culture

Somebody's opinion

There will always be two types of people; those who become accustomed and accept the system, and those who will always fight for the truth. And my life experience has taught me is that truth is highly subjective. There may be an objective truth and we humans can't know it because we are condemned to the bias of our own experiences, biases, and preferences. As professional marketers we all believe that we make decisions rationally, but we are as likely as anyone to be influenced by external biases. And social proof has consistently been shown to be one of the most powerful behavioural biases.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Just imagine

Why can’t we just train people to become curious and thirsty for knowledge? We can! And if we do this the number of other things, they can learn is unbelievable. We have seen that bit by bit on the internet there is a body of work that lets the employer know you’re worth hiring now. We are going see more and more free stuff and more and more expensive stuff. Just imagine if there was a portfolio system where you are hired and fired on the basis of your work. Just imagine if there is this type of relationship in place where people who know you and trust you also hire you. The education system of the future or should I say, the hiring of people in the future will look less like where you went to school and more and more what have you built, who did you work for and what would they say about you.

Hindsight is 20/20

Hindsight bias is when a person looks back at an event and believes they predicted the outcome, even if they failed to act on that "prediction." For example, on Saturday evening France will play a football match against Denmark, very fewer people are sure of the outcome of the game, but on Sunday morning, many more are willing to claim they were positive the winning team was indeed going to emerge the winner.

This is because we construct a situation where we fool ourselves into thinking we knew more about an event before it happened. The idea is that once we know the outcome, it’s much easier to construct a plausible explanation. Unfortunately, this leads us to think that our judgment is better than it is, and we become less critical of our decisions and makes us overconfident about future predictions.

“Life can only be understood by looking backward; but it must be lived looking forward.”
— Søren Kierkegaard

Exploring the edges

Jamaica is a beautiful island located in the Caribbean. According to travel guides Jamaica famous for so many things, for example, reggae music, Bob Marley, Ursain Bolt, Blue Mountain coffee, rum, etc., etc. Both my parents are Jamaican and as I was born and raised in London, I have never explored the possibility of Jamaican nationality. It appears that so many professional footballers are in the same situation. There has been so much written in the media about the forthcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar, so I thought I would change the narrative as I’m not sure whether to boycott or not. What about you, will you be watching?

Do as you're told

Education and learning are not the same thing. Mass education was the ingenious machine constructed by industrialism to produce a constant flow of factory workers. Learning is the lifelong process of transforming information and experience into knowledge, skills, behaviours, and attitudes. Education is what we do for compliance and it’s about cohesion and you get a prize as a reward, that’s how they get you to do what you are supposed to do. I think that there are some educators who are also teachers and help with learning and there are also a lot of educators who are creators of an obedient system.

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. ”
— Haruki Murakami

Everyone has a story

As humans we have been raised to keep a tough appearance, not to share information, be guarded and scrutinise everybody who’s in our life. My education at home revolved around, “the more you know the further you will go” philosophy.
Someone said, “I don’t know how you do it.”
I said, “I wasn’t given a choice.”
I think even if the hero has no choice, it’s still taking courage to be courageous, and we all need role models who model these heroic traits for us.

“If you really think the economy is more important than the environment, try holding your breath while counting your money.”
— Dr. Guy McPherson

Being in motion

Cultural consistency stresses adherence to a code for the business and cultural fit emphasises an aspect of the culture that will attract employees and partners who are similarly inclined. Cultural diversity focuses on promoting inclusiveness and celebrating employees and partners for their differences as much as their similarities. I specialise in going into companies and seeing the existing culture, then fine tuning it to ensure that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet. Every business has to find their own protocol as the company structure and culture will determine what feedback loop approach works best. And I think the way a company designs their feedback loops will make a difference as to whether the responses actually get incorporated into actionable actions. Contact me via e-mail if you would like some help with this process.

Vision drives everything

Whenever you are the first one out of the gate, you will have to break through that metaphorical plate of glass. I mean you will have to go through deep scrutiny and answer questions, for example, “What does this mean? Why did you say (or write) that? Are you insulting us? etc., etc.” Selling a service is vastly different than selling products, and the main difference is that a product business sells physical, tangible objects, whereas a service business provides value through intangible skills, expertise and time. Image and message are sometimes more important than execution. Even though I think that if you can show your products in a picture, illustration or in real life, it will help your presentation. Vision drives everything and without one, you will get lost.

It matters

All first impressions are non verbal, for example, when you walk down the road, your subconscious mind will automatically begin to categorise the people you see in your preconceived frameworks. I think that first impressions are when we become a blip on other people's radar not when we open our mouth. It's an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises but only performance is reality.

