In my customer work I try to communicate powerful concepts in simple and memorable ways. One of my favorite tools to do this is using relevant and powerful quotes.
To that end I've collected scores of quotes during my career. Whittling that collection down to a "top 10" for this article was a tough exercise. Many excellent quotes didn't make the final list.
I ended up choosing this list because these are the quotes that I find most inspiring for myself and our customers. I hope you find them helpful.
I've borrowed the title for this blog entry from one of my favorite business books, Death by Meeting by Pat Lencioni. The basic idea of the book is not that you'll die by meetings. Rather, you might die from awful meetings.
As you know, awful meetings happen all the time. They take too long. They wander aimlessly. They don’t start or end on time. You’d pretty much rather be anywhere else.
A couple of years ago I came across an online critique of strategic planning titled “The Perils of Strategic Planning.”
One section, in particular, caught my attention. The author, James Hollan, wrote…
One of the very best plans I’ve ever seen in the nonprofit sector was just two pages. At the top of page one was a brief statement that basically said, “We are doing a very good job and we believe that these three things will make this organization even better. We believe they are three things we can accomplish next year.”
Several years ago I had a part-time job as the executive director of a small nonprofit. It was a great job in many ways. I loved our mission, the people we served, and the challenges we faced. Plus, at the time the job was a perfect complement to my other consulting work.
However, I had one main problem with the job: the board chair (also the founder) and I had dramatically different visions for the organization. He wanted us to be a somewhat regional program that used our nonprofit status primarily to qualify for funds. I, however, wanted us to become a strong nonprofit organization with a larger and larger national reach.
