Dennis Moseley-Williams

I spend the summer up here at my not-so-secret summer lair. Pine Lodge is a good place to recharge myself and reconnect with some of the thinking I like to do when I am not in airports, or on airplanes.

My daughter Ella is almost 5. In the mornings she wakes up, climbs out of bed, finds the nearest Richard Scary book (I am currently using Storybook Dictionary as a coaster), and then climbs up into my lap without a sound and I read to her while her systems slowly come on line.

Does anyone out there read Richard Scary books – when will they take Dingo’s driver’s license away? That guy is a menace. Never trust a dog in a cowboy hat.

I digress.

This summer Ella told me that she wanted to go for a walk, that she wanted to go far, and that she wanted to go alone. Ella is growing up, and I realize that despite my best efforts the little one is starting to leave me.

I was crushed. I was also proud. I guess the next thing is that she will no longer get sad and tear up while eating green beans because she is going to “miss them.”

Ella did pretty well on that first walk but she did come back, in a hurry, and in a bit of a panic. But that was only once. The next time she went a little further, then a little further, until now, a few weeks later she doesn’t get scared at all.

Ella is fearless.

That’s us. When we find our inspiration, our eureka moment, we are essentially saying

“I want to do this”, then we feel a little, or a lot of resistance. “Wait a second … Am I crazy? I could get eaten by something large and Lizard like …”

Two things to keep in mind

First never forget that the amazing idea came first and that fear of the Lizard came second.

The first thing you think of – the eureka moment – is more powerful than the Lizard. The Lizard is constant, the Lizard always suggests caution but it comes after the inspiration. After the courage.

Our creative ability, our creative destiny is more powerful than we realize.

We all struggle with the Lizard

Even me… Let me share my deep dark ugly secret. I hope you realize that this takes courage, once I have shared the secret; I am obligated to fix it.

Here it goes.

I have had a book essentially finished for 3 years.

What does ‘essentially finished’ mean?’

I have less than 40 hours to finish it.

The book sits in Dropbox, organized into chapters, some of them edited, some of them needing one final read before I sign off on it.

I don’t need to write anything else, really, just commit to sitting down and working with the editor to get it done. It’s so close to being finished that I already know what my second book is going to be about, and what it is going to be called.

The frickin’ Lizard has my brain.

Until right now

I will fix this right away, and keep you posted via the blog. You can watch me defeat resistance.

The second thing to remember

Everyone panics. Panic is good. Panic is like sore muscles after a workout – it means that something good is happening.

Panic is in your head.

Don’t run from panic. Expect it. You thought this was going to be easy? Effortless? Not a chance.

You thought that fixing something was a switch, an adjustment? Something that you flip from ‘broken’ to ‘fixed?’

Not a chance. Its evolution and it’s not finished with you yet.

Just remember, Panic is predictable and it isn’t nearly as strong as your creativity.  Panic is normal and good.

Losing to it isn’t. Losing to panic is completely unacceptable.

The idea of being a trust advisor is very seductive. The reality and pragmatism of making it happen is something totally different. The following is list of reasons why it is hard to fulfill a trusted advisor role that comes right out of David Maister’s book, The Trusted Advisor:

1. This is all too personally risky. The emotional stuff feels embarrassing, different and flaky.
2. It’s not easy to stop worrying about yourself and focus on others instead.
3. Professional services firms often breed a culture of content expertise and mastery. (Content is the focus of everything)
4. We can’t overcome our fears of looking ignorant, stupid, or uniformed, so we act assertively.
5. It’s hard to shut up and listen before you solve the problem. We have a hard time rewiring our instincts or habits.
6. It takes a lot of courage to speak about the unspeakable. Some things you just don’t say; they’re too personal, too risky, or too unprofessional.
7. It comes too close to the line of invading the private.
8. This approach discounts too heavily the value of good content or expertise.
9. This process sounds slooowwww! My budget won’t allow for this!
10. My clients want me to focus on the work at hand; he or she does not want to see me about anything else.
11. It’s risky to take a position on an issue until I’m absolutely sure.
12. I took a position, and now I am stuck with it. To change my view would destroy my credibility.
13. It’s hard to be this humble!

Interestingly all these objections are ego driven and are therefore usually based on conjecture about what you think your clients really want. Or maybe, it is just your fear factor making excuses so you do not have to take a risk. In the Experience Economy, the experience of trust requires that you expand your personal boundaries so that you can authentically give clients what they want and need.

Your choice.

