Our office in the UK recently put some energy and effort into capturing ‘what we do’. An important piece of work to do regularly as a business. Isn’t it easy to end up doing things you didn’t go into business to do? Mostly it gets you into trouble, and of course from time to time it opens up new doors. Still, it’s an important reflection exercise to ensure you’re doing what you’re all about what you’re not, and what you’re capable of delivering on brilliantly.
“In turbulent times, people matter. When you’re trying to attract and retain staff and get them engaged and committed, or when you need to generate sales from new and existing customers, you have to understand what drives peoples’ attitudes and behaviour. This means that it is a business critical strategic imperative to understand their value systems. That is what TomorrowToday specialises in.
We inspire: Our professional speakers are amongst the best in the world, acting as catalysts to change. Through high energy, humour and entertainment our multimedia presentations convey powerful business messages at conferences and company workshops.
We inform: Our clients are quicker and better informed than their competitors about changing business, consumer and societal trends. Our diverse research simplifies complex trends and explains the “why” behind change. Once people understand the why, change is activated with energy and passion.
We impact: Through understanding, our consultants empower leaders and teams to create long-lasting and significant improvements in company performance. We help you analyse your current situation, identify opportunities and gaps, and empower leaders and staff with the skills to embed new thinking, structures, systems, processes, products and services.
We are world leaders in Generations: a valuable framework connecting companies, talented staff and valuable customers. We focus on understanding why people act and react as they do, and helping our clients connect with people more effectively for bottom line business improvement. By understanding their value systems, we can more effectively influence them, and develop high commitment while instilling passion in both staff and customers.”
Graeme Codrington moves to our UK branch in August this year. While not a permanent relocation, it’s expected that Graeme and his family will remain abroad for three to five-years. Already an internationally recognised expert on talent and the future of work, Graeme will continue to help organisations to understand global societal changes, and how these changes affect their staff, leaders and customers. While abroad, Graeme will periodically return to South Africa to honour requests from clients who wish to engage with him directly.
We have just been informed that 
Rumour has it that one of our BOOMER sales people enjoyed the opening music of our newest presentation, PRIME TIME.
When we brought TomorrowToday.biz to life, we agreed to see ourselves as an international business. We knew there was no reason on the planet that a company grown out of South Africa couldn’t add value to organisations all over the world. Every now and then we have moments like this week, when we step back briefly and stand a little amazed that we’re doing it… 
Every now and then we load up the entire TT.biz team and head off to a Zoo in Jozi. Don’t ask me why we keep picking zoos to meet at? I don’t really want to go there. Last Sunday we went to the Pretoria Zoo ( 25°44′20.12″S, 28°11′19.79″E - check it out on Google Earth) and played the little known “Great Grand Zany Zoo Picture Picnic”. For more details drop me an e-mail and I’ll send the template. (but you gotta go to a Zoo to get the most out of it - and don’t hold your breath, it was built for 7 year olds)
Where is everyone? TMTD used to be one of my favourite blogs – it had posts that were relevant, and participation was high if not always comfortable. Now it is comfortable, less relevant (the blog used to be ahead of me, now I seem to be ahead of the blog), and there is little feedback. The town square has become less a collection of voices and ideas and more a platform to shout your stuff in a one way dialogue – not because people cant answer back - but perhaps because they have no wish to. Why is that – did they get bored, were they discouraged, have they run out of things to say? The sad thing is that when the blog was very active it gave me a stronger feel of what TMTD was about and who the people were. More recently there seems to be a stronger HR/talent development focus to the website and even the blog, is this because these are areas of “expertise� of the bloggers, or is this more the focusing of the TMTD core business (is this the TMTD core business)?
My understanding of the TomorrowToday value proposition to our clients is that we actively and purposefully monitor the shifts that take place in society that will have an impact on the way business is run. In doing so, we then advise and educate clients on how best to confront and deal with these changes to generate competitive value propositions of their own.
E-ZINE ARTICLE, FEBRUARY 2006
Following up on my recent post 
Every now & then an internal conversation happens in TomorrowToday that reflects some of the difficulty of moving away from the traditional business structure into a virtual & connection economy one. A recent conversation that did the rounds concerned whether we should have any more JIMY [Jedi Master Yoda - more on that in another post] meetings this year. JIMY is the closest thing we have to a management meeting in TMTD.biz, and to be totally honest I don’t know what was decided [hence the first line in the email below].
Today I had quite a peculiar experience. I was sitting in the foyer coffee shop of the hospital, waiting for Fransie and working on my laptop. In came a smartly-dressed guy and sat with his back towards me. After a while he turned to me and asked whether I managed to connect to the wi-fi hotspot in the hospital. He was about to connect with his Vodafone 3G card when he realised that he could pick up a free wireless network. Then I recognised him - well-known and widely acclaimed Industrial Psychologist Dr Gustav Gous. 
This evening marked the first of what I hope will be many insightful, interactive “real people” meetings for what has become known as the 
Edward de Bono, the famous lateral thinking guru, suggests that language is really difficult to work with, and often doesn’t convey what we actually mean, or takes too long to convey complex thoughts and emotions without being misunderstood. Although I have not heard him make the connection, I think he is even more correct in his assertions as they apply to emails, blogs, texts, SMS and other text based communications. We all know how easy it is to be misunderstood, or for incorrect emotions to be read into our words (or lack of words, as the case may be). This is even further complicated by the multiplicity of languages in use in the world these days.
Lessons from this:
For the pro speakers who read this blog…
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink there’s a great chapter on a management style employed during a war game exercise called ‘The Millennium Challenge’ in 2002. The detail of the story isn’t important. It was the phrase that hooked me. ‘Chaotic Management’. Essentially it was described as a leader who trusted the people that reported to him. He knew that his team knew the intent of the exercise, and he then trusted them to get on with the job.
Today I enjoyed a thought provoking conversation concerning the overwhelming amount of information that one is required to engage with in our world today. I don’t think I need to make a case for what certainly is a reality experienced by most. Not being connected today is as rare as an anartic heatwave. But there is a distiction between information and connection; between information and conversation.
May was a great month for 
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