by Steven Shagrin, JD, CFP®, CCP & Thornton Prayer, CCP
June 2010

In these difficult economic times, businesses have shared with us several major challenges they have faced regarding their competitiveness – and even their survival.

Our research has found that every day, business leaders in every industry all around the world struggle with profit-eating, productivity-draining performance issues that could have been prevented – and the real problem isn’t what they think it is.

They aren’t paying attention to the most critical factor in management — the crucial ingredient that determines WHAT their employees will actually DO — and WHEN they will do it. That crucial ingredient is the level of “productive tension” in the workplace.

What do we mean by Productive Tension?

It is not “stress.” While stress is certainly an aspect of the overall productive tension concept (and how productive tension is managed), it is just one element.

Productive tension is the level of activity and productivity by your staff for maximizing positive outcomes and minimizing negative impacts. Your ability as an executive or manager in measuring, monitoring, and managing the level of productive tension is key to achieving the results you want most for your operation, your employees, your clients, and yourself.

The statements that follow are six of the most common concerns we hear from executives and managers we’ve worked with. They all relate to and are determined by the level of productive tension. How many of them resonate with you?

1) “My employees are not as productive as I need them to be — and nowhere near as productive as I know they could be.”

2) “Some of my key employees are talking about quitting — or have already taken their talents elsewhere, leaving me with expanding vacancies in a climate of hiring freezes — and worried about what happens when one-of-a-kind employees leave.”

3) “Hours of my management team’s productivity are being lost every day, handling (or trying to avoid) employee issues related more to personal stress and anxiety than to the work at hand.”

4) “My veteran team members have ‘retired in place,’ becoming increasingly complacent, ambivalent and apathetic about the mission of our organization and their passion for its pursuit.”

5) “Changes in our organization keep coming more quickly than ever before and it’s harder to motivate my staff to accept, adapt and make the necessary shifts.”

6) “Our bottom-line focus has shifted from growth to survival, deflating the spirit of key staff members and undermining their resolve.”

How effectively are you dealing with these issues – and others affecting the levels of productive tension – in your organization? Your ability and challenge in doing so is vital to survivability and growth in today’s economy.

We invite you to take an online survey and see where you fall in managing productive tension in the above six situations – and nine others – for your organization. All results are kept confidential, and we will provide you with a complimentary review of the results with no further obligation or commitment. The survey is available at http://tinyurl.com/yk9sadw

About the Authors: Steven “Shags” Shagrin and Thornton Prayer are Certified ChangeWorks Practitioners in the East Bay. Learn more about ChangeWorks at http://www.CAChangeWorks.Eventbrite.com

Come to a half-day workshop on March 26, 2010 from 9am-1pm to learn the fundamentals of the ChangeWorks!® System and the ChangeGrid instrument, both developed by T. Falcon Napier, internationally-recognized human development expert, specializing in sales, leadership, and change management. His client list using the ChangeGrid includes over 300 major companies representing virtually every industry, including: Sony, Bosch, Detroit Edison, IBM, General Motors, State Farm, BellSouth and over 250 programs for American Express alone.

This reasonably-priced workshop at $49 introduces several key facets of one of the ChangeGrid, one of the most powerful personal and professional change management tools. Whether you are a coach, a trainer, an HR professional, or a team leader, this workshop is for you! This system will help you help yourself, your clients, and colleagues answer a very basic question: Is everyone ready to do the work that needs to be done without any outside support or guidance? And if outside support or guidance is indicated, the form it should take is revealed by the ChangeGrid itself. (Workshop fees may be credited 100% toward an optional three-day live ChangeWorks! Practitioner Training class to be held in Pleasant Hill this coming May 24-26 taught by T. Falcon Napier.)

The program runs for 4 hours and includes the following topics:

• The Nature of Change
• Introduction to the ChangeGrid
• Basic ChangeGrid Interpretation
• Applications of the ChangeGrid
• The Path of Self Discovery
• ChangeGrid Maneuvers
• The ChangeWorks! Online System

To receive notification e-mails of scheduled events, please visit our webpage at http://www.CAChangeWorks.eventbrite.com and sign up for our mailing list, or go to http://cachangeworks.eventbrite.com…. and join as a member. Either way, you’ll be informed about upcoming events about ChangeWorks news and training.

Want to understand why your people are not doing what they need to do? Want to have insights in how to be more effective in leading and guiding your employees?

Learn about the ChangeGrid, world’s only client-driven, activity-specific coaching and management tool:
http://www.meetup.com/ChangeWorks/

Picking up where traditional psychometric instruments leave off, the ChangeGrid and ChangeWorks system answers a critical management and development question: “How ready are my employees to do the actual work that needs to be done…..without any outside support or guidance?” - and serves as the foundation on which the employee-managerial relationship is based.

ChangeWorks can make a huge difference in your leadership in the ways that matter most to you:
• ChangeWorks will help you identify critical employee issues.
• ChangeWorks will help you guide and motivate employees more effectively.
• ChangeWorks will help you track your employees’ progress and productivity.
• ChangeWorks will help you prevent stagnant employee-manager communications.
• ChangeWorks will help you achieve greater training and development results.
• ChangeWorks will help you direct your company’s staff more successfully.

Learn More About the ChangeWorks System at http://www.masterstream.com/cws/

by Thornton Prayer and Steven Shagrin, Certified ChangeWorks!® Practitioners

Companies always struggle with the challenge of keeping employees engaged and focused on their jobs. The economic upheaval of recent years has magnified the risk of disengaged employees. What was previously a big problem is now reaching a make-or-break point for your company’s survival. Can you and your company afford to let this situation spin out of control?

There are four ways how employee disengagement damages your company. Let’s examine how it affects your company and the consequences.

1. Disengaged employees are less productive.
When your staff is disengaged, they simply are not as productive as you need them to be. Sure, they show up and do their jobs well enough to keep their jobs. However, they are not focused, able or willing to maximize their productivity. Your company’s productivity may be suffering just when you need it the most. Is this situation acceptable to you?

2. Disengaged employees have already quit….but are still on your payroll.
Disengaged employees have checked out. Many are asleep at the wheel. They’ve likely quit either consciously or unconsciously. Some are actively looking for other jobs and others are actively thinking about looking for another job. The only thing that’s holding many of them back from leaving and looking is economic uncertainty. Your problem is that they have already quit but are still collecting a paycheck. You have low productivity and are paying for it. How long are you willing to continue this scenario?

3. Disengaged employees are less focused on the bottom line.
You need to cut costs and maximize employee productivity for bottom line needs. A disengaged staff has much less incentive for the same focus. Their focus is instead on their own career needs and economic survival. Any attention they do pay to your company’s financials is slanted to whether their own jobs are in jeopardy. Are you confident that your workers are thinking seriously about your company’s bottom line?

4. Disengaged employees do not focus on your company’s success.
Because disengaged workers are focused on their personal career and economic needs, they are much less likely to focus on the company’s short-term and long-term success. Whereas you are constantly juggling revenue, cost, productivity, and profitability goals, these areas are not that important to disengaged employees. Isn’t it important to you to have a workforce which focuses on your company’s success as much as you do?

Employee disengagement is a big challenge in any economic climate, but is an even bigger problem when the economy itself is a challenge. They are less productive and focused on your company’s bottom-line while still collecting a paycheck. You want and need them to re-focus and perform at a high level. Your own challenge is figuring out how to re-orient your employees to do what you hired them to do.

To assess how likely your employees are actually doing the jobs you hired them to do, click on the following link: http://bit.ly/5yT3QN

Authors

Steven “Shags” Shagrin is dedicated to life-long learning … and teaching others. Shags brings a unique background to his coaching and training business. With degrees in accounting and law, Shags worked for two decades with Wall Street brokerage firms, then as a “fee-only” independent financial planner, before finding his truest calling as a coach and educator. His professional credentials include Certified Money Coach, Certified Financial Planner® professional, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor®, Certified Retirement Counselor®, and Enhanced Lifestyle Planner. He is President of Planning For Life in Walnut Creek, providing Money Coaching and Financial Wellness services, and is Vice President of The Money Coaching Institute in Petaluma, providing Money Coaching training workshops and classes, as well as Personal Finance Education classes. Please visit his websites at www.PlanningForLife.info and www.MoneyCoachingInsitute.com.

Thornton Prayer is a business coach, motivational speaker, and seminar leader who works with organizations and individuals seeking optimal performance, clarity of purpose, continuous growth, and decisive accomplishment. His work experience with both small businesses and major corporations such as Oracle and General Electric gives him a broad perspective on business requirements and effective interpersonal relationships. His background is enhanced by a comprehensive foundation of technical and business education including a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Thornton received his coaching instruction with the Coaches Training Institute. He is a Certified ChangeWorks Practitioner in the ChangeWorks!® System and educated in the Group Facilitation Skills course from the Community At Work consulting firm. His career history and in-depth training in several personal development programs enables him to provide a holistic perspective in addressing the vital challenges facing organizations and individual business people today.

SURVIVING THE SLUMP
Actions and strategies you can use to ride out the economic storm plus Concepts that cause you to emerge stronger and better positioned for the better times ahead
© Burt Dubin
Speaking Success System
1 Speaking Success Road, Kingman AZ 86401 USA
http://www.SpeakingBizSuccess.com 928-753-7546

1. ENGAGE TODAY’S ECONOMIC CHAOS TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS

How to do it:
1. Stay a self-employed independent. When you must hire, go for independent contractors only. Pay for work performed as approved & delivered.

2. Remember: Lesser mortals are either retreating out of speaking/consulting or crawling into their shells, doing nothing, waiting for the storm to pass. Most competition evaporates leaving the field to the bold and tough . . . (meaning you).

3. Do not market speeches/seminars/workshops. Not now.
Instead market . . . and guarantee . . . outcomes. Outcomes are what decision-makers are eager to buy and pay top dollar for.

4. Go deeper. Ask your subconscious mind to come up with fresh concepts and strategies your market will welcome and pay for. And know you can do this. I have many times. I’m doing it now. So can you when you simply believe in yourself and say, “Yes I can!”

5. Decide you are now to prevail. Engage these tough times to move your speaking business up a notch or two. Quitters are giving up and getting out. This is your moment.

6. Target new markets in which you are a new face offering new hope. That’s what decision makers yearn for now . . . hope.

7. Be resolutely persistent. I remember 30+ years ago when I was in real estate sales. Every member of the 150 person sales force I was a part of was crying the blues. Not me, Charlie! I was doing better than ever, to the dismay of some of my peers. I told myself this: I carry my business climate around with me. (Think of your business climate as an invisible eggshell or aura . . . . a safe haven out of which you function in your universe.) This timeless principle works because it is based on universal laws.

8. As the great Joseph J. Charbonneau, (May his soul rest in peace,) said, “People are either the wind in your sails or an anchor on your tail.” Dump employees, vendors, partners who are not aligned with your spirit and your goals.

9. Watch the kale. (Translation: Squeeze every nickel until the buffalo yelps.) Conserve your funds. Honor obligations when due. Ask yourself before buying anything: Will this investment advance me toward my goals? If not, defer it.

10. Focus energy on closing bookings now. I don’t mean discount your fees. Instead, add value. An extra program the same day at no extra cost. ( I Learned this from the great Thom Winninger.) Host a private round table for senior executives. Chair a panel. MC the event. Go beyond what anyone else would do for them. Pile on the extras. Make your offer irresistible.

11. Offer proof of the outcomes you deliver. Over-deliver. Offer follow up phone coaching, after-program teleclasses they can record and use throughout their organization . . . or sell and they keep the proceeds.

12. Relentlessly pursue mastery of your craft. Enjoy every twist of the road before you. Let your inner knowing guide you to weave the shreds and tatters of the economy into a tapestry of triumph for you.
(I acknowledge my treasured friend, Perry Marshall, for some of the above words and recommendations.)

2. BOOTSTRAP YOUR WAY OUT OFTHE DOLDRUMS

“It was the best of times . . . it was the worst of times . . .” So starts a classic Charles Dickens novel.

“Whichever way the wind doth blow, some heart is glad to have it so”

You may be surprised, even shocked, to hear me say this is a fantastic time, a wonderful time, to be in the speaking business.

Well, it is!

Here is why:

Marginal wanna-be speakers are getting out of the game. There is less competition.

The Association market is, as you know, the surest market for experts who speak. According to the Meetings publications I read, this prime market, responding to the economic slowdown, is reducing by about 3% the number of meetings and conferences they host.

Due to belt-tightening, they have fewer dollars to invest in speakers. So they are bargaining harder, seeking more for their money.

Here are strategies and actions I used 21 years ago to increase my bookings. They are timeless. They worked then. They work now.
The Meeting Market was in a recession then. The Meeting Market is in a recession now.

You are about to capture the strategies and actions that kept my speaking business income at par. You can engage these models to keep your speaking business income at par.

Why do these strategies and actions work:

Because they are based on the Immutable Laws of Human Nature. Like the Law of Gravity these Laws do not change.

In addition, you about to receive many other useful methods my peers, successful speakers all, are using now to get inbound cash flowing while lesser mortals are bitching and moaning.

Let’s begin with these:

1. Generate better outcome-generating audience experiences.
How do you do this? Use the power of your subconscious mind.
I show you how to do this in the most popular, most requested Report I ever wrote. It is called How To Be a Genius On the Platform. I will be happy to send you the PDF. Complimentary. Free. No cost. My gift to you. Send me your e-mail address, requesting this Report.

2. Be aware that momentous change is coming. My Inner Circle Graduate, Lee Glickstein, says it well: “I sense a liberation of possibilities like a silent lightning bolt zapping through the collective soul. The shift is now within each of us in our own way and it is up to each of us to listen to and flow with that change. We are living in a time where enlightened leadership skills are being modeled on the world stage . . .”

This means a new wave of consciousness and prosperity is soon to appear. Be patient. Breathe. This too shall pass. Breathe in. Hold 5 seconds. Breathe out s-l-o-w-l-y. Repeat daily.

3. Market relentlessly: Now is the time to negotiate, to bargain, to make yourself the irresistible expert. In negotiating, start by offering to present 2 programs on the same day for the price of 1. For example, they pay you to present the Keynote or General Session. (Or to present any session.)

You then do a second session at no further fee. The second session may be you chairing a panel, MC’ing the whole event, presenting a special limited access program for a unique group within the organization, a breakout session . . . or whatever. Use your imagination.

4. Next step, as needed: Offer an all-inclusive, delivered fee including your travel, incidentals, meals and sleeping room.

5. Again, whatever it takes may include all the above plus lowering your fee as far as you dare.

6. If there is a Trade Show in connection with this conference, offer to accept, as part of your fee a trade show booth, in which you can sell your products to attendees. Sweeten this, if needed, by offering to return to the organization a percentage of your profits.

7. Create / produce new programs and products drenched in value. Use techniques in the PDF I offered you in Par. #1 above.

8. As a last resort, and only when you are certain this is in your best interest because of the exposure and P.R., offer to speak for expenses only if you can offer product at your program. This means, if you are excellent on the platform and deliver solid value, you can harvest cash from product sales. One of the “products” you offer can be mentoring or consulting at an hourly fee you set. This may be in person during the conference or later by a series of teleclasses or individual telephone appointments. (in which you offer product!)

All above strategies are tested and proven in tough times in the crucible of the real world. All serve to get you gigs you would otherwise not get. And only the gigs you get bring home the cash. All are yours with my compliments.

If you are struggling, and if you choose to not engage any of he above or similar strategies to cause you to thrive in these troubled times, then it is time for you to get out of the speaking business.

3. PACKAGE AND MARKET YOUR EXPERTISE TO FEDERAL, STATE/PROVINCE, COUNTY, AND CITY GOVERNMENTS

What would you say if I told you there is a largely unrecognized market for speaking, consulting and training?

A market unrecognized by almost all paid experts who speak . . .

A market hungry for virtually all bread and butter topics . . . these include communication with vendors, with staff, with superiors, stress management, customer service, persuasion, managing people, working with difficult people, executive decision-making, negotiation, etc.

A market that budgets mega-dollars, make that mega-mega dollars, every fiscal year for education, training, a market that invests huge sums in consultants . . .

A market with a gargantuan budget, and . . . get this . . . a huge budget that must be spent each year on penalty of being taken out of the budget the following year if it is not spent . . .

Are you salivating yet?

Well I won’t keep you in suspense a millisecond longer:

This market Is the Federal government of the country in which you live. Plus your State/Province, County, City/township governments. All have budgets for education and training, plus consulting . . . budgets that must be spent. (or be taken away next fiscal year.)

Most speakers do not know how to tap these markets . . . how to crack the code. What the rules of the game are. I do. And now, you are to know, too.

I have presented programs for the USA Internal Revenue Service from coast-to-coast. At least one of these was recorded for continuing internal use.

I have presented programs for the United States Navy.

These are a minor part of my quarter-century international speaking and consulting experience. Admittedly, I did not pursue this market because more lucrative markets were at hand for me.

And I discovered the rules of the game. Now you are to know these rules. Before I tell you how to penetrate this cash-cow of a recurring market, let me share how the game is played.

This is empirical wisdom. Rooted in my experience. Your experience may be different:

1. U.S.A. Government agencies and departments like to do business with organizations, not with individuals. So create a DBA. (Doing Business As) Your DBA is an alter ego. There are no tax or reporting changes involved. You are wise to allow your DBA to imply a benefit and a promise relative to your specialty.

I.E. My “Speaking Success System.” This name implies the presence of a benefit and a promise relative to the service I deliver.

Do the same as you conceive a name for your organization.
(If I recall right, Thomas Watson, one man working out of his home garage at the time, coined the name, “International Business Machines.” His company is now colloquially known as IBM.)

2. These government entities do not pay one cent in front. And they do not pay any of your expenses. You name a “delivered” fee for what you do. Then you show up and do it. You invoice them for the agreed fee. In the USA, they pay your organization in full within 30 days. This prompt payment is mandated by the USA Congress and overseen by GSA. (USA General Services Administration.)

3. They will write you letters of commendation on their letterhead (if you ask,) when you do a fine job. And they will refer you. (I was referred to IRS offices in other parts of the United States.)

How to access the USA Federal Government market:

1. This information is a start. It is all I know. It is enough to get you started . . .

2. Contact the USA General Services Administration. Tell them of your company name and what you do. Say you want to be approved as a GSA vendor. Say you offer solutions to real challenges. Say you want to have your name placed on the RFP List. (RFP – Request For Proposal.) This gets you in the gate with GSA. In due course, when there is a need for something like what you offer, you receive an RFP. You then respond in the fashion they prescribe.

However GSA is responsible for hardly 10% of Government purchases of training, consulting, and education. Therefore . . .

3. Contact the Department of Commerce. Do as it says in Paragraph 2, immediately above. Rinse and repeat.

4. Contact every Cabinet Department. (The President’s Cabinet.) Each is its own bureaucracy with its own huge budget and its own unique requirements. Rinse and repeat.

5. Contact each branch of the armed services (Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guards.) Rinse and repeat.

Overseas subscribers, translate my findings to your country and to the equivalent Departments and Agencies in your country.

6. Remember Governments are all bureaucracies . . .with the backbiting, the jealousies, the turf defense, the infighting indigenous to virtually all large organizations. This is the real world and we might as well accept it as it is. (I worked for 4 Fortune 500 corporations for 20 years . . . lived with and experienced these harsh realities . . . quit every one of these organizations to better myself, ultimately started to work for myself.)

7. I made myself a self-employed independent contractor. Became an expert who speaks and consults. I promise you that when you build a following in this business you have the finest of all lifetime annuities.

Today I serve clients worldwide. You can do it too, if you set this as an objective and then dedicate your energy and your resources to creating this outcome . . . with resolute tenacity, bulldog blood, and a never-say-die attitude.

Of course, hard times, a tanked economy, affect us all. And those of us who do not throw in the towel . . . those who use every available strategy to continue growing their business . . . do survive.

Better than that, we prepare ourselves for the next boom. Historically tough times do not last. (Tough people do.) The world economy turns around in time. It always does. Now is the time to plant seeds, to continue marketing while the faint-at-heart fade away. To stay in the game and continue adding value for those we serve.

If you choose to survive and then to thrive, additional resources await you on the following pages . . . at an outrageously reduced cost, possibly no cost except for a small donation to my favorite charity.

4. ADDITIONAL LOW COST RESOURCES

Robert Schiller said it: “Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.” Here are 3 ways you can prove you are a tough person:

1. HARVEST DOLLARS BY PARTNERING IN PROMOTION

In 1987, depressed times for the meeting market, I devised a strategy that yielded me tens of thousands of US dollars. This money came thundering and hurtling, crashing over my threshold as decision makers found themselves unable to resist this risk-free way to get me to speak. Here’s how you can hook into and profit from my survival-in-tough-times speaking business success strategy:

I produced an 8 page Report sharing the exact model I created. It is a paint-by-numbers, step-by-step Action Plan.

Picture this: You discover how you can show decision-makers how to deliver concepts and methods (available only from you,) to their Members without risking anything except promotional actions. If too few people commit to attend, decision maker is off the hook and does not invest a penny.

On the other hand, if the break-even point is reached (as it usually is,) then you are paid in addition to your travel, lodging and meals, an agreed percentage of proceeds. The organization keeps the rest.

The real kicker is this: Nobody can lose. You may receive more than your regular fee, plus all your expenses. And whatever you receive, above your expenses, at least you’re staying in the game, making some money while delivering memorable value to the organization. (As well as enhancing your reputation and fame.)

There are 3 ways for you to get your hands on this special strategy. Details are at the end of this message.

2. TURN LEMONS INTO LEMONADE.

This is a 3 page Report. That’s 3 full letter size pages of strategies, actions, and concepts. (In 12 point type.) Way more than I could include here. You get 17 more easy-to-implement, street-smart actions you can take to turn slow times into great times. Details are at the end of this piece.

3. MAGNETIZE DECISION-MAKERS 23 POWERFUL WAYS

Another 3 page Report. You get 23 additional ways to cause decision makers to lust for your services, yearn for your services, hunger to get you to speak. Details are at the end of this message.

These 3 Reports, packaged, regularly sell for $99. Until I change my mind which could be anytime, even tonight, you may have all 3 for $49, delivered to your door. US$49 delivered worldwide. That’s 50% off an already bargain investment. Fax me your CC# including the security numbers on the back of your card. Include your complete postal address because I will mail these to you. These are not on my shopping cart and there is no money back guarantee. And this offer may never be made again. Fax 925-793-3316

Include your phone number in case of a question.

If you prefer, mail me a check for $49:

Burt Dubin
1 Speaking Success Road
Kingman AZ 86402

Look, I have a heart. Here’s proof: If you are struggling and $49 is a stretch, slip a US$20 bill in an envelope and mail it to me with your complete mailing address.

When your envelope arrives here I will send you the whole works, all 3 Reports delivered worldwide, $99 worth of Speaking Business Success Strategies to get your speaking business into orbit, for hardly more than the cost of a nice lunch.

(And you know exactly where that lunch goes within a day . . .) Is all this strategic wisdom worth more than a nice lunch? Will it stay with you longer than that lunch? If you think not, check your values.

And if $20 strains your resources and you still gotta have these 3 Reports, send me a check or Money Order drawn to my favorite charity, the USA Salvation Army. (Make it at least $10.) After your tax-deductible Salvation Army donation arrives here, I mail you, postpaid worldwide, these 3 Reports, $99 of powerful Speaking Business Success Strategies, absolutely free.
With kindest regards,

Burt Dubin

P.S. On top of all this, you are credited, (whether $49 or $20,) in full toward your next investment in speaking business success products.

P.P.S. Order now while this is on your mind. You snooze, you lose.

