The Catalyst

by rene on August 10, 2010

I hope you enjoy this amazing video from my good friend Dustin Hughes – you can learn more about him at – http://www.dustin360.com/


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The “Worth-Your-Time” Test

by rene on May 19, 2010

As I was doing my morning peruse of Facebook and Twitter feeds, I ran across an article shared by my good friend and colleague (and marketing guru) Torry Burdick. The title was “The Worth-Your Test”. It caught my attention because I have been wrestling with this question for the so long. How do you determine what is and what is not “worth your time”? What is so fascinating about that question is that it brings up for me an emotional response of “who do I think I am to say ‘is it worth my time’? I should have time for everyone…” Can you see where this is going?
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So what is “time” anyway?

April 21, 2010

“We’re not late, we’re on Cuban time…”

If you grew up in any Latin home, you would know exactly what “Cuban time” means.  It was one  of my favorite phrases to say growing up and into adulthood.

“Cuban time” is defined as the length of time, usually between 15 minutes and 1 hour 42 minutes, it takes for a native of Miami, Florida to show up to any specific scheduled event, such as a party or work.

It was such an accepted part of our culture and as I grew up and got to know other Latin cultures, I found out that they have their form of “Cuban time”.  As funny as it may sound, I have learned (the hard way) that this philosophy is not funny to others and in fact can be outright disrespectful.  In fact, that philosophy has cost me more money than I care to admit and has hurt relationships in which I value.  I share all of that because I have spent a good majority of my career trying to understand why it is so hard to change that internal culture/philosophy around time.

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Improving Engagement Improves Revenues

January 28, 2010

The 2003 Towers Perrin Report on Engagement, plus several dozen rigorous studies, have shown that when Employee Engagement improves, Revenue Increases and the Cost of Goods Sold Decreases.

A 10% improvement in Engagement creates a 1% improvement in revenue … and a 3% improvement in profitability.

We believe that employee engagement and resilience are critical success factors in the long term success of any company: the ability “to renew and endure when challenged.”

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Four questions that change my life – every year!

January 3, 2010

The Four questions…
1.  What would I have to do to make this next year my best year yet?
2.  What got in my way last year?
3.  What will be different this year?
4.  Am I willing to do it?

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The Goal: by Eliyahu Goldratt

December 17, 2009

In 1999 I was recommended the same book by 4 different clients in the same week.  The name of that book was “The Goal” by Eliyahu Goldratt.  Still to this day, “The Goal” remains one of the most influential books in my life.  I’m excited to finally have a way to share it with you. Below is an executive summary.

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The Communication Illusion

December 10, 2009

A man yelled frantically into the phone, “My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart!”

“Is this her first child?” the doctor asked.

“No!” the man shouted, “This is her husband!”

I can’t hold it in anymore, I just need to say it straight out: most of us suck at communicating! But yet many of us (me included) think that we are great at it. You’re going to have to forgive my bluntness, but I needed a way to catch your attention amongst all the articles and information written about this abused subject.

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The 7 Major Mistakes Salespeople Make

November 14, 2009

We’ve all experienced those rare but unforgettable moments of complete and utter surrender to the skills, technique and enthusiasm of a true “Sales Professional.” We entered the scenario totally convinced that we were not going to buy. We even had the conversation in the car on the way over, making a pledge with our spouses that no matter how good it sounded, we weren’t buying! Then about half-way through the presentation you began to rethink your previous assumptions. You looked over at your spouse and shared a look that said “maybe there is something to this.”  By the end of presentation, you did not change your mind, but you made a new decision based on new information that made you want to buy what they were selling.

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Selective Attention and the Mortgage Crisis

November 8, 2009

I have the fortunate opportunity to meet a lot of people and I am always fascinated by how some can see opportunity every day and some can’t see opportunity even when it is right under their nose.  So here is a little experiment to show you what I mean.  It will only take 40 seconds, but I promise you that it will be worth your time.

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Why One Way Of Learning Is Better Than Another

November 4, 2009

I think we’d all agree that some ways of learning are better than others.  I’d much rather learn from someone that uses visuals and can tell a good story to keep me engaged.  I know, that’s obvious, but have you thought about the affects and benefits of spacing out your training versus doing it all at once?  Most often the timing question is driven by urgency and people’s availability (convenience) rather than what will be most effective.  The challenge we face here is that there is a direct cost incurred by organizations when they train so logically it make sense to find the most cost effective way to carry out the training.  The part that is over looked is that there is incremental benefit of more effective training which isn’t always easy to calculate.  It comes down to this question that I pose to my clients every time they are looking at making improvements to their training programs.

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