“Before you talk, listen.
Before you react, think.
Before you spend, earn.
Before you criticize, wait.
Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try.”
— Ernest Hemingway

Tribes and scribes

The most basic human desire is to feel like we belong, it’s so powerful. Everything you say and everything you do has to prove what you believe. When you are in an environment where you don’t feel you belong, you seek out anyone who may share the same values and beliefs as you so that you can start to form trusting relationships. This is why I think this cannot be recreated over our computers, it’s our biology as human beings that gives us this ability, and it’s this ability to read each other which has enabled us to evolve. I don’t believe you can replace these human experiences and human feelings over the internet. Contact me via e-mail and let me know your feelings around this topic.

And the other side

We all want engaged employees who want to deliver, not just for the organisation but also for themselves. We are now seeing more stories about how organisations are getting very hands on about building a bottom-up processes, where teams of employees are working with managers at the customer interface level, helping individual employees work out how they can connect to the corporate purpose. Understanding the dreams of the people in the organisation and how they might be the key to motivating your employees. This will ensure that the organisations purpose is something that their employees can really engage with in a meaningful way, as this helps them as they decide to give their full effort at work.

Become a better listener

Active listening is different from hearing or even paying attention, hearing is something we do without thinking and without consciously trying to. I think a deeper level is when we listen for context, so here are some tips on how to improve your listening skills:

1. Talk less
2. Do not interrupt
3. Maintain direct eye contact
4. Put your phone down
5. Listen with your eyes and look for the unsaid
6. Remain interested
7. And if you are waiting for a pause, so that you can speak, then you're not actively listening

Generosity is a boomerang

Life gets so much better when you expect less as I think time generosity is grounded in empathy and emotional labour. In my world, generosity does not mean free; generosity does not mean lowering the price of what you do or giving it away. Generosity means showing up with emotional labour to do difficult work that some people think you might not need to do. This means that when someone is truly generous, they are bringing extra effort into something that may not work.

 

According to research from scientists at CalTech and Harvard who tried to figure out why giving feels harder for some than for others, and they found that the decision to give or take simply comes down to how much importance you attach to your interests versus someone else’s. Therefore, if you’re the type of person who considers other people’s needs as much as your own, self-sacrificing tends to be automatic. On the other hand, if you typically place more value on yourself, then giving feels more onerous.

See and be seen

Lawrence Weiner © 1972

Why can’t we be seen until we learn to see?
I think to see mean that you have empathy, it means to realise that no one cares about you and your opinion, they care about themselves and their own opinion. If you can’t see them for who they are, and for where their fears, desires and dreams are, they will ignore you because they only want to hang out with people who see them. Being seen is an unlimited need that people you serve have and if you can see them and understand them, you can tell them a story that they want to hear and they are more likely to engage with you. You cannot be empathic to everyone, you cannot see and understand everyone, so pick who you are going to see and understand and do that.

I have a dream

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. on this day 59 years ago delivered one of the greatest speeches of all time, the “March on Washington” at the Lincoln Memorial. It was one the largest single protest demonstration in American history and was organised for sweeping civil rights changes, unfortunately, this speech still has not aged well.

 “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
See full video here

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. ”
— Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

Learn the difference

Some talk to you in their free time, and some free their time to talk to you. Focus on what you can control and find good mentors to help you make it easier to get out of the door in the mornings and remain motivated throughout the day. It’s a good idea to set yourself up to perform and work in intervals, set out to be consistent instead of making heroic efforts. Success does not come to you because you want it, success comes to you because you do the right things.

Your corporate culture is vital

Culture is a set of invisible rules we use to operate, the do’s and do nots, and how you behave in an organization. Purpose is a why do we exist question. One could argue that culture and purpose are interrelated as when you articulate your purpose hopefully it will shape and form your culture. I think one of the main reasons why culture is so important is due to the stability it provides for so many people. It creates a sense of security and safety for individuals as it gives them a united and unified sense of belonging. Contact me via e-mail if you would like me look into your corporate culture.

“Bad companies are destroyed by crisis, good companies survive them, great companies are improved by them. ”
— Andy Grove

Authenticity cannot be bought

Trust is built on making and keeping promises. Authenticity is where you know yourself so well and are familiar with all your strengths and weaknesses, and you can use these tools and communicate is a reliable way. A way which makes you relatable in a very strong way to others, not to everyone, just those who you’ll like to build deep connections. At the end of the day, people will connect with you both personally and professionally on a deeper level if you can make them feel safe, like and trust you. These things are so nuanced in the human psyche and I am dedicated to teaching them effectively.

Listening skills

Culture refers to the basics of how people work together to make decisions and how quality is maintained. I have observed that in several organisations the implicit attitude at work demands that professionalism means the employees ignore their emotions. I think that it’s important to create time and space to talk about what’s on people’s minds and I have found that if the team does this then there’s a large positive payoff - smarter questions and better understanding.

“The biggest communication problem is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply.”
— Burrellism