Your best marketing is doing a brilliant job

Presenter – Martin Ringer

Director, Group Institute International martinringer@groupinstitute.com

The session: Outline

� Airline pilots and Brain Surgeons � Crashing kites: The referral fabric � What do you think is brilliant work? �  Self as instrument – some facts � One view of doing a brilliant job �  Tools & techniques to sharpen the

instrument �  Some reading …And please acknowledge the source if you use any of this material

?

What do we need to do so that people in the business community have the same confidence in facilitators as they have in airline pilots

and brain surgeons?  

You have to crash a kite: The referral fabric � Q: How do you get chosen to do amazing

jobs – like facilitating $30Billion+ joint ventures?

� A: Do you have to crash a kite? (with a story to follow)

Some questions for you 1.  How do you determine if what the client asks for is

what the client needs? 2.  What do you know about yourself (as ‘instrument’)

that influences how you work with clients? 3.  What are the most trustworthy sources of that

data about how well you are working (from yourself; from others)? And how do you obtain and verify it?

4.  What are the major assets that you have that enable you to do a good job?

5.  How do you catch yourself when you start acting out your own ‘scripts’ and agendas while you are working?

6.  How do you manage yourself when your buttons are pushed?

Self as instrument: A few facts �  Brilliant work is a result of brilliant working � We – the facilitators – are the ‘instrument’

that does the work �  95% of important psychological and

emotional events escape our conscious awareness

�  Brilliant working involves artful management of system 1[automatic] and system 2 [effortful] functioning (Kahneman)

� We can only tune the instrument if we have reliable feedback/information…

Where do we get our information?

On average, information about ourselves that is

sourced from others is more accurate than self-perception

- Wilson

Key elements of brilliant working

Structures (2) and Capabilities (9) (1)  Two key structures � Client: Relentless pursuit to identify the

real client � Primary Task: Constant search to identify

the real ‘job’

The ‘sharp’ instrument (1)

2.  Nine key capabilities � Contains client anxiety � Deals with clients’ psychological defense

systems � Creates a thinking space � Lets go the illusion of knowing exactly

what is going on but…

The ‘sharp’ instrument (2)

� Takes authority to lead the process � Takes the whole system seriously � Deeply appreciates being a part of the

system � Can ‘walk around inside oneself ’ and

avoids bear traps � Manages self well; - resilient; - does not

abandon the client.

How to sharpen the instrument

�  ‘Reflection with ‘other’ e.g. supervision � Work on yourself – get to know your

schemas, buttons etc � Build reflexive capacity – to obtain

information about how you interact with the world

� Learn about dynamics of organizations and human behaviour

Some reading… •  Brooks, D. (2011). The social animal: A story of how success happens.

Random House, New York. •  Damasio, A. (2003). Looking for Spinoza: Joy, sorrow and the feeling

brain. Harcourt Inc. Orlando. •  Eisold, K. (2009). What you don’t know you know: Our hidden motives

in life, business and everything else. Other Press. New York. •  Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and

Giroux. New York •  Ringer, T. M. (2002). Group action: The dynamics of groups in

therapeutic, educational and corporate settings. London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

•  Stapley, L. (2006). Individuals, groups, and organizations beneath the surface. London, Karnac Books Ltd.

•  Wilson, T. (2004). Strangers to ourselves: Discovering the adaptive unconscious. Boston, Harvard University Press.

Want more? ü Have a look at the written resources on

www.groupinstitute.com ü Contact me by email

martinringer@groupinstitute.com ü Give me a call +61 431 421 834 ü +61 8 9467 6008 (re-directed to

wherever I am) ü Ask me about my next course or seminar. Martin Ringer