Meetings

The Digital Nomad

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Tie? You must be joking, mate.

Socks? Not where I’m going.

Take my PC? No thanks. This is the week I joined the legion of Mac fans. An ultra-lightweight one at that…

In fact let’s just cut straight to the chase. Why are you wasting your time in North Yorkshire? Surely you can run your business from a laptop by now? What are you doing in Selby when you could be in Santorini? Malton or Monterrey? Pocklington or Pattaya? Sounds tempting, doesn’t it…

Maybe I’m being flippant, but it’s a serious point. If all your business needs is a laptop and an internet connection, well, there are plenty of places with more sunshine than our corner of the world and where you can live far more cheaply.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while – yes, we’re in Ireland next week but I promise we’re coming back – as the ‘digital nomad’ seems to be getting an ever-higher profile.

I read an interesting article on the BBC website recently about PR boss, Chris Ward, who hasn’t worked in an office for ten years, choosing instead to base himself in coffee shops and assorted McDonald’s throughout Europe. Chris has written a book about his thoughts, appropriately called Out of Office.

His basic premise is simple:

The great thing about the internet is that it’s freed people from the office. We don’t have to be tied to our desks any more. We can work where and when we like.

He goes on to argue that creative people would be far more fulfilled – and far more productive – if they were out and about, believing that the ‘noise and buzz’ of a coffee shop stimulates the imagination.

I can see his point: I know that if I’m working in say, a Costa, I have to concentrate that little bit harder; interestingly though, that extra concentration does produce some great – and often unexpected – results.

But at this point I’m just going to hide behind the sofa for a while – because I know this blog is read by a lot of people who simply cannot leave the office. I appreciate that those of you in manufacturing, the law, accountancy (not to mention any doctors out there) simply cannot slope off to the nearest beach with the latest MacBook Air.

Not every day, anyway.

‘If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always got.’ Yes, it’s a cliché, but like a lot of business clichés it contains a large slice of the truth. We go into the office, we sit at our desks, we go for a sandwich at roughly the same time every day and we have roughly the same sandwich. That’s not a pattern of behaviour that encourages creative thinking – and whatever your business, you’re an entrepreneur and you need to be creative.

So here’s my challenge for August. For one day, take your laptop/Mac/iPad/pencil and paper and work somewhere completely new. Different place, different sandwich at lunchtime – and hopefully a different way of working on your business. And then report back at the end of the month – let me know how it went.

In the meantime we’re off to Galway for the week. The blog will return – refreshed, invigorated and written in a coffee shop – on Friday August 16th. If you’re going on holiday in the next few weeks, have a brilliant time – and I’ll talk to you all soon.

Asking Questions: Expecting Answers

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Last week – which for some reason seems a remarkably long time ago – I was writing about the Awards which members of TAB York had won. I just want to repeat this quote from Rachel Goddard of Intandem Communications from last week’s post:

The other members of my board were great. That is, they asked me the questions I didn’t want asking but knew I had to answer. I remember one question in particular: it pinpointed the exact problem I had to solve.

I’ve been thinking about those three sentences a lot this week, and it seems to me that they go right to the heart of what a TAB Board is all about.

As we’ve discussed many times on this blog, successful people do what unsuccessful people don’t want to do. Part and parcel of that is asking questions when you know that you won’t like the answers.

We’re all guilty of avoiding things when they’re going to be difficult – even though we know that they’d benefit our business. Hands up everyone who’s had a job on the to-do list for three months or more? Six months, anyone…

Bringing a problem to your fellow Board members specifically eliminates that problem. Because once you’ve asked your fellow Board members the question you’ve been putting off asking yourself, there’s no going back. You’re committed.

Even after nearly four years of TAB that moment in a meeting still enthrals me. The dynamics around the table are something special.

“OK. Claire, it’s your turn.”

“Thanks, Ed. (Pause) Question for this month. (Pause) I should really have brought this one three months ago. (Pause) The thing is this. (Pause)”

Then finally the question. And the other Board members immediately know it’s important. So they don’t leap in with an answer: they pause as well. Then they’ll ask for some clarification. Finally someone says, “And if you did that, what difference would it make to your business?”

