Five minutes and 15 questions could save you 50%! Why? Because clarity produces better results faster with greater confidence and commitment. Wondering how clear your organization is? Check Your Clarity Index now!
From Cambridge, Massachusetts to San Francisco, the Uber wars are underway. Riders love the app driven service, cabbies are screaming about the competition and tax evasion, cities are losing revenue, and public safety agencies are worried about riders. As a result, status quo constituents are throwing every rule in the book at Uber in the hopes of turning the clock back. How silly is that! Meanwhile, a parallel war is erupting in the world of lodging. Airbnb connects travelers with non-traditional lodging. Swap cabbies with hoteliers and the story is practically identical. This is a lousy, wasteful, and unproductive reaction to innovation. Consider for a minute the wasted time and money being spent fighting what is inevitable. We are going to use our phone apps to find lodging and rides. That’s a given. The ability of the Internet to connect buyers to non-traditional providers is also a given. Pretending this is not the case is foolish.
I have a pen that explodes. The spring is stronger than the plastic threads meant to keep it in one piece. When the tip touches paper, it is as likely to fly apart as record my thoughts. I keep it because it was sent to me as a free sample when I first started my business and I thought it was pretty cool to have my logo on a pen. Three or four others showed up over those first several months, but this one was special. It’s the only one that explodes! In branding, memorable is good, right? Your brand should attract attention and lodge itself in the memories of your customers. Exploding pens are memorable! Why didn’t I buy hundreds of them?
When I answered the door, the FedEx driver was hanging back, hoping I would appear. She had already put my package between the two doors. I opened the storm door to thank her. “I noticed that UPS left a package by the garage.” I thanked her and let her know I really appreciate her taking the time to bring packages to the door. “I’d hate to see them get wet or blow away,” she said, looking up at our gutters. I thanked her again. By then I was holding the package she brought in my hand. “Look at that! By your thumb! It says we promised a Wednesday delivery. Today is only Tuesday. I’m early! Pretty good, eh?” Hard not to smile. What a great ambassador for FedEx. In a few friendly, casual words she pointed out everything great about FedEx while helping me notice and overcome UPS’ short-comings. For that, I give The Clarity Award to FedEx. This woman knows that her deliveries and behavior are important. She knows that relationships matter. Last, but not least, she knows UPS is the competition to beat. I wish I had asked her name because she is still making me smile! Wish your priorities were this clear to your employees? Give me a call at 800-527-0087.
Part of my work with clients involves helping them see the things they do that don’t make sense. There are lots of reasons we do things we should change – legacy systems, old work-arounds, changing cultural norms, old mistakes, former employees, fear, bad decisions, face-saving, poor information, poor management, no sense of ownership or avenue to change for those aware of the problem – and it is hard to see them when they are totally ingrained in our daily work. The New York Daily News provides a great example. The notion that all hotel rooms must be vacated at the same time makes no sense. The idea that someone lucky enough to find their room ready early can stay for almost 24 hours but someone who arrives at midnight must be out in less than half that time makes no sense. Choosing 10:00 vs. 11:00 vs. noon and imposing that arbitrary decision on your guests makes no sense. Rushing guests out when rooms will sit empty for hours, if no the coming night, makes no sense. Beefing up your cleaning staff so they can clean all rooms in one 4 – 5 hour period makes no sense. I’ve had cleaning staff knock on my door as early as 8 AM, three hours early because they are so eager to make some progress for the checkout onslaught. What are you doing that makes no sense? What old habits or assumptions are hampering the value you provide or your ability to deliver that value predictably, reliably, and profitably? When you hear those words, “that’s just the way we do it,” the red flags should fly. Don’t do anything just because you always have!
