Catalyst Strategic Consultants

Grain Brain and Ability: Enterprise 4 Good Spent my Saturday guiding [or running after] the Ability Society through a Board Retreat. http://www.abilitysociety.org. You may not know them but you will. Adrian Bohach and his crew are plowing new ground as social entrepreneurs. Established to deal with disabilities of special needs people, they have moved beyond […]

A Harris Interactive/FranklinCovey poll showed 37 percent of employees didn’t understand their companies’ priorities. Only one in five was enthusiastic about their organization’s goals, and only one in five saw a clear connection between their tasks and their organization’s goals River rafting is really some kind of fun. Friends who have gone down the Colorado […]

OK, so I’m nuts about the Spiritus Chamber Choir. And Tim Schantz – whom I consider to be a great gift to Calgary. And now the Bella Concert Hall at MRU – pictured above. First, the last. Mount Royal University is coming into its own. In 1971, we toured the brand new campus of – […]

The parents out there know there are pure moments that just distill the joy of progeny making their way in the world. Last night, Elaine and I made our way to OCL. Now being told to head for a recording studio east of Chestermere we weren’t expecting what we saw. OCL is a monster. A […]

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older [aren’t we all] but being in restaurants and pubs has grown increasingly alienating. I’m often having meetings in these spaces and I’m finding the newest ones are the most difficult. With some notable exceptions. When I’m there, I want to pay attention to the person I’m there to work […]

Had the distinct pleasure of playing Pelican Hill near Newport Beach, California.  The course is scenic, the company was fulsome but a new addition to my golfing experience was mind altering. Dan made the whole game so much better, it was hard to understate his impact. When Brian Gardiner and I joined Jamie Zimron [LPGA […]

Two great books have appeared on aviation: The Wright Brothers and Skyfaring Early history of powered flight is captivating. Frustrated by not daunted by previous failures of flight, the Wrights exhibited relentless application. They were the Horatio Algers of the air [Alger was average citizen made good!] – ordinary folks from a humble background armed […]

Downturn Survival Stop             whining Drop            your expectations And Roll    with it Custom Upstream Engineering sent this fantastic upbeat message around to its clients at the end of ’15 with a hilarious downturn survival kit. That’s what we’ve needed – someone calling on us all to get with the program Most of the people I work with […]

Many in my world are at the life stage of dealing with [note the tone!] frail aged parents. For THEM, a magnificent new stroke of a book – Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. An uplifting read – really! – for the benefit of the group in question – who are beyond speaking for themselves adequately. […]

Long ago in Edmonton, the Kiwanis service club waited until the crisp fall days to hold Apple day. Apple Day was an ingenious money raiser for the worthy purposes of the Club. In the fall, the McIntosh apples from the Okanagan came in. They were biting, sharp and stunning in their juicy way – sharp […]