Bob teaches through stories of his own experiences; The stories—of his screw-ups especially—entertain and enlighten participants.

Since he loves doing these seminars he’s perfectly happy to do them pro bono for public and non-profit organizations. 

1. The ABCs of Ethical Leadership
The ABCs of Ethical Leadership teaches leaders at all levels how to transform their organizations through their personal behavior. Only a very few come by this leadership ability naturally; most are shy, uncertain, and modest, but they can sharpen their leadership skills in this workshop.

Bob calls the basics the ABCs, for authenticity, buoyancy and conviction. Simple stuff. Authenticity just means be yourself, don’t try to appear different than you are. Let people see your faults—it’ll show them that a leader doesn’t have to be perfect.

Buoyancy is raising people up—their spirits and their confidence. A leader should treat the staff as though it comprised volunteers, because even if the staff is paid they can still decide whether to volunteer their enthusiasm and commitment. Or not.

Conviction is the absolute absence of doubt. While a leader must be open minded there are some things that can’t be compromised, and foremost among these is the realm of ethics. Not the ethics of traditional ethics training—admonitions against bribery, theft, conflict of interest, or misuse of the organization’s assets—but the ethical principles that we all have known since childhood, starting with keeping your word and following the Golden Rule. These combine in each of us to form our “unenforceables,” the rules of behavior that we have to follow because of what’s inside us, not because some external authority forces us to.  

2. The Magnificent Seven: Ethics for Leaders
The Magnificent Seven: Ethics for Leaders was the official ethics training for the city of Los Angeles core supervisors development course. It was so popular with the mandatory participants that one-third of them lined up at noon (instead of going to lunch) to purchase Bob’s book, on which the seminar is based.

It is unlike any mandatory ethics session anybody has ever seen: no talk about bribery, fraud, or conflict of interest. It starts with what it means to behave ethically, and how that differs from merely behaving legally or in compliance with the rules. starts with the basics: keep your word and follow the Golden Rule. It finishes with three essential skills for living and leading. These skills are easy to describe, not so easy to live, but living them sharpens people’s ethical sensitivity and makes it easier to keep strong and to follow their good intentions.  

3. Expectations of Senior Managers
Expectations of Senior Managers is a participatory workshop that covers both leadership and management. It works best when participants work in small groups to sort out:
     • How to get staff more engaged in their work
     • How to increase their own and their staff’s enjoyment and effectiveness
     • What are the ethical demands of bosses and subordinates?

4. Change: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why
This workshop uses Bob’s personal experience in leading successful and unsuccessful change efforts at the Pentagon and White House. He describes the efforts with vivid stories, then explore with the participants the lessons from the experiences. He finishes by drawing some generalizations about why some transformation efforts succeed and some fail.

This seminar has gotten extraordinarily high evaluations from participants. A group of Boeing executives at a University of Southern California executive program rated the session 9.7 out of 10 for its usefulness, and 9.5 out of 10 for enjoyability. The director who led the program wrote Bob the following: “Thanks for your fascinating presentation. Your experiences in changing the giant bureaucracy of the federal government were very well received and, I think for many participants, quite inspirational. After all, if such dramatic progress can be made in an organization as large as the U.S. government, it should be easy to change Boeing!” And a group of Naval Intelligence leaders (both military and civilians) at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School gave me an overall grade of 4.93 out of 5.

5. Organizing for the Mission
How some organizations stifle the human spirit, some liberate it, and how to make sure yours is liberating. It starts with colorful and entertaining stories of misguided efforts (including Bob’s) to eliminate excess and create excellence, starting with consolidations of procurement, personnel, and other functions. It describes in detail the most excellent organization he found, and how it flipped his thinking and approach to leadership in government. Finally he explain the differences between centralized and excellent organizations, and give the participants a handy, very simple way to tell whether they’re on the path to excellence. Participants will be inspired to strive for excellence, undeterred by the forces in large organizations, public or private, that make the effort often difficult or painful.