I’m really excited to announce that Mike Leamon has joined Connective Management as my consulting partner.  I’ve known Mike for over a year and we’ve been consulting together for about four months.  Mike is an an Operations Consultant like myself and one of the key things we share is our passion for visual planning tools and project stakeholder engagement.  (Well, and fishing!)

Mike showed me his “War Room” methodology in August of this year.  It melded great with my “discovery room” style of strategic planning and I started immediately using the War Room tools and techniques.  We have combined our substantial tool-sets to launch a new War Room Solutions offering.

Mike is a high energy, creative thinker that makes a positive impression in every situation.  He is already proving to be a wonderful addition to the Connective Management team.

Here is a story that explains why Mike can help take your operational pain lemons and turn them into Leamon-aid.

Mike Leamon’s Story    

The “What makes Mike different?” story started as soon as he began trying to read and write.  He struggled.  They called it dyslexia.  Turns out that dyslexics are over represented in 2 groups.  Business management and … jail.  The outcome depends on how the child navigates the learning challenge.  Strangely though, the reason why Mike has something unique to add to business challenges is because of his dyslexic brain… not in spite of it!

It is now known that many dyslexic children learn and see things differently.  When they read and write, information goes through a hyper-visual brain translation.  They literally process information in pictures and images.  At first it slows the child down.  Later, it can become a gift.  Mike is now the guy who can hear about a complex business scenario and spontaneously develop a relational graphic to explain it to the masses.  These creations are usually preceded by the warning that he, “feels a picture comin’ on.”

It doesn’t stop there.  Mike’s signature tool is the “Project War Room” which allows participants to rapidly co-create and execute a visual plan on the walls…. and enjoy the experience.  The seeds of this practice were sown in an unusual place: The subway system in London England (The Tube) where Mike started his 20 year consulting career.

Mike’s consulting mentors in London taught him to work with subway front line staff who “knew the business best.”  They would map out processes on large sheets of butcher paper on the walls.  Instead of boxes and arrows to represent the process, they got creative posting everything from actual forms or reports to train tickets and photos.  They took pride in how many improvement ideas we could “bag” in a single session with front line staff.  Well articulated organized ideas for change were then presented to management sponsors with quantified benefits and compelling story line outcomes.

Years later Mike found himself overwhelmed.  He was an internal consultant at an Austin software company which was missing a huge opportunity to make more money.  Yearly “maintenance renewals” were supposed to be paid by existing software customers to get phone support and software upgrades.  The company had focused on new software sales.  Maintenance renewals were a global cross-functional headache which had always been an understaffed afterthought.  To made matters worse, Mike was assigned to the challenge right after everyone had been burned by a hugely expensive project failure.

In Mike’s words, “I had to change the game.  Everyone was pointing fingers and no one knew the whole story so I took to the walls.”  Mike’s executive sponsors let him take over a conference room and start laying out the project’s story line.  Once the Austin team completed the first version of the room, Mike was able to take whole show on the road to get input from the European Finance team in London.  They hated it.  They spewed venom long enough to realize that Mike was listening and updating the plans on the walls.  Eventually they turned into the strongest supporters of the effort and at one point asked Mike “Have you seen Winston Churchill’s War Room here in London?”

Down in his secret World War II bunker, Churchill had maps and data posted on the walls to lead the effort against the Nazi Blitzkrieg.  It inspired the team to name Mike’s method the “War Room.”  It’s interesting that a place as far away as London England has fundamentally shaped Connective Management’s Central Texas consulting practice.  It’s also interesting that Winston Churchill was strongly dyslexic!  Small world, isn’t it?

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeleamon