Tag: communication

Side effects

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At some point, we need to start asking ourselves what type of effect our work has on the world.

We can’t continue to celebrate a new way to keep customers glued to the screen, a new technology that allows whoever to spread a message with the face and voice of a celebrity, a new creative ad from a company who is indirectly promoting obesity, a tweak in the algorithm that dumbs down your social media timeline.

Perhaps these are innovation, perhaps they are groundbreaking in their fields, perhaps there’s creativity and execution to be rewarded in these and other pieces of modern work. And perhaps, the very same thing could be used for good.

Yet, we should worry about how things are received and interpreted by the public, how the things we have helped developing and bringing to life are impacting millions of individuals, whether that is intended or not. We need to factor in side effects when talking about the work we want to do, otherwise our story is but a chapter featured in a book that others will complete.

Motivated by urge

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If you want people to buy into your ideas and plans, you have to be clear about your thinking and decision-making process.

Why is this more important than what we used to do yesterday?
Why was this option chosen instead of the others?
What does this all mean for my work routine?
What’s in it for me, the team, the company if we are successful?
How does success even look like in this scenario?

When you answer these (and other) questions about your new urgency, and you do it publicly, it is much more likely that people will follow, accept new tasks and overtime, understand the reasons of a late night e-mail. When you don’t, on the other hand, it feels like a managerial caprice, something people are asked to follow now for no particular reason other than gut feelings, a breath of wind in a storm.

Nobody is motivated by urge.

Shit

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We all go through the same shit.

That does not mean our pain, despair, fights, passions are all the same, indistinct reasons why we feel miserable. It means that most likely others can relate to it. Can understand. Can empathize. And it also means that we are not alone, not in our suffering.

So, the first thing to do is talk about it. Reach out to a friend, a family member, a doctor, somebody in this deep sea of misunderstanding we can relate to. Talk honestly and don’t hold back.

And the second thing to do, arguably the most difficult, is to listen when we are on the receiving end of a request of help.

Opportunities

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Why would people rent a car and not drive it?

Even a service as straightforward as car rentals can have things to figure out. So chances are your product, your service, your software might not be used for the application it was originally designed for.

Two points to make here.

If that’s the case, and most likely it is, the best way to find out what is happening is asking your customers. No need to sit in a meeting room with product, marketing, sales, customer success to second guess the needs of your audience. Ask them. Actually, get them involved and listen to them even if everything is going as planned. That’s almost always a signal that you are missing something.

Then, how do you react to finding out? You might be instictively led to force the original use on the customers. Teach them, penalize them, leverage price and place to guide the wrong users away. Or you could make an opportunity out of it, understand that your plans are irrelevant, leverage product and promotion to adapt to what you have found.

Pick three people

Fabrizio1 Comment

Your work would go in a much straighter line without feedback.

You’d just have to agree with yourself, put in the effort, enjoy the ride and deliver when its due. Nobody pointing out how that was tried already and did not work, how the sentence in the second paragraph could be better phrased to reflect the company’s values, how the blue could just be a bit more blue, or how it is fundamental to also feature the last meeting minutes to makes sure everybody is on the same page.

And how would you get out of doing the same thing over and over and over again? How would you get better, be more effective, get closer to your customers, in a single word “develop”?

We certainly get too much feedback, and yet we need feedback. And sometimes, in the rush of the end of the quarter, we just cut feedback out because we don’t have time to filter it, to process it, to act on it.

Pick three people. One you respect, one that is professionally close to you and one that is where you picture yourself in five-ten years. Ideally, they should be exposed to your work, or happy to be exposed to it. As you know them, you know that when they deliver feedback they do it genuinely, honestly and with your best interest in mind. As they know you, they know what type of feedback you are seeking, what your stengths are, your ambitions, your passions, your motivators, and where you want to go (and who you want to bring along). They might grow out of their role (respect is not forever, your role might change, your plans might as well), and that is fine, because other people will enter the stage ready to take their place.

Pick three people. And listen carefully to what they have to say. Absorb and digest their feedback, see what make sense, argument your position without defensiveness, open up and take the time to cherish the learning experience. Test what they suggest, see if it works, make changes and reiterate.

Pick three people. The others will have to wait.