The Rhetorical Journey

Entrepreneur: Work on your business not in your business

2010-03-09T10:55:00.000+01:00

I have been a member of Entrepreneurs' Organisation (EO) for five years. There is a regular theme at any large international gathering (see you in EO Cape Town?) about the role of an entrepreneur. The saying is that "you should work on your business not in your business".

The successful scale entrepreneurs are those that work on their business rather than in their business. They are like a mechanic working on the engine rather than the carburettor within the engine. If they become part of the engine the energy gets dedicated to just keeping the motor running rather than improving the motor.

My early professional work experience was in Accenture. I spent 9 years in total, with 4 in the role of project manager. Accenture prides itself on "hands-on" management - where managers take full responsibility and are involved in the details of the work. A "good" Accenture manager is details oriented, knowledgeable, dedicated and highly responsive to his team, peers, bosses and clients (ie lives on his blackberry/laptop). This is my model of how to run an organisation. I have spent the last 6 years as an entrepreneur (applying my Accenture manager model) and have now decided that I need to change my belief system around what role I should be playing as manager/leader of my business. I feel a need to respond to employee emails. I feel a need to be on top of sales process. I feel that I owe people my time and energy. I want to break this cycle. I didn't stop being an employee in someone elses organisation to become an employee in my own organisation (on less salary and nobody to thank me in the bi-annual performance interview).

Cameron Herold of Back Pocket COO was asked by Fortune magazine "How do you motivate your employees?" He said, “I don’t. I refuse to try to motivate people. What I want to do is try to take people who are already motivated and inspire them to do the stuff they know they have to do, and give them the systems and tools to create change. Then be there to support them.”

I like his philosophy. My scarce resource is energy (here is Sid Savara on self motivation) - I can use it up on others or use it up on myself and surround myself with those that bring their own. That is my plan.

Who would you bet on?

2010-02-27T18:45:00.001+01:00

Warren Buffett gave a talk to a group of MBA students at the University of Florida in 2007. The video is at the bottom of this post (on the blog). He starts with an interesting question.

He says [2:30] "Think for a moment that I granted you the right to buy 10% of the future income of any one of your classmates for the rest of his or her lifetime. You can't pick one with a rich father, that doesn't count. You got to pick someone who is going to do it on their own merit. Which one are you going to pick?"

Imagine 100 of your colleagues, family, friends. Who would you choose? Are there two or three faces that come to mind? Maybe if you are lucky with your friends, 10 or 15 jump into your mind. But, you have to choose one.

Warren suggests that there are various methods to do the final selection. Would you use school or university grades? GMAT? Most likely not. These are not great indicators of success in life.

If not grades then what? How about your best friend? Set up a pact - "I'll choose you if you choose me". A good plan? I don't think so.

So, if grades aren't the criteria; If friendship isn't the criteria; then what should be your criteria for selecting the person to place your bet on?

Warren says that he has 3 criteria:

Integrity - coherence between values and words, words and actions; responds well in bad times as well as the easy times.
Energy - gets up every day and starts moving.
Intelligence - here, Warren clarifies that he is not looking for grand strategic planning type intelligence; not for chess type intelligence - but for a type of course correction intelligence that allows for small course corrections that mean that instead of running headlong into a brick wall, there is enough intelligence to change course and only receive a glancing blow to the shoulder.

A good basis for selection? Do you know who you would bet on? Would it be yourself? You already own 100% of your own future income... are you a good bet? In a future blog I will give three ideas to improve your energy, intelligence and ability to live your values. Interested?

Public speaking to change minds – lessons from the world of politics

2010-02-25T10:44:00.000+01:00

This is a guest post from Rob Marchant, a key member of Tony Blair's campaign team at Labour Party head office between 1998-2002. Rob is founder of Barcelona Green, a startup aimed at climate change challenges. He examines some political examples of public speaking from the US and the UK.

Loved or loathed they might be by the public at large, most of the best-known examples of public speaking come from politicians. They certainly get more practice than most of us – after all, they do it for a living – and a great speech, such as “Ich bin ein Berliner” or “We will fight them on the beaches”, can move even the most cynical of commentators. Although we can’t all be a Kennedy or a Churchill, we can still learn from such seasoned speechmakers as we look to lead others.

There are many pedestrian reasons why we might give a speech: to thank people, to raise a point or to merely deliver information, like the figures from an annual report. However, a good political speech changes minds. You will never turn people’s beliefs on their heads – no speech can do that – but by gently coaxing the listener you can often win the day on a single issue. Here are some examples from well-known politicians on winning speeches:

Home in on your one “winnable” resistance point. Every year, Tony Blair’s most important speech as Prime Minister would be to the Labour Party Conference in September. Blair would spend most of the speech building up rapport and trust with his audience. And then, once he had them eating out of his hand towards the end of the speech, he would drop in a single but controversial proposition, and they would give him the benefit of the doubt. They never saw him coming.

Bond with the audience. Bill Clinton, a true master of empathy, can win the hearts of a potentially hostile audience immediately by a choice phrase, signalling that he is “one of them”. In his famous 1994 “you need to turn the light on in Virginia” speech, he starts by affectionately name-checking the local party dignitaries. Then, as he hits the most controversial passage, he starts it with, “I am a Southerner. I love this part of the country”. No matter that Virginia is over a thousand miles from his home in Arkansas, and no matter what he says now, the audience are with him.

Passion wins, especially at the end. When it comes to passion, Martin Luther King’s training as a Southern Baptist minister gave him a head start over most of us – at times his iconic “I have a dream” speech reads like gospel singing. If you believe it, they’ll believe it. And who has ever written a better ending to a speech than "Free at last! Free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Strong vocal delivery is important for credibility. Margaret Thatcher, although perhaps not naturally a gifted orator, made the best of what she had. She even had special voice training to lower the pitch of her speaking voice – she felt that her higher-pitched, woman’s voice lacked gravitas. Her political persona as the “Iron Lady” was entirely consistent with her somewhat slow and deliberate speaking style, giving the impression that she was not to be deterred or trifled with. Perhaps her best was the 1980 conference speech which subtly ridiculed her Cabinet critics for their vacillation and political “U-turns”, while contrasting her own strength of purpose: “You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning!” With that, Thatcher’s place as party leader was safe for the next ten years.

