Deb Gondek, Rich Products, experiencing the power of ‘join-up’ during the nonverbal communication clinic during the Dialogue Master Class, 2007.

“I’ve been “is-ing” quite a bit lately using the strategic planning tools from Dialogue and from our business planning process here at Rich’s. Not just at work, but outside as well. For the past year or so, I’ve been a member of the Niagara County Environmental Committee (home of Love Canal, so as you can imagine we have our work cut out for us!). It’s a very passionate group of environmentalists with a lot of knowledge about our natural resource inventory, renewable energy, waste management, land use, Lake Ontario fishery activities, native vegetation, etc. However, we haven’t been able to harness all that expertise, and have accomplished very little in our advisory role to the county legislature and have only made incremental progress in our public education & outreach efforts. Oh, and did I mention that absolutely no one wants to collaborate with us on environmental issues because some of our more vocal members in the past have given the group a reputation of putting up roadblocks without providing alternate solutions!

“At the end of last year I was reflecting on all this and came to the conclusion that I either needed to resign from the council and spend my time on others things that are making a difference … or lead them in a strategic planning session. So I figured, what the heck? Why not see if the group would be up for a little long-range planning. The newer members were all for it; some of the “lifers” on the council looked at me like I had 2 heads & it was clear they’d never experienced the benefits of strategic planning sessions. But in the end most everyone agreed that dedicating our meetings in Feb and March to planning sessions would be a good start. We’re in the home stretch now and I can’t tell you what a transformation it has been. The entire process has generated meaningful dialogue among the group and helped us prioritize our areas of focus. It started with a review and refresh of our by-laws (which, honestly, I didn’t even know existed before this). We’ve even engaged members of the team who were on the fence as I was … and developed a liaison with the County Legislature so we now have ongoing 2-way dialogue with them. And we haven’t even completed our planning document yet!

“Yesterday, I kicked off the strategic planning process for the Buffalo Ronald McDonald House. Our green team at St Christopher’s Church wants to go through the process as well. Wow! When it “is” it pours!

“Just wanted to say thanks. The gift of Dialogue just keeps on giving!”

–Deb Gondek
LEED AP
Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design
Accredited Professional
Director of Sustainability
Rich Products Corporation
dgondek@rich.com

Hug a cactus?

Right. We all know that a Saguaro has long, sharp spines. Get too close and pow, you pay the price.

So how is Debbie Chow, April 2009 Dialoguer from Vancouver, avoiding this in the photo above?

First, this particular Saguaro is an old fella (probably 250-300 years old, actually) and the spines on the bottom of his skin have fallen off, which make him quite huggable. On first glance, he looks simply unhuggable. Unapproachable. Untouchable.

But on closer inspection, it is quite the opposite.

(After all, how many people can say they’ve hugged a Saguaro?)

But once we change our focus we change what we see.

We need to look at the world with different eyes.

If we want to truly see what is before us all along, we need to narrow the focus.

And when we do, everything that looks on first glance frightening and prickly, might not always be that way.

As Thoreau said, “The question isn’t what you are looking at, it’s what do you see?”

What are you looking at today?

What do you need to see?

“In the days since I’ve ‘re-entered,’ I’ve discovered that Dialogue in the Desert isn’t about vision, SWOT analysis, maps or O-Matics (although they’re all fabulous tools), it’s about self-discovery, deciding who I want to be, where I want to go and who I want to take with me on life’s exciting adventure!”

Joe, I wrote that sentence 14 years ago after returning from Arizona. My toddlers at the time are now preparing to empty my nest; I’ve helped turn a fledgling start-up into an industry powerhouse; I’ve discovered I can be fitter pushing 50 than I was passing 20; I’ve witnessed the hell of an Iowa flood and the serenity of an Outback sunrise; and through it all I’ve carried memories and voices from my time at ‘Dialogue.’

So is the desert still with me? YES!

Pete Ylvisaker, Dialogue Workshop 10/1995
GoDaddy.com Iowa Office
office 319-294-3929
cell 319-329-9830
www.godaddy.com

From Denise Crossen, Dialogue alum 9/99; 3/2000; 3/2001:

Hi, Joe! I have a little desert story for you.

Last summer I had the pleasure of being promoted at the agency and being moved to a team that focuses on healthcare. We do research, strategy and marketing campaigns for hospitals across the country. It’s a great fit with my many years of healthcare experience from Cerner. I love the job! And I love agency life. It’s a much better fit for me than corporate was.

So I was on one of my first business trips with my boss Jerry back in December. We went out to visit a client in Phoenix. We presented our three campaign concepts to their executive group, got great feedback and then had time to spend before going to the airport. We decided to drive to Scottsdale, since I’d never been there.

As we’re driving through the desert, I’m noticing all these things the naturalist taught us during my three Dialogue experiences, so I’m educating Jerry about all kinds of desert facts, to the point that he’s giving me grief about it. I was surprised by how much I remembered! I think he was surprised, too, and not quite as happy about it as I was.

A couple months later, we were both totally under water due to huge project deadlines. Nerves were frayed. We were exhausted from the long hours, day after day. We didn’t know how we were going to get it all done.

So I went home, picked out a small piece of cholla skeleton and brought it in with a card. I told him that even though I bugged him with desert details, it’s really a place of peace and quiet — and I hoped seeing a piece of the desert in his office would bring him some of that peace, even if momentarily.

He teased me about THAT, too! But I noticed a few days later that the cholla piece was sitting on his desk, right by his computer, where he can see it while he works.

I have yet to figure out how to get back out there for another week with you, but haven’t given up on the idea! I’m aggressive but I’m not very determined. I’m Queen Anne.

Oh, man. Wait’ll I’ll play Queen Anne with Jerry on our next trip!

Congratulations on your IABC honor!

Denise Crossen
Prairie Dog | TCG
Visit our Web site: http://www.pdog.com

Note: Wendy wrote this article about her experience in the Dialogue in the Desert Workshop and ran it on her blog: www.echeloncomm. Wendy has her own firm, Echelon Communications, providing speech presentation, writing services and workshops across Canada. Her husband, Wally, a four-time Dialogue alum, came to Dialogue when he was a scientist with the National Research Council of Canada. We thought that other alums might enjoy and relive the Workshop through her words.

The desert sun blazes down as I stand in a pen transfixed by a horse running circles around me.

She stops and starts and changes direction on my command, which I reinforce with the flick of a switch.

After five minutes or so, the pace changes. I turn my back and slowly walk away. Calmly, the horse moves toward me, signaling that she is ready to accept me as her leader.
I’m thrilled. With hardly a word from me we have had quite the conversation.

The young mare is acting on instinct, making decisions that have allowed her species to survive for thousands of years. I’m sharpening my communications skills. And while I have only moved a few steps in a tight little circle, it feels like I have worked just as hard as my equine friend.

Learning to take charge of a horse is one of many new experiences I will encounter as a student of Dialogue in the Desert. Dialogue, as veterans call it for short, is a strategic communications thinking and planning workshop designed to give participants the views and tools they need to be influential and persuasive in the workplace. It’s the first of its kind and the longest running in its field.

Joe Williams, a longtime organizational communicator, created Dialogue after he went looking for a strategy course for communicators and came up empty. For the past 30 years, he has filled the vacuum, travelling from his home base in Bartlesville, Oklahoma to a guest ranch deep in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. So far he has delivered the workshop more than 100 times to students who come from all over North America and more distant places such as Bermuda and Australia.

Over five days, Dialoguers divide their time between a classroom where Joe leads fast-paced lessons and discussions, and the ranch and the desert beyond where they put theory into practice.

The Dialogue attracts career communicators as well as people from other walks of life who want to learn how to be more strategic in their communications. Each student starts applying Joe’s lessons and tools to their own issues on the spot.

I’m a self-employed speech and presentation writer and workshop leader who has come looking for answers to questions such as: How can I communicate better with my clients? How can I better help them communicate their key messages and achieve their goals through the material I craft for them? And how can I better use communication to create more success in my own business?

Joe provides plenty of answers and so do my workshop colleagues. It’s a small group, seven in all. When Joe asks us to pick a name, we choose a western theme and declare ourselves the Magnificent Seven. During classroom lessons and hands on sessions, shared meals, trail rides, desert walks, team penning exercises, roping lessons and a few trips to the ranch bar, we learn together and from each other, enjoying lots of laughs along the way.

Oddly enough though, one of my most memorable lessons comes from the horse in the ring. Words on their own are not enough I learn. That’s a tough message for a speechwriter. To get a positive response from the horse my body language has to be one with what I say. In other words, my intention has to be plain, undeniable and reflected in every aspect of my communication. If not, nothing happens. That horse knows when someone is just talking the walk, just as human audiences do.