P.P.P.S. Ordering information is just below.

HOW TO ORDER YOURS:
1. Avoid my shopping cart. This package is available only direct from me.

2. Use this address:

Burt Dubin
1 Speaking Success Road
Kingman AZ 86402 USA

But wait . . . there’s more:

Would you like to receive at no cost, my 7 part course on success in the speaking business?

Plus you also get a complimentary subscription to my monthly Speaking Biz Strategies Letter.

Retail Value: $77. Complimentary to you today.

Discover the seven secrets to becoming a six-figure speaker now:

http://www.burtdubin.com/bonus.html

This won’t last forever. Get it while you can:

http://www.burtdubin.com/bonus.html
###

As a professional in the umbrella of the ‘Services’ sector of the economy, I am always curious not just about the value of what companies in this sector are delivering, but whether they actually delivering the very services they supposedly offer. Since the value is not always delivered on time or 100% quantifiable, clients are justifiably concerned as to whether their invested money is giving them a solid return on their investment. When so many companies in this arena fail to deliver, slip deadlines or worse, engage in fraud, stupidity, and criminal acts, then it’s time to ask whether the focus is actually on delivering real service.

Since the Services sector covers a lot of territory, I will not attempt to scan every major industry or company. However, there are plenty of examples that demonstrate the gulf between the proposed value of what they offer and what they actually deliver.

The biggest and more recent case of course is the meltdown in the financial markets. The evidence illustrates a mass delusion or deception by so many parties on that I wonder just what were they doing. For the financially delusional, the investment firms outsmarted themselves by getting addicted to supposedly perfect, quantitative models that could predict the future. There was just one tiny problem: their models did not account for a broad decline in the housing market because ‘it was not possible’. Look here to get a sense of how they fooled themselves from the following article:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp_quant

On the deceptive front, the names ‘Madoff’ and “Sanford” are destined to go down in the annals of financial history as two of the biggest liars who ever played the markets. These two along with many others were supposed to help their clients make more money, but somehow they ‘forgot’ why they were in business. They did remember to make sure they personally made a lot of money no matter what.

Likewise, the major commercial banks got cute trying to maximize their returns and got sucked into the current mess. In a classic case of ‘be careful what you ask for’, their lobbying for deregulation of the financial sector enabled them to roll the dice with other people’s money; unfortunately, we’re all paying the price.

I remember all the self-justifying rhetoric about how these folks represented the best and the brightest whereas the rest of us were too simple to understand their magic. All I know is that the only magic trick they performed was making a lot of people’s money disappear. The kicker is that they wanted the government and the unwashed masses of Main Street to stay out of their way, but now want the government and Main Street to save them from their own stupidity. It’s a joke but it’s not very funny.

Other services-based firms and professionals are also guilty of the same tendencies. Having worked previously in the IT world, I can’t count the number of horror stories I witnessed or heard about regarding the breakdown from the proposal-to-signoff-to-delivery phase of various systems integration and consulting projects. The dirty, semi-open secret of many IT consulting companies is to land the gig no matter what, then jack the customer deliberately or mess around by over-committing and under-performing in terms of original price and schedule. Clients know this stuff goes on, but they’re held hostage by the capital and personnel investment, so they’re locked in. The most scummy thing I’ve heard is that it’s entirely the clients’ fault because ‘they should know better’. Huh? Is it any wonder why customers would rather go to the dentist than dealing with IT companies?

It goes on and on. When the major accounting companies earlier this decade in let Enron and WorldCom get away with their shenanigans, I was amazed that their audit departments could let such events happen. It wasn’t just one accounting firm - it was all of them. Either they were part of the scams or just lazy and clueless. Lots of people made lots of money but delivered nothing for their service except fines, bankruptcy, and jail terms. We got the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations as a result, and everyone’s complaining. But what do we expect when there is a systemic failure by an entire industry to go its job?

I don’t know what is happening such that so many companies and people are willing to screw themselves and their customers. It’s a toxic combination of greed and stupidity and once again, everyone’s dealing with the fallout. All this stuff happened before in the Dot-com/Dot-Bomb cycle when we had created the ‘New Economy’ where we had supposedly conquered the business cycle (remember THAT?). That collapse and the major accounting scandals were less than ten years ago, but it’s like no one learned anything. Maybe we’ll learn now, but do we really need jail terms and major recessions to stop these behaviors once and for all?

Look, I’m all for people making money and a lot of it as a by-product of providing good service. But witnessing such widespread disconnects across so many industries and professionals, it seems that money has become the god that overrides ethics and service. The only good news it seems is many people are now willing to call the pig a pig no matter how much lipstick is on it. Perhaps finally the deceivers and the delusional will get weeded out so that those of us who really deliver good service can get back to work.

Here is the latest trailer for the new Star Trek movie. I don’t know if the movie will be any good, but judging from the looks of this, it looks pretty solid so far.

Also, here is the link to the trailer:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid301778988?bctid=15034239001

I think an element of the corporate and professional world that is known but not openly acknowledged is the level of innocence and immaturity that exists. I have met many professionals have great credentials and experience, but their level of qualifications and their mental and emotional core does not match their qualifications. There is a big disconnect between their professional accomplishments and their basic people skills.

For example, I have witnessed plenty of businesspeople in the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s literally yell and scream at each other over relatively minor details such as who has the right approach for dealing with a specific customer. I have seen and experienced petty personal insults over how someone is performing their job (versus an honest and direct assessment). Another common occurrence that I’ve seen is the tendency to form cliques and gossip-based narratives about a specific person or group. It’s like being in a glorified version of the worst aspects of high school.

I also think there is a similar discrepancy that permeates the overall corporate culture regarding its supposed superiority compared to the blue-collar, public and non-profit sectors. Yes, it may be accurate that the standards for success and competition in the private sector demand higher levels of talent compared to the other groups. However, after witnessing the hubris and arrogance preceding first the ‘Dot-Bomb’ collapse, the accounting scandals of this decade (like Enron), and now the implosion of Wall Street, I will argue vigorously that the corporate world is fooling itself by thinking it is somehow ethically and intellectually superior. I will also assert that this childishness in wanting to disparage others, claim its inherent goodness, and then deflect all blame and responsibility when things go south is just ridiculous. Unfortunately, it’s also everywhere.

I do not know what shift is required to alter this mindset. I don’t know if it’s even possible. However, I think we need to do something soon because the stakes are greater than ever, especially given the current economic conditions. Simply put, all of us in corporate and professional world just need to grow up.

You and I live in trance much of the time. That soup of thoughts, feelings, and sensations feels like reality. But it’s just some neurochemical noise that comes across like a bunch of some stories about ourselves, life, other people, and what’s going. Just like many of the stories you and I read and see on TV and the movies are fiction, the ones in your head aren’t real either.

I suppose you might want to believe all that stuff going in your head is the ‘truth’, right? So why do we get so many things so wrong so many times? Oh, I bet your head then tells you that everybody who disagrees with you is crazy and stupid and full of garbage, but not you. They’re the ones living in a trance, but you’re different, right? . Then again, that your trance fooling you once again.

In absolute reality, there is a game going on, but it’s not fun at all. Everybody thinks stuff, and everybody feels something. That’s just part of existence and life. The problems come when you believe that stuff is real when it’s just noise, lots of mess that got dumped into your head when you were no more than five or six years old. You’ve thought stuff, you’ve re-thought it, and re-thought it and re-thought it, and where has it gotten you? It’s just like a dog chasing its tail, except the tail is in your head.

When you get tired of being a dog chasing your own mind, there is something more profound and more beautiful than your mind and your trance can ever imagine. The real question or the ‘reality’ to question is whether you want to continue believing your trance, or recognizing that much of what you think and feel isn’t really real. It’s just old mind patterns that are enslaving you.

If you want to continue being a slave to your trance, that’s up to you. But if you want to be free and be who you really are, then be willing not to believe your trance. Your trance might tell you to be afraid of what’s available outside of your stories, but there is so much more to you than your mind and story can ever give you.