Skip to content →

Category: Business & Communities

3 advanced tips for marketing professional services

Published March 13, 2011 by Jo Jordan

In the spirit of Who's on First ny twm1340 via FlickrI broke my toe and learned 3 ways advanced tips for marketing professional services

The back story

Two weeks ago, in the middle of the night, I stubbed my little toe.  Hard.  It hurt a lot.  And it really didn’t look good.  Sticking out sideways  just didn’t seem like a “just grin and bear it thing.”

Being a good twenty-first centurerer, I did what all citizens of the internet do.  I hobbled over to the computer, switched it on and began.

1.       I wanted to solve a problem: where could I get medical attention in small town England in the early hours of Sunday morning.

2.       What medical attention did I need?  What should I be doing, if anything?  What do I need to arrange to have done?

Getting my toe fixed turned out to be a long story but I didn’t want it this to be a “whinge” story.  Britain has enough whinging poms.   So I wrote down what I experience in detail as excrutiating as the pain in my toe and extracted

  • Three ways that I don’t want to do business
  • Three ways I do want to do business

#1  Keep the conversation on the expert thinking that the customer came to you to buy

When I arrived at A&E, I was told that I could wait one hour for “triage” and then two hours to see a doctor.

I was already ambivalent about being in A&E and the decision was thrown back to me as if I was a naughty child who was being offered strawberry ice-cream or nothing.   What was this conversation about, exactly?

I think that what should have been communicated to me was this:

  • We need a doctor to look at your toe.
  • Because a bust toe is not life threatening, you will be in the “minor queue” and it takes one hour to get to see the nurse who will take some notes (I refuse to call that triage as they did) and then another another two hours to see a doctor.
  • Please make arrangements to stay here for 3.5 hours.

That would have communicated their decision in medical terms, explained to me quite adequately why I would have to wait, and directed my attention to what I could do to help.

My main takeaway of this experience was that until I reached a doctor – more than 12 hours after the event  and 10th interaction into the process – I had no medical conversation at all.  The first nine interactions, beginning with the website, were simply not about medicine.

Takeaway : Where is the expert thinking?

How quickly do customers reach the expert thinking that they hire me for?  Or are they getting tangled up in god knows what other considerations that are really not their concern?

#2 Dominate the top SEO on “how to buy” for your industry

I made some effort to get medical help at 2 am in the morning because information on the internet suggested I should (within 4 hours).

If we are gleaning what we can from this website and that, this is not good for NHS as a business.  It is not good for any business.

It’s best to make sure that the general method of making a buying decision in our segment gets good SEO and if we aren’t big enough to make it happen, we should ensure that our trade body does!

Takeaway: How good is our public information service?

How does the ‘public’ understand our sector and what questions do they put into Google?  Let’s answer them and drive those posts to the number 1 spot on the page.  It’s foolhardy to leave public understanding to chance.

#3  Match the conversion process to the profit level of the sale

Ultimately, a fully qualified surgeon strapped my toe.  He explained that he would not even Xray it because no matter what he saw, the treatment is the same.

By the time I spoke to him, he was my 10th point of contact with the NHS.  Four of those points actively tried to not make a decision and thus left we with one choice only – to stay in the queue.  One gave me flagrantly incorrect information (postal code) and another corrected it.  Three we helpful  (3/9).

To use Google’s language, there is a system of “conversion” that took me deeper and deeper into the system.  Each conversion step costs the NHS (and me) and ultimately, the service was delivered very expertly but very expensively.  My foot was strapped by someone with 30 years of education and training and 10 years’ international experience.

Of course, this formula might make sense in some way when we look at the whole picture of the NHS.  I’ll leave running them to them.

What I learned was to track the whole conversion process and make sure the ROI makes sense at track level.   The truth is that getting a busted toe strapped is akin to buying a coffee at the railway station.  I would like it to be better than the coffee I can buy in a British Railway Station – so let’s make that akin to buying a cold beer or coke.

It needs to be quick and easy.  There shouldn’t be a lot of queuing.  S’truth, if you can buy fresh crab from a vending machine, there should be some way for light injuries to be seen to quickly and easily without requiring people to be treated by massively expensive people.

Takeaway: Have we bundled our service correctly?

Let’s begin at the value of the sale and work backwards.  We have to devise marketing techniques that match our profit levels.  Coke can do it. So can we.

Summary

So that’s what I learned from along expensive saga of stubbing my toe at 2am on a Sunday morning .  Given that I am a psychologist

  • How quickly can someone ask a question about a psychological problem in their business and get a clear answer about their choices?
  • If they put that question into Google, would the no 1 position be dominated by advice that I agree with?
  • What is this sale actually worth (to my customers and me) and are we delivering the service where they need it at the right price?

Well, I can’t answer these three questions that easily myself.  So I will store them away and watch myself.  Maybe 12 hours with the NHS will lead me to improve my business.

