I’m in the process of planning this summer’s Sierra backpacking trip. Maps, guidebooks, and random bits of equipment are heaped all around my house. Along with testing gear, dehydrating food, and packing, I’m plotting out my itinerary. One crucial bit of information I am researching and marking on all my maps: potential bail-out points. If […]
Tag Archives: Business
Comments Off on Strategic Planning Lessons from the John Muir Trail
I recently received an email from a nonprofit community, asking me to facilitate a three-day retreat for the whopping rate of $500. The other benefits I was offered included “exposure,” a “cool venue,” and a chance to be “creative.” My standard day rate is $3000 plus expenses; for nonprofits I’ll generally discount to $2000. I’ve […]
In my last post, I began to answer the question “What happens with all those charts after the meeting?” Some specific examples will help you visualize how the use of graphics has helped other organizations do their work better. (Names are fictitious and images edited to protect the privacy of my clients.) TIE ONE ON: […]
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Life coaches, personal trainers, and business consultants advise us to set goals and create a strategic plan with actions and deadlines that will enable us to achieve them. When is it appropriate to modify or abandon a goal? I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Last year, I set the goal of running my first […]
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Don’t hire me…if keeping costs down is your primary concern. My rates aren’t the highest in the industry, but they’re not the lowest either. I bid by the project or event rather than by the hour so that we can focus on meeting your goals, not niggling on how many hours each component takes. Don’t […]
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I’ve written before about my Year of New Things, and the transformative effect it has been having on my daily life. This summer, I went to Europe for the first time: six weeks of new countries, new cities, new food, new languages, new money, new transportation systems. I had a blast! When I got home […]
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Meetings and presentations are a necessary part of doing business; too often they are dry, boring, unfocused, or simply unproductive. Gain a strategic edge by sharing your vision and creatively engaging your audience using visual facilitation tools. Why rely on words and text for so much of our group work and communication when 75 percent […]
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Some interesting research indicates that our body posture and movement affects our behavior. For example, expansive body postures – like standing tall with with hands on your hips – increases confidence and assertiveness. One study showed that people who hunched over a smart phone or tablet exhibited less assertive behavior immediately afterward than those who […]
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My CalSAE colleague Shelly Alcorn writes a great blog called Association Subculture. She recently posted a great “back of the napkin” story sketch about association membership. So I decided I needed to draw mine! (Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger image.) When I went to library school in the 90s I joined a […]
As a facilitator, I have often worked with groups in the process of clarifying their common values. Inevitably, there is someone in the group who questions the value of this exercise. It is true that there are a lot of generic, meaningless values statements gathering dust in drawers across the nation. So how do we […]
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