How One Company Banned Inter-Office E-Mail!

Here is another great insight into how we can manage and not succumb to the 24-7 headache that is e-mail.  This is courtesy of Fast Company. . .

Why Nara Bans Inter-Office Email In Favor Of Intimate, Real-Life Face Time

By: Colin Weatherby

Unlike many technology companies, Nara is a place where simplicity and face-to-face interaction are still king. Founder and CEO Tom Copeman started the company with the intention of humanizing the web and how we find information. Considering this goal, it seems logical that he would also design an office culture that reflected a commitment to human interaction.

At Nara, you won’t find any employee sending emails across the office to their colleagues. Communication is done the old-fashioned way-- with a quick stroll and a conversation. This rule isn’t just a one-dimensional gimmick for improving social skills, it’s also based on science and how the brain responds to varied stimulation.

Citing new research as a major influence on company policy, Copeman believes that physical movement actually keeps the brains of his employees alert and creative--some companies have even decided to take this idea to the next level with full-blown exercise breaks throughout the day.

There’s another element to this decision that’s so obvious it is easy to overlook: This approach keeps things simple. “I really have this philosophy that if you can’t say something very simply--especially when you’re trying to get buy-in and communicate what you are feeling and thinking--it’s too complex and you don’t understand it yet,” says Copeman.

Perhaps surprisingly, leadership has met little resistance from the staff. They have embraced the ethos and routinely tell him that their time at the Nara office is the most fulfilling part of their day.

So what about you? How can you change your own e-mail habits?

How To Be A Genuine Stand-Out

I recently participated in a college application workshop for high school juniors.  At one point I asked for a show of hands as to who looked forward to applying to college. Out of fifty students, no one raised their hand.  Then I asked how many were nervous.  Fifty hands shot up!  Their driving fear could be reduced to: “I don’t want to be judged” and its flip side, “I don’t want to be rejected.”

I later told this story at dinner and of the six people at the table (aged 27-49), no one said that they’d been excited to apply to college. They each shared stories of how they didn’t enjoy revealing so much about themselves to strangers.  Yep, they didn’t like being judged.

Back in 2009, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates met with students from Columbia Business School for an event that aired on CNBC. While they offered advice on an array of topics, none was more simple than when Buffett said: “You will increase your value by half a million dollars if you just learn how to communicate at work. . . business is being able to close a deal and sell a deal and build relationships.”

Buffett honed in on the truest of truths––the world works because of relationships.  And relationships are grounded in quality communication.

Which brings us to interviews—in person, by phone, or by video.  An interview is another opportunity to present yourself, to tell something of your story to people who are interested in you. 

When you think about interviewing, what is your #1 fear?  Is it that you’ll be judged?

I understand the whole “I don’t like being judged” thing.  And truth be told, it’s a fear that I, too, have confronted many times in countless situations.  What I have also learned, though, is that a huge part of respecting myself is being willing to recognize and “own” what makes me “me.”  What makes me unique and interesting to be around.

This isn’t being arrogant; it’s simply laying claim to the experiences that have helped to shape me.

I coach business professionals in their communication skills.  So many, too many, people are awkward and self-conscious and fumbling talking about their ideas and about themselves.   They’re afraid to distinguish themselves.  They’re afraid to stand out and shine.  They’re afraid of being judged.

But, an interview, every interview, everywhere, with everyone, is an opportunity for you to practice speaking on your own behalf.  Engaging people with your ideas and insights.

Trust me––you’re more interesting than you can imagine!  Don’t be intimidated by an interview.  Welcome it as both an opportunity and a challenge.  This is how you’ll learn to be a genuine stand out!

The Power Of Velcro

I subscribe to the Writer’s Almanac Newsletter which daily sends a poem and brief profiles of noted persons in the arts and sciences who were born or died that day or whose seminal work was unveiled to the public on that date.

The poems are nourishing and the biographical info is consistently interesting.

Here’s a piece from May 13^th––the day in 1958 on which Velcro was patented.  I am in awe of Mestral’s patience and faithfulness to his idea.  I’ve challenged myself by asking, “what could I accomplish with such patience and conviction?”

It was on this day in 1958 that Velcro was patented. Velcro was invented by Georges de Mestral, an electrical engineer from Switzerland. Mestral was a born inventor — he applied for his first patent when he was 12 years old, for a model airplane.

Besides being an engineer, Mestral enjoyed mountain climbing, and in 1941 he went on a hunting trip with his dog in the Alps. He hiked through patches of burdock. Burdock is a thistly plant whose roots are used in cooking, especially in Asia; but the plant spreads its spiny seeds by latching them onto anything or anyone passing by. 

When Mestral got home, he was picking the burs off his dog's coat and his own clothes, and he wondered how burdock was so effective. He put the seeds under his microscope, and saw that each bristle was a tiny hook that was able to catch in the loops of clothing. He realized that by copying burdock he could create a way to simply bind materials together.