Leave a Comment

7 reasons why your employees won’t tell you bad news

Published March 13, 2011 by Jo Jordan

Me, Guy Kawasaki and Robert Scoble by scriptingnews via FlickrThe problem: Employees not delivering bad news

Someone asked me today –

“If, for argument sake, a head waiter in a restaurant knows there is a problem but either can’t, won’t or fears telling the chef, would that reflect top-down management?

If not, what would you call a system that prevents workers, lower managers or civil servants  .  .   .  .  .  .  . from alerting upper management, problem solvers or decision makers?”

Answer: 7 reasons why an employee might withhold information

There 7  main reasons why a subordinate in an organization does not tell their boss bad news.

#1 Personality

We have different styles in the way we communicate.  Some people are open and blunt. Some are open and diplomatic.  Some are considerate yet complicated.

Some are just cagey and careful.

#2 History of the Relationship

The way we approach a relationship depends upon our basic personality but, of course, once we are in a working relationship with our boss, we have a history.

When we delivered bad news before, what happened?  When other people delivered bad news, what happened?

#3 Opportunity

Over and above our basic personalities and relationships, we need a time and place to deliver bad news.  Sometimes, we simply have no time as everyone rushes for the door to catch their transport home.

It’s good to have a relaxed casual place where people can bring up bad news, often sideways.   Not even the bravest wants to be shot for “being the messenger”.

#4 Understanding

Quite often, we don’t communicate bad news because we didn’t even notice that anything is wrong.  We walk past a problem, day-after-day, noticing nothing, because we are inexperienced juniors.

An experienced person might notice in a flash, but until we have the experience and training ourselves, we don’t  even notice.

#5 Compartments

Very often, work has been compartmentalized in a way that people doing the work are not responsible for it.  We are missing the skill, or the authority, or the resources, to get the job done.

We do what we can, but the person who holds the “key” is not there.  They don’t know what is happening.  Possibly,  they don’t care.  Above all, they might hold the answer but it is “not their job”.

# 6 Internal feedback

Management is often seen as giving orders, but in reality, management is about coordination.  Managers are feedback slurpers and digesters.  We have to notice what is happening, make sense of it, and replay events to people in judicious mix of summary, highlights and “next”.  If the management doesn’t watch key aspects of coordination, then coordination doesn’t happen.

The Toyota system attributes 80% of faults to poor coordination between work units (not the units themselves).  A customer might notice that something is amiss, for example, but none of the workers will notice because things are hunky-dory in their own section.  The only person, other than the customer who can notice poor coordination between work units is the person responsible for passing information between work units –the manager.

When a customer complains, the manager should initially, read the complaint as two work units are not dancing in step – and that happens from time-to-time – so fix, apologize to the customer and apologize to the work units.  Keep everyone sweet.

If more than once complaint seems to have the same cause – two work units getting out of step – have a look at the feedback we slurp, digest and render.  The problem is likely to be in what we attend to, and the sense we make of it.

# 7 Politics

And lastly, at the end of the day, employees aren’t guests.  We’ve made a deal part of which is on paper and part of which is in our heads.  The real deal is the political posturing to get a better deal.   The Hawthorne effect is famous for showing us that people care less about the money than they do about their relationship with us and with each other.

When it is not our structure or  our feedback slurping system that is at fault, we probably have a complicated political system where people have adjusted to each other like old married couples.  Stubbornness, and paying people back for perceived transgressions, becomes the goal.  Resetting such a system is hard work.  In the long term, people have to be given the opportunity to pursue goals that lead to flourishing rather than withering.  But, in the short term, groups rule, and there is little one can do except allocate more resources to keep the customers happy.

Possible people are just cross.  Solving that is a long term project.  If the organization has become inward-looking, we need a temporary “sticking plaster” of additional resources to solve pressing problems while we restore good humor.

Summary

I hope this list answers the question of why junior employees sometimes appear reluctant to pass on messages from customers that something around here needs to change.

  • They might be cagey individuals.
  • They know what happens to messengers who bring bad news.
  • They never have a chance to talk to their boss except during the press of daily work.
  • They didn’t understand a word that you said and are just smiling at you.
  • They would but they know how the system works.  Their boss doesn’t have the authority – someone else does and they don’t care.
  • They feel sort of offended. They do their job really well but they do their job.  They cannot see the whole picture because they have their heads down.  You need to speak to someone who sees the whole picture because that is their job.
  • Well, they could speak to their boss but actually they are not going to because it is more fun to pay him (or her) out for some perceived misdeed and settling scores has become thing “we do around here”.

Pray it is No 6.  It’s always easier to deal with something that is squarely “our fault.”  Or, to find someone in the system whose job it is to hold the whole picture in their heads.

Leave a Comment

If Big Society is the answer, what is the question?

Published March 12, 2011 by Jo Jordan

Eureka by Ben+Sam via FlickrMake yourself lucky, be happy, BS?

If you hang out with management theorists, you will know by now the essence of the prevailing zeitgeist.  Whether Richard Wiseman is talking about luck; whether Martin Seligman is talking about happiness; or John Seeley Brown is talking about edge, we have a common formula that is applied over, and over.

Following are some notes I made reading a paper by Keith Grint of Warwick Business School on leadership in local government.  He begins with a great question 🙂

If Big Society is the answer, what is the question?

Keith Grint of Warwick Business School asks:

If Big Society is the answer, what is the question?

The questions (I think) are

  • How do we do local?
  • Why is doing local better than doing central?
  • And, does ‘doing local’ work better than doing central?  After all, surely the whole idea of politics is to seize the commanding position and dictate terms?

To answer the how, why, what and whether of local

To answer the how, why, what and whether of local, at least to answer the how, why, what and whether of local using theory, we need to begin with the theory.   Let’s check our assumptions first.   At the same time, we’ll see that we are assuming, rather than proposing in scientific sense, that local is the “dog not the tail”.  (If anyone knows a non-dog metaphor that will work as well, please let me know!)

Once we’ve grasped, the idea that we are dog, and political change is the tail, then we want to know “how”.  And the task of popular writers is to explain the “how” well enough to stop people disappearing into the bottomless pit of despair and victimhood that is part of the self-story when we think of ourselves as the tail.  That Brits love the victim story is a different post.

Today, I’ll try only to explain how we start change at a local level which is what I think Keith Grint was talking about and what management scholars and their ilk can tell you a lot about.

The theory of act local

The theory of “act local: begins with some beliefs about leadership.  If you have differing ideas about leadership, nothing else I write will make any sense at all.  So, try these on for fit.  If they don’t fit, all else will be a logical exercise. If they do meld with your beliefs, you might find a sense of relief in the account of “lead local” that follows.

Two basic beliefs about leadership

Leadership is not air; it is the wind.  When leadership is there, it is there. We might be able to see it coming.  We might in odd circumstances be able to build a wind tunnel.  But for the most part it is ephemeral, situational and transitory.  Nonetheless we know it when we feel it and we know it when we see its effects.

Leadership is not a map; it is a place.  When you are there, you are there.  When you are not, you are not.  You are not a leader-in-waiting.  You aren’t leadership-material.  You are either leading right now in this place with these people.  Or, you are not.

One basic proposition about national leadership

UK’s future is not made in Whitehall.

It is made by us. Because leadership is like place and wind, the UK is made and led through our local squabbles and the place-by-place, moment-by-moment decisions we make where we are, where ever we are and whomever we are with.

So, how do we set about making UK’s future at local level?

So far so good – if we believe that leadership, of necessity, of its very essence, is a local, situational and transitory phenomenon with nonetheless real consequences, how do we act as a local politician?

One basic assumption about politics

Politics is about defining space.  Politics is about defining who gets to be here and who get to talk.

One basic proposition about leading the politics of radical change.

Cynically, party politics is a device for keeping us apart.  Defining history is about connecting with people we don’t normally talk to.

I’ll repeat that.  The politics of change, the politics of defining history, is about connecting, not with people like us, but with people we don’t normally talk to.

The nexus of leadership and politics

So, to pull together ideas about leadership and politics – we believe leadership is in its very essence local but nonetheless we have political structures which determine who is in and who is out – or in plain terms, who gets to be part of the conversation.

To set off radical change, we have to change who talks to whom.  Or natural instinct is to huddle with people with ‘common interests’.  Actually, we must do something else. We must expand the conversation to a ‘complete world’ of everyone who has an interest.

To take a stark example, if I were campaigning to reduce immigration (which I am not), the intelligent political approach would be to include the immigrants (and their employers).  That the campaigners don’t shows us that they aren’t really serious and that they will always be somewhat surprised by the results of their political initiatives.  They simply haven’t done the work of connecting people who have an interest.

Changing the future of our country, then, is changing who we speak to!

The “how to” of modern politics

And now to the “how to” because after all, the reason why I am writing this at all is because people think they are not able to affect the future of their country (preferring to whinge but that’s another post.)

Is politics viral?

Sometimes it seems that politics can be viral.

Take Egypt.  Wael Ghonim puts up a Facebook page at just the right moment.

But, was the page just timing or relevance?  Without being a historian of Egypt, I think the page became a lever on a fulcrum of wide-spread concern among people who have generally have neither need nor opportunity to speak to each other on a daily basis.

And with lever and fulcrum, as Archimedes said it would, the world moved.

The page was the lever.  The fulcrum was the concerns of many people partially connected and ready to be connected further.

Is viral politics enough?

Some people thing viral politics is enough.  I don’t think so.  We still have to do the ‘foot slogging’ of door-step politics. We have to build relationships painstakingly.  We have to build our coalition (woops, dirty word in UK).

Simply, if defining history is building new connections with people we don’t normally talk to, we have to build those connections.  We have to initiate the connections and we have to sustain them with repeated contact and mutual respect.

What’s more, we have to engage with people who not want to connect with us.  It might take a while to build the connections we need.  But of course we don’t mind if we really believe in the future we are imagining!

Is success assured?

