The bored room

Ideas are rarely built in a boardroom.

A boardroom is a place of CYA, one-upmanship, committees, factions, spreadsheets, cost allocation analysis, and financial statements.

A boardroom is ties, suits, starched collars, wingtips, multiple chairs that are hardly ever comfortable, and massive tables that ensure friction.

At one startup I worked at, when the founders gleefully told me they had purchased a proper boardroom conference room setup, I knew our days were numbered.

The best ideas come when you step out of the office.

For me, it could be a walkabout, on a chairlift, watching a documentary, listening to jazz, seeing world-class art, or being behind the wheel.

One time on a drive through the Virginia countryside, I had conjured such a brilliant idea that it cost me a speeding ticket.

I was so in the zone, DJ Doran: Monuments blasting from the sound system, high on Red Bull and PayDay.

There it was - boom - a brilliant idea literally speeding across my mind.

The state trooper was unfazed at my sensational out-of-the-boardroom idea generation tool; he told me to slow down and pay the fine.

What's your idea generation tool?

By stepping out of the boardroom and into a more realistic, actual #IRL situation, and awe-inspiring setting, you allow yourself the freedom to generate new ideas.

Boardrooms are about hierarchy, who sits where, who can speak when, status, seniority, and pressure to maintain a severe meeting vibe.

Far more important to find an environment and develop a culture where everyone feels safe to be heard, and unfamiliar concepts are welcome.

I grew up with an active family dinner table discussion.

Growing up, we had to go around the table and announce five things we learned that day.

This taught me that regardless of age or station, all voices at that table were equal, and we were encouraged to share ideas and concepts from politics to sport, from business to culture - frankly, anything.

The exercise wasn't about the content but about the ability and freedom to recognize and share ideas.

Knowing when or where your next great idea might come is hard. But stepping out and embracing life around me has been a positive tool to generate new ideas.

From a walkabout on the shores of the Potomac River or a drive on VA State Route 20, chances are for me; it won't be in a bored room.

-Marc

France is tops in DC

A British PM hasn't had a US state visit in over a decade.

The last state visit was on March 14, 2012, when Barack Obama welcomed David Cameron to the White House.

Since March 2012, French leaders have been welcomed to the White House with three state visits.

François Hollande in 2014 and Emmanuel Macron in 2018 and 2022.

Wild internal UK politics and 5 PMs since 2012 have kept London on the sidelines and greatly weakened its influence and importance in DC.

Right now, France is DC's most important European nation.

-Marc

"Where you sit is where you stand."

"Where you sit is where you stand."

This statement is one of the mantras I use to help clients and myself understand geopolitics.

Understanding is an essential first step in any communications effort.

Communications is mostly not how you want the world to be but how this world is.

You need understanding to plan, execute, and succeed.

We are less than two weeks from a national railroad strike deadline in the United States.

Railroad workers from four national unions need to ratify new contracts before a December 9 strike deadline to avert a rail shutdown.

A strike would disrupt supply chains — including such critical goods as motor fuels and water treatment chemicals — and could ultimately cost the US economy $1 billion within a week, according to the Anderson Economic Group analysis.

Not to mention how a strike during the height of the holiday season will negatively impact your favorite daughter getting the latest Apple gee-whiz product.

What is the White House to do?

Force Congress to intervene.

President Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress agreed late Monday to support legislation that would block a walk-out by more than 100,000 union members set for the end of next week.

But is this the same Joe Biden who, in 1992, days into a crippling railroad strike, when he served as a Senator from 'The First State,' came to the Senate floor and decried the lopsided nature of federal labor laws dealing with the rail industry?

Laws that the then Senator bellowed allowed big corporations, feckless regulators, and, ultimately, Congress to run roughshod over workers.

Yes.

Same guy.

Different job.

"Where you sit is where you stand."

As Politico reports, here we are thirty years later, as President, Biden is turning to those very same laws to prevent another strike and impose a tentative contract agreement that his administration brokered but multiple rail unions voted to reject.

"Where you sit is where you stand."

For Biden, he could be "Lunchbox Joe" as Senator from Delaware and stand with the union railroad workers.

But, as President of the United States during a holiday shopping season with inflation on the mind of many citizens, he needs to act and use all the tools at his disposal.

"But in this case — where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions of other working people and families — I believe Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal.” -- Statement from President Joe Biden on averting a rail shutdown

"Where you sit is where you stand."

-Marc