On the Brink with Andi Simon

Latest Episodes:

118: Roger Nierenberg—How Music Can Transform The Way Your Organization Functions Feb 11, 2019

Show notes

Listen now as Roger Nierenberg explains how The Music Paradigm helps you see your organization with fresh eyes!

We are delighted to have with us today Roger Nierenberg, an exceptional conductor and innovator who has taken his musical passion and skills and become a "go-to" inspiration for businesses. Through the metaphor of music, Maestro Nierenberg helps organizations "see, feel and think" about themselves with fresh eyes. Quite amazing. Very anthropological, which as you know, is right up our alley! Wait til you hear—and I mean hear—this pioneering musical genius.

A Unique Learning Experience for Any Type of Organization

What Roger Nierenberg and I discuss in this podcast is the way in which music, and the performance of music, can often be seen as a foreign culture but can also be a powerful metaphor for the organizations in which we work, or work with.

As Roger describes his experiences conducting orchestras all over the world, he shares with us how during each performance, the musicians are listening, understanding, sharing, visualizing and changing their performances, not so much in response to him but to each other.

Through Roger's descriptions, we too can see our own methods of interacting with others more clearly by watching performers collaborate in a musical experience. It isn't because they are just talented performers. Rather, they have learned how to work together to bring out each one's skills and create an amazing performance. Might this apply to your organization?

The Music Paradigm

Through Roger's experiences engaging with community businesses and civic leaders, he became curious about the challenges and opportunities faced by organizations in times of rapid change. Again, right up our alley—at SAMC we're all about change.

He realized how crucial issues of organizational development could be powerfully brought to life within an orchestra. Thus was born The Music Paradigm, a highly effective learning experience that uses symphonic music to illuminate compelling insights about people at work. Participants are seated directly among the orchestra musicians, observing them as they perform. Up close, they see fascinating and unexpected organizational dynamics taking place within the group. It soon becomes clear that this is not a demonstration but a powerful forum where observers gain fresh understanding about the opportunities and challenges faced by their own organization.

Over the past 20 years, Roger has presented The Music Paradigm to hundreds of different organizations, from civic groups to Fortune 500 companies, in 23 different countries. He explains many of the lessons learned in his book, "Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening," which was honored in 2009 as the Best Leadership Book from 800-CEO-READ.

Andy and I are both fans of philharmonic concerts and we find The Music Paradigm to be really quite amazing. It allows you to bring something that often is not well attended (symphony orchestra performances) into your workplace as a magical method for improving your team, your organization, your relationships with clients, and your culture.

Who is Roger Nierenberg?

Maestro Roger Nierenberg made his New York conducting debut at Avery Fisher Hall with the Pro Arte Chorale and Orchestra, and soon thereafter was invited to conduct operas in two successive seasons at the Mostly Mozart Festival at New York's Lincoln Center. Numerous guest conducting engagements followed with many of the great American symphony orchestras, including those of Austin, Baltimore, Charleston, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, New Jersey, San Diego, St. Louis and Utah, as well as New York's American Symphony Orchestra, Washington D.C.'s National Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Abroad, Roger has recorded with the London Philharmonic and conducted at both the Prague Spring Festival with the Czech Radio Orchestra and the Beijing Festival with the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. Other performances include engagements with the London Mozart Players, Mexico's National Symphony Orchestra, the Nova Scotia Symphony and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.

Roger has appeared at numerous summer festivals, including the Tanglewood Institute, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Colorado Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra and the Madeira Bach Festival. He has also collaborated with many of the most renowned solo artists and composers of our time.

Roger makes his home in New York City and has two children, a son who is a professional pilot and a daughter who is studying French horn.

You can watch video clips from The Music Paradigm workshops here:

Flutist speaks on micromanaging
Tuning In
9 separate workshops including How Good Directions Liberate Leadership, The Consequences of Mixed Messages and Building Community

Blogs, a podcast and a video you might enjoy:

Additional resources:

The Music Paradigm
Roger's book: "Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening"
My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

117: Rob Westervelt—Thinking Forward for Higher Education Feb 04, 2019

Show notes

Listen now as Rob Westervelt explains how he dramatically changed one university's vision, finances and culture!

