Sunday 26 September 2010

Please join us to celebrate World Day of Interconnectedness on 10th October

Members of Differencemakers Community and Leaders Cafe are honoured to present a 24 hour webathon as part of our contribution to celebrate the second World Day of Interconnectedness on 10th October.

Presenters, representing 8 countries are, Maria Carlton, Terry Power, Krishna Iyer, Richard Norris, Kwai Yu, Sara Knowles, Andrew Thorp, Luis Cochofel, Rob Brown, Sandy Foster, Lorna McDowell, Mike Parker, Richard Hames, Melissa Giovagnoli, Maria Neves, Kellie Frazier, Joel Graham-Blake, Gino Federici, Marilyn Jess, Julie Poland, and myself. We start in the first minute GMT time on 101010.





Please download the ebook Our World of Interconnectedness written in celebration of this day by Dr Ann Villiers from Australia, David Bernard-Stevens from United States of America, Derek Small from United Kingdom, Heather Davis from Australia, Kwai Yu from United Kingdom, Leo Sonneveld from The Netherlands, Maria Carlton from New Zealand, Marilyn Jess from United States of America, Navinder Narang from India, Pat Armitstead from New Zealand, Prem Sarkar from India, Raj Bhowmik from India, Roshanna Evans from United States of America, Shelley Dunstone from Australia, and myself.

Be the difference you want to see in the world.
Ian

Sunday 19 September 2010

Start with Why by Simon Sinek

This TEDx talk by Simon Sinek Start with Why is a classic.

Applying Simon's lessons will take your personal and business life to a whole new level. It has mine!



Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Tuesday 14 September 2010

Sequence and frequency - keys to building business relationships that matter

I recently re-read (for the fourth time!) Seth Godin’s book Permission Marketing - turning strangers into friends and friends into customers.

What jumped out at me this read was Frequency is the holy grail of marketing.

I asked myself and I ask you, How frequently do you stay in touch with your customers/clients? My answer was not frequently enough and I resolved to do better, mindful of Dunbar’s law that 150 meaningful relationships is about all we can handle at any one time.

I made a list of my 150 best business relationships and I am going to stay in touch more frequently. I am also going to be more mindful of sequence.

Aside from referrals I have 5 entry points to begin business relationships: my monthly ezine, my monthly gift list, my elearning trial, my possibility pulse check, and when people join differencemakers community.

When people sign-up for any of these they have become followers. My quest then is to turn a percentage of followers into friends and some of them into fans. I know from 20 years experience that when I am in regular contact with my 150 friends I have more than enough business.

What are your entry points?

As I reviewed my processes this week I decided that I am good at welcoming people when they become followers however my sequence of staying in touch from there needs improvement.

What is your sequence of staying in touch? Are you random like me, or do you just contact people when you have something to offer them?

I have resolved to ensure that my sequence of contact with my friends is really valuable to them and I have begun by asking my friends what would be really valuable for you to receive from me?

I encourage you to ask your friends the same question and please answer it for me by sending me an email or getting in touch.

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Saturday 11 September 2010

Can common sense be the common thing?

My understanding of history is that tensions between the middle east of our world and the west, predate both Christianity and Islam. Yet as I reflect today on the tragedy of 9/11 it seems to me that folk with fanatical religious beliefs are determined to widen the gap between east and west.

The case in point of course is of Christian Pastor Terry Jones of Florida in the USA, with a congregation of about 50 people, who has threatened to burn copies of the Koran today as some sort of protest. I fervently hope he doesn’t proceed. If he does, he clearly doesn’t understand the big picture nor some of the central teachings of his own religion.

I am not interested in what Mr. Jones or anyone else believes. Beliefs are aways betrayed or enhanced by what we do.

I respect Mr. Jones’s right and everyone’s right to believe whatever you want to believe. I do not accept anyone’s right to act on our beliefs in ways that harm or increase the possibility of harm to others.

In my previous post I expressed the power of defining moments in our lives and how living the lessons of such moments enriches our lives.

My hope today, on the 9th anniversary of a turning point in history, that I hope will turn out to be a catalyst for good, is that common sense will prevail and that common sense will not be as it sadly often is, the uncommon thing.

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Thursday 9 September 2010

Living our lessons from 9/11

My grandson Hamish was born a week after 9/11. On 9/11, the day my daughter was due to give birth, my wife was in Perth with my daughter and I was home in Adelaide with a flight booked to fly to Perth on the 13th. My wife and I spoke on 9/11 about what kind of a world was our first grandchild likely to grow up in?

On the day of my scheduled flight, the airline Ansett, then an iconic company, closed its doors and not able to get a flight on another airline I drove to Perth, a 36 hour drive. What occupied my mind for much of that trip was the question, what is the purpose of my life?

