While it is certainly unsettling to get downgraded, the resulting unsureness that some companies will feel creates opportunities for their competitors. Whether the crisis is caused by the debt, caused by irresponsible funding, caused by short-sighted politicians or whatever you perceive it to be, businesses will continue to innovate and people will continue to live their lives. Companies with sound fundamentals, a solid talent development strategy and a courageous sales and marketing plan will continue to grow and prosper. What is the situation with your company?
Debt crisis creates opportunities for companies of courage
August 7th, 2011Why a business speaker cares about vaccines
May 22nd, 2010You should take a look at the vaccine song on you tube.
My mom used to work in a polio ward before polio vaccine was invented. She told me horrible stories about watching kids die. I don’t doubt that there are vaccine manufacturers who have been less than 100% careful in their production. I don’t doubt that some vaccines have been released before they were thoroughly tested. I imagine there is such a thing as over-vaccinating children. But it is also clear to me that some horrible illnesses like polio, small pox and TB have stopped being the heartbreaking family destroying killers that they once were.
As a business speaker, I would not want to develop some new material about risk management that uses the resurgence of polio as a lesson in disregarding the potential impact of risks we assumed had passed. We do need vigilance and persistence to make sure former risks do not become future risks.
Oil spill makes Crist rethink off shore drilling
April 29th, 2010On of the things a business speaker likes to talk about is the moment when someone changes his or her mind. We all have opinions. Some are better informed than others. Some are just other people’s opinions that we regurgitate. But if we are lucky, we come across a time in our lives when we look at an opinion and realize that it is “off”. If we stand strong, we change our mind.
I am not so interested in the little changes, like when you might decide you really do like guacamole after having avoided it for years. I am more interested in the big changes, like when you decided that the invasion of Iraq really was a stupid thing, or when you decided that acquiring more parks and open space really are good things to do for the next generations.
It sounds like Governor Crist of Florida has had one of those moments. After taking an airplane tour over the massive oil spill that is uncontrollably taking over the Gulf of Mexico and after thinking about the people who died in the explosion, he said that he had changed his mind about off shore drilling. Crist is now convinced Florida does not need it or want it. After seeing how much damage can come from an accident, he has set aside one of his party’s biggest mantras: “Drill, baby, drill!”
Now Crist might be heard saying, “No drilling near Florida!”
As a business speaker, I would find a way to use this turnaround in a speech about leadership. Sometimes you have to take the right stance, even if it is opposite of the mantra of the day.
I was looking at CNN for a little while last night
April 13th, 2010I was looking at CNN for a little while last night while the commentators Roland Martin and Anderson Cooper were discussing the recent tendency by politicians in the South to honor the Confederate States of America. I certainly understand honoring your ancestors.
Some of my ancestors were the Vikings who traded and raided all across Northern and Western Europe and the Scottish/British/Irish Isles. I feel some pride in the amazing sailing skills and the courage and tenacity of my people. I can’t say I am proud of the raping and pillage that the Vikings apparently practiced at every opportunity. I am sure there are Irish, English and Scottish people who are still bitter about the havoc my ancestors spread. History and people are just not so simple.
Some of my other ancestors fought for the German Army in World War One. Although I am awed at their fortitude, their courage and their ability to survive, I can’t say there is a damn thing admirable about The Great War.
The War Between the States was one of those wars that had no good guys. The idea that the Confederates fought for their freedom is quite ironic, as one of the major ways they expressed their freedom was to enslave others. The Unionists began the war with no noble goal. The only goal was to preserve the Union.
I am sure there were individual acts of perseverance, persistence and heroism. I am sure there were Confederate soldiers who snuck food to the starving prisoners at Andersonville. I am sure some of Sherman’s troops snuck food to the women and children who were left homeless and destitute by the March to the Sea. I am sure there must have been a slave owner who helped his slaves evacuate to a safe and remote area like the Gullah Coast where they could live in relative seclusion and safety while the war raged in other areas. I am sure there must have been a Pennsylvania farmer who hid, nursed and fed a wounded Confederate boy-soldier until it was safe for him to sneak back home to Virginia.
