#1268 charmed

I never understood what the fascination was with the bracelets with beads that were added incrementally.  Brands like Persona or Pandora offer literally hundreds of interchangeable beads for women to create their own personalized jewelry.  It seemed to be an expensive way to add glitz to a bracelet.

And then I saw the collection for what it was:  the modern day equivalent of a charm bracelet.  Now I get it!

When I was a young girl, I had a bracelet with charms that adorned my wrist commemorating key events like graduation and places that I visited.  My low-rent-district-apartment was burglarized when I was in graduate school and it's the one thing they took that I really missed.  There would never be a way to replace the wristlet of memories.

Today's version is far more expensive, and prevalent, but nonetheless offers the same personalization experience.  In a 7-inch expanse, a women can have visual reminders of things that she holds near and dear.

Think of what your organization can do to create a lasting memory for those whose lives it touches.  It doesn't have to be a bead on a bracelet, but can you design a cumulative reminder of the experiences you have shared together?  A series of posters, a donor recognition item that creates a collection, or a class photo can all be sequential tributes and reminders of your experiences.

For someone to be charmed, it takes a repetition of beads.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

#1267 fly

After you drive your car at night, your windshield is often coated with remains of bugs.  Annoying, to be sure, but it doesn't seem to warrant attention of serious science.  

But it does.  Not for car windshields, rather for the same problem on airline wings.  Those little critters increase the drag and reduce the fuel efficiency of the plane.  Consequently, NASA and Boeing, serious scientists to be sure, are testing non-stick wing components to thwart the bug problem.

Their hope is to reduce fuel consumption by 0.5%, which equates to $240 million/year for the U.S. airline industry.

What problem does your organization have that is equivalent to pesky bugs?  It may not seem like anything big when taken in isolation, but can add up to significant costs either in money or time as an aggregate.  

Chances are good that you have already implemented the big efficiencies and are now faced with the hard work of finding incremental gains that matter.  Don't let the solution fly right by you without considering it.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

Source:  Crackle, pop.  Squished bugs give airlines gas pains by Bart Jansen in USAToday, July 23, 2015, p. 1A.

#1266 ANN1VERSARY

I received an anniversary card in the mail -- not for a marriage or any family event, rather from Acura on the one-year anniversary of owning my car.  I'm glad that they remembered the date because I did not!

The card read:  ANN1VERSARY: here's to fast starts, day trips and epic journeys.  Wishing you a Happy First Anniversary of Acura ownership.  May the years ahead with your TLX bring you even greater joy filled with precisely handled corners, 0-to-60 thrills and the satisfaction of Acura's driver-centric technology. 

What a sneaky way to make an ad not seem like an ad!

What I liked about it though was that they capitalized on an opportunity to keep in touch with me without sending me a direct sales message.  Chances are that I'm not in the market to buy another new car after just a year, but they want me to think Acura when I am.  

I'm sure that you have a host of data on your current clients.  How can you use a piece of it as an occasion to send a brand message or even thank you to those who have been loyal to you?  Of course there is the easy answer of sending a holiday card, but challenge yourself to make it more client-specific.  Is it one year since graduation?  Their birthday?  When they have reached a level of purchases/savings/hours with your organization?

Having lots of data doesn't matter if you don't use it.  Take advantage of the ease of pairing personalization with communication and send your clients an unexpected remembrance today.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

#1265 paper

Yesterday, I wrote about 96 ways to share information electronically.  On the opposite side of that spectrum is communicating by handwritten notes.  An ad for one stationery firm calls paper "the original social media."

It seems that more than stationers who are promoting paper these days. The Paper and Packaging board has been running ads in major magazines reminding people that "life's greatest moments are celebrated with paper" (e.g.: birthdays and parties) and that "paper plays a key role in our education, right from the very start" (e.g.: flashcards, coloring, classroom aids).

Even a few years ago, who would have thought that paper would need to spend money (ironically in paper magazines) promoting the value of their product?  But apparently they felt the need to do so.

