Feign Some Fear

Here's a quick fun follow up to last week's "Flight or Fight" post.

Some animals have learned the right thing to do is to "Feign Some Fear".

Some of my most popular presentations and workshops

In the past few years I have done dozens of presentations and workshops for clients in addition to my regular consulting work. It's important to be both informative and entertaining. I find people learn better when they get involved in something interesting that they haven't seen before, so all my materials involve a lot of interaction, novelty and humor.

Here's a sample of some of the most popular...

...and if you would like to see some of the client feedback click here.


What Matters Most…
It is not about being task focused or people focused. It is about being both task focused and people focused … and having the integrity to do both all the time.

Fight or Flight? What About The Other Five F’s?
An entertaining look at what people really do when confronted with change, (and how best to deal with them.)

If The World Is Flat, What’s With All The Spikes?
People are bombarded daily with messages and technologies that go unnoticed. What makes a few so successful?

Complex Sales In A Sound-Bite Market.
Who can you trust in a world gone mad? Cutting through the hype to make the complex sale.

What Really Makes A Senior Executive?
Insights from coaching and providing feedback for over 200 VPs, CEOs and other “interesting” people.

Reviewing The Non-Financials Makes Good Business Sense.
Many mergers and acquisitions provide little improvement in performance or value. A cultural due diligence improves the chances of success.

Finding The Right Direction Shouldn’t Be Hard.
Getting strategy right is not as complicated as consultants make it out to be. It certainly shouldn’t be as complicated as they want you to believe.

Five Questions For Your Executive Coach.
A good coach is probably the best thing you can do for your professional development.

Life Is A Marathon

Last week, after a three year break, I completed my sixth marathon in the seven years I have been in the US. It was a cold, rainy day and many of the crowds and cheerleaders stayed away. I timed the run well and with an hour to go I could have walked and still beaten the sweep car. I came in with time to spare, and I think I feel better than any of my other marathons.

Before I say anything else I want to thank a few people who made it possible.




First there is my charming and beautiful wife! Genevieve is a source of perpetual inspiration. If I were half as good as half the things Gen says I would be Superman! Gen cycled and drove around the course cheering, delivering snacks and supplying motivation.


Then she brought me home, poured me a beer and made lunch. What more could you ask for?



This is my mother-in-law. Camille doesn't like having photos taken! However, she likes taking photos, and has snapped many of the photos that end up here. Camille came out in the pouring rain and brought me hot coffee and warm gloves. Good-on-ya Camille.







This is the rest of my US family. Elvis is my little brother from the BigBrotherBigSister program. We have known each other for just about all of the seven years I have been in America. Here is a photo of him now with his new wife, Andrea, and new little Elvis, Jnr. Little Brother Elvis is not so little now. BBBS is about providing support and mentoring, and maybe a positive role model. However, Elvis has been a really positive influence in my life, probably more than I have been in his. He is a great young man and it makes me feel good to think I have been lucky enough to have been "adopted" by him.


Vincent Francoul, the best French Chef in the Twin Cities, and probably the whole of the US, also ran the marathon, and then did a special paella dinner for a bunch of us who were recovering. Way to go! For him and all my other American, Australian and global friends and clients who sent their good wishes: THANK YOU.

26.2 miles is a long way and you have a lot of time to think as you slog around the course. It's nice to achieve something, and nicer still to have friends and family and a strong network to support you and help you along the way. I am pleased with what I did and grateful for all the help.

And before you ask my time, (which was pretty slow), here's a quick joke.


Q: What do you call the last person to cross the line?
A: A marathon runner.

The dead horses of strategy

Sometimes as a consultant I find myself called in to help clients who can best be described as caught in the act of flogging a dead horse. When that happens you don't need a consultant. You need a new horse. (Of course, a good consultant can find you a new horse or a better form of transport. That's another story.)






In case you're not open to that, here's a time honored list of consultants' favorite alternatives:

• Buy a stronger whip.
• Change riders.
• Say things like "This is the way we always have ridden this horse."
• Appoint a committee to study the horse.
• Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
• Rewrite the standards for dead horse performance: "Stability is good."
• Appoint a dead horse revival team.
• Hope for spontaneous horse revival.
• Create a training session on riding dead horses.
• Compare the state of dead horses in today's environment.
• Change the requirements declaring that "This horse is not dead."
• Hire contractors, (or consultants), to ride the dead horse for you.
• Harness several dead horses together to increase speed and pulling power.
• Declare that "No horse is too dead to beat."
• Provide additional incentive funding to increase the horse's performance.
• Purchase a software product to make dead horses run faster.
• Declare the horse is "better, faster and cheaper" dead.
• Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
• Say this horse was procured with cost and performance as independent variables.
• Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
• Shorten the track.
• Establish industry benchmarks for dead-horse leaders.
• Gather other dead animals and announce a diversity program.
• Put together a PowerPoint presentation to get planners to double the dead-horse R&D budget.
• Create a spreadsheet and graphs showing how much cheaper deadhorses are because they don't eat much and never complain about poor working conditions.
• Get the horse a website.

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