Geeza job

Cicero is pleased with you this week. I know that that will put a spring in your step, a smile on your face and bring joy to your heart. It is for Cicero great to see the increasing levels of interest and engagement and even sensible comment being left on this corner of the blogosphere.

And Cicero would like to thank in particular those correspondents adding to and developing ‘5 Why’ theory. Hopefully this week’s thoughts will inspire similar levels of interest.

Now I would like you to ponder on this.

Does your business routinely ignore its customers? Or does it employ third parties who might do same while acting in your name? Or does it refuse to justify decisions to its customer even though these decisions might have a significant effect on their lives?

I am hoping that as a devoted reader of this column and as a disciple of Cicero that the answer to all three questions might be no and if it’s not then I am ashamed of you and you ought to be too.

But do you know what happens when you recruit people to join your business?

I ask this because all too frequently in these hard economic times, and I’m sure the practice also went on in the times of plenty, I hear of businesses, either directly or through agencies, who don’t let applicants know the fate of applications; where applications disappear into black holes never to be heard of again; or where the feedback to rejected applicants is pitiful and derisory.

This is not on.

Now you may wonder why this is important. It is important because this is your brand we are talking about and your brand promise must be consistently delivered through your recruitment processes for staff as much as for customers. It must surely occur to you that people wanting to join you might be customers. That their friends and family might be customers too, And what kind of message does it send to existing staff when they see or hear how applicants are treated? Either way bringing people on board can, if done poorly, have a real effect on the reputation of your business and your brand. And brand reputation must be the most important thing to worry about.

I know that recruitment is normally the domain of HR people but do you know how it gets done? How do applicants get treated? Do you ask them?

And if these processes are not up to scratch your HR people need to be told in no uncertain terms that the way they do recruitment is seriously having an impact on the brand and reputation of the business. Tell them to get a grip. This is serious and for real.

Now it might surprise you that no matter how hard I might try Cicero is not always a solid gold exemplar of good management and marketing practice but on this I am passionate.

And so, should you be given the chance to work for Cicero, you can be assured that all applications will be acknowledged, that all people not interviewed will be communicated with, and should you not be offered the choice, an unlikely prospect, I know, you will be given the opportunity for full and frank feedback. And anyone recruiting in my team and any third parties will work to the same principles. Guaranteed.

It is the least we can do. It is not just a job. It is your career and life. It is my brand and its reputation. And I don’t want to damage any of it. Maybe, just maybe, we could all adopt similar principles if and when we recruit. And maybe just maybe, we can become the change we want to see in the world.

Thoughts? Comments? Ideas?

Is it only me?

Men hate shopping. I think I can say that with a fair degree of certainty and I would challenge anyone to question this. Men shop when they need to and they will shop for exactly what they need. To a man, shopping is a necessity to be endured.
Women on the other hand see shopping as a leisure activity to be enjoyed. For them it is a pleasure.

Now Cicero is a man. Ergo shopping is a chore. And the other day while perambulating along a major retail thoroughfare Cicero passed some major retail emporia and it was evident that in just about every one of these emporia women’s goods were always positioned at the front. No matter the shop women’s clothes, lingerie bits and bobs and make up were without fail the first things you saw.

Now it might only be me but surely this is wrong. A woman wanting to shop will investigate every nook and cranny to find what she wants or thinks she wants. Women need no temptations or bait to be seduced into shopping. Men on the other hand do. Men are not going to spend any more time than they need to shopping. Men are not going to make the effort to search out their stuff. It is men who need tempting inside not women.

So why is it that it is always women’s baubles at the front of the shop and not men’s must-have necessities? Think of it for a nano second. You know Cicero is right. Again. And I am sure that should this insight be adopted along the High St, retailing in this country will be transformed and will not just survive the recessionary onslaught but will prosper.

Have a great week.

Sit felix. Et sit fortunatus.

Tell me why

It will no doubt please you that this week Cicero is so full of energy and life that he is dangerous. So beware.

