Viktor Frankl is an awesome thinker. ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ came out number one in a recent poll I conducted with my LinkedIn groups on their top ten leadership books.

His book is about survival, self-leadership and the power of positive thinking. It is the story of one man’s fight for survival in Auschwitz. My favourite quote is:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”.

If you can think that way through the Holocaust, you can think your way through anything.

Check out which other books were recommended here:

http://zomicommunicationsantoinette.blogspot.com/2011/01/seeking-inspiration-leadership-and.html

Antoinette

It’s a powerful achievement to have one side of the audience fired up than have none of the audience fired up. The fired up will leave to create new experiences.

No great leaps in human thinking and innovation occured through under reaching. We need to break through the fear. Surely, we’re past the ‘education and enrolement’ phase of embracing digital – let’s talk tangible potential and the future – that’s where the passion needs to reside not just…well, ‘let’s add a twitter acount to this site!’

Congress organizers and their expert steering panels need to embrace a real, unpredictable form of adventure – take a risk – go out on a limb…push the discussion and debate to areas where the audience can actually accompany them on a journey to a place they didn’t know existed.

The acronymn www once stood for world wide web, but in my mind it’s more like the wild wild west. Only those that breach the frontier will carry the laggards forward…one way or another they’ll acquience. Who wants to be MOR, anyway?

I don’t think I am advocating Nike as a laggard lever. But what about more acceptable worlds. I think about other heavily centralised or regulated areas – finance, politics, education, or perhaps the more risk averse publishing?

Or approaching our community challenge using a referral/mentoring approach marketers sharing experiences with others regarding the challenges of maintaining faith midst socmed apathy or denial. Does competitive advantage prevent us from doing this? I hope not.

The most successful breakthrough for me was a chance meeting between two client medics, wrangling the code and Experience out. Both rationalised their interaction as good hcps. For them the end point was a confidence in our progress requiring a focus on the benefit of the patient. Could we facilitate this style of interaction next conference? Or even consider this our remit to dive into? Socmed Medic speed dating? Marketeer counselling sessions?

My blog sort to challenge ourselves, not question the communities value. I hope this is seen this way. This is too important an industry not to have the hunger to explore and question.

Ps still laughing re awards comment!

You are preaching to the guy who couldn’t advocate more the fact that it’s all pharma presenting to pharma, however getting Coke or Nike in would probably fire up one end of the room and then scare the crap out of the other.

Oh and on the awards front – industry awards awarded by the industry – another paradox