GIN TASTING

+ DAVID GRANT, GIN SPECIALIST

At the conclusion of the BALIFE conference, we are excited to bring you a virtual Gin Masterclass, hosted by David Grant, Gin specialist at The Jar Troon.

With the increase in quality gins being produced, the Scottish gin scene has exploded, and producers have become more creative and adventurous! Premium quality gins from all over Scotland, including Glasgow, Shetland, the Borders, and the Hebrides are being distilled by experienced and dedicated producers.

This event will showcase six Scottish gins.

Our expert will guide you through the core principles of gin distilling, whilst the six carefully selected gins highlight subtle differences between the various Scottish gin styles, botanicals they benefit from and recommended garnishes.

The session will be informal and relaxed, taking around an hour and a half, with opportunities to ask questions and (if you have made the smart decision to buy the samples ahead of time) taste the gins both neat and with the suggested garnishes and tonic.

When you pay your additional supplement, and before the event, you will receive a 25ml sample of each gin, a list of suggested garnishes and tonic, and a notebook.

The additional fee is just £27 (including UK postage) and must be purchased in advance.

Last orders for this event are 31st of May!

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR GIN SAMPLES NOW

N.B. This event is for BALIFE attendees only and if you wish to sample the gins an additional purchase is required. To be clear, the gins are not included in your ticket price!

...though you can still enjoy the presentation free (and sober) if you wish!

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ CALVIN HENDERSON & HELEN-LOUISE KITE

Calvin and Helen-Louise are colleagues and senior analysts who found themselves amidst an agile transformation at one of the UK’s largest telecommunications providers, Sky. As the organisation evolved around them, they have adapted their analysis approach to better deliver value to their customers within an agile environment.

Following on from their successful talk on Story Mapping for IIBAUK Scotland last year, Calvin and Helen-Louise have continued to explore this technique and how it is employed successfully in a large organisation.

THINKING ABOUT DESIGN

PRESENTATION │ 2:30PM

+ STORY MAPPING: REALISATION FROM COLLABORATION

Expressing needs and aspirations can be a challenge for many of our customers. A fundamental skill of the business analyst is in helping the business visualise and compartmentalise what they are trying to achieve to make the end goal simpler to realise. 

There are many tools and techniques we use to elicit business requirements, Calvin and Helen-Louise are going to focus on one they have found most beneficial, Story Mapping. They will use this time to delve into how story mapping can engage your stakeholders, promote collaboration, and visualise an end to end journey that has customer experience at its core. 

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ ELAINE McCARTNEY

Elaine is a Principal Business Analyst with 21 years analysis experience in two of Britain’s most recognised companies (British Airways and Sky). She has worked at all stages of the project lifecycle and has a toolkit built up from many years’ experience. Originally from a software engineer background, Elaine has had the privilege of leading, defining, delivering and driving transformational change from both a technology and business perspective.

Within her role at Sky, she develops and grows the analysis team promoting networking, analysis best practice and developing the project methodology.

DRIVEN BY PROCESS

PRESENTATION │11:45AM

+ WHY ARE CUSTOMERS ALWAYS ON A JOURNEY?

A fellow analyst once said: “Why are customers always on a journey?” which I thought was all the funnier, as we worked for an airline at the time. 

The importance of understanding your customer’s needs and target experience cannot be over-emphasised. For many years, Elaine has used several different techniques to understand, design and – most importantly – communicate a customer’s journey through a business process.

A clear articulation of scope in this way can unite the project team, delivery partners and stakeholders on the same page. It can also generate requirements; support decision-making and even provide for the foundation for test scenarios.

In this session delegates will learn:

• How customer journeys support the project lifecycle
• Components of an effective customer journey
• Various examples and styles which Elaine has used over the years (no specific software required)
• What has worked successfully
• Traps to avoid.

