A New Year, A New Era

B. Kim Barnes, Barnes & Conti President and CEO

We have moved swiftly in America from the political season into the holiday season and—given the current economic turmoil—this is not promising to be a season of unbridled celebration, feasting, and spending. I read in the London Times recently about a dilemma facing a large British government organization. They had already spent £40,000 for a holiday party—renting the venue and pre-purchasing food and drink and holiday favors. They were facing the following problem: should they go ahead and have the party as planned—while enduring the certain-to-be withering news items in the tabloids about “fiddling while Rome burns”? Or should they cancel the party and forfeit the money? The compromise suggested was to limit the (alcoholic) drinks to beer and wine only in the hope, I suppose, that the public would recognize this as part of a shared sacrifice.

In our elections, the theme that seemed to resonate the most with voters of all persuasions was “change.” I was reflecting today about the “change equation” that the late Dr. Richard Beckhard of the Sloane School of Management taught me and many others. He observed that in order for voluntary change to occur, at least some amount of each of the following three conditions must exist: People and organizations must have a certain level of dissatisfaction with the status quo, they must have a vision of something better, and they need to trust that they have the support they need to move from the current state to the one they can envision. The product of these three must also be greater than the perceived risks involved in making the change—thus if any value is 0, voluntary change will not occur.

The American public seems to have reached a historic level of dissatisfaction with current realities. Both major candidates tried to describe a vision of the future. And most pundits agreed that the primary task that our now President-Elect Obama had to achieve in his campaign was to gain the trust of people who might see him as too young, too inexperienced, and too “different.” Enough people had to align with his vision but also trust that he was more than a visionary; they needed to believe that he had the ability to move the country toward that vision. So the three essential elements of Dr. Beckhard’s equation: dissatisfaction, hope, and trust outweighed the fears and concerns that they had about change.

Many people regardless of their party preference and, for that matter, regardless of whether they are Americans, seem to have settled into an expectant but neutral-to-optimistic pause before our new president takes office. Gracious words have—however temporarily—replaced partisan vitriol. Senator McCain’s honorable concession speech set the tone for this; good people can disagree, but the values we share are more important. For perhaps the second time in my adult life (the first president I was eligible to vote for was JFK) I can sense that there is truly an opening to achieve some major changes. And this opening has little or nothing to do with power or party; the immense forces of events and trends that we cannot control as individuals has finally created a readiness to change on the part of individuals and organizations.

It was only a few years ago that many people in America accepted the idea that conservation was a “private virtue” rather than a powerful force for geopolitical influence. Now many of us as individuals and organizations measure our “carbon footprint”—mine seems hopelessly out of whack at the moment—and begin to take personal responsibility for our contributions to global climate change through actual changes in our day-to-day decision-making. As these small changes roll up, industries have to change (SUV, anyone?) to meet new needs. Now there is also an “emperor’s new clothes” response to complex financial instruments, instruments that nobody questioned when they were making money hand over fist; the risks of not changing have become all too clear. Alas, with today’s economic turmoil, we are reminded once again that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

And so we enter a new era as well as a new year, skeptical but hopeful, disillusioned but not jaded. We are once again open to new ideas and hungry for innovation—real innovation that solves real problems. Ready to party like it’s...2009? Beer, anyone?

In This Issue:

How To Stay Sane in Trying Times by The Staff of Barnes & Conti

The Devil Invented Gift Cards by Carter Serrett

A Story of Communication and Kindness by Kim Barnes

What's New:

Barnes & Conti and SPM Group Team Up for a Project Management Program
Barnes & Conti Trainer Sam Roberts to Offer Professional Coaching
New Global Partners in China and Hungary
New Blogger Introduces Program on Problem-Solving

