I love Holidays!

Food under red lamps

Ordered queuing

Just returned from 4 weeks holiday. Hong Kong, Paris, Lake Como and the Loire Valley. I'm relaxed and happy. I think holidays should happen more often (and since I work for me, I'm planning to do more!).

I took five million photos (well, a couple of thousand). Some of the Hong Kong ones are in the left hand margin. You'll see some of them over the next few months. I'm slowly adding the "best of the best of" to this web page.

Of course business goes on. The next Ludic Creative Life is not a rehearsal day is in Sydney on September 2, 2006, 1 - 5pm. This workshop develops the skills we as consultants and managers all need - the ability to be in the moment and respond, to listen, and concentrate to the best of our ability. All in an atmosphere of fun. Love to see you there if you can join us!

Of course life wouldn't be full enough if I didn't have an art show about to start. Saturday 5 August, 4 - 7pm, at Willoughby. Follow the link to see the invitation, and over the next few weeks the works exhibited will also make it onto the page!

A few weeks holiday has allowed me to realise what this ezine is actually about. Consistently, I cover 4 things:

• improving your consulting and consultancy business
• managing more effectively (for managers and the consultants who work with them)
• fascinating ideas and research
• fun.

So that's what's in this ezine. Let me know which parts have amused you the most!

Cindy

In more detail, this month:

• Ludic Creative's next Life is not a rehearsal training course
• Improving your consultancy: a job, selling coaching, why the client should be able to say your name; top 3 selling traps
• Managing consultatively: strategy and the fat smoker; the death of Telecommuting
• Fascinating: how the brain works; using social proof and saying what you don't mean (or do you?)
• Fun: draw a pig to find out who you are; pick the scottish accent; some cool team building ideas;come see some impro.

May it make you smile!

Cindy

Like a consultancy job?

Perhaps you have your own consultancy, maybe you work for one. If you are keen to be part of an international consultancy team, and are prepared to sell AND consult, download this pdf about this job opportunity. n.b. this is a full-time job, not a contract.

Coaching - what does the client need to know?

If coaching is part of your service offering, check out this list of questions clients want to know about their coaches.

Can the client pronounce it?

Research shows that stocks with pronounceable names outperform those with unpronounceable names in the short term. People prefer to invest in names they can pronounce. Faith Popcorn touched on this way back in the 90s with Clicking, where she explained how she changed her name from Plotkin to Popcorn.

What are you calling your consultancy? What about your own name? Can people pronounce it? If you're selling your consulting services, think about how to make both more pronounceable (phonetics? re-wording? or as Faith suggested, changing it?

Three traps of conventional selling

Once you're selling a service people can pronounce, then you can discover the three traps of conventional selling. Don't hold your breath - if you're pressed for time they are: 1. using presentations that are like lectures so no one listens; 2. focusing 20% on the client, 80% solution; 3. everyone else does it that way. You may have to register to get this article.

Strategy and the fat smoker

David Maister is one of my favourite speakers and writers on consulting. Today I read this "manifesto" on changethis.com (where anyone can write a manifesto - but the people who do include top authors as well as people like you or me).

In this article, Maister likens corporate change to personal health strategies. Fat smokers know they should lose weight and breathe less nicotine. They don't. He says change only happens when people change their bad habits, and commit to the long-range payoff through short-term goals. Worth a look.

Telecommuting over?

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that HP in the US has brought their telecommuters back to the office. It gets lonely at home, and their novice employees need support, apparently. HP america brought all teleworkers in - to help train less confident and experienced people rather than work in isolation. Interesting idea.

Brains and Alzheimers

Take a brain tour. This Alzheimer's association site explains how the brain works and how Alzheimer's affects it. Rolling a mouse over colored text highlights the affected areas of the brain.

Brains and social proof

If you want someone to stop doing something that lots of people are doing (e.g. stop smoking, stop littering, stop complaining), the worst thing you can do is show how many people aren't doing it. Robert Cialdini's influencing people show the results how using the social proof influencing principle to stop behaviour can in fact be problematic, since it acts like a negative command (where the command you give encourages the behaviour rather than stops it).

Searching for a web page that explains negative commands, I couldn't find one (only people selling courses to explain it). So I've knocked one up myself. Maybe I should do more of these? Let me know if you think so.

And Fun, fun, fun

In the mood for some team building games? Try this site.

Then try this personality test where you draw a pig. It says I'm a good listener, secure, but stubborn. who are you?

Or test your ear at picking Scottish accents with this scottish accent quiz

If you are in Sydney, remember to pop along and see us play Scared Scriptless Theatresports® every Friday night. It’s at the Clarence Hotel, cnr Parramatta Road and Crystal Street, Petersham. There are now 2 shows: at 8pm the Theatresports® show - guaranteed comedy (in the vein of "Thank God you're here", but more story). The second show is more surprising. The Late Show is 45 minutes of non-stop improvising; it starts at 10:30 (15 minutes after the end of the first show). Great for a post-Leichhardt meal!

Love 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 images ©2006 Cindy Tonkin taken in Hong Kong in June 2006. See more here.

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