The Immeasurable Things That Make a Measurable Difference: Recent Comments

Comment on Goodwill to Work

David Meyer Denver DISC Guy — 2010-07-04T03:42:29Z

What an inspiring day that must have been. Many people overlook the fact that some of the core values of the current Gen Y are actually similar to those of the Baby Boomers. They are sometimes expressed in different ways, but like the Boomers, Gen Y does want success, excellence, achievement, and even to give back to their community.

There is hope for our future, and our kids are that hope.

Comment on Who do You Trust?

John Gies — 2010-06-28T18:30:03Z

The answer to the question who do you trust, is interesting and lots of people write far more eloquently on the subject than me. However, I think this is where we (business leaders) can stand out. By taking the initiative to build trust in forthright ways that are focused on value creation; we stand apart and over time we reap the benefits.

Thanks for reading,

Comment on Who do You Trust?

David Meyer Denver DISC Guy — 2010-06-28T13:24:50Z

Hi John,

While this phenomenon with Twitter is interesting, it is hardly unique. Haven't we seen the exact same thing with email? Email could be a phenomenal tool but it was quickly hijacked by some unscrupulous marketers and turned into a vast wasteland. Today I am bombarded with hundreds of fake emails, from fake email addresses, with misleading or heavily disguised subject lines, all designed to get me to open and read a message that I have little or no interest in, or to click on a link that will take me to a website that is unrelated to the message itself.

And while I find this appalling, at some level I realize that this technique, no matter how dishonest it is, must be working at some level or they would not keep doing it. So while I (like you) would never trust a twitter message or email that was obviously a trick, there must be a significant number of people who do respond to these.

It says something about our society, doesn't it.

The worst part of this whole scenario is that it leads back to your question of "who do I trust?" Since these messages are clearly marketing oriented, it builds a basic mistrust of marketing in general. To me, real marketers must now work harder than ever to prove that they are legitimate and valid or I won't deal with them.

It would seem that a few bad marketing apples have spoiled the whole bunch.

Dave

Comment on How a PDA cost $10.0 Million

David Meyer Denver DISC Guy — 2010-06-27T22:01:37Z

What a great subject. The whole idea of being present and listening is one that fascinates me personally. So often we find conversations on the phone or in person where we KNOW that the other person is not fully engaged. We are left feeling enormously unsatisfied PLUS we know that the other thing the person was doing was also being done poorly as well.

It is amazing how addicted we are to being connected. We get email on our laptop, which we carry with us, and also on our Blackberry which we carry with us. We have a desk phone which we forward to our cell phone when we leave our office so that we don’t miss a call there. We take phone calls and emails while driving, putting not only ourselves in danger, but also we risk the lives of all of those around us.

I suspect that this PDA not only cost $10 million, but likely will cost this person much more in terms of their personal relationships. Sadly this person may not even realize the cost in his relationships.

Thanks for a thought provoking article.

Comment on How a PDA cost $10.0 Million

John Gies — 2010-06-26T15:54:21Z

I find my self often drawn to my hand held when in fact it could be more interesting to just look. Remember when people watching was a real past time? OOPs probably just dated my self

Comment on How a PDA cost $10.0 Million

Charles H Green — 2010-06-26T01:12:30Z

Great example at the end there. There's mounting evidence that multi-tasking doesn't even work well for multi-tasking.

Last summer I took a ride on the Canadian Rail from Vancouver to Calgary. Some of the most scenic country you can imagine, glass roof, and the 30-something couple across from us spent 95% of their time glued to PDAs and kindles, and 3% sleeping. The remaining 2% was spent looking up for 20 seconds to grab a photo, i guess so they could say they were there. Of course they weren't, not in any meaningful sense.

Comment on Intentions in Business

John Gies — 2010-06-25T14:16:59Z

Dave,

I agree. Your mention of service clubs is appropriate. Somehow we have gotten our philosophies confused to the point where the system no longer supports our original intent... to serve. We think it is all about he money, or the options, or the power, or some other metric.

And yet at the end of the day when we serve our customers and other stakeholders not only does everyone win, they tend to win in bigger ways.

Comment on Intentions in Business

John Gies — 2010-06-24T17:58:59Z

Charlie,

Thanks for your comments and insight. As is usual you add another dimension to the conversation.

What is really exciting to me is that (and maybe it's because I am looking) I see more and more evidence that people are beginning to rethink the old model of capitalism and realize the power for positive change that is available through our businesses. As adults we spend most of our waking hours working. Instead of relying on government to instigate change business leaders can be more powerful, quicker to respond and in many cases more effective in helping the stakeholders (citizens, communities, suppliers, employees, etc.

Take Good Care

Comment on Intentions in Business

David Meyer Denver DISC Guy — 2010-06-24T01:18:18Z

Thanks for a thought provoking post. I do believe that most people are by nature, service oriented. It shows in our "service clubs", in the way we support our churches, and in the way we support those in need during natural disasters.

I think this same thought process converts easily into business and where many companies miss the boat is that they focus on the product or the profit and not on the service. Yet when I have a product that goes bad, I tend to be very forgiving as long as the service is good. But when the service is bad we tend to be not nearly as thoughtful.

Service, as you so aptly pointed out, is the key.

Comment on Intentions in Business

Charles H Green — 2010-06-22T23:42:52Z

John,

I applaud your insight in connecting those dots. It's not easy to think in that way. I think those dots do fit together, and very much in the way you have stated. (By the way, I'm very proud to be included in that company).

One one-liner that captures a lot (not all) of what you're saying is, "To say that the purpose of a company is to make a profit is like saying that the purpose of living is to eat."

It's that kind of confusion that has come to plague us these days. You're right to point out Pink's observation that we're motivated by more than rats with cheese, and Etcoff's that we are not just self-serving rational utility-maximizers. To all that, I'd add also that we tend to find meaning in creating organizations that serve others.

Very little of that is found in what has become the orthodox interpretation of capitalism, and we're the poorer for it. Thanks for doing your bit to make more sense of it.