Rob Westervelt is a visionary leader, an accomplished strategist and a leading innovator whose mission is to create brighter futures, faster. Robert A. Sevier calls him "One of the most forward-thinking leaders in higher education today." When we were introduced to Rob, we were so impressed that we had to do a podcast with him so he could share his ideas with you, our listeners. A Stanford-trained innovator, Rob is known for his groundbreaking work in creativity and marketing at George Fox University. To learn from a true game-changing visionary, listen in!

There are few higher ed leaders that have Rob's span of expertise and record of accomplishments.

Not only has Rob led a diverse range of departments at George Fox University, including marketing, analytics, IT, human resources, fundraising, legal affairs, enrollment, admissions, financial aid, institutional research, student accounts and public relations, but under his leadership, the institution has become one of the only tuition-driven universities in the country to achieve five consecutive years of record-breaking freshmen enrollments (2013-2017).

In addition, in just five years, his team added $65 million in new student revenue to the university's bottom line. What's even more impressive is that both of these milestones happened during one of the worst down markets in higher education history, a period when most colleges were seeing large declines in enrollment.

Further career highlights at George Fox include Rob's pioneering work in analytics and technology, his successful re-brand of the university, his leadership in developing its vision, values and "Be Known" brand promise, and his contributions to increasing the institution's financial strength.

Still going strong, Rob continues to take on new challenges.

His latest is called the Future State Project, an initiative designed to help George Fox create the university of the future, one that partners with business to create win-wins for academe and industry. The Sandbox College is one project that has come out of this initiative.

In addition to his work at George Fox, Rob is a sought-after speaker and consultant. More than 500 colleges have attended his webinars and presentations on marketing and innovation and his influence continues to reshape how colleges approach the marketplace.

In this podcast we dig into several important areas:

Why is it so difficult for long-standing organizations, like universities, to adapt to fast-changing times?
What type of leadership is needed to invigorate a university that often is encumbered by the refrain: "That's not the way we do it"?
How did Rob accelerate the changes to make dramatic impact on enrollments, financial performance and organizational culture?
Looking ahead, how is his Sandbox College bringing together new stakeholders to create the university of the future?

You can contact Rob at rwestervelt@georgefox.edu.

Some additional material for you:

Podcast: Understanding Higher Education with Brent Wilder

Podcast: Seeing, Feeling and Thinking About Higher Education in a Whole New Way with Ken Hoyt

Blog: Is this the Death of Higher Education Institutions?

Blog: Blue Ocean Strategy Can Really Work for Higher Education

Additional resources:

Rob's website
My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Like George Fox University, is your organization in need of change?

At SAMC, we are often engaged by colleges and universities to help them see, feel and think in new ways, often to change their cultures. To do this, we often use the tools and methods of Blue Ocean Strategy® or Innovation Games®. We invite you to contact us to brainstorm ideas on how we could work together to create custom solutions to overcome the challenges your business or higher education institution is facing. If you already have something in mind, contact us about that too. We'd love to hear about it!

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

16: Maureen Berkner Boyt—Diversity and Inclusion: Let's Go Beyond Hoping and Make Inclusion Really Happen Jan 28, 2019

Show notes

Listen now as Maureen Berkner Boyt explains the many ways diversity and inclusion make companies richer!

Many years ago, the founder of The Moxie Exchange, Maureen (Mo) Berkner Boyt, walked out of yet another leadership meeting where she was the only woman present and thought, "Something has got to change." So she changed it. Since then, her company Moxie has grown into a thriving community of corporations committed to building inclusive workplaces, as well as women committed to leadership development and professional growth. Its mission? To disrupt unconscious bias and create inclusive and diverse workplaces where talent can thrive. Listen!

During this podcast, which is a follow-up to the one we did with Mo back in January 2018, "Lead with Moxie," we dig into the research she initiated with CEOs to see how they were implementing changes to increase both the diversity of their workforce and the inclusion of that diverse workforce.

You can read the survey results, which are really quite fascinating, in her report: "The State of Diversity and Inclusion According to CEOS: What CEOs are Thinking and Doing About Diversity and Inclusion," by clickinghere.

What did Mo's diversity research find? That not much was happening.

"A Strategy of Hope," we called her project. Eighty CEOs, both men and women (60% men and 40% women), responded to her questionnaire. All of them agreed that they had to do something to become more diverse and more inclusive. "Something," however, seemed to take the form of new policies and sexual harassment training. Many said they had responded to mini-crisis situations with those new policies and training, so they seemed to feel they were all set.

But in reality, few of those CEOs were actually trying to transform the culture of their organizations. They just were not doing what they said they knew they had to do. They also were not benefiting from the rich ideas that can come from a diverse and inclusive workforce culture.

Women leaders seem to be more open to inclusion but still not enough

Women CEO respondents to Mo's survey seemed to be more positive about what they were actually doing to change the conversations, the ways meetings were held, and the values their organization was embracing around inclusion.

However, it is one thing to hire a diverse workforce. It is quite another to build a culture where people listen to each other with a desire to understand their points of view and capitalize on their differences.

At SAMC, our job is to help organizations change, particularly their culture. Diversity and inclusion are, at times, part of the problem that has to be addressed. It is not easy to solve it. The brain hates to change, as we know so well, but it really needs to change, particularly in this area.

In our podcast, you'll learn how Mo helps companies actually bring about inclusion and diversity, not just talk about it

Some of her methods that really bring about change:

Peer mentoring programs
Micro-learning courses
A deep online library of resources and tools

Through her company, The Moxie Exchange, Mo is elevating the conversation professional women are having, enabling them to learn, grow and step into their full potential. Moxie's unconscious bias workshops and resources for leadership teams are creating awareness and changing the way talent is resulting in inclusive workplaces. The face of leadership in the business world is truly beginning to change.

Some background on Maureen

Maureen "Mo" Berkner Boyt has spent over 25 years helping organizations grow by creating inclusive workplaces where talented people can thrive. Her passion is helping organizations tap into their reservoir of female leadership talent and bringing out the potential in those same female leaders. She truly believes that when women are fully represented at the executive level in corporate America, we will begin to solve large global problems in a meaningful way.

With a Masters Degree in Organizational Development, Mo is the author of the 5-book series "Rock Your Moxie: Power Moves for Women Leading the Way," as well as the host of a monthly online workshop series and podcast of the same name. She is also the Founder of The Moxie Exchange Movement and its girls' leadership development program, The Go Girl Project.

Mo has coached, trained and delivered high impact keynotes and workshops for thousands of leaders around the globe, as well as founded multiple successful businesses.

Learn how others are also changing the world with moxie!

Additional resources:

Mo's website: The Moxie Exchange
Mo's 5-book series: "Rock Your Moxie: Power Moves for Women Leading the Way"
My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

115: Elaine Sutton—Applying The Power Of Project Management To At-Risk Youth Jan 21, 2019

Show notes

Listen now as Elaine Sutton shares how she helps young people manage their lives like a project!

Elaine Sutton and I met at the HER Summit (Helping Entrepreneurs Rise), the inaugural event of The Simon Initiative, held at the Skandalaris Center at Washington University in St. Louis. What I love about Elaine is her entrepreneurial spirit. (You know we love entrepreneurs!) Using her experiences and expertise to help young people grow into successful adults, she focuses on the power of Project Management because she sees how young people need a process to manage their lives as if it was a project. A great person making a real difference. Take a listen!

In 1951, Langston Hughes wrote his famous poem, "Harlem ("What happens to a dream deferred?")." In just 51 words, Hughes addresses the frustration and anger felt by African Americans whose dream of equality is continually being deferred.

Elaine Sutton doesn't want to see those dreams deferred. Instead, through the SMART Project (Steering the Mind to Aim and Reach its Target), she teaches young people how to apply the tools and techniques of Project Management to achieve their dreams.

Some background on Elaine

For more than 25 years, Elaine Sutton has dedicated her professional career to advocating on behalf of disenfranchised and marginalized individuals and groups. Her mission is to "inform, impart and inspire" young people to not only dream but to put solid plans in place to bring those dreams to fruition by treating their lives like a project, leaving nothing to chance.

Currently, Elaine is the Legal Support Coordinator for the ACLU of Missouri. In addition, she recently assumed responsibility for planning, implementing and executing two new sections within the Legal Department's ICU: Continuing Education and Digital and Multimedia Evidence.