Again, without being a historian, the Facebook page in Egypt came at the end of an era of making connections and making connections and making connections.  Wael Ghonim didn’t intend to start a revolution.  He put up a Facebook page, and while he wanted to connect with others, he had no idea how important those connections were to become.  The Facebook page might not have succeeded.  There had been many attempts to rally Egyptians.  This was the rally cry that came when the connections were enough.

Simply, change will not happen unless we believe in it enough to begin without any guarantee of success.  If we don’t believe in our people enough to begin, if we don’t believe that we are enough; we will never make enough connections and we won’t have the Facebook page, or whatever happens to be the lever in our movement that tips the final balance.

We never know exactly when the tipping point will be.  We have to begin in faith of our dream and our people.

And is one big viral event is enough?

Sadly, not.  A big viral event may give us a head-start.  A big viral event like Tahrir Square dramatically improves the self-efficacy of everyone takes part.  They will volunteer readily next time and won’t be easily put off by challenges.

But as one swallow only makes us think of summer, we need many successful events for active citizenry to be the norm.  Actually, we need many successful events to trust each other.  We need success to offset the disappointments and to build the momentum.

If we believe in the future that we say we want, we need to do the hard slog of building the connections and maintaining them over the challenges, triumphs, disappointments and tears of real world politics before we will be rewarded with deep and longstanding change.

So if you are banking on one big viral event, you will squander the benefits of the event, for benefits are huge but not enough on their own.

And should we wait for politicians?

I wouldn’t!   Old guard politics will produce more of the same.

What can you and I do?

What has to happen is you and I connecting to people we think are worth listening to.  No proclamation from Whitehall will ever make that happen.  This depends on whom we believe are worth listening to and whether we can be a****d to make the connections.

What we get back depends on what we are willing to do.  England, Britain, United Kingdom is us. If we want change and we haven’t changed something small today, we are simply talking BS (oh dear, what did I say?) 🙂

Change something today – get lucky!

The advice for starting change at local level is the same advice that psychologists will give you for making yourself lucky (and happy) (and indeed for giving up smoking or losing weight!)

The advice from psychologists is simply this.

Do something different today.  Drive to work a different route. Speak to the person next to you on the train.  Give up your seat for someone on the tube.

Mix it up.  Connect.  Connect.  Connect.

  • Complete your world by connecting with everyone you need to take part in the conversations you know are just waiting to happen.
  • Start to tell the collective story.  Start to tell the story of your collective .
  • Learn what other people want too.  See where you can help them and see where they are delighted to help you.
  • And, include the people you think you can’t stand (But talk to them later! Start with someone who is just new or different!)

How long will it take?

I don’t know for sure. Psychologists aren’t  hot on time.  But, the poets and gurus say you will see results in three months and life-changing experiences in a year.

Will you begin to lead locally?

What have you got to lose by trying?  You only have to talk to someone new each day and do something different like take a new route to work?

What will you gain?

A more interesting day for a start.

A life experiment second.

Maybe something bigger third.  The curious will go for that I think.

Resources

Leading questions: If ‘Total Place’, ‘Big Society’ and local leadership are the answers: What’s the question? Leadership February 2011 7: 85-98,

To get a copy of the paper, you’ll have to email the author Keith.Grint at wbs dot ac uk.

Leave a Comment

How do you play the game in the ever-shifting sands of business?

Published February 7, 2011 by Jo Jordan

R2P by smadden via Flickr

Want to tighten up your marketing?

@jobsworth listed the roles that we play in the every morphing networked organizations in the new economy.

And I’ve turned them into a little questionnaire.

Check out the list! Figure out your own role! And work out who plays the other roles in your industry.

Position yourself well and clearly?  Do let me know if you gained any insights!

Leave a Comment

My events sucked, until . . .

Published February 5, 2011 by Jo Jordan

Events that suck


Have you ever sat down to write the advertising copy for an event and found it just didn’t come together easily? Or put together the perfect event – and no one was interested? Does events management feel too hit-and-miss for comfort’s sake?

Of course, the best way to learn to manage events is to seek an apprenticeship with a maestro of events and learn at their feet.  But, I’m a just a spare-time events manager, as most of us are these days, and as a business psychologist, I wondered what my profession has to say on the magic of events management.

I’ve searched the university libraries and apparently we have nothing to say.  Hmm!

So, that’s the position.  I can carry on lurching from church to school, or I can dig into my kit bag of basic tools and put together a model from first principles.

That’s what I have done.  I took the well-known solidly-researched Theory of Social Influence (Herbert C. Kelman) and applied the trio of {rules, roles, values} to events.

Here is what I came up with.  This post is long (1500 words), so let me give you the basic structure and you can pick what you need.

  • Event Management: The Short Form
  • How I sabotaged my own event by mixing up the archetypes
  • 3 surprising insights that come with thinking more clearly about events
  • Checklists and links to examples in the wild

Events Management:  The Short Form

In short, we have three event archetypes, and they don’t mix.

  • Celebrity-based
  • Action-based
  • Value-based

Kool & the Gang Concert @ Montreal Jazz Festival by Anirudh Kuol via Flickr

At celebrity-based events,we experience AWE

We attend the event.

