How Ferrari ignored Twitter, at their peril

I admit it, I am an F1 fan. And like many other F1 fans around the world, I sat down to watch the grand prix this weekend at Hockenheim. And like 95% of F1 fans, I was pretty hacked-off with Ferrari’s decision to give team orders, and switch Alonso and Masa. If you don’t know what I am talking about, and you want to find out – read this BBC article on the race (but in summary, Masa was in the lead and Alonso second. Alonso couldn’t pass Masa so Ferrrari gave a “hidden” message, or team order, for Masa to let Alonso through. This is in breach of F1 rules, as well as poor sportsmanship. They subsequently denied everything after the race).

I personally am a big fan of Masa’s. I just like the guy, and have huge respect for him coming back to racing after his accident. I am not a big fan of Alonso, especially since he was at McLaren and acted the way he did. His continual moaning this season hasn’t helped his cause in my opinion either. So I wanted Masa to win (despite being a McLaren fan). I think most of the know world did, Masa deserved it. It was a year after his accident and it would have been a fitting (almost divine) result and I would imagine that even the F1 drivers would agree with me.

Like thousands of other people around the world, I expressed my thoughts on Twitter. Then when I saw the team order, I was outraged – probably more because I like Masa more than Alonso if I am honest than the bad sportsmanship. I really felt for the guy.

Where Ferrari missed it

So I put that on Twitter too and perhaps this is where Ferrari missed it. They ignored Twitter. The ability for the world to communicate has massively changed, even in the few years since the Michael Schumacher incident that caused the F1 rule to be made. Within an instant you can gauge how the world felt about what had happened. The commentators knew how people felt, the press knew how people felt and so in the interviews after the race, they absolutely pounded into Ferrrari.

(I also think Ferrari underestimated the feeling that the world has toward Masa).

Ferrari’s response was to deny it all with a bunch of weak lies, in effect calling most of the world stupid for believing what they saw. This really got people’s backs up.

What Ferrari have since done

Since that day, Ferrari have been fined $100,000 (the biggest fine that can be made) and it has also been referred to World Motorsport Council for a hearing that is likely to take place in August. But as of yet, I have seen no apology from Ferrari.

On the contrary, I read in the press today that:

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has slammed the “hypocrisy” of those who have criticised Fernando Alonso’s victory in Sunday’s German Grand Prix.
BBC

In the article, the Ferrari president is quoted as saying (from the Ferrari website):

”These things have happened since the days of (Tazio) Nuvolari (a Ferrari driver in the 1930s) and I experienced it myself when I was sporting director, in the days of Niki Lauda.

“Therefore, enough of this hypocrisy, even if I can well believe that some people might well have liked to see our two drivers eliminate one another, but that is definitely not the case for me or indeed for our fans.

What I read here is an acknowledgement that these orders were made but again without apology. No mention of the lies they told. No mention of the damage to the sport’s reputation. No mention of the theft of Masa’s possible first win. No mention of how they treated people like fools. Just an arrogance that claims the rest of the world is hypocritical. (It maybe, Luca, but that still doesn’t excuse your company’s actions).

What Ferrari should have done

I think that the world is to open for large companies to operate in a way that doesn’t listen to the people. They fall too quickly. In an instant Ferrari would have know what people were thinking and should have given a second team order telling the drivers to swap back. Then they should have gone to the interviews saying, “We messed up, we realised we did and so during the race we tried to rectify it. We apologise to the fans and will take the consequences of our actions without excuse.”

They could have done that if they had bothered to check the sentiment of people. This would have been a massive PR boost for them, and they would have won on every level.

I don’t know about the team orders rule. Should it stay or should it go? It is a whole other debate. For me that is not so much the issue – but what is the issue is how Ferrari have responded and dealt with the people. The people have a massive voice through the media these days, it counts more than ever. Apple recently discovered this with their iPhone 4 fiasco and the nonsense they peddled. It has set them back years on the trust scale. I can’t help but think that Ferrari’s PR needs to learn from this.

