In the old model of business, marketing was something you did last. It answered the question “How can I sell these things I’ve made?”.
Today, to be effective, marketing comes first, because it answers the question “Who can I best serve and how?”.
In this new model of business, your Promise of Value is the engine, and the motive power is empathy. A fuel available to everyone.
Processes for people should be more like a footpath than a railway track.
Footpaths allow for more sensitivity to a change in conditions, or a productive diversion, for heavier or lighter traffic.
As long as you all end up in the right place, with the right feeling, it’s good.
Well-worn means you’ve probably got it right, but there’s no need to set that in stone.
A child, confident that her parent will be there when she needs them, is willing to leave their side, to explore and try new things. This is how she learns to be independent. Having an anchor you can rely on is important.
Children put into a big space and simply asked to play stay close together more or less where they’re put. If, however they are told there are boundaries to their space, and where those boundaries are, they range more widely in their play – often right up to the boundaries. Some of them may even test how firm those boundaries are. This is how children learn to be creative. Boundaries are important.
I’m not sure I’d want my business to behave literally like a family, but it is possible to give it some of the same structure to create a community. Your Promise of Value and the processes that are driven by it are both anchor and boundaries. Everyone can fall back on the anchor in times of stress, and push the boundaries of the system when they’re feeling adventurous.
In the space between, let them play.
Discipline makes Daring possible.
I recommend this Vittles article by Dr Andrea Oskis: Different Food, Same Blanket.
I loved it. It warmed my heart, made my mouth water and gave me food for thought.
It also made me wonder – could we apply some of this thinking to how we explore familiarity and innovation at work?
The danger of software systems is that because we talk about them as being ‘engineered’, we take them to be infallible, in a way that would be reasonable if we were talking of a bridge, or a train, or a road.
Bridges, trains and roads obey the laws of physics.
There are no such laws behind software systems, only human beings, with prejudices, pressures and sometimes perverse incentives.
We would do well to remember that, especially when the system is accusing a human of being in the wrong.
Sometimes, all it takes to solve a new problem is to revisit an old technology, applying the best of the new technologies we’ve developed since we last used it, to make it work far better than last time.
Sail Cargo is one such solution, using ancient technologies in a 21st century way.
Another is Homespun/Homegrown – where the old textile town of Blackburn will grow and make it’s own jeans using the even more ancient technologies of flax and woad, alongside some thoroughly modern manufacturing, marketing and distribution methods.
Babies don’t have to be thrown out with bathwater.
You can fish them out first, and help them grow up gracefully.
The internet is a wonderful technology. For instance, I’ve just bought an antique dining table with a few clicks and couple of phone calls. Not so long ago, it would have been impossible to find it, never mind buy it so easily.
The telephone is still great technology. In combination with the internet, it can be wonderful. Yesterday I booked an X-ray with just one phone call. A human being answered and booked me in. I updated my online diary as we spoke. Job done for both of us.
Yesterday, I also tried to book a blood test. Same NHS trust, different department. This time I got an automated answer offering the option of a long wait in a queue or to be sent an online form. I chose the online form. A link was sent to my phone. I followed it and completed the form. So far so good, if a little clunky.
But as soon as I’d submitted it, the form was gone. No email, no text, not even an acknowledgement of receipt. It’s gone into a black hole. I don’t know when it might be reasonable to try again. I have no record that I filled it in at all.
In other words, as far as I’m concerned, it didn’t work.
Adding the internet doesn’t automatically make for wonderful. What’s really needed is appropriate technology. Whatever makes the job easier for everyone.
Choosing it takes empathy.
I needed to consult my GP, and I wasn’t looking forward to spending hours on the phone to get an appointment. Imagine how pleased I was that in response to
I really liked this piece, shared as part of a brilliant masterclass on doing nothing by Laurence McCahill at this morning’s Like Hearted Leaders.
So as it’s Friday, and nearly the week-end, I thought I’d share it with you.
https://ideas.ted.com/the-7-types-of-rest-that-every-person-needs/
Or, if you prefer, 7 ways to avoid the criminal waste that is Muri.
Re-pose.
I shared a post on LinkedIn this week about World Kiss Day.
It turns out I got the day wrong. Apparently it’s July the 6th.
Hey ho.
I still think this film clip is worth sharing, and watching, from one of my favourite ever films:
