial principles relating to your regular operations as well.

It all boils down to boards and board members being as informed as possible about what goes into governing and administering their community from day to day, from its physical upkeep to financial decision-making and long-term planning. Reading—and understanding—your governing documents, consulting your legal and financial professionals when necessary, and taking advantage of educational and training opportunities are all great ways to make the most of your tenure, and make your board the best it can be.

A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter for CooperatorNews, and a published novelist. He can be reached at alan@yrinc.com. 

By Kelly G. Richardson, Esq. CCAL, HOA Column

Good community rules and regulations (“operating rules,” per Civil Code Section 4340) protect the community and encourage neighborly conduct. However, good rule ideas are not enforceable unless the HOA follows a prescribed rule amendment process. Because only boards have the power to create or amend rules, the law requires special procedures to alert members in advance about impending proposed rule changes.

Civil Code 4360 establishes the following two-step meeting process:

Meeting #1; Announcement #1 – In an open meeting the board approves a draft proposed rule change, and approves publishing to members the verbatim proposed change language along with a statement as to the change’s purpose and effect. The announcement also must announce a second open board meeting at least 28 days later when members can comment on the proposed change.

Meeting #2.  At the next open meeting, the board must allow member comments before voting on proposed rule changes. 

Announcement #2.  If the rule change is adopted it must be announced in writing within 15 days after the meeting.

If a rule change is very controversial, 5% or more of the membership may within 30 days of announcement of the rule change demand a membership meeting to vote upon its reversal. If a majority of a quorum of members votes to overturn the rule change, the board cannot reinstate the overturned rule change for one year.

Civil Code 4360(d) allows emergency rules to be immediately adopted if immediate action is necessary to avoid imminent threat to health or safety or to avoid substantial economic loss. Emergency rules may last for up to 120 days but cannot be renewed.

Before changing association rules, consider these tips:

1. Don’t rush a rule. A rule change too complicated to draft during the board meeting should be delegated to someone (HOA’s attorney?) to draft language for consideration, to be picked up again at a later open meeting. Good rules adopted slowly are better than poor rules quickly approved.
2. Once the motion to adopt the rule change is made in the second board meeting, suspend deliberations and reopen members’ open forum on the rule change. Comments will typically be minimal unless the rule change is controversial.
3. Listen to your neighbors. The open forum element is important. Listen. If significant opposition to the rule arises, more consideration should be given. Can the proposed change perhaps be improved? Is the board unexpectedly upsetting so many homeowners that an overturn vote becomes likely? Such rule changes might be divisive to the community, even if they might originally have seemed like good ideas.
4. Don’t rush past member objections. After further study, discussion, and perhaps revisions, the improved proposed change can be republished to members.
5. Promptly announce approved rule changes. Don’t wait to send it with the draft meeting minutes – draft minutes are not due until 30 days after the meeting, while this announcement must be made within 15 days.
6. Have legal counsel review proposed rule changes.

Perfection is not required. Per Civil Code 4350(d), when boards act in good faith and substantially comply with the procedures, the rule should be valid.

The law, while potentially frustrating, adds transparency and deliberation to the rule-making process.  The hoped-for results are better and less divisive rules – and more harmonious communities.

HABITAT Magazine

The state Legislature’s recent passage of a controversial pied-a-terre tax — a levy on second homes worth $5 million or more — generated a blizzard of headlines. Lost in the flurry was another controversial bill that failed to win passage.

For the fourth year in a row, the Ground Lease Co-op Bill failed to get a nod from the Legislature, leaving 25,000 New York City shareholders vulnerable to losing equity in their apartments. Under the land-lease arrangement, shareholders own shares in the co-op corporation but a separate landlord owns the land the building sits on. Those long-term land leases face periodic resets, and when they finally come due, most co-ops face sharp, sometimes fatal, increases in the land rent.

A recent example was the middle-class Carnegie House co-op, which has the misfortune of sitting on Billionaires’ Row in Midtown Manhattan, where land values have soared in recent years. When the Carnegie House’s land lease came due, courts upheld the landowner’s rent hike from $4.3 million to $24 million.

