The 8020Info Water Cooler

Highlights from the latest information
for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs

1. Seven WaysTo Frustrate Your Employees

You can learn from a bad boss. And Michael Hyatt, chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, has therefore been blessed since he has had more bad bosses than good bosses in his career. On his blog, he has some fun by offering ways to frustrate your employees, including these seven habits that you may want to avoid:

• Don’t be responsive: Let their emails languish in your inbox and don’t return voice mails in a timely fashion. Maybe they’ll solve the problem on their own or give up.
• Cancel meetings at the last minute: This works best if they have had to travel to the meeting, of course.
• Reprimand them in front of their peers: Public ridicule shows you have no confidence in them.
• Change your mind frequently: Get them excited about going in a new direction and then reverse course. Keep them guessing at all times.
• Don’t bother stating your expectations: Instead be vague, or silent, letting them wonder. “But then when it comes time for their annual review, hold them accountable to specific goals. This way, no matter what they have accomplished, you can make them feel like a failure,” he writes.
• Focus on superficial things rather than substance: Focus on how they dress or how much time they spend at their desk rather than what they accomplish.
• Assign them work, then micromanage the process: Second guess them, liberally. 

2. The Genius Of The Lone Genius

If an organization has a choice between having one genius innovator or a team of good innovators, most organizations would choose the team. But Alva Taylor, an associate professor of business administration, says on Tuck.Dartmouth.edu it’s better to go with the lone genius: Research has shown such a person can have 10 times the creative output of a team.

He warns that too often companies luck into finding a great innovator but then foolishly “force them to act like everyone else — to sit on teams or committees and have them work under the routines of the rest of the people in the organization. What they should be doing is giving this person all the resources they need and then getting out of his or her way.” 

3. Establish Ground Rules For Your Team

Before Alan Mulally took the helm at Ford, members of senior management often fought with one another and group dynamics were dysfunctional. In his book Once Upon A Car, journalist Bill Vlasic says Mulally established ground rules for the central Thursday morning meeting that included no encyclopaedic briefing books, no aides, no jokes about colleagues, and no side conversations — and he emphasized that facts, not opinions, would rule. 

If someone couldn’t comply with the new norms, Mulally told them bluntly, “You’ll just have to work somewhere else.”  He explained: “The important thing is that we are all accountable to each other. You are accountable to the team, and the rest of the team is here to help you.” 

Bryant Professor Michael Roberto, on his blog, says too many teams suffer because leaders don’t outline the ground rules and expectations explicitly: “Leaders need to be clear about the shared norms and ground rules which will govern behaviour.” 

4. Five Steps For Retention

Too often organizations lose focus after hiring an employee and then fail to bring the individual on board effectively. In Leadership Excellence, HR consultant Kathy Albarado suggests:

• Develop onboarding checklists: You should have checklists that the new hire and the manager complete together before the starting date at work. This indicates exactly where and when the employee should report to work, and what they will be doing the first few weeks. A buddy or mentor should be assigned.
• Identify management’s first-day responsibilities: The employee’s manager and your HR lead may share responsibilities for onboarding, and should know clearly their roles on the first day and how orientation will proceed. “Consider taking the entire team out to lunch on the new hire’s first day. It’s amazing how this one simple action can unite a team,” she writes.
• Identify first-week responsibilities: During the first week HR officials need to ensure all forms are completed and benefits registered. Managers should clarify concerns and address questions about job and performance expectations, and training opportunities.
• Seek integration during the first 30 to 90 days: The hiring manager needs to ensure that the orientation phase moves effectively into long-term assimilation. “Neglecting to monitor assimilation greatly increases the odds of losing the new employee,” she advises.
• Continue development beyond 90 days: After initial goals and expectations are met, managers must adjust with the employee to the longer-term needs of the organization. 

5. Zingers

• At the beginning of each day, Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer Co., maker of the celebrated Sam Adams brew, asks himself what are the three most important things he needs to get done. The day will be pock-marked with distractions, pressures and opportunities, but he still makes sure he has done those three things before the day is over. (Source: Entrepreneur.com)
• Bob Herbold, former chief operating officer at Microsoft, says a useful question to ask in a job interview is: When you were young, who was the person who was most influential in teaching you valuable lessons about life? Then probe about what those lessons were and how they guide the individual today. “The lessons you are looking for are basic principles that suggest a high degree of self-confidence, a sense of personal responsibility, a strong drive to achieve, and solid fundamental ethics. No hint of these kinds of traits should be a red flag,” he says. (Source: ThoughtLeadersLLC Blog)
• Early prototyping is increasingly hailed as a way to check out and build upon an idea, but research in the auto industry by Northwestern University Professor Paul Leonardi found that when people see a detailed prototype they narrowly concentrate on its form and function rather than the broader parameters of the idea, and so brainstorming ends rather than getting provoked.  (Source: Harvard Business Review)
• Dan Schneider, founder and CEO of SIB Development and Consulting in South Carolina, is offering a $50,000 bonus to any of his first-time employees who stay with the company for five years, hoping to counter the costs of losing and replacing employees. Stay 25 years, and the person gets $250,000. (Source: Money.cnn.com)
• Entrepreneur Seth Godin suggests you find a geek who understands basic tools like Outlook and Excel, and sit beside him or her for an hour and watch the individual work. Ask: “Tell me five ways I can save an hour a day.” Whatever you need to pay for this service, it will repay itself quickly. (Source: Seth’s Blog) 

6. Q&A with 8020Info:  Tightening Up On Wait Times

 Question: Can you suggest any tips for tightening up our processes to achieve faster communications/service turnaround and reduced backlogs?

 8020Info President and CEO Rob Wood responds:

 One approach might be to look at flow and productivity in your system.

• Capacity: If you have a steadily growing backlog of work, that may point to a capacity issue — you will have to reduce the scope of what you’re trying to do, increase productivity, or expand capacity so you can turn work around in a more timely manner.
• Backlogs:  Sometimes a backlog from the past is carried forward into the future and all the new work is continually delayed. But if you could keep up once you were caught up, consider a special one-time project to deal with the backlog.
• Duplication:  Identify areas where delays create duplicate work. An example of wait times in health care may illustrate: suppose your family doctor feels you can’t wait eight months to see a specialist, and therefore refers you to Emergency. There your assessment is repeated with a medical resident, and finally you get a faster-track referral. But the delay has created duplication of effort, wasted your time and delayed someone else waiting for care, and continuity is at risk as you are repeatedly flipped from one provider to another.
• Productivity Killers: Interruptions and breaks in workflow are known enemies of productivity.  For example, consider what happens when someone testifying in court needs an extra hour to answer all of counsel’s questions. Instead of sitting for an extra hour, the court puts the matter over for a few months. The witness has to make an extra trip, court staff get stuck with an extra round of scheduling duties, everyone involved has to spend more time refreshing on the case, and the continuity of the process is fractured.
• Bake In Flexibility:  Consider how you might build more flexibility into your system, either routinely scheduling extra time to handle whatever surprises might take longer than expected (like the court example) or perhaps designing a mix in your workload that allows you to put some things off while you keep the workflow moving.
• Be Disciplined:  No system works if you don’t follow it. This makes procrastination a target in the effort to achieve smooth workflow. It might also help to increase awareness of the downstream consequences of delays. 

We are all susceptible to the types of systemic inefficiencies mentioned in the examples above:  We have a meeting, but then wait a while before following up on the outcomes or action items. We do some research, but don’t write the report for some time – and then have to “get it all back in our heads” again. We may acknowledge an enquiry, but then put aside the issue instead of following up immediately and closing the file. But this six-point checklist may help you tighten up on workflow, productivity and customer service.

7. News From Our Water Cooler:  Performance with Caring

This week we were chatting about the wisdom in the adage: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

What makes us want to deal with someone time and time again?  What contributes to making a salesperson, fundraiser, employee or service provider stand out from the rest? A critical ingredient in their performance is “caring”. 

This can mean caring about the client and improving something in his or her life, caring about their values or cause, or caring enough as an employee to do a good job, helping the organization to achieve its goals. We all want to deal with someone who cares about what matters to us. And people who care tend to build good relationships that reap rewards.

Some may be reluctant to show they care, feeling it is unprofessional or just time consuming. Caring, though, translates into listening, acting on what we’ve heard to deliver services or products people want in the way they want. It may mean taking the time to ask about someone’s family, digging a little deeper to understand a problem, or (like a good fundraiser we know) taking along some homemade peanut brittle.  As humans, we can tell pretty quickly if someone we are dealing with cares.  It starts to build trust and sets the stage for good service, right off the bat.

Caring has to be authentic, though.  If you don’t – or can’t – care about your customers or what you’re doing, you probably need to reassess your work.  Both you and those around you will be more satisfied.

8. Closing Thought

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
 — Eleanor Roosevelt

The 8020Info Water Cooler

Highlights from the latest information
for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs

1. The Six Attitudes Leaders Take Towards Social Media

Leaders of organizations first saw social media as a threat. But now they are starting to see it as an opportunity, Anthony Bradley and Mark McDonald, of the Gartner technology research firm, observe on Harvard Business Review blogs. Here are the six different postures they have identified:

• Folly: Leaders in the organization consider social media as nothing more than a source of entertainment. Anyone trying to initiate a social media venture must therefore emphasize how it would directly impact organizational challenges and goals.
• Fearful: The leaders see social media as a threat to productivity and management authority. Any initiative must be low risk.
• Flippant: The leaders don’t ignore social media but also don’t take it seriously. They view it as a matter of technology, allowing access and hoping something fruitful might arise. Proponents must convince the leaders of the valuable purposes that social media can serve.
• Formulating: They recognize the value of social media and the need to be more organized and strategic in using it. The approach here is to build on that positive foundation, emphasizing the broader strategic possibilities.
• Forging: The organization is starting to develop competence in using social media to reach out to communities. To keep progressing, it must recognize past successes and capitalize on growing momentum.
• Fusing: Still rare, this is the most advanced attitude, with community collaboration viewed as an integral part of the organization’s work, ingrained in how people think and behave

2. Seven Strengths Shy People Have

Shyness is generally viewed as a weakness. But on the Life Optimizer blog, Dan Stelter, of the Anxiety Support Network, sets out seven strengths that shy people have — each drawn from what traditionally has been viewed as weaknesses:

• Cautious thinking: Yes, we live in an era when it’s vital to act quickly at times. But not always. When you encounter a difficult problem at work, a snap decision can thrust you headlong into trouble. Thinking things through beforehand can be a big plus.
• Meekness can make you approachable: Meekness can be a social strength, since people are comfortable approaching ordinary folks.
• Being quiet leads to a calming effect on others: Not saying a lot can calm the waters around you.
• Appearing vulnerable is great for certain jobs: For various human-service jobs such as counselling or therapy, appearing vulnerable encourages other people to open up to you more.
• Shy people appear to others to be innocent or good: People may respect and trust shy individuals more than their aggressive and dominant counterparts.
• Shy people tend to be more believable: Aggressive and outgoing folk can seem self-serving, while shy people, with their “good guy” persona, can be more believable and likeable.
• Being shy leads individuals to learn from an early age how to overcome barriers: “Once you learn how to overcome your shyness, every other barrier in life will be easy in comparison,” he concludes.

3. Are You Helping Clients Understand What They Need?

A year ago consultant Donald Cooper and his wife booked a cruise adventure to the Falkland Islands, traveling around the bottom of South America and up the coast ofChiletoValparaiso. He estimates that at least 70 per cent of the people on that trip should not have been sold the package.

In his newsletter, he describes elderly people with canes, walkers, wheelchairs and electric scooters on a choppy trip through one of the most feared bodies of water in the world. And without mention of the typical winds and temperature for their December trip, people lacked the long johns, down vests, toques and mitts to feel comfortable.

The lesson he shares: What information, coaching or help do your customers and clients need to effectively choose among and use the programs and products you offer? 

4. Cultivating Serendipity With Deep Dives

In his book Where Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson writes about the role of serendipity in innovation, and suggests we can cultivate it by deep dives in which we immerse ourselves in a topic in a condensed period of time. An example he cites is Bill Gates’ annual reading vacations when he would take a week off from Microsoft to go through reading material he had gathered throughout the year.

BryantUniversity’s Michael Roberto, referring to this approach on his blog, notes how Johnson stresses that compression of time is vital: If too much time lapses between reading these books, we are more likely to forget certain things and fail to see the potential for novel combinations of ideas.

So plan a deep dive this year into a topic of concern. 

5. Zingers

• Consultant Steve Roesler says you can be in charge, but you’re never in control. (Source: AllThingsWorkplace.com)
• The first 10 seconds of a visit to a web page are critical for users’ decision to stay or leave. The probability of leaving is very high during those initial few seconds because users are extremely skeptical. If the page survives this first, extremely harsh judgment, users will look around a bit. But they’re still highly likely to leave during the subsequent 20 seconds of their visit.  (Source: Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)
• When you’re hiring, look for talent hiding in plain view, suggests writer-manager Jeff Haden. Hire career switchers, like teachers, who can be excellent trainers and understand how to manage different personalities and motivate. Don’t reject someone just because they currently have a crappy job, assuming that’s all they can handle. They may have developed valuable talents, such as attention to detail, and a good work ethic.  (Source: CBS Moneywatch)
• Consultant Patricia Katz suggests turning your “To Do” list into an “I’m Looking Forward To” list. As you mark down the activities at hand, think of how you should be looking forward to them – sharing experiences, moving forward, making a contribution, and the like.  (Source: Pause Blog)
• Mike Myatt, chief strategy officer of N2 Growth, urges you to create a culture where meetings are the exception, not the rule. And keep in mind the purpose of a meeting is to create solutions, not problems, and to alleviate frustration, not cause it.  (Source: N2Growth Blog)

6. Q&A with 8020Info:  Better Employee Communications

Question:  How can I improve communication with our employees at little or no additional cost?

8020Info Senior Associate Consultant Karen Humphreys Blake responds:

Organizations that strategically maintain good communications with their employees stand to benefit from the enhanced engagement and improved performance that result.

Here are a few things you can do to improve how you handle this important management function:

• As a leader, set a strong example of good communication.  Pay attention to what and how you communicate with employees. Share your strategic vision, expectations and an open, honest assessment of the challenges the organization faces.  And take time to listen to what people say. Your managers and staff can then follow your lead.
• Never assume the job is done. One of the biggest mistakes a leader can make is assuming the message gets through on the first attempt. Communicate, communicate then communicate again.
• Recognize different learning styles. A combination of various approaches will ensure best results. Use the spoken word, print, charts and graphs and stories. Video is now an inexpensive technology accessible to all.
• Use clear, concise, simple language. Avoid insider jargon and vague terms or sentences. Run key messages through a readability measurement tool such as www.read-able.com. Check them with family members, friends or others outside your work environment to see if they could be misunderstood.
• Provide context up front. People need to know why they should read or listen. They need to understand complexity and nuance. Providing this background information up front will make them more receptive.
• Make managers accountable for good communication. Make your own special effort to communicate with your managers. And make them accountable for good, clear two-way communication with the staff in their areas, perhaps as part of your performance management process.

Good employee communication need not cost a lot.  Poor communication can cost a bundle! 

7. News From Our Water Cooler: Finding Motivation in January

In January, some offices find they lack energy coming off the holiday break. The first instinct for leaders when it comes to motivation – or more specifically, a lack of motivation – is to take action that stirs up the troops. But in fact, research suggests the role of leaders is to ensure there is a healthy environment in the workplace for people to motivate themselves.

Check your situation:  Has anything changed since before the holidays, and that you need to re-adjust? Have you talked to anybody about the lack of energy, and asked them what the reasons may be (or even whether your interpretation is correct). Did this happen last year? Is there something about your annual work cycle that makes it inevitable — for example does January tend to focus on planning instead of stimulating client interactions or sales successes? There’s danger in trying to artificially stoke up enthusiasm if logic suggests this isn’t the appropriate time.

Most leaders will want to try to spark enthusiasm:  Choose your approaches carefully, tailored to the situation. Maybe all you need is an informal Friday afternoon at the pub, or have the boss bring in some Timbits a few mornings. You might try a contest to bring in the most customers, if that fits, or have some fun coming up with the wackiest captions for a series of photos.

Just remember, motivation comes from within. You can help nourish it. You can eliminate barriers. But you can’t change the weather in January or make people feel motivated. 

8. Closing Thought

“If there are one hundred good things to do and you can only do ten of them, you will have to say no ninety times.”
— Richard Swenson

Highlights from the latest information
for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs

1. Isolation And The Information Worker

A study of 35,000 information workers in a variety of organizations found, not surprisingly, that they suffer from overload, miscommunication, and disorder, unable to find information when they need it. But Mike Song and Bill Kerwin, of Get Control.net, say they were surprised when their study found a fourth productivity pain point: Isolation. Information workers feel alone in facing these common productivity challenges; less than 20 per cent report receiving any coaching on how to manage email and meetings more productively.

 The consultants list these reasons for the isolation:

• No goals: Most organizations lack workflow goals to which their people can aspire. When somebody masters new software like Outlook or WebEx (becoming more productive compared to colleagues who don’t), it’s likely their organization doesn’t even have a name to describe the achievement and therefore doesn’t recognize it or motivate others to achieve the same proficiency. 
• No guidelines: Employees are handed their computers but never given any guidelines for using those tools productively. “Without standards for reducing overload, writing better messages, discovering key tech tips, and other useful knowledge, most professionals simply stumble along, missing huge opportunities to streamline their work flow,” the authors write. 
• No leaders: Without goals and guidelines, leaders struggle to convey productivity insights to staff, feeling unqualified or even uncertain it’s part of their duties.

It’s clearly an area that organizations must address so employees no longer feel they are floundering, alone, in a world of overload, miscommunication, and disorder.

2. The Need For Prototyping In The Social Sector

Prototyping is common in businesses these days, as entrepreneurial executives and designers come up with a “quick and dirty” model of some new product they are developing. But in Harvard Business Review, Sohrab Vossoughi, founder and president of Ziba Design, says it’s time for social services organizations to adopt the same development and testing approach. 

“Prototyping not only speeds up the design of solutions but helps you solicit valuable input and get buy-in from diverse constituencies. If a problem calls for a truly novel solution, it’s the best way to get the ball rolling,” he observes. 

But he points out that’s not how things work in the public sector, where government and agencies are geared for stability not change. The processes typically focus on thoroughness, fairness, and certainty. Something as simple as adding bike lanes in a neighbourhood can go through endless reviews before the first stripe is painted. “The process can take years and probably costs several times more than it would to just install the infrastructure and remove it if it didn’t work,” he declares. 

He argues we can’t afford that expenditure of time and resources. And we’re fooling ourselves by thinking it prevents risk; it’s actually riskier, because the certainty it seeks is an illusion. 

Prototyping — developing an idea to get a sense of reality — counters the tendency to resist innovation. So the social sector needs to learn from designers, making prototypes and testing them, internally first, and then with a small set of users, modifying as feedback is received.  

3. Act Like A Leader

Leaders have presence. They exude self-confidence, are self assured, command attention, communicate well, and make others feel good. To do that, it helps to learn some acting techniques, leadership development specialist Dan McCarthy writes on his Great Leadership blog. 

First, pay attention to your entrance. People form lasting impressions from how you enter a room, your physical characteristics, and your initial words.  

Actors learn to deliver their lines effectively. Like them, you must know your lines – in this case, the subject matter. You must also pay attention to volume, tone, speed, choice of words, and articulation as well as gestures, facial expressions, and movements. 

Actors connect with their audience, and you must invite them to participate, ask questions, listen, and make them feel good about their participation. Finally, re-emphasize your key messages, just before you exit stage left. 

4. Is Your Organization Pre-Digital?

A brief visit to the emergency room recently reminded entrepreneur Seth Godin of what a pre-digital organization is like. It was a 90-minute ordeal to see a doctor for 90 seconds, with six people doing bureaucratic tasks and screening that are artefacts of the paper universe instead of being plugged in electronically and knowing his medical history from a quick ID scan at the entrance. 

“School is pre-digital. Elections. Most of what you do in your job. Even shopping. The vestiges of a reliance on geography, lack of information, poor interpersonal connections and group connection (all hallmarks of the pre-digital age) are everywhere,” he writes on Seth’s Blog. 

The message he takes away: We are just at the beginning of the transformation of our lives.

