Category Archives: Human Behavior

Your most important organizational asset…

Posted on April 8, 2013 | 1 Comment

Your company’s most important asset….

Google “your company’s most important asset” and you will find a preponderance of articles, posts, and books with answers such as:

Your employees (who hasn’t read that in the CEO’s letter to the shareholders?)
Your intellectual capital (alternatively referred to as your intellectual property)
Your reputation (within the community of whom? Employees? Investors? Consumers? All three?)
Your brands, your brand promise(s), your brand messaging… (to some “it’s all about the brand”)
Something termed “Tribal Knowledge” (this one sounds way too trendy…I’m thinking someone got carried away with the cave writings of Seth Godin)

It is very hard to argue with any of these (I could probably take the one who preaches on “tribal knowledge” to the mat). But while employees are key, they can be replaced, and often times upgraded to meet a fast moving marketplace. Intellectual capital or intellectual property is a rapidly depreciating asset at best. Your reputation, when taken across multiple stakeholder groups, is such a big one to tackle that it seems akin to solving world hunger by “feeding everyone”.

In my humble opinion, it is your organizational culture that is your most valuable, irreplaceable asset. It is what tempers the beast of change, feeds the marketplace what your customers are demanding (even when they don’t realize that they are), and what makes the whole “branding thing” possible. I suspect that your organizational culture is also important across all your tribe, whoever they are…

The care and feeding of your company culture is the most important role an executive leader plays. A culture doesn’t begin or end with one person, but if that individual is the Chief Executive Officer, she or he can most assuredly define, declare, displace or derail it. It takes a compelling effort, sustained and reinforced at all levels of the organization, to raise the cultural values across diverse social, generational, and geographic audiences. It also takes time to build…less time to destroy, but a long time to become a viable corporate life force.

A strong, positive culture demands the best of those who are tasked with putting values into action, and to create a favorable environment in which they can take root and grow. Values are not just words to those who truly grasp the potential they hold for building a common cause among all associates. It is far easier to be cynical these days than it ever has been in the history of commerce. It is hard enough to gain buy-in to traditional beliefs, even as simple as, “do unto others…”

Your company culture has no chance to exist without clearly demonstrated beliefs, put in practice, and hiding in plain sight at every opportunity. Failing to reinforce the values, letting moments of truth slip by with no recognition of an associate caught in the act of doing something positive, will create an unnecessarily perilous future for the culture you wish to instill. Communicating, demonstrating, reinforcing, articulating, recognizing, celebrating, commiserating…these are all terribly important to nurturing the culture of your firm.

What is the most important asset of your company? I would say it is the one thing that your company cannot exist without, and cannot be replaced if it’s lost, damaged or stolen. When you look around your company, whether you have fifteen or fifteen thousand associates, consider what is being done to create and support a culture that values each individual in accordance with a consistently defined purpose, vision and set of principles. If you find a more valuable asset than that, I would love to hear about it.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Change, Corporate Culture, Employee Engagement, Human Behavior, Innovation, Leadership, Organizational Change, Recognition, Social Issues, Talent Management, Trust

Tagged culture change, Employee engagement, most valued asset, organizational culture

A collaborative model for employee engagement initiatives…

Posted on January 15, 2013 | 1 Comment

One of the most talked-about challenges in business today centers on more fully engaging your employees. We have discussed this need on ideationz a number of times, and from a variety of perspectives. From increasing key productivity metrics, to reducing unwanted terminations, to improving the customer experience, to building a more nimble, innovative organization, there are myriad ways to measure the benefits of an engaged workforce.

Recently, I authored a White Paper, “A model for collaborative design, definition and implementation of an effective initiative to drive and sustain employee engagement.” That’s a long title! But there are a number of key factors that must be addressed, including:

Where do I start the process?
How will I set benchmarks for the current situation?
What are the “New Rules” of engagement?
How do I approach the definition and design process?
What are the most important variables that make up an effective plan?
What about implementation? How do I approach that?
Where should I measure the effort and how?

