At a pharmaceutical training we built a gamified testing system intended to measure individual learning. Gamification was all the rage at the time. The idea was clever. The sales representatives could answer questions, test knowledge, and generate data about what they knew. Then they did something wonderfully human. They figured out how to beat they…
For one pharmaceutical launch, we did not begin with the product. We began with a husband, a wife, two doctors, and the shrinking of a life under chronic illness. We began with what the disease did to ordinary days: the fatigue, the fear, the appointments, the narrowing of possibility. Only then did the product enter…
At a major event in New Orleans, I once asked taxi drivers to walk into the venue and tell me where they thought they were. Every one of them could identify the convention center. Not one of them could really tell me whose event it was or why it mattered. That bothered me because place…
Every event has a cast, whether or not anyone calls it that. A board meeting has a cast. A fundraiser has a cast. A worship service has a cast. A customer conference has a cast. Someone is hosting. Someone is guiding. Someone is explaining. Someone is carrying the emotional weight. Someone is trusted. Someone is…
Two pharmaceutical sales cultures were being asked to become one. On the surface, they seemed similar. They sold in the same broad industry. They understood customers, products, territories, numbers, incentives, and pressure. But underneath the surface, they were different tribes. They dressed differently, spoke differently, valued different kinds of proof, and carried different stories about…
