Innovation for the small business who wants to be bigger

Innovation isn’t just about the big and bold, the industry changing product or  radical new technology. Often it’s just small stuff and you don’t need to ‘look outside the box’. Quite often the answers are already hiding in the dusty corners of the box you are sitting in.  

When trying to find the story you need to tell here are five simple areas to focus on where any business, both large and small can be truly innovative without spending a lot of money on R&D.

1. Map and add value to your selling process, polish and then repeat.

Most of us don't have an organised step-by-step selling process that predictably converts prospects into paying clients. You just can’t leave this to hit and miss or luck. When someone is interested in meeting with you to talk about your services, the hard work of marketing is over. But the work of selling has just begun.  What works, what doesn’t? Don’t know? Then find out. The first order is just the first step and a sale is not a sale until you get the second order.  What story are you sharing at each ste.

Ask yourself How can I add value to my customer at every step of the sales process? 

...a free white paper, a lifetime warranty, free training,  send an SMS  before delivery, an on-line copy of an agreement.... the list is endless...

2. Think Bigger

I have no idea what the economy is going to do this year, but I do know one way to combat hard times is to think more expansively -make bigger plans, involve more people. Above all, don't go off the radar waiting for things to get better. Instead, be responsible for making things better. It is amazing how lucky people who work hard and out themselves out there are.

Ask yourself..... How can you behave bigger? Tell your story on a larger stage

It really doesn’t take much. ...spend £25 more on your business card....., wear a better quality logoed shirt.... have a web site that doesn’t look like you nephew did it.  email your list with quality non salesey content... 

2.Visibility.

A very simple marketing maxim is that people like to do business with people they know, like, and trust. And that will never happen unless you're more visible. Marketing activities like networking, social media, publishing articles and speaking make you more 

visible to your target clients. 

Ask yourself... How can you add impressions.

Don’t park your logoed van in between other cars at the supermarket or mall.  Park at the end of the row at the exit.

3. Consistency and clarity

If you ask your best friends and business associates what you do, you may be surprised by the answer! In almost all cases, they'll give you a vague answer, such as "something about finances." And it's not their fault - it's yours!  they just don't know what your story is!

Find a consistent and attention-getting message and use it in all verbal and written marketing messages. It isn’t boring for your clients so don't think you have to change it every five minute. You'll get tired of it long before your  potential clients do.

Ask yourself... how can I simplify what story tell people I do of what I do into one sentence

Mine is “I help my customers keep their next fifty customers’

4.Rifle not shotgun

It's not enough to be visible and use good marketing messages. That will only get you so far. A marketing campaign is an plan to communicate to specific potential clients about a specific service that you offer with the intention of setting up one-on-one selling conversations. The more qualified selling conversations you set up and the better your conversion rate, the higher your income. 

Ask yourself.... how can I sanity check my customers and leads so I know that they really are my potential customers.

How well do you understand what you are selling really? If I am selling book keeping I am selling peace of mind and giving you time to play, not just pretty figures to look at.

If you apply the above ideas in your business, you really can double your income this year and be way more innovative than the competition. That really is all you are really trying to do and it only needs a small difference at key points to make a massive difference.  

Now that is Innovation.

Engagement Equals Trust Equals Engagement

We were talking about ‘trust’ last night in our Storytelling group - it’s our biggest subject – one we return to again and again and the source of most of our root issues – and in my workshops one of the subjects that comes up time and time again.

Engagement equals trust. Primarily Trust that our leaders will do ‘The Right Thing

Three other phrases that have always resonated with me in particular.

Trust means I can fail and you won’t leave me

Trust means if I sacrifice for your good, you will return the favour in the future

Trust rates good intentions over current results and allows for second chances

But to do that sometimes, just sometimes, you have to listen through the noise to the real story.

The Rules of (Dis)Enagagement and Customer Service

Anybody watch the new BBC Documentary about Kings Cross Railway Station? 

I replayed it on I-player and thought for one moment I was watching ‘The Office School of Employee Engagement. One, two minute motivational speech by some poor bloke whose name it would be most unfair to mention - as it’s not his fault - delivered an almost perfect ‘how not to do it’. His take onto how to win his team’s hearts and minds and provide great customer service was basically to threaten them with the sack. I actually lost count after 20 of all the mistakes he inadvertently made in just two minutes. I didn't think that was physically possible.

