The other day, my friend Jill Konrath wrote a compelling post, Silence Is Complicity.  Please make sure you read it.  The post resulted in an email discussion between Jill and me on the topic of Intolerance.

In the national media, we are pummeled by pundits spewing messages of intolerance.  Whether they wrap themselves in their country’s flag, claiming patriotism, or in the “rightness” of their issue, or claiming a religious position, or are just plain mean; we’re surrounded by intolerance.  Their messages are nothing but poison.

These people refuse to recognize other points of view, other ideas, and positions.  Through arrogance, conceit, ignorance or fear, rather than engaging in a healthy exchange of ideas, or in listening and understanding, they seek to destroy, to tear things down.  This behavior is shameful.  To see so called leaders or influencers spewing this venom sets a terrible example and makes all of us littler, stop all progress, and keep us from growing.

One doesn’t have to look far back in history to see the damage done by intolerance.  Millions of deaths, decades of repression, cultures and economies destroyed.

Intolerance is the enemy of progress, of innovation, of growth and creativity.  Intolerance does not create success, but instead drives failure.  It impacts all of us because it stops the exchange of ideas.  It stops us from seeking to understand and to be understood.  It stifles our growth as individuals, communities, organizations, and nations.

At a time when so many are searching for answers, whether to achieve our personal goals, to find ways for our companies to grow, to provide solutions for our communities, or to be better world citizens; intolerance stops all of that.

It’s differences that make us great.  Differing backgrounds, differing experiences, differing beliefs, different ideas, different points of view.  No single person or group can have the answers.  But the healthy exchange of views and ideas enable us to consider new things.  Rather than trying to shut down or shout down those who hold a different point of view, we need to encourage them to speak up, we need to listen, we need to respect them—though we may still not agree with them.

Ideas, conversations, differences in views are the stuff that create growth, and isn’t that what each of us is trying to do?

Intolerance is around us every day.  It’s just not the garbage we hear in the news.  We see it in very subtle ways every day.  It’s the bullying, it’s people who don’t listen, it’s people who stop learning.  It happens in little ways, but accumulates, and worsens.

The only way we fight intolerance is to refuse to succumb.  We must continue to question, we must continue to explore, we must continue to learn.  We cannot stand by and say nothing, because if we do, Silence Is Complicity, and silence destroys each of us.

I’m taking a bit of a departure from some of the “rules” I have established for myself and this blog.  One thing I have avoided is taking political positions, using this blog as a bully pulpit for those types of things—though I use it as a bully pulpit for a lot of other stuff.  In this post, I have no intent of taking a political position, but there are some important pieces of legislation that impact virtually every business and organization for which the Web is a part of their strategies.  I think it’s important for people to understand these and take an active position with their congress people–regardless your stance.

Many blog sites and web sites are going “dark” today to call people’s attention to the SOPA and PIPA bills.  Clearly, this site hasn’t gone dark—but that’s just a comment on my lack of technical capabilities.

I first started seeing the term SOPA coming up in the social media world a couple of months ago.  The conversation seemed to have dominance in the technical communities, I initially blew it off thinking it was some great technology.  More recently, as I kept seeing more discussion, I decided to look into it.

SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, or House Bill 3261.  It’s related to PIPA, the Protect IP Act.  Look at some of the articles on these bills.  The spirit of the bills is great, who wants to encourage Piracy or stealing IP.   However the implications of the bills and the related enforcement issues are profound.  There is an impact to virtually every business — seeking to leverage the web, build online communities and better connect with their customers.  It will impact virtually every individual’s web experience.

The responsibilities organizations have in ensuring their sites are in compliance can be overwhelming and will inevitably impact all our experiences on the web.  Social Media and Web X.0 strategies are critical to all businesses and organizations, so legislation that can have such a profound impact  on our abilities to leverage these is important to understand.

I’ll keep my position to myself, though you might guess my position.  But I think every marketer, strategist, and top executives should look at the legislation, understand it’s impact on their strategies.  Whatever your position, you should write your congress people making your position known.

Today is Thanksgiving in the US.  It will prompt the usual spate of posts about gratitude and appreciation, including this one.  A special day like this forces us to pause and reflect.

