Getting better & better – not

Words: 449 Reading Time: 1 minute 30 seconds

My nearest Sainsbury’s has a number of large, temporary signs outside proudly declaring that “We are improving your car park”. Let me disabuse them.

It is true that various pieces of construction and earth-moving equipment are trundling about, making an uncommon mess and changing the car park’s configuration. But it is not my car park. It is their car park and they would not be “improving” it if they did not expect solid payback as a result.

Of all the things I would have changed about this Sainsbury’s, it would not have been the car park.

1. The store is quite small, so I would have made it larger.

2. I have yet to see all checkouts staffed all at the same time – even the busiest of times – so I would have changed that.

3. And they are routinely out of routine items, so I would have worked on “improving” that.

None of this has been done.

I am a regular shopper at this site. Was I ever asked what I would like “improved”; even once?

Umm, no.

This is Sainsbury’s idea, so naturally the improvement is angled towards their priorities, rather than mine. It does not seem to have occurred to them that by addressing what the customers want their expected return might be even bigger that the one they have calculated.

Sadly, Sainsbury’s are not alone in this propensity by the big battalions to portray their selfish decisions as being in “our” interests by deliberately false or misleading statements.

1. The repeated message put out by the BBC (taxpayers’ money!) that DAB is wonderful and will make life better for everyone has long been discredited, but they continue to pump out the propaganda at everyone else’s expense.

2. ‘Because you’re worth it’ – which, if the company really believed its own publicity, would result in them giving you the product without charge.

3. And ‘Delays Possible’ before major motorway works that run for miles without a sign of any activity by man or machine. The arbitrarily imposed lower speed limit means that delays are not just possible, they are inevitable, because whatever hour of the day or night I pass through I cannot drive at the speed customary for that stretch of road.

The less sceptical among us may be drawn in by these blatant falsehoods; the rest of us grow weary as our delicious language is hijacked in the service of mammon.

With our words we tell our stories and through our stories we sell ourselves and what we offer. How are we to do that if the words no longer say what they mean? We cannot mangle the moving parts and still expect a functioning mechanism.

Change & Uncertainty

Words: 288 Reading Time: 0 minutes 57 seconds

The old saying used to be that only two things were certain in this life – death and taxes. Over recent years a third element has been added – that of change. Indeed, change is now so often trumpeted as a constant that it has become a mere cliché.

However, I am not so sure.

Einstein, in proposing the General Theory of Relativity, reflexively dropped into his equations something called the cosmological constant, which arbitrarily offset the effects of gravity. He later called it “the biggest blunder of my life”.

Are we about to make a similar error where change is concerned?

When assessing the nature of change we quickly recognize that while change may always be with us, it is no constant. Change happens at different speeds, in different directions, at different times, in different places and in different ways. In fact, the one thing about change is uncertainty. In which case, how can we pretend that it is a constant?

Unless we accept the unknown nature of change we may find ourselves expecting a large shift in circumstances, say, economic recovery, that actually unfolds only slowly. We may anticipate a fast payback on an advertising campaign that turns out to be a slow-burn. We may bet the balance sheet on our latest product going unremarked by the competition, when the opposite proves to be true.

In no way does change appear to have the same degree of certainty as death and taxes where the end results are well known and totally predictable (death and less disposable income).

Mind you, the advent of dark matter and dark energy may mean Einstein was right after all. So we may not understand as much about change as we think we do.

Rules and Reality

Words: 404 Reading time: 1 min 21 sec

This morning I made the mistake of stopping for fuel, southbound on the A1, at Astwick. Clearly, it was simply not convenient for the staff on duty at the time. Having replenished the tank I went to make my payment. I was the only customer. And I had to wait.

It was much more important that the surplus cash in the till be counted while I stood and watched. It was very important that the notes all be the same way round, that notes of the same denomination be kept together and that they all be rolled tightly into a small sheaf and secured with an elastic band. Then they had to be securely stored.

If you are losing the will to live at this point, so was I. But there I was, pinned in place by my obligation to pay for the fuel I had put into my tank, while any obligation they had to serve their customers was blithely ignored.