Be yourself – although you can and must practice, you can’t be someone you’re not. People move others most when they speak from the heart. Humour can be devastating – or devastatingly bad, if you get it wrong. Prime Minister Harold Wilson was a down-to-earth but rather witty speaker. However, he didn’t dare introduce humour in his speeches until he was confident enough of his delivery – that is, when he became Prime Minister.

Don’t be heavy-handed or negative about rivals. Audiences will usually react against this and it cheapens your message. However, bashing the opposition in an audience is usually a crowd-pleaser, and unites you with the audience around the common enemy. Learn from the pols: if you’re a Republican, bash the Democrats. If you’re a businessperson, bash the competition.

Coin a phrase and catch the moment – Speeches have often assured their own place in history, in part, by exactly reflecting the zeitgeist: see Macmillan’s “wind of change” speech, about the end of empire in Africa, or Reagan’s “tear down this wall” about the anticipated end of the Cold War. Even better, use a mantra which will be repeated: Barack Obama’s stroke of genius with “Yes, we can” made him and his message instantly memorable.

Not all speeches are political in nature but most, to some extent, look to influence opinion. We might never have the charisma of the political heavyweights: but we can all be warm and confident, and take people with us.

Rob Marchant runs a consultancy business in marketing, web communications and management, and is currently raising funds for his first startup, Barcelona Green. His career spans management consultancy, investment banking and technology, as well as having been a key member of Tony Blair's campaign team at UK Labour Party headquarters during 1998-2002. In 2000 he travelled to Washington to meet the campaign teams of Al Gore and the Democratic National Committee. He is also an experienced public speaker and facilitator who has stood for the Parliament in the UK. Originally educated at Oxford, he has an MSc in Economics from the University of London and gained his Global Executive MBA from IESE in 2004.

Twenty minutes with Doctor Alastrue. The most important thing.

2010-02-24T21:44:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, I spent 20 minutes speaking to Dr. Alastrue, a general surgeon in the Teknon medical clinic. I need to have an operation - due to too much exercise (did I mention the triathlon in June).

I am currently interested in the challenges of experts communicating well to non-experts. In the case of me speaking with Dr Alastrue with his 30 years experience as a practicing medical professional, it was a true case of an expert (him) communicating to a non-expert (me).

He sat me down and asked some basic questions. He asked me to explain why I had come to see him. He explained that he would do some tests. He explained why. He explained what he found. He explained what it meant. He used his hands to demonstrate a simple model of what is happening. He looked at me while he spoke and listened to me when I spoke.

I asked him what makes a great surgeon. He told me "25% great technique, 25% great problem solving skills and 50% being a human being." The great surgeons are able to empathise with the fellow human beings that are their patients and the family and friends of their patients.

I believe that a huge challenge of experts communicating to non-experts is that what is interesting to the expert is way over the head of the non-expert; what is interesting and relevant to the non-expert is painfully obvious and boring to the expert. However, there is nothing more important that seeking to be a human being over and above seeking to be a "doctor" or "expert" or "leader" or "professor".

The most important thing is to be a human being. JK Rowling knows this. Steve Jobs knows this. Dr Alastrue knows this.

Seven Speaking Suggestions from Reagan's Speechwriter

2010-02-21T23:22:00.000+01:00

I have just read "On Speaking Well" by Peggy Noonan, speechwriter to Ronald Reagan. She sums up persuasive speaking with seven suggestions (some good additions to my 12 tips for Public Speaking):

Be not afraid. Relax, it’s only a speech.
Think logically about the case you are making, and make it. Try to imagine your speech being reduced to a headline.
Your style shouldn’t be taller than you are. Don’t imitate. Say it the way you would say it to a friend.
The most moving thing in a speech is always the logic. Never try to make them cry, try to help them think.
Use humour when you can. No one ever left a speech saying “I hated the way she made me laugh out loud”.
Give your speech before you give it. Read a draft or two aloud to friends or family. The fifth time you give your speech will be better than the first time.
Use your own gestures, respect your own quirks. Be you. (Check out my previous blog post on 3 keys to powerful delivery)

“When you forget yourself and your fear, when you get beyond self-consciousness because your mind is thinking about what you are trying to communicate, you become a better communicator” Peggy Noonan.

How to turn around a company

2010-02-18T20:29:00.001+01:00

A couple of years ago I had some discussions with Solera Capital about taking on a role in Europe leading the change at a company called Audatex, an insurance claims adjustment business.

Solera explained their simple, three part philosophy that they apply to managment of their acquired companies:

30/30
80/20
90/10

30/30 - Every manager who controls resources is asked to come up with a workable plan to achieve 30% greater output using 30% less inputs.

80/20 - Every person in the acquired organisation is asked to drop 80% of their projects, to-dos, reports and focus on the 20% that they personally decide are the most important and valuable activities. Solera are brutal in this process - if somebody has 20 projects, they must stop 16 and focus on 4. They are not allowed to choose 5.

90/10 - If anybody does not achieve their objectives, they receive 10% of the "blame". 90% goes to their boss. The only reasons why somebody will not meet their objectives are that they a) don't understand their objectives, b) don't have the resources necesary to achieve their objectives or c) are not motivated to meet their objectives. a) is bosses' fault. b) is bosses' fault. c) is a personal fault, but the boss should have intervened and replaced the individual with somebody with the right motivation to take advantage of the opportunity.

Clear, brutal, and requires tough decisions; but highly effective looking at Solera's track record.

On goal setting. How I do it. (Do not try this at home)

2010-02-14T19:02:00.000+01:00

I was on the Air Europa flight back from Madrid sat with JC Duarte and Manuel Vidal-Quadras. At a certain point we watched as JC pulled up an impressive iPhone application that allows him to track his time. This led to a discussion about how to be effective with time. I feel that I am not effective with my time and can easily waste hours on the unimportant (facebook, searching for information on Wikipedia and reading 10 other interesting but not directly relevant web pages). I do however, tend to be good at achieving my goals. I know I could be a lot more effective, but keep myself to aim to achieve 3 important things each day.

I took some time to think about how I manage myself to achieve goals. I am interested in others' strategys and tactics to effectively achieve the important things in their lives.