5. Zingers 

• Marketing consultant Sally Hogshead says you should have a career goal that scares you. It should expose you to a real chance of failure, and be big and important enough to give purpose to your work. (SallyHogshead.com) 
• Early in her career, consultant Susan Finerty ran into a colleague who was constantly criticizing her to others.  She wrestled with whether to complain to her boss or confront the critic, but eventually decided the critic was somewhat right and Finerty needed a coach to build expertise. So she approached the critic to be her coach, channelling that woman’s energy into helping rather than criticizing. “I don’t remember anything that she coached me on.  But this lesson on disarming a critic will stick with me forever,” she says. (LeadershipMutt.com) 
• Web designer Ilya Pozin says if you want someone to do something on your web site, such as signing up for a newsletter, don’t confine yourself to putting up a box that says “enter email” or even “sign up for newsletter.” Tell people why they should do it – what’s in it for them.  (Source: Inc.com) 
• Facebook has been hailed as an excellent source for checking up on job candidates. But employee engagement coach Cindy Gordon asks us to question how useful it is: “Can we really believe that someone who likes to get drunk during university parties would make a poor hiring candidate?  Does the fact that a person has 1000 Facebook friends mean that they have people skills or relationship building skills?” (Source: Coachspotlight.com) 
• Take a 10-minute walk each day and say out loud what you are thankful for. It will set you up for a positive day, advises author Jon Gordon. (Source: Jon Gordon Blog)

6. Q&A with 8020Info:  Learning From Tales

 Question: What can I do to sharpen the stories in my communications content?

8020Info CEO Rob Wood responds:

We always recommend the use of compelling stories whether for important presentations, website content, e-newsletters, case studies, testimonials or other communications content. 

Here are some great tips from Veronica Maria Jarski, writing on the MarketingProfs Daily Fix last October. She sums them up in 5 Content Writing Lessons from Bone-Chilling Tales: 

• Use a character that inspires strong emotion. With Halloween tales, for example, how can one be indifferent to intriguing characters like Count Dracula or Dr. Frankenstein. But make sure the reader can identify with the organization or person you’re writing about and that they come across as a real person.  
• Write with rich detail. It’s not just a Snowman, it’s the Abominable Snowman; not just a Horseman but the Headless Horseman. Telling details and emotion-inspiring words make a story come to life. 
• Sentences do something. Use active sentences far more often than passive voice. In bone-chilling tales, hearts thump, witches fly and werewolves howl. 
• Wordplay underlines the story.  Rhyme and rhythm help make content stick in our minds. Remember the three witches incanting: “Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.” 
• The story takes you somewhere. A good writer carries you along on a journey. For more on that, see what we wrote about Nancy Duarte’s take on The Hero’s Journey (8020Info Water Cooler, Vol. 11 No. 14 – Oct. 10th). 
• A lesson is learned.  Whether a big lesson or small lesson, Jarski says, leave the reader with something to ponder. 

If you work hard to apply those tips (and it is hard work!), your content will have a much stronger effect as your stories intrigue, satisfy and stick with your audiences.

7. News From Our Water Cooler:  Match Behaviour to Prospects

This is the time of year when many of us come back from the holiday break ready to get focused, tune up the plan and do great things in the coming year.

You may be thinking about ways to boost program enrolment, increase sales, attract donations, or connect with and serve new audiences or stakeholders. Here’s a simple framework from The CEO Sales Solution newsletter that brings attention to the different types of prospects you may have — and the need to adjust prospecting behaviour accordingly: 

• Taking Orders:  This type of buyer knows they have a need or problem, they know you have a solution, and their pain is sufficient to spark prompt action: This is the “easy sale”. Be in the right place at the right time with a competitive offer. 
• Competing For The Deal:  This type of prospect knows they have a problem and that you have a solution to it, but the problem isn’t so bad they need to make an immediate decision. They’ll be shopping around and expect you to work for the deal. 
• Getting On The Radar:  Another type of potential prospect knows they have a problem, but have no idea you have a solution to their problem. In fact, you may have a far better (more effective/less expensive) option for them, and you need to bring it to their attention. 
• Reframing Opportunities:  Finally, there are those who don’t realize they actually have a problem, or are missing out on available opportunities — until you reframe the situation, helping them to understand it in a new light (what many call a “paradigm shift”). 

Depending on the competition, the first two types of prospects are the easiest to serve, but only one in 20 clients may fall in those categories. Succeeding with prospects in the last two categories require real expertise and skill, elevating a sales person to the role of trusted advisor.

8020Info helps teams develop, communicate and implement their communications, research and strategic plans more effectively. We would be pleased to discuss your needs and welcome enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com.

8. Closing Thought

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Highlights from the latest information
for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs

1. The Unplanning Approach

When we start a new business or social agency – or launch a new product or program – we are careful to take time to plan in detail. But consultants Ian Sanders and David Sloly argue that sometimes there is virtue in an unplanning approach.

They write on ChangeThis Manifestos:  “The problem with writing a fixed plan is that you can get stuck in amber. You get so bogged down with hypotheticals, financial modelling and revenue projections that your cool business idea gets stuck in a spreadsheet and the light never goes green. Instead of focusing on making your business idea happen, you end up suffering from analysis paralysis: The number one killer of all great business ideas.”

But we persist, believing a plan will guarantee success in executing even though, they note, you can’t predict how things will look in just five months time, let alone five years. Right now, organizations have to be agile to succeed, prepared to rethink and reinvent what they do and how they do it.

 So try their unplanning approach:

• Take action: Unplanning is about moving from a passive to active mindset. Get used to making quick decisions, focus on outcomes and get your product or service out there. Do something!
• Test it: Don’t test your idea on a spreadsheet; test it live in the marketplace. Launch a prototype, and learn from what transpires. 
• Be agile: Be open to change and flexible enough to grasp random opportunities that come your way.

2. The Emperor’s New Internet Clothes

Advertising guru Roy H. Wilson says he feels like the little boy in Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Emperor’s New Clothes when he discusses Internet darlings Facebook and Twitter.

He notes on his Monday Morning Memo that the first Internet buzzword was “eyeballs.” Any site that could generate a high number of unique visitors was considered overflowing with eyeballs and a success. “But eyeballs didn’t translate into dollars unless you delivered a message to the brain behind those eyeballs that was judged to be highly relevant and sufficiently credible,” he notes. 

Then came “going viral.” But that also faded away, as most companies didn’t have messages with the essential word-of-mouth triggers.

Now it’s Facebook and Twitter. “Facebook promises hyper-targeting but this has been the promise of every media since the invention of advertising. Newspapers have been divided into sections for nearly a century,” he says. Twitter is a quick way to blurt 140 characters to whomever will give you a moment’s attention, but for most companies it’s not highly effective.

He recalls a client who diverted some of his ad budget into a country club membership, on the premise he could sell product on the golf course. He didn’t, but had a good time golfing every Tuesday. 

“Make time for the things that give you pleasure. Facebook is a country club membership. If connecting on Facebook is your thing, go for it. But please, let’s not pretend it’s the highest and best investment of your time,” he concludes.

3. Take Time For A Talent Review

If you’re going to execute on your strategy, you need the right talent in the right places. So as you prepare for the New Year, organize a talent review.

Consultant Amy Wilson, on WilsonInsight.com, advises that the process starts with the leadership team discussing business initiatives critical to success in the coming year (or years).  Highlight important leadership roles and staffing vulnerabilities. 

With that backdrop, move on to assessing individuals. What are each individual’s strengths?  What are their interests? Are they a fit for a new initiative or better suited where they are?  Should they be groomed for a future opportunity?  “Over the course of the conversation, the leaders get on the same page with what matters to the business and what’s needed by the business,” she notes.

Expect disagreements, as team members may fear losing a protégé or compete for choice mentoring assignments. But transparent discussion makes execution of your strategy more likely. 

4. No Time For Marketing?

Marketing consultant Drew McLellan says in his Marketing Minute that a common theme in the conversations he has with business owners is that they don’t have the time to consistently market their business.

Too busy.

Too busy to send out a customer newsletter, attend an important trade show, or update their web site.

But when he asks if they have time to serve their clients, they say, “Of course. I have to stay in business.” Ditto, when he asks if they have time to send out bills.

So they find time to do what’s necessary, he points outs: “It’s that you don’t consider marketing a necessity to stay in business.  Now that’s a very different conversation.”

5. Zingers

• Business advisors Linda Hill and Kent Lineback ask: When is the last time you asked the group you manage and the individuals in it this simple question, “What can I do to help you be more effective?” (Source: Harvard Business Review Blogs)  
• Shakespeare wrote in Measure For Measure: “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” Enrique Salem, CEO of Symantec, uses that quote in his company’s advanced leadership class to send a message: “You’ve got to take some chances. You’ve got to take some risks, and sometimes things don’t work out, but you’ve got to go for it.” (Source: New York Times)  
• To stay calm under pressure, Susie Michelle, founder of Momscape.com, tries to imagine the problem facing her as a knot, with the knot clinching tighter if she panics and pulls frantically on the ends. Instead, she must adopt a singular focus, loosening one strand at a time. Another technique she recommends in such situations: Think of someone who is unflappable, and imagine what that person would do. (Source: Dumb Little Man)  
• Careers expert Andrea Levit warns against unnecessarily pointing out flaws in others. It’s not your responsibility to ensure perfect conduct by colleagues, so even if you normally pay obsessive attention to detail or feel morally outraged about an issue, let it go. Unless your action can prevent a grievous mistake it’s not worth the potential damage to your reputation. (Source: Lifehack.org)  
• The easiest way to describe your product or service is to outline how it’s different from the competition, entrepreneur Seth Godin says, and that’s the approach we typically take. But your prospects have another option besides choosing between you and your competitors: doing nothing. So don’t neglect to talk about why you made the product or service in the first place, and the benefits it offers. (Source: Seth’s Blog)  

6. Q&A with 8020Info:  HolidayReading 

Question: I’d like to curl up with an enjoyable book about business or organizations this holiday season. Anything to suggest?

8020Info Associate Harvey Schachter responds:

If it’s pure reading pleasure you want, I’d recommend the Walter Isaacson’s biography, Steve Jobs. It’s a doorstopper of a book, 571 pages before bibliographical notes and index, but I wasn’t impatient or bored at any point when I was reading it — the time flew away.

