This monthly blog, now a bit over a year old, seldom generates responses. I didn’t plan it this way, and I don’t know in any depth why this so, but for now that’s the way it is. However, you might want to scroll down to last month’s blog, “Future Shock Unbridled,” This one did prompt responses, though not through the format provided on the blog itself. They came from people I know personally, who emailed me directly, and from friends on Facebook. Many felt moved by the way our future is crashing in on us, but others wanted to know what I meant by “eternal truths,” with which I concluded the blog. They seemed to be saying, “Give us examples!”

My point was that the unbridled future is not capable of scuttling our eternal truths, and they have given us, up till now, largely unarticulated strength. Here’s a run-through of some eternal truths that occur to me rather quickly. There are many more, and you may have some suggestions of your own. If you’d like to share them, the blog format itself would bring them to the attention of many more than if you contact me directly. Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts. They can become your articulated strength and your wand over troubled waters for the years ahead. 2009 is the first one. Happy New Year!

1. Ultimately, seeking power fails.

2. Let all illusions go.

3. Yielding is the way of wisdom.

4. The right thing is the appropriate thing.

5. Everyone needs to go through dark nights of the soul.

6. Impatient, you can ruin what almost arrived.

7. Each is one with the universe.

8. If we don’t forgive our enemies, we become them.

9. The future causes the present.

10. There are times to trust people who aren’t trustworthy.

11. Learn from the wise and step out on your own.

12. Life lived too intensely is life lived poorly.

13. “Let it happen” wears better than “Make it happen.”

14. Take your stand, then be quiet.

15. A flipped penny can shape alternatives as much as any larger coin.

16. If you want to know what a person (including yourself) is committed to, don’t listen to their words; watch their feet.

17. Geography is destiny.

18. If God, the All, has always existed and always will, then we are participating in eternity right now.

19. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but attentive meandering often brings superior results.

20. Collaboration without consensus is the soul of superior performance.

21. It’s up and down on the Merry-Go-Round.

22. Small decisions confirm a larger agenda.

23. Nothing has to be possible. Anything can be possible.

24. Truly great ideas don’t come of age without debate.

25. Good intentions are a substitute for performance.

26. Permanence is proof of adaptability, so far.

27. One of life’s most serviceable questions is “Says who?”

28. A value is what we live by, not merely profess, whether it’s positive or negative.


All the best,

Allan

In the past week, a classmate of mine from high school sent me this video:

DidYouKnow300.wmv

I don’t know how much this has made the rounds; you may have seen it. Also, this kind of thing—shock value info—is something we’ve grown used to, but the medium itself has taught us that the very last one we saw, that’s much like this one, is now out of date!

This one concludes with the question,

What Does It All Mean?

When I forwarded this video to a group of clients and personal friends, a savvy client got back quickly to me with his answer: We need to staff out IT departments with 13 year old Indians. This reminded me immediately of a meeting in which I sat about 15 years ago and listened to the CEO of the 4-H Foundation state that their organization had just completed and posted their new website and the project was headed by a 13-year-old member. How about it? That CEO, about age 55, was way ahead of his time!

I’m immodestly going to offer my responses to this question, too, but before you read them, if you haven’t seen the video, please watch it now. It comes fast and powerfully.

***************************************

OK, here’s a smattering of my reactions to what I saw. . .

--All my life, I’ve heard (and believe), as do you, we use only a small fraction of our mental capacity. We’re up to handling “information overload” in this exponential era a whole lot more than we realize.

--You’d better be hard-nosed about what you’re going to attempt to process because much of this information is duplication—new words and presentations for what you already know. Not everybody is creative. Some are just saying the same thing as the next guy. And don’t forget: A lot of people are answering questions nobody’s asking. Last of all, you’ll want, habitually and simply, to ask, Says who?

--You’re being exposed to more, which means you’re also forgetting more. Since half-way through college, what you learned in the first half is obsolete, forgetting can’t be all bad.

--Bermuda is #1 in broadband internet penetration? How in the hell did that happen? We better find out fast. Biggest isn’t always best.

--We have 5X more words in our language than in Shakespeare’s day? For sure, less is more. That man’s works were relatively short, too. He said it all in small space.

--Facebook reached a market penetration of 50 million people in two years? Be a part of that—at least until a better deal comes along.

--India has more honors kids than we have kids. Well, no wonder . . . look at that birth rate. Gotta be the bell-shaped curve!

--If you’re one in a million here, you’d be one of 1300 such in China. I’d rather be that here, and so would many of them. Good supply of brilliance is coming out of China, and they speak English, too. Welcome aboard. And India, well, maybe them as well. I know a fabulous Indian physician whose five-syllable last name is lyrical. With him involved, health-care for his patients is positively euphonious. I guess we better get it right on immigration.