Shareholders in ground-lease co-ops generally pay a lower price for their shares but pay higher monthly maintenance charges than convention co-op residents. If a ground-lease co-op defaults, the building can revert to rent-stabilized apartments, a process known as de-conversion. If that happens, shareholders would lose their equity but would still owe their mortgages — the worst of all possible worlds.

The latest iteration of the Ground Lease Co-op Bill, sponsored by state Sen. Liz Kreuger and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, both Manhattan Democrats, would have restored shareholders’ ability to borrow for necessary maintenance and repairs, grant them the right of first refusal if their landlord decides to sell the land, and ensure that if the building is ever forced to deconvert to rentals, existing residents get reasonable first rents rather than being priced out on the spot. These are the same baseline protections that rent-stabilized tenants enjoy.

While the real estate industry and other opponents applauded yet another failure of the bill to win passage, proponents of the bill reacted bitterly.

William Maiman, president of the Mainstay SECTION ONE co-op board in Queens and member of the Ground Lease Co-op Coalition, issued the following statement: “Ground lease co-ops end yet another legislative session as New York’s last unprotected class of tenants. Year after year, advocates and families have urged legislators to close the loophole threatening our homes, all to no avail. The window to act is closing fast. Continued inaction means ceding the homes of over 25,000 middle-class New Yorkers to big real estate and private equity.”

In the closing days of the legislative session, the real estate industry argued, successfully, that the Ground Lease Co-op Bill would have benefited wealthy investors and part-time residents rather than working families.

Richard Hirsch, board president at the Carnegie House co-op, offered this blunt retort to that claim: “Ground lease co-ops, which own their homes but lease the land, primarily serve the middle class.”

Story by Stephanie Wicky for Entrepreneur Daily Newsletter

Key Takeaways

• At times, the more you say, the less you are heard. Strategic restraint ensures the “why” of your message isn’t lost in the “how” of its delivery and allows others to build their own credibility.
• Before every meeting, identify the one point you want to make, and wait for the right moment to make it. If you try to speak on every single topic, you dilute your impact and risk becoming white noise.
• Recognizing the gap between intention and impact can unlock a more sustainable, high-trust form of leadership.

If you were to look back at my report cards from grade school, the commentary was remarkably consistent: bright, innovative, straight As — and talks way too much. I have always been a naturally gregarious person and, as a marketer, I am a storyteller by trade and by DNA. For a long time, I operated under the assumption that to be valuable, I had to be visible. I believed that if I wasn’t the most vocal person in the room, my peers and leaders wouldn’t know I was engaged or strategic.

As I rose into the executive ranks, however, I had to confront a humbling reality: At times, the more you say, the less you are heard. Learning the discipline of strategic restraint was a fundamental shift in how I viewed influence. I realized that being the loudest voice often turned my contribution into white noise. So in order to become a true strategic architect, I had to learn how to transmute my natural energy into a more intentional, calculated form of presence.

The 360-degree review

The turning point in my career didn’t come from a specific win, but from being gifted an executive coach. Part of that process involved a 360-degree review where peers, superiors and direct reports provide anonymous feedback on your leadership style. On paper, I was perceived as competent and creative. But the review also contained a jarring observation: I was described as someone who could “suck the air out of the room.”

It was a staggering realization because, where I thought I was being genuinely helpful, others saw me as overbearing. I had to step back and honestly confront the gap between my intention and my impact. It took a deep level of reflection to come to terms with the fact that much of my talkativeness was actually masking an insecurity — the fear that if I didn’t say it, they wouldn’t know I was thinking it. By trying so hard to prove my engagement, I was actually preventing others from engaging with me.

This dynamic is particularly nuanced for women in leadership, who often navigate a different set of expectations. We are frequently scrutinized for our tone and cadence, and I’ve spent years learning to manage my physical cues to ensure my passion isn’t misread as aggression. I often literally have to sit on my hands or consciously slow my speech to maintain a more grounded, executive authority. Far from a retreat, this restraint is a tactical adjustment that ensures the “why” of my message isn’t lost in the “how” of its delivery.

