Guess The Photo!
- September 29th, 2008
- Posted by: Joe Williams
- (3) Comments
Okay all you Sonoran Desert Dialoguers…You’ve taken the nature walk with Ron and Sue. You’ve hiked in Saguaro National Park West–very west. You’ve communed with a Saguaro. So, do you know what this photo is? Just how desert are ya?
Send your entries in the Comment section and we’ll see who really knows what about the Sonoran Desert. Watch for the results!
Know where you’re going in life…you may already be there!
- September 19th, 2008
- Posted by: Joe Williams
- (0) Comments
Prickly pear blossom from last May’s Dialogue Workshop.
A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.
“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.
“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?”asked the American.
The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.
The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”
“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs . . I have a full life.
The American interrupted, “I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you!, You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat. With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge enterprise.”
“How long would that take?” asked the Mexican.
“Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,” replied the American.
“And after that?”
“Afterwards? That’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the American, laughing. “When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!”
“Millions? Really?” “And after that?”
“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends.”
The moral of the story ?
Know where you’re going in life…you may already be there!
Sign Me Out!
- September 18th, 2008
- Posted by: Joe Williams
- (0) Comments
My handsome grandson, Felix.
My six-year-old grandson, Felix, asked his dad to sign him up for spring soccer.
A couple of months passed and by the time soccer finally started, Felix wasn’t too keen on the idea. He gets a little anxious about things that are new to him.
At the first scrimmage, Felix was going through the motions. He played, but with hesitancy. Again, his nervousness with something new kicked in.
When it came his time to rotate out, he came running over to his dad and said, “Dad, Dad, sign me out, sign me out!”
He said that every time he came out of the game.
Well, he’s since had his second game and he did great, never asking to be “signed out” again.
Have you ever signed up for something, only to later wish you could “sign out,” as young Felix puts it?
It goes without saying that there is an unprecedented amount of change now in every aspect of our lives–business, politics, and the economy.
Change has it’s dark side, for sure. It makes us nervous because we can not predict what it will bring or how it will affect us. Part of us may wish we could just “sign out” from it.
But every change has its hidden opportunities. One door closes, another will open. But we have to turn the handle. And push.
What Felix is teaching us is that we must try new things even when it makes us nervous, because we never know what we can accomplish unless we take a step, a risk, and try.
If we don’t push, nothing happens.
What is it that you need to push? What opportunities can you find that are hidden in the changes that are affecting you, your work, your life?
For sometimes, in the winds of change is where we find our true direction.
Wanna Buy the Lazy K Bar Ranch? For $8.5 Million?
- September 15th, 2008
- Posted by: Joe Williams
- (0) Comments
Many a Dialoguer has saddled up under the Lazy K Bar brand. Jackie Williams of ICWUSA (Nov. 2006 Workshop) in Medford, Oregon, experiences one of the Workshop’s best learning experiences: team penning, a tradition we continue at the White Stallion.
Thought you’d like to know that the dear old Lazy K Bar is officially up for sale. The price tag: $8.5 million. Whoa!–there is no way that it could still be operated as a guest ranch and be profitable, so it’s 137-acres are sure to be developed into homes and/or a resort. The latest word is that a home division with an equestrian center attached to it are in the works. But even still, at $65,000 an acre, it’s a pretty steep entry fee.
At that price, even a Dialogue in the Desert retire home for alums would be out of the question…
To find out more about it go to www.bournpartners. com.
Sad to see. Some 40 years ago there were almost 30 guest ranches in the Tucson area alone. Now they are down to two–the White Stallion and Tanque Verde.
The Tools Work: Focus on What You Are Trying to Achieve!
- September 10th, 2008
- Posted by: Joe Williams
- (0) Comments
Bill Holladay on “Bill’s Rock” (named in his honor) at the site of our Meditatio Divinas when we were at the Lazy K. On this rock one morning a hummingbird stopped and treaded air mere inches from Bill’s shoulder. Somehow that little winged creature knew that Bill was a birder and in the silence of that minute I think the two of them had a dialogue all their own.
How One Dialoguer Is Using the Tools
I am the client relations manager for a 20-person marketing department in a 200-employee, not-for-profit fundraising organization for a major university. A number of years ago, my boss attended Dialogue in the Desert. Soon after, she used the Strategic Mapping process at a departmental retreat to help us focus our efforts. It was a revelation. It led to a shift in our thinking about ourselves and our role in the organization. Our office went from feeling like an overworked, under-appreciated, reactive collection of rather cynical writers and designers, to an energetic, client-oriented, in-house creative agency. (Still feeling overworked and under-appreciated…and maybe a bit cynical still…but we’re working on that.) We now feel ourselves to be true partners in our organization’s mission.
Since then, I too have attended Dialogue. Twice. Together my boss and I worked the Strategic Mapping approach into the everyday office routine. We don’t require the staff to use the actual map, but we’ve got them asking the questions, especially at the start of a new project. We have demonstrated its effectiveness in those initial meetings with clients: how it helps focus everyone’s ideas and goals, client and creative team alike.
Increasingly, the staff is thinking in “Swoosh & Star” terms. It comes out in their meetings and in their own approach to projects. Our colleagues in the organization have noticed the change in attitude. They appreciate the new purposefulness and the improved communication. Several have expressed how the mapping process helped them see past the surface, to understand what they were really trying to achieve with their programs. On occasion, it has even shown that what they thought they needed was not what they needed at all. On one occasion, that revelation saved the organization—and our staff—the effort and expense of putting out a new quarterly newsletter to people who were already receiving two other mailings. When that happens, everybody wins.
It seems such a simple thing: Focus on what you are trying to achieve. Yet it is amazing how often that principle gets lost in the daily grind. The tools we learned at Dialogue have helped us and our clients stay on track, and that translates into more effective communication with donors and prospective donors. Ultimately, that means more donations for our cause. And that’s why we’re all here.
Bill Holladay
Client Relations Manager, Marketing Group
Indiana University Foundation
Email: bhollada@indiana.edu
Greetings From Bloomington, MN
I am writing this in the evening from a Residence Inn hotel room in Bloomington, MN. Tomorrow I am leading a Face2Face communication training session for managers of General Dynamics. For the last several years, General Dynamics has made our program required training for all managers, which means that I’m on planes from Arlington, VA to Thousand Oaks, CA and from Andover, MD to Santa Clara, CA. It’s good work, they are a good company and the managers in every location really take to the tools and find the program extremely valuable. In fact, I’m told it is the highest rated of all training programs in the company.
Residence Inn has an evening “Manager’s Reception,” complete with free drinks and a light dinner–tonight hamburgers, bratwurst, chips and chocolate pudding. Nothing like ranch food, mind you, but it beats going out to try to find a place to eat by myself.
I like to watch people. Sitting there tonight I noticed that all the tables were arranged so they faced the TV–and everyone was watching Let’s Make A Deal. They looked like zombies. One or two people to a table. No one was talking to anyone else. So I have an idea for you, Residence Inn: Put several tables together and place a card on it that says “Community Table: Dialogue Encouraged!”
People who travel for a living, travel in isloation. Sometimes it is nice to be by yourself, and unto yourself, especially after a long day of talking with others. But how nice it would be to have the choice to sit down in the evening at a table in a family of strangers atmosphere, where people can brag on their families and share a laugh or two.
Kinda like it’s done on a ranch in Arizona.