--Read the New York Times front-to-back for a week and you’ll be exposed to more information that an 18th Century citizen was in a lifetime. I don’t know about you, but I just don’t learn that fast. And what about so many of those Times half-brained editorials? Talk about misguidance . . . You have to counter that with those from The Wall Street Journal. You have to move adroitly between left of Stuart Smalley and right of Attila the Hun. If you really want to sample good journalism, look up Andrew Sullivan’s treatment of Obama in the December, 2007 issue of the Atlantic Monthly. That piece was prescient.

--By 2049 a $1,000 computer will have a greater mental capacity than all humankind together. Don’t worry; by then, many of us will have had close encounters of the third kind and be models to the rest of the world and perhaps a few other planets to boot.

--Job changes, career mobility and variation of organizational human makeup taking place at breakneck speed? Relax. Somebody’s minding the store, and statistically speaking, she didn’t arrive yesterday. No kidding. That’s a number you can (pardon the expression) bank on.

--All those text messages? Do you have something better to do while waiting for that slow elevator? You know, reverse cultural lag? The people are out in front of the technology. Hell, nothin’s perfect.

--Hey, what really gets my attention is preparing for jobs that don’t exist and dealing with problems we don’t even know are going to be problems. Bring it on, man. Now, that’s exciting!

--Finally, the people who really know how to live into the future live mostly by the eternal truths. Oh yeah, they’re still with us and not going anywhere.

All the best,

Allan

When I first meet with a CEO to begin work with her or him as coach, I make it clear that the emphasis of my work is on behavior. Let’s understand that I’m fully cognizant this is a very talented and accomplished person who’s my new partner in a wonderful undertaking. To be in this position as CEO they already are in the 99th percentile of the executive population.

But I still see them as people whose final topping out on claiming their singularity, in other words, their true value proposition to the world, is work they have yet to do. I look at a CEO and say, “You’re a 7/8th man and we’re here for you to claim that final 8th. I doubt even you know what a phenomenal impact it will have on this company when you fully own yourself and go that final distance.”

If this idea resonates for you and you wonder how you might put the pieces together in the human puzzle and claim your final 8th, whether you have your eye on the top job in a corporation or are curriculum director of a large urban high school, I have some ideas to share with you.

A couple of weeks ago I addressed the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Entrepreneurial Roundtable and covered this topic. A link to the video of that presentation appears below. Of course, I’d be delighted if you find it useful.

http://yourinnerceo.blogspot.com

All the best,

Allan

When I first meet with a CEO to begin work with her or him as coach, I make it clear that the emphasis of my work is on behavior. Let’s understand that I’m fully cognizant this is a very talented and accomplished person who’s my new partner in a wonderful undertaking. To be in this position as CEO they already are in the 99th percentile of the executive population.

But I still see them as people whose final topping out on claiming their singularity, in other words, their true value proposition to the world, is work they have yet to do. I look at a CEO and say, “You’re a 7/8th man and we’re here for you to claim that final 8th. I doubt even you know what a phenomenal impact it will have on this company when you fully own yourself and go that final distance.”

If this idea resonates for you and you wonder how you might put the pieces together in the human puzzle and claim your final 8th, whether you have your eye on the top job in a corporation or are curriculum director of a large urban high school, I have some ideas to share with you.

A couple of weeks ago I addressed the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Entrepreneurial Roundtable and covered this topic. A video of that presentation appears above. Of course, I’d be delighted if you find it useful.

Allan

In the early 70s I read an intriguing book, The Natural Depth in Man, by distinguished psychologist Wilson Van Dusen (1923-2005). In one of its chapters Van Dusen strongly espouses the benefits of meditation with these words: “Those who have spent even twenty minutes a day meditating over a period of months are visibly different. They seem calmer, integrated, all together. It is as though they collected themselves and they remain collected.”

The whole book was a powerful one for me, but especially this particular observation, though it did not have the immediate effect on me that I became a meditator. Yet from memory alone, when I decided to write this blog, I went to my office and pulled out the disintegrating paperback for the exact wording I’ve just shared with you. It’s never been far away from my thoughts..

I don’t know if I’m a true mediator today, but for many years now, I have each morning entered my day within a contemplative framework. I read a passage from the Tao Te Ching, sometimes a Psalm, sometimes a few lines from one of a wide range of favorite poets, and always a reading from a volume I’m about to describe for you that’s dear to my heart. Does this make me a better person? I can’t answer that but can tell you I wouldn’t dream of starting my days any other way.