Is there something in your organization that you take for granted when you should be reminding people of its value?  Working in higher education, it feels like we should be running College Makes a Difference ads rather than assuming everyone still believes that. Do you have a product, service or core value that once was commonly accepted as the standard, but is now waning?  Think of all the products that were once packaged in glass that lost out to plastics. 

Spend some effort to identify the fundamental elements that you wish to preserve rather than assuming what is prevalent today will always remain so. Innovation is all around, thus you must also innovate to prevail.

Rock breaks scissors, but paper covers rock.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

 

#1264 smoke signals

If I said "social media" to most people, a few sites would probably come to mind: maybe Facebook, Instagram, Pintrest, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube and Linked In.  If I asked you to think about it, maybe you could come up with a dozen ways to share information electronically.  

So I was quite surprised when I went to share a newsletter article and the menu popped up with 96 -- yes, ninety-six -- ways to do something with the piece. I am sure this is the popular list and there are exponentially more specialty sites available for use.

I'm not on Facebook so don't look for me there, and if you're not on Twitter you'll miss my tweets.  Maybe the medium we should be using for our organization is Plurk (one of the most popular social networking services in Asia), Wykop (social networking in Polish), Digg (delivering the most talked about stories on the Internet) or Fark (a way to customize your news and funny headlines).  

We tend to take the easier route -- which is sending our messages to the masses -- rather than taking the time to do research and segment to targeted audiences. We do this with marketing, but we also do it with our employees and err when we think one motivational message fits all.

The next time you need to communicate something, think not only about what you have to say, but how you are going to say it.  We've come a long way since smoke signals or pony express, but unless you are where your audience is it won't matter.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

#1263 seeds of knowledge

A new colleague shared with us an item from the Internet that alleges you can predict the winter weather by the appearance of a persimmon seed.

According to this article, if the kernel is:
> spoon shaped, lots of snow will fall
> fork-shaped, there will be a mild winter
> knife-shaped, expect icy, cutting winds

It would have been easy for us to dismiss this and move on, but we needed to know.  First off, we needed to know what a persimmon was since no one was quite sure (looks like a tomato; but is hard and tastes like a pumpkin).  Then we needed to know where to buy one (answer:  Walmart, not either of the grocery store chains).

We gathered around for our grand experiment and what did we learn?  That the Fuyu persimmon we purchased is seedless!  AHHH!!!

But our colleague did learn that this is a metaphor for how we do things.  We share.  We ask questions.  We do research and learn more.  We don't give up when we can't find things the easy way.  We experiment.  We test hypotheses.  We help each other.  We fail.  And we try again.

I am not sure we would have learned anything new about the weather if the fruit actually bore a seed. But what we demonstrated about our culture was more valuable than knowing the forecast.

Is there a seed of knowledge in this lesson that you can apply in your office?

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

Source: http://www.almanac.com/content/predicting-weather-using-persimmon-seed

#1262 take the pledge

For many, recycling cans or paper has become almost an instinctive reflex.  

But only about one-third of what could be recycled actually is.  To help increase participation in recycling, today has been designated as America Recycles Day.  

I don't expect you to become an environmentalist overnight, but I hope that you take five minutes today to explore the Keep America Beautiful website.  It is a centralized resource for recycling that tries to make things as easy as possible.  It won't put the can in the recycle bin for you, but it will use your location to tell you precisely where 26 items can be recycled nearby.  This includes clothes, rubber shoes, digital cameras, freezers and furniture.

There is a section on Recycling at Work and a Public Space Recycling Guide that includes academic resources and case studies.  The site has information on the K-12 Recycle Bowl competition and Recyclemania events to see who can reduce the most waste at home football games. You can even opt out of receiving phone books.

Celebrate America Recycles Day by signing the Pledge that you will do something to increase your level of participation in the solution.  Whether you reduce or you recycle, every little bit does matter.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com