heartharmony.com.au

For the past few weeks I have been helping an international speaking client, Steve Major, totally rebrand to decisionhq. This meant constructing all new marketing collateral assisted by the brilliant Paul from Brandrally, who has created amazing branding & design & Geoff McDonald from Ideas Architect for the awesome game design. (Did I mention we had 2 1/2 weeks to do this 6 month project, as there was major event that the branding had to be ready for?)

One of the areas Steve talks about in his speeches, is his early career as a professional bull rider (as is the normal career path for all Chartered Accountants). Bull riding is also known as “dancing with thunder”, which seemed a great analogy – except our ride lasted for more than 8 seconds.

In 2 weeks I wrote the copy for Steve’s handouts, banners, business cards, website, presentation slides, game, polished Steve’s speech, while working with Paul & Geoff on design, graphics, images and refining the branding elements. Sleep has been in short supply!

Given the deadlines for printing, we used multiple printers across Australia to complete parts of the project. This meant we had printing flying in from different capitals to the event. This week I have been in Sydney helping coordinate everything on site, while Paul looked after the Brisbane end of the project.

Our dance with thunder included:

• Presentation folders streaking & only 100 out of the 1000 being able to be printed to the particular colours that were designed.  The balance we compromised on.
• Another printer not collating the copies of the 18 individual pages of copy for the kit – which meant a late night of all hands on deck around a dining table, manually collating pages & inserting them into the folders.
• Only the business cards arriving – the letterheads & envelopes were delayed.
• Pull up banners being delivered to the site according the courier – only problem was they weren’t & in fact had disappeared into a black hole, so we had to organise same day reprinting of the banners (they were still damp when they were delivered that night).
• The airlines losing one suitcase which contained all the printed games being flown in from Melbourne – so we had a very nervous 12 hours until they were found.
• 4pm change of plans for trade booth display the next day requiring rapid re-nogotiation with the hotel, catering staff combined with a quick race to the shops to buy the new strategy.
• And quite a few other little “challenges” – luckily the copy was perfect (of course).

And even with all of these challenges, we improvised like crazy when things didn’t quite come in the way we wanted, and scraped it over the line. Luckily the event went off brilliantly! So what is the point of this story?

At times if can feel like all of us are dancing with thunder in our jobs. There are days or weeks, when we are just hanging on & hoping like heck that we won’t get bucked off.

There are times when we just have to rely on our colleagues & friends to help get us over the line & there are times when things don’t go the way we hope, which is when we have to roll with the ride.

There are also times where we are so exhausted that we don’t acknowledge all of the people who have pulled together to make our project a success. So, from the bottom of my heart Paul, Geoff & Steve – you are truly amazing! Thank you! Paul in particular, you have gone above & beyond the call of duty – if anyone needs a brilliant Brisbane graphic designer or web designer – then Paul from Brandrally is truly superb.

And in case any of my other clients get ideas … I’m heading off for a few days break before my own speaking gigs for AIM on Tuesday at the Gold Coast & Cairns Workforce Council on Wednesday.  And won’t be tackling impossible projects again for at least a few more weeks.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter & Miracle Worker

With the Federal Election off and racing, now is the time to remind  all of your staff about appropriate codes of conduct in relation to elections.

Generally that means:

• No use of company emails or faxes to share party political comment
• No use of company photocopiers or material to copy political material
• No bringing of how to vote material and leaving it in the lunchroom
• No wearing company branded clothing in any political photo shoot (without your prior authorisation)

If you have the discussion now you won’t have to discipline later!

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance HR Writer

Many businesses with salespeople struggle to work out who is the best person to hire for the role. Do they take the raging extrovert (who couldn’t complete paperwork to save their lives), or the diligent paper completer who struggles with getting out of the office and talking with people?

A hidden dimension to look for in sales success is empathy – the ability to understand what people are feeling. By being able to “get” people’s feelings, they are better able to help the person find the solutions they need and therefore make better sales. However, measuring empathy has been tricky to accurately assess.

The Neuromarketing blog reports on a study that looks at the correlation between empathy and the melodic voices (yes, whether or not the person speaks in a monotone or has variable tones). The study shows that people whose voices are more melodic, are more empathetic. The suggested reason for this is the person whose voice shows light and shade, are more likely to be able to identify emotion in other people.