The Eighth Annual Barnes & Conti Virtual Feast

Trade Shows & Events

Just for Fun

Featured Art: (above) Horse Chestnut Trees at Louveciennes by Camille Pissarro

How to Stay Sane in Trying Times

Contributed by the Entire Barnes & Conti Staff

Appreciate and focus more on what you have than on what is missing from your life.
Stay flexible and nimble; respond to opportunity.
Surround yourself with happy people (and make sure they have happy friends—a recent study suggests that happiness is much more viral than misery!)
Don’t get isolated; stay connected to friends, family, and community.
Communicate often; get “face time”—step away from your cubicle or coffeehouse table to interact off-line.
Use your influence skills to change what you don’t like.
Volunteer... service organizations need you and you need them.
Join a new community... discover new interests and find a group to share them.
Look for opportunities to change one thing about how you live every day.
Turn off the news or at least lower the volume; avoid people who whine or are otherwise toxic.
Use downtime to learn, develop, and grow.
Do one nice thing for yourself today, then one nice thing for someone else that will surprise and delight him or her. (Random acts of kindness to strangers are good also, but a recent study suggests that it makes people suspicious. Too bad, but go ahead anyway.)
Remember the Buddhist saying: “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.”

The Devil Invented Gift Cards

Carter Serrett, Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Every year, I have the same conversation with a family member about gift cards. She wants me to get her daughter—my niece—gift cards for holidays and birthdays. Her argument is, “all the kids love them! They are thrilled with the opportunity to shop for themselves.” She also points out that it’s really hard to get the right thing for kids; that’s why she wants to get them for my son.

What people often miss is that gift giving is about both the giver and the receiver. Giving is a relationship based on experience; using a gift card merely commodifies the experience for both giver and receiver. There is an art to gift-giving: thinking about your loved ones; finding something within your budget that reflects what you know about them, what you would like them to know about you, or what you think they might enjoy experiencing that is new. That art and grace that enriches a relationship is dying; I find myself fighting to keep my stand at the front lines.

We all have varying budgets for gift-giving ranging from zero to many dollars. One of my son’s grandparents can’t afford to buy either gifts or gift cards so she makes homemade gifts. When my son saw the “Birthday Rock” she had found in her New Mexico yard, he was thrilled! It was one of the most memorable gifts he’d ever received. On the other end of the spectrum, my partner, Kelly, rented my son a two-story, two-lane water slide for his birthday party. Neither of those would have happened if they had given in to gift cards.

Gift cards, in my opinion, are eating away at the soul and love in Christmas. Yes, they are easy. Yes, they are fun to use. But so are drugs, and my son is not getting his hands on those either!

A Story of Communication and Kindness

Kim Barnes, Barnes & Conti Chief World Traveler

Recently I was in Hungary, supervising the Exercising Influence certification of Szalay Lazslo, our partner at ICG in Budapest. After the program one day, I took a taxi to the home of the friend with whom I was staying. It was rush hour and the traffic was intense, as it often is there. My driver was a polite man who recognized by my accent that I must be American. His English was extremely limited and my Hungarian, of course, is limited to “Yo reggelt”—good morning—and “Yo napot”—good afternoon—as well as the Hungarian equivalent of “cheers,” which I will not attempt to spell. Despite the language barrier, he wanted to communicate with me. So for the entire 40-minute drive, we struggled—he to tell and me to understand—why he so loved America and Americans.

It seems that about 17 years ago, his son was born with a serious heart defect. He and his wife did everything they could—saw every doctor they could—trying to find a way to save their little boy. Unfortunately, there was no hospital in Hungary with the equipment or the surgeon that would be required to repair his heart. The father, in desperation, wrote to the head of a company in Hungary that manufactured a high-tech piece of medical equipment he’d read about; the very equipment that was used in the surgery his son needed. But at that time, both the equipment and the surgery were only available in the U.S.

Somehow (and here the details eluded me), the man who received the letter decided to sponsor the family’s trip to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. In Cleveland, they met the head of the Clinic (again, I could not understand his name) who was very supportive throughout the process; they did not charge for the surgery, and all of the family’s expenses were covered. The family stayed in Cleveland for three months; the child received and recovered from the surgery—all at no cost. The Americans he met were very friendly—the older sister in the family played with the daughter of the clinic director. My driver says he could still find his way anywhere in Cleveland—the map is imprinted in his mind—but even more so is the kindness he received from Americans.

