Language

The words we use matter.  If we are careless in the language that we use, it indicates a carelessness in thinking.  The language we choose reflects our thinking.  Similarly, the words we use can subtly change our thinking.  Consider the following:

• When we travel, we aren’t travelers in a foreign land but foreigners in a traveled land.
• An employee or a customer who is wheelchair bound isn't a handicap or a handicapped person, but a person with a handicap.
• When we are addressing a customer service issue, we are not dealing with a soon-to-be former customer with a complaint but a customer who was not satisfied.  Or if you are a glass half full kind of person, we are dealing with a customer who is giving us a chance to improve.

To some extent we are talking about semantics.  But how we label things makes a difference in how we think and act toward those things.  In a recent blog, I shared a quote by Abraham Lincoln: "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."

Would you rather deal with problems or opportunities?  Would you rather be managing a response or leading your team to the answer?  Would you rather be a disruptor or a change agent?

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Empathy

I had the pleasure of being interviewed on the radio last night on Harvard Community Radio.  The show, The Creative Life with Erin Denk, is a show about creativity in all walks of life.

In our discussion, the host and I were talking about marketing, and what makes for good marketing.  "Empathy," I said tersely.  Terseness does not make for good radio.

Erin pushed back initially at my answer.  She has a therapy background and has a different view of empathy AND of marketing.

Empathy, I explained, is the ability to view things from another's perspective.  If marketing is primarily about developing and maintaining relationships (an assertion I had made earlier) then it makes sense that being able to view the product or service from the prospect's perspective will make for stronger marketing.  With empathy, you can make value propositions that address the needs and desires of the prospective customer.

Empathy, I would argue, is a more important skill than the ability to write, design, produce or edit.  Empathy is were all the great marketing messages start.

Can you see my perspective?      

The Creative Life with Erin Denk can be found on Harvard Community Radio at www.harvardcommunityradio.com or at AM1610 or 

on TuneIn Radio and serch for Harvard Community Radio.   

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Working with Millennials

My son recently started his first post-graduation job.  On the way to that job he interned and Skyped and networked and conference-called like a pro.  He worked hard to get the chance to work hard.  My son is a Millennial.

My daughter has worked the whole time she has been in college.  She has worked during the summers and is one of the hardest workers I know.  She takes on physically grueling tasks without batting an eye.  She volunteers, tutors and is involved in numerous committees and projects at school.  My daughter is a Millennial.

The friends and acquaintances of my daughter and my son, as well as my nieces and nephews, and the children of several friends and neighbors, are following similar paths that involve work, college, graduate school, entrepreneurship or some combination of those.  They are all Millennials.

According to Wikipedia, authors William Strauss and Neil Howe were the first to coin the term "Millennials," which generally refers to people born in the late 1970s or early 1980s through the early 2000s.  Millennials have also been called Generation Y, the ME generation and the echo boomers. By next year, Millenials will be more than a third of the work force.  By 2020, they will be almost half of all workers.

A lot has been written about this generation.  Many authors have written about their sense of entitlement and their lack of commitment.  That does not sound like the Millennials I have had the pleasure to know!  Based on what I have seen from my son and daughter and their friends, there is no lack of initiative or drive. Based on what I have personally observed and experienced, Millenials as a whole are no more or less inclined toward hard work, commitment and team work than any other generation.

There are a few "differences" that make this generation unique.

• Unsurprisingly, this generation is very comfortable with technology.  They utilize technology more often and in more ways than their parents, especially social media.  For a generation that grew up with PCs in the home and cellphones in their hand since they were young, how could we expect less?
• Millennials are not tied to a location.  71% would like to work abroad at some point in their careers.  I suspect the same could have been said of Baby Boomers when they were young, especially if working abroad for so many didn't mean being drafted to serve in Viet Nam.
• This generation is highly entrepreneurial.  More than 90% of Millennials in their early 20s feel that entrepreneurship education was "vital in the new economy and job market."  This may explain why more than a third of them have started side businesses.  In an economy when computing is inexpensive and common and jobs are rare, new technology-based businesses are likely to spring up.
• This generation likes to get real time feedback on the work they are doing, a work environment that encourages them to "contribute without fear of being criticized," and to collaborate, especially when the group's goals and purpose are clear.  Who doesn't?

This generation came of age as concepts of job security and company loyalty were dying.  They came of age in this new economy and are more comfortable with the concept of mobility in the job marketplace.  Almost half expressed confidence that they could find another job easily and more than two thirds plan to switch jobs or careers when situations improve.  This generation is tech savvy and mobile.  This generation is more diverse and more tolerant than any that has come before them.  They are not as motivated by long term benefits as their parents, the Baby Boomers.  

In the end, every employer will need to work with this generation.  But it seems to me that the "challenges" of working with Millennials are really, in fact, the same challenges that an older generation ALWAYS has when it is time to start integrating the younger generation into the workplace and especially into the management of the workplace.  I do think that there are differences between Millenials and Baby Boomers, just as there were differences between Baby Boomers and the Greatest Generation.  

In the end, there are Millennials that work hard, and those who are lazy.  There are those who will work with one company their whole career and those whose resume will be much more varied and colorful.  There are tech-savvy, entrepreneurial Millennials and those who won't own a cellphone or laptop.  

In the end, we don't end up working with a generation.  We end up working with people.  Individuals.  While some of the countless articles and blogs like this one on how to work with this up and coming generation may provide useful insights, my advice is look at the individual in front of you.  Hire, fire, motivate and promote based on the people on your team, not the generations to which they belong.  

And if you happen to be the current or future employers of my kids, let them call home every once in a while.

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Black Friday

Welcome to Black Friday.

This is a "day" that means different things to different people.

• To the bargain hunter, it is nirvana.  
• To the retailer, it is a harbinger of how profitable the holiday season will end up being.  
• For the store manager, it is mostly a headache.  
• To some store employees, it is a family holiday lost.  
• To the Michigan police officers who coined the term "Black Friday" because the crowds of holiday shoppers and the crowds of hunters on the same weekend often made for a lot of problems and a huge crowd control issue, it was not something they looked forward to.
• To many of us, it is a day to go to the movies.

I have nothing against the concept of a big day of sales to kick off the holiday shopping season.  I understand the concept of retailers taking a loss on a few items to draw the crowds into their stores in the hopes they will buy more things.  I have no problem with that.

I do have a problem that Black Friday has morphed into Black Thursday evening or even Black Thursday AND Friday.

One of the things that I love about Thanksgiving is that it is one of the few holidays that has remained largely uncommercialized.  As retailers enter into an arms race as to who can open earliest and longest, and offer the most outrageous deals, Thanksgiving is threatened.  Or at the very least, disrespected.

I understand that retailers jobs are to make sales and sometimes you have to do things to attract shoppers into your store. What I don't understand is why Black Friday has become so popular among retailers.  I have talked to a couple managers of big box stores and they admitted that they lose money on this day.  Between the deeply discounted sale items and the extra staff hours and the huge amount of advertising, I think most retailers count on customers coming back into the store in December so they can make up the money they lose on Black Friday.  

I much prefer some of the corollary days that have sprung up around Black Friday.  My favorite is Shop Local Saturday.  It is not an organized thing in most communities.  You won't be able to get 50" televisions for $99.  But you will be able to find unique gifts and will support small, local businesses, which are the lifeblood of most communities.  

So if you missed the Thursday evening kick-off of Black Friday, or you didn't feel like camping out in front of your electronics store of choice to get a deal on an iPad, or you don't want to fight someone over the latest Furby, consider taking today off.  Go shopping tomorrow.  Go shopping locally.  

At the Movies

I love movies.  I always have and probably always will.  While I have always watched movies, the way I watch them has changed dramatically.

It used to be there were really just two ways to see a movie, catch it when it first ran in the theater or wait for it to be replayed on TV (if it wasn't too racy or violent) often years later.  My kids will never understand the importance of seeing a movie in the theater during its run, because you might never see it again if you didn't.  My kids, who are now adults, will never understand the way the annual broadcast of movies like The Wizard of Oz became an important community event.

These days, I am considered old fashioned because I still get movies delivered in little red envelopes.  In addition, I can stream movies any time I want on my TV, iPad or phone (does anyone REALLY watch a whole movie on their phone?)  I still go to the movie theater, but less than I used to.

When you think about it, the way movies are distributed has changed dramatically, but movie theaters, by and large, are still operating on the same model.  You wait in line to buy your ticket to the movie, wait in line again to by an obscenely large cup of soft drink and tub of popcorn, stumble into a theater that is already dark because they are showing advertisements, hope to find a seat that isn't broken or too sticky or trashed, hope that the person sitting next to you or behind you will remember they are in a theater and not their living room, and that the person on the other side of you will eventually let you share the arm rest.  And that's all before the previews.

Why would anyone continue to go to the theater when for the cost of two tickets and popcorn you can get unlimited movies for a month in the comfort of your home?  In the December issue of Fast Company, they profile several movie theater operators who are trying to answer that very question.

Their solutions are creative and diverse.  Some are looking to make going to the theater a more social experience.  They do this by locating theaters near where young professionals work, adding bars and creating reasons for people of like interests to gather at the theater before and after the film.  Others are doing it by increasing the luxury of the movie going experience with leather seats and food delivered to your seat or by improving the sound systems in the theater (George Lucas says audio is 50% of the theater experience).  One theater owner is offering monthly subscriptions that allow patrons to see one movie a day, and they are seeing their daytime and midweek business grow significantly.  Others are addressing the issue by looking at what is on the screen.  By offering smaller films targeted to specific demographic groups or other types of theater experiences such as live simulcasts of concerts, operas and sporting events, these theater operators are attracting new and more diverse crowds.

As Hamid Hashemi, Founder and CEO of iPic Entertainment says, "It used to be a year before movies made it to DVD.  Soon, you'll be able to see a movie on the big screen, iPad, iPhone, and TV on the same day, around the world.  It's the evolution of the business.  But that doesn't mean the theaters are going to go out of business.  They're just going to have to be more experimental.  This is just the start."

See you AT the movies!

Taking a Break

For a variety of reasons, I took a week off from this blog.  For a variety of reasons, I did not write anything for this or future posts.  I took a break.

Breaks are important.  Coffee breaks aren't just to move more java and gossip.  They are a chance to pause and refresh.  We are given vacation days in order to take a bit of a longer break in order to recharge the batteries and allow ourselves to do something different for a short while.  Vacations allow us to come back to our jobs refreshed and more productive.  Even trainers understand the value of a short rest in between reps and a day off from the weights now and then.

We don't all view vacations the same.  According to a recent Harris Interactive poll, on average Americans are offered 14 days of vacation but only take 10 days, leaving twice as many days on the table as the previous year.  We are not alone in our work ethic.  Both Japanese and South Korean workers leave a number of days unused.  On the other end of the spectrum, the French receive, and generally use, 30 days of vacation per year.  Even with that, 90% of French workers feel "vacation deprived."

While the poll indicated that the top reason Americans gave for not taking vacation is that they were stockpiling days for a future vacation, I suspect other reasons may be at play.

In a lot of American businesses, redundancy in job responsibilities has been greatly reduced.  This means that the chances that you are the only one who does what you do in your organization have increased.  That means that when you go on vacation, one of three things typically happens to your work:  You have to get it done before you go, you have to do it after you get back, or someone else "tries" to do it while you are gone and you have to re-do it when you get back.  In other words, we really aren't getting a break from the work of our jobs, just displacing it.  This makes vacation seems a bit less appealing.

There are many other reasons we tend to be reluctant to vacate:

• Economics:  The recent recession has more people reluctant to leave their jobs unattended.  There is an innate sense that it is more important than ever to prove one's worth at work.  Furthermore, lack of economic security make spending money "frivilously" on a vacation seems like less of a good idea to more people.
• Boredom:  At least in America, a lot of people fear being bored on vacation.  I call it the Chevy Chase effect.  There is a tendency to feel  that if we aren't taking a big family vacation, like Chevy Chase's family did in the movie "National Lampoon's Vacation", we aren't really doing vacation right.  If we aren't doing that, how can we help but be bored?  If we ARE doing that, it probably means days in the car or airport and how can we help but be bored?
• Family: Studies show that many people fear spending extended periods of time with their families as much as they do spending it alone. If there is strife or trouble within the family, work becomes a convenient and socially acceptable escape.  On vacation, that escape is removed.
• Importance:  There is a fear that when you are gone on vacation, your employer will decide that you are not that important to the organization.  One way to avoid that is to never be gone.

The reality is that your physical and mental health requires the occassional break.  Just like your body needs to sleep to recharge and rest, you need to take those breaks and vacations from time to time.  We need to work to overcome the fears and anxieties of stepping away from the job for a few days or a week and allow ourselves to recharge.

Likewise, it is important for employers to stop praying at the alter of employee efficiency and recognize that long term, the organization is better served and employees WILL be more productive, if they get the occassional break.

See you at the beach!

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Strategically Speaking

Several organizations that I am involved with are currently, have just recently or really need to spend time developing a strategic plan.

I have been involved with dozens of these efforts over the years.  Without fail, every single one of those efforts, at some point, devolves into a debate about terminology.

Do goals flow out of missions and action steps out of goals?  Does a vision flow out of a mission or vice versa?.  Do action steps need to be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) or should that be goals?  What is the difference between a vision and a mission and a goal?  Which is most important?  Which should be developed first?  Why did the chicken cross the road?

Without a good moderator, the debate can go on for hours.  I am convinced that it is this conversation that drives most people away from strategic planning.  Which is a shame because there are two very good things that can usually flow out of strategic planning.

The first is that, if everyone sticks with it, you come up with a plan. A strategic plan provides some guidance as to what the members of the organization should focus on over the next year or two.  It provides some direction as to organizational priorities and plans. It broadcasts to staff and other stakeholders the organizational priorities of the leaders of the organization.

The second good thing to flow out of the strategic planning process is that the organization's leaders sit down and talk.  It is, in my opinion, the more important advantage.

Too often, the leaders in an organization don't bother to get together and really talk about the direction things are going and the direction they'd LIKE them to going.  Too often the leaders of an organization don't take the time out from putting out daily fires to look ahead and think about what the future should look like.  If nothing else, the strategic planning process gets the leaders into the same room talking about the same thing for a short while.

A structured strategic planning process helps to ensure that voices that are often drowned out or ignored get heard.  A planned process helps to ensure that the leaders are focused on positive, forward-looking plans for the organization and not arguing over terminology.  A well run strategic planning process is a positive for the organization, regardless of the resulting plan.

In the long run, strategically speaking, it doesn't matter how you label things in your strategic plan, as long as you are talking about them!