Work As a Team!
April 21, 2010
We were in Puerto Rico last week for a program, and took a few extra days to enjoy the island and have a mini vacation (one of the benefits of having both kids out of the house).
Wanting to try something different, and on the recommendation of one of our clients, we took a day trip to the island of Culebra, about 17 miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland. The beaches are beautiful, and with very little effort, you can find your own private area to relax in.
We wanted to get in some snorkeling, and since we also enjoy kayaking, we found the best of both worlds in a company called Kayaking Puerto Rico. They offered a package where we could kayak out to some secluded reefs; they would anchor the kayaks, and we could snorkel to our hearts’ content.
There were plenty of things to see including tropical fish, different types of coral, spiny urchins, lobsters, starfish, and rays.
But some of the real fun took place when we headed back to the shore for a break and some snacks. We were among the last kayaks to get untied from the anchored boat, but we were determined to be the first back to shore (this was our workout for the day, after all).
So, working together, paddling first on the left, then on the right, then on the left, then on the right, we passed the first kayak. Then the second. Then the third. In all honesty, it wasn’t incredibly difficult for two reasons. First, we’ve kayaked before, and knew what we were doing.
But second, and more importantly, most of the other people were not working together. One was paddling left while the other was going right. They were completely out of sync in their rhythm. Some of them were literally going in circles and crashing onto other boats!
So with our heart rate up and our arms and shoulders aching, we passed the remainder of the kayaks, and got to shore first. We were sitting on the bench enjoying our snacks as the other boats came in – some of them ten minutes later.
(If you want to see us in our kayak, just click here – but be warned, this isn’t what we looked like when we were actually moving – we were trying to pose for the camera in this picture!)
Some of the other kayakers were bigger and stronger than us, but that didn’t matter – what was important was working together, having proper form, and executing according to plan.
You may not be on a kayak in the ocean, but good teamwork is essential in anything you do.
The “Unit President Concept”
April 21, 2010
It’s definitely a challenging time in the business world. Despite showing small periodic signs of imminent recovery, the economy is still throwing up roadblocks to success.
But as we’ve been discussing in this newsletter – almost since the very first issue over ten years ago – it’s not so much the external factors that keep us from achieving our goals, but rather our own internal limiting beliefs.
In fact, as a result of reading these articles, you’ve probably had a few great ideas you’d like to have tried, but may have run into resistance from the “powers that be” because “it’s just too outrageous” or “it won’t work in our market” or “our customers would be offended.” (By the way, these assertions are rarely true – a fact that can easily be determined by some very easy and very inexpensive testing.)
So now may be the perfect time to try out one of my favorite business concepts: the Unit-President Concept. Here’s how it works…
Take out the organizational chart of your company – you know, the hierarchical set of blocks that shows the big boss on top, the next bosses below, and so on, until you get to the bottom level of the company.
If you’re the box on top, then congratulations for making it there, or for having the guts to create a business that puts you there by default. This means you are the boss, so what are you waiting for? It’s your money, or your bonus on the line, so try something out, test it thoroughly, measure the results, and make your decisions based on fact and data and not on feeling and conjecture.
But what if you’re not the “big box” on the top? No problem. Let’s say you’re the next box. Just take a pair of scissors and cut away everything on the chart that’s not your box or any of the boxes below you in the organization. Now look at the chart: you are the boss! You’re the “president” of your group, so start acting like the president and implement strategies that will being you measurable success!
But what if you’re just an individual contributor – and you don’t even have a box on the org. chart? No problem! Create an org. chart that just has your name on it, and draw a box around it. Congratulations – you’re now the president of your own job! Granted, it’s a group of only one person, but still it’s your group.
This is the Unit President Concept – so whichever group you have influence over – even if it’s only your own individual position – should be viewed as a stand-alone company, as if your job was outsourced to you and you had complete control over how to deliver the results.
You may not have all the perks of the “official” president, but there’s a measure of satisfaction, and far more latitude than you think in how you go about accomplishing your objectives. Make something happen this week – and congratulations again on your “promotion!”
The Tile Guy Goes to School
April 14, 2010
Most of us understand the importance of education. We encourage our children to do well in school, and learn everything that’s needed to become productive members of society, whether at college or by learning a trade.
Unfortunately, for many people, this commitment to education stops as soon as they get caught up in the day-to-day challenges of life.
It doesn’t have to be this way, of course; there are countless opportunities to continue learning in your personal and professional lives. Our Inner Circle Gold Coaching Members, for example, get a live webinar each month on a specific marketing topic, and an additional monthly “open critique” webinar where they can get their materials and web sites reviewed.
So I was both surprised and delighted when we started talking with the contractor who’s installing a tile back splash in our kitchen.
