Talking Things Further

maximum frankness

I was doing an intake last week with a prospective client that was due to bring some bad news to his organisation. Well, let's be honest, he was having to say to his employees that the future of their company held only two possible scenario's: a change of ownership, or the company being dissolved.

What follows is not to ridicule this prospect, but rather to emphasize how extremely powerful honest and true values are:

(me) So, now that I know your goals, to keep the company in operation while its being put up for sale, what do you have that I can work with?
(P) What do you mean?
(me) Well, what are the characteristics of your approach towards your employees? Do you have for instance an exceptional social plan? Do you have values that can be applied?
(P) Oh that! Yes, yes. We are very much a values driven company.
(me) Great. What are they?
(P) What do you mean?
(me) What are your values?
(P) ......
(me) Take your time.
(P) ..... erm, hold on, erm... I know this....
(me) My point is...
(P) No wait, I was just looking for the right sentence: we preserve the quality and longevity of our employees career with our company"
(me) But you're basically closing down aren't you?
(P)...well, yes.
(me) Okay, not the easiest of challenges, but we'll make it work. How about your ceo? A values driven person?
(P) Oh yes, very much so. Stands for the principles and lives by them. Employees come first.
(me) When was the last visit here?
(P)....(looking at colleague) wasn't that two years ago, coinciding with that exhibition, that 20 minute town hall meeting we organized?
(me) Look, may I make a suggestion? You are confronted with one of the best opportunities for clarity you will ever encounter in the existence of your company. You can actually bring your values to life at a moment when it's most tough.
(P) How?
(me) By being true to the value you just described and putting it to work. Ensure you gear up a program that truly respects the employee - even if you're heading to a future where you'll have to ask them to leave.
(P) How do we do that?

I share this anecdote as I have once worked for a client that did adhere to its values. They made a social plan of such great quality, namely to ensure people were helped to find a new job rather than give them a severance package and "be rid of them", they not only kept a constructive atmosphere going, they also kept production going - which is the most complex objective in any reorganisation.

Values should be visible in every decision the company makes. Lived by them, they represent maximum frankness. And that is both effective and refreshing in times of trouble.

All you need to do is ask...

I've written before that the better consultants make themselves distinctive by asking the right questions. In our agency, where we run many international clients, one of the most valuable lessons that can be learnt is that even among colleagues, asking a lot of questions prove to make us most productive.

Why?

See? Another question. Well, because assumptions in my memory have never been a guarantee for progress. Let me share with you ten questions that resolve an immense amount of frustrations among colleagues:

Did you give them direction? Did you listen to the feedback? Did you give them enough time to even think about your question? Did you give them a deadline? Was that deadline during their working day? Was it a public holiday? Did you give them any localisation time? Are a lot of your questions the same? Did you give them a mechanism to reply - other than email? Did you actually indicate what you wanted?

The last one has to be my favorite - because it's the least professional, yet the most human one to forget.

best briefings

I ofcourse have had too little time to write lately, although my travels have again brought me many new insights and learnings I took inspiration from. A while back in a blog I applauded a briefing I'd highly appreciate receiving as a consultant: "make her say wow".

Here's another:

"Forget what there is, remember our corporate values and surprise me with your creativity."

If you need more than this - stay away from any communications job. And for the curious among you, the product that came out of this briefing was the newly designed Audi A4.

a movement, not a campaign

I'm back from yet another trip to The United States, already my fourth this year - however; it was my first visit to Portland, and what a place, what a region and what interesting people. I was attending a meeting of one of my agency's practice groups (our organizational grouping of experts and expertise), one on social impact to be precise.

What struck me most was being introduced to a panel of local entrepreneurs, who all started a business on arguments no smaller than "let's reinvent an existing industry, however this time for the right reasons". I listened to them with respect, admiration and curiosity and what really stuck, was their tone. They were all beginning to be, or already were very successful, yet every one of them remained humble and modest.

What they started, and what they wanted to see through to success, was a movement. Small, principled yet effective, each and everyone of them made a change, and created something so people could choose a sustainable alternative. Ofcourse they promoted their offerings, and ofcourse they made "noise" to make themselves heard, but it was all done in the best possible taste.

And there's a huge market out there, ready to listen to the more gentle entrepreneurs. It just takes a little more time, but then we all could do with a little less haste. Especially if we want to start a movement. What a wonderful contradiction. I like it.

what's it all worth, really?

Companies have values - and the good ones live by them. In my work, I often get asked how to make them actionable, as opposed to poster them on the walls of your office and be done with it. It's actually quite simple, if you are willing to take a test, and the best one is to identify your brand carriers (name, product, sales points), choose the most valuable one and put all the others on the market for sale.

If a soft drink manufacturer puts up all its assets for sale - everything it owns, including the formula, but not its name; who would buy it? If a fastfood chain were to put its name, people and products on the market, but not its outlets; who would buy it? If a consulting firm were to offer its procedures, idea's, methods, best practices, real estate and company name, but not its people to the highest bidder; who would buy it?