The daft thing, and in the grand scheme of the truly, truly daft stuff, is that the scores of similar well-intentioned but futile speeches go on every day in in every organisation you can think of, and the even dafter thing  is that they are easily fixable. It’s almost criminal when you look at the massive cost decaying levels  of employee engagement has on our economy, when it’s really just about bad training. OK, you should add to that outdated role models and the myopic view that the stick and carrot is still what works.. This is despite the fact that the deliverer of the message know themselves,  that threats and honey wouldn't work for them. So why would they think it would work for their ‘minions’? It's a big blindspot.

The truly scary thing is that this fly on the wall snapshot is not unusual. It’s endemic. From the Town Halls to the hospital admin departments. It’s an echo that reverberates around the halls and open plan offices of every government department, every quango, every place where they spend our money. Our taxes, our rail fares our VAT, our Television Licence. Our newspaper price, or our elected Officials. It’s everywhere like dust, noise and Clare Balding. Although Clare is way more fun.

 But, having spent several years working is the Health Service training middle managers in change communications, I can categorically say that they aren't the problem. They are genuinely good souls who want to do the best job they can. No…It’s not them. It’s the higher management, the higher up the food chain the less connection or engagement they seem to have. And my apologies here  to the rare, but extremely capable exceptions who have inspired me on numerous occassions but my observation is that the vast majority of senior managers have the biggest issues and are the root cause of most on the wastage, and overspends; the lack of innovation and cultural deficit. You need  look no further than the recent appalling events at Staffordshire and subsequent current reports and fallout for a glaring example of what that style of management can actually deliver. We deserve better. Both customer and employee.

The prevalent attitude I would describe, as an outside observer who is not fortunately not gagged by any agreements by the way, goes something like this… ‘I’m at grade 10, so, having reached these giddy heights, I must know what I’m doing?’ Well, while that may be true and they may be terrific in fleshing out and designing a new treatment protocol flow or they have Jedi like skills in Excel manipulation, their skills in transforming, persuading and influencing (Engagement) are at best misinformed, and at worst counter-productive. At very worst they are the very road block themselves. They have an image of themselves and a belief, reinforced by the behaviour of their peers, that they are ‘special’ and don’t need training and that they are somehow above it all.. But, and this is the big but, it’s a position not arising from some sort of  arrogance enhancement procedure . It arises from how they really feel more deeply. That is that admitting that they needed training would mean admitting some sort of frailty and in the dog eat cat world of office politics signs of weakness are a big no. no.

 No, I don’t think it's complacency, or that they are big-headed or power-crazy, although we all know some of them are. For most its just a lack of confidence and self-belief and the inability to admit that they don’t have all the answers. It is part of the ingrained British organisational culture of Failure Avoidance . The problem is that these are the individuals with the most influence  ultimately set the pace the tempo, the style, the rules of engagement (or disengagement) and all seem to jump on the same band wagon without realising that its being pulled by a team of lemmings who are late for the party.

They can hardly be surprised if it doesn't work. But amazingly they are!!!!! It never ceases to amaze me that they are amazed that people will not just follow them blindly. The refrain I most often hear from them is.. Why do ‘my people’ not get it? The answer is simple. They don’t because you don’t.

 So what exactly are they doing wrong?

Well apart from some basic fundamentals I’d narrow it down to them not knowing that there are Three Rules for Disengagement (actually nearer thirty – mail me for the rest….. )

1. No-one ever changed the way they behaved or felt about an organisation because they read a mission statement somebody else has written.

2. No ever changed the way they thought about business when they were in fear of losing the job

3. And no-one ever connected to a metaphor that is so far apart from the reality of the real situation. Kings Cross Station as a five star hotel… for a railway station? ???? I know it’s got lots of new shiny bits. It looks great, but forgive me if I don’t see the Valet parking or the complimentary chocolate on my seat.

 And I’d add an extra one, which is the most important.

 4. You must give them new eyes to view the landscape not a new landscape and the same old tired dusty spectacles.

I am, and I am sure you too dear reader, are not really impressed by people who criticise something but don’t provide an alternative are you? So here is my alternative suggestion.

There is another way

OK knowing the tile of this blogsite you have probably already guessed. It’s all about the power of story. The single most powerful tool EVER that can engage and encourage willing collaboration.

 So… maybe our colleague should ditch the pointless flip chart and…….begin.......really communicating.