Takeaway

1. Listen to what people are saying and then act accordingly. Don’t not listen and then tell people a bunch of reasons why they are wrong.
2. Lying is pointless! Tell the truth, face the consequences and move on.

The 7 Year Cycle

We are all sat theatre style in the new Convention Centre in Liverpool busy networking and throwing out business cards as quickly as we can. I am the grateful guest of Jacqui, who does a phenomenal job driving the Convention Centre forward as this event will testify to. Jacqui has arranged for Mike Southon to come and speak to all of us about how you can learn all about Entrepreneurship through the life of the Beatles. We all know Mike through his book, the Beermat Entrepreneur — a book that I believe to be required reading for any fellow business person — so, I guess, we are all wanting to hear what he has to say. At least I am.

Mike starts his talk without giving us any indication of how long the talk will last, which I can’t help but think, in hindsight, was a premeditated move on his part. The talk went on, and on, and on…you get the picture. I was enjoyable, albeit, long and I did learn a few things. In fact, I managed to make two pages of notes from his talk, and if you get the chance to hear it – I would recommend you do – just sneak out after an hour or so with a convenient excuse.

Perhaps the most interesting notes that I took from his talk, and certainly the idea that I tell most people about, is this idea of the 7 year cycle. I am not sure if this is Mike’s own discovery or not – but it was at his talk I first heard it.

The 7 year cycle goes as follows:

• Ages 21-28: Try as Many things as possible
• Ages 28-35: Serious attempt at one thing
• Ages 35-42: try something different
• Ages 42-49: Peak of powers
• Ages 49-56: Represents maturity and self awareness
• Ages 56-63: Plan your legacy
• Ages 63-70: Become a true mentor

I find myself if the “try something new” category, not just because of what Mike says but also because it is my experience. One of those “coaching” words that I have found myself using a lot recently, is: default. It is a concept that I got from the book: Nudge.

What is the default mode of operation for you, your business or your industry? This is the mode that you return to when there are no other external forces acting on you. It is why the idea of dieting doesn’t work – because you are changing something temporarily. After a while, you will return to your default habits when the external forces acting on you bring the diet to an end.

It is the reason why debt consolidation doesn’t really work – you are dealing with changing a monthly payment. The default (or habit) that caused the debt, is still there and despite your good intentions, sooner or later you will return to it.

Well, until you reach the age of 35 it seems!

So, a lot of my personal questions at the moment are all about challenging the default. Why does it exist? How can we do it differently? How can we do it better, much much better? And it is in the answers that I find the magic, the passion and the energy to drive something forward to create change.

Whilst I don’t want to preach a theology, start a movement or worse still, create some kind of horoscope – I find the 7 year cycle quite accurate for me, past and present. Of course, there are people it doesn’t apply to, but it does help you understand what phase of life you are in, and then celebrate that phase rather than try and change it. It is good for me to be trying something new now…

Takeaway

1. What phase of the 7 year cycle are you in? How do you see the affecting you and what is going on around you at the moment?
2. What is the default that is holding you back at the moment?
3. How could you change it?
4. What’s stopping the change?

Talking with Ian Finch

MP3 Version |  iPhone/iPod/iPad Version |  YouTube | Vimeo | iTunes

Spent some great time talking with Ian Finch, the MD of Mando Group. What a top guy Ian is, a really genuine “geezer” who is a brilliant business guy. Ian has already posted on the blog and will be speaking at the en-thuse:2010 conference this year, so this video is just the icing on the cake!

In this episode, I talk to Ian about his 13 years in the business. Ian talks about how he balances business with being a new dad, giving and tithing as well as how they have engaged their staff in giving with their new Charity, the Mando Group Foundation. Ian also talks about the value of confrontation as well as their new awesomeness campaign (yes you read that right!)

(Posted on the en-thuse.com site)

Customer Contracts – what’s the point?

