It was getting late so I asked Stan if we could meet again the next day and I went home to think everything over and the next day I went back in. Stan was late and I think that actually he only gave the second appointment out of being nice (he really just did not want to say no to me). For myself I was glad of the extra time as I was pretty much out of ideas. Sitting in reception I looked up and there was a big photo of the entire staff and what I presumed to be all their families smiling and the solution hit me.

When Stan came in I asked him about the photo and about each of the people. With a big smile he animatedly described not just the whole scene but he could name every person in the picture including all the kids. It was damn impressive how he knew and cared about his people (which I secretly hoped was the case).

After a while I asked Stan a simple question, "Stan, you care about the families you support a lot and they depend on your word to them that they have a steady job don't they?" He replied "Sure they do and I am prouder of that than anything else!" I then asked "So what is making you break your word them Stan?" The look he gave me made me take a step back as though he was going to hit me. In the next 10 seconds I could see the wheels turning and then Stan looked different, he looked resolved.

I had successfully zoomed Stan down into the details of what he loved and the many powerful individual commitments he made and then snapped him right back out to the big picture where his loosey goosey collection policies were putting the whole lot in danger and in the face of the two views his lack of integrity was plain. By causing his company to be too nice he was letting everyone down. Within 1 week of that insight Stan's business had turned around and it has never looked back.

Stan retired a couple of years ago and he sold the business to his people and today it’s supporting 76 Families.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only and do not represent the views of  Techman/Kanata, or of any of its directors, officers or employees.

Publisher’s Note: From his book, Stone Soup, Bill related “Integrity is all about giving your word and honoring it – this is extraordinarily import. Without integrity, nothing worthwhile gets done, because integrity makes things workable.”

Further, Bill’s passion shows itself when he wrote “ the succinctness of your articulation of the value that your enterprise generates and your level of enthusiasm are in direct proportion to the wildness of your future success.”

For further background on Bill and his writings please go to: www.stonesoupway.com