What else could one say about the pantheon of greats that came together to pay tribute to D’Artagnan’s (the fine food purveyor who enabled the great Chefs of New York to bring in items like Foie Gras in the 80’s with which to revolutionize our palates?) 25th anniversary?

Ariane Daguin is a lady of commanding presence, ineffable grace and surpassing hospitality. The evening was a testament to the power of relationships. For the “32 Stars” being referenced is the number of New York Times and Michelin Stars amassed by the chefs who were assembled and who collaborated to produce this quite unique evening.

The concept, was straightforward. Reception at Daniel. Aperitif? As it was D’Artagnan and the theme was an invasion of the Gascons, we started with a Gascony classic: Pousse Rapiere. Normally a combination of Armagnac, Grand Marnier and Champagne, this evening it was Armagnac infused with Oranges, a few cloves, a little sugar and then the champagne! Marvelous!

As we roamed, we experienced gorgeous Duck Samosas from Philippe Combet (One Michelin Star), an amazing Foie Gras and Prune Creme Brulee from One Michelin Star Chef Eric Sampietro and more.

The first two courses of this voluptuous meal were served at Daniel. The first a collaboration between Daniel and Two Michelin Star Chef Jean Marie Gautier of Hotel du Palais, Biarritz. Poached Foie Gras of Duck with Red wine and Fig Chutney, served with a sweet Jurancon. Then Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park prepared with Two Star Michelin Chef Jacques Pourcel an amazing Scallop dish with a Truffle vinaigrette.

We then moved into a luxury coach where Armagnac was flowing and arrived at Jean Georges, another 4 New York Star, 3 Michelin Star marvel. Here Jean Georges prepared with Three Star Michelin Chef Michel Bras of Laguiole a quite stunning Pigeon dish, paired beautifully with a 2002 Madiran and a Cahors Malbec 2000.

Across the street to Per Se, where Thomas Keller and Two Michelin Star Chef Helene Darroze prepared Capon two ways…rich, gorgeous, flavorful, with the wine highlight of the evening, Imperials and Magnums of Chateau Lynch Bages 1985.

Finally, back on the bus one more time to arrive at Le Bernardin. Here Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin and Thierry Marx (One Michelin Star) from Cordeillan-Bages prepared two luscious desserts, with which a seductive Tokai and Jurancon “Folie de Janvier” shone.

At Le Bernardin our table included Anthony Bourdain, David Rosengarten (Wine Editor, Saveur), Jean Michel Cazes (owner of Lynch Bages) and others. I was interviewed by the New York Times, and at the instigation of Daniel who proclaimed me “un vraimant gourmand”, I was interviewed on French television.

Le Bernardin was buzzing with camaraderie, mutual respect, affection, joy and enthusiasm. Extraordinary cuisine and superb wine had served not as ends unto themselves, but as true conduits. Like the symposium of old, these inducements had expanded awareness, wit and consciousness.

To Ariane and D’artagnan and to the relationships forged with so many friends who have become not only stars, but mini constellations in the culinary world, all happy to come and wish a dear friend and treasured partner well, felicitations and Happy Anniversary!

Many pooh pooh this holiday calling it commercially contrived, historically dubious (as if our other holidays aren’t?) and more.

It’s irrelevant. It’s a day to focus on love, and you don’t have to succumb to an orgy of candy purchases, to focus on expressing one of our deepest sentiments. And you can be as extravagant, or as imaginative, or as corny as you like. You have license. We are “excused”.  After all, there’s an “official” day to blame!

Well we went back to our favorite spot for Valentine’s and much else, the Italian Wine Merchants, pioneers in Italian wine appreciation in the United States, and one of the primary conduits and channels for extraordinary wine of irreproachable provenance overall.

We had the lovely space to ourselves. We were surrounded by masterful chefs putting their show kitchen to the best possible use, and were “serenaded” (oenophilically) by Italian Wine Merchant Vice-President and a masterful commentator on the joys of the grape, Chris Deas.

Together he and Chef Kevin Sippel (a true culinary innovator), formerly of Alto , took us “Around the World in Eleven Courses”. Not quite around the world perhaps, but the circumnavigation was quite extensive. This could as easily have been called, “Around the World in Eleven Wines.” But why quibble? Both are implied, both were experienced.

Menu highlights included the palate puckering Paccheri Verdi, Braised Snails and Gorgonzola. One of the last orchestrations of Didier Dagueneau via his masterful Pouilly Fume Silex 2006 enhanced and enchanted this remarkable dish.

Another menu highlight was the crispy sweetbread, manchego and toasted allioli, married exquisitely and tantalizingly with Descendientes de Jose Palacios Corullon La Faraona 2006. From one of the best vineyard sites in Bierzo Spain, La Faraona is the gem of Alvaro Palacios’ (of Priorat fame) art in this region. Only 65 cases are produced annually, and other than the Italian Wine Merchants, this exceptional wine isn’t available anywhere else in the United States.

Hot on the heels of this…another winner! Fried Egg, hen egg, cooked slowly for two hours, lightly fried, with Serrano ham and baked sardine! Extraordinary!

The number of amazing wines, from Gaja Sperss 1998 to La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 1995 all could, in a lesser dinner, have been the centerpieces.

But for us the 1977 Bodega Malbec from Mendoza Argentina showed us a style of Malbec we almost can’t experience any more with the unsetttling “globalization” of wine tastes. The two “birth year” wines for my wife and I, the Leoville Las Cases (one of fifteen second growths in Bordeaux and one of our favorites) 1966 (a vintage that seems among the better Bordeaux to be drinking quite beautifully now) and the beyond rare 1966 Chateau Musar from Lebanon (slightly sweet herb-like aromas, elegant, a bit more Burgundian) were luscious, fitting and on their merits, truly memorable.

We went home with a lovely Pinot to accompany artisanal chocolates, a dozen red roses (a “classic” rather than a “cliche”, though many people can’t tell the two apart), and memories we will savor and which will reverberate happily for years to come.

James Thurber once opined, “Love is what you’ve been through with someone.” Most people take that to mean what you’ve survived together. Well, partially that’s so. But it’s as much what you’ve experienced together, exulted in together, and celebrated together! Salute!

AROUND THE WORLD IN ELEVEN COURSES

CHAMPAGNE — FRANCE

Selection of Raw Fish, Oysters and Caviar with Jacques Selosse Champagne Brut Initial NV

LOIRE VALLEY — FRANCE

Paccheri Verdi, Braised Snails and Gorgonzola with Didier Dagnueneau Pouilly Fume Silex 2006

BRDA — SLOVENIA

Grilled Sepia with Sea Urchin with Movia Lunar 2007

BIERZO — SPAIN

Crispy Sweetbread, Tomato, Manchego and Toasted Allioli with Descendientes de Jose Palacios Corrullon La Faraona 2006

PIEMONTE — ITALY

Frog Leg Risotto with Veal Reduction and Leeks with Gaja Sperss 1998

RIOJA — SPAIN

Fried Egg, Serrano Ham and Poached Sardine with La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Riserva ‘890′ 1995

TOSCANA — ITALY

Crudo of Veal with Hot Bone Marrow, Pancetta and Pecorino Fondue with Fontodi Flaccianello 1995

MENDOZA — ARGENTINA

Smoked Venison with White Polenta, Chorizo and Porcini Mushrooms with Bodega y Cavas de Weinert Malbec Estrella 1977

BORDEAUX — FRANCE

Foie Gras Tortellini in Black Truffle Consomme with Offal with Chateau Leoville-Las Cases Bordeaux 2nd Growth 1966

BEKAA VALLEY — LEBANON

Rack of Lamb with Controne Bean, Pickled Eggplant and Lamb’s Tongue with Chateau Musar Rouge 1966

ITALY

Chocolate Cake and Bombolini with Antonio Ferrari Solaria Jonica 1959

The other danger is what is called “research”. All of us can skew “statistics” in infinite ways. There is the Yogi Berra story I love about stats. Someone asks whether the pizza should be cut in four or eight slices. Comes the reply, “You better cut it into four, I don’t think I can eat eight.”  That in turn brings the old saw to mind, “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.”

Today there has been a report released, blazing across news channels about how a new study links sugary soft drinks to an up to 87%  increase in the risk of pancreatic cancer. Wow! Well, that is, until you read the small print of the study.

Some news channels segued from this to panning diet drinks and saying they were “poison.”  They may well be, but not on the basis of this study, which only speaks of sugary soft drinks. The same study confesses that fruit juice has virtually the same amount of sugar, but doesn’t have these alleged effects.

Let me say right out, I think the fact that sugary sodas have a host of health ills is probably not controversial. So my taking on the “spin” being given to this study is NOT a defence of soft drinks. It’s an expose of our tending to state definitive conclusions based on ambiguous, if not gossamer facts.

This study, which was conducted in Singapore, tracked 60,000 individuals over about 14 years. Of these 60,000, 140 developed pancreatic cancer. Of those 140, 30 they say consumed sugary sodas on a regular, weekly basis. The balance, 110 who developed the illness, did not consume sugary sodas. So how is this being advertised as a “finding”?  How can these numbers not more persuasively argue for a chance connection at best? The researchers also refer to 4 past studies that found no link between such drinks and pancreatic cancer!

Yet the headlines proclaim, “Sugary sodas linked to pancreatic cancer.”  What ineffable twaddle!  Or, certainly so, on the basis of the facts actually cited in the study. Now excess sugar intake can precipitate the onset of diabetes, which is a risk factor for pancreatic cancer. I get that link and rationale…which though is a sidebar to this study, and wasn’t anything particularly studied here.

The takeaway? Beware of grandiose sweeping conclusions, from scant, inconclusive facts. Consultants be the voice of bracing balance. We can’t solve what we don’t understand. While everyone runs around drowning in data, be enough of a contrarian, enough of a healthy skeptic, to make sure that what glitters in that instance is really gold, not brass.

First example, many people don’t read or grasp agreements. I can’t list the number of clients we write to, detailing an offer, with clear terms and conditions, who write back enthusiastically and say, “Let’s go!” Then, having broken ground, asking them to make time, to be responsive with their accountabilities, or pay our invoices as per the terms of engagement, they cite “sudden reversals,” “meetings,” or “standard practices.”  Occasionally I understand the corporate equivalent of a natural disaster may strike. Usually it’s a tempest in a tea-cup being utilized to justify inertia. We’re good at tackling that, invoking our client’s own best interests as a way to get them up off the mat and going . Meetings recur. That can hardly be an argument against taking necessary proactive time. As for “standard practice,” that’s irrelevant when you’ve agreed to specific terms. Why we should be bound by the lack of imagination or dogmatism of other consulting firms  is beyond me. These temporary sticking points are usually all resolved amicably through engagement, but I almost feel like saying, “Okay, can we get past the post agreement depression at realities, so we can get on to delivering value for you?”

Second sample, people who don’t reply to messages or emails. These are often people who end up hiring us, getting back to us and more. So why do they disappear for periods at a time and enjoy being chased? Why don’t they say, “Not now”?  Or else, “I need something else.” Or even, “I’m struggling with this decision.” Then we could have a dialogue. Or if they know they aren’t proceeding, why keep wasting everyone’s time? Evasiveness, elusiveness, vagueness, does not make you special, or important, or a celebrity. It reveals you as a flake, someone taffy like, or so self-absorbed that simple courtesy or honesty eludes you. These are not great calling cards. Worse, they become habitual. If you only respond to those who can benefit you, and can’t abide by professional decorum and reciprocal courtesy, that’s a way to begin unraveling your character and reflexes. Good luck when the shoe is on the other foot.

Third offshoot, obliviousness to others. These are people who stand in front of restaurant doors say, phones in ears, or chattering with pals, holding up everyone else. When you say, “Excuse me,” they glower at you, because you have dared to intrude on their self-absorbed banter or loud ranting. We all may be temporarily oblivious. Most of us when we realize it, apologize pleasantly, and oblige the other person’s request. It’s called civility. What do we gain by dulling our senses at what is happening around us? Might such blinkers not inhibit awareness of opportunity, dull the creativity to connect our services to other people’s needs (which requires discerning that these are other people and may have needs that may not immediately occur to us), or lessen the capacity to communicate across disagreements or barriers? What is the motivation for such tunnel vision?

Someone who delivers on their accountabilities, understands and abides by agreements, refuses to make paltry excuses (like “meetings”), responds clearly and proactively, is a pleasure to interact with, is aware of the world around them, and enjoys expressing as well as receiving civility and service, is almost in  a league by themselves. Their businesses will flourish, their lives will be enriched.

Let’s join them!

We check into the legendary Carlyle hotel, the art deco gem that has been a bastion of New York since 1930 — a hub of elegance and gracious taste.  Our suite has a baby grand piano, a terrace, and beds that you sink into, layer by layer.

Upon arrival circa lunch-time on the 30th, we walk over to Sant Ambroeus on Madison Avenue (which originally started life as a Milano pastry shop before migrating to Greenwich Village)…for a palate and soul-satisfying lunch — and arguably the best cappuccino in town. Then to Maison du Chocolat for a velvety dark hot chocolate. A traipse past numerous legendary retailers and we end up at Crawford Doyle, a book store reminiscent of how book stores should be. In short, knowledgeable staff, a carefully tapered and updated selection, civilized people capable of insightful exchanges or at least literate banter. They love hearing of our ritual in this store — it’s a succession of little experiences Henry James would have fashioned into an evocative tale with such aplomb.

A drink in Bemelman’s Bar at the Carlyle as a reminder of bars that invite human interaction and almost help you mature a few notches by being in them. Then dinner at the sumptuously appointed Carlyle Restaurant where classics like rack of lamb and Long Island Duck with Ligonberry sauce are rendered as they should be. A beautiful Cote du Rhone,  Chapoutier Hermitage (1999) caressed our palates with its power and finish.

An Ipod dock in the suite, a vintage cognac, a few puffs of my cigar polish off the first evening.

The 31st finds us lingering over Cinammon Toast and fruit, The Financial Times and some brief correspondence. Snow is falling — we are truly in the midst of a winter wonderland. Our tradition is a long walk through Central Park, to Belvedere Castle, across the Ramble and back, emerging near the Metropolitan Museum. We beat the crowds (just!) at J.G. Melon’s. Even the Michelin Guide gives it gushing mention. But generations of New Yorkers have already discovered and adored this place, for its jovial, no-nonsense, bustling atmosphere, and one of the best, most unfussy, but juicy and memorable burgers you’ll ever have.  A little shopping and we’re back. We’ll meet some friends for an early drink at Plaza Athenee (a bit of the Continent graciously transported to New York), then partake in another ritual, New Year’s Eve dinner at the exceptional Cafe Boulud (one of Daniel Boulud’s most exceptional restaurants, less flashy than his flagship Daniel, but with real soul). It’s across the street from The Carlyle, so the commute is just right.

We travel for a living…so for us familiarity rather than novelty is what we seek in our time to ourselves. But rituals of this ilk allow us to deepen enjoyment and appreciation each year, to bask rather than flit. Such times liberate our attention and energy and focus for each other, for other loved ones, and the abundant joy of life lived with grateful appreciation — a true “recharge” and “re-creation”.

Happy New Year everyone!

Why was he allowed to get on a plane, particularly one headed to the US? The inanity is mind-boggling. We’re told he was on a “watch list” but the concerns weren’t “aviation related” and so he wasn’t on a No Fly list! Spend a bit of time on that one and see if you can extract any sense from that. A terrorist may surely switch their focus without broadcasting it to intelligence officials. Surely a simple rule that we don’t want people on a terrorist watch list on airplanes wouldn’t be too controversial?

Moreover, if a potential terrorist presents themselves at an airport, pays all cash for his ticket (as he did), has no checked luggage and the smallest possibly carry-on, don’t we want to flag this somehow in a common database so he can be detained, searched and questioned? Why do we think there is union discipline among terrorists whereby say railway bombers don’t step on the turf of airline arsonists and vice-versa?

This gets even more bizarre. The Nigerian terror suspect was refused a re-entry visa into the UK 7 years ago for various reasons — one, he was known to have some ties with radical Islamic extremists, but also because he claimed he was returning to carry out studies at a University that doesn’t exist! Surely, that was a modest red flag. Less than a month ago, his own father reported to the US Embassy his concerns about his son’s ties to extremists! When your Dad turns you in (an affluent and respected individual), you’d think (and here the consultant in me comes forth), you’d get that information disseminated to border patrol, airlines and more. Shockingly, the re-entry visa to the US of this individual was kept valid despite what had happened in the UK and this information from his father. My own uncle (I’m an American, but originally was from Pakistan), who has a son who is a US citizen, was himself former Pakistan Finance Secretary, and is over 80, needed over 4 months to get his own multiple entry visa re-issued! Surely we’re missing the point in how we focus our energies?

There are now largely irrelevant panic-stricken knee-jerk responses. So now coming into the US, we are told no one can get up in the last hour before landing (that’s when the incident occurred). What if the next person does something in the first hour? So then we can’t get up in the first hour either? What is the relevance of the “last hour” necessarily to this incident? We had blown our obligation for due diligence well before we got to that point. No blankets on our laps in the last hour either we are told. How ridiculous! Talk about locking the gate after the horse has bolted!

If this happened from someone we had no reason to be concerned over — not a one way ticket buyer denied a visa in the UK and on a terrorist watch list — maybe we would say we’re down to that and have no choice. But why is the response to inconvenience as many law-abiding citizens, further decimating the airline industry as people further try to avoid air travel,  for what are utter lapses in inter-agency communication and scrutiny? Why this rush to more indiscriminate symptom management? So we’re all to interfere with countless businesses and lives to compensate for lack of integration and competence? This needs surgery, not Pavlovian mania.

Rushing to “ban” peripheral activities that are often quality of life issues (say for a shivering passenger wanting a blanket, or a pregnant woman needing the bathroom) is an almost insulting response to such a core breakdown.

Congratulations to the passengers and crew. We’ve at least as a public started to re-empower ourselves. It’s high time that same accountability filters through to the inane if not insane ways our intelligence lists are managed, shared…and acted upon.

We have reached that period where people truly cannot distinguish between “status” and “stature”. More’s the pity. Nonsense eventually reveals itself, and the debacle of the “Me” decade where we sought personal identity from retail logos and gadgets, impoverishing our discernment and perhaps our souls in the process, is now before us. The debris of reality-avoidance and narcissistic self-indulgence, of chastising political candidates who make us think and mulishly following those who beat their chests, is everywhere.

But if these icons have been shown to be incontestably hollow, where does that leave us? Do we rend our garments, flagellate ourselves, what?

Maybe it’s time to remember instead that human progress has depended on substance, not spin. It is the evolution of social institutions, the wide scale dissemination of education, Gutenberg and the printing press, the Enlightenment, the industrial revolution, the expansion of voting, Civil Rights and more. None of these came from congratulating ourselves for fluff and having role models who had to parade themselves as paragons for the rest of us to build esteem vicariously from.

Let’s get back to education. Let’s demand accountability from leaders. Let’s rise to the responsibility of active citizenship. Let’s rebuild families rather than using electronic babysitters for our kids. Let’s balance budgets, personal ones and national ones, and let’s restore common sense. Let’s not be bought off by pyrotechnics, in war or in economics.

It has been said that life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think. We need to feel more passionately and think more clearly.

It’s time to get real.

The hope was that President Obama’s election was an augury of a new decade to come. But not if we think we can delegate our future prospects to him or any other leader.

We have to live the words so beloved to Nelson Mandela from the poem Invictus,  “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.”  It’s time to reclaim that mastery and leadership.

Baby steps are fine. But let’s break ground on a better, more worthy decade!

Superlatives tend to be gushed too readily. “The best ever,” “amazing”, “world class”, etc. But what can you say about the annual event at Hotel Beau Rivage in Geneve, where each year, a highly bespoke wine event, manages to  outdo rational expectations?

Last year, we tasted all the Bordeaux First Growths in the extraordinary 1947 Vintage. Added to their roster were Cheval Blanc, Mission Haut Brion, Gruaud Larose, Chateau Gillette and d’Yquem.

This year we were treated to a Vertical tasting of Chateau Latour…in particular legendary vintages like 1982, 1961, 1947 and 1945. What makes this wine tasting experience so special is a variety of truly “superlative” factors.

Usually only 10-14 people attend per occasion.

The Hotel Beau Rivage is the last privately owned hotel in Geneva. These wines were laid down when released and have never moved since. Zero bottle shock! The provenance is virtually guaranteed.

The evening began with a Deutz Blanc de Blanc Champagne from 2004 in magnum, with Foie Gras and Iberico ham among other canapes.

Led by World Champion Sommelier Enrico Bernardo (having won best Sommelier in Italy, then winning the World Sommelier award, past Chef Sommelier at Le Cinq at Hotel George V in Paris, and now running a highly innovative restaurant “Il Vino” in Paris — a wine restaurant in that you select the wine, and they compose the dinner around the wine –  tipped to be moving from one to two Michelin stars), we then tasted 2002, 1996, 1990, 1982 and 1978. The 1996  is currently quite delightful, (evocative of the ‘66), the ‘90 is currently not at its best but promises future splendors, the ‘82 was a revelation, and the ‘78 a real surpise — probably at its peak now.

We then had a “pause”, but what a pause! We had Amour de Deutz champagne from 1999 in magnum, with a few more Foie Gras and Parma frivolities.

We resumed the “serious” matter of wallowing in the glories of Latour. We moved on to the ‘75, ‘61 (exceptional and will only improve), ‘53, ‘47 (at it’s very best now — feminine and elegant), ‘45 (powerful and intense, and still likely to unfold further in appeal and impact).

But this was just the beginning! We then repaired to a stunning dinner at Chat Botte (”Puss in Boots” believe it or not), one of the best restaurants in Europe arguably, finally recognized this year by the occasionally wayward Michelin inspectors. The menu follows.

Then to a private room where we had Cigars especially rolled by Davidoff for the occasion with 100 year old Audry Cognac. Magnifique! And for once, there isn’t the slightest hyperbole in attaching that appellation to the evening.

There was debate about favorite wines, meditation on life and it’s often furtive pleasures, sobering reflections of the year past, aspirations and hopes for the year ahead, the sharing of laughter and friendship and oenophilic and gastronomic pleasures.

While our party was not nearly so  expansive in mood as in past years, we dove into these rare pleasures with special gratitude for those we love, appreciation for those we serve in our businesses, and a sense of just reflection at the multi-faceted textures, challenges and opportunities of life.

La vie est belle! (Life is beautiful!)

MENU

Cream of chestnuts and skewer of scallops with white truffles served with Mario Schiopetto Bianco 2006 Venezia Giulia

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Tartare of Cape langoustine with melanosporum truffles and Moulin de Calanquet olive oil served with Pouilly Fume Silex 2006 Didier Dagueneau

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Ile d’Yeu cooked white, with Sologne farmed caviar served with Batard Montrachet 1983 Bouchard Pere et Fils

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Small foie gras ravioli and wild pheasant with truffle consomme served with Corton Grand Cru  1971 “Clos De La Vigne au Saint” Louis Latour

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Bresse chicken cooked in two styles, with forgotten vegetables (”truffier de legumes oublies) served with Chateau Lafite Rotschild 1945, Premier Grand Cru Classe de Pauillac

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Chilled Delight

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Macaroon surprise served with Chateau Gillette 1937, Grand Vin de Sauternes

This is sometimes assumed to be a tropism, a natural or innate tendency.

It’s not. It’s a cultivated skill, propensity and reflex. To relate to someone is to first understand them and connect with them on their own terms. It is secondarily to understand how to be helpful to them in appropriate ways, not excessively or obsequiously, not pandering to them, but just seeking to be of value.

And in establishing that rapport, trust and credibility, to be eligible to also be understood and connected with in turn, to also hopefully be someone reciprocally cared about and also potentially added value to.

Harvey Mackay put it poignantly, “dig the well before you’re thirsty.” In other words, relationships have to precede our need for them. And whatever it is we seek, be it respect, or understanding, love, or value, we had best offer it ourselves, passionately, authentically and unstintingly. People who do seem to outlay these things proactively, invite and seem to enjoy abundance. Those that cling to these things, doling them out reluctantly and parsimoniously, seem to invite a corresponding poverty into their lives.

