NARRATOR: Mike Siegel is a communications consultant; a media giant; a pop culture icon, you can find him on Wikipedia; a big mouth lawyer; a liberal turned conservative; an advocate of business; a bit of a health nut; and a good momma’s boy from Brooklyn. What most people don’t know is that Mike Siegel has a PhD in communications, volunteers for several charity groups, and has dedicated much of his life to higher education both as student and teacher. Now, enjoy this presentation from Dr. Siegel.

DR. SIEGEL: Folks, in order to explain the process of how we come to a decision, how do we solve a problem, many of you listening right now work in corporations, work as managers, work as executives, and I know sometimes it gets frustrating, because meetings can become basically run-on sentences. They go on forever, and they never solve the problem that you were really were there intending to solve in the first place; so, how do we go about solving those problems for which we are meeting? That’s part of leadership.

Leadership functions are involved directly, as I have been trying to say all along, in solving the problems for which we are getting together, and so, let’s deal with that in a very concrete way. There is a system that I have used over the years that works with groups, repeatedly and consistently. It’s a system that is almost flawless if you implement it the way it is supposed to be implemented. It is called the reflective thinking process. I will do a little bit of an example with that right now.

I have a kind guinea pig over here, who decided he would participate with me in this, without even knowing where we are going with this, and so it will give you a real concrete way of understanding how you can actually come to a decision or solve a problem when you are in a group with some of your colleagues.

It’s called the reflective thinking process, and Denny Andrews joins us. Confessions of a Mortgage Insider is his book. I’ll tell you, Denny, that’s a subject that is desperately needed out there in the marketplace, so good luck with the book, first of all, and thanks for being with us.

DENNY ANDREWS: Yeah, thanks a lot, Mike, I’m happy to be here and learn more about your process for solving problems, because coming from the mortgage industry, there’s no shortage of them.

DR. SIEGEL: All right, that’s for sure. So let’s take this one. Let’s take one, and maybe people out there can relate to this or identify with it. You certainly can professionally, watching people in this situation. Let’s take the problem of people who were qualified for loans and because of all of the changes in the mortgage industry, they’re no longer qualified. Income-stated loans are no longer acceptable stated income, and those sorts of things, for many banks, many mortgage companies, restrictions are much greater. There is much more scrutiny. There is a much more microscopic look at people’s records and credit and background and income and all of that. So, let’s deal with that, and let’s go to the first step, taking that. Does that make sense, talk about that issue?