Kantar Millward Brown has found that the more you try to say, the less likely your message is going to get across and stick.
A great reminder for all the times we are tempted to tell of all the great things our product does, of all the features our service has, of all the magic we can deliver.
When the temptation kicks in, just think how effective such a message would be if you were the customer. Would you understand it, appreciate it, remember it? Would it make you buy?
Keep it simple.
There are two major factors that go against doing.
The first one is perfection. It’s a myth, something everybody aims for and nobody ever achieves. It is the resistance of having all your ducks in a row, and it delays delivering until a day that will never come.
The second one is analysis paralysis. At any time, we have access to a whole lot more information than what we need to make things happen, and this is unsettling to most. For every piece that tells you to do something, there is one that tells you to do the opposite, and so we lose focus, get distracted and, once again, delay delivery.
Habit and practice are the antidotes.
It’s not for us to judge what others do.
There are systems in place for that, and as individuals and human beings, we should not feel entitled to decide if other people’s behaviour is right or wrong.
Today we are given the illusion that we have this right, that it is necessary for us to let everybody know what we think about this or that event.
We have lost the capability to use others’ actions for self-reflection (and betterment), and we just cherry pick facts and happenings that confirm to ourselves and the world we are already better, smarter, braver, fairer.
We have lost the empathy to understand others behave like they do not because they are mean, devious, malicious, but just because they are facing our very same challenges, trying to make sense of a life that does not help them in the effort.
We have lost the courage necessary to look within ourselves first, to sit in front of a mirror and think about who we are and who we are not, the things we like and we want more of, the things we dislike and we want less of, and we drown in a continuous flow of superficial interactions that end up being shouts in the dark.
We have lost, and we are losing every day the sense of perspective, of what is important, of why should I care, or what is my role in all this.
We have lost, but we can take all of this back. It’s a choice we make every day.
Some problems would greatly benefit from a more customer centric approach.
One of them is cybersecurity. We all laugh at how silly it is to use “1234” or “p4ssw0rd” as credentials to access any type of service, and we all know we should not use the same password on different websites, or stick the password on our computers. And yet, most people do just that. Because keeping in mind more than a bunch of easy-to-remember passwords is taxing, because not all are aware of password managers softwares (they don’t come preinstalled in your devices), and because even when you install one you realize that the experience is not exactly easy – between syncing across devices, two-factors authentication, master password recovery, and whatnot.
If change in the world is what we seek to achieve, we need to be brutally focused on how the people we want to change go about their routines, what they care about, why they should even bother, and what we can do to actually enhance their lives while change makes it course. Resistance and indifference is the other side of the coin, and in some cases it might mean a whole lot worse consequences than the failure of a business.
For founders and start-ups managers, here is a list of things that’s beyond what you should expect of your employees.
Being loyal to your cause.
Being as excited about your cause as you are.
Doing extra work without being paid.
Doing basic work without being paid (fairly).
Being self-motivated.
Doing work without recognition.
Doing work that is beyond the job description you’ve hired them for, or the title you have given them.
Putting up with your lack of vision, planning, communication, transparency.
Participating in every after-work activity for team building.
Interpreting uncertainty and change as a free pass for mean managerial behaviour.
Agreeing to the fact that your busyness is more important than their busyness.
Finding answers to questions you don’t even ask.
Carving their way into career development.
Learning by themselves.
Accept that somebody with more experience will come in at some point and start telling them what to do.
If people is really your most important asset, you could start by having a honest look at this list. Leave your excuses on the side for a moment, and mark the items on which you are failing your employees. Ask how you can do better. And then do it.
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