As many of you know (or don’t know), Doug and I had the opportunity to attend a Tony Robbins event – more specifically, his Business Mastery event in Palm Beach, Fla. Now, if you don’t know who Tony Robbins is, then I suggest you stop right here, and go look the man up! I can say confidently that you are missing out on one of the greatest global leaders of our time … but I digress.

The event, to say the least was LONG (5 consecutive, 15 hour days to be exact), incredible and left Doug and me with information, that if executed, would have MASSIVE impact on our firm for years to come. Although I could easily write a book about the endless information and knowledge we acquired with Tony, there is a particular activity that sticks out in my mind to be exact.

Honestly, it was NUTS.

Okay, imagine this: There are 800 to 1,000 adults in an auditorium. We get grouped into “teams” and each team or group has to bring some sort of ADDED VALUE to the event and the people who are attending the event.

The key word is ADDED VALUE … In fact, that is probably going to be my phrase for the rest of this year … ADDED VALUE, ADDED VALUE, ADDED VALUE! … What could your team bring to the masses (aka the event’s attendees, aka your fellow peers) that trumps what others are doing, that adds energy but, more importantly, adds the MOST VALUE to this conference?

This is where the fun began! Teams around us were doing all sorts of things – everything from a PR team (they promoted the other teams via various modes of media – CLEVER!) to an Information Providing team (they would summarize Tony’s days into bite-size bullets on take-home sheets – BRILLIANT… so brilliant, in fact, that people would be looking for their brightly printed sheets every day!). There was a Cheer team to bring peoples’ energy up and, of course, a Community Service team that collected canned foods and donated them to the local shelter on behalf of the entire Tony Robbins Community there (P.S.: You know that was our team because we LOVE community service J).

Okay, so what’s my point in telling you all of this?

Well, this activity was driving home a vital point and I wanted to bring that point back home with me, right back into the hands of my Zanes Team …

How could we use the same activity to bring about massive ADDED VALUE to our firm and our clients? What could we do for our clients that no one else was doing?

I decided that 40 heads were better than one, so I got my team together in a huddle and told them about the team activity we did at the Tony Robbins event.

I asked: “Can we replicate this with teams of our own in the office? What if I said the team who brings the MOST ADDED VALUE to our clients and this firm, within the next two weeks, gets an incredible prize?”

Yeah … It didn’t take long for the office to start a-buzzing with teams creating, thinking outside the box, planning and definitely trash talking. 🙂

And so it begins …

I can’t wait to see what the teams come up with and how things are executed. There is a new energy around the office – one of passionate contribution and imagination.

Now THAT is adding value.

What are you doing to ADD VALUE to your company, your clients, your employees, your family?