Having a strange mind I had visions of the application – candidates voices being run through voice analyzers as part of the selection process. However, the more practical application is through just listening to the voice of your candidate and then following it up with standardised questions and reference checks to verify your assessment. You still have to resolve the paper warfare dilemma – but at least you would have an idea of how well they can identify and work with customers once they get in front of them.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

In a world where we are switched on, tuned in 24/7, with hundreds of  online “friends” you could be forgiven for thinking that deep human needs are being met. And yet, when I talk with my clients, the need that they most crave, and are missing in their lives, are deeper connections with other people. They want to be known and accepted as they are by others.

Social media for many people is the equivalent of the head nod as you pass someone whose face you recognise on the street.  The people who do social media really well add in the hearty g’day and a chat about the weather – but they are still not meeting the needs for deeper connection between people.

Managers struggle with having honest and open conversations with their team members because they know they have no relationship & connection with the people they manage. We all instinctively know that we listen more if feedback comes from people we trust, respect and like, than someone who is part of our business wallpaper.  And yet, these same managers view the step to connect with their team in the same light as setting sail for the new world back a few hundred years – fears that “there be dragons” on the journey.

Women seem to find it easier to connect. Put two women in a room with some coffees between them and often the level of disclosure quickly heads into the “wouldn’t put that on Facebook” territory.

Guys on the other hand seem to struggle. I’m sure there are piles of wonderfully academic books written on this one, but here’s some home spun wisdom. If you want two or more blokes to “connect” or have a hard conversation, make sure there is some form of sporting equipment between them.

I have seen blokes deal with grieving the loss of a child over a few hoops of basketball. I have watched a few blokes fishing and in the process sort out inter team work conflicts.  I have seen handball courts form the backdrop to working on thorny goals, and have observed indoor cricket made from improvised equipment (you can’t beat the old rubber band balls) resolve stalemates in projects.  It doesn’t matter the form – just make the conversation not the focus but the sideline to something else.

So if you are serious about being a successful manager or business owner, work out how you can help fill the deeper need for connection with your team and clients … even if that means playing the odd round of  golf or lawn bowls.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance writer

This week I have been debating with a colleague about logical decision making. In normal situations, most businesses simply do not take enough account of available data to help inform their decisions.  They don’t look at Google search data before choosing their keywords, they don’t understand their balance sheets and instead make decisions based on flawed logic.They ignore information from government agencies about demographic trends & build their stores in areas of falling population. In normal cases, a simple look at the numbers will improve the quality of decision making 100%.

But what happens when the situation is not “normal”?  When you have all of the statistical data in the world and yet raw, messy emotions get in the way of logical decision making?When logic takes a holiday and emotion takes over?

I have seen this in many businesses over the years. Business owners holding onto their first store in a chain of stores, decades beyond when it was no longer profitable – purely for sentimental reasons. Business owners staying firm on price points for their products, ignoring feedback from clients that the items are over-priced, and conversely business owners not charging enough because their self esteem cuts across the data, making them believe that they are worth less than the data says.

I have  seen it in managers who have evidence that one of their team may be bullying or harassing staff – yet try and wave it away as an anomaly.  Other managers who have massive turnover in their team try and blame everyone else but themselves. And managers who hire family or friends who blatantly do not have the skills needed because they feel sympathy for them, and wonder why it all goes pear shaped in a few short weeks.

Decision making is not an exact science. Yes, we should try and gather as much logical data as possible. But when emotions are high, we need to run three “non logical”, emotion based rulers over our decisions.

1) What does our gut tell us about the decision? Is it right for us & the situation we are in right now? Does our gut feel smooth or are butterflies doing backstroke in there? Is our hunch that this will fail or work out?

2) What does our heart tell us about the decision? Does this decision make our heart sing or sink? Does it make our life feel lighter or heavier? Does it match or conflict with our personal values?

3) What are the assumptions we have made about the situation? Are we assuming that sales will magically improve, that our price is correct and feedback is wrong, that we are worthless and not worth more. What are we assuming about the situation – and are those assumptions correct?

Paralysis vs compelled action

Humans then go into flight or fight mode. They either head into flight – feel compelled to act RIGHT NOW, or they go into fight mode – usually fighting the data.

Often when emotions are high, we feel compelled to take immediate action.  Putting in a breathing space (no matter how short), helps to get some perspective back. Go and get a coffee. Talk with a trusted colleague. Sleep on it. They are all useful ways to gain perspective and counter the flight risk.

