Hunting Tools: From the Bush to the Boardroom

Well folks, the hunt is on! And in a big way. As meeting planners, your mandate is quite simple: Do more with less, create and produce amazing meetings with less-than-amazing budgets, and achieve your organization’s learning and meeting objectives in a way that will positively impact its economic health in an unhealthy economy. Any questions?

To better understand the “hunt” for meetings excellence, we go deep into the African bush and extract critical strategic lessons from the continent’s most successful feline predator, the majestic leopard. I call this Leopardology. Our hunt begins with a paradigm shift from what you have been conditioned to think is your biggest asset. 

It was 5:30 a.m. on a Tuesday, and we were deep in the bushlands of Polekwane, South Africa. Groggy but excited, I awoke to see Lukas, my Zulu tracker, preparing his tea over a twig fire. As we gave each other the traditional Zulu greeting of “Sawubona,” I joined Lukas, sitting on the remains of a log we burned the night before. What amazing gift of nature will we experience today? What will we see? And the big question: Will I see my ingwe (leopard) today? 

Every move Lukas makes has intent and meaning. He is only 58 years old but carries with him bush wisdom that spans a lineage of several generations. In short, he is a highly intelligent, African-bush version of Socrates. There is a life lesson around every corner and at the end of every conversation. Lukas turned to me and said, “It is now five generations my family has lived in the bush. We have never heard of a leopard that wants to be a giraffe!” Lukas waited a moment to see if I caught his meaning, then smiled and turned back to his tea. 

I chuckled. What the heck is the deal with us humans? What is this need we have of continually seeking to be something we are not? So here it is: Know what you are. The leopard has a clear and undisturbed relationship with all of her innate tools, allowing her to deploy and use her entire being while on the hunt.

Imagine viscerally believing that you are built for success and have what you need to succeed. Human behavior dictates that if you can destroy a man’s sense of self, then you can destroy his ability to be effective and he will self-destruct from the inside out. 

But here is the magic, ladies and gentlemen—the opposite is equally true: If you cannot disturb a man’s relationship with self, if you cannot separate him from his innate belief that he is “good to go,” then you cannot disturb his ability to succeed. 

The animal world does this instinctively; we, as humans, have to choose to do so. Have you ever heard of a leopard that wants to be a giraffe? The lesson is to take your whole self to the meeting planning-process, because you are your market differentiator.