Week 1 – Memo No. 1 :
Effective this week, the company is adopting Fridays as Casual Day. Employees are free to dress in the casual attire of their choice.
Week 3 – Memo No. 2 :
Spandex and leather micro-miniskirts are not appropriate attire for Casual Day. Neither are string ties, chaps, or flip-flops.
Week 6 – Memo No. 3 :
Casual Day refers to dress only, not attitude. When planning Friday’s wardrobe, remember image is a key to our success.
Week 8 – Memo No. 4 :
A seminar on how to dress for Casual Day will be held at 4 p.m. Friday in the cafeteria. A fashion show will follow. Attendance is mandatory.
Week 9 – Memo No. 5 :
As an outgrowth of Friday’s seminar, a 14-member Casual Day Task Force has been appointed to prepare guidelines for proper casual-day dress.
Week 14 – Memo No. 6 :
The Casual Day Task Force has now completed a 30-page manual entitled “Relaxing Dress Without Relaxing Company Standards.” A copy has been distributed to every employee. Please review the chapter “You Are What You Wear” and consult the “home casual” versus “business casual” checklist before leaving for work each Friday. If you have doubts about the appropriateness of an item of clothing, contact your CDTF representative before 7 a.m. on Friday.
Week 18 – Memo No. 7 :
Our Employee Assistant Plan (EAP) has now been expanded to provide support for psychological counselling for employees who may be having difficulty adjusting to Casual Day.
Week 20 – Memo No. 8 :
Due to budget cuts in the HR Department we are no longer able to effectively support or manage Casual Day. Casual Day will be discontinued, effective immediately.

There are things that you can do in your business to inspire, gain real rewards, and build excellent relationships with your staff and customers.  ‘Casual Day’ is obviously not one of them.  For ideas, support, and that extra help: I support businesses to be better – every day!

Yours,

The Capable Manager

Who to choose, what to do? Sometimes too much choice is overwhelming, and even resorting to ‘referral’ choices only can still leave too many options on the table.

Making a mistake in this area can leave you severely out of pocket, hacked off with the lot of them, and still in a world of pain that can cause your life to slowly crumble around you.

After six months of the worst pain I had ever had, via the following normal scenarios:

1. Doctor – lots of pills and referral to physiotherapy and consultant
2. Acupuncturist – Traditional Chinese Medicine approach. Tried it, not for me. *shudder*
3. Consultant – you are a bit overweight, you’re getting older (38!), and you are unfit (might be something to do with the back pain, just a guess!)
4. Physiotherapy – discharged back to Doctor as deteriorating condition
5. Doctor – higher levels of pills prescribed
6. Local Practitioners – not available, answer phone, or uninspiring
7. Osteopath – let me rub your back a bit (£70 – thank you very much)
8. Doctor – re-referral to consultant
9. Chiropractor – …

…I finally got a result!

So, why did it take me eight steps and months of believing that ‘this was it’ for my back health and general wellbeing.

There were a lot of circumstantial and complex issues going on, but on refection the following occurred to me:

1. Doctors aren’t always right. Now, I love the NHS and am genuinely proud of it, and it even made me adamant that I would not live in the US when I had the chance (you MUST see Sicko by Michael Moore if you are interested in Health Services). But not all Doctors are right all of the time. Being ‘convinced’ that physiotherapy was the answer wasted a lot of time.
2. Sometimes distance is a factor. The internet, and the ‘just Google’ in your local area can lure us in to thinking that there must be a top-flight do-er of anything we want right on the doorstep. This is simply untrue, and sometimes we need to widen our field of vision to find the truly talented.
3. Fear of Failure. This is an odd one, it manifests as a reticence to go back to somewhere we have successfully been to before. But oddly this is because we want to retain the memory of the last ‘success’ and don’t want to assume it can be retained and therefore be disappointed. I believe that this is a scourge visited upon usually strong and independent types, who don’t want to make the wrong decisions so in times of stress we make no decision at all.

So what?

Once I finally realised that I needed to go back to the Chiropractor that I had seen a previous year Active Chiropractic in Peterborough, who I had raved about at that time, I was squeezed in to an urgent Saturday afternoon appointment on the day I was called back, and my road to recovery has finally started.

I wish there was more that I could do to recognise the excellent care and attention that I have received, and wish there was more of this:

1. Excellent Customer Service – having been dismissed, unable to contact services, or preached to about what I should or shouldn’t do, excellent customer service came as welcome as a cool drink of water after days in a desert. Active Chiropractic, called me after I left a message with a real person. Yes! A real person, and understood the urgency of my need and accommodated me accordingly.
2. The Best Of – wouldn’t it be great if you really could cut through the ‘optimised’ web-sites, and staged ‘testimonials’ to truly see who is a great provider of services. I can sing that Active Chiropractic as The Best Back Pain Specialist in Peterborough, but will I be heard in all the din?
3. Investment In What You Believe In – there are so many split loyalties these days, especially in business where you are encouraged to ‘refer’ the businesses that you network with. What happens if you don’t believe in the businesses at your BNI, or some other network? Shout about those businesses that truly do deliver, and go that extra mile. Integrity improves our environment (take bigpinkheart for instance), it’s not just about making friends or doing a favour to get a favour. Sometimes it’s about doing what is right.

So, this is my ode to Active Chiropractic and David Hallam in particular – truly the Best Chiropractor in Peterborough (in my honest opinion), making great decisions, and generally celebrating people and businesses that really, really do deliver.

If we all did that, the world would be unrecognisable.

Yours,

TCM

For the newbies, the nervous, or the anecdotally overwhelmed – this is the blog for you.

Right, let’s get straight to it:

1. BREATHE! A primary need, and the most pernicious of symptoms for good ole nervousness is forgetting to breathe.  With your heart pounding in your ears it can seem that if you dare to inhale, the world as you know it will crumble to non-existence and expose you as a rank amateur.  Funny then, that this is precisely what you look like when you don’t breathe too; a curious mind/body trick combo that is played on us.  Anyway – the remedy is so simple it’ll make you scream.  It is to BREATHE!  Take several deep breaths, and I mean deep, before you are even introduced, and all the way up to the podium, stage, or front of class.  Not only will this serve as a great way to relax, it will short-circuit any desire to just keep talking and gives you all the oxygen you need to start confidently.
2. TALK FROM EXPERIENCE! No, this doesn’t mean that you need a PHD in any subject you want to speak about; it means REHEARSE.  The more that you rehearse, day-dream, and plan your actions – the more likely it is that when you get up there for real, your brain will go in to a comfortable ‘memory’ mode and recall what has already passed rather that attempting to ‘wing it’ resulting in the pathological urge of ‘fight or flight’.  Memory and recall are powerful friends, overriding any sense of nerves (which, after all, is just excitement about that which is not known).  It means that you can build a rich inner sanctuary where you speak fluently, comfortably laugh-off your mix-up with your words, and charmingly invite questions from your audience any time you choose.  Invoking this same state can deliver the same outcomes in real time – and will serve you well on your path to presenting greatness.
3. SMILE! And let yourself show your passion. When people focus intently, which is what you are asking your audience to do by presenting to them, they will instinctively mirror that which they perceive.  Can you help but laugh when you hear someone else giggling?  Ever tried to suppress that automatic yawn when you see someone else do it?  Point made then, so SMILE – if this subject is important, then it is important to let it show; and your audience will soon be bathing in a synaptic bath of serotonin that YOU have created.

There are lots of hints and tips, with even gurus like Seth Godin frightening each and every one of us out of ever contemplating a bullet point.  The bottom line is – we can be clever, and subtle, and ultra-cool; but most of us still respond to simple, calm, knowledgeable and articulate presentation.

Charisma can come later.

Let’s get the basics right for now.

Yours,

The Capable Manager

1. Don’t change what you think of yourself based of what others say. It is what you believe of yourself that really matters.
2. Continually visualise the inevitable rewards of preparation. Champions never hurry.
3. Protect your passion for your goals.  Passion is power.
4. Demonstrate your respect for those in authority.  Listen, learn, observe.
5. Never participate in discrimination.  Stop misjudging people.
6. Incentivise those who help you achieve your dreams.  Reward who and what helps you succeed.
7. Rise above the stigma of your past.  Concentrate on your future.
8. Never waste time answering critics.  Champions only make time for constructive suggestion.
9. Discern The Time To Approach People.  There is a time to wait, and a time for action.
10. Willingly mentor the inexperienced around you.  Great thoughts and ideas can surface when teaching others.

As pointed out previously - this is a faith-based book, but if you aren’t one for faith in business, it makes great sense anyway.  Searching for Mike Murdock uncovers one of the ugliest websites in the world, and a toe-curling video message.  Hence no link in this blog.  I can’t bring myself to do it.  But Murdock has presented to over 14,000 audiences in 38 countries and is regularly invited to speak at churches, colleges, and business institutions around the world. He has also authored over 130 books.  In general it’s not my cup of tea, but in isolation the business devotionals book is the tamer of his offerings.

So how do you break as a new band, or reduce the amount of recoupable costs on your contracts?

Use Viral Videos like the Rutlandclimber brand currently working through various YouTube channels and embedded around the internet or posted as a link.

There are literally thousands of listens to tunes on YouTube, and the vast majority of non-official promo views are of a static picture.  What a waste.

Rutlandclimber has a video out at the moment for Five Finger Death Punch – a US band selling +150k albums for their current release. The cuts and energy in that video viral gives the new single ‘No One Gets Left Behind’ the punch you’d expect visually from such a powerful song. Even Ivan Moody can’t throw himself around enough live to emulate the true spirit of the song well enough to carry his passion through to a bootlegged video from the shows.

With Ivan, Five Finger Death Punch, and ‘No One Gets Left Behind’ from ‘War Is The Answer’ – you have to be there. Other than that, the Video Viral is the only way to jack up the emotions demanded by the track.

Yes you can pay thousands for promo videos, and they either hit or miss it big style. The beauty of the video viral is two-fold: it’s as good as the original material provided; and if it’s a bit choppy and fuzzy – it really doesn’t matter.

The biggest benefit of a viral from a brand like Rutlandclimber is that it can be ready in under a week and at a fraction of the cost of a big and bloated promo.

Next time you are rocking to your favourite new tune – take a look at the visuals. Do you want something more? Well you should – because it really isn’t that hard to get it.

TCM

‘As much time as who and for what?’ was my next question.

‘As much time as people with cats to go to University?’ was her hypothesis.

Statistics in isolation can be entertaining, but what IS the meaning behind the stats? I posed a new one to the girl:

‘If someone said that statistics showed that more poor families ate McDonalds, what would that mean?’

Her reply, charitably, was that ‘poor people’ have less time because they are out looking for ways to get money. I suggested that, as well as proving a point that you are trying to make, statistics can provide an opportunity to form a hypothesis which can then be tested further, and asked her to think about instances of poorer families that she knew to test her theory. She chose to restate her assumptions.

Statistics can be used to say whatever you want on any given occasion. Just change who you ask, when, and how.  The West Wing showed an interesting reflection about polling: that people polled will make themselves seem more erudite than they are – people don’t like to admit that they are in front of the TV watching pap on a Saturday night, or not reading books.

Unfortunately though the most startling aspect of the recent report on the cat vs dogs IQ issue, which made me laugh out loud when I read it, was this:

Dr Jane Murray, a lecturer in feline epidemiology at Bristol University, said “We don’t know why there is this discrepancy. We did look at average household income but that wasn’t significant. Our best guess is that it’s to do with working hours and perhaps commuting to work, meaning people have a less suitable lifestyle for a dog. It’s really just a hunch though.”

Dr Murray’s post is funded by the Cats Protection charity, and hopes to repeat the study using the results of the 2011 census to get a clearer idea; I’m guessing that is because this first study couldn’t draw any more concrete a conclusion than the hunch - the outcome of those resources openly diverted from front line service delivery.

