If we all know it and believe it, why is well-aligned training in such short supply? Why does it continue to be something organizations strive for, but rarely achieve? I believe it's because so many organizations inch--with great caution--toward accomplishing their strategies rather than going out on a limb--fully committing--to make it real. They lack the confidence to do what it takes now to achieve consistent long-term results.

You may be thinking that inching ahead--minimizing risk--is good. I guess it is if you want to hold on to the status quo and merely inch toward your goals. Consider this example: Tiger Woods was a dominant force during the 2000-2001 season in golf. He held all four major championship titles at the same time, an achievement no other golfer had ever attained. He won seventeen times during the same two year span. Then he made a controversial decision to drastically change the golf swing that had made him almost unbeatable (or so everyone felt). You may be asking yourself, "What did he achieve?" The answer can be found in his recent statement, "Granted, I have not won as many times, but I'm doing better in the majors now, and that's where you want to perform." He has achieved the confidence and consistency that will sustain long-term results. He achieved, "--the confidence going into each and every major, feeling if I just play my game I'll be in contention; that's an exciting feeling."

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
- Alexander Graham Bell

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.
- Winston Churchill

The only risk of failure is promotion.
- Scott Adams

Creative risk taking is essential to success in any goal where the stakes are high. Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity.
- Gary Ryan Blair

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
- T. S. Eliot
Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act.

Nothing is so embarrassing as watching someone do something that you said couldn't be done.
- Sam Ewing

Some see the glass as half-empty, some see the glass as half-full. I see the glass as too big.
- George Carlin

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
- Walt Disney

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
- Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943

640K ought to be enough for anybody.
- Bill Gates (1955-), in 1981

A message from Lynne Key and Tom Dambly

This month's feature article is about alignment and its importance. At DiamondWinds, we fully agree with that. In fact, alignment is one of many new and different things about how DiamondWinds does business. When we started the company, we determined to build our products for customization-- we customize quickly and affordably--so your DiamondWinds workshops will align with your unique situations, cultures and needs. We determined to build our product lines around a few, high-impact foundational models, so that each line, whether leadership, sales, service or teaming, supports and creates synergies across your organization. After all, your customers experience you in a homogenous way. They don't expect a different approach from your sales people than from your service people and so on. They want to know how they will be treated, regardless of where they engage your organization. That consistency leads to trust and loyalty. And we also know that in order for that to happen, the leadership used within the organization must align to carry forward to your customers. When you are looking for a partner to enhance your organizational alignment--in any form--give us a call. DiamondWinds--because trust is the point.