How to understand the ‘AI machine’ between your ears.

How to understand the ‘AI machine’ between your ears.

Mar 8, 2021 | Analytics, Governance, Operations

One of the significant problems in making any change is the articulation of the need to change, and the outcomes that are expected as a result.

Overcome those two, and change is suddenly easier, albeit still really hard.

The first hurdle is the articulation.

In order to communicate and have complex ideas generally understood, you do not use technical, academic jargon backed by data, you use stories and metaphors in a way that connects with the audience.

Communicating industry 4.0 is such a complex challenge.

What is it, how will it affect me, why should I be interested?

Answering these questions is a core foundation of gaining acceptance, followed by action that becomes automatic as it gets buried in the auto-response system.

Remember the last time you put your hand onto a hot stove.

Before you felt anything, you had reacted by pulling your hand away, a totally unconscious, instantaneous, action then, it started to hurt like hell.

Think about the processes involved in this.

First: the ‘data’ that indicated the stove was hot was collected by the nerves in your fingers and hand.

Second: the ‘data’ is sent for processing to your brain, the CPU between your ears. This processing concludes your hand is in danger of being burnt.

Third: That conclusion is sent to the muscles that control where your hand is, with firm instructions to remove it immediately.

Fourth: Your hand is pulled back out of danger.

Fifth: It starts to hurt like hell, and the memory of that hurt is stored deep in your personal CPU for future reference should your hand stray again.

The astonishing thing is that the first four happen without thought, instantaneously, and the fifth is a long term ‘frame’ through which you unconsciously ‘feel’ the hurt and approach the stove warily. It is a neural network that collaborates, communicates, drives action, and learns.

Industry, or more specifically, Factory 4.0 is, similarly, a set of tools that collects, analyses and acts on data without direction, and learns from the experience, adding to the auto-response ‘memory bank’ and adjusted based on the ‘learning’ that occurs as data on outcomes is collected. The system becomes more Automatic than Artificial.

 

Header cartoon credit: Tom Gauld in ‘New Scientist’ magazine.

 

 

The 9 tactics for a successful huddle

The 9 tactics for a successful huddle

Mar 2, 2021 | Change, Governance, Management

Covid has forced remote working, and many have responded by introducing a well-proven strategy to maintain the sense of ‘togetherness’ as well as delivering accountability.

The ‘Huddle’

It goes by many names, one of my clients calls it the ‘daily toolbox’.

Nevertheless, it is a challenging idea to implement. Initially there are always those who see it as just another imposition, or waste of everyone’s time, but done well, they are a wonderful tool, and not just for these Covid times.

Following are the 9 practices I have seen that contribute to the great outcomes possible:

      • The daily huddle is by definition, daily, which means that the next 24 hours are the topic of discussion. Anything else should be treated elsewhere in the most appropriate forum.
      • Use a set time, and always be on time.
      • Make the agenda consistent and focussed on the tasks and accountabilities of those in the huddle only.
      • Follow ups, and problems that need further consideration should be taken offline or escalated. The huddle itself should be no more than 15 minutes at the most.
      • Do not allow waffle. Preparation for the huddle means that people have points they need to make. Written down and read verbatim is often the best way. However, use full sentences, your summary, while clear to you, may not be to others.
      • Everyone in the huddle is given the opportunity to speak, and those who naturally are reticent, are prompted by the chair.
      • Ideally, the chair should rotate in some manner that suits the group, which gives all an equal share in the ‘ownership’ of the group and its outcomes.
      • It is a place for shout-out praise as well as noting problems and emerging challenges.
      • Be attentive. No devices that intrude are allowed.

‘Huddles’ at the next level up, weekly, monthly, work the same way, and are ideally timed to follow the previous huddle, so items are easily and seamlessly escalated.

Huddles are a great way to increase the communication in any enterprise, always the source of most employee angst. Building them into the ‘way we do things around here’ enables rapid, clear communication, one to many. This results in everyone getting the same message at the same time, with a minimum of contextual colouring allowed to creep in.

The outcomes are always around a greater sense of accountability, team and individual, and a culture that involves collaboration. Irrespective of the future of the workplace post the COVID-19 vaccine, when we evolve to some sort of new normal, make your version of the daily huddle a part of it.

When you need an experienced hand to help implement this enormously valuable business improvement strategy, call me.

