small signs make matters better or worse

Whilst out in the week I bought lunch.
Millions of people do that every single day across thousands of cities in hundreds of thousands of outlets worldwide. There is product, staff, customers, tills and maybe even decent service.

There is also the occassional insight into the way some of those high street chains operate.

On the floor of GREGGS the bakers (I know - dirty boy) I saw a sign that had perhaps fallen off the staff side of the till. I can only assume because of the grease build up. It said 'Dont forget to ask the customer if they'd like a drink with that!'.

This tells me a great deal about the mindset of Greggs and the way it develops it's staff.  Taking them out of the workplace and into their own homes, I'm sure each and everyone of them would offer me a drink with anything I ate in their company so why when it's their job and front of mind in each customer interaction would they forget to ask? If the queue at the tills wasn't long enough then I'm sure I could rely on my own thirst to tell me whether I needed quenching.

Perhaps this sign had been taken off to allow another asking for payment to be fitted in it's place.

Touch points like this are brand building opportunities, they count toward the thousand actions that make up the unique picture of something or someone in my mind. It's just a shame any personality at GREGGS the bakers is knocked out of its staff with signs like this...

so what to do?

Give people an idea of how customers should feel, nothing more.
Dont tell your staff what to do, but how to be.
Dont put up signs as they fall on the floor and when you have to communicate to your staff or customers, think personality...

Fear (only exists in your head)

have been involved in two high profile projects recently where two or three people have to make decisions on material that will broadcast to many thousands of people.  There is obviously a lot at stake.  Reputation, brand, engagemnet, senior reaction, stakeholder (hate that word) reaction, shareholder value and so on.

This is all factual and unavoidable.  It's impossible to so a 'something' in the business context with out an  reaction from the business as that 'something' happens.  It would appear the laws of physics seem to translate into human behaviour however.  Why is the 'something' always going to be met with an equal and opposite reaction?  In other words, why do people who make decisions often (but not always) default to the "if it could offend, it will"?  As a result, all the creative language, metaphor, expression and re-expression, freedom and anti message is swiped away and the final idea is... well... beige.  Boring. unimpactful. bland.

Everything appears like the walls of a new home.

It's almost as if people are rewarded for NOT upsetting people and avoiding failure, rather than praised and rewarded for thinking differently and creating the un-expected. As a result, the marketeers, the internal comms professionals and the brand ambassadors all go back to the Monday meeting with the same challenge they had at the start of the project.  Only this time they've the experience of executing a thoroughly unoffsensive campaingn.

Maybe fear is just in our head.  I've never known anyone get the sack for doing their job.  I have heard of people get the sack for shagging someone on the photocopier after hours, but not for trying things differently.

Fear isn't part of the project.  It doesn't arrive in a box. it is though energetic. It is passed on from one person to another and it grows when more people are born into the idea of failing.

I'd ask we all suspend the biological default.  There are no more tigers at the mouth of the cave so it's okay to step outside.

Only the good die young.
Only the safe projects get forgotten.

xa

why not insult your consumer in the instruction manual.

I bought a window mount for the sat nav in the car.  It's a plastic sucker thingy with an arm that extends from the windscreen.  It takes about 30 seconds to assemble the parts, clip on and enjoy the Sunday drive.  The USER MANUAL for this device has 8 languages. 8! each chapter identical to the next in illustration spans 10 pages and features handy comments like 'position cradle to your linking' and 'when finished with the device, remove it'.  OHMYGOD! we're driving a car and despite the occasional idiot on the road, most of us have the skill and control to manage a motor vehicle.  This isn't for the challenged. Yet the folk at Belkin (maybe under the instruction of a HR and Health and Safety Legal quango dept) have decided to insult the intelligence of their consumers with the instruction manual.  These guys aren't alone.  I had a friends who told me once his kettle came with a manual that read CAUTION: THIS DEVICE GETS VERY HOT.  Oh and there was me thinking a kettle is for keeping fish in. This is an example of poor design - shit design in fact.  The product answers a simple request from the consumer. They'll be savvy enough to work out from the box whether the product will suit their needs, yet the packaging, advice and 2 year warrenty simply distract from the very thing that will bring satisfaction.  Consumers want to 'get jobs done'. in doing so life becomes faster or easier, happier or richer. They'll thank you for it in repeat purchase. Dont insult your consumer for buying your product and dont assume they wont know how to use it. have your pressed EVERY button on your t.v. remote? There is no need to correct consumer behaviour past the point of sale. If they're doing it 'wrong' its good enough for you and that makes a 'right'.

another missed opportunity, another lack of effort...?

Spent half my week in a hotel. A great deal of my life is spent in hotels so I get to appreciate good ones and spot where others could do even better.  One of the first things that can tell me a great deal about the hotel, the brand and it's people is of course the environment. A little obvious dont you think? have a look at this little gem however!

So here is a beautiful old Red Call box (designed by Giles Gilber Scott who I think penned Battersea Power Station..). Anyway, hidden within this great British design icon wasn't further aesthetic delight but a copy of the menu for the hotel restaurant (a mere 100 yards away).

What glorious dissapointment.

