Be Different or be dead

October 22, 2018

Ideas come easy but can you really pull them off?

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Ideas come easy but can you really pull them off?

Take a time out some time and listen to what is said around you. It could be in a meeting at work, in a bistro having coffee with a friend or at a networking event with colleagues.

People talk about their intentions most of the time; what ideas they have to improve their, or their organization’s circumstances.
— “I want to be a marketing executive.”
— “I want to lose 30 pounds.”
— “We will create a product that solves the distracted driving problem in our roads.”
— “I want to travel the world.”
— “I will invent a product that will change the world.”
— “Our goal is to be #1 in the market for international pharmaceuticals.”

Ideas come easy

Ideas come easy; declaring what is intended (to make you happy, enhance your performance, build customer loyalty and achieve a rewarding career) is a straightforward task.

The far more difficult thing is to achieve what is intended (to BE happy, increase your performance by 50% and to be appointed to that VP position).

But despite the chasm between the idea and delivering the successful result,  the focus today is all about ideas; they are given the priority to the point that an entire indudtry has been established to aid people in coming up with tools to aid in the “ideation” process.

Various tools such as brainstorming, storyboarding and mind mapping are promulgated in a logic framework to generate outside-the-box thinking.

Rewards seem to go to the brilliance of the idea and forget the most important piece.

Can you pull it off?

The ability to pull it off is the counter balance to the intellectual worth of the idea — it is the offset to an awesome notion that can’t be implemented.

An amazing idea that (on paper) has the potential to “change the world” in some way but can’t be pulled off is an idea with ZERO worth (other than the discovery that the great idea has no practical application). Theoretical possibilities sponsored by the intellect contribute nothing of value until they are pulled off.

“Affordable housing” in Vancouver is a notion that most everyone can subscribe to, but until the idea is quickly followed up with a plan that is successfully implemented, it is vapourware. And that is exactly what is happening in every major city in the world: the affordable housing aspiration is saluted, but little progress has been achieved.

So is achieving affordable housing a good idea? Yes and no. If you evaluate it in terms of whether it would deliver substantial societal benefits, it’s not only a good idea it’s an incredible one.

But if you judge the idea on its practical merits, I would say it’s not only a bad idea, it’s a dismal failure. It’s no more than an altruistic notion of what a great thing it would be if it could be achieved. But until someone figures out how to pull it off it’s a pipe dream that every politician and social interest group applauds but goes no further.

We need to change the way we think about success and value; real success doesn’t come from ideas themselves but in actions that have produced demonstrated benefits. But in many circles it’s easier to utter rhetoric and be a student of it because it requires no commitment to DO anything.

The pull-it-off factor

We need to start thinking of worth and value of a idea as a function of whether you can pull the idea off or not. So, that amazing idea with a small pull-it-off-factor isn’t as amazing as the not-so-amazing (imperfect) idea that can be pulled off with real benefits streaming out sooner rather than later.

Pull-it-off should rule the decision on whether or not an idea is worthy of pursuit, not the inherent brilliance of the idea. Resources — time, money and energy — should be applied to ideas that have a path in front of them that leads to achievement, not the need to consume more resources as time goes on.

What can you do with a low pull-it-off idea?

Chuck it

Discard the idea and run with another one that has both significant paper benefits and one where you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And incrementally improve the idea along the way as more practical insight is determined about how it will work and what can be done to make it better.

You have to know when to cut your losses and pursue something else that creates value. Throwing money at an impossible task is a waste of resources and is just plain stupid.

Chunk it

Break the idea into discrete pieces and focus on one that CAN be accomplished and create value. Look for a chunk that is a small piece of the bigger puzzle you are trying to solve. And maybe, just maybe getting the small piece done will, inch by inch, lead you to your grand plan.

A nano-inch worth of progress is far better than spinning your wheels on the big play.

Morph it

Change — squeeze, bend, twist — the original idea into something that be delivered. It may not possess all the attributes as the original idea, but may retain some characteristics that do create value and are directionally consistent with your ultimate end game.