This time Claire doesn’t pause. This time the dam breaks and we realise just how important solving the problem is.

Then the members make their suggestions and – most importantly of all – Claire commits to action.

Fast forward a month. Claire is reporting back to her fellow board members. She hasn’t done as much as she committed to doing. Which is understandable: it’s hard to go from doing nothing about a problem – however pressing – to working on it flat out.

This is when TAB really shines. Because the other members ask a simple question. “Why? Why haven’t you done the things that you know would benefit your business?”

Being held accountable by your peers makes all the difference. There’s no hiding place and bluntly, the only option over the next three or four months is solving the problem. And you can guess the conversation when that happens.

That’s why I was so pleased for Rachel – she went through exactly the process I’ve outlined above and it was painful. But in the end she achieved what she wanted to achieve and her business took a significant step forward. Sooner or later everyone who’s a TAB member is going to find themselves in Rachel’s position – with a decision which is damn difficult but which just has to be made.

And these decisions are the pivotal moments on a TAB board. When I started the business those moments were theory – yes, I’d seen them replicated in business, but never with the personal nature of the TAB discussions. When I see a ‘Rachel moment’ – and even more when I see the successful outcome – I know that nothing in the corporate world could give me more satisfaction. Or produce better results for Rachel – and Claire.

The Invisible Man

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2012 was a great year for me: building and developing my relationship with existing clients and welcoming some outstanding new members of TAB. When I sat down to review the year I was more than pleased – so I was a little perturbed a couple of days later when someone said to me, “Oh, hi Ed. Haven’t seen you for a while. Thought you must have gone out of business.”

I’ve been reflecting on that conversation for a while – and last week at Venturefest brought it sharply back into focus for me.

But let me back-track slightly…

When I started my business I networked like a… Well, let’s just say that I worked very hard at making contacts and meeting people. As many of you know, if you’re starting a new business – especially in the service sector – then you have to do it. But inevitably, as I became more involved with clients and my workload increased, I had less time for the networking events – and some time in the middle of 2012, I stopped going altogether.

And then, at the end of the year, I finally found the time to go to an event in York. At which point: “Hi Ed. Haven’t seen you for a long time. Thought you must have…”

As you know, Venturefest was last week. It was the third one that I’ve attended and every year it gets better and better. It’s simply the best opportunity to re-connect with people and to make new business contacts in the York area. Fortunately I didn’t have any ‘thought you must have…’ conversations – but I’m sure that some people did. And as I drove away from the Racecourse, I had two thoughts in mind.

Number one – however successful your business is, don’t become the Invisible Man. Meeting people and staying visible is every bit as essential to your business as a regular flow of new clients and keeping a constant check on your numbers. However tempting it is to think, ‘We’re doing well. Business is good. I don’t need to go to this breakfast in York,’ the answer is that you do. Not religiously, not week after week – but often enough to make sure that you and your business keep appearing on the area’s business radar. Even in the age of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging, ‘out of sight out of mind’ can – and does – still apply.

My second thought was even simpler. You can talk all you like abut social media and about the three hugely successful websites I’ve just mentioned – but nothing will ever be as powerful as meeting someone face-to-face. No, you can’t ignore the way the world is moving and Twitter & Co all have their place in building a business. But you cannot neglect the most fundamental social interaction of them all: meeting other people and getting them to know you, like you and trust you.

That’s why my business will remain resolutely old-fashioned in one fundamental respect. We can e-mail, Facebook and Skype each other – but TAB meetings will stay firmly seated round the Boardroom table. Six or seven people giving their undivided attention – not only listening to what someone is saying, but feeling the ‘vibe’ that they’re giving off as they say it.

So I’ll be back at Venturefest next year and for a great many years to come. But along the way I’ll be making sure that I’m seen eating breakfast as well, making sure that I’m using the most valuable resource my business has – people.

