My Mentor & Friend, Ron Cherry

My mentor and friend Ron Cherry died this week. Over the years, most of you have heard me refer to “My Mentor', although rarely by name. In the introduction to SST^®, I tell the story about how I was introduced to consulting by a faculty colleague who invited me to apply the Myers Briggs Type Indicator to help his client improve teamwork. That introduction was the impetus to my consulting career and eventually the development of SST^®, a selling relative to the MBTI.

Others have heard me reference Ron when a tough organizational question came my way. I'd say something like, “Let me check with Ron Cherry who has been my mentor over the years. He is just the brightest guy I know on matters like this.”

With an exchange of E-mails followed by an early lunch at Topps Diner, (“Brand loyalty, you know”) Ron would offer insights that were just brilliant. Before “thinking outside the box” became a buzz word, Ron had it down to an art form. Before “client centered” thinking or “Customer Relationship Management' became trends, Ron was demonstrating those principles. He was consistently years ahead of the management curve.

Perhaps you recall my reference to Ron when I have encouraged your team to challenge creeping “group think”. “Being a team does not mean agreeing all the time.”

Once, I backed down from a  position because Ron made a more compelling case. To which he responded, “If we agree, one of us is redundant.”

Another time, I recited the famous Thorndike quote to Ron. “If it exists”, I said “it can be measured.”  Ron replied ,“If you can measure it, it probably doesn't matter.”