Note to self: no value is created when an idea can’t be pulled off.

Society pursues Innovation because of our quest for added meaning and value to our lives — more exciting ways to communicate, lower cost and easier transportation, environmentally safe resource development projects, higher quality entertainment and safer driving tools that protect lives.

But we have arrived at a point where we need things done to improve our collective lives; we don’t need a continuing rhetoric of what could (in some theoretical sense) be achieved.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 10.22.18 at 03:43 am by Roy Osing
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October 15, 2018

Why a leader should play to the heart if reasoning doesn’t work

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Why a leader should play to the heart if reasoning doesn’t work.

Every leader has to deal with one of their employees who is a challenge; who is a high spirited “stallion” who pushes all our buttons — after all that’s one of the reasons we hired them.

I had the opportunity to work with such an individual who taxed me at every turn. Although I captured a glimpse of his ‘dark side’ during the hiring process, I had no idea how dark it was.

From the moment I appointed him to his general manager role, every interaction was painful. Every conversation with him was a conflict moment; strained and extremely tense.

Every issue resulted in a protracted argument which left me exhausted and frustrated.

Our interactions constituted a battle zone

He was was literally un-coachable; choosing to go toe-to-toe rather than engage, collaborate and let me add value to help him. Everything was a battle.

He was extremely arrogant, choosing to not listen and do his own thing. In fact the situation worsened to the point he was upwardly condescending and demonstrated the same behaviour to my boss and my fellow executive colleagues.

On the positive side, he was an extremely bright individual with all the credentials and competencies that could enable him to move ahead in the organization. He was strong in finance and had an amazing grasp of technology and the capabilities it could provide from a marketing perspective.

He was passionate about his ideas and wanted to play a significant role in the company’s future — he was as upwardly mobile as they come.

As time passed, matters tanked. His colleagues and direct report team complained to me about his actions and even threatened not to work with him. And our relationship continued on a downward spiral.

I wanted to avoid collateral damage

Left unbridled, he was surely going to crash and burn and leave road kill along the way.

I thought long and hard about the intervention I had to make.

I decided to not follow the more traditional approach of calling him into my office, reviewing his misdemeanours, and putting him on a “measured mile” to allow him to either get with the program or face the ultimate consequence of his actions

I chose to simply tell him how I FELT about our relationship and how his behaviour impacted me personally. My strategy was not to ask him to do anything with the information I gave him; rather to just take it in and think about my what I had to say.

My logic was that he would be naturally inclined to debate the facts with me, but he could never debate my FEELINGS. They were mine and mine alone and could not be judged by anyone else as being either right or wrong.

I told him that I felt that he didn’t like me or respect me.

I appealed to his emotions

▪️I told him that I felt disappointed that he was unwilling to accept my help as his coach.

▪️I told him that I felt that we had no positive relationship at all, which saddened and disappointed me.

▪️And I also told him that I expected nothing of him as a result of our conversation; that it was up to him to act on what I had to say or not.

My feelings declaration did more than knock the wind out of him, it crushed him emotionally. He had no idea how his style impacted me.

Sharing my feelings with him had an amazing impact on our relationship.

Overnight he turned from the dark side to the bright side not just for me but also for everyone around him. He had no idea that he affected others the way he had affected me.

He was happier, more productive and began making the contribution he was capable of making.

Sharing feelings; appealing to the heart; not the mind. It worked.

Give it a shot.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 10.15.18 at 02:22 am by Roy Osing
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October 7, 2018

These 5 easy ways will keep you interesting to people you care about

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These 5 easy ways will keep you interesting to people you care about.

Success is achieved when relevance is present and accounted for; when you are meaningful to those who you deem to be important

Organizational life

In business, the relevance challenge is to continue to offer products, services and experiences that people find useful as their needs, wants and desires change over time. Failure to be more relevant to the customers an organization chooses to serve is a recipe for not only short term failure; it usually threatens the organization’s survival in the long run.