Daydream & Visualise Benefits: I imagine myself in the future having accomplished the goal. I try to write a few words about this image. My top priority goal this year is write a book. I can see it available in all those airport bookshops that I pass on my travels. I am too good at this bit and can sometimes end up living in a future, better world rather than being truly present in the here and now.
Be Realistic: This is where I need to work harder. I find it easy to imagine the benefits and to be optimistic about achieving them, but hard to be realistic about the obstacles that stand in the way; and getting down to systematically overcome these obstacles. I write two significant obstacles that will make it difficult to achieve the goal. Writing a book is a lonely process - I decided that I need to write 1000 words every day - and publish a blog post about once a week.
Brainstorm: How can I overcome these obstacles? The benefits can only come about if I am serious about overcoming the obstacles. Is there a way to minimise the obstacles? How would someone else overcome these obstacles? If I can't see how to overcome the obstacles I think it is better that I admit that I am not going to achieve the goal. I am not good at this. I want to believe I can be great at everything.
Action plan: 9 years of Accenture means I can do this in my sleep. Break the goal down into actions - list the actions. Establish rewards for achieving significant progress points along the list of actions. Set dates. Write it down. I like the feeling of crossing out actions as I complete them (~~like this~~). No online tool has ever given me the same satisfaction as a big blue line drawn through the text on the page. I have hired a coach to help me with the book. We have worked on a list of chapters - completing chapters is easier than completing the whole book in one go.
Start: Just a few minutes right now.
Public Commitment: I tell people that I will accomplish a goal. I just told you that I will write a book. I also want to give a speach to an audience of 5000 people one day. I want to take my daughter to Disneyland (haven't decided Paris or Florida). I tell different people for different goals. I have some sports/fitness friends and they know that I will run a sprint triathlon this year. It would be better if I was able to let them know about the obstacles and how they could help (sometimes with a simple "come on man"; the swim is the big challenge for me in the triathlon). I attach a date to when I mean to achieve the goal. June 6 is the sprint triathlon. August is the book. I need to decide what is the best age for my daughter's first Disney experience...

My current list of life goals is on the right panel of this blog.

Why you should not be an Entrepreneur

2010-02-09T11:55:00.000+01:00

I listened to a podcast from Barry Nalebuff of Yale University and founder of drinks brand Honest Tea (sold 40% to Coke for $43Min 2008; apparently Barrack Obama's favourite drink is "Black Forest Berry") as I sat on British Airways flight BA10 from Sydney to Bangkok. He spoke compellingly of why a decision to be an entrepreneur is madness, bordering on lunacy. I added a few thoughts myself to create 6 reasons why you should not be an entrepreneur:

90% of business start-ups fail (and... yes, you really are part of this statistic)
Not all great ideas can be good businesses
You are just test marketing for the big guys. Once they see your success what do you think they are going to do?
There is no way you can compete with the big guys on cost

Purchase of raw materials 50% disadvantage
Distribution – half empty trucks, no back haul, fight for shelf space
Plants with excess capacity – because nobody wants to produce there
They get the talent
They get first offer at the best retail space, and without those guarantees that you have to sign personally

It can easily turn into a more stressful day job.
You won’t find fulfilment between 9 and 5, it is always the other 8 hours that count.

"Yeah, but I am in the 10% of successes; I must follow this path..."

You must create a brand with religious zealot customers. They are your marketing. This is the one thing that the big guys cannot take away. You cannot have a product that is 20% or 30% better. You will not have much money to advertise.
You need a brand name that is “brand-able”. (Google, Amazon, Dell, Sony...)
Mistakes will take control of the company away from you eventually. It won’t necessarily be you making the mistakes – but you will be the one needing money to deal with the mistake – and it will happen.
You are always raising money – you can never depend on having just one potential investor – you can never wait until you really need the money. Not all investors are good people. Not all investors are ethical. (Some are fantastic and I have been very lucky in this regard).
Never sign any deal with an investor that gives them right of first refusal. Be careful with drag along clauses. You will only really make money if multiple buyers get into a bidding war over your brand. Be careful with anti-liquidation clauses. Be careful with strange debt structures. Do not accidentally become a slave.
Don't let your self-worth be totally connected to the success of the company - in the end, luck will play a huge role and you will need highest energy in the tough times (when you most feel like a personal failure and you envy your friends with stable jobs in banking/corporate)

If only somebody told me seven years ago; but I know that I would not have listened as I thought that I knew it all. Any other entrepreneurs with simple lessons?

A Recipe for Luck in Life

2010-02-05T03:37:00.001+01:00

Are some people born lucky?

Richard Wiseman, author of Quirkology, describes a number of psychological experiements that he has conducted to understand the role and roots of luck in people's lives. In each case, people were asked to self-evaluate their level of luck prior to the experiments, allowing Richard to create 2 groups - the self selected "unlucky people" and the self selected "lucky people".

In your face
In the first experiment subjects were shown into a room and handed a newspaper. They were shown a couple of photos of faces and asked to look through the newspaper to see whether these people appeared in any of the photos in the newspaper.

Mid-way through the newspaper there was a half-page advertisement with the words "Mention to the Experimenter that you have seen this Advert to receive €100". A whole half page. Big letters.

Most of the self selected "unlucky people" failed to see the advert in their focus on the search for the faces.

Pass the parcel
In another experiment, 100 people registered to participate in an experiment to test the 6 degrees of separation theory. Each was sent a parcel. Their task - to get the parcel to a specific person in Coventry, but they were only allowed to send the parcel on to somebody that they knew on first name terms. The average number of degrees of separation for the parcels to reach our friend in Coventry was 4 (of the parcels that made it).

However, about 30 of the 100 people who actually took the time to register did not even send the parcel on once. Rather strange - you would go to the effort of applying to participate, and then not even sending the parcel on to anybody. And, yes, these people who didn't know who they could send the parcel on to had self selected themselves into the "unlucky people" group.

So, are some people born lucky?

Luck, no; but maybe some people are born with better peripheral vision and greater extroversion.

A Recipe for luck:

Look up and around you once in a while
Get to know a few more people

JK Rowling: The Fringe Benefits of Failure

2010-02-02T04:12:00.001+01:00

JK Rowling gave the Harvard commencement speech in 2008. I love the way she wins over the audience by speaking about her own life. She speaks powerfully about the greatest lessons that she has learnt - always from her failures.

What would JK tell her 21 year old self? "Life is not a checklist; a CV is not life. Life is difficult and complicated and beyond anyone's control."

"Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew."

"Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one".

"You might never fail on the scale that I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all in which case you fail by default."

