Flawless Consulting® in Florida This September and October, take advantage of a special opportunity to join us in person for Flawless Consulting® Public Workshops in sunny Cape Canaveral, Florida. Have a blast on the Space Coast and experience learnings that will help you elevate your influence and launch partnerships that last. Part 1 – Sep. 10-11 / Part 2- Oct. 8-9 Sign up here.
Designed Learning at ATD24 Last month, the Designed Learning team attended ATD24 in New Orleans, bringing a refreshing return to authenticity amidst a sea of high-tech solutions. Through meaningful conversations, we shared our vision of humanizing the workplace and advocating for environments where relationships and compassion take center stage. The positive feedback we received reaffirmed the power of authenticity and connection. Read more reflections on our blog.
ATD’s Handbook for Consultants Whether you’re considering branching out on your own, struggling to keep your newly launched business afloat, or looking to take your consulting practice to the next level, this resource is for you. ATD’s Handbook for Consultants, edited by consulting powerhouse Elaine Biech, features two chapters by DL leadership, Peter Block and Beverly Crowell. Get your copy today.
In the works… Choosing Accountability workshop We’ve been hard at work designing a new learning experience to help you shift mindsets, confront freedom, and inspire chosen accountability. Stay tuned for more.
Last month, the Designed Learning team headed to New Orleans for ATD24. Our experience was a refreshing return to authenticity and genuine connection, even on an expo floor dominated by high-tech solutions and flashy displays. The Association for Talent Development’s annual international expo, held at the vibrant heart of the Big Easy, proved to be the ideal stage for us to showcase what truly matters—compassion, conversation, and humanity.
A Glimpse into ATD24
This year, the theme of ATD24 was “Recharge Your Soul,” and we did just that. For over 80 years, ATD24 has been a beacon for learning and development professionals. From its humble beginnings in Chicago in 1945, with just 56 attendees, in 2024, there were over 10,000 professionals from more than 80 countries. It was my first time experiencing this large-scale conference, and the energy was as overwhelming as it was inspirational. It was such a joy to be among those who came to discover the latest trends in the industry, unlock new tools and solutions, and network with peers committed to creating a better world through talent development.
Our Booth – Simplicity Meets Authenticity
Positioned right by the lunch area, which was an unexpected blessing, our booth stood out not because of any high-tech gadgets or elaborate displays but because of its simplicity and warmth. Visitors were greeted by four inviting little red cubes, perfect for small group conversations. If they wanted, they could pick up simple giveaways like stain-removing pens, mirrors, books, pens, and bookmarks—simple tools that reflect our commitment to practicality and thoughtfulness.
One visitor summed it up perfectly when she approached us simply because she liked our smiles. This interaction embodied our philosophy that true connection comes from authenticity and compassion—two of the key ingredients that it takes to “be flawless™,” as we always say in Flawless Consulting®.
Being A Model
Our presence at ATD24 wasn’t just about showcasing our solutions; it was about modeling the role that we want to play in the industry. We believe in humanizing the workplace and building communities that work for the common good of all. Our low-tech booth was a physical manifestation of these values. By stripping away the unnecessary frills, we aimed to create a space where real, meaningful conversations could take place.
We envision a world where workplaces prioritize what it means to be human, fostering environments where everyone feels valued and heard. This approach not only enhances productivity and innovation but also contributes to the overall well-being and influence of employees.
The Impact of Authentic Engagement
Throughout the conference, we engaged with numerous professionals who shared our vision. We discussed the importance of leadership, consulting, and workplaces that prioritize relationships. Our simple booth became a hub for exchanging ideas, sharing experiences with Peter Block’s books, and envisioning a future where work is more than just a means to an end—it’s a place where we can find meaning.
The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive. Many attendees appreciated our approach, noting that it was a breath of fresh air, even if they had never heard of Peter Block or Flawless Consulting. Our presence at ATD24 reaffirmed that to be flawless (authentic, compassionate, and a model) resonates deeply among those who want to be part of workplaces that put people, and relationships first.