We see the celebrity.

We take home the t-shirt.

And,

Not least,

We are remarkably passive.

Rock Climbing Mississippi Palisades (94) by akeg via Flickr

At action-based events, we experience AFFECTION

We are essential to the event.

We play in the team.

We take home the shared story of triumph and disaster.

And provided, no one asks too much of us,

We are amazingly loyal repeat-customers.

London Marathon 2009 by blitzy72 via Flickr

At value-based events, we experience ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We run our lives within the event.

We customize it to fit our tastes.

We take home a sense of having done good.

We have a sense of having been respected, and respecting the universe in turn.

But we cleave to our path and not the path of the organizers.

How I sabotaged my own event by mixing up event archetypes

Kelman’s model of {rules, rules & values} has helped me understand what I could have done differently to manage and advertise an event that flopped horribly.

I advertised a course in blogging for occupational psychologists (UK term for work and organizational psychologists) in our professional magazine.  Only one person called up – and he will probably read this post.

Why, I ask, was this event so poorly received?

Simply, I advertised a blogging-training course like a celebrity-event when I had a value-based mind-set.

Well, I was duly rewarded with a  muted response.

How would I focus my event on one event archetype and one archetype only?

Focus a celebrity-event on the celebrity!

  • First, if I wanted to offer a celebrity-centered event, I should have offered celebrities.
  • Second, I should have concentrated on the raz-ma-taz  – name tags, lunch and some good souvenirs.
  • Third, I should have let consumers consume.

Consumers want to enjoy not make an effort

The reception must be organized.  The seats must be comfortable.  No one must mind if their questions are off the point (but no one must be allowed to go on for too long and bore everyone else).  The dining room should be well appointed.  The participants pay good money and they want to know what they will get back.

The participants may be circulating like mad trying to meet new people but they don’t actually help run the event.  And, we should be clear about that.  Asking them to make an effort or take responsibility takes all the fun away!

Offering training (meaning the hard work of learning) is just not compatible with an event for consumers!

Either, I should have run the event with celebrities at the center and let them go home no more knowing how to blog than when they arrived, or, I needed to run an action-based event!

Focus an action-event on the team!

If I had wanted to promise training, I needed to improve my advertising and re-jig the event to match.  I didn’t do any of this so feel free to show me how to do it better!

  • Set a group goal and state how we will achieve it

“Bring occupational psychology to the attention of the corporate world with attractive blogs that readers return to again and again “

  • Assure participants that the training is organized

“Learn the basics with an expert on hand and graduate as a proficient blogger in one day”

  • Assure participants the group will be loyal to them

“Form a lasting network with experienced bloggers who are putting occupational psychology in front of the public”

  • Suggest ways forward

“Get an early start by registering with the event”

  • Tell participants what is needed

“Bring yourself, your ideas, your enthusiasm – we will provide the rest.”

Focus a value-event on the individual’s good judgment!

I also think that I may have blundered by designing my course as an action-based event while thinking in terms of  value – at least in terms of my own commitment.

The curious thing about value-based events is that the organizers stand back a bit and they rely on the good sense and judgment of the participants.  The good judgment of the participants is not a matter of chance, though.  We need to be close to our participants and not only understand the way they think, but share their values too.

If I were running a value-based event, then I needed to show my appreciation for their good judgement in my advertisement, provide facilities, and not take charge.   I am not sure at all that a value-based event works for people who have no experience in a domain but I may be wrong.  The dividing line is whether this event is about their judgment or mine.

If I had been running a value-based event, I would have said something like:

  • Talk to the situation and common values

“Join early-adopters who are bringing attractive and informative blogs to our clients”

  • Tell them what needs to be done

“Demonstrate to the profession the benefits of communicating with our public through the flexibility of blogs”

  • Tell them the resources

“Experience blogging with 30 other committed psychologists for a Saturday in a well-connected commuter room and specialist bloggers on hand to help with the mechanics”

  • Tell  them how to get there

“Click here for the venue, map, and sign up”

  • Keep in touch but stay independent

“Click to stay informed with the email newsletter”

  • Bring in their ideas

“Sign up here to add your ideas and shape our efforts in advance”

3 surprising insights that come with thinking more clearly about events

In truth, thinking clearly about events surprised me.

  • I hadn’t realized before that consumers like being consumers.

Often that’s what we want.  We want the magic of celebrity entertainment.  You do the work!  We’ll consume!

  • I hadn’t appreciated how much action-based events rely on the skilled delivery of levels.

Action-based events are games.  We love belonging, and in order to belong, the tasks have to be easy enough for us at the start and challenging enough for us as we level up.

  • I hadn’t been consciously aware that value-based events are curiously stand-offish.

After all, when we provide a luxury bathroom, we don’t tell people how to use it. They already know and may know better than us.  The core of a value-based event is our appreciation of our guests’ judgment.  We make the event possible with our facilities.

What do you think?

My event design has improved and I am sure will get even better as I apply some clear thinking to what I do.

Checklists & examples for good event design

Here are some check-lists and examples to get you on your way and for you to test out your thinking.  Do let me know what you think and the insights you glean.

Celebrity-events

Example of a celebrity-based event: SXSW Interactive 2011

Your checklist:

  • Who is the celebrity?  Why are they a celebrity to this group?
  • What is the takeaway?  Will it impress people back home or back at the office?
  • Are we letting consumers be consumers?  Are we expecting them to take responsibility – they want us to take the responsibility!

Action-events

Example of an action-based event: Baking for Greenpeace

Your checklist:

  • Who is the team-based event?  Are the levels well thought-out and can people slip in at the right level for them?
  • What is the takeaway?  Is there a group goal that is achievable and can they see their own contribution to the goal?
  • Are we helping our guests work together in an enjoyable team?  Are we taking responsibility for their learning curve without micro-managing?

Value-events

Example of a value-based event: Documentary Matchmaking at the Frontline Club [the link is now broken]

Your checklist:

  • What is the situation and what are the values that bring us here?  Is the situation immediate, is the action possible, and does it call on our values?
  • What is the takeaway?   What will people feel and remember after the event?
  • Are we giving our guests enough space to customize our facilities?  Are we celebrating their values or taking over?

Academic Background

And P.S. , if you’d like to follow up the psychology, look up Herbert C. Kelman’s Theory of Social Influence.

2 Comments

What to do about loafers in commercial open space teams?

Published January 16, 2011 by Jo Jordan

I'm telling you guys - it's *that* way to Times Square. by Ed Yourdon via FlickrHave you used open space technology in a commercial setting?

I’ve been thinking about the emblematic situation of the network age.  We get together and we figure out what we are going to do, and, then we do it.

Anyone who has been to hacker’s day is familiar with the process.  And if you have been to many hackers’ days, you will wonder what the fuss is all about.

But let me tell you when it all falls down – when we have two questions:

  • What are we going to do together?
  • Who are we going to sell our output to?

As soon as there is money involved, people start ‘social loafing’ and maneouvre to get the most money for the least work.

Learning from Shakespeare: dealing with ‘social loafing in networked supply chains?

I haven’t tested this solution but some lines from Shakespeare might provide the answer:

“That which hath no stomach to fight

Let him depart; his passport shall be made,

And crowns for convoy put into his purse:

We would not die in that man’s company

That fears his fellowship to die with us.”

Henry V, Act 4, Scene 3

What do you think?  Is this crass “with us or against us” or the very principle of open space technology:

  • Whoever are here are the right people
  • Whatever we do was the only thing that could be done

Solutions to social loafing  commercial open space technology?

Is the simple solution to social loafing in networked businesses to

  • Refuse to talk sales until the hack is made

or

  • Define the sale and then ask who can contribute and what they can contribute?

Can we ask First Who, then What when we still have to define the work?  And which question is the better?

What do you think?

Leave a Comment

Supply networks, co-creation, open technology made simple

Published January 14, 2011 by Jo Jordan

Suppliers rule!

In the later days in Zimbabwe, I would walk into the Greek Bakery (hey, it was called that) and say, “What’s for breakfast?”.   Whatever they had, I ate – happily.  Samosa and salad.  That’s OK.  Coffee machine working?  OK, tea is fine.

Restaurant at Art Village not the Greek BakeryI developed an appreciation of the best deal on offer and the loyalty of traders who give me the best deal they can.

What can you do for me?

It was little different in New Zealand.  I taught a massive class of 800 students, and then some.  And they all worked.  Supermarket, department store, restaurant – the people serving me were students and quite likely my students.

That’s great, isn’t it, though the university had strict rules about accepting favors.

A hop-and-a-step in my thinking told me something else. They were students – smart, obliging, but totally unqualified for what they were doing. They were hired because they were cheap and because the managers thought raw enthusiasm was a sufficient substitute for sound training.

Well, how hard is it to say “Would you like fries with that?”

But it is hard to keep  raw enthusiasm done and I soon learned to wave away the menu and decline to “look around”.  I went back to my Zimbabwean ways.

Waste no time on over-specified supply chains

I wasted no time on the loss leaders and dramatic deals that might have caught my eye but were essentially scammy.

I wasted no time specifying solutions that the enterprise ‘should’ have delivered but wasn’t going to because the staff weren’t trained and would probably have no idea what I was talking about.

I simply asked what they could do for me.

Co-creation

And so my style of co-creation was formed and practiced.

  • This is what I need done and what I can pay for.
  • What solutions can you provide?

Supply networks working fabulously

I got good service.  Happy service.  The raw enthusiasm worked fabulously.  I got what was available and what staff could deliver and it was often better than I had looked for in the first place.

This is the essence of supply networks of the 21st century.  The customer is not king (or queen).   The customer contributes a need and a readiness to pay.

All the players in the supply network scratch their heads and say “ You know what?  We could .   .  . “

By staying in the range of what we can do, we do better.