According to the author of the Harry Potter books and the current twelfth richest woman in Britain, failure gave her something that you cannot learn in any school, through any course, but only through facing the abyss of seeing everything you thought was important taken away from you:

security in her ability to survive
strength because she saw her ability to survive really tough times
discipline to focus on the important
friends who really care, who have come through adversity

I put the video here (you will need to click through if viewing via RSS). The full text of her speech is available at the Harvard Magazine.

She finishes with ancient words of wisdom from Seneca "As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters."

The roots of violence: Rights without responsibilities.

2010-02-01T04:25:00.000+01:00

I listened to Warren Rustand speak on Leadership to the Entrepreneurs' Organisation event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia last week. Warren is a man who has fit the experiences of several lifetimes into his own - he has been in public service, in academia, involved in not-for-profits and has been chairman or CEO of 17 organisations.

He spoke of the seven blunders of the world, a handwritten note by Gandhi that he gave to his grandson Arun on their final day together, not too long before his assassination. These seven blunders are the roots of violence.

Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice
Politics without principle

An eighth was added by Ghandhi's grandson:

Rights without Responsiblities.

Number eight underlies the rest of Gandhi's "blunders".

The message from Warren's session on leadership was that life comes with responsibilities. If I see the future clearer than those around me, then I have a responsibility. If I feel more confident about the situation, then I have a responsibility. If I know more than those around me, then I have a responsibility. If I have a comfortable life, a roof over my head and food on my table, then I also have responsibilities.

Scary. I can't choose to opt out.

The sales process made simple by Blair Singer

2010-01-27T09:32:00.001+01:00

I recently heard Blair Singer speak at a seminar in Barcelona. This blog post is a summary of my notes on his session on sales. He spoke of the importance of selling ability and its influence on your income, your promotions, your relationships and ultimately where you take your life.

Every sales process is essentially the following six steps:

Find somebody with Money ("That guy looks good")
Approach and contact ("Hey, do you have a minute?")
Present and ask for the sale ("After 17 years experience with customers such as X, Y; I know our solution can be of help to you Mr Customer")
Handle objections (Turn No into Yes)

First acknowledge the objection ("I understand that you are happy with the current product")
Second ask a question ("What are the existing levels of waste?")

Close ("Excellent, the product will leave our warehouse tomorrow first thing. Cash or credit card?")
Ask for Testimonial

Before and after, story with numbers ("Before I met Conor I was unable to string 5 words together, now I regularly give powerful persuasive speeches and kids ask me for autographs")

Most people’s best sales presentation is their explanation of why they haven’t sold anything. Most salesmen think they are finished at number 5 in the process.

Blair spoke of the "pipeline" and a need to understand the numbers.Roughly, 50 calls leads to 12 conversations, leads to 6 meetings, leads to 1 sale. It will differ between products and industries but essentially there is no world in which everyone you contact will buy. Every “no” is a step closer to the sale. Every “no” opens up a moment of power. Do not fear the “no”. Do not censor yourself to avoid having your buyer say “no”. Get the “no” and then begin your objection handling process.

Energy matters and you must learn how to give yourself energy. When you are full of energy you will be able to take more risks, go the extra mile, stay when others would leave. Celebrate all wins. Jim Rohn has a nice story called “The ant philosophy”. When do ants give up? Never. They will keep going until they find a way over, around or through the obstacle. The ant philosophy is a good philosophy for humans as well.

School has taught us to fear mistakes, to fear giving the wrong answer. If you did well in school, you learned to work in that system – don’t take responsibility, don’t be too visible and don’t ever make mistakes.

SPIN Selling is a great book on high value sales by Neil Rackham. Effective high value selling (over $100) is different than low value, single decision maker sales. The aggressive salesman may be able to sell plenty of low value product, but is a failure when there is an extended sales cycle and multiple buyer decision makers. In high value sales, the key success factor is to be able to coach your buyer to be able to sell your solution when you are not there – you must help the buyer verbalise the current problem, the urgency, the needs that must be fulfilled and then connect with why your solution best meets those needs.

Three pearls of Australian management wisdom

2010-01-24T19:23:00.002+01:00

I was at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday and sat in the crowd with my friend Maurice. We watched Ricky Ponting and his Australia team score 267 runs against the Pakistan team on an overcast but warm day - perfect temperature for sitting outside.

Maurice shared with me three pearls of wisdom that had been passed down to him by an early boss:

Don't polish turds
Don't boil oceans
Hope is not a strategy

You can put glitter on a turd, but inside it will still be a turd. Life is too short to have any great success heating an entire ocean. If you don't have any idea how you're going to get there, it's unlikely that you get there.

We also talked about the best books we had read in 2009. I am running low on fiction ideas. Any thoughts?

VXPVKGJ62QU6

Five days in Saudi Arabia

2010-01-24T12:11:00.001+01:00

On Thursday evening I was sat at a low table with Maureen. “It is nice to be able to speak to people”. She clarified “At most events the majority would have had several beers by now”. “We can have a real conversation and I like that.”

I knew that Saudi Arabia was alcohol free, but it was a different thing to know and then to live it and see so many of my own cultural moments where alcohol has become part and parcel of the experience – relaxing after the last meeting with a beer, wine with food, a beer as we watch the sun go down. Diageo, Budweiser, Heineken have done a powerful job in rooting alcohol at the core of my ideas of enjoying special moments.

I woke my first morning to the call for prayers from a mosque that was six floors down outside my bedroom window. Saudi Arabia is the Muslim country – protector of the two shrines – Mecca is the centre of the universe for one billion– they know its location each time they kneel down to pray. Abraham built the shrine at Mecca – the Abraham of my bible, the Abraham who was asked to sacrifice his son. There is a security cordon 30km around the city of Mecca and only Muslims can enter. I only saw photos, and heard stories.

That Thursday night a man spoke to us in steady and clear English. He was dressed in a white thobe, a long dress shirt and a traditional desert head scarf with the black two ring snake-like bands that hold the scarf in place. This man’s thobe was not the simple sheet for everyday wear; I suppose he was in thobe formal. We were outside in the desert hills an hour from the beach at Jeddah. A friend was hosting the group at his horse and camel ranch.

The man spoke of Hajj. The fifth pillar of a Muslim’s life. The completion. Three million people a year come to spend a week following the steps of Mohammed. More would come, but Mecca, a town of three hundred thousand squeezed in between mountains cannot handle more in a safe way.

