It’s Thanksgiving week in the U.S. It’s the time when we celebrate our many blessings. While this year has been quite difficult for all with the coronavirus pandemic, we continue to be showered in blessings. Research shows that people who have a gratitude practice are happier and lead healthier lives. Expressing gratitude is a good […]
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“Checklists seem lowly and simplistic, but they help fill in for the gaps in our brains and between our brains.” Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right “The checklist is one of the most high-powered productivity tools ever discovered.” Brian Tracy, Motivational Self-Developer “I watch a lot of astronaut movies…mostly Star Wars. And even […]
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Nearly all of our worldwide clients have training programs to promote the achievement of “marketing excellence.” But what is “marketing excellence?” What is it that they strive to achieve? What is Excellence? Excellence is about achieving the highest levels of performance. It means being more successful, much more successful than others (namely, the competition – […]
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AMP (BO 1 + BO 2 + BO 3 +….) = AVP Maybe you’ve heard us describe marketing as a combination of both “art and science.” It is a simple way to clarify that marketing is neither pure creativity nor pure analysis, but rather a balanced blend of both. Said another way, marketing most assuredly values ideas, ideas, ideas…but […]
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We need feedback to grow. According to John Hattie, Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, “The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback.” I concur, and I’m not alone. Many leaders from all walks of life—business, education, sports, the military, among others—believe […]
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If there’s one constant in the thousand-plus workshops we have conducted all over the world, it has to be our insistence upon use of the Coaching Model. That simple four-step best practice for making any work more productive, taking any work to the next level. We say “simple” only to highlight how easy the four steps are to […]
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If you were to put your marketing on trial, would it be convicted of being dumb? While you might feel offended by the question and vigorously protest that your marketing is not dumb but, in fact, smart, we’d venture you are probably self-delusional. You are not objective. If you are so sure of your marketing, […]
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“Masks are the best vaccine we have right now.” It was late February, in Bangkok, news of the creeping Corona Virus beginning to buzz around the city. In high-people-traffic places, like the BTS Skytrain stations and platforms, the government was already handing out free masks to passers-by. Along the crowded main street sidewalks, however, perhaps no more […]
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We’re alums of P&G (Procter & Gamble) and both grateful and proud of it. P&G is where we cut our first marketing teeth. The company hired Mike despite his not having an MBA. (He has dual masters’ degrees in English and Human Resources.) They hired me despite an MBA with a concentration in finance, not […]
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(Note: We’re reissuing this DISPATCHES article now consciously. While our content is not a direct analogy, we think the perspective and principles herein apply–to some degree anyway–to our current Covid-19 dilemma/enemy/competitor. Among the many arguments–yes, and finger-pointing accusations–we hear, is that our country struggles so greatly now with the pandemic in great part because we had no serious […]
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