I live in Missouri, which was a particularly nasty place before, during and right after the War Between the States. There was so much brutality on all sides, that it is just impossible to declare any side the good guy. The bitterness still survives at some level. If you have ever seen the Clint Eastwood movie, “The Outlaw Josie Wales”, then you know a little bit of the Missouri story. Even today, the Kansas KU sports team is called the “Jay Hawks”, which was the name the Kansas border raiding militias went by. Talking about not being PC. This is certainly as offensive to people with Confederate ancestors as it must be for Native Americans of the Northern Plains to see a team named the “Custers”.
It was just a few years ago that Kansas and Missouri decided to change the name of their college sports rivalry from “The border war” to “The border showdown”.
Even so, Kansas and Missouri seem to have mostly forgiven each other. Outside of the sports rivalries and away from the battle field memorials, there is not a lot of talk of the bad old days.
It might be a good idea for all the ancestors of The War of Secession to just admit it was an ugly time and forgive each other.
Forgiving old enemies is not easy. I lost some of my family to the German death camps in World War Two. But in my days as a dog trainer, I had dog training buddies in Germany who had been SS officers in the war. I traveled to Germany frequently to train dogs and to buy dogs in the 1980s. It was pretty weird training dogs, drinking beer and sharing a few laughs with the guys who might have shoved my great grand mother into a crowded, foul smelling railroad stock car and locked the door behind her. My dog training buddies and I never talked about the bad old days, except to acknowledge that they played a role and that my family paid a price. We shrugged and agreed it was a long time ago. We agreed to focus on the present and focus on trying to move on. The fires of hate and ignorance had long burned out.
I lived in New York during a very racist and dangerous time in the 1970s and 1980s. My family was on both sides. The white side of my family tried to deal with it as best they could. The black side of my family tried to not get killed. It was an ugly time. So we all try to forgive the people who stoked the fires of hate and ignorance, while we try to move on.
But the fires of hate and ignorance still seem to benefit the scammers and the charlatans who find wealth and power in the fear and anger they fuel. Forgiving is not enough. How to we help people feel the futility of hate and vengeance? How do we help them see how they are being used as patsies in political scams to help charlatans rise to wealth and power?
I am tired of having to forgive people for their unspeakable acts of cruelty and foolishness. Let’s move on to something else, please. How about something a little more constructive and forward looking?
The Berlin Wall went down
November 9th, 2009I doesn’t seem that long ago that the Berlin Wall came down. I remember visiting East Germany as a kid. My mother was born and grew up in the town of Gotha in Thuringen, which became the Eastern Zone after World War Two. In 1970 I accompanied her on a trip back to the old home town. I remember how gray and dusty everything was. Coal was the main means of power generation and there was coal dust on everything. The cities and towns were run down and in disrepair. Many of the buildings damaged by the allied bombing 25 or 30 years earlier stood in ruins still, unchanged since the bombing. The Cold War was still on and there were Russian troops and Russian tanks everywhere. It was a weird experience. The people we met were all very kind and very hospitable. They were happy to have outsiders visiting and they were glad to share the little they had.
It was clear to me after seeing the place, staying with the people and hearing some of the conversation, that the communist regime could not last for ever. The people were tired of living under duress…first under the Nazis, then under the Communists. The people knew what was going on in the West. They could get West German TV stations. They could hear West German radio.
We took two or three trips to Germany during those years and I got to know the Western zone pretty well, too.
I went to the Wall several times. I visited viewing spots in several locations and made the crossing from West Berlin into East Berlin at the famous Checkpoint Charlie. Of course on our trips to the East Zone and to Berlin, we had to cross through the Wall and go through the careful passport control process on both sides.
As a public speaker, I am always looking for material and inspiration for my talks and sessions. Courage and conviction are sometimes qualities that are discussed at seminars and consulting jobs. Imagine the courage and conviction of the freedom protesters in Leipzig and other East German towns who walked the streets calling for freedom in spite the fact that the authorities could have them killed or dissapeared in the bat of an eye. Imagine the courage and conviction of the riot Police and the secret Police who decided not to stop the protestors.
One day everyone in East Germany woke up from their sleep, had a boiled egg for breakfast and decided to no longer cooperate with the Communists. And just like that, the whole thing began to unravel.
What walls do we face today that need to come down?
What are the rules we could simply refuse to follow to allow a whole other level of oppression to unravel?
There are places in the world, even in our own country, where walls are coming up instead of coming down.
How should we feel about that?