Far from the menu appearing delicious, it looked weathered and tired, the paper faded from the sunlight and the elements. The hotel poster on the wall had also gone away with the wind and the cutlery looked like a set of abandoned tools rather than a fine arrangement of polished steel enticing the prospective diner to take seat.  All that was missing from this sorry ensamble of clutter was the original working phone from which I could make an escape call and a dominoes pizza.

For me this whole thing said more about the hotel and it's relationship with creative thinking than anything else. Why have it? seems someone somewhere went ooh that's a cool thing, an old fashioned letter box, we can put it in the hotel grounds and add character and charm. This will differentiate ourselves from all the other hotels.  Perhaps the brainstorm ended there or the first idea that came out won - let's put a menu in it.

I just can't imagine it appearing on the minutes of the DeVere or a matter arising - what to do with the Red Phone box...

.. if it were a solution to advertsie the restaurant, then like most projects, there wasn't enough time spent on the brief.  The restaurant was the only choice available in the entire complex.

maybe I've got it wrong though.
Perhaps it's an outdoor table and the Red Phone Box is simply a cover used to keep it dry in the rain.

ax

let it all work it's way out.

A sneaky addition to the Weekly Reid for Monday.

Just finished typing up a final report to a large insight project assocaited with technology and how we use it to help us think, learn and grow.  Lots of work that dates back to October.  I confess I had worries on how this would all make sense when copied out.  I worried about losing clarity and direction. I worried about what discoveries to include and what to leave out. I worried about highlighting the wrong conclusions at the expense of others. In fact, I got in a pickle.

I then remembered to USE the process I was describing.  For me, insightfulness is a learned behaviour. We get better at it the more we do. Instead of looking for the 'right' answer hideen under a rug somewhere in our projects, it's best to be relaxed and sensitised to all possibility.  If it's strong enough to be important, it'll emerge on it's own; all we need do is be recpetive to it energetically.

It was amazing how much simlpy 'poured out' when it came to sorting through my notes. Not wanting to blow my trumpet too much (honk) it just 'fell into place'. what made this extraordinary is I hadn't been thinking about things consciously for about a month.

I guess it proves a great deal about the power of the mind.  Whether real or imagined, the unconscious will do all that hard work for you if you let it.

Now, with the day ahead of you, what can you 'sleep on' until tomorrow.

It is a Bank Holiday after all.

wise man once told me this story...

So I used to do Yoga (loads of it) I was stretchy and subtle and strong.  I ought to get back to it as today I'm all stiff at the desk but that's for me to battle with... Anyway, my Yogi instructor was a guy called Brian.  Lost in the 70's, white hair, soft voice, sunlamp tan that sort of look.  He told me a story of two monks which I am delighted to say is a famous Zen story that I share now.

Two monks, both sworn to silence and solemnity.  The pair had vowed to lead a pure life in search on enlightnment.

They were both walking though a forest one day (as is the behaviour of such monks). Eventually their path led to a stream. There they saw a beautiful young girl, standing on the bank. She was in great distress because she wanted to cross the stream, but did not know how without getting her fabulous robes wet.
 
Without hesitation one monk scooped her up, stepped through the stream, and set her down on the other side. She thanked him and continued on her way, and the two monks continued on theirs again in silence. Nothing but the forest around them.
 
The second was confused and stressed. He got more restless by the minute and then finally spoke up.
"Brother," he said, "I do not know what to make of it. You know our order is an austere order, and we cannot so much as speak to a woman. let alone scoop her up and carry across a stream! yet you keep walking as if nothing happened!"
 
"It is quite simple," the first monk replied. "I set her down on the opposite bank, but you, Brother, are still carrying her!"
 
So... who, indeed, had the lighter burden, and the lighter step?

I like this story - especially to pass on - as it reminds me that a great deal of how we percieve our current circumstances are what we believe to be true.  We give energy to our perceptions and thoughts the longer we dwell upon them.  If we think of other things and invest in re-frames and new possibilities, we can actually create a better picture of our surroundings and future.

We have choice.

We dont have choise over what happens to us; that which crosses our path in our forest, but we do have choice on whether we allow such matters to concern us still.

ax

Nimble is key

Currently having a few issues with a large, international player. A huge firm with impressive offices, big logos, expensive portfolios and thousands of staff... and of course lots of intertia. The advantage always of being in and working with small agencies, is the ability to turn on a sixpence (anyone know what a sixpence is?).Being small keeps process out and behaviour in.  Decisions are made quicker as everyone can make a few calls, send a quick 'information out' email or huddle round the coffee machine (or bar opposite work) and very effectively work out what's happening, what needs to be done and what actions to take. It breeds integrity and honesty too. Mistakes and impact are'owned' more and not blamed on the process.

It's exactly the opposite behavour I see in large businesses. They can't just make a decision quickly. An element of process can't just be shortened or cornered for the great good and context is totally ignored in following proceedure.  In extreme circumstances, the empowerment and ability to have any value at an individual level is taken away. The staff may as well be robots.

Which in certain circumstances they are...

Be a question giver. Be a rule breaker. Make decisions. Act on them. Own your impact. When it breaks, learn and do it again. Own up for your mistake and celebrate the win.

Product should always win over process. People over product.

x