Avoiding irrelevance requires that an organization keeps current on how their customers’ needs are changing and what new experiences they desire so that new solutions can be delivered to them.

Customer relevance is more about delivering something they CARE about as opposed to the gee whiz technology employed. An organization that continually “tugs at their heart strings” will outpace their competition and ensure themselves of long term success.

And organizations need to learn to let go if they are to remain relevant. Relying on yesterday’s successes will not work in the struggle for relevance; making room for “the new” is essential to moving up the relevance curve.

Personal life

For an individual, being relevant means meeting the needs of family, friends, employers and society as one ages.

As a child, relevance generally means approval from parents and garnering the ‘good boy/girl’ response from them.

To the teenager, relevance is achieved typically by teacher recognition and acceptance — getting good marks at school — being accepted by a peer group and attracting girlfriends because of a cool demeanour.
Some, unfortunately, choose other methods — drugs and gangs — to gain relevance with usually an unfortunate but predictable outcome.

In early adulthood relevance is about job performance and family responsibility; get a good job and meet expected family obligations. And surround oneself with friends who are enjoyable to be with and who have your back when things go awry.

Late adulthood — generally described as the retired folks — has its own unique challenges for those who want to maintain their relevance. The challenge one has in this group is primarily to continue being meaningful to the family as they grow, mature and adopt perspectives that are often radically different than back in the day.

Having an influential voice, for example, on matters your teenage granddaughter has is definitely not a walk in the park.

Many people in this group find the change practically impossible; they choose to disengage from the relevance journey and step back from the dynamics of society and family.
Their priority is to go inward and take care of themselves as opposed to keeping up with what is going around them and engaging with others in the topics of the day.

Maintaining relevance in whatever job or life position you find yourself is taxing; it is not for the faint of heart.

Here are 5 actions you can take to stay in the sweet spot of those that are important to you.

1. Be clear in who you are

Build your personal brand around those attributes your tribe values; this is your context for how you intend to relate to your important “others”.
And know how to express your brand values clearly to those people important to you.

Your brand must not only represent something you strongly believe in, it must also resonate with your audience. It’s all very well to be a staunch proponent of legalizing cannabis, but if your herd is staunchly against the notion of widespread marijuana use, your voice gets lost.
Find another tribe with similar beliefs if you want to stay with your brand; it’s your only choice if you want to stay true to who you are and what you believe in.

2. Be current

Know what’s going on; you can’t be relevant if you aren’t in the present. Relevance is a moving thing; if you’re not a part of the changes going on around you you fall behind and your belief system becomes to many obsolete (and irrelevant).

To counter this, keep up with the major issues of the day and understand them at least deep enough to formulate an opinion on them. And always check your opinion with your brand for consistency; decide whether your opinion is who you are and go from there.

Don’t be a bouncer who flits from one opinion to another depending on which way the wind is blowing.

3. Be flexible

Be prepared to change your views; relevance is a function of new events, opinions, issues and beliefs. To be relevant requires an ability to ebb and flow with the narrative of the day. I’m not suggesting to forsake your brand position, just make sure you keep current so you can position your views in the context of your brand as opposed to a knee jerk response based on emotion rather than thoughtfulness.

4. Be quiet!

Perversely, know when to say nothing. If you feel you are about to go down a rat hole with your views on a topic and incur the unwanted wrath of your tribe, take a deep breath and a pass. There is no crime in staying out of a conversation where you are the minority; in many circumstances it makes sense.

This is a tough one for me. I am constantly wading into debates with my family over controversial matters — like immigration in Canada — and invoking the ‘that’s old school thinking Dad’ response to my position. Sooner or later I will learn to let it pass rather than continue to beat my head against the wall and appear irrelevant to my tribe.

Or maybe not.

5. Be open

(At least) try to be more tolerant. You have a brand. You believe in specific values. You question new stuff based on logic and your life experience.
And then some issue comes up and everyone’s take on it is the same. They ALL believe drugs should be decriminalized and they ALL believe unlimited immigrants should be allowed in the country.

Even if our views are different, maybe we should try to be more tolerant of the view that is 180 degrees out of phase with our own.
Perhaps there is an aspect of the issue we haven’t considered and with this new found perspective we may be able to soften our stance while preserving our basic view.

Maybe. Maybe not.

BE ReLEVANT! is the most vital mantra for any organization or individual looking for success; “How can we/I be more meaningful to the people we care about?” should guide our thinking.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 10.7.18 at 07:56 am by Roy Osing
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September 24, 2018

Why being ‘the only one’ is the best competitive claim

Why being ‘the only one’ is the best competitive claim.

Perhaps you’ve got an incredible product portfolio built on an amazing technology platform and believe that the potential for revenue growth is staring you in the face.

The truth of the matter, however, is that if you can’t answer this question, your growth intentions will never be realized.

“Why should I do business with you and not your competition?” is the killer question faced by every organization.

In today’s noisy world with every organization shouting out why they should be chosen, the marketer needs to determine how to get their products, services and solutions noticed in the milieu. They need a competitive claim that is unique and stands apart from your competitors.

Unfortunately, however, competitive claims made by organizations today lack creativity, imagination and truth.

Copying pervades — I would give most organizations today a less than satisfactory rating in terms of how well they address this challenge.

The tendency of most is to go on a copying rampage where the priority is on replicating in some way what someone else is doing in terms of products, services, pricing, distribution and brand positioning. Other players are benchmarked on some capability and the copycat strategy unfolds.

Even a fast follower is a copycat; they just do it faster!

Copying doesn’t create uniqueness and differences; it proliferates sameness.

It dilutes any marginal differences among organizations that might exist and renders them all as look-alikes. And it lowers the bar for each competitor to achieve.

The usual clap trap — Most differentiation statements advocated by organizations and intended to convince us involve words like ‘best’, ‘number one’, ‘leader’, ‘fastest growing’, ‘most’ and ‘highest quality’ to assert their distinguishable characteristics vis-a-vis their competition.

These are common statements which add little to clarifying the clutter:
- We have the best sales team in the business;
- Our people strive to deliver the highest level of client service at all times;
- We offer the highest quality products;
- We have the most knowledgeable salespeople;
- We have been in business for over 30 years;
- We rank number one in client satisfaction;
- We are the preeminent sales organization in North America.

Unfortunately, these declarations add little understanding to help people select a company to do business with.

How exactly does having knowledgeable employees make an organization the right choice given a number of alternatives to choose from who will all claim the same thing? And who decided that an organization has the best customer service, and why should I believe them? 

And why should I be impressed with any organization that ‘strives’ to deliver great service — I won’t give anyone my business who claims their special sauce is that they try hard.

These statements are confusing and have little credibility with their audience. They are generally vague and aspirational without proven substance.

A credible competitive claim needs to be simple and specific in terms of how an organization is different from the competitive herd.
It needs to address a high priority customer need (claiming to be unique on something a customer doesn’t care about isn’t productive) and it needs to be true (failing to consistently deliver will drive a customer elsewhere).

Most competitive claims rely on overused clap-trap to position themselves against their competitors

In response to the need for clarity in competitive claims, I created what I call ‘The ONLY Statement’ as the practical way to do it.

‘We are the only ones that….’ is the claim that will cut through the clutter and make it clear why you should be chosen among your competitors.

“We provide the ONLY permanent solution that prevents biohazard contaminants (such as used syringes) and all other debris from entering manholes.”

What Jerry said

Jerry Garcia, former leader of the legendary rock band The Grateful Dead, nailed it: “You don’t want merely to be the best of the best. You want to be the only ones who do what you do.”

ONLY dispels the clap trap; here’s why:

Confidence — ONLY is bold; some might say arrogant. It’s audacious in the claim to be the one that owns a particular space and is prepared to show all to prove it.
This confident face of the organization, in and of itself, raises curiosity to find out what it’s all about. It’s not without its risks but well worth stepping out of your comfort area to say it.

Simplicity — ONLY is a simple expression which uses simple language. The low fog factor invites eyes to gaze on and process the thought articulated in it rather than struggle through what it means which is the case with the usual clap trap.

Clean form — ONLY relies on a binary view; the claim is either true or false. It exists or it doesn’t. It makes it very easy for the reader to assess both its relevance and its truth.

Emotional appeal — ONLY is built around what is relevant to the customer’s the organization has chosen to serve — what their target customer group cares about — therefore these specific people are warmed up to the competitive claim being made.

“We are the ONLY team that provides safety solutions anywhere, anytime that go beyond what customers ask to help build their business.”

This statement speaks volumes to those who could be in need on a moment’s notice and it reassures them that resources will be available to help them should the need arise.

Revealing shape — ONLY provides detail and clarity around what the solution does, to make it easy for the potential buyer to make an informed decision. It has the cutting edges and lines of specificity that attract followers.

“Unlike other distracted driving solutions that allow drivers to use their smartphone when driving, eBrake is the ONLY one that automatically locks a driver’s phone when motion is detected, but grants passengers unrestricted use.”

Proof — ONLY is easily measured by asking the frontline and customers whether the claim is true or not; the measurement process is simple.
In addition, the researcher can look up and compare other organizations and what they offer as a competitive claim and reach their own conclusions on ONLY’s efficacy.

Distinctiveness — ONLY is different. There is no other similar proven method of creating a claim of competitive advantage offered by strategy advisors in the consulting community.
It has a track record of success with many organizations I have had the pleasure of working with. No other advisor, consultant, academic or strategy pundit has a tool in their kitbag like ONLY but Roy — I am the ONLY one.

ONLY is a sound bite that punches above its weight. It’s small in frame and carries enormous impact.

Rules for ONLY — ONLY isn’t sexy through serendipity; it achieves sexiness by rigorously adhering to a set of rules to create it; here they are:

▪️ONLY must speak to the experiences and value you create for people not the products or services you want to push; it needs to be highly relevant and address the priorities that customers have expressed.

People want to buy things that help create memorable experiences for themselves or produce benefits that solve problems they have.

If an organization can craft their ONLY to address an overwhelming craving or desire their target customer has, a sustainable competitive advantage for the organization is within their grasp.

▪️Keep it brief. ONLY is a sound bite. It’s a nano-statement that shouldn’t require you to take a second breath. If it’s a narrative that consumes a page it’s not a viable claim and

▪️ONLY must talk to the specific customer group you are targeting and not the market in general. It’s really important that ONLY be as specific as possible which comes from addressing identifiable customers; market communication dilutes the claim which renders it incomprehensible and ineffective. Talk to customers rather than markets if you want your message to be acted on.

▪️Test your ONLY with customers and employees; it must be relevant — it satisfies a compelling want or desire customers have — and true — the organization delivers the capabilities promised by ONLY consistently day-in and day-out.

Claiming you are the ONLY one at something that your target customers don’t believe is deadly. They will tell everyone that you’re lying and that doesn’t turn out well.

▪️Consider your ONLY a draft. The reality is you won’t get it completely right the first time, so take your almost-there result and start working with it with your customer segments. Refine it as you go.
And stay alert for a response by a competitor who may suddenly come awake when they see your move.if this happens you may very well have to go back to the drawing board and make some changes.

“We are the ONLY First Aid Advocate that provides safety solutions anywhere, anytime.”

ONLY is a war-rallying-cry of sorts for your employees; it should get their juices flowing. It defines the hill you are claiming and dares the competition to climb it.
Your employees have to feel what it says and be able (with the help of the serving leader) to define exactly what it requires each and every one of them to do in order to deliver on it.

ONLY beats ‘best’; ONLY beats ‘#1’; ONLY beats ‘the leader in…’; ONLY is the clear winner if you want a sustainable competitive advantage.

‘The only one’ is the ONLY competitive claim that will provide a competitive advantage forever.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 9.24.18 at 03:23 am by Roy Osing
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