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I have been ghosted. I find this strange since I am married and have been for decades.

However, ghosting happens in other arenas, too. It’s a work colleague ghosting me; no matter how I try to contact him, I hear nothing in return. It feels like he disappeared off the face of the earth. Since ghosting is a relatively new phenomenon, we should talk about it here, too.

Ghosting isn’t uncommon, particularly for people using online dating platforms. You might have heard stories where two people are communicating on one of them, sometimes for a long time, and then, out of nowhere, one of them stops. The other person wonders what happened, probably forever.

So, for some of us at a certain age, breaking off a relationship without even so much as a “Goodbye!” sounds astonishing. However, it is common today. Technology enables ghosting. With many online relationships, it’s easy for someone to terminate communication comprehensively and irrevocably.

Avoiding Conflict Motivates Ghosting

The primary motivation for ghosting is conflict avoidance. So, suppose you aren’t physically interacting with someone, meaning you didn’t meet them in real life, like at school or work. In that case, your interactions are probably texting, emailing, or social media exchanges. Stopping these communications altogether is much more comfortable than talking about it face to face, and you are insulated against the risk of conflict.

Sometimes, these situations arise in other areas of one’s life. For example, my friends engage in similar activities when I invite them for a monthly guys’ night out. I texted them where we should meet and when and asked them to reply if they could come.

I am always disappointed. It’s twelve people, and only two to three respond routinely. The others do not.

My unresponsive mates might have a good reason for not responding right away. Maybe they need to talk to their spouse, or they have a business travel situation they need to sort out first. That is understandable. However, not responding at all is not.

(It’s also not ghosting to ignore my invitation. My mates are not completely cutting off the relationship. It is rude, though…)

I could apply social pressure to get a response. If I send out a text to the group that confirms that a couple of people will join and then ask the remaining few in the text group what they think, it could inspire activity.

The problem here could be the medium of communication. If I had invited them face to face or called them and they picked up the phone, my friends would feel more social pressure to respond to my invite, even if it is to say, “Can I get back to you?” Using text creates an option to have more distance and relieves some social pressure to respond.

Ghosting is a symptom of the change in conversational norms. Those of us who had years of communicating before these mediums came into fashion might cling to the old ways of doing things longer than those who didn’t. We respond because we feel it is the polite thing to do. We are probably the same people who would break up with someone in person because that’s the way we thought relationships were supposed to end.

However, people who have always communicated via text or these other mediums might have another set of norms. For example, if the norm is that a non-response is a response, then people who have accepted this as a fact might think that a person on the receiving end of a non-response should get the message. However, people who don’t accept this norm might not get that message. Therefore, it could be that we are in an awkward transition period where some people ghost and some respond, so there are mixed feelings about ghosting.

However, it could be that in a few years, ghosting is the way it’s done. That said, I do worry that some civility is lost here.

I have heard that some job candidates have been ghosted by the companies they are interviewing, which is wrong. I find that appalling. However, this behavior is becoming the norm for some companies.

The reverse is true, also. Some candidates have ghosted companies that they lose interest in, which is crazy, too. Companies have complained that job candidates ghosted them in the interview process, which they don’t appreciate.

These new norms are surprising to me. But they could also be a form of renegotiation about what is expected in communication. Moreover, it’s not settled yet. So, there are likely other instances where non-response is acceptable, which is very interesting.

Prospecting in the Days of Ghosting

My son Ben posted on LinkedIn about the norm for contacting people who reach out on LinkedIn. One fellow said he had been trying to contact Ben on the platform for weeks with an opportunity, and Ben told him his message was lost in the shuffle. Ben’s contact seemed to think the onus was on Ben to respond. That not responding was discourteous.

But is it?

I have a lot of followers on LinkedIn, and quite a few of them reach out to me to sell me something. I learned over the years not to respond. So, if there were a product or service that I could benefit from, I would miss out on it with my non-response. However, in this case, the norm on LinkedIn—and in sales solicitations in general—is that I don’t have to respond. Ben doesn’t either.

So, how should one contact someone regarding a product or service?

My advice would be to begin by learning more about the individual. Researching how your product or service would benefit them and what they like and would respond to improves your chances of making a real connection.

Of course, researching to that level requires a much larger time commitment. Mass emails to everyone you can think of would be faster. But is that approach more effective? Not likely. The tradeoff is that spending more time on the front end with research results in a higher response rate than a mass email and an increased likelihood of moving a prospect forward in the sales funnel.

Regardless of how you contact people, frequently considering communication norms is essential. How are people communicating across the various channels available to them, and what are the norms of that channel? Knowing the platforms is necessary so you know the ways that are more likely to get a response. There might be modes of communication that are more personal and will evoke a different set of response norms.

Also, remember that it’s less likely that you will be ghosted if you have an in-person relationship. The communication norms in those exchanges are less likely to lead to ghosting.

Additionally, remember that as these norms shift, there may be opportunities for you to distinguish yourself in business by adhering to an older set of norms. For example, if you interview for a job, sending a thank you note for an in-person meeting with an individual at an organization after a job interview might be the norm. Furthermore, not sending one might signal a lack of interest in moving forward. So, even if you aren’t really the thank-you-note type, you should probably send one if you want the job.

As an organization, it is also essential to distinguish your company regarding the candidate experience. Tell them so if the position fills with another candidate or you decide not to move someone forward. Communicating with the candidate preserves the relationship for a future opportunity. Sure, it might be considered old-fashioned by some people’s norms, but it can also reap relational and reputational benefits. Being the place that is responsive and doesn’t ghost candidates can be an excellent buzz for your recruitment efforts—and candidates’ perception of your company.

The golden rule comes into play here, too, meaning that you should treat other people in these situations like you would want to be treated. If you feel tempted to ghost people rather than have an awkward conversation, consider how you feel when people ghost you.

Finally, please know that if you contact me on LinkedIn about things we talk about on the podcast or to share your opinion on one of my newsletters, I welcome that feedback and often respond. I probably won’t if you contact me with a product or service you want to sell me.

Thanks for reading, we appreciate you! Get access to your free ebook here, and why not tell a friend?