I had an Epiphany about sales contracts the other day when in negotiations with a new supplier that I want to use.  I won’t name the company – but let’s assume that I am dealing with your company as I am sure that most companies (including my own) do what this supplier did.

Here’s the scenario:

I want to use your company services and have made a verbal commitment to do so assuming that we agree on price (something that we have pretty much done). The sale is going well from both points of view. I am excited to be using you and you are excited to have me as a customer.

Good so far. In fact, you could say it is going great so far.

We have questions go back and forth, but they are getting answered well, at least from my point of view.

You then try and close the sale – and ask if I am prepared to sign the contract.

I say “Yes, send it over”.

So now, the sale is going really well from your point of view also.

Terms of the contract

Then I start to ask you about the terms of the contract, and that’s where things start to take a bit of a nose dive as I quickly see all the benefit of me signing this contract is for you, and none of it is for me.

Here’s how the rest of the scenario unfolds:

I am a few months away from needing your services. Consequently, whilst I am sure of what services I need now, there could be a few amendments later down the line – I might change exactly which service I use.

You inform me that once I sign the contract, I am obligated to pay 100% of the fee for each service that I sign up for. If I want to change, I still have to pay for the service that I don’t use.

Mmmm. No flexibility from my point of view. I can understand from your point of view why you have this in your contract, it does make sense for you. it just doesn’t make sense for me (yet).

So I start to question some more. Not only do I have to pay 100% for each service that I sign up for, but I have to start paying as soon as the contract is signed.

Mmmm. Not great for my cash flow. Great for yours though. This is another win for you, the supplier, but not a win for me.

The Key Question in the customer’s mind

So, I ask the key question in all of this: what is the benefit to me for signing this contract now?

It is the key question. Yes I want to work with you. I have my mind up on that. So the “what’s in it for me if I sign now” question now becomes my key question.

Your answers:

You get an account manager and technical help when you sign.

Great, but you know and I know that if I call you (the sales guy) and ask a question – you will answer it. And if you don’t know – your technical people will answer it. You still want me as a customer. You are not going to cut me off until I sign the contract. That would be suicide. So this is not a valid reason.

The time slot that you want is all booked in.

If I don’t book them now, will I loose my slot? Is that why I need to sign the contract? Again, no. I find out that if someone else comes along and wants my slot – you’ll call me first. If I don’t sign the contracts at that point, you’ll offer it to the new guys.

So again – no risk to me for not signing the contract.

You run out of answers for me.

The benefit for me?

In fact, the benefit for me is not to sign the contract: I still get the time slots I need (at least first refusal) at the price agreed. I have flexibility if I want to change services, I still get the service I need to go forward from you and cash flow is much better for me. So I don’t sign. At least not yet. I will sign when it suits me, not you (even though I like you).

In case you haven’t guessed already, this made up scenario happened to me a few weeks ago. I want to use the services of a company – but I didn’t want to sign the contract at that point.

The problem was – signing the contract was a win-lose scenario. Not signing the contract is also a win-lose scenario but the other way around. Our contracts should be win-win.

Takeaways

1. Ask yourself – what’s the point in my customer signing this contract now? What are the benefits for them?
2. What are the benefits for you are your company if they sign?
3. Is there at least some sort of balance between the answers to these two questions? If not, what can you do to change that?
4. Also look at the is terms and conditions (also know as serious constraints) on you and your customers. Is there balance here too?
5. Have you made it really clear what the benefits of signing now are?
6. Is it your contract so good that they will happily sign a second time and a third? Or does it put them off?

I know that I will be looking at ours now!

Extra Takeaway: Thinking differently

What I did here was challenge the norm. The norm in that industry is to sign the contract as asked. Everyone does it. It is what is expected. So my extra takeaway for you here is: challenge the boundaries that are in place. Just because that is the way everyone else does it – doesn’t mean that you should do it that way. There could be a better way if you challenge a little.

What’s your experience with sales contracts (others and your own)?

Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone…the next 30 day challenge

A few days ago, I posted a quote on twitter: Silent gratitude isn’t much good to anyone” (Gladys Stern).

The Challenge

This got me thinking with regards to my next 30 day challenge. Wouldn’t it be great to form the habit of going out of my way to show my gratitude to people I wouldn’t ordinarily do that with? I am not just talking about my wife or team mates, but people that I am in brief contact with – the lady at the checkout, the guy on the phone etc.

People that I just normally give a passing thanks to. Wouldn’t it be great to form the habit of being really grateful to those guys? How would it impact these folks?

So for the last 5 days, I have been going out of my way to say thanks to these folks – it is my current 30 day challenge.

Happenings with O2

I’ve made an interesting discovery in the last few days: people and companies aren’t geared up for people saying thanks. But they are geared up for people who complain.

Take my recent dealings with O2 over my lost iPhone. On the whole their policy has not blessed me, at all. Normally in such situations – I would give the guys on the phone a hard time. This time I tried a different route. I looked for ways to be really grateful for the the help they gave me.

There was a girl called Sarah, a kind Scouser. The more I appreciated what she did – the more she did. It got to the stage where I thought it would be good to write into O2 and congratulate them on hiring someone so kind and helpful (even if limited by the company’s crazy policy). When I told Sarah that I would like to do this and asked her who I should write to – she didn’t know.

The same with the next two people that I spoke to at O2: the more I thanked them, the more helpful they became. When I asked who I could write to – no one knew.

The best advice they could give me was to given them a good score when I get the text message asking me to rate their service.

Amazing isn’t it? People just aren’t used to receiving positive remarks about their service. Perhaps this is peculiar to the UK?

Bizarrely, when i told one guy that I wanted to write in – he gave me the complaints department details. His assumption was that I wanted to complain despite being grateful with him on the phone. I guess those guys in the call centres are used to getting complaints everyday!

So, as a business – we have a complaints procedure. What about a gratitude procedure?

Takeaways

• I wonder if i should set up a system that illicits gratitude from people about my staff? Could be an interesting experiment? (This is probably more of a takeaway for me).
• Being quite vocal about your gratitude with someone really influences them.
• You have to be both sincere and specific about your praise with people. When you thank people, reference a specific thing that they have done for you. So, don’t just say “thanks for the help” but rather “I really appreciate the fact that you went and checked that for me, thanks.” It is much more effective when you are specific.

It will be an interesting month, and i look forward to seeing what happens over the next few weeks!

End of the first 30 day challenge: 30 Blog Posts in 30 days!

Well, the first challenge is done!

So what did I learn over the last 30 days:

1. The discipline of writing everyday really causes you to think creatively.
2. Not everything you write is worth posting – but write is anyone (just save it as a draft and come back to it).
3. When you spend a lot of time writing, you spend less time promoting your site. According to Analytics – the number of new visitors to my site fell.
4. When you add regular content, the number of repeat visitors goes up, and it goes up a lot! Readers also spend longer on your site and view more pages.
5. Give people takeaways when writing an article that is to bring about a change of some kind. Takeaways is a term given to me by Rob Brown (thanks Rob!) describing an action people can do (usually quickly).

The most popular posts from the last 30 days (in order)

1. Today, I had a great leaders meeting at church…I know, I was surprised too! (Posted 10.06.2010). This took the most hits, but bizarrely had no Tweets (using the site tweet button) or Comments. It is the article people mention the most to me when they see me though.
2. Performance lessons from the iceberg: pt I (Posted 04.06.2010).  This was popular on twitter.
3. The best sales advice I can give you: authentic selling (posted 09.06.2010). This sparked a number of great conversations (both on the web and face-to-face), that then led to a series of posts on what Authentic Selling looks like. All of these posts have become popular so I have just added the link to the first post.
4. A new definition of marketing (posted 21.06.2010). This is the one post that has sparked the most involvement and contribution from people and led to my post from last night: Update – A New Definition of Marketing. These posts I can see becoming some of the all time populars as they are only a few days old, but already up to number four on the hits parade!