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ HELEN SCOTLAND

Helen Scotland is a Business Architect working within the Business Design Authority at Her Majesty’s Passport Office. Prior to joining the Home Office last year, she worked in a variety of contract roles in Education, Not for Profit, Circular Economy and Public sector, and previously as a Business Analyst and IT Change Business Partner in financial services for 10 years. Helen is very passionate about the discipline and is an active member of the Business Architecture Guild and regular participant at their Scottish gatherings. She is currently studying to become a Certified Business Architect.

DRIVEN BY PROCESS

PRESENTATION │ 2:30PM

+ BUSINESS ANALYST TO BUSINESS ARCHITECT - A PERSONAL JOURNEY

Business Architecture is often seen as the bridge between strategy and execution. It acts as a blueprint for businesses and their ecosystems; helping to provide a common understanding of the business, why it exists, what it is trying to achieve and how it creates value. It is represented by a number of inter-related artefacts such as Strategy Maps, Product Maps, Business Capabilities, Value Streams, Organisational models and Information Maps. Visibility of this information and cross-mapping of these artefacts unlocks insight, uncovers opportunities and provides clear direction for the implementation of strategy.

In this presentation, Helen will provide an overview of Business Architecture, the reasons why it resonates with her, and her personal journey to become a Business Architect.

The presentation will include some examples of the benefits that Business Architecture can bring to business design and investment decisions. It will also look at the role of the Business Architect in comparison with that of the Business Analyst and provide advice to those who are interested in pursuing this career path.

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ GARY COCKBURN

Gary Cockburn leads the business analysis community of practice at Registers of Scotland. 

A practicing Lead Business Analyst and Service Designer, Gary was formerly the Managing Director of Lightforce Consulting Ltd, a business specialising in all aspects of business change and transformation. 

Gary’s past includes a time spent in key roles with Royal Mail’s Stamps and Collectibles, working on their prestigious stamp programme - delivering products to their worldwide customer base.

Gary is a qualified Agile DSDM practitioner, Lean Six Sigma specialist, The Vanguard Method: Systems Thinking expert and holds further management and leadership qualifications with the CMI and Open University. 

THINKING ABOUT DESIGN

PRESENTATION │ 11:45AM

+ A GOOD SYSTEM SHORTENS THE ROAD TO THE GOAL

In this immersive talk, Gary Cockburn shares insights and real-life examples to demonstrate how a good system shortens the road to the goal. 

Gary will discuss the practical application of methods, tools and techniques from Systems Thinking, Agile and Service Design – so you too can connect and improve your every-day activities to reach your goals.   

He’ll share the inside track on how business analysis, design and business architecture can be fused together to create a powerful tool-kit, across all levels of business analysis from Junior to Principal.   Gary will also discuss core themes - connectivity, cohesion and community - across the full system design (Service and Business).  

Gary will share the tricks, hints and tips, gathered over a number of years successfully delivering business, digital and technical projects, which you can absorb and apply to improve your system and shorten the road to your goal(s).

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ JOHN PEEBLES

With a renowned reputation for building and leading teams, John is one of Scotland's great success stories, growing Administrate into a world leader in just a few years.

His personal battle with mental health issues while achieving this success is truly inspiring ...and the topic of his quick-fire BA Brief.

THE HUMAN TOUCH

BA BRIEF │ 3:45PM

+ SELF-CARE ISN'T OPTIONAL, SO LET'S STOP TREATING IT THAT WAY

The mental health of you and your team is critical to your success. 

Everyday the news shares stories and statistics of the stresses of life and work in the 21st Century. Social media is awash with people unable to cope with the daily struggle and yet openly discussing mental health is still hard to do.

The simple fact is, if you or your team want to succeed, then self-care isn't optional ...so let's stop treating it that way.

Speaking from personal experience, and often without reservation, John will candidly show how to get to grips with the reality of business today in a safe and positive way that ultimately leads to better results for all involved.

Addressing mental health is not a risk, it's an opportunity, and you can start here.