You will find all these questions discussed in the White Paper. Would you like to receive a copy? Simple enough. Please just complete the form below and I will send you a .pdf. All I ask is that should you desire to republish it, that you ask for my permission and acknowledge the origin of the piece.

In 2013, virtually all of the biggest marketing and organizational challenges we face tie back, on some level, to the willingness and ability of our employees to create and deliver new value in the marketplace, and innovation within our firm. Failing that, it will be awfully hard to maximize our potential, and, in some cases, even assure the sustainability of the company over the long-term.

I hope to hear from you, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject!

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Change, Corporate Culture, Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Human Behavior, Innovation, Leadership, Marketing, Measurement, Organizational Change, Recognition, Retail, Rewards, Rewards and Recognition, Sales Force Effectiveness, Talent Management

Tagged collaboration, definition, design, Employee engagement, employee initiatives, employees, HR, marketing, White Paper

Always, never and the 99% rule…

Posted on December 26, 2012 | 2 Comments

Not sure what is expected of you? Receiving mixed signals as to what to do next? By my estimate roughly 99% of all of these are the result of one simple fact: We are really not that great at communicating expectations.

How about if we make a simple New Year Resolution that we all can live with? One that will eliminate 99% of our mutual frustrations, disagreements, and disappointments? It’s really quite simple. If we resolve to both listen better, and express ourselves with greater clarity, the vast majority of problems we deal with can be eliminated. Imagine how wonderful our lives will be…

I don’t have to go into when, how or why these disconnects occur. They just do. We either don’t say what we mean or we don’t listen carefully enough to what we are told so that we can understand what the other person really means. The result is painfully obvious. And completely avoidable.

One idea to think about is to maintain an “Always / Never” list. It is a simple list of all those things that we need to either always or never do. That will knock off at least half of our frustrating experiences right there. Everyone has certain inviolable patterns. Whether we are talking about your customers, your boss, your spouse, your family, your friends or acquaintances, we know that there are certain, specific, words, acts or perceptions that will bring functional communications to an end.

For example, ask yourself: “What are the things that my customer always expects of me? Alternatively, what are the things that my customer never wants to see or hear from me? If you get these right, you are already ahead of the game.

If you are in business, you need to pay close attention to the “Always/Never” list of your best customers. You’d be crazy not to. Same is true for those people in your life who you interact with most frequently. This approach will take care of all the black and white issues. But since most of life is neither black nor white, you need to focus on what you say, and how you say it, if you want to take care of all the other chances for miscommunication.

Too often we say what we think the other person wants to hear, or we tell them exactly what they don’t want to hear in order to serve our own agenda. In either case, we are not necessarily communicating what is real, or what is true, or what needs to be said. If we don’t understand or if we don’t listen carefully, we will readily miss or misinterpret what others tell us. My advice: Don’t count on the other person to be a particularly concise or accurate communicator. Instead, make it a point to really listen, and then help them to find the real message. Sometimes it can take some digging or prodding. But in the end, it can save you a lot of heartbreak or confusion.

Effective communication is becoming a lost art. Text messaging, email, voicemail, headline news, and the all the rest of the ways we collapse what we take in, makes for plenty of chances to say or hear the “wrong thing”. The results range from mildly annoying to catastrophic. Step up to the situation, grab the proverbial “thistle” and say what you mean…make it more difficult for the other party to misinterpret you.

Simple enough, right? Let’s give it a go. It can’t possibly hurt. And who knows, the angst you save just may be your own.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Change, Human Behavior, Leadership, Personal Development, Trust

Tagged always, Communication, never

Just give me a gift card and leave me alone…

Posted on November 15, 2012 | 3 Comments

One of the more significant generational differences between our legacy Gen X and Boomer workforce and the Gen Y / Millenials is how they view their relationship with the company (i.e., leadership, values and culture) they work for. In the past, there was a longer view on commitment, and more focus on the ongoing relationship over an extended period of time. Inconsistencies in the workplace, disappointment with regard to the decisions or actions of management were seen in a balance with individual and collective victories. There was a dominant sense of “taking the good with the bad”, given the accepted reality of both.

