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I remember the voice mail from our CEO, Joe Forehand.  

"I'm happy to announce, today we have separated from Arthur Andersen."

In 2000, my company went through a business model change, from partnership to publicly held.  It fundamentally changed the very fabric of our company.  Gone were the days of renting out DisneyWorld for our Global Seminar.  Partners no longer could 'make the call' to take huge risks with clients.  We retained the title of Partner for YEARS when we were no longer a partnership.  

Many people left.  Disgruntled.  Bemoaning the past.  The Glory Days.

I stayed.  

Why?

After I left my PhD program in Organization Behavior, I considered my career as an ongoing PhD dissertation on how executives make decisions and how organizations face the reality and inevitability of …. CHANGE.

I stayed with voracious intellectual curiosity.  How do we...

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I've had lots of conversations recently about TIME.  Perhaps its because over the last year most people have radically transformed how they spend time.  

I LOVE to think about Time at a global level and across generations.  Big picture stuff.

Let's begin.

Guess what global life expectancy was in 1926?  Got a number in your head?

What was it in 2017?  Got that number.

Most people are way off.  

In 1926 the average global life expectancy was 36 years.  In 2017, it was 72.

Why did I pick 1926?  That's the year my Dad was born.  Isn't it amazing to think in just two generations from Dad to me, we DOUBLED life expectancy on the planet!

Let's push this graph.  

Researchers believe early humans from 30,000 years ago lived about 30 years.  Extrapolating the Time dimension on the graph above to the left to 30,000 BC, the line from 30,000 BC to 1926 is flat.  ...

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PeaceMakers do not stand on the sideline

They are not passive

They enter the fray

They are in the middle of it

They meticulously equip for battle

With sharpened tools of
knowledge
experience
good judgment
and empathy

Wisdom and Empathy is their battle axe

Wisdom and Empathy is their shield

Wisdom and Empathy is the core of their healing power

Peacemakers know that change

First comes from within

Before any hope of changing anyone else

Peacemakers do not seek to win

Losing is not possible

Winning nor losing are relevant

PeaceMakers do not see battle nor battlefield

They see Ceremony

They enter Ceremony with undaunted Courage

Because they KNOW they will leave …. different

Different … with deep understanding of Others

Different … with deep understanding of Themselves

Different … because the very trajectory of life

Will NEVER again be the same

After Living

On the Middle Edge

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"I can't wait."

When I hear that phrase, my comeback is:

"And yet….you must."

We wait to checkout at the store.  We wait for dinner.  We wait for the elevator.  

I want it NOW!  

We even SING about our impatience!  I searched the phrase, "I want it now" in lyrics.  

• Song "I Want It Now" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
• Lyric from Queen's song, I Want it All (1989)
• Lyric from East 17's song, I Want It, (1992)
• Lyric from Black-Eyed Peas song, Now Generation (2009)

We've 'wanted it now' for over 4 decades!

Waiting runs afoul with one of my most sacred values:

Time

When I delivered Strategic Selling training to Sellers all over the world, I usually asked what resource they considered MOST valuable.  They all concur:

Their Time

They don't like travel time.  They draft Call Plans for their most important customer meetings. I call these Intentional Interaction...

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I was talking to Rick, a new experienced hire in our global consulting company.  Rick was my new boss.  I was asked to be his 'integration buddy.'  Help him learn the ropes to get up to speed fast.

I told him there were typically five things an experienced hire needed to learn to succeed at the firm.  

Eagerly he asked, "what are those five things?"

I looked at him.  Smiled.  

And gave him a very standard consulting answer.

"It depends."

You see, each experienced hire is different.  They bring in unique skills.  Typically, new hires expect that the organization will embrace those unique skills with wonder and awe.  

It just doesn't happen that way.

Organizations have unique cultures.  Norms.  Core and Secondary Values.  A new hire must navigate these unwritten rules to succeed.  And usually, there's around five things that a new hire has to unlearn from...

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I remember exactly where I was when I watched the Challenger explode on January 28, 1986.  I was in my residence hall room.  I had a little TV on a stand.  I stood as I watched the trails of smoke.  

I cried.  It started as a heaving.  Then went into one of those uncontrollable cries that just won't stop.

I was in my first year of my PhD program in Organization Behavior.  In the program, we studied organization disasters:  The Challenger, 3 Mile Island, Chernobyl, Titanic.

One huge takeaway is we like to condense and rationalize these disasters into a single root cause:

• Challenger – faulty O Rings
• Titanic – running full speed ahead at night
• 3 Mile Island – a spilled soda on a control panel

It's never that simple.

The root cause is a set of complicated decisions and assessed risks that's bigger than any single decision made by one person.  There's a...

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Uncertainty

Uncertainty leads to doubt.

Prolonged doubt leads to despair.

STOP!!

How can you drain that despair and face prolonged uncertainty with confidence?

We humans LOVE certainty.  We call it safety.  We call it security.  We call it freedom.  We want to predict what lies ahead because it gives us relief.  Our brains can let go a little bit and coast.  Glide.  

And yet…

Our brains are energized by uncertainty.  We crave Novelty.  Newness.  Creation.  Innovation.

We humans are a paradox.

When I was a change management consultant, I often heard in boardrooms, hallways and cubicles, a popular phrase, 'change is the only constant.'  This phrase was quoted from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus (hair-uh-clite-us) who said, "Change is the Only Constant in Life."  

I learned to hate that phrase.

It was usually a response to someone struggling with...

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What a week this has been.

Here in the United States, our capital was stormed and overrun.  We see disturbing pictures on our news programs and throughout our social media channels.  

Our political, nay…our fundamental social system seems at the brink of total annihilation.  

It's not.

You and I are more resilient than the latest Breaking News.  Don't let Breaking News … break anything, especially YOU!

In the course of our human history, we have endured plagues, pandemics, world wars, insurrections, crusades, holy wars.  In fact, we did more than endured.  We EVOLVED.

I believe we are at the brink of an exciting evolution of our humanity.  And you and I have an ESSENTIAL role in moving us along.

Your choice to join this Conscious Evolution occurs … right … NOW.

Let's begin.

First, what do you do with these emotions you're experiencing?  That knot in...

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It's a New Year!

We put the old year behind and excitedly look forward to a fresh start.

Did you create a New Year's Resolution?  Did you resolve to DO something different?  GIVE something up?  COMMIT to a goal or result?

Good for you!

You've completed the first step of a successful Resolution -- the easiest step in the process.

Want to improve your chances of achieving this year's resolution?

Let's visualize, right now, each of the seven steps to a successful resolution.  By the way, if you are leading a team, these seven steps are based in solid goal theory.

Let's VISUALIZE!

NOTE:  Sit back and listen or watch this post so you can do this visualization activity right now!

Step 1.  Create a Rally Point.  A Rally Point generates excitement, energy and enthusiasm.  It keeps people motivated.  It is a clear vision of what achieving that Rally Point Looks like.   Feels...

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On our Holiday call with my oldest daughter, our conversation drifted to the challenges she faces in her consulting job.  She works with people all over the country and literally the world.  She is quite familiar with the consulting lifestyle I had for over 30 years.  Travel.  Imagine, you and your team traveling every week to deliver strategic solutions to clients.

Clients' confidence was bolstered by seeing the team on site.  Somewhere they knew that personal sacrifices were being made on their behalf.  

Travel showed commitment.

That all changed with the Pandemic.

As much as my daughter loves staying at home, the pandemic creates a HUGE challenge for her and her team.

Cohesion

How do you generate cohesion when you lead a virtual team?

No team dinners.  No project kickoff.  No milestone celebration parties.  No walking down the hall to give an encouraging word to a team...