heartharmony.com.au

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

u

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

Ever had the experience when you build what you believe is a great website, you have created loads of content, you get solid traffic to your site and then … (insert sound of crickets chirruping here).  This was the case for one lady who rang me this week and asked me to look at her site.

So what was going wrong? Here’s what I shared with her. If you want to create a well converting website, there are a few elements you need for success.

1. A hungry market. Are people actively looking for what you have to offer? You need to start with the market first – if there is no market for your product, then you will never end up selling many items. Sounds logical, but you would be surprised at the number of people who start with inventing a product and then try and find a market to sell it to.
2. A good product. People are looking for solutions to their needs – they are not looking for 100% perfection. Many businesses struggle with this, spending years perfecting their product before going to market. If you find yourself on the perfectionism loop – whack yourself on the side of the head and look at Apple. Was their first i-pod perfect? What about the 2nd or 3rd generations of i-pod? They created good products and then refined them as they went (on the basis of income from the earlier versions).
3. A professional looking website. When people visit your website for the first time they judge, based on the appearance of the site, whether or not your site can be trusted. If your site looks cheap or shoddy, with budget graphics and text that cannot be read in many browsers, they will click away. Your site needs to look professional, polished and easy to see no matter the browser type. Is your site search engine optimised so that your hungry market can find you? Does your site use images that reflect the images of your market? Can they see themselves, and other’s like them, using your product or service.
4. Logical navigation. Do you make it easy for people to work their way through your site, or do you hide bits and pieces on different pages? If you make it too hard, people will leave. If you are selling a product, then one page sites are great as every time you make people click away you give them the chance to leave.
5. Are you attracting the right kinds of people? High traffic is not the be all and end all. You want to attract people who are already interested in your product or service.  There is no point in getting loads of traffic to your site if they are looking for something else. They will see that you don’t meet their needs and click away. 
6. Does your text make sense and inspire action? If your text is confusing to follow, uses too much jargon, misses core pieces of information or doesn’t ask for the sale, then sales will be less than they could be.
7. Stacks of credibility. Can people read lots of success stories and testimonials? Can they see a picture of you and easily get in contact with you? If you are asking them to buy, is your site secure or do you use a trusted payment provider like Paypal? Do you guarantee your product or service?
8. Do you make choice easy? Many businesses offer too much choice. Keep choices simple – one option is perfectly fine. Two also works, but when you offer lots and lots of minor variations on a theme, then you lose people. They simply can’t make up their mind. Keep the choice simple (This of course doesn’t apply to shopping mall type of sites like Amazon, where people expect options).
9. Is your price right? You generally need to test to find the right price for your product.  Guesstimates don’t cut it – you need to test to find the right price the market is willing to pay.
10. Are your expectations realistic? A website generally will not generate thousands of calls or sales each week. 1% conversion on a site with these other points in place is normal, 2% is good. Above 3% and you can expect choirs and angels to descend.

If you want to boost your conversions, look at these 10 areas and work out which ones you need to refine for your site. Often the problem will be in more than one area, so keep digging, testing and editing until you hit on the perfect combination for your site.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

Yes, another personal post

This evening I attended the P&C meeting for Ferny Grove State High School. At this meeting the Acting Principal Mr Sutton provided his side of events leading up to the termination and reinstatement of the Music Camp. His side markedly differed from that reported to parents and students in the lead up to the situation.

If the events were as he presented, then I wholeheartedly apologise to him, the teaching body, parents and students who may have been affected by my views and comments. I recognise the passion and dedication of the majority of the teachers at Ferny Grove High School.  The teaching faculty achieves brilliant results in a number of areas, with general academic results achieved of a similar standard to many of the top private schools.

My comments were intended to broaden the debate and not create divide – but this has not been the result. For this reason I have removed my previous blog post and issue an unreserved apology for my comments.

Ingrid Cliff

Freelance writer & parent

As a card carrying people watcher from early childhood, I love to find out what makes people tick. So I went to Uni and studied Psychology and then spent decades in the field observing how employees and people responded to different situations (and then tried to work out why they did what, on the surface, looked like totally illogical behaviour).

I grab my latest copies of psychology and neuroscience research with all the unbridled joy of a kid being let lose in a Darrell Lea chocolate shop with an unlimited budget … but I have to tell you … a lot of the best research is boring to read. I mean dead boring. I mean it is so boring and soporific that I swear that they use it to knock people out in sleep clinics.

Which is why I love this You Tube Video (thanks Brandrally for sharing it). It takes normal, rather boring research and turns it into a work of art. This is the ultimate example of why Powerpoint should be banned and more creative ways adopted to get messages across are adopted.

