Reports of my disappearance have been greatly exaggerated! Today, while attending the CCH User Conference in D.C., I was approached by a partner in a firm that I met several years ago. His first words to me were, "Where have you been? We thought you had retired or been abducted by aliens."
First off, no aliens in my past, present, or future. Retired, nice thought but . . . The truth is I have been in Canada for nearly five years. Not living there, but from a professional standpoint, I have spent the majority of my time devoted to the success of one firm; MNP LLP.
I liken my time in Canada to a scientific experiment. I had the perfect Petri dish in which to prove my hypothesis about what it really takes for firms to make the transition from compliance to reliance. MNP had the vision and leadership required to commit to our extended learning model; a process that creates lasting changes in behavior. The results of our grand experiment are significant and noteworthy to the profession. (click here to read the $50M story).
So to answer the question of “Where have you been?” to those who noticed Mentor Plus’ marketing inactivity over the past couple of years, I say “Proving an extraordinary model for cultural change in the profession.” Although we felt our approach was right on, getting partner buy-in for investing in “people oriented training” has been made infinitely more defendable when tied to a financial outcome that is impossible to ignore.
Just in case you were wondering . . . “Mentor Plus is BACK!”