Ironically – these are the posts that I have enjoyed writing the most. It has been great for me to cement my thoughts on Sales (Authentic Sales Posts) and Marketing (The New Definition Posts) – it is very relevent to me and my business that is for sure. I never thought that the church meeting one would do so well (it just goes to show you!) – I imaging a lot of the success there was the title of the post (a brief moment of inspired genius).

I have really enjoyed working on my blog with this much focus and emphasis. I do think the number of posts will drop (to maybe 2 per week), but the writing will continue and I’ll be a little more selective of what to actually post.

Something that I have not been able to do is as many Vlogs as I would have liked (they are recorded and being edited the few that I did do) – but this should hopefully change as I am changing some of the technology set up that I have to make this quicker and easier.

I’ll post about my next challenge tomorrow – just trying to decide which one to do!

So thanks for reading, and stay tuned!

Question: What is the one thing that you think I could do to instantly improve the quality of this blog?

Update: A New Definition of Marketing

Last week I wrote a post called A New Definition of Marketing (if you haven’t read it – it might be worth a quick glance). It has sparked some interest on the comments, facebook, twitter and email! It has definitely been the most engaging post of the week, taking most of the web traffic and social network interaction.

I mentioned on the blog that anyone could take the diagram that I put together in Omnigraffle (iPad version) and change it as they thought. John LeMasney did just that and came up with an adapted version:

Thanks to 365sketches.org

John’s idea of a circle connection intrigued me, and I have been playing around a lot this week with the diagram. A few emails back & forth with John and afew others, I eventually came up with this amendment – taking the original idea and adding the connections in.

As you can see, instead of the circle joining from the Ally back to the Beginnings section – I noticed with my customers a much tighter pattern emerging. Specifically, I saw two (general) things:

1. Engagement Cycle: People on their journey are more likely to have an engagement cycle with the previous phase of their journey.
2. Spread the Message: People pull in other people to their previous phase of their journey.

The Engagement Cycle

For example, let’s say that I have just released a new product to the market – Product Y. If an existing contact is at the Conversion phase with my company (with, say Product X), then they will end up at the Beginnings stage with Product Y. Our previous connection helps them speed through the Discovery phase, but because I don’t have much connection with them, they end up in the Conversion-Beginnings cycle.

Spreading the Message

People at the conversion phase tend to be good at gathering people into the beginnings stage. They don’t have a lot of connection with your company – but they have enough to at least recommend you to people. These people then join at beginnings.

The Engagement Cycle

The Existing customers are somewhat easier to get involved with our new Product Y. They have a stronger connection with us. They like our company and services, so end up back at the Conversion phase and take a little persuasion to get involved.

Spreading the Message

Customers have a much stronger connection with us, so when they refer people to our company – they do so as part of your sales team. They convince the people a little more than those at the conversion stage – so people that come to our company as a result of the Customer referral tend to enter at the Conversion stage and are easier to convert into sales.

A Business

This is the end point for most companies and indeed where I find our company at. We have customers that are connected to us. We don’t win them on every product or service we sell – but we are, at least asked and stand some chance.

We spend our time then, increasing the amount of people in the discovery phase (lead generation), and through our sales process – lead them to conversion. We also work on providing a great follow up service to our Customers (at least a portion of them) and we also get some great referrals from Customers.

A movement

I came across a quote by Ron Bruder: Bruder doesn’t run companies. He leads movements.

This quote gave me a great split on this diagram. Movements come as a result of deepening the connection with Customers and thereby creating Allies. This is where I want to take the companies that I am involved in – not being just a business but a movement, and I guess to do that I have work at getting the customers in to the Ally phase, because here is where the magic starts to happen.

The Engagement Cycle

Apple have done this well. That’s why they have people queuing for 8 hours to get the new iPhone, even though they have never used it. They buy just because you make it. That’s all the reason they need. There is no conversation or conversion – they are sold immediately.