The little book I speak of is All the Days of My Life . . . a yearbook of found sentences for the human journey. It’s a spiral bound book of a sentence or two for each day of the year, following the seasons and months. It’s published by the Iona Center in Healdsburg, California, a not-for-profit formed by the husband-wife team of Marvin and Nancy Hiles, who in turn are the authors-editors of this and other offerings. You can buy it from Iona for $15.00 book, shipping $2.36, tax for CA residents $1.09.

Until now, as with the Tao Te Ching, when I complete the book, I simply start over because its messages are always worth re-visiting, and have new meanings for me each time I encounter them.

But I have additional good news if my thoughts in this blog have any appeal for you. Marv and Nancy have just completed a new volume that will be available for shipping as of September 1. This one is a little more ambitious apparently and is titled An Almanac for the Soul. It’s a 300 page, spiral bound volume that contains essays, breath prayers, author bios, illustrations and photos, and an excerpt for each day of the year from a wide variety of sources—literature, poetry, journals, and so on, offering life’s vitality from the perspective of contemplation.

An Almanac for the Soul is available only from Iona Center for $25.95. For one copy please add $4.80 for shipping via USPS Priority Mail (1-3 day delivery) or $2.58 for Media Mail (5-9 days delivery). Tax for CA residents is $1.88. Please contact Iona for special orders and international shipping. I’ve already ordered my copy and look forward to it as the companion and supplement for All the Days of My Life.

If you have any questions and need more information, just contact Marv and Nancy directly. They’re fabulous people and would take delight in hearing from you..

Marv and Nancy Hiles
Iona Center
PO Box 1528
Healdsburg CA 95448
(707) 431-7426
ionacenter@comcast.net nancyhiles@comcast.net marvsam@comcast.net

New member Helge Keitel got me to thinking with his response today to “Passage of the Week 3” on our Your Inner CEO Community forum:

http://yourinnerceo.ning.com

He wrote, “There is just a narrow trail between "The valley of death" and "business as usual and/or success." It's important to walk among skeletons, to understand the size of the corporate graveyards. We like to speak about success, but need to know and understand the pain of how to survive in "the troubled waters."

I don’t mean to be morbid here, but it does seem that we often have to be forced to face not just our imperfections, but those attitudes, traits and behaviors in ourselves that virtually guarantee failure if we don’t—and then make necessary changes. When I coach CEOs, most who fall into the category of self-confident, sooner, rather than later, I look them in the eye and ask them to tell me their darkest-of-night fear. It’s not some threatening business situation I’m looking for, which all CEOs face rather routinely, but something that grips them in such a way that impairs or prevents their functioning up to full capacity.

The development of CEOs—and the growth of their companies—is most assured when they face the fears that wake them up in the middle of the night.

This word is not just for CEOs. For you, simply trying to do your best in your work, getting to the backside of such fears can bring great rewards. What may await you is an incredibly useful understanding of the hidden issues that are blocks to success for both you and your organization. If you look deeply enough you’re likely to find that it’s more than your tasks that haunt you. Boldly enquire if you’re troubled by a nagging suspicion that there’s a pattern to these blocks, and that you yourself may have a hand in erecting them. By probing carefully you can find and give a name to that pattern. With courage you can be rid of the blocks and reclaim unique strengths you’ve neglected that define your true singularity.

The next time you find yourself awake in the middle of the night, don’t just keep tossing and turning. Get up. Go to your favorite chair, turn on the light and sit. Then . . . Look. Look. Look. Look. This is your soul speaking truth to you. Don’t go back to bed until you find something that’s right under your nose.

Joseph Campbell called this the dark night of the soul.

But you and I have oodles to learn from him. Why? Because here in the Your Inner CEO Community, where as a group engaged in the study of the book of the same name, your first learning task is to articulate in 10 words or less—in non-business language—your crystal clear value proposition to the world. Taking our cue from brilliant psychiatrist Alfred Adler, we call this our “Style-of-Life.” SOL for short. This is a difficult task, and we enter into it experimentally and flexibly, actually in a spirit of play, because we’re not going to get it right, right away. But get it right eventually we will if we are to discover, articulate and bring our singular gleaming essence to daily living. This is value not limited to work, but applicable across our whole existence: work, love and community.

I’m confident Tiger Woods has not sat down and followed our guidelines to construct a formal SOL, but he is a meditative sort and clearly in a groove and very much at home with himself in the world. When you realize that not one-stroke difference occurred between the two finalists in the four rounds of the recent U.S Open Golf Tournament in San Diego, and that a fifth round was necessary, and even that required a sudden death extra hole to produce him the winner, you see how Tiger makes the difficult look easy. That he does it over and over again lets you know he’s tapping into something special.

