Rocks Are Hard

Don't Let Mistakes Define You

We all make mistakes -- every single one of us.  From the big to the small. Of course, sometimes what we think is small is actually big, and what could be grounds for termination is actually not -- it all depends on perspective and situation.

For people with integrity - professionals who work hard every day to do their best and make it happen -mistakes are crushing. They can be earth-shattering.  As a manager, this is what you want -- to have the people who work for you feel and react to their mistakes with horror - knowing there is no excuse.   There is nothing you can do to make them feel worse. Nothing you can say to make it OK for these people. If you fired them, they'd think it was justified.

BUT -- mistakes very infrequently made by good people who work hard -- are not the problem. It's the repeated mistake made by people who don't care - who continuously cut corners, or leave their teammates hanging, or don't actually bother to try -- that you need to worry about.  Those mistakes aren't excusable either -- but they are more predictable.  Any predicted mistakes are YOURS, not theirs.

In the end, you don't want mistakes to define your staff -- I think you want how YOU react to them to define you and your business.

Keep It Simple

".....and then on page 42 section 5 paragraph 2 point C you will see how our 14th priority comes to life and really makes the program sing...."

As the creator and consumer of strategic plans, I'm here to tell you that complicated sucks....and seldom works, and NEVER gets remembered.  Boil it down to 1 idea that you can retell over and over again. Take things OFF THE DAMN whiteboard. (My friend Nilofer Merchant calls it "Murder Boarding").    

When you have 1 thing to accomplish, everything is easier -- choosing people, choosing programs, focusing work, getting through the day, putting all oars in the water at the same time....

I must say "Keep it Simple" at least once every day...and ever time I do I hear the song Simple Gifts in my head (it's a Shaker song, but we sang it all the time at my Quaker middle and HS).

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come round right.

'nuff said.

Raising Your Hand is Not A Sign of Weakness

I was in Boston last week, where using your blinker to indicate turns or lane changes is considered a sign of weakness, and frankly am suprised that I came home in one piece!

But it got me to thinking -- why not use your damn blinker? Why not give people a head's up on what your plan is so that might let you in their lane or move the left so you can turn right on red faster?

It's the same in business. We're all working together -- with colleagues, clients, partners, media, whoever -- and if we all gave each other a heads up when we needed help or information or more time, it would make life so much easier. Because, you know, people WOULD figure out how to help you get where you're going. Not just to help you, but to help themselves!

So raise your damn hand! Let the people around you help you get to the destination -- even if it's a 3pm deadline.

The End.

Fit is Everything

I had the most refreshing biz dev call I've had in years today.

The CEO (who was referred by a long-time friend and competitor) was pleasant, was direct, told me a lot about where he wanted the company to go, asked some questions and said:

"Well -- let's have you down, give you the whole story, see if we click and figure out a next step."

SEE IF WE CLICK.

We may not, but I'm THRILLED to have this be a make or break criteria for this CEO and company. Why? No matter how good you are, what results you deliver, THAT you can find an agency to FIT with your company is the key to real, sustainable, business success.  You better love each other before you start working together so that when you get to the bump in the road you can go over it, and not have it be the first in a series of evidence-gathering situations.

This should be top criteria in every search.   How will this team FIT with my team?   Can I actually sit in a room with them or does the sound of their voice drive me to drink? Can they HEAR me? Do they UNDERSTAND what we're saying -- our code? And do they have the goods to get the job done.

Agencies can deliver great stuff every day, but if they're not easy to work with, if they're not service-minded, if they're a square peg in a round hole it will not work. 

Better to find out first before investing lots of time and energy to have a relationship dissolve because of this issue and not results.

You Can Do So Much Less When You're Informed

Too often I go to a meeting where I'm bombarded with questions or ideas about how to promote a company, a product, a service, a person, a...whatever.

"What do you think we should do about X?" "Should we go to YYY show?" "I think we should sponsor ZZZ, what do you think?" "When can we start seeing some big hits?"  You get the idea.

I always find it's a good idea to just let this go until the person or people have run out of steam.  Listen carefully and well to substance and intent. Once they pause to take a breath - wait. And then ask:

"What are you trying to accomplish?"

Sometimes the person knows, sometimes they don't. Triangulate until you get a high enough level answer (NOT: "50 promotions on mommy blogs." MORE LIKE: "Dominate the market for non toxic window cleaners" or "Command 45% of the market for jellybeans among women with children who like dogs") -- specific enough, BUSINESS-DRIVEN enough, quantitative enough that you can actually react to it.

Once you have the answer to the question, WHAT to do becomes much simpler to divine -- because in the context of the goal, certain activities that sounded great without the benefit of context will not make sense.  Once you know the resources you have to work with, then WHEN and HOW to do things becomes much simpler to articulate.

You can do a LOT of work in PR and marketing and never get anywhere -- much like a duck paddling against the current.

Too often agencies just move forward without understanding how their work translates to the client's bottom line (or the internal department does not really understand their role in driving the business).

Get clarity at the highest level question possible -- and you'll be able to do a lot less to achieve the goal.

Paddling with the current is always easier.