The other approach people take is delaying – looking for more information to help them decide, or in other words fighting the data they already have. Many people get into decision paralysis – sitting and hoping for the right decision to be written in 50 metre high burning letters in the sky.  If you wait for that degree of certainty, I have to tell you that it will never happen. It is just procrastination under a politically correct guise.

Just make a decision will ya!

The thing with decisions are that they are rarely 100% cut and dried, with no escape clauses.  The people who are successful are those that make decisions that may not be perfect, yet they take considered action taking into account all of the information. Then they track the results of the decision, and if necessary, quickly adjust the rudders to steer the ship in another direction.  It’s always easier to change direction of a moving ship, rather than one tied to the wharf.

Yes, they consider the data from a range of viewpoints and work out ways to mitigate the risks, and strengthen the best points of the decision. They don’t go in blind. They don’t let one factor take precedence over the other factors. They weigh up all of the factors and take the best educated decision that they can.

Decision making when emotions are strong, are messy, complex and raw. After all, humans are not the logical beasts we would like to believe we are.  For logical situations, follow a logical decision making model. For emotion laden decisions, you need to bring in emotion based information.

At least, that’s my view. What do you think? How do you make decisions when logic takes a holiday?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance writer

It’s easy to stand out in business when you are the only one of your kind, but what happens when the goods or service you offer are exactly the same as everybody else?

I am currently in Cairns getting ready to present at a conference today. Now, Cairns is a tourist town. Every street corner has a hotel or motel – all jostling for the tourist dollar. With all of this competition, how does  a tiny, unremarkable hotel stand out from the crowd?

The place I am staying in is called Inn Cairns on the main pedestrian mall. It doesn’t have  a flashy entry, the rooms are normal hotel style rooms and they don’t supply meals. So why am I writing about it?

Last night when I arrived the owner Selwyn was at the door, greeting me by name (this is my first visit so his crystal ball was great). He held the door open and welcomed me to his place – and not just a pat greeting, a warm heart felt greeting. He introduced me to his son and son-in-law who run the place with him – one of them had been up to my room to turn the lights and air-conditioning on for me. They gave great tips on local food and things to see and were just genuinely nice people.

They turned a room for the night into an experience of being a welcome guest in their home. So what is remarkable when you are the same as everyone else? You are. You need to bring your whole self and your passion to your job and your role. If you do that – people will love you for it and you will become remarkable.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance copywriter

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This week I have been talking with a few not for profit groups and they reminded me of the challenge that many bodies who receive external funding face – the need for what appears to be 4 billion reports back to different funding bodies, government agencies and the community.  You can put some logic back into it … and the trick is to start with planning.

For a time I was in charge of planning & reporting for a core government department. I remember looking at all of the plans and reports we had to produce in a year to meet all of the legal & accountability requirements – and figuring there had to be an easier way (those of you who know me, know I love to recycle information – write it once and use it for multiple purposes).

What I ended up doing was create a planning calendar. I listed across the top of a spreadsheet the different months and down the side the various plans & reports that had to be produced. I then did a mini Gantt chart across the calendar looking at how long it took to create each plan & report. This calendar was made pretty by our graphic design team and every manager had a copy to put on their wall (no excuses that they did not know what was needed each month).

I then looked at each plan & report to work out specifically what was needed in each, and whether or not we could collect the data once and use it for multiple purposes.  I then renegotiated a few KPIs with funding groups to help make data collection easier – I wanted to reduce the number of KPI’s to manageable levels.

From a manager’s view, what that looked like on the ground was when our Executive did their strategic plan for the year, we took an additional half day out to look at the questions “If these are the goals & KPI’s, what are the HR, funding, IT, waste management, environmental impact etc implications and what are the KPIs’s for those?”  This meant we covered off all the planning & measure setting in one fell swoop. We used these existing measures in as many funding submissions as we could, rather than create new measures.

We included individual annual performance plans in the process. We had a set “performance review season” where every annual review had to be done & linked back to the overall kpis.

We then had managers do just one monthly report against each of the KPI’s (so they were happier as they only had one report to do). I collated the data from all of the separate managers reports and then split it out into the different reports that had to be submitted.  I started doing this manually and then got to the stage where I had a macro pull the data off excel spreadsheets into one central spreadsheet and then another macro pull the data out of that spreadsheet into the different report templates I had created. There is always technology to make things easier.