Check out this piece on Tiger by David Brooks in the New York Times this past week:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/opinion/17brooks.html

The lesson is not to “Be like Tiger” any more than it was to “Be like Mike” a few years ago. It’s to look into your mirror in the morning and think “Be like me.”

Allan

Greetings, READERS!

A few people in the Your Inner CEO Community (yes, there is one) have been lobbying for the launch of an online study group for the book itself: Your Inner CEO. In the beginning I wondered about the practicality and “doability” of it and then after pondering the idea for a couple of months became enthusiastic about it.

So we’re doing it! We’re going to do the book as an online reading group, much as many of you have no doubt done in reading groups among friends in each other’s living rooms or some sort of community facility. We won’t be face-to-face, of course, but we’ll go at our own pace and cover whatever we deem important at the time. I’m confident we’ll deepen our relationships and open up and deal with subjects, over not too long a time, in a spirit of trust and candor. I look forward to participating fully in this with you.

The day of the launch is—you guessed it—TODAY! Come explore. Find out more at the link below. As a heads up, newcomers will have to sign in to participate.

http://yourinnerceo.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=1978871%3ATopic%3A2221

All the best,

Allan Cox

Been to a Starbucks lately? Have you noticed those brief quotes on their cups that are meant to be thought-starters to customers who’ll crank up the old coffee house type of buzz and energy? Well, Starbucks let me know recently that they’ve lifted a short passage from my book, Your Inner CEO, that they’re going to put on their cups sometime later this year. Here it is:

By the time executives get married, take on a mortgage, raise kids, cope with the crabgrass, climb the corporate ladder, do their best to manage career pressures, build their net worth and get into their 40s, they’ve lost touch with what they believe in and care about most deeply.

This downward drift up the corporate ladder is a puzzling fact, and I’m sure you don’t want this to happen to you in your work and life. Hold that thought while we move on from this puzzling fact to a riddle . . .

Do you know what makes the person special who hires people better than she is?

Because, most often, unlike she, they don’t!

It’s the hidden quality implicit in her action that outweighs their and her literal competencies.

Do you find this puzzling fact and riddle thought-provoking? Do you care why the woman in the riddle excels and others derail, even though early in the game they show exceptional promise? If you don’t, read no further.

Your Inner CEO Community

In “Your Inner CEO Community” your legitimate ambitions can be that you find energy and acquire wisdom by thinking and discussing such puzzles and riddles. That it can be a place where you not only are exhilarated by what you learn, take away and apply, but others who are here, too, also feel that way because of what you give by your gaining leverage in your work and life. By making yourself part of the gathering in this way, what you send out comes back to you. And so it is with your colleagues as well.

Your Inner CEO Community is an engagement. We’re here to tussle things through, thoroughly, together, climbing steadily, surely. The book, Your Inner CEO, is the guide to our conversations, projects, and thought experiments. Leaning on it, we share inquiries, successes, failures and suggestions with each other. Our tagline is Leadership from the core.

The Risk is the Downside

We start there. A handful of others before you have framed out a prototype of thought exercises based on their reading the book. Come see what these early travelers have drafted in the “Exercises” and “Archives” rooms right off our Lobby. Try your hand at an idea yourself. Sketch something out. If you feel like it, let us know what you’ve ventured. Or take issue with what you see there. If you’d rather hold your fire for awhile, that’s fine, too.

Where do we go from there in this new venture? Who knows? We have the tools onsite—Ning and Wiki, making more high impact insights available to more people. What can you learn and apply that people can emulate just by watching you?

Are you in, an early adoptor? Yes? What’s the risk? The real risk is saying No. That’s the downside. But the other side . . . well, the other side is the upside, your journey to the summit of your personal Everest.

I’ll be active, ascending right alongside you.

All the best,

Allan

Start right here: Your Inner CEO and click on “YIC Community”