The “One Thing” discipline

To master this restraint, I began applying what I call the “One Thing” rule. In any executive meeting, there are usually half a dozen different topics in play. If you try to bat on every single one, you dilute your impact and risk becoming white noise in the discussion. Now, I decide before I walk into the room exactly what I want to achieve — the one specific goal I have for that session.

I wait for the right moment in the conversation to make that point with precision. And if that opening doesn’t arrive, or if I sense the room isn’t in the right mindset to hear it, I have the emotional intelligence to table it for another time. This discipline has fundamentally changed the caliber of my collaborations. When you aren’t fighting to be heard on every point, you create the space for others to feel ownership in the vision.

I think of it as stopping my boat to allow people to get on it before I take off. If you move too fast and say too much, you aren’t allowing your team or your peers to be part of the journey. Strategic restraint is about building a boat that others actually want to board, rather than one they feel they are being chased by.

The lesson of compounding growth

If I were sitting across from the 32-year-old version of myself today, I actually wouldn’t tell her anything. Every one of us has to live our own journey, and at that age, I simply wasn’t in the mind space to hear this advice. We have to live through the life lessons to truly understand them. My loud voice helped me rise to a certain level, but I had to learn that what got me here wouldn’t get me there.

For me, the shift toward a quieter power has unlocked a new level of growth — not just in my career, but as a person. Humbling as it was to realize I was overbearing, that feedback forced me to ask myself why I was doing it, and ultimately became the catalyst for a more sustainable, high-trust form of leadership.

Today, I see that same force-of-nature energy in my son and two daughters, and I am already working to help them harness that power so they can lead with it effectively. This practice of stewardship extends beyond my home and into my work on boards like Truckers Against Trafficking and the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation. 

When we choose strategic restraint, we allow others to build their own credibility. By waiting for the right moment to speak, I am not just improving my own executive presence; I am returning capacity to the people and systems that supported my own growth. Because in the end, being the strategist in the room isn’t about the volume of our participation. It is about the intentional weight of our presence and the strategic space we create for the next generation of leaders to find their own voices.

Shrinking focus, not motivation, is undermining productivity.

By Ashley C. Jordan Ph.D. for Psychology Today

Attention spans have systematically shrunk across time.

This is reflected in changes in how we consume media. In 1986, song intros for Billboard’s Top 100 averaged at 23 seconds before vocals began. By 2015, the average intro had shrunk to an average of five seconds. This is a reduction of more than 78 percent. Similarly, TV show intros also got shorter, reflecting viewers’ decreased attention spans. As an example, the show Bewitched, highly rated in the late 1960s, had an intro of 45 seconds. In contrast, Young Sheldon, the highest-watched comedy in 2020, has a show intro of 20 seconds—less than half the length.

Researchers have studied this huge change in attention span at work. In 2004, the average time spent on any screen before task-switching was 2.5 minutes. By 2012, it was only 75 seconds. Since 2020, it’s about 47 seconds. It makes you wonder how we get anything done at work.

Enter the Age of AI

A recent study found that 74 percent of Gen Zs (those born between 1995 and 2006) and 77 percent of millennials (those born between 1983 and 1994) “believe Generative AI will impact the way they work within the next year.” Importantly, these groups are generally optimistic about that impact. More than three-quarters report that AI “has improved the quality of their work (78 percent of Gen Zers and 82 percent of millennials), and that it has helped to free up their time and improved their work/life balance (77 percent of Gen Zers and 73 percent of millennials)” (Deloitte, 2025).

Many say artificial intelligence has helped with simplifying routine tasks to improve efficiency and productivity, which allows them more time to focus on strategic work, and report that it has enhanced creativity and innovation.

So how can we harness the powers of AI to help offset our shrinking attention spans at work?