  • First who, then what.
  • Whoever comes are the right people. What we decide is the only thing that we could have decided.
  • And when it is over, it is over.

Supply networks, co-creation, open technology – tiz all the same.

And it works in scarcity and abundance by being reasonable and collegial.

Leave a Comment

Start-ups: Style, Simplicity, Story, Simultaneity

Published January 3, 2011 by Jo Jordan

coffee, diary&citymap by France Gipsy via FlickrThe perils of necessity start ups

In 2011, we are going to see more ‘necessity start ups’.  A necessity start up is what it says on the tin. The proprietor would prefer to be employed but finds themselves in a situation in which they must make a living.  And they know what I am going to write next.  The odds are stacked against them.

I’ve been involved in a number of start ups and still find it psychologically hard.

Here are the 4 things I find hardest and what I do to ‘work around them’.  You could try them to see if they work for you.  I’m telling it how it is, so don’t be frightened – just try.

#1  If it were so easy to make a living, ‘deep pockets’ would be in there already

For example, in the mining world, there are gold deposits for the taking. The reason the deposits have not been taken and remain available to the smaller players is that the ground is unstable, the mine is prone to flooding, etc., etc.  In brief, the costs are likely to exceed the returns.

Or as the old saying goes, there may be a gap in the market but is there a market in the gap.

Necessity entrepreneurs are not going to make as much money as they used to and nor will their niche ever allow them to.  The simple but not so easy trick is to think differently about money.  Take pride in paying yourself the minimum wage only and give yourself a bonus when you can afford it.  That’s life in real business.  You don’t waste then money that you took such trouble to earn. You spend every $ wisely and yet with great pleasure.

Changing your mindset in middle age is hard though. Here is the trick.  Keep a diary of your frugality and watch how to jettison the mentality that sloshing cash around makes you the ‘big man’,and how you start to find small business really enjoyable. You’ll stop judging your success by the amount of money you have to spend to buy your lifestyle; and you’ll start judging yourself by your personal style?

What did you do today that was sincerely stylish (and independent of money)?  What did you try and what did you really enjoy doing?

#2  Working in a poorer company is harder because you have to make do with many fewer resources

In a large corporate, so much is done for you.  Like a student whose mum has always done his cooking, suddenly you have to fend for yourself without instant photocopy repairs and other armies of people to do everything from raise capital to deal with angry customers.

The skill of a necessity entrepreneur is knowing the simplest way to get anything done with the fewest people possible.  You’ll feel sad at first because so much of your life has been about complicating everything!  You’ll wonder how you managed to fill your days with such complications and how you have so much time now to do whatever you  like!

The trick?  Keep a diary of all the hacks you have discovered to do anything and everything easily. And count up how much time you have to do what you really believe is worthwhile!  Enjoy having free time to go for a walk and spend an hour with someone who needs the company.

# 3  We have to tell a story of being an owner, not an employee

This is a tough one that took me a long time to explain.  We all invest in our story and many people ‘sold themselves’ as a dutiful wage laborer for a long time.

Selling oneself as a business person is hard for two reasons.  First, we don’t have the track record.  Second, and more importantly, we have invested in the story of ourselves as employees and we are reluctant to water that story down – just in case.

A necessity entrepreneur needs to keep a diary of all the tasks they performed that day as a business owner.  If you try to write your story ‘in one go’, you will freeze.  You need to get a diary and write up each night what you did as a business owner.

I have not done this before but as an experienced work psychologist, I know this will work. You will start to see results within an month and within a year, you will wonder why you ever had an issue.  A daily diary of your tasks as a business owner.

#4   Doing and taking the risk of doing at the same time is quite hard

Very simply, at work, we are often doing what the boss has asked us to do.  Emotional responsibility and  execution are split.  If the task doesn’t work, we can blame the boss – at least emotionally. The boss will blame us too, of course.  And then we can have a competition of who is to blame.

A lot of energy goes into the blame-shifting game.  We need this energy now to cope with the possibility of making bad choices.  This is a new game and we don’t have teacher to guide us through.

Our diary each night should include a list of our technical work and the risk we have taken.  We need to revamp our mental models into bundling risk and task.  It comes ~ but only with practice.  I haven’t done this either, but I am going to because it will work.

Four steps to taking-off as a first time entrepreneur.

Grab a diary. An A5 will do. And every night, write up your day under four headings.

  • Style (that is not dependent solely on chucking cash about)
  • Simplicity (doing tasks simply without oodles of equipment and people)
  • Story (what I did today as a business owner)
  • Simultaneity (being the blame-bearing boss and the long-suffering employee at the same time!)

And let me know how it goes!

Leave a Comment

21st century challenges: Knowledge capital accounts

Published December 28, 2010 by Jo Jordan

brocade-sonobe-level-2-menger-sponge-front-1 by Ardonik via FlickrKnowledge capital accounts

In a capital account, we know the money we spent on an item and we know how long ago we spent it.

For the nation’s knowledge, we need need to be able to map its contours in some way.

Knowledge capital <> literacy

Most of the time, we are fussing about literacy levels. Literacy levels are important

  • Individuals need to be able to read and write
  • And collectively, we need a bedrock of knowledge to build a pyramid of knowledge in the community

But our competitiveness depends on our collective performance at the top level. Are we abreast of new ideas?  Are we keeping up?

Learning from firm-level HRD policy

It’s a simple truism in HRD policy, even in the lowly firm, that we have to think ahead to the changes in knowledge that loom on the horizon. We may not know exactly what changes will bring but we can usually anticipate their form.  Will they be little incremental changes that we can absorb easily, or, will they be discontinuous changes that require major investments in thousands of people so that we have the shared knowledge to create the new frontier?

How are we doing in your field?

I know that in my field that we aren’t doing very well.  Not only has the average person in my field not heard of ideas that were common place 20 years ago in other parts of the world, not too many of the leaders have either.

What is even more worrying is the shallowness of many debates in institutions like BBC Radio 4 which is charged with keeping us abreast of new ideas.  They can’t know everything, of course.  But they don’t really seem to know the right people to find out.

Knowledge capital accounts

The happiness index might promote debate about happiness at least.  Maybe someone can devise some knowledge capital accounts to measure he quality of the chattering sector?

Leave a Comment

Holistic ~ in business

Published December 28, 2010 by Jo Jordan

Colours for Sale! by magical-world via FlickrHolistic

When I first encountered the term, holistic, or rather when I first realized that I needed to know what holistic meant, I was at sea. It’s proponents tend to be strident, insistent. They chide us with ‘Holistic . . . ‘ and the pained looks on their faces suggest that there is something they intuit but don’t feel able to explain.

Today I found a news report on a marketing alliance between sister firms Ogilvy and WPP who have are now offering an end-to-end consulting service to marketers branded JWP Action.

“The joint venture is to be a new model in shopper marketing, designed to help brands and retailers reach and influence consumers at every touch point along the path to purchase, linking brand strategies, shopper insights and retail opportunities.”

The press release misuses the word holistic and gives me an opportunity to dummy up a tutorial for people trying to get their head around the term.

Misapprehension 1. Holistic is comprehensive or multi-faceted

Holistic doesn’t mean comprehensive or multi-faceted. Holisitic is a philosophical perspective based on not separating object and subject. For example, red is not red. Red is our experience of red.

Holistic begins with “I am experiencing red.”

What would holistic mean in terms of helping marketers? It might mean representing consumers.

Indeed someone was quoted along these lines

Bidwell said: “This move was based on client need. With all the changes in the retail space and consumer buying habits, clients told us their brands now require a wider range of resources and a truly holistic approach to shopper marketing, brand activation and integration.

“The joint venture is not focused on a marketing discipline, but instead on what a client needs. Then we build a media agnostic program from that base.”

Misapprehension 2. Holistic gets better results

Ah,but  no. Holistic is not about getting results because getting results is about using this to get that. Separation. Holistic is not about separation. Holistic thinking suggests that consumers would like to enjoy products for what they are.

This is tough to understand when our belief system rests on ‘winning’ or ‘taking’ financial gain.

Quite possibly, though, people enjoy financial exchange as much as they enjoy consuming a good ice-cream?

From this perspective, we might declutter the consumer experience to allow us to savor more directly what we set out to savor. Elegance. Appreciation. That might be what consumers are looking for.

Misapprehension 3. Working backwards from the answer is holistic

How dull. So we know the answer already?

Holistic is all about possibilities. The unexpected discoveries of world with a mind of its own.

Holistic is about what emerges from time we spend together.

Holistic is about letting go and not insisting on perennial success. Maybe the occasional shriving would be a relief to you too?

Holistic in business

Valuing something important to us and helping it flourish

.  .   . gets crowded out by ‘wanting to win’ (that is, wanting the other guy to lose).

Holistic is about concentrating on what we value and helping if flourish.

Less is sometimes more

More and more clutter hides what is really enjoyable (and creates more work).

Cherishing the heart of an activity brings it alive.

Sharing leads to creativity

Deciding what must happen in advance feels focusing but is so limiting.

The magic comes from what was only possible when we join forces.

Holistic in advertising

Imagine an advertising agency that helps us

• Articulate and visualize what we really hold dear and to profile our hopes and dreams clearly over and above the distractions of threat?

• De-clutter and get to heart of what really brings us alive and makes us feel ‘ a welcome guest on this planet Earth’?

• Create shared experiences where we emerge with shining eyes invigorated, refreshed and astounded by what we created together.

Is a holistic approach to business possible?

I am imagining the difference between shopping at my supermarket that has everything I don’t want and very little that I do want with shopping at my deli.

• Where am I able to imagine a delightful meal?

• Where do I buy less but of higher quality and with more enjoyment?

• Where do I arrive with a simple idea and depart with a better idea?

Holistic

This is what holistic means

• Whole (not divided into antagonistic parts)

• Valued for its essence (not its frills)

• In the space between us

Leave a Comment