Previously, Elaine was Assistant Project Director/Training and Technical Assistance Director for Syracuse University's Americans with Disabilities Act Center. Prior to this, she served as Program Manager/Volunteer Administrator with the Single Parent Alliance and Resource Center.

Elaine has also worked as an independent grant reviewer and consultant, helping numerous community groups that provide training and technical assistance to state and federal agencies, as well as community and faith-based organizations on building collaborative partnerships and networks to address the reintegration needs of the formerly incarcerated.

Elaine graduated from the Executive Faculty Development Program of Morehouse School of Medicine's National Primary Care Center in 2008. In addition to her online radio show, "Justice Beat: Let's Talk SMART!," that focuses on criminal justice reform, she also leads The SMART Project for youth between the ages of 12 and 17 in which they are encouraged to "Dream Again" through a workshop entitled "Essential Life Skills for Managing Your Life Like a Project."

You can reach Elaine at esutton@aclu-mo.org. More great people doing great things:

Podcast: Betty Ng—Finding Success By Helping Others Succeed

Podcast: Theresa Carrington—Transforming Impoverished Artisans Into Entrepreneurs

Blog: Want To Save the World? Women Entrepreneurs Are Already Doing It!

Blog: How Women In Leadership Roles Are Improving The Workplace And The Bottom Line Additional resources:

My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

114: Patrick Horine—Bringing Blue Ocean Strategy® to Hospital Accreditation Jan 14, 2019

Show notes

Listen now as Patrick Horine explains how he brought much-needed change and innovation to hospital accreditation!

At SAMC we have spent a considerable amount of time working in healthcare organizations and with healthcare clients. When I spoke recently at the 2018 Society for Healthcare Strategy and Marketing Development (SHSMD) conference, I was approached by a woman who wanted to tell me about an inspirational leader, Patrick Horine, President of DNV GL Healthcare. I followed up with Patrick and was in awe of what he and his company are doing—namely, changing the way we are going to be evaluating and accrediting healthcare institutions in the future. Isn't that a huge "Blue Ocean Strategy"?

Bring Blue Ocean Strategy to healthcare big time

Patrick is trying to open a new market space by adding value innovatively, creating something new—not just disrupting what is in place today, but seeing it with fresh eyes. The problem with healthcare isn't what it was. Neither is the solution what we thought we could do in the past.

DNV GL Healthcare is the second-largest hospital accrediting body in the United States, certifying more than 500 hospitals in 49 states that participate in the Medicare program. It is also the fastest-growing accrediting body in the industry.

Based on his experiences as a hospital administrator, Patrick saw that the process by which hospitals were accredited was seriously flawed. essentially, it failed to provide a framework for hospitals to actually improve the quality and safety of the care they provided. His innovative idea of a totally new approach to accreditation is especially important today, when regulatory bodies and media are questioning the validity of the decades-old approach to compliance.

Here are some of the questions and Patrick's answers that are the core of our conversation:

1. Patrick, why are you so passionate about the accreditation process, and what is the approach to accreditation that DNV GL uses?

The earlier part of my career found myself working in hospitals. I was a student at Purdue University, did not spend enough time studying, and was asked to leave. I wound up taking a job at a local hospital and discovered immediately this was what I wanted to do. I finished up college in less than four years, got a master's degree and would up as a hospital CEO at the age of 29. The work I did in that role with accrediting bodies drove me to want to improve the process. I saw too many surveys that focused on "gotchas" for minor offenses, as opposed to improving the overall quality of the operations—and therefore the patient outcomes. I wanted to re-imagine the process of accreditation as a collaborative effort rather than an adversarial one. I formed what is now known as DNV GL Healthcare with my mother-in-law, starting in the basement of my home. It required years of persistence, but it is now paying off.
DNV GL uses ISO 9001 quality control protocols, a quality approach that is used across the world. DNV GL adapted ISO from the manufacturing sector and applied it to hospitals, within the framework that hospitals are required to follow in order to participate in the Medicare program.

2. The spotlight has been placed on accrediting bodies as of late. What issues are you trying to address by revamping the accreditation process?

