Dear Friends of Allison Rimm and Associates,
Facing setbacks is a part of life. If you're not failing from time to time, you're not likely pushing yourself outside your comfort zone where most real personal growth takes place.
My Harvard Business Review article this month is about an important learning experience after the vote for my project that I thought was just a formality - cut the other way. As it happens, I've been facing lots of bumps and challenges of a different nature this month. As you may have read in last month's newsletter, I took the bold step of taking on new office space for Allison Rimm and Associates. We've been spending the last couple of weeks putting the finishing touches on the both the ARA offices as well as the collaborative workspaces we are building out. It's coming along (see the update on today's sidebar) with the usual hiccups and bugs one experiences during a renovation. And all the stress that seems to have to go with it. Or does it?
The Joy of... Frank Feedback
"You worry too much", my friend and business partner, Susan told me recently when I fretted that our air conditioner had just blown a fuse in our new office space. And she was right. I immediately worried that we didn't have enough electrical power to support our new collaboratives workspace, the wifi wouldn't be adequate, and on and on.
The fact that I can worry too much is not news to me. In my work as a strategy and management consultant, mapping out possible scenarios and anticipating potential issues so they can be addressed before they become full-blown problems is a strength that serves my clients well. But when I blow a gasket over a blown fuse, that response doesn't serve me so well.

Latest Harvard Business Review Article:
How to Keep Support for Your Project from Evaporating
Even years later, I still consider it my biggest professional failure: a company-wide employee training program that I'd developed and put through several rounds of vetting was shot down at the last minute. It was a painful surprise, and it changed the way I've sought support for new initiatives ever since.
As hospitals increasingly migrate their medical records from paper files to digital media, their employees face the challenge of making the information readily accessible to providers while adequately protecting patients' privacy. At my hospital, I was a senior vice president with a long track record of establishing successful programs, and I had oversight responsibility for my hospital's IT and Health Information departments.

|