Condemning

I was sitting in a meeting the other day and I listened to one person condemn another (of course the person being condemned was not in the room) and without hesitation another person jumped on the the bandwagon to be shortly followed by another person. It was a bit of a bloodbath.

With one small push back that maybe this wasn't a fully fair assessment that was taking place, everyone backed down and adjusted their stance.

This interaction reminded me of how easy it is to tear someone down and how hard it is to get people to instead build others up. We are quick to condemn and we are fast to pass the blame and tag others for maybe what we should be stepping up and owning ourselves.

I've found that those who fluidly condemn others are not the same people who take accountability and accept their lumps when they should. These are also the same people who others either fear or even avoid because they worry that whatever is being said about others is also said about them when they leave the room.

Layering

No one gets to be good at what they do without layering one skill and experience on top of another until they come to a place where they are really good, or even a master of what they have been working towards.

As much as it would be great to get good by just showing up, we have to layer and layer until we finally have built up enough to draw upon so we really know what we are doing.

There are many people who are not willing to spend the time and energy to build the layers. Either they don't believe that they should have to put in the time and efforts, or they are just too lazy to put in the hard work. Layering takes time. Layering takes patience. Layering takes an attitude of not believing that we don't need any more experience, any more practice, any more coaching, or any more discipline.

 Those that do layer and understand the importance of this are the ones who are able to have a few layers peeled back or punctured and still have much to work with going forward.

We must learn to layer and learn to do so with each and every opportunity given to us.

Matching

There may not be a harder technology challenge than finding the perfect match.  Industries have been built from this need; biotech, digital tech, agriculture, just to name a few.  In digital technology we are always hunting for the perfect match, whether that be through dating sites, through job sites, and broadly between retailers/manufacturers and customers. 

The perfect match is one where two parties decide they want the same thing. T

his is hard work and with today's technology algorithms we get closer and closer to the perfect match.  Some will call them "recommendation" or "discovery" engines, but these are also all about matching what I like to what I might not yet know I will like. 

Matching is so important to all that we do that we should ensure that the understanding of the science of matching is resident within our companies. 

If we aren't almost obsessed with the pursuit of the perfect match then we are probably missing out on business.

Simple Syrup

Remember the movie Mary Poppins? Some will say, I don't remember the movie, but I saw the play on Broadway a few years back?  Regardless, Mary sings a verse, "A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down so nice..." 

We should all remember that as we deliver messages to employees, customers and partners.  The best "sugar" is usually that which is made of a "simple syrup" and this holds up true as well when we are communicating.  Breaking down messages to the most basic and simple is hard work and too many times we are too busy to think ahead so we go into a meeting or presentation and before we know it we are getting that blank stare of "I'm not following" and then then first question can be summed up as, "What did you just say?". 

These are high stakes moments that we can't take for granted.  We only get so many times to make something clear and simple before we lose credibility that can't be regained. 

If we are not spending twice as much time in preparation as it takes to deliver the message, then I can assure you that what you communicate will not be simple enough to be understood.

Hesitations

I believe that the adage is, "Necessity is the mother of invention."  I remember being taught in pee-wee baseball that "Hesitation is the mother of disaster".  It seemed true back then but as I have grown older, I would say that it is far from true in life.  

Like the eskimos have many names for snow, hesitation can be thought of as 1) Good- hesitation that allows one to stop, think, sort their head and weigh out the consequences of a decision or move.  2) Bad - hesitation that comes from fear and uncertainty and removes the  possibility of making a move, even when calculated. 3)  Worst - hesitation that gets one stuck with no possibility of moving forward but with extreme anxiety and stress from not having done so.  

So, hesitation as defined in scenario 2 and 3 are recipes for disaster, but scenario 1 can save us from disaster.  The question is, "How do we know the difference?"  

The antidote lies somewhere in experience, trusting one's gut and instincts, relying on trusted advice and counsel and not allowing pride, hubris or arrogance get in the way of hearing that calm and caring voice within us.  

It is an art, not a science. 

It cannot be taught without real-word learning lab experiences.  

But, mastering hesitation can be a game-changer and differentiation from good to great.