The play IN THE NEXT ROOM (or the Vibrator Play) is a saucy, juicy, provocative, titillating (if occasionally a bit too extended) tale of Victorian repression and how women (and “artistic” men) came to doctors to be cured of “hysteria” (emotional anguish leading to a deadening of physical responses) by virtue of “paroxysms” (today referred to by other names with more recreational than therapeutic implications) brought about by vibrators.

But the play is really about personal fulfillment, the right to need emotions and self-expression, and the  default drive to find substitutes (if we must) for the love, passion and intimacy we really seek. But it isn’t just about vibrators. There are all kinds of toys we turn to,  and varieties of what has been called “cheap grace” from booze, to drugs, to consumerism, to promiscuity (the other extreme of repression).

Relationships are at essence about our need to touch and be touched…emotionally and physically. Let us open ourselves up over this period in particular, to giving in expanded ways…and receiving. And indeed these will then be, happy holidays! And the period will “vibrate” with far more expansive positive paroxysms (as well as gentler fulfillments) of all kinds than ever before.

Years ago the researchers behind Transactional Analysis (TA) warned us of the dangers of Parent-Child conversations. Being chided, either the child in us pouts and huffs off — or erupts, or our own Paternal counter-judgement is invoked — a retaliatory defensiveness.

Instead if we can make requests or points addressing the maturity of the other person, speaking to the better angels in their nature, enrolling their positive pride, eliciting their commitment for something we want to advance together, we’ll get far more resourcefulness from them.

We’ll then be more likely to tap their passion and their gifts, rather than their tap dancing skills.

Whether with customers, suppliers, colleagues, partners, or anyone else — give people something to live up to in the way that you address them. Leaven judgment with appreciation and approbation, bring in objectivity and curiousity to soften the sting of sometimes necessary observations, and above all address the person you want them to be, not the crackpot that may occasionally emerge under stress. “I like who I am when I’m with you” is not a bad aspiration to try and make true for those who relate with us, in both our professional and personal lives.

In short, let’s help create the Karma we wish to experience!

Perhaps that’s because this isn’t a play about “sides”. There is no one to cheer. As one commentator said in the “Talk Back” series that takes place after every performance on Broadway (with a facilitator and two panelists), “He’s a fool and she’s a tool.” Hmmm.

Okay, a bit of background. “Oleanna” is probably “Oleana”, the settlement that Ole Bull, the famed Norwegian virtuoso violinist established for himself and fellow Norwegian emigres in the 1800’s to escape the strictures of their home country. Alas the land was unsuitable for farming, much money was lost by the settlers, and most, including Ole Bull had to flee back to Norway. Today the site is commemorated by “Ole Bull National Park” in Pennsylvania. An “Oleana” now refers to any hopeless pursuit of a Utopian state of affairs where it is naively believed anything is possible.

One wonders if Mamet is chastising society for having myopic views of political correctness or relations between the sexes, or if he’s referring to an idealistic view of education held by the professor, or an idealized view of “class” and “elites” and “power” expressed by the student and the political support group she seems to be a part of. Perhaps all of the above?

On the surface, a student on the verge of failing, desperate not to, visits her teacher and vacillates between self-pity, hopelessness and accusation towards the professor, who in turn seems to trivialize her plight, evidently distracted by a pending house purchase and the hen-pecking telephone attentions of his wife. However in her flailing the student says he is implying she is stupid and will never succeed. This triggers a reaction, as the professor then cathartically (it seems) reveals how he was accused of stupidity growing up, and then proceeds to regale her with a narcissistic diatribe about the shortcomings of college education, equating it to a form of “hazing” where education is secondary to protocol. With an evident Savior complex, he claims that if she will re-engage relative to the course with him, he will give her an A to remove any stress and they’ll start over — he’ll ensure she gets the education she deserves from this course  because he “likes her”.

In the second act, we find she has lodged a complaint of inappropriate conduct and sexual harassment! His tenure which was all but confirmed, is now on hold, he can’t close on his house, which seems to vex his wife above all else, and he attempts to psychoanalyze the student’s accusations as “anger” at various aspects of life. She is having none of it, calling what she has claimed, not allegations but  “facts”. Towards the end as the encounter escalates, he tries to stop her from leaving , she struggles and cries out very vocally, if arguably excessively, for help.

By the third act, he is a mess. He’s being dismissed — after the last incident the university committee has come to believe her (we now know why offices today have glass walls and why people leave doors open or have third parties present!) — and now she explodes with derision at him, pointing out that she now has power as he once did, and making demands that his book be expunged from the curriculum — this apparently is a demand from her “group” who all feel each others pain we are told and clearly have an agenda. Some have described this as also a play about “intellectual terrorism”.

She calls him sexist, elitist, feeling entitled to a house, and advantages for his son and more. He keeps saying “I feel…” and she explodes, “I don’t care what you feel!”  Indeed, neither of them do care in that way about the other, and that’s the wick running through this.

The final violent confrontation is precipitated when she starts telling him not to call his wife “baby”. By so doing, she crosses a line that triggers him to cross the line too. He erupts into physical violence, leaving her to say in the aftermath, with grim if shaken satisfaction, “That’s right.” She’s wrung it out of him at last — he now has to obey her dictates and that of her group, or his life is irretrievably over.

He was indeed a fool. He frittered away his power by continuing the discussion when he could have ended it initially, by not listening fully when he then opened the door for her to share, and then made her a “project”, a demo for his own evangel. He never saw her as a real person, with her specific fragility, flaws and needs. He never sought to serve her, but his own vision of her when she mentioned feeling “stupid”, because suddenly he could personalize her plight, and the thought of helping her through this may even have been therapeutic for him.

For her, rather than aim to succeed in her subject and ask for real help, she translated her despair into anger, her scholastic challenge into a holier-than-thou sense of victimhood in search of an oppressor to bring down. She saw him as someone whose need for the status quo in life (tenure, family, home) made him vulnerable and able to potentially be manipulated.

The ultimate sin of both of them was to look at each other as objects, as means to their own ends — be those ends emotional, educational, career or political agenda related. She became an obstacle to a house closing (which seemed the only real relevance of tenure to him, certainly not pride in a calling), and he became a mode of dissemination of certain ideas and a means of censoring others. Martin Buber would have called this an “I-It” relationship rather than an “I-You” much less “I-Thou” relationship (from objectifying to respecting boundaries to valuing intrinsically someone else’s needs and feelings).

Let us all beware. People come to us for help. If we don’t wish to and don’t need to help them, don’t prolong their agony, don’t drag it out. Focus on the house closing or spousal phone call or whatever. Or reschedule if you want to help but can’t at that moment. If you opt to help, listen to them, look at them, feel with them — don’t look for undue parallels in your own life — no one has invited you to kick-off an emotional strip show. You might share a vulnerability, but know your motives, and your boundaries.

In engaging each other, let’s see if we can find and locate value in each other’s worlds, anxieties, hopes and dreams. We have to make sure that ISN’T an “Oleana” but a real possibility.

Dubai’s genius is to offer a modern example of what a flourishing Middle East can look like. Albeit currently in economic doldrums, needing perhaps to make peace with the fact that the bubble is gone and real growth is now needed, Dubai is a tolerant, eclectic, cosmopolitan, visionary city with guts and a measure of class. And from Dubai if you head to Turkey, to Jordan, to Lebanon, you see some of the shoots of the culture of the region that deserve to be watered, supported and extended. It’s a far cry from the raving nihilism of Al Qaeda or the medieval iniquity of the Taliban.

Singapore’s genius is to show how a controlled experiment in democracy can produce a vibrant, thriving, diverse, stimulating country. It is a polyglot of cultures, an epicenter for business, a culinary crossroads, a place where greater expression is becoming increasingly possible.  30 years ago it was a Malarial swamp. Decry the one party rule there as much as you like, but it’s an engaging place to nurture a family, run a business, and be near the most dynamic growth region of the 21st century. Moreover, give them time…the story is far from being fully written.

We were next in Hong Kong, arguably the freest economy on the planet, with a skyline to rival New York’s, and a pace, intensity and energy, very reminiscent of the Big Apple. The Fragrant Harbor is world class in every sense. And whether China comes to more resemble Hong Kong or vice-versa is an open story. It is Asia’s “world city” as the PR tag line proclaims. And while freedoms have been constricted, they haven’t been eliminated. It’s a springboard TO China, and a springboard FROM China…a city where entrepreneurial people built an extraordinary economy from virtually nothing. It is the quintessence of value creation. From the stunning efficiency that abounds everywhere, to gastronomic delights like Roast Goose and 3 star Michelin Cantonese culinary temples, from top-notch IT to world-class cultural events, Hong Kong rocks!

We went on to Mumbai — teeming, a study in contrasts, wealthy ghettos co-existing with abject poverty, a clanging 24/7 set of multi-sensory stimuli. But it is also an important economic engine for the world’s largest democracy — which manages to transfer power peacefully — and for a primarily Hindu country, they’ve had a Muslim President and a Sikh Prime Minister (promoted by an ex-Roman Catholic “Kingmaker” in Sonia Gandhi), and an extraordinary track record to date in creating economic value. They need to deal with infrastructure issues, improve sanitation and more…but there is a genius to this sprawling, cacophonous, vital, human enterprise incubating powerhouse.

We arrived in London — still a showcase for its past, as well as  hub of culture, distinction, sophistication and focused energy. London communicates that delicate balancing act between the gravitas of the past, and the edginess of the present. The restaurants shine, the cab drivers quip engagingly, the theater audiences are au fait with the historical or cultural references and the nuances of bon mots, people are by and large well turned out, and an 5 mile jaunt through Hyde Park throws up the whole panoply of cultures and ethnicities that make London such an intoxicating brew. Hatchards is my favorite book-store to browse in, I love the eclectic Hunan’s restaurant where they scowl if you ask for the non-existant menu but tapas style fiery Hunanese cuisine comes out until you ask them to stop, the whimsy of the Cinammon Club (a wonderful modern Indian) being housed in the old Westminster Library always tickles me, and the Neopolitan tailor (Rubinacci) across from the Connaught whose gusto for your sartorial well being truly underscores “the dolce vita” cannot but help upflit you. And for something quintessentially British (other than Hatchards of course), the fusty but reliable Scott’s is nearby to repair to for oysters and Grilled Dover Sole after perhaps a visit to the Royal Gallery and a Blanc de Blancs in the Coburg Bar of the Connaught. Such is London!

From London for a Leadership Journey to Marseille and then the Languedoc. Marseille, though being one of the great port cities, has a reputation for being seedy. But in the Vieux Port (the Old Port), with the right bouillabase and glass (or two) of Tavel Rose, all that fades away into obscurity. The Languedoc in turn was Roman France, and neighboring Provence as it does, it is replete with Mediterranean Gallic charm, cuisine, artisans, wine, olive oil, and stunning Roman remains like the Pont du Gard (the greatest surviving Aqueduct in the world), the amphitheater in Arles or the stunning Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes) in Avignon. There is a sensuous, elegant, charm and artistic and aesthetic depth to this place, that sends you out stimulated, vital, with your senses questing and alert having been awash in such truly abundant but diverse stimuli. In response, your smile has more depth, your chagrin more poetry, your insights are dappled with that golden Provencal light that illuminated so much of the work of masters like Cezanne and Van Gogh.

Each place has it’s own genius, and while we went to some highly distinctive ones, our ability to fathom what each can contribute to us, rather than a litany of their irritations and shortcomings is the way to underscore and heighten our overall perspicacity. It is also a way to better irrigate our souls.

We landed from all this and headed out for another Leadership Journey, this time in more prosaic seeming Illinois and Wisconsin. But the open spaces, and the beaming countenances, the lack of sophistry and the presence of welcome, the essential characer of pride in one’s work and community, all had their own enchantments, and with those in view, the limitations present were far less…limiting.

Seeing possibility, evoking it, celebrating it and helping to actualize it,  is the essence of  life and leadership.

Wallow in the genius of the places and people you encounter! From that basis, you will be best positioned to notice where to help, and how to help those very people grow.

I had our hotel call for details. After 48 hours of being assured details were “forthcoming”, they sent over a Credit Card authorization form and a price — but no specific event details!

I told them they were hanging on to sanity by a thread to have gone so far as to establish a price, and then having the gall to ask for a non-refundable payment, while providing no details of the menu, the wines, or their vintages. I have therefore no basis to assess the value being offered!

They responded with more rhetoric about a “superb chef” and “top vintages”.  I’m sure that’s the intent, but I’d like to see what’s actually on offer.

This led me to consider how often we make it difficult for clients to know what we’re offering. Agreements are imprecise, metrics fuzzy, and we attempt to overload people with verbal excess rather than clarity and simplicity. Why?

Might it not be an idea to be as transparent as possible? If not, why not?

It’s true that some requests are inappropriate. For example, asking a surgeon for a blow-by-blow game-plan of an upcoming surgery is beyond obtuse. We are counting on their skill and ability to adapt procedures to what they find as they proceed. Similarly as consultants, we rightfully chafe when people ask us for a blow-by-blow of a key engagement. We can and should agree and share outcomes and be answerable for them. But a pre-fabricated game-plan suggests that we are applying stodgy templates from the past, not current imagination.

Working with a client in Mumbai, I kept hearing the refrain, “We’re in a crisis, and we fear there’s too much random and scattered activity.” Smart people! Again, vague, ill-defined strategies and actions, absent any prioritization, can give the illusion of purposeful action. But a surfeit of this actually saps energy from strategically differentiated actions. And the largest lament from the team there was: tell us the larger vision, when we shift from established plans, tell us not only what we have to change but why, validated against the larger vision — the aligned upon “end in mind”.

Absence of clarity reveals an absence of the following: strategy, planning, prioritization or decisive action. Sometimes it reveals a deficit of all of these.

One of my Credit Cards was re-issued. I called to ask how many reward points I had. They said “zero”. I told them my last redemption was two years ago, and I had demonstrably spent a significant amount on this Card.  Hence logically, there cannot be zero points — unless some expired. They said there had been no expiry, but wondered if there was some technical error. I said, “Nothing to wonder about. Look at the expenditure. And as these points are generated by expenditure, tell me where they are. So there is definitely a technical error.” Dead silence, a complaint reference number, and a request to call back in 72 hours. Yet it took three repetitions to drive home the point, that on the face of it, there was clearly an issue. This customer service agent hadn’t bothered to consider with any clarity how these points were issued, and therefore the evident fact that there was a systems error.  So he aroused irritation, suspicion and distrust as to his organization’s collective competence. Hardly an impact to be desired.

So, in dealing with clients, customers, friends and colleagues, when enrolling them for something, make sure they know in terms of key parameters and anticipated value, what they’re signing up for. Try to be clear as to what counts, what matters, and how it will be evaluated. And then align those intuitions and judgments, so you’re not debating the basics over and over.

I continue to hope for the listing of wines and the menu from this venue in Hong Kong. As they sell this in tables of eight, there is a major sale waiting to happen. However, each day that passes, my interest wanes somewhat, the likelihood of my making alternative plans goes up. It’s an interesting insight that when we confuse our clients, leave them uncertain, or unclear, they too, despite evident interest, may take their intentions and interests elsewhere.

Reach out today and check understanding of salient outcomes and expectations with key stakeholders and partners. Insist on being impeccably clear in your dealings, agreements and transactions, as well as in your offerings and proposals. The act of arriving at that clarity is part of the very breakthrough that makes you valuable. So make that effort and ensure you come through here. You’ll find very little competition if you do. Even more importantly, you’ll find scores of grateful and avid clients and fans in your portfolio. You’ll find them, and you’ll be far more likely to keep them.

At home in New York last week, discussions with two potential partners, scoping two major assignments, sneaking in a lovely 10 kilometer walk from near the pier to the West Village to Soho to Chinatown to Little Italy back through Washington Square Park, to Union Square and finally up Park Avenue. What a city!

On a plane for an 8 hour lay-over in Dubai, signing papers, meeting with some people on our team. Overnight to Singapore — “jet advance” rather than “jet lag” taking over.

A quiet Sunday — taking the family of one of our partners out to Morton’s (of all places) in Singapore. Opened a Meerlust Rubicon 2004 that was stunning, followed by a Lan Rioja Private Edition 2002 that was also breath-taking. Other than the classic Morton’s Key Lime Pie having lost any residual tartness and therefore having devolved into an “impostor”, all was well. The Avo Maduro cigar capped a great dinner.

Monday saw three fairly intense coaching engagements, two client email responses that were needed on quite complex issues, a phone review of progress on a major project, lunch with a team-member…whew!

Today we’ve just landed in Hong Kong. We’ll take our hike up the Peak tomorrow, have our favorite Peking Duck at the 2 Michelin starred Summer Palace at The Island Shangri La, engage with a client, meet another prospective partner, and then meet and hopefully make some new friends (fellow members of the Chaine des Rotisseurs from the US who are in town) for dinner at M’s on the Fringe.

Then a day off to visit some favorite haunts, get a massage and get ready to head back to Singapore on Friday for an action packed afternoon. In between, replying to requests, counseling colleagues, reading some superb books, and realizing that an abundance of experiences is a great gift — it keeps us fresh, sharp, open, responsive.

Boredom is a choice. I realize this is an atypical week by most standards, and we’re blessed by stimulus: cultural, culinary, relationship-based and business-related. But that’s come by plying a trade with passion, seeking out new frontiers, keeping eyes, hearts and mind (relatively) open.

We’ve got some major challenges and opportunities ahead this month, and if we tackle them imaginatively and effectively, and get a few friendly winds…wow!  Either way, it’s worth nothing else but full engagement. Whatever happens, we’ll be richer in experiences, more abundant in insight and understanding. We’ll be richer.

I’m tempted to say “I can’t wait!” But I can. To think otherwise would be to miss the precious now — the abundance of possibility in this next moment, the  next idea, the next flutter of emotion, the next shimmering of perception…flowing from everything that abounds right now.

Let’s wallow… in life!

We’re on the verge of the next trip: Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Dubai, London, Marseille.

I’ve waited 15 minutes for someone to call who missed a phone appointment last week and zealously promised to call this time. Last time the excuse proffered sounded reasonable — today I’m beginning to wonder if it’s pathological.

A key client asked me to help a colleague of his within their organization. He’s missed four confirmed, in the diary, phone appointments but continues to say he’s “very interested” in being helped. I’m beginning to wonder if he’s “very interested” in ticking a box that shows he made a requisite, even if token, effort.

A friend introduced me to a pal — foundering on various reefs in life. This externally successful over-achiever clearly had issues to grapple with — don’t we all? But his demons were quite visible — it seemed even to himself. He told me he didn’t like to dither and wanted to get started. I laid out a work plan. Deafening silence. Two weeks later he told my friend who had introduced us that he wanted a “few more clarifications” from me. How? Long distance mind reading? Responding to my email would have been a start. We spoke again, and he demonstrated he had only skimmed the details. No problem, I  was happy to walk him through it. He’s since disappeared once more…

I have to say this is less than 1% of the people I deal with — on purpose. I tend to move quickly on, and were it not for a close friend and a key client involved here, my forbearance wouldn’t have been nearly as forthcoming. That said, it makes for a fascinating case study.

Might it be that as NLP theorists suggested, we are made up of many “parts” — different psychological aspects with their own agendas, emotional lobbyists, paradigmatic blinkers and more? Could it be we are all Jekyll and Hyde to some extent? And might it be the part of us that gasps for help is over-ruled at times by other parts keen to perpetuate current plateaus?

It could indeed. And this then begs the question, are we just the sum of our parts, or is there a core “us” that can assert itself?

There is a core, the unifying wick emerges from the purposes that coalesce from our medley of appetites, values, impulses, ideas, desires and commitments. And from these in turn are generated, life priorities. And if the priority is strong enough, we can silence our inner nay-sayers.

We won’t become impeccable in execution, follow up, follow through and more overnight necessarily. But we will palpably advance as Thoreau said “in the direction of our dreams”. If we can’t continue taking steps to be and become more than our past, we’re sunk and we’re pretty much done.

So then we have to become fans of progress, of movement, of ways to outgrow parts of us that are really the detritus of past pain. Eventually we have to give up the fantasy that we can somehow manufacture a happier past. The only way to make the past any happier is move beyond its negative delusions — the ones we’ve been towing around since then — and choose better resources to take forward instead.

So pick an area where you’re stuck and tune in to the competing passions at play. Identify your largest priority and find it’s hook up to a key purpose in your life. Then advance boldly in that direction. If you fail, fail forward and keep moving. As Churchill said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

And at least be impeccable in the small things that add up to larger things. Be responsive, keep appointments, beat deadlines, show up a little early, leave doubt at the door and engage creatively and courageously in key situations, tell these wailing parts you’ve heard them but can’t afford to indulge them any more.

Harmonize who you are through the actions you consistently take and the types of things you vivify by  taking daily aim at. Treat mistakes as detours not demos. Intention prevails, when we believe it is the greater truth about us than our doubts.

So, leave behind the excuses…or better yet, learn from them and use them as catalysts.

In other words…LEAD!

Had my martini with blue-cheese-stuffed olives at the bar last night, with
Mitch doing honors once again. (You can see Mitch in the August, 2008
postings of Nantucket Journal here on the blog.)

We had the chef’s eight-course tasting menu at Topper’s which, even with
half-portions, was huge. The sommelier, whom I’ve trusted for many years,
discussed a price, as is our habit, and then his task is to delight me. He
chose a fantastic 1999 Shafer Cab, so outstanding that the lovely,
non-drinking Maria decided to drink, that’s how good it was. (And that’s how
I wound up with half my usual imbibing!)

I wrote out on the deck from 6:30 to 7:30 or so this morning, sipping coffee
and watching a flock of cormorants fly in formation over the lawn. After
breakfast al fresco on the restaurant’s deck, we headed across the dunes.

Once again the beach was mostly deserted. Tonight we’ll fire up the car and
head into town for The Pearl.

My newest book, Thrive!, is complete and I’m editing the chapters, something
I don’t normally do, but I’m planning something special for this book.

Dinner at The Pearl consisted of outstanding soft shell crab in black pepper sauce and very rare tuna. We had Conundrum, one of my favorite “casual” white wines. Then I actually had an espresso martini for dessert. Once we returned, a Montecristo #2 with an 1875 Madeira provided by Mitch (and Reese’s peanut butter cups, I’m sorry, I’m a heathen) out on the deck under the stars.

We have a full breakfast when we go over to the ocean side, so that we can both stay there all day AND skip lunch. I did share a pretzel with my gull friend, whose picture will appear here both watching me from a dune and flying by one of the houses along the beach that’s probably worth about $5 million.

I’m reading three novels: One Second After, South of Broad, and The Last Ember. I’ve already polished off the first, good beach read, but predictable and sometimes embarrassingly written. (The educated, worldly protagonists, for example, say “Should of….” and “Would of….” instead of “Should have…” and “Would have….” That’s what happens when you have editors who were using Cliff Notes to get by in school.)

Tonight we’ll watch the sunset at The Galley.

I returned a few business calls from the beach and sent a few return emails via my iPhone. People are aghast that I’m responding from the waterside at Nantucket. What better place?

© Alan Weiss, 2009. All rights reserved.

Here is a simple but non-negotiable check-list to ascertain whether you are really providing premium relationship value — value by virtue of a client relating with you — over and above the type of general expertise that is almost certainly readily available through multiple sources.

1) Most of your conversations should be about client outcomes, not your methodologies, six step models, catchy jargon, or a nifty new template. Clients if they come from serious companies, have lives that are amply complicated already. Our job is to simplify complexity, help produce value out of the static…not add more of it.

2) Do your homework relentlessly. No matter how well you think you know that company or individual, prep for all key meetings, coaching conversations and the like, so a minimum amount of the time that is supposed to be earmarked for delivering value is spent catching you up or just giving you information you could have imbibed and thought about well in advance. Hit the ground running and chalk up as much progress via each interaction as possible.

3) Commit to the client’s success, not your comfort level or peace of mind. Clients respect courage and people who help them see and face things they otherwise might not have. What percentage of the time you spend with your clients is in this zone, rather than politically correct acquiescence or amiable tautologies that may provide some therapeutic reprieve or the equivalent of quinine water to their temples, without actually confronting challenges to tangibly advancing their goals and interests?

