Merry Christmas

Knife and Fork - These images are part of a series I created to put in the window of a Newtown cafe for Walking the Street. Collage and Acrylic 60x60cm

 

So it's time to start thinking about strategies for 2007. Which business ideas to put your effort into and which to let linger on the back burner for a little while longer.

I know my own to do list is a mile long (web page redesign, more marketing, finishing a book that's been sitting in the wings for more than a year).

Mark your diary for the Ludic Creative Storytelling workshop 10/3/7, and Life is not a rehearsal - start improvising on 14/4/7. They are about developing some of the more right brain skills that we all need to consult and manage effectively.

We ran Life is not a rehearsal a few weeks ago. One of the consultant participants is currently managing in a difficult contract role. She discovered that in the past she felt like the client was "railroading" her. Her realisation was that she could in the future see this more as an opportunity to be creative within a set of boundaries... reframe your own consulting challenges with us in April!

I wish you all the best for 2007. May it bring you love, laughter, and opportunity to enjoy the good things. May Santa bring you everything else.

See you in 07.

Cindy

In this month's ezine we have:

• Improving your consultancy: consultancy club with tips; bad web sites; building brand
• Managing better: When values clash; teaching mistakes
• Fascinating: Scientific American go wiki; What to put in a book proposal;
• Fun: cover versions; rent a garden; fix everything, including telemarketers, and play a game

Your Consulting
business

Crack pot pyjama - gouache and collage 92x57cm

 

 

 

 

The Consultants' Club

Try browsing the consultant club forum. It includes member-generated info on things like professional indemnity insurance, fee setting, marketing, memory sticks, email on the road, and casual contractors vs employees.

Web sites

You may have some weeks over the Christmas period where clients don't need you around (Christmas parties more the go!). If you don't already have a web site, then at least buy a domain name, have your email forwarded to it (never worry about changing ISP again), and have at least a single page with your name and contact details. You can do that part yourself!!! The cheapest domain names are REALLY cheap (godaddy.com at less than $7USD per year is real value).

If you're thinking about a full web page or even redesigning your existing site, visit web sites that suck, which looks at the worst in web page design - where it's pretty but not useful, or what he calls "mystery meat navigation" (trying to find what you want!).

Consulting Brands

Everything you send/say to a client builds your brand. Check out this article on building your brand one step at a time.

Managing better

Orchid - collage acrylic and ink on paper. 60x60cm

 

When values clash

A lot of fuss has been made around recruiting for values fit, and values-based organisations. Harvard Business Review has some interesting research about when values are misinterpeted, and people feel a sense of hypocrisy. For example they cite the Hewlett Packard employees response when Carly Fiorina retrenched and slimmed down the organisation. While they felt she was betraying the value of organisation as family she felt she was being true to the value of seizing opportunities. Worth a read if you've ever felt betrayed by your organisation, or if you've ever introduced change yourself.

Teaching through mistakes

Interesting research shows that teaching firefighting it is more valuable to teach people about mistakes others have made, and what the consequences were than to teach only the positive side. Do you aim for no mistakes or success as the best teacher? Read this article from the Cialdini people. It flies in the face of some people's biases towards only using positive stories, and makes those of us with a more "move away from trouble" brain a little justification!

Fascinating

The pot and the black kettle 60x60

Scientific American goes wiki

"Lucy's baby" is a 3 year old australopithecus afarensis skeleton over 3.3 million years old. Click on the picture of the skeleton, and a graphic will come up showing the actual skeleton, and an interpretation of what it means.

What's most interesting was that Scientific American added a blog to the article - they tried a wiki style approach prior to publishing. There is no information about when they will actually publish (so therefore when your comments might be redundant), but go check it out.
What I want to know is how could we apply the wiki idea to a consulting model?

Publishing your book - what to put in a proposal

My first book fell into my lap (well, I had to have the network to bring it to me, but after that I just did what any consultant would do and asked the editor lots of questions about what they wanted in a book proposal). And the second one was even easier, because they knew they could ask me to do what they needed. Now I self-publish, simply because I was weary of a book hitting the shops up to 2 years after it left my hands. Turnaround is faster, and I update the books every 3 - 6 months.

If you dream of publishing a book of any type, you may need to know what to put in a book proposal. Oddly enough, the secret is the publisher wants to know how the book will sell, what's different about it, (read my second book Consulting Mastery - The Ability Myth, and you'll discover it's affability again!).

And Fun, fun, fun

Royalty (trying to represent light through the trees in the Royal National Park). 60x60 acrylic on canvas

Rustic - collage and acrylic 60x60

Storm and clouds - painted from photos taken in Honfleur, France. Gouache on paper 30x60cm

Cover versions

If you're sure that you've heard that song before, there's a site to help you find out who performed the original version of a particular song, or who covered that song.

Gardens for rent

Having people over for Christmas and the yard's in a mess? Believe it or not there's a new concept of "rent a garden". I read about it first on springwise (my favourite trend site), and there's even an Australian rent-a-garden.

Fix everything

And if the video breaks over chrissy, try how to mend it, which has info on everything, including dvds, video players, satellite navigation, film projectors, document shredders… but also furniture, garden tools, boats and toilets. It's one of those site where you add your questions and others answer them, so that can be frustrating, but you just never know when something useful will be there!

All I want for Christmas is a telemarketer

And if revenge is more your style, consider this strategy for dealing with telemarketers. Not too elaborate, but boy, it would be hard to keep a straight face!

Fly like a circus performer

interactive fun - play Varekai and leap from tree to tree over obstacles. My best is 42.29 m. How far can you get?

And impro, of course

I would be interested to hear from you if any of these ideas spark something good for you and yours!

C

Cindy Tonkin The Consultants’ Consultant
Certified Management Consultant

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This month's images are original mixed media images created by ©2006 Cindy Tonkin. See more here.

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