When The Situation Changes, ADJUST

We all have plans and to do lists. And there are some people who are SO wed to the plan or to do list they are incapable? unwilling? of adjusting the plan when the situation they planned for changes.

When a condition DOES NOT EXIST or is DIFFERENT than what you thought - ADJUST. Don't keep going on your merry way across a bridge to no where-- or you'll get there.... NO WHERE.

  

'nuff said.

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action

Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk

Blah Blah Blah Blah

I can hardly watch the news these days because of all the rhetoric in American politics at the local, state and national level -- particularly the national level. Lots of talk, little action (or action that defys the spoken word (we hate Tarp one day - oh look I got you Tarp money the next comes to mind).

However -- it applies everywhere.  Stop talking, start doing. If you say you want to do something, whine about it, keep talking about it, and then DON'T do it -- i can only assume you actually don't want to do it.

On the other hand -- if you do what you say -- or even better do it BEFORE you say it -- KAPOW! that makes everyone stand up and take notice.

And for a little inspiration, the king himself.....

 

 

Do Less of Good, Rather Than More of Crappy (or even mediocre)

No one can ever do everything they want to do -- and really well --  simultaneously. Period.

The feminist rally cry "you can have it all" is a bunch of crap. There simply are not enough hours in the day to be the best boss, the best wife, the best mother, the best friend, the best sibling, the best contributor to society -- all at the same time.  OK, I've changed my mind: You CAN have it all, as long as it's not at the same time, in small bits, and you don't want too much out of any one activity or role.

The same is true in communications campaigns. No company -- even large ones with large resources -- ever can do everything they want to do at any one time.  Too many times, the people in charge choose to do a "little of everything" instead of a few things really well, choosing NOT to choose or prioritize in favor of being able to check off all the activity boxes.

Stop it! Stop not choosing, not prioritizing.  Choose a few things to do really well -- things that generate real traction or support among smaller constituencies, so that you can build on it over time to reach your goal. 

A few articles/blog posts brought this home today.  Brand Narrative -- a new firm led by Jonathan Simpson Bint -- has an excellent post today which leads you to two more excellent articles both on social currency.  Ben Paynter's story has excellent visuals that tell the story really well -- I love me a good visual!  These stories are all about social currency -- that the number of people who follow you doesn't matter as much as how they feel about you and what you do with them do.

There is a critical resource minimum to activity -- the absolute minimum you must do to get something done well.  Once you reach that minimum, and you start having success, you must then choose: do more of this good thing or add a new activity? If you don't have enough resource (time, money, stuff) to do the critical minimum to the next activity -- resist the urge! Add depth to what you're doing -- you will get more out of this than trying to do something without what you need to get it done right.

Fewer activities done well will yield a MUCH BETTER RETURN than more activities done poorly.

Or as I like to so eloquently say, Do less of good, rather than more of crappy.

Never Ever Choose Friday at 5P as Your Deadline

Friday at 5.  Is there a worse deadline during the week? I'm here to tell you "No, there is not." 

 

Why?

Let me count the ways:

a) while you're trying to wrap up loose ends for the week, you're on the hook for a deliverable that will need what? a RESPONSE.

b) it ensures that whatever ball you were trying to move down the field will NOT MOVE until the following week -- unless of course you're ready to work the weekend.

c) it almost always means you're just getting STARTED at 5pm Friday. Because someone else wanted it done -- crossed off their list -- by Friday.

d) you'll start the next week BEHIND.

So pull it back. KNOW when the person you're delivering whatever it is to is available and what THEY need to do with it. Then work backwards so you give them something they can move along their own list to get it done. 

Choose Friday at 10am or Thursday at 5pm but Never Ever choose Friday at 5pm.

Just a helpful hint from someone who's made that mistake one too many times! (OK 1 would be too many.)

STOP TRYING! (the same thing)

Here's something no manager or client ever wants to hear: "I'm trying."

Why? Because it means you're not.

Truly - I have countless examples of this, and each time I hear "I'm trying" as answer to a request for an update, I know what I'm going to see once I peel the onion: That person trying the same thing over and over again and getting the same piss-poor result. STOP TRYING! Do Something Different!

I believe it was Albert Einstein who defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." You don't have to be a scientist to figure out that this won't work -- you do have to use just a sliver of your brain though!

Get out of the box you put yourself in and find a new way.

If you've tried the same approach on three people with no result (this means three turn-downs, not three not-read emails) - start over. ASK THEM what would work? what they could do?  why it's not interesting? and then ...(here's the revolutionary part) ... ADJUST. Repeat until you get a winner.

If your research doesn't yield what you need - turn the question upside down and ask it a different way. This lesson came home again today when our intern (we are looking for another one if you know anyone) was able to identify 20 potential groups we need to find, by stopping to figure out what they all had in come (drinking after an event as it turned out) - and then searching on bars in a specific region to ID the groups. Hello! Brilliant!

The answer is out there -- your approach may not yield it.

If you find yourself saying "I'm Trying," stop yourself. Breathe. Cock your head 10 degrees to the right or left and look at the problem from a different answer.

You can make it so Number One -- but only if you stop trying.