If I was The Cats’ Protection league (as was) I’d be asking for my money back*.

*Artistic license applied, I’m sure that this very serious scientific study is worth its weight in PR gold

I’m a creative writer and a poet, and bad language hurts my inner ear.  The press piece below was forwarded to me by one of you charming Brits and I have to say that by the time I had finished reading it I was almost bent double from the clanging and clashing of those poor words being pile-driven into their ill-fitting phrases.  It was like plastic melting under the strain of a shape sorter in the hands of a hard-hearted toddler whose aim is to win at all costs:

A helicopter hovered over ABC Polo Club last week as part of a RAF training exercise.

Miss X*, who works at the club, said they only got two hours notice that the helicopter would be visiting the ground. She said: “We were delighted to be able to let them do it. Those guys are going out to places like Afghanistan and this is a way for us to support them.”

During the exercise the Puma helicopter, which was flying between two bases, hovered close to the ground. Miss X added: “It was really quite moving having one of those helicopters right in front of you. It’s really quite astonishing. “People from around the undisclosed Lincolnshire village became suddenly aware that there was a Puma helicopter in the area. It made quite a lot of noise, you could hear it from a way away.”

‘A RAF training programme’? Surely they meant to say ‘an’?

‘…places like Afghanistan’? Has the RAF stopped going there then?

‘It was really quite moving’ but ‘it is really quite astonishing’? Even if both of those phrases were uttered, was there room with journalistic licence to make it grammatically correct?

‘…people became suddenly aware’ and ‘…you could hear it from a way away’ don’t exactly trip off the tongue.  Were they sure that Miss X actually said both of those?  As I know the commenter in question (and she really is quite clever with a deftness for the prosaic) I hope not.

Not an exhaustive list but, copy, text, content – whatever you call it, writing matters.

With love from America, even if you can’t spell Aluminum!

Notebook Noise

*no we don’t think they employ porn stars, or people who can’t write – we have replaced the names to protect the innocently misquoted, Ed.

NB – From this guest post I claim in advance any errors or omissions as ironic TCM

1. Identify what you possess that others need.  Be a problem solver to your clients.
2. Believe in your own product.  Your attitude is always sensed.
3. Never misrepresent your product.  Liars are eventually exposed.
4. Go where the people are.  Success always involves other people.
5. Take time to rest. A tired mind rarely makes good decisions.
6. Invest time in a plan.  Champions plan to win, and the secret of your future success is hidden in your daily routine.
7. Do not be afraid to fail.  Rejection is not fatal.
8. Build your reputation as a problem-solver.  Somebody needs something you possess.
9. Money is what you get when you help someone else achieve their goal.  Recognise money’s true value.
10. Be willing to go somewhere you have never been before.  Geography can make a difference.

This is a faith-based book, but if you aren’t one for faith in business, it makes great sense anyway.  Searching for Mike Murdock uncovers one of the ugliest websites in the world, and a toe-curling video message.  Hence no link in this blog.  I can’t bring myself to do it.  But Murdock has presented to over 14,000 audiences in 38 countries and is regularly invited to speak at churches, colleges, and business institutions around the world. He has also authored over 130 books.  In general it’s not my cup of tea, but in isolation the business devotionals book is the tamer of his offerings.

Effective this week, the company is adopting Fridays as Casual Day. Employees are free to dress in the casual attire of their choice.

Week 3 – Memo No. 2 :

Spandex and leather micro-miniskirts are not appropriate attire for Casual Day. Neither are string ties, chaps, or flip-flops.

Week 6 – Memo No. 3 :

Casual Day refers to dress only, not attitude. When planning Friday’s wardrobe, remember image is a key to our success.

Week 8 – Memo No. 4 :

A seminar on how to dress for Casual Day will be held at 4 p.m. Friday in the cafeteria. A fashion show will follow. Attendance is mandatory.

Week 9 – Memo No. 5 :

As an outgrowth of Friday’s seminar, a 14-member Casual Day Task Force has been appointed to prepare guidelines for proper casual-day dress.