The point of view of our newest generational group is far more transactional. The prevailing wisdom is “I do this for you, you do that for me.” The longer term perspective is less important, as the day-to-day has taken on a new level of significance. Loyalty is fading, and mobility is seen as a given. If I don’t like what happened today at work, and if it doesn’t change really quickly, I believe I can go find something else to do that will give me more immediate gratification.

As leadership, we exacerbate this transactional nature of employee relationships when we construct an employee recognition process that emphasizes the individual transaction, at the expense of focusing on the bigger picture. Consider how every day, managers acknowledge a subordinate’s activity or behavior with a $5, $10 or $20 gift card. What does that really tell the employee?

For one, it communicates that “what you did today was worth $5, $10 or $20.” In effect, individual performance has been sublimated to a concrete dollar-value. Is the effort expended worth a $5 or $10 valuation? I don’t know. But the simple act of putting a dollar value on it, defines the economic value of going “above and beyond”.

Next, ponder the collateral impact of monetizing acts of exceptionalism. By assigning monetary value to the employees’ performance, you are reinforcing that performance is transactional. In fact, you are making a statement to the employee that there is a quantitative relationship between behaviors and worth to the company. In other words, it is the equivalent of telling the employee, “if you choose to do better than expected, you will be paid $5 or $10 or $20 via a retail gift card.” That is always going to be a losing proposition. The next time the employee is faced with a similar situation, s/he will make the subconscious calculation of effort vs value. Will they make the same decision in view of the precedent that doing so is worth $10 or so to the company? What is it “worth” to them (the employee)?

Finally, there is the aspect of the ongoing versus transactional. We have known for years that transactional relationships are more volatile than established, ongoing relationships. Instead of reinforcing a transactional connection between employer/employees, a more appropriate acknowledgement of is a measure of reward that accrues over time, gaining in value and providing an extrinsic, visible complement to the intrinsic and often unseen drivers behind effort, performance and results. Under this approach, the individual acts of exceptionalism are linked to more enduring, sustained value over an extended period of time.

An effective system for engaging employees in order to engender a heightened sense of loyalty to a company or brand is based on a number of factors occurring in combination, generating synergy with multiple, interconnected points of reinforcement.

The days of one-time, transaction-based recognition are not only gone, the mindset can be very dangerous to the health and culture of your organization. You need to win the hearts and minds of your employees, and that means gaining alignment with the mission and vision of the company, providing a real basis for expanding individual competencies and opportunity to grow, leveraging an ongoing reward and recognition platform that delivers ongoing appreciation by accruing the value of individual (transactional) behaviors via a tangible, and non-cash (or equivalent) rewards, and one that measures what is important in terms of behaviors as well as outcomes.

Gift cards may be fine for your nephew’s birthday. But they could be the undoing of your company’s defined need to build long lasting employee engagement.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Change, Corporate Culture, Emotional Engagement, Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Human Behavior, Loyalty, Recognition, Rewards and Recognition

Tagged customer loyalty, Employee engagement, employee loyalty, employee recognition, employee rewards, generational differences, gift cards, Millenials, organizational culture, recognition, rewards

Your employees are not engaged. Now what..?

Posted on November 8, 2012 | 2 Comments

There is a huge and growing interest in determining the level of employee engagement in companies of every size and scope. Organizations such as Gallup, Mercer, AON Hewitt, and others in the Employee Satisfaction, Compensation & Benefits, and Human Capital Management arenas are deeply involved in helping clients define needs, identify gaps and assess the organizational landscape. Given all this focus and attention, one thing is clear: Globally there is a significant deficit of engaged, committed employees who are willing to go the extra mile in serving the mission of the company they work for.

Rodd Wagner, a noted author and expert in the field of Employee Engagement makes a terrific point (which I am paraphrasing here). If your company is satisfied receiving a “4 on a 5-point scale” in terms of employee loyalty and engagement, you have to question whether you are aiming high enough. For example, if someone asked your mom how much she loved you and she answered “4” on a similar scale, you would likely be devastated. Why should you be much less disappointed if your employees answer similarly about your company? One reason this matters is that there are tremendous performance differences between those who respond at a 4 (or less) compared to those who answer with a 5 in the scaling of employee engagement.