I make no apology for preaching a very simple message this week: see the people – and let the people see you. However sophisticated business becomes, for most of us those words will still be at the heart of it. And if you’ve an even simpler message – or a fundamental truth that you always return to – then I’d love to hear it.

Why you need to speak to a Dominatrix

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Hopefully, you’ll all have heard of Ted – as in www.ted.com

Ted is…well, I can’t describe Ted better than they do themselves. ‘Ideas worth spreading. Remarkable talks by remarkable people. Free to the world.’

The link to the Ted website is on my favourites list; I have the app on my iPhone – and inevitably, I don’t listen to the talks half as much as I’d like to. Not enough time, all the usual excuses. Then last week, I found myself with a spare half hour. I parked the car, spent two minutes trying not to take the view of the Howardian Hills for granted and listened to a Ted talk.

It was one of the most popular: Sir Ken Robinson asking if schools kill creativity – originally recorded in 2006 and perhaps even more relevant today. Here’s the link if you’d like to watch it in full.

He asks if you or I would recognise school if we stepped back into it today? Apart from a few shifts in emphasis (and a few less field trips on Health and Safety grounds) yes we would. Algebra and Geometry; Ox Bow Lakes; the causes of the Second World War…

And yet the world has changed beyond recognition. We’re educating children who are going to retire in 2060 but we have no idea what the world will look like in 2020. This is Sir Ken Robinson’s central thesis – that at a time when creativity and the ability to adapt is needed more than ever, schools still cling to the old hierarchy. Maths, languages, history at the top: creative subjects right at the bottom.

I was musing on this when I read a great blog: Want breakthrough ideas? First speak to the freaks and geeks. The author is Brian Miller, from Sense Worldwide, a ‘breakthrough consultancy’ – a company that advises clients on radical change. Again, here’s the link to the full article.

And as you’ll see, it starts with a truly memorable image, which I’ve unashamedly plagiarised for this week’s title.

The main point of the article is that remarkable ideas come from the extreme users of a product; the ‘outliers.’ So while the vast majority of people said Red Bull didn’t taste enough like a cola, the extreme users said, “This is awesome. I can go clubbing all night on this.” And a marketing campaign was born.

This set me thinking – because as you look round an Alternative Board table, you won’t find freaks or geeks, much less dominatrices. (At least, not to the best of my knowledge…)

So how do you keep a Board fresh, creative and innovative when, by and large, the people on it come from fairly similar backgrounds and have similar problems?

Looking at my own work and speaking to my colleagues in the UK and the US, it seems that there are four common themes:

• First of all, the Board meetings are meant to be challenging – and it’s my job to make sure that we’re looking at things from unusual angles. Does that mean that there might be more movement between Boards? Hmmm…quite possibly.

• Part and parcel of this is keeping the ‘big picture’ in mind: it’s easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of your day to day problems. That, I think, is where other Board members really help. Because they’re not so concerned with your day to day problems they can focus on your eventual goal – and bring an entirely different perspective to your problems.

• Thirdly, we’re constantly making use of new techniques and developments. I think the DiSC sessions are a great example of this. Not only are the Board members seeing how they all behave individually, they’re also learning how to interact with – and get the best from – the other people round the table and the different personalities within their businesses.

• Finally, there’s a social element to the Board meetings – and meetings outside a business setting always produce good results. Does this mean you should keep a date free this summer for a TAB York social event? Yes, it does.

With that, I’ll leave you. Good ideas come in all shapes and sizes – and from all sorts of sources. So if your wife finds a strange, cryptic message on your answerphone, remember – you were just doing some research…

The Shy Entrepreneur

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We’re all aware of the traditional image of the entrepreneur – brash, self confident, not an ounce of introspection, high dominance on the DISC profile (see me for more details!), doesn’t know the meaning of ‘self-doubt…’

But supposing you’re not like that?

Supposing you’re an introvert? A little bit shy? One of those people who could say, “I feel physically frightened before a networking event.” (And yes, that’s a direct quote.)