Questions have arisen about the old model of accreditation. That's why I wanted to ensure that accreditation did not merely consist of hospitals trying to pass their onsite surveys to get the surveyors out of the hospital for the next three years...which I can tell you, was often the attitude surrounding those accreditation visits. Instead, I wanted to change the mindset of hospital executives and their staff so they were driven to improve their overall operations and constantly think about how they can make the delivery of healthcare services better.
DNV GL's surveys occur every year as opposed to every three years, which keeps hospitals on their toes. They are also encouraged to self-audit on an ongoing basis to determine how best they can improve their processes.
I also wanted to ensure that the hospital and accreditation staff were in a collaborative relationship rather than an adversarial one. By positively engaging with the hospitals, we become partners in their ongoing quest for improvement.

3. Which clients are benefiting from the change? These are very relevant case studies on how the changes can become part of the "way we do things" and not something you avoid doing.

Overall, our hospitals are seeing improvement in lower readmission and higher patient satisfaction ratings. Let me give you some examples of how hospitals are improving their services:
Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital in Virginia found that they were essentially ordering restraints for every patient in the ICU. Their people took a step back and worked on how they could improve their policies. Using ISO 9001 as a basis, they introduced very specific criteria as to when restraints should be used. As a result, they all but eliminated the use of restraints at the hospital. Despite this dialing back, the number of patients who extubated themselves—pulled out critical tubes that endanger their lives if they don't remain inserted—also dropped dramatically.
Charleston Area Medical Center in West Virginia was able to greatly improve its treatment for strokes. That's a particularly daunting concern in West Virginia, where the rate of strokes is nearly 40% higher than the national average. It more than quadrupled the number of patients who received clot-busting drugs for ischemic strokes in a timely fashion, and also opened up a telestroke program to ensure patients receive care immediately even if there is not a neurologist in the hospital. As a result, it has received multiple awards from the American Stroke Association.
CoxHealth, a hospital system in Missouri, started a program focused on reducing patient re-admissions. It embedded a social worker in its emergency rooms and trained local paramedics to conduct home visits of recently discharged patients to help address their medical, behavioral and social needs. Some of the hospitals saw a nearly 20% drop in their readmission rates as a result.

4. Why is it that hospitals and healthcare systems have some issues making these kinds of changes, even though care may wind up improving in the end? As you know, change—particularly corporate culture change—is an area where we focus a lot of our work.

Naturally, there is always some resistance in large healthcare institutions where major change is afoot. However, many of our client hospitals have decided to change accrediting bodies because they were tired of doing it the traditional way. They wanted change; they had heard that DNV GL is a change agent, and that is why they made the switch.
Our client hospitals do sometimes have issues regarding making major changes to make them better providers. However, they also have to become ISO 9001-certified within three years of DNV GL providing its first accreditation. That helps to institute a mindset where they are more willing to embrace change.
Many of our client hospitals may initially think it can be more challenging working with DNV GL than other accrediting organizations because of the push for continuous improvement, but they are almost always pleased with the results.

5. What do you see in the future for hospital accreditation and hospital operations?

Hospitals will be under increasing pressure to demonstrate that they are improving outcomes and patient safety. They will also be facing new operations challenges like precision medicine and the use of artificial intelligence in delivering and monitoring care. Now more than ever, they need a system that enables them to quickly identify and remedy problems, and to put in place processes that solve problems, permanently. We are there to help them find these solutions.

If you would like to connect with DNV GL and Patrick Horine, as well as his exceptional staff of talented individuals, you can reach them at: patrick.horine@dnvgl.com or 866-523-6842.

If your organization wants to make a change toward continuous quality improvement in collaboration with their accrediting body, or just wants some information about our company, please reach out.

Some background on Patrick

Patrick Horine serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of DNV GL Healthcare and is responsible for the North American healthcare business of DNV GL, which includes a growing portfolio of standards-driven accreditation and certification services.

Patrick was part of an entrepreneurial team that created and brought to market the first new hospital accreditation program in the United States since the 1960s when Medicare was started. This program, the DNV GL National Integrated Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (NIAHO®), has attracted more than 400 hospitals, and is recognized for its unique design, which integrates Medicare compliance with the ISO 9001 Quality Management System.

Patrick has more than 25 years of healthcare management experience and has held various leadership positions in hospitals including Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President for Quality and Business Development. He has a Master's Degree in Hospital and Health Administration from Xavier University.