Week 14 – Memo No. 6 :

The Casual Day Task Force has now completed a 30-page manual entitled “Relaxing Dress Without Relaxing Company Standards.” A copy has been distributed to every employee. Please review the chapter “You Are What You Wear” and consult the “home casual” versus “business casual” checklist before leaving for work each Friday. If you have doubts about the appropriateness of an item of clothing, contact your CDTF representative before 7 a.m. on Friday.

Week 18 – Memo No. 7 :

Our Employee Assistant Plan (EAP) has now been expanded to provide support for psychological counselling for employees who may be having difficulty adjusting to Casual Day.

Week 20 – Memo No. 8 :

Due to budget cuts in the HR Department we are no longer able to effectively support or manage Casual Day. Casual Day will be discontinued, effective immediately.

There are things that you can do in your business to inspire, gain real rewards, and build excellent relationships with your staff and customers.  ‘Casual Day’ is obviously not one of them.  For ideas, support, and that extra help – call me at the number on the web-site.

Helping make businesses better – every day!

Yours,

The Capable Manager

Many would say that to chase this kind of business is a fool’s errand: that it serves only the large businesses that would want to cover their fixed costs with little, none or even less than profitable contracts.  At least they are over a guaranteed period, and once you have the systems in place to manage the contracts any opportunity costs are balanced against the risk associated with more commercial yet more fluid contracts, the network available to you once you are in the supply-chain, and the subsequent negotiating power with your own suppliers .

Below is an interesting editorial perspective about the impact of purchasing and supply decisions, experienced firsthand by eprint in Peterborough, a 20+ years printers that specialise in applying print expertise to their customers benefit – which protects their print, their brand, and their sanity:

Keeping Our Money In Our City

Did you know that the council is one of the biggest employers in Peterborough, and yet with a budget of £247.9 million it still orders take-out for goods and services that can be delivered by businesses right here in the City?  So, the counter argument is that Peterborough businesses are offered the various tenders, but are uncompetitive.  Really?  Because logistics are so much cheaper these days, of course.  Just because companies tender low for contracts does not mean that they are the cheapest.  Most cost analysts know this.  Just look at the real costs one year on and you will see that what is tendered for is only part of what is delivered.  It’s the added items that send the true costs of the contracts soaring,  but by then people start citing ‘ the cost of change’ and they rap the supplier on the knuckles, who promise to do better next year, and so another year passes.  By this time, you are in the third year of the contract and – guess what!  Most contracts run for three years so – there’s no point in changing supplier now!  So, they just let it roll on as the contracts are up for renewal or retender, and they’ll probably even stay with that supplier because they ‘know so much about the organisation’ that new entrants are locked out for good.

So external companies that are ‘professional bidders’ win the contracts – make money elsewhere in the supply (claiming they are cost-effective because of the scale of their business) when in fact they aren’t big enough to supply themselves, and end up sourcing cheaply back in the original area.  I’m not saying that this happens with print for Peterborough City Council.  Or am I?

Our money is going out of County, having the cream taken off the top and then we’re ending up doing the work but for less money.  Now I’m not suggesting that we should be milking the taxpayer (which is us too) for loads of cream, but cheap, cheap business means that there is less money being spent within our communities by the people in the communities who are working for our local companies.

Want another example?  Thomas Cook invested in a range of ‘therapies’ to de-stress its workforce in Thorpe Wood.  Did it go to the city’s businesses?  No.  They contracted out to a ‘specialist’ company in London, who then contacted therapists contracted to local businesses in Peterborough.  Cream gone, the city gets the basic price – and we can all be secure in the knowledge that our average basic wage is going to stay the same, even though around the country someone else has all the cream!

Ed.

Great reading, and I would go further and suggest that most businesses wouldn’t want the type of customer that councils would prove to be – especially if they are making the kind of decisions outlined above.

Sometimes it pays to interrogate your dreams, strategies, and business decisions from a range of perspectives – just to make sure that you end up with the right ones.

TCM