There is no silver bullet when it comes to engaging a workforce. Every study will tell you that. There is no single answer as to why your employees are not fully engaged with the company they work for. This is also to be expected. Everyone finds their own reasons to love (or not) the company they work for to an extent that they will act consistently in the shared best interests of the employer and themselves, and devote themselves to an extraordinary degree in contributing to the mission of the company.

There are some very important aspects that companies with above average levels of engagement share. Here is just a sampling:

They have a culture that empowers the employee, supports and encourages intelligent risk-taking, engenders personal development, and deploys multiple, interactive listening posts across the hierarchy of the organization;
They have a compensation and benefits package for the worker that is seen as competitive, and generally slightly more so than many others in their industry. It doesn’t take a lot to be seen as generous, particularly in an environment that addresses so many non-compensation related elements.
The organization is typically flatter, with opportunities for individuals to lattice into new areas for further personal and career development. Employees feel less “invisible” and sense a greater degree of accountability and transparency for their role and those around/above them.
There is a real sense of spirit de corps, and a value placed on giving back to the community in which the company resides. This engenders pride, and a passion for the work being done within their geographic home to benefit others and the environment.
Leadership is visible, and seen as honest, caring, and open to innovation, no matter where the ideas emanate in the company. The quality of being heard is essential to employees using their individual and collective voices in a positive manner.

The days of platitudes like “our employees are our greatest asset” having any meaning is past. Words won’t get it done in an age where line of sight extends to the farthest reaches of an organization. Every employee pretty much can know everything that is going on in your global firm simply by doing some elementary research. Disconnects between what is said and what is witnessed or experienced will surface quickly and universally.

A simplified approach to finding a preferred course of action should be based on some fundamental constructs:

Treat consistency as a core value in your communications with, and your responses to, those who work for the company. Candor, honesty, accountability are all vital to gaining alignment among those from the front-line all the way up to the executive suite. In the absence of an aligned workforce, you will find it increasingly difficult to deliver a common message of what is important and valued.
Push, hard, on the need for each employee to have a continuous learning and development plan that helps them to remain relevant, and that keeps them challenged to continue growing. This won’t be hard with your Gen Y and Millennials, they grew up knowing this. The Boomers and Gen X counterparts may need some reinforcement in this regard. The future belongs to the innovators, including your company’s future.
Acknowledgement of individual effort and contribution is critical. Employees know the difference between authentic recognition and disingenuous pandering. It is key that first and second level management be connected to their reports sufficient to be able to reinforce those who are delivering above-and-beyond the norm. Remember, accountability is key.
If you wrap all this up in a performance measurement system that measures what is important, gives real-time data into what is being done, by whom, and where the exceptionalism is coming from, you will be in a unique place for providing kudos, added resources or corrective action. Measuring behavioral performance is as important as tracking outcomes. You need to be on top of both.

Is this an expensive process? I don’t know, how expensive is going out of business or falling to the bottom ranks of your industry? Engagement is no longer a “nice idea”. It is a business imperative as your competitive set has expanded and accelerated globally. There is no longer the option of being “good enough”. Good enough for today is already halfway down the slippery slope to irrelevance. Time to listen, lead and motivate the troops. No matter what business you are in, it’s a war out there.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Change, Corporate Culture, Emotional Engagement, Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Human Behavior, Innovation, Leadership, Learning, Organizational Change, Personal Development, Recognition, Rewards and Recognition, Talent Management, Trust

Tagged Accountability, AON Hewitt, BI Worldwide, Gallup, Mercer, Millenials, Rodd Wagner, talent management

Customer Experience and Employee Engagement

Posted on November 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

The marketplace demands more than a great product. You know that. It starts there, and requires a sound strategy to both position the brand and engender a conversation with the target market. The foundation continues to evolve and build new facets that creatively destroy or enhance all that has come before.

