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On 16 Dec 1995, Reality is a point of view wrote:

>  +---- jonoman@primenet.com wrote:
>  | bottom line of the work of Landmark
>  +----
> Sorry to take this quote so far out of context, but it hits on
> something I have been wondering about.
> 
> The bottom line at Landmark.  Anyone feel like revealing how
> much money they spend on Landmark related activities?  Say for
> the weekend intro, the next step (I think it is/was a week long
> thing), sundry workshops and maybe a Forum leader wannabe course
> or two?

I've probably done more Landmark work than almost anybody not currently 
in the Leader Bodies.

A simple tally:
	Forum						$290	|
	Advanced Course					$600    |
	Self Expression and Leadership Program		$150	| 1040
	Seminars (many)					$500
	Introduction to the Forum Leaders Program	$400
	Communications - Access to Power		$400
	Communicaitons - Performance and Power		$700
	Team Management and Leadership Program		$700
Total								$3340

Hotels, food, expenses, air-travel...				$1000

Add to that 3000 hours of assisting agreements.

What did I get for that?  I'm living a life I love powerfully and 
effectivly.  I have literally been able to fulfill on almost every 
worthwhile goal, dream, ambition I've declared.  I've had my ex-wife 
apologize for divorcing me, she even admitted that it "Might not have 
been such a bright idea to divorce you to marry Jerry".  (We had been
divorce for over a year before I did the Forum, had I done it when I 
first heard about it, it would have saved the marriage).

I haven't remarried yet, but I have had some incredible love/romance 
relationships with amazing women, none of whom have done the forum (they 
chose not to).

I have made several career changes including causing the 
commercialization of the Internet.  I enrolled MCI into carrying the NSF 
traffic on the same links as businesses, and enrolled them into making 
TCP/IP services available to businesses (they were originally trying to 
sell proprietary protocol all the way up to the adapter card.

When everyone else was convinced that the "Internet" could not meet the 
needs of the "Information Superhighway", I was enrolling 4500 publishers 
into adopting internet technology.

I have been able to make a difference in the lives of thousands of people.  I
have watched couples - on the verge of divorce - end up in wonderful
marriages, without ever getting divorced (the spouse they were ready to kill
is now their best friend). 

I have been able to make a difference in 12 step organizations (I was 11 
years clean and sober when one of my sponsees introduced me to the Forum).

I have been able to accomplish many personal goals as well.  I've been 
able to live in any city I wanted, do work I loved, and do things I've 
always wanted to do "someday".  In fact, I have to be careful about what 
I think I want.  I wanted to live close to New York City, but I didn't 
want to get rid of my Sports Car, so I ended up in Princeton, New Jersey.
I could be in NYC in less than an hour.  I also got lot's of time to play 
with my "toy" (driving about 100 miles/day).

> The reason I ask is that I am always suspicious of things that
> cost money and turn people into happy pushy recruiters.  I've
> been to a few Forum introduction nights and like what I hear,
> until the dollar acquisition memes are cut loose.

Remember, not only are these people untrained "recruits" (the fact is you
have to apply, the staff has to be convinced that you aren't going to offend
people, and you can't be a sales "pitch-man", my application was declined
twice).  They don't get trained in how to enroll people into the Forum until
the 3rd month of a 6 month program. 

They want to share the Forum because they love it.  They are often 
clumsy.  They use the same tactics that worked on their friends, but that 
doesn't mean much with strangers.

> The high pressure sales tactics, my favorite being the always
> transparent "What problem do you have?  What is the one thing
> stopping you from signing up right now?", being the most
> obnoxious.  The 'get 20 new recruits signed up before you can
> enroll in the Forum leadership course' hurdle is a close second.

One of the primary distinctions of Landmark Education is the distinction 
"Enrolment" which means:
	Creating possibility in another person's world such that they step 
	into it and take committed action.

Enrollment is a powerful thing.  Being enrolled is a powerful thing.  I 
can be enrolled into making a strategic career move, I can enroll someone 
into setting up a Web server on the internet.  Of course, I can also 
enroll someone into signing up for the Forum.  But I can only do this if 
I can enroll them into a possibility in their lives, big enough to 
warrant leaping into the unkown.

One of the interesting things is discovering what happens immediately 
after I take that "Leap of Faith".  The same stuff that came up when I 
registered for the Forum showed up when I took a new job.  The same 
desire to "drop out" showed up at the same stages.  Instead of letting my 
feelings run the show, I played the hunch full out.  Sometimes I lost 
big, sometimes I won.  At least I put myself in the game.

In Landmark's programs, leaders will enroll people into taking committed 
actions - like calling the parents you've been making wrong for 20 years 
to thank them and let them know you love them.  Sometimes it means having 
someone call their ex-husband to let him see the kids.  Sometimes it 
means telling someone to apologize to their boss for an attitude problem.