4) Be able to defuse ire, irritation and misunderstandings. If you’re going to implement number (3), you will often set off sparks. Be able to calmly reframe the situation, and hang in there with them until the truly intended message makes it across. Your client says, “You keep telling me how I’m being ineffective as a coach. What about my people? Don’t they have any responsibility?” You: “They do, and we’ll define effective coaching on your part as effectively getting them to take that responsibility, rather than making your own life unnecessarily harder. Can we focus on that opportunity?” A smart client will get over bristling and realize there’s real value here.

5)  Make sure “success” is defined as business value not “project completion”. You can satisfy the statutory requirements of “project success” and deliver no real ROI. The client won’t be able to quibble, but they’ll never hire you again. Ensure business value is tracked constantly, barriers to achieving it are tackled in real-time and pathways to raising the bar on it are innovated and exploited as a signature of your work.

6) Be impeccable with commitments, assiduously timely with promised responses, unambiguous in communication, easy to contact and to be connected to, non-defensively open to course-correction (again as long as it relates to business value) and a world-class listener (if they don’t get your prime attention, they will be highly dubious as to whether they’re getting the best of your expertise either).

7) Deliver unanticipated value, but value relevant to them, as you get to know them. Then you can offer a real value add, not cosmetic “bonuses” that no one wants and which you can mindlessly dish out telling yourself you’re doing so much for them. Be gracious, be generous — but first be humble enough to be curious and genuine enough to be empathic.

Don’t just jump to attention and do everything asked of you. Be a true advisor and help them think through what they’re requesting to ensure it will get them the value they anticipate. Your judgment is a critical part of the value you offer. Don’t do this in a haughty way, shooting down their ideas. But do it in a collegiate manner, helping clients check assumptions, ensure data is valid, that we’re not prematurely falling in love with the first idea we have, and then execute what’s agreed with passion and professionalism. Saying later, “You asked me to do this,” won’t help if the action taken is counterproductive. We had best be there to help our clients get the best help from us they possibly can. They probably already have enough stooges in house.

9) Be an object of interest. Clients want to engage with people they enjoy, respect, possibly even admire in some ways. If you’re a fascinating person, people will feel they get stimulus from their time with you, outside the professional engagement. That personalizes the interaction and provides the ultimate basis for rapport. You can’t partner with someone you never get to know. You won’t want to partner with someone who seems drab or one-dimensional. After all, the client may fear your advice and assistance may be as monochromatic as you seem to be. Flex your personality — not arrogantly, but openly and invitationally.

Run through these nine client engagement health checks. Assuming you’re a competent professional who can add client value, these nine differentiators will allow you to scale the commanding heights of client value…by going up the client hierarchy of value. HJ Heinz opined that if we do common things uncommonly well, we will succeed. These are uncommon things alas — do them uncommonly well, and you’ll occupy your own category with your clients — a special and rarefied one in which you each support each other’s success.

While it has many themes, one of the most intriguing is the story of the British General Burgoyne. Burgoyne is known as the man who lost the Battle of Saratoga, a decisive turning point in the Revolutionary War. The American success there emboldened France to join with the fledgling nation, leading in time to the French navy interceding to help enable the historic victory at Yorktown.

Burgoyne was scape-goated for this, though arguably he had marched south from Quebec with a daring plan that could potentially have turned the tide in their favor. He was to be joined by the army of General Howe (located in New York). They were going to catch the Americans in a pincer movement. Alas, the orders to General Howe from London were very likely not sent, or if sent, were ambiguous. General Howe headed to Philadelphia, and a vastly outnumbered Burgoyne had to surrender. Burgoyne took this philosophically and returned to a measure of eminence after the cronies of mad King George were no longer in power. Apparently the official who was to send the orders to General Howe went on a vacation to Kent and opted NOT to interfere with his plans! But for that lack of communication…history could have been very different, and even a gifted commander could do little, when strategy failed to be aligned upon or executed.  As an American, I’m glad! But it’s highly instructive to say the least.

Laura Secord is a Canadian heroine. She overheard American plans to launch an attack during the war of 1812, and walked 32 kilometers at night to give a warning to a key Canadian outpost. The Canadian troops were forewarned, but for 48 hours the American attack never came. As it turned out the American troops were lost in the woods! The leader of that attack claimed they didn’t need maps or guidance as he claimed to know the woods “like the back of his hands”. Most of us don’t inspect the back of our hands, he clearly hadn’t either! They were picked off trying to find their way.  Better planning, better communication, would have again been critical.

In more recent times we know that the perpetrators of 9/11 were, many of them, wanted by various agencies in the United States. But the computers of various agencies weren’t linked to each other, so amazingly these people weren’t stopped at the airport and actually allowed to board planes! Arguably, all the information needed to identify them was present, but unable to be effectively deployed. When what we know isn’t effectively networked, no amount of knowledge will provide “intelligence”.

It behooves us then to realize that having strategies that are clear to us will be ineffectual if they aren’t relayed to everyone critical for their execution. The Governor of Quebec also received orders to bolster Burgoyne’s forces. But because his rank had been slighted in the communication, he hesitated…at that most critical of moments for British forces with ruinous consequences. So we have to not only “order”, we have to “enroll”. We need more than compliance, we need passionate engagement.

We also have to double-check our plans and preparation, rather than “assume” we know the way through the woods. Ensure, don’t assume.

Finally, we have to find ways of letting ideas, information, insights and perspectives connect and find their way throughout our network. We never know where the next breakthrough will come from, or who will be in position to avert disaster.

It’s easier to scape-goat someone or indeed to wring our hands in the aftermath. But proactive unambiguous communication, coupled with validated information and careful planning, and the sharing of what we’ve learned throughout the entire value chain, is how we ensure we achieve results rather than precipitate disaster.

In acknowledging other world-class centers of learning however, by error when we wrote our draft, we placed INSEAD in Switzerland rather than France (it also has a campus in Singapore). We may have had IMD in mind, or we might have just made an honest error. Alas, three sets of editors (two in Singapore, and one in the United Kingdom) failed to catch it, and it made it’s way into print.

It is one line in a 284 page book, commending INSEAD by the way (though this writer suggested we had insulted INSEAD by getting its location wrong, — AND he suggested we may have offended IMD too on the off chance we actually had it in mind!). Surely INSEAD’s self-esteem is not so precarious, even if this writer is demonstrating that his own might be.

This one oversight, seems to draw fire from more than one person who seems unsettled by some of our observations, and can find nothing substantive in the book to decry. People have said imperiously that this error erodes our overall credibility,  even that it shows we don’t know anything about Europe — thereby displaying their loose handle on logic (how does getting a location of a university wrong accidentally, show anything about your overall cultural, economic, historical or other knowledge of an entire Continent?).

I mention this because if I read a 240 (or so) page book, and wrote in, spending several paragraphs on a minor publishing gaffe , I’d have to wonder what the book stirred in me. A desire for real learning would have me wondering why I’m so bothered, why I needed to find such a dubious scapegoat within the book so that I could vent.

This particular writer caps his comments by saying he hopes we “appreciate” the input “in the spirit of learning”.  Well, we’re happy to learn of an error, even a truly inadvertent one like this. But the “spirit of learning” is the last thing that comes across in the communication. So, let’s just use this as a quick case-study on offering input that truly might stimulate learning.

Stated as it is, with such sweepingly excessive conclusions, this communication makes one wonder at the motivation for the observations. This distracts from any “learning” that may otherwise take place. So, first if you want to communicate a view, keep the focus on the learning you want to share, or the real point, minimize off-ramps and gratuitous secondary conclusions from your observations.

Then, give prime-time to what really matters to you in the communication. And be honest as to whether you’re sharing that you’re just emotionally miffed for whatever personal reason, or making a point you want intellectual engagement on.

The truth is the writer seems to really be annoyed about the perceived US-centrism of some of our comments in the opening chapters (he confessed to only having made it to page 39). Our actual point was that in an earlier age, we would have sounded more French-centric or English-centric, tomorrow we may be more China-centric. At the time of writing, we were speaking about American predominance in the world of management thinking and also global business given the overall size of the US economy. It was factual, not subjective. It wasn’t a paean to cultural or economic “manifest destiny”. It was about facing facts — so we can build on them –  for consulting and business success. We clearly mentioned that as these facts change, so would the specifics of our advice. We’d have suggested learning French in the 18th century, do suggest English for today and may suggest Mandarin and Hindi 20 or so years from now. Let’s see.

Had the writer focused their comments on this issue, we might have had a fascinating and illuminating dialogue. Harping on a relatively trivial reference (trivial to the sweep of the book and the point being made), was a distraction and an emotional indulgence that was intriguing, but not in the way intended.

Finally, choose your irritations carefully. Opt to be far more often amused or even bemused if you like. And if irritation keeps getting the better of you, ask first what YOU can learn from it, before asking others to be educated by a display of your annoyance, especially when accompanied by rickety logic and odd inductive liberties you’re taking. The more you come from composure, are relaxed and flexible, the more you are likely to generate as well as communicate points worth learning from. You don’t need to get your hackles up to be impactful. On the contrary.

Reflexive ire and pulpit pounding don’t produce the spirit of learning. The spirit of learning requires curiosity and exploration, enrolling someone in dialogue, sharing and owning our own feelings and reactions, and thereby irrigating the possibility that we all might just discover something new.

We shouldn’t proceed with Health Care reform because it would be tantamount to “socialized medicine”. Okay, but a “socialized military” and a “socialized fire brigade” are just fine? “No one knows how to pay for this,” is another gem. But today in the US we have the most expensive health care system in the developed world, and statistically it delivers less by way of health compared to these other benchmark countries as well! So how are we paying for it now? Just because it’s already part of our expenditure, deficits etc, we mustn’t think we’re not already paying! Let’s have a robust debate for sure…but not by means of bumper sticker slogans.

In the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, it was argued by some that she was (as she has herself said in a different vein) an “affirmative action” beneficiary. This is said as if to imply that if so, you don’t have merit! Some talking heads have said they don’t mind Latinos (very big of them), but let’s get the geniuses who really deserve to get into Ivy League schools. Really, like George W Bush? How did he get in? On merit, or by being the scion of a powerful family? Perhaps we could compare his grades with those of Sonia Sotomayor. The point is, affirmative action is meant to balance the scales of privilege and access enjoyed by the monied, as well as by majorities in mainstream society. Done doltishly, it becomes a quota system and perpetuates inequality by setting vastly different standards for people based precisely on ethnicity and heritage. But done well, it makes room for the fact that talent is multi-faceted, and shows up in more than test scores. But if your father can’t make a phone call, then perhaps something other than “connections” has to get you in. And diversity isn’t a bad argument, as long as it bridges such a gap for the clearly talented, rather than degrades the importance of applied talent. Something has to break the pattern, to create a wider pool of talented people, so that in time we can indeed move on to a truly color-blind merit based system.

Stupid things are heard elsewhere too. “Leaders don’t have time to be cheerleaders, we pay people, that’s the motivation…” But if you then ask these same people if they themselves deserve good leadership, or whether their own paycheck should suffice and make them endure inept guidance…they bristle. They complain about unfair treatment, poor communication, fuzzy goal-setting. Everyone feels they deserve better than just a paycheck.

Moreover, how did we conflate, engaging people with “cheer leading”? The job of leaders is to get maximum potential from all company assets, including their own talent pool. What else are they there for? Arguably to also set direction. But compare the strategies of major competitors and the difference that makes the difference is hardly dazzling strategic insight.

“Times have changed, we have to keep an eye on costs.” Really? And before you had to do what? Isn’t that a self-insulting, condescending confession? And surely you have to keep an eye on value. If you could invest in something and it gave you a 10:1 ROI (as to me, a proper consulting project should), you still wouldn’t do it because cosmetically it may “seem” like a cost? That’s the caliber of leadership you want to offer?

“The economy is rebounding, Goldman Sachs have posted record profits.” Yes, due in large part to the government-sponsored bail-out they received. But fine, we want them to put the money to good use. But if they pay themselves pre-crisis level bonuses, they’re maggots and dunderheads. Receiving public largesse gave you a lease on life — manage PR, manage your character, and be judicious. This is a time for measured optimism perhaps, not party hats. We need to see that rewards are more in line with realities not premature runaway euphoria. We’d all like to think we’ve collectively learned something from this economic pain.

Take an unromantic look at things that are constantly repeated, often without much nuance. Just beyond the gloss is probably a much more textured reality. Get good at spotting these and you can often achieve breakthroughs — in paradigms, strategies and tactics, and very likely….in results!

It was clear he was seething, had been inconvenienced, and the last thing he wanted was to exchange banter about his state of health. A more situationally observant service provider would likely have said, “I’m SO sorry for the long line, let’s get you to your room right away…” And then having aligned on that priority, very likely having somewhat defused his frustration, rapport could have been more naturally built as the inevitable check-in process chugged along. Scripted, mechanically delivered inanities are not service, any more than what you hear in the elevator is really music.

Truth be told, most countries have service blind spots. Nitwits abound everywhere, as do stars. It comes down to a fundamental choice.

And service isn’t just smiles and bedside manner, it’s also what’s delivered. A famous hotel in Singapore abounds with gushing smiles, and yet delivers substandard croissants, despite being a legend in the industry. A small inn in the Languedoc in France, delivers that same croissant, moist and glistening with buttery appeal. The morning smiles are a tad more restrained at the inn. Which is providing the better service? Well, it truly depends. Singapore is not necessarily famous for breakfast croissants and Nasi Lemak there is pretty good. Add that to the smiles, and you can give them a pass (though truly, a Julia Child cookbook could cure the problem). The inn isn’t known for morning cheerleading sessions, and yet the staff is attentive, friendly and IS in a region known for exceptional croissants. Service is as service does. It’s situational to a large extent and depends on what you’re after and the expectations created.

However, the really diabolical service is usually not the failure of expertise, but the unwillingness to make a key choice. That choice is this: whether this is a job you wish to continue in, whether you rail against an imperfect cosmos for obliging you to take such a job or not, it is not the fault of the person you are serving! Hence, for the sake of God and Mammon (more on this momentarily), don’t take it out on them! Choose to have who you are reflected by how you serve.

If instead, you take your life not being perfect out on customers, you’ll drive them away, your gratuities will diminish, and you’ll be another commodity. Instead make the choice, that while you are here, you will shine, and make people grateful and glad to interact with you.  Commit to being a rock star in this role, and you’ll command more revenue, your prowess will likely be noticed, and you’ll cultivate critical interactive and responsive skills for whatever higher calling you may aspire to. Why do people who feel they could be so much more, insist on acting like so much less?

I went to Boston to deliver a speech. For my sins, I had to stay at a Sheraton (no other hotels at a sane distance, believe me), deliver at a Conference Center about 20 minutes away, and then return late night, and back home the next day. I booked a car service. Everything was duly confirmed back to me. Arrival at Boston, no problem. Trip from Sheraton to Conference Center, fine. At 10:30 pm when I emerged…no car. When I called I was told, “We don’t have a booking for you.” This was said as if it settled the matter. I asked if they’d like me to forward the confirmation I received. Silence. Then, a grudging confession: well that’s done out of LA and they’re supposed to fax us the confirmed runs. Fax? As I asked if they had checked the century we were in recently, they finally sprang into action, and got a car there in 30 minutes. Great! But it was 30 minutes longer than I needed to be hanging around. It was stress and aggravation that I was paying them not to have to endure (by calling a local cab company, which probably would have done the trick otherwise).

It’s this kind of service gaffe, which takes place every day, where you have to continuously check to see if people have ‘clicked’ to things they’ve confirmed to you, that makes you despair. On the other hand,  for those making the alternative choice, it means there’s ample room to shine…and scant competition.

We often in New York run across bartenders and wait-staff who are aspiring actors. Many are charming and clearly talented, at least insofar as you can intuit from their repartee, voice modulation, alertness and more. But some sport an attitude, as if to convey that we should consider ourselves fortunate to get their antipathy and churlishness. I am often tempted to say, “You say you can act? Prove it, try acting like a waiter. Put on a show for tonight called “I’m here to serve.”

We all have bad days. Never take them out on people you serve. They deserve better. And delivering that service, despite being down, despite the vicissitudes in our own personal lives, is the essence of being a professional. And thereby you build your brand. So be impeccable. Offer enthusiasm — generate it by delivering it if it’s in short supply naturally that day. Empower yourself to make someone’s day better.

Make the choice!

A critical insight honored more in the breach than in the observance is that a collection of people is not by itself a “team”. A committee is not a team. An amalgam of individuals reporting to the same leader is not a team. It’s a team if they have to deliver something together, something impossible to deliver without some collaboration, cooperation and interaction. And if that performance merits it, then, and only then, should a team be formed, built, developed and sustained.

Sometimes groups act destructively and the solution to the problem is touted as “team building”. It’s not. What they need is perhaps communication coaching, perhaps they need to be held accountable for acts inimical to the goals of others. Perhaps they have to learn to challenge constructively. Perhaps a culture of one-upsmanship has to be dethroned. A team however does not necessarily have to be built.

When a team IS needed, we have to clarify what they are to do, and what they are accountable for.  Members then need to understand the degree of cooperation, consultation and co-creation required. I hasten to add, the political realities of most companies, and the intrinsic nature of innovation no less, argue for a measure of consultation and co-creation (in the sense of gathering early feedback re solutions we are prototyping or testing) regardless of whether a full-fledged team is needed.  But while this is wise anyway, relative to teams it has to be mandated. A team has, by definition, collective responsibility.

If indeed a team is needed, then teams have to be adept at two things. First, helping individuals deliver their contribution to the team. In other words, the team can’t succeed if the individuals that make up the team, don’t. And the quicker everyone is made to understand this palpably and incontestably, the better. Secondly, they have to learn how to interact effectively together to solve problems, or to execute decisions, or whatever the work is they have been assembled to deliver. A team can be helpful but inept. Or a team can be effective but siphon off unnecessary energy, time, goodwill and more.

Teams therefore need to provide real-time feedback to members and to the team as a whole. This can only be delivered with a true helping orientation and a true performance commitment. When these are there, we will inquire first and conclude second, invite first and challenge second, explore first and prescribe second. Teams can’t leave performance up in the air, it has to be non-negotiable. Teams have to challenge each  member for their best, individually and collectively. But teams have to do this in the spirit of encouragement and possibility, not cross-examination and undermining. Teams by definition are committed to the success of each member as well as the team at large.

Make sure therefore that we deploy teams only when we need to. And then, let’s make sure teams deliver both mutual helpfulness and grow in effectiveness to perform key tasks of strategic value to the organization. Anyone who impedes that has to be tackled. Teams that fail in this, can’t be allowed to malinger. They must be re-engineered, reformed, or dismantled and replaced. Teams that show these twin propensities, deserve all the coaching and development and support — not to mention the kudos — we can offer.

Teams in short have to provide a multiplier to individual talent. This is hard, onerous work. The only impetus powerful enough to drive this forward is real strategic work that needs doing, which commands the best of our best, and can’t be done without people operating AND cooperating with excellence…delivering consistently in concert.

In the 19th century the Civil War came, and Abraham Lincoln spoke about the nation having a “new birth of freedom”, as it struggled with the implications of its founding principles and grappled with the pragmatic compulsions of competing interests to assess indeed whether “…any nation so conceived could long endure.”  I grew up with this and it seems “self-evident” to me that these are rousing sentiments and moments in history.

Last week we were serving a client in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It had been twenty years since I had been back. My wife had to wear an Abaya (it’s not a veil, it’s something that goes over your clothes, and covers your hair, but not your face).  It made sense in the desert heat, and as every other woman had one on, she didn’t feel singled out. Our clients were a Shariya (Islamic law) compliant bank. They were well informed, well educated, curious, eager to hear what was happening in the world, interested in books and ideas — it was very encouraging. Moreover, they pointed out Saudi Arabia has the largest number of new business schools and educational institutes opening of any place in the region, and in percentage terms, they said the world. That these are true educational institutes not madrassas or propaganda mills is fantastic. The local papers told stories of courageous women campaigning for women’s rights arguing that the relative subjugating of women is tribal and parental, and has no real basis in early Islam. They have a way to go, but it’s wonderful to read that this is a matter being debated and hopefully advanced.

The Abaya is normal in Saudi Arabia, our fireworks are to us with hot dogs and beer and hopefully shorts and t-shirts (despite the torrential rains we’ve had in the Northeast this year). We all think our heroes are the right ones, our mores the most moral and sane, our “normal” the right barometer for civilization-at-large.

I am not a relativist. I prefer shorts, and I like a place where women can fully exercise their rights and express and hopefully fulfill their personhood. But I also realize condescension is fatal to understanding. And without understanding we can’t communicate, we can’t help build bridges from other cultures to some of our insights. Equally we cannot then learn what they may have to teach us.

Preferring my “normal” doesn’t mean ignorance of what others cherish and value is what I should aim for. Perhaps I can expand my sense of the normal, perhaps I can grow and extend my vision. Perhaps we can choose to be more together, rather than less, apart.

When cultures make this choice, and countries, and communities, and perhaps even families and other affiliations, like companies, the world moves forward. Let’s dedicate this 4th of July, or any other observance globally of freedom and possibility, to this perennial movement.

Last year it closed for renovation and we found ourselves facing “homelessness” (of sorts) in London for the next few years. John Stauss, the GM and Area VP, is a gentleman’s gentleman. He took it upon himself to help us find a new home. He virtually insisted it be the Connaught, and he was so right.

In the midst of an impossibly hectic schedule in the final days of the old hotel’s life, he personally escorted us to the Connaught to meet Anthony Lee (GM extraordinaire and himself one of hospitality’s true gems), and to have a walk through. The hotelier gossip mill was buzzing the next day. It was a disarming act of generosity. Anthony Lee said to me that given that gesture all he could possibly do is look after us until we were ready to go “home” once more.

I have to say the Connaught is a wonderful abode, and it gave us great pleasure to bring John Stauss (who is presiding over the work at the Four Seasons, but inevitably missing the joys and rigors of daily hotel management) over for a meal at what I think is currently London’s most exciting and impressive fine dining experience, Helene Darroze at the Connaught.

The Darroze family are vintage Armagnac maestros. Helene is a two star Michelin Chef from Paris, and her restaurant at the Connaught has already nabbed one Michelin star. While the spate of Ramsey eateries continue elsewhere, the Connaught now has it’s own signature restaurant, and happily for all of us nostalgics, the legendary Connaught Grill is due for a come-back as well.

At any rate, below is the menu from our recent evening. Mr. Stauss agreed it was a superb, memorable meal. For us it was nice to have a dear friend over, for once our guest, rather than we being his. He and Anthony joked like the old chums they are. Anthony jested when he heard John was coming that the dogs had been starved and were being kept at the ready. John Stauss now has a distinguished looking beard, but we wondered if that had been picked up as a bit of “camouflage” at the Mayfair Spy Shop en route.

At any rate, the evening was resplendent…good cheer, wonderful company, profound cuisine and impressive wines.

MENU

Gillardeau oyster tartare, caviar from Aquitaine jelly, creamy veloute with white beans from Bearn with 2006 Gruner Veltliner “Rosenberg”, Anton Bauer

Duck foie gras from Les Landes cooked “au torchon” with rhubarb chutney with Guariguette strawberries, beetroot jus with 2005 Jurancon “Marie Kattalin” Domaine de Souch

Roasted Scottish scallop with a fresh coriander crust, baby carrots flavored with citrus and tandoori, spring onions reduction with 2005 Viognier, JM Gerin

Pave of sea bass cooked “a la nacre”, white asparagus from Les Landes just poached, cockle jus with seaweed butter and cranberries with 2005 Puligny Montrachet, Nicolas Potel

Breast of pigeon from Racan spit roasted and “flambe au capucin”, green pea mousseline lightly flavored with peppermint, intense jus with Mexican molle with 2007 Syrah, Herve Souhaut and 2005 Cahors Le Prestige, Chateau du Cedre

Selection of cheeses with the Cahors Les Prestige

Wild rhubarb jelly, meringue and foam, Sarawak pepper ice cream, almond crumble

100% chocolat, Venezuelan Carupano dark chocolate cream, bitter chocolate sorbet, hot chocolate sauce with 2007 Passito di Pantelleria Ben Rye Donnafugata

We’ll find this predominates everywhere. Look at Iran and the new ideas are bursting to express themselves, but the old ideas tenaciously cling on. Look at the problems between Israel and the Palestinians and you’ll see again the challenge is not a paucity of new ideas, it’s the dogmatic fixation on old definitions, paradigms, boundaries and conceptions that have to be tackled.

