I want to step out from behind the story for a couple of days here.

We have been preparing for this recession for the past two years. You knew this in your head, but now the pain is real. This pain can turn a room full of reasonably intelligent people into a group of blithering idiots, watching television, shaking their heads, and wondering what to do next.

We can react, like pulling away from a hot stove. Or we can imagine a sequence of cause and effect. Some right moves are completely counter-intuitive.

If you can keep your wits about you while all others are losing theirs, and blaming you. . . . The world will be yours and everything in it. –Kipling.

We have been working hard to create a learning platform to help managers keep their wits about them. This online program begins in earnest February 2, 2009.

We will explain more over the next couple of days. If you want to know more now, or if you would like to pre-register, you can visit www.workingleadership.com.