Maybe she tells the story of just one of your customer’s, whose  journey ( quest) on a busy Friday afternoon. She is called Edith and 71 years old, recently widowed, her husband used to drive her in the Volvo for the long journeys and she has just got out of the Tube, for the first time in twenty years, which she now hates. She is trying to catch the train up to see her new grandson. As well as her heavy-wheeled suitcase… you can never   too many clothes dear…She has a present too. A massive stuffed giraffe almost as tall as her. She will have to change trains in Peterborough. (Hands up all these who from Yorkshire and the Northern Territories who have to stand up to Peterborough even if they have a reservation?)

 So some more detail, to add some atmosphere….It’s February, it’s cold, damp , the train is 25 minutes late already as the driver is on a 30 minute break and his last train in was delayed because the last , was, (lnsert any one of 200 reasons here)…. well, you get the picture. She has a reservation but someone is sat in her seat. So, what are you (Our Hero) going to do to make sure she books the trip again and is happy to pay what you are asking?

Let them work on it for an hour in their teams, and then add;

Now imagine the same story, but this time that Edith is actually their own mum.

What does great customer service look like really? It looks a bit like that...Light that blue touch paper and then see what happens.

Happy travels.

Who says storytelling can't transform

Employee Engagement- A lesson from 100 years ago

You know how sometimes the most obvious things are looking you in the face? I've been looking for examples of employee engagement stories. The bad stuff, and I mean really bad, cringeworthy examples of ill conceived communications, the well intentioned ideas that backfired or the complete and utter miscalculation of some of the bosses, we have all probably met at some point. You know exactly what I am talking about. And, of course to get a bit of balance, the stories about the truly amazing stuff too.

And then I remembered..... how could I forget?

I am a direct product of one of the greatest employee engagement stories of all time. The story that created one of the world's largest companies and boxes full of household name brands that have become intertwined with virtually everybody's life. If you having been thinking that employee engagment is about just being being a bit more cuddly, or that it might be a 'nice thing' to put a few bits of gym kit in the basement for your staff, o rmaybe put in a shower, I am here to tell you that you really don't know the half or it.

I am a child of a village called Port Sunlight, created over 100 years ago to look after the workers for the Lever Brothers soap factory, by one of the greatest social philanthopists the commercial and industrial world has ever see. It is still there, in all its pristineness, just a twenty minute drive from the Pier Head in Liverpool. A magical, inspiring place of space and calm that sets the benchmark for how to treat and nuture your talent; your employees.


Growing up in the village a bit like going through the wardrobe to Narnia It was just a perfect place to grow up but, more than that, it raised my expectations and lifted my eyes to new horizons and, maybe most of all provided me along with the humanitarian lessons, that a staff’s welfare isn't just a nice thing to do and think about, but has a bottom line effect that can help create, and this is not to any degree hyperbole, an empire. The Unilever Group now includes the ultra brands of the likes of Lynx and Ben & Jerry’s and employs hundreds of thousands across the Globe. All because of palm oil and one man's vision of how to add value to it.

Today the village is still very much as it was. Although there are naturally more cars it still is remarkably peaceful. The wide vistas, pavements and green spaces are all still their, manicured and coiffured. The buildings, columns, walls and the numerous nods to a world history of architectural styles are devoid of any graffitti, anywhere. At the centre of the village, the hub holding the glorious spikes of its structure together, is the stunning war memorial, one of the most glorious and moving examples of the art form built anywhere.

The outdoor swimming pool, heated to almost tropical delights by the factory, in which thousands of us Sunlight children learnt to swim, is now a garden centre. But pretty well everything else is still there as it was when it was built 120 years ago - although the slopes we rode our bikes up and down and the statues and fountains we climbed over, seem a lot smaller these days.

There are hundreds of stories that feature the founder, William Hesketh Lever and his wife Elizabeth, and what they did on a day-to-day basis for the welfare of their staff, but I think one story epitomises what they may have felt about what was the right thing to do.

Imagine it is the early 1900's. The factory has blossomed since its opening in 1887, and new demand means they are opening their first factory overseas in Brussels, so what does Lever do?

He shuts the factory and the village for a weekend. He takes 2000, yes that's 2000 of them, on a trip. That's pretty well everyone in the village. They are used to the paid for annual trips to indulge in the delights of Blackpool, the garden parties in their own home, the birthday presents for every child, often delivered by Elizabeth herself. This time, they are given an adventure few would ever dream of. The employees are all given colour coded tickets to board specially hired colour coded trains, (you could do that in those days), to take them to the English Channel, then by ferry to Ostend, where this small victorian army is collected up by more painted trains. On their arrival in Brussels that are wined and dined at a string of restaurants across the city and then given a tour in a fleet of 300 wagons and landaus before the opening ceremony that evening. The village's own 40 piece orchestra play to entertain them.

