If you’ve ever switched credit cards, you probably know how easy it is to neglect one auto-charge, which I did. WARNING! WARNING! The emails flew in. My service will be discontinued if I don’t immediately provide a valid credit card number. So I log in to provide a valid credit card number. WARNING! WARNING! We are experiencing difficulties. Try again later. Once again, a service provider leaves the monkey on my shoulder. I don’t approve of making customers work so hard to hand over their money. I also don’t approve of threats of service loss, especially for $4.16. Do you improve your customer’s condition or add to their stress and workload? Not sure? I’d be glad to help you answer that question! Call me at 800-527-0087.
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” Ernest Hemingway
The Republican Party is in a cul-de-sac according to an examination of what went wrong in 2012. They’ve realized that they are a bunch of “old stuffed shirts” who are “talking only to themselves.” If they have the guts, big changes should follow. Your company may be in a cul-de-sac also. Are you breathing your own exhaust or discussing exciting new ideas? Are you learning from the changes all around you or focused primarily on your performance against the same old goals? Are you honing your systems or developing the agility and strength to change quickly? Good financial results today guarantee nothing about tomorrow. If you wait too long to carve out your future, you too could find yourself described as a stuffy old shirt talking only to yourself deep in the cul-de-sac.
White smoke signaled a decision made and then the new pope walked out on the balcony. Pretty simple. No communications plan needed. Unfortunately, smoke signals won’t work in your company! It works for the Vatican because everyone, and I mean everyone: Knows exactly what decision is being made, Knows how the process works, Accepts the process, and Is watching and waiting with enthusiasm How often does that happen in your company? I suspect never. Thus, smoke signals won’t do the trick. However, there is no reason why you can’t come closer than you do. Let people know what decisions are being made and why Be sure they understand and accept the process Increase their enthusiasm by helping them understand the importance to the company and the implications for themselves While this will make for better decisions and happier employees, I still don’t recommend you reduce your communication to smoke signals!
Don’t manage change! Manage people! From my experience, both as a consultant and as an employee, the minute leaders decide change management is necessary is the minute things get weird. Those determined to manage change often see change as a major hurdle, grounds for rebellion, and a most unpleasant and fearsome task. To fortify themselves against the imagined upheaval and resistance, they turn their attention to the “change process,” which often includes actions such as: Developing a communications plan to control what everyone hears and when they hear it Scripting talking points for managers so they all deliver the same scrubbed messages Creating opportunities for the leaders to be highly visible voicing the same messages Planning a big launch to set the stage for change and generate enthusiasm With these acts, they create more resistance than they prevent. Furthermore, they invest a ton of energy into activities that add little value to identifying and implementing the actual changes needed.
I need to make some changes to my website and have wanted to for about a year. I won’t go into the reasons for my inaction because that is not the point of this post. Right now, there are three emails from three different web developers, all known to me, in my inbox. One arrived just this afternoon. One has been there for quite awhile. Since I generally keep my inbox pretty much empty, the presence of these three is evidence of desire, need, and indecision. This decision is obviously not a top priority right now, but the inbox is proof that I don’t want to put it off completely. So there they sit. Meanwhile, three developers are missing a great opportunity. A simple phone call instead of an email would give any one of them the opportunity to hear, “Actually, I would like to talk about my website.” But they emailed instead of calling. So there they sit. Pick up the phone! When you write an email you are only tilting at windmills. Your written words are all guesses and you learn nothing. It takes just a few words on the phone to figure out where things stand. Why would you want to do it any other way?
A distress call from my daughter involved a strange situation at work. Naturally, I wanted to help but it was tough to get a word in edgewise. When I finally found an opening to ask a few questions, they were clearly unwelcome. For about the ten thousandth time, I had confused venting with a request for help. I wish she would just tell me up front what role she wants me to take! This is a common occurrence with children, partners, and friends and it usually leads to frustration, if not hard feelings. A similar scenario plays out in the working world every single minute of every single day. The flavor is a little different, the root cause the same, and the cost potentially far higher.
I got a call today from Comcast, or at least that is what the “800 Service” caller said following the post-hello pause indicative of an unwanted call. Any doubt was confirmed when my name-mangling meter hit an all-time high and shattered. The caller proceeded to mumble something about Xfinity bundles and home security. With the strikes-against mounting, I was thinking that it would take a miracle to turn this call around. A tiny hint of WIIFM was way overdue and had to be coming. That’s when he asked the stupid question instead. “Do you have a home security system?” “Why, no! Would you like to know when we will be gone next too? Perhaps it would be easier for you, and easier on my light carpets, if I just gave you my bank account information.” If your goal is to catapult yourself from interruption to scammer, I can’t think of a better question to ask than “Do you have a home security system?” So yes, there are stupid questions and if you ask them, you will kill the sale. An 800 Service caller could be anyone. The person you are calling doesn’t know you and has little reason to believe anything you say. You simply can’t ask prying questions. You can create interest and provide value. If you make an offer, the benefit must exceed the risk, including the risk of dealing with an unknown. Put yourself in the recipient’s shoes. Would you be comfortable? More important still, don’t use the same people Comcast did to train your sales team! Comcast provided this caller with poor advice, poor training, or both. Oh, and don’t call late at night, early in the morning, during meals, when I am working, or on the weekend!
Easthampton, MA – Ann Latham has been invited to speak at the Joint Professional Development Meeting of the Association for Operations Management of Western Mass and The Purchasing Management Association of Western New England on January 15, 2013. She will talk about the next great wave of productivity improvement: creating the clarity that simplifies, that improves and speeds decisions, and that allows employees to work together smoothly, quickly, and confidently without backtracking or wheel spinning. For complete information, visit http://www.wmass-apics.com.
During the holidays, I frequently passed a house with at least 3 dozen giant inflatable characters in the yard. They dwarfed both house and yard. Stranger yet, they were alternately inflated and deflated; whatever the reason, someone was doing a lot of work to inflate them regularly. My curiosity was piqued briefly at each passing. Why would someone want so many? Do they deflate them to prevent a prankster from seeing if a knife blade will make them dance and fizzle like balloons? What do the neighbors think?