“But what if we say the wrong thing and the caller hangs up on me?” 😥
“But what if we say the wrong thing and the caller hangs up on me?” 😥
Our Jan cohort of new Samaritans volunteers for my branch was in session, and a new volunteer asked this question a bit nervously.
I think that if we can stick two these two rules, we are less likely to say the wrong thing:
1️⃣Don’t try to solve their problem
2️⃣Don’t be judgemental – in your tone, pitch or even the words that you use
As a listener, we sit alongside our caller (metaphorically) on a metaphorical bench, and we… listen.
We don’t advice.
We don’t judge.
We don’t presume we know what’s going on.
And that will allow us to be a deeply empathetic active listener.
We hold a safe space for our callers to share their thoughts and emotions, and through gentle curious questioning, we may help them reframe their situation and allow them to see a way forward. 🎯
When we are in crisis, our thoughts and feelings are mixed and jumbled up, like a running tumble dryer, and it can be incredibly helpful when someone helps us fold things up so we can see thing clearly. 👕👖👗🥼
When I am on shift, I hang up my #ProjectManager hat and take on that of a listener.
It’s not easy 😕
Especially when we get domestic violence calls (those hit deep) and it takes all my might to restrain myself from telling them to get out of that situation. 😔
But I remind myself that I am not there to try and fix their problems.
I am there to listen.
To give them space to breathe.
To share without judgement.
To help them explore options and possibilities so that maybe… they may find a way to hang on for another day.
If you’re in a good place, you might want to consider volunteering for an outstanding organisation like #Samaritans, or any other organisations that resonate with you. ❤️
If you’re struggling, please reach out and call us freephone 116 123 from the UK or 988 for the crisis phoneline in USA.
You don’t have to go through it alone. 🌹
Oh my daaaaayyys Cairo Dreamin is JUST around the corner
Oh my daaaaayyys Cairo Dreamin is JUST around the corner and I am GUTTED I can’t be there! 😭
BUT! If I were to go, these are the sessions I’d totally mark in my diary! 📅👀
🍩First one (after keynote) would be this fascinating topic: “From Solo Admin to Scalable Consultancy: How to Grow your Salesforce Business Beyond One Person” with Alexandra Klein, Sharif Shaalan Bamnan Maclean Dikwal and Mohamed Hamouda, MBA ☁ 😍
🍩Sègun De Silva and ThankGod Onyekachukwu Okoro with the power of “Why”
🍩Youssef Gadelrab on “The Moment I Chose Architecture”
🍩Shaniqua Fields, PMP, CSM 🏳️🌈 “Mastering Salesforce Projects with Agility and Structure”
🍩Youssef Chouhoud, PhD on “What the Classroom and the Numbers Reveal about Gen Z at Work”
🍩Jennifer Ndlovu (Woman In Tech) talking about “What Salesforce Admins Should Know about
🍩Rebe de la Paz on “Building a Unified Operations Hub with Mission Control and Simplicity+”
🍩Omar Y. on “From Kick-off to Go-Live: How AI is reshaping Salesforce Implementations”
🍩Matt Elsayed on “Applying #RiskManagement to Life, Projects and Business.”
🍩Kevin Burch “That Cert Ain’t Enough”
🍩Shonnah Hughes ☁ on “Reskilling in the age of AI: What it means for Salesforce Professionals”
Mannn what a line-up!! If I had the super power, I’d also try to teleport/clone myself so I can go see Ali Saeed and Maham Hassan (organisers of Dubai Dreamin’) Melissa ‘Mama’ Dees, Daniel Stange (organiser of Wir sind Ohana or Berlin Dreamin!) Tigh ‘Shopaholic’ Loughhead 🤭#IYKYK!!
Soooo many good sessions!! 😍
And deep thanks to the amazing sponsors, without whom these deeply important community events wouldn’t happen: Agile Cloud Consulting Cloud Capita Cloud Continuum Cloudzlab Investigo @momentum ConX.Digital Dohrinii Technologies GridMate Rubixforce SpatialGIS Cloudastick Systems Conam Technologies BCivilized Solutions Creatique Technologies @JourneyVoice mindZvue @Simplicity+
Thank you … you amazing dreamin organisers (ok maxed out @mentions! but you know who you are!) ❤️❤️❤️
If you’re going – please share your insights, experience and voice – we need more dreamin events who’s objective is only for the community, and not the SellSellSell message we get so much at the ‘other’ type of conference 😬
Why isn’t there a course that covers BOTH the technical and business side of Agentic delivery? 🤔
Why isn’t there a course that covers BOTH the technical and business side of Agentic delivery? 🤔
BUT OF COURSE THERE IS (or there will be!) 😁
The Agent Deployment Consultant foundation course is what Piyusha Pilania and myself are currently eyeballs-deep in working on (ok that sounded better in my head). 👀
In the noise of all ‘amazingly astonishing things’ Agents and AI can do to magnificate our lives (koffkoffkoff) very few people are talking about the practicalities of actually trying to get this off the ground.