“I’ll answer your question at 1:35.” With that he walked away. The woman ahead of me, who had been waiting far too patiently while this man attended to stuff and not to her, was incredulous. This, my friends, is a perfect example of either strategic stupidity or a lack of strategic clarity. If this is the way Delta wants customers treated, it is strategic stupidity. If it is not the way they want customers treated, it is a lack of strategic clarity. Employees make decisions all day long that either help or hinder the company’s strategy. They aren’t robots and you can’t train for every decision (not that you couldn’t train for this one!). You can, however, communicate priorities and intentions. If you want employees making smart decisions that support your priorities, they, and their managers who are responsible for their training, must understand your strategic priorities. They must understand that people at the counter are paying customers with needs that deserve attention, not to mention friendly, helpful attitudes. This isn’t rocket science. There is no excuse for either strategic stupidity or a lack of strategic clarity. Need some help with either? Give me a call at 800-527-0087.
The best and most ambitious managers make things happen. I love their enthusiasm and energy. I love their eagerness to learn and improve. I applaud their great plans and accomplishments. And then I ask about the direction of the organization. Too often it’s like pulling the plug and letting the energy, the momentum, and even the speaking volume rush down the drain. Sometimes hushed tones express concern for the organization’s future. Sometimes embarrassment or lack of confidence permeates a confused answer. Sometimes the eyeballs roll, followed by an explanation of an inept or non-existent strategic process. These responses are indicative of two possible and extremely common conditions, both of which guarantee your best employees are wasting your resources and, very possibly, looking for a new job. There is no clear, viable strategic direction Your managers do not understand and accept the strategy and its implications Why is that such a problem, especially when your top talent is accomplishing so much? The following diagram ought to make that clear: The green oval represents activities that are highly important to the organization’s strategic direction and creating a prosperous future. The red oval represents activities that will have the greatest positive impact on current operational effectiveness. In very few cases will your future organization need nothing more than a more perfect and/or expanded version of your current operations in order to thrive. How relevant to your future are your current products, current customers, current markets, current employees, current processes, current sales and distribution channels, current facilities, etc.?
The transition to my new website was not pain free, not by a long shot. One piece of that transition involved my email, which involved Google. Someone named Jonnathan was my knight in shining armor. It wasn’t easy getting to the right support person, but I have got to tell you, he was as good as gold once I found him. He was knowledgable, responsive, thorough, right, and patient. He helped me via both email and telephone. He deserves a raise! Now if only Google as a whole were so valuable! The entire Google experience reeks of complexity. I have multiple accounts, each with different capabilities and permissions. I have no idea how things got so complex or why. I would love to have only one account, but I don’t know how to make the change. Depending on how I log in, I get a wide variety of dash boards and options. I also get warnings saying I am not authorized to do whatever I am trying to do. When I seek support, I get the opportunity to read volume upon volume of information that doesn’t exactly address my problem. On top of that, they send me ridiculously long emails explaining their services and changes. I don’t have a life to devote to learning how to be a good Google customer! I can’t possibly keep up with all their changes. I’d love to think they really had my best interests at heart, but I don’t believe it.
The snowplow drivers must believe that destroying mailboxes and bending paper boxes is their right and duty. We are not surprised. I guess it comes with the territory. But if there were an alternative… I punch in my name, account number, and zip code for faster service. When I finally get a human being, I repeat all of the above. Why? If there were an alternative… I go to the bank to deposit a check and wait while the teller types a novella. Why? Both the check and the deposit slip feature all the machine-readable numbers they could possibly need. Even a really big deposit requires only 10 keys including the decimal to punch in the amount of the deposit. Why a book? I am bewildered but resigned to waiting. But if there were an alternative… The menu of options was so long I think I fell asleep.
Too many people confuse a mission statement with marketing. The result is either bad marketing or a confusing mission or both. On top of that, conflating the two also wastes tremendous time and energy. Mission statements and marketing have three things in common. Both should be simple, clear, and focused on value to customers. There the similarities end. And the differences are truly fundamental: different purposes and different audiences. An organization’s mission is its raison d’être. Strong, successful, focused organizations, whether for-profit or non-profit, are clear about how they wish to improve the condition of their clients, customers, members, or target populations. It doesn’t matter whether you are: Clothing the poor for warmth or the rich for status and beauty Helping the long-term unemployed develop better skills or educating the crème de la crème Providing children with colored pencils for drawing pretty pictures or engineers with computers for modeling complex systems Saving money for your customers by producing inexpensive alternatives or saving them time with costly services