To know more about this area, here's a great start:

An On The Brink podcast you will love: Rick Harris—Shouldn't You Want to Delight Patients and Deliver Care?
Case study: Charleston Area Medical Center: Improving Stroke Care
Case study: CoxHealth: Improving Patient Readmissions
Case study: Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital: Reducing Use Of Patient Restraints

Additional resources:

My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

113: Ram Iyer—Overcoming The "Silent Killers of Success" Jan 07, 2019

Show notes

Listen now as Ram Iyer explains how business success requires "business thinking"!

Ram Iyer is the Founder and CEO of the Business Thinking Institute which focuses on helping people of all stripes become more successful in business: owners, entrepreneurs, executives, freelancers, employees and techies like himself. In this podcast, we dig into how people see what they want to see and not what is really happening all around them. Ram's main message is that what matters is how people develop "business thinking." Want to succeed? Take a listen!

Since we too are always working on how to help people "see, feel and think" in new ways, we were fascinated with Ram's approach and the responses that he was capturing. People really do need a different way to see things with fresh eyes. And all the while, we know their brains are fighting them.

Ram has started four companies and has had successes and failures. He found out the hard way that business success requires "business thinking" and that one can easily fail in business—as an owner or an employee—because of the "silent killers of success," what he calls uncommon common sense.

That prompted the founding of the Business Thinking Institute. For his Business Thinking Radio podcast, he has interviewed 150 business leaders worldwide to glean insights and help people succeed in business, achieve personal success, create jobs and increase the standard of living worldwide.

Ram's goal is to reach and educate 1 billion people by 2040 about the essential elements of business success.

Some background on Ram Iyer

Ram is an MIT graduate with two master's degrees, including one from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He previously worked for Boeing and Lucent, designing robots that assemble airplanes, carry materials and assemble phones. He has led marketing efforts for small, medium and large companies, including two Fortune 100 firms. He has been a VC in Silicon Valley, has started four companies and has done business in 16 countries. At one time, he headed up MIT's alumni association and is still active in its alumni community.

For practical help for business success, visit Ram's website Business Thinking and listen to his podcast. You can reach him at ram@businessthinking.com or at (609) 275-6300.

Read more about ways you too can see your business with fresh eyes:

Additional resources:

Ram's website
Ram's podcast
My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

112: Andy Gole—How To Turn Your Salespeople Into Sales Heroes Dec 17, 2018

Show notes

Listen now as Andy Gole explains how to give your sales team a winning competitive edge!

Are your salespeople seeing the results you are expecting from them? Did you provide excellent training, but no results? Are they having intelligent conversations with their clients or potential clients...or not? Perhaps they need a dose of Andy Gole and his Urgency Based Selling® (UBS). That's what Andy and I are talking about in our podcast today. Listen in and see your sales soar!

What is UBS, anyway?

What you will hear Andy discuss is how Urgency Based Selling creates a paradigm shift for sales teams. It turns the traditional, negative perception of sales upside down by proving to salespeople that they are the heroes who ensure the continued well-being of their company.

Consider this:

Sales are all about building trust. It is not the buyer's job to figure out how you should be trusted.
Rather, it is your job to figure out how to create an approach where they will trust you, convincing them that your solution will be the one solution that exceeds all the rest and helps them become the star in their company by really serving their clients.
Andy explains this process and how it works. It is remarkably precise and is closely tied to how the brain builds trust, and how this trust converts into customers wanting to buy your product, service or solution.
The salesperson, on the other hand, often knows how to be liked and is driven by a desire to find people who will like them. But, they often miss out on how to convert that into business results.
Training can be informational or transformational. For your sales team, it has to build engagement and inspire them to change their mindset to embrace new skills.

Think of sales development like a game.

Your folks have achieved the core skills to play but no one is winning. How can you hone in on the right skills and have them practice, practice and practice some more to really drive home the bottom line results that are all within their hands?

According to Andy, it is their bravery in the field, every day, that brings sales. Facing the unknown is what makes them brave. Once they recognize this, Urgency Based Selling gives them new knowledge and practices which make the sales process more efficient and effective. It's a singular sales training experience that gives your sales team a competitive edge.