He asked what Lorie and I did for a living, and when we explained what we did, he said that he could sure use some help in that area, since his business has slowed considerably since the recession hit. Most of his work, it turns out, had been in new construction, where a single customer (a builder) could keep him busy for an entire year. (Please don’t miss the hidden warning here about having just one big customer…)
When I asked him what he was doing with all the down time, he shocked me by responding that he was taking electrical and plumbing courses so he could become proficient in those areas and become a one-stop-shopping source for his customers.
This is a great idea, and a fantastic use of “down time” that would otherwise be unproductive. In a time when many people use this time to complain about how bad the economy is, our tile guy is taking advantage of this time to increase the value he’s able to bring to his customers, which will, in turn increase his personal income.
What are you doing with your down time? A good friend of ours who commutes for several hours each day listens to books on tape. Another person is learning a language during her commute time.
There are always opportunities to further your education – are you taking advantage of yours?
We Need a Photo Id!
April 14, 2010
It’s tough to make time for everything, and more often than not, work takes priority over other important areas, including personal fitness. So when I find the time to work out, I try to squeeze it in, sometimes racing out the door to make a class.
Unfortunately, once I left so quickly that I grabbed the wrong set of keys, and along with them Lorie’s club ID card instead of my own. No problem, I thought, as I realized what I had done, I’ll just explain it to the guy at the front desk.
As I walked into the building, he greeted me by name and reached out to take my card so he could scan it into the system. When I explained what had happened, and that I didn’t have my card, he asked me for a photo ID.
Having run out of the house so quickly, I also forgot to bring my wallet, so I didn’t have that either. He then got a very nervous look on his face and walked into the manager’s office to see if he could get special permission to let me in. They did, but “just this time.”
As I was on the bike in that early-morning spinning class, it occurred to me that they had taken my picture when I joined the club, and that I vaguely recall that the picture was displayed on the computer screen when they scanned the bar code on the ID card (which, by the way, does not have the photo on it).
On the way out, I asked the guy about this: “I’m guessing that the reason you go through the check-in process is that you want to make sure that everyone entering the building is who they say they are, and that their memberships are all current, right?” He confirmed that this was the case.
“So,” I continued, “overlooking the fact that you know me and greet me by name when I come in, couldn’t you just type in my name, bring up my record, verify that my membership is current, and look at the photo on the screen to confirm that it’s really me?”
“Yes,” he answered, “and that would make perfect sense. Unfortunately, that’s not the process from headquarters, and If I don’t follow the process to the letter, I could get fired.”
And this is a real issue in most companies: people blindly following processes that fail to accomplish what they’re supposed to, or do so in a way that completely and totally inconveniences the very customers they’re supposed to be helping.
As we discussed last week, processes are important, and processes are good…but only when they help you in delivering the highest level of service to your customers.
Why Can’t We Bring Cameras?
April 8, 2010
I had to travel up to New York City a few weeks ago to sign some papers about the estate of my mother who passed away last November. It was a quick trip – up on Sunday, lunch with my uncle, a visit with my sister and her family, and an early-morning drive into the city.
Once we got inside the building, we had the best customer service I’ve had from any government employee, but we had to experience something very puzzling to get to that point.
You see, when we entered the court building, we had to go through a metal detector, just like at the airport. Mind you, this was the Civil Court building – not Criminal Court. Because I was going directly to the airport from the courthouse, I had my computer bag with me – the same bag I take with me whenever I travel.
I know what sets off the alarm and what doesn’t, and still the machine kept beeping every time my bag went through. Finally we found the cause: my Kodak Zi8 video camera and Olympus OM-1 digital voice recorder.
Turns out, you can’t bring video or audio recording devices into the courthouse. But while they were checking and vouchering these two items, I watched in utter amazement as literally hundreds of people entered the very same building carrying iPhones, Blackberrys, and other devices, each fully capable of shooting video and recording sound.
When I asked the supervisor about this, she said, “Yeah, we know that’s a hole in the system, but when we tried to hold everyone’s phone, it just got too crazy.”
So it’s a major security breach to allow recording devices into the building…unless it’s too much of a hassle to enforce the rule because most modern cell phones have recording devices built in. I get it. Okay, maybe not so much. Okay, not at all.
Look, processes are good. They help you present a consistent face to the customer. But when the process causes more problems than it solves, is inconsistent, or is simply too difficult to enforce, then it’s time to find another process. Anything else, and you might just be found guilty of bad management.
Tell Your Friends!
April 8, 2010
In these challenging economic times, you need to do everything you can to generate new business, and referrals are one of the best ways to do this. Unfortunately, most people don’t have a clue how to do this properly, and I got to hear about an example of this just last week.