Header credit: Again, Dilbert and his mate Scott Adams pick the challenge implementing a ‘huddle’. 

The vital secret of a great brand

The vital secret of a great brand

Feb 24, 2021 | Branding, Marketing

Building a brand that has longevity, one that engages and serves consumers over time, while delivering returns to the owner of the brand is a really, really difficult exercise, one that very few get right. Sadly, when it is done right, over time, the essential elements of the brand become forgotten as new people move in, and too often fail to respect or even understand the foundations, and ego takes over.

They do something different, as that is what they think they must do to make their name, and they completely stuff the brand up.

The secret of a great brand is that there is no secret.

No silver bullet, no checklist for greatness, just time, experimentation, investment, and a mental picture of the perfect outcome, for the customer.

By delivering the customer a perfect experience, the one they were promised, and doing it over and over again, at competitive levels of price and service, and with humility, the owner of the brand benefits.

However, there is a very consistent attribute of those brands that are successful.

Stories.

We humans evolved with stories.

We remember, understand, and relate to them.

The power of the story resides in the emotional engagement it generates, by making it personal.

Many years ago, I was lucky to be around as the Meadow Lea brand evolved. The brand went from an also ran in a highly contested and rapidly growing market, to dominating market leader over the course of several years. Unfortunately, I can claim little part in that evolution greater than an engaged observer, a messenger boy with an occasionally audible opinion.

The Meadow Lea story started in the late 1970’s, yes, some of us were alive then. The regulations that ensured margarine was nasty grey stuff that tasted as nasty as it looked, courtesy of the dairy industry lobby, had been removed. Women were entering the workforce in droves, they were educated, ambitious, and driven, but crippled by the accepted mindset that their role was to stay at home, cook, clean, look after the kids, while hubby earnt the money and was basically absent. Meanwhile they were working as hard as men, or often harder at whatever job they had. The juggling was enormous, as was the strain, and as a result they were sleep deprived and ignored.

Sounds positively medieval, but it was only 45 years ago.

This strong desire to be recognised and valued was recognised in the research we were doing, incremental pieces of the brand jigsaw were being fitted together, the result being the simple recognition that women, who did 99% of the shopping, cleaning, and child rearing, needed to be recognised for the backbreaking effort. They wanted to be congratulated for simply surviving, let alone thriving. So, we said it in the advertising.

‘You ought to be congratulated’.

This simple phrase captured the competing driving forces in women’s lives at the time in a few simple words and jingle, backed up by memorable executions that evolved over the following 5 years.

It was the story women were telling themselves.

Later, the idiots that bought the business for its profitability and market position, killed the golden goose by failing to understand the mosaic which made up the brand. They took the easy way out, redirecting the money that should have been spent on maintaining the brand, ensuring it continued to evolve with those who were making the purchase choice, into the pockets of supermarkets.

Meadow Lea is now nothing more than a few tubs on a supermarket shelf. It has gone full circle, but I cannot help wondering if a revival was possible. We still all need to feel valued, to be congratulated for something, even if it is just surviving the crap that was 2020.

Having a story for your brand is a key part of offering the hook with which a consumer can engage.

Take the ‘about us’ page on almost every website I see. Nobody really cares that your grandfather started the business in 1934, and that your father and uncle followed him, and you are now the boss. This sort of story, which everyone uses on their website, is all about you.

Nobody really cares, except your mother.

You must make the story about them, the customer.

Not easy.

Understanding the ‘stories’ of your key customer and potential customer audiences, means you can shape the way you communicate, the words, tone, and the way you seek to shape their behaviour.

To do all that, you need a detailed understanding of who they are. You need to understand their ‘persona’.

When you seek to alter someone’s behaviour, the easiest way is to ‘piggyback’ the altered behaviour onto the existing beliefs and practises, just altering them slightly, which avoids the perception of risk that comes with any change we humans seek to implement.

When you know them well, when they say ‘this is for me’ to themselves, then your task of getting them to deviate slightly in your favour is easier.

Header cartoon credit: Gapingvoid.com with thanks for another visual representation of the words used in this post.

What does a brand mean to us?

What does a brand mean to us?

Feb 19, 2021 | Branding, Marketing

 

We human beings are hard wired to be social, to belong to a group that reflects in one way or another, the view we have of ourselves.

We belong to a family group, for better or worse, then many ‘satellite’ groups of varying importance to us.

