Building Energy Around The Message Of Juggling Elephants

Recently I did a keynote presentation to over 200 sales managers from a large corporation. It was a pleasure to be asked to speak to this group. What was even more exciting was to walk into their corporate facility and see the "set up" of the meeting. They had taken the concepts from Juggling Elephants and wrapped it around the theme for their conference. It included:

• In the lobby they had set up a concession stand for the breaks where they served drinks, popcorn (popped fresh in a circus-like popcorn machine), and cotton candy.
• The Directors had dressed up in a variety of circus outfits (gypsies, barkers, clowns, etc.) with the emcee and the vice president dressed as ringmasters.
• Every detail was covered right down to circus music that played at the breaks.

Each participant had been given the book Juggling Elephants prior to the conference and were encouraged to read it before attending. This was a group, like most of us, that has plenty of acts in their circus. The stage was set for us to have a fun yet very frank discussion on the importance of being the ringmaster of our circuses and creating the performance of a lifetime. I would highly recommend such a setup and experience to any organization whose employees are feeling overwhelmed with too much to do. Taking an intermission to refocus is critical and will bring a return on the investment (and lots more standing ovations).