Carl Jung once pointed out that any real problem can’t be solved, it can only be outgrown. Then you don’t consider it a sacrifice, you just draw new rules of engagement. Then President de Klerk of South Africa said when apartheid was effectively defeated at the polls, “Today the South African people transcended themselves.”

A recent book, IN PURSUIT OF ELEGANCE, argues that what we leave out is as important, if not more so, than what we leave in. The author refers to the darkening of the screen in the pivotal last few minutes of the SOPRANO’s final episode: vexing, infuriating, titillating and irresistible. Toyota has long been studied for its principles of lean production and team and individual empowerment on the line — but it is as instructive to study all the things Toyota doesn’t do, that more ponderous and less effective competitors are addicted to.

Consultants beware! How many consulting firms tout endless product offerings: strategy, change management, organizational redesign, leadership development, employee relations, world peace and the kitchen sink. If the Elegance book is right, then we need instead a different sweet spot: simplicity — albeit concepts that are both simple and powerful. We should look for and infuse what we do with that power, not substitute for it by proliferating seemingly encyclopedic offerings.

Lao Tzu is evoked (he often is, being so inscrutable, his highly elegant, simple and compelling elegy to the Tao is timeless and adaptable to numerous interpretations) in pointing out that the hole at the center of the wheel matters more than any individual spoke. The space between the walls makes the home, the gaps between the notes make the music. It’s not just what is present, it’s what is absent. It’s the breathing room we have to create for ourselves, our services and our offerings that so often matters most. And if we can shed the peripherals (careful: one person’s peripherals are another person’s poetry), we can spotlight what’s essential. We can find and offer our passion and our genius, not an attic laden with ubiquitous  jargon and piles of second-hand consulting gewgaws.

A consultant without that essential simplicity can hardly be a credible advisor or coach in helping a business leader seeking something like that for themselves. It took us a long time at Sensei to realize that we excelled at locating the link between strategic business results and human performance — that engaging leaders and teams to deliver such results in global contexts was our particular strength. All the other things could be jettisoned.

So review your business, your marketing, your life. Absolutely make sure they express what matters most to you. But also make sure enough is missing. Make sure you de-clutter your business, your marketing and your life. Decide what you will not do and redirect that energy into creating the future.

And if certain old ideas continue to battle for dominance, stop fighting. Work on growing up  instead, and therefore “out”.

How? Ah, therein lies the the rub. But a great way to begin is to start living the new ideas (even if the old ones are still clinging on), live with the contradiction for awhile if you must, and then let the superior, the saner value win. It’ll be that much easier if there’s more space…in your day, priorities and life. When too much is afoot we hit our default switch. When we have some breathing room, we more readily set off in fresh directions — those more likely to get us where we wish to go.

Onomasts are not psycho-sexual (or other) deviants…but rather those who study names and naming. They claim this study is a “science”.  That usually means it is awash in technical sounding minutiae — the trappings of any pseudo-science and the affliction of much applied science. However not even the most rabid onomast will claim that changing the name has much to do with changing the game.

Currently writing from the UK I read of the UK insurance giant changing their name from Norwich Union to Aviva. Viva Aviva! Meaningless, Latin-sounding new name changes are all the rage here as Tony Thorne has pointed out (Diageo, Altria, Solana). I remember the furor some years ago when PwC decided to call their consulting arm “Monday”. One person heard it as “mundane”. Another said it came about when they asked their marketing people if they had come up with a name, and they answered “perhaps Monday”. Unlikely to be true, but amusing.

When asked about the change from “Blackwater” to “Xe” (pronounced “Zee”), a spokesman for the now infamous security contractor said,  “There is no meaning to the new name. It was just a choice of a name, we thought of it internally.” Wonderful! We internally came up with something that has no meaning! And we thought we should be represented by a random, meaningless set of letters. It would have been interesting to hear less about the self-confessed mindlessness of the change of name and more about how they were aiming to transform themselves otherwise.

We change appearances, we change logos, we change names (The British Museum did so after some consideration, changing the “t” in “The” to uppercase!), we change everything it seems except that which matters. In other words we change the cosmetics, the incidentals rather than the essentials. If someone is silly enough to be hoodwinked by some change in the gloss on our lettering, that may be their bad luck. But it’s an insulting use of valuable resources…which in corporate settings can also include collective credulity.

Of course names have emotive content. And they either amplify or inhibit our ability to communicate who we are and what we do. We have to test drive names at times. But what we call ourselves matters less than what we deliver and offer, and how. Unless there is a change at that epicenter, spray painting a new sign won’t help.

When Andersen switched to Accenture, it took $100 million to communicate that change. When Cingular was dropped by AT&T, $2 billion was needed to communicate that fact! If that’s the best use of several hundred million dollars much less a few billion, that’s a  terrifying indictment of the value equation being engaged in by leaders.  Maybe a recession can be a sanity-restoring experience after all!

Change is an inside job, and it requires changes in more than the marquee. Change is needed in your leaders, your priorities, your reward systems, your team structures, your strategic and tactical priorities, your customer engagement…and indeed your market communication. But let that last accompany these other initiatives…not substitute for them.

The “gastro” part involves the fact that some of the lovely hotels we stay in are Relais & Chateaux. But one in Collias, is a charming inn, run by the Aparis family, and which now leaves us truly “starry-eyed” as they’ve this March gained an exceptional second Michelin Star. They are the only restaurant in the Gard region of France to have this coveted honor.

The Hostellerie le Castellas has had intriguing beginnings. Mr. and Mrs. Aparis once ran a snack shop at the Pont du Gard. When it was taken over by all the trappings of modern tourism (the postcard shop, the compulsory cafeteria serving vile swill tightly wrapped like a lab culture, etc), they relocated to Collias. Mr. Aparis was fond of the picturesque village of Collias, on the banks of the river Gardon. The Gorge of Gardon makes for stunning walks and he was a devotee of the locale.

A labor of love began — to create a true abode of hospitality, a place awash with elegance, and dedicated to gastronomy. This is France, and food is a secular religion. Their daughter Aurelie then was 11.

Fast forward about 15 years, and a new Chef arrives, Jerome Nutile. And after years of irrigating their dream with attention and devoted care, the hotel and restaurant came into the full bloom of gastronomic recognition. One Michelin Star was awarded. I remember that year Madame doing a jig of true delight. Their daughter Aurelie, had returned to help run this little gem, and has added her own vitality and considerable charm to an already superb enterprise. The second Michelin star has now come in, and they are awash with culinary pilgrims. So it should be. This place more than deserves a visit, and during that visit, focused attention.

Papa is now the Mayor of Collias (just as well as I had to let him know of a tree blocking one of the main walks from Collias to La Baume along the Gorge du Gardon after a particularly tempestuous rainfall), Aurelie’s husband who runs a landscaping company, ensures the garden blooms. The Sommelier, who has been with them for 14 years, is a chirpy, beet-cheeked life enthusiast who calls to mind the words of Rabelais:

“For my book: all you’ll find is laughter:
That’s all the glory my heart is after,
Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you.
I’d rather write about laughing than crying,
For laughter makes men human, and courageous.”

Certainly the cuisine, the wines, the garden, the imagination of the owners, the loveliness of the Languedoc, all conspire to make us feel more gratefully human there, glowing with the robust sharing of rare and piquant pleasures.

Below is a recent dinner that remains a true highlight.

And here’s a lesson to be learned too: If  they shut down your livelihood, make a choice. Wail and weep. Or dream anew. Plant yourself and your dreams and re-imagine what’s possible. The Aparis family did. And over that lovely hotel, the stars shine bright. They are polished with dedication.

MENU

Amuse

Contrast de Foie Gras en Trois Versions

Foie Gras contrast in three versions: in an ice dust of Sarawak peppercorns, confit “au naturel” in a Maury jelly, hot and crispy in a croustillant with Ayala Brut Majeur Champagne

Minute de Roget

Red Mullet “a la minute” in a paella-style risotto of courgette flowers seasoned with Iberico ham slivers with garlic and sparkling Saffron with white Chateauneuf du Pape Beau Castel 2007

Emulsion retour des Illes sorbet Champagne

Cote et Filet Agneau de lait

Rib and Fillet of Milk-fed Lamb and shoulder compote, mashed chick peas, split seeds with lemon confit, spiced jus with Bandol Domaine Du Gros Nore 2001

Chariot des Fromages

with the Bandol

Cubism Choco-Praline

Choco-Praline Cube in the style of Black Forest with Muscat “Frontignan” 2006

Frivolites

with Laubade Armagnac 1970

Fascinating to consider as leaders. On the one hand leaders have to take “visions” and “ideals” and grand aspirations and build a bridge from those lofty heights into the valleys of everyday execution. Far more leaders can summon dizzying rhetoric than can claim inspiring, focused, execution — much less execution with a relevant and living dashboard and an aligning of the rewards and performance culture or their organization, accordingly.

Those that do this with some combination of manic focus yet keep that balanced with openness to ongoing input from the world-at-large, engagement of people and yet leaving no doubts about what everyone is accountable for, with relentless imagination yet a fact-based commitment to facing what is “real” today, become business winners and take on the hue of legend. It’s conceptually straightforward, but personally exacting. It’s energy-intensive and requires us to shelve our personal ego and take on a corporate ego to a large extent. We take a stand for a possibility we will enroll others to help us manifest and call forth.

But as the line from Dave Stewart reminds us, leaders also have to take today’s realities, often tough and demanding realities, often energy-sapping and confidence-depleting realities — realities of downturns and recessions, war and peace, customer defections, breakdown of teams, intransigent external or internal bureaucracies to contend with — and transform them into a path forward. And often we have to, in the midst of the turmoil, create our equivalent rallying commitment to say taking down the Berlin Wall or transcending apartheid.

Only then can we summon and galvanize the individual energies and collective passion needed to turn today’s base metal into tomorrow’s performance gold. Leaders earlier we said had to be bridge builders — bridging from an end in mind to today’s actions. We are now saying, they also have to be alchemists: taking  what we encounter today and converting our obstacles into source material for our progress.

There are less grand applications of this as well. In our personal lives, we have to have larger goals that drive us. And we have to translate those larger goals into habitual daily and weekly behaviors that can deliver them. We have to behave our way to our vision as I so often relate in sessions. How else will we possibly get there?

Equally in our personal life we often see wreckage — dysfunctional habits or relationships, messes, areas we aren’t proud of. Here we have to take the wreckage and be architects. We have to dream forward from our most challenging realities. As Robert Browning said so unforgettably, Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a Heaven for?”

These are wonderful twin capacities, bridging from our visions to today’s actions, and transforming today’s realities into the future-focused application whereby we galvanize dreams. As leaders and as individuals, we need to get good at both. Arguably, together, they are a large part of what success is all about…and what life as a whole could be, or perhaps even should be, all about as well.

It was a fairly august gathering we were fortunate enough to cobble together. Three were fellow Chaine des Rotisseurs Board Members. John Shalam, Audiovox innovator and business pioneer is a gentleman’s gentleman. In fact the affinity his name has with “Shalom” meaning “peace” (”Salaam” in the Arabic ) I’ve always thought isn’t accidental — he is a civilizing presence. Phillip Davis is the very picture of Southern gentility and grace: banker and real estate investor and much  more, he embodies a certain wry take on the human condition, though always administered with elegance. The third Chaine Board member present was Jim Wallick, CEO of Mercer Tool, a highly successful global gadfly, fellow quixotic rogue (in the best possible way), and a wonderful life enthusiast. Completing the group, other than my wife and I, were Jack and Lori Broesamle. Lori is the Annie Oakley of cigar smoking, a capable manager in her own right, and along with Jack, a great demonstration of both business acumen and success, as well as a captivating personal openness to a wide range of  both ideas and adventures. We have deeply enjoyed their company and warmth on many occasions.

We opened with Soft Shell Crab, Lump Crab Cocktail with a Yellow Tomato Coulis. The Crab flavor was expressively conveyed by the preparation, rather than being the soggy anonymous mush that so many versions of this dish so often. are. This was married very successfully with a Kistler “Les Noisetiers” Sonoma Coast 2007. Noisetiers refers to hazelnuts and the terroir is certainly very distinctive. This wine comes from grapes from several of the Kistler vineyards. It was a golden wine, with some hints of ripe lemon and nut oil…it delivered a vibrant zing. We smoked with this a Nestor Miranda “Special Selection” Lancero.  This is a Honduran cigar with a Nicaraguan wrapper. It is rolled so that most of the flavor is in the wrapper (which is where cigars need to shine anyway). At the beginning and end of the smoke it was quite woody, with hints of fruit in between. Lovely, gentle, elegant.

Our next dish was Rabbit Saddle, with Ginger Baby Carrots, Pan Jus and Micro Greens. The absence of the classic “mustard” with the rabbit gave us a more delicate, subtle but yet still succulent dish — more tender than gamy. This was caressed by a Viognier de Rosine, Michel Ogier, Vin de Pays, 2006.  These grapes come from just west of the famous Condrieu vineyards, the spiritual homestead of Viognier. The 2006 was lovely. Good acidity, a peachy richness, lovely aroma.

The main course was Venison Striploin, Yukon Gold Potato Gratin, Port & Cherry Glaze.  It was succulent, tender, gamy in just the right measure. It had none of the dehydration that inept versions of Venison are guilty of…and the glaze wasn’t overpoweringly sweet…just a lovely contrast. The accompanying wine was a knock-out. Gigondas, “Prestige D’Hautes Garrigues”, Domaine Santa Duc, Rhone 2003.  A gorgeous super-concentrated Gigondas with exotic berries, amazingly aromatic for its age, spicy, with a big finish. With this we smoked our second cigar of the dinner, Camacho “Triple Maduro” Torpedo. Wow! “Maduro” means “ripe” in Spanish, and this is considered the only “true” Maduro because the wrapper, binder and filler are all Maduro. It was a powerful, rich, sumptuous cigar, that took a while to get going and then let loose — really expressing its complexity and power.

Dessert was a lovely way to cap the meal — Caramel Apple Tart, Vanilla Bean Gelato, White Chocolate Ganache. The richness of the gelato worked wonderfully with the warm flaky pastry and the sweet yet slightly tart apple flavor of this rich dessert. We capped our wine experience no less memorably with Dolc de L’Obac, “Late Harvest Granacha”, Priorat 2000. This Spanish masterpiece blends Grenache, Cabernet and Syrah, is naturally sweet and non-fortified (!) and comes from a unique one hectare property with a distinctive micro-climate that helps the grapes to ripen faster to produce this exceptional wine — subtle sweetness and lushness at the same time.

We went home basking in the after glow of wonderful company and an evening of abundant palate titillation indeed — the progression from the Lancero to the Camacho was a wonderrful metaphor for an evening that similarly developed, evolved and unfolded — a patchwork of many pleasures.  Something to reprise!

When what faces bosses seems cerebral, analytical, diagnostic, detached from the leaders they personally are, they are quite happy to go for consulting solutions. They will look for firms with pedigrees, fixate on theoretical models that are conceptually compelling and leave the sordid matter of “implementation” for later.

When what faces them has to do with people, how they act and interact, their skills and what they are capable of delivering, the most common approach is either to exhort them at Conferences, or subject them to “workshops”. These workshops are often selected by HR on “methodology” grounds, and they look for consultants who are congenial to them — who wouldn’t have the temerity to suggest the Emperor has no clothes — so to speak.

Then running these workshops provides a seemingly “heroic” demonstration of remedial action, even though the precise business aims these workshops are meant to address are rarely spelled out — nor is there much accountability from senior leaders to coach application when their direct reports return to them. Part of the reason for this is, that in order to coach application credibly, leaders would have to model the way — at least to some extent.

When we decouple adaptive problems from senior leadership behavior, then we look to training as a sort of vaccination. And this way, under the guise of “development”, large amounts of money are expended without much by way of tracking. If we measure anything it may be the popularity with the audience of the deliverer and perhaps workshop effectiveness as an isolated event. The workshop is evaluated as a performance and whether it was found stimulating at that time and place.

Training instead needs to evolve into a form of true consulting. That is to say it should only be undertaken to advance strategic business objectives, which of course can include developing leaders at all levels. But then evaluation has to be built into the design.

Then we have to spell out the type of leaders needed by the organization taking that example, how they will be evaluated, how we will know if we have them, the relevance of such leadership to business success as well as individual progress… all this has to be settled in advance. Whoever is nominating the person has to work with them at the outset to create buy-in, establish relevance, and ensure there is some shared expectation of what will occur as a result of the training. An action-plan then should be generated in the immediate aftermath and diligently tracked. And only then, based on the results achieved, the training or other input should be assessed, re-calibrated, enhanced, or ditched. How enjoyable it was, the quality of delivery performance, are relative peripherals and should not take center-stage.

The above seems highly time and energy intensive. It is! And so it should be part of a continuum of efforts to engage and develop our leaders and teams as they seek to add strategic business value to organizational assets.

David Maister rightly suggests that first the systems of  a company have to be in place to underwrite whatever the training is preparing people for, the organization has to duly motivate people to take full advantage of the training by establishing its strategic importance, knowledge has to be provided of what it is participants are to do as a result, and then and only then can the development of skills have any chance of not only taking place, but also taking hold.

Moreover, for it to be called “training” in any common sense usage of the word, the session has to be high on practice, application, coaching, feedback and feedforward (future-based performance goals) and a chance to be assessed and improve from an initial base-line. This may require not an “event” but a real “process”.

If we truly wish to be cost-effective during a difficult period, we should remove generic training budgets. We should separate training as Paul Kearns has suggested into those things people have to learn for their role or position, and things they should learn to truly fulfill the potential of their role or position or as part of their citizenship requirements in that organization.

Anything else, the “nice to do” items, can be postponed, or carefully provided as incentives or at least as frosting on the overall development effort. And then those things people in the organization DO need to know and those things they should know, particularly non-technical abilities required of leaders as they move into successive roles (how to manage people, understanding the difference between strategy and tactics, getting teams to work effectively, process improvement, guiding innovation, delivering projects, selling ideas or actual products or services, coaching and mentoring others who report to them, etc) should be linked to some line of sight business improvement. And then all interventions should be designed accordingly, require significant line manager or boss-engagement, and whenever possible be undertaken with the very people the person will have to deliver this with (rather than a random assemblage of people who have never, and may never, see each other in action in this regard).

Shockingly different? Possibly.  But if so, it’s only because it’s shockingly sane, sensible, practical, amenable to ROI, and only when these conditions are met, really valuable.

Some research indicates that if you do a predictive competition between optimists and pessimists, you find an interesting anomaly. Pessimists are right more often than optimists — Murphy assures that things go wrong more reliably than they go right. Entropy, natural decay is built into the fabric of life, evolution requires energy. But fascinatingly, despite that, optimists tend to be more successful.

Why? They hallucinate better! In other words, even setbacks become “milestones” or “learnings”. There is the famous anecdote about the almost one thousand “failures” by Thomas Edison en route to inventing the incandescent light bulb. He is reported to have replied when asked if he was discouraged, “What failure? I discovered one more way not to invent the light bulb! That’s progress!” Well, it’s certainly a far more effective hallucination or “frame” to adopt given the iterative and uncertain reality of so much progress and innovation.

George Bernard Shaw, the great playwright, pointed out that reasonable people adapt their dreams to reality, whereas unreasonable people seek to get reality to adapt to their dreams. All progress he therefore concluded, depends on unreasonable people. In other words, those who hallucinate more audaciously and then are willing to act as audaciously to manifest what they imagine.

Companies no less than individuals have to decide what frames to use. You can look at the debris of destroyed companies during this extended financial suicide we’ve experienced in global financial markets and decide to retreat behind corporate bunkers, slashing all discretionary expenses, freezing all benefits, and going to the corporate equivalent of war footing. Or we can decide to clean up our act in wasteful areas yes, but also to prioritize key innovations, to deepen customer insight and loyalty, to improve our talent bench strength, to amplify engagement to get our teams to fight for productive gains, to reward more judiciously but to do so meaningfully where merited, and to see how we can emerge more competitive rather than bereft of vision or capability or future-creating potential. This isn’t a matter of “truth”, but of the frame we place on crisis, the hallucination we opt for.

Unreasonable people tell their countrymen in the midst of an historic economic meltdown, all we have to fear is fear itself. Unreasonable people look at the tide of Nazi victories and tell their embattled island, “we shall never surrender”. Unreasonable people looking at Russian space technology superiority throw a gauntlet down to put a man on the moon safely in a decade. Unreasonable people stand up at a time one hundred years after a Civil War failed to effectively remove segregation and unforgettably emote, “I have a dream!” Unreasonable people take their learnings in a calligraphy class and create wide-scale innovations in computer fonts (as Steve Jobs did). Unreasonable people believe micro-enterprise is a viable option for the once destitute as a mode of both dignity and pragmatic empowerment (as Nobel-prize winner Muhammed Yunus did through his Grameen Bank in Bangladesh).

So let’s choose profitable hallucinations for our clients, for our companies, for our lives. No matter what we face, we need to face the obstacles with the eyes of possibility. Why? Why not? Possibility is the fossil fuel for entrepreneurship, imagination, drive, creativity.

Chris Gardner, whose story we became familiar with through his best-selling book and Will Smith’s portrayal of him in a laudable movie, was homeless for a time while being a single dad, before transforming his circumstances, building a company, significant personal wealth, and a rich life. His new book sums up the best possible hallucination, start from where you are. But start as you mean to go on…committed to finding your next step towards reasonable or even unreasonable progress. And treat everything as “feedback” and “learning” along the way. You may not be right (whatever that means), but you will certainly succeed far more often.

At every juncture, ask,  “What is the most profitable, productive hallucination I can choose?”

And then lead, live, collaborate and innovate to make that hallucination REAL!

I’ve been married just over seventeen years, and this is one place my wife and I had never visited as a couple. My birthday was looming and we decided to experience it anew, together.

The culinary finesse of Patrick O’Connell, a true innovator, beggars description. Thirty two years of operating the Inn and the experience still takes your breath away.

The first picture you see is the extraordinary kitchen, custom designed in France, based on the dairy room of Windsor Castle, with Gregorian chants soothing and focusing the chefs who deliver such a virtuoso performance each night.

The second picture is us, with a glass of superb rose champagne and a bit of whimsy, truffled popcorn to accompany it in the stunning lounge (the popcorn has truffle oil AND shaved truffles on top — talk about “finger licking good”). Simplicity and artistry in one.

The third picture is the cheese cow. The cheese selection is European in sweep and balance, delivered on this cow which even makes a mooing sound as she approaches. What a blend of elegance and humor, of Old World art and New World impertinence!

Even the dishes are more than they seem. The caviar you see in the picture seems as if it’s just Ossetra in a tin. But underneath is a silky and exquisite crab and cucumber rilette that just amazingly flatters the caviar in undreamt of ways. The subtlety isn’t compromised, and the flavors are wonderfully enhanced.

Each dish leaves you puckering your palate as it experiences both sophistication and also at least a few unusually tantalizing overtones…like the warm limoncello souffle with zesty lemon ice cream. We were there two nights and other than the menu below, I can particularly recommend other dazzling highlights like hot and cold foie gras on a single plate (a revelation!), lamb carpaccio with caesar salad ice cream, and a shockingly, decadently alluring butter pecan ice cream sandwich with warm caramel.

Taken all in, it is everything a performance should be — delivered by service personalities who show up for each “act” presciently and yet unobtrusively, contributing appropriate charm and warmth. And I was even given a lovely Boutonniere (the elegant flower in the lapel) as I entered! A lovely tradition rarely preserved today…except at bastions of civility and taste like the Inn.

This is the stuff that memories are truly made on!

Passion comes first, then vision, then devoted execution…success follows, and is almost then incidental. Having chatted with Patrick O’Connel I found he had perused my website and Blog, knew who was inhouse, his team had recommendations in hand for us to enjoy the environs, and he was clearly determined we’d be back well before another eighteen years!

We will…much sooner.

Care that much and I can pretty much guarantee you’ll more than make it in whatever you choose to go for.

MENU

A Tin of Sin: Ossetra Caviar with a Crab and Cucumber Rillette with Gatinois, Grand Cru, Ay, Brut, Champagne, 2002

A Quartet of Island Creek Oyster Slurpies

Lightly Scrambled Local Farm Eggs with Creme Fraiche, Wild Morels and Asparagus in a Crystal Egg with Bodegas Escoda-Sanahuja, Conca de Barbera, Els Bassots, Catalunya, Spain 2006

Pecan-Crusted Soft Shell Crab Tempura with Italian Mustard Fruit and Marinated Cabbage Slaw with Jermann, Pinot Grigio, Venezia Giulia, Friuli, Italy 2006

Pan Seared Four Story Hill Farm’s Peking Duck Breast on Red Wine Risotto with Caramelized Endive and Foie Gras “Croutons” with Thierry Allemand, Cornas, Rhone,  France 2002 and La Grange Meritage, Virginia 2007

Strawberry Basil Bubble Tea

Limoncello Souffle with Lemon Ice Cream with Le Mandolare, Recioto di Soave Classico, Le Schiavette, Veneto, Italy 2005

BONUS: Iced Birthday Cake with Dark Chocoloate and Pistachio

© Omar Khan 2009. All rights reserved.

As Consultants, we have to also decide how to measure our lives and tell time. I recently shared with numerous friends that we spent two and a half weeks on the road (a brief trip for me), between Dubai, Singapore and Thailand. They rolled their eyes and said, “Wow, that must have been tiring.” Really? That’s not how my wife (who is also my business partner) and I were telling time or keeping score.

For me, the two and a half weeks are remembered as follows:

1) A day in Dubai to break the journey, meet our clients at Raffles Dubai, and spend time with two of our team, coaching and preparing them for some major projects ahead.

2) Three action-packed days in Singapore between doing project reviews with Raffles Singapore, helping a key global client do a leadership hand-over from an iconic leader to a new leader charged with carrying forward their impressive trajectory of success, and doing a set of interviews for an upcoming talk.

3) A blissful week-end in Bangkok at the legendary Oriental Hotel, catching up with a past colleague for a superb lunch overlooking the Chao Praya (The River of Kings), and meeting with the also legendary Kurt Wachtveitl as he prepares to leave the helm of the Oriental after 42 years. Kurt is a dear friend, has been a wonderful host over so many special years and we’re looking forward to both retaining contact and perhaps undertaking some hospitality projects together after he enjoys a well earned sabbatical. Kurt at 70 has the energy, drive and imagination that we should all aspire to.

4) Back in Singapore to have a splendid dinner with some global clients who were in town, another set of project review meetings with Raffles Singapore, a presentation to the annual HR Summit in Singapore, an interview on Singapore TV (the clip will be posted shortly on our website) for a morning business program, two sets of meetings relative to an exciting upcoming opportunity in Vietnam, and visiting the new restaurant opened by the former Chef at the Raffles Grill, “The French Kitchen”. We’re delighted Jean Charles has gotten off to such a wonderful start. In the vernacular of Vulcans (on our mind, as we also caught the opening of the impressive Star Trek prequel in Singapore), may the restaurant “live long and prosper.”

5) Back in Dubai for 24 hours, to deliver a speech for the Entrepreneur’s Organization, who had their first attempt to hold a session on a week-end. A packed house, business leaders and their spouses, a valuable and successful occasion all around.

6) Back home to New York last Sunday…in time to make it to Rosa Mexicano for our usual Sunday night dinner.

So to me, it’s two and a half weeks of client engagement, catching up with friends, building our brand, seeding future opportunities, while having great fun. Tiring? How about deeply satisfying?

We tell the stories we choose (i.e one of jet lag and fatigue or of stimulus, great fun and abundant opportunity). Thereby, we pick our frames, and then we pick our “ROE” (return on energy), our responses, and our results accordingly.

Measure your life in the value you extract from your experiences and the value you offer those experiences in return.

Raffles Dubai brings welcome sophistication and service intimacy to a city gagging on architecturally voluptuous hotels who offer often indifferent service. The food scene in Dubai is again high on ambiance and design, often low on culinary finesse, much less true artistry. A welcome exception is The Noble House at Raffles Dubai.

There are many Chinese fusion concepts in the world — again, not many are memorable in terms of fine dining. Noble House is less fusion than haut-Chinese. The sommelier here at Raffles Dubai, has been justly awarded as the Best Sommelier in the Middle East.

When I suggested to the admirable Anthony Lee who helms the Connaught in London with great ability, sophistication and grace, that he visit The Noble House with his fiancee on their recent visit, he agreed. Both of them, with very practiced if not jaded palates between them, said this was arguably one of the best restaurants they had ever dined at, and certainly it matches the very best of Chinese cuisine to be experienced anywhere — comparable to the top venues in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and arguably even more imaginative.

Dinner as theater may have been a vogue. But slightly more value-cognizant and cost-aware times argue for memorable dining quality first. Then the aesthetics and buzz can provide the Hoisin Sauce on the Duck — so to speak.

Aperitif

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Demi-Sec NV

Dim Sum Platter

Beluga Caviar Dumpling (Fresh Scallops, Shrimps, Dried Scallops), Abalone Siew Mai (Abalone and Corn-fed Chicken Dumpling topped with Tobiko), and Potato Dumpling (Truffles and Assorted Mushrooms) with Gavi di Gavi Batasiolo 2007, Piedmont Northern Italy

Yuan Yang Duck

Pan-fried Foie Gras & Mango Duck Roll with Shredded Duck Salad, Hoisin Vinaigrette with St. Urbans Hof QbA Riesling 2007, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany

Shark’s Fin Soup

Shark’s Fin Broth, Crab Meat

A Medley of Main Courses

Wok-Fried Lobster with XO Sauce, Black Pepper Wagyu Beef with pan-seared Australia Wagyu Beef Tenderloin and Assorted Mushrooms, Wok-Fried Noodles with Shredded Vegetables and Mushrooms wrapped in an Egg Pancake with Rustenberg Five Soldiers Chardonnay 2003 Simonsberg, Stellenbosch South Africa and Craggy Range Te Muna Road Vineyard Pinot Noir 2006 Martinborough New Zealand.

Home-made Coconut Ice

with Strawberry and Mango Cream with Castello di Amo, Vin Santo 2001, Tuscany

I read a comment some time back that if you had to vote for the three words most critical to life as we know it, it would be a coin toss between “love thy neighbor” and “wash your hands”. The first if achieved would transform civilization. The second if adhered to, might keep us alive long enough to attempt to. If we essentially follow the latter, we should make it through the current situation just fine.

Anyway, at one point in my presentation, I asked if people ever had to present in their company to senior leaders, where the leaders received them from behind a bank of laptops, checking emails, occasionally texting on their “Crack Berries” (my name for the Blackberry addicted), often oblivious to what they were saying. Virtually everyone nodded emphatically. If there’s a greater way to show disrespect for a presenter, I can’t imagine what it would be. If there’s a better way to kill passion in people for the work they’ve done, or for the recommendation they’re making and which you may want them to implement, I don’t know what it would be. If it’s not important enough to pay attention to or attend to, why gather people simply so you can ignore both it and them?

And this addiction continues into our family lives. At dinners, you’ll sometimes see whole families feverishly fiddling with their electronic device of choice…as if they were transmitting information critical for safeguarding nuclear launch codes, or making a decisive input relative to Middle Eastern peace, or calming the markets with some sage analysis. The truth is far more banal, which makes this reflexive behavior both vexing and sad. The casualty is the conversation, the relationship, the community.

The Blackberry, the IPhone, and all their kith and kin, can be wonderful enablers. But let’s give people the gift of attention if we’ve opted to spend time together, professionally or personally.

And then we can add one more set of three words to the earlier two. “Be here now.” It is what being “present” means.

Mindful awareness of the people we’re with and the situation we’re in, makes so much else both valuable, and possible.  Those who are present in this way, will notice things, hear nuances, pick up gradations that the tech-obsessed are blind to. Accordingly they’ll build personal brands for exceptional perspicacity, and demonstrate levels of alertness and corresponding insight that will seem to endow them with superhuman powers.

In truth though, it’s not superhuman at all. It’s human. And sometimes today, being an awake human being is miracle enough.

The character E.K. Hornbeck (meant to represent H.L. Mencken) in the play INHERIT THE WIND, said so wonderfully: “I do lovable things for which people hate me,  and hateful things for which they love me. I am the friend of enemies and the enemy of friends. I am both poles and the Equator, with no temperate zones in between.”  Once upon a time, a scant few decades ago, the theater going public not only could imbibe the nuances of such word play as they heard these sentences being uttered, they rejoiced in it too.

Even in reaction to sentences laden with too much excess and embroidery, Mark Twain could cause us a twitter (in a more venerable sense of the word) by enjoining us to “Eschew surplusage.”  What made that of course so amusing is that he used the very thing which he was advising us to “eschew”. But then Twain could do that so artfully precisely because he was such a master of the language.

Professionals take heed, global consultants in particular beware. Facility with language, albeit perhaps less vintage language — the ability to make points crisply yes, but compellingly as well, is a critical way to differentiate our value, to project our ideas, to broadcast our brand.

When companies write such tortured English as “deploy our intellectual capital and proprietary technologies synergistically across geographies and value domains to achieve competitive advantage” or outright sap like “we will win through empowering our people, serving our customers and teamwork” there is good reason to be bullish. If you can simplify prose and vivify it at the same time, you’ll find yourself without much by way of competition in this regard.

You might disagree, pointing to the fact that some poets even have opted to be grammatically dubious like E.E. Cummings. But remember,  the impact he achieved while doing so, came from his deep knowledge of and deft touch with the language…it was a deliberate “pattern interrupt” not someone ignorantly careening through the language.

Thoughts worth sharing are a precondition to adding value. But then being able to convey them in a way that lands with your chosen audience is almost as critical. In this age of anodyne inanities and bloviating braggadocio, anyone who thinks clearly, communicates clearly and perhaps memorably, will find themselves with an enormous advantage, globally and even locally. There’s no reason you shouldn’t join their ranks.

Immerse yourself in the speeches, the writing, of masters of the language, and you’ll get ever more attuned to the cadences and rhythms of language, and the luminous potential of the right words employed at the right time.

A wonderful example of this was a writer who suggested that since we are unable to predict so much of what happens, including our prosperity when it comes, then when we encounter good fortune, the only fitting response is not skyrocketing self-regard, but grateful service.

Language is an extraordinary gift. Why not respond to it with grateful study and put that gift to use in valuable service of your clients, colleagues, family and friends?

We began the day at the Four Seasons Hotel for a bite of breakfast and a meeting. Coats were whisked away, the juice of the day (orange and peach) poured with the right mixture of subtlety and ceremony. Warm greetings from members of the staff, always decorous and yet charming.

That afternoon after a grueling but productive morning we opted to take the day (gorgeous sunshine after days of dreary rain). We had a trot through the park, caught a superb movie at the artsy and eccentric Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, AMERICAN VIOLET. A harrowing and inspiring true story that Rex Reed (the critic) and I agree almost pelts you with both intelligence and significance. Yet it’s uplifting, realistically acted and as dramatic as only real life at times can be. We know the gentleman who punches the tickets, and it’s nice to see him act the curmudgeon as he directs traffic at the cinema.

On the way home, we said hello to our friends at Schumer’s our neighborhood wine store (they have a great eye for wonderful bottles of wine and a discerning palate for which wine would best match which culinary occasion). We stopped by one of the fruit vendors close by to our apartment. He greeted us with enthusiasm and insisted I try a particular Mango.

New York is a teeming city, but it’s also essentially a collection of neighborhoods. And if you’ll stop and engage people, you’ll discover virtually everyone knows your name…so to speak, at least within your stomping grounds here.

That evening some dear friends who are also major clients were in town. We dined in Del Posto, one of my favorite restaurants anywhere. We met Jeff the Manager who adjusted to our change in numbers without breaking his stride, Emanuele who almost always looks after us with aplomb and panache, and numerous others we recognize visually if not by name. The menu and wine pairings are below. Highlights included the Raw big eye tuna, the Bollito Misto with the rich Capon broth (amazing!), the Tuscan Fish Stew with Glass Eels (originally alive before the broth was poured!) — but overall it was a true triumph of flavors and service.

We then went onto the Grand Havana Room, my Cigar Club in New York. A busy night there, again a call to Randal, the Manager and a friend, and a wonderful space was reserved for us almost immediately, and we capped the evening with camaraderie, cigars, XO Armagnac and good cheer.

All day we felt blessed that we were known and seen. It was good to be alive!

Try really noticing people wherever you go. Really see them. Listen to them for awhile. Talk to them. William James pointed out that the greatest human craving is the need to be appreciated. Offer that authentically, and you’ll be a star wherever you go…and you’ll deserve to be.

MENU

Insalata Primavera della Terra

Vegetables with Herbs, Sprouts & Flowers, a kaleidoscope of Spring with Brut Blanc de Blancs “Vertus” Guy Larmandier NV Champagne

Tuna Susci with Insalata Tricolore

Raw Big Eye Tuna with Horseradish, Radicchio, Chicory and Arugula with Fiano “Donnaluna” de Conciliis 2007 Campania

Tortellini in Brodo

Bollito Misto in a Miniature Ravioli in a Rich Capon Broth with “Uvaggio” Proprieta Sperino 2005 Piemonte

Linguini in Red Clam Sauce

A New York Classic with Pugliese Vongole Veraci Clams and Piennolo Tomatoes with Barbera d’Alba “Brichet” Ca’ Viola 2007  Piemonte

Cacciucco with Glass Eels

Tuscan Fish Stew with Brut Rose Laherte NV Champagne

Beef Rossini

Beef Short Ribs with Foie Gras, Truffles, Madeira and Garlic Spinach with “Cerviolo” San Fabiano Calcinaia 2000 Tuscany

Blood Orange Bellini

Tartufo al Caffe

Torta Carotina

Butterscotch Semifreddo

with Recioto di Soave, Agostino Vicentini 2006 Veneto

I recently booked into a bastion of fine dining in New York City, for my wife and I, and a special guest. I love the place, so I’m holding off on naming it. Also, because they’re not unique in this disability…not by a long shot.

We had spoken to the Manager. A special menu with wine pairings had been ordered. Numerous communications had gone back and forth to fine tune all the arrangements. The day before the planned dinner,  we got the typical call asking us to “reconfirm” our booking. I asked a colleague to remind the Manager he knew full well we were coming and to make sure everything was in order.

The day of the dinner, another message was left on my voice mail! “Please call us as soon as possible, before noon, to confirm this booking.” Ye gads! How much reassurance did they need? Surely after meticulously aligning on the menu and wine choices, it would be more than quixotic to just not show up. And we had called the Manager again the day before!

Then the penny dropped. My colleague said the Manager probably hadn’t told reservations! The Manager apparently has no idea that reservations staff are maniacally drilled to call, no matter what. To relieve them of their palpitations, I called again. They confirmed the booking but had no idea we had a “special menu”. It would have been nice if they had known and without my asking had said casually, “Of course we’re looking forward to welcoming you, the special menu and wine pairing are all in order.” Another black hole of information! I had to cough up the name of the specific manager so they could ensure there was no further misunderstanding. Even then, the gentleman said, “If there’s a problem, I’ll call you back.”  How reassuring! On the day itself, if there’s a problem…”

I recalled that at another fabled restaurant, I again had made arrangements directly with the Manager who knows us well. Despite that, there were a number of zealous, persistent, unrelenting calls insisting we call and confirm, even though the Manager and I had exchanged emails about the occasion just a few hours back!  So this isn’t an isolated anomaly. It’s an epidemic!

And it’s endemic to organizations at large, not just restaurants. Systems are set up and administered, absent any common sense. Information is received in one location and not shared elsewhere, so that colleagues cannot offer a seamless service rather than pestering the same person to pledge once more their resolute intention to appear!

During the heydey of the Total Quality movement, and then the Business Process Re-engineering movement, and frankly every day since then, gurus and researchers alike continue to report that one of the greatest sources of waste in organizations is interdepartmental conflict.  Dig deeper, and an alarming percentage of that just comes down to inadequate sharing of information, poor consultation between functions, no attempt to co-create rather than to ‘territorialize’ things. Why? It’s easier to hoard than to share. It’s easier to believe that if I know, others can find out.  It is organizational service narcissism.

Do everyone a favor. We have IT, therefore it’s potentially easier than ever to share information. If not, we’re just automating stupidity and inefficiency…and we can now perpetrate THOSE at the speed of light! So let people know what you learn that is of relevance, and make sure there’s a feedback loop from the leader to those on the front line.

Communicate avidly and proactively (rather than reactively and truculently) with those who are a critical part of the value and experience you deliver…as a first instinct, rather than as a last resort. Do that consistently, astutely, insightfully, rather than hanging out in your own functional bunker.  Make that the way things happen in your business and then watch out for the avalanche of delighted, profitable business that increasingly comes your way!

A few years back, this was an annual pilgrimage to attend what used to be called “The Cherry Blossom Walking Festival”. It was an IML (International Marching League) sponsored event, and we used to participate in the 10k (6 mile) and 21 kilometer (13 mile) events.

Victoria is a gorgeous town, scenically and architecturally. The walks, particularly the 21 kilometer take you on a stunning tour of Victoria, through the city, along the water and more. The first year we participated, we did so without any training. Boy did we learn the value of preparation! Amidst an international collection of walkers, some from Asia Pacific, some in military regalia (a contingent from Germany as it turned out), we limped across the finish line barely able to walk.

This set off a new hobby, distance walking and then race-walking. It’s amazing that what we barely completed in 5 hours, 3 years ago, we now do in about 3 hours and 30 minutes on a good day, or 3 hours and 45 minutes after taking too much of a winter off. And the 10 kilometer walk that once was such a challenge to do in an hour and a half, is now something we do several times a week at home in New York. Believe me this is not due to great athleticism. Anyone who has followed the ‘palate titillations’ portion of this Blog knows the hedonistic joys and excess to which I’m very happily prone.

Rather, the point is that you can re-set what’s normal through engagement, through application, and by willing to be uncomfortable enough — purposefully and in a focused way for a definite outcome (not masochistically) — to grow. You actually get ‘comfortable’ being ‘uncomfortable’ when it’s for the purpose of gaining a new aptitude or capability. That’s the only way we progress. We are willing to be ‘bad’ for awhile en route to learning how to be ‘good’ at something. My mentor and later collaborator M. Scott Peck used to say that there is a “paradoxical joy” that comes from being able to handle a greater magnitude of problem than you once were able to, and to be able to take it (relatively) in your stride. So the caliber of challenge that once knocked you for a loop, is now no issue. You are able to take on greater problems with the same expenditure of emotional energy, and perhaps even physical energy, that once was required by relatively trivial issues. That is the very essence of growth.

And indeed the walks seem perceptually now far more abundant in visual stimuli, in opportunities to savor the company of my walking companions, as well as some refreshing solitude for large swatches of the walk, because of the energy that isn’t needed to somehow force my feet to keep moving.

Two years ago, the organizers decided they could no longer keep the walks going. They said they were too ‘expensive’. I made so bold as to mention to some of the city authorities that since versions of these walks were running from the hills of Japan to Vancouver Washington, from Castlebar Ireland to Arlington Virginia (hence demographic density could hardly be an issue), that perhaps the problem was not the event, but rather how it was being run! Of course they disagreed! You will see this with clients as well, and frankly with many of us. We claim that our problems demonstrate that something is impossible or not doable, not that we’re handling it without the necessary acumen, acuity, perseverance or imagination! Much easier on our ego — but devastating in terms of opportunity cost. All those people who once came over to Victoria, presumably stayed in hotels, ate at restaurants, went shopping — surely there were ‘non-event’ windfalls for the city of Victoria? And therefore, surely sponsorships and other advantages could be secured as they have by other global cities to create “viability?”

Some local walking clubs decided to resurrect the walks under the title, “Phoenix Walking Festival” (from the ashes literally). They had over double the anticipated registrants for this barely publicized walk, organized by these non-profit clubs! So at least it’s back, albeit as a shadow of its former self, with far less by way of revenues, global PR, or people from around the world!  But hey, now it’s ‘viable’. Go figure…

Anyway, let’s all beware of assuming the problem is in the stars rather than in ourselves as the Bard suggested so provocatively and insightfully.

In Victoria, to mention those hedonistic aspects, we had a lovely suite at the historic Empress Fairmont. We found a place for savory Pho Soup (that gorgeously addictive Vietnamese delicacy), had superb Sicilian Pizza for lunch, luscious Gelattos, an impressive Raj-like Indian buffet one day at the Bengal Lounge at the Empress, a superb dinner at the Empress Room with a beautifully seasoned and textured crab bisque followed by a succulent canon of lamb with a Quintessa Cabernet 1999 and capped by a hot croissant bread pudidng (astonishing!), and the eclectic ‘Schnitzel House’ scored big once more with its escargots, Goulash and “Cordon Bleu” Schnitzel (with ham and cheese). We spent time together, with a beloved friend, took carriage rides, walked beautiful streets, and toasted the metaphor of our ‘new normal’ as we savored the challenge and exhilaration of the half marathon on Sunday.

We’ve decided that for us,  this time in Victoria, these challenges and joys, are VERY viable! We just have to continue to work on ourselves and our lives to ensure they remain so.

When walking or otherwise, that’s the game!

The limo arrived at 7:30, and I caught the Acela to New York, absolutely filled, 43 people in first class, but two great stewards who promptly served breakfast. I get the last single seat, since the Boston crowd had filled the train before Providence.

The cab dispatcher at Penn Station was fantastic, and my spot at the half-block line takes only 10 minutes to land a taxi. The Mandarin Oriental’s lobby is on the 35^th floor, and my corner room is ready. (Maria came down last night to attend a shower today with Danielle in Jersey, and she’ll meet me here later.)

It’s 74° and the streets are filled with performers, tourists, Central Park denizens, hansom cabs, you name it. A horse carriage driver agrees to take a picture of his two passengers as they alight, and he whips out two carrots to hold so that the horse will look at them. One woman walks next to the horse, and he promptly eats the carrot before anyone can do anything, thank you very much. As I left, he was eyeing the second one, and no photo had yet been snapped.

Barney’s has a lousy shoe selection, but Bally’s is two blocks down Madison and has much better quality. The sales people are great (you’re offered a drink, of course) and I chose a great dress pair of loafers which I decide to walk out with. (My wife hates the fact I can simply buy shoes and wear them immediately.)

Back at the Mandarin, I get a manicure. (It’s quite a process—$75 before tip—and you’re taken to a resting room with reclining couches overlooking the city when you’re done, I guess from all that stress.) I then repair to the lobby lounge, where I have their special Bloody Mary (“Seoul and Blood”) with a Bento Box of dim sum (which roughly translated means “touch the heart”). I looked out over Central Park and awaited my wife.

I didn’t see my wife again, however, until I was having a cocktail in Per Se (to which Omar had introduced me originally) waiting for our guests. She was stuck with my daughter in a two-hour stall at the Holland Tunnel. Eventally, we all rendezvoused by 6:10 and Per Se did its special thing: We had a window seat overlooking Central Park, and a 15-course, prix fixe dinner (you make choices about only three of the selections), and the sommelier was all too happy to match wines with every two courses. (One was a beer, unbelievably, a first for me.) Although Per Se has a world-class wine list (featuring an $18,000, 1900 Margaux), I prefer trying different wines that compliment each course.

At the end of dinner, the maitre d’ offered us a private tour of the kitchen, which features a huge, closed circuit television of their sister restaurant’s kitchen in California, The French Laundry. Kitchen staffs could watch each other (and the four of us) at whim. The kitchen was spotless and food preparation fascinating, as 14 chefs moved non-stop.

When we said goodnight to our guests and walked back to the Mandarin, we were shocked to see it was 11 pm! The restaurant had wined, dined, and entertained us during almost five hours of great conversation, never trying to hurry us, and treating us to a very special evening. If you ever get the chance, you owe this to yourself. There are only 16 tables.

This morning we attended mass at St. Paul the Apostle, the home church of the Paulist Fathers, established in 1858 in the U.S., and right across the street from Fordham University, one block from our hotel. The architecture is spectacular, part Gothic part Byzantine.

Then we visited the grandchildren, who are now eating (and frequently regurgitating) solid food, and we caught the Acela home, from which I am writing and posting this. Quite a weekend. We are blessed.

