I did read Whole New Mind this month. Had a rollicking time doing it as well. Daniel Pink lists a heap of ideas for developing your own new mind, including joining a laughter club.

Cate Richards at Social Life has created the space. If you’re in or near North Sydney on Wednesdays 12:30 – 1:30, have some laughter therapy and light lunch. $15 covers your food and as much laughing as you can handle. RSVP is essential. One minute of hearty laughter has the same effect on your heart rate as 10 minutes on a rowing machine. I know which I’d rather do!

Contents

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Here’s a summary of what’s in this email:

• Find out about coaching
• Keep informed on anything
• Logos and Design – getting the big picture
• Go on a mission, make a statement
• What are you assuming?
• Your mood influences your business
• Laugh more – develop your leadership qualities

Enjoy August and the end of winter. I’m off for 3 weeks on August 4th to Malaysia, Tuscany and Vienna. I’m sure there’ll be lots of good photos to show for it!!

Speak to you in September!

Cindy

Find out about coaching

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If coaching is part of your service offering, or if you’re curious to hear about what research in the area is uncovering, consider the 2nd Australian Evidence-Based Coaching Conference at Sydney University on October 8/9 2005.

While the approach is more academic than commercial, the last one, 2 years ago, offered some interesting insights. It also gave me some ideas on ways to provide new services to clients.

For a more commercial/practical approach, try the International Coaching Federation conference on September 29 & 30 2005.

Keep informed on anything

I’m currently having a love affair with customised information from the web. Each week I receive an email telling me what comedy is on in Sydney, what musical performances are on in my area, and now I’ve signed up for Pub Sub, which says it will crawl the web for me and find new content on anything I’m interested in! Now to narrow it down!

How are you staying informed?

Design – the big picture

Perhaps you’re redesigning your logo, or you’re interested in graphic design, check out this site which gives an overview of recent logos by type – discover stars, puffies, and wicker balls, amongst other things. Some of these logos you will recognise, others will surprise you!

Go on a mission

I’ve always been fascinated by how generic, yet how important mission statements are. This guy has been collecting mission statements – go see if there’s one that suits you or your client!

Perhaps you could submit one?

What are you assuming?

Have you watched your clients, in awe of how their presuppositions and assumptions affect their corporate culture?

Jeffrey Pfeffer’s latest research talks about just that – how leaders assumptions (e.g. that people work harder for more money) influence how they set up their systemic incentives.

What assumptions are you making about how your clients work? What systems are you therefore setting up – e.g. I recently started offering clients small incentives to pay in full for jobs up front. This is great for my cash flow! I had assumed that they had cash flow issues too; what I’ve discovered is that they’d prefer to save 5% on their budget!! No more waiting 6 months for payment for me!

Your mood influences your business

New research shows what many of us already knew – when clients are in a good mood, they’re more likely to trust us, buy from us or be helpful.

This has implications for the sort of stories we build, the way we open a sales call, or we psych ourselves up when meeting new clients, especially if we’ve just had a parking ticket, an argument with the post office or something similar! You’ll find an article about this on my own website.

Some of Daniel Goleman’s research shows that effective leaders make their charges laugh three times more often than ineffective ones (quoted in a Whole New Mind!). So indulge your laughing muscles and become a more effective leader… pop in and enjoy Scared Scriptless Theatresports® at the Clarence Hotel in Petersham (Sydney), 450 Parramatta Road, corner Crystal Street. About 500 metres from Petersham Station, even less from the buses on Parramatta Road. Check out some of the photos I took of the show recently.

Mention the code word “Celebrity” during August, and get in 2 for 1. Entry $5, performance in a smoke free bar. Show starts 8pm. Great food available. 18+ venue. Disabled access.

Or if you’d prefer to be in a theatre for your fun, Celebrity Theatresports is coming to Enmore Theatre in Enmore (Sydney) on Saturday August 13 th 2005.

See your favourite celebrities get up and make a go of making up stories and operas and poetry as they go along. This event supports the Starlight Foundation, so sick kids can make a wish and have it granted.

See you in September.

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
www.consultantsconsultant.com.au

Aragon Gray Pty Ltd 45 / 353 King Street Newtown NSW 2042
mobile 0412 135 426 phone 02 9550 2151

All photos and artworks © Cindy Tonkin 2005

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