The concept of Coaching at the Inflection Point™ seems to resonate with many of us. As James Kouzes and
Barry Posner recently said: “Stuff happens in organizations and in our lives. Sometimes we choose it; some-

To help individuals and
organizations reach
their potential through
our Coaching at the In-
flection Point TM proc-
ess and management
consulting.

times it chooses us. It is unavoidable. What is important is the choices you make when stuff happens. The
question is, when opportunity knocks, are you prepared to open the door?”

A friend of mine who is a cardiologist always
has a session with his patients after he has in-
stalled a pacemaker. The patients are inter-
ested in how the pacemaker is performing.
However, they are even more attentive to sug-
gestions about improving their lifestyle so
they might live longer. Why?

zations, it can be a negative event such as: a
threat of termination; a performance review
which moves one from a “high potential” cate-
gory to “meets expectations;” or an off-hand
statement about personal performance (“you
are good, but contrary to what you think, no
one around here sees you in the top 5% of per-
formers”).  But it can also be a positive experi-
ence, such as: “We want to promote you rap-
idly in the next five years,” or “We want you
to run the marketing organization even though
you have always been in IT.”

The combination of the proximity to death and
the reprieve given by the pacemaker create the
classic “teachable momentTM.” Others call it a
“window of understanding” that opens, how-
ever briefly. It is that “teachable momentTM,”
window of understanding, or what we call an
“inflection point,” that offers perhaps the most
powerful opportunity to create behavioral
change. For patients, it can be personal eating
and exercise habits, but for individuals in or-
ganizations, it can be critical interpersonal be-
haviors, material improvement in which may
spell the difference between advancement and
stasis, between survival and dismissal. What
happens at these moments, how do they create
opportunities for change, and how can we best
take advantage of them?

It can also be the result of an event outside the
business environment, such as a divorce, death
of a life partner or child, perhaps even a mo-
ment of extreme candor from a family mem-
ber or close personal friend. Or it can be the
result of something broader that impacts your
work, such as a downsizing, a merger or ac-
quisition, or an external competitive threat.

Cook & Company
Areas of
Concentration

Whatever the situation, it cannot be ignored;
we cannot, as we so often normally do, put it
out of our mind easily. In other words, it de-
mands our attention.  

The pacemaker example gives some initial
insight here. What appears to happen are three
sequential steps:

Workshops &
Retreats

2. That something causes us to realize that
“I
ate is not always so clear.

Mergers &
Acquisitions

Is it something that is important to me
now (perhaps versus what I thought was

For the pacemaker patient, it may be the result
of having a cardiac “event,” perhaps even a
near-death experience. In the world of organi-

Ethical
Performance

(perhaps as opposed to how I thought they
were seeing me)?

sometimes requires the exact reverse. He
has a flash of understanding and  tries
from that point on to manage decisions in
the scientific realm quite differently from
how he makes those in the management
realm.

Should my goals be different (do my old
goals needs adjusting, or perhaps, do I

3. I realize I have the energy and the will to
make something different happen in my life.

Or, it can be something else. Whatever the
case is, it involves a perception that the “I” in
one’s being needs to:

Think about our New Year’s resolutions.  
Typically – and even though we know that in
the past we have not always lived up to our
resolutions – we feel energized and empow-
ered as midnight on December 31st ap-
proaches, allowing us to make a fresh start. In
fact, New Year’s Eve may be one of the few
inflection point moments that happens to most
of us, happens repetitively, and happens even
if we haven’t fulfilled our past promises to
ourselves.

Make some determination through a proc-
ess of conscious thought, evaluation, com-

parison, or review— that, typically, is
unlike how I usually think about things.

Most likely, take some action based on
that thought process.

It is very important to realize that we suspend
our usual processes of thought at an inflection
point. In some cases, we strive to become
“consciously competent” where we have been
“unconsciously competent or incompetent.” In
others cases, we strive to become more self-
aware, or even self-aware for the very first
time in our lives. For example:

This is the point at which we realize that we
have not only thought about some important
aspect of our life in a different way, but also
realize that perhaps we have more ability to
change than we thought, and perhaps further,
that we actually have the energy to try to make
that happen.

If you would like to
receive these com-
mentaries by e-mail,
just e-mail your re-
quest to:

contact@
cookcompany.com

When this process takes place, a magical mo-
ment in time exists where we tend to suspend
the usual rules about how we manage our life
and thus we are open to new ways of viewing
ourselves and others and to new standards of
behavior. Simply put, these moments can cre-
ate the conditions for introspection and desire
for change that might otherwise not occur in
an individual’s entire lifetime!

A chief scientific officer and CEO in a
small company realizes that many of his

direct reports are not at all happy with
what they call his micro-management
leadership style — what he thinks of as
merely applying the scientific method so
that he can make rigorously-based man-
agement decisions. He begins to realize
that science requires a much higher stan-
dard of proof, sometimes at the expense of
speed of response, and that management

In the next issue, we’ll explore how to take
advantage of these inflection points.

Last issue we talked about the consequences of the Enron debacle and other recent organiza-
tional suicides. For those of you who are interested in how Boards of Directors should inter-
pret these events, I highly recommend an article by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld in the September, 2002
Harvard Business Review, entitled “What Makes Great Boards Great.”

Sonnenfeld argues that the essence of Board effectiveness is not in the rules and prohibitions
Boards set, but in the way their members interact with each other and with their management
teams. In other words, the author makes a convincing case that those characteristics of high
performing teams – e.g., trust, respect, candor – are the characteristics that highly effective
Boards possess.  Worth a read!

Denver, CO 80218
Voice (303) 733-7893