John Stanko

I am in Johannesburg and, for the first time in a week, I have reliable highspeed Internet service.  How did we ever live without it?  Zimbabwe is just now getting it, so I look forward to uninterrupted communication when that happens.  For now, sometimes my dial up connection speeds aren't what I need to stay in touch.

This past week I was in Bulawayo working with Innscor, a fast food restaurant and bakery company.  I did some personality profiling and team building for their leadership team.  I thought it went well.  They are a great group of hard-working people and I think they learned a lot from our two-day session.  We conducted a 12-hour session on Monday, after I got off the plane from Harare.  Needless to say, I was ready for bed when we finished.

Today I am heading up to Pretoria to work with Sue Mbaya and the South African Regional Poverty Network and their team. Sue is a good friend and we stay in close contact as she scurries across the continent.  Tomorrow I am with Glen McQuirk and his purpose clubs back in Pretoria.  I am staying in the Sandton area of Johannesburg while I'm in town.

Maybe I'm just getting older, but I feel like these last few seminars I've done have been my best yet.  I am learning to relax and let the seminar take its course.  In other words, I'm doing less speaking and more listening.  I also used to skip over my reflective questions in my sesssions, feeling like people could do those later.  I've found out that they don't.  So I am taking my time and allowing them to work on the questions in the sessions.  It is paying off.

There is no substitute for experience in whatever we do, yet we must always work to get better at what we do.  I am looking forward to a good day today.