2012

Chatty brands – what is your online personality?

Plan, Uncategorized No Comments

We have noted before the more informal style of marketing (http://www.idenk.co.uk/blog/?p=1425 ) that seems all the rage

How chatty is your brand online (both on web pages, emails and messages) – and that might mean you (ie you as a brand – even in a charity or not for profit organisation)

What about this I just received following cashing in a voucher when switching to a greener energy supplier:

“Hello Phil
Welcome to XXXXX Wines, and thank you for giving us a try.

Before you get started, we want to be totally honest with you. There might be some wines in your case you don’t enjoy.

Not because they’re bad wines. Just because we all have different tastes. That’s the lovely thing about wine!

We only want you to pay for wines you love

So if you do come across a wine that isn’t for you, then please call and we’ll put the money back in your account. Then you can spend it on some wine you DO love.

Plus… if you do decide to come back for more, we’ll make sure you never drink a dud bottle of wine again, scout’s honour.

So happy drinking, and please don’t be shy

We won’t be offended. We would much rather you told us, so we can get it right.

Just call us and ask for your Wine. They’re lovely, friendly people and they know our wines inside out!

Best Wishes”

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Action learning

Reflect No Comments

The legacy of Reg Revans  is one of the two key contributions to the theory and practice of developing organisations from the UK in the mid 20th century (the other being the tradition of group dynamics developed by the Tailstock Clinic).

Revans’s work was focused on learning from experience. Some of the ways he proposed this involved the creation of learning sets of about 6 or 7 people. The stage managed way of running a learning set meeting can be useful in many teams and boards.

What about this? Instead of just presenting papers, what about presenting a challenge you are facing or a problem, and then listen to your peers and colleagues explore it (considering hypotheses for its cause and options to move things one). These methods seek outcomes like those of coaching – deepening insight into a topic and broadening the range of options a person feels they might have in a particular situation.

Next time the agenda looks a bit dull, think of giving this a go…

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What creates the vibe…?

Reflect No Comments

When cycling to the station in Cambridge yesterday morning past the railings covered with posters advertising a vibrant yet fringe (for some, controversial) cultural scene, I thought what makes a place memorable?

Is it the physical setting (eg The Lake District, a Indian Ocean beach, The Alps)?

Is it the quality of Architecture and how that fits in a particular place (eg the heart of Paris between the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre, Circular Quay in Sydney, The skyline of New York, the spires of Oxford, The Backs in Cambridge)?

Or the culture and vibe of being somewhere (eg London, Melbourne)?

So what is the (cheesy?) business analogy I will draw? What about considering all three of these when fixing an important meeting (and remember meetings are the DNA of organisational life and don’t have to be like this):

1) What sort of outdoor spaces will you have nearby – a park, a view. I recall a Scandinavian colleague who always wanted a ‘Learning garden’ the group could work in at some point nearby

2) What sort of human-made facilities will you (ideally) need – maybe informed by this list

3) And, crucially, what can you do to get the right vibe and interaction regardless of what you have chosen for the setting (which links to the other 6 Ps, other than place, from our 7P meeting planning framework – )

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Feeling responsible?

Personal productivity No Comments

We are interested in personal responsibility…it is a topic that comes up regularly from leaders when we talk about desired organisational behaviours – see this .  We like the work of John Miller  and encourage all to step up in the way we live our lives – high on responsibility and low on blame.

On the flip side, the preference from many of us, is for choice and self-determination in our lives.

At work, we find the thinking of Gerard Fairtlough on ‘responsible autonomy’ – the third of his ‘Three Ways of Getting Things Done’ – especially useful in blending these two in the design of productive organisations and fulfilling work.

Read (and listen) to more here.

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Agreeing an overriding committment

Reflect No Comments

In the work of Patrick Lencioni on teams there is the challenge to agree an overriding commitment to a single, shared result within a team – a result that guides all actions and choices.

The most powerful example of this in action?

We think the response of Wal-mart colleagues centrally and locally to the 2005 flood of New Orleans.

This is an example of responsible autonomy in action too – around the guiding principle of “do all you can to help”. Read more here.

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Your Napoleonic War analogy

Facillitation No Comments

In military history the creation of line infantry in Napoleonic times was a major innovation, but one that required those being fired at to stand closely with colleagues, to help then hold their nerve.

This might be a metaphor for proximity in teams (virtual and face to face) – time together is crucial.

And sometimes, in an event, we encourage voting and exploration of option with a ‘Human Histogram’- it can be easier for some with deviant views to speak up when they see others standing shoulder to shoulder with them.

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Are emails work?

Personal productivity No Comments

How we handle the trickle, tide or torrent of emails is a key part of our personal productivity.

But is all that about to change? From social networking technologies like National Field to the head of French consulting firm ATOS stating they will not use internal emails at all in 3 years, people are seeing the way to speed the absorption and management of information from outside of the inbox.

One thing…do you see your email life as work or a distraction? Fun or a threat?

Maybe it depends on the work you do (a nurse vrs a communications manager; an electrician or a CEO)?

Maybe the solution depends on

1) The scale of the problem for you – one person was complaining to me last week they had 10 emails a day…and most of those didn’t need much time to sort

2) Your personality – some love their online persona’s (possibly too much!)

3) Your web connectivity at work –social networking required decent connectivity

4) And the devices you prefer – iPhones are relatively poor for handling email, but better for networked solutions

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Digging deeply, for fair supply chains

Reflect No Comments

In your work, do you think

1) How your staff are treated

2) How your suppliers treat their staff

3) Where your products are made – and how staff are treated

4) Where the raw materials in your products come from, and how workers fare there?

This talk  gives lots to think about.  As a rule of thumb (and not just for newsworthy Apple mobile devices), the further away in the supply chain, the more there is to be concerned about, but the less likely it is to get seen or discussed.

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Looking at you…or me

Think No Comments

If one of the downsides of mobile devices like iPhones and Blackberries is to make quick responses to emails a bit slower, one thing we notice is what we call Skype Syndrome – the phenomenon where the incredible achievement of global video calls from phone to phone, pc to phone or pc to pc are potentially side tracked by an old issue. Possibility vanity or narcissism …or merely checking on our body language.

The issue?  Watching ourselves and not the person we are virtually (and magically) linked with.

Probably an unexpected consequence, and one that requires discipline to ignore, the ‘mirror’ when you are there on the screen too!

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A lesson from/for Ed

Think No Comments

A few weeks back

A commentator

In the Guardian

Or was it the FT

Or the Sun

Anyhow…

The message?

No opposition politician has even been elected whilst being more pessimistic and less hopeful for the future that the incumbent.

A lesson for Ed Milliband?

Definitely a lesson for leaders everywhere – stories of hope are needed as much, and probably more, than tales of ‘burning platforms’

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Email: phil.hadridge@idenk.com