Souls Recharged
We left New Orleans with hearts full of hope and minds brimming with new ideas. ATD24 reinforced our commitment to inspiring transformation in the workplace, one conversation at a time. We invite you to join us on this journey. Let’s work together to create workplaces that allow us to reclaim our collective well-being and prioritize the relational side of work, fostering environments where everyone can thrive.
If you share our vision and want to learn more, reach out or check out our solutions.
The common good is not only about conserving the air, water, and land; it is also a transformative narrative that gives us the means to create a culture where citizens hold the capacity to collectively create what we most care about. The existing dominant narrative views the air, water, and land as economic opportunity and values individualism and worships theology of scale, speed, and convenience. It is based on our affection for competition.
An inevitable side effect of a culture of individualism, competition, and a limitless economy is the isolation and violence that we all view with concern. Isolation, or the loss of belonging, is the major challenge to the restoration of our humanity, whether in an organization, civic life, or a neighborhood. This isolation is an outcome of the story that in every domain of our interests and life, we are working and living within the context of scale, speed and convenience. This calls us to competition and leaving us on our own. It is up to me. This is re-reinforced by the consumer culture that cries out that what I have is not enough, therefore I am not enough.
The work in activating the common good creates an alternative where religion becomes more than converting the stranger and filling seats in the sanctuary. Education becomes more than each child’s race to the top. Health care becomes dependent on our connection with each other rather than the professional view that subtly holds each of us responsible for our own death and is about disease more than health. The most powerful driver of all is to realize we have options nearby to minimize the global, industrial, and information economy which equates well-being with income, regardless of whether you are rich or not.
The common good narrative is the option to the current narrative that gives first attention to the desire for infinite progress and control. All in the name of development and improvement––of the person, of the community, of nations. It is personified in Pharaoh in Old Testament times and elected officials, senior leadership, private equity and the corner office in modern times.
Our Witness the Common Good columns, pamphlets, podcasts, and learning offerings are an invitation to join the effort to honor and co-create another narrative, one where connection, care for the whole, and re-humanizing our way of existence are occurring in the world. We want to document the path toward an alternative dominant narrative, which can be called a common good narrative. This communal narrative can become our dominant story through what we call relational activism. This is the delivery system to support the strong foundation of traditional efforts and activism based on knowledge, science, and advocacy for the commons.
What we hope to produce here are more powerful ways employees, citizens, and neighbors can together be active and accountable in bringing this foundation into being.
Relational Activism
Specifically, we want to shift the way we bring people together to support the commons. Shorthand for what we care most about: the planet, youth, health, safety, livelihood, economic and racial justice, and vulnerable beings.
A first key step towards activating the common good is to shift where we put our attention. To re-decide who we treat as important in our efforts to create an alternative future. As long as we believe that those at the top –– in the corner office, in the academy and government and industry –– are essential to create real transformation, we are participating in the isolating, colonial, and individualistic way of operating that we are attempting to transform.
It is not that our top leaders do not have a desire to serve the common good, it is that they do not have the power or institutional capacity. We want to face the reality that the people who run things are seriously restrained in their ability to activate transformation. They spend a great deal of their time managing the news. And trying to meet the expectations of the people they purport to control.
Any narrative is given life by what we measure. Measurements are essential expressions of where we put our attention. When we measure income, scale, viral enthusiasm, gross domestic product, and retail sales, we are declaring that we will sacrifice most anything to see these numbers get larger. In a word, our current attention is on creating more, and more, and more, often called development. If we do not see the devastating impact of our societal commitment to the idea of development, then we are destined to care for the commons within a context that fundamentally undermines the finest of our efforts.
There is one book that captures this elegantly: The Future of Development: A Radical Manifesto by Gustavo Esteva, Salvatore J. Babones, and Philipp Babcicky. It defines the essence of development:
A controversial term that has meant different things in different eras but is usually used today to represent an industrialized, consumerist, materialist, and capitalist vision of economic and social success (158).
At the core of common good activism is a commitment to move in the following directions:
Make the shift from consumer to citizen. Become citizens organizing to produce what matters –– namely, our safety, raising a child, being healthy, making a living, caring for the planet, racial justice. All are within our own hands and reach. We are the system we came to change.