The Ladder

I watched a worker as he climbed a ladder. At the first few rungs he bounded up, sometimes skipping rungs along the way.  In the middle of the ladder he began to slow down and he paid more attention to each footing and where he placed his hands.  As he got to the top of the ladder he was barely moving forward, hanging on with his eyes watching each move of his feet and hands to be sure that the grip and footing were precise. From where I was watching, it was hard to tell what it was that he was after but it was beyond the top of the ladder and he was going to need to go all the way to the top, ignoring the safety stickers he saw along the way.  As he went for that top step he had to do it all with balance as there wasn't anywhere for his hands to hold onto. He looked so alone there perched on the top step.  It was terrifying to watch and all better judgment of me and those around me told us that something bad was about to happen. And then it did.  He slipped and waving his arms wildly and shouting at the top of his lungs he fell.  Coming down the ladder he grabbed furiously at rungs, but he couldn't get hold and in a fraction of the time it took him to climb the ladder he was off of it, lying on the ground moaning, groaning, with tears in his eyes of humiliation, frustration and anger at himself and what had happened. It was awful to watch the fall. It had been exciting at first to see the ascent but even as a bystander it became anxiety filled as he worked his way through the rungs and it became clear that he wasn't going to stop, even when he was warned to do so.

Even now I wish he hadn't been so ambitious and taken that CEO job.

Will You Pay 10X?

If I asked if you would pay 10X for something that you could buy for 10 times less elsewhere, I have a very good idea of what your answer would be, "Heck, no!  Who would do that?"

But, you see, we do it every day.  I watched my wife do it and with nothing but a little shrug and laugh made the payment.  And, believe me, she is thrifty.  What in the world would she pay 10X for? 

The answer: a banana.  She buys bananas in a bunch at the grocery store for 0.19 per banana.  But on this day, before boarding a plane at SFO she paid $1.82 for one banana.  She is not alone.  We do the same with a cup of coffee.  We can buy a pound of coffee for what one venti latte can cost. And the same is true of all of the food ingredients that we can make a meal at home versus eat out at nice restaurant. The irony is that we only do this with low cost items. For everything else we comparative shop and only allow a small markup. 

This is the new dilemma for those industries (especially food) where the DIY, grow it yourself market is booming. If what we produce or make and sell doesn't feel like there is enough "value" (or in the case of bananas and coffee, convenience) we will forever be chasing the lowest cost. 

As we create and think about our businesses, finding greater value and offers for the consumer allows for higher price point ratios between what they expect and what they will pay.

(For a further faith-based application of this post you can visit here)

The Alignment Day

Every business has a day of the week that is best for meetings, planning and setting up the days ahead.  Usually that is Monday, but not always.

I have been doing some consulting work with a company that executes their business primarily over the weekend and it's not until Tuesday when everyone can take a deep breath and get ready together for the coming week. 

Regardless of the day of the week, there is one that we should be gathering to look back to celebrate and adjust and then to forwardly align and go into operational mode.  This day is really the first day of the week as if it is done right, all will flow from there. 

If you haven't put that day in place yet, you are missing an opportunity to get the team all on one page and to ensure that everything is in place to get out there and win.

(For a further faith-based application of this post you can visit here)

Net Promoter Scores

As we think about what we should do with measuring our businesses, a simple and easy to implement process is to adopt the Net Promoter Score measurement.  It's actually very clear and boils down a bunch of complex ways of looking at the business to a 10 point scale answer to; "How likely is it that would recommend (the name of your company) to a friend or colleague?"

That then allows us to stratify the answers into three groups: promoters, passives and detractors.  Once you have that then to get to the "net" part of the responses you subtract he percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters and that gives you an NPS Score. 

If this is done consistently and often, we can measure where the company stands today and where it is going.  Why this is important is that we when we can boil it all down to one simple measurement, then it gives up the opportunity to change other things that we think can influence that consistent scoring.

Whether it is the NPS, or something else, getting to a baseline core measurement can yield positive results.

(For a further faith-based application of this post, you can visit here)

#AddaWordRuinAMovie The Meme

#AddaWordRuinAMovie may well be the funniest and best Meme I have ever seen on Twitter.  The Meme was created on Friday night and by the time I saw it on Saturday morning, it was blowing up.  Why?  The social media people in our marketing departments try so hard to come up with something that will go viral and catch the jet stream.  Millions of dollars are spent experimenting and trying to come up with something that catches on. And, then along comes something so simple that grabs a ton of attention.  Let's dissect why #AddaWordRuinAMovie has taken off.  First, without even thinking much about it the Meme title intrigues us and we want to know more.  Once we click on the Meme we realize that it's a simple and fun game that anyone can play.  We all know movies.  We all can be creative enough to add a word to a movie title, and we can laugh, and sometimes be amazed, at the creativity of someone else.  A simple and compelling game that we can play with others. That's what we should be thinking about it if we want to create something that gets our customers/consumers engaged with our product/service.

(For a further faith-based application of this post you can visit here)