There was a second person behind the counter. It was apparently paramount that she restock the shelves for possible future customers, rather than serve those already present. I can see the short-term logic. I had already committed myself to my purchase. There was no practical way to avoid paying. Perhaps, in her mind, potential future revenue was more important than past revenue.

Next time an Area Manager drops by he or she will see a tidy, well-stocked, well-organized filling station. In all probability the folks behind the counter will get a pat on the back for a job well done – for following rules and regulations about what makes for a well-run site. What the Area Manager will not see is a forecourt crammed with raving fans. The sadness here is that those fans will not be missed, because the measures are all wrong.

Here we have an organization almost completely inner-focused. It has decided for itself what is good, what is acceptable, what people should want and it has put in all the procedures to deliver just that. Wonderful; meanwhile the world outside goes on.

It will come as no surprise to learn that the company in question is BP. The same BP that hired Transworld to do the drilling and still believes that is sufficient to excuse them from the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

BOB FERGUSON DTM - Masterclass

7.30 pm Thursday 27th May 2010

Bedford Speakers are pleased and proud to announce that we have persuaded Bob Ferguson to give us a whole evening of his time dedicated to helping all those of us that still have so much to learn about speaking and presenting in public.

To make the most of this rare treat we have asked Bob to speak on his proven strengths:

1) How on earth do I write a humorous speech?
2) Why should I bother entering a speech contest?

Bob is the current UK & Ireland Humorous Speaking Champion and past UK & Ireland International Speech Champion in 2002 and Speech Evaluation Champion in 2005.

His personality, presence and passion about public speaking will capture your attention as he educates, enthrals and entertains you.


YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS WHAT BOB HAS TO SAY, NOR HOW HE SAYS IT


Refreshments will be available during the evening – hence the modest charge – but where else can you get insights and instruction of this calibre for only £3?

Spaces are limited so please book you seat early and ensure that you can come along to:

The Fox & Hounds, 178 Goldington Road, Bedford MK40 3EB.

Please contatct me for further details

Misplacing your management skills

Words: 677 Reading Time: 2 minutes 15 seconds

As a speaker I recently delivered a 10 minute coaching slot at the beginning of a network meeting. I selected a topic apparently much loved by those aspiring to coach – Time Management. When I entered the phrase into Google I got:

* 64.4 million listings for time management skills;
* 258 million listings for time management tools; and
* 140 million listings for time management training sessions.

Clearly, I was on the right track.

Regretfully, those so intent on learning about time management are doomed to a degree of disappointment. While purveyors of advice on time management may be as tightly packed as snake oil sellers at a health-food convention there are some inherent attributes of time that ought to be pointed out first.

1) Time just happens. If I kick off a stopwatch and then ask someone to ‘manage’ the time as I talk I am not quite sure how they would do that. Note that I am asking that they manage the time and only the time, not my talk. With so many courses and techniques I am sure there must be a way to make time stop, start, increase, diminish, reverse, multiple and turn left at the traffic lights; I just haven’t come across it yet.

2) The predictability of time - 24 hours in a day; 7 days in a week; 52 weeks in a year – should probably make managing it easier. But that predictability is an illusion. There’s really 24hrs and 59 seconds in a day – hence the Leap Year. In 1751 there was no January, February or March in England and Wales. Under Napoleon there were 10 days in a week (a decade) and each month had 3 decades. The year ended (on the old Sept 17th) with 5 supplementary days to bring it back to 365 days in a year, or 6 supplementary days in a Leap Year.

3) Besides messing about with the calendar it is possible genuinely to bend the space/time continuum under an intense gravitational field; time will run at different speeds and in different directions.

4) The theory of relativity tells us that the faster you travel through space, the slower you travel through time. If one of a pair of twins rockets off through space for a period of time, he would return younger than his sibling.

Probably time is a much more slippery subject than it at first appears.

One of the things that may prompt us to attempt to ‘manage’ time is that we view it as scarce, but there is actually loads of it. About 14 billion years have elapsed since the “Big Bang” and – as far as we can tell – time stretches for an infinite distance into the future. Whatever else may be scarce, it isn’t time.