Does that mean you’re disqualified from running your own business – that however good your ideas, you’re destined to be a second-in-command while someone else basks in the glory? And the lion’s share of the cash…

Not necessarily. Which is good news – because I have plenty of Board members, potential members and good friends who absolutely do not match the traditional ‘entrepreneur profile.’

Some of them are running – or could be running – outstanding businesses.

I’ve just read a really interesting blog post on how introverts can get the career, pay and credit they deserve.

The article – by Tahl Raz – led me on to an interview he’d done with communications coach Nancy Ancowitz who gave three tips for introverts; ways in which they could make themselves heard “in a world where everybody is talking.”

So, for the benefit of anyone who counts themselves among this group (which apparently accounts for a third of us) and who’d cheerfully eat their thumb rather than go to another networking event, here are Nancy’s three tips:

1. Write – many introverts are naturally good writers, and if you struggle to make a case for yourself when it’s ‘sixty seconds round the table’ then write it down. Use your skills to make sure that the quality of the written work your business produces is outstanding. And people will take notice.

2. Don’t try and wing it. Let’s take a business lunch as an example – again, everyone speaks for 60 seconds. If you’re naturally shy, don’t try and make it up as you go along. Write your ‘speech,’ learn it – and then deliver it as naturally as you can. Chances are, the confidence you gain from knowing it, will allow you to deliver a stellar performance. If you’re an introvert, preparation and detail are likely to be among your strengths: play to them.

3. According to Ancowitz, “video-tape is an introvert’s best friend.” She recommends having a friend or mentor video you in a social setting. That way, she says, you can easily identify (and correct) behaviour that may cause others to see you as aloof and anti-social.

Now I can see that having someone follow you round 4Networking with a video camera might make some of you feel slightly uncomfortable! So here’s an alternative suggestion. More and more websites are now including video: if you’re someone who shies away from large social groups, make your pitch on video and put it on your website. Link to it on Twitter and next time you’re forcing yourself to eat a disappointing bacon sandwich in the company of extrovert strangers, there’s a chance that they’ll already have ‘met’ you. They might even ask for your advice…

The Right (and Wrong) Way to Network

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…But first, an unashamed commercial break. Next Wednesday, October 12th, I’m speaking at York University’s Innovation Centre. I’m talking about building your business through a regular blog, and I’m sure that there are still a few places available. Lunch is at 12’00 followed by the talk – anyone interested should contact carla.witcombe@york.ac.uk

Right, that’s used up my thirty seconds allowed for ads – to business. Networking is constantly on everyone’s mind. Am I doing enough? Am I doing too much? Why was that bloke last week so boring…

I’ve been reading a really interesting article in the Harvard Business Review. It’s by two academics, Rob Cross and Robert Thomas and as you might expect, being American it measures the success – or otherwise – of someone’s network rather more scientifically than the anecdotal evidence and gut-feeling that we tend to rely on over here.

So three points to start off with, none of which will come as a surprise to the female readers of this blog:

• Social networks are just as important as business networks for successful executives (and for ‘executives’ read business owners as well)
• Women tend to be better at networking than men – largely because they recognise point number one
• And it’s quality, not quantity, that counts

Let’s look at those points in more detail. Why are social networks just as important as business networks? The main reason is that your social networks challenge you: very often they’re made up of people who don’t necessarily share your views – whereas our tendency with business networks is to seek out people whose views reflect and reinforce our own. So if we’re making mistakes, or not seeing all the angles, it’s our social networks that help us step back and see the bigger picture.

It’s difficult to expand on point number two without giving Dav a stick to beat me with. Oh well, here goes. It does appear that women are far better than men at building diverse groups. We men tend to be simple folk: work – golf – football – pub – rugby (or something similar).

Women are better at both making and keeping deeper relationships – which range across wider interests. Work – friends in different industries – charity work – keep fit – reading group. And that’s before you factor in the school run… These more diverse networks give them a wider perspective in business: if you remember back to a previous blog, it was shown in tests that groups including women consistently produced better business decisions – even in traditionally all-male areas such as engineering.

