Monthly Archives: November 2008

Having just completed conducting the 11th Million Dollar Consulting® College, and always learning more than anyone else, I’ll share some insights:

• If you don’t understand something, do two things. First, question it immediately, because otherwise the ensuing structure will have a weak foundation. Second, try to apply it in your circumstances to integrate the learning.
• People learn in different ways, so notes, recordings, mind maps, and holographic telepathy are all fine with me. But if you don’t have three things (or less) emphasized for you to move forward at the end of the day, you may have quantity but nto quality.
• The 1% solution: tools for change® says that if you improve by 1% a day, in 70 days you’re twice as good. But if you don’t learn carefully and instead become confused, the opposite can actually occur. People can get dumber.
• When creating pragmatic representations of conceptual images, whether brands or graphics or process visuals, it is ALWAYS better to work with a small team you trust for quicker and higher quality results.
• Failing, and learning as a result, among peers is better than mindlessly succeeding among inferiors.
• Emotion is as important as intellect in integrating learning.
• The female advantage in learning: less ego investment and more openness. The male advantage: less tendency to take disagreement personally and to focus on the issue not the person.
• Groups don’t bond through dumb ice-breaking exercises. They bond through sharing challenge, contributions, disagreements, and socializing.
• All groups claim that they want to stay in touch and reconnect. The ones that do most successfully always have an organizer or organizers who take on that responsibility.
• If the facilitator isn’t learning constantly, he or she should go into another line of work. Simply doing something well and receiving plaudits is like watching people applaud a movie you’ve already made years ago.

I’m asked why I left organizational consulting after such success, and my reply is that I got bored, because there are primarily 11 things that are going on, and to say to a CEO, “It’s numbers 3, 7, and 10, that will be $245,000,” was not going to fly.

1. Leadership is inept in that key people are not serving as avatars of the behavior they are seeking in others.
2. Team building is sought when, in actuality, the organization has committees and needs committees, not teams.
3. There are silos headed by powerful people defending turf.
4. Problem solving is prized over innovation and “black belt nine delta” nonsense takes over people’s minds like a bad science fiction movie from the 50s.
5. There is excessive staff interference instead of support, typically from HR, finance, IT, and/or legal.
6. There are too many meetings that take too long and are overwhelmingly focused on sharing information, the worst possible reason to have a meeting. The organization’s talent and energy are squandered internally instead of applied externally.
7. The customer’s perceptions of the organization’s products, services, and relationships are different from the organization’s perception.
8. The reward and feedback systems are not aligned with strategy and are not encouraging and discouraging the appropriate behaviors.
9. Strategy and planning are mistaken for each other.
10. Career development and succession planning are not wedded.
11. The organization is bureaucratic, in that is focuses on means and not ends.

© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.

I’m at the Million Dollar Club at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida (relocated after Hurricane Omar closed the Four Seasons in Nevis) We’re having a great time and being treated royally.

We work only in the mornings, so Maria and I were on the beach this afternoon, where we’ve seen turtles, dolphins, all kinds of birds, and fish. (One of our group, Guido Quelle, saw a shark.)

I watched a flight of three pelicans race by my entrenched position in single file. When the first bird changed its orientation—flapping wings, or gliding without flapping—the second and then third bird in line did the same in sequence with the discipline of an air force acrobatic team.

I don’t know if each bird sensed a change in currents a second apart, or if the bird behind simply emulated the attitude of the bird in front of it. But I do know this, having observed the maneuvers a dozen times by the time I left the beach: The third bird was always the last to change.

What order do you want to fly in?

Many racers, whether race car drivers, or cyclists, or marathoners, try to “draft” by allowing the person ahead to bear the brunt of the wind and resistance, and gain a bit of relief by cruising in their wake. That may save energy when you’re racing, but you can’t win in third place and you can’t see very well what’s up front when you’re staring at someone else’s caboose.

I’d rather be the lead bird, taking my chances with the currents and thermals, being nimble and quick, and finding the destination before those behind me.

Guess which bird saw the fish first?

© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.