Spreading the Message

Not only that – but Allies persuade other people to join your movement. They draw in people – and these people by-pass all of the other stages and quickly become customers – just because of the passion and evangelism of your Allies. How many people have decided to buy Apple stuff long before ever connecting with them simply because of the Apple Evangelist Friend?

Takeaways

Takeaways are actions that you can takeaway from reading this blog post that hopefully help:

1. Quick Check. Print the diagram out or quickly redraw it. Mark on the diagram where most of your current marketing effort goes (in terms of money and resource but also in terms of ROI). This should show strong and weak spots.
2. Strengthen. Now you understand where you weak spots are – write down a list of 20 things you can do in the next 3 months to strengthen each weak spot.
3. Implement. Take the top three items from your lists and work on those today.
4. Review. Schedule a time in your calendar to do this exercise again in 2-3 months.

A quick thanks…

So, there you go – this is my thinking so far of the Connection Journey Diagram. If you want a quick recap of the different phases of the journey – then please read my blog post: A New Definition of Marketing.

Thanks to all those that contributed so far with thoughts and ideas (through all the various forms of social media) and thanks again to John for doing a great job of re-drawing my initial model.

What do you all think of this model? How can we make it better?

How to change the world

You change the world by not only inspiring people to action but showing them clearly how to take that action.

I am just finishing off reading Everyone Communicates, Few Connect by John Maxwell. As I was reading today – this jumped out -

I once read the statistic that 95% of the people in an audience understand what’s being communicated and agree with the speaker’s point of view. However, they do not know how to apply what’s being said to their lives.

Given that this is from a John Maxwell book – I am going to assume that this statistic is reasonably accurate. And if it is reasonably accurate, it is incredibly frightening, especially if you are a communicator on any level with people. It is one of those things that I have been fascinated with in recent years - how do you distil your message down to a series of actions that I can take away and apply tomorrow?

And I can’t say as I have got there yet! I’ve been doing well with speaking events, but not so great with written stuff (like my blog for example – so please forgive my past indiscretions!)

A major problem for the church

I am not the only one that can learn from this. It is perhaps one of the major problems in the church at the moment. You can preach theology all day long (and yes, sometimes it is interesting), but unless you look at how to take a theological principle and make it apply 9.00am on a Monday morning – I am not sure what good it will do.

I imagine that 90% of the people in John’s statistic are church goers.

They sit there week in, week out trying to have a better walk with Christ, but failing because the message is too heavenly minded but no earthly good.

I think it is for this reason that preachers like Joyce Meyer have become so popular. She takes the message of God and shows you how it will work on a Monday morning. She gives you specific steps that you can take to master that area of life. There is theology shown on a practical level.

I have used the following Venn diagram in the past to explain what I mean:

If you just have theology – you become flakey to say the least. I am not discounting the importance of theology, but theology doesn’t change lives.

Conversely – if you just have life or “practical” teaching it can be just a bunch of short term solutions to something that really needs God’s involvement to be successful. These “life hacks” can be somewhat void of meaning or power on their own.

The real magic happens when you can take the Word of God and understand how to apply to your life. There is a spiritual explosion of energy when that moment arrives – the aha! moment (or, what we call in the church, revelation). If you are a pastor and wonder why your teaching is not hitting the anointed home run that it should – check how easy it is for people to take what you teach and apply it to their lives.

A problem in business

Of course, this is not just a principle for the church either. It is a principle for business.

Understanding the next course of action – how to get your product and service to enhance their lives – is always a challenge. I am amazed at how many times I am ready to connect with another company – but they have made the process so difficult that I am not sure what to do. Like everyone else, I don’t enjoy feeling uncertain about things – so I  shut down and move on.

It takes a lot to create the desire in people to change. When that moment comes we should make it clear what the next steps are. It needs to be understandable.