In the 1990′s success depended in large part on gaining distribution, in getting your brand and the message visible in an emerging on-line marketplace, amidst a fast-growing global competitive base, all trying to gain an advantage in access and logistics.

In the 2000′s, the focus moved to information…content became “king” and the distribution challenges were no longer “new and different”. The notion of paid-owned-earned media became of increasing importance as the decade flew by. Crowdsourcing, flash mobs, guerilla and viral marketing went merged into the mainstream marketing toolkit.

In the decade of the 2010′s, continual reshaping of the landscape is taking place, with an emphasis on customer experience. The consumer has no problem finding the options to address a want, need or desire. The relative value propositions are in full display. Branding efforts surround consumers in their daily lives, with an explosion of new media ventures.

It is against the backdrop of this ever accelerating evolution that customer experience has been elevated to a central factor in determining acceptance, trial repurchase, loyalty and advocacy. A new generation is overtaking the market, demonstrating a far more transactional relationship with products and brands. What is “hot” today, may be passe by tomorrow. What will keep consumers coming back? One answer is a powerfully positive experience, starting with the promise of the brand, through to the acquisition of the product or service, to how the experience makes the consumer “feel” about themselves, others (both users and non-users) and the sometimes subtle nuances that shade one product differently than another.

The ability of the front-line employees to deliver a performance, a shared experience, a uniquely positive interaction, that embeds a positive memory, seeding a desire for engagement, is vital for survival, and indeed for endurance. It is for this reason that a culture and environment that breeds and encourages a commitment on the part of the employee to the mission of the brand or company is critical.

Unfortunately, in most companies today, employee strategies are housed in a wing of the organization chart that is distanced from those responsible for customer experience engineering, marketing or branding. In fact, there is a clear need for both to be connected, measured and aligned if the customer experience is to be optimized. As Vineet Nayar put so eloquently in his book of the same name, “Employees First, Customers Second” may represent a prioritization that is both counter intuitive and essential. If you fail to serve the desires, needs, goals and characteristics of those who bring your brand promise to life, how well do you think the customer experience will be?

On Wednesday, November 7th, myself and Rodd Wagner (author of several best-selling books on the topic of organizational culture and employee engagement) will lead a discussion in Boston, in concert with the Ad Club of Boston (as part of their ongoing “Under The Dome” series) and the New England Chapter of SHRM. The central theme will be building a better customer experience through employee engagement. You can find details on the event here: http://tinyurl.com/b6e5423

This is a conversation that will continue in future posts as well. It is one that will differentiate market leaders from also-rans for years to come. I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic as well, and hope to see some of you at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge on the morning of the 7th!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Branding, Consumer Loyalty, Consumerism, Employee Engagement, Human Behavior, Innovation, Marketing, Trust

Tagged customer engagement, Customer Experience, Engagement, experience engineering, retail

Provocative insight on Employee Engagement…

Posted on October 3, 2012 | 2 Comments

Breaking news… BIWORLDWIDE was just named #1 in Customer Satisfaction for Employee Engagement Agencies globally by HROToday!

To celebrate this designation of Best-In-Class, BIW is hosting a no-cost series of seminars, open to all HR, OD, Comp & Benefits, or other related professionals in six cities, starting October 22 nd.

Yours truly will be hosting two events, on October 23rd at the Westchester Marriott (Tarrytown, NY) and on October 24th at the Westin in Princeton, New Jersey. Both sessions will start at 8:30 a.m., and will include a light breakfast. Featured speakers will be Dr. Ken Bartlett, a noted expert in the field of behavioral economics and engagement, and Rodd Wagner, a best-selling author (Power of 2: How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life, and 12: The Elements of Great Managing).

Both Rodd and Dr. Bartlett will share thought-provoking ideas around the practical aspects of engaging your employees, across all generations, in helping to achieve gains in productivity, performance and commitment. In addition, Rodd will demonstrate a ground-breaking new technology and assessment tool targeted at gaining a sight line to organizational and behavioral change.

We expect a terrific turnout, and some extraordinary discussion to follow the presentations at these key events. Please click-through the link below to learn more and to register. Or, you can contact Kyle Simonsen at BI WORLDWIDE (kyle.simonsen@biworldwide.com) for additional information or to register.