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The post Cracking the Ghosting Code: Discover the Reasons ways and how to Overcome it appeared first on Beyond Philosophy.

Colin has been ghosted. He was surprised, considering he is married and has been for decades.

However, his ghosting experience didn’t come from a romantic partner but a professional one. Since ghosting appears to be spreading into many interactions, we thought we should discuss it here.

Ghosting, where someone suddenly stops communicating, has become more common, thanks to technology making it easier to cut off contact. It often happens online, like in dating apps, leaving one wondering what went wrong.

Even social invitations are not immune. Despite sending out monthly invites to friends, many don’t respond, which feels rude. The ease of digital communication is eroding traditional manners.

Professional settings aren’t spared either. Job candidates get ghosted by companies during interviews, and vice versa. It’s surprising how these communication norms are changing, and we need to stay aware of these shifts.

Take LinkedIn, for instance. Contacting people about products or services can take time and effort. Some think not responding is rude, while others argue it’s acceptable. It shows how communication norms differ across platforms.

Despite these changes, we should keep our communication personalized and well-researched. Understanding the norms of each platform and maintaining in-person connections can help avoid being ghosted. Following older norms, like sending thank-you notes after interviews, can set us apart positively.

In this episode, we discuss ghosting and why it happens. We also discuss how to navigate these changing norms with respect and awareness.

In this episode, you will also discover:

• What ghosting is and why it happens in interactions today
• What the primary motivation is for ghosting is
• How understanding the norms of each platform and maintaining in-person relationships can help reduce the chances of being ghosted
• An excellent, if time-consuming, strategy can yield the results you were hoping for if you want to access people who think ghosting is acceptable behavior
• Why Ryan almost lost a job because he isn’t a “Thank You Note” guy
• What type of response Colin will welcome on LinkedIn and which ones he will ignore

The post Ghosting: Why Does This Happen? appeared first on Beyond Philosophy.

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Ethics can be a tough thing to think about. It’s abstract, making it difficult to learn or discuss. However, we did just that on a recent podcast. As an important subject that we all need to revisit from time to time, Professor Ryan Hamilton, my co-host on the podcast  shared the five rules of professional ethics that we discussed here.

Before we get into them, I find it interesting how little training organizations do on the topic. Perhaps that is because there is an old-fashioned notion that you have ethics or you don’t. Maybe organizations think, “Well, if your mother didn’t teach you this, then far be it from me to start now.”

However, ethics is like anything else. Ethics can be taught, practiced, and improved upon, and with that in mind, let’s dive into the five rules of professional ethics.

Rule #1: Start by establishing a personal code of ethics. 

Knowing what you stand for and where your boundaries are is essential. Moreover, you must know these before a difficult situation tests them or you decide where drawing upon your ethics is necessary.

A lot of difficult ethical decision-making happens when two moral or ethical principles conflict with each other. For example, we all know that we shouldn’t kill another person. However, if that person is threatening another with harm or possibly even death, is it still wrong to kill another person if you can save a third party? The line blurs a bit in the context of the situation.

Recognizing that these principles you define might conflict later is also essential. However, until you know what your principles are, it is difficult to tackle these conflicts.

So, even though we might think of ethics as existing in the abstract universe, we need to determine them for ourselves. We should determine what is important to us and who we want to be.

Rule #2: Recognize the importance of context in ethical decision-making.

Most people will behave unethically if put into a situation that strongly encourages unethical behavior. Just like certain contexts can nudge you towards buying one option versus another, certain contexts can also nudge you towards more or less ethical behavior. Therefore, once you establish your core ethics, you realize that context will also influence your behavior.

Do any of you remember the Milgram experiment? It was a famous social experiment in the early 60s to understand how people would comply with requests. The setup was simple: one person would ask another person questions, but if the person answering got it wrong, the asker would deliver an electric shock. The shocks increased in intensity to fatal levels. Nearly 60 percent of the people who asked questions gave lethal levels of electric shock to their fellow participants, despite the answerer’s desperate pleas for help from the other room.

It is essential to note that the answerer wasn’t getting shocks, nor was the answerer a real participant in the study; instead, the second participant was an actor. The pleas for help were recorded and played for the askers as they went through the questions.

The askers who participated in the Milgram experiments were not evil people. They didn’t want to hurt anyone, but the context was one where shocking the other person seemed acceptable.

I used to work for a company that sold photocopiers. This organization was a sales-orientated business, and it was very competitive. At the year-end sales competition, people cheated (and won) by putting in fake orders. Then, the company that received the copier they never ordered would reject it, but the salesperson didn’t care because they had already won the competition. What’s more baffling is that the photocopier company knew this was happening and decided to ignore it.

I didn’t last long here. I could tell that this was an organization that didn’t align with my ethics. So, I found a job elsewhere and moved on.

Rule #3: Regulate your environment. 

Now that we know context matters, ensure you are paying attention to that context. That means you should take control of it.

You might sometimes control the context by leaving, as I did with the copier company. I could see that this company would not encourage me to make decisions that were against my moral code, so I controlled that context by resigning.

In other cases, you might be able to change the organization’s culture. For example, if you determine as a group cheating is something that will not be tolerated, and you will socially exclude those who do, you are collectively creating that culture.

Likewise, if you create a very dismissive culture regarding the ethics of cheating, that’s the environment you will be in for the next two years. So, leave if you have to, but improve the culture if you can.

Rule #4: Trust your gut. 

You have probably heard me say the opposite of this rule before so that you might be confused by my including it here. So, please, let me explain.

Thinking that your intuitions are spot on, like a superpower, is not true. However, there are contexts where your intuition serves you well, and ethical context is one of them.

The ethical context is somewhat emotional. Essentially, the idea here is that you should pay attention if something makes you feel uncomfortable. There could be consequences if you ignore that feeling.

A potential consequence is violating your ethics, which you established in rule one. Our brains have a Rational System, which is excellent and justifies why we do what we do. For example, Anna Sorokin bilked millions out of the rich. After exposure, an interviewer asked if she felt guilty about her actions. She answered something to the effect that if the people weren’t smart enough to figure out she wasn’t telling the truth, that’s their problem.

