Survive, Thrive or Dive is a book about choices. It’s a book for those who are business leaders and managers, or who aspire to be. Companies that thrive distinguish themselves from their competition by being able to recognize change, adapt to change, then implement change. Companies that dive are distinguished by their inability to recognize change, their resistance to change, and their inability to get their people to embrace change. Yet it's not the management that's resistant to change, it's usually the workforce. Herein lies the problem. In order to thrive, the "order of the day" is for companies to learn ways to get their people to overcome resistance and embrace change.

That's why this book is about change, and the choices you will need to make to thrive. It will examine the past, to explain why our economy and society are floundering in the present, then help you make choices for the future. It provides tools which will solidify your security, your employees' security, and that of your loved ones. Survive, Thrive or Dive is a book that doesn't simply deal with financial problems, it redefines the parameters of what constitutes "success" in getting our 21st century workforces to understand that their security, is based on their company's security. It teaches managers and business leaders how they can gain more influence with their subordinates, their clients and their communities in such a way that others will become self-motivated to participate in helping your company achieve its long term goals and viability. This is the roadmap in which everybody wins, by ensuring sustainability to solidify personal security.

But it all starts by getting everyone in your company to follow the same roadmap and work towards a common vision and purpose.

To get everyone in your company travelling down that same road together, you will need to successfully implement some change in your company's Environmental Dynamic. This is a psychological term that describes interpersonal and group interactions, whether those interactions are between clients and sales reps, between management and employees, or simply between any individuals who are supposed to be working together to achieve your company's purpose. Your Environmental Dynamic is dependent upon the psychological mindsets of your workforce, plus the influence of past and present sociological conditioning. Every workplace has strengths, but every workforce also has dysfunctional weaknesses. Overcoming the dysfunction is how you can achieve your corporate (and by extension, your personal) security, but it's going to take some choices.

Yet you get to choose. So if your life was a book, how would you like to see the pages play out? In spite of the challenges in today's business climate, you can take more command of the situational influences that adversely affect your Environmental Dynamic as long as you understand exactly "what" those situational influences are, and "why" they can dysfunctionally affect the mindsets and work ethic of your company's people.

If that sounds interesting, then let's get started.

For over twenty years, I have been training people to advance their businesses or their careers by teaching them certain things that (for whatever reason) they didn't learn in school. Of course, one doesn't learn "everything" in school, but there are some things people need to know that are critical if they want to see their business thrive (or their career, in the case of individuals). Over these two decades, it seems that irrespective of how much education or how many university degrees our clients have after their names, they just never learned the sorts of things that are dealt with in Survive, Thrive or Dive. And as we're on the topic of going to school, just in case you're wondering, a lot of our clients have a LOT of education.

Example: a lot of our training has been for medical professionals. We're talking doctors here, with ten, twelve or fourteen years of university training. Yet for all they know about what makes the "body" work, they were never trained in what it takes to get "people" to work. By work, I mean work synergistically. Together. With a common vision. And a mutually agreed upon purpose. Without bickering. No back room gossip. No ego, no personal agenda and no vain ambition. Just simply work together, as a team, so that everyone can win.

Having been in the ranks of those doctor-types for over twenty years, and having consulted for several national and international healthcare associations in the realm of educating their members, I know from personal experience that the need for training people how to "work synergistically" in the healthcare field is simply enormous. In fact, it's the #1 most sought after training in national conferences and conventions.

But it's not just for healthcare.

It's for any business, enterprise or organization that needs to get its people, not just to work, but to work together. If you're a business owner or manager and have the responsibility for getting everyone to pull together to achieve corporate goals, then you have probably been faced with the challenge "How do I get everyone to get on the same page and just work as a team?" If, for whatever reason, you have not yet figured out the answer to this challenge, then you're in very good company. It's the single most frequent question heard from managers and business owners in ALL fields of endeavor.

Based on the economic signs of what's been happening recently, many of the economic "weather" experts are forecasting that the worst storms are still ahead. So for all of you who recognize that your company's future growth and sustainability is dependent on how your people will react to the changes that are coming, the million dollar question becomes: what do you need to do to get everyone working towards the goal to thrive?

That's where we come in.

And that's why we wrote Survive, Thrive or Dive. By looking to the problems inherited from the past, we'll help you identify challenges in the present, then provide answers so you can achieve greater success in the future.

Best wishes,

Dr. Kevin J.A. Orieux, DMD, FADI