© Alan Weiss, 2009. All rights reserved.

Not particularly telegenic, looking decidedly frumpy, this unemployed woman, who lives alone in government housing with a cat called ‘Pebbles’ (how wonderfully Dickensian can this get?), and who said she had “never been kissed”, was treated to jeers and eye rolls from judges and audience alike. You couldn’t help but cringe on her behalf as what seemed like an impending train wreck continued to roll on.  In fact, she seemed oblivious to this, and hammed up her moment in the limelight, making her seem even more potentially ridiculous.

It wasn’t actually ridiculous at all, it was courageous, and endearing. This was her moment and she wasn’t going to be embarrassed out of it. She opted to sing “I Dreamed a Dream” from the extraordinary operetta Les Miserables which musicalized Victor Hugo’s immortal novel so unforgettably and which continues to play on the West End over 20 years after it made its appearance at London’s Barbican.

I was at Oxford when Les Mis opened, and recall Patti Lupone (remembered best in the US as Broadway’s Evita, and having recently wowed audiences in Gypsy), doing a heart-wrenching and soul-stirring rendition of this song. It is a song that captures the despair felt by anyone who has been abandoned by life. Yet it is sung against the backdrop of a play that is itself ultimately about protecting a divine flame within us, about the indestructibility of goodness in the face of evil and despair — it is about love and redemption above all.

What a perfect song for Ms. Boyle to have selected! Anyone who has read THE WASHINGTON POST, been online, or watched television over the last few days, knows what happened next. As she began to sing, she was transformed, the listeners were transformed, the frumpiness fell away, and suddenly there was a beguiling angel on stage with a voice of beauty, pathos and power. It is hard to watch this without cheering along with the almost immediately ovationary crowd and judges. Watch it even now and it is hard not to be misty-eyed. Her performance is an anthem to how we humans can be so much more than we seem. And while we can deride the cynicism she was initially met with and how readily it converted to adulation based on ‘performance’, there is something to be said about the ability of passion and commitment to transcend doubt.

Back in the tiny village of Blackburn, West Lothian Scotland, she has returned as a celebrity among the 5000 souls who inhabit the village. Camera crews are pouring in, she received a welcome ovation at Mass in her Church, and people are even going back in droves to hear the original cast recording of  “I Dreamed a Dream” and will hopefully rediscover Les Miserables as a result too.

It was a Renaissance moment.

Why do I say that? One of the seminal works of art of the Renaissance is Michelangelo’s David, which continues to inspire awe timelessly in Florence. If you look carefully at it, you’ll see that a large part of its impact comes from the juxtaposition of power and vulnerability. There are rippling, almost God-like muscles, and yet a young boy’s youthfulness, the exposure of humanness in his unprotected nakedness. It is neither the Medieval glorying of the Divine nor the modern narcissism of the ego. It is both fragility and possibility in one. That was the high water mark of Renaissance philosophy, a true watershed in human history. It is arguably the essence of what it means to be human.

And it is precisely in those human terms that Susan Boyle became such a wonderful hero this week. Bravo! And dare I say, not only to Ms. Boyle but to all who have found this inspiring: “Encore!”

Our company Sensei focuses on improving business results by improving human performance. You would therefore think I’m a fan of human capital management strategies. Well I’m not a fan of any strategies decoupled from real value.

As an example from a not-too-distant past, Shell was known as a leader in progressive people management initiatives. They set up a corporate learning university, they developed intranet systems for sharing knowledge, and more. But tools don’t provide results in and of themselves. It depends on how you use them.

Now if you spend your time crowing about the technical quality of your intranet, or the “professionalism” of your internal university, you can get seduced by irrelevant metrics. Check out actual performance and see if there’s any correlation.

Shell over declared proven reserves by 20%, had a major expense overrun (in the billions of dollars) in Canada, lost its chairman, was pilloried in the business press for a cumbersome bureaucracy and a prickly intransigence to outside views and inputs. Many factors doubtless conspired to produce some of these unfortunate results. But in “human capital” terms the over declaration of oil reserves, for example,  was a stark indictment of either probity, or internal communication (intranet or not), or the absence of a reality-facing culture (where messengers aren’t shot).

The knock-on effect of this affected their share price, depletion rate assessments, costs of finding and developing new fields and more.  Shell has now hopefully moved on. This is only relevant as a demonstration that despite Shell clearly being awash with talented people, somehow those people were not  coming together with their capabilities to produce the right type of overall corporate performance or competence.

In a nutshell, that’s the rub, in companies far and wide. Talent often isn’t being converted effectively into collective competence.

Non-value advocates, people who propose ‘initiatives’ in the abstract, always prefer to go for less intellectually taxing or emotionally demanding solutions — those that require less leadership adaptation. But leadership adaptation is inescapable, and only that will ripple out into adaptations in the behavior of individuals and teams throughout the organization.

Staying with the same industry, BP doubled its corporate advertising budget in a $150 million bid to portray a “greener” image (circa 2005).  When value gets downgraded as a consideration, particularly if it will call on an expenditure of leadership energy in a personal way, then spin seems particularly attractive. When a major refinery leak took place in Texas and then more recently in Alaska, one wonders what that did to BP’s green credentials. Perhaps some of the money might have been better spent towards actual environmental safe-guards and less on appearances! Not having done so preventively, they ended up committing over a billion dollars to US operations subsequently, including very notably into “pipe replacement”.

Larger lesson: don’t get waylaid by activity posing as results, or initiatives without a clear line of sight to business value. The cosmetics of leadership can be purchased. The reality of leadership engagement, the type that leads to real business success, can only be earned. And one of the best ways of earning it is to look for where the real value in your business resides, and to spend the best of your talent, your energy, and your leadership, there.

Day One: The private dining room of Gilt, at The Palace (our headquarters). A beautifully designed, ornate room with a single central table for 14 overlooking St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the courtyard of the hotel. A carefully selected menu with a Montrechet and Turley Zinfandel to accompany.

Day Two: Petrossian, pre-theater (the infectious “In the Heights”), staring with caviar for the table in a private room beneath the restaurant. 

Day Three: Buddakan, downtown, at a long, secluded table, with 16 courses shared, requiring a Hess and a Gerwerstiminer (forgive my spelling, I just drink the stuff). A beautiful interior featuring a long stairway into the restaurant below and the largest common table I’ve ever seen.

Day Four: The incredible Valbella, in the meatpacking district, in the wine room, with soft shell crabs, angel hair pasta, and a trip into an immaculate kitchen where several of my guests cooked the desserts under the supervision of a chef playing encouraging music! A very high-end Amarone did the trick here.

Every restaurant was crowded, huge energy, but we were in our own space. I felt like a Japanese horror movie of the 50s, eating my way through town.

© Omar Khan 2009. All rights reserved.

A highlight of the week-end was our anniversary dinner at Blue Hill Farm just minutes from the Castle on the Hudson where we stayed. This is a working farm and one of the most original and dramatically enjoyable culinary experiences you can have, anywhere.

Essentially you are presented with a list of what’s freshest, you are asked for allergies, and preferences, and then a menu is composed for you. The service is seamless, the attention gracious, the cuisine inspired. The room was bulging with people experiencing each other and more or less joyously experiencing the procession of tastes and flavors that came out in rapid (but not too rapid) successsion.

Some experiences are one-dimensional. Others are multi-faceted. This is a feast for all the senses, and if you opt for a tour of the working farm, its philosophy, its commitment to local produce and the freshest ingredients making it onto plates festooned with a real variety of tastes and textures, you leave as if from a culinary symphony (meaning ‘to bring together’). And bringing together: tastes, experiences and people who are so willing, is something Blue Hill excels at!

FARMER’S FEAST

Chef’s Amuse

Monkfish

cheek, spring garlic and vegetable pistou with Domaine Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne, Grand Cru Burgundy, 2004

Blue Hill Farm Veal Marrow

american caviar with Elderflower Royale

This Morning’s Farm Fresh Egg

greenhouse greens & herbs with the Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne

Hake

celtuce and lettuce broth

Handmade Goose Egg Pasta

spinach and cured egg  shavings with Domaine Dujac Gevrey Chambertin ‘Aux Combottes’ 1er Cru Burgundy, 2004

Stone Barns Berkshire Pig

jowl, date & charcuterie sauce with Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvigon Napa Valley, 1999

Pastured Lamb

swiss chard, salsify and celery root with Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon

Cheese Course

old world versus new world with the luscious last of this superb Cabernet

Meyer Lemon

passion fruit and yogurt sorbet

Parsnip Cake and Chocolate Mocha

bergamot and ginger ice cream with the Parsnip Cake and banana vanilla toffee, campari and roasted soybeans with the Chocolate Mocha with Domaine La Coume du Roy, Maury 1965

Anniversary Special

Toasted Oat Ice Cream with lady apple and white cinnamon and ‘Gin and Tonic’ of  buddha’s hand and meyer lemon sorbet with the Maury

Some were concerned at the price indicating they had heard of a cheaper workshop in Hong Kong that taught coaching skills, offered certification and support.

I was a bit mystified at why that was even relevant to share.

So someone creates their own curriculum, then certifies people in it, and makes a virtue out of that fact? Those attracted by it clearly aren’t able or willing to create their own brand, but want legitimacy by association. And what does “support” mean? We were offering  follow-up mentoring and coaching via phone and email for six months , relative to applying the field-tested concepts that will be taught.

I cannot understand either how someone could compare a session taught by a global consultant with six international offices, four books, 30 articles, 17 years of experience, and some of the world’s leading companies as clients, a session about creating a brand, selling across borders, creating presence despite distance, reducing labor intensity, building rapport with top-level economic buyers, delivering a real ROI from every interaction, improving vitality and effectiveness, and much more with a ‘coaching certification’?

And not to be arrogant, if that’s truly what they wanted, surely they realize these are two different undertakings with two different aims? There is a difference in kind here.

This is relevant only to highlight the real need in consulting. Clients often make specious assumptions because they’re too close to a problem. Or they may be inadvertently clinging to an unchallenged paradigm.  This respondent was making some embedded assumptions about the source of  ‘value’, which interfered with their ability to understand something on its own merits.

Our job as success coaches and trusted advisers is to get our clients to dig deeper than surface similarities and appearances, to shake up ossified assumptions, and make sure skim milk isn’t masquerading as cream…in their businesses or lives.

When we evaluate things, let’s do it on the basis of 1)  the outcomes we are after, 2)  the relevance of what is being offered to those outcomes,  3) the integrity and credibility of each offer relative to the outcomes in question  and 4) the clarity of game-plan each option lays out relative to gaining the desired benefits. That way, a ‘train the trainer’ course won’t be confused with a ‘coaching certification’ won’t be conflated with a ‘master class on building a global consulting practice’.

More critically, by honing this faculty, you’ll help your clients make better choices. You’ll dissipate the fog of encroaching confusion and shine a spotlight of illuminating clarity and incisive insight in helping them define and move towards the outcomes they want.

They couldn’t ask for more from you.

And if you provide it, you won’t have to ask for more business from them — it’ll come naturally and abundantly your way.

In the United States, schooling is often catastrophically poor. Bulging classrooms, over-extended teachers with dubious qualifications, indifferent students who have been conditioned to think of attending school as a ‘necessary evil’.  In other parts of the world, illiteracy is a major issue, and certainly deprivation of schooling is a major means of keeping women marginalized in many deplorable regimes, for example.

So I’m all for more schooling where it’s absent, and better schooling where we have infrastructure and a system of schooling, but where the reality is children aren’t learning as we would hope. We see heart-breaking examples of lack of math skills, the inability to compose a simple sentence, and shocking ignorance relative to basic historical facts. This means in short, we can’t solve or understand key problems, express ourselves accurately and compellingly, or know the context for much of what is happening in our own country and around the world. How do we function as citizens without this?

However, there is an even more pernicious problem that afflicts those who have been schooled to the nth degree. As someone who attended Oxford University and then Stanford Law School, before hiving off into behavioral psychology, I know many who have the gloss of what are allegedly great educations. And doubtless the curricula in question are wonderful — as far as they go, anyway.

There are nevertheless three issues, and they are all highly relevant to our also making our way through the current morass of economic woes and global geopolitical turmoil.

1) Unless you are educated in what is a ‘fixed’ subject, in which no ongoing innovation is relevant (and there must be only a few that literally fit this description), what we study in schools tends to be what has been evaluated as ’sound’ — almost inevitably a rear view mirror assessment. This invariably means that information or set of viewpoints have been around for some time.  And there is therefore almost inevitably a lag between what is currently afoot in that field and what is taught. Whatever is leading the leading edge, will not usually be ratified, field tested, or deemed appropriate for inclusion in the academic pantheon for some time.

So if studying your field produces certitude rather than curiousity, arrogance rather than wonder, a set of fixed conclusions rather than a series of exciting questions and jumping off points for future inquiry, then what we are calling ‘education’ (which comes from the root word ‘educare’ meaning to ‘draw out of’ not ‘dump into’) is really just an imbibing and memorization exercise of potentially outmoded past conclusions — with perhaps some gained skill in the ‘thinking protocols’ (conventional ways of processing if you will) of that discipline. Hardly the best we should hope for!

2) At the end of most fields of study you ‘graduate’. And at many Universities you hear a ‘Commencement’ speech. This suggests you are entering life, commencing upon the business of applying what you’ve learned and parlaying it into productive contribution. Peter Drucker, one of the few true thinkers produced by the study of management, opined that ongoing adult re-education would determine the competitive advantage of nations. By implication also the competitive advantage of individuals. However, a successful education is an education in how little we know. We would all do well to remember that when the Delphic Oracle proclaimed Socrates to be the wisest man in Athens, Socrates himself suggested it was because he was the only man who knew he knew nothing.

If we have been truly educated, we respond to the vastness of our ignorance not with defensiveness, nor by fortifying our small deposits of knowledge with misguided battlements of affectation and preening, but by diving in with joy and engagement into life at large. We continue to read, we dialogue, we experience, we welcome those with knowledge in other fields, we experiment, we immerse, we iteratively become more than the past sum of our educational parts. My mentor of old, M. Scott Peck, suggested once that in every field, science no less than say theology, there are those who enter the field to escape uncertainty, they wish to fixate on the ‘known’. Whereas real scientists and real theologians enter the field to partake in its vastness, to embrace wonder. Each field has its own ‘fundamentalisms’, and it is the posture of fundamentalism per se that is far more dangerous than any particular fundamentalist. For that is how the contagion grows, that is how the cancer is passed on.

Few have understood this better than Isaac Newton who I suspect was prescient enough to realize that even his extraordinary advances in Physics would one day be to some extent transcended. He wrote:  “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble, or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”  Even the world-altering ‘pebbles of knowledge’ Newton had gotten his hands on left his awe at the vastness of what there was yet to discover, undiminished.

3) All goal setting is a combination of education, will, sustained action and flexible course-correction. We all understand that we need the will to get past inertia and obstacles. We understand good intentions by themselves don’t achieve results, sustained action is needed. And we know when the unexpected happens, we have to shift gears, strategy and tactics. But underlying all of this is the willingness to treat each new goal as a ‘learning project’.

It would be fantastic to ask relative to each goal in life, “What will this require me to learn?” The learning could be intellectual, factual, emotional, interactive, statistical, mechanical, technological, cultural, personal, linguistic, paradigmatic, who knows? But as I learn more, I become capable of more. And that is what real education is all about. It is the humility to learn, the willingness to empty the cup of our current knowledge. It is the engagement and curiosity to make room within ourselves and our beliefs and perceptions for an enlarged understanding and for the fresh skills and reflexes that are called for as a result.

It is the very essence of real transformation.

When we look at all the stale, failed strategies and tactics that abound in the world, all the geopolitical and economic cul-de-sacs we seem to have arrived at, it seems emphatically clear that our world needs more and better Education urgently!

Let’s you and I join that movement!

We dined last night at the penultimate Vintage Dinner held at Jean Georges, with lovebirds and wonderful artists in their own right, Maxine and Andrew. The evening was a paen by Jean Georges, himself a three Michelin Star marvel (whose earlier restaurant Lafayette at the now defunct Drake Hotel in New York competes with Per Se for the most memorable meal I’ve ever had in the United States, and virtually anywhere else), to his mentor Louis Outhier. Chef Outhier was one of the entrees into the flavors of Thailand and the Far East for Jean Georges, arguably the greatest modern innovator and master of fusion (as opposed to ‘CONfusion’ cooking which sadly abounds) cuisine. They together piloted Lafayette.

Chef Outhier in turn had studied with Chef Fernand Point, who jousts in culinary history books with Paul Bocuse (who apprenticed under Fernand Point for some time) for the honor of being the ‘father’ of  nouvelle cuisine. Years ago at what was once the finest wine and food event in the world, The Masters of Food and Wine at The Highland Inn in Big Sur, I heard Paul Bocuse explain that nouvelle cuisine was supposed to exemplify elegance and aesthetics, not tiny morsels glittering with everything but taste.

The evening last night was a tribute to Fernand Point who famously intoned, “Butter, butter, give me butter!” Happily for us, though perhaps not in time for his arteries, the cuisine he helped inspire, is no longer bounded by any one ingredient, even one as venerable as truly luscious, creamy butter.

His father and mother were cordon bleu chefs whose restaurant was in a railway station. When their restaurant was snubbed by the authorities, Fernand who had learned cooking at this parents’ aprons, came to Lyon. He adored the classical ruins in the city, particularly the majestic pyramid that stood down the street from his restaurant. His famous restaurant came to be called thus, “La Pyramide”.

For Chef Point, dining was a complete experience, and he was vigilant as to every detail. Every aspect of preparation, Baccarat crystal and Limoges China, service and presentation, had to be superb and immaculate. He broke with tradition and came out of the kitchen and met with guests as well, beginning to transform the role of the Chef into a conduit of an overall experience, not just a grumpy genius hidden away in the kitchen.

He lived life large and with gusto, no less in his craft as elsewhere. He famously said, “I’m not hard to please, I am content with the very best.” No outside disturbances were allowed to interfere with the pleasures and stimulus of what on most evenings was an extraordinary elegy to cuisine and elegance. No more than 50 tables were accommodated. Once full, the President of the Republic himself would have been shooed away.

Art needs masters and apprentices, the latter both being culture carriers and savvy innovators. But their innovation has to come from a depth of understanding as to what they are building on and what they are innovating from. Based on the exquisite meal last night, I believe Fernand Point and Louis Outhier, and for that matter Paul Bocuse, would all have been utterly delighted at the luster of the evening…it was as Fernand Point envisaged great dining to be, an exeptional total experience with Jean Georges as an exquisite conductor.

Business literature argues today that we are in an experience economy and that what people want and will pay for and stay loyal to, are complete experiences that are both relevant and unique, which at once meet key expectations and in other ways take our breath away with pleasant surprise. We need both newness and consistency, both finesse in execution and the ability to enchant in terms of the design and delivery of the key experiences we offer. In that, last night was a master class!

Menu

Gelee de Citron au Caviar et Creme Fraiche

Lemon Gelee with Caviar and Creme Fraiche with Brut NV, Taittinger La Francaise en Magnum

Truffe Surprise

Black Truffle Surprise (the ’surprise’ being a decadently silky foie gras center!) with Pinot Gris 2000, F.E. Trimbach Hommage a Jeanne

Asperges Vertes Aux Morilles et Vin Jaune

Green Asparagus and Morels with Vin Jaune with Sancerre 2006, Lucien Crochet Le Chene

Loup De Mer en Croute “Fernand Point”, Sauce Choron

Black Sea Bass En Croute, Sauce Choron with Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Domaine Monpertuis 2006

Homard a la Nage au Champagne, Julienne de Legumes et Cerfeuil

Lobster a la Nage, Julienne Vegetables and Chervil with Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champ Gain 2006 Etienne Sauzet

Sorbet au The,  Arrose a la Poire William

Tea Sorbet with Pear Brandy

Rotie de Volaille aux Truffes Noires, Epinard a la Creme

Chicken Roasted with Black Truffles, Creamed Spinach with Pessac-Leognan 2004, Chateau Bahans Haut Brion

Caravanes de Dessert

Caravan of Desserts with Sauternes 1998 Chateau Guiraud and Banyuls 2006 M. Chapoutier

We created the concept of Leadership Journeys to allow leadership teams to travel together, experience a locale and culture together, and engage in conversations that needed to take place, but for whatever reason, weren’t.

In a radical (read ‘root’) experience of this type, when filters are removed, Blackberries silenced, and a choice made to spend time and money despite the recessionary doom and gloom, it’s amazing how quickly, courageously and directly people can engage.

In this recent Journey that took place through Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds, these leaders looked at three key themes for them: Big Hits needed to win in 2009; how to collaborate effectively globally and regionally; how to improve the quality of execution in the market. It was a no holds barred set of exchanges, in which feelings, ideas, priorities and paradigms were ventilated and exchanged, and blinkers, biases and prejudices were confronted, and to a large extent transcended.

Help your clients identify the key conversations that need to take place — which if engaged in creatively, boldly and openly could be potentially transformational. Until these conversations happen, and until they are anchored in relationships capable of taking the implications of the conversations forward, all the exhortations, analytics, Power Point charts, and cerebral verities in the world won’t amount to a proverbial hill of beans. Our future is largely shaped by how well we relate to key stakeholders, and how successfully we leverage our collective abilities. At the epicenter of both are critical, radical conversations.

This team left committed to demonstrate the credibility of their commitments. They went from Journey into key action planning Board Meeting. What a week for them! And now when they head out to deliver what they’ve co-created and committed to, they know their team-members will have their backs, and they know where they are leading TO! By itself, these two things, in leadership and in life, are always more than half of any battle worth fighting.

The pictures capture some of the stunning sights along the way. The first is a Pub called The Trout, made famous by numerous episodes of Inspector Morse filming there, and allegedly by Lewis Caroll apparently having done some of his ‘Alice in Wonderland’ writing on the small island opposite the pub. The second is the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, a centerpiece of Radcliffe Square and the University, one of the key libraries there (among the earlierst circular libraries in English architecture, replete with Corinthian columns). The third is Broadway Tower, a Folly overlooking the town of Broadway in the Cotswolds. A ‘folly’ in this sense is architecturally something built purely for decoration, with no practical purpose like housing, or fortification, or otherwise. This one is at the second highest spot in the Cotswolds and was built in the late 18th century by Lady Coventry who wanted to see if a beacon at the top of this hill could be seen from her house (whimsy if not folly indeed!). The final photo is of the lovely walk we took from the Tower to the town of Broadway along the famous Cotswold Way.

© Omar Khan 2009. All rights reserved.

However, it’s more than optics. The denouement of the Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer dust-up which occurred on THE DAILY SHOW last Thursday (if you’re reading this in parts of the world where this has gone unnoticed and hence reads like ancient Greek, go onto the THE DAILY SHOW website and watch some of the exchanges — quite edifying as a journalistic ‘moment of truth’), was when Stewart poignantly pointed out that we need to go back to a time when you were rewarded for the fruits of your effort, for integrity, for being imaginative yet also playing by ethical rules, not by gaming the system, or partaking in a runaway orgy of greed and financial gamesmanship.

Yesterday, heading to an unusually satisfying movie (SUNSHINE CLEANING), I saw a book extolling the lost pleasures of conversation. It led me to consider how much of modern entertainment seems to be in the attention-diffusing business. Great conversations concentrate attention on the people you’re conversing with as well as yourself, and hopefully on the stimulus as well as the pleasure of the interaction.

Sadly, on review, the book didn’t live up to the dust jacket hype. It was ironically more about how to ‘game’ various conversations — be they romance conversations, business conversations or otherwise.  It was more about gimmicks, not the type of engagement and authenticity of exchange that real conversations are about. It has to, again, be about more than optics!

I’m convinced we need better conversations taking place now more than ever — in government, between government and citizens-at-large, between businesses and customers, between businesses and stakeholders, between families and friends, between intimates of all stripes.

“At a dinner party, one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely (W. Somerset Maugham).”  In life, the well from which we draw our wisdom should not be the shouted assurances of Messrs. Cramer and co. and their ilk, but the more deliberate exchanges, and consideration of alternative points of view, afforded most often by wide-scale reading and wide-ranging conversation.

Mark Twain once suggested to someone that they stop “communicating” with each other so they could start conversing. Well, let’s at least stop communicating at each other. In the week ahead, let’s have some great conversations! And then, let’s keep them going…and expand them!

My wife and I then headed for LAX to fly to Vegas, where I’m delivering Six Figures to Seven for the first time in the US, followed by the Mentor Summit, and finally the Million Dollar Consulting® College Reunion.

Heading through the first class LAX security line, we came across on-the-job training, where three security people were staring at a screen, making comments, taking notes, and moving no one along. It took over 15 minutes for this laborious screen searching and button pushing. When I told the supervisor that the system was absurd, he patronizingly said, “Oh, thank you, sir,” and then, not knowing my wife was behind me, made a face in front of his subordinates. (Apparently they don’t measure maturity when filling supervisory jobs in Homeland Security.)

When you don’t have customers, you have zero motivation to move anything along efficaciously or urgently. Lines don’t matter, complaints don’t matter, missed connections are not  your concern. Imagine Singapore Airlines, or a Four Seasons Hotel, or Bentley unconcerned about their customers’ perceptions and experiences? There are always the Emirates Airlines, the Ritz-Carlton, and Rolls as alternatives.

The problems with most government operations is that it isn’t clear who the customer is or how satisfaction should be measured. And the customers have no alternatives.  Instead, there are mindless rules and the triumph of means over ends, AKA: bureaucracy.

Of course, none of those bureaucrats is about to fly Air Singapore, stay at the Four Seasons, or drive a Bentley. And, trust me, that’s as it should be.

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

He contrasted that to today. When his own kids ask for a DVD, without thought (until recently anyway) out came some money. If they wanted to download some music, out came a credit card. Christmas is wracked with commercialism…it takes a tow truck in some homes to deliver all the ‘gifts’.

In the corporate sphere, many companies in the downturn are saying they will ‘buy in’ consulting expertise, but refuse any more to have hordes of consultants in to be surrogate project managers, or to hold a manager’s hands while they implement. It’s an understandable distinction and a lot smarter than across the board, indiscriminate reductions which don’t look at value in the slightest.

In a sense our consulting interventions have to become more like the Beatles album rather than the mindless consumerism of today. Clients really should carefully select the outcomes they want, co-create with a consulting partner an approach they really anticipate implementing, for truly measurable value they know will make a real impact to their business. They may have to budget other things more carefully, they may wish to ensure that they are getting a premium product, not a repackaged ersatz knock-off with nicks and scrapes, and poor sound quality.

And if we on this basis create a real fan base, we’ll be much better placed to ride out any downturns. Leaders will still need to be coached, to get advice in areas that are vital to their business, to have crucial leadership teams aligned and focused, to connect better with their customers, to keep key talent engaged, and more. They may defer some work, but not forever.

And if they choose more judiciously, and we can work to appeal emotionally as well as pragmatically when the choice is made — really commit to their success (rather than our own methodology or our own Pavlovian reaction to any scintilla of interest from them no matter how remote or frankly ill conceived from the client’s perspective), then our ‘albums’ will be bought over and over, our music shared with everyone else they know and respect, and we’ll build an enduring practice that reflects that.

The day of the intemperate purchase may be over…purveyors of real value will end up prospering and benefiting — in consulting as in all else.

My wife Leslie and I were back at Per Se last night. I had come in possession of a Petrus ‘89, a truly stunning vintage from this glittering wine-maker. Per Se adapted their evening tasting menu to locate some dishes that truly flattered the wine, and which were in turn flattered by it.

Sadly our camera chose last night to malfunction, so there aren’t photos capturing some of the marvelous presentations, but I’ve highlighted some of the most memorable dishes below. Robert de Niro was seated two tables away, and looked at us twice as he passed by, made eye contact, and we were in that curious position of not wanting to intrude, but also not wanting to offend (by seeming not to recognize him).

Would it not be wonderful if we in our businesses and lives also took aim at some key things we offer that are in themselves, of themselves, and utterly wonderful in both?

When I landed at JFK my assistant had managed to persuade the officer in charge of the Global Entry Program I had enrolled in (which allows ‘trusted travelers’ to clear immigration via an electronic kiosk using fingerprints) to schedule my approval interview 45 minutes after we landed! Usually you’re told when to show up and have to schlep back out to Kennedy. But she established a human connection with him, and the officer was a thorough gentleman. We also found we share a birthday! 20 minutes and it was done…it’ll be fun to try out when we return from London next week.

Warren Buffet feels that the Administration is trying to do too many things and suggested the economy had plunged off a cliff over the last six months.

An interesting distinction has been drawn. No one is expecting the Administration to be alchemists turning base metal into gold. What people are clamoring for is clarity on game-plan and focus. I remember stating early on in this Blog and my newsletter, the need for a debated and agreed dashboard, with frequent progress checks against it. The need for that is now becoming ever more palpable…and urgent.

A representative of a fund called me relative to a business expansion we’re planning. We had said ‘no thanks’ to them, but he insisted on speaking to me personally. He said they wanted to fund our expansion but on what seemed to be curious terms. It didn’t, to me, pass the ’sniff test’. And for us, it IS an expansion…not a bail-out, so we’re not pressed. Rather than figuring that out, assuming (or perhaps hoping) we were desperate for their funding, he tried an amateurish and condescending ‘hard sell’. Five minutes talking to me would have established it was absolutely the worst way to pitch me. He then suggested that no one else would fund us (nothing like insinuating you and your plans are hopeless — leading you then to wonder what ‘death wish’ is impelling them to so aggressively try to land the deal themselves!), and we’d come crawling back to him (not in so many words, but that was the import), and he’d then have (ominous drum roll please!) ‘new terms’.  So he’d punish us for looking around and thinking about it!! Post Madoff and the debacles on the Street, this chest-pounding neanderthal is resolutely off-base if he thinks that anyone is going to tie any part of their financial destiny to an unknown ‘fund’ without taking a comprehensive look at options — including in our case, the option to postpone expansion for a year and stick to our knitting if we so choose.

I mention this last only to highlight that the worst thing you can do is attempt to browbeat people into doing business with you…at any time, but especially now. Truly become their trusted advisor, and help them evaluate and learn whether you are actually the right answer for them, or not. You’ll either get the business or you won’t. But you’ll definitely get the relationship, and in the longer term, I’ll lay odds you’ll do more business with them as well…or have another zealous brand referee, or the source of a truly warm referral.

Jon Stewart has been raking CNBC over the coals again for their bloviating excess in the recent past, hyping the bubble and its distortions. They’ve been flailing around trying to respond, demonstrating that the role of ‘court jester’ has never been more powerful…or needed right now. Stewart pointed out the obvious. His is a comedy show, so asking him for better economic predictions (as MSNBC host Joe Scarborough did) as if that’s a relevant gauntlet, only demonstrates the depth of confusion prevailing in parts of that network. But hey, it’s made for an interesting set of exchanges and the financial ‘gurus’ at CNBC are treading far more lightly as a result.

Citibank announced a multi-billion dollar profit for the first two months of ‘09…this sent global markets upwards in a frenzied tizzy, just as Mr. Madoff was showcased as possibly being given a 150 year sentence. Watch out for many more roller coaster swings in the financial markets until a new normal is re-set. Time for businesses and indivduals everywhere to redefine ‘value’ and ’success’ and ‘priorities’, possibly also ‘ethics’ and ‘character’.  The inflection point is HERE!

It’s amusing how many common phrases are oxymorons, in other words a contradiction in terms. Here are some I like particularly:

“Act naturally.”

“Clearly confused.”  Though huge swathes of us excel at this one, making it eminently clear that we have a penchant for confusion.

“Found missing.”

“Only choice.” This actually has philosophical reverberations. Isaiah Berlin was fond of pointing out that if you don’t educate yourself as to the available choices, you aren’t really free. In fact you aren’t choosing, you’re actually defaulting to what’s evident to you at that time often itself conditioned by conformity.

“Seriously funny.”

“Virtual reality.” Sandbagging our perceptual apparatus by blurring the distinction between what is the case and what is simulated. However, were one to dive into the debates about sense and perception, “things as they appear” and “things as they are”, we may find that virtually everything may well be…virtual reality.

“Law abiding illegal aliens.” As opposed, of course, to those who ignore laws other than those pertaining to residency as well?

“Business casual.” What is that? T-shirt and dress pants? Blazer and jeans? No jeans and definitely wear some socks with your loafers?

“Banking system.” That’s the current non-system, now in tatters, that melted down by imploding on itself, after trying hard Canute-like to keep back an ocean of reality that has finally asserted itself relative to the fact that you can’t just use money to make money — it really is a medium of exchange. And it works best, when value is what is exchanged, and not a venereal disease (as Warren Buffet has called it) of weird derivatives backed by the bizarre ‘insurance’ of credit-default swaps.

As ironies go, someone suggested that there may well be an ‘invisible hand’ governing markets, but it may ‘invisibly’ but palpably grope a few body parts we may not wish to have groped en route to recovery. Another wit opined that perhaps what the government is doing is tantamount to an invisible middle finger being given to taxpayers!

And so  ‘economic sanity’ may supplant ‘military intelligence’ in the oxymoron hall of fame, as more chastened military warriors gain wisdom and more economists demonstrate that you can get equivalent quality predictions from a Fortune Cookie. Jon Stewart’s spot on rant about CNBC’s blistering inaccuracy with economic predictions over the last few years may help us confirm yet one more utterly fitting oxymoronic candidate: ‘TV guru’ or ‘popular pundit’.

Throughout history real pundits have rankled, they’ve raised welts, in H.L. Mencken’s wonderful self-description, they have “comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable.” It may be time to call them back from whatever extended emergency vacation they’ve been on.

© Omar Khan 2009. All rights reserved.

Consultants have to beware of making things overly complicated. I’ve just dealt with two sets of senior teams, made up of highly capable, articulate, dedicated members who needed to learn to listen better and more deeply to each other, and needed time to build relationships with each other. Everything else had been tried! Every other major or minor fad, multi-step program, you name it. Everything but the obvious.

Their other need was to look at the assumptions they were making, what CK Pralahad calls the ‘dominant logic’, in areas where they were stuck. It surely cannot be shocking that if we are persistently and consistently stuck, we ourselves, our thoughts and assumptions, might be the adhesive!

Asking clients “How do you know this?” when they trot out their favorite rationalizations for continuing to entrench recurring problems and not being fobbed off by fuzzy replies and factual tap-dancing is probably as potent as any four quadrant, multi-axis diagram ever created.  Probably more so.

Let’s realize the source of many trenchant problems will be lurking in front of us, ’so obvious they’re not obvious’ as one of my most insightful clients put it — waiting to be glimpsed, furtive only because we refuse to see them, and face them.

And let’s therefore also look for real answers where it seems we often least want them to be, but where they most often are nonetheless…in our thinking, in our communication, in our interaction, in our listening, and finally in and through the action we take as a result!

When we left, we enjoyed an impeccable early check-out at a wonderfully run 24 hour Club Floor at 6:15, the promised 6:30 lavish continental spread (which included excellent Dim Sum by the way!) was already set up and ready. The bags were down at 6:40, the car was ready. Only when we pulled out the copy of the bill after landing in Ho Chi Minh City several hours later did we see that the back of the envelope read: “Miss You Already.”  From a campy chain that would have been too much syrup. From a resolutely professional and efficient hotel in bustling Mongkok, it was a charming and insightful touch.

Ho Chi Minh hasn’t changed. A study in contrasts…and a commitment to national development. The government here has tried a new approach to stimulate consumption. They’ve done a 5 month income tax hiatus in ‘09!!  Their hope that this will keep consumers spending normally!  Very clever…and as they’re NOT snowed under a mountain of debt, it’ll be fascinating to see how it pans out.

Anywhere the English colonized they left behind bureaucracy and institutions. When the bureaucracy stifles it’s sad, when the institutions work, great progress is possible (India for example is a case study in both simultaneously). Where the French colonized, they left in relative terms arguably greater inefficiency, but usually an advanced sense of aesthetics, style, and a rich appreciation of cuisine. This is very evident in Vietnam, and harmonizes well with their own cultural sensibilities.

We stayed at the Sofitel Plaza because of so many memories from the time the Unilever Vietnam office was next door, and we helped them build their teams and thereby their results over several years. Vietnam takes you constantly by surprise! We learned that a 3 star Michelin Chef had just finished a promotion at the Sofitel’s French restaurant Olivier, the first such tour in Vietnam from a Chef of such international repute. It won’t be the last. Another such is planned for November.

After a meeting with an old friend and future business partner, we went with a Sensei colleague to Mandarine, an elegant local restaurant whose ambiance and presentation of lovely dishes, done with real subtlety and style conveyed, as ever, so much of the spirit of this remarkable place.

Off we go to China Beach in Central Vietnam and another senior leadership team…coming there to both experience Vietnam and re-experience themselves and how they collaborate and interact.

PS. Much as we adore HCMC overall, not everything is impressive. Clearly they issue taxi licenses on a capricious whim. It’s evident that virtually no cab driver in Ho Chi Minh City knows any major restaurant, hotel or landmark. However, they don’t let that deter them! They drive on with great expectations…until eventually the location is spotted, or finally their ego relents and they call their dispatcher!

I’m in Hong Kong, working with a client bringing together their China and Japan teams. We’re in Mongkok, a corner of Kowloon. “Mongkok” literally means ‘bustling corner’ and for years this was the activity hub of Kowloon. “Kowloon” means 9 Dragons. A visiting young Emperor or Prince (these are abundant in Asian lore!) noticed there were eight mountains here and hypothesized that there would be a dragon living on each one.  Someone in his retinue suggested that the young Emperor because of his royal lineage too was ‘a Dragon’ and therefore it should be ‘Nine Dragons’. And so the name “Kowloon” was born. Kowloon affords a stunning view of the amazing Hong Kong (Island) skyline. As long as we’re digging into names, “Hong Kong” means essentially ‘Fragrant Harbor’.  It may have been so named because of its export of fragrant incense, or possibly because early travellers picked up a very distinctive scent as they came into the Harbor that may have come from frangipani trees. Today it is is still ‘fragrant’ though arguably for less savory reasons.

In the midst of stating a vision, identifying key sponsoring goals, agreeing on their most critical daily focus areas, re-imagining ways of working to enable that, these delegates have built the beginnings of a real community. They’re thrilled to meet each other, to feel connected as part of a larger region. They’ve gone Dragon Boat Racing together, and as I write, are out on a discovery adventure of Kowloon.

During the Dragon Boat races, watching from the beach it was clear to us who would win. One team was working in unison, utterly disciplined and wonderfully driven. The others were splashing and thrashing about, out of synch, and arrived over 13 seconds later. However, as both teams were galvanized again for the second race and the results were shared unromantically with clear feedback given, a marvelous transformation took place. This lagging team rallied and coordinated their efforts, had a clear renewed objective, and put everything into it. What happened was a virtual photo finish, and while the other team still won, this time it was by a mere .07 of a second! The rate of improvement of this second team had been amazing, and virtually immediate.

There was much gentle ribbing of each other, celebrations, high fives, self-deprecating humor. It was a healthy, inclusive culture…but one where performance had , in the case of one team been strongly sustained, and in the case of the other team, significantly improved.

People coming together, pulling together, focused together…there’s real power there. This is a team with both talent and a hunger to win in the marketplace too. If they take the will they’ve generated while overlooking the Fragrant Harbor, and build on the relationships forged in the shadow of the dragons, I believe they’ll pull it off.

The waters of Hong Kong have witnessed over their history, one of the greatest examples of entrepreneurial success and initiative the world has seen. There is certainly much here to take inspiration from.

PS. Our hotel for the event, Langham Place in Mongkok, while not from a globally recognized brand, is run with real heart and often great style. Their distinctiveness is reflected in the whimsy and yet utter appropriateness of some of their art and sculptures.

On our Leadership Journeys, we often take people to exotic and alluring contexts, so we can release the hold of the familiar and get them to undertake brave, radical, potentially transforming conversations.  Bereft of a budget, we tapped our imagination.

We took the group to the Botanical Gardens in Singapore and had a conversation outside of the sterility of a hotel room. The surroundings were lush and gorgeous, they dove into the conversation we crafted about their key growth drivers with gusto. We then found a food court, corralled a corner, did a debrief that was penetrating in its incisiveness (owing in large part to their desire to fully avail of this opportunity and not waste time, or words, or energy).

We next sent them out to explore Singapore in what was a blend of a cultural treasure hunt cum ‘Amazing Race’. They finished exhilarated, exuberant, pleasantly fatigued, and overflowing with mirth.

After that, by the waterfront, another cafe, another set of chairs and we debriefed the experience, considered how they’d have to shift behaviors to deliver their short-listed strategic ‘big hits’ from the morning, and they then gave each other ‘feedforward’ (future based requests for improvement, received by individuals from their work teams).

After that, a subway and train ride took them to Sentosa for a festive dinner and a creative performance (most of them are marketeers) to symbolize the commitments they had made. I received emails about the value they received, and the fun they had.

But it also became a metaphor for the times. Where budgets prohibit, team commitment and creativity need to take over. We can still do what we need to do, albeit in different circumstances. The aim was not to hibernate in a hotel, but to come together as a team. No corporate bureaucrat can prohibit that if there is the will. As consultants, we need to help willing clients find alternative ways of staging interactions and getting value. They don’t hire us to hang out in conference rooms, but to help them improve their business and their teams.

You can help  find a way to enable teams to connect, you can help clients make a case to locate budgets for what are true investments — help them fight for things that can enable business results,  and then help them execute accordingly to ensure a compelling ROI. Thereafter, they never need to explain why they’re hiring you. All they have to do is then point to the results, to a winning team culture that will be palpable as it comes online, and the ways in which they’ve moved the business measurably and meaningfully forward. Focusing what we offer on such a basket of benefits is what the times require — but it is also what the best consultants, global and local, do at all times anyway.

Yesterday, I arrived via Christchurch (where I was marooned with Dolly Parton on my only prior trip there, but that’s another column sometime). We hurried to catch the gondola to the mountaintop to be welcomed by Maori tribes people with a traditional greeting and blessing. The weather today is overcast, so our chopper ride to the glacier had to be cancelled.

It seems to me that the people in this part of the globe view the US as they would an old drive-in movie: The screen is far away, and the story is disrupted by noise, food, and occasional passion. But one thing is certain, everyone will drive home again once the showing is completed.

I’ll work with Rob’s group tomorrow and then head for home on Wednesday. It’s interesting being a global consultant: Once you’ve seen something like Queenstown, you can’t imagine NOT having seen it.

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

About 10 years ago, while consulting for The Ritz-Carlton Millennia Singapore as it was being launched as the new flagship for that company, we were induced to attend a wine and food event at Raffles Singapore.

This iconic 120 + year old hotel hosted a superb set of events featuring then the cuisine of Alain Ducasse paired with the wines of Chateau Latour. It was exquisite!

Fast-forward to 2009 and The Raffles Wine, Food and Arts Experience is a beloved fixture in the Lion City of Singapore (a visiting Sumatran Prince in the 14^th century spied a fearsome lion and so changed the name from “Temasek” to “Singapore” literally “lion city” – today the symbol is a Merlion, a mythical creature with features of both a lion and a fish, showing the historical linkage to both the ancient tale and the sea).

This year the event has been particularly wonderful – a revitalized culinary leadership team at Raffles has coaxed and evoked great performances and finesse from remarkable talent. A quick smattering of our dinners and I’ll post the menu of the Gala with wine pairings.

The first night we enjoyed the cuisine of Maria Luisa Valazza, Italian Three Star Michelin Chef from Al Sorriso, a self-taught genius. A real highlight was the Le Triglie, Red Mullet with a Hazelnut Broccoli Flan, Buffalo Mozzarella and Anchovy Foam with a Morey-Saint Denis 1er Cru Blanc 1998 . Another winner, the Fagottini Di Pasta (Pasta Pillow) filled with Duck, Apple and Black Truffle (being reprised for the gala finale) with La Grola 2004 Allegrini.

The next night we feasted on an exquisite menu from Bruno Menard, Three Star Michelin Chef from L’Osier in Tokyo. The decorative aesthetic impact of life in Tokyo showed in the stunning presentations. A highlight was “Mount Fuji Trout” with Sudachi Essence and Macadamia Nut “Hummus” with a quite lovely Chateau La Tour Haut Brion 2001. The Le Pigeon Gremillon (French Squab) with a Wasabi Crust was a visual feast as much as a gustatory one. Some complained the meat was too red. I wanted to suggest to them that this would be akin to complaining that Picasso shouldn’t paint so abstractly…sometimes you go to artists to recognize what you enjoy, at other times to expand paradigms and to be educated. Those Three Michelin Stars are hard won. This was paired with Mission Haut Brion 1998. But it was the Mission Haut Brion 1990 paired with Fourme d’Ambert Mild Blue Cheese on a Banana (!) that was the show-stopper. While we had a surprise pouring of the Haut Brion 1982, alas it was somewhat past its prime.

The third night we exulted in the genius of Didier Elena, whose cuisine I’ve loved from the time he opened the Essex House restaurant for Alain Ducasse in New York. Chef Elena’s Two Michelin Stars are justly earned, and if he didn’t keep moving between kitchens (opening Il Cortile in Paris and Beige in Tokyo), that third star would definitely be his. The Mont D’or – Truffes Noires (Cheese with Black Truffles, Egg, Melting Potatoes and Jabugo Ham) was a revelation, paired beautifully with an unusually astringent (and therefore fitting) Krug Millesime 1998. An utterly extraordinary experience was Slowly Braised (32 hours) Beef, with Blood Stew Sauce to be scooped with a spoon with the Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 1996.

Despite the recessionary downturn, the dining rooms have been packed by enthusiasts and connoisseurs. But there has been an impact. Usually the Chefs not cooking at the Raffles Grill that evening do private events for corporates. That’s what’s not happening this year.

But even so, such festive celebration of life and art at surprisingly affordable prices (great quality and great value is not a bad anthem for these times for any of us) is a way to stem (at least for a time) any incipient despair or angst. Build a brand and they will come – as long as the brand isn’t just hype, but is truly a world class experience, shared with pride and joy (and a suitable immunity to requests to ruin the pigeon with overcooking – you compromise your craft at your peril!). Instead of eroding our standards, let’s remember always though to educate our customers with compassion and a measure of grace, never with condescension.

One gripe: the wine pairings strangely left out dessert wines. The reds don’t work with the desserts. A glass of champagne, a Demi-Sec perhaps, a Tokai, a Madeira…we experimented with several and filled the vacuum. Last night, a ’59 Armagnac and an Opus X from Fuente capped a glorious evening on my terrace.

For this event, for its vision, its execution, and the abundant generosity of spirit of the Raffles team in particular in delivering it: Bravo!

GALA DINNER

Chef Denis Groison (Chef de Cuisine, Raffles Grill, Raffles Hotel Singapore)

Amuse Bouche

Clams Mariniere with Butter Squash Puree, Vanilla and Saffron Foam with Krug NV

Chef Bruno Menard (Three Michelin Stars, L’Osier Tokyo)

Langoustine et Caviar

Langoustine with Caviar, with Leek Cream and Nori Pistachio Pesto with Morey-Saint Denis 1er Cru “Les Monts-Luisants” Blanc 1999

Chef Didier Elena (Two Michelin Stars, Chateau Les Crayeres, Reims, France)

Coquilles Saint-Jacques

Sea Scallops in a Bouillon with Leek Vinaigrette and Black Truffles with Pinot Noir “Recher Herrenberg” Lange Goldkapsel 2006

Chef Maria-Luisa Valazza (Three Michelin Stars, Al Sorriso, Sorriso, Italy)

Fagottini Di Pasta

Pasta Pillows stuffed with Poppy Seed, filled with Duck, Apple and Black Truffle with Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 1975 and Chateau Figeac 1990

Chef Philippe Labbe (Two Michelin Stars, Chateau de la Chevre d’Or, Eze, France)

L’Agneau De Lait Des Pyrenees

Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder with Aromatic Herbs, Eggplant and Orange Marmalade with Chateau Haut Brion 1982

Chef Gerard Poulard (Cheese Master)

Fromage

Selection of Farm Cheeses by Master Poulard with Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico 1997 – Allegrini

Chef Gael Etrillard (Raffles Hotel Executive Pastry Chef)

Chocolate Variation

Dark Chocolate Stick, Darjeeling Sorbet

Mignardises

© Omar Khan 2009. All rights reserved.

