Hard to believe that another year has passed and we are already roaring into 2007!   It is time to hit the road again and Steve will be off to San Diego, Richmond, New York, and Austin to launch new educational programs and strategic initiatives for both new and existing clients.

We have a new addition to our Communications Suite of education programs: The Architecture of Presentations.  This program teaches the steps in design and construction of dynamic presentations.  If you have worked on your skill sets, the next logical step is to learn how to deliver the information in a format that creates IMPACT.

Our Narrative Arc (storytelling) and Bending strategic initiatives have been met with fantastic traction and will become a real foundation for a new level of value to our clients.

2006 was our best year since 2000 and its momentum is clearly pushing business in 2007.

We were honored to have been involved with each and every client in 2006. Heck, even the ones that elected to go elsewhere gave us insight and knowledge.

We’ve learn that inspired thinking changes behavior, and that rewarding performance improves the ability to repeat a successful act.  Most importantly, nothing and I mean NOTHING is more important that an engaged mind!

When you only use a hammer, all problems appear as nails.  This introduces the thinking behind the Narrative Arc strategic initiative.  Most systems lend themselves to a single focus of measurement: metrics.  Metrics play a key role in understanding the impact of actions upon a system, but they are not the ONLY method.  In fact, it is often the intangibles such as relationship building, cultural differences and individual thinking that create impact.

The Narrative Arc is a process that formalizes storytelling into a tool that discovers both impact points and repeatable successful acts.  There is much power contained in the stories told by the people in those offices that are driving the success of your organization.

Here is how it works:

• The Tool:  We engage in a mutual process of developing a series of questions that generate the “story”.  The questions provide the system in which input will be analyzed.  The questions need to be focused, but open, to allow the participant to paint a vivid picture of their story

• Analysis:  The stories are analyzed and compared to determine the IMPACT POINTS.  These are the actions that have resulted in moving the organization forward.  Some of the IMPACT POINTS will be very specific to an individual, a product, or an office.  Others will appear in multiple stories.  These become actions that can be repeated with successful results.  They are the ultimate goal of the Narrative Arc.  We call these Repeatable Successful Acts.

• Application:  Working with the client, we create opportunities where the RSA’s are applied and we find a model of success that supports the system’s metrics.

The Narrative Arc completes the system’s true picture.

Let’s do some scatter shooting:

• I love a guy who is in constant search of the truth.  Edgar Bronfman, the CEO of Warner Music Group is always looking for what people think, what they honestly think.  He organizes town meetings with open forums at their various offices.  He sits down at employee roundtables, brings in pizza and asks “what’s going on?”  He responds by actually trading ideas with his employees and rewards the good ones.  Think about creating opportunities for interaction to keep your hands in what’s really going on in your organization!
• Want to leverage a niche?  Look at the used car industry, oops, excuse me, the pre-owned car industry.  By starting “certification programs” that put vehicles through a comprehensive testing prior to setting them on the lot, they are removing the stigma of buying someone else’s problem.   Couple that with the impact of the Internet and you get a “niche boom”.  CarMax, the largest retailer of pre-owned cars has seen an 8% increase in sales and their earnings have jumped 98%, beating the heck out of the Wall Street predictions.  Look at your companies niches and discover additional leverage.
• Here is something that’s not a surprise: Internet sales this Holiday season went through the roof.  Online sales surged 25% when compared to last year, and that’s in the first 45 days of the season.  Consumers spent $20.6 billion on stuff.  WOW.  I was right there with them buying a number of gifts on line.  Most retailers have simplified their processes. And for those hard to find gifts, the Internet often offers the only source.  What is your Internet presence like?  Might be time to look for some additional leverage.