Erin, our Director of Operations, had just come back to the office from a doctor’s appointment. With a glint in her eye, she said, “Ron, you’re not going to believe this – my doctor’s office has a new-patient referral program.” This was a little exciting, since it’s actually the first time I’ve heard of a doctor being smart enough to try this out.
But then Erin gave me the rest of the details… “You’re not going to believe how much they pay for a referral: five dollars.”
Yes, you read that right: five dollars. That’s just plain wrong on so many levels. Let’s see why…
* So, you want me to go out of my way, remember to mention your office to all my friends when I see them next, and your incentive for me doing all this is…five dollars? Hey, you can barely buy a cup of Starbucks coffee for that these days! Not much of an incentive.
* Plus, they should be able to pay more. A lot more. Let’s say the average office visit costs $200, discounted down to $100 because of negotiated rates with insurance companies. Let’s further assume that we’re dealing with a family of four, who each visit the doctor three times a year. 4 people x 3 visits a year x $100 a visit = $1,200 – and that’s just the first year. Let’s say they stay in the area for five years. That makes the total value of that family a whopping $6,000. Seems to me it’s worth much more than $5 to get that family into the office.
* Finally, there was the method of helping the current patients to get the referrals. There was none. No brochures to hand out to friends, no offers for free visits, nothing at all. In fact, the only way Erin even knew there was a program at all was a small sign at the receptionist’s window. And when she pointed out how weak that offer was, the receptionist just shrugged, not wanting to get into any trouble, I guess.
Of course, if business is falling at that practice, they’ll surely blame it on the economy, and not on their sad, pathetic, imitation of what a real referral program should look like. No, in this case, the cure for their illness would be a good, strong dose of Outrageous Marketing!
Test News Item
April 1, 2010
Here is a test news item for the BSDMembers Site
Please Take Me to the Airport
April 1, 2010
Training new employees is a difficult but essential part of any business, but not everyone gets it right.
I was returning from a trip, and had just boarded the shuttle to take me to the off-site lot where I park my car. Normally, there’s just a single driver who helps load the bags and collects the parking stubs that indicate where in the lot the individual cars are parked.
This time, though, there was a second employee on the bus. It turns out that the driver was new, and the second person was “training” him on how to do the job. I included the quotation marks because I’m not sure I’d actually classify what I saw as training.
It was more like, “Oh yeah, right there on the right, that’s where you should have stopped to see if we had any people waiting there.” Or, “Right – where we just passed? That’s where you call into the dispatcher to let him know your location.”
There was no training manual, no checklists, and no formal procedures. And I’m guessing that the turnover rate for shuttle drivers is pretty high, making this training a fairly regular occurrence.
I’m sure the world won’t come to an end because of this spotty training effort, but I might find myself stranded one day as the van drives right by me as it misses the stop.
What would be the impact of someone not being properly trained in your organization? A little planning, a clear set of processes, and a definite plan will make sure you don’t miss the bus!
What’s So Funny?
April 1, 2010
You may not know who Charles Douglass is, but if you’ve ever watched a TV sitcom, then you’re definitely familiar with his brainchild: the “laugh track.”
In the days before television, comedy was performed either in theatres or on the radio, and in both cases, there was a live audience present. The problem was that they couldn’t always be counted on to laugh at the right time, for the right length, or even to laugh at all. And many TV shows weren’t even filmed in front of studio audiences, so there wouldn’t be any laughter in the soundtrack.
So starting with The Hank McCune Show, a sitcom that aired in 1950, Charles Douglass was brought in to add canned laughter, a “laugh track” to most comedies, a process called “sweetening,” and he held a virtual monopoly on this process through the late ’60s, when shows like All in the Family started a trend of eliminating the process from post-production.
There is some anecdotal evidence that laugh tracks help improve ratings of many shows, and that producers who refuse to include them get disappointing results from – and even cancellation of – their shows.
The point is this: if a show is truly funny, you shouldn’t need a laugh track to let the audience know when to laugh, much like Frank Sinatra’s famous comment that, “Any singer who needs more than a microphone and a spotlight is a punk.”
That’s why we’re really enjoying the new ABC show Modern Family. The stories are detailed and clever, the casting is perfect, and the show is, well, funny!
And I mean laugh-out-loud funny. Really. Click here to see for yourself. (And if they’re available, watch the “Valentines Day” and “Kidney Stone” episodes!)
The key to the success of this show (it was recently renewed for a second season) is that the writing is brilliant. It’s not dumbed-down, childish, or puerile; it doesn’t play to a least-common-denominator level of intelligence; and because of this a laugh track would be a distraction if not an outright insult.
Keep this in mind as you write your own copy: if you do it right, you’ll get the results you want. Get it wrong, and even Charles Douglass’s invention won’t help you!
