Beware of the trap

By Corina Wong

I have recently discovered a fascinating documentary entitled The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom. Written and directed by the brilliant English filmmaker Adam Curtis, The Trap is a three-part mini-series that explores the historical development of social thought and how it led to what we as a society now consider the concept of “freedom” to be. Unfortunately, it is not pretty. The Trap argues that our idea of freedom was formed out of the paranoid framework of the Cold War and driven by the crude notion of human beings as selfish, isolated and suspicious creatures, constantly strategizing against each other.

Customer satisfaction or loyalty?

Jeffrey Gitomer is a sales guru, speaker and writer. He is the author of The New York Times best sellers The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Black Book of Connections, and The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude. Gitomer writes a syndicated column with sales tips, and this week he wrote about how to improve your sales through customer loyalty. Check it out here.

Euh, pardon…I am Canadian.

IS IT POLITENESS OR HYPOCRISY THAT KEEPS US FROM MEANING WHAT WE SAY AND SAYING WHAT WE MEAN?

Last week I was having a farewell drink with an acquaintance who was leaving to go back to her native France. As we sipped homemade mojitos, I asked, “What was it about Canada that you liked the most, and what was it that you liked the least?”

She said, “You know, I love that Canadians have a mutual respect for one another. Everybody is so nice and considerate. But I can’t understand why Canadians keep apologizing for everything. It just makes them sound like hypocrites. If you’re apologizing, it sounds like you don’t mean what you say. And if you don’t mean what you say, why say it at all?”

The path of least resistance

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always taken a great deal of interest in health and well-being. This is a direct result of having a father and a step-dad who are both doctors and a step-mom who is a nurse. Suffice to say, growing up there was a lot of hand scrubbing and germ lecturing at home. (And trust me, I know ALL about the benefits of probiotics after a mandatory yogurt snack at my parent’s place one Sunday afternoon.) While I didn’t make medicine my career, you could say as a result of osmosis, it’s always been a keen side interest.

ROWE your way into chaos

“Hi. You’ve reached no one. I can’t take your call right now, I’m _________ (fill in the blank: watching a movie, taking my son to baseball, doing groceries, sleeping in, having my legs waxed etc.) I’m not sure when I’ll be in again, but please leave a brief message and I’ll get back to you when I feel like working. Thanks.”

Imagine that was your boss or your co-worker’s voice mail message. Worse yet, imagine you were a customer and this is the message you heard from a potential vendor. Personally, the thought of hearing a message like that makes my skin crawl with frustration.

Innovation and change: taking a page from the material girl

“Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas the source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all human change, improvement and progress” – from Ted Levitt, former American economist and professor at Harvard Business School.

As Levitt suggests, if there is one common theme when it comes to improving just about any human state, it would be that survival requires constant change through innovation.

Well, “duh” you might say. Of course we need to constantly reinvent ourselves to survive. Just look at Madonna and her countless incarnations. The pop icon has survived twenty plus years of showbiz and still manages to rock the top of the music charts.

But I digress. This post isn’t about Madonna’s various personalities, nor is it about her many musical endeavours. This post is about businesses who know how to nurture innovation in order to achieve breakthrough levels of success.

Looking for inspiration…

In efforts to find inspiration for my next post, (stay tuned, as I have not quite been inspired yet) I came across two interesting sites:

In this post, the writer discusses leadership, change, coaching, culture change and other great bits and bites about how people behave. The blog is called Flowing Motion. Check it out here.

Here’s another similarly great site: it’s called All Things Workplace. In it, Steve Roesler writes about what it’s like to be a management coach.

Evolutionary Economics

Here’s an excellent article from the most recent issue of Fast Company. Author Michael Shermer discusses how a new concept – called evolutionary economics shows how businesses aren’t controlled from the top.

Effective Business Writing: How to Tango (not tangle) with your reader

I don’t mean to beat around the bush – after all it’s high time we call a spade a spade — but communicating effectively can be tough. In business, we’re continuously undertaking an analysis of the pros and cons, being careful not to sit on the fence too long. Upon initial re-examination and execution of a course of action, it’s common to bite off more than you can chew. Nonetheless, it’s important to ascertain when tides are turning – even if it means getting in over your head. Of course, sometimes you find yourself trapped between a rock and a hard spot and drastic times call for drastic measures. But, it reminds us that Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’s a labour of love. Occasionally you’ve got to revisit the drawing board. It takes time and patience and once in a while you need someone to rock the boat, just to make sure you are practicing what you preach. Of course, paramount to it all is having passion and vision. With your eye on the ball, you will surely reap the rewards.