Disruption and change are everywhere, and you may be thinking that the old rules of business no longer apply. On top of that, the news media and at least one – and probably all – [...]
Sooner or later you will have to choose—do you take an action that is painful, or do you suffer an even worse consequence by doing nothing? In your business, it could be the choice to [...]
The Five Friends share what makes them happy. What makes you happy?
A note from Randy: I don't often have a guest post on this blog. But, Jeffrey Hayzlett is someone who you need to know. This blog is based on his new book, Think Big, Act [...]
Father's Day will be here soon, and it started us thinking about lessons we learned from our fathers. We hope you enjoy them. From Mark Sanborn: My father spoke much good advice with me, but he demonstrated [...]
It is time to face the truth. The riots in Baltimore and elsewhere should have been anticipated and could have been avoided. They occurred because we – the American people – abdicated our leadership responsibilities [...]
This is the first reader question we have answered in the Five Friends blog. It seems many want to know how we all got started in this business and we are happy to share that [...]
The death of Michael Brown and the subsequent events are a tragedy. Everywhere you look someone is blaming an individual or group for the anger, hurt, riots, looting, building burning, and feelings of injustice that [...]
I have stayed away from any direct public comment about the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. I don’t know the facts, and any comment would be pure conjecture. But, I do know what [...]
The first two parts of this blog series dealt with what went wrong when the National Speakers Association announced a name change and re-branding effort at its annual convention on July 2. Today we look at what went right.
The majority of the world spent the last five days living their life. A small slice of the universe who make their living selling ideas, however, were agitating themselves into a frenzy. In case you missed it, the National Speakers Association, an association of which I am a member, decided to re-brand itself and change its name to PLATFORM. This is a first world problem. In the context of all of the turmoil in the world, the re-naming of this 41-year old association ranks right up there with … well almost nothing. And yet, people on all sides of the argument lit up the blogosphere and social media channels supporting their positions … even if it meant refusing to consider that others might be equally right in their own stance (see my blog on “Is It Always Right to be Right” for more on that phenomenon.)
The lack of confidence in the institutions that define our collective culture is threatening the civility, economic prosperity, and standing of the United States as a world leader. Let’s start with the government. The President’s [...]
The 1971 Oscar in the Short Film, Cartoon category went to a piece titled “Is It Always Right To Be Right.” It was directed by Lee Mishkin, narrated by Orson Welles, and written by Warren Schmidt. The opening words of the film are: There once was a land where people were always right. They knew they were right and they were proud of it. It was a land where people stated with confidence, "I am right and you are wrong." These were words of conviction, courage, strength, and moral certainty. In this fictional land, any attempt at cooperation and understanding were viewed as cowardice and weakness. Everyone was so convinced of their rightness that no one dared to utter words such as, “You may be right” or “I may be wrong.”
This would have been the message if the speaker at your last business meeting presented in nursery rhymes: Jack be nimble. Jack be quick. Jack jump over The candle stick. You feel better, right? You now know what is expected of you and the definition of success. And, you have no real context for why it is important or idea about how to move forward.
We taught mice and pigeons to do all sorts of interesting things during my graduate school class in behavioral psychology. The principle is simple: provide a stimulus and elicit a response. The stimulus-response cycle still plays an important role in animal training today. And, it is evident in virtually every routine action we take. You don’t think about your response; you just make it. And at some point, it becomes automatic. On most days, those automatic responses are benign routines that allow you to effectively navigate. Unfortunately, they can also become anchors that prevent you from making a change that will transform your business and your life.