Cicero does however have some news that will shock you. Indeed the news that is about to be imparted will be so distressing to you that it will be best if you sit down and make yourself comfortable. Please make sure that there are no sharp objects or hot liquids near you. Cicero does not want yet another visit from the health and safety gauleiters. There is enough stress in Cicero’s life at the moment. Are you sitting comfortably? Are you ready for this devastating news? Are you prepared to be shocked?

It seems that Cicero is annoying.

Can you believe it? It is true. Cicero was informed by a colleague in his TSSB last week that by constantly asking ‘why?’, he had started to become annoying.

Although it is true that my favourite word is ‘why’ but in my defence I would argue that ‘why’ is the most powerful word in our language and it is my belief that the ‘why’ word offers all of us in any business the opportunity to create ever lasting change for our people, our customers and our business. Ok, you might want to choose to use it a wee bit more sparingly and less annoyingly than me but it is still a great word to use.

And one thing you will rapidly learn is just how many times you pose the question and how few times you will receive a positive and constructive answer. For the truth is that many people around us, and I include head honchos in this, do things because that is the way they have always been done without really understanding why they are being done that way in the first place.

And so today I want to introduce the 5 Why theory and encourage its use throughout your business.
There is a saying that "Knowledge means nothing without wisdom to profit by it." It's not who we are, who we know or what we know that is important but it's what we do with that knowledge. We all have tremendous power to do good or ill depending on how we put our knowledge to use. Our minds are constantly gathering knowledge of all kinds, both intentionally and subconsciously. If we understand, we can begin to use this knowledge. Too often we focus on collecting knowledge but we lack understanding. 5 Why is the pursuit of understanding. That is why asking "why?" is a most import habit for those of us concerned with making things better.

Sadly this theory is not mine but comes from a Toyota head honcho who introduced the theory to teach people to look beyond the obvious causes of problems and issues to the underlying systemic root causes

The 5 why process works not with asking only five times. Rather it is a practice of persistently asking "why?" until we peel away the layers of apparent reality to the true facts until we have uncovered the real root cause of a problem or have exposed the sheer stupidity and illogicality of the way we do things. Not asking why, and instead believing that we know the answer, causes us to solve the wrong problems or to persist in doing things badly to the detriment of our people, our customers and our business.

Leaders need to be curious, to question, to seek out the truth so they can take more effective action to solve problems and address issues rather than believe they are right and not ask why. Our brains are designed to filter out extra information, to ignore much of what goes on around us and to go with the path that feels right, rather than take time to question deeply. When this works it is called intuition, when it does not it is called confirmation bias. There may be developmental reasons for this related to a species' survival in the wild. Yet we can't afford to ignore evidence that lead us to false paths.

Cicero understands that it must be annoying to be constantly facing a barrage of ‘whys’ but surely it is better to ask why than be condemned to live in the Dark Ages. Why is it wrong to seek progress? Why is it wrong to want to drive change? Why don’t we accept that as leaders it is our duty to challenge our business? Why is…….sorry I am getting carried away, I can’t help myself. Apologies.

Let me finish by quoting Kipling

‘I . know a person small—
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes--
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys’

Now that must be really annoying. Even I’m not that bad.

Is it only me?

Cicero is indebted this week to his most devoted and bestest subscriber for this update from the Royal Society for the Protection of the Incredibly Stupid.

It now appears that any business that offers any kind of liquid refreshment facility to its customers is supposed to, according to the health and safety gauleiters, install a dish washer so that said drinking bowls can be washed without risk of contamination to its employees. Note contamination to employees not customers.

Is it only me who thinks that is so wrong on a number of levels? Firstly such news will be a devastating blow to our eco-mentalist friends. For while they are going flat out to save the planet, they will not be best pleased that their friends in the RSPIS are equally going flat out to protect individuals from the non existent risk of customer contamination and thereby increasing global warming.

Also this is a ridiculous expense for a small company, and where's the sense in it? When we're at home, do we only ever wash our own crockery? Maybe the health and safety gauleiters should close down any business which serves customers just in case an employee picks up bad habits.