You don’t want to miss out on these exceptional events. If you are not in the CT/NY/NJ area, not to worry. There will also be events in Chicago (Oct. 22nd), Minneapolis (Nov. 12th), Indianapolis (Dec. 3rd), and Detroit (Dec. 13th). Plus, additional dates will be set for early 2013 in other markets across the south and west.

I hope you can attend, and would love to hear back from you on what you thought of the Westchester and Princeton events! So mark your calendar, and let’s plan to meet up later this month!! See you there!!

CLICK BELOW TO LEARN MORE AND TO REGISTER:

http://tinyurl.com/EmployeeEngagementSeminar

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Behavioral Economics, Corporate Culture, Emotional Engagement, Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Human Behavior, Innovation, Leadership, Organizational Change, Talent Management, Technology

Tagged Comp and Benefits, Compensation, Dr. Ken Bartlett, Employee engagement, HR, human resources, Learning, Organizational development, Princeton, Rodd Wagner, Seminar, Westchester

I’d rather be good than lucky…

Posted on September 18, 2012 | 6 Comments

In 1897, Samuel Clements wrote Following the Equator – A Journey Around the World. Its opening lines are, “Be good and you will be lonesome. Be lonesome and you will be free.”

These words have stayed with me over the last 30+ years for a couple of reasons… One is to remind me of what is important in life…the admonition that we should choose the path that is “good”, a course that may not follow the direction or the pace of others, but which is “right” for me. It is “okay” to stand apart, on principle, on ideology, on religious or spiritual matters, or with regard to any of the moral, ethical or secular qualities that define who we are individually.

What’s more, by standing your ground on those things that matter most to you, you achieve a level of freedom that others, particularly those bound by constrictions of imposed beliefs, values or rules, cannot aspire to.

In 2012, the cautionary advice of Mr. Twain is particularly apropos. Too often, in far too many aspects of our lives, we are defined on overly-simplistic terms. It could be something as fleeting as a comment, or an observation, or possibly a simple inquiry. What we say, what we buy, what we consume, may well be how our personal “brand” is set.

Are you a Democrat or a Republican? That may be all someone needs to know about you, which may or may not have any correlation to who you really are. It doesn’t really matter what the facts are though. The judgment in the court of public opinion has been rendered, with no preponderance of evidence beyond one simple declaration.

Opportunities for judging abound… Where do you shop? What designer labels do you wear? What kind of car do you drive? Where do you live? Who does your hair? What brand of watch is on your wrist? What did you think of a given movie? Do you believe in God? How many friends do you have on Facebook? How many connections on LinkedIn? What groups do you belong to?

Here is the point: When you bring yourself to others in search of validation or acceptance, you are going to be judged on many bases that have less to do with who you are than the fears, uncertainties or doubts that your appearance or response elicits. An aggregate of societal and brand messages, embodying the interplay between imagery and emotions, creates a “mindprint” of you that establishes expectations in the minds and hearts of everyone you meet. Once set, those expectations may be impossible to change.

An example: Your preferred drink is beer, you like to go to the races, your favorite clothes are t-shirts and jeans, and your favorite meal is steak on the grill. You drive a truck, wear boots for a living, dream of going hunting. Got a picture in your mind of who this is?

Are you this person: A Budweiser drinker, hanging at the dirt track on a Friday night, in Levis and a dusty t-shirt….driving your ten-year old Ford F-150 truck and talking about the best way to field dress a deer? What does this person stand for, what can you already tell about him (or her), and what kind of person is this?

Or are you this person: A Stella Artois drinker, at the Polo Club on a Saturday afternoon, in Ralph Lauren jeans, an Armani blazer and an Italian designer t-shirt… Wearing a pair of Tony Luchese ostrich belly boots, driving your Range Rover and planning a safari to Africa next spring. Still fits the profile we described earlier. But how do you feel about this person? What does he/she stand for, and what do you know about this individual?

What if you were this person: A Budweiser drinker at a Polo Match, in your ten-year old Ford F-150 wearing Hugo Boss jeans and a JCPenney t-shirt, and a pair of Wal-Mart boots while planning your duck hunt in the fall on a hunting lease owned by a hedge fund manager… What would people make of you then? Which brand or imagery is working against you? Who is this person??

I imagine Mark Twain would have had nothing to do with any of the questions, would not have given you a straight answer to any of them, and would have lumbered off, to leave you wondering what just happened.

The reality is that how we see others and the world are often guided by established cultural values, societal mores, and brand perceptions created by those who wish to shape how we see ourselves in the context of their product.

Who you are is largely foretold, right or wrong, by what products you identify with, whose services you partake of, and where you are seen. This is the curse of living in 2012. If who we truly are is a unique pantone in the spectrum of all colors, we are seen by others as something far simpler to define…perhaps more like one of four primary colors.

It still amazes me how marketing today simply can convince you to believe if “buy this you will be desirable”, or “buy this and you will be loved”, or “buy this and you will be safe”. It isn’t just the message, but the physicality of who is telling us these things…what they look like, who we know that likes them, and what others say about them. A “hot” celebrity in a revealing outfit can trump a better quality product any day of the week.

This has been the case for years, so it isn’t new. But what brings a new twist to the age-old shaping of contemporary beliefs is the impact of social media. When I was a kid, I believed that smoking was cool, when the Marlboro Man or the Flintstones promoted their brand of choice. Then as a young adult, I got mixed messages. Smoking was cool, but it could kill me. A few years later, smoking is all but passe. Except for the kids. They see Hollywood starlets smoking in paparazzi photos, and all of a sudden, smoking is once again cool. Expensive, and it will kill you, but cool because you will look like Robert Pattinson or Scarlett Johansson.

“Be good and you will be lonesome.” How prophetic has this turned out to be? “Be lonesome and you will be free.” Works for me. How about you?

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Advertising, Behavioral Economics, Branding, Consumerism, Creative Process, Emotional Engagement, Facebook, Human Behavior, Marketing, Personal Matters, Social Issues, Social Media, Twitter

Tagged 2012, Following The Equator, imagery, Mark Twain, perceptions, Samuel Clements, society

A clear vision and an open mind…

Posted on August 16, 2012 | 2 Comments

Effective leadership requires these two fundamentals be entrenched in the culture of an organization. Without them, you probably won’t get to where you want to go, at least not in the most efficient or sustainable manner. Okay, so you knew that. But if how you lead is every bit as important as where you lead, you may want to double back and do a quick reality check.

A clear vision of goals and objectives is elementary. Does your team have a full understanding of the destination, the route to get there, and the waypoints to success? Do they know/buy into their role in getting there? How do you know that?

Equally important is keeping an open mind to new ideas, technology, partners, alliances, markets, tools, trends, and processes that may reside in your network, both within and outside of the formal organization. Do you encourage innovative ideas and welcome challenges to the status quo? Does your entire team recognize the value of keeping communications flowing up, down and across the enterprise?

Failure to align a team around the mission, falling short of their complete engagement in contributing at respective levels, or allowing their enthusiasm to wane and lapse are among the most detrimental leadership attributes you can display. Your competition will sense it, your customers will see it, and worst of all, your team will react to it by giving far less than they are capable of.

Before getting too immersed in the realm of mission-critical tactics, protocols and systems, you might want to step back and ask yourself: “Are we all on the same page? Am I doing everything I can to gather the team’s best thinking?”

Have you ever worked for someone who could not or would not articulate what the goals were? Have you ever felt that those above you in the company really did not value your suggestions or ideas? Let’s face it, you don’t ever want to be that manager.

The most effective teams I have ever been associated with were populated with inspired, driven and highly competent zealots who recognized the big picture and had a clear sightline to their unique role. My suggestion: Take some time for critical self-analysis. Be honest and direct in your assessment. You won’t have to look very far to see how you are doing, and you might be surprised by what you find.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Change, Corporate Culture, Human Behavior, Innovation, Leadership, Organizational Change, Talent Management, Trust

Tagged Engagement, leadership, mission, organizational culture, vision

The emotional exchange: Buy on rumor, sell on facts….