Finally, it is emphatically quality that counts, not quantity. In fact, the evidence shows that knowing – or trying to know – too many people might be positively harmful. You spread yourself too thinly, and develop too many superficial relationships. Food for thought if you’re determined to reach 500 contacts on LinkedIn – and interestingly, the exact opposite of the advice from a lot of self-help books.

There was another interesting point to emerge from the research. As the old saying goes, ‘Who you know’ is important. But what’s more important is ‘Who they know.’ Despite Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and all their allies – a word of mouth recommendation is still worth its weight in gold.

Cross & Thomas went on from this research to develop a scientific approach to successful networking – I’ll share that with you in a couple of weeks. In the meantime I’d be interested in your views on your current experience of networking, particularly the quantity vs. quality argument.

Have a great weekend. Me? Wednesday looms: I’ve an appointment with PowerPoint…

Your Fantasy Breakfast…

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Imagine, for a moment, that you’ve just landed a job with Nokia. You’re off to Espoo, in Finland (where it’s 17 degrees and cloudy, so not much different to South Milford.) What’s the first thing your new boss does when you get to Espoo? He sets up a series of meetings for you with all the key people in the company that you need to meet, regardless of location. He wants you to start and build your own network within the company – it’s part of the culture of the company, and it’s exactly what his boss encouraged him to do.

This practice – giving time to new employees to develop contacts and collaboration – was highlighted in the Harvard Business Review. But why do I mention it here when (unless some of you have done remarkably well since the last TAB meeting) most of my members are running companies slightly smaller than Nokia?

Because I think the idea of meeting the right people – the people who can really move your business forward – is important. In fact, it’s more than important, it’s crucial.

Sometimes it’s tempting to say, “Well, I went to a networking meeting and I came away with twenty business cards so it must have been a success.” But we all have hundreds of business cards from people we’re never going to do any business with. Sometimes it might be better to say, “I only met one person – but it was someone who can absolutely help me drive my business forward.”

So this blog is a challenge. Take half an hour – alright, with a glass of red wine if it helps you concentrate – and jot down the people you’d really like to meet. Make a list of those people who could make a serious difference to your business. We’ve all played fantasy dinner party – it’s time for a game of Fantasy Networking Breakfast.

But be realistic. Theo Paphitis, Duncan Bannatyne and Alan Sugar are unlikely to be much interested in your business – but there are plenty of people in Yorkshire who might well be. And who it’s perfectly possible to meet, or at least – thanks to social media – appear on their radar.

And then of course, you need a time frame. So this is my challenge to you. Take your half an hour and your glass of red wine and make a list of between six and ten people who could help you move your business to the next level. And over the summer set yourself the goal of meeting at least three of those people. Assuming the latest ash cloud doesn’t cancel it, summer is hereby defined as ending on August 31st – so you’ve three months.

Of course, the sensible thing to do is to post your list as a reply to the blog – because a) that will commit you and b) I have a few readers. And who knows? If your ambition is to meet X then their best mate Y may already be reading the blog.

Or you can be shy and we’ll discuss it at a 1-2-1.

And now to do my list…

Meet The Board

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Thursday September 23rd. The first meeting of a new Alternative Board. Five complete strangers in a room. Effectively I’m saying to each one of them, “Here are four people you’ve never met before. Shake hands, make two minutes of meaningless small talk over a cup of weak coffee and then tell them the innermost secrets of your business.”

For me, this is what being a TAB facilitator is all about. This is crossing the white line at 3pm on Saturday afternoon. This is the most worrying moment of my job – and by some stretch, it’s the most exciting as well.

Have these people anything in common? Will they gel? Above all, will there be some magic? Will 1+1+1+1+1 equal a lot more than 5?

Obviously, the group isn’t entirely random. I know all the board members, and in my best impression of Simon Cowell putting a boy band together, I think it’ll work. I’m not going to put two people on a board who might not get on: I’m certainly not to have two competing businesses on the same board. And yes, there’s a self-selecting element as well. If the potential members weren’t prepared to contribute, they wouldn’t be here.

