At the end of a workshop this week I asked participants to take a moment to provide feedback, "...to support my learning, with what are you Satisfied, Not Satisfied, and Over The Moon?" One comment, "I especially loved the pauses. You didn't talk too much; you let us think...," set a number of heads nodding.

On the way home, my husband commented, "You really have to speak more about your Golden Pauses - they're some of your best work."

Golden Pauses? They're a goldmine for Freelancers, Professionals, and small businesses. A perfect entree to the advantages we enjoy over big biz, they enable you to enrich every exchange, deepen client relationships, and co-invent the future with customers and vendors.

Consider the ROI of the example above. The conversation took less than 5 minutes. Participants had enjoyed learning from me, and were happy to reciprocate. They collected and articulated their thoughts, we began designing the next workshop together, and they're now looking forward to attending and bringing friends and colleagues. A lovely return on 5 minutes' investment.

Pausing to assess what's been done and to harvest learning - what we did at the end of the workshop - is the 3rd of my 4 pauses. Here's a diagram.

The model is based on the view that we humans make our living by exchanging with others; exchanges are an inescapable part of our lives. Each of the pauses is an opportunity to make every exchange more valuable, by exploring with your prospective trading partner:

• 1)What concerns do we want to address?
• 2)What results or deliverables would have us satisfied, what would have us delighted?
• 3)How did we do? What can we learn from the effort?
• 4)Expressing thanks for the results and gratitude for partnering in the exchange

Though in some cases the pauses can take more than a few minutes (my all-time records are several months for #1 and several weeks for #2,) they can often be done much faster. And no matter how long they take, they're always Golden. They enable you to invest energy wisely. Sometimes you won't go beyond #1 or #2, and won't pursue the exchange. If you do, the Pauses ensure that any effort you choose to invest will be relevant to the other party's concerns, that you both agree before you begin about what satisfactory completion will look like, and you'll be in good shape to learn together and to complete the exchange in better shape than when you started.

The Golden Pauses will deepen your business relationships. Nothing is more important for a microbiz. They're simple, though perhaps not easy -especially is our faced-paced world. But that makes them even more precious, and your services more distinct.

Power your business by investing at least 28 minutes a day in the Golden Pauses. The Pauses are Master Moves. The work of a lifetime, and never too late to start.

Do you have examples of Golden Pauses? Please comment.

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