In recent years, being an American abroad has not always brought such effusiveness. Even though the “Ugly American” in Graham Greene’s story was actually a good person, the title has become shorthand for our insensitivity to other cultures. It was lovely and refreshing to experience one man’s appreciation for kindness received so many years ago and to connect, through barriers of language and culture, to another human being—one who is proud to say that his now-healthy 17-year-old son owes his health to Cleveland.

What's New?

Barnes & Conti and SPM Group* Team Up to
Offer Project Management Program

SPM Group is our Canadian partner in Toronto. They are a Canadian market leader in the area of strategic initiative management. We’re proud to announce that we can now offer our clients SPM Group’s world-class project management programs.

One of their foundation courses—Managing Today’s Projects™—is an exceptionally interactive and hands-on approach to learning the skills of project management. This engaging and focused approach mirrors the same kind of methodology that Barnes & Conti uses in our other programs.

Barnes & Conti Trainer Sam Roberts to Offer Professional Coaching

In January of 2009, Barnes & Conti Trainer, Sam Roberts, is beginning a 14-month coaching certificate program. Sam says, “The coaching school I am studying under is called Integral Coaching Canada (ICC), and it is the only school that uses Integral Theory to inform its methodology.” ICC is accredited by the International Coaching Federation which is a coach-accreditation body that maintains common standards in this internationally-emerging industry.

Sam says, “I am drawn to coaching because of my profound interest in leadership development, and the value I place on intimate work with clients. I love training and leading workshops and will continue to do so. I will simply be adding professional coaching to my repertoire. Change is at the root of coaching, whether it is helping to make more informed decisions at work or at home, or facilitating more sustainable approaches to business and leadership. I have chosen Integral Coaching because of its unique and cutting-edge approach to leadership development. This approach is quickly becoming one of the most effective tools for leadership development in the business arena, and I look forward to including it in my presence here.”

Sam is also happy to announce that he is becoming a father this May! Sam says, “Monique (Sam’s wife) and I are so excited and we look forward to bringing the little one to the Barnes & Conti office for a workshop soon!”

New Global Partners in China and Hungary

Barnes & Conti’s global influence now extends through two new partners, HCD Global in Shanghai, China, and ICG in Hungary. Both companies will be offering our popular Exercising Influence program.

HCD Center for Experiential Learning is one of the key learning institutes in China which provides industry-focused executive training. They work with organizatons to help develop the professional capabilities of business managers and executives in China.

ICG Logo ICG (Infora Consulting Group) has locations in Graz, Vienna, Berlin, and Budapest. It is among the leading change consultancy companies in Central Europe. ICG consists of 35 consultants who bring thorough commitment and extensive specialist and change management expertise together with well-founded knowledge in the areas of business administration, organizational design, human resources development, and strategy development.

New Blogger Introduces New Program on Problem-Solving

This past September, Joel Kleinbaum, long-time Barnes & Conti Info Systems Manager, has taken on the role of Barnes & Conti’s Blogger-in-Chief. In addition to managing IT and the websites for Barnes & Conti, Joel has quietly served as editor and associate editor of this newsletter for the past seven years. The article quoted below was Joel’s first blog post. It also serves to introduce our soon-to-be-released program tentatively entitled: Puzzles, Mysteries, and Dangers: Problem-Solving in the Real World.

Watch our website and our blog for more information.

When Is A Problem Not a Problem?

Joel Kleinbaum

A funny thing happened in presenting our new problem solving program: people had a problem calling a problem a problem! It appears that “problem” is just way too negative for some folks; they seemed a lot more comfortable referring to “issues,” “challenges” or even “opportunities.”

It has been pointed out that here on the “left coast,” and especially in the land of “have a nice day,” we try to put a positive spin on everything. “Problem” focuses on what’s wrong, rather than on what’s right. As a certified green and granola-friendly west-coaster, I have an “issue” with that. A true problem invokes a solution; it’s part of the definition. According to dictionary.com the number two definition for problem is, “a question proposed for solution or discussion.” Can’t we all agree that a good solution, even a workable solution, is worth the minor or even major inconvenience of the problem?

The article continues on the Barnes & Conti Blog