The man is a descendant of a family from Mecca that for generations has been in the vocation of serving pilgrims. There are five associations – each tasked with serving pilgrims from a different geographical region. Those that serve speak the languages of their pilgrims and take care of those on the Hajj during their time in Saudi Arabia. The three million want to be in Mecca on a specific 8 days in the Hajj month.

The man described the rituals of Hajj. “A person must be spiritually, financially and physically ready to do Hajj – it is not compulsory”. After Hajj, one is “cleansed”. This means that many leave Hajj to the last possible moment, sometimes too late.

Part of the tradition of Hajj is a visit to the central shrine. The man spoke of his habit, a habit widely shared by those who serve pilgrims, of looking not at the shrine, but at the faces of the pilgrims. He talked of an incredible moment where he knew immediately who were the first-timers. As they catch their first full image of the massive black cloth covered temple there is a paralysis, no more than 30 seconds, a whole life running by in front of your eyes in deep connection with something thought about for their entire lives.

This is a country that is a generation and a half away from an existence as tribal nomadic tent people. Oil wealth has transformed the buildings in which they live, but the culture and rules that kept peace amongst proud tribes of the desert remain. These are strict rules.

Ziad spoke to a small group on the first evening. He spoke of his life in Saudi and in the west. He spoke of a time when he was walking through a public shopping area holding the hand of his wife whose head was not covered. An old man came up to them with bright eyes and a charming smile. He said “this woman is a flower. Not all men are so lucky. Think of the others, you will make them jealous.” The religious police can be poetic.

Doctor Ghazi spoke to us of real connection between people. He spoke of the traditions of the merchant traders on the old trade routes. In his grandfather’s tented village there existed a place called the medulus, a place where all would share their meals at the end of the day and share stories; a place which allowed a deeper connection because people shared food and stories of their lives, their homes, their travels. He spoke of it not being enough for governments to speak to governments – our world needs connection between people and people. He spoke of the superficial nature of a tourist visit, and the deeper connection that happen when Saudi doctors sit with English doctors, when Saudi dentists sit with German dentists, when teachers sit with teachers and in our case when entrepreneurs spend four days together and share common desires, frustrations and challenges.

Maureen told me that she was scared to come to Saudi Arabia, was scared that she would break some rule unknowingly. When I first reached the hotel and two fully covered women entered an elevator I paused before entering thinking “is this ok to share an elevator with women?” I had a great few days and got to know interesting, thoughtful women and men from this country of oil, Islam and desert.

Tiger, Mozart and the Pogar sisters. How you too can become excellent. (World class even)

2010-01-17T18:43:00.000+01:00

Take a look around you.

Take a look at the people you work with, the people you meet at parties, even the people you just casually pass in the street.

How do they spend their days?

Most of them work. They do some other activities as well. They sleep, eat, cook, hang out with friends, watch TV, play sport and some might play an instrument. Nothing, however, comes close to the hours that they dedicate to work.

Now, ask yourself, honestly, how well do they do it? Well enough to not be sacked? Maybe well enough to get a promotion now and then? But are any of them awesomely great at what they do? Truly world class? Excellent?

Why? How can they spend so much time at it, going through school, through university, maybe even an MBA, some executive seminars, coaching, mentors, high-flyer programs… but they are not great at what they do.

Why?

Some people have been working for a long time. They have been going at it for 20, 30 even 40 years. After all these thousands of hours most people are just plain ok at what they do.

This is sad.

I am currently reading “Talent is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin. This is a well referenced book on what does in fact lead to great performance.

“Being good at what we want to do – playing the violin, running a race, painting a picture, leading a group of people – is among the deepest sources of fulfillment we will ever know. ” Geoff Colvin.

So, what does lead to great performance? What is the secret that Tiger Woods, Mozart, Jack Welsh, Steve Jobs have found?

First, let me tell you what it is not due to:

Experience (alone)
Innate abilities
High general intelligence, powerful memory or other “general” cognitive ability.

Let me now tell you what 30 years of scientific research say it is due to:

Deliberate Practice.

What is deliberate practice? “For starters, it isn’t what most of us do when we’re practicing” Geoff Colvin. The key piece of scientific literature on this subject is “The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance” by Anders Ericsson.

There are five things that characterize Deliberate Practice:

It is designed specifically to improve performance
It can be repeated a lot
Feedback on results is continuously available
It is highly demanding mentally
It is not fun

A note on Tiger, Mozart and the Polgar sisters (top 3 female chess players): It was due to something they were born with: Their fathers. Earl Woods was a golf fanatic and an expert in the process of teaching. Leopold Mozart published the leading book on violin instruction in the year his son was born. Lazlo Polgar wrote “Bring up Genius” before marrying and deliberately putting into practice his theories with his three daughters.

I finish with a sentence for my friend Piero in response to a profound statement that he managed to use in normal conversation “the zero point field that sustains the energy of the universe”. In the words of a group of scientists investigating talent: “Whatever it is that an IQ test measures, it is not the ability to engage in cognitively complex forms of multivariate reasoning”.

They are saying of course, that high IQ doesn’t help you succeed in the real world. If you are interested I will write more on the three models of deliberate practice: The musician model, the chess model and the sports model. Only if you are interested...

Feel in control of your life? You will live longer. It's science.

2010-01-14T23:22:00.001+01:00

I was reading a book by Professor Richard Wiseman (nice name for a professor) where he quotes a study by Ellen Langer of Harvard University.

Half of the residents in a nursing home were given a houseplant and asked to look after it.

The other half were given an identical plant but told that the staff would take responsibility for it.

Six months later, the group who were taking care of their plant were significantly more happy, healthy and active than the other group. Even more impactful, 30% of the residents who had not cared for their plant had died, compared to 15% of the group who were taking care of the plant.

Does meaning come from excellent execution or excellent execution from shared mission and vision?

2010-01-13T18:54:00.001+01:00

Should we focus on the ends to improve the means or focus on the means to improve the ends?

On Monday I spent a couple of hours at IESE in a research seminar where Harvard Professor Julie Battiliana presented her research on professional and organisational identity in two Bolivian commercial microfinance institutions.

BancoSol and Banco los Andes were both created in the early nineties in order to provide financial services to a large group of people that had never had access to banking services before. They both target urban and rural poor who have no fungible collateral and need to borrow amounts under $1,000 to improve their incomes.

