When We Fail Our Customers

Recently, I was reminded of how airplanes crash.  It's never one thing - pilot error, or malfunctioning equipment.  It's the circumstances where 7-8 little things combine in a terribly unfortunate way, to produce a result that is unrecoverable.  It may be triggered by a single system failure or cockpit decision, but inevitably the findings of the NTSB's of the world are a series of issues which when combined produce the crash result.

I've recently been involved in a customer deployment that also resulted in a crash, and as much as it would be easy to point the (unproductive) finger of blame in one direction, this situation like an airplane crash was the result of a series of events. (Side note here - blame is wholly unproductive 100% of the time as the act of looking for a scapegoat, destroys the learning opportunity to see what might have been done differently. Educated minds learn from our mistakes and adapt, small minds blame.)

In this case, I'll keep the client detail confidential, suffice it to say that they were looking for something to make their world a little easier to work in.  As someone involved in a consultancy that offers services to do exactly that, I was part of a team engaged to assist.  The end result was that our efforts didn't work.  Responsibility for the failure sits in a few places - us, and the customer - but it's really the customer that pays the price for the failure as they still have their core issue, and the engagement of our team cost them time.  We lost some revenues, but that's a drop in the bucket.

So what 'systems' or conditions contributed to this failure..?  I think I can sum it up as follows:

• They weren't all on the same wavelength on the nature of the issue they had
• We didn't acknowledge that
• They specifically didn't want some kinds of solutions
• We ignored that, and went ahead anyway as we perceived that they had problems in those areas
• The nature of our solution put some of their people at risk - in their eyes
• We didn't address that in a timely fashion
• They elected not to own the customization they contributed to, for the chosen solution
• We didn't press them to do that, content instead that it was the right thing to do

We weren't able to create value for them, and so they moved on.  It was probably the right decision for them.

I know we're feeling chastened, and displeased with the end result and our desire is to blame, or at least defend the actions taken.  Hindsight as they say is 20/20 though and the more interesting discussion is what to do differently next time.

Prior to 'solutioning', we need to get to the root of the issues better.  Understand the stakes of the key individuals involved and talk about what exactly constitutes success for each party.  We need to understand the roles each of their individuals will have in determining success, and how they influence one another.  We failed this customer by not doing our own jobs well.  Next time, we'll do better.

My Precious

Normally, I can't hear this phrase without thinking about Gollum - that's the power of story-telling I suppose.  But today, I mean it in a different sense.

I want you to go through an exercise with me.

Think about what is most precious in your life, and now imagine that it's threatened in some way.  The overwhelming feeling of angst, the desire to jump to defend, and the need to secure that most precious aspect of our lives is powerful.  It elicits primal responses in many of us - the adage about never getting between a mother and her cubs is apt here.  The unbalanced-ness (my blog, I can make up words if I like) of it is disturbing too, the shifting ground of what's normal, of what is normally considered fair play from fate, and the implications that once something bad has happened, you can't really ever go back to the way things were.  Let it sink in.

Look carefully at that first sentence again now, as I said 'imagine' not actually experience it.  Imagining it is safe - safer anyway, and it offers a glimpse into many of the same deep-seated reactions as actually going through the event you thought up.  Do it again, but this time though, I want you to experience the relief that what you thought about isn't real, that it won't come true, and that your reality isn't changed.  Relief in this sense is very good.  Let it wash over you a little.

Ok, I'd bet that some of you are thinking that this is a stupid little exercise designed to wind your heart up for no reason.  Well, it's not, and here's why.  I want you to go embrace that which is most precious to you, and let it/them/whatever know that you think they are precious to you, and ensure they know it.  Maybe you just have to admit it to yourself, or perhaps you should go hug someone and tell them you care.

Too often in our busy lives we take for granted that which we truly value, those aspects of our lives that are most precious in our hearts and minds.  I'd like to take a moment  - before you might ever have to - and express your own gratitude that they are in your life.

Which came first the Chicken or the Egg & More- Answered.

There's a question I have to say that I dislike - the chicken and egg one - I'm sure you've heard it.  While I'm at it, the statement about the glass being half empty or half full, I'm not fond of that one either.  Scientifically, neither of these hold any water- ok, that was a bad pun, but bear with me and I'll explain.