This was in 1900. Can you imagine challenges of this logistical feat? They did have the help of another famous company, that is still going strong, one Thomas Cook, but even so? Can you imagine asking your board to write that cheque? And why did he do it?

It was I believe pretty simple really - he realised that, 100 years before we ‘invented’ the concept of work life balance, 60 years before the UK’s welfare state and free health care, 100 years before the creation of the EU and maximum working week directives, that the single most important factor in creating a happy and willingly cooperative and productive workforce was to build within it a sense of belonging. And he also was always mindful that you cannot build anything with people who do not care and that his own personal wealth arose from their labours.

This wasn't just a one off either. Change is not a single event. The list of events and goes on and on. I have scores of stories about the ideas and initiatives, of his innovation and sometimes down right cunning; how he introduced a maximum 36 week for all female staff - this was in the 1890’s for heavens sake - free medical treatment in their own hospital, workers education programmes, it just goes on and on. Although undoubtedly driven by pure benevolence, he wasn’t just being Father Christmas, it was also had a pragmatic bottom in too. Something he was very, very aware of.

He makes you feel a tad of ashamed with our miserly efforts, and IC managers worrying ourselves to death about whether the intranet works.

History is often a useful reference, but don't we we all need a 'root's story anyway?


Please feel to post your example of the good or bad internal communications or employee engagement below, anonymously if you like or give is us link to something, or just share.

Engagement or agent provocateur?

 

Storytelling has the power to inspire, influence and persuade. Any arguments out there? Hopefully not. If so, please step away right now and mind the gap. 

In Employee Engagement, in the right hands, it has the power to challenge the cultural assumptions and fundamentally change the normal thought processes and modus operandi, which is the key lubricant in freeing up any organisation's innovation inertia and engagement levels.

Internal communications for me is primarily about looking at ways of delivering stories, not just to engage and inspire change but to make anyone think,' What if I….??'

The best stories are the ones with the slight twist, the ones that have the ah-hah moment as opposed to the ha-ha moment. There is only an 'h' difference but that 'h' is a mighty big letter.

I was in a meeting at an NHS establishment a few weeks ago. An organisation that is redefining the concept  'change management'. 'Revolution management' would be more apt. This brainstorming session was focussing on just one of myriad new process rapidly turned into a therapy session for one of the participants. He suddenly woke up to the fact that the reason he was so unhappy at work, why he was so stressed and the reason why he couldn’t keep on top of the basics was that he kept passing the responsibility for the decision onto other people. Justifying this to himself with a laudable desire for building inclusiveness; instead of just simply doing it.  The resut was that all decisions and any subsequent actions just got mud-logged.

I remember talking to another group about a time I had had to make some not insignificant changes to the intranet web site copy. The group in question, who were working in that organisation, asked how I had got through the mass of approvals they would normally have to go through? I told them I just did it. I didn't ask. By the time the permissions had worked their way down through the mass of emails and cc’s (continuity cock-ups) the opportunity to address the immediate issue would have disappeared. And the chance to make a salient point, improve something with a simple yes or no decision had evaporated. I hate wasted (good) ideas. So I just did it and hoped that my naive enthusiatic approach and the reason for my indiscipline in the ranks would allow me to escape the headmaster’s wrath.

The result was really interesting. Firstly, the powers to be didn’t even notice, and then, when I did mention it in passing because I was feeling a little guilty towards the person who should have been at the head of the approval food chain, they were not only supportive but began a process to shortcut the process in future. She is, not unusually, continually stacked up with e-mails and appreciated that making no decision is worse than the wrong decision, in virtually every situation.
Waiting for approval for stuff when they pay you to use your judgement and experience to produce is just nuts. Frustrations with poor communications and irrelevant controls are sited as the major reason that employees leave companies and the atmoshere employee disenagement.

Another interesting point. Ask your boss and they will say they feel exactly the same. Our bosses feel the exact same frustrations believe me.

So, if you do find a renegade in the ranks, don’t build walls around them or fire them; nurture them, culture them, and then activley help them get them to spread the word. To tell their story. Then stand back and see what happens.

