Strategic Thinking and Persuasion Learned from Horses in the Desert

Joe Williams knows how to tell a story. So much so that business people from all over North America pay thousands of dollars to sit with him in the desert outside Tucson, seeking that which cannot be defined.

The week-long corporate training sessions bump you up against Joe’s strategic thinking toolkit, his zen-like philosophical bent, and his love of the desert and its transformational nature.

Yes, the workshop could be held in training rooms in a downtown hotel. Maybe some of the lessons would take hold. But the desert and the group learning/sharing help you leave the ordinary world behind for a few days. That’s when transformation are more to happen.

Strategic thinking is about finding new ways of looking at business problems and helping others see the solutions that lie before them. You don’t win by forcing others to accept your ideas. You win by finding the words, gestures, images and concepts that helps others focus on key business issues.

You win by letting them find the opportunities facing their organization, and guiding them to adopt actions that seize those opportunities.

And to seal the deal, Joe teams up with a horse handler for the ultimate communication lesson. You learn the power of recognizing the signals a horse gives off, and projecting the right non-verbal signals to let the horse know what you want. And you learn it by communicating with a horse face-to-face in a corral.

It’s a powerful moment. Trying harder doesn’t work. Agitation doesn’t work.

What works is calmness, persistence and openness to how the horse interprets your body language.

Workshop leaders can tell you how to become a better communicator again and again. But you won’t change your way of thinking and your way of communicating until you feel in your bones that there’s a better way.

I could feel the corporate persona being stripped away as my workshop partners and I talked about our challenges. By modelling a more authentic way of communicating, Joe helped me see a way of operating in the business world that didn’t require a false front.

When you stop being afraid that people might see what kind of person you are, you’re ready to convince the horse to move in the direction you want. And if you can do that with a horse, convincing a management committee that you know what you’re talking about is easy.

Not everyone wants to transform themselves in the desert. But for those who are ready, Joe Williams offers a business workshop unlike any other. He creates the potential for an exceptional experience.  The rest is up to you.

Desert photo by Geoff Stearns.