Sorokin is an extreme example of something we all share: We like to think of ourselves as the heroes of our stories. So, we’re motivated to not beat ourselves up over our actions once we have taken them. Therefore, given the opportunity, we will talk ourselves into doing things that might violate our code of ethics in the right context.

To that end, it is essential to trust your gut’s initial intuitive judgments. Consider carefully before you move on whether your next action or decision is right for you. The farther you get into it, the easier it will be to justify doing it.

Rule #5: Remember that ethical decision-making is not black and white. 

There is no one great answer in these situations. There are better and worse decisions; you should balance those tradeoffs to plan and act judiciously.

That’s not an excuse to ignore your code of ethics. Instead, when no clear answer ties everything up in a pretty bow, you have to look for differences in the gray areas. Those differences can point you to the better decision instead of the worse one.

Another way to sort through your options is to consider what your kids or loved ones might think of you if you acted one way or another. If you feel ashamed to tell your kids something you decided or did, then maybe reconsider whether that feels ethical.

Along those lines, you should consider what kind of leader you want to be. If you decide to do one thing, would you like the people who report to you to do the same? What kind of example will you set by taking one road over another? These considerations might help you sort through the options for an improved ethical outcome.

There you have it. The five rules of professional ethics. Are they hardfast? Will they point to direct answers? Will they endure forever? No, no, and probably not. Ethics change over time, and what seems fine today might be a horrible direction in the future. However, these five rules can help you develop a framework for how to get to the best possible outcome and understand how you got there, so you can do it again and again.

Colin has conducted numerous educational workshops, on how to improve your Customer Experience, to inspire and motivate your team. He prides himself on making this fun, humorous, and practical. Speak to Colin and find out more. Click here!

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The post The Ethical Compass: 5 Rules on Navigating Business Ethics from Academia appeared first on Beyond Philosophy.

Waiting is another type of cost to the customer. When you make them wait, you’re charging them in their time. Companies should consider this cost when designing their experiences that require waiting.

I got the idea for this topic while waiting in line at the grocery store. At my local market, a self-check-out was installed to reduce our wait times. Ironically, we have to wait to use them. It’s complete madness, and I am quite cross about it.

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You might recall that in a recent podcast with Joe Pine, we discussed the concepts of time well spent, time well saved, and time well invested. It occurred to me that when you ask a customer to wait, it’s for your benefit, not the customers.

Now, despite my ire about waiting for that time-saving self-check-out at the store, I realize that not all waits are evil. One can balance the wait cost with the value provided to customers. In other words, it could be worth the wait.

For example, I waited from 5:15 am until noon in a crowd of 100 people deep for the King’s coach to go by during King Charles III’s coronation. It was a significant event, so it was worth the wait. Was it comfortable? Not really. A bit dull? At times. But worth it? Absolutely. Especially when I think about the future when my granddaughter watches the coronation on TV someday and remembers being there with her granddad.

No one knows how long a customer spends doing things. There is no measurement of it. For example, when I had problems with UPS in the States a while ago, they were unaware of how much time that cost me, dealing with a chatbot, phoning up the call center, and waiting in the queue. I don’t know either; I didn’t keep track. All I know is that it was too bloody long.

This gap in tracking time is a problem. A customer-focused organization would know that the customer’s time is more important.

Disney does. They used to offer Fast Track for free to a ticket holder. Fast Track meant you could “jump the queue” on a ride or two during the day, reducing your wait. Now, they charge for it, and it must be worth it because there are a lot of people that use it. These people feel the extra time saved is worth the additional charge, which tells you much about how they value their time.

When considering customer wait time, organizations should always determine the value they provide in exchange. None of us like to spend time on things we don’t choose, just like no one likes waiting in line. However, we will do both depending upon the payoff at the end of the wait.

In other words, was it worth the wait?

My wife has had chronic back pain, so much so that before surgery about three months ago, I had to push her around in one of these mobility scooter things. So, when we went to Disney Disneyland, Paris, I applied for a disabled pass, which allowed you to get to the exit of the attraction, and you didn’t have to queue. The surprising bit was I missed some of the wait.

Now, this statement sounds mad, but hear me out. I didn’t want to wait an hour for a two-minute ride. But I might have wanted to wait ten minutes because it’s fun going through some of those queues. Part of it is the anticipation.

Your overall experience should be this simple equation of benefits minus costs. In other words, you should determine whatever benefits you’ll get from it, minus the costs imposed upon you; that’s the net experience you get. Interestingly, when you can turn some of those costs into additional benefits, that breaks down that equation.

So, even though I think waiting is usually bad (like at the self-service check-out at the store), there are cases where it provides anticipation, which is fun and beneficial to the experience.

For example, the Peter Pan ride’s line sends you through a series of rooms, each with around ten minutes of waiting. The walls have paraphernalia that looks like it came from the Peter Pan movie. There were hidden Easter eggs throughout. Plus, as you go from room to room, the anticipation builds because you know you are getting closer. When you can hear the ride, it takes it up a notch. Disney has done a great job of turning that cost into a partial benefit.

However, this concept applies to other types of costs, too. For example, paying more money is usually a bad thing. Still, there are situations where the higher the price, the more valuable it is, maybe because it’s rare, collectible, or exclusive. That course might provide some additional benefits.

Therefore, understanding the value of customers’ time is critical. Also, I would argue that time changes value. Customers with a lot of it might be more willing to spend it with you. However, it would help if you also had the awareness to know when time is scarce, which means they are less willing to spend it with you.

A bank in the UK called First Direct specializes in telephone or virtual banking. They have an excellent reputation for their experience as well. They change how they approach customers for new products depending on the time of the week. For example, if it’s midweek, they know customers have loads of things going on and don’t want to chat about a new mortgage product. However, customers might be more willing to hear about it if it’s the weekend because they have more time. In other words, five minutes mid-week is more valuable than it is during the weekend, so they are more willing to give it to you on Saturday than Wednesday.