This is not a technology book; it’s an engrossing character study and portrait of a career. Jobs’s accomplishments are larger than life, but he was also a larger than life individual, who in anecdote after anecdote shared by the author shows how to be a leader and in anecdote after anecdote how not to be a leader. At times you want to throttle Jobs for his outrageous behaviour, notably his treatment of other human beings. But when you see the allegiance they had to him — even after being brutalized — and what they accomplished, it makes you pause. The book is easy to read, touches the emotions, and forces you to think throughout about leadership.

Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, also has many accomplishments to his credit, including (like Jobs) coming back to the helm when his company was floundering. His book, Onward, is also a pleasure to read, as he tells about the turnaround he led, explaining his vision and tactical execution of the strategy that evolved from his beliefs and the company’s situation.

Fables make for enjoyable holiday reading, and this year three caught my attention as being better than the norm: The Secret Letters Of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Toronto success coach Robin Sharma, which offers nine insightful letters on being a better human being at work and outside of work; Leadership Rules by consultant Chris Widener on how to become the leader you want to be by following the formula of a fictional football coach; and The Seed by Jon Gordon on finding purpose and happiness in life.

Finally, Drowning In Oil by Loren Steffy is an absorbing journalistic case study of the folly that led to the BP oil disaster.

Other books may provide more explicit lessons on how to run your organization better or improve your personal performance, but if you want some easier holiday reading with an organizational message, those should do the trick.

7. News From Our Water Cooler:  2011 Shout Out

It’s been a busy year jammed with fascinating projects, and we’d just like to say thanks to those special people, our clients, with whom we’ve had a chance to collaborate in 2011, helping them to achieve their strategy development, research/consultation and communications goals. Best wishes of the holiday season from all of our team to:

• Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation
• Chien Noir Bistro
• City of Kingston— Cultural Services
• Community Network of Specialized Care
• Downtown Kingston! BIA
• Frontenac Community Mental Health and Addiction Services
• Frontenac CFDC (Community Futures Development Corporation)
• Frontenac County
• Fairmount Home (FrontenacCounty)
• Frontenac Integrated Community Sustainability Plan
• K3C Community Counselling
• Kawartha Lakes CFDC (Community Futures Development Corporation)
• Kingston Economic Development Corporation (Convention Centre Feasibility Review)
• Kingston Frontenac Public Library
• KFL&A Public Health — Healthy Communities
• KingstonPolice
• Lafarge (Bath)
• Loyalist Township (Recreation Dept)
• Marine Museum of  the Great Lakes
• McMaster University Advancement
• Ontario College Advancement
• Ontario Diabetes Regional Coordination Centres
• Prince Edward County (Economic Development)
• Providence Care Inpatient Rehab
• QUASR (Queen’s University Administrative Systems Replacement) Project
• Queen’s Bachelor of Fine Arts Program
• Queen’s Department of Family Medicine (Primary Care Project)
• Queen’s Learning Commons
• Queen’s School of Religion
• Region9 Tourism Organization — The Great Waterway
• St. Lawrence Parks Commission
• Theatre Kingston
• Township of Laurentian Valley
• Township of Leeds and The Thousand Islands
• Township of South Frontenac
• University Hospitals Kingston Foundation

We look forward to working with you in 2012.

8. Closing Thought

“Wisdom is divided into two parts: (a) having a great deal to say, and (b) not saying it.”

— Anonymous

Highlights from the latest information
for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs

1. The Five Levels Of Interpersonal Communication

It’s easy in today’s digital world to become haphazard about the way we communicate. But each form of communication has advantages and disadvantages. On The 99 percent.com, entrepreneur Scott Belsky reviews five levels of interpersonal communication:

• Message Into The Ether: Snail mail and email are generally presented as opposites, but both are not conversational. Emails and letters are sent out, and then new messages are composed and returned. Because they each lump all the points under discussion rather than go point-counterpoint as in a discussion, a high level of misunderstanding can occur with them.
•  Back And Forth Messaging: Whether instant messaging or text, the next level of communication is conversational, but still conducted remotely. Misunderstandings are less likely because of the flow of points back and forth, but the bite-size messaging means it’s not well-suited to discussing complex matters.
• A Verbal Dialogue: Here inflection is added to the mix, allowing elements like frustration and stress to be picked up easier than in written communication. But verbal dialogues must be scheduled.
• In-Person Spontaneous Discussion: When something important comes up, you might decide to just drop by a colleague’s desk and start talking. Visually seeing each other improves the conversation, but if others are in the vicinity it can be less intimate and spontaneity isn’t everyone’s preference.
• In-Person Scheduled Discussion: This allows time to think about the issues, and take advantage of inflection, visual cues, and the comfort of privacy.

2. Encouraging Yourself

Leaders provide encouragement. And if you’re a leader, the first person you must encourage is yourself. Consultant John Maxwell tells how even President Abraham Lincoln needed affirmation, and in his pocket the day of his assassination was a laudatory newspaper clipping. (See column on Business.Inquirer.net.)

Maxwell offers four strategies for keeping in high spirits:

• Create Mementos: Find a tangible memento to represent the accomplishments that make you the proudest, be it framing written words of praise from your manager or an award you have won. Give yourself visual cues that will trigger recollections of success.
• Build A Support Team: Every relationship in life can lift us up or drag us down. Make sure the people in your inner circle believe the best of you and will cheer you on as you encounter challenges.
• Envision Future Rewards: Keeping future rewards at the front of your mind will provide encouragement. “If you’ve ever run a long-distance race, then you know the rush of energy that comes from seeing the finish line. Having the goal in sight gives you encouragement to finish the race,” he notes. “Spend time visualizing your arrival at the finish line.”
• Sow Encouragement Into Lives Around You: Encouragement is reciprocal. If you want encouragement from others, then be generous with it yourself. “I’m amazed at how eager people are to return the favour after I’ve provided them with inspiration. They line up to express their gratitude, and their kind words give me the strength to keep going,” he concludes.

3. In Praise Of Rolling Budgets

Forecasting the future can be difficult, particularly for new, entrepreneurial organizations. On American Express OPEN Forum, consultant Ken Kaufman says instead of a static, locked-down 12-month plan, you should consider adjusting your forecast every month based on what you have been learning from the market.

Perhaps the costs per lead in your original forecast have been validated, but your estimate of the percentage of leads who will turn into customers has been wrong. Use that new information to create a new budget looking out at the next 12 months, so you aren’t stuck with outdated assumptions and unfeasible outcomes for the rest of the original budget year.

He notes that another great feature of the rolling budget is that you always have twelve months forecasted. “When most companies use a static budget, the forward-looking nature of their predictions gets shorter as the year transpires. A calendar-year company, therefore, only has three months budgeted in October — not much of a forecast,” he stresses.

4. Making It Personal

On his blog, personal success guru Robin Sharma praises someone he calls a Merchant of Wow, a leader in a department store chain who every Sunday night personally calls customers who have given negative feedback.

“In a world filled with people who are bored and apathetic and looking for the latest way to escape the doldrums of their work, this leader cared. He understood that even one unhappy customer was one too many. And that feedback is how the best become better. So he made it personal,” Mr. Sharma declares.

5. Zingers

• We organize our schools around obedience, in the hope it will lead to self-control, notes entrepreneur Seth Godin. Similarly, we organize our companies around obedience, seeking self-control and success. But he questions whether obedience is the way to get to success: Compliant sergeants rarely become great generals. (Source: Seth’s Blog)
•  The word feedback has morphed into “Here’s what you need to correct” instead of “Here’s how I think we’re doing,” says consultant Steve Roesler. With the word feedback taking on negative connotations, drop it, and instead start holding ongoing “conversations,” which since we were kids have been held to discuss how things are going. (Source: All Things Workplace)
• Workers change the computer windows they are working in 37 times an hour, on average, according to the New York Times. Marketing executive David Lavenda suggests new collaboration tools are only making it worse and we need to focus more, integrating the productivity tools better with our work flow. (Source: FastCompany.com)
•  Uncertainty creates a void, and where there is a void negativity will creep in, says consultant Jon Gordon. Leaders must constantly fill the void with positive communications, getting on the phone and meeting with people personally to explain your vision. (Source: JonGordon.com)
• When asked what annoys them about PowerPoint presentations, 74% of respondents in a survey listed the fact the speaker read the slides to them; 52% picked full sentences used instead of bulletpoints, and 48% complained the text was too small to read. (Source: Dave Paradi’s PowerPoint Blog)

6. Q&A with 8020Info: Six Ways To Check Project Integration

Question:
How can we better integrate planning for multiple projects?

8020Info CEO Rob Wood responds:

We’ve been hearing a lot about this issue over the past few months – organizations can’t afford to duplicate effort, overburden limited internal resources with multiple demands, or have their own projects bumping into one another at an operational level. They want to coordinate areas of overlap in planning, operations and resources. Here are some perspectives or “lenses” you can use to identify your pressure points:

• Strategic Alignment: Do your various programs and projects fit within a coherent overall model or do they serve different masters, with conflicting strategic goals or priorities?
• Project Management: One project’s output may be another’s input. Look for dependencies: What must one project deliver before another can begin or finish? How will progress on one program depend on others meeting their milestones and deadlines?
• Sharing/Access to Resources: When do you both need access to the same resources? When could you share the workload or save time or money by a joint purchase?
• Keeping People in the Loop: Do those who manage your projects know how and when they should check in with each other? Time spent getting input from your colleagues early, as a project is being chartered or designed, will often save trouble later. Or it may be more important to check in at critical points during project implementation or when you need help with problem-solving. It’s usually important to “close the loop” by reporting back on how things turned out.
•  Reporting: Who needs to know what, and when? (A weather report is useless the day after. And remember audience-centred communications — what you want to tell them may not be what they want or need to hear from you.) What communications format will work best for the individuals involved: High-level or high-detail? Text or pictures or charts? Reports? Meetings? Email updates? A demonstration or on-site review?
• Managing Change: Most projects, almost by definition, involve change and its shadow — resistance to change. Your project may generate fear or concerns for others related to their sense of meaning, control, identity, belonging, competence, or status.

A thorough discussion of these points with your project leads will go a long way to help improve coordination and integration of your group of projects.

7. News From Our Water Cooler: “Impact Buyers”

Typically we let buzzwords sit awhile before using them, like a wine that must age before we know its real worth, but we’re finding it hard to resist the idea of “impact buyers”.

The term popped up in a recent conversation with Kingston’s innovative Cultural Services team, used to describe how arts and cultural programs create highly valued social impacts in the community.