When these organisations were started, they both faced an important foundational question: Who do we hire? Who can sell our loans, evaluate customer capacity to repay, define terms, approve loans and (most challenging) collect on loans in arrears?

BancoSol took a strategy of hiring existing talent - they hired existing loan officers from commercial banks alongside social workers from existing NGOs. The bankers would bring financial expertise and the social workers would bring the right attitudes towards the mission to assist poor who had no previous access to bank finance. The employee induction and early training focussed around mission and values. The CEO would regularly remind staff that they were doing "the most important work in Bolivia".

Banco los Andes bank took a very different strategy - they hired new graduates direct from college and put them through extensive process training. The focus of the training was on following a strict process.

A loan officer in commercial microfinance is a tough job - it requires the ability to be "caring but firm". A typical day in the life of a Bolivian microfinance loan officer would be as follows:

Morning - (marketing) spend time in local markets making contact with stall keepers and traders
Afternoon - (sales) visit specific people in their place of work or home
Late afternoon - (collections) visit customers whose loans were in arrears
Evening - (review, approve) in the office preparing and approving paperwork

One of these organisations became a great success and its company policies and procedures have become the basis for most of the world's commercial microfinance organisations today. The other had to make major structural changes and was stuck with intractable group identity conflicts.

Banco los Andes with its strategy of hiring new graduates and training them intensively in operations was the success. The intense focus on quality of execution allowed a pride and shared identity to arise in the staff of Banco los Andes.

BancoSol never reconciled the bankers and the social workers and had two groups who identified more with "banker" or "social worker" than BancoSol. The bankers thought the social workers were unprofessional "idiots" who didn't understand commercial reality. The social workers thought the bankers lacked an ability to deal with customers as people.

My reflections as I sat and listened to this discussion about tension in organisations, professional vs organisational identity was that it is excellence in our work that allows true meaning and shared purpose to arise. It is not enough as a leader to give nice speeches about mission and vision - there must be a relentless unwillingness to accept anything less than excellent execution. It is not enough to sit in the tower and think, there must be a systematic getting out into the world and ensuring that processes are correct, quality is high and people are being held accountable for their goals.

A presentation on the presentation secrets of Steve Jobs

2010-01-11T00:00:00.001+01:00

I would place Steve Jobs way up there in my list of powerful public speakers. I think Steve is somebody well worth study because his presentations are so powerful because of how much hard work he puts in to making them that great.

Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Barrack Obama are great speakers but somehow less useful to us mere mortals to study because such a huge part of their power comes from their intrinsic charisma - and it is extremely difficult for you or me to just become as charismatic as Barrack, Bill or Ronald by following a set of instructions.

I would like to credit Sticky Slides, the blog of Jan Schultink for the link to this presentation.

Those of you viewing via subcription/RSS feeds may need to view the original post here.

And for a bonus, one of the greatest ever speeches (IMHO): here is a link to Ronald Reagan's speech on the Challenger space shuttle disaster.

How to pitch a brilliant idea

2010-01-09T16:16:00.002+01:00

The conclusion: it doesn't matter how good the idea, it matters what the "buyer" thinks of you as a person in the first few seconds of your pitch.

I have just read "How to Pitch a Brilliant idea" by Kimberly Elsbach in the Harvard Business Review. In 150 miliseconds a "buyer" will have categorized you in one of seven stereotypes - only three of which will allow you to have a chance of selling them on your brilliant idea.

Kimberly has looked at the film industry, venture capital and entrepreneurs and within the corporate world. In these environments only 1-3% of ideas make it beyond the initial pitch. What does it take for somebody with a brilliant idea to get it noticed, financed and implemented?

"When a person we don't know pitches an idea to us, we search for visual and verbal matches with those implicit models, remembering only the characteristics that identify the pitcher as one type or another. We subconciously award points to people we can easily identify as having creative traits; we subtract points from those who are hard to assess or who fit negative stereotypes." Kimberly Elsbach.

The seven stereotypes that Kimberly developed that are relevant in the pitch of an idea to a "buyer" who has not met us before are:

The three positive stereotypes

Showrunner: Looks the part, comes with a successful track record, delivers the idea with a great interactive performance that engages the "buyer" in the idea.
Artist: Displays single minded passion but not as polished as the showrunner, tend to be shy or socially awkward (a sense that they are living in their own internal world)
Neophyte: The opposite of showrunners - they know they need help and present themselves as eager learners (never looking desperate).

The four negative stereotypes

Pushover: Look like they are trying to "unload" an idea rather than own it and run with it.
Robot: Presents sticking to a formulaic script as if it had been memorized from a how-to book.
Used-car salesman: Argumentative and slightly obnoxious (standard issue from the consulting world or large corporate sales department). Fails to treat the "buyer" as a partner, to turn the sale into a collaborative process. Arrogant.
Charity case: Needy. As soon as he senses rejection begins pleading with the "buyer" that he really needs just one small sale. In reality is not selling an idea but looking for a job.

The only stereotypes which have a chance of the "buyer" engaging are showrunner, artist and neophyte. If you manage to present the visual, audible, dress clues that lead a potential buyer to categorize you outside of these three categories, you will not sell your idea.

One key to the three successful stereotypes is a positive, proactive engagement of the buyer in the development of the idea during the pitch process.

What stereotype do you get categorized into by people on the first impression? It is unlikely to be showrunner (there are really very few of these types out there). So are you a pushover? Are you a used-car salesman? The only thing that you cannot be is nothing... You will be categorized.

The very latest in neuroscience: Mirror Neurons and "The Great Leap Forward"

2010-01-06T00:10:00.002+01:00

The brain: 3 pounds, you could hold it in the palm of your hand... but it can contemplate the vastness of the universe, the reason for its own existance or why I am writing this post at midnight when I need to be up at 5am tomorrow.

How?

There are 100 billion neurons in the adult human brain, each with between 1,000 and 10,000 connections. (That's lots).

Giacomo Rizzolatti discovered the existence of mirror neurons in the late 1990s in the frontal lobes of macaque monkeys, and later confirmed their existence in the human brain. About 20% of the neurons in the front, intentional, human cortex are these mirror neurons. Leading neuro-scientists including V.S. Ramachandran (great TED talk here) consider mirror neurons one of the most important recent discoveries in neuroscience.

The majority of the human frontal lobe is made up of motor neurons. Motor neurons fire when I reach out and grab something. Mirror neurons fire when I watch somebody else reach out and grab something.

For 400,000 years the human brain has had its current shape and form, but something arose 75,000 years ago that allowed the extremely rapid spread of human culture, allowing "The Great Leap Forward" in human society - the emergence and rapid spread of human culture - tool use, language, shelter, theory of mind. Some speculate that the development of 20% of frontal lobe dedicated to mirror neurons was what allowed the rapid spread of culture - humans could learn not just from doing, but from watching somebody else doing.

There are mirror neurons for action, also for touch. These motor neurons will fire simply when I watch somebody else being touched.

How do I not get confused?

Touch and pain receptors "veto" the mirror neuron. But, if my arm is anaesthetised or if I have lost my limb, the touch and pain receptors do not veto and I will feel the sensation of touch even though it is only that I am watching another person being touched. This happens to people who have lost a limb in traffic accidents.

So there actually is some type of universal consciousness - I am feeling what my neighbours are feeling. I am emersed in a some sort of meta-social type of consciousness. "This is not mumbo-jumbo philosophy, this emerges from neuroscience" VS Ramachandran.

The thought is that the existence of these mirror neurons will start to allow us to understand how consciousness arises. Some say that psychology/neuroscience will be to this century what physics was to the last.

What will be the 20XX advances in neuroscience that compare to the 19XX advances such as radio, industrialization, electrical power or nuclear energy?

Its not what you do but how people perceive what you do

2010-01-03T14:43:00.001+01:00

I came across the concept of Personal Branding via the blog of Dan Schwabel about 6 months ago and have been a regular reader of his blog. Some ideas have been percolating up through my unconsciousness and drifted into consciousness during a day skiing with my friend Javi. (Thanks to Ana, Piero and friends for inspiring the early morning start and a fine dinner in Andorra).

The concept we discussed is that it does not matter how hard you work or how brilliant you are, but how others perceive your work or your brilliance.

There are two types of people in the world:

Category One: this person works really hard and achieves a lot - but bosses and peers say, "yeah, but that was an easy client" "yeah, but he had an easy project". Category one people never really get the credit for the work that they are doing.
Category Two: this person works just as hard and achieves a lot - and bosses and peers say, "he always turns things around" "We knew that he would make the difference". Category two tends to get more credit than is really due from those around them.

I was lucky back in 1995 to begin my career with Accenture working on a project at Nationwide Buiding Society with the best manager that I have had. Michael was a humble, smart and innovative consultant and I spent the first two years of my career working directly for him on a range of exciting, leading-edge projects at Shell, Nat West and the Labour party (pre-power). He knew how to get the best out of me and keep me engaged and running at 95% (he was great at recognising somebody who was "coasting along" at 60-70% of their potential and saying "you are capable of better than this"; see David Maister on professionalism in Professional Services Firms).

Due to his coaching and unwillingness to take anything but my best, I was rated the highest possible rating upon my promotion to consultant. The next 7 years at Accenture, I had it easy because when I showed up on a project, the senior Accenture people would say "you guys are lucky to get this guy, he is a 'band one'". If the team that I was on did well, the senior people would say "great that we put Conor in there". If the team I was on did poorly, the senior people would say "the objectives were unclear" "the project was over ambitious". It was like my own guardian angel. I was incredibly lucky. I had done nothing to seek out a guardian angel, but found that I did have one. (It was also unfair many times when I was not at my best and was receiving credit for some Category One's hard work).

My reflections and discussions on the ski slope with Javi (who has great experience in Bain and Banco Santander) were that:

The first few months in a new company matter more than any other time in your career
The first boss really matter (each time you change company)
You can only switch from Category One to Category Two by changing company. It is almost imposible to re-position yourself once you have been "branded".
The more senior we get, the less we can leave this personal branding process to chance

Do you have a strategy to manage your personal brand? What can you do in the first 90 days? What type of boss would be your best first boss in each new company? Are you currently in Category One or Category Two? If you are in Category One when will you change job?

There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does

2009-12-30T00:24:00.002+01:00

Yep, I have been watching more TED talks. This time... Daniel Pink. Thanks to Tim for the link.

Daniel Pink describes a 1945 Karl Duncker social science experiment called the Candle Problem. Subjects are shown into a room and given the objects as seen in the image to the right and are asked to attach the candle to the wall so that the wax does not drip onto the table. People start by trying all sorts of ways of melting the candle base and sticking it to the wall with the thumb tacks.

The solution is here. but... think just a little bit before you go there ;-)

The interesting part of the experiment comes when Doctor Karl introduced incentives. Group A are first told that that they will be timed to establish averages for how long it takes to solve the problem. Group B are told that they will be timed and the top 25% will receive $5, and the top, fastest time of the day will receive $20.

How should it work? Which group should be fastest? This experiment has been replicated multiple times over 40 years. The results are always the same. One of the groups is a degree worse, averaging three and a half minutes worse than the other.

Incentives should work... Bonuses, performance pay... "If - then" rewards

But they don't work here. Group B, the incentivised lot, are three and a half minutes worse.

Three and a half minutes worse than the non-incentivized Group A. Why does this happen? How could this be? How can these incentives not work?

The candle problem requires lateral, creative thinking... it is non-obvious. If you have looked at the solution, it is not directly clear.

"There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does" Daniel Pink.

What type of work is being outsourced to "cheaper" locations? It is the process driven, clear step by step type work. What type of work is not being outsourced? Creative, non-obvious, lateral thinking type work.

Direct incentives don't deliver improved performance in creative, non-obvious problem, lateral thinking type work. What does? I recommend you watch the video and see Dan tell you the three things that really do improve performance in the type of work that most professional people are engaged in:

Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose

How we fool ourselves brilliantly and how Dwight D. Eisenhower became President

2009-12-27T00:10:00.000+01:00

Most days are much the same. However, great changes in our world don't come from normal days - they are driven by the extreme events, the outliers. Something like 70% of all the drops in the US stock exchanges are due to 6 particular days of extreme share price drops. The course of my own life has not been a steady journey along a clearly defined route... 4 or 5 key days, 3 or 4 chance meetings - this is what has shaped the most important contents of my life so far and the trajectory for the future. This blog post has been inspired by my reading of Nassim Taleb's book "The Black Swan: The impact of the Highly Improbable".

