Dorrier Underwood

As the first item of business on our company retreat, we wrapped up the sales game we’d been playing for three weeks. Jane, who had come up with the idea for a game, asked Gary and me to design a session for evaluating it, acknowledging the participants, and announcing the winners. Left to lead the conversation myself, the team would have experienced Boom, Boom, Boom – This is what we did. These are the results we produced. Here are things that X, Y, and Z did particularly well. The end. Thank God I didn’t take the opportunity to bore everyone to death with my bias to action and my understanding of “completion” as “an assignment to handle as quickly and efficiently as possible.” There’s something to be said for speed, but not when the bigger goal is opening up new actions that could prove more effective than anything we’ve tried before. I think of myself as someone who’s all about creativity and innovation, but am I?  I was charged with building on what we learned i...

Frank, or “the King” as he was known behind his back, was drafted out of near retirement to lead a new initiative for the Southeast region.  Liza, who ruled the  Emergency Department, was drafted to be his partner . Together, they were commissioned with launching the new medical model for short term acute care.  Some called it the most important patient and value centered initiative of the year. Except that when I met them, they were battling each other on a daily basis. Both thought they were in charge, both knew they were right, and both wanted to have their way.  Besides, weren’t they hired for their ideas and expertise? Liza and Frank were attempting to work together, but neither had really partnered with another professional to build anything for most of their careers.   As a result, the doctors were angry at the nurses, the nurses blamed the doctors for the initial mistakes, and the executives were pulling their hair out, trying to get Frank and...

"I think I finally got it, McVadon," he said on his typical early morning call to me during what he calls "windshield time." What's that? "Getting it to come out of THEIR mouths, by shutting mine for long enough!" It had been a long time coming, this moving of Adam's understanding of the concept, which came quickly, into being able to produce the phenomenon in reality. It had sounded simple enough, something like "shut up for longer, don't overwhelm them with your facts and spreadsheets and irrefutable logic, and listen and ask strategic questions based on what you hear." But nothing was simple in the six-person partner group of the newly-merged accounting firm. Each person was easily threatened and vying to show their value, so their strengths frequently showed up in the extreme, and became their weaknesses. In Adam's case, his ability to synthesize a lot of material into a cogent argument supporting a clearly stated propo...

A good compromise is supposed to leave no one happy. The lack of one does the same thing. I don’t know where I read this but it certainly makes sense. Happy isn’t the goal of a compromise. Action is, moving forward is, taking new ground is…  The NHL (National Hockey League/ owners) and the NHLPA (National Hockey League Players Association/ union) don’t seem to want compromise, even though they say they do… They want happy… Both sides want happy, and that apparently mean someone wins, someone loses.  Right now it looks as if there will be no hockey, even a shortened season, because both sides want what they want. The fans suffer, the owners are losing money this year, and the players aren’t getting paid…nonetheless, no compromise. Our Congress doesn’t want compromise on the fiscal cliff issue; both sides want happy. And there really is no way for this whole issue to be resolved without a compromise. We can’t do exactly what both sides want, so there has to be give and ta...

Do you know you don’t listen….? I have examples of times you asked about the very thing someone just said. And you interrupt! I always thought of myself as a good listener. People tell me that, and they also say I hear things most people don’t hear……..so what was Nancy trying to tell me? Have I been fooling myself? Have others been kissing up to me? WHAT WHAT?? That was my initial reaction to Nancy’s assessment. I could tell she was a bit uncertain how to say that to me. And I also know that if Nancy Dorrier is giving me input, I ought better listen. Not because I’ll be in trouble if I don’t (although that young conversation is in the mix), it’s just that if she is going to bring this up, there really is something for me to take on. She is my champion, the very one I asked for. And so I look. I know I have a short attention span at times. No wonder that one of my listening filters is “get to the point.” One of the ways I have dealt with that is to engage in the conversation ...

Conversations for Action from Dorrier Underwood on Vimeo .

One of Dorrier Underwood’s tools for building relationships is to use creative writing as a path to discovery and authentic communication. We’ve long used the practice internally, and are happy to expand it to include blogging, as a way for us to share our exploration – and process of exploration - with you.  Nancy Dorrier, thought leader, co-founder, and president of Dorrier Underwood, starts us off with a reflection on creative alignment. What is it?  I listen to ourselves. Our intern used to say we interrupt a lot. She isn’t saying or not saying, Wow you guys listen a lot . She isn’t even being critical. “I am just saying.” Then I listen to a friend and his wife talk on top of each other and I don’t know which one to respond to. Trucking along in the conversation and here comes another voice. What is the value of 2 brains or 3 brains? Someone is thinking beyond, or at least other than the way I think, and the way you think. You and I can only think what we ...