De-industrialize enterprise. Join the localization movement. Question the assumptions of speed, cost, and scale as being of inherent value. See globalization and foreign aid as the colonial and predatory strategies that they are. Make cooperative ventures, communal land, subsistence living the norm.
Measure our well-being by something other than goods and services. Trust in each other, enter into neighborly work that produces what matters. End the internalized specialized terms that keep us frozen: poverty, underdeveloped countries, annual income, Third World, undocumented worker, underserved neighborhoods. All commodify our neighbors and label them as needs. Focus, instead, on well-being measures and an inventory of gifts, not needs. In the words of Edgar Cahn, No More Throw-Away People.
Constrain privatization and affirm the original meaning of capitalism. Capitalism is to raise money for an enterprise from people other than those who create and manage it. Separate this from scarcity economics. Globalization. Stop using public money to create private wealth. Value the unpaid economy.
In organizations, honor the power of non-credentialed and non-titled people to produce the outcomes we care about. Accept the idea that the inmates run the prison. The total quality efforts of the 1980’s embody this, and it works. Make the protocols of relational activism the primary way we bring people together. Even in protest which makes a difference.
Social Capital and Communal Well-Being
In the civic arena, it is in neighborhoods and citizen associations where activating the Common Good has its greatest potential, and this is where the future is now occurring. Relational activism is about building relationships among citizens and employees. “Building social capital” is a shorthand term for this: ways of being together that produce chosen accountability focused on our individual and communal well-being.
Social capital and common good activism are not built on anger or speeches, but formed by using small groups and powerful questions to engage citizens and employees in producing an alternative future. Let people at the top and at distance do their jobs in peace and join.
We invite you to join us in bearing witness to the Common Good and the activism and efforts that align with it. Witness to what the church and faith community are doing. What new journalism is being produced. New economy, architecture, new paths to safety, health, education, care for the planet, racial justice, and belonging. New institutional forms. The future exists now, if we choose it and give it our attention.
If this resonates with you join us. If this does not resonate with you, join us. In the end, that is the point.
What if we worked with clients in ways that could better leverage our expertise, foster trust sooner, galvanize stronger commitment, and make consulting more rewarding? I find these outcomes more likely occur when I weave a safety net in asking clients for what I want and voice them during contracting conversations:
I want you to, at any time, talk with me about how we are working together. This simple yet powerful statement opens the choice for clients to speak authentically about what is important to them and what challenges they face—affirming that my relationship with the client is fundamental to solving the problem. I’m now on the hook for asking clients about their doubts and concerns, naming their resistance, ensuring they feel seen and heard, and expressing what they are doing that is useful to me.
I want you to talk to me first, before talking to my boss. Waste of time and erosion of trust occur when we go around instead of directly to sources. With a client’s agreement to #1 above, it makes sense that I be the one talked to first. I always explain that if they go to my boss about something I should hear, my boss will ask, “Have you talked to JP about this?” because my boss and I have made this same agreement.
I want you to make the decision when others on this project come to a standstill/impasse. In every project I’ve been a part of, people have gotten stuck. When that happens, this agreement reminds clients that the decision to get unstuck is theirs to make.
I want you to agree that I will conduct my own discovery to gain a clear picture of what’s going on. My unique value to the client is my ability to see clearly how the problem is being managed. Without my independent perspective of the underlying dimensions of the problem, I’m left solving only the technical/business aspect of the problem—the presenting problem. The resolution of the real problem requires a change in thinking and action on the part of the client. By looking at the problem in a way that the client can’t, I’m able to identify the impact that goals, processes, and relationships have on the problem—how they keep the presenting problem from being solved. Without this agreement, clients have every right to assume I’ll skip the Discovery and Feedback Phases and move directly into Implementation.
I want you to consider what role you need to play to bring about desired changes and how you may be contributing to the problem. This underscores why solving the presenting problem is not enough and invites our shared exploration. By encouraging early ownership and commitment, this minimizes surprises during feedback and points to what clients have the most control over. Rather than solving problems for clients, I set myself up to help clients solve problems themselves.
What I want from clients above stems from my consulting experiences and lessons learned. (Even today, what is challenging in a relationship can be attributed to what I have not asked for.) Although each relationship and project is unique, I voice this set during every contracting conversation to mitigate what I don’t want. These are in the interest of making sure the project is successful—not to satisfy my own personal whims and wishes. What would it sound like to state clearly and simply what you want from a client?
As humans, our reactions are strongly influenced by the environment we inhabit, and the same holds true for our clients. Without a safety net, we risk doing to the client as an expert or doing for the client as a pair of hands. What’s possible when, as Flawless Consultants, our decisions are grounded in the security of our safety net? By fostering an environment of relatedness and connection, we offer insurance for working with our clients, allowing our expertise to shine. What does your safety net of wants look like?
Something in the persistent question, “How?” expresses each person’s struggle between having confidence in their capacity to live a life of purpose and yielding to the daily demands of being practical. It is possible to spend our days engaged in activities that work well for us and achieve our objectives and still wonder whether we are making a difference in the world. What if ‘Yes’ is the right question?
My premise is that this culture, and we as members of it, have yielded too quickly to what is doable, practical, and popular. In the process, we have sacrificed the pursuit of what is in our hearts. We find ourselves giving in to our doubts and settling for what we know how to do or can soon learn to do instead of pursuing what most matters to us and living with the adventure and anxiety that this requires.
We often avoid the question of whether something is worth doing by going straight to the question, “How do we do it?” In fact, when we believe that something is definitely not worth doing, we are particularly eager to start asking How? We can look at what is worth doing at many different levels: As an individual, I can wonder whether I can be myself and do what I want and still make a living. For an organization, I can ask for whose sake does this organization exist, and does it exist for any larger purpose than to survive and be economically successful? As a society, have we replaced a sense of community and civic engagement for economic well-being and the pursuit of our private ambition?
Too often, when a discussion is dominated by questions of how we risk overvaluing what is practical and doable and postponing the questions of larger purpose and collective well-being. With the question, we risk aspiring to goals that are defined for us by the culture and by our institutions at the expense of pursuing purposes and intentions that arise from within ourselves.
While there are many positive values to our desire for concrete action and results, it does not ensure that what we are doing serves our own larger purpose or acts to create a world that we can believe in—in other words, a world that matters. Thus, the pursuit of how we can act to avoid more important questions, such as whether what we are doing is important to us, as opposed to being important to them. While we do create value when we pursue what is important to others, it is different from doing what is important to us.
If knowing how offers us the possibility of more control and predictability, then we may have to sacrifice them to pursue what matters. The choice to worry about why we are doing something more than how we do something is risky business. It is risky for us as individuals, for our organizations, and for society.
Choosing to act on “what matters “is the choice to live a passionate existence, which is anything but controlled and predictable. The alternative to asking How? is saying Yes – not literally, but as a symbol of our stance toward the possibility of more meaningful change and change that promises real commitment to what draws us into what matters.
To commit to the course of acting on what matters, we postpone the how questions and precede them with others that begin to shift us from “what works” to “what matters.” Taken in isolation and asked in the right context, all how. The questions are valid. But, when they become the primary questions, the controlling questions, or the defining questions, they create a world where operational attention drives out the human spirit.
How Question 1: How do you do it?
becomes
Yes Question 1: What refusal have I been postponing?
How Question 2: How long will it take?
becomes
Yes Question 2: What commitment am I willing to make?
How Question 3: How much does it cost?
becomes
Yes, Question 3: What is the price I am willing to pay?
How Question 4: How do you get others to change?
becomes
Yes Question 4: What is my contribution to the problem I am concerned with?
How Question 5: How do we measure it?
becomes
Yes Question 5: What is the crossroad at which I find myself at this point in my work/life?
How Question 6: How are other people doing it successfully?
becomes
Yes Question 6: What do we want to create together?
When we look for tools and techniques which are part of the howquestion, we preempt other kinds of learning. If we want to know what really works, we must carefully decide which are the right questions for this moment. Picking the right question is the beginning of action on what matters, and this is what works. This is how we name the debate, by the questions we pursue, for all these questions are action steps. Good questions work on us; we don’t work on them. They are not a project to be completed but a doorway opening onto a greater depth of understanding and action that will take us into being more fully alive.