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ SALLY ROGAN

Authentic child of the 80’s, part time weight lifter and qualified yoga teacher. Ten years ago, Sally had a vision that the voice of the customer was at the heart of banking. She has never lost that vision in a variety of customer design roles with RBS, Sainsbury’s Bank and Atos. She is currently a User Researcher working with the lovely Landlord Register team at Registers of Scotland. 

Sally also provides a tech support function for her 15 year old son, James.

THE HUMAN TOUCH

BA BRIEF │ 3:00PM

+ CONTENT TANDEMONIUM - A CYCLE THROUGH DESIGN IN TANDEM

Built for two and a different way to enjoy the banter of the day, tandem bikes first appeared in late 19th century and this new social experience was an immediate hit. 'Users' went further but not necessarily faster to their destination. They had to work together, agree and take turns with the main pedals and steering, compromise, regroup and keep going to reach their destination.

As American author and disability rights advocate, Helen Keller, once said, "I enjoy a spin on my tandem bicycle, it is splendid to feel the wind blowing in my face and the springy motion …the rapid rush through the air gives me a delicious sense of strength".

Well, as a UX Specialist working in tandem with a BA at the start of a design journey, it can certainly be 'springy', yet still a 'splendid' trip.

With examples from our experience of creating content for a new registration service, I’ll share with you a number of pit stops we made and deviations en route and where user feedback content informed our design. In addition, I’ll chat about how we worked together in lockdown and what helped us progress towards our destination ...avoiding the bumps and potholes along the way.

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ VICKY DI CIACCA

Vicky is an experienced director with over 25 years of experience in the information technology and services industry. She started her working-life fitting watch batteries in a jewelry shop, she packed chocolate bars, then programmed mainframe computers and then founded Be Positive, a niche BA Consultancy, 15 years ago.

She still runs Be Positive with her co-founder and fellow director, is a charity trustee and is studying for an MSc in Business Psychology. 

THE HUMAN TOUCH

BA BRIEF │ 4:15PM

+ FROM BA TO THE BOARDROOM

In this talk, Vicky will outline her career and how she progressed from the role of Business Analyst to running Be Positive, a successful Business Analysis Consultancy based in Edinburgh.

During this talk, Vicky will talk about:

• How she became a BA and why she’s not an accountant
• Her experiences on the way from being a practitioner to being a business owner and director
• What she wished she’d known 15 years ago and what she knows now that she wishes she didn’t
• The Business Analysis tools and techniques that she still uses
• What being an entrepreneur/executive is like for her (hint – it’s nothing like it looks on The Apprentice).

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ JULIA NEWELL

Julia is a trusted business analyst and after several other careers, has found her true calling, albeit in different guises, for over 20 years working in finance, utilities and not-for-profit sectors.

For the last 5 years Julia has been a Lead BA with Scottish Widows, part of Lloyds Banking Group.  Julia self-funded herself to obtain the BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis.  

Julia has been the Chair for IIBAUK Scotland for 3 years; she regularly introduces speakers and takes part in panel discussions at IIBA meetings - and also participates in IIBAUK’s Mentoring Scheme and is a mentor for the third year.

And of course, she is one of the organisers of this very event, BALIFE2021, and is the Treasurer.

THE HUMAN TOUCH

BA BRIEF │ 3:00PM

+ BEING A BA IS NOT ENOUGH ...IF YOU TRULY WANT TO BE A GREAT BA

Your day-to-day activities are merely the foundation of your greatness.  From volunteering to presenting to mentoring, for a willing BA the world is truly your oyster and knowing you are contributing to the global BA community is a wonderful feeling!

In a one-on-one interview with Linda Parker, the former European BA of the Year, these two very experienced BAs will deep dive into the wealth of opportunities available to you when you choose to push the boundaries of what it means to be a Business Analyst and reap the rewards of helping like-minded people in your profession and beyond.

