Yesterday I delivered the first ever "Teams In Trouble" workshop at a regional conference of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) in Milwaukee, WI.  The workshop is based on the popular teleclass series I've developed with my colleague Michael Goldman of FacilitationFirst.com.

The event was attended by approximately 100 full time trainers and was called a "Knowledge Summit".  The morning presenter was best selling author Ron McMillan (pictured) of VitalSmarts.com who is the coauthor of "Crucial Conversations" and "Crucial Confrontations".  Ron's presentation revealed some very useful skills in facing tough issues with people.  Ron was a humorous and lively presenter and he was thoroughly engaging plus he had a beautiful Power Point presentation (yeah, I'm a little envious).  We commiserated about missing our children's halloween parties. 

The lunch keynote speaker was Debra Schmidt whose topic was "The Power of Possibility Thinking".  I didn't get a chance to see Debra's presentation because I was meditating in my room (something I always do prior to delivering a presentation).  I did get a chance to visit with Debra before lunch and she is a super nice person who happens to be an accomplished wind surfer.

I was the third and final speaker of the day.  My Teams In Trouble workshop is designed to get people up and out of their seats, having fun learning through experiential activities.  I wrapped up my presentation with a piece on the power of intention and the Law of Attraction (more on this later).  A small group stayed after for an extra set of Power Point slides showing Dr. Emoto's amazing research with water crystals.

In the evening I visited with my good friend James T. Harris who is a remarkable speaker living in the Milwaukee area.  James and I are students of generational history and big fans of William Strauss and Neil Howe who coauthored a fascinating book entitled "The Fourth Turning".  We think we've figured out who the next president will be - - based on our understanding of the cycles of history (see The Fourth Turning) we predict it will be General Norman Schwarzkoph, Jr.  I hope James T will go into great detail at his blog as to how we came up with this prediction.  James and I met a month after 9/11 while helping our friend Laurie Beth Jones complete a home study video course for the Path Personal Mission Statement program.  We've been good friends ever since.