Dean Brenner

Last post of the week… I’m running to the airport now to begin the long trip home from Singapore. It’s been a great trip, but I’m excited to head home. I love being home, but I also love what international travel does for my approach to my business. I love being forced to stretch boundaries […]

In our last post, we talked about the undeniable benefits of having a broad perspective on communication and having a high sensitivity for audience understanding. Global travel is a great way to broaden your perspective and to realize the vastly different ways people communicate. We believe firmly in audience understanding as a mission critical component […]

Greetings from Singapore, where I’m doing a week of corporate communication training for two of our favorite clients. This follows up a week in Shanghai for the same two clients. International travel is exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. It’s exhausting to travel this far from home, for two straight weeks of day-long workshops. When I get […]

In our last post, we talked about the changing face of communication in the 21st century. We no longer live and work in a world where people have to listen to our message. With so many choices available for information and content, it’s very easy for people to “change the channel” away from you and […]

Let me know if this sounds familiar… you have a presentation to give. You immediately begin thinking about your slide deck. You pull out the last presentation you gave on the topic, you dust it off and realize that some of the same slides will work. So you are on your way. Then you look […]

I spoke at my former university recently, as part of the 75th anniversary celebration of the school’s sailing team, which I’d been part of at one time. The organizers asked me to say a few words about team building and team culture, as they know it’s a subject I’ve been spending a lot of time […]

This, the last component in our ARROW equation on strong team alignment, is probably the easiest to grasp. On an aligned team, the members of the team are all willing to roll up their sleeves and actually do the hard work to get a positive outcome. It is one thing to understand roles, be respectful, […]

This is the first “R” in our ARROW equation on team alignment.  And this is where alignment starts. Clarity on roles and responsibilities is critical. Without clarity in this area, team members may waste time and energy on duplicated efforts and leave other areas of the project untended. The team members on an aligned team […]

“Respect a man. He will do the more.” – James Howell The second “R” in our ARROW equation for team alignment is “Respect.” An aligned team has respect—lots of it, for lots of things. An aligned team respects members’ roles and responsibilities, confidences, and decision-making processes. The members of an aligned team don’t have to […]

“No one washes a rental car.” An aligned team does more than “punch the clock” and show up for work. The members of an aligned team care about the outcome and care about doing whatever they can to contribute to the team’s success.  They contribute to the planning and want to add value. The members […]