Posted on July 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

A long-held belief in the stock market is that equities are over-bought when rumors persist about a company (clarification: generally referring to bullish outlook), and are sold when news is made. I would offer up that our emotional “trading accounts” work in much the same way. We get all fired up emotionally when our imagination is involved, creating a vision of us in a highly desirable setting, relationship or state. When reality kicks in, however, we turn and head off in another direction, often in retreat from our illusions. We distance ourselves from a situation that is dissonant, and allow our rational selves to take over the decision-making.

Let your mind wander for a bit, and picture this: The allure of a shaded sidewalk table aside a corner café on the Left Bank of Paris on a cool early-summer morning, your solitude interrupted only by the straw broom of a shopkeeper busily cleaning in front of his store, and a dog’s owner coercing her curious pup as they stroll along the boulevard… This is for many, a seductive flight of fancy, which can readily fire up an emotional desire. You can practically sense the aroma of the cappuccino, hear the street sounds (complete with dog barking in French), feel the silkiness of a fresh-baked croissant as you make ready to experience a momentary gastronomic coup de foudre.

The visioning process opens up your emotional trading floor, and transactions start firing. First you buy into the comfortable feel of a table amidst a tree-lined neighborhood in the most romantic city on earth. Then your senses are drawn in, and they start buying every memory of smell, sight, sound, touch, taste and feel that they can conjure up to complete the scenario. And for the briefest moment of time, your heart rate elevates, your excitement increases, and you settle in for a quick and imaginary diversion across the pond.

Now, try this on for size: Picture $11.35. That is how much you will spend on a cappuccino and a croissant at the aforementioned Parisian coffee shop. Not nearly as romantic, eh? Yet it shares the same rational, economic value of the foreign snack. So what happened?

Money, you see, is a “fact”. Try to create a vision around that. The emotional trading account that we created starts selling like crazy. No need for the imagination, no requirement for an inner vision, and you can short all the sensual equities. It is, after all, just a few bucks. Nothing to get too excited about.

Libby Titus wrote “Love has no pride”. In fact, love not only has pride, it has an infinite diversity of emotional componentry, and a virtually endless shelf-life. Money, despite the broad misconceptions of many, is not going to engage the emotions of anyone. This is why the most effective, productive behavior-change programs use tangible, desirable (“hedonic”) rewards, not money.

And like John Lennon and Paul McCartney ably observed so long ago, “money can’t buy me love”. When you want to get your employees, your channel-partners or your consumers immersed in a flight of fancy, and sustain their involvement, you have to get them trading on the floor of the emotional stock market. It’s where the action is.

(Thank you to Raymond James Research and stock-chartist.com for the graphic atop this post!)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Behavioral Economics, Emotional Engagement, Employee Engagement, Human Behavior, Incentives, Marketing, Rewards, Rewards and Recognition

Tagged emotional stock market, Libby Titus, money, Raymond James Research, stock trading, stock-chartist.com

Category Archives: Human Behavior

A collaborative model for employee engagement initiatives…

Always, never and the 99% rule…

Just give me a gift card and leave me alone…

Your employees are not engaged. Now what..?

Customer Experience and Employee Engagement

Provocative insight on Employee Engagement…

A clear vision and an open mind…

The emotional exchange: Buy on rumor, sell on facts….

Look For Us Under ‘Branding’ On Alltop!

Tell All Your Friends !!

Your host…

Email Subscription

Search ideationz Archives

Archives

Wholesome Tweets

Ideationz Blog

Archives

Posts By Category:

Blogroll

Follow “ideationz...a blog from rick s. pulito”

Category Archives: Human Behavior

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Look For Us Under ‘Branding’ On Alltop!

Tell All Your Friends !!

Your host…

Email Subscription

Search ideationz Archives

Archives

Ideationz Blog

Archives

Posts By Category:

Blogroll

Follow “ideationz...a blog from rick s. pulito”