Towards a 97% Sucess Rate

I came across a statistic this week that showed that 97 percent of women would swoon if their boyfriend gave them a mixtape (a personal collection of meaningful music). My second thought (the first being to see if it actually works) was to ask what if 97 percent of your clients had a high-emotion, positive response to your product. Not just a “that is nice” but a “wow that is totally amazing I want it now” response to your offering. Not just one or two of your clients, but nearly every single one. That would be a pretty impressive track record.

Impossible I hear you say. There is the first problem. You think it is impossible.
Realism is well and good, but a lot of our excuses not to do something are not based on realism.
They are based on false assumptions about the way things are done and erroneous perceptions about how people will react. Until you have tested and tried it, do not tell me that it cannot be done. Time and time again, I have been shocked at how successful, an idea that I thought would fail, has actually been.

Doubling Productivity

So I write a weekly column for The Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe. Had a thought this week, if every time I write a column I write a second one at the same time. That way I will have a group of extra articles that I can either publish elsewhere or turn into a book. It just takes an extra bit of time a week and I double productivity in that area.

Emerging Ideas

Emerging Ideas are a group of young entrepreneurs and businessmen from Southern Africa and the USA that get their hands dirty with every investment and startup that they’re a part of. Using local methods and implementing international standards to build ideas and cultivate opportunities. Check them out at www.emergingideas.com

Headed up by the fun and dynamic duo of Tommy Deuschle and Tim Bickers, they are worth a look for anyone wanting to start up a company.

Holiday Shopping

So USA retailers have their hands full over the next few months: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all provide an opportunity to cash in on the holiday bandwagon. With fancy, themed decor and sales bargains it is no wonder that shoppers are enticed to parting with their cash.

Africa, while not blessed with as many holidays as close together, could learn a little about attracting in shoppers through a little clever marketing. With two months till Christmas your strategy better be pretty clear by now.

Bring Back Freedom

Even if you are not American you will find this inspirational video strikes a chord. Reassess your dreams and if they have died, bring them back to life.

The Minion Balance

Minions of the universe, greetings and salutations! As of 0914 hours it is decreed that screw number R6 will now be inserted into Hole 23 with the left hand and not the right. Immediate compliance is expected. Minions found in violation of this decree will be terminated with maximum brutality.

All “Hail the Chief Officer!” Throughout the factory the voices of a thousand brainwashed slaves plaintively cry out “Hail the Chief Officer” as they continue the mundane task of assembling parts in the minion pool.
Sounds like I have been watching one too many sci-fi movies or spending time in a sweatshop in backwater India.
Not really, all I’ve been doing is reminiscing on how some people run their offices.
Now I have nothing against checklists, they simplify your life.
I do, however, take umbrage with workplaces that are so bureaucratic that you cannot make a decision to sneeze without consulting a manual. On the other extreme facing a person who is incapable of a single independent thought drives me insane, especially if they are working for me. Somewhere, there is a delicate balance between allowing staff the freedom to perform and being able to trust that they will perform in the manner you desire.

The Curious Case of The Skipping Waiter

My eyes were bloodshot and I was sitting with two men that were twice my age. We were solving their organizations issues on 5 pieces of paper and 3 different coloured pens. It was a frenzy of power struggle and politics. I was dodging the undercurrents of tyranny and hoping to bring about an amicable solution that would catapult the organization the the next global level. I was rigid, intense, trying so hard to add value and hoping that when I did it would be given a medal.

Then after hearing the two of them talk back on forth on an idea I presented about "simple internal systems" I lost track of everything. I consciously fell asleep and drifted into my coffee cup. And took a big sip. I looked up all of a sudden and saw a waiter coming to work. He was skipping in to work. SKIPPING! Excited to serve people croissants and coffee. His face had a slapped-on smile that wouldn't go away. He probably rode to work on a bicycle.

I had never skipped to my office. I didn't smile when I greeted my secretary. I didn't care about serving coffee. My accountants had thrown me into the pit of the "bottom line". It's all I could see and pretty much all I could think of. Why didn't I SKIP to work. I mean after all despite the sheer extra physical exertion involved and the fact that skipping has the potential to look undignified there was something about this guy that excited him about his work. He just looked like he wanted to be there.

It got me thinking about my attitude.

Let your attitude be one of giving value. Giving a smile that costs you no more than allowing a few muscles to work. Incidentally the act of smiling has been scientifically validated to improve your happiness. Go on, try it. Smile for 30 seconds. See the emotional change in you? You serve people because you are making their life better, not because you are trying to fill some impossible quota set by the accounts department. You work because you are making a difference in the universe, making it a better place for the rest of us to enjoy with you. That is the sort of attitude that will get you skipping to work.