Let's deal with chickens first.

 "What came first, the chicken or the egg"  Seems harmless enough as a baseline for an analogy to describe an unclear situation.  However its illogical, and a poorly thought out comparison.  Chickens are hatched.  They hatch from eggs.  That, in itself is enough to describe how inane the saying is.  Take it to the next level - where did the first chicken come from, and the idea that it somehow spontaneously developed post birth into some different form is truly silly.  "Man evolves into chimp last Tuesday" kind of thing.  What happened scientifically was something we might describe today as: 50% chicken, 50% 'other' mated with something else that was 50% 'X' and 50% chicken.  The resulting litter of eggs had a number of variants, one of which was a chicken, and it was born from an egg.  Case closed.  Well, almost, as there would have had to have been two of these new creatures to bring about the next batch of eggs and new chickens.  The Adam and Eve of chickens as it were.

Just as an aside, something else new was also probably created in that first chicken litter - something that wasn't the '50% chicken' from either of the parents.  We never hear about that one, do we ?

So, with this air-tight quasi-science now laid out, I hope to never again hear the "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" question.  At the very least, a more appropriate question is "What were the parents of the first chicken ?"  That at least will have you scratching you head a little.

Ok - now - glasses with some water in them, being described as analogies for positive or negative thinkers.  Clearly this one has some deeper thinking behind it, but I'd suggest that even a thirsty pessimist might be tempted to see the water positively.  Moving on and invoking some science once more...

The water in any container will indeed be visible at some height/layer/volume.  The latter word is the critical one, as the volume the water occupies is subject to a few factors - temperature being a large influence.  Roughly speaking all liquids (and water is an exception to the general rule as I'll explain) expand when heated and contracts when cooled.  Water has an exception to this general rule between 0 and 4 degrees celsius.  Water is at it's most contracted at 4 degrees, and as it cools farther towards 0 degrees where is freezes, it expands as the ice molecules create different (larger) bonds.  Thawing back towards 4 degrees, it appears to shrink, until past 4 degrees where it expands as any other liquid. This is kind of interesting in itself, and makes me ask why..

But, back to the question - "Is the glass half full, or half empty?" Well, it depends, as it probably is not static - cold water from the tap or fridge when placed at the half-way point in a container is actually expanding to be more than half full as it warms up.  Likewise a container of hot water placed outside will shrink (also potentially due to evaporation, so the mean humidity level also comes into play). Hopefully it's clear now that the glass is neither half full or half empty, but at a transitionary state whereby a range of factors (and I didn't even mention air pressure) are affecting it.  Science prevails once more.

As to one's perspective in seeing the negative or positive - I'd suggest a simple conversation will illuminate that individual's viewpoint, and no water needs to get involved to determine this.

I'd be happy to take on other simple sayings if you like, right now however I'm thirsty and hungry for  - well, you know.

The Superbowl - Bucking the Trend

The superbowl represented a huge validation of traditional media, and it bucked the trends all around us to move away from shared interests and common messaging.    All we hear these days in a media sense is more news about a fragmented audience, and the need to market to the individual.  The social media powerhouse emergence - got a spare $100B for your own? - is the cause or effect of all this depending on who you listen to.  Amazon and the long tail, iTunes and the evolution of Genius and Ping to find those who may share some interests - it's all fascinating, but it's all about the movement away from a common shared perspective that we have as a society.

That's what made the superbowl so stupefying in a media sense.  yes, we know the commercials are $3.5M for 30seconds, but that was before they knew what the audience would be.  The actual numbers behind this shared cultural experience are breathtaking.

• 111,300,000 viewers in the US - the most watched program of all time.  (Keep in mind that you can count on your hands the number of TV programs that have exceeded 100M in history)
• Canada had 8.1M viewers, and more than 18M watched some part of the game.

Despite all the tie-ins to new media during the ads that were seen, the very fact that more than 1 in 3 individuals in North America shared the same program this week should be cause for celebration for anyone vested in 'old' media.  It isn't dead, and remains a force to be reckoned with.