Words
The Sunday Dispatches archive...
The devil in the detail
Some consultants have a talent for seeing the devil in the detail. They’re masters at analysis, finding patterns and describing trends. They make the complex simpler to understand. That’s the highly desirable capability their clients pay them for. Yet, when they come to selling consultancy, these same consultants
The power of nothing
A recent group facilitation reminded me how hard it can be to reach decisions collectively. Watching the group struggle I wanted to intervene, to help. I managed to stop myself (just) because I realised that doing nothing might be more useful. It’s hard, doing nothing. Watching a group struggle
A brief review that turns failures on their head
Do you have a recent failure that keeps playing on your mind? Perhaps it was a client conversation that didn’t go too well, or a sales opportunity you invested a lot of time in, then lost, or a negotiation where you feel you gave away too much. Whatever the
4 steps that dramatically increase results from meetings
This weeks article is short and sweet. I've been teaching this to consultants for years, now it's time to share it here. Here’s a four step process that can dramatically increases results from client meetings. -- Step 1. Decide your outcomes in advance. At times I
Someone speaks and nobody listens ... is that communication.
The Power of Listening, a Ted talk by William Ury coauthor of Getting to Yes my favourite book about negotiation.
How predictable is your performance?
One of the ‘thinking games’ I play with clients during the annual planning process is called “What’s predictable? What’s possible?” The first time I played the game was at a group strategic offsite in York. Attending were a group of service managers who had a small SAP business
The biggest mistake groups make at strategy workshops
I facilitate two distinctly different types of offsite workshops. One focused on group dynamics and the processes people use for working together. One focused on business strategy. If the group are feeling brave we might mix the two together. During the business strategy workshops we'll define the general
Personal impact
So, a final thought for 2015. How clear is it for you ... what you must do ... to create the future you want?
Selling is a game
Have you noticed how a label begets behaviours? Children get labelled naughty. Adults difficult. Dogs dangerous. And because humans have a tendency to generalise things (see I’m doing that now) the child is seen as always naughty, the adult as intractably difficult, and of course all dogs are dangerous.
What to do when a deal stalls.
This week a mentoring client has a deal that’s stalled. The prospect put them off until the new year. They’ve given two reasons for this. Firstly new budgets become available in April and any new expenditure won’t be approved until then. Secondly they are currently very busy