And time is a bit like air - we have all the time that there is. We all have 24 hours and 59 seconds in a day. Nobody goes short, or is in any way deprived. There is no more to be had.

Perhaps the most helpful change we can make is to stop thinking of time as a resource, like water, minerals or money. Time is not a resource, it’s a dimension like height, width and depth and like those other dimensions its gradations are just human inventions.

Time is not susceptible to management.

That leaves us with the one component in any situation that we are best placed to manage – ourselves.

Unless we are managing our own thoughts and feelings (and nobody else can) any organizational method that is superimposed will be fatally undermined. On the myriad of courses listed by Google you can learn about diaries, schedules, systems, tidying, delegating and dumping, but without first being in control of ourselves (to some degree) all the clever plans and procedures will be like dandelions parachutes in a windstorm.

There are two very simple (not easy) elements to managing ourselves:

* Clarity – knowing exactly what outcome we want.

* Desire – an overwhelming connection with that outcome.

With those two successfully addressed we can make the most of ourselves – whatever amount of time we think we may have.

What comes first - seeing or believing?

Words: 349 Reading Time: 1 minutes 10 seconds

Relatively few businesses seek any form of outside consultancy or coaching.

In 2009, according to the Office for National Statistics, the UK economy was made up of 525,000 sole proprietors, with another 1,382,000 enterprises employing between 2 and 10 people and another 20,000 enterprises with between 11 and 49 employees.

Of all businesses (2.15 million) 348,000 were under two years old and a further 316,000 were between two and four years old.

Clearly, with so many small businesses and so many new businesses there is benefit to be had from seeking professional help, especially as approximately one in fifty six businesses will have failed in the same year. So why is this assistance ignored?

Aside from issues of ignorance and concerns about cost I believe the main reason is belief.

For any personal or corporate change to take place, first there must be a change in belief. If any part of the old Henry Ford adage is true, it’s the second part, “you can’t if you think you can’t”, because if companies are convinced of their own inadequacy they are unlikely to attempt any change.

In the unlikely event that they do make an attempt, they are unlikely to persist, taking any early lack of success as proof positive of their initial doubts rather than recognizing this as almost inevitable during the first stumbling steps on the road.

Shifting belief takes work, which probably acts to deter most people. When our beliefs change, so will some of our values. And that tends to scare people. What they more easily embrace is surface pattern change rather than deeper belief work. It has the attraction of seeming to yield early results.

But, perhaps unsurprisingly, the pattern change rarely sticks. Why would it when it is unsupported by underpinning beliefs? Unfortunately this probably leaves the enterprise worse off than before.

To break through this debilitating condition what people and businesses require is a meta-shift – a shift in their belief about belief and the role it plays in their success or failure.

However, I am sure none of that applies to my readers.

Acting from a single purpose

Words: 277 Reading Time: 0 minutes 55 seconds

Recently I was surprised to see an experienced NLP Trainer remark on a lady that spent her time at a dancing class actually talking instead of listening to the music and practising.

He was struck by the fact that even though this lady had been told repeatedly that she should not talk during practice the first thing she did was talk about the not talking instruction!

And when he thought about how this lady behaved in class, he realised she seemed to be talking most of the time.

Well, of course!

The evident mistake is to assume that two people doing the same thing, at the same time, in the same place will have the same motive. That doesn’t follow at all. In fact it is highly improbable given the diversity among people.

Those running businesses often fall into the same mode of thinking.

Owners are puzzled that their waged employees do not share their dedication and whole-hearted commitment to the enterprise.

Directors are astonished that the carefully designed, highly remunerative, shiny new incentive package has not had the motivational effect they expected.

And managers are surprised that the disciplinary code ensuring that clerical staff put everything in writing has not cut the error rate one iota.

Blanket policies and uniform procedures are the bluntest of tools. To improve the probability of connecting with an individual we need to know why they are here and what interests them. Only with that information can we hope to tap into their motivationally wellsprings.

I don’t know the talkative lady at the dancing class, but there’s a good chance she was there mainly for the company, not the La Caida.