What should you say about a customer who appears to be doing something wrong?  Are they still right?  

If you tell them so, is that improper?  Is it a disservice?  Are you the one that is wrong? 

If you don't tell them it's wrong,  are you then the one who is right? Or wrong?

This is all so confusing.  But it doesn't need to be.

The customer isn't always right

If you are there to serve the customer, then providing them information or products that are not right for them is doing a disservice.  If you agree with them when it can harm them, cost them money or result in other negative consequences to them, then you are doing them a disservice.  When you agree with them when they are demonstrably wrong, you are doing them a disservice.

Serving the customer isn't always about agreeing with them.

Serving the customer isn't always easy.

Serving the customer doesn't always keep them as a customer.

But in the long run, serving the customer honestly and faithfully will result in a customer base of loyal individuals who understand that you truly do look out for their best interest by providing them with the best service or product you can ... even when you have to disagree with them. 

Your Best Customers Trust You

A customer base that trusts you through agreement and disagreement is one that will serve you best...

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, rate the employee for the following:   

• Attendance
• Attitude
• Skillset
• Getting along with others
• Kissing Butt
• Other topics you can only guess their skill level

Rating Other Peoples Performance

I don't know who hates employee evaluations more.  The person getting the evaluation or the person doing the evaluation.

If you are like I am, I absolutely hate doing performance evaluations.  Typically I know how the person functions in general, but to have to do a performance evaluation for them is often semi-guessing.  I think this is why it's one of the tasks I hate the most.  Evaluations are a two-edged sword for me.  If I overrate someone, there is a lost opportunity to help them improve.  If I underrate them, they are either upset or ticked off at me.  It's rare when either of these outcomes doesn't occur.

An Alternative To Evaluating Employees

Over decades of having to do these evaluations (and trying my hardest to avoid them), I have come up with an alternative that works.  It avoids nearly all of the downfalls of this process and it removes most of the work from me.  It's having the employees do ...

The Self Evaluation System

The secret to this system is simple.  It's the instructions to the employee.  Here they are:

• Rate...

Is Boredom Bad?

It seems like everything in society is working to fill every little slice of time in our day.  

Taking a walk?  Don't just walk, listen to music. Listen to a podcast. 

On the train?  Don't just stare out the window, read a condensed book.  Play an electronic game on your phone.

Having coffee in the morning?  Don't just sit there, read the latest news on your phone.  Text someone.  Check your email.

It's NUTS how much of our time is filled with b*llsh!t.  

Now answer this question.

Where are you most likely to have had an "ah-ha!" moment?

1. Reading the news on your phone?
2. Listening to a podcast on the train/bus/auto?
3. While taking a shower?

If you are like I am, and most people, your innovative mind doesn't work very well when your senses are being bombarded by non-stop information.  

Most of us come up with our best ideas when we ... are simply day-dreaming.  When our mind allows itself to wander and bounce all over the place.  When our mind is allowed to be bored. 

When your mind is allowed to think about what it wants to think about, not what it's being told through your eyes and ears.  

Be Bored

Are you setting yourself up to be bored on a regular basis?  If not, perhaps you are missing harnessing the power of your subconscious mind to help you...

Over my lifetime, I have heard people in various industries say one of the most idiotic statements ever uttered:

We will make up our losses on volume.

Math Doesn't Lie

Ok, let me get this straight.  You have a business.  It's highly competitive.  You decide that you will have to sell your product at a small loss to be in the game.  And you think that you will make it up by generating a higher volume for your product. 

But it doesn't work that way.  If you multiple small losses by big volume, viola ! you have large losses.  The math is simple.  Lots of small losses equal one big mess and a lot of red ink on your books.

You have to do more than increase volume alone

A lot of naive business people believe is that this crazy formula "works".  I have seen it in medicine.  In retail. In many different sectors.  They don't realize that there is more to it. They think that they will become magically profitable because they are busier.  That simply isn't so. 

Yes, the volume can help, but you need to know ahead of time how that volume will reduce your supply chain costs.  The cost of raw materials. The cost of purchasing your product for resale.  The cost of shipping.  The cost of fulfillment.  You have to know how you will reduce these costs, and know both how much and when it will kick...

A tapestry is the weaving of many threads into a beautiful work of art that represents a lot of hard work.  Our life is a lot like a tapestry.  Each action in our past representing a thread of that tapestry. It's our history.

But sometimes our world "unravels".  All of the threads are pulled apart. And what results is a pile of threads where a beautiful tapestry once was.

It's Nearly Impossible To Re-Weave A Tapestry

If your business or life is pulled apart, it's nearly impossible to put it back together as it once was.  In fact, it is totally impossible when you consider the time dimension of your work.  What was in the past remains there, unchanged.  You will never get it to look exactly like it was before.

Perhaps Weaving Is Better Than Reweaving

If you have a pile of threads (i.e. resources) isn't it better to see what you can make from those threads?  Isn't it better to look at the future potential of those threads can be, rather than just looking back at what they were?

I suggest that it's easier to weave a new tapestry with your old threads, utilizing the best of the resources you have available to you while bringing in new resources that can complement your current weaving.  It's also a great time to remove and discard those threads which provided no additional beauty or strength to your current tapestry. With that approach,...

There are two types of messages in the world.  

Those that are offering you something to choose.

Those that are trying to prevent you from choosing something.

Success isn't based on negativity, it's based on positivity.

Imagine these marketing statements:

We don't want you to buy that phone. 

We don't want you to buy that diet system.

Don't read that magazine.

Don't go to that movie.

Don't buy that product.

Do these messages inspire you to do something?  Or not do something?   In fact, I bet they have very little impact on your decision. It's not in human nature to respond positively to a negative message.  You often just shut out negativity.

Moving "Away" Has No Focus

People may wish to move away from a product, service, person, etc., but without having an alternative target or focus to move toward, there isn't any progress.  Each person may move in a different direction.  Certainly, they won't move en-mass toward your product or service.  By being negative, you have not forwarded your cause, product or service. At best you may have just managed to have people scatter, directionless, from the alternative.

What is the message you are projecting to other people?

Are you just "against" something? Or are you offering an alternative to choose?

Is a negative message how you want your company to be known and remembered?

The Beatles are universally known and generally loved by the vast majority of people.  Although their tenure was only 8 years (1962 - 1970), their work as a group lives on. That short span of years provided a truly unique experience.  

Music Genres

There are pop bands.  Rock and Roll.  Rhythm and Blues.  Reggae. Rap. Classical. Bluegrass. Opera. Show tunes. Folk. And dozens of other types of music.  Each of these categories has dozens, if not hundreds of entries, all categorized under these headings.  But under the genre of "Beatles", there is only one.  Only one group is like the Beatles.  Name just about any other band or composer, and there will be others that are "similar" or "comparable".  Not with the Beatles.  They were one of a kind.

The Beatles were able to create this unique genre for a variety of reasons.  They were "first to market" in many ways, despite being in the British Invasion.  They constantly evolved.  They built their music using the foundation of music from many other successful artists.  They maintained the momentum of success. They experimented.  They were in the right place when it came to new music technologies.  And together they were greater than just the sum of their individual talents.

And so, they defined the "Beatles Genre", and have been alone in...

Look back over your life.  

It doesn't matter if it's only a decade or two, or longer, spanning many, many decades.

Who was your best teacher?

Who taught you the most?  Who challenged you to learn the most?  Who made you think the most?  Who made you most inquisitive?  Who made the most of your interests?  Who made the most of your failures?  Who's influence continues to stimulate you to learn today?  And who's influence will continue to stimulate you to continue learning into the future, until the day you die?

Who was that teacher?

Was it a school teacher?  Perhaps a parent?  A friend?  A co-worker?  A mentor?  A spouse?  A child?  Are they alive? Or have they passed away?  Who was it?

Your best teacher.

While there are many people in all of our lives that stimulate us to learn and continue to grow, I believe that there is one person in each person's lives that can, or should make a dramatic difference.  I also believe that behind every success story, there is the same person that remains unidentified as the real teacher in those individuals' lives.  Without this person in their lives, nothing would have been possible.

It's YOU.

While we all seem to think outside of ourselves when we look for the influence that made us what we are, there is one fact that is central to...

In a previous post, we talked about being a graduate of the school of hard knocks.

Certainly, we have all had a crash course in hard knocks over the past months.  COVID 19 is the teacher from hell. 

The lessons are harsh. The lessons are absolute. The lessons are illuminating.

What Did We Learn From COVID 19 so far?

Aside from the medical aspects of the disease, we all learned a lot about ourselves and our country. And the world around us.  We learned how we worked together (or not). We learned how we helped in society for the greater good (or not). We learned how to wash our hands, minimize contact and live a more hygienic life (or not). We learned a lot of "things".

We also learned how precarious life is. We learned how interconnected we are.

From a carefree New Years' Eve to a pandemic that impacts every country in the world ... in less than 12 weeks.  

We see how fragile so much of our life is and how little control we have on what happens to us.  But we also see how we react to that stimulus and the choices we make. Choices that we have to make now because of the choices that we have made in the past.  And we have the ability to make choices now, and into the future, that will eventually shape the choices and options that are available to us in the future. 

The Shaping Of Our Choices By Hard Knocks.

In many cases, we have limited...

Recently I saw an article on "agile thinking".  It was written by someone who really though that they had stumbled upon something profound.  Agile Thinking.

What's Old Is New

In the article, the author described in detail how their ability to use agile thinking allowed them to navigate the complexity of their job as well as the (LOL) the planning of their child's birthday party.  

There was a description of how they created a list. Then prioritized the items on the list. Then executed them.  

Thinking

Wow!  What a novel concept.  

Creating a list. Putting it in order of importance and then doing the things on the list.

I never thought that my wife and I were practicing the futuristic concept of agile thinking. when we did these things for the past 40 years while raising our family.  Or for any number of the tasks we did at home or at work.   I didn't realize that the process of our simple thinking was so ahead of it's time.  

Why didn't I think of that?

Perhaps I could have come up with "agile thinking" and written about it if I had been practicing agile thinking.....

Maybe it's time to give credit where credit is due and not try to make something "new" out of something "old".  Putting a new name on something that already exists doesn't make it new. 

Oh, by the way, perhaps...