Now I've been to Bali too!

not quite Bali - La Sainte Chapelle, in Paris

And the rose window at Notre Dame de Paris

I just got back from Bali where I played/worked with a geographically dispersed team, running the Ludic Creative Life is not a Rehearsal workshop. I feel very fortunate to have such a great job! This is why I consult - variety, interest, and the opportunity to go to beautiful places with fun people.

Oh, and this month I'm published (again), this time in Leadership Excellence, an international management magazine. Other authors in the same issue include Warren Bennis and Dave Ulrich. You can read the article here, and download a pdf of the actual magazine.

We've run our Ludic workshop 5 times now publicly, and for a few corporate teams. People just love it - you know, 6 year old kids laugh 300 times a day. By adulthood we're laughing maybe 15 times a day. Get your quota, check out the workshop when next it runs in November. There are business benefits too! Discount to you as an ezine reader $100 instead of $150. More details here. Next workshop 1 - 5pm Satuday November 25 2006 at North Sydney.

My holiday photos of Paris, Mont St Michel, the Loire and Hong Kong are now on the web. My art show went very well, and now I'm settling in for the rest of the year.

This month we have:

• Ludic Creative's next Life is not a rehearsal workshop
• Improving your consultancy: tips on blogging, charging enough, if you bought a consultant's guide
• Managing better : coffee makes you smarter! I got empathy, now what?
• Fascinating: shopping meets anthropology, psychiatry meets marketing; CSI meets bus driving
• Fun: Express your preferences; Gardening and music, see some impro, and get a note from the universe.

May it bring you plenty of ideas!

Cindy

Your Consulting business

Le Palais Royal in Paris (reflected in a sculpture there)

There are many eiffel towers in Paris, here are just half a dozen or so of them!

Tips on Blogging

Many colleagues have talked to me about their ambition to blog.
I was browsing David Maister's blog the other day and came upon an interesting interview he did with "the world's leading expert on blogs" (his words). There's also this change this manifesto on why blogs are important and how to make your blog good. If you get a blog, or if you have one already, I'd be curious to check it out - send me the link!

Charging enough, charging more

Want to charge clients to meet with you, even if they're just "shopping"? Read about this consultant's policy to charge a $2,000 retainer before meeting with prospects and providing a proposal. If the prospect decides to engage his services, then he credits the retainer towards the ultimate fee for the project. Otherwise, even if he does not win the project, he will still have been paid for his time.

And if your particular barrier is that clients might think you're too expensive, read this cool article about the day the secretary outsold the sales guns ("We charge so much because we can. We're very expensive, because we give value for money").

If you bought the Australian Consultant's Guide

If you happened to have bought the Australian Consultant's Guide in ebook form from me since I last updated it in the past few months, the pdf was set up so you couldn't print. This was not my intention. Please let me know if you got one of those unprintable ebooks and I will send you through not only the book you ordered, but another one to apologise for the inconvenience!!

Coffee makes you smarter

No longer a coffee drinker (not since the 80's, as I like to say), I was surprised to find this article which alleges drinking coffee makes people smarter. It says people are more susceptible to a good argument and easier to convince when they have caffeine in their system.

So take your boss or your troublesome colleague or staff member out for coffee maybe before you try to convince them of a new idea?

I got empathy: now what?

Shopping meets anthropology, psychiatry meets marketing

I've long been a fan of consumer psych style research (Why we buy, and the Call of the Mall for example, I just loved - anthropology meets shopping).

I really enjoyed reading Dr. Clotaire Rapaille's manifesto on why we act, buy and love as we do. He's a psychiatrist with a practical bent. he discovers the "cultural imprint" of a brand and works with companies to help them use this to make a product more appealing.

CSI meets bus driving

Back in the 90's when I consulted to a bank branch in Kings Cross they said they had installed bullet proof glass to deflect the customers' spit. Now they can do what bus drivers in London and Scotland do tracing the assailant's DNA, and having them charged with assault! Interesting idea.

Express your preferences!

Check out del.iciou.us, a web-based system for storing and sharing bookmarks for individual web pages, including comments. You can save and tag links to your favorite websites / articles / podcasts - a great way to help out your favorite authors and websites

Gardening and music

Most of my fun things are impro or art related. So here's something for the gardeners amongst you - from the Canadian Physiotherapy Association, tips for avoiding injuries while gardening.

And for the musicians: Look no hands - a site which gives you chords on the piano and the guitar, for varying levels of expertise. You can choose chords, hear them, get the tabs. It will even play your scales (now that's more fun than doing them yourself, right?)

Notes from the Universe

My favourite this month has got to be notes from the universe. Thanks to Jill Chivers who recommended it to me! This site is based on the belief that "thoughts become things", dreams do come true, and all things remain forever possible! They'll send you regular emails (at a rhythm you select) related to projects and thoughts you'd like to manifest. Really cool!

And impro, of course

For Sydney-ites, pop along to see Scared Scriptless Theatresports® performance this Friday. 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 Paris and Hong Kong in June/July 2006. See more here.

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