At the very simplest, a story is: A character Who wants something Overcomes obstacles to get it An epic story is A character Who wants something massive And is willing to risk everything to get it The real depth of any story is not whether the character achieves the goal but who they become as … Read more
I often use an exercise called The Lifeline in my teaching. I found a good summary of the exercise here. In the exercise people reflect on the important positive and negative experiences of their life. Something that has struck me after all these years of watching groups work on the exercise – it is the … Read more
It is easy to point out why things are wrong. It is easy to point out why someone or some policy is flawed. It is easy to make a list of reasons why you should not do something. You only get to do this cynicism* if you can tell me one thing that you are … Read more
Everyone wants to be Bruce Lee, but few want to put in the 10,000 (or more) hours of practice and preparation. It is only when the bar is held high that we can consistently put in the practice and push our skills to the highest levels. What makes for an ‘A’ Player? The simplest possible … Read more
When we all end up doing what nobody wanted to do I was out at a dinner with a large group of friends recently. At the end of the night I overheard two people talking about a local beach party. One said “these beach parties are a big thing here in Spain.” The other said … Read more
Toastmasters is a wonderful organisation for anybody who wishes to improve their ability to speak with impact. However, there is something that has often challenged me with the “best” toastmaster speeches. They are very clearly the work of someone who has worked very, very, very hard on the words, gestures and voice that they use … Read more
When I worked at Accenture, we were often in the business of identifying the existing business processes and then analysing how we would enable these processes with technology. Sometimes it was putting a mobile phone purchase process onto Siebel CRM, sometimes it was putting insurance sales onto SAP ERP. A senior partner used to say … Read more
I summarised my 11 Jedi Productivity Posts series in a short visual presentation: The presentation was awarded Slideshare “Top Presentation of the Day”. Thanks to all the “like”s 😉 The full Jedi Productivity Series:
This is a humorous but impactful video that will help remind you forever that people want to feel understood, not to have their problems solved. I was at Entrepreneurs’ Organisation Global Leadership Conference last week in Athens. One of the closing speakers was Hedy Schliefer. She spoke on the art of deeply connecting with another person. … Read more
I came across this paragraph in a blog post by sales professional Grant Cardone. “No one buys a $57,000 watch to tell time. People buy things to solve problems. The cost of the item isn’t what matters. Once the buyer is able to see the problem the product solves, their decision becomes much easier to … Read more