A little background on Andy

Andy Gole is the founder and president of Bombadil, LLC, which was established in 2004. His experience brings a unique blend of both the theoretical university professor and street-wise sales warrior to sales training and consulting.

Andy's expertise has helped senior leaders and business owners re-energize their sales efforts and create a corporate paradigm shift in their sales approach. He coaches sales teams on how to engage clients in serious conversations, a practice which leads to measurable, profitable sales increases.

Though he describes himself as a sales theorist, his approach, the Urgency Based Selling System, is built on the more than 4,000 direct sales engagements Andy has personally performed. As he will tell you, his greatest reward is helping sales teams accomplish results they considered impossible to achieve. Andy has been a Vistage speaker since 2009.

When clients work with Andy, they can expect:

salespeople doubling their closing ratios
sales increases, typically, of 10-20%
the client's selling becomes a defendable position. (Analysis shows that even up to 6 years later, the competition can't emulate the process!)

To learn more about Andy, check out his website: www.urgencybasedselling.net

For additional insights:

Additional resources:

Andy's website
My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

111: Irina Baranov—Creating Your "Life By Design" Dec 10, 2018

Show notes

Listen now as Irina Baranov teaches us how to change our lives for the better!

What if you could create your "Life by Design" (not by default). In this podcast, I have the pleasure of speaking with Irina Baranov about just that idea. In fact, how to actually do it! You might be asking, "Really? Can I pause, step back and think about what I want my life to be, not just wander along, letting the path I am on take me on its way?" Why is it important to design our lives, and who typically does this? Listen in to learn a fresh approach to you and your life.

What are the areas of life that people usually design?

Which do they ignore—without knowing why? And how do you make sure that this isn't a one-and-done activity that has no lasting benefit?

Irina will tell you that she loves helping high-achievers reach even greater levels of success. She spends her time helping leaders and groups gain clarity, connect more consciously, overcome obstacles and create the change and growth that they want and crave.

(On some level, I've been helping people with these same issues for most of my life. I have always been the go-to person when someone needed support through a challenge, through a transition or simply through the "stuff" that the world threw at them.)

After a successful career in marketing, Irina decided to put the pieces together. A personal story full of twists and turns + psychology degree + executive experience + entrepreneurial experience + passion for better business and better living and better loving = the work she does today.

We talk a lot in this interview about how you too can realize your goals (and usually exceed them).

As a certified executive coach, speaker and Vistage Chair, Irina works with top leaders and organizations, taking them from good to great. In her 1-on-1 coaching work with the top 1%, as well as with groups and audiences around the world, she helps create lasting and impactful change through self-awareness, connection, experiential learning and proven strategies for personal and professional growth.

In her workshops, retreats, keynote presentations and corporate training seminars, Irina delivers a blend of warmth, wisdom and humor. Her customized storytelling and exercises with audiences inspire insight, real learning and sustained action. She has been featured on CBS, NBC and ABC, as well as in numerous print and online publications.

Read more about how to craft your own path with thoughtful design:

And this video:

Additional resources:

Irina's website
My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

110: Christophe Morin—Capture, Convince And Close More Customer Sales Dec 03, 2018

Show notes

Listen now as Christophe Morin explains how to target the decision-making part of your customer's brain!

I am reading Christophe Morin's new book, "The Persuasion Code," and you should as well. In it, Christophe and his partner, Patrick Renvoisé, share their research on why we buy and how you can influence others to do the same. Their company, SalesBrain, is the first neuromarketing agency with a scientific persuasion model, grounded in research from the neurosciences about how the brain works. This model helps you capture, convince and close more sales by targeting the decision-making part of your customer's brain. Fascinating stuff—don't miss this podcast!

Focus on your customersʼ PAINS, choose unique CLAIMS, prove your GAIN and deliver to the primal BRAIN

Founded in 2002, SalesBrain has helped over 600 companies worldwide and trained over 120,000 executives. Christophe and Patrick's unique, award-winning NeuroMap™ offers an easy to follow, 4-step methodology to improve marketing and sales processes. With the NeuroMap model, you can scientifically capture, convince and close more customers.