To whom are such people accountable?

Have a great week.

Sit felix. Et sit fortunatus.

Two little magic words

Well it seems that my question last week as to why accidents are now incidents stirred up a wee bit of a debate. And Cicero would like to thank those of you who wrote to explain the difference between an incident and an accident. Cicero is not fully convinced that the explanations are at all credible and remains committed to the thesis that someone had nothing better to do one day.

When Cicero was a wee laddie (yes, folks, Cicero was a wee laddie once), Cicero’s mater and pater would constantly chorus when he had been given something ‘what are the two little magic words?’. Now Cicero always was a quick learner and quickly discovered that people would be pleased when he said ‘thank you’. And so it came to pass that thank you became an automatic and well meant response when offered or given something. It was a matter of manners and Cicero always was well mannered, even to this day.

But it seems that like in our business life we have forgotten the two little magic words.

Research has recently been published which divides us is into ‘thankers’ and ‘thank nots’. In other words, those who recognise the importance of appreciating and recognising the effort of their people and those who don’t find this simple courtesy necessary. On which side of the divide are you?

A staggering 16% of people, our people, stated that they never receive a thank you from their line manager. And this figure has increased two-fold from the previous year! How can that be? Is the credit crunch making us less appreciative? Is it something do with health and safety? Or maybe its swine flu, it seems to be blamed for everything else.

Two words, which take approximately one second to speak and less than four seconds to write down, can mean so much to our people and yet so many business people seem to struggle with the concept. Why? Can you help explain this? Maybe those of you with views on the correct use of ‘accident’ and ‘incident’ can help explain why this might be?

Are we embarrassed? Are we ignorant? Are we afraid? And, should you be a ‘thank not’, don’t you dare use the excuse that no one thanks you. Cicero People don’t think like that. Cicero People pick up the napkin and lead. Always.

Think about the number of times during the course of a day we say thank you and for what. Yet it is obvious that there are people out there who find it so difficult to say thanks to those who are working hard to make life easy for customers or helping to make their bosses look good.

43% said that not feeling valued or appreciated contributed greatly to their decision to leave a job. Speaking those two little magic words could prove to be a cost effective solution for staff retention. But more importantly think how much extra effort could be got from our people if we just remember the two little magic words.

A simple ‘thank you’ has a significant effect on how people feel and perform at work so why not test drive my two little magic words today and see the positive effect you can share with the world. Cicero would like to ask you to commit that after reading this you write or say thank you to someone in your business for a job well done. Do it now. Do it today. And let me know how you get on. I look forward to hearing from you. Believe me this is far more important than accident or incident.

Thanks for reading this. It is really appreciated.

Is it only me?

It seems like I can no longer move tables. I don’t know when this happened or why but I am no longer qualified to move a table and if I want a table moved in my workplace I need to log a call and book in advance for a fully qualified table shifter to move my table on my behalf. I kid you not. It seems that only fully trained and certified table shifting operatives have the necessary skills and training and experience to move a table a few feet. I have no doubt that the State has battalions of table shifters waiting to be booked. We might not have enough helicopters for our brave Army boys but never fear we have enough table shifters for our bureaucratic classes. I bet you can sleep easy now you know that.

Of course this is the latest directive from the health and safety gauleiters and I can tell you I am not best pleased. It might only be me but sometimes I shift tables spontaneously. I don’t plan or diarise to shift a table so how am I supposed to pre-book my qualified table shifter.

Don’t worry though I am fighting back. Since the reason given for this policy is health and safety, I have exercised my Freedom of Information rights and have asked for details of all accidents, or incidents (see last week), caused by unplanned and inexperienced table shifting in past 5 years. And in meantime I will continue to shift tables spontaneously until the Health and Safety police take me in for water boarding.

Still good to know how seriously state employees take the protection of the incredibly stupid.

Have a great week.

Sit felix. Et sit fortunatus.

Nudge nudge wink wink!

Greetings. And welcome back. .

I would like to apologise in advance if you were tempted to read this by my title because you thought that this week Cicero might be a wee bit naughty. You are going to be sorely disappointed.

