Not one for sports metaphors, but this one is one I love and I was reminded of it watching TV recently. I tend to watch some older shows and the commercials are geared to older people. So when the hearing aid commercial came on, I didn’t really pay attention. Until Patrick Duffy made the comment that the majority of people who come in for a hearing test just have trouble with ear wax. Wait – what? As the commercial went on, I realized, they were employing the old, “your best defense is a good offense” strategy. If you say to someone who is older, “you should get your hearing checked”, it is symbolic of getting old and having to wear a hearing aid is often unthinkable. But, once a person does go and gets a hearing aid, they are very happy. So how do you […] Continue reading
Nature, and Customers, Abhor Vacuums
Recently I’ve run into several situations where people were unhappy with the performance of someone else. When I dug into what was going on, in reality it wasn’t that the other person wasn’t performing, it was that the person I was talking to DIDN’T KNOW. In three cases the person actually said, “if I just knew where things stood, I’d feel better”. Â That one seems pretty easy to fix, right? So for the sake of research (and needing a blog entry), I contacted the people. Â I mentioned that there was a gap in knowledge and could they fill it? Â Here are completely reasonable reasons that this happened: Person 1 said they weren’t ready to tell because all the pieces weren’t in place. Â They were on schedule according to the plan they laid out at the beginning, so they didn’t think it was necessary to tell […] Continue reading
Are You Not Doing What You Said You Would?
In a meeting last week the speaker was unable to attend so we each went around and gave our best business tip.  It was interesting that over half of the tips shared were about doing what you say you are going to do.  That seems like such an obvious thing – why was everyone talking about it? Clearly we have a problem. I think it is because people look at that two ways – on the one hand there are people who say they will do something but have no intention of actually doing it.  Those are the people we don’t work with after that first time because you know that’s what’s going on. The other way this happens is people intend to do exactly what theysay  – they will meet that deadline, they will attend the meeting, etc. But, things happen that get in […] Continue reading