We interviewed Rory Sutherland a couple of years ago on the podcast. He talked about how a rail line was spending billions of dollars to speed up the rail line’s travel from point A to point B by half an hour. He told them to save money and hire supermodels to walk up and down the coach pouring champagne for all the passengers. Then, the train ride will be over far too quickly for many passengers, even though it is the same as ever. He joked many would complain.

His point was that you can improve the experience to make the waiting pleasurable. Sometimes people do this themselves. For example, people camp out and wait in line to get the latest iPhone or see the newest installment of their favorite movie make it fun for themselves. They bring friends or games to pass the time.

However, firms can do this, too. There are ways they can make the experience of waiting more enjoyable.

So, What Should You DO About Waiting?

We talked about ways of thinking about waiting and time costs. We also have a more practical set of guidelines for how to make waiting more pleasant.

• Determine whether the product or service you’ve got has the value customers would place on it.
• If you’re asking customers to wait and provide a commoditized service, that’s wrong.
• Find something you can do to build customers’ anticipation and increase the value of what you offer.

Perhaps most importantly, think about measuring customers’ time. The time a customer physically spends dealing with your company is essential to your experience. Not paying attention is a focus on what’s good for you rather than what’s suitable for customers, and that is not an experience anyone is waiting around for—at least not when something better comes along.

Colin has spoken at hundreds of conferences, including some of the world’s largest brands. Talk to Colin about how he can speak ‘in person’ or ‘virtually’ at your conference. Click here.

The post How Making Customer Wait Reveals How Internally Focused Your Organization Is appeared first on Beyond Philosophy.

One of our podcast listeners has a pickle, which, for those unfamiliar with it, is our term for a business problem. Our listener did their research, which gave them projected sales that made them proceed with their product launch. However, the sales after the launch haven’t been what the study predicted. Understandably, they want to know why. So, I figured we would also discuss our thoughts here since some of you had a similar problem.

My first reaction has two broad strokes to it:

1. It could be that the research was wrong, giving our listeners correct but irrelevant answers.
2. It could be that the customers thought they wanted it, but once they had that opportunity, they didn’t really want it.

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The Problem With Mindsets

Let’s explore this second reaction a bit. There’s a difference between what customers say and what customers do. It could be a mindset problem. A respondent might be in one mindset when asked a question in a research situation and another when facing a purchase decision.

To illustrate what I mean, let’s look at an example I often use, The Disney Theme Park Salad. Many of you will recall how this story goes. Disney asked people what they would like to see offered at the food venues at the park. Their research indicated that park guests would enjoy the option of a salad at the park, but Disney also knew that people in the theme park don’t eat salads and instead choose junk food.

What’s happening here is that people are in different mindsets. Park guests know they have health goals, and, as part of them, they eat salads from time to time. So, when they are answering the survey, they say, “a salad.”

However, once they are in a theme park, riding rides, watching shows, and feeling relaxed, they are not as in tune with those health goals. Instead, they are in a vacation mindset. Choosing fun food that tastes good and isn’t healthy fits in better with a vacation mindset. So, they order “a burger.”

In a way, we are dealing with two people: research customers vs. consumption customers.

A friend of mine had another observation about what could be happening here. He said that humans have a persona we show to the outside world. However, inside we have a persona that knows who we are. In a way, the conflict between these two personas is what happens in this food survey by Disney. The outside persona (who the customer wants to project) answered with the salad response, while the inside persona (who the customer really is) ordered the burger.

In a way, this dichotomy is a limitation of all research. Research is still one of the best ways to determine your customers’ wants. However, it always comes with this massive caveat that what people say and what they do are often very different.

Pushing People to Your Bias

Also, how people research matters, too. For example, researchers can affect the answers they get by how they ask the questions. This effort can be deliberate or not. There is a comical depiction of how this works in a program in the UK called “Yes, Minister.”

The name for this activity is Push Polling. If you ask leading questions to get your desired response, it’s manipulating the answers. Now, in the skit, they are doing it deliberately. However, most marketers don’t mean to Push Poll; it’s accidental. From leading questions to what else is offered alongside the answer the person gives, there are multiple ways you ask the question that biases the answer.

Also, Don’t Forget About Emotions!

Also, you have to understand the customers underlying emotions. For example, I need a specific size hole in my wall at my house in Sarasota, so I need a drill bit to make it. However, if I were to buy the drill bit, I am not buying it because I care about my drill and want an assortment of bits. So instead, I am purchasing the drill bit to make a hole…and the hole is so I can hang a picture of my grandchildren there. I miss them when I am in Florida, and I want to see their little faces.

One way to view this underlying emotion concept is that your customer hires your product to do a job. In this case, I am employing the drill bit to make a hole in my wall to hang a picture of my grandkids. So, one way to determine if you are providing value is to ask customers whether they would hire your product again.

However, sometimes customers hire a product to do two jobs. For example, a customer might buy a watch to tell the time. But they also might buy a watch as a status indicator. So, instead of the $10 Timex, they will buy a much more expensive brand. Now, the more expensive watch tells the customer the time and everyone around the customer that they have a lot of money to spend on a watch.

In some cases, the product does only one of the jobs well. Most people buy a car to get places but also buy a vehicle for status. In the 1980s, the DeLorean was a status car for a while. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that great of a vehicle for getting places. Jaguar is another status car brand that didn’t have outstanding performance. Again, the car brand has exceptionally high status but performs with low reliability. 

So, What Should You Do With All This?

So, getting back to the pickle and our listener that is not getting the sales they expect, they can do a few things. 

First, I would like to know what the research was. There are so many out there, but few get to the underlying motivation, or the real reason, that customers want what they want. If you enter into research with preconceived notions about what customers want, you could introduce bias into the responses (accidentally). I suspect something like this might have occurred with our listener, whose research has led them astray. 

Therefore, we suggest using multiple research methods to counteract these unwitting effects whenever possible. For example, surveys are an excellent research method; you can get some excellent quantitative data from them. However, they have blind spots. Therefore, observational techniques can help fill in those missing parts. 

One observational technique is ethnography, which could provide excellent insight into what customers want. Ethnography is data collected through observation and interviews. In other words, it’s watching customers while they are customers. When you engage in this, you can see what people do intuitively when buying.

For example, watching parents buy baby food in jars, researchers observed that they would squeeze the jars and smell them as if they were buying actual produce. The parents wouldn’t have mentioned it if the researchers had asked them in a survey. The parents also probably wouldn’t have been aware they were doing that either. However, this research revealed to the baby food company that emphasizing how the baby food was fresh was essential to parents buying baby food.

Also, getting the research as close as possible to the actual behavior is essential. In other words, get as close to the exact customer mindset as possible; people have a different perspective answering questions about a purchase than what they would have during or after a purchase.

In addition, if you can get a third party involved in your research, it could help. Whether that’s an independent group within your organization or hiring someone, having an outside perspective can help. Removing our views is challenging, so our bias can seep into the research design.

Insufficient research and customer mindsets can lead one astray. Just ask Disney when they throw out the salads every night that the customers said they wanted! By mixing research types and getting at the heart of what drives value for customers, you will succeed with your product.

If you have a business problem that you would like some help with, contact me on LinkedIn or submit your pickle here. We would be glad to hear from you and help you with your challenges.

The post Sales are down despite our research showing they should be up! Why? appeared first on Beyond Philosophy.

I have made many mistakes in my life, I’ll admit. However, mistakes are not all bad. Sure, the mistake part is trouble, but you learn a lot from them. 

I have made a couple of good calls, too. Starting this newsletter, for one, if, for no other reason than I might share what I learned with all of you. 

So, let’s start at the bottom, my worst decisions, beginning with…

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Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire

In my 20s, I sold photocopiers, but I didn’t like it. I enjoyed neither the unethical organizational culture nor the job itself. Moreover, I wanted to be a manager and saw no path to that future in the photocopier business.

So, I quit that job and moved to an engineering-based company with plans to become a sales manager with a sales team. However, I knew next to nothing about engineering, or maybe it was actually nothing. Either way, it’s hard to sell what you don’t understand. Plus, my boss used to call me every night and ask what I did that day, which I hated. (Needless to say, I didn’t make manager at the engineering firm, either.)

So,  in my hasty decision to switch industries, I learned the meaning of the saying, “Out of the frying pan into the fire.” In every dreaded phone call with my boss about my daily activity, the intention of that idiom was clear to me. 

Therefore, you must learn about the company culture and product before joining a company. Spend time there. Read about them online. If possible, talk to someone who already works there. Determine who their competitors are.

If you are interviewing, ask for a job shadow or two. Ask everyone you talk to about what they like about their job. All of these activities will presumably reveal whether the company is a match for your next steps. If you give some thought about where you are trying to get to and what you want for your career, you have a much better chance of getting it. 

You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs Before You Find a Prince

I am bad at recruiting. But, to be clear, I have an excellent team, many of whom have worked with me for years and years. So, I reconcile that happy circumstance with blind, dumb luck on my part.

Plus, there have been many less-than-ideal mistaken hires. So, having those sheer numbers behind my choices means that sometimes you accidentally do a good job despite yourself. After all, you must kiss many frogs before you find a prince (or princess). 

Over the twenty or so years I have been hiring people for Beyond Philosophy, I have learned that I take too many risks. I always think I am finding a diamond in the rough, but I am not; there’s just rough, no diamond. So, I realized I had to make a change. 

Instead of making the call on new hires, I have the rest of the team weigh in, too. That way, we don’t spend a lot of time and money bringing the wrong candidate up to speed. Or lose a lot of money because we discover they weren’t a great fit, or worse, our clients find out first and leave. 

Moreover, you need to spend as much time as possible in different settings to see other facets of the candidate. Lots of frogs can breeze (or hop) through an interview. However, it takes time to understand an employee, sometimes six or even 12 months. While you can’t have someone interview for that long, you can review whether someone you hired is going to work out or whether they need to go home to their lily pad. 

Also, if you do find a great employee, hang onto them. They are gold…or, I should say, diamonds. 

Expanding Too Quickly

Around 2004, I made the mistake of thinking that my global Customer Experience Consultancy was about to experience rapid growth. I had written two books, Building Great Customer Experiences (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) and Revolutionize Your Customer Experience (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), and we were flooded with inbound inquiries about our services. At this point, I had done little more marketing for my Customer Experience consultancy than writing and marketing the books. So, I was sure that if we took a proactive approach and instituted an outbound sales team effort, we would enjoy an avalanche of new projects too numerous to count. 

So, I set up a telemarketing team. It was here that I first confronted how bad I was at recruiting (see above).

However, I also learned a significant difference between inbound and outbound leads. There is much more urgency on the client side when the lead is inbound, and the sales cycle was around 90 days with a high closing ratio. By contrast, there was little urgency when a lead resulted from an outbound sales force. The sales cycle was ten months to a year, and the close ratio was pretty low.

What’s more, I had employed many consultants (who weren’t selling at all) in anticipation of all these projects we would get. So, therefore, I had a lot of expenses, more or less sitting on the bench waiting for work.

If I had my time over again, I would have done it much slower, and my expansion would have been sales led. In other words, I would have waited until we won business or got close to winning the business to build the team. 

So, those are some of the bad decisions I have made. However, I have made a couple of good ones, too. So, let’s take a look at some of those. 

Taking a Risk on Starting My Consultancy

So, even though I expanded it too quickly, having begun Beyond Philosophy was one of my good decisions (and my wife’s). By taking risks and leaving the comfortable life of a corporate executive, I could do what I wanted. 

One of the dangers of starting a consultancy and doing whatever you want is that sometimes you do too much. In my case, that meant working all the time and at all hours, which took a toll on my work-life balance for at least ten years. So, yes, even in my best decision, I might make a few tweaks to my method. 

But something I wouldn’t tweak is starting on this adventure. Looking back, it was a turning point in my career and the right choice for my family and me. 

Never Stop Learning

One of the things that have been my constant companion throughout my career is reading. I read many business books. Stephen Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, would call it “sharpening the soul.” 

However, today you have options. There are podcasts, webinars, conferences, talks, and all those kinds of things. If you don’t fancy reading, no worries. Find something you do like. Whatever you choose, be sure that you get outside of your head and learn other people’s perspectives. 

It is crucial to continue learning long after you leave school. Not only does it improve your mind, but you also get excellent ideas. My best ideas often are inspired by things I have read. Therefore, if you are trying to stay ahead of the game, don’t underestimate the importance of remaining well-read and thirsty for knowledge.

Are there more good decisions? Sure, I had more than these two. I also had more bad decisions, too…like the time I met my future father-in-law climbing through his cottage’s window at the resort where both our families were staying on holiday many years ago. That one turned out pretty good for me in the long run, but it was definitely dodgy in the short term.

Both good and bad decisions have their purpose. Sometimes they help move us along in our journey; other times, they help us grow. However, in all decisions, there are things to learn. I hope what some of mine taught me will help you on your journey, too. 

Colin has spoken at hundreds of conferences, including some of the world’s largest brands. Talk to Colin about how he can speak ‘in person’ or ‘virtually’ at your conference. Click here.

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The world is crazy. There’s a war in Ukraine. The UK has a cost-of-living crisis as energy prices are rising, and loads of people are moving into fuel poverty. There’s inflation, strikes, and the looming threat of a recession and catastrophic climate change.

The current environment I describe is very stressful, with many things you cannot control, which makes a few things on the path forward uncertain.

So, to help us all cope with the road ahead, I thought we could discuss the 5 Rules for Managing Uncertainty we shared on a recent podcast and our YouTube channel.

I thought maybe my interpretation of the world was just me getting old. So, I put it out there on LinkedIn to find out what some of you felt about everything with a poll question, “What are you expecting the business environment will be over the next year?”

The results were fascinating. I thought it would be worse (and I’ll explain why), but 42 percent of you thought it would get better. Another 37 percent agreed with me it was going to get worse, and 21 percent said it would be the same.

I feel things are getting worse because I have been in the UK for the past two or three months. Energy prices here have tripled. Also, we are a lot closer to the war in Ukraine and Russia, so that is a stressor we feel more keenly here than we might over the Atlantic. (Of course, Hurricane Ian just hit my Florida home, and now there’s a rise of flesh-eating bacteria there, so it’s not like being in the states is worry-free.)

Some of you felt differently than me. For example, René Bomholt said it depends on where you are and your business. For instance, if you work in a company in northern Europe that provides an alternative to using imported gas, the environment will likely be better. If, on the other hand, you’re in a low-paying segment, Bomholt says you might say it will be worse because you are struggling to find people to fill open positions. Also, Asia still has restrictions due to COVID, which impacts the mobility of the workforce. Once those restrictions lift, it might be better there. But, ultimately, Bomholt says he settled for answering it will be the same.

Some of you thought how we think about things is how things become, like Andrew Safnauer. Safnauer believes that the general populace’s mindset will determine how the business environment goes. It could get worse if we decide things are bad and react that way. On the other hand, if we are cautious but still “engage in commerce,” it might not get worse. In other words, Safnauer is saying if we think there will be a recession and stop buying things, then there will be a recession.

Economists agree with Safnauer that a significant part of recessions is psychological and sociological. First, we all decide that there will be a recession, and then there is one because we all pull back on our spending. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So, we always have uncertainty, which isn’t a great feeling. So, let’s talk about how to manage uncertainty, starting with these 5 Rules:

1. Recognize uncertainty is uncomfortable. 
2. Remember, the upside of uncertainty is that it provides opportunity. 
3. Control the controllable. 
4. Be alerted to be prepared. 
5. Hope for the best and plan for the worst. 

Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these, shall we?

Rule #1: Remember uncertainty is uncomfortable.

Human beings like certainty.

Plus, we’re creatures of habit, as we’ve spoken about many times before. First, however, we must recognize that uncertainty makes us uncomfortable.

This discomfort has a lot to do with the psychology of decision-making. For example, many shortcuts in decision-making (i.e., heuristics) are things we do to make ourselves feel more confident or that we have more data than we do.

Perhaps this concept is why we like to use the phrase, “Well, that’s a no-brainer.” If we see an obvious best choice, you don’t have to feel uncertain about your decision, and you will feel more comfortable moving forward.

However, you can’t always have a no-brainer, which can be stressful. Moreover, I have often said you can deal with one part of your life being off kilter, but not all of them. When more than one part is causing you stress, it can increase uncertainty. So, recognize the source of it and try to prioritize your actions to manage them in turn—and try not to torture yourself over them. Many decisions we make are not as significant as we think.

Instead, let it go and focus your effort on the stuff that might be relevant. That will help. Confronting uncertainty around insignificant decisions is something you can pull an Elsa on and just let it go.

I used to buy my managers a book called One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Ken Blanchard, which is about prioritizing things as a manager or leader. One of the premises in the book is that, as a leader, you think it’s your responsibility to do everything and to make every decision. However, you end up overloaded and, therefore, unable to prioritize.

Rule #2: Remember the upside of uncertainty is that it provides opportunity.

People don’t like reorganizations. They worry they will lose their job or get a new one they don’t like. However, my view when I was in corporate life was that reorganizations provided me with an opportunity to move ahead and change my current job to one I wanted next. That worked out for me much of the time.

Therefore, I recommend not assuming uncertainty will be all negative. It can be, of course, but it is also an excellent time to disrupt things.

The natural reaction is to withdraw, to be conservative, and not to take risks. So, as we enter a recession, organizations should look for ways to disrupt the market. Is there an opportunity? Has the competition become large and cumbersome and unable to respond to market changes? Is there a way to maneuver around them in some way?

Recessions can reveal opportunities for those who are willing to take them.

Rule #3: Control the controllable.

If you look at the YouTube version of the podcast where we shared these rules, you will see I am wearing my Luton town football shirt. I wear it because I love my team even though they are not very good these days. I can’t make them win, but I can show my support for them through my apparel choices. I can’t do anything more than that.

Luton Town Football club’s former manager used to say in the interviews after the game, “Control the controllable.” I always thought that was a good lesson for life, especially surrounding uncertainty.

Another phrase that goes along with this is, “I’ve had several crises in my life, but few have actually happened.” This phrase does a brilliant job of pointing out that we often think everything will come crashing down on us, but it doesn’t always. It rarely does.

So, when you’re in times of uncertainty, focus on things you can control or influence. There’s no point in worrying about the rest of it. The reality is I can’t determine if there’s going to be a recession or not. There’s very little I can do about the war and energy prices. I can’t control those things. I can control the way I react to those things. I manage how we plan. With energy prices rising, I can control how we deal with those things.

It’s a bit like chess. You’ve got to think two or three steps ahead, not only short-term.

Rule #4: Be alert and prepared.

Rule number four builds on the third one by encouraging you to go to different sources to understand what is happening. As a result, you might have a better idea of what will happen over the short term and what those effects could be long-term. Again, getting more information allows you to prepare.

For example, how long is it likely to be if we enter a recession? What sectors will it hit? Then you can build some plans.

Uncertainty is psychological, and it can be paralyzing. Getting more information helps because we feel less uncertain and build confidence, which can be empowering. Perhaps most importantly, having more information can motivate us to move forward.

Rule #5: Hope for the best and plan for the worst. 

We hope that things settle down and uncertainty and the rest of it go away. However, you’ve also got to plan that it won’t. You’ve got to prepare for the worst things or at least think them through. If you don’t, then you’re going to be caught unawares. So instead, be as prepared as you can be.

Remember, humanity’s been able to climb out of every hole it’s found itself in thus far. So let’s prepare and plan around what we can while we figure our way out of this one.

If we can recognize uncertainty makes us uncomfortable and identify the opportunities it creates, we will be in a better mindset to weather the storm. Also, if you seek to control your reaction to things and be alert to changes so you can prepare, you will be in a better spot. Finally, be prepared for the worst, but don’t lose hope that things will be okay. They always have been before, so why would this time be different?

Over the past 21 years, Beyond Philosophy has weathered three recessions. They are not pleasant, but there are opportunities. If you can look at things from a positive perspective and see things differently, you could come out even better on the other side.

If you have a business problem that you would like some help with, contact me on LinkedIn or submit your pickle here. We would be glad to hear from you and help you with your challenges.

The post In an Increasingly MAD World, Here Are 5 Rules for Managing Uncertainty appeared first on Beyond Philosophy.

Change is hard. So, when you have to make changes in your organization, you face many challenges. However, we have a secret superpower you can unlock to help you: Influence.

On a recent podcast, we hosted writer, teacher, researcher, and Climate philanthropist Zoe Chance, Ph.D., author of Influence is your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen. Chance is an assistant professor of marketing at the Yale School of Management, where she teaches the most popular course, “Mastering Influence and Persuasion.” Her research on influence has been published in top academic journals and often garners the attention of global media outlets. Her website, zoechance.com, also has numerous content resources regarding using interpersonal influence for a positive impact. In addition, half of the profits from her book go to 350.org, a global network of climate activists seeking change through the power of ordinary people.

And, if that wasn’t enough, she also narrated the audio version of her book.

Chance tackled a subject that content creators and authors had covered well over the years because the methods they touted felt transactional. People on the other side of the tactics felt, well, used, as if they were a means to an end rather than part of meaningful interaction. Chance didn’t like making people feel like that, nor did she appreciate when she was on the other side of these transactional relationships. In promoting her book, interviewers will say things like, “I’d like to pick your brain,” or “we’d like to get as much content from you as possible,” which she doesn’t appreciate.

She thinks we as humans are aware of and do not appreciate feeling or being manipulated. Instead, we would feel recognized as human beings and treated like individuals with agency and freedom of choice. In some ways, she calls it the opposite of Donald Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal. Chance’s style of influence is for people who want to do good things in the world and collaborate with others rather than trying to get something out of them.

The psychology of influence is the same, whether you are convincing your friend to choose the restaurant you want for dinner or if you are trying to solve the climate crisis. Chance’s brand of influence is about getting people to want to say yes, and not regret it afterward. Chance believes that if you can get other people excited about your ideas rather than manipulating them into saying yes means they will be more on board with the plan.

Chance’s strategy is intriguing to me. As you know, on another podcast, we hosted the president of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), where he shared that between 2010 and 2019, only one-third of organizations improved their Customer Experience. Moreover, those numbers might have devolved since the pandemic, especially since we know that the ACSI has been at its lowest point for 17 years. So, like many of you reading this, I wonder how to influence people that committing resources to improve Customer Experience is a worthy enterprise and results in improvements to the bottom line.

Chance has two ideas related to this concept. First, Chance says that you cannot improve the Customer Experience without improving the Employee Experience.

It is an unfair expectation of employees to make people feel happy and valued if they don’t feel that way. Second, Chance says that the concept might be too vague for people to take up the mantle on your behalf. She advises Customer Experience champions to be specific in their requests.

So, what part of experiences should organizations focus on? Chance says research shows that making things easy for customers is an essential and underused marketing metric. For example, the customer effort score measures how much work it took to do what customers wanted to do. The higher the customer effort score, the more likely people were to complain about the experience and vice versa, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. Chance says that customer loyalty was influenced more by effort than satisfaction.

Low effort or ease is an essential part of behavior changes, too. There is something called the Intention-Behavior Gap, which describes how we mean to make a change, but once we try, it’s too hard, and we don’t follow through. For example, New Year’s Resolutions usually fail. Chance says that is because it was a change we knew would be hard; that’s why we resolved it in the first place. So, Chance suggests that making it easier for people to act is a way to facilitate behavior change.

An example of using this concept to improve a bottom line comes from a seminar company that used a low-tech solution to enhance its profitability by 13 percent. During the seminar event, they printed out a sheet of paper that asked attendees which of their future events (listed on the form) they wanted to attend. The attendee marked the boxes and turned them in at the end of the seminar. Then, using their contact and payment information on file, the seminar company enrolled the attendees in future programs per their request.

The Strategy for “Working Around the Roots”

However, we realize that not everyone that needs to influence people or head up a program that requires change is the CEO or the business owner. Instead, they have to convince other people to do what they want. Chance says that a way to do this is consensus building. In Japan, they call it Nemawashi, which means “work around the roots.” Nemawahsi describes using individual discussions with group members to get people on board with an idea. Chance says that having these discussions is like building a team with input and ownership of the concept.

Chase says when you are using the method to build consensus, it is essential that you share the bare-bones version of your idea. Also, there is a strategy to whom you ask and when. For example, the first people or person is the decision maker. You are looking for advice about the idea and influence process here. The asking and their answer start to foster the idea of a team. Then, the next group or person is the person you think won’t like the idea. The idea behind this conversation is to hear their concerns so that you can resolve them.

The last group or person would be people or a person you consider an ally. The point of this conversation is to get a commitment of support.

This strategy will set you up with the best version of your idea that addresses potential concerns and already has some support amongst the group. Moreover, you will benefit from positive body language, like head nodding around the table, once you introduce the idea at a meeting, which will build positive momentum.

The Power of No, for You and Others

Chance’s book has a chapter about empowering yourself to say no. In some ways, that might feel like the end of influence. However, Chance says that saying no is one way that you can make yourself more influential to others.

Chance uses this as the first challenge in the MBA course she teaches. It’s also part of her free course this fall, How to Ask for Anything. The exercise requires people to say no to everything for 24 hours. The idea is that it shows how often we say yes when we don’t want to because we are inherent people pleasers—and often more than we think we are. Also, it demonstrates how quick we are to give away our most valuable resource, our time. Saying no can allow you to be more influential in your life. In addition, practicing teaches you how to be better at saying no in a way that doesn’t make people feel bad.

Chance says saying no is essential. You can’t influence people if you are tapped out and exhausted. If you give everything, you have nothing left. Also, once you get more comfortable saying no, you also get more comfortable hearing no. You realize it’s not as personal as you thought it was. People won’t hate you for saying it, and you won’t hate people for telling you no. Then, you feel comfortable asking for things because you realize a no answer is not the end of the world. Also, people get more comfortable saying yes because your invitation is more comfortable, warm, and low-key. In some ways, Chance reasons, saying no is the first step to becoming someone that makes other people want to say yes.

So, What Should You Do with This?

In addition to building a consensus and being reasonable with your time, Chance would encourage all of us to ask the magic question. The magic question is something that you ask that makes it possible to move forward. Chase says the magic question is:

What would it take?

Chance says the question feels like magic because it helps determine what you need to do to get what you want. It works for small things, like getting a child to clean a room, and big situations, like avoiding and global economic shutdown for a healthcare crisis. Chance says the question is transformational regarding influence in a positive way.

Zoe Chance is a writer, teacher, researcher, and climate philanthropist. She’s obsessed with the topic of interpersonal influence and her science-based but fun and life-changing book is called Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen. It is being published in more than 20 languages. Zoe earned her doctorate from Harvard and now teaches the most popular course at Yale School of Management (Mastering Influence and Persuasion). Her research is published in top academic journals and covered in global media outlets. She speaks on television and around the world, and her framework for behavior change is the foundation for Google’s global food policy. Before joining academia, Zoe managed a $200 million segment of the Barbie brand, helped out with political campaigns, and worked in less glamorous influence jobs like door-to-door sales and telemarketing. She lives with her family in New Haven, CT.

zoechance.com 

@zoebchance

LinkedIn

If you have a business problem that you would like some help with, contact me on LinkedIn or submit your pickle here. We would be glad to hear from you and help you with your challenges.

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Organizations need to embrace that emotional side of their experiences. Not only to design an experience that surprises and delights their customers, but also so their Artificial Intelligence works to provide useable insight. Combining the emotional data into the formula with concepts from the behavioral science side will make it so organizations can understand what and why their customers do what they do. 

However, I worry that they don’t. 

You’ll remember that Customer Science is the fusion of data, the behavioral sciences, and artificial intelligence (AI). Today, we will discuss what role AI plays in predicting customer emotions and how they affect customer behavior. 

AI isn’t perfect. Yet. We did an interview with Broderick Turner, Ph.D., from Virginia Tech about AI recently. Turner explains his skepticism about AI since he views AI as opinions written in code. 

However, imperfect or not, AI technology gives us some options we didn’t have before.  Applied intelligently and with a deliberate approach, AI has the potential to solve problems, and help us achieve goals. 

This episode is the second of a series of podcasts we did with Beyond Philosophy’s own Zhecho Dobrev (@ZhechoDobrev), author of The Big Miss: How Organizations Overlook the Value of Emotions. We talked with him before on our podcast a month ago about how emotions drive customer behavior. This week, we dive a little deeper on this concept, and explore how emotions affect the insights we get from Customer Science. If you’d like to read a bit more from Zhecho on emotional attachment being a key factor in customer-drive growth check out this article here.

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

In the book, Dobrev shares research about AI. It looks at the typical customer journey touchpoints and how much value do each of those drive. Also, Dobrev examines where emotions and customer relationships affect the outcome, and how much value those provide. Now, he is analyzing how AI uses each of those customer journey mapping touchpoints, meaning the customer infinity lifecycle thinking about the brand, learning about the product, purchasing experience, and all the other points until we get to customer retention. 

Here are a few more key moments in the discussion:

• 03:36  We talk about the recent podcasts that led to this one, including the first one with Zhecho a little while ago, the podcast we did on Customer Science, and an episode we had with a guest, Broderick Turner, about how opinions make their way into AI code. 
• 08:30  Dobrev explains that regarding AI in the Customer Science mix, it should include customer emotional data, as they are the main drivers of customer behavior; otherwise, the insights it has gleaned may not be authentic drivers of behavior.
• 10:43  Dobrev shares three organizations that have done a great job using AI to understand how emotions affect and drive customer behavior and why it helped. 
• 20:26  Colin shares how a previous podcast, one about the book, The Myth of Experience, demonstrates one of the problems with AI, which is that organizations don’t have the data they think they do and how that leads to problems with their application of it.
• 29:09 Dobrev shares his plans about what is next for AI and experience, and his effort to piece together a strategy that can improve all experiences moving 

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Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the ‘World’s Top 150 Business Influencers.’ As a result, he has 290,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers’ hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for the last four years in a row. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official “Influencer” on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 35,000 subscribers. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy’s Suite of Services.

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