The Sky Is Not Falling

Today is October 31, 2012: I am in the newspaper business. I love the newspaper business and have every intention of staying in the very financially-healthy newspaper business. 

One fine day at Rotary, I was explaining to one of my fellow Rotarians what, exactly, I do for a living.  He is in banking and I found it interesting that he responded to me; “Boy that must be a tough business these days.” (As if the banking business has not had its share of self-inflicted wounds) My response was to aggressively and factually defend our business model. I told him that the sky was not falling and that we, as an industry, have a very bright outlook for the immediate and distant future.

We as an industry are embracing change and adopting new and glitzier ways of delivering relevant information, but we are not in panic mode.  What I find, especially at papers with the same model as ours, is that we still provide considerable value to the local reader and advertiser. Our pages are filled with information that is highly sought after and our Circulation Verification Council  audits factually support that position.  We have aggressively loyal readers and that bodes well for the advertisers that utilize our print and electronic products. Consumers, especially they with money, read, with interest and commitment, our products.

Yes we are in the change mode (as is every business) and, if we continue to operate wisely, we will continue to change positively, incorporate and adopt new and better/faster ways of getting the relevant information to the highly desirable consumers. But we must not forget how we got where we are. Print works and our sky is not falling.

Essential Employees

For a while in my career, I lived in Falls Church, Virginia. During my stay in that beautiful and historic part of the country, I was literally surrounded by people that worked for the US government. Many were neighbors, and most were really fine people.

Early one morning, during a really hard snowfall, while I was driving to the office, and while listening to the radio, I heard an announcement that all Non-Essential government personnel, need not report to work today due to the challenging and hazardous driving conditions. My astonishment was astonishing. Never before had I been privy to an openly broadcasted normal operating procedure of a "business" that simply told people, that by their own admission, they didn't need them on a good weather day, not to report in on a bad weather day. Until that day, non essential to me meant that your position was not needed. To these government folks it was optional.

In business the only way to remain valuable, is to remain relevantly valuable. Of course there are times when big businesses make decisions that negatively impact both good and bad employees. However, you must focus on what it is you control. What is completely within your control is if you are progressing at getting better every day. You cannot expect to dramatically change your skill-set or knowledge base in one or two days. But you can, and you should, expect to gain more relevant information and improve your skill-set on an incremental basis. Learn a little more and get a little better every day.

You must reach a status as that of "one of the essential team members" because no business can, for any length of time, carry non-essential people on the payroll. Essential means that you are a very valuable part of the team and that you preform your duties at an every increasing level of quality that ensures that the entire organization moves forward. Non essential means, in the private sector, that you cannot stay and it is just a matter of time.

Insure or Ensure

Insure: To arrange for compensation in case of loss. 
Ensure: To make certain that something shall occur. 

They are only words, right? The misuse of insure for ensure is a very common mistake. On the surface they seem to mean practically the same thing, but they are not and there is a very specific reason for that. Words mean something and in this case, they mean something very specific. Far too often we will say things that may make sense to us but to the people we are talking to they may not make any sense at all. They are only words, right? Communicating clearly and concisely takes a calculated effort. The calculation behind the effort may come in the form of years of experience or by delving into the subject so we can employ the right words to clearly deliver our message. You either know what you are taking about because you have have been there or because you have looked into it. 

A great vocabulary is very effective in helping craft your message so that it is clearly received. I remember what my director at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas said one day during reversals for Edward Albee's; Everything in the Garden, when I asked the meaning of cognizant, he said; "Look it up." That direction had a profound and lasting impact on me. Not only did I need to take the initiative to find out what the meaning of a word is, I had to take the initiative and own it. From that moment on when I did not know the meaning (and the occurrences were many) of a word, I would "look it up!" When reading, I kept a dictionary close. Word and their specific use to deliver a clear and concise message took on a new level of importance. What I said began to matter to me more because the words used did make a difference in the quality of the message.

There are some that take this to extremes and talk at such a high level that no one, including themselves really get the message. It is not that impressive if no one understands what you are saying, no matter how many BIG words you use.

Endeavor to expand your vocabulary so words and their specific meanings will help to ensure that you are being clearly understood.

Cognizant: Having knowledge or being aware of.

Alarms

One of the more interesting medical events I have experienced was related to a heart issue. An abnormal EKG lead to a CAT scan (with nuclear contrast)  which lead to an Angioplasty and that lead to stents to repair blockage. All is well. The process was amazing and quick.

After this procedure, while traveling from south Texas to north Texas on Highway 281 in Falfurrias, I passed through the Border Patrol Station where the agents screen occupants and content of every vehicle. The non-commercial vehicles stop at a designated area where the agents look in and outside the vehicle while dogs do their sniffing job. I had rolled my window down so I could look the agent in the eyes to make sure he knew that I was not showing signs of stress or nervousness, and assure him that I, my vehicle and contents were perfectly legal. They normally ask your citizenship status, and when you confirm that you are a US citizen, they bid you a good day as they await the next vehicle. Although I had been through this check-point many times, this time was different. The agent had a small device attached to his belt that set off an alarm signaling the presence of radiation coming from MY vehicle! That alarm launched a deeper search, which was satisfied after I shared my recent medical experience. The alarm worked and the agent addressed the concern to make sure that nothing more sinister was in play.