Most people Mestral told about his "hook and loop" cloth thought that his idea was stupid, but he kept on with it. It took him 10 years to get it right. With the help of a talented weaver, he was able to make a workable product, but the cotton didn't hold up to wear. Then he discovered that nylon sewn under infrared light made the perfect set of loops — but that meant sewing hundreds of loops per inch, a slow and inefficient task. Eventually, he was able to mechanize the whole process, and 10 years after his walk with his dog, he applied for a patent for his invention: "Velcro," which combined the French words velour (which means velvet) and crochet (which means hook).

So what about you?  What could you accomplish with the conviction of Mestral?

How Are You Doing With Your New Year's Resolutions?!

 

It’s June.  Next month, Hallmark Cards will unveil their 2013 Christmas ornaments collection!  Yes, we’ve reached the halfway point in this “new” year.  What about those New Year’s goals you set up for yourself?  Where are you in bringing them to life? 

Although many of us make new year’s resolutions with determination and enthusiasm, often it’s not obvious what our goals should be or even what we want to accomplish, but consider this. . .

If you want to change something in your life, it's common to try to stop the behaviors you don't like. While this certainly seems logical, it seldom works. The reason is simple - it unintentionally creates a vacuum where the old behaviors used to be. And since nature hates a vacuum it will fill it with anything it can find - usually the very behaviors you're trying to stop since they're so familiar. Instead of stopping certain behaviors, try focusing on the new behaviors you want and need to develop. Eventually, with practice, these new behaviors will replace the old ones.

I had a client who was condescending with staff members and she wanted to change how she interacted.  When she asked for my advice (in what I thought was a condescending tone!), I said, "Instead of coming off as superior and stand-offish, what do you want to be?  How would you like to be perceived?"  She looked at me blankly and said, "I'm not sure.  I never thought about it that way"  "Good!  Then let's start there," I said.

There are three steps to setting communication goals for your self:

1.     Notice any pattern in either your personal or professional life where you say you've got to stop communicating in a certain way.

2.     Think about the way(s) in which you want to start communicating in that arena.

3.     Be specific. Write down the exact things you want to do.

Sabotaging yourself with negative thinking?

In his book, Learned Optimism, Dr. Martin Seligman wrote about a psychological phenomenon that he discovered based on his 25 years of research: Virtually every person has one or more areas where they feel unable to do something that they really want to do. They’ve developed habits of thought that hold them back from reaching their full potential. Seligman called this "learned helplessness."

He conducted dozens of experiments to demonstrate how animals can be trained to feel that they’re helpless. In one, he put a dog into a cage with a glass wall that separated it from a bowl of food. The dog was hungry and tried to get at the food by banging its nose on the glass. After several hours, Seligman removed the glass. And what happened then? The dog, who was still hungry, sat only a few inches away from the food and never even attempted to eat it. The animal had become convinced that it was incapable of getting to the food. So even when the obstacles were removed, it just sat there hungry.

As you think about your communication goals, are you stuck in trying to name those goals? Have you convinced yourself that you’re incapable of reaching a goal that's important to you?  

If negative thinking is holding you back, keep in mind that it is nothing more than a bad habit that you developed somewhere along the line. And all dysfunctional habits can be replaced with healthy ones.

Want help in gaining clarity for reaching your most persistent goal?  Send me an email and let’s begin a conversation:

jp@jpr-communications.com

The Definition Of "Customer Service"

 
The day after Memorial Day, down on the beach at Table Rock Drive in Laguna Beach, I officiated the wedding of Clare and Ed, who are from Nottingshire, England.  They combined a honeymoon with their wedding and so began their adventure in Seattle, WA and drove down the coast to Los Angeles and then on to Laguna Beach.

During our first Skype chat, I had urged them to look into staying at one of my all-time favorite hotels, The Montage Resort & Spa in Laguna Beach, but given all their other expenses, they opted for a small hotel in town.

Clare had a silk dress made for her back home. She thought it would travel better than it had and when she arrived in Laguna, it was a wrinkled mess. The day before her wedding, Memorial Day, Clare asked the concierge at her hotel if it would be possible to get the dress steamed. They didn’t have onsite services, but referred her to a bridal store in town. A sales woman informed Clare that they only steamed dresses bought from the store.  Although Clare offered to pay, “policy is policy” and what would happen if an exception was made?

Clare then recalled how I had raved about the service at The Montage. With nothing to lose, she went over and connected with Ms. Jimenez, the Executive Housekeeper, who agreed to steam the dress.

Clare was relieved and Ed was stunned. As he explained to me, “this wouldn’t have happened back home.” They were in awe of Ms. Jimenez’ kindness and that The Montage could be home to such graciousness.

Clare and Ed had made wedding dinner plans at a restaurant in town, but because of Ms. Jimenez, they canceled and dined at The Montage––which is what a year ago I told them to do!

If you go to Amazon.com and plug in “customer service” under the book section, you’ll find almost 87,000 entries!  Stunning really because if you think about it “customer service” is not a complicated concept.  As I consistently tell students and clients, it’s simply about serving decency and kindness to a customer, even if that “customer” is not yet a customer! 

Amazon should simply refer people to Ms. Jimenez, a woman who offered visitors far from home commonsense decency and graciousness.

What about you?  What kind of “customer service” do you take pride in offering?