Building trust is imperative for organizations, especially during times of economic uncertainty. When trust is present, it can help to stabilize relationships, foster cooperation, and increase confidence amongst teams, clients, and key stakeholders. While trust is the bedrock of team success, there is no doubt that building it is especially important during times of economic turbulence, where uncertainty and risk can cause team members and stakeholders to become cautious and resistant.
Leaders should prioritize building trust because it’s good for morale. Even more so, it’s good for business. Trust generates resilience and confidence within any company, organization, or community among those key to its success.
Trust strengthens relationships
So here’s what is obvious: trust is the foundation of any healthy relationship between organizations and their stakeholders. When those with a vested interest also trust a business, they are more likely to be supportive and authentically interested in its success. This can lead to stronger partnerships and boosted collaboration.
Trust fosters resilience
Building trust can help businesses weather economic uncertainty by creating a sense of ownership and belonging. When stakeholders have confidence in the relationship, they are more likely to remain committed and engaged, even during difficult times. Trust allows an organization to maintain momentum and overcome inevitable, unpredictable obstacles.
Trust boosts confidence
Economic uncertainty can create fear and doubt for businesses and their stakeholders. By building trust, leaders can help alleviate these concerns and boost confidence, increasing investment, stronger partnerships, and more significant growth opportunities.
As many of us know, trust is not easily won by everyone. Part of being a leader is to engage your team and those with whom you collaborate in a way that demonstrates a genuine effort to connect and foster a positive relationship. If you are a leader, there are some concrete and specific steps that you can take to build trusting relationships in your organization.
Step One: Identify the levels of trust in your relationships
Let’s face it; some people are more complicated to work with than others. That’s okay. That’s life. Without playing the blame game, take time to note down mentally those relationships where trust is not there, whether it’s an adversarial one or one of indifference.
Also note where the relationships are solid, those who you go to with ideas, possibilities, doubts, and concerns. Those are high-trust relationships, and it’s essential to put effort into maintaining them too.
Step Two: Develop an approach and strategy for different relationships based on the level of trust
Relationships with different levels of trust require different approaches. For example, strategies and methods exist to build trust with people with whom we do not connect or agree. It starts with connecting with people without judgment, valuing others’ points of view, and finding instances of agreement and similarities instead of differences. Part of any strategy that must deal with trust is an acknowledgment of what role you play within the relationship. Leaders who wish to approach building trust with intention must start with a willingness to let their guard down and be vulnerable.
“I can create a high-trust environment any time I want. All I must realize is that I am creating the environment in which I live,” explained Peter Block in the article Trust in Whom. ”We are afraid of being naïve and a fool if we continue to trust in the face of others’ betrayal. Well, what is so great about being strategic and clever? And what is so wrong about being a fool? Maybe being willing to be a fool is the exact means of creating the high-trust world that we each long for.”
Step Three: Plan and practice conversations that matter
The starting point for action and change is conversation. The quality of how you are with others matters even more than the expertise you each bring. That said, holding trust-building conversations requires authenticity, vulnerability, and a learned communication skillset that takes practice.
In a time of uncertainty, trust is an invaluable resource, and it requires action and intention from the side of leaders who depend on it to achieve successful outcomes. In Flawless Conversations: Building Trusting Relationships, learn how to plan for conversations that inspire not only a shift within your one-on-one relationships but can even empower broader transformation within your team, organization, and beyond.
Industry developments and reform make changes in the workplace inevitable, and training is the tool most often used to implement that change.
Many see training as a staple in the workplace that generates a common language among employees. The way that change is exhibited can contribute to the longevity and success of the organization. It is important that the stakeholders understand how to engage their peers and employees.
In the article, Training is Not the Answer, Block recognizes that most reform efforts are unsuccessful because of the format in which training is offered. Rather than allowing employees to have a say in training methods, top level management determines which programs will be beneficial.
Block says that the problem lies within the ideas that “Training is mandatory and top management with staff support knows what is best.” Training can only be truly successful when it gives employees the opportunity to create ownership and responsibility at the point of contact.
Instructing employees to follow new guidelines will not work unless they are given a voice to express their opinions. Only after we allow them to join the conversation to determine and understand their stakes in the organization’s success will sustained, effective change occur.
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