Love letters to Heal and Transform

19 tips to change the story in your organisation

Change to circumstances, adapting to new roles, new responsibilities, new operations require a shift in the internal stories that are told within an organisation.  It is the stories that both define and measure corporate engagement and not the new policy manual.  

Following are 19 ideas you might like to think about in considering transition, change and internal communication that will ( possibly) generate a new set of stories.

1. Don't always question.

I know it is what most of us do, and what the Gurus told us do in the 'old days' of last years management fad.  They implored us to 'Question everything. Challenge every assumption'. You can still do that, just don't get obsessed with it. 

Instead, revitalise the casual conversations and information sharing as a normal business practice and devote as much as half of your time to developing that dialogue. You can't expect to learn a lot just by challenging your staff. They will, more often than not, give you the answer they think you want, especially if they have to give answers off the cuff. Welcome, without qualification, another's thoughts and opinions and give them time to respond.

2. Establish a nil tolerance for Mediocre Practice but don't polarise the process and focus too much effort on establishing Best Practice.

Instead focus on ways to eliminate worse practice. When is best good enough anyway? A 'best practice' will invariably come out in the end anyway if you are initiating the other 19 ( or so) principles. Well a few of them anyway. Incrementally it is a much quicker fix, for both you and the customer. In any case the question you should be asking is 'Are you benchmarking yourself against the mediocre, the safe, and the obsolete? Is it just a 'me too' action. Do you want to give a karaoke performance of Britney Spears or Ella Fiztgerald. For a lot of people Britney is good enough. But for some....

3. Actions SHOUT.

I'd like to introduce you to the CASER principle, with apologies to Gordon Gould, the first man to use the word, laser, whose acronym I have blatantly hijacked. (Laser actually stands for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation for all you pub quizzers out there, which is why you shouldn't really spell it with a 'z'.)
I have made up my own version. CASER which stands for Creativity Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Results.

If you can vividly show the effect, good or bad (It turns out that it doesn't matter which actually) that results from the implementation of their ideas you reinforce the feed back of the original signal. Show them that you take their ideas seriously, and they will trust you more seriously to share their ideas.

3. Actively Look Out.

Scan the distance, not just through the myopia of market analysis or forums or the telescope of your marketing or sales department. That is an awfully narrow field of view. Have regard not just for at the usual suspects, the competitors in your field or your own market, but from other sectors, other agencies or business models. How do they do it?

Most of the good ideas don't come from your own staff (Or you for that matter). You are not the stewards of all things 'magnificent'. Humbleness is truly attractive and inspiring. Acknowledgement of others contribution wins friends and accomplices.

4. Experiment Persistently.

Assume absolutely nothing. Enlightened trial and error outperforms any planning of human intellect no matter how flawless their rationale may appear. You can, and must, plan ahead to know where you want to go, and what steps you will have to make to get there.  But then put the plan aside and focus on the first steps. But regularly stop to look at the outcomes of the action and then wash, rinse and repeat the process.

5. Let go of the need to be right. It's OK to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.

Your mistakes are your experience. Pass it on to everyone. If you malign failure, you destroy entrepreneurship, snuff out innovation and in the end you harm the company. On the other hand if you "forgive and forget" because you want to be that great boss you always wanted to work for, that same mistake will be repeated twice or a dozen times. Failure is normal, accept it, move on but demand that lessons be learned and communicated through the entire organisation.

Expect no less from everyone in your organisation.

6. Empower but support

It is absolutely all right, positively, to give assignments to people who have never done that particular task before. The rider is that, if you do, then it is your absolute responsibility to provide them with a network of advisors whom you trust. Legitimacy lies in competence as much as what position they may hold in the organisation chart. Position without competence results in disaster. Competence without position results in frustration.

7. Don't refer to the 'Internal organisation'.

Talk about specific people. Referring to other organisations of the company as "them" is laying the ground for future excuses about the lack of results for everyone and blame deflection.

Organisations are almost inevitably impersonal, complex, and change every 24 months anyway. People and communities however are far more stable, resilient and trustworthy.

8. Kill off internal client-supplier relationships.

The internal market approach is the very worst possible form of internal collaboration. It damages the social network and value of the organisation and paralyses its ability to solve problems for the customer. If you want to reinforce the silo mentality that is the next best way of doing it and kill of any hint of client supplier relationships.

9. Before deciding on a plan, always ask with whom the plan was discussed.

The raison d'etre of the corporate manager is not to come up with the bright ideas, but with ideas shared with other stakeholders. It is a brave and serious  woman, or man, who can reject all proposals and action plans bearing only the signatures of your staff. But 'Brave'  actually works. Stick with it.

