True brand engagement delivers on the promise of the packaging!

It’s the time of year when we exchange gifts, good wishes and kind thoughts and reflect on the year rapidly passing.

I was more delighted than usual to receive a card from the leadership team of a particular client company who have had more than their fair share of challenges, most of which would put the usual corporate change travails to shame.

The Northern Ireland Tourist Board was one of the brand development case studies I featured in Brand Champions.

I’m sure I don’t have to labour the difficulties they have faced in turning around stakeholder perspectives about visiting their country.

I’m sure I don’t really have to mention the impressive advertising and marketing campaign they have embarked upon to chart the re-awakening of that beautiful part of these islands as you’ve doubtless seen it already.

I possibly don’t even have to point out the huge leaps forward Belfast has made as a City destination of choice; or the way the pride of the people of Northern Ireland has blossomed as they have grown in confidence and joined together to embrace the future, regardless of the hostile financial backdrop or ever-testing political landscape.

What you probably don’t appreciate, however, is that the transformation of the Northern Ireland brand started and has been continuously role-modelled from within. Alan Clarke and his team at the tourist board have been on a journey of transformation that has ensured that they walk the advertising talk in terms of the values, behaviours and culture they cultivate and perpetuate when they’re promoting their national brand. They are  passionate about delivering on the brand promise and are now rightly proud of the fact that they can invite visitors to share in their stories, a far cry from the bitterness of the past.

It’s incredibly heartening to see the fledgling signature projects like the Giant’s Causeway re-development and Titanic exhibition come to life as planned and to witness the passion, confidence and pride with which they are being promoted. That wouldn’t have been possible without the internal engagement signature projects which gave the brand refresh its backbone by leading with the values and transforming the corporate culture. Many congratulations to the senior leadership team and your colleagues for what has been a real team effort throughout.

Take a look at the NITB website to see what’s happening in Northern Ireland in 2012, experience a dose of positivity and to witness a brand flourishing from within.

If you haven’t visited yet, you really don’t know what you’ve been missing.

Authenticity is a powerful catalyst for getting more from your talent for less

One of the benefits of an economic downturn (yes, benefits), is that organisations have little choice other than to do things better or do better things. They have to make the most of their existing assets as they don’t have the luxury of replacing them.

It may be a tired cliché that people are an organisations’ greatest asset. But I, for one, happen to believe it, qualified by the assertion that it very much depends on how the leaders treat them. Viewing people appreciatively as a pool of talent is very different to seeing the back office as a cost base or the support team as “burden”.

With this in mind, it’s encouraging to see some of the people-focused debates finally starting to emerge in the business press. Last week came the revelation that the workplace has become the least enjoyable place to be for the majority of people. This week the revelations included the belated dropping of the proverbial penny about RBS, namely the report that the financial crisis was as much a cultural as it was a regulatory issue; a point we made three years ago or more, having deep knowledge of the sector and the company. Perhaps more surprisingly, these debates included the recognition in the CIPD publication People Management (for which I write a regular column),  that people are more effective when they feel free to be themselves, namely that they are many times more innovative in the pub, for example, than at work.

In 2005, a BY2W survey of 1500 employee in ceo roles (pivotal internal communicators), rated the following characteristics of leaders as most valued:

• openness
• bravery
• honesty

Conversely, they saw the following as most hindering engagement:

• insincerity
• spin
• inaction
• cascaded messaging

The overwhelming majority of those surveyed stated that they believed they were more effective when they could be themselves at work. Clearly the above-mentioned characteristics have a major influence over the internal culture and extent to which they feel able to be themselves and be effective in turn. The degree to which they were prepared and equipped to suggest new and better ways of working (or be innovative) falls into this definition of effectiveness.

In his visionary book Future Minds, futurist Richard Watson corroborates the data supporting the notion that people are overwhelmingly more effective at generating ideas when they aren’t in the workplace by publishing the results of his own survey of leading thinkers and everymen alike.

But what can leaders do to create a more authentic internal culture in which talent will thrive not just survive?

First and foremost, leaders clearly need to recognise the cause and effect relationship between performance and a definitive description of the culture of their organisation as well as the way they communicate the essence of their organisation within and beyond the pool of talent. They then need to take responsibility for shaping that culture through the values and behaviours of their line managers.

However you look at it, there’s an overwhelmingly compelling business case for authenticity in the workplace if you’re the sort of leader who has the courage and the vision to look beyond the next quarter’s results. Authenticity is a major driver of innovation and can be turbo-charged by the example set by the right sort of role models drawn from the pool of existing talent, the organisation’s greatest asset.

If you’re convinced or at least worried enough by the why to be curious then pick up a copy of Brand Engagement or Brand Champions for many more clues about the how.

Alternatively, drop us a line. We’ll be very happy to share stories.

Book Review: Future Minds by Richard Watson

Given the cover and sub-title “How the digital age is changing our minds…”, I have to confess that I approached futurist Watson’s second book with the same trepidation a twelve-year-old feels when faced with a Winter cross-country run. I expected it to “do me good”. But I didn’t expect it to be so enjoyably engaging.

This isn’t a geek’s treatise. I’m pleased to report that Richard is a humanist rather than a techie and a pragmatist rather than a dogmatic zealot perpetuating the marketing myth that life begins and ends with so-called social media; mobile phone functionality and the whims of Microsoft and Apple.

Some time ago I published a piece titled “Facebook will never replace Facetime”. It was targeted at the non-sensical hysteria surrounding so-called social media and reminded people of the importance of deep thinking; relationship management and development and the necessity of contact and connections flesh to flesh rather than via an ISP. My treatise is primarily based on experience of facilitating change within organisations. Watson’s thesis is based on extremely well researched fact.

Here are some of his challenging observations:

-          Gen Y “screenagers” have become better at IQ tests than their predecessors, yet the No1 gripe from employers is a lack of basic reading, writing and arithmetic

-          The effectiveness of multi-tasking is largely a myth

-          Online crowds are drowning out individual wisdom

-          The culture of pace for the sake of it and rapid response (reaction rather than reflection) is perpetuating mistakes and half-truths

-          The anonymity of the web is eroding core relationship skills like empathy and promotes virtual courage over real emotion and accountability

-          As so-called social media grows at the expense of true social interactions there are increasingly fewer opportunities for serendipitous encounters (a great phrase)

-          The next working generation will be less resilient as they have a “re-boot” mentality

-          The increase in on-screen reading at the expense of books and paper may improve the pace and volume of apparent reading but it  is already having a detrimental effect on problem-solving & deep thinking

-          Handwritten correspondence is staggeringly more successful at engaging recipients than electronic messages

-          We have to try harder to allow children to be child-like for longer

-          Workplaces are very seldom conducive to generating ideas

-          Humour is hugely important to forge relationships and break conventional patterns of thought

-          Personalised, intrusive advertising is imminent

-          Mental privacy will become one of the hottest issues in the next 30 years

-          Expect to see a return to the real and the growth in localism and crafts

These are just a few of the well thought through and provocative arguments which run through this book. Interestingly, many of his points echo similar phases in social evolution like the emergence of the Arts and Crafts movement as a reaction to industrialisation and mass production, for example

But before the tech heads start to cry “Tolpuddle martyr”, it’s important to stress that the ultimate thesis of Future Minds is a plea for balance and a blended approach to technology.

It’s clear that Watson believes in the power of so-called new media. But what he does very well in this book is re-visit the biology of thinking as well as the sociology of relationships to appeal for individual and collective responsibility for re-framing how man uses machines “Technology should sometimes be forced to adapt to us” and not the other way round. And he makes a compelling case with the help of a great deal of hard, factual evidence, expert testimonial and provocative, sometimes disturbing case study. Perhaps the most shocking is the couple who let their real baby starve because they were obsessed with caring for a virtual infant online!

Ultimately, this book is a timely reminder that our technology should be an enabler not an end in itself. Actual experiences will always take precedence over virtual ones and we need to determine the technology agenda and set and remain in control of the rules “It seems to me that what people seem to want more than ever these days is the opportunity to be touched emotionally by the thinking and experiences of other people ….What should we do if we are concerned about the invasion of screen culture into our everyday lives? Bluntly, we should think.”

Far from being a geek-fest, Future Minds is controversial; thought-provoking; easy to read (I finished it in 1 sitting) and most importantly, entertaining. I never expected to be confronted by a chapter concerned with the Sex Life of Ideas, for example, and the wisdom that “For new ideas to be born you need two or more old ideas to jump into bed and get frisky”.

In the ever-evolving debate about existing and emerging technology, it’s refreshing to see someone straddle the old school (no pun intended) and the new so very comfortably yet is grounded by an admirable value set and a gift for appreciative critique. I highly recommend you pick up a copy as I’ve little doubt you’ll find yourself nodding in agreement as you turn the pages, at least most of the time, even if it may feel a little heretical to point at the elephant in the room or acknowledge what I’m sure most of us are thinking.

Four quick change management insights

I was pleased to be sent a recent report in which the team received some fabulous feedback about a brand champions workshop designed and delivered for a new client. Having been around the block a few times however, (so to speak), we unfortunately had to temper the excitement about the event by looking to the future and the fact that a change programme never survives or thrives on the back of the catalysing event, no matter how inspiring it may be.

Any serious attempt to improve an internal culture needs to be accompanied by serious initiatives covering each of the following phases:

1 Evaluating and defining

2.Communicating and engaging

3. Educating and learning

4. Sustaining and motivating

And when you arrive at phase 4, yes, you’ve guessed it, you start at 1 again.

Unfortunately, too many change programmes are dogged by a short-termist notion of performance and mistaking action for progress or SOS (sending out stuff) versus engagement-led communication. Hence the obsession with “giving good conference” or “giving good copy”.

Lasting change is largely the product of behaviour change. Based on the principle that it’s far better to do a few things well and succeed in some way rather than attempting too much and failing completely, why not try the following:

1. When measuring, why not ask your colleagues/customers whether they would recommend your organisation to their friends (advocacy) and then dig into the detail?

2. When communicating, try using the term colleagues rather than staff, or employee;  talent rather than resources; mentors rather than managers and see the difference it makes.

3. When attempting to educate, upskill or train, treble the amount of interactive, hands-on and delegate-led sessions at the expense of facilitator speeches and see what happens.

4. Ensure that the project or programme team as well as the senior leaders first and foremost role-model the values or standards they are seeking to transform by ensuring they receive regular feedback from their internal stakeholders.

The internal change agent’s lot is seldom a happy and almost always a thankless one.

But be brave, keep the faith, keep it simple and best of luck!