Authors like Jason Saul in The End of Fundraising: Raise More Money by Selling Your Impact describe how impact buyers attach real economic value to social outcomes and act like consumers to purchase those social benefits — they could be funders, investors, corporate citizens, employees, partners, service providers or individuals who pay for some product, service or experience to support social outcomes.

The idea of an “impact buyer” also applies in many other contexts outside of the arts, and is a fresh way to look at the feature/benefit distinction. We buy fair trade coffee for the social impact on farmers. We make a hospital donation to support a healthier community. We pay to hear a great speaker to stimulate imagination and learning. We support recreation programs to make a difference for youth.

It’s always worth being reminded that we aren’t buying the ¼-inch drill bit (feature) — it’s the ¼-inch hole (benefit) we want. It may not be the product or service or funding/investment opportunity, but the social impact we seek.

8. Closing Thought

“Man is rated the highest animal, at least among all animals who returned the questionnaire.”

— Robert Brault

Highlights from the latest information
for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs

1. Sleep On Those Tough Decisions

Before making his decision to authorize the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, U.S. president Barrack Obama kept the military and his advisors waiting while he slept on his decision. On Harvard Business Review Blog Network, social psychologist Maarten Bos and Harvard professor Amy Cuddy say that was exactly the right course to take with a complex decision.

During periods when the mind is not consciously focused on an issue, as with sleep, it accurately weighs the pros and cons of relevant decision attributes. In one study about making car purchases, participants who made immediate decisions chose cars with many but unimportant attributes, whereas participants who were first given a task to distract them from the decision chose quality cars.

So when faced with a complex decision, take in all the information that you can, then go for a run, listen to some music, or sleep on it. Finally, since unconscious thought is not as precise as conscious thought, double-check the facts of the decision you now intend to take.

2. How To Manage Cash In A Small Organization

To stay alive, small companies must manage cash carefully. On The Grassy Road blog, serial entrepreneur Penny Herscher offers these four tips:

• Build your own model: A good finance team can construct many financial models but there is no substitute for thinking through the essential factors affecting your business yourself and formulating your own model. Ask yourself – and answer – tough questions like: What is the cost of every new employee? What is your true receivables collection time? What is the monthly productivity of each sales representative and how many months does it take from hiring to positive cash flow for each agent? What assumptions are you making about average sales price and average transaction size – are they realistic?
• Cap your own salary: In many young companies the largest expense is salaries. If you cap your own salary at below-market rates, it makes it difficult for others on your executive team to demand more. “It’s a delicate balance because your team needs to make enough to live and not worry about their families, but no more [than that], because in the end they’ll make more money from their options when you reach a successful liquidity event,” she writes.
• Hire a tight fist in finance: Since you can’t watch every transaction she recommends getting a “pernickety, detail-oriented, negotiating, thick-skinned finance lead at your side.”
• Test every decision: Before every decision, ask: What is the impact on cash flow? Growth takes risk, but you must be sensitive to the cash flow implications.

3. Tips For Choosing A Web Designer Vs. An Artist

Choosing the best designer to build or reshape your web site can be a challenge. But on InformationHighwayman.com, New Zealand web copywriter D. Bnonn Tennant offers this approach:

• Draw a vertical line down a piece of paper and write “Good” and “Bad” at the top of the columns.
• Go in turn to each designer’s site. Put a tick in the Good column every time you see a term that is meaningful to you, like “business objectives,” “return on investment,” “your revenue goals,” or “increase sales” as they discuss the services they can offer you.
• By contrast, put a cross in the Bad column every time you see a term like “beautiful,” “passion,” “branding,” “modern,” “clean” or other puff words that don’t convey a clear outcome or benefit to you.
• Hire the designer with the most ticks and least crosses.

“Designers who don’t understand that websites are business assets which must achieve specific business objectives, which in turn are tied to revenue goals… are not actually designers at all. They are artists. Giving them your money is not an investment in creating a business asset – it’s a divestment of capital that is never going to come back,” he declares.

In that vein, he urges you to beware of designers who use industry buzz-words and faddish terms that they may believe describe benefits, but which you can’t relate to any discernible value in meeting your actual needs and required results.

4. Getting Performance Reviews Right

The biggest mistake managers make on performance reviews is thinking the purpose is to find something wrong with an employee and then fix it, says Mike Carden, CEO of performance-management software company Sonar6.

In conversation with SmartBlogs.com, he says you want to take that approach only with your poorest performers, such as a salesperson reluctant to make calls. With star performers, work out ways to stretch them and leverage their talents.

He notes that whereas any sensible person would have focused on making the 12-year-old LeBron James into a superior basketball player, the typical people manager approach would have foolishly fixated on improving his swimming.

5. Zingers

• Do you feel you can improve your skills on something like leading a meeting, delegating, or listening? At the end of an interaction with someone, ask that individual how they rate you on that skill on a scale of 1 – 10. If they suggest something below 10, which is likely, ask what it would take you to improve to a 10? After you get specific ideas, try them. (Source: Great Leadership)
• Success through winning a lottery may be easy if your number is drawn, but your chances are uncertain. Medical school may offer a certain path to success, but it’s not easy. Entrepreneur Seth Godin says most people are searching for a path to success that is both easy and certain – but most paths are neither. (Source: Seth’s Blog)
• Everyone appreciates a thank you, but too often we’re too busy to remember to say those powerful two words. Consultant Jennifer Miller says you should make your thank yous unexpected, sincere, specific, and aimed directly to the heart of the individual you are thanking. (Source: The People Equation)
•  When Caryn Stern became president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, she asked her subordinates for a list of their best and brightest, without indicating how many should be on the list. After receiving those, she declared: “You’ve got one year. At the end of the year, either everyone working for you is on this list, or you’re telling me how you’re getting them there, or you’re getting rid of them. If we are going to attract the brightest and the best, then we’ve got to keep only the brightest and the best.” (Source: New York Times)
• Consultant Art Petty says too many leaders send their teams into battle on a daily basis armed with nothing more than a “go get ‘em” and a metaphorical slap on the back. Instead of cheerleading, consider motivating employees with clarity and context about the importance of their work and their impact on people. (Source: Leadership Caffeine)

6. Q&A with 8020Info:
Tackling Strategy for 2012

Question: We are planning a strategy session to prepare for the new year. Any suggestions?

8020Info Associate Harvey Schachter responds:

Here are five issues to consider:

• Do you really need to develop a new strategy? Strategies should not be redesigned annually, unless something significant has changed or the existing strategy is truly outdated. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t meet annually. But what you probably want is a session focused on implementation. If so, start with a review of how effective you have been in implementing your strategy recently, and what improvements can be made both in overall approach and specific ventures.
• If it’s a strategy session, don’t waste time drumming up revenue and profit targets. That’s not strategy, according to legendary strategist Richard Rumelt.
• If it is a strategy session, think about focus. In his bookBad Strategy, Good Strategy, Rumelt says the kernel of a strategy has three elements: A diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action. Too often, we bundle all the possibilities together into a large, complex strategy meant to appease all factions in the organization but one that is impossible to clarify for staff. He notes that when Steve Jobs returned to a nearly-bankrupt Apple in 1997, he dramatically simplified and narrowed scope, tackling the fundamental problems with a focused and co-ordinated set of actions. “A good strategy doesn’t just draw on existing strength; it creates strength through the coherence of its design,” he writes.
• Usually we’re told strategy is about choice. And in the need for focus, strategy is about choice. In The Opposable Mind, however, Rotman School of Management Dean Roger Martin showed how many of the best strategies were devised by leaders who were faced with a choice between two less-than-perfect options and instead found a way to combine them into a more effective, alternative path.
• Luxury hotelier Isadore Sharp, for example, refused to accept that only two types of lodging could be built: small motels with intimacy and comfort, or large hotels with excellent location and amenities. Instead, he decided to create hotels with the intimacy of his original small motor hotel and the amenities of a large convention hotel. A. G. Lafley, when he took the helm at Procter & Gamble, refused to pick between low pricing or intensive innovation investment, embracing both.
• On a more prosaic note, if it’s a day-long strategy (or implementation planning) session, make sure you take some time for fresh air, whatever the weather. It stimulates the kind of sharp thinking you will need.

7. News From Our Water Cooler:
A Poem For Halloween

Halloween is upon us, a big night for the kids. But Halloween is a big season for business as well, the second biggest holiday in spending, which led entrepreneur Rhonda Abrams to compose a poem on her PlanningShop.com site, borrowing in tempo and style from A Visit from St. Nicholas. Here are some excerpts:

Merchants and restaurants
And businesses galore
Have found ways to use Halloween 
To sell even more

“It’s a holiday for kids,” 
I hear you say. 
Yeah, just visit a bank
On Halloween Day

All the tellers wear costumes
Some even quite funny
And these are the people 
Who’ve got all your money….

Use Halloween to let clients
Know of them you’ve been thinking
So they’ll remember your name
Through all their December drinking

Run a Halloween special
Offer good things to eat
Be creative, be clever
Find a trick, find a treat

So plan a promotion 
With a Halloween tie-in
One that will get 
All your customers buyin’

As I close out this poem
Only one thing’s to write: 
“Happy Halloween to all
And to all a good fright.”

8. Closing Thought                                                                 Top

“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”

   – A. A. Milne

Highlights from the latest information
for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs

1. Rules To Avoid Being An Idiot

The only thing worse than dealing with an idiot in the workplace is finding out that you are the idiot in the workplace, argues software developer Eric Krock. On his Agile Product And Project Management Blog, he notes that an idiot is a person who is very poor at logical reasoning, has low odds of reaching valid conclusions as a result, yet still has extremely high confidence in their conclusions. “Fortunately, this means that idiocy is both a preventable and a curable problem,” he observes. To do that, he suggests:

• Find out how many people disagree with you and how many people agree with you: The higher the ratio of people who disagree to people who agree, the more careful you must be.

• Find out why those people disagree with you: That might reveal a fact, worthwhile assumption, or viewpoint you don’t already know.

• Test your opinions against the facts: “Facts are inconvenient. They get in the way of absolutely perfect opinions. See what conclusions you can draw from your opinions and see how well those conclusions stack up against reality. If your opinions conflict with the facts, it’s not the facts you should be changing!” he says.

• Test your opinions against each other: Look for internal contradictions between your opinions, and try to resolve those.