A problem in the family

Do you remember being a kid and your folks did something that you just didn’t get? My standard response was to say, “I’ll never do (or say) that to my kids!”

Yet I have found myself of a number of occasions saying or doing those very things! Admit it, you’ve done it too if you have kids!

Many times this happens because when we talk to our kids, they understand what we say (and even sometimes agree) but they are not sure what to do about it or how to apply it.I find myself guilty of not helping them think through the subject to the point of understanding and implementing some clear actions from it.

Easy V’s Understandable

Don’t get me wrong – I am not suggesting that we make things easy. There is a big difference between understandable and easy. It shouldn’t be easy to become a doctor – but if you want to become a doctor, the process should be understandable and clear.

How to Change the World

If we want to affect change in people, out church, our customers, our team, our family and kids – then just communicating a message seems not to be enough. Even communicating in a way that is understandable is not enough. We have to carry people through to a point of them knowing what actions to take so that they can apply it to their lives and bring about change.

In Action

One great tip I have learned recently is to ask people at the end of every meeting to give a summary of their actions from the meeting. We no longer put actions in the minutes – people have to be responsible for taking their own notes. At every meeting, whether a team meeting, an audience or a one-on-one, I am trying to put this principle into practice. I don’t want people just to hear and agree with me. I want people to take action and bring about change.

That’s how we get things done and improve performance. It’s how we engage the church and boost our business. It is how we ge along as a family.

It’s how we change the world.

So Following my own advice – here are some general action steps that you could implement immediately to help you affect change:

• Change yourself. If you haven’t got a good life coach, get one. They make a massive difference by helping set your action goals that bring about change.
• Always ask: is there a clear action that people can take away from this? If you are having a chat with your son, don’t finish until you have a clear & understandable action that he can take away? What about your new marketing letter? Is there a clear action for the reader to take?
• No action required: sometimes you communicate without the need for taking action. You just need to communicate something. That’s fine – just understand what mode you are in when you communicate.
• Action Summary: At the end of your meeting (one-on-one or team meeting), have each person give a quick summary of their Actions at the end. Actions always start with a verb. Then hold them accountable to those actions the next time you meet.
• Connect: You know, I might be an up and coming awesome communicator – but if you don’t want to do something, then action points or no action points, I can’t help. Not everyone will connect with you and want to take action. That’s fine. Just make sure it is because if their reasons and not because you are pants at communication.
• Make it personal: One of the great things that comes out of asking people to note their own actions during the meeting is that it becomes deeply personal. it isn’t me telling people what to do. It is people understanding what they need to do and deciding to do it. I am a facilitator, not a dictator. Allow people the freedom to think – you’ll be amazed at what they come up with.
• Keep your own notes. When you make your own notes (don’t rely on the minutes for you action points) – ask – “What can I apply here? What actions do I need to put in place?”

What actions do you think you should take having now?

I still believe, but I should also learn: England World Cup 2010

I sit here somewhat at a loss because of the England performance I witnessed.

I could talk about today’s game. There would not be enough words to describe how badly we played. We were indifferent, lacklustre and without any passion.

I could talk about the team. Why can’t a bunch of world-class talented guys play together and create a world class team?

I could talk about the manager. Why would you take a striker off the field when you need 3 goals in 20 minutes?

I could talk about the system. Why don’t we play Gerrard in the holding position behind Rooney?

I could talk about what we don’t have. Beckham. Passion. The list would be long!

I could talk about the fans. Incredibly loyal fans that cope with immense levels of disappointment.

But I thought I would talk about my business.

Everyone can see what is wrong with the England team, yet we all hope and believe things will be different next time. How often do I treat my business the same way? I’ll change maybe one or two things – but that’s it. I can see the problems, but do I change them? Do I listen to my fans, or do I believe that I know better than them? Do I still keep a member of staff that can’t play on my team because of their past reputation? Am I the type of leader that can create something totally world class, or do I blame someone else for it not working? Do I let my team put forward a display that shows no belief in what the company stands for?