10. Involve people collectively in your thinking.

If you merely want compliance (at best) rather than real commitment then use managerial authority to deploy programs and plans from the top-down. Then find somewhere comfy to sit back and watch it all unravel. If you want people to adopt your views and act accordingly, you must engage in meaningful conversations with them, and not rely on "cascade down" or "communicate messages". If you have a teenager then you will l know exactly what I mean.

Think about the power of stories. No-one is ever really won over by a PowerPoint presentation, a chart, other peoples mission statements, or an Excel spread sheet. Well they shouldn't be. Nor will they ever adopt for themselves another's goals. In theory, in the short term it may possibly work - short term in this case being the five minutes after the 'Ra-Ra' speech until the next problem hits them as they get back to their desk. For medium or long-term participation you need to connect emotionally (How to do that? Well that is the tricky part and the reason why 99.999% of all managers, including you and me are not Steve Jobs)

11. Management is not so much about delegating to individuals than about organising and empowering groups.

Effective action ("execution") in any organisation is all about coordination and synchronisation. Speed of execution is best achieved by competent people who understand and trust each other and then self-synchronise, while you get the hell out of the way. The first job of a manager is to detect who these people are and make sure they work together in the right setting. Or isolate them if they are in a dysfunctional group. Ouch!

12. It's not about giving objectives.

It's about making sure they understand your intent. If they really understand your goals and if it makes sense to them, they will figure out what to do by themselves. It is by far more difficult to articulate a clear intent than to give objectives. Those that figure out that particular trick are the true leaders. Remember the power of the story.

13. Never give targets without negotiating them first.
Giving measurable quantitative targets without negotiating them with those responsible for making it happen is just bad, bad management. But negotiate hard and if you do shift their comfort zone, give them the support to deliver. Not an excuse to fail.

14. Don't Squirrel knowledge (or the coffee)
Don't think that you always know what information is 'good' for your staff. Let them know what you know, give them access to every document you have, unless it is explicitly confidential or for a damn good reason. Don't work on a "need to know" basis. No one ever said 'Oh, that Barry bloke, he communicated way too much'. Let them sort out the information overload. There are plenty of tools and tricks to help them. Even if you do cocoon them they will always find out or jump to conclusions but via half-truths, conjecture, second-guessing, the water cooler whispers and arrive completely at the wrong picture. Paranoia is a part of almost every human activity so don't give it more oxygen. It is far easier to manage any fallout than motivate the disenchanted.

15. History is good - Look back.

Encourage the promotion of the myths and legends. You need to balance market studies, action plans, specifications etc. with case studies, lessons learned, good practices and document the cock ups Spend some time reflecting on past experiences. And embed all new employees and stakeholders with the story. Commitment to the past reaffirms the company's culture and the brand.

16. Don't promote people that sound smart, but those who make sure that smart things happen.

 
The company's promotion process is the primary driver of employees' emotional positivity. It isn't money, or perks or glory. It can build or destroy confidence or simply reinforce the CGAS attitude.

17. Don't expect dedication from someone who fears for his job.

All efforts are retarded by the fear of job loss. If you need to fire or move people, do it at warp speed, and make sure it appears to all as an exceptional event.

18. Never manipulate your staff. You actually can't!

Employees are hypersensitive to inconsistencies and incoherence across an organisation. They immediately detect every ripple of manipulation when they hear conflicting messages. Largely, because they are looking for them and we come circling right back to the paranoia thing again. Establish trusted relations with your peers first. Trust is the bandwidth of communication

19. Get yourself a knowledge technology coach.

 
Communication and collaboration technologies are dramatically changing. E-mail for collaboration is becoming extinct. You need to up your game.

Want to drop in any more??? Make it up to 20??

Non Customer Service Story- How the deaf are 'aided' by one UK mobile phone provider

I heard today an interesting story from a friend about customer no-service, imbecile scripts and shoddy training. She is translator for the deaf. 

Deaf people use mobile phones most of the time, pretty obviously for texting.  They have become a lifeline, one of the more useful useful devices and often really on them so if something breaks it makes life a bit pretty tricky. So if it does you would imagine that your mobile phone provider would have system for dealing with just this situation I mean we have we have ramps for building access…

Our hero today? Let's call him Colin, because that’s that is his real name,  and let’s call his cell phone provider ‘Four ’as that’s pretty close. You figure who it is..