What’s the video about? Well in a nutshell, why motivating employees with money sucks, and why cash bonuses as an employee motivation strategy suck even more. Interesting viewing!

Love to hear your thoughts about both the video and the technique.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

This evening we were lucky enough to attend the media preview of Robin Hood, courtesy of Blue Room Cinebar. Originally all discussion of the movie was embargoed until Thursday (the official launch date in Australia). But as  some US reviewers have jumped the gun, the embargo has been lifted. We did have to hand in our mobile phones to MIB style security guards just to make sure of no early pirate movie leaks.

As long term readers of this blog know, I love approaches that take something that is well known and then adds a twist. The latest Russell Crowe Robin Hood movie, does just that. If you are looking for the traditional retelling of the Robin Hood tale, this film is not for you. If you were not taken by the Batman re-tellings, Smallville or Merlin then you may find this version of the tale a tad too loose an interpretation. However, if you are open to a rollicking good yarn that very loosely tells the story of how Robin Hood came to be an outlaw, then book a ticket to see the latest Robin Hood movie.

Brilliantly cast, with stunningly lush scenery and sets (worthy of an Oscar in its own right) and excellent costumes, the movie is an interesting combination of massive battle sequences, the odd bit of light-hearted laughter and a dash of romance … and yes, the stage is set for a sequel.  Russell Crowe gave a solid Gladiator in leather tights performance, Cate Blanchett was stunning as an emancipated Lady Marion and Max von Sydow was absolutely brilliant as Sir Walter Loxley.  My personal favourite was Mark Addy as Friar Tuck – exceptional casting.

There was also an interesting combination of historical attention to detail (the castle siege wouldn’t look out of place in a High School history lesson) and thumbing their nose at history (Marion in full armour fighting the invading French).

As an aside, fans of Monty Python will find the odd reference in the movie to keep them amused. Obviously the group we were with were not Python fans  as we were the only ones giggling at “None shall pass unless you answer this riddle …”

From a business perspective, 10/10 for clever marketing by Blue Room Cinebar in Rosalie. The preview was open to the media as well as top clients of the cinema. The clients gained exclusive access to a brilliant movie, and refreshed their memories of how great the Blue Room Cinebar is for private screenings for clients. (I gather the next Sex & the City Movie has weeks of group bookings already locked in). Other businesses take note of how you can reward your best clients. (Declaration of interest – yes, I am a regular client of the Cinebar and yes we had free tickets tonight, but no financial payment for this review).

In terms of movie ratings, I give Robin Hood 3.5/5 and my daughter gives it a 4/5 (and Blue Room Cinebar a 5/5). It is not an Avatar movie, but still great escapism nonetheless.

Love to hear your thoughts of the movie

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

We all get the odd time in our life when we stare at the digital clock on our bedside table at 4am and wonder whether we are the only person awake on the planet. Years ago it was because I was pacing the floor with crying babies, trying to help them learn the difference between night and day. Every now and again I would pop the latest baby in the car and take them for a 4am drive, waving to all the other bleary eyed parents doing the same thing as we did laps around the local area. I learned then that there was a surprising number of other people with the 4am blues.

Then there was the hyper manic years when I was buried under killer deadlines doing government reform. We would work until 11pm, duck home for a few hours sleep and get up at 4am to do it all over again. As I would walk to my car at night, I would wave at the other hyper manic workers in brilliantly lit inner-city buildings. It was almost as if there was a private club in the CBD that only those powered by adrenalin could join.  Those years were unsustainable … if ever so seductive.

Running my own business, there were the 4am cold-sweat blues in the early years, worrying about everything including the leap of faith into the unknown.  There was also the odd “all-nighter” thrown in to meet deadlines.  Now though,  I generally sleep the sleep of the peaceful and content, with the odd 4am thrown in to remind me of what once was.

So how does sleep deprivation impact on business? If you look around your business, you will find a good handful of your team have the 4am blues. That’s where mistakes are made, industrial accidents occur and less than positive decisions get made.  We expect parents of new babies to be “business as usual” within a few weeks. We drive our team to impossible deadlines. We don’t consider the impact of life changes on work performance.  We feel lack of sleep and tiredness is a badge of courage to be worn and worked through.

What if there was another way?  What if you chose to take a different approach? There is a lot to be said for siestas, snooze pods, for nanna naps in the late afternoon. For sending that tired person home early (on full pay) to catch a few hours of precious sleep. After all, you are responsible for creating a safe place of work  and reducing all known work hazards. Don’t tired people fall into this category?

For me, this morning after I pick dad up from the hospital (yes, his heart surgery went well this time), I will take my day more gently. I will step away from the keyboard, put down the pen and do less dangerous things.

How do you deal with the 4am blues?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance writer