Knowing what your most valuable brand carrier is, makes it easier to identify what values you have as a company. Patrick Lencioni wrote an excellent definition: "From the first interview, to the last day at work, employees should constantly be reminded that core values form the basis for every decision the company makes."

So before you display a combination of communication, respect, exellence and integrity on your website, be aware that they will be your ultimate truth, or your biggest lie. Values may be expressed by words, but they are lived by actions.

bad economics

Yesterday I rode 2 x 4,44 hours on a train. That equals 568 minutes. It was from Amsterdam to Paris, where I was due to help out my colleagues take in a briefing for a possible new client for our region. As a consultant, who tends to translate everything into hours x rates, this was quite an investment. Certainly when it turned out the meeting lasted no longer than 13 minutes.

Usually, our meetings last longer. We're conversation people. If we're not emailing, or on the phone, we're in meetings. You would now hope I'll give you a story of efficiency, that we nailed down the principle of effective meetings; short, to-the-point and with a meaningful outcome. What? All you needed was 13 minutes? Wauw.

No such luck; we were kicked out by the prospect on the principle of exclusivity: thou shall not work for a competing brand if you want to represent us. She was resolute, I'll give her that, but she missed the point. Exclusivity, and measurable results, are the two most complicated aspects of the communications profession.

The agency I work for has been around for 60 years, and we have 80 offices around the world. That means that we, sometime, somewhere, will have represented clients from every sector our society offers. And we have found ways to serve many brands that are in competition with eachother, and yes, at the same time too. That's how we've acquired experience and have become experts.

I am not saying we don't offer exclusivity, we do. If the economics substantiate that priviledge, or said otherwise; if we get enough business, we'll close down a market sector for the competition. For a while anyway. But here was a relatively inexperienced lady who interrupted a conversation with us, standing by the policy of her company. I think she, literally, was premature. Her mistake was to close her shutters on simply discussing how the principles of exclusivity relate to the daily workings of a global economy. With an international agency. She robbed herself of a valuable experience. And that's bad economics.

She didn't rob me of a productive day though. I got to spend three hours on a Parisean terras, sipping a cold beer, getting to know a new colleague. That's an investment I'll always make.

make her say "wow"

In my profession we spend a lot of time gathering proof that the impact of communications can be measured. In my agency, it is my belief we have a solution as close to the holy grail as is possible today, offering a complete consulting package that helps clients make the right decisions on how, and where, to apply their communications resources (both time, money and people) most effectively.

There is however a softer aspect of measurement that we tend to forget. I agree that for a commercial enterprise increased sales, improved employee retention and more hits to a website are good objectives, but I came across another one recently that struck me: make her say wow.

Imagine what you can do with an assignment like that; how difficult it would be to achieve yet how easy it would be to measure.

solutions selling

A couple of jobs ago, I worked for a Swedish telecoms giant. It was the early days of mobile phones, and the company made so much money, it could afford to grow into the largest employer of the country, where consensus was born, and people were very smart, but held really silly meetings.

As I was responsible for communications, a staff function at the very bottom of the internal food chain, I had to endure many brainstormy meetings with product managers and product marketeers (ofcourse the company had both and neither knew where each other's job either began, ended, supplemented, complemented or conflicted) about how to present our offering to the customers. These guys invented and produced the smartest switch cabinets that every customer gladly hid in the basement. It's very hard to make that sexy, but you can spend a lot of time trying.

We spent hours, days, nights, weeks on the topic. The general idea was strong and simple enough: "we need to sell solutions, because solutions are what every customer wants." I could support that notion. But then the engineers kicked in: "So, what is a solution?" We were in trouble. How could we ever market solutions, if we didn't have a definition ourselves?

As a well-oiled collective, we came up with one: Communications solutions are a combination of hardware, software and services that enable voice contact, mobile access and multimedia capabilities for individuals, groups and their respective communication facilitators.

Thankfully, a new vice president for the division came in, a Dutchman like me, and he cut the entire discussion short: "Guys, a solution is what the customer puts on the order form." But it was too late, both the VP and I were designated as unculturally practical and got fired. Because meanwhile, another mobile phones producer conquered the market with "connecting people".

I have never had a more gratifying firing experience in my entire life.

starving for attention

having recently managed yet another issue my client labeled a crisis, where a battle for the percieved truth was fought in the newspapers, I discovered a commonality. companies and interest groups go to great lengths to capture the attention of their audience. I support consumer interest groups; I like having independent watchdogs concerning themselves with my health and safety. I also appreciate manufacturers, certainly the more outspoken ones, standing out from the crowd to present me with the wonderful options our consumptive society offers. both give me a reason to make choices. but as both are more powerful and visible than governments, we all need to watch them closely. because in their search for more and more prosperity, be it a loyal following or a hard-earned buck, interest groups and companies would be well advised to check & balance the bottom-line of their messaging. in my book, decency outweighs the law, and contributions are worth more than claims. just because you’re starving for attention doesn’t mean you need to be greedy with your audience.