The Battle of the Bulge started on December 19th 1944. Hitler had convinced himself that British, France and America were weak and attacking them would be good. He ordered a big attack against them. The attack is strictly known as the Ardennes created a bulge in the Allied front line, it has become more commonly know as the Battle of the Bulge.
The Battle of the Bulge happened in Ardennes, Belgium, Luxemburg, and Germany, and involved Britain, France, and America.
On the morning of December 16, the Germans began their attack in the Ardennes forest. At first, the Germans got
What they expected; very little resistance, and they made a lot of progress in the first three days. The Malmedy Massacre happened during the Battle of the Bulge. This was when 86 America soldiers who were being held prisoner by the Germans were murdered.
Allied General left the Ardennes forest unprotected. They expected a counterattack from they Germans, but the Ardennes forest was the last place they expected one. This was because they thought that it would be very difficult for Germans to get their tanks and artillery through the forest. Germans generals thought that the Germans only chance, was to attack where there would be very little resistance, and cut thought the Allied lines, and very quickly move toward Paris. Hitler was dictator of Germany, so what he wanted, he got.
In December 1944 Adolph Hitler directed on ambitious counteroffensive with the object of regaining control in the west and to get the Allies to settle for a peace agreement. Hitler’s generals were opposed to plant, but the Fuhrer’s will prevailed and the counteroffensive was launched on 16 of December by some 30 Germans divisions against Allied lines in the Ardennes region. Allied defenses there had been thinned to provide troops for the autumn defensive. Hitler’s intention was to drive through Antwerp to cut of and destroy the British 21st Army Groups and the U.S First and Ninth Armies north if the Ardennes, aided by stormy weather which grounded Allied planes and made quickly gains at first, but firm resistance by different units provided time for the U.S First and Ninth Armies to shift against the northern side of the diffusion, for the British to send reserves to secure the line to the Meuse, and for Patton’s Third army to hit the most important from the south. Denied vital roads and weak position by air attack when the weather cleared, the Germans attack result only in a large bulge in the Allied lines which did not even extend to the Meuse River, the Germans first objective. The Americans lost 80,000to 100,000. Germans strength had been haplessly impaired. By the end of January 1945, Americans units had retaken all grounds they had lost, and the defeat of Germans was clearly only a matter of time. In the east the Red Army had opened a winter offensive that was to carry, eventually, to and farther then Berlin.

NOW IS GONE

By Geoff Livingston with Brian Solis (Bartleby Press)

Communications has evolved more in the last 10 years than it has in the previous 100….

I’ve just read Now is Gone, a 187-page book written by Geoff Livingston (with an introduction by Brian Solis), two sharp public relations practitioners, for PR executives and companies looking to understand and incorporate the strategic principles of social network marketing. As these two can attest, PR is so valuable yet so underrated. Oftentimes, PR is a mechanical process aimed at pleasing company executives rather than the people looking for real news and information. That paradigm doesn’t work anymore. Now is Gone was written to change how you engage with customers. Their Motto: Engage or Die!

In Your Face

The book’s energetic, in-your-face approach shows readers the evolution of Public Relations and offers vision and wisdom to help you communicate in the 2.0 world. Sadly, many companies are still in the dark as to how to truly maximize their impact utilizing social media. PR today is a totally different playing field. Blessedly, Livingston explains the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of 2.0 marketing. Everything you need to work in the PR 2.0 world is right here at your fingertips. A practical handbook for corporations, it’s also full of relevant case histories.

Doesn’t Answer Questions Nobody’s Asking

Today, people have a completely different routine and process for reading, interacting and sharing information. PR 2.0 is defined by interaction and interactive publishing—making all content available to the masses. We have to communicate with people in the places they go for information. It’s a new world we live in. Understanding your customer is key. It’s a world of dialog—not monologue. These gentlemen are helping to create a new breed of communications professionals. We not only want to read and disseminate information, but to share and create content for others to experience as well. Social media users today have myriad resources at their fingertips. Peer-to-peer marketing has never been more relevant. Social media allows companies to engage directly with customers.

Don’t Read This Book Alone

This practical handbook brings to mind Tapscott and Williams’ Wikinomics and David Meerman Scott’s New Rules of PR and Marketing. The future of marketing integrates traditional and social tools, connected by successful, ongoing relationships with media, influencers and people. The future of communications lies in introducing sociology to marketing strategy. The book is a quick read, yet it carefully explains a great deal of information from a pro who knows how to build successful PR 2.0 marketing campaigns. Don’t read this book alone. Read it with your colleagues and discuss it together. Then keep it handy because you’ll return to it again and again. There’s a great deal of data here that will be helpful to all readers working to wrap their arms around their new Marketing Public Relations campaigns.

All the best,

Allan

Allan Cox on finding your singularity

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I’d love an opportunity to chat with you. Yes, YOU. Face to face.

I’m participating in an event called "My ooVoo Day With..." in which you can sign up to video chat with me. During this time, we can talk about questions you might have about my book, about your career and leadership challenges, or anything you’d like. If you don’t have a webcam, don’t worry – you can be audio-only and still take part.

There are only a limited number of seats – I’m doing 30-minute sessions on Feb. 11, 12, 13 and 14 – so sign up now. Head over to www.myoovooday.com to download the software and sign up. I look forward to seeing you online.

All the best,

Allan