I also do some soul searching as I create a poster-sized map that shows where I am now in my business, the point I want to reach in the future, and what steps I have to take to reach my goal. Months later, the map remains a treasured memento of the Dialogue and a still relevant touchstone. Moreover, it lets me see where I’m making progress and where my efforts are stalled. One of my fellow Dialoguers took her map home and pinned it to the outside of her office door. Be warned all who enter here it seemed to say; things are going to change.

Joe fell in love with the Arizona desert as a kid. On summer vacations, he used to help his granddad work a hobby mine claim amid the jumping cholla and towering saguaro cactus. When he planned his first workshop as a company retreat, heading back to the desert seemed like a good idea. It would take participants out of their comfort zone and plunk them down in an alien environment where everything seems to slither, stick or sting. Students still arrive perplexed by the instructions to pack a comb or pocketknife and carry it everywhere during their stay. They soon find out why: some of them, the hard way.

By the early eighties, Dialogue was a regular event as Joe filled the growing need for a workshop that explored strategy from a communications point of view. In the years since, it has moved three times: always to a ranch in Arizona. Today it’s held at the White Stallion, a family-run operation just outside of Tucson. The White Stallion has occasionally doubled as a movie set. We eat lunch one day in an isolated ramada where George Clooney once shot some scenes. When I return home I rent the movie (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind). Sure enough, the lopsided saguaro in the frame with George is in some of my pictures too.

Joe defines strategy as a focus on results or direction. Strategy, he says, answers the question: What are we doing, or going to do? What direction are we going in as an organization and why? It’s the big picture view or what he calls ‘the what’. Planning, on the other hand, answers the question how: how are we going to execute the strategy?

He likes to use Wal-Mart as an example. Wal-Mart’s strategy is to sell goods for less than consumers pay elsewhere. The plan behind the strategy involves buying inventory in volume. I extrapolate his example to my own situation. My strategy, I decide, is to help people excel through speeches and presentations. The challenge now is to come up with a plan to turn strategy into action. I use the tools I learn at Dialogue to hone my focus.

Thinking about strategy is an exercise in cutting through the clutter says Joe. Once again, the desert illustrates his point. Everything living in it is focused on a single task: survival.

Strategy is critical, but Joe stresses that it’s useless without a plan. The opposite scenario is also true. A plan without a strategy is equally adrift. There’s no sense picking a destination unless you’re prepared to row hard to get there, he says. Just like there’s no sense rowing hard until you have a destination in mind.

Dialogue takes place over five days; long enough to get used to the still, stark desert. The alien landscape helps Dialoguers to step out of their usual thinking and recharge. Many leave with a heightened sense of purpose.

Joe says the quiet of the desert also aids reflection. That’s why he issues journals to students and asks them to keep notes. He helps them get in the mood by punctuating forays into the desert with spiritual readings.

There are grumbles when Joe announces his plan for day two of the workshop. We are expected to get up before dawn and trek into the desert to watch the sun come over the mountains. Joe wants us to see the big picture in a different light. (My pun.) He reminds us that it’s easy to get bogged down in the details of being a doer or a creator of stuff and to lose sight of a larger role we can play; that of advisor. Too often, he says, people are tactical when they should be strategic. And then they wonder why no one invites them to contribute to decisions about the way ahead.

In Joe parlance, putting your head up to scan the horizon is going wide and shallow. But there are also times to go narrow and deep – to focus on a specific issues and ask lots of questions that start with a word Joe imbues with great significance. The word is why. We respond to that word a lot as the Magnificent Seven work together in the classroom to build a strategy map. Although we come from radically different workplaces and backgrounds, the map has relevance to us all. In human affairs, communications is king – no doubt.

Activities outside the classroom not only demonstrate communication principles; they build confidence. If I can take control of a horse within a few minutes, I reason, I can walk into a room with senior executives and make a presentation. Chances are none of the suits are going to jump out of their seats and kick me.

I also learn to throw a lariat – although not from horseback. But I do spend time in the saddle learning to cut cattle and move them into a small enclosure. My horse has lots of experience in team penning and he shows it, ignoring my signals in order to do what he knows has to be done. Another valuable lesson from the Dialogue: humility.

Despite the best of intentions, it’s easy to go home and slip back into old ways. The real test of Dialogue comes six months later when I sit down to think hard about what I took away from the experience. Were Joe’s learning points really relevant to my role as a speech and presentation writer? Do I remember the tools and insights and am I applying them? Am I more strategic now than before?

By and large, the answer to each question is the same: yes. But it helps to refer back to my notes and journal entries. I’m also glad to know that the other members of the Magnificent Seven are a mere e-mail message or phone call away.

Let me share a few of the things I learned that would benefit any speechwriter:
• Aim to be a strategist and not just a craftsperson. Being strategic involves knowing your organization, knowing the market or environment in operates in, and knowing what’s over the horizon. Sometimes, as Joe demonstrated literally, that means getting up early in the morning, walking into the desert, sitting alone, listening intently to the silence, and scanning the horizon with your eyes wide open.

• Communications is a transfer of energy. Today I work harder than ever at making the speeches I write clear, compelling and dynamic. Dull policy speak and easy clichés will not make the grade. Every draft has to pass a critical test: Are the speaker’s thoughts and words pointed and powerful enough to transfer energy to the audience?

• Analysis/paralysis is a pitfall of strategy building. To avoid it start with a clear purpose and use it as a compass to lead you to the research you need to do. I tell my speechwriting students if you are clear on your speaker’s goal in making the speech then you will know when you have gathered enough of the right stuff to start writing drafts.

• Don’t make assumptions too quickly and constantly question those you already hold. This lesson takes a great deal of awareness and self-discipline to execute. As Joe says, to build a strategy you have to show the courage of a revolutionary and start with a clean slate. Do research, rather than basing ideas and decisions on what you think is gospel. It’s easy to fall into a pattern of same old, same old. Speechwriters do it when they make a habit of copying material from one speech and pasting it into another. The eventual result is is a muddled patchwork of stale ideas and messages. Every once in a while start from scratch. You might even begin anew by rewriting your Q&As on a topic. Rethink and reword them in light of what’s happening now. And then transfer that energy into your speeches.

• Structure determines results. This lesson can be applied on many different levels. At a high altitude, it means learning to think of yourself as far more than a speechwriter. Say, you work for a large chemical company. A big part of your job should be to learn about the chemical industry and your company’s place in it. In other words, structure your thinking so that you’re a specialist in the business first, and a communicator second. On a day-to-day plane, structure means ensuring your work reflects a strategic outlook. Tackle assignments with a goal in mind, spend time planning, not just doing, and find ways to measure your results. If you want others to see you as strategic, act strategic.

At the end of every Dialogue session Joe holds a circle ceremony. The centerpiece of the circle is a simple eagle feather. Each participant is invited to speak about their Dialogue experience as they hold the feather. The moment draws out touching insights and, in some cases, strong emotions.

In a sense, those of us who write speeches hold the eagle feather in proxy for our clients. We have a responsibility then to honour them, and their audiences, by producing work with the clarity and strength of purpose of the desert sun coming over the mountains.

After a WAY TOO LONG winter, I’ll be heading back to the White Stallion Ranch and the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona for Dialogue Workshop #107. We have a small but great looking group (all groups look good on paper!) coming for the April 26-May 1 Workshop. April is the best time to be in the desert–warm weather, cacti in bloom (maybe even a few Saguaros, if we’re lucky–they usually don’t start until later in May) and wonderful night air. We still have space, if you’d like to join us or send a colleague.

The desert always seems to work it’s magic. What we do in the classroom is experienced out of the classroom–in the desert walks, in the round pen with horses, and the always surprising team penning event. Learning is all around us, at every turn and almost always, in the least expecting places. As you will recall from your Dialogue Workshop, we work long and hard, but we have immense fun. And one thing is certain: we return better for the experience. On alum put it this way: “There was me before the desert (BD) and there is a better me after the desert (AD).”

We all need a little desert in our lives. Take some time this week to reflect on your desert journey, the time you were in the workshop and how wonderful the week was and what you took away.

Revisit your Dialogue Journal.

Revisit your desert object.

Remember the learnings.

Remember the laughter.

Remember your fellow participants.

Remember the oh so pure silence of the desert mornings.

Bring some of that forth in your work and in your life this week.

Then see what happens.

I got a phone call a few weeks ago from Sheri Rosen informing me that I had been selected as one of two recipients of the 2009 IABC Fellow Award.

I never thought of myself in that league. So I was, quite naturally, at a loss for words. And I still am. The official ceremony is June 7 at the international conference in San Francisco.

If any Dialogue alums are there, let’s get together. I’m buying. At least the first round.