I bought a book last week. I am sure that this will not come as a great surprise to you. There must be some source for my great wisdom and enlightenment. I bought it online and before you could say Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ I was being presented with a list of other books I might like to read given the subject of my initial purchase. Brilliant.

And then I went on to the music section of said dotcom survivor and having purchased my recording of the latest beat combo, I was presented with another list of recommended titles I might like to acquire. Again brilliant.

A day or two later I was induced to make a donation to some charity or other in support of some person or other who was undertaking some totally pointless, daft or dangerous activity to raise money Still it was in a good cause. I knew how many bawbees I wanted to invest but was then shown a list of donors who had donated substantial sums, and not wishing to be thought mean (heaven forbid,) I invested a few more bawbees in this charity. Now that is not bad going for a Scotsman. It was interesting that I was not shown the details of those who had made nickel and dime donations

Whether buying books or CDs or making donations, I had just become a serial victim of nudge marketing and damn clever it is too.

So what exactly is ‘nudge marketing’ and how does it work? Well I am now going to tell you.
None of us want to be very different from those around us. Instead we want to belong to our social norm. We want to be on the side of the good guys so if we can provide proper information to consumers about the acceptable norm plus a gentle push in the right direction then they will be persuaded to change their behaviour. Just like me and my donation. I wanted to belong to on the side of the rich donors. I did not want to be seen as a Scots meanie even if I am one of those. I wanted to belong and to be seen as belonging. And by the way I like to think that my social norm is Brad Pitt.
We are all strongly influenced by those around us, even though we may think we are not. To prove it there is an experiment in which people are shown a number of lines and asked to identify the two that are the same length. The answer is clear, and on their own, people make the right choice. However, if people are told that a majority before them has made another choice, in many cases they will give the same wrong answer. Now that is really worrying.
Let me give you a practical example from another sector of nudge marketing at work. In an effort to satisfy the eco- and enviro-mentalist, the people who put mental into the environment, one American utility company introduced smiley faces on customers’ bills if they used less energy than the norm and a sad face if they used more. The result-high users reduced their consumption by even more and low users kept their consumption down.
Even supermarkets are getting in on the act. I got an extra reward point the other day for eschewing my free plastic bag. Seemingly my eco-mentalist friends have persuaded the supermarkets that plastic bags are bad for us. I’m not complaining for an extra reward point I was nudged to change my behaviour.
And perhaps if the EU adopted similar practices we might still have 100 watt light bulbs. Instead we have to grope around in the dark, our eyesight fading fast, just so we save enough energy to allow one or two eco- or enviro-mentalist to have two baths a years. I always think that if a government has to ban something it is because they don’t have enough good arguments to persuade.
I am sure that in your business with a little bit of thought you can find ways to nudge your customers to buy more or to behave as you would like. But there is a downside and our marketing nudges must be used sparingly and with caution. We are not trying to be pinball wizards here and too many nudges will leave customers feeling manipulated and second-guessed, in the same way that I now want to say “nudge off” when Amazon dares to presume what books it thinks I will like. Get it right and the world can be your lobster.

So let’s get nudging.

Is it only me?

I was talking last week with a health worker. I don’t mean the kind of health worker you go to when you are ill but the kind of health worker in a suit who manages and measures the people we go to when we are ill.

Anyway it now seems that we no longer have accidents as in road traffic but incidents. I guess that means that when you accidentally drop or spill something or bump into someone you incidentally do it. I don’t know why this has been changed or who changed it but I bet it was some state employee with too much time on his or hands who woke up one morning and thought ‘I know what I will do today. I will abolish accidents and replace them all with incidents. Should keep me busy for a day or two’.

It might only be me but I know what they mean when they say accident. We all do. So why change the meaning of a perfectly good word. Unless of course it was an incident and the change was a typo.

If anyone can enlighten me and explain this change or come up with a theory for the change, please do share. Sounds to me like another example of regulation gone mad.

Have a great week.

Sit felix. Et sit fortunatus.