For a technology that is not yet stable, it is important we get the foundations right and manage risk properly by thinking about doing a pilot first (instead of a full-blown project). #RiskManagement … which is the whole premis of this ADC foundation course.
And besides, I am finding that building this with Piyusha is really quite fun! 🥰
Things and decisions we’ve had to make whilst building the ADC Foundations course:
🥕Whether Testing should include UAT planning (but of course!)
🥕How much technical depth to include before people’s brains melt 🫠
🥕Whether to include #DataCloud (we agreed that it’ll be in the next level live Masterclass training)
🥕How many terrible puns we can fit into the quiz questions (consensus: ALL OF THEM) 😁
But here’s what we 100% agree on: You can’t deploy Agents successfully if you only know the technical bit.
You need:
✅ Discovery skills to find the right use cases
✅ Business acumen to build the ROI case
✅ Stakeholder management to navigate the politics
✅ Quality frameworks to deploy something production-ready
✅ Change management to help humans trust the AI
That’s what we’re building: The course that treats Agent deployment as the consulting challenge it actually is – not just a technical checklist.
🍩Seven modules. 🖐🏻✌🏻
🍩Technical foundations PLUS human skills.
🍩Self-paced so you don’t have to choose between learning and life.
We’re aiming to launch in March.
Want lock in early-bird pricing £100 when we launch?
i.e. you’ll pay £299 instead of £399. 💰
If so – join the waitlist 👇🏻
(Remember to set your filter to “Most Recent” as LinkedIn hides comments with outgoing URLs)
Can you guess which of the doodlepeep below is Piyusha and which is me and which is The Agent? (I am sooo tempted to call them Double-Oh-Donut!) 😆
Alex Borland Here’s something I wrote a couple of years back
Alex Borland Here’s something I wrote a couple of years back about communication that compels action (on your post about submitting talks).
Martin Humpolec is excellent at this… speaking of which, CFP for CzechDreamin is open so please make sure you submit if you want to visit beautiful Prague!!
Hope you find this useful!
Good luck x
Friday’s #ZenClub session had a fascinating debate.
Friday’s #ZenClub session had a fascinating debate.
We were analysing a VP of Sales who wanted “everything” – she’d seen the marketing deck, loved all the shiny features, had big ideas about what Salesforce could do.
Barrie Robertson said: “She’s dangerous. She’s been sold the dream. She doesn’t know what she actually needs.” 🤨
Piyusha Pilania didn’t quite agree: “I like working with people who have vision. At least she knows what she wants.” 🥰
They’re both right.
Enthusiastic stakeholders with big ideas are either:
👍🏻Assets (if you help them reality-test and prioritize)
👎🏻Liabilities (if you let them create unrealistic expectations)
The difference is how you manage them.
I don’t think you should shut down their enthusiasm – that energy is valuable. But you do need to:
🍩Ask what problem each feature solves (not just what they want to build)
🍩Show what’s achievable in Phase 1 vs. Phase 2
🍩Help them prioritize based on ROI, not shininess
🍩Bridge their vision with what the end users actually need
🍩Set clear boundaries on scope, timeline, budget
Done well, they become your biggest advocate. 🥳
Done poorly, they promise features to executives that you can’t deliver, create massive scope creep, and set impossible expectations. ⚔️🤺
This is the kind of nuanced stakeholder management we work through every week in #ZenClub – realistic scenarios where there’s no obvious “right answer,” just better and worse ways to handle it.
Full session analysis including strategies for different stakeholder types in this week’s newsletter (👇🏻 make sure you set comment filter to “Most Recent” as LinkedIn hides outgoing URLs).
The best consultants know how to channel enthusiasm productively instead of being controlled by it.
I hope you’ll join us.
Here’s a fun non-worky clip of me
Here’s a fun non-worky clip of me completing the burpee broad jump section of the #hyrox simulation this afternoon. 😅
I am glad to know that I am capable of completing the full event, as long as I work on those darn wall balls! 🎱
Maaaan I’m going to have to get my elbows to heal quicker 😕 that’s the only thing bumming me out at the moment. The sled pull was OK once I got the technique down.
Anyway, normal programming will return tomorrow when I write about power and politics in project delivery.
My previous post about that “Messy Merger” case study got a lot of interest so if you want to dive deeper, make sure you sign up to my weekly newsletter – next one drops tomorrow.
Link to sign up 👇🏻 (set your filter to “Most Recent ” as LinkedIn hides outgoing urls 🙄)