But like every blind date, there’s a risk. Will the new board’s discussions sit safely on the surface, skirting round the issues they really care about? Or will it go deeper? Because if it doesn’t, they’re going to waste the next three hours.  

As the facilitator, the answer is ‘you don’t know.’ In football-commentator-speak, “it’s a big ask.” Please tell these people you’ve just met what really concerns you about your business, tell them where you want the business to go – or tell them (and this takes some courage) that you don’t have a clue where it’s going.

So the meeting kicked off – with a very slick presentation. A couple of members looked dismayed, on the grounds that they hadn’t prepared anything and were going to ad-lib. Not to worry, they were fine. We went through the necessary introductions and overviews, and then we came to the main event: challenges and opportunities. This is the central point of any TAB meeting. What problems or challenges are you currently facing in your business? What opportunities have suddenly opened up?

Board members have to describe these, ask the other members for advice – and then keep quiet. There’s always a time limit – usually it’s about thirty minutes per member – but it’s always shorter at the first meeting. So as we sat round the table last Thursday everyone was faced with summarising their position and getting feedback in ten minutes.

But remember what George Bernard Shaw once said, “I’m sorry this is such a long letter, I didn’t have time to make it shorter.” Sometimes less is more. Only having ten minutes forced the board members to cut right to the heart of their business. They had to make the best use of the time available. And then they had to listen, effectively. (A seriously underrated skill in business.)

Judging by the comments and the e-mails afterwards, the meeting was a success. And hopefully there’ll be some positive results. We’ve three more meetings planned before Christmas. I’m looking forward to someone standing up in December and saying: ‘Before I tell you about this month’s challenge, something good has happened. And it wouldn’t have happened without the help you four have given me.’

Stay tuned. I’ll let you know…

How Microsoft killed the art of public speaking

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So there they are, hunkered down, deep underground, somewhere just outside Seattle. The Microsoft SPB – Strategic Planning Bunker. Coffee and donuts on the table, they’re thinking the unthinkable. And discussing their enemies.

“It was awful,” one of them says. “This guy talks, the audience listen, they applaud. Afterwards they drink coffee, chat to each other – ”

“Interact, you mean.”

“Yeah, yeah. Then they go back into the same room, another guy talks…”

“And no-one presses F1 for help?”

“No-one so much as thinks about a PC. They even laugh.”

“We have to stop it. Good public speaking and PC’s can’t live in the same world. We need something – something that’ll kill public speaking stone dead.”

Like the monkeys writing Hamlet, the nerds eventually crack the problem. And gradually, insidiously, Agent PowerPoint is doing its job.

I’ve been to a few presentations in the past week. In a couple of cases, interesting people who could have said interesting things – if only they’d had the courage to turn their laptops off.

You know, if you’re planning to spend 45 minutes putting up PowerPoint slides and then reading them out, do us all a favour. Instead of your logo, (because we don’t want reminding who you are), just put the Samaritans number along the bottom of your slides.

What do you get with a PowerPoint presentation? Well, number one, you get five minutes pointless fiddling around while they find the right presentation, get the damn machine in focus and work out what button to press so it doesn’t run backwards. Then there’s a quick preview of slide 17 when they press said button too many times to check it’s working, lots of nervous laughter and then some fool turns round to the audience and says ‘nearly there.’

Eventually, someone starts speaking. And your thought process goes something like this…

Right, read that one, thanks. Next. Oh, he’s still reading it out. How did they get those highlights? Can I do that? Maybe it’s 2007 – what am I using? 2003? Why have they used red and orange? Maybe he’s colour-blind…wonder if he’ll take questions at the end? I’ll ask if he’s colour-blind. Oh, Jesus, he’s making something fly in from the side. Well maybe that was impressive ten years ago. Bet he’s got a pair of flares at home. Hey up – next slide…read it. Still using red and orange. What’s that Italian football team that plays in red and orange…

PowerPoint is not only an ordeal for the audience, it’s also counter-productive for the speaker. But hey, it’s easy. And possibly it impresses your boss.

There are times when I think audiences are too soft on speakers. Yes, I know we’re all terribly polite and well mannered and very British. But isn’t it just a bit bloody rude to bore people senseless for 45 minutes simply because you couldn’t be bothered to do enough preparation or write an interesting speech?

Maybe speakers who use PowerPoint should be stigmatised. Maybe we could make them stand outside between presentations. Smokers at one side of the main entrance, PowerPoint addicts at the other.

Anyway, I’m off. I’ve two new boards having their first meetings this week. I need to prepare a brief intro, outline the agenda, give a dozen people an overview of the long term vision. Where’s my laptop? I could use…

Or maybe I could jot down about twenty words on a sheet of A4 and then look everyone in the eye – and build a relationship with people, not with Toshiba.

Letter from America

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The harsh, useful things of the world, from pulling teeth to digging potatoes, are best done by men who are as starkly sober as so many convicts in the death-house, but the lovely and useless things, the charming and exhilarating things, are best done by men with, as the phrase is, a few sheets in the wind – H L Mencken

So here I am on Broadway. No, not that Broadway. I’m at 1675 Broadway, Denver, Colorado – the British Consulate. And very shortly I start my new job as a waiter, fully intending to make sure several Americans are rendered wholly unfit for pulling teeth and digging potatoes…

Before you rush to the conclusion that I’ve left my wife and fled to the colonies, I should explain that I’m here on business. Well, yes, technically, today was sunny and 88 degrees. And yes, if you want to be pedantic tomorrow is forecast to be, er…sunny and 90 degrees.

According to my guide book, Denver has the best climate in the US, easily on a par with Southern California. The 15th step on the west side of Denver’s State Capitol Building is exactly one mile above sea level and 92.1% of the population have high school diplomas. What it doesn’t say is that 70 to 80 Americans will shortly be getting impatient if I don’t dish out the Pimms fast enough.

So, the glasses are polished, the nibbles are strategically strewn around and…You heard me. Pimms. With lemonade. And lots of fruit. Jack Daniels? Budweiser? No chance.

Let me explain. I’m here for the annual conference of The Alternative Board. TAB started in the US in 1990. Right now there are more than 450 boards, with a total of nearly 3500 members. So if I can’t learn something to help my York members in the few days I’m out here then I probably shouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.

Five of us have flown over from the UK – do you ever grow out of the sense of excitement you feel when you touch down in the US? – and we thought we’d entertain our American colleagues. And yes, we could have done white wine and red wine and a few bottles of Milwaukee’s finest, but let’s serve something essentially British. So it’s Pimms – despite the fact that all that fruit in a drink may confirm some American beliefs regarding the sexuality of British men. It’s a risk we’ll have to take.

Much later…

The Pimms party was a huge success. And afterwards we staggered downtown to The Appaloosa Grill.

Several of our American colleagues, never having come across alcohol-disguised-as-fruit-salad seemed to have difficulties pronouncing ‘Appaloosa.’ I might admit to slight co-ordination problems of my own. It seemed simplest to order steak.

Equally I might admit to a slight hangover the next morning. And as I was in a strange bed, I inevitably woke up ridiculously early so I could appreciate it. Five o’clock.

There was no chance of going back to sleep. So I drank all the orange juice in the mini-bar and headed for the hotel pool. At least I’d have it to myself at five in the morning.

Fat chance. Or rather thin chance. The guide book had said that Colorado was the only state where 50% of the population weren’t obese. No wonder. They were all in the pool. Several of my new friends who’d decided that the “App-sluice-ia Grill” was a fine idea were now remorselessly hammering out lengths. Clearly men determined to dig up potatoes…

And men determined to help. I cannot thank my American colleagues enough for all their kindness. I left Denver with the words, “No problem, Ed, I’ll do it as soon as I get back to the office” ringing in my ears. And over the coming weeks I’ll share some of their ideas with you.

But for now, let me leave you with this thought. If you want help, ask for help. What did I do in America? I simply said, “I’m relatively new, I’m learning. Can you help me?” And it works nearly every time – even with starkly sober men who spend their day pulling teeth…