Every history student knows about the tragedy of the commons. When farmers shared grazing land, no one had an incentive to avoid overgrazing, and without individual incentives, the commons degraded until it was useless.
We talk about this as if it's an inevitable law, a glitch in the system that prevents communities from gaining the benefits of shared resources.
Of course, that's not true.
Culture permits us to share all sorts of things without having them turn into tragedies. People are capable of standing up to the short-term profit motive, we're not powerless. We can organize and codify and protect.
It requires us to say, "please don't," even more than, "not me." Culture can be the antidote to selfishness.
In fact, it's the only thing that is.
January 12, 2018
It's very difficult to reason with someone if their hair is on fire. Customer service (whether you're a school principal, a call center or a consultant) can't begin until the person you're working with believes that you're going to help them put out the fire on their head.
Basic principles worth considering (are you listening, Verizon?)
The first promises kept are hints that you will keep future promises. Putting people on endless hold, bad voice trees, live chat that isn't actually live, an uncomfortable chair in the waiting room, a nasty receptionist, unclear directions to your office, bad line management… all of these things escalate stress and decrease trust.
Don't underestimate the power of a good sign, a take-a-number deli machine and a thoughtful welcome.
Don't deny that the customer/patient/student has a problem. If they think they have a problem, they have a problem. It might be that your job is to help them see (over time) that the thing that's bothering them isn't actually a problem, but denying the problem doesn't de-escalate it.
Leave the legal arguments at home. It's entirely possible that your terms of service or fine print or HIPAA or lawyers have come up with some sort of clause that prevents you from solving the problem the way the customer wants it solved. You can't do anything about that. But bringing it up now, in this moment of escalation, merely makes the problem worse.
The goal is to open doors, not close them. To gain engagement and productive interaction, not to have the customer become enraged and walk away.
Empathize with their frustration. It's entirely possible that you think the patient's problem is ridiculous. That the customer is asking for too much. That you're going to be unable to solve the problem. Understood. But right now, the objective is de-escalation. That's the problem that needs to be solved before the presented problem can be solved. Acknowledging that the person is disappointed, angry or frustrated, and confirming that your goal is to help with that feeling means that you've seen the person in front of you. "Ouch," and "Oh no," are two useful ways to respond to someone sharing their feelings.
One minute later, then, here's what's happened:
- You were welcoming and open.
- You didn't pick a fight.
- You saw and heard the problem.
Wow. That's a lot to accomplish in sixty seconds.
Do you think the rest of the interaction will go better? Do you think it's likely that the person at the airplane counter, the examining table or on the phone with you is more likely to work with you to a useful conclusion?
January 11, 2018
Charisma doesn’t permit us to lead.
Leading gives us charisma.
January 10, 2018
You never do.
Instead, you get paid what other people think you're worth.
That's an empathic flip that makes it all make sense.
Instead of feeling undervalued or disrespected, you can focus on creating a reputation and a work product that others believe is worth more.
Because people don't make buying decisions based on what's good for you–they act based on what they see, need and believe.
Yes, we frequently sell ourselves too short. We don't ask for compensation commensurate with the value we create. It's a form of hiding. But the most common form of this hiding is not merely lowering the price. No, the mistake we make is in not telling stories that create more value, in not doing the hard work of building something unique and worth seeking out.
This is another way to talk about marketing. And modern marketing is done with the people we seek to serve, not at them. It's based on the idea that if the customer knew what you know, and believed what you believe, they'd want to work with you. On the principle that long-term trust is worth far more than any single transaction every could be.
[Today's the last best day to sign up for the current session of The Marketing Seminar. It started yesterday. I hope you'll check it out.]
January 9, 2018
When confronted with too many good options, it's easy to get paralyzed. The complaint is that we don't know what to do next, because we're pulled in many good directions–and doing one thing with focus means not doing something else.
This is a common way to get stuck. After all, if you're at this crossroads, where more consideration means more possibility, while more action merely means walking away from a potentially better choice, it's easy to settle for the apparently safe path, which is more study.
No one can blame you for careful consideration. More careful consideration seems to insulate you from the criticism that follows taking action.
But getting stuck helps no one.
Here's an alternative:
Write up a one-pager on each of the five best alternatives you are considering. Use the document to sell each idea as hard as you can, highlighting the benefits for you and those you seek to serve.
Then, hand the proposals to your trusted advisors. They vote (without you in the room) and you commit to doing whatever it is they choose. Not thinking about it, but doing it.
Merely agreeing to this scenario is usually enough incentive to pick on your own and get to work.
January 8, 2018
We do this in two ways:
The first is refusing to be clear and precise about what the mission is. Avoiding specifics about what we hope to accomplish and for whom. Being vague about success and (thus about failure).
After all, if no one knows exactly what the mission is, it's hard feel like a failure if it doesn't succeed.
The second is even more insidious. We degrade the urgency of the mission. We become diffuse. We get distracted. Anything to avoid planting a stake and saying, "I made this."
It's possible to spend 7 hours and 52 minutes out of an eight-hour day in doing nothing but hiding from the mission. And it's exhausting.
January 7, 2018
It's not unusual for something to be positioned as the high performance alternative. The car that can go 0 to 60 in three seconds, the corkscrew that's five times faster, the punch press that's incredibly efficient…
The thing is, though, that the high performance vs. low performance debate misses something. High at what?
That corkscrew that's optimized for speed is more expensive, more difficult to operate and requires more maintenance.
That car that goes so fast is also more difficult to drive, harder to park and generally a pain in the neck to live with.
You may find that a low-performance alternative is exactly what you need to actually get your work done. Which is the highest performance you can hope for.
January 6, 2018
Of course, you have one. We all do. A theory about everything.
You're waiting for 7:20 train into the city. Your theory is that every day, the train comes and brings you to work. Today, the train doesn't come. That's because it's Sunday, and the train doesn't run on the same schedule. Oh. So you've learned something, and now you have a new theory, which is that the train comes at 7:20 on weekdays only. And you'll keep working with that theory, and most of the time, it'll help you get what you want.
And you have a theory that putting a card into the ATM delivers money.
And you have a theory that smiling at a stranger increases the chances that you'll have a good interaction.
And on and on.
Many theories, proposals about what might work in the future.
We can fall into a few traps with our theories about humans:
- We can come to believe that they are ironclad guarantees, not merely our best guess about the future.
- We can refuse to understand the mechanics behind a theory and instead accept the word of an authority figure. If we fail to do the math on our own, we lose agency and the ability to develop an even more nuanced understanding of how the world works.
- We can become superstitious, ignoring evidence that runs counter to our theory and instead doubling down on random causes and their unrelated effects.
- We can hesitate to verbalize our theories, afraid to share them with others, particularly those we deem as higher in authority or status.
- We can go to our jobs and do all four of these things at once.
[PS The Marketing Seminar is accepting new signups right now.]
January 5, 2018
The creation of worthwhile work is a duet. The creator has to do her part, but so does the customer.
One of the best airport restaurants I’ve ever encountered breaks my first rule of airport eating. The sushi bar at gate 34 of Narita airport is a special place (though I wish they didn’t serve tuna).
The rice is extraordinary. The nori is crisp. The service is efficient but friendly. They have wonderful vegan rolls, flavorful shiso, and yes, it’s hard to believe but true: real wasabi, grated to order. My guess is that the very best sushi restaurant in your town doesn’t serve real wasabi. But I digress.
When I was there a few months ago, I apologized to the entire staff. I apologized to them on behalf of every traveler (many, if not most, from my country) that was dredging this extraordinary product in soy sauce, bathing it from top to bottom in the style created to mask the flavor of generations-worth of mediocre, lazily-created sushi. The Japanese equivalent of putting ketchup on your food in a fine restaurant.
I could only imagine how much it hurt for the caring artisans to watch their creation get wrecked by diners too oblivious to see what had been created for them.
And one day, I’m guessing, a new layer of management will wonder why they even bother. So they’ll cut a few corners and few will notice. The race to the bottom.
Every once in awhile, someone steps up and makes something better. Much better. When it happens, it’s up to us to stand up and notice it. Which means buying it and consuming it with the very same care that it was created with.
Movies, writing, sushi, safety ladders, high-powered magnets, saxophones… it doesn’t matter. Every creator that desires to fly higher needs an audience willing to cheer them on and go for the ride as well. That’s our part of the deal.
January 4, 2018
One thing that's often taught in amateur internet marketing school is the idea of keyword stuffing.
List every possible thing that someone might want you to do on your website, so if they type that in, they'll find you.
It's an echo of something that freelancers and small businesses have been doing forever, "what do you need?" as an answer to the question, "what do you do?"
I was at the vet a few years ago, and he was busy trying to fix a rabbit. He's a good vet, but how many rabbits does he actually get to treat? I think everyone would have been happier if he had announced that the client should have taken her pet to a rabbit specialist.
You might be as well.
Good referrals are smarter than mediocre, distracting work.
Own your work. No need to do someone else's.
January 3, 2018