• Test your predictions against the future: Make concrete, quantitative predictions about what you expect to happen within a specific time frame — and later review how accurate you were. This will remind you to be open to the possibility of being wrong.

2. What Is Your Brand Against?

Companies know that to be successful their brands have to stand for something. To do that, advertising agency head Scott Goodson suggests telling the world what you stand against.

His agency recently tried that for smart car, a brand that stands for efficiency, economy, and a reduced environmental footprint — all good things, but also dull and predictable.

“By defining instead what smart is against — over-consumption, excess, thoughtless behaviour — we began to craft a statement with more of an edge. As we boiled down the idea some more, what emerged was a simple yet powerful declaration of principle, stating that we are ‘against dumb,’ he writes on Harvard Business Review Blogs.

Through media attention and giving customers something to rail against — everything from gas-guzzlers to oversized lattes — the campaign created a vocal community of smart car advocates, and the brand more than quadrupled its audience.

3. The Top Six Office Distractions

Getting work done in the office can often be difficult, because of the distractions. Here’s a list of some obvious and not-so-obvious factors affecting your work, from Inc.com’s Matt Rist:

• Sound design: Even low-level noise in open-style offices can create stress and reduce task motivation, a Cornell University study found. So think about where you will place higher-decibel employees, as well as loud appliances like copy machines.

• Room Temperature: A Cornell University study found that when temperatures were increased from 20 degrees to 25 degrees, errors fell by 44 per cent and typing output increased 150 per cent. At the same time, another study warned about temperatures being too high, suggesting performance dropped at more than 24 degrees.

• Tech intrusion: A huge number of work interruptions, of course, come from the Internet.

• Social butterflies: Forty-three per cent of work interruptions come from phone calls, talking with co-workers, and impromptu meetings.

• Sitting pretty: Chairs that are not adjustable and desks that are too small can distract by the soreness and strain they create. One study found that individuals who received office ergonomic training and sat in a highly adjustable chair increased average productivity by 17.8 per cent after a year.

• Space matters: Low ceilings encourage analytical thinking, while high ceilings can encourage abstract thought and creativity. Red walls can stifle creativity, but stimulate inside-the-box thinking for tasks that call for small details and accuracy. So the space around us matters.

4. Do You Under-explain?

Almost daily, it seems, we are reminded how important it is to produce spare communications that are as short and to-the-point as possible. But there are times when that advice can lead us astray. Writing on www.ragan.com, Denise Graveline notes three situations when less is not more:

• Your explanation isn’t long enough to be clear: Some detail is needed if you want your audience to follow a complex or technical topic.

• You’re not keeping up your end of the conversation: Answering questions with a simple, terse “yes” or “no” doesn’t help you shape or enhance the flow of a conversation.

• You’re less convincing than you want to be: A curt, data-free statement may not be enough to persuade an audience. “Make your statement, offer some data, then bridge to an anecdotal example,” she suggests.

Whether you’re handling a media interview, explaining a change project to your staff or helping a team understand your vision, these tips can help you achieve the right balance between “not too much, not too little”.

5. Zingers

• When you try to be everyone’s friend and avoid giving tough constructive feedback, you are shirking your responsibility, says consultant Mark Murphy: “Leaders aren’t just allowed to give feedback; they’re obligated to give feedback. And more than that, they’re obligated to own that feedback. Leaders are coaches with a fresh perspective; it’s their job to shed light on issues that employees may have missed.” (Source: Leadership IQ)

• Our mothers taught us to never trust strangers, but we have to stretch our trust limits in an open-source knowledge-based economy, argues Andreas Souvaliotis, president of Air Miles for Social Change. (Source: The Huffington Post)

• Michael Mercer, author of Job Hunting Made Easy, suggests using this question next time you are interviewing candidates: “When you finish your work, what do you like to do?” The question is vague, not indicating whether you are looking for an answer about work — for instance, taking on more after finishing a task — or personal activities. The answer might be revealing. (Source: Business News Daily)

• He who needs the other person the least is in control of negotiations. So Thomas Nelson Chairman Michael Hyatt warns you not to fall in love with something you want to acquire, don’t get too eager in the negotiations, and always give yourself other options. (Source: MichaelHyatt.com)

• Place an index card on your desk as a reminder to turn your cell phone ringer back on after a meeting. Put a post-it note on your steering wheel asking if you have the material for the presentation with you. In the same fashion as you tie a string around your finger, consultant Wally Bock urges you to use physical reminders with index cards and post-it notes. (Source: Three Star Leadership Blog)

6. Q&A with 8020Info:
Compelling Story Structure

---

Question: What’s the story model called “The Hero’s Journey”?

8020Info President and CEO Rob Wood responds:

The Hero’s Journey is a classic story model drawn from the academic studies of Joseph Campbell and the psychology of Carl Jung. Whether you’re writing the script for Star Wars, telling the story of your business or making a pitch for a donation, your narrative can benefit from this 12-step structure. They are:

• Ordinary world
• Call to adventure
• Resistance: refusal of the call
• Meeting the mentor
• Committing to change: choosing to cross the threshold into a special world
• Experimenting with change and facing tests/discerning allies and enemies
• Preparing for a big change (approaching the “innermost cave”)
• Ordeal: a major confrontation that doesn’t work out as planned
• Gaining benefit/reward, improvement or learning from setbacks
• Pursuing the road back/rededication to the change
• The final attempt at the greatest challenge
• Mastery (“returning with the treasure”)

This structure can be used to emphasize both an inner journey and outer journey. The important thing for presentations, as Nancy Duarte points out in her terrific book resonate, is to remember that the audience (not you, the presenter) should be identified with the role of hero.

Your story needn’t be as long as a novel or screenplay. You can quickly present a threat or challenge to your audience’s ordinary world, set out a call to action, respond to their resistance to change, and offer mentorship to help them find a path forward. Your story gains dramatic force and interest as you describe the ups and downs of a past or future journey, the lessons learned, the reasons why the hero does not give up, and final triumph of the reward — what Duarte calls “new bliss”.

It’s a powerful structure, proven through centuries of story-telling. Try using it as a checklist to assess the stories you wish to tell.

An interesting, more detailed explanation is available at: www.thewritersjourney.com/hero’s_journey.htm

7. News From Our Water Cooler:
Lessons From A Trip

As we learned in a recent email, Ottawa marketing sales consultant Colleen Francis and her husband got on their motorcycles this summer and travelled to Prince Edward County and Kingston, coming back with a business lesson about the impact of personal connections:

• On their stop in Kingston, they appreciated reconnecting with Royal Military College, where Colleen’s husband had studied, and once again enjoying the city’s wonderful waterfront. It’s easy to lose track of important connections over time, even when you value you them highly.

• Connections can also have an impact on purchasing behaviours: When you get to know the people behind a brand, those personal connections lead to more spending, as happened when they met the owners of County wineries.

8. Closing Thought                                                                 Top

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”
– William Penn

Highlights from the latest information
for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs

1. Seven Biggest Financial Mistakes Companies Make

Brian Hamilton has started two companies, and through that process has seen how companies flop. On Inc.com, he shares seven mistakes to avoid:

• Hiring in advance of revenue: Many times in business you receive contracts or the promise of revenue. But there is a major difference between having revenue and almost having it, so don’t count your money until it’s in the bank.

• Borrowing money when you don’t really need it but the bank is willing to lend it: The bank is in business to collect interest, not to optimize your financial performance.

• Not paying payroll taxes on time: Mingling the funds you collect for the government with your own firm’s resources only gives an inflated sense of your true cash balance and inevitably at some point needless anxiety.

• Pricing too low: Unless you’re Walmart it’s almost always better to sell fewer units at higher prices than to sell more units at lower prices.

• Permitting accounts receivable: When you offer credit, you become a bank as well as a service or product provider, a situation with attendant risks. Unless there is good reason, don’t offer credit to customers.

• Counting on one source of revenue: You don’t want a majority or all of your revenue coming from only one or two sources, so if that happens build alternatives.

• Hiring too much overhead: Be wary of hiring people who don’t sell or produce anything directly.

2. Four Pricing Strategies to Consider

Setting prices can often be a nerve-wracking experience for small organizations. On RainToday.com, marketer Eric Rudolf offers four strategies to consider:

• Set your prices relative to value or quality: Determine your price according to how you want to signal quality or value relative to the competition. If you want to indicate higher value, set a higher price. This works when there is a real difference in value or perceived distinction between competitive services.
• Set your price based on relative features and benefits: Take your competitors’ prices as a baseline, and then raise or lower your price based on the presence or absence of specific features and benefits. The method is intuitive, and mirrors the decision-making process by which most customers evaluate offerings.
• Set your price to compensate for discounts to or by resellers: When your product is generally not sold directly to consumers, you may set your list price higher than you would normally if you know resellers will demand heavy discounts from you, and perhaps sell your offering at a discount as well. It allows you to maintain a certain margin on sales, while still giving resellers a standard percentage discount and some room for them to sell at a discount.
• Set your price based on convenience: If your product is more convenient to buy, easier to use, or has a better level of service than comparative offerings, charge more than everyone else. Convenience counts, after all.

3. Make Sure Your New Person Doesn’t Quit

Workplace consultant Andrea Levitt believes it’s a little insane how much time and effort we spend recruiting new people only to blow it with them as soon as they step in the door for their first day at work. On her Water Cooler Wisdom Newsletter she offers this advice:

• Don’t have the new employee start on a week when her direct manager is either out of town or busy with a project deadline. “This will give the new employee a feeling of being disconnected,” she notes.

• Plan to introduce the new person to contacts strategically in the first few days. You want to link her to people who are friendly and positive about the organization, and save her from the cynics.

• Don’t keep the new employee waiting on the first day. It signals how little regard you hold for the individual if she has to spend the first half hour in the lobby with the reception staff, like a piece of furniture.

4. The Fire Hall Approach to Disruptions

Imagine you’re a firefighter, handling your cleaning duties or training at the fire hall, when the bell starts ringing. Everything is overturned, and you respond immediately, without a second thought.

Productivity expert David Allen points to that scenario and asks why you expect your office to be any different from a fire hall. Firefighters expect interruptions and prepare for them, and so should you. “Your ability to deal with surprise, elegantly and proactively, is your personal and organizational competitive edge,” he writes in his Productive Living Newsletter.

5. Zingers

• Need to set some priorities for today? Answer the following question: What would I work on if I only had two hours for work today?” (Source: The Positivity Blog)

• Here are three reasons to enjoy failure: You’re closer to your destination; failure means you’re trying; failure can be a wonderful grounding experience. (Source: Winning At Work newsletter)

• The hardest workers in your organization may not be the top performers. Often the hardest working performers are in the middle group of an organization, wedged between the top performers and the poor performers. That may include people who just started or those having a challenge finding the daily habits for success. These people want to achieve, and are encouraged by recognition — it doesn’t have to be extravagant, even just a handwritten note to sustain their efforts to attain success. (Source: The Fortune Group)

• When dealing with customers, you want to be a trusted advisor. And customer service consultant Jeff Mowatt says it comes down to six words, the same six words you would expect if you asked for advice from a close friend who had travelled in a country you want to visit: “Knowing you, here’s what I suggest…” You need to develop that same level of knowledge and trusting, personally relevant relationships with your customers. (Source: Influence With Ease Newsletter)

• The first sign a project is in trouble, says entrepreneur Seth Godin, is when your subconscious starts poking around for excuses. Indeed, sometimes we are so eager to grasp on to excuses that we start developing them even before the project begins! Instead of seeking excuses, he suggests we need to be obsessed with avoiding them. (Source: Seth’s Blog)

6. Q&A with 8020Info:
Starting a Book Discussion Group

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Question: I have been talking with a few friends about starting a monthly business book club. Any suggestions?

8020Info Associate Harvey Schachter replies:

You can probably save yourself some grief by clarifying your intentions. Is it to get each of you reading 12 books a year, or is it to probe and discuss ideas?

Book clubs vary widely. In some cases, one person might take on the reading for the month, and then start the session by giving a solid summary, which leads to discussion. In other clubs, the most common form, everybody reads the same book, which allows for a rich discussion as everybody shares their own interpretations.

The latter approach worked well for a group I belonged to, albeit not on business books, since it was always fascinating to see what aspects of the book struck each of us and how we could come to such different conclusions from the same words. That group eventually decided, however, it really preferred discussion to the reading (and some members were finding the reading burden heavy), so now we discuss interesting articles on a theme, or videos, or a single chapter from a book. It’s a discussion group now, rather than a book group, and is another model that might be worth considering.

So spend some time probing your intentions, concerns, and ability to commit time to this venture.

As for book selections to take on, I’d suggest keeping it varied. Books vary not just by subject area (leadership, marketing, or strategy) but by style. You may want to mix those up — for example:

• a personal biography
• an academic study
• a how-to book
• something written in the style of Malcolm Gladwell, with gripping storytelling
• a journalistic account of a company’s rise or fall
• an account of a consultant’s work or research.

Increasingly, I find people I respect saying they learn about leadership better from reading standard biographies — not necessarily business biographies — and so you may want to consider choosing from a broad base of books.

Recent books of interest might be The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer; Designing For Growth by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie; Drinking From The Fire Hose by Christopher Frank and Paul Magnone; A First-Rate Madness by Nassir Ghaemi; Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki; or Have A Nice Conflict by Tim Scudder, Michael Patterson and Kent Mitchell. Steven Covey’s new book, The 3rd Alternative, will hit the shelves in early October, and has an interesting approach to dealing with differences between people.

For some older books, you might look to 10 classic book reviews I recently compiled for The Globe and Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/management-advice/top-10-management-book-reviews/article2148655/.

Good luck!

7. News From Our Water Cooler:
Twitter Town Halls

Recently we’ve been working with Kingston Police on a series of public consultations to inform development of their next three-year business plan. They demonstrated a textbook case on how to turn public sessions into simultaneous Twitter town hall events, tweeting questions and discussion highlights while feeding back online commentary as we facilitated the live session.

It was impressive how their tweets prompted an active social networking conversation on how to improve police services and make the community safer — more than 150 tweets and responses over a couple hours, with input from across the community as well as senior police officers in Toronto, community capacity-builders in Seattle and followers in England intrigued by the dialogue.

So the conversation took place both on-site and online at the same time. And some of those tweeting one night also found themselves persuaded to come out to a live event a couple nights later — the conversation crossed time and channels. We understand the local college may make it a case study for their Integrated Marketing Communications students.

Kudos to the planning team at Kingston Police for the way they leveraged their social media initiative: it delivered exactly the kind of public and social networking engagement that makes a difference when it comes to effective dialogue and collaborative planning with the community.

8020Info helps teams develop, communicate and implement their marketing communications, research and strategic plans more effectively. We would be pleased to discuss your needs and welcome enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com

8. Closing Thought                                                                 Top

“To see what is in front of one’s nose requires a constant struggle.”

– George Orwell

Highlights from the latest information
for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs

1. How To Hire Creatively

Creativity and innovation are the lifeblood of organizations, but how do you make sure the people you select for your team are creative? On Inc.com Tim Donnelly canvassed some knowledgeable leaders, who share these tips:

• Look for people rooted in strategy: Nate Morley, vice-president of global marketing and creative for Skullcandy audio products, says search for people who see the big picture and have a zest for playing with broad ideas.

• Give homework: Scott McDowell, senior consultant of CHM management consulting, suggests offering the candidate a scenario to grapple with that requires the individual to display technical skills, creative thinking, and communication ability in responding to it.

• Treat the hiring differently: Ashley Haber, co-founder and creative director of SpiritHoods head gear, says you should junk the criteria for normal hiring and focus on someone who is passionate, honest, and in touch on a personal level with your industry and the world of style, art and fashion.

• Ask what they’re reading: Bill Winchester, executive vice-president and chief creative officer with branding experts Lindsay, Stone & Briggs, notes that creativity results from taking two unrelated things and making something new, so check out how eclectic the candidates are by inquiring about their reading habits.

• Throw in a wildcard: Shaun Neff, founder of Neff Headwear, suggests throwing out a random idea in the interview process and seeing how they play with it, such as: if you had a blank canvas and a giant paintbrush that was triggered off your thoughts, what would the painting be?

2. Why Your Marketing Lacks Credibility?

Marketing director Eric Rudolf despairs at much of the marketing material he sees these days, and feels it’s generally being ignored. That could apply to your own organization’s marketing, if you fall prey to these missteps he sets out on RainToday.com:

• You don’t write the way people talk: You use business buzzwords like “engage,” “empower,” and impactful,” which to many people are vague or meaningless.

• You recycle the same old tag lines: He worked with a software company that adopted the tagline “Raising The Bar” and stuck with it as far more prominent organizations adapted the same idea in their slogan. If your tagline is not fresh and not limited in usage to your company, junk it.

• You claim to solve problems that don’t exist: The problem you offer to solve for buyers should be an actual one, a pain point they understand or would recognize when it is explained.

• You can’t resist telling people how great you are: Don’t drown the prospect or customer in a long list of reasons you’re wonderful. They’ll lose interest.

• You never update your statistics: Your brochures and web sites are jammed with obviously outdated statistics.

• You exaggerate to the point of being ridiculous: Very few products and services offer an all-encompassing solution for customer problems, so don’t pretend. Keep your marketing communications clear and credible, without stretching the truth.

3. Two Secrets To Keeping Your Employees Engaged

“Engaged employees stay for what they give; disengaged employees stay for what they get.”

That’s the advice from leadership development firm BlessingWhite, in its Employee Engagement Report 2011.

On Small Business Trends, consultant Rieva Lesonsky says that while managers and business owners think the pay or benefits are the top reasons employees consider career change, the BlessingWhite study shows that overall career development is the top reason for employees of all ages. So if you want people to stay and be engaged in your company, they must have a chance to contribute and advance.

People who stay at a firm primarily for the money, on the other hand, tend to be disengaged, the survey found. They are staying for what they can get, not what they can give.

4. Instead Of Business Cards, Link In

Next time you are attending an event where you expect to be networking, sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer suggests you don’t bring any business cards.

That seems almost as dumb as suggesting you show up without any clothes. But on Gitomer.com he says exchanging business cards doesn’t really make much of a connection. Instead of that ritual, suggest that your new contact link up with you — immediately — on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. Pull out your electronic gear, and make a permanent, online connection.

“Think about the pile of business cards on your desk, of people that you’ve never really connected with, and certainly have never provided value for. Then think about the number of people you could be adding to your network; people who could really be enlightened by you and discover your depth,” he writes.

5. Zingers

• The Nike slogan “Just Do It!” has been adopted as a creed by aggressive leaders. But in a choppy economy and complicated era, consultant Sam Geist says a more realistic operating motto for your organization might be, “Just Start It!” That makes getting going on new initiatives less daunting. (Source: Quick Bites Newsletter)

• Don’t enter negotiations unless you are absolutely clear on your desired outcomes and know they have been thoroughly vetted and supported by the required people, advises negotiations expert Neil Patton. Outcomes should be changed during a negotiation only if a material and significant shift in the negotiation itself occurs. (Source: Pre-Think Inc. Newsletter)

• Pastor and leadership writer Ron Edmondson says a key attribute of a wise leader is timing. The leader uses sound judgment and is patient, knowing there is a right time to act and a time to wait. (Source: Ron Edmondson.com)

• Apple lays out its steps of service in the acronym APPLE, and you might find it helpful for your own organization: “Approach customers with a personalized warm welcome, Probe politely to understand all the customer’s needs, Present a solution for the customer to take home today, Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns, and End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.” (Source: Wall Street Journal)

• If you have a long article for your web site, Internet usability guru Jakob Nielsen says it’s almost never good to chop it up into a sequence of several pages. Stick it on a single page and rely on scrolling instead of page turning to keep readers going. (Source: Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)

6. Q&A with 8020Info:
7 Key Dimensions of Customer Service

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Question: What aspects of customer service do customers or clients value most?

8020Info President and CEO Rob Wood responds:

Here’s are seven top customer service values that we identified in the literature a few years ago when we were working with Oxford County on one of their customer service initiatives. Many other clients since then have found it to be a helpful checklist to ensure they’re meeting their customers’ most important expectations.

• Responsiveness: How promptly do you respond to a request for service, whether it’s returning a phone call, sending information, or actually performing a service.

• Reliability: Can customers rely on you to do what you promise to do?

• Customer Care: Are your interactions with customers helpful, friendly, courteous and professional?

• Communications: Do you provide information and answer questions in language that is clear? Are staff are easy to understand, and is it easy to find out how to get your product or service?

• Access to services: Are you are conveniently located (physically or online)? Do you offer adequate parking and waiting areas? Are you easy to reach by phone, physically accessible and have signs that are easy to understand?

• Cost-effective/Time-efficient: Do your service interactions give good value for time and money spent by your customers?

• Fair Policies: Are your policies applied in a way that’s clearly fair and consistent for all (i.e. the same rules for anyone in similar circumstances)?

7. News From Our Water Cooler:
Suffer from Decision Fatigue?

Clients and followers on Twitter @8020Info  have been intrigued by some ideas we recently passed along about a new concept called decision fatigue.

As John Tierney wrote Aug. 17th in the New York Times, “decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy.”

Once you’re mentally depleted, you become reluctant to work through the various taxing trade-offs that must be considered in decision making.

Tierney explains that the more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts by either choosing the default option (doing nothing) or by acting impulsively rather than thinking through the consequences.

Similarly, exerting self-control in the face of temptation also leads to “ego depletion”, the term that describes this phenomenon, which was coined by social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister. People with the best self-control structure their lives so as to conserve willpower and avoid decision fatigue. Whether avoiding endless back-to-back meetings or the temptations of all-you-can-eat buffets, they establish habits that eliminate the mental effort of making choices.

It seems we make better-considered decisions early in the day and when we’re well rested. Glucose also appears to help replenish our brain when it suffers from decision fatigue. But for more, see Tierney’s excellent story in the New York Times Magazine.

Thanks for the encouragement:

“This newsletter (#175) was excellent, excellent, excellent. A job very well done. As usual I will be passing it along to my managers. Thanks.”

That was one of the encouraging comments received from readers after our last edition. While we always try to do our best on each 8020Info Water Cooler, it’s great to get feedback on how our newsletter is working for you. Recently we heard from our friends at the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Kingston Day Care among others. We’ve also been encouraged by new subscriber requests from organizations as diverse as the Government of Alberta and United Way of KFL&A. Thanks for spurring us on!

8020Info helps teams develop, communicate and implement their marketing communications, research and strategic plans more effectively. We would be pleased to discuss your needs and welcome enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com

8. Closing Thought                                                                 Top

“Instructions for making a speech: Be sincere; be brief; be seated.”

– Franklin D. Roosevelt

Highlights from the latest information
for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs

1. Lessons Learned As An Entrepreneur

Twenty-five years ago, Rhonda Abrams said goodbye to her last boss, and launched a small business. Since then, she has owned four businesses, going through booms and busts, and has distilled what she has learned into these lessons for USA Today:

• Embrace change and be flexible: Successful entrepreneurs understand that change is going to come whether they want it or not. So don’t create a static business plan. Build change into that plan — and, more importantly, into your outlook. Prepare to re-invent yourself, while understanding your core competency.

• Be positive: Your attitude affects your ability to respond to opportunities and challenges. It also affects your employees. So even when times are tough — especially when times are tough — always look for ways to make the best of it.

• Treat your employees well: “Your employees are your company, especially in a small business,” she declares. “Hire well and then pay them fairly; give them respect and authority.”

• Reduce dependency: Don’t be overly dependent on one customer, product, or channel for selling. In 2007, her primary distributor went bankrupt; fortunately a few years earlier she had become paranoid about having so much income dependent on that one channel and had started to diversify.

• Talk to your vendors: Your vendors can be partners in your growth, offering better terms and prices, and helping to develop new products. But that will only happen if they see you as working with them. Share your business plans.

2. How To Fascinate?

Marketing consultant Sally Hogshead says some of the top companies she has worked with like Target, Aflac insurance, and Capital One bank don’t try to sell or market. Instead, they fascinate. “In a competitive environment, the most fascinating option always wins. Always. With products, with companies, with people, with messages, with ideas,” she says.

In a series of videos on YouTube, she notes that fascination is a shortcut to persuasion. She outlines seven triggers that allow you to create a spell:

• Power: Take command of your environment, like Google does in the online world.

• Passion: Use emotion to entice, provoke, or capture.

• Mystique: Arouse curiosity. Like the television show Lost, we want to fill in the blanks. Let us.

• Prestige: Increase respect for your product or your brand. “It’s aspirational. Prestige elevates,” she says. People want to attain what you are suggesting.

• Alarm: This is about urgency. FedEx uses it successfully. In another way, using threat of legal penalties, the tax authorities do too.

• Rebellion: Be a game changer in your field and deviate from the norm. This is the trigger for creativity. When Groupon re-invented coupons, they were embracing this trigger.

• Trust: Loyalty is built through trust. It comes through consistency and stability. The Boy Scouts, Brooks Brothers, and Johnson & Johnson all evoke trust.

3. Strategy On One Page

Strategy can be complex. But effective strategy is also simple, and clear. On Harvard Business Review blogs, venture capitalist Anthony Tjan spells out a Strategy Tree approach that allows you to show your strategy on one page, in a series of adjacent circles, after you answer four questions and consider the linkages between them:

• Why does your company have a right to exist, and what purpose is it trying to achieve?

• What is your value proposition, supported by capabilities and assets, that distinguishes you from the competition?

• Who are you trying to serve? On this, you must be as specific as possible.

• How do you know you are winning? Put down the key customer and financial metrics that you need to achieve for success.

“This is hardly a novel concept, but it falls into that category of common sense that is not so commonly done,” he observes.

4. Self-Selecting Yourself For Leadership?

Leaders aren’t appointed or selected, so much as they are simply acknowledged, according to consultant Roy H. Williams.

“The myth of a ‘big break’ is what keeps the average person from becoming successful. They keep waiting on someone else to do something instead of simply selecting themselves and taking action,” he writes in his Monday Morning Memo.

Self-selected people work hard to prepare themselves. When Willie Nelson was asked what it felt like to be an overnight success, he replied: “Overnight success feels great after playing 10 years in honky-tonks behind chicken wire.”

“What do you want to see happen in your life? Are you willing to select yourself for it?” Williams concludes.

5. Zingers

• E-mail is more effective when you precede it with a telephone call. If you first discuss the matter at hand on the phone, and then send an e-mail to confirm or flesh out details, there will be greater clarity and alignment. (Source: Information-overload.nzeldes.com)

• If you own your own business, set up a peace-of-mind fund, career coach Robin Sharma suggests. Build a reserve fund to cover at least 12 months and ideally 24 months of operating expenses. You’ll sleep better knowing that your business can run even if revenue slows to a trickle. (Source: Wisdom Newsletter)

• Nobody likes to wait. But if you’re a manager, consultant Lisa Haneberg points out, people are often waiting on you. It’s important to recognize the anguish or stress that can cause. Take the initiative this week to reach out to the folks who are waiting on you, and help team members who are waiting for people in other departments. (Source: ManagementCraft.com)

• Personal branding specialist Dan Schawbel predicts that LinkedIn will replace resumes and job boards, given the principle that networking is the best way to find jobs. Your professional and personal lives will converge, as so much about you becomes known online. The recruiting process will also involve mandatory online reference checks. (Source: BrazenCareerist.com)

• Email etiquette writer Judith Kallos recommends keeping your signature line to no more than five to six lines, so you won’t be viewed as egocentric. Limit the signature to your web site link, company name, and slogan/offer or phone number. (Source: The Sideroad.com)

6. Q&A with 8020Info:
Dealing With Distractions

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Question: I seem to waste a lot of time every day. I don’t think I’m bored; I feel as energized as ever. But distractions seem to overwhelm me.?

8020Info Associate Harvey Schachter replies:

If this distractibility and lack of productivity dates back awhile, you need to examine what the causes might be. Has something turned you off about your work? Can you reconnect to the sense of purpose you once had for your work?

Sometimes distractibility involves nothing deeper than temptations being available. These days, the Internet has become one big distraction. It’s easy to get caught up online, following some whim or train of thought that has little to do with work.

Online Distractions:
This is so common that technology is being used to counter technology. KeepMeOut, for example, is a web site that allows you to set limits on how many times you can visit a web site in a given length of time. If you have a favourite site that is drawing you away from work, go to KeepMeOut.com, enter the name of that site, and create a special bookmark that you then drag to your browser. If you try to visit the site when you’re over the limit you specified for the time period, you will be blocked (unless you cheat and use another bookmark for entry).

It’s actually a nice compromise: It keeps you out of your pet news site or blog for a reasonable period of time for such a check — but if something major has happened, you can still work around your self-imposed barriers. There are other tools for blocking web sites, but setting them up generally requires a greater degree of technological expertise.

Interruptions:
Distractions come in the form of people as well. People — and relationships — are important to success, so we need to be open to their interruptions. But perhaps you are more welcoming than you should be and need to, more frequently, indicate you are busy and would prefer not being interrupted for non-urgent matters.

Some workplaces are moving towards the notion of individual office hours, as in universities, where a professor announces when he or she can be bugged. Other offices are using signalling devices — red, orange, and green signs on entrances to offices, for example, or traffic cones placed at a cubicle entranceway.

Many people are also trying out the Pomodoro Technique, a time management method that uses a timer to break down periods of work into 25-minute intervals of uninterrupted work, separated by breaks. You might take five minute breaks after each of your first two 25-minute sessions of flat-out work, and then a longer one after the next session or two, depending on your own stamina and psychological preference. There are even online timers to help — if you dare to brave online distractions to check them.

7. News From Our Water Cooler:
The Sesame Street Effect

Repeated communication during a time of transition and change has something in common with children watching Sesame Street: they may watch an episode over and over again, but each time they get something different out of it.

Managers typically tire of repeating their message during a change project, but their staff and others affected may hear it differently each time: One time they may listen at a high level to learn what’s going to happen and when. Next time, as the message starts to sink in, they may wonder why or question the decision. Later they will start to consider, “How will this affect me?”

They may return to a set of communications many times – sparked by a chance comment by a colleague, rising concern as the change date looms near, as they worry about training or imagine, from different perspectives, the future impacts they will face.

It’s important to ensure your key messages about change are repeated and accessible to your audience at different times, through different channels, and at different levels of detail. Even if it feels like playing the Sesame Street over and over again.

8020Info helps teams develop, communicate and implement their marketing communications, research and strategic plans more effectively. We would be pleased to discuss your needs and welcome enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com

8. Closing Thought                                                                 Top

“A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself of herself, a leader is interested in the group.”

– Russell H. Ewing