I, as do so many of us, have so much to be thankful for, and far too many people to express my gratitude.  Clients and associates I am privileged to work with every day, this large community of people to exchange and share ideas, friends and neighbors.  Most of all a wonderful family.   My wife, parents, sisters, their husbands and children, my sister in law and her children–each of whom supports me, encourages me to be a better person, most of all encourage me to do what I love every day.

It seems a shame that we reserve this one day to reflect on all that we should be thankful for.  I wonder what would happen if every day, we took just one minute to give thanks–to reach out to someone to express our gratitude and appreciation.  365 opportunities to think of someone other than ourselves, our to do lists, and what we must accomplish.

It seems this simple act can start to change the world, and if each one of us took a moment to express our gratitude just to one person, things might be very different.  Expressing gratitude has a refreshing, uplifting effect.  It’s good not only for the recipient (we all appreciate the acknowledgement.  But it lifts our own spirits and changes the way we approach the day.

Be thankful, express it daily.

Thank you!

Today, I got a note from Paul Castain.  Paul hosts one of the best LinkedIn groups and is the author of the Sales Playboook Blog.  Paul usually has an interesting perspective and great ideas.  But this time, I thought he had gone off the deep end.  He was advocating having a “Canned Sales Meeting.”

My initial reaction was pretty strong, I understand having a reasonably standard agenda of topics for a meeting, but doesn’t having it totally canned defeat the goal?  Then I read the post.  I hve to jump on Paul’s bandwagon, endorsing what he is trying to achieve (and congratulating him for the fantastic idea).

Paul’s notion of a “canned sales meeting” is that over the next several weeks, everyone in the meeting should bring a canned good or non perishable item to the meeting.  These could be donated to a food bank.

It’s an important idea and so simple!  But if each of us did this, not only for our sales meetings, but extend it to meetings with customers—make it optional, but let your customers know, before the meeting, that you are trying to make a difference in the lives of peoples and communities less fortunate.  There are lots of people looking for jobs, lots of people struggling to make ends meet.  We are so much more fortunate and have a chance to make a difference in other’s lives.

So try it!  Spread the word in your company–for your next few sales meetings (why limit it to sales meeting), ask each participant to bring a canned good or non perishable food item.  Take them to your favorite food bank.  Try it with your customers, send them a note a day or two before the meeting, ask them to help out!

Paul, thanks so much for the great idea!

Lessons on life and business.  Take the time to watch, then take a few moments to think what you want to change–are you pursuing your passions, if not, find them and pursue them.  Life is too short and precious to do anything else.

I’m a little surprised that I’m writing about 9/11.   It’s a big departure from my normal ramblings.  This morning, I had no intention of writing about it.  But I found myself remembering.

It’s one of those things many of us speak about–an event we remember for all our lives.  There are a handful that I always remember, this is one.  The memories are so vivid.

On the morning of 9/11/2001, I was at work in my office–the radio was on in the background.  I was catching up on things,  The night before, I had just returned from a two week business trip through Sub-Saharan Africa.  I had a lot to catch up on.  All of a sudden, I heard, “a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.”  I turned on the TV and was consumed–as with everyone else watching, I was horrified and confused.

This morning I was remembering.  The memories of 10 years ago started it, but I thought more.  I spent much of my early business career in Manhattan.  The World Trade Center was a fixture in my life—both business and social.  At various points in time, I had offices in the towers.  I had customers there.  There were the meetings in the conference rooms at Windows on the World.  The bar and restaurant were great place to go, take newcomers, or just relax and look out over the city.

The towers seemed to be a fixture in my life.  From just about anywhere you could see them.  They became an unconscious anchoring point for me.

Then the tragedies of 9/11 happened.  We lost a few people we knew in the collapse of the towers.  The tragedies at the Pentagon, Flight 93, and the towers touched everyone.  Having spent the previous 2 weeks in Africa, I was deluged with queries from my new friends.  Many not knowing I lived hundreds of miles away asking how I was, if I was safe.  Many of my new Muslim friends expressing grief, wondering what Americans thought of them, asking what I thought.

We all got through it.

I remember my first trip back to Manhattan, a couple of months after 9/11.  I remember flying into Newark, looking out over Manhattan, for the first time seeing the “hole” in the skyline.  Driving into the city that morning, I was obsessed with the new skyline.  I kept looking at where the buildings should be, but all I saw was the “hole” in the skyline.

I still am in Manhattan frequently.  Every time I’m there, wherever I am, I somehow finding myself looking int the direction of lower Manhattan.  All I can see is the hole.  Even though the space is starting to be filled, for some reason, I just see the hole.

Ten years have passed, I think about what’s changed.  We still grieve about the events of that day, but I keep thinking about the hole.  One hopes for healing, but I still wonder about the hole for all of us.

I don’t believe it started with 9/11, I think the tragedies of the day and the symbolism of the towers are probably a convenient anchoring points.  But in reflecting, we seem to be less tolerant–of each other, of our differences, of similarities.  We seem to listen more poorly.  We are less open to new ideas or differences in perspectives.  We seem more fixed in our positions and less open to considering others.  We seem more reactionary.

Somehow there seems to be a hole in all our lives.  Our collective inabilities to listen, to respect and accept differences, to tolerate, to be open, to try to work together despite differences makes the hole even more vivid.  Just at the towers seemed to be an anchoring point in Manhattan, it seems many of us have lost our anchoring points–we’re left with the hole.

The hole won’t go away with new structures, because the hole is no longer about a piece of real estate.  The hole is a part of our societies, cultures, and carried with each of us.   The hole won’t go away because of the actions of governments, organizations, and businesses.

The solution to the hole really lies with each of us, individually.  It starts with listening, openness, respect, and tolerance.  It starts with respecting different point of view and opinions.  It starts with working to align ourselves and bridging those differences.  It is something each of us can do — unconditionally.

50% of sales people failed to achieve their quotas last year.  We all faced tough markets, radically changing customer expectations, and new global competitors.   But that’s no excuse to accept missing goal.  In contrast to those 50% of sales people that failed to achieve quotas, in high performing sales organizations, over 80% of their sales people met or exceeded their goals — a remarkable difference.

On May 9-13, there will be a remarkable event–remarkable in several senses.  It is the 2011 Sales and Marketing Success Conference.  A 5 day series of presentations and discussions by 36 of the top thought leaders in professional sales, marketing, leadership, and social media.

5 days of high impact discussions, focused on Succeeding Winning, and Exceeding Expectations!  It’s a fantastic opportunity to learn, explore new ideas and interact with people from all over the world.  It’s a chance to get new ideas, tools, and approaches to compete and win in 2011.

But there is something even more remarkable about this event.  It’s a chance to contribute, to help others.  Specifically, this is an opportunity for anyone operating in the sales space to make a meaningful contribution to the Japanese Disaster Fund (via the Red Cross).Can I count on your support? Together we can make a worthwhile contribution to help people who have shown the rest of the world so much in the noble way they have handled the tragedy and devastation.

Here’s how it works–and how you can contribute.  Each presentation will have a nominal fee of $5.00.  Most of that money will be donated to the Red Cross (minus transaction fees from PayPal, etc.)  So you have a chance to improve, grow and learn, while at the same time contributing and making helping to make a difference for people in desperate need.

Yes–there’s a bit of a competition going, each of the speakers is trying to out do the other in raising contributions–we’re trying to attract registrations to our specific presentations, and those of our team members on the days we are presenting.  This cause, however, is too important for a competition (however well intended).  So here’s my challenge to you:

I’d like each person in my audience to participate in this tremendous workshop.  Find 10 sessions you really like–one’s that are most important to you.  Find someone you have never had the chance to listen to before, register for their session—get some fresh insight and ideas, don’t just listen to the people you have listened to before.

Register for 10 sessions–you will be contributing $50 to a great cause.  If you can’t do that, register for at least one session and contribute $5.

I’m privileged to be a speaker in this conference, on Tuesday, May 10 at 12:00 Eastern.  I’ll be talking about “Is Sales At An Inflection Point.”  There are a great set of people presenting on Tuesday:

Day Two Tuesday May 10th

	Selling Is At An Inflection Point – How Can You Succeed From Here On In? >> Presented at: 12:00 – 12:30 EASTERN by Dave Brock CEO of Partners in EXCELLENCE

	Build the Success of Your Sales Team with 3 Simple Steps to Improve Skill and Will >> Presented at: 12:45 – 1:15 EASTERN by Nancy Bleeke President of Sales Pro Insider

	Winning sales in 2011: How to arm today’s BtoB sales force with the tools and skills to compete- and win >> Presented at: 1:30 – 2:00 EASTERN by Michael C. Bird Chief Revenue Officer at NetProspex

	Social Media Strategies for Lead Generation Success >> Presented at: 2:15 – 2:45 EASTERN by Kendra Lee CEO of the KLA Group

	14 Edgy Ways to Break All the Sales Rules and Be Madly Successful Doing It >> Presented at: 3:00 – 3:30 EASTERN by Dan Waldschmidt Co-Founder of IntroMojo

	Success Tactics to Generate Red-Hot Prospects >> Presented at: 3:45 – 4:15 EASTERN by Joanne Black Best Selling Author of “No More Cold Calling”

	Improve Your Cold Calling Success 700% >> Presented at: 4:30 – 5:00 EASTERN by Nigel Edelshain CEO of Sales 2.0 (LLC).

There are fabulous sessions on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Look at the speakers for those days and register for their sessions, as well.  This is one of the most important professional development activities you can partcipate in this year–it’s also a wonderful chance to make a difference–Don’t miss the opportunity!

Sales people are trained to be problem solvers — we ask questions, probe — once we find a problem we attack like a pit bull and don’t let go until we’ve wrestled the problem to the ground and gotten the order.

So what’s the problem with that?  Too often we leap to solutions before we understand what the “real problem” is.  It’s a real problem, I wrote about it in a post almost a year ago: “The Evolving Role Of The Sales Person–The Sales Person As Diagnostician”  It addresses the issue of sales people leaping to solutions and not solving the right problem.  Customers get frustrated with this approach, they complain, “they aren’t listening, they don’t understand my real issues.”

There’s another aspect of this problem — often, our customers leap to solutions.  Like sales people, business people are trained problem solvers–that’s what we learn in the university, and every aspect of our jobs reinforce that.  Customer are often certain they know their problems and tell the sales person, “this is what I need.”  And we tend to accept that and sell to that need.  The problem is they aren’t solving the right problem.

A friend of mine, Steve Bowles, had a great example of this.  He was meeting with the CEO of a small company, and the CEO said, “This is the issue I’m having with the sales organization and this is what I need you to do…”  And as CEO’s are prone to do, he said it with great authority and certainty.  Steve could have done what the CEO asked and gotten the order.  Instead, Steve did something else, he asked the question, “What do you think is causing this issue to happen with the sales organization?”  Steve resisted the temptation to take the leap with his customer, get the order, and provide the right solution to the wrong problem.  Instead, Steve decided to probe.  He wanted to understand if the CEO was describing the real problem or if there was an underlying issue.  He got to the underlying issues — it wasn’t pleasant, in fact to a large degree the CEO was creating the problem himself.  Steve politely pointed that out and suggested a different solution.  Oh by the way, Steve got the order.

Mediocre sales people let the customer dictate the solution, only responding the the needs the customer outlines and the solution they want.  That’s often why it’s difficult to differentiate.  The customer has determined the solution and everyone is fundamentally providing the same thing.

Great sales professionals–those that create real value for their customers and stand out are those that find and solve the right problems.  They take the time to probe and understand.  They care enough about doing the right thing for the customer that they challenge the customer’s preconceived notions about the problem and solution.  They get the customer to think differently, to see and solve the real problem.

It takes great knowledge of your customer’s business, it takes great knowledge of your solutions, it takes the patience and diligence to probe and understand.  Finally, it takes great courage to suggest to the customer that there might be a better way.

Too often, inertia, time pressures, the push to do a deal quickly, or simply our conditioning as problem solvers push us to leap to solutions.  We as sales people do this, our customers do this. 

Our greatest value add as sales professionals is to help our customers solve the right problems.  Are you taking the time to work with your customers to do this or are you leaping to solutions?

For the past several weeks, there has been an interesting saga going on in the blog world.  A gentleman named Michael J. Roman has created a great stir. 

It would be fantastic if it were about provocative ideas and interesting points of view—in fact it is, the problem is they aren’t his ideas or his points of view, though he presents them as his.  See the controversy he has created is about his lack of respect for other people’s hard work, his disdain for copyright law, and ultimately his disdain of his audience.

Michael plagiarizes the best ideas and blogs from numerous well respected bloggers.  He goes further by putting his own copyright on the materials declaring them as his own original works.  He stands proudly behind a cloak of “integrity.”  When he was caught by my friend, Jonathan Farrington, he immediately offered his sincere apology, laying the blame on an over zealous “creative director.”  In his apology to Jonathan, he states, “Any unethical behavior under my leadership will NOT be tolerated and I appreciate you (and others) bringing this to my attention.”  He goes on to say he will terminate the offending employee.  He concludes his letter:   “Again, you have my most sincere apologies for this unacceptable act on my employee’s part, which in turn, is a direct reflection on me.”

Just a few days after that apology, he’s back to his old tricks, copying and plagiarizing content from great bloggers.  As many of my friends protest this, apparently Michael has once again taken his blog down.  But we know people like Michael, he will re-appear doing the same thing, perhaps under a different persona.

Michael, however, provides us a great case study.  He declares his core values as Passion, Balance, Integrity, and Expertise.  Declaring these values doesn’t make them so!  Demonstrating these values every day in every interaction is what counts!  It’s how we understand the real measure of a person.  It’s how we establish trust and how we build our reputation.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of Michael J. Roman’s out there.  Their behavior seeks to drag everyone to the lowest levels.  Their behavior drags down the standards and reputations of their companies.  In Michael’s case, it is Modis IT Staffing–knowing Michael represents them would cause me to be concerned about doing business with them.  Do they have the same “high” standards as Michael?  Do they have the same ethics?  I’m sure they don’t sink to the depths that Michael does, but it causes people to doubt them.

Ultimately, our reputations are not judged by what we declare–regardless of how loudly we declare them, our reputations are developed by how we live and demonstrate what we stand for.  If we have high personal standards, we surround ourselves with others that live by high personal standards and shun the bottom feeders like Michael J. Roman.

A number of my fellow bloggers have written outstanding posts about this situation.  I encourage you to read them, I’ve put the links for several below, I know I’m missing a number, my apologies:

Skip Anderson:  The Continuing Saga of Michael J. Roman and “His” Blog  and The Scourge of the Blogosphere: Plagiarism and Michael J. Roman.

Jonathan Farrington:  Michael J. Roman; Plagiarism; the Apology; Final Thoughts

Jill Konrath: “There Are No Shortcuts to Success”

Wendy Weiss: “Stop Thief!”

Dave Kurlan: “Jiffy Lube Magic, Sales Adaptability and Plagiarism”

Kelley Robertson: “When Imitation Is NOT the Best Form of Flattery”

Skip Anderson: “The Scourge of the Blogosphere: Plagiarism and Michael J. Roman”

Tibor Shanto: “Please Don’t Steal This Post!”

Leanne Hoagland-Smith: “Is Plagiarism Worth It in Blogging, Article Marketing Social Media Universe?”

Ken Thoreson: “When Plagiarism Is NOT Flattering”

Niall Devitt: “When Plagiarism Is Not Flattering”

Nancy Bleeke: “Being Yourself in a Transparent World”

(Thanks to Skip and Jonathan for links/pictures/etc.)

Well, it’s 2010, a New Year!  We have put 2009 behind us, and as we are prone to do, forget the lessons we learned or things we discovered.

Before rushing into the New Year, take time this weekend to reflect.  Do a couple of things to inspire yourself:

Read Seth Godin’s eBook:  What Matters Now.  It’s a great collection of short articles on all sorts of different perspectives.  It’s great food for thought as you think about what you want to achieve for the new year.

Then take the time to think about how you can Make A Difference.  My friend, Rebel Brown, has an interesting idea:  Think Small.  Think about how you can make a difference in a person’s life every day this year.  As Rebel puts it, think small.  Sometimes the difference you make is nothing more than a smile, or a thoughtful note.  It may be taking the time to listen.  Imagine what each of us can accomplish–365 small acts of Making A Difference. 

Think what could happen, it can snowball.  Imagine, each person reading this post doing 365 acts of Making a Difference—we’re now into 100′s of thousands.  Then those people that we’ve impacted will start doing the same thing.  Who says change is tough?  All it takes is one small act every day.

Happy 2010!