When you consider what the Forum leader is asking them to do, it seems 
kind of silly to let someone who sees the possiblity of reconsiliation 
with their husband, be stopped by $290 and reluctance to ask for Friday 
off from work.

When people walk into an introduction to the Forum, they have something 
at stake.  Maybe they've just seen that their friend is happier and isn't 
complaining as much. (Sharing the Forum almost requires you to "change 
your attitude to gratitude").

> I have heard that there was a recent revamp on the concept of
> Forum success that wasn't as focused on the bottom line.

There has been a major shift in most courses from "easy on the phone 
calls" then "push for the enrollments", to "get them on the phones, 
cleaning up damanged relationships, let the enrollments happen".  When 
the leader invites them to sign up for the next course, they are chomping 
at the bit.  Many times they come to the registration table with their 
card filled out, the check written, and their big questions are "can I do 
it the following week in Philidelphia?".

If someone in your life, who you loved, but you knew had been making you 
wrong for 10-20 years called you up at midnight to tell you that they 
loved you, wouldn't you want to know what's up?  If someone died, would 
you call their parents at 2:00 A.M.?  If someone just became present to 
their parent's love after 20 years, would they call?  Which call would 
you rather get?

In the Forum Evening Session, guests often come, almost bewildered.  They 
want to know who put love juice in their Daughter's water bottle.  They 
walk in and see people who are disgustingly happy, and they wonder why 
they didn't get the joke.  Often they are told they are coming to a 
"Graduation", or some sort of ceremony.  Then they end up being herded 
into a room where an Introduction leader and 5 or 6 undertrained 
enrollment assistants want to know "where would you like to have a 
breakthrough?".  Of course, with 35 people in the room, and assistants 
going through different levels as a team, it is possible to have to say 
"No thank you I'm not interested" to 6 or 7 people.

I enrolled almost 80 people into the Forum.  I was great at creating 
rappor with complete strangers.  I wasn't candidated because I couldn't 
cause people in my own life to take consistant, committed action (like 
showing up when they said they would).  I later discovered that this was 
something that occurred in various areas of my life.  When a man is about 
to go to jail because he keeps making his ex-wife wrong, and he isn't 
willing to spend 3 hours to see if he might be able to alter that 
relationship (I know for a fact that it can make that difference), then 
what makes me think I would be effective at having people engage in their 
own lives for 3 days.

If you don't have something important at stake in the Forum, they won't 
let you take it.  I knew one person who was "just curious".  They wanted 
to watch it, like a movie.  The enrollment manager offered to give him a 
full refund, since he probably would get anything out of it.  Eventually 
(after getting his money back) he came in wanting a major breakthrough in 
an important relationship.  People who don't get value out of the Forum 
usually don't have enough at stake.

> A focus that originated from the corporate head driving the Forum
> direction.  Maybe things have changed since, any comments on
> that would be appreciated as well.

Actually, this was something that the staff - about 600 people,  examined 
as a group, in conference calls, group meetings, and eventually a 
convention in California.  The CEO has very little authority, he almost 
never "tells them what to do".  Having been a participant in similar 
decision making processes at Landmark, I have often been amazed at how 
quickly an incredibly large number of people can create complete consesus.

The assistants had a similar series of meetings (staff was not even 
allowed to participate).  They came up with their own charter and goals, 
along with how to fulfill those goals by taking actions consistant with 
those goals.  Again, the focus has been on how to make the experience in 
guest rooms be more consistant with the nature of enrollment.

There is something very powerful in being able to take an uncertain schedule,
uncertain finances, and uncertain logistics, and commit to the fulfillment of
a possiblity by being in the Forum on a Friday one month from now and not
knowing how you are going to make it happen.  "The Reasonable man fits his
life to his circumstances. The unreaonable man fits the circumstances to is
life, all human progress depends on the unreasonable man" (G.B. Shaw). 
As an enrollment assistant, it took me about 2 months to realize that now 
one cared about a "darn course".  What they wanted was, to have love be 
present, to be able to make powerful choices, to be more effective in 
areas where they had previously been stopped, to take risks and go for 
the goals they've wanted to pursue "someday" today.

Everybody knows how to loose weight.  To loose 100 lbs, you have to take 
action consistant with that knowledge (from someone who knows).

> Gary Johnson                   "The numbers themselves may be our best tools."
> gjohnson@season.com            Fed flip?


	Rex Ballard
	Standard & Poor's/McGraw-Hill
	Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect
	the Management of the McGraw-Hill Companies.



From rballard@cnj.digex.net Wed Dec 27 01:51:38 1995
Status: O
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Newsgroups: alt.self-improve,alt.fan.landmark,sci.psychology.misc