ON A LIGHTER SIDE
On a much lighter side, the list of prospective BizSpeaks is as broad as business itself, and as such, we do have many "waiting in the wings to go..."
AND...
We have posted and expanded Martin Canard's story below the President’s Letter to the right, but at this time our team is most interested in hearing your favorites that have NOT yet appeared, either in The Agenda or in our BizSpeak! Book. As such, we are requesting that you forward to us any and all of your selections.
Optional attribution
We will be posting your offering (“Sacrificial Words”) with a Martin illustration monthly (“Until the cows come home!”) in The Agenda crediting those who propose them! (If you want YOUR name associated with it, that is... and if not Martin Canard will assign you an appropriate nom de plume.)
"Puzzle Spider"
By example: Nathan Mishler of Studio Cypher, Internet advisers and the creator of most excellent E-net games, has given us Puzzle Spider… the definition of which will appear in the April Agenda.
Please call us toll free at 800.977.3447 or send all of your suggestions, favorites, or complaints on either subject (serious or otherwise) to infotrg@regisgroup.com.
Thanks from all of us.
New on our Website:
TRG Leadership Tools
In looking to serve you better, we have been putting Leadership Tools on our website, designed to help guide you and your organization.
New from Regis
Our newest Leadership Tool, the second part of a four part series pertaining to planning, is now up and can be easily accessed through our website under New From Regis: Leadership Tools.
Please send us any subject ideas that you'd like to see to infotrg@regisgroup.com or call us at 800.977.3447.
Look forward to hearing from you!
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The Regis Group, Inc.
102 North King Street | Leesburg, VA 20176 |
March 2011
March 2011
Planning Notes
“Asking the
Right Question”
By Richard Storey, TRG Affiliate
and Marc Paul Chinoy
The opposite of “make no assumption” is “ask and ask and when you think you have the answer ask some more...” If this offends your clients (both internal and external) then they are the wrong clients...
These notions may sound glib, but the best planning follows a set of simple related premises.
Ask Questions!
- The subject must be of consequence to you.
- The “Plan Owners” must be willing to find answers that they have been either unable or unwilling to address to this point.
- The questions selected and the order in which they are asked will at least influence and often determine the outcome.
- Because there are no preset questions, the act of defining the questions at the start is of top priority.
- There are a set of overarching principles in establishing the questions, these Include:
- Why is "it" the way "it" is now? (With "it" being the basic conditions of business that are the drivers of planning)
- Could “it” be something else, other than “it” appears on the surface?
- What are we missing?
- What else is out there that is similar?
- What else is out there that is totally different BUT just might be applied?
- Who should be helping us to ask the questions, define options for the answers, and consider the value of the options as they emerge?
- What will it take to get as many of US as possible to INDEPENDENTLY say an unbounded set of questions first… and then answers RIGHT NOW!
Here is a modest challenge… there exists within your group’s life a tangible but unasked question that has lingered for a time; how to replicate the success of Pennsylvania in Ohio… determining if it is time to improve your name/logo, or whether to migrate your website message to wrap around Facebook. Pick one and write “it” down. Now that you’ve got “it,” re-read the above.
Note: Due to the nature of The Agenda newsletter, the principles and methods in this article are compressed.Also due to the nature of this newsletter, we will be pleased to expand on any portion in future letters and/or on our website at the request of any of you who are reading these words, simply by contacting us toll free at 800.977.3447 or emailing us at infotrg@regisgroup.com
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Focus on the Future
Guest Predictions:
Dan Clemens
Guest Predictions is a regular feature in which we ask leaders in a number of professions questions that affect us all.
Dan Clemens,
Dan Clemens is a media, communications and content consultant with expertise derived from more than two decades as a journalist for The Baltimore Sun. His abilities include writing, editing, design, content development and management, messaging and strategic communications, media relations, and social media.
Over the past two years, Dan has served as a consultant and subject matter expert for clients in diverse industries, including government contracting, higher education, health care, and non-profits.
Q: What changes in your professional environment in the past 3-5 years have you found to be the most beneficial?
A: Technological change has remade the news and communications industries. The earlier wave included advances such as desktop publishing for newspapers and video technology for TV news. In more recent years, the Internet and multiple new distribution channels provided new and faster ways to deliver information. Now, delivery of content from almost anywhere in the world can be instantaneous and continuous.
Q: What changes have been the most troubling to you?
A: The increasing instantaneousness and nonstop flow of information has spawned a migration away from comprehensive, in-depth news and information. The growing emphasis on commentary, in greater amount and often lesser insight, and the fixation on pop culture and entertainment news has displaced a significant portion of coverage of important topics that affect citizens’ lives.
Q: How will globalization affect your professional area in the near term?
A: With globalization, the world shrinks and once-far-flung places become areas of interest, creating demand for news and information about new locales. Understanding the behavior, habits and preferences of information consumers in other parts of the world becomes increasingly important, particularly for marketers seeking to do business abroad through news electronic distribution channels.
Q: What significant challenges might be anticipated in your professional area in the next few years?
A: We are living in a Golden Age of Information, an era of content in unprecedented abundance, diversity and availability through multiple channels. A key question: How does my message avoid getting drowned in the torrent of content?
Q: What are the greatest challenges confronting young professionals in Western culture today?
A: Many industries and professions are changing (or even emerging and disappearing) so rapidly that it can be hard for young professionals to make an assessment on which will be right for them in five or 10 years. In many industries, the value of specialization is falling, requiring competency in a greater range of skills beginning early in a career.
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Marc Chinoy
President's Letter
"THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE"
While not embracing constant chaos as a way of doing business, the reality that deliberate and well considered change is the centerpiece of progressive planning brings us to the next phase in the life of The Agenda Newsletter.
Starting next month and for the foreseeable future, ALL BizSpeaks will be provided by you, our readers. Give us your best shot and Martin Canard, our humor editor will do what he can to put them ALL in…
Well… that might get tough… we have already been given 15… ok… please give us the most unusual and descriptive.
In addition we are soliciting sequences of five global questions related in some way to business, and at a date not yet designated we will start our next interview sequence.
We are also soliciting your ideas of how to become even MORE interactive, while preserving the blend of straight-forward news, commentary and humor each month.
On to the next adventure!
Marc
HERE IS A SPECIAL BIZSPEAK BUZZ RESULTING FROM MARTIN CANARD’S LESS THAN STERLING SONG AND DANCE AT THE BIG CHEESE POW WOW!
Unfortunately, from the “GET GO” Martin ran “full tilt” into a “stonewall.”
His “overall positioning” took him on a “really bad bounce.”
He acted as a “lightening rod” for all the EVPs.
He was falsely suspected of “cooking the numbers,” when and actually it was Gregory who had his “hand in the cookie jar!”
As a result, Martin was “slow-rolled” “flat as a pancake.”
But just when it looked like Martin would never be able to “pull out of the death spiral,”
He said the “magic ROI words” and miraculously...
Because even “a dead cat will bounce if it is thrown FROM HIGH enough...”
…he did!
So here he is...
“On his feet...”
“Off the street…”
And about as “BIG TIME COMPLETE"....as our Martin can ever be.
Hoozah!
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