This quick-fire chat will look at:

1. The formula for purpose and how you can use it to achieve greater satisfaction in your role

2. How enthusiasm is infectious and how to build on that

3. What personal development benefits you receive by volunteering/presenting/mentoring, e.g. mixing with BAs outside your industry sector and of different ages/experiences; meeting thought leaders in the BA community; shaping events for the BA community

4. Because the committee is run by BA volunteers for BAs, there is a greater understanding of what BAs want and seeing current and future trends

5. Behind the scenes – you’ll learn the key to success is to be organised and to share responsibilities across the committee. Once you get that right the other four fall into place.

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ MARTIN DOWSON

Martin is a Design Leader at Lloyds Banking Group. He started his career as a UX Researcher before moving onto Information Architecture, CX, Service Design and now Design Leadership. He has done this within Top Tier consultancies, pre-investment start-ups, small creative agencies (which he founded) and in-house teams.

His industry experience spans retail, FMCG, Banking and Tech. Martin's passion for design comes from it's power to balance decision making within an organisation around business, human and technological factors for shared value as well as a fundamental belief in the power of democratising design and design skills into the whole organisation.

He is a certified trainer in Service Design and has been responsible for the training of thousands of non-designers in design-led thinking.

THINKING ABOUT DESIGN

PRESENTATION │ 3:45PM

+ DEMOCRATISING DESIGN

Design and especially Human Centred Design is incredibly current in business and rightly so. Some of the worlds most interesting and valuable start-ups over the last ten years have been founded by Designers. 

However, the discipline of design is not new and whilst it has deep craft it has wide applicability and for that reason the most forward looking companies are understanding that many Design skills can and need to be shared throughout the organisation. 

Martin will share his thoughts on the difference between design-led thinking and deep design craft and how you can leverage both for better success.

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ ANGELA PRENTER-SMITH

Angela is an inspiring digital leader, with an unwavering dedication to human-focused change. She has proven leadership ability, strategic thinking and problem-solving skills needed to transform businesses.  Angela has been working in digital before it was called digital – embedding human-centred design practices into change and software programme methods, products and service.

Angela shares expertise through Training by This is Milk and is the vision behind the BIMA award-winning Digital Transformation Programme. From problem to solution in under 6 months, working globally to improve skills, future-proof jobs and tackling industry-wide problems.

Recently, she led This is Milk to success in a CivTech challenge, where their innovative solution to the future of online learning is set to transform professional learning.

DRIVEN BY PROCESS

PRESENTATION │ 3:45PM

+ PROCESS REUSABILITY - IN THE SERVICE OF GOOD DESIGN

With the increasing acknowledgement that businesses require a human-focussed design for change, good process modelling is often overlooked in favour of tools more related to digital interfaces, such as user journeys and personas. However, a well-designed service experience is predicated on well understood and designed business processes.

Angela will provide insights into how to design good processes in a reusable fashion, meaning less waste, increased common understanding and efficiency.

A business is nothing without its processes! And a well-designed business, delivers great services. 

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ SUSAN TAHERI

Susan Taheri is a Leadership & Team Development Coach based in Edinburgh and prior to becoming a professional coach, she worked as a Senior Business Analyst for many years; primarily in Financial Services and Asset Management. Transformational change is a theme in her professional and personal life and she specialises in Mental Fitness / Positive Intelligence coaching with teams, groups and individuals – helping them calmly, creatively and decisively deal with the work and life challenges they face. She regularly gives talks on Mental Fitness and other leadership and team development topics and you can find out more about her at www.susantaheri.com or on LinkedIn

THE HUMAN TOUCH

PRESENTATION │11:45AM

+ MENTAL FITNESS - SABOTEUR vs SAGE

Mental Fitness is about increasing your capacity to handle life’s challenges with the minimum of stress and negative emotions. To grow your Mental Fitness, you work on 3 core ‘muscles’:

• Intercepting Saboteur (inner critic) thoughts and behaviours
• Bringing yourself back to the present moment, and
• Activating your Sage (inner wisdom) to access calmness, creativity and the ability to take clear-headed, laser-focused action.

In this session we turn the spotlight on our universal Saboteur – the Judge. How does the Judge show up in our lives? What thoughts and feelings does he/she invoke? And how do we diminish him/her?

As a counterpoint, we’ll look in detail at 3 of the 5 Sage powers which can be used to deal with life’s challenges: Empathy, Explore and Innovate.

To see which Saboteurs may be impacting your performance and wellbeing (in addition to the Judge) go to intelligence.com/assessments/

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ CHRISTINA LOVELOCK

Christina is an experienced BA leader, has built BA teams ranging in size from 5 to 120 Business Analysts and champions entry level BA roles including apprenticeships. She is active in the professional community, chair of the BA Apprentice Standard Review and a director of the BA Manager Forum.

She has co-authored the BCS book, Delivering Business Analysis, which shares research, insights and practical guidance for current and aspiring BA leaders.

THE HUMAN TOUCH

PRESENTATION │10:30AM

+ RETROSPECT YOURSELF!

With communication and collaboration being key to project delivery and organisational success, how we behave as Business Analysts is more important than ever. The BA role has two sides, what we do and how we do it.

We must master both of these to become great BAs.

Self-awareness is critical to becoming a great BA, but what is it and how do we improve it?

In this session we will look at the common behaviour traps we can fall into as BAs, and find tools within our BA tool-kit that can facilitate self-reflection and improve self-awareness.

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ SEB ROSE

Consultant, coach, trainer, analyst, and developer for over 30 years. Seb has been involved in the full development lifecycle with experience that ranges from Architecture to Support, from BASIC to Ruby. He’s a BDD advocate with SmartBear, helping people integrate all three practices of BDD into their development process and ensuring that appropriate tool support is available. Regular speaker at conferences and occasional contributor to software journals. Co-author of the BDD Books series "Discovery” and "Formulation" (Leanpub), lead author of “The Cucumber for Java Book” (Pragmatic Programmers), and contributing author to “97 Things Every Programmer Should Know” (O’Reilly). He blogs at cucumber.io and tweets as @sebrose.

THINKING ABOUT DESIGN

PRESENTATION │10:30AM

+ USING BDD AS A COMMUNICATION TOOL BETWEEN THE BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

Have you ever seen that Project Cartoon, the Project Construction Cycle with the tree swing? There are many different variations of the swing in the tree depending on who was describing it and how it was understood. How many projects have you been on where this is the case? More than ever we need a way to explain the requirements that is understandable and clear for all parties on a project. This is where Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) can fit in.

This talk will explore how BDD can be used as a communication tool between the business and the technology team.  It will cover how the BA is instrumental in extracting the requirements of the business providing clear specifications for the delivery team real examples. 

• Understand how BDD improves communication
• Discover why we need examples to illustrate specifications
• Learn the critical role of the BA in BDD

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ TOM MEADE

Graduating with a Degree in BIS from UCC in 1999, Tom Meade has gone on to a forge a successful tech career in Scotland. His role as Digital Director (CIO) at the Registers of Scotland has led to accolades including CIO of the Year at the UK IT Awards and the Digital Leader Award, Scotland’s most significant public sector honour. Tom provides strategic consultancy to the C-Suite of major organisations and currently Heads up the IT team at Poppulo. 

Tom has also recently been named one of the Top 100 CIOs in the UK by Computing Magazine. He is truly an IT Leader.

KEYNOTE 1 │9:30AM

+ SMALL STEPS COME GREAT LEAPS

We are always looking for the "moonshot" big ideas to drive transformation, while forgetting that most of our major leaps in the past have been built on a series of ideas and trials that build on top of each other. 

Taking this incremental continuous improvement mindset arms companies with the ability to continually respond to change while engaging teams. 

From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution to the modern day, hot beds of evolution provide the basis for our revolutions.

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SPEAKER PROFILES

+ GRANT WRIGHT and PARDEEP DHANDA

Paddy and Grant are passionate Visual Thinkers and brand ambassadors for Buro Brand (authors of the bestselling book Visual Thinking: Empowering People and Organisations through Visual Collaboration). They are also the co-founders of The Visual Jam, a global meetup for creative thinkers. 

Social Media:

The Visual Jam Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/TheVisualJam/

Instagram / Twitter: @TheVisualJam

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Scu_xEqw31rIUmD946EwQ

Grant Wright:

Grant has over 20 years’ experience of delivering and leading enterprise-scale transformation and digital service design across government and financial services sectors. He is a Principal Consultant and Director of Scarlett Solutions, a UK based consultancy specialising in business analysis/architecture, agile product management and business transformation.

Grant combines his passion for business analysis with tools & techniques from other fields such as user/customer experience (UX/CX), P3M and lean / agile delivery in order to clearly define problems and identify effective solutions for his clients. He actively practices Visual Thinking throughout his work and is passionate about its ability to create alignment, improve understanding and generate creative ideas.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantwwright/

Pardeep (aka Paddy) Dhanda:

'Paddy' is the Agile Practice Director at QA Ltd, the largest Technology training provider in the UK. He is the former head of Agile learning for a global bank where he rolled out Agile education to over 100k Agilists.

Paddy has worked in the field of Business Analysis for almost 20 years and led a global Business Analysis Community of Practice comprising of over 2k practitioners. He is the former Midlands Communities Director for IIBA UK.

Paddy is passionate about creating engaging learning experiences through visual thinking, gamification and storytelling. He regularly shares insights with industry thought leaders via his podcast, the Peaky Agilist. He also tells really bad jokes according to his two young children.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pardeep-aka-paddy-dhanda-24883017/

DRIVEN BY PROCESS

PRESENTATION │10:30AM

+ VISUAL THINKING SUPERPOWERS FOR PRODUCT OWNERSHIP

The Product Owner (PO) role has become a popular path for many Business Analysts (BAs) and is vital for achieving business agility. But before a BA can master the art of product ownership they must learn how to adapt their mindset and find innovative ways to harness the wisdom of crowds to unlock creative thinking.

Join Grant Wright and Pardeep (aka Paddy) Dhanda, for an immersive hands on session, where they will show you how to unleash your Visual Thinking superpowers and take your product ownership practice to the next level. 

Follow our heroes on an epic journey where they will literally illustrate how Visual Thinking can help you to:

• learn about the PO role and how to adapt as your career advances (whilst avoiding some common pitfalls along the way)
• explore problems and spark creativity within teams
• produce simple but effective visuals to provide clarity, create alignment and open up new possibilities.

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SPEAKER PROFILE

+ MICHAEL CHRISTON

Michael has gained a reputation for entertaining and insightful presentations having trained thousands of business people over 20-plus years with his unique and often head spinning perspectives on business and life. His past clients include financial institutions such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank, multinationals such as Bredero Shaw and Arrow International, and even several offices of government including Scottish Enterprise.

KEYNOTE 2 │1:30PM

+ THE TWIN SISTERS OF DOOM

Have you ever been in a meeting where nothing is going right? Everyone seems to be discussing the same thing but progress is slower than a snail on Valium? Of course, you have!

...in fact it's often the norm for a Business Analyst!

At times like these, it's as if your technical ability and the breadth of your experience count for nothing ...because at that moment everyone else in the room is looking at you like you're speaking Swahili. And there's you thinking they were the strange ones!

So what if someone was to suggest that the reason for that communication breakdown is down to just one or two words, words that seem so innocuous but which separate success from failure...? Now rest assured, this is not going to be a dry presentation on grammar or some other boredom inducing schlock. Far from it!

With excerpts from the greatest speeches of our time (and their hilarious alternatives), Michael will introduce you to the Twin Sisters of Doom and their odious cousins in language. Along the way, you will discover how the simplest of words can make the greatest of differences, how you can quickly and easily cement commitment, and most importantly of all, how to motivate and inspire success in yourself and others with little effort.

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