I’m staring at the Opera House, which is about 200 yards across the water, outside of my balconies. To the right, the huge Queen Victoria is docked. Sydney Harbor is deep water, so the mammoth ship is merely yards from the city streets.

It’s summer here, of course, and it’s stopped raining after quite some time. The weather today is about 75°F. Some of the team work during the day was done al fresco.

We talked about the Accelerant Curve today, and how you should structure your offerings to proceed from low cost and high ease of entry, down a sharp slope to high cost and low ease of entry. Once you have a brand, people will be drawn directly to the more intimate, high fee offerings, but until then, you need to attract people with low cost value (newsletters, blogs, books, CDs. teleconferences, etc.).

The Australian economy is taking a hit, the local dollar is down to 65 cents U.S., and the lowered expectations with China trade alone might drop the GDP by 4% annually. Yet I had a roomful of six-figure consultants looking to move quickly to seven figures.

It’s all about how you view things: half-full glass, half-empty glass, smashed glass, or overflowing glass?

© Alan Weiss2009. All rights reserved.

She explained that her boss told her to tell the employees in her division that they’d all have to work seven days a week if they wanted to keep their jobs, and no matter what transpired or was achieved, there would no bonus whatsoever. This was communicated with that belligerent sense of almost victimized trauma today common in leaders of companies who have spent years racking up record profits and seem to have devolved into Jello upon having to weather a Grade A crisis and actually lead rather than just coasting.

This leader replied, “No problem, I’ll communicate that. And as they probably don’t have a lot of job options, they’ll probably comply. But presumably you’re ready, and so are we as a company, for the sharp drop in productivity that will follow?”  A total, glum, resentful silence followed.

Leaving this Shakespearean scene there, we can see that this woman leader hit the nail on the head. Sure we can deprive people of everything, and with a shrinking job market, hold them hostage to every overwrought whim we can summon.  And certainly panic can temporarily impel action…for awhile. We can terrify people into acquiescence, but certainly not into commitment or productivity, much less passion.

Fear and exhaustion are the wrong fossil fuels for performance. And arguably a downturn in which everyone has to create more with less, leverage all the company’s value drivers, optimize client relationships, find new ways of growing, ensure time is spent on the highest return activities, needs the discretionary energy and efforts of our best people, at all levels. How are we going to get it? Not by tormenting them and gloating over our dictatorial ability to convert workplaces into Gulags.

No, we’ll do it the way you get a measure of sacrifice and dedication at any time. By enrolling them for some larger end game — some stretch targets we can shoot for, some purpose to hang in there for, some vision to get behind. We’ll do it by throwing down a gauntlet that’s meaningful and which people want to respond to. We’ll do it by creating a greater sense of community (which crisis engenders naturally if we are focused towards a common goal), by leading from the front, by celebrating all progress and quick wins, and by finding imaginative ways of saying ‘thank you’ — some financial, some otherwise. Today, even a judicious little bit, will go a long way.

Leaders enroll leadership energies — a sense of purpose, mutual engagement, aligned commitment, a passion to achieve. And companies that get that from their people and teams, should reward them… however they can. That’s the fossil fuel smart companies, winning companies, will drill for and deploy!

The Del Posto team (this two star Michelin gem is a collaboration between Mario Batali of BABBO fame and Joe and Lidia Bastianich of FELIDIA fame) decided to dive into a wonderful well of 19th century inspiration, the famous (and infamous) cookbook by Pellegrino Artusi.

Artusi at 71 was a retired silk merchant, who finally gave up trying to find a publisher for his cookbook THE ART OF EATING WELL. He self-published it (in 1891), and it took over four years for a mere 1,000 copies to be sold. However, in time, late 19th century varietals of ‘buzz’ caught hold of the book (in short the burgeoning middle class discovered it), and sales skyrocketed. It became a classic, Artusi became a house-hold name in Italy, and the book’s popularity is undiminished to this day.

Artusi wasn’t a chef, but someone dedicated to good food, a bon vivant. And he gathered recipes far and wide. He parlayed his passion, even late in life, into an enduring monument — as studied today for the verve and wit and quite eccentric commentary in the book as for the recipes. Many of the recipes are so sparse in details, that significant interpretation had to be done by the chefs last week. Most of it — delectably successful.

Some of the dishes require some explanation to appreciate. The “Two-Coloured Soup” was a flavour-packed Capon consomme, with greens and Reggiano cheese. The Hare Pate kept being referred to by some illustrious people present as ‘the sandwich’…it was both pate and tartare to some extent, captured between thin slices of bread…the past meeting the present in a plate of insouciant whimsy. We all petitioned for its inclusion on the Del Posto menu…keep an eye out for it as apparently Lidia was similarly moved by it. The simple gamy succulence of the Quails (the ‘birds’ of the evening) with a medley of red and white radichio was delightful. You will note as you look at the wines, that two beers are included…one from Germany, one from Belgium…an interesting segue that worked very refreshingly with those particular dishes.

Artusi’s fame owes essentially to his book being in Italian at a time when virtually all recipes and instructions for Chefs were almost militantly in French. Secondarily, he presents dishes that are inviting (rather than daunting) to prepare, which laid the cornerstone for what we today recognize as Italian cooking. Having gathered recipes from all over Italy, he often suggests menus and combinations that are pleasantly suggestive. But arguably, as we found that evening, with our capable master of ceremonies from Del Posto reading vignettes from Artusi’s book, what is most diverting is his own point of view, his eccentric observations (for example about fish being unhealthy for you, or game being at it’s most nutritious just before it is about to spoil). As further examples, as you search for recipes you are likely to discover how Artusi escaped cholera, the personal character of troops occupying Northern Italy in the 1840’s, and all manner of allusions and references — discussing a pigeon dish he mentions that in Macchiavelli’s CLIZIA, the elderly Nicomacco eats a large pigeon, roasted rare so it still bleeds a little, to prepare himself for an amorous tryst. Something to keep in mind perhaps?

At any rate, so much suggests itself from this evening. For one, Tim Zagat said the idea for these Vintage Dinners came when an illustrious friend compiled a list of foods that were common in the 19th century and which we don’t eat now, simply because they’ve fallen out of fashion, despite being delicious, often nutritious, and in these recessionary times, fairly light on the pocket book. Random inspirations are everywhere. It’s our job to be attentive to them and create ideas, experiences, products, services, solutions and innovations from them. And relationships matter critically. The Zagats  enrolled 16 of the top Chefs in New York, who pounced on the opportunity to partner with them to create the ambience and cuisine of a 19th century classic menu, gleefully and with alacrity. The Zagats and I share a friend in common, Anthony Lee, GM extraordinaire of The Connaught in London. I mentioned him and asked why London shouldn’t have it’s own version of this. Their eyes twinkled…might yet another ‘line extension’ of this idea have been born?

Artusi has much to teach. He lived through some traumas in youth, prospered thereafter in life, hung on to his passions, at 71 had the chutzpah to self-publish and promote his book until a ‘tipping point’ was reached. But it wasn’t just salesmanship. He lavished the book with great recipes peppered also with his own quixotic observations and personality. It was the ultimate ‘non-commodity’ and became a culture-carrier.

The inspiration of these evenings is to remember our heritage, and not to be slaves of fashion(which Oscar Wilde described as a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to frequently revise it). Let’s live well — by doing our work well, by making room in our work and lives for our passions, and by having the openness to receive other people’s enthusiasms like Artusi’s and Tim and Nina Zagat’s, and equally by also having the courage and energy to share our own with those we care about, and perhaps even the world at large.

Bon Appetito! Or as our Italian friends also so often say, ‘Allegria (Joy!)‘

Menu

Minestra di Due Colori

Two-Coloured Soup with Sercial Madeira, Rare Wine Company NV

Crostini Diversi

Various Crostini with Brut Champagne Imperial, Moet et Chandon NV

Bollito Misto

Chicken Accompanied with Meat Sauce with Brau Weiss, Ayinger Brewery Bavaria, Germany

Pane di Lepre

Hare Pate with Dubbel Bach, Maredsous Abbey, Belgium

Arselle in Salsa d’Uovo

Fresh Cockles in Egg Sauce with Brut Rose Champagne Imperial, Moet et Chandon NV

Bracioline Ripiene

Stuffed Veal Cutlets (with veal marrow) with Chianti Classico Riserva, Felsina 2005

Uccelli Arrosto

Birds with Salad with Barolo Rocche dell’Annunziata, Rocche Costamagna 2004

Savarin con Crema alla Francese

Savarin French Custard with Marsala La Miccia, de Bartoli NV

Formaggi e Frutta

Pears, Apples & Sundry Fruits with Brut Demi-Sec, Billecart-Salmon NV

Senator Barbara Boxer of California came on the show, speaking of both President Obama’s tour-de-force Town Hall Meeting and the disastrous, market-plummeting ‘non-plan’ (insofar as being painfully light on specifics) presented by Treasury Secretary Geitner.

At one point Professor Sachs asked Senator Boxer why an overall framework wasn’t being presented with the economic plan — a 5 year framework explaining not only where money was to be spent, but how it would stimulate growth, how then we’d exit from some of the spending commitments, how we’d go back to balancing the budget and how we’d pay down the debt.

Senator Boxer said it was already there and if he wasn’t hearing it, the President would need to keep going out into town hall type engagements and explain what was at least evident to him and Senator Boxer. Senator, why oh why can’t we call a spade a spade?

It’s not there! Or if it is, it’s hidden with such monumental artifice that it would take CSI-like forensics and Sherlockian deduction to locate it. Repeating it’s there, replaying the rhetoric about ‘this will create jobs, it will give people money, it will provide infrastructure’ does not at all answer what the end game is, and how it is envisaged that we will grow our way out of this. Generics about ‘banks starting to lend again’ won’t suffice — it doesn’t address what’s being asked for.

I’ve repeated the recommendation that while seeking to lead any major change, create a dashboard, with debated and agreed metrics. Professor Sachs, in a similar vein, is asking for a framework for more than the immediate ‘electroshock’ we’re going to provide the economy in the short-run.

Leaders when asked why something isn’t there in your plans, if it’s truly there, just point it out, and don’t make it part of an avalanche of rhetoric. If it’s not there, accept it, and commit to getting it there fast…then come through. As real leaders committed to real results, why wouldn’t we?

A couple wake up in bed together, neither remember the other, how they ended up spending the night together, where they met, or even precisely what they got up to…the fact that they are both naked is indicative, but not conclusive.

He has the advantage, it’s his apartment. She doesn’t even know where she is geographically…’naked in North Fitzroy’ as it turns out (a suburb of Melbourne). They move cautiously around each other, they explore topics, dredge up partial memories (which still seem not to answer how they met until the very end), and wonder about whether they acquired ‘knowledge’ of each other (in the Biblical sense). He says with wry insight that they probably didn’t, “If we had, you’d be in a much better mood!”

At one key moment, she yells, “A few hours ago, you could have been inside me!” And he answers with almost equal intensity that yes he might have been, but he also made her toast,they explored various topics of conversation , played Scrabble, drank some wine, and danced to music, and they were still there together and it was now evening. “We’ve done okay,” he concludes. Indeed.

And while I hope you wake up where you expect to the morning after Valentine’s Day, the type of tentative but definite nurturing these strangers end up exchanging, albeit punctuated with both some flirtation and friction, wouldn’t be a bad anthem for this Valentine’s.

My mentor of old M. Scott Peck who wrote the extraordinary best-seller, THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED, suggested that love is the will to extend ourselves for someone’s nurturing and growth.While we plan how to woo and how to dazzle romantically, or even if  we’re contemplating a Valentine’s day without a partner, let’s make the day, the occasion and the sentiment, about nurturing.

And then I realized that much as we can smirk at invented vocabularies, it is also a mechanism of creating a type of community, of people who are ‘in the know’. Maybe, and then maybe today people want something simpler, something that reminds them of the human touch of cafes, not the PR flackery we’ve all been imbibing.

Some of the leaders of Coach Inc, the premium retailer, have been reluctant to tell the story about how their dedication to craftsmanship, something iconically and ardently felt within their company, coming as it does from their beginnings in a loft in New York, defines them. When such stories are true, as they are for Coach, perhaps a tad truer than alleged partnerships with coffee growers (and Valdez forgive me if I’m underestimating them here), I think we should share them…invitationally, but definitely. There is a real hankering today for true stories of real quality, of demonstrations of genuine dedication. We’re nostalgic for things that express artistry and commitment.

Long after today’s hucksters and their ability to trade in their empty sleeves have been forgotten…long may such things, and our appreciation of them, continue…

During these days of draconian and often unthinking cost-cutting measures, consultants have to sharpen their wits, raise their game, and focus on providing tangible value of high priority for the client fast — not a bad health regimen after all!

We have to sharpen our wits to provide real insight, rather than obscurantist jargon and ‘trademarked’ fluff. ‘Baffle them with bullshit’ won’t work today at all. We’ve been deluged with so much rubbish from financial advisors, business leaders, politicians and more, that everyone has a highly sensitive garbage detector.

We have to raise our game so we can find ever more substantive ways of adding value, transferring skills, and moving goal-posts that help the client win in terms that matter to them. And we have to establish mutually agreed metrics that make it clear to everyone when this happens. Then a real ROI can be established.

Here is a chance for some consultant house-cleaning in larger organizations, with companies focusing on the few who truly partner, connect, add value, and provide refreshing simplicity amidst often vexing complexity. Companies are focusing on buying in expertise, rather than having consultants just provide reams of analysis, or send in troops to act as surrogate project managers or implementers. That’s good news for smaller firms that don’t have a profit model based on time units, hourly billing, and the vast deployment of junior colleagues.

Everyone is more sensitive today. So take the initiative and demonstrate the quality of your thinking and the impact you can offer, proactively and lavishly. Let people directly experience value  (through your writing, in an initial meeting, by inviting them to a talk, by spending a couple of hours with them to establish what’s needed), and they’re far more likely to be drawn to you as a partner, to actively and regularly seek you out, as well as appreciating that the premium you charge is really worth it rather than just being one more example of hype wafting through their lives.

© Omar Khan 2009. All rights reserved.

As with all the Vintage Dinners New York’s top  Chefs have reproduced a menu representing classic cuisine from the 19th century. I paste the menu at the end for those interested in the extraordinary culinary adventure in which we participated.

We were seated communally at a large banquet table, because that was the fashion of the time. Strangers became convivial, mirth was abundant, groans of gastronomic contentment punctuated the air at regular intervals. Dishes we just don’t experience today were presented with ingenuity and yet with the chef’s personal interpretation and panache. It was a visual feast in terms of presentation and table settings as much as a culinary and gastronomic one.

Between the frog’s legs and the Trou Creole ‘Sazerac’ we heard a few words from Michael Batterberry, co-author of ON THE TOWN IN NEW YORK which details the history of  food and wine in New York from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution of late. He reminded us of some things that are fascinating.

For one, popular mythology has it that Le Pavilion in the late 1930’s was New York’s first foray into French-style restaurants (the word ‘restaurant’ comes etymologically from the French word meaning  “to restore”). This myth is off by almost a century. When the Marquis de Lafayette returned to the United States for the 50th anniversary of the American Revolution to overwhelming adulation, anchored in the harbor was a three-masted schooner whose captain was John Delmonico. Observing what he considered to be the unimpressive catering facilities available in New York (assessed against the general hullabaloo surrounding Lafayette’s visit), he recruited his elder brother (from their native Swiss canton of Ticino, ironically the Italian part of Switzerland) to join with him to launch the world of continental grande cuisine in New York circa 1828. Delmonico’s became the standard setter for superb French cuisine in New York for that century, and resonances of its fame still linger. Close to its original site, a Delmonico’s has been resurrected in New York once more.  It’s enduring success, fame and impact shows once more how differentiation works. Not only did they establish a new form of cuisine in the United States, but they were ‘racy’ enough and brash enough to have a woman cashier as a way of ‘ringing up’ attention (something then akin to having a Playboy Bunny in her Bunny regalia in Church today)

If you look at menus from that period it seems to be an overwhelming superabundance of dishes. But back then dishes were laid out on the banquet table and you had what was essentially a sitting buffet. So you just sampled tidbits, often combatively, with those with the longest arms often scoring the most choice morsels.

It was the Russians in fact who introduced the serving of courses, where waiters served from one side and cleared from the other around 1810. Allegedly, the Russian Ambassador to France introduced this style to Paris around 1850 and it then became the rage. As the French adapted Italian cuisine, refined it and made it their own, so too they co-opted this style of service which is now associated with French epicurean classicism. Again, ‘imitate then innovate’, ‘adapt then improve’, ‘understand the box before stepping out of it’ are all good maxims, whether applied by the Japanese in electronics or the French in table service.

Finally, the procession of courses were symbolically to match the course of evolution. Soups came early, as life came from the water. Then came the fish and other creatures of the sea. Then fowl, birds, moving on to game and meat. And dessert, which was human whimsy, delicious human improvisation and celebration, capped the meal.

Pleasures that deploy artistry, that bring people together, that create piquant memories, that help us linger and share laughter and bonhomie…there is much to be said of them. They don’t require the brilliance of Daniel’s however. The real lesson is learned if we take that spirit, that capacity and that openness to joy with us and drizzle our own lives with wonderful, if more modest experiences. A good loaf of bread, wonderful music, garden fresh vegetables, a succulent and lovingly prepared main course, a bottle of wine if you’re so inclined, people to share laughter and delight with. As poet Khalil Gibran wrote, “It is in the dew of little things that the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” Little or big, savor it all.

We need to participate in creating our own enchantment…and sharing it.

MENU

MISE-EN-BOUCHE

Bacon Wrapped Oysters with Cayenne on Toast with Champagne Soutiran “Cuvee Daniel” Brut NV

POTAGE

Winter Root and Cabbage Soup with Foie Gras Royale, Ham and Chestnuts with Emilio Lustau “Jose Luis Gonzalez Obregon” Amontillado Sherry

HORS D’OEUVRE

Chaud-Froid: Chilled Squab Breast Glazed with Sauternes Veloute, Warm Tort with Squab Legs, Liver and Foie Gras

RELEVE LEGER

Lobster Tail, Sauce Americaine, Spinach and Black Truffle with Puligny Montrachet, Domaine Jacques Bavard, Burgundy 2006

RELEVE DE POISSON

Pike Dumpling Stuffed with Frog’s Legs, White Wine and Watercress Sauce

TROU CREOLE “Sazerac”

“Peychaud’s” Bitter and Rye Whiskey with Absinth Granite

ENTREE CHAUD

Whole Poached Calf’s Head with Green Olive, Veal Quenelles, Tongue, Sweetbreads, Cockscombs, Fried Quail Egg, Black Truffle, Sauce Espagnol with Gevrey Chambertin, Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret, Burgundy 2006

PIECE DE RESISTANCE
Whole Roasted and Pressed Duck with a Port Wine Red Currant Sauce, Turnip Charlotte, Spinach Subric, Pommes Dauphine with Vin de Pays des Bouches-du-Rhone, Domaine Trevallon, Provence 2001

DESSERT FROID
Coconut-Passion Fruit Ice Cream Bombe with The Rare Wine Company Boston Bual Madeira

PIECE MONTEE

Vanilla Cream Puffs with Crisp Angel Hair Caramel

DESSERT CHAUD

Warm Pistachio and Chocolate Souffle with Vanilla Sauce

MIGNARDISES

Lyon’s Fried Beignet

This morning I heard that Bank of America was being called onto the rack by legislators due to a rather extravagant Super Bowl party they threw for customers. Their claim? Every $1 they spent will earn them $10 in return. If so, an arguable investment. However, these days, might those who have been recipients of taxpayer largesse have to manage both appearances and reality? Without pandering, all of us have to show sensitivity to how things appear as well as how they are. We recently did a critical client strategy session at their corporate training center rather than at an exotic resort. Everything was more intense, and action oriented, and much was achieved. Reality AND appearance were both well served.

I also heard yet again one more talking head opining that government is not well placed to run banks. No disagreement here! But then the implication can’t be they shouldn’t be involved, as the ‘geniuses’ running banks in the private sector managed to run up apocalyptic losses due to untrammeled greed and almost criminal financial legerdemain. Watch out for things repeated sonorously that are supposed to be self-evident. Ask, “How do we know this?” And ask it again until it’s clear. Warren Buffet’s mantra, “I don’t invest in anything I don’t understand,” wouldn’t be a bad compass if adapted to, “I’m not agreeing with anything until I’ve challenged the assumptions underlying it.”

I had my hair cut at John Allen’s in New York later in the morning, not the most expensive option, not the most cost-effective. If you want, they’ll also do a manicure (for a modest extra cost). The stylists are friendly and affable, without being excessively familiar. And they’re now offering a 15 minute ‘complimentary shoulder massage’ as a lovely way to say ‘thank you’.  Their invitation (I’m paraphrasing):  ‘Forget about business and worries for 15 minutes.’  And needless to say,  remember us for a long time afterward. Smart move! What can you and I do to say ‘thank you’ in a way that’s meaningful?

I’m now waiting for a time-critical document delivery. It’s taken three phone calls and was promised for noon, by the company putting together the information. It’s two as I write this. I’d go with the John Allen model rather than the service ethos of the company getting these documents togehter. This is as good a time as any to be as impeccable as we can be in our commitments.

A great many clients are right for 24 hours or less, as well. They cite experience and analysis and strategic plans, but basically they are making assumptions and extrapolating the present into the future with no sound basis. 

Dublin quickly recovered from an inch of snow, but London has been paralyzed by a foot. (Why does the underground stop operating when the snow is up above ground?) Heathrow Airport alone cancelled 650 flights yesterday, generally throwing European travel into chaos. Bus routes were cancelled “to prevent injury to the public.” (The horses had no trouble moving the household cavalry to its assigned stations around the palace.)

Four people from the UK cancelled their attendance with me in London, but one person, from Manchester, showed up right on time. “Andy,” I said, astounded, “how did you make it?!”

“Don’t believe them,” he said, “there are always ways.”

There ARE always ways, and they are seldom the result of a dusty strategic plan or an executive’s baseless assumptions (or a limo driver’s assurances). They are the result of opportunism, being in the moment, and being determined to take control of your destiny.

That applies in Dublin, in London, in Manchester, and in your neighborhood, as well.

© Alan Weiss 2009.

A few hours later London was deluged in snow, more snow than any time in the last 14 years. Heathrow was closed, over 250 flights were canceled, and airport hotels suddenly found themselves enjoying a non-recessionary few days as everyone clamored for a room at the proverbial inn.

A week ago, in Dubai, we had days of rain, and in the nearby hills, snow! It’s a desert…talk about shifting times and definitions!

It’s a strange time in the world…climatically, economically, geopolitically. But then is it really that strange, or is it just that we are facing a real inflection point in many ways, as we move from one sense of ‘normal’ to another?

I do know this, that while we can’t control some of the world’s transitions and transformations, we can certainly influence our place in them. Stranded passengers at Heathrow seethed not because of snowfall but lack of information or apparent care for their plight. This could have been a moment for Heathrow to in one fell swoop renew their global service brand image by providing the type of attentiveness, concern and care that would have lingered long after the snow had melted and passengers were safely on their way. Instead it seems, they may have confirmed the perceptions (fair or otherwise) people have of the sterility of airports in general and the obtuseness of Heathrow in particular, in human terms.

If the airport hotels were sane, they went out of their way over this period to provide empathic service and additonal value wherever possible, rather than exacerbating people’s stress with their own obliviousness and disdain. I have to say other than the Regal in Hong Kong (which consistently wins awards for best airport hotel in the world), I have yet to find an airport hotel that doesn’t seem awash in pro forma and quite insipid service…on a par with say bank lobbies and doctor’s waiting rooms.

Much is afoot in the world, and as we travel, and as we serve our clients, when unprecedented storms strike, we have to provide unprecedented responsiveness, care, empathy…and value. We should in fact be trying to do that anyway. But it’s needed now more than ever. People will still purchase services, make trips, choose business partners. But I truly believe they won’t make their choices on the equivalent of a Superbowl commercial — full of sound and fury as the Bard wrote in another context, signifiying nothing. People will be more discerning, more substantive in what they’re looking for. For those of us willing to be the right choice, that’s great news.