CONVERTING YOUR NAYSAYERS INTO SOLUTION-BUILDERS I’ve done many stakeholder consultation projects for a variety of clients. Consultations are an important and growing component of aligning organizations, both public and private with the community they represent or serve. The simple, clearest reason for stakeholder consultations is to make strategic and tactical decisions more effective and efficient. In the past, stakeholder consultations have been viewed by some as a necessary encumbrance and, as such, may not have been as effectively leveraged. Why? [...]

Good reasons why you must build your personal brand A group of business professionals met May 18, 2010 to discuss: ‘Our Underdeveloped Personal Brand: Crafting and Leveraging it in the Market’ What are examples of success of personal brands within the group? • Personal brand is growing, one person at a time. Many connections occur through Twitter, Facebook and social media outlets. Conversation and interactions are fluid and people end up “sticking” • Personal brand has offered excellent consistency over [...]

Change happens in an ad agency just about every hour. Tim Hammond, an exceptional leader talks about balancing the many things that it takes to lead the agency which he runs. He reminds us of the Solution Focus principal that when things look really chaotic to your staff ‘Things are working far more than you realize’ How often does change happen for you and what do you do to make sense of chaos? Please comment below…

I recently wrote that researchers should pay more attention to what works. I have the same message for not-for-profit organizations. Many NFP’s are trying to solve problems based on their ideology, not the real needs of those they serve. Many presume they are the experts in improving the lives of those in need – their way. But, they don’t spend enough time understanding the real need of the consumer of they support offered. They take the perspective of the rescuer, [...]

Here’s a story I told a group of middle managers I was training yesterday…. Have you heard about the manager and the monkeys? The manager is sitting in her/his office when staff arrive at the door. The staff look unhappy because they have monkeys (metaphor for problems) chattering on their shoulders. Sometime later we see the staff leaving the manager’s office looking relieved. Where are the monkeys? They’re on the shoulders of the manager who has decided consciously or not [...]

I’ve been listening a lot to researchers for a long time. In my long-ago advertising days researchers were not very well regarded because in their drive to be useful, (i.e., objective), to our marketing clients they would often tell you what was wrong with the ad being tested, but there seemed little regard for the whole. They would break it down into its component parts and explain which parts were OK, then move quickly the parts which ‘needed some work’. [...]

I’m in the middle of a cross-Canada consultation with young people asking them questions about their faith. Aside from the surprising degree to which many practice their faith, i.e., in private and certainly not part of organized religion, I am reminded that if you ask the right questions the customer will always surprise and delight you with insights. Had we not asked the questions in this way I’m not sure we’d have found out what they actually think about their [...]