Dear Readers,
In "Do schools kill creativity?" Sir Ken Robinson shares the story of a six-year-old girl who claims to be drawing a picture of God. Her teacher says, "But nobody knows what God looks like." The girl responds, "Well, they will in a minute."
Too often, we confine ourselves by what we believe to be true. When confronted with contradictory beliefs, we rush to defend ours and squash others'. To revise or reject our beliefs takes effort and may put some of our other beliefs in jeopardy. It's far easier to resist challenges.

What's lost--when we retreat to what we believe is known--is our ability to be astounded. Maybe the girl does know what God looks like. Maybe we, the teacher included, could learn from her. If not now, then perhaps later, after her talent and passion have been nurtured (not squashed).

Prepare yourself to be astounded, but also be mindful of what might be astounding or transformative for others. Rabbi Michael Latz recently opened the service for Adam Rochlin's bar mitzvah by saying, "Having a bar mitzvah is very ordinary. It happens every weekend around the world. And yet this one is extraordinary for Adam and all of us participating in the service."

As leaders, we often preside over events that, for us, are routine and ordinary--because we experience them so regularly. And yet these events are extraordinary for those being honored for their achievements or rites of passage.

How are you honoring the extraordinary for others? And how are you preparing yourself to be astounded?

Gary

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything - Book Review
By Gary Cohen
Sir Ken Robinson's TED video (titled "Do schools kill creativity?") has gotten over a million views online. Robinson is a highly entertaining presenter, who uses humor well to win his audience over, but his points are incisive and provocative. They provoked me to buy his book, for one thing.

In The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, Robinson reveals that Paul McCartney did not even like music classes in school, although he loved making music. How do you imagine his instructors feel, learning this, if they're still alive? Robinson uses stories like this one to indicate how our school systems are leading our minds away from the place where our passions and talents intersect (the "element," as he calls it) and toward conformity.

As a TEDalcoholic, I enjoyed Robinson's references to some of the TED talks that I have watched or listened to over the years. In the book, he also engages authors like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Tony Buzan, on the subject of creativity, flow, and mind mapping. While he tackles some heady subjects, it's a fun read and should appeal to a wide audience. Do yourself a favor: find The Element first at the store then in yourself.

Eat the Book--A Private CEO Breakfast Gathering Series continues 7:30 am on October 27

Thank you to our group of CEO business leaders that attended the continuation in a series of thought-moving exchanges between authors and leaders in the Minneapolis business community.

Eat the Book has been offered by CO2 Partners as an opportunity to share our commitment to life-long learning and leadership. This month our topic was on “Strategy Activation: The secret to successful execution.” CO2 was pleased to present Scott Glatstein, the author of “Strategy Activation: How To Turn Your Vision Into Marketplace Success” and the Founder and President of Imperatives. Scott’s passion for implementation has been helping companies keep their promises to the marketplace for over 25 years. The CEO roundtable group was engaged in discussion and discovery as to the methodology linked to strategic planning and marketplace implementation. We ask the question: “Are our chosen marketplace strategies aligned to marketplace offerings, people and infrastructure in such a way to best leverage resources and build sustainable sales and profit?” Recognized as a pioneer of disciplined strategy implementation, Scott brings a holistic approach to business execution. Nine out of ten business strategies failnot because they are bad strategies but because they are poorly implemented. If strategy creates intent, in essence, intent becomes the promise that the company makes to the customer. Fulfilling this promise is the opportunity; the activation piece is how an organization can use a holistic view to link results across the company by delivering this promise the same way to the customer over each touch-point experience. Strategy Activation visualizes a straightforward model that transforms strategic intent (a promise) into satisfied customers. The group reached the conclusion that boardroom-theory-to-real-world-success is best achieved by implementing this strategy activation process.

Eat the Book--A Private CEO Breakfast Gathering will meet again on Tuesday, January 26, 2010. Our featured guest will be Sam Richter, author of Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling. Sam will share his views on what he refers to as “Sales intelligence--the key to a successful sales call. The attendance is limited to twenty CEO leaders from the Minneapolis area. If you are interested in attending please follow this link for the invitation to our next gathering: Eat the Book

As we move forward in our leadership roles, Just Ask: What questions are we presenting to our teams that ensure that we are delivering to our customers the promise we make to our marketplace?

CO2 Partners believes in the value of thought leadership and would like to continue to offer this exchange between CEO leaders and authors in our community. Share your thoughts on this topic with jletourneau@co2partners.com. Hope to see you at the next “Eat the Book” breakfast event!
All the Best,
John LeTourneau
Executive Leadership Coach
CO2 Partners, Minneapolis

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