On the road

I'm currently in Santa Rosa, California. I came up here to conduct a seminar and give a dinner meeting presentation. The seminar was canceled, but the presentation went well. I gave my Strategic Planning presentation, which seems to be of interest to people. Many organizations perform something they call Strategic Planning, but they're not getting the results they want. My presentation is titled Effective Strategic Planning, where I define Effective as actually achieving the goals and objectives you've set out. Many other organizations do not perform Strategic Planning at all. Some do some sort of annual planning, but that's not really getting them anywhere. A few organizations actually do perform Strategic Planning with a fairly high level of success, so that's always nice to hear. They still might be missing a few pieces that could drive their performance higher, but they serve as a good example showing that it can be done.

From here I'm going over to Sacramento, where I'll give the Strategic Planning presentation again. Then I'm down in Santa Clara/Sunnyvale for a presentation on Lean and Six Sigma: Working Together.

I've been hauling some of my books around with me, to sell. I learned that it's always best to have at least a couple with me anytime I'm giving a presentation, or even going to a meeting. When I give a presentation or conduct a seminar, there is absolutely no sales pitch involved. That's not what the people are there for. But people always ask about my book, so I keep some with me just in case. Of course, after hauling them around with me I forgot to bring them with me to the last presentation. Doh! I really don't want to carry them back home. Besides wanting to sell them, I need to offload some weight from my luggage. For one, I bought a coupld of books at the conference in Orlando. I bought the last two books in Dr. Harrington's 5-book series, The Five Pillars of Excellence. I had the first three, so figured I should get the last two so I have the full set. Yes, I'm a book hoarder. My personal library is quite extensive. Meaning I have no more room for more books and should really try to start purging some, especially the ones that are in boxes in storage.