Here’s the blow-by-blow biographical details, from an IABC press release…

The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) has named Joe Williams and Pixie Malherbe Emslie, ABC, as this year’s IABC Fellows. The IABC Fellow Award is the highest honor the association can bestow on an individual and acknowledges outstanding leadership, professional accomplishment and service to IABC and the profession.

Fellow selection criteria includes contribution to the organizational communication field and profession; career achievement; authorship, speaking and lecturing; contributions to IABC; and other professional recognition such as community activities and other business-related activities.

“Both Joe and Pixie have had a substantial influence on the communication profession, though they’ve done so in different ways. Each one’s individual personality and circumstance shaped their career achievements and contribution to IABC, says Sheri Rosen, ABC, chair of the 2009 Fellow Awards committee. “Together, they make the point that IABC members have a variety of skills and successes that move the practice of organizational communication toward greater visibility and value to business. They are two of the best.”

Joe Williams
For 35 years, Joe Williams has developed innovative strategic thinking and planning processes, cutting-edge training and professional development programs, and advanced measurement methodologies that link communication to business performance.

During his tenure at TRW from 1975 to 1985, Joe pioneered research and strategic planning practices that were far ahead of their time and established employee communication as a strategic management function.

In 1985, he formed Joe Williams Communications, Inc., and today his company’s research database represents 500,000 employees worldwide. With John Williams, his son and president of the firm, they developed the first quantitative methodology to statistically link communication to bottom-line business results.

Joe’s popular “Dialogue in the Desert” workshop is the nation’s first and longest running strategic thinking, planning and leadership program. He also developed “Face2Face,” a highly rated, worldwide training program that has provided thousands of managers with essential communication tools.

Spanning across geography, industry and size, Joe’s clients include: General Dynamics; Susan G. Komen Foundation; MTS Allstream in Canada; Butterfield Bank in Bermuda; Chevron Corporation; the Government of South Africa; Northeast Utilities; Cirque du Soleil; Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia; and the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis.

As an active member at IABC, Williams has received several awards from the association. He has won 12 Gold Quill Awards—and an unprecedented four in one year and three in a row for communication planning. He has also received the Communicator of the Year award from IABC/ Tulsa. Williams has served on the Gold Quill Blue Ribbon panel of judges and has presented his work at several IABC conferences and chapter events.

He is a director for Arvest Bank, a regional bank group headed by Jim Walton.

Joe holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s in mass communications from Oklahoma State University. He served as an officer in the U.S. Army (Armor) in the late 1960s, and in the early 70s he was on the editorial staff of the Daily American newspaper in Rome, Italy.

Joe and his wife, Barbara, have two married sons, six grandchildren and one big dog.

Pixie Malherbe Emslie, ABC
After graduating from Natal University, Pixie Malherbe Emslie started her career as a journalist for newspapers in South Africa and magazines in London. Pixie moved into corporation communications in 1976 when she joined the communications department at General Mining (now BHP Billiton). It was during this time in her career that Pixie became involved in the South African Association of Industrial Editors (SAAIE) and a member of IABC.

Pixie was actively involved in the SAAIE National Committee with a focus on training in the areas of employee communication and publications. She established a series of training courses for business communicators that came to be professionally recognized by corporations and academic institutions. In 1985, Pixie became national president of SAAIE and attended her first IABC conference in New York. A year later, she was made an honorary life fellow of SAAIE.

Shortly thereafter, SAAIE discontinued, its members joined IABC, and Pixie led the charge to establish a Southern Africa chapter. After a first-ever global referendum on the subject, the Southern Africa chapter was approved by majority vote in 1991. Pixie served as the first chapter president for two years.

In January 1990, Pixie started her own consultancy as Pixie Malherbe Business Communication, which she ran successfully for 15 years. Her clients included many of South Africa’s leading corporations, particularly in the mining industry, and her expertise was internal communication.

Pixie was among the first group of South Africans to achieve accreditation, and she has spoken at numerous IABC conferences, corporate seminars and various functions. Pixie has received the IABC Chairman’s Award, and she was the guest speaker at two consecutive World Women’s Day celebrations in Namibia.

Pixie has served as Chairman of the IABC Excel Award Committee and is currently a member of the IABC Accreditation Exam “E” committee.

Pixie raised a foster son during the past 21 years, and she lives in the Southern Cape where she writes for several publications and pursues her love of gardening and cooking.