The point is, there is always another way with writing reports.  You don’t have to be bound by what is. Take a step out, reflect on your assumptions and then take action to fix the 4 billion reports.  And if you find yourself writing the same stuff over and over … there is always another way!

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

“You are only as strong as your weakest link”. “One bad apple spoils the barrel”. If you think about it, there’s a lot of sayings about the negative difference one person can make. But is this really true? Can one bad employee wreck  a team? This was the puzzle given to me by a client – they wanted proof that one bad egg can spoil the batch.

So … what proof is there?  Well there has been some very elegant research done by Will Felps, Terence R Mithcell and Eliza Byington back in 2006. They first did a review of all of the current research on the issue and then conducted clinical tests to find out exactly what happens when one negative group member joins a group.

In their research, they defined negative group member in one of three ways. They used academic language, but the categories were:

• The slacker - someone who doesn’t pull their weight, doesn’t take on tasks or responsibilities, who doesn’t contribute or meet deadlines.
• The jerk – someone who is obnoxious and puts people down, makes fun of people, these are the ones making ethnic or sexist jokes, publicly embarrasses people and are generally rude .
• The depressed pessimist – someone who always believes that anything the company tries is doomed to failure, they are highly anxious, insecure & irritable

I am sure most people at one time or other in their careers have met one of these charmers.

But what happens to the group when you add in one of these people? Well according to their findings, the group productivity drops between 30-40%. Add to that effect, you start to see other team members begin to exhibit the traits of the negative person, which increases the problems for the team in terms of productivity, cooperation, creativity, morale and learning.  People are less interested in finishing a task – they just want to “get it over with”.

So the next time a manager avoids dealing with a negative person in the workplace, you may want to point them in the direction of the research, and ask them if they are more willing to reduce their team’s productivity by 30-40% than have an uncomfortable conversation with one person.

If you want more information about the study, here’s a link to an interview with Will Felps, and a link to the full research report “How, When, and Why Bad Apples Spoil the Barrel: Negative Group Members and Dysfunctional Groups”.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

Yesterday I attended the Thought Leaders Summit in Brisbane and had my first experience of an open spaces format. This approach could best be described as the anti-model of traditional conferences. In open spaces, the participants work out what they want to talk about, when they want to talk about it and then move to where they want to be. If they find the conversation not for them (translate that to being boring) they are encouraged to wander off and find another conversation.  As a facilitator, conference leader and control freak from way back, I can tell you that the approach would be enough to have given me a lot of very grey hairs if I was running it.

The people who attended were successful business leaders and were given the very strong boundaries of  “sell through not to” – meant the pressure came off in terms of people trying to flog their wares.  This was not the place for elevator speeches – but for building a community of peers. Any direct marketing was frowned upon.

So what happened? Well for starters a lot of brilliant topics hit the agenda – Getting stuff done, How much free info is too much?, Building a community around your business, how to engage your employees, effective networking, using social media effectively, charging what you are worth, what is a Thought Leader as well as a whole pile of useful discussions on best Apps/books/videos for business.

People were encouraged to be “self-full” – to actively get their needs met through the discussions and not wait and hope that someone would cover their issues for them. And as result, people wandered in and out of the conversations, adding their insights as well as getting ideas and strategies to apply in their business.  In terms of participation, some people participated boots and all. Others sat back and watched. Still others dipped their toes into the odd conversation and then shrunk back.

This to me was a metaphor for how people approach business and life. Some leap in and take action (even if they make mistakes), others watch and wait for the perfect moment and others flip between action and inaction. I am not sure there is a “right” answer – just it pays to know your natural tendency, and at times challenge your approach to see if it is helping you or hindering you.

So where would you place yourself – a watcher in life or an active participator? An observer or a leader?

Me, well I had a ball. I enjoyed the intelligent conversations with great people and have a few insights to work with over the coming weeks.

And if you are interested in the whole concept of Thought Leadership, there are regular summits held around Australia and New Zealand throughout the year.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

Social networks are more than just ad hoc links between people. Recent research shows that social networks also can transfer emotional traits  between people including happiness, anger and jealousy.  This is a great talk by Nicholas Christakis,  highlighting some of the latest research suggesting that network emotions are contagious.  Makes you look at businesses, schools and online networks in a totally different way!

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter