Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle
New Thinking from Framework Consulting
Human Resource departments are facing an unprecedented demand to become analytic and data-driven. But few are answering the call. What should HR practitioners and consultants do to respond?
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In the past few years, what opportunities has the shift to online business created for local companies? Your firm may be automating its processes, but is it also converting the data being collected into competitive advantage?
In 2003, I started a virtual organization: CaribHRForum. With less than 10 people at the start, it drew together HR practitioners I met in the Caribbean on various trips. New digital technologies were just emerging, and I believed they could be used to close the distance. Consequently, we adopted a centralized online mailing list to initiate a region-wide discussion.
The small group grew to add a website and a podcast – CaribHR.Radio. But the rapid growth outgrew the tools we were using and became overwhelming.
Thankfully, newer technology emerged in 2019 in the form of virtual community software – Mighty Networks. For the first time, an affordable, private internet platform could bring together thousands in the same space.
That same year, by coincidence, I apprenticed behind the scenes of a virtual conference. While I had been a speaker at prior events, now I learned how to host a summit or big event. It was a thrill, and I vowed to make it available to the members of CaribHRForum.
Then COVID-19 hit, and interest in online networks grew. It hasn’t stopped – CaribHRForum recently concluded its second virtual conference, one of the biggest in the region. With free registration, thousands are able to connect with HR experts, consultants and colleagues for the very first time.
But this is only the public side of the story. Hidden away from view, an important inner transformation based on data is also underway.
1) Industry Data Using Linkedin
What are the drivers of customer behaviour in your industry? You may want to have more than anecdotes to make decisions, but don’t have access to anything concrete.
We had the same problem, but the platforms we use have obliged by developing better data and analytic capabilities.
For example, on Linkedin we have learned that there are 23,000 HR professionals in the region, spread across 21 territories and countries.
By offering multiple Linkedin events on a range of topics, the platform tells us what this cohort is interested in learning. Our webinars and conferences advertised on the social network have served as a continuous pipeline. Each one adds new potential members. The cost? Just our time, as the network doesn’t charge for this service.
Furthermore, we have run paid Linkedin advertisements. While these are not cheap, they allow us to target each country’s HR Professionals with great precision. As such, we have steadily “trained” our Linkedin account to recognize people in our audience. Now, it’s a valuable tool: an analytic partner that outstrips our use of Instagram, Facebook and Google.
But the point is that they all offer data which gives us powerful insights into our efforts, and their results. They also track a storm of information on audience behaviour: views, clicks, and conversions which are impossible to gain from other face-to-face methods. Together, we can paint a picture that becomes clearer as they add new features.
2.) Community Behaviour Using Mighty Networks
While social networks have become great assets, our community platform on Mighty Networks has also improved its analytics. Now, we can track the overall behavior of our members as they transition from being newbies to more mature contributors.
From this data, we are able to predict which new topics are trending. From there, we can tweak the members’ journey and make timely improvements. As a result, we can better meet their overall purpose: to become better professionals. The data indicates which events and training we should offer.
3) The End Result: a New Organization
What else do all these data-driven insights allow for? Apart from the obvious internal benefits to us as hosts, they also enable more pluses for potential sponsors. As we uncover deeper interpretations, we offer sponsors more than exposure. Today, we can give them a better understanding of the audience and its unique behaviour.
In other words, the availability of analytics has transformed CaribHRForum. Scaling up from our small example, you may see how any organization can transform itself using data. The mere existence of this new information could be disruptive to an industry.
Perhaps your company is similar. You probably don’t intend for it to become a data-driven organization, but as you conduct more online business, consider this outcome. In fact, you may not have a choice.
The availability of fresh, easy-to-collect data in your industry could become a way for your company, or a competitor, to gain a permanent advantage. Don’t hesitate to include this likely scenario in your strategic planning.
Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com.
In the past few years, what opportunities has the shift to online business created for local companies? Your firm may be automating its processes, but is it also converting the data being collected into competitive advantage?
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit longtermstrategy.substack.com/subscribe
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
If you have been asked to create a multi-day, online event, you may want it to be everything a live event should be. But you could also be wondering: should it try to mimic a face-to-face experience? And what does success even look like in this environment?
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit longtermstrategy.substack.com/subscribe
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
If you have been asked to create a multi-day, online event, you may want it to be everything a live event should be. But you could also be wondering: should it try to mimic a face-to-face experience? And what does success even look like in this environment?
In the past two years, (but starting just before COVID), we added the ability to conduct online conferences to our company’s repertoire. After speaking and apprenticing at several virtual gatherings, we decided to offer our own…with some trepidation. Since then, 4,000 people have registered in four events.
What have we discovered that can be transferred to any business with a virtual audience?
We have learned that our objective should be to create a unique online experience. While there is some overlap with live events, we don’t try to emulate them. Instead, we follow best practices from the finest virtual gatherings we can find from every corner of the world.
In that context, we compete for our audience’s attention against anyone who offers education, engagement or entertainment. Examples include webinars, Facebook and Netflix. Our job is to create a compelling alternative that keeps people’s focus whether they are in the office or working from home.
This definition has kept us on the edge of our seats, because the world is constantly changing. Internet providers of education, engagement and entertainment are highly sophisticated, with deep pockets. We consider them all to be unwelcome, but possible substitutes for our event: “competitors”. Even distractions are included.
As such, if you aren’t studying Facebook and Instagram to see what they are doing to capture attention, then you may not be in the know. Why? Your customers have become accustomed to attractive online experiences at a world-class level. They expect you to provide the same. Fail to do so and you’ll fall behind.
Many companies aren’t interested in prospects until they are on the verge of making a purchase. The evidence lies in their processes. They blast advertisements to customers, driving them to interact directly with a salesperson, or sales page.
In the virtual world, this approach doesn’t work. Common sense tells us that a buyer’s interest should be fostered over time. Companies which nurture prospects from the initial show of concern can bring them all the way to the point of purchase. The entire cycle may take minutes, or years, but the principle remains the same.
The magic of online conferences allows us to track people’s behavior from their very first click to actions taken even beyond the close of the event…at a minimal cost. In the face-to-face world, this is difficult to do. But the data is easy to gather for ecommerce. All you need to do is set up the right virtual infrastructure.
As such, if your company is still writing prospects’ names in a big, hardcover book, you may want to consider an upgrade.
The fact is, the customer relationship software used to manage a database of thousands of prospects costs relatively little. Unfortunately, the skills required to run it are in desperately short supply, but the sooner you make the investment, the better.
Even after you gain the attention and put in place the necessary software, your journey has just begun. Fortunately, even entry-level applications allow you to collect metrics.
Use them to predict the flow of your prospects from one phase to the next, the effectiveness of your messaging and the precise impact of the final results you produce. This knowledge means that you can make tweaks that have a positive effect.
While your company may have reached its current position without these capabilities, I assert that it has no future unless it masters them. Why? We live in a world in which every organization can be out-analyzed by a substitute or competitor.
Perhaps you think this to be an exaggeration, but as you read these words, consider the medium you are reading: paper or digital?
As you probably know, there is a major transformation underway in the newspaper industry. As a reader of this column, you’re involved. In fact, the Gleaner’s future depends on understanding your behaviors. Using the data it can gather from paper and digital customers, new strategies are being implemented. There simply is no choice.
The transitions taking place in the conference industry are also unavoidable. As new tools become available, the online versions have the means to get better, faster. This gives them a great advantage over traditional counterparts. It’s just an example of yet another business being disrupted by analytic technology.
As a company leader, you are probably interested in employees doing their best work. But most new staff members quickly lose the inspiration they had on their first day. How can you intervene so that precious employee motivation doesn’t get lost so soon?
An old man woke up one morning to the sound of stones hitting his zinc roof. He ran out to see a bunch of kids running away, laughing as he shook his fist and shouted at them to leave him alone. After several episodes in a row, he drew them into a conversation, from a distance: “Come stone my roof tomorrow and I’ll give you each some money.”
The following morning, they each received J$100 for their antics. But he apologized. He could only afford J$50 to repeat their performance. Deciding it was still a bargain, they returned the next day and collected their payment from the obviously senile senior citizen.
Shaking his head, he said: “There’s so many of you…I can only pay you J$1 tomorrow.”
“That’s all? Cheapskate…Forget it!” they complained as they stalked away for good.
While the old man was a master manipulator, there are managers who unwittingly produce the same result. Their employees start out being “transcendent”, but end up stuck in a “tit-for-tat”. The only difference is that everyone is unhappy with the outcome. Here’s why this happens.
Most employees are naturally motivated at the outset of a new job. When asked to give discretionary time and effort, they are often quite willing to do so. They are inspired.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t last, but it’s not because of the circumstances. The transcendent state they initially enjoyed is one they can’t manage for very long. In other words, they are unable to explain why they feel the way they do. Also, they don’t identify the drivers of their positivity, fail to intervene when it slips away, and sometimes even regret that initial burst of motivation.
And most company cultures are unhelpful.
They don’t foster transcendent ways of being, let alone act to keep them alive. Toxic employees attack them with open cynicism. Those who are “too happy” have obviously “drank the Kool-Ade” – a snide reference to the suicidal Jim Jones cult.
In other words, companies allow this precious resource to fritter away as if it weren’t important. However, it’s actually critical.
In fact, most organizations do a good job of promoting staff to the executive suite, where transcendence is the norm.
Unfortunately, top leaders take their own motivation for granted. They also don’t realize that as they rose in the corporate ranks, they left the de-motivated behind. They no longer had to contend with the most embittered. Their amnesia leaves them unaware of the battle new employees face, made worse by a lack of help from their direct managers.
2. Why Most Leaders Become Tit-for-Tat Managers
Even though leaders may be transcendent, few have the ability to inspire their troops to extraordinary actions. Instead, the average manager devolves into a Tit-for-Tat: “No-one does anything if they aren’t being paid”.
While there’s abundant evidence this thinking is flawed, they cling to this explanation. It’s the ultimate escape from responsibility because there isn’t a single organization on earth with enough Tit (i.e. cash) to induce a meaningful Tat (i.e. a transcendent culture.) Why? Research shows that apart from short, physical activities, more pay does not produce motivated behavior.
In other words, ineffective managers surrender, then blame their staff. But is there an alternative? Yes – the fact is that transcendent cultures do exist.
The best interventions take place before the slip begins. Organizations can train employees to work with their habits of thought that often turn a dip into a landslide.
Eastern philosophies teach that joy is inside all of us. Unfortunately, its presence fades as we pick up defects in our thinking patterns.
However, mystics also argue that transcendence is merely a transformation away. If taught, we can learn how to become like the old man in the story: someone who coaxes a change with the right dialogue. In other words, we can pick up the kind of self-talk which transforms and returns us to a transcendent experience at will.
There are a number of effective methods to try, including affirmations, meditation, and journaling. More advanced approaches require fresh mental models picked up from coaches, books and therapists. (For more than a decade, I have used The Work of Byron Katie.)
The startling realization is that most organizations offer nothing at all. If they were to start, they would probably see that the high motivation present in the probationary stages never goes away completely. They just need to invest in helping staff remove the obstacles.
Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com.
As a company leader, you are probably interested in employees doing their best work. But most new staff members quickly lose the inspiration they had on their first day. How can you intervene so that precious employee motivation doesn’t get lost so soon?
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit longtermstrategy.substack.com/subscribe
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
An engaged staff full of bright ideas? This is clearly an aspiration for most leaders. But what happens when employees, armed with a dose of courage, create more noise than anything else? What should organizations do when people pick up the habit of simply speaking what’s on their mind, with little commitment behind their words?
In times past, managers did the thinking and workers did the doing. Thankfully, those days are long gone and staff expect their input to be taken seriously. Their engagement is critical.
However, executives with open-door policies can spend all day at the mercy of those who think they have good ideas. Indulge too often, and they fall into inefficiency, even with the best of intentions. While their openness is a fine start, it’s not enough.
According to Michael Stelzner from the Social Media Marketing Show, you must learn to follow three counter-intuitive steps when you sell your suggestions.
The higher up you go in an organization, the greater the need to begin any proposal with the headline or solution – “the What”. Why? Leaders are time and attention constrained. Their people are required to get to the point.
Journalists have a name for it: “burying the lead.” It refers to a British-inspired tradition of using polite banter before getting to the bottom-line. Unfortunately, it’s a deadly communication sin in today’s world of ongoing distractions.
As such, reporters are taught to unlearn this practice because it loses the reader’s attention. The lead (i.e. the main point) comes first, and the explanatory details after.
However, in everyday life, this takes courage. Most of us prefer the safe approach. We’d rather beat around the bush and leave the punchline for the end, delaying any rejection for as long as possible.
In the corporate world, it pays to train yourself and others to summarize the idea at the start. Everyone benefits, even if the suggestion is ultimately discarded. You’ll save precious time and can move on to other topics of discussion.
If your audience seems receptive to “The What”, shift gears to explain the reasons your idea is important.
You may describe the past, present and future of the problem. Why has it not been cleared up? Why is this the ideal moment to make a public commitment to deal with the issue? What is the cost to the organization if the obstacle is allowed to continue? What if the challenge is never addressed at all?
One way to answer these questions is in the form of a story in which the members of your audience take the role of protagonists. Their tale begins with the normal, everyday situation where everything is working as it should. Then, it’s interrupted by a failure of some kind that introduces pain. Finally, the saga ends with your suggestion for taking action.
In this finishing step, your solution addresses a range of functional, emotional and social gaps which the breakdown has produced. They amplify the impact of the breach in order to generate real-time attention and commitment.
If the heads are nodding at this point, you’re ready for the element that most employees fail to address. Who exactly will implement the initiative?
The answer to this question separates the talkers from the implementers. The fact is, most leaders don’t want to entertain solutions which lack this critical piece. Why? No project succeeds when there is no-one willing to be accountable.
Therefore, think through the staffing of your proposed solution before offering it openly. Even if you do not have a definitive answer, show that you have given it enough thought to make an informed suggestion. Your attempt will be appreciated as you help your audience grapple with this dimension and the trade-offs it demands.
Finally, resist the temptation to get caught up in the question of “How should this be implemented?” Usually, this moment is neither the time nor the place to delve into that level of detail. Why? The subject-matter experts are probably not in attendance, accountable individuals have not been assigned and a decision to proceed hangs in the balance.
Instead, trust the project team to figure out “The How” after careful study, once they have consulted appropriate stakeholders.
In other words, don’t allow uninformed (but well-meaning) leaders to indulge in commitment-free, speculative conversations. While they are comfortable and even enjoyable, they are out of place and waste everyone’s time.
In summary, follow the What, Why and Who script, and delay the How discussion. If you discipline yourself as an organization to stick to this formula, you’ll see better ideas bubbling up to the right places from your staff.
An engaged staff full of bright ideas? This is clearly an aspiration for most leaders. But what happens when employees, armed with a dose of courage, create more noise than anything else? What should organizations do when people pick up the habit of simply speaking what’s on their mind, with little commitment behind their words?
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit longtermstrategy.substack.com/subscribe
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Where should good ideas for new products and services come from? Does the customer know best or not? Answer these questions correctly and your company could launch a series of winning offerings.
Is the customer always right? Steve Jobs argued otherwise: “By the time you build what they say they want, they have moved on and want something new.”
At the other end of the spectrum, customers were demanding better buggy-whips when innovators wanted to sell them cars. A survey of their needs would have been trapped within the limits of their thinking.
Here in the Caribbean, researchers complain about the challenge of customer surveys: people will often default to telling you what you want to hear. They are afraid of rocking the boat, or making you feel bad, so they alter their responses.
But should you ignore your customers?
The fact is, there are more companies that have failed by following their instincts and intuitions than by doing surveys and focus groups. Fortunately, there’s some new thinking emerging that solves the dilemma. Here are the steps some of the best organizations are using to craft fresh offerings that win the hearts and minds of their audience.
1. Uncover Struggling Moments
A “struggling moment” is one which occurs when a customer can’t have your offering. It may not exist, or not be available to them. Some may complain loudly, but the ones you really need aren’t merely the unhappy and opinionated. Instead, you should focus on those who are so frustrated they are engaging in what Amy Jo Kim calls “Solution Seeking Behavior”.
In other words, they are actively trying to solve the problem by finding substitutes. For example, if you want to create a better car, find people who are already working to fill the void you have identified. You’ll know who they are because they are taking visible action.
They probably know more than you do about the problem, because they have been attempting to solve it for so long. Their actual experience of living at their wits’ end, praying for answers, is important information you can’t get elsewhere.
This discovery is a pivotal moment for you as a product or service innovator. You need to stop brainstorming internally, so you can hear real-life struggling moments from the outside. Unfortunately, most companies don’t reach this point and end up missing the mark. But yours could be different if it can be disciplined enough to make the switch.
But you are still faced with the problem of locating these rare people. This could be a matter of searching for them in social media communities, or making face-to-face invitations. Perhaps the most efficient way is to conduct a questionnaire or survey intended to weed out the least qualified. Do it well, and the most likely prospects will nominate themselves.
They will definitely be in the minority.
But once you have some prospects, conduct short interviews to select the few who will become your biggest fans. And they should be willing to participate. After all, they have been dreaming up solutions ever since they identified the problem, putting you in a coveted position.
And don’t worry if they add up to a motley crew which doesn’t represent the majority. Or if there aren’t enough of them to earn you a decent profit. That’s OK – their role is not to make you rich, but to teach you.
While they won’t bring you lots of revenue, these high-quality strugglers will give you something more valuable: their energy and knowledge. Because they are highly motivated, they’ll work with you to craft the ideal offering that would solve their problems.
This small army of practical soldiers will also provide the impetus and inspiration you need to make your first wins. This sets you up to pivot. Next up? The group Geoffrey Moore calls the Early Majority. This is the segment of the mainstream audience that will adopt your offering.
But there’s a catch.
The product or service you eventually offer to the mainstream may not look like the one you crafted to win over the Strugglers/Co-Creators. That’s OK. Today, the average personal computer user looks nothing like young, mostly male nerds who fell in love with the technology in the late 1970s’.
Once you expect this to be the case, you can be patient. Working with customers is a must, but the entire journey requires a nuanced approach.
It’s just not as simple as asking people what they want or trusting your gut instincts. Dig deeper into the reason the Strugglers are so fired up and you’ll find the seeds of solutions that may take you to success.