I couldn’t even begin (still can’t) to imagine the horror for those who died in the World Trade Center and the devastation for their families, yet it inspired me to think deeply about my own life, and how I could do more to make a difference in the world. The long drive to Perth was full of defining moments for me where I made decisions that still drive my life and my work. One of the decisions I made was to dramatically increase my work internationally.

In 2005 my wife and I were in London partly due to my work and partly for holidays. We traveled on the Tube the day after the terroist attack on that rail system. You could feel the fear and yet also the resolve of travellers to not be beaten by people who commit terroist acts. This experience was another defining moment for me in my life.

What have been your life’s defining moments? I have had many, some big like those events mentioned above and some small yet significant moments that inspired me to change what’s normal about my life.

Big and small, what have been the lessons of the defining moments of your life? And how are you living your lessons today?

Soon I will have a moment of silence to remember those who have lost their lives in terroist acts and for the thousands affected who remain alive, and yet I will leave my silence with a resolve as strong as ever to be the difference I want to see in the world.

Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Tuesday 7 September 2010

All change is personal first

I am currently working with a client on a major change initiative and as is usually the case with such projects some people wait for others to make changes to their behaviour before they will consider changing!

All change is personal first and leadership is not about waiting, rather having the courage to be the first to make changes.

To inspire and encourage personal change, all my initial work when I partner with clients on change projects is to help individuals change intention, feelings and thinking before even contemplating behaviour change.

I start with the leadership team and as people begin to make intention, feeling, and thinking changes, the behaviour changes that are needed start to become obvious. I then introduce Marshall Goldsmith’s feedforward exercise to facilitate the beginnings of behaviour change. I highly recommend Marshall’s book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There which details feedforward and many other great ideas that inspire personal change.

Feedforward is perhaps more valuable than feedback. Individuals

1) Pick one behaviour they would like to change

2) They describe their objective with someone 1:1

3) They then ask that person for two suggestions for the future that might help them achieve their objective. The only response to give to people who give feedforward is Thank You!

Sometimes people need encouragement to identify the behaviour changes they need to make. Marshall Goldsmith’s 20 transactional flaws can help with with such identification.

1. Winning too much
2. Adding too much value
3. Passing judgement
4. Making destructive comments
5. Starting with “No,” “But,” or “However”
6. Telling the world how smart you are
7. Speaking when angry
8. Negativity, or
“Let me explain why that won’t work”
9. Withholding information
10. Failing to give proper recognition
11. Claiming credit that we don’t deserve
12. Making excuses
13. Clinging to the past
14. Playing favourites
15. Refusing to express regret
16. Not listening
17. Failing to express gratitude
18. Punishing the messenger
19. Passing the buck
20. An excessive need to be “me”


Feedforward is a very powerful exercise. Try it. It will help you immensely to be the difference you want to see in the world.

Warning: Work on intention, feeling, and thinking change before behaviour change. When these four are in alignment positive changes to results are a consequence.

Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Prime Minister “Julia Abbott”

It is almost 2 weeks since Australians voted for our next Federal Government. Or at least some citizens voted. The informal vote (i.e. a non vote) was the third highest vote suggesting 15% of people who put their voting papers in the ballot box don’t want either Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott as Prime Minister.

Messenger News journalist Matt Abraham's highly humourous article today Good people of 'Straya, listen up, sums up what a lot of people are thinking. You can read all of Matt’s article here.

I agree with this point of Matt’s: The position of Leader of the Opposition will be abolished immediately. We no longer need one. This nation, ‘Straya, is grown up enough now not to have a political system where half the people are paid to oppose the people who are elected to run the place.
Thank you for bringing us to our senses. Frankly, I don’t know what we’ve been doing fighting each other all this time when we could have been working together to better serve you all.


Are you serving all your stakeholders? To do so is the challenge and task of everyone in business, to provide the value to all our stakeholders that they demand, desire, and feel they deserve.

The first step to serving stakeholders is to ask them what is the value that they demand, desire, and feel they deserve? Australian politicians like most politicians didn’t ask, they told, lectured even, and then wondered why we were confused at the ballot box. And becasuse of all the huffing and puffing and posturing since election day most Australian’s have turned off, and politics has another nail in its coffin.

When was the last time you asked your stakeholders want they want? How often do you ask? How many different ways do you ask? And, how quickly do you take action on what people are telling you?

I may be able to help you. On most Monday mornings wherever you happen to be in the world I can provide a 30 minute mentoring session for free. All you need to do to book your session is email me ian@ianberry.au.com with a date and time. If I am already booked I will email you back with alternative dates and times.

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.