I would be embarrassed if I was the England manager today.

I would be shamed if I was one of the England players.

I still believe that thing can change because that is what England fans do.

In short, though, I am like most people. I can see what others need to change. I am just not so clear at seeing what I need to change, and then having the strength to change it.

Start With Why, Simon Sinek – Book Review

If you have read a few of my recent blog posts – you will have noticed that I have been reading the book – “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek. You will also know that I have made a few references to how it has helped me with a few things – so, the bottom line is, I like this book.

There is one caveat – it is way too long.  I found myself getting a little bored in sections, so I would skip over them. This is the only thing that I didn’t like about it mind you, and it was easy enough to skip the sections that I didn’t connect with.

Rating

It’s a definite read that is for sure, and it should be on your book list. If you have a few speed reading skills, it will help you through various sections – but don’t let that stop you from buying it.

What the book is about

Sinek spends a lot of the book looking at the above diagram – the Golden Circle.

WHAT: Every single company and organization on the planet knows WHAT they do.

HOW: Some companies and people know HOW they do WHAT they do. Whether you call them a “differentiating value proposition,” “proprietary process” or “unique selling proposition,” HOWs are often given to explain how something is different or better.

WHY: Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. When I say WHY, I don’t mean to make money—that’s a result. By WHY I mean what is your purpose, cause or belief? WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?

If you watch this video that Sinek did at TED recently – you’ll get a good overview. This video as actually the reason that I purchased the book.

What I learned

I find that when I read books like this – I often enjoy them and, at that moment in time, have a moment of revelation and learning. The problem is – I often don’t do anything after that. There can be little action.

I have started to combat this by making notes on each book that I read (easy to do with the Kindle, as long as you don’t mark too much). On this book, I have three sides of typed notes, but I also have some actions from it.

So here are the key points:

• We have a good purpose (or WHY) with our company. I just need to make sure that we keep focusing on putting that message across.
• This book, along with a few others, caused me to think a lot about how we do marketing as a company. If you haven’t read my musings, have a look at the following post: a new definition of marketing.
• I want to look at our company values based on the following statements from the book:

Making it even more difficult for ourselves, we remind ourselves of our values by writing them on the wall . . . as nouns. Integrity. Honesty. Innovation. Communication, for example. But nouns are not actionable.

It’s nearly impossible to hold people accountable to nouns.

For values or guiding principles to be truly effective they have to be verbs. It’s not “integrity,” it’s “always do the right thing.” It’s not “innovation,” it’s “look at the problem from a different angle.” Articulating our values as verbs gives us a clear idea . . . we have a clear idea of how to act in any situation. We can hold each other accountable to them measure them or even build incentives around them.

• The simplicity of understanding WHY and making sure your HOW and WHAT connect with that has really helped me with communication in all the various ventures that I am involved in. I am asking the question “WHY” a lot. For example, I do some coaching with some community leaders in the church – and we started to look at a slightly adapted model of this – it was a great session that should hopefully make things clear.
• People have to connect with your “WHY”. A lot of companies have a purpose (WHY) that has come from the leader, which is how it should be – but, and this is a big but, people have to connect to that WHY. If your WHY is to build a large, profitable and successful company – people won’t connect with that. People aren’t interested in helping you to build a company and become more successful. WHY has to connect with their heart.
• Sinek validated my views on authentic selling! I love it when I am on the right path. According to Sinek, authenticity is proven in WHAT you do – which  is something that I totally agree with. This causes you to examine what you do through the lens of authenticity.
• My views on competition have changed due to one of the last paragraphs in the book.

Now think about how we do business. We’re always competing against someone else. We’re always trying to be better than someone else. Better quality. More features. Better service. We’re always comparing ourselves to others. And no one wants to help us. What if we showed up to work every day simply to be better than ourselves? What if the goal was to do better work this week than we did the week before? To make this month better than last month? For no other reason than because we want to leave the organization in a better state than we found it?

Have you read the book – what did you think?