A brand is the flag of a group to which we may belong, aspire to join, have no interest in at all, or indeed, may hold in contempt.

Buying a product with a brand is a signal that we are a part of that group. If it is a brand of yoghurt, it is probably a pretty loose group, the alternatives are almost as good, price and availability on shelf play a significant role in the choice. By contrast, buying an expensive branded handbag, a tailored and branded suit, or an expensive car means a whole lot more.  We are saying overtly to others, we are a part of that group, holding the perceived values of the group as being personally important.

For those marketing a brand, the challenge is to find those who may be interested, and then to remove all the friction that may stop them becoming a part of the brand group, assuming they meet the ‘brand qualification’ standards. For example, unless you have a lot of money, you will not be admitted to the Louis Vuitton handbag owners group, or the Rolls Royce owners club.

There are some tried and true ways of engaging ‘brand members’.

For example, describe the members using a noun, rather than a verb. Describing a ‘brand member’ as a ‘user’ is more effective than saying they use the brand. Simple, more personal, and it makes the invitation more compelling.

Encouraging someone to take an action they may not have otherwise taken is also simple. Suggesting that ‘75% of people like you do this,’ dramatically increases the chances that your target will also do the action you require. Being told that number by someone they know, and trust is a powerful catalyst, even when they know that person is just a paid celebrity of some sort.

For the owner of the brand, it enables more specific communication that is likely to resonate with current and potential owners, attracting those who are not currently ‘users’ and cementing the value of being a user to those already in the club. This enables more productive use of marketing funds, and greater margins.

Usually there is a trade-off between volume and margin, very few brands can pull off the double of high volume and high margins. The only one I can think of is Apple with their iPhone, that still has 85% of the profitability of the mobile phone market on the back of their astonishing ability to get people to pay a significant premium for the device.

Building a brand is a tough, long term task, at which few succeed.

The 2 essential elements for a successful strategy implementation

The 2 essential elements for a successful strategy implementation

Feb 17, 2021 | Governance, Strategy

The key difference between a successful strategy, and an unsuccessful one, is that the former is implemented.

That simplistic statement does little to acknowledge the challenges in the implementation process.

The purpose of this post is to offer a few observations and recommendations that come from extensive experience, and the mistakes that go with that experience for you to consider.

Two essentials for a successful implementation.

  1. What and Why. What you are doing and why, should be clear to everyone at every level in the organisation. When the bottom of the organisational pyramid has no idea of the role they play, and how that role fits in and complements others, the strategy is doomed.
  2. Performance management. Performance feedback loops at all levels and importantly across functions are essential. This requires both good communication, and the processes by which the people in the organisation can learn from mistakes, and adjust processes to avoid repeating the same ones.

In addition, following are 4 observations that may be useful, in no particular order.

  • Sunk cost avoidance. Being prepared to recognise early when something is not working, being willing and able to acknowledge the misstep, and back away is a key component to the process of improving the productivity of the resources deployed. This is equally applicable to the detailed operational levels as it is to the executive suite, and requires that ego be left at the door. I have seen this called a ‘batwing’ mentality, like the batwing doors in a western saloon. When you walk through and it is welcoming, keep walking, but when it seems to be filled with gun fighters, back out quickly. Such a culture enables experimentation, and the devolution of decision making to those on the ‘front line’ of any decision, enabling a positive and productive work environment.
  • Matryoshka doll. Implementing strategy successfully always reminds me of those Russian dolls that fit inside each other, smallest to the largest. Successful strategy implementation similarly has smaller pieces fitting progressively inside the larger, next level up. While it does not cover the cross functional requirement for strategic success, it has proven to be a useful metaphor.
  • Rolling performance management. It is getting harder and harder to forecast anything, the longer the time frame, the more suspect any forecast becomes. The answer is to be focused on the strategic objective, while managing progress towards that objective on a rolling basis, making tactical adjustments based on the context and learning that happens on a continuous basis. This runs counter to the prevailing practise of managing to annual budgets, so creates the need for leadership in the place of management.
  • People. Finally, while we are running businesses, the real game is all about people. The way to engage with people is with stories, so ensure that your story is clear, engaging, and known by all employees so they can repeat it, with commitment, at every opportunity.

 

How can I bring the experience of the years to your challenges? Just give me a call.

Header credit: Tom Fishburne at Marketoonist.com. Again.