How many times in business do we hear the silent alarms going off and ignore them the way we all ignore car alarms. The alarms may indicate a small matter that we simply work around and adjust our behavior to develop a way of doing business, without addressing the cause of the alarm. The alarm may be as as simple as someone who is chronically late for regularly scheduled meetings. They alarm-triggering people stroll into the meeting late, as they always do and the silent alarms sounds deep inside and yet it is ignored by they in charge. Likely the others, who are always on time, do not ignore their internal alarms and a quiet rage or lack of trust grows that causes a damaging level of disenchantment. They ask: "Why are the alarms ignored"?

When we fail to address the cause of the small silent alarms we desensitize ourselves and soon enough we are spending all of our time avoiding the causes, inevitiablly resulting in a colossal and very expensive waste of valuable time. Don't ignore the alarms. Take action, quickly to address and remedy the cause because they just might turn into a "nuclear-like-event" and cause massive damage to the business and the cause, that could have been prevented with quick and decisive action.

Another Definition of Insanity

The definition of insanity is: To do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

Another way to look at insanity is to define it as: To do a bunch of brand new things, that someone else controls, over and over again and expect different and dynamic results.

Randomly throwing new, untested and quite often expensive resources at a problem is not in the best interest of any business. This behavior suggests that the leadership is operating from a position of panic rather that reasoned and logical, tried and true processes. "New and shiny toys" ( which is the way many infantile digital products are often labeled) do not have enough traction to warrant unbridled pursuit and still we find companies going all-in to make them fix a problem that may not have been clearly identified. Fact is, the problem they are trying to solve may not be a problem at all, rather a course change in perceptions. Additionally these same companies will bring several players to the table that heretofore did not even know that each other existed. These so called solution provides can spend other people's money at breathtaking speeds, they don't play well together and they all want to be in charge, even if they never overtly state their dominating desire. What you end up with is a lot of people going in several different directions, at the same time  and sooner or later, when progress does not occur, they start placing blame by pointing fingers at everyone else, especially the people that hired them. That is when things really start to heat up. People in the primary business that hired these companies, begin to question not just the new stuff but everything else, that they believed were mission critical, and rightly so. They begin to wonder who, if anyone is really on top of things.

The pain of change is the price of progress. However the pain of reckless change, for the sake of appearing to be leading edge, can not only be extremely painful it can be deadly. It is insane to do the same things and expect different results but it is downright dumb to do a bunch of new untested things and expect better different and dynamic results.

Some Will, Some Will Not, So What

Get the most out of your focused efforts by concentrating energies on those things that are within your control. You must be as prepared as you can be by learning and justifying and thereby influencing. All you can do, is all you can do.

Some Will:
There are those people that will allow you to learn more about their business and their needs so that you can make informed recommendations. They will make the time to work with you so you can deliver customized solutions. These are the clients that appreciate that you are working with their interest first and that you will never put your interest before theirs'. This group understands that the relationship is built upon trust and they value what you have to offer because you have identified that they have a problem and they need you to solve it. They view you as a problem solver and you must deliver. They are willing to make and keep a commitment and they expect the same from you.

Some Will Not:
These are those people that will not allow you the time to learn what you need to know because they are too busy, or afraid of facing the realities you are going to uncover or may just be insecure, or they might be lazy! Some of these people are successful in-spite of their actions. They are too distracted to have a meaningful discussion about your products or services. Most of these distractions are self-imposed and are simply a mechanism they employ to send you and other problem-solvers on their way. They have convinced themselves, even before you walked in the door, that they don't need or want you involved in helping their business. They can be a colossal waste of valuable time because they do not reveal their true feelings until after you have invested a lot of your efforts on getting to a place when you finally realize, you have been taken for a ride. That is the worthwhile risk you take and speaks volumes to pre-qualifying, to the extent that it is possible. A word of caution: "do not assume anything."

So What:
You do not control the actions of others. Your success is largely dependent upon your levels of the right behavior. The more you do the better you will get at determining who is and who is not really interested. You need to build relationships with the people that are going to work with you and not against you. Don't let the outcome, either positive or negative take you too high or too low. Stay the course and get better and better at helping those that want to be helped and better and better at weeding out they that do not. You never quit, but you do, at times, need to cut your losses and move on. Some will, some will not, so what!

Service

There are GREAT REASONS you must deliver GREAT SERVICE. Great service helps to produce great employees and great employees produce great clients. 

Ultimately, all sustainable business is built upon relationships. Trust is the foundation for all relationships and high quality service is the ultimate competitive advantage to enhancing and securing the relationships you need to maintain and grow your business. Once you have established that you are trustworthy and get the commitment from the customer, you can then go to work providing exceptional and continually improving service.

Today anyone can do business with anyone, anywhere with the stroke of a keyboard or on a telephone. When doing business this way,  the impersonal compromise of the human element is a result.  When we are not "pressing the flesh" we really don't get to know people. To really know someone you must get in front of them and invest time learning from them, and generally, stuff about them.

People are still people and they deserve to be treated like the very people who are paying your bills because they are. Passionate, sincere and high-quality service is the most effective method to build lasting relationships and it is often the easiest and least costly commitment you can make.

Bad service can cut so deeply that the victim will go to great lengths to share the unpleasant experience with others and the feeling last a long, long time. The damage can be permanent because the cut of bad service is so deep, that the customer is not interested in taking another chance. They simply take their business and their money to your competition. 

Great service means that once a problem is identified, you will move quickly to acknowledge, take ownership and resolve! Great service is the BEST COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE and it is completely within your control. Look at it this way: If you don't provide the service your customer deserves, your competition can.