Colin’s phone has broken so he enlists the help of my friend who can translate for him using sign language

.  

So his interpreter rings up 'Four’s’ customer services.

The conversation went something like this:

.

‘Hello, I’m speaking on behalf of one your customers.  He  is deaf so I am translating for him…

‘OK, but I need to authenticate that he is the owner.’

‘That’s a bit tricky. He can’t speak.’

‘But  I need to speak to him.’

 

Well, as I say that’s a bit tricky as he is deaf and you probably wouldn't understand what he is saying.’

‘But we need to speak to him to authenticate that he is the user.’

‘OK I’ll put him on.’

 Colin tries his best but he’s not very good a vocalising because… he is profoundly deaf.

‘Did you get any of that?’

 

No. Not really. Are you speaking from the phone  number of the owner?

No. That would be lovely but we can’t because it’s because it’s broken' that is why we are ringing you'

‘Well  I can’t process anything until I have authenticated him…’

‘Look, I have all his details, his credit card,bank details, his pin number, his date of birth, is that not enough to prove that he is who he is.?’

‘No’.

‘Well can I speak to your manager  then?’

‘I can’t pass you through until I’ve authenticated the account.’

Interpreter looses it… Creative expletives.

‘I’ll put you through then..’ Phone rings for five minutes then cuts off.

Eventually they take him into the City to a ‘Four ‘shop.  They explain the problem, their staff are pretty helpful…they do not have the phone he needs so they say they will contact him to tell him where he can pick it up from.

So they do, and leave him a voice message!!

Did we learn nothing from 2012?

Innovation is a thousand stories

 

 

Ok, to start a few questions for you.

 

Which is the most successful company or organisation in your sector?
Depends what you mean by success of course. May I suggest that the chances are that it’s the one that applies imagination and creativity to meet their customer needs.

Who is the most valuable person in your business?
It’s the girls or guys who actively think, and then help others to think and provide solutions. Sometimes referred to as the mavericks, the rebels, the oddballs, the revolutionaries - they would probably have a surfboard strung up over their desk if they could and are bellringers or bungee jumpers, bullfigthers or role players in their spare time.

And who is the happiest person you know?
Again what do we mean by happy? I'd venture that it is the one person you know who has found the point where their passions and talents meet.

What do all the three have in common? Well apart from feeling very proud of themselves, and so they should, you could say that each has found a way to plug into and use their creative power within themselves.

But, before we go on, first let me tell you what creativity isn’t.

The word creativity has been hijacked somewhere along the line. Its use now is as a catchall, encompassing word, sometimes applied in a slightly derogatory way; especially when used by those who ‘don’t get it,’ to describe the slightly bohemian, hippyfied amongst us, those people who march to a different drum. It is used as both as an adjective and a verb to describe those that write paint, play, dance, sculpt, do stuff with their hands, or generally hang around at Hobbycraft. It is often accompanied by a slight shaking of an exasperated head. We have a guy in Barnsley who wears shorts, knee high scarlet socks and a matching bobble hat every day of the year. He is just brilliant and you can see him marching proudly around our shopping centre almost everyday in any weather. Is he creative or just weird? Bit of both really, but creative definitely.

So here is my view. Our definition of Creativity It's so much broader than that - you just can't begin describe the immesnity of the impact creativity and innovation has made and will continue to make in our World, but here is a sound bite.

Creativity is what happens when imagination has focus; innovation is what happens when creativity has a bottom line; enterprise is what happens when innovation meets ability, entrepreneurship is what happens when all the aforementioned are put on the same cart and passion becomes the fuel.

If you ask most entrapraneurs, which is what I do a lot in my creativity workshops and after they get over the shock of realising that they can actually make money from something they love, most will say that it’s the fulfillment of creating something from nothing that makes them feel warm and fuzzy. And then it’s a compulsion to do it again and again. They like the money too, obviously. but not as much as you would think.

 

But it's not just the entrepreneurs but the intrapreneursthe ones inside an organisation who have the same drive and passion; the ones inside an organisation  who disrupt the status quo. Who want to build something splendid too, who want to change a process not just for the sake of change but to make it work better. Becuase they can. Now that is creativity. OK, it’s a bit of over simple analysis I grant you but at least it may get you thinking. Let me move on a bit.

To this bit actually. Something we take for granted. There are roughly 6000 languages spoken in the World, ( although we have just lost Manx apparently) These weren’t dreamt up spontaneously by the dictionary compilers or an infinite number of immortal blindfold monkeys with typewriters but all were arrived at by humanity's inherent ability to create. It is like storytelling, hardwired into all of us, in-grained into everyone us. We just forgot how to use it.

 

And we can see it everyday, if we were only to look.

There is a glorious bloke down my road who has some fabulous flower beds in his front garden. Juts a year round chaos of colour.I see him everyday on my way to work. He is a retired bus driver who drove the same route for 34 years; arrived at the same point within seconds day in day out, a world of timetable and turnarounds. A working life constrained in ways few of us could ever understand or tolerate. But he is proof positive that everyone has that certain spark to illuminate, the ability to look at things in a different way, to see a new pattern. And it's not just his garden. On his last day of work 65 year Bill, steady Bill, the Bill  who had three days of sick in his life, kidnapped his own bus, took his number 14 home and then loaded up all his neighbours and family and  and took them for a picnic to the seaside 80 miles away. As he said 'what where they going to do, fire him?'

I am digressing slightly. Why is creativity or innovation so vital and especially now in our current economic and social conditions? Well some would  say me included, that the current situation is largely the result of 'a distinct lack of innovation and a preponderance of 'karaoke' thinking in the banking and public sector industries; which largely became an exercise in jumping on bandwagons, in this case on the track that lead over the edge of a cliff. The fallout of this age of Innovation Impotence will be felt for years. The old ways, management techniques, methods and rule books are having to be torn up. The impact and success of companies will now depend on as much as the ethical way they do business, their CSR programmes and how they manage their customer relationships to establish trust and credibility as much as the value of product or service they market or provide. Innovation and different thinking has never been so keenly needed to be enabled and empowered universally, not just by individuals but by every public and private organisation.

Innovative organisations attract innovative thinkers who contribute to them becoming more innovative and attracts the….so the cycle goes on. What are you doing today to address the innovation gap?

You may like to reflect on this. ‘Creativity can be applied to any aspect of human endeavor and enterprise’. Well there is brassy and bold statement. Certainly it can be used to improve or change a process, or a product, or a service, or to improve a relationship.

For what its worth I believe that anyone can be creative. The label 'creativity' applies to just about any progressive thinking. The creative superstar starts to think where  others stop. They break out of pattern, they zig while the others zag. You both get there in the end but they go via a different route and sometimes fail. Bit often suceed superbly. By doing so they uniquely separate themselves out from the rest. And, curiously they appear to have a hell of a lot more fun and fulfillment than the zaggers in doing so. The happiest person you know? Maybe, probably.

The really good news, and this is really, really good news, is that anyone and any organisation can learn to harness creativity in all its manifestations. It's not as hard as you may think. Learning to unleash your creativity is like learning to play golf. We can all swing a club and hit a ball, the excpetion being my mum, and every so often anyone, even my mum, can connect and hit that one beautiful shot. It is the promise of repeating that shot that keeps us coming back for more. Everyone has that in them, the possibility to hit a hole-in-one but…. not all of us can be Rory McIlroy everyday. Creativity requires practice and the more you practice the better you get. But somebody has to show you how to do it right, to start you off or help you so you can experience that feeling of the sweet sound of connection and power as the ball flies into the sky as often as possible.

Alternatively you and your colleagues can be (un)happy with your lot, and sit feeling sorry for yourself, quietly fermenting in the culture of mediocrity. Conformity and risk aversion has come home to roost and he is a big, big turkey with a bad attitude.

If you were to ask me, and I hope you are, embracing creativity and innovation, at its fundamental core, is the recognition of the fact that that we don’t know everything but it’s really fun trying to. Finding new stories to tell isn't just great, its astonishing in its power to amplificy. Well that’s the answer I would give today, but I’m not sure about tomorrow.I may have found a new story to explaining it.  That is the point. But what I am sure of is that the only people who will lead us out of this mess are those that can truly embrace change, and apply their creativity muscles and that she who tells the best story will be the winner.

My own hero Darwin was right on so many levels. We have before our own eyes proof that it is not the Survival of the Fattest that will prevail. It is those that can adapt most quickly to opportunities that survive and flourish. And to help su do that we have a tool that surpasses every other leaping, flying, jumping, seeing, skill. Our creative minds. An incredible tool that can visualise a Billion futures and a Billion solutions. We had better start learning how to use them again.