Redesign Workflows for Depth

AI is great at handling shallow work and can help to free up time for work that requires more critical thinking or creative abilities. For instance, lean into using AI to help create agendas, summarize key takeaways from meetings, or create first drafts of routine reports. While AI should always be double-checked and not relied on for a final draft, it’s a great time-saver for rote tasks. This allows you to block your time for longer chunks of deep work that requires creative problem-solving or strategic thinking.

Use AI to Protect Focus Time

Attention spans easily die a death of a thousand pings. Constant interruptions make it impossible to do any deep work. How many of us have ended the day feeling like we were constantly busy and “doing things” only to realize that none of the things that really mattered were accomplished? This is the difference between what’s urgent (e.g., constant pings, emails, and interruptions) versus what’s important (often larger projects or tasks that require sustained attention).

AI can help with that. If you’re having trouble distinguishing urgent tasks from important ones, feed your to-do list into AI and have it help create a schedule. Then, use AI to block deep work time across calendars so you aren’t being constantly interrupted from email, Slack, or other workplace communications. Constant task-switching lowers productivity and erodes attention. With fewer interruptions, you’re able to focus on more high-value work.

Retrain Attention as a Workplace Skill

Source: Chitokan/Pexels

Focus isn’t a fixed trait—it’s a skill you can build. Treat focus like your fitness goals: Consistency matters more than intensity. Set a timer for 30 minutes and stick to one deep work task at that time. When the timer goes off, you can reward yourself with a little break or reset it for another 30 minutes if you’re in a flow state. Not only will the timer help to give you a manageable goal, but it also gives you permission to task-switch when it goes off (checking email, grabbing a coffee, etc.).

Over time, you can work to increase the timer to 40 minutes, 50 minutes, an hour, or more. With practice, you will train yourself to dive straight into the task at hand rather than being pulled in many directions.

AI can help you accomplish this. AI tools can act as smart focus timers, gently nudging you when it’s time to start, break, or reset. They can also reduce cognitive friction before you begin by summarizing what you worked on last, outlining next steps, or helping you decide which task deserves your attention during your focus block. By lowering the mental effort required to get started, AI makes it easier to build and sustain attention across time.

Measure Results, Not Responsiveness

In many workplaces, busyness can be mistaken for productivity. The smart boss will shift attention toward outcomes (i.e., what got accomplished) rather than how quickly someone responds to an email or a ping. AI can help to track progress, summarize milestones, or highlight achievements so you can focus on results instead of constant activity. This reduces the pressure to always be “on” for employees and allows for deeper, distraction-free work.

Use AI to Spark Creativity, Not Replace It

AI is great for helping to generate new ideas or offer fresh perspectives. Just don’t fall into the trap of letting it do the thinking for you. People fatigue faster in the “blank page” stage of work. Use AI for brainstorming multiple perspectives or solutions, which the team can discuss and refine. Have it offer brainstorming prompts, reducing cognitive load while expanding options. Instead of feeling that attention is thinly spread, you can channel it into deeper, more creative outputs.

AI can be polarizing, but it doesn’t have to be the enemy. While tasks may shift, organizations will always need humans. When used thoughtfully and intentionally, AI can help people work more efficiently and create space for the work that benefits most from human judgment, creativity, and connection. With the right approach, AI can be part of the solution to shrinking attention spans at work.

By Vanessa Cusumano

Hiring outside contractors is simply part of running a co?op or condo community. From routine repairs to major capital projects, boards rely on vendors to keep buildings operating safely and efficiently year-round. In many cases, the board or manager’s focus during the hiring process is on choosing a qualified contractor and confirming that proper insurance is in place. While both are important, what’s less obvious, and often misunderstood, is how New York labor laws can dramatically affect liability when a contractor is injured on a property. These laws can shape how claims unfold, which insurance policies respond, and how much risk a building ultimately retains.

A Deeper Look

 New York labor laws are designed to protect workers performing construction?related activities. While that intent is clear, its impact on property owners is not always intuitive. In many situations, these laws place significant responsibility on the building owner, regardless of who hired the contractor or how much oversight the board exercised during the process. As a result, along with board members and managing agents, co?op corporations and condominium associations are frequently named in lawsuits following contractor accidents—even when the injured worker was employed by a third?party vendor.