What Christophe and I discuss in our podcast is how to truly get your message understood by the brains of your customers. And this is not as hard as you might think. As Christophe explains, most of our efforts to convince or persuade are ineffective, and traditional types of research, surveys, interviews and focus groups do not get at the mechanisms underlying why we buy.

Why? Because your brain rejects messages that interrupt it. It is the subconscious and preconscious functional circuits of the brain that navigate our responses to stimuli—marketing and otherwise—and it is the oldest, reptilian part of your brain that drives your decision-making. This means that when you are trying to influence someone, you must focus on what they are hearing, not on what you are saying.

Listen carefully to this podcast and you will learn how you, too, can better influence and persuade others. Who knows how far this will take you!

Some background on Christophe

As CEO and Chief Pain Officer of SalesBrain, Christophe is passionate about understanding and predicting consumer behavior using neuroscience. Before joining SalesBrain, he was Chief Marketing Officer for rStar Networks, a public company that developed the largest private network ever deployed in US schools. Previously, he was VP of Marketing and Corporate Training for Grocery Outlet Inc, the world's largest grocery remarketer.

Christophe has received multiple awards during his career, including two prestigious speaking awards from Vistage International and three Great Mind Research Awards and Distinctions from the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF).

For a consultation on how to identify and overcome your customers' pain, you can reach him at christophe@salesbrain.com.

Additional resources:

SalesBrain website
Christophe's book: "The Persuasion Code"
My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

109: Lynette Guastaferro—Transforming How Teachers Teach In Over 700 Urban Schools Nov 26, 2018

Show notes

Listen now as Lynette Guastaferro explains how she took on failing urban education and turned it around!

How can you truly transform an organization and what it is supposed to be achieving? That's what I asked Lynette Guastaferro, Executive Director of Teaching Matters, in our recent podcast. Teaching Matters works with urban schools and their teachers to dramatically transform the education that children are receiving. What is so exciting? It is working. You know how important change is to us at SAMC and those we work with. Lynette inspired us to want to help others do better—because they really can. And so can you! The first step is to listen to this podcast. Enjoy.

Focusing on urban teachers at high-poverty schools, Teaching Matters is a national non-profit organization that provides coaching and support services for schools that have a hard time attracting and retaining experienced educators. Its programs have been implemented in nearly half of NYC's public schools and are now being extended into other school systems nationwide. Its reading program—Early Reading Matters—is just in its 3rd year but is already showing tremendous results. Today, the 31 Teaching Matters partner schools, all high-poverty campuses, have seen a 50% increase in the number of students reading at grade level by the 2nd grade.

Committed to the impact Teaching Matters has on children and the way in which its programs create success stories

As you will learn, Lynette's skills lie in observing how people work and then finding ways to improve their skills and develop their talent so they can achieve their very best.

From her own career training, Lynette quickly learned what she liked and didn't like. After graduating from Columbia University, she took a job at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a management consultant. In her first week, she was sent to Florida to conduct a capacity analysis of a homeless service delivery system and jumped on the opportunity to get involved in education and supporting people in poverty. She eventually left her consulting position and entered the world of teaching with gusto.

As an educator, Lynette saw the isolation of teachers, the lack of collaboration, the absence of mentoring, the infantilization of the profession. She wanted to change this and knew that if the system would invest in teachers, they would shine!

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger"

To grow, you have to experience struggles. At SAMC we often say that if you want to change, have a crisis or create one. As Lynette puts it, "In education, kids need productive struggles to learn. The real learning comes from the challenges we face throughout our lives."

Describing her own experiences, Lynette says, "My own life helped me deeply understand that when you're in urban education, there's a lot of pressure on teachers to perform. This is important, but we must also work on improving our children's educational experience."

High-poverty schools routinely encounter crisis after crisis, causing great educators to burn out quickly. This taught Lynette to rethink the ways our educational system supports teachers (or doesn't), leading her to focus on developing communities in schools where teachers feel a high responsibility for the kids.

Some background on Lynette

As Chief Executive Officer of Teaching Matters, Lynette has more than 20 years' experience in education. Under her leadership, Teaching Matters has quadrupled its reach and spearheaded the design of award-winning, scalable teacher development models designed to improve teaching in over 700 urban schools. She has been a classroom teacher, a school-network leader and a senior management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. She holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Williams College.

Additional resources: