We had a great conversation with the Founder and CEO of The Demand Creation Institute, Sean Stormes.

Sean had the good fortune of leading a Continuous Quality Improvement initiative within a Fortune 500 company. This led him to the world’s authority Dr. William Edwards Deming, the father of the quality movement. Deming was credited with revolutionizing Post World War II Japan’s manufacturing industry and making Japan one of the most dominant economies in the world. In 1951 the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers established The Deming Prize that recognizes organizations that have implemented systems that promote quality, and individuals who have made contributions to quality. It is one of the highest awards int the world and the longest running national quality award.

This formative experience led Sean to explore the world of variation, a symptom that eventually leads to defects. Once he began researching, he saw variation at every level of a company.

He saw variation in the articulation of purpose.

He saw variation in the articulation of value to the client.

He saw variation in the alignment of purpose, quality, and value throughout the company culture.

To add fuel to the fire, he also saw an epidemic of sameness. He could take any number of company websites in any market and see no substantial differences.

Finally, he saw that the measures of sales performance lacked the means to create a compounding effect, limiting the scale and impact of the company.

Sean’s passion for excellence in demand creation creates the context for all of this.

Enjoy this great conversation and then begin to question all the elements that add up to creating more from your go-to-market efforts.

I have seen it before. So have you. A disconnect:

• with your people

• with your stakeholders in your market

• with your prospects and customers

• with your board

And most important of all, you have compartments within you that are silos of excellence but are not integrated into a highly compelling story of you.

We invited Chris Hare, the Founder and Principal of The Storied Future, to our Podcast to discuss his journey in creating a story for himself, his company, and those he serves.

This portion of his quote next to his picture, above, grabbed me:

“I have the privilege of working with values-driven C-Suite leaders who have the audacity to believe they can bend the future to their will.”

We discuss what “values-driven” means as well as “bend the future to their will”, and why they are both key in creating a storied future personally and professionally.

Chris is highly transparent. It is because of the psychic pain he experienced that he was able to use this as a powerful transformational tool for others.

As the founder of The Sage Group, a value transformation firm, I know how powerful “story” is in building a successful company. This is more than marketing. This is an existential and strategic tool for those that dare to think they can change the world.

Enjoy this Great Conversation.

Ron Worman, The Sage Group

Markets are ecosystems. They are unique to geographies, economies, and weather (seasons of change).

Market participants later find they need to be represented as a single voice in representing their needs to the government or to coalesce around industry standards to uplift the quality of their industry.

For example, the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) was born in 1955. The original members were meeting to share information with each other and to adapt the security regulations that were coming out of the Department of Defense. Many had come to their security positions from the FBI, which was frequently asked after the war to perform security surveys of industrial sites.

Just as ASIS was launched to represent positional security authority within organizations, the Security Industry Association (SIA) founded in 1969 as a trade association representing global security solutions providers, including manufacturers, service providers, and integrators of electronic and physical security equipment.

Two associations representing two different groups within a common ecosystem.

Many more associations have been introduced within this market representing different interests and groups.

Interesting enough, no one as yet connected the vital information from each source into a single syndicated channel.

We talked with Michael Gips, JD, CPP, CSyP, CAE, the President of the recently reimagined Life Safety Alliance (LSA). He has served as both the Chief Security Officer and Chief Global Knowledge and Learning Officer for ASIS International, where he oversaw Learning, Content, Certification, Standards & Guidelines, Production, Enterprise Security Risk Management, and other departments. He developed the CSO Roundtable, an organization that includes hundreds of the most senior security executives at the biggest corporations around the world, as a membership group within ASIS. He also served as editor and publisher of Security Management, where he authored hundreds of articles. Mike is also a senior advisor for Cardinal Point Strategies, a senior advisor for the Network Contagion Research Institute, and a Partner in the Knowledgebase of Insider Threats. He also serves on the advisory boards of several organizations that provide technology and services in government security, executive protection, violence prevention, and emergency geolocation.

A highly networked, highly knowledgeable, and highly generous man.

As you listen to the conversation, you will see the hub of syndicated information he is attempting to aggregate, organize, and distribute as well as his vision for connecting the authors of the content with the moments that matter in the security market. If achieved this will be not only a content aggregator, but also a relationship generator which is the foundation of industry innovation and change. For those who join in this ground floor opportunity, it may represent a unique reciprocal opportunity to be at the table as a new syndication of relationship and content emerge.

Enjoy the conversation.

In the security industry, the ideal posture is to be proactive. To do this, requires a relationship with people, processes, tools, and the core values of the client.

And ideally, the client is now able to identify risk, analyze and assess that risk, and then mitigate the risk down to an acceptable level.

If this is true, how do you assess the methodology and the core values of a vendor before they take on this central and significant task?

We have a discussion with the co-founder of TorchStone Global, David Niccolini. David discusses the "Business of Before" in the context of their code of ethics. You can see why the company has won numerous awards and the respect of key industry insiders.

As a reference, the key elements of this code are:

We endeavor to do no harm, and we actively work to do good. That statement might seem trite to some, but to those associated with TorchStone, we mean it sincerely. We try hard to form relationships of trust with the people with whom we work. We do all we can to develop and maintain that trust, to uphold professional standards, and to take full responsibility for our actions.

We refuse engagements or recuse ourselves from situations that do not pass these simple gut check questions: 1) Is this going to cause harm to someone or something? 2) Is this activity lawful? 3) Would I be comfortable if this work was made public? We expect and demand that employees and associates will consult with TorchStone leadership immediately if something seems amiss with any relationship or project.

We deeply believe in the dignity and worth of all people. We treat others with respect, and we do not tolerate harassment or discrimination of any kind. TorchStone will NOT assist in any investigation or provide any services (paid or pro bono) that may have been requested with the intent to kill, injure, suppress, stalk, or harass an individual or group. TorchStone will NOT conduct any operations or provide any services that violate others’ rights or any fundamental freedoms. TorchStone will NOT use deception, coercion, or threats to obtain information or provide services. This reinforces that above all, we at TorchStone strive to do no harm.

We respect the laws and regulations wherever we do business around the world. TorchStone assesses and mitigates the risk of potential physical, cyber, and reputational threats through lawful open-source information collection, principled executive protection, and sound security consulting. We do not take on any work that may infringe upon another person’s or group’s fundamental rights. We are honest and transparent in our discussions with employees, partners, and clients about what we can and cannot do. We build positive relationships free from corruption, bribes, kickbacks, or any other unethical activity. If potential conflicts of interest arise, financial or otherwise, we immediately consult with all parties involved, both internal and external, to transparently discuss the situation and to identify, together, the best way forward.

TorchStone is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer for all qualified candidates. We welcome and support people from diverse backgrounds and experiences. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

We respect our competitors. While we are focused on growing our company, we want to do so in a way that reflects our values. We want to compete with our competitors fairly and honestly.

In order to improve, we need to know when we are falling short. TorchStone supports a culture of trust and encourages speaking-up when something is not right. We are all human. This means that not only are we fallible, but also, we have feelings. It does not feel good to tell someone when something is not working, nor does it feel good to receive that information. We recognize that speaking up in these situations takes courage, and listening takes humility. We value that courage and are committed to humbly listening to feedback (the good, the bad, and the ugly).

Enjoy the Conversation!

When you have conversations with others, are you trying to win? Trying to defend a position?

Then, perhaps, you might be stuck.

In this Great Conversation with social researcher and author Michael McQueen, we learn what is is to be Mind Stuck, and how we might discover a new way to see and be seen.

This impacts you personally, professionally, and, in the end, influences the course of our organizations and our world.

We create tools. The tools help us off load burdensome tasks as well as act as highly leveraged fulcrums to expand our energy and minds. These tools have helped us create. They have helped us build. They have helped us cure disease. They have helped us mitigate threats, from both human and animal.

And now we have artificial intelligence. However, many of the implementations are failing because we are deploying management and process thinking from the industrial age.. Ironically, in the era of the machine we have become one.

Our great conversation with Brian Evergreen, author of Autonomous Transformation: Creating a more Human Future in the Era of Artificial Intelligence, is enlightening as we pause to consider our next steps on our path to value; as individuals, businesses, and the world.

We are all on the journey of becoming. And we hope and pray, that at the end of the journey we are whole. For all of us that means being loved for who we are. And to get there, we need to establish trust in ourselves and in others.

Trust. Could it be the foundation of everything we touch? Are we not all builders? And if so, wouldn’t we want to build all the relationships we have in this life on top of a platform of trust? And wouldn’t it make sense if that same platform that builds those relationships would be the fuel that drives innovation and change within the organizations we live and work in every day?

This is a great conversation that holds nothing back. This is not an easy fix; especially if you do not have a roadmap. This conversation is about that roadmap that will create the scaffolding that will help you build a beautiful business and a beautiful world.

Words are an attempt to articulate reality. The reality that was yesterday. The reality that is today. And the reality that is tomorrow.

Words can be a weapon. They can bully, demonize, and destroy.

Words can embrace, energize, and elevate.

If these bookends are true, then what is the area in-between that seems to be moved by one or the other?

I have a great conversation with Chris Westfall, author of Leadership Language where we attempt to uncover the nuances of language that describe our internal journey as well as our impact on others. We learn that words matter. And our conscious use of them can help raise others up and moving in a positive direction. In the end, the observation and measurement of leadership is about how you show up and constructively influence those around you.

Chris urges us not to see leadership as conceptual. It is not an information exchange. It is not technique. It is about an understanding of oneself. And then authentically showing up for and with others.

The book is fast paced, pithy, and real. This great conversation may change what conversations you will have with yourself and others.

Enjoy.