 Labor Law §240, commonly known as the Scaffold Law, is often the most significant concern for boards. It applies to injuries involving physical falls from heights, or incidents caused by falling objects—scenarios that commonly arise during facade work, roof repairs, window replacement, and other elevated projects. What makes this law particularly impactful is the concept of strict liability. If adequate safety devices failed, or were not provided, the property owner may be held responsible, regardless of fault or direct involvement. Quite often, ownership of the property alone is enough to trigger exposure. These claims also tend to be expensive, frequently exhausting primary liability limits and reaching umbrella or excess coverage.

 Labor Law §241 establishes specific safety requirements for certain construction, demolition, and excavation activities. Labor Law §200 addresses general job?site safety and is based on negligence principles. While not as absolute as §240, these statutes are commonly cited in conjunction with it. Together, they can broaden the scope of litigation and increase defense costs, even on projects that appear relatively straightforward.

In many labor law cases, the central issue is not who caused the accident, but which insurance policy responds. The outcome is frequently driven by decisions made during contract negotiations and insurance placement, long before the injury occurred. Boards often feel reassured once they receive a contractor’s certificate of insurance, but while certificates confirm that coverage exists, they do not transfer risk by themselves. If contracts do not include properly structured additional insured endorsements, hold harmless and indemnification language, or primary and non?contributory wording, the building’s own insurance policy may end up responding first to a claim. Shortcomings in contract language often lead to greater claim severity and unexpected financial exposure.

Mindful Risk Management

 Labor law exposure cannot be eliminated entirely, but it can be managed thoughtfully. Boards are best served when contracts are reviewed before any work begins, and when insurance requirements reflect the scope of work being performed. It is also important to recognize that while workers’ compensation coverage is required for contractors, it does not protect property owners from third?party lawsuits. Liability limits, umbrella policies, and enforceable contracts all influence how a claim ultimately plays out. Early coordination among boards, managing agents, legal counsel, and insurance professionals can make a meaningful difference.

  Understanding how these laws affect liability and insurance coverage enables boards to take a proactive approach as projects progress. Hiring contractors is unavoidable. Making sure the legal and insurance implications are carefully managed is what helps protect the long?term interests of the community.

Vanessa Cusumano, ACSR, is an insurance consultant with Mackoul Risk Solutions. She may be reached at vcusumano@mackoul.com.

By Kelly G. Richardson, Esq., HOA Homefront Column

Kelly: Our HOA has not kept up with building maintenance. I along with other residents have reported issues to our board but our requests apparently go unheard. These are reported through a resident portal which allows for pictures to be uploaded so there is a record.  Some are blatant safety issues while others are affecting the structures themselves, such as crumbling stucco, wood rot, clogged gutter drains, missing downspouts, water damaged gas and electric meter closets. The deferred maintenance is out of control. I would call it neglected maintenance. Our board and management company are in a “reactive” maintenance mode rather than “proactive” mode. Any advice on how to approach these issues would be appreciated. M.L., Rancho Bernardo

Dear Mr. Richardson: How do homeowners keep HOA leadership accountable for basic maintenance duties instead of resorting to arguments and lawsuits. Our HOA has managed to fire 3 landscaping companies in three years, and it is nearly impossible to get a hedge trimmed let alone get in on a schedule to be maintained. M.A., Oceanside. 

Dear M.L. and M.A.: One of the most basic responsibilities of HOA boards is to maintain and repair common areas, per Civil Code Section 4775(a)(1). Most CC&Rs also allocate that responsibility to the board. Shared ownership of common property, whether plumbing, roofs, structure, or amenities, requires the association (through its board) to care for it. Without good care of the shared elements (the common area), one of the greatest benefits of HOA living disappears.

Boards often stall on major maintenance or repairs because of a desire to avoid increasing assessments. However, homes, including HOA homes, do not heal themselves – they need someone to keep them in good repair. That effort costs money. I am reminded of the old auto repair company slogan – “you can pay me now or pay me later” – but that certainly applies to the HOA property. Boards that skimp on maintenance or repair expenses are almost certain to find that the cost only gets worse with time.