Religion and Faith are not the same thing.

Religion does not solely refer to Spirituality, or the so called “big three” religions of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam.

If you read this blog, then you probably have a lot of faith because you are out on your own trying to change, if not the world, then your world.

You have a lot of faith. No doubt there are people who love you who have told you not to do it, but you did it anyway. There are coworkers, or managers who told you to do it, but also told you that they wished you wouldn’t, but you did anyway.

That is faith.

I quit my job when my daughter was six months old and I had no money and absolutely no clients or a contract. Nobody even knew who I was; they literally thought I was another guy. I had a bucket load of faith though. I knew somebody out there would want to listen to me, and that eventually they would figure out my name is Dennis.

There is an easier path out there for each of us, but when you are a leader, there is only one path and it’s rarely the easier one. Quitting, and if not quitting, settling and accepting the status quo is always the easier path and it’s always the path to being completely irrelevant.

So why did you take the harder path, and why are you going to do it again?

Faith

Faith is underrated and religion is overrated.

Faith is old, hundreds of millions of years old.  Faith is part of our code, the code that operates a human being. It is part of our evolution and separation from the rest of the mammals walking around, on either two or four feet all over the planet or swimming in the oceans.

My dog, Smooch, has no faith, that’s why he gets so excited every time I walk back into the house.

Religion is a structure, built by us on top of our faith. The purpose of Religion is to maintain and preserve the status quo. The message isn’t “stand out” its “fit in.” Religion is repetition and ritual. Repeating stories, lessons, creeds and commandments and trying as best we can to apply them to contemporary moral issues.

There are all kinds of religions. There are the easy ones that likely first come to mind: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism.

There are all kinds of other religions too – Apple and Google are religions– what they all believe, their corporate culture, dress code, how they encourage people to think. You can’t tell me that people who love the iPod, iPhone or whichever product they use are not passionate and cult like. They practically cheer the demise of competitors. They are cult like and devoted to their device. Considering it, right now, it creep’s me out just a little.

Private Schools and camps and clubs have religions too and each of them is designed to maintain and preserve that which is considered sacred within the community. Ultimately, it’s to preserve the status quo.

Religion is at its very best when it supports faith.

Religion is at its worst when it supports the status quo.

When we can’t adjust, or evolve or innovate we lose our Clan. We lose our Clan because the Clan loses its need in the apparatus or religion.

They go somewhere else, they don’t lose their faith. They continue to believe what they believe, to like what they like, to seek what they need. They just look for it in a different place.

Catholics become Unitarians for example. Or PC users become Mac users or people who like German cars buy American cars.

A lot of people believe in God, or a higher power yet the number of people who attend an organized religious service is dropping.  Did they lose their faith? Or did they grow fatigued by the slow pace of change inside their organization?

You are the leader of your Clan. They have faith in you. Where is your Clan going? What does your Clan need?

How are you going to keep the pews full?

Your business and your business planning are two sides of the same coin. If you put your business plan on the shelf to gather dust, that’s where you’re business will end up too. The process of business planning is a living, breathing process that has no end. It continuously evolves, improves and matures.

The human body completely regenerates itself every seven years. In seven years time not one cell of your body today will exist. Yet you will still be you. In seven years time, your business plan might also have completely regenerated itself. But it will still be your business plan. One thing is for sure though – if you stop feeding or paying attention to your business plan it will wither and die, along with your business.

Sounds like a good idea but what does it mean in practice? In practice, you get to choose what your business plan looks like. There are lots of examples and templates around. I personally recommend the simpler the better approach but whatever works best for you. Here is a proven method for living your business plan:

1. Always have a copy of your current business plan on hand and refer to it daily.
2. Review the plan with key personnel regularly. It is not okay for them to not know EXACTLY what is going on in that plan. If they don’t know what is going on they are telling you they do not care.
3. Schedule regular business plan review sessions.  Involve those who either input to the plan or who work directly from it.
4. Review your plan away from the business. This helps to gain a clearer perspective and promotes a creative, brainstorming frame of mind.
5. Have pen and paper on hand and be ready to pluck a continuous stream of great thoughts from your subconscious and note them down. Resist the temptation to update your plan on the fly. Always wait until the next review day.
6. Ensure each version of your business plan is numbered. (i.e. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc.) And keep a copy of all previous versions.
7. Be true to your plan. Ensure your entrepreneurial business decisions are consistent with the plan.

Remember – your business planning drives your business and your business drives your business planning.