I read the biography of Eisenhower in 2002 when I was studying for my MBA. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the lowest ranked of his whole West Point class at the age of 42. He had been passed over for promotion to Colonel twice and was now based on the island of Guam, in the middle of nowhere, and he did not get along with his boss. Acording to his son, he was trying on pairs of jeans and getting used to the idea of civilian life.

On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese navy bombed the US Pacific Fleet based in Pearl Harbour, definitively bringing the US into the second world war. General George C Marshall coordinated the US response to the Japanese attack. I recall reading that over the next 3 days, Marshall invited many generals, strategists, politicians so that he could brief them and then ask "how do you recomend we respond?"

One of Marshall's administrative staff had been on a West Point course on military strategy led by Eisenhower. In a total cooincidence, Eisenhower was passing through Hawaii on his way to the US. The guy on the administrative staff told Marshall that a certain general had not shown up for his appointment - and suggested that Marshall spend some time with Eisenhower instead. Marshall said ok and Eisenhower was shown in. Marshall briefed Eisenhower on the Japanese bombing and asked "how do you recomend we respond?". Eisenhower's response was "give me these 4 guys and 24 hours and I will give you my answer."

The next day Eisenhower described to Marshall his plan, covering logistical response, political response, military response, communications response... and Marshall said "Good. Now do it." Eisenhower was promoted on the spot and given command. This moment led to his appointment as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. His plans and execution allowed the allies to win the war. In 1953, he was elected President of the United States and won a second term in 1956.

If Eisenhower had not been passing through the island of Hawaii on 8th December 1941, how would his life have turned out? Who would have been the 34th President of the United States? What would Dwight D. Eisenhower have accomplished in civilian life? A factory supervisor? Maybe a middle manager at GE? Or is destiny so powerful that he would have found a route to Presidency through another path? (I seriously doubt it).

According to Taleb in "The Black Swan", the human mind suffers from three ailments when it comes to looking back and understanding history, or even the events that shape our own personal history:

The illusion of understanding: Plato, Newton, many scientists have discovered simple rules that predict the way the universe works. I have a preference for simple formulae that predict behaviour. I love to generalise from my experience. The world is more complicated (or random) than the simple models we would like to use. Nando Parrado talks about the biggest decision in his life being the choice of seat 9B on an airplane 36 years ago (see my previous post on Nando Parrado here).
The distortion of hindsight: we underplay luck in our analysis of the past. We seek hindsight validation of why Google is number 1, why Starbucks has 14,000 stores and another Seattle coffee shop is still just that, why one person becomes rich whilst another becomes poor - and we latch on to the simple models that we then try to generalise and apply. Each case of success is due to a massive quantity of luck (well discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers"), combined with some decent input ingredients (that are well worthy of study and copy).
The overvaluation of authoritive people: they know lots about the past... but the future is not going to be just like the past - yet we shut down our brains and listen blindly when "the expert" walks into the room. They are the type of people who would say that there is no such thing as a purple cow. You will not see what you are not looking for, especially if you do not believe that it could exist. (watch this 60 sec video first - and tell me how many passes of the basketball are completed by the white team).

So, if prediction of the future is impossible, should we close down business schools, history courses, cancel company strategy planning sessions?

I would say "no way".

I love a quote of Winston Churchill on planning: "The plan isn't worth the paper it is written on; however, the process of planning is priceless". We don't have plans because they necessarily turn out just so - we have plans so that a team of people have shared goals, ideas and passions. They may exceed their plan or fail miserably in following their plan - but the fact that they work together as a team is important. The chances of success without a goal is very low. The chances of success with a goal and a bit of luck are greater.

My other conclusion is that the worst thing that business schools can create are "experts". If a professor runs a class as if they and they alone have the answer then we are failing. If an MBA comes out feeling that he or she is an "expert" then we have failed. If they come out with integrity, ideas, the ability to inspire, motivate and work well with other people, perserverance... then we have succeeded.

My final question... how do I get more luck? Happy Christmas and I wish you all a healthy, happy and fun 2010.

Persuasive Speaking. The four types of audience.

2009-12-20T01:18:00.002+01:00

I am a regular user of Apple iTunes University. On the late night Aer Lingus flight over from Barcelona to Dublin yesterday, I was listening to Jeffrey Anderson of Regent University deliver a lecture on Persuasive Communication. I like his thinking on audience analysis.

There are four types of audience, and consequent persuasive strategy that you can come upon when you are seeking to move a group to action through your speech.

Friendly. Your purpose: reinforcing their beliefs.
Apathetic. Your purpose is to first to convince them that it matters for them.
Uninformed. Your requirement is to educate before you can begin to propose a course of action.
Hostile. You purpose is to respect them and their viewpoint. The most you may be able to gain is respect to listen to your views. It is key that you can present some information that is viewed as new to the audience before asking for any change in their position. This is firstly courteous, but also gives the listener's ego room to change without feeling demeaned ("based on this new information, I ask you to change")

When providing new information it is vital that you help the listeners "assimilate". How can you make it real for them? There are a number of techniques to bear in mind.

Use stories (ideally real stories), metaphors, hypothetical situations
Stress common ground
Present statistics/data that is clear to conclude from
Address conflicting evidence (what are the strengths and weaknesses of the conflicting evidence)
AVOID exageration or gross hyperbole. The use of exageration in a number of areas of public debate has caused extreme entrenchment of the opposing sides. eg. abortion, climate change. The persuasive speaker works hard to keep to the facts and be clear about the logic of the proposed course of action.

What matters most? What is your word for 2010?

2009-12-14T23:58:00.004+01:00

Seth Godin asked a group of thought-provoking people to provide a word (and a 200 word essay) on what they're thinking about as the new year rolls in. He's turned that into a pdf called What Matters Now. Read more about the project at Seth's blog.

I have embedded a version of the document hosted at Scribd.com. Those viewing via subscription may need to click through to original post here. I like page 32 "Evangelism", page 50 "Change" and page 59 "Fascination". A good read that I found from the book is Tony Hseih "Poker" (Full article: Everything I learned about Business I learnt from Poker)

The PDF is free. You can view it in the embedded Scribd player above or you can download it here. Inside you will find articles by such writers as:

… and many others. Big thoughts and small actions make a difference. What is your big thought and corresponding small action(s) for 2010? Feel free to write your word and 200 word essay in the comments...