Also, nothing in the Davis-Stirling Act says that the HOA’s obligation to repair the property depends upon whether the HOA can afford the expense, so the duty is unconditional. This means that boards should not avoid fulfilling their duty by invoking a lack of funds – their duty is to gather the funds to take proper care of the property.

One would think that homeowners would want a board that focuses on the overall picture and not just the current assessment amount. M.L., HOA boards need to be proactive when they can, because it is not easy raising the funds to pay for significant maintenance or refurbishment costs. 

Funding HOAs may become harder – Senate Bill 1007, which originally proposed to prohibit boards from increasing assessments beyond the inflation rate, was just amended to make 8% the proposed cap – can anybody guarantee that HOA operational costs won’t increase more than 8% in a given year? Why can’t HOAs be treated just like individual homeowners- repairs and maintenance cost what they cost. 

If boards refuse to properly fund the HOA, maybe it’s time for a new board. 

M.A. and M.L, hopefully your boards will refocus from “can we afford it” to “can we afford NOT to do it.” Best, Kelly

By Kelly G. Richardson, Esq., HOA Homefront Column 

Dear Kelly: My large HOA has monthly assessments that are the same for all units. The units vary in size from free-standing units with yards to attached housing of varying square footage. I have the smallest sized unit. I have owned this condo for decades. Do I and my fellow like-sized unit owners have any recourse? We are subsidizing a significant portion of the costs of all the other units. What can we do? N.V., Laguna Niguel.

Dear N.V.: Developers typically establish HOA assessment allocations in one of four ways: All pay an equal share of HOA expenses; assessments are based upon number of bedrooms; or based upon the stated square footage; or a hybrid (also called a “variable assessment”), in which part of the budget is split equally and the rest of the budget is allocated based upon square footage figures (which are not always accurate). There are valid arguments supporting each assessment allocation method, making it difficult to decide which system is ultimately the fairest way of assessing homeowners. In 2006, the appellate court ruled on a challenge to assessment allocations in Cebular v. Cooper Arms Apartments. In that case, a homeowner challenged the assessment allocations as unreasonable, but the appellate court said the allocations in the CC&Rs are presumed to be reasonable and there was nothing illegal about it, denying the homeowner’s challenge.

There are some HOA expenses which seem fairer to split equally, but others would seem to be fairer if they varied based upon unit size. However, short of somehow convincing a majority of the homeowners to amend the CC&Rs and revise the assessment allocation, your HOA’s current assessment allocation is unlikely to change. It’s hard to convince neighbors to vote for a change which might increase their assessments and decrease others. That is why when I’m involved with CC&R overhauls, I urge my clients not to even propose a change in assessment allocations- consensus is too unlikely.
Sincerely, Kelly

Kelly, Good morning, I really enjoy reading your weekly column. I have a question about equal monthly HOA fees. At a recent board meeting a quorum of the board voted to grant a lower monthly fee to a widow. Our CC&R’s specifically state that “…assessments shall be divided equally among all units”. I believe that this lower rate for one unit violates that, and perhaps the law as well. I value your opinion on this. Thanks, K.W., Santee.

Dear K.W.: One stewardship responsibility regarding the HOA members’ funds is to ensure that all homeowners contribute their fair share of the HOA’s expenses, and this responsibility is a basic part of the fiduciary duties of each board member. Even though sometimes neighbors have hard times and well deserve sympathy, the board’s responsibility is to collect the HOA’s assessments and pay the HOA’s expenses. Intentionally violating the CC&Rs assessment allocation, even for a commendable reason, could place the board outside the Business Judgment Rule as well as outside the coverage of the HOA’s directors and officers liability insurance. Discriminating in favor of a single homeowner, no matter how justified it may seem, is not allowed. Perhaps the board’s efforts could be redirected toward seeking help from other neighbors to assist those who are going through very difficult times. Best regards, Kelly