Miglani derived all sorts of insights from his numerous trips to India over the past 20 years. But most of them sound like the things you read on car decals: insipid bromides and assertions of dubious validity. “Waiting for perfection” will get you nowhere, he declares. Well, it certainly seems to have worked for Michelangelo and Mozart. Later, he asserts: “If we only stop and listen to our own inner voice, we can find all the answers we seek and move forward in the direction we really want to go in life.” Really? You mean the way Josef Stalin listened to his inner voice? Or Attila the Hun? Or Bernie Mado ff? That inner voice?
The fact is, embracing the chaos might work in India, where chaos seems to be a national pastime. But it will probably not work here. Once you start embracing the chaos, you run into serious sanitation problems. This is what the French call “banana tourism,” or slumming. It would be a bad idea if CEOs or physicists or air tra ffic controllers or prison wardens or stockbrokers or cardiologists started embracing the chaos.
As the old saying goes, “Never trust an airplane pilot who embraces the chaos.”
Miglani seems to believe that he has stumbled onto something positively earth-shattering during his many trips to India. But in fact, everything he has to say can be summed up in a few famous song titles: “Don’t Worry. Be Happy,” “The Best Things in Life Are Free,” “Keep Your Sunny Side Up” and don’t forget that fabulous angst-easing lyric: “Take it easy. Take it easy. Don’t let the sound of your own wheels make you crazy.”
Embrace the Chaos: How India Taught Me to Stop Over-Thinking and Start Living, by Bob Miglani (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, $16.95, 168 pp.)
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.
