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David's Blog

Useful insights on What Matters Most to you and me and everyone else.

A Year on Stages Around the World (And What It Taught Me About What Matters Most)

I'm supposed to be writing a book right now.I'm sitting at my desk in Vancouver, third cup of coffee going cold beside me, staring at a manuscript that needs my attention. But I've got my speaking calendar pulled up on a second screen because I was looking for a specific date I needed for a chapter, and then I just started scrolling. I didn't mean to go down this road. I do this sometimes, though. I get lost in the memories of my travel itinerary, the way some people get lost in old photo albums.

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David Alison

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Your Employee Engagement Survey Is Measuring the Wrong Things

Exit interviews are theater. People say "better opportunity" because it's safe. It doesn't burn bridges. It doesn't require explaining the slow erosion of meaning that actually pushed You send the survey. You get the scores. You build action plans around the results. And somehow, nothing actually changes. Sound familiar?

David Alison

Employee Engagement

Your Clients Won’t Choose the Best Accounting or Law Firm. They’ll Choose the Right One.

The best firm has the credentials, the case studies, the technical expertise, and the always-popular “we’ve done this before” slide in their deck. All useful and necessary stuff. But ranking as the “best choice” is a logic game. And humans are anything but logical, even if they pretend very hard to be. Logic is only part of the equation.

David Alison

Sales

Why Your Top Salespeople Succeed: The Values Profile They All Share

You've analyzed your sales team's behaviors, their techniques, and their talk tracks. You've trained underperformers to mimic top performers. And somehow, the results don't transfer.

David Alison

Sales

Leadership Development

Why Your Recognition Program Makes People Feel Worse

The quarterly awards ceremony. The employee-of-the-month parking spot. The points-based recognition platform with a catalog of branded merchandise. You've built this system. And it might be actively damaging the culture you're trying to reinforce.

David Alison

Employee Engagement

Leadership Development

Why Your Property Listings Aren't Selling: The Values Marketing Gap

Your listing photos are professional. Your descriptions are detailed. Your property is priced right. And it's been sitting for weeks while comparable homes sell in days.

David Alison

Sales

Why Your Marketing Personas Don't Work: The Values Alternative

You have detailed personas. You know their demographics, their behaviors, their pain points, and their journey stages. And your marketing still doesn't resonate because you've profiled everything about them except what actually matters.

David Alison

Sales

Why Your Employees Really Quit (It's Not the Money)

David Alison

Employee Engagement

Why Your Customer Experience Strategy Isn't Working: The Values Disconnect

Your customer journey is mapped. Your touchpoints are optimized. Your NPS is tracked religiously. And somehow, customers still leave for competitors and rarely advocate for you.

David Alison

Sales

Why Your Brand Isn't Differentiated: And How Values Fix It

Your positioning statement sounds good. Your messaging is consistent. Your brand guidelines are followed. And customers still can't explain what makes you different.

David Alison

Sales