The value of a free gift

Words: 295
Reading Time: 0 minute 59 seconds

To be of value a free gift need not cost you very much, or anything at all, but it must have some value to the recipient. If it does not have this quality then it will be seen as worthless – or worse – whatever it may have cost you.

A very knight of this soft and sea-girt isle is seeking to develop some land close to where I live. As part of the “planning gain” he is obliged to offer he proposes donating land to the local primary school. However, the amount of extra land the school gets will still leave it below the minimum area deemed necessary for a school of that size.

From the school’s viewpoint the offer is seen as minimalist and mean-spirited. Moreover, it undermines their case with the local education authority for greater facilities, because their shortfall would be marginally less. If they accepted the gift they would actually be worse off.

This is clearly a case where the giver of the gift has completely failed to see it from the other side of the table. The gift is a poisoned chalice. It neither recognizes, nor solves the school’s problem.

And the giver has also damaged his own image instead of enhancing it. Rather than painting a picture of someone generous, open-handed and willing to contribute to village life, he comes across as a typical Scrooge; self-interested and miserly.

It’s marketing myopia all over again.

Business suggestions, for him as well as others:
1) Find out what the recipients value, do not just assume;
2) Connect the dots by showing how it feeds their dreams;
3) Make it freely available; do not impose pre-conditions;
4) The gift will change the relationship, make sure it’s to your benefit;
5) Go the extra mile; it’s not that far.

What is everyone else doing?

Words = 104 Reading Time = 0 minutes 21 seconds

If you spend your time looking over the fence at your neighbour's garden do not be surprised if your own is full of weeds.

That is not the same as saying that your neighbour’s garden should be ignored. By all means take a look, see what lessons are to be learned and perhaps pick up new methods or fresh ideas.

However, if you spend all your time worrying about what the neighbours are up to, if you stand open-mouthed in awe at their goings-on, then your own backyard will – perforce – be ignored and your flowers, fruit and vegetables will wither for want of attention.

Don't Get SMART

Words: 662 Reading time: 2 minutes 12 seconds

Read anything on setting goals these days and, sooner or later, you’ll be told that all goals need to be “SMART”. If not, then there is no hope for you. The goal is not well set and you have little chance of achieving it.

Here, at random, are some of those promoting that view:

‘Setting goals…means creating a written plan that includes reasonable and measurable long-term and short-term objectives. It means setting SMART goals.’ Annette Richmond

‘The SMART acronym is used to describe what experts consider to be "good" goal statements’ Rodger Constandse

‘A key determinant of an individual's success or failure in meeting a goal can be summed up with one small word (or, more accurately, acronym): S.M.A.R.T.’ Christina Morfeld

Baloney!

A big problem with being SMART is finding any agreement on what the acronym stands for. Here are a handful of alternatives for each letter:

S - specific, significant, stretching, systematic, synergistic, simple, self-owned

M - measurable, meaningful, motivational, methodical, memorable, maintainable

A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented, ambitious

R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented, resonating, responsible, reliable, remarkable

T - time-based, timely, tangible, trackable, thoughtful

If my maths is correct that gives 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 = 3,125 possible combinations. Good luck!

I will look at each of these pompous precepts in a series of later blogs, but for now, let’s look at one example where SMART – whatever its constituent parts – offers no help at all. Indeed, it’ll probably get in the way.

Nic Rixon tells the story of a restaurant owner who was shot twice in the course of a robbery. As he enters A&E the restaurateur can see in the eyes of the staff that they don’t think he will make it. He is asked, over and over again by the medical team, if he is allergic to anything. But he can’t speak due to the trauma. As they wheel him into the Operating Theatre they ask him one last time and he gathers all his strength and yells, “Bullets!!!”

At that point everyone looks round and immediately everything speeds up. In that moment everyone’s belief changed from “he’s gonna die” to “we have a fighter”. The man survived.

Now that man had a goal. His whole existence turned on that one outcome. He did not have to get SMART about it – the goal was too important for that. He had neither the time, nor the inclination to work it all out, write it all down, set milestones and measure progress. Had he done so, he would probably be dead.

None of that was necessary. And, outside of sheer physical and surgical limitations, there was no doubt about the desired outcome.

For me that says a lot about goals, whether we have any hope of achieving them and what that may take.

When nothing else matters in the world other than your goal, then SMART is irrelevant. SMART is unnecessary. SMART may even delay you and make the goal less likely, rather than more likely.

The secret of reaching your goal is picking one that really matters that much to you.

More time would be better spent on finding a goal that, for you, is an all-consuming passion, instead of figuring out how to make some second-rate, minor league, lesser goal come about by using a version of being SMART.

The people who come to mind as being both memorable and remarkable do so because they devoted their life and their spirit towards achieving what we now regard as exceptional. And often, they are only inspirational looking back. At the time they did not plan and did not expect to arrive where they did. They were not SMART.

Some examples include Albert Schweitzer and Mother Theresa, the Beatles and Beethoven, Alexander the Great and Boudicca, Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci, Dante and Darwin.

It's the weight of our feelings that lets us know how important something is. We just have to be smart enough to recognize them.

Lessons in Staying Positive – #6

Words: 455. Reading time: 1 minute 31 seconds.

The great thing about creative thinking is that apart from a little time and effort it is also free. Coming up with new ideas is essential for any business as it takes them forward and helps them keep ahead of their competition.

The down side of creative thinking is that it can feel scary because it is all about new ideas that have not been tested, where as you could be spending your time working on what you already know and do.

But please remember these two things:

1) What you know may not be working because of the change in circumstances we are already experiencing, or may start to fail at some point.

2) Any new ideas you have will continue to be free up to the point where you consider them good enough to start taking action.

This economic climate could be the time your company makes a massive leap forward, but it will all depend on your willingness to look.

The sixth lesson is: thinking creatively is as valuable in tough times as it is in the good times.

There are always far more options than people think they are; just give yourself permission to explore for a bit.

Creative thinking is essential for a company's development

The best way to do this is to throw all the known rules out of the window for a while and begin exploring the possibilities. For this initial phase accept every idea, however ridiculous it appears. This is not the time for criticism and exclusion. This is the time to get a little wild. Most people get hampered by thinking about what can't be done and who they are not, rather than what they could do and what they could become.

Once you have made the time to look seriously how each idea could be implemented and what that might mean, then you can permit those rational judgements back in to test for practical viability. Oh, and you can get back all the known rules that you threw out of the window for a while, but only if they are really still appropriate.

Strange as it may seem, many more businesses suffer from a lack of imagination than suffer from a lack of cash. Too much capital and it tends to replace creativity. Companies without money must dream, imagine, co-operate and improvise. Companies awash with money try to buy solutions from outside consultants – often with very poor results.

It was as recently as August 2008 that Woolworths revealed they had been working with strategy consultants LEK – after already having spent a small fortune with consultants over the last 5 years on their supply-chain logistics. And they were still outperformed by Wilkinsons, with the inevitable results.