What's On....in Geneva
November 28th, 1-Focus is cosponsoring a novel TeamBuilding Session.  Along with Chef Gavin Chutterbuck, my business partner, Roberta  Hill, will be offering an evening workshop in Geneva, which takes participants into the workings of a real commercial kitchen and experience what it really takes to work collaboratively under production pressures.  This public offering is designed especially for HR professionals and will be offered at cost.  This is quite an exciting workshop and details can be found at:  www.AligningTeams.com 

A New Release for Project Leaders
One of our colleagues', Jack Ferraro's, book "The Strategic Project Leader: Mastering Service-Based Project Leadership" published. Information can be found on Amazon using the link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0849387949//thecoachingoptio
Roberta's discourse on Assessments in last three chapters round out the book to complete the scope and process of becoming a Service Project Leadership.

Our Blog 
You can find out about the latest news and announcements on the blog under the Events Page.

How often do we jump right into doing without a clue of what we want? OK, maybe I am being a bit melodramatic here. In the story that follows, I want to share what happened when a team focused on problem solving before stepping back and determining what they wanted to create first.

Two pharmaceutical companies came together in a merger. The match was made in heaven, so they said. The implementation team chose the best people from both companies to lead the organization, creating a few new positions along the way. They involved employees in what was going on from the beginning. The new corporate identity was clear all the way down to the coffee mugs.  So, why was it that 18 months after the merger they were hiring Conflict Resolution consultants ...and experiencing even higher employee turnover than the initial post-merger shock?

From the start Corporate Communications was on the mark... a full Mission, Vision and Strategy campaign went into full swing all the way down to the distribution of new coffee mugs throughout the organization with the new corporate logo on it.

It seemed that everything was clearly laid out. The Top-Down Merger planning and implementation process was a faultless Best Practice example. However, the problems still remained and the strain in the organization was draining its lifeblood. Why? What went wrong?

The answer, is  simple... the immediate impact of loss of identity and the subsequent time lag between the time the merger was announced and the re-involvement of the organization as a whole was too long and too weak. The "bottom-up" involvement consisted of a few large-scale announcements and meetings. Most of the management and employees were kept out of the loop and planning process. Actually, everyone outside of the Core Planning Tam was kept out of the loop.

Irene and her husband decided they wanted to take a vacation and relax. They were both exhausted and needed to unwind.  Irene planned the 6 day vacation: touring Rome, staying at a 5 Star hotel with a side trip to Capri... She had a great time. Irving, on the other had, came home wiped out... all he wanted to do was relax. What could his wife have thought?

To Irene, touring was relaxing, but to Irving, 6 days on a sailboat would have done the job. Touring was exhausting! While this could have been the beginning of the end of their marriage, it turned out to be the best thing that happened to them.

After this "little miscommunication," they started to talk more about what they meant when they talked about things they took for granted, like relaxing, fun, quiet-time, retirement, etc. What a wonderful experience! For the first time in their 23 years of marriage, they felt that they really enjoyed each other's company and shared what was in their hearts. The developed a whole new meaning for the word" we".

The Strategic Project Leader: Mastering Service-Based Project Leadership, by Jack Ferraro
Prescription for Nutritional Healing, by James F. Balch, M.D. and Phyllis A. Balch, C.N.C.

"Leading Cross-Cultural Disengagement: Merger and Acquisition Failure" article by Sandy Weiner, MCC with Roberta Hill, MCC.  If you have not already, we invite you to request a download of our article by sending an email to: mergers@aweber.com

Offering a little help...
.....to someone else cannot only give you more energy, but the recipient as well... My story... The hour and half journey between GlasgowAirport and Downtown Edinburgh had taken me more than 4 hours. I was exhausted as I drove slowly up the main street in search of the turnoff for my hotel.  My Michelin directions had been quite a bit off and I was driving quite slowly in the left lane (the slow lane) when I heard someone honking. I looked up and noticed that there was a bus driver motioning at me, pointing down. I checked and no, my skirt wasn't handing out the bottom of the door, nor was my door opened. He honked again and made a motion that seemed to indicate I should roll the window down. So I took the hint and did so, sure he was about to tell me I was holding up traffic or something of the sort.
But, to my surprise, he asked if I was lost or needed any help. I told him the address I was looking for. To my greater surprise, he gave me detailed directions as to where to turn and what landmarks to look out for along the way. He must have spent 5 - 10 minutes doing so right in the middle of rush hour traffic! Amazingly, the whole time, no one honked and he never seemed rushed... just interested in offering clear directions and his help.  I felt relieved, grateful and welcome in Scotland!
That incident gave me so much life and energy and a calm that seemed to keep on lasting...

Fasting... (with your doctor's approval)... to detoxify your body and drink away your stress
Modified from: Prescription for Nutritional Healing, by James F. Balch, M.D. and Phyllis A. Balch, C.N.C.

• Eat only raw foods (vegetables and fruits) for two days prior to the fast and two days after the fast
• Determine the length of the fast, e.g., 3-days to cleanse the body; 5-days o start the healing process...
• Drink freshly made organic vegetable juices or broth 2-3 times a day, for example, 3 carrots, two stalk of celery, one turnip, two beets, a half head of cabbage, a quarter of punch of parsley, a quarter of an onion, and a half clove  of garlic.
• If the need to eat something solid arises during the fast, eat watermelon or fresh applesauce alone.
• Take Spirulina as well as extra Fiber capsules (bran, amaranth), a half Aloe Vera Juice and Non-sweetened Cranberry Juice Mixture, Psyllium seed or Glucomannan with lots of water
• Drink Pau d'Arco and Echinacea teas and/or herb teas
• Do not just drink water

Take vitamin and mineral supplements as needed

It was the time of year for annual reviews. Reggie sat with his boss, Glinda, and was astounded to hear what she had to say. His review was below par on most accounts. Honestly, Glinda was right in terms what she was reviewing. But, the year was one of the most hectic and, Reggie thought, the most productive. At last that was how he felt until he had his annual review.

He was proud of the work he had done in the community, working with the school board to help create an experiential pre-engineering program for High School students and the practicum program he initiated to give students exposure to what real engineering work was like. Added to this, he was thrilled at the direction his project had taken. He and his team had sat down with manufacturing, their external customer and production and redesigned a product that met the client's needs to the tee and can be produced even less expensively (enabling a greater profit) than the original product proposed... all because one of his designers questioned the applicability of the product. Sure, they were running 4 months behind schedule, but the returns by the middle of next year will be far greater than if they had stuck with the original task at hand... and their was talk of getting an even larger contract form the customer as a result of their joint efforts.

Glinda took a look at the statistics... increased manpower, delayed completion... how was she going to explain this to her boss? They were running behind and their costs were up! She had thought she could count on Reggie to make good decisions nd decided to give him as much breath as he wanted for his unorthodox methods of working. Can you imagine, he even brought in the customer?! Yet, in the end, here they were, Reggie was below par on 4 of his 6 objectives... excelling in his communality activities. Humph!

Reggie walked into her office a week later ready to resign. He didn't have another job, he just felt that there was a strong conflict of values. Well, of course, there was a values conflict, He didn't' care about the company, only excelled in external matters. But, as they talked, she learned more than she bargained for. Yes, his participative methods took him off track... at least off the track they had thought was the right one for their customer... but they also build a much stronger relationship with the customer and a higher profit. She had never thought of asking about the outcomes... only the status.

As they talked, Glinda learned more about how he worked and the results. She was proud of what he did. She raised all his ratings except the one related to communication. She explained to Reggie the side-effects of his not communicating upward--with her--what was going on and the domino effect it had

According to Buddha, "There are only two mistakes one can make along the path of life: not going all the way and not starting at all."

We now have the PowerPoint presentation and voice recording from our Leading Cross Cultural Re-engagement Webinar ready for downloading.  Send an email to mergers@aweber.com   If you confirm your subscription we will send you the material.