Promoting your Print Publications: The Strange Case of the Email without any Links

I got an email from the Washington Post recently and there were no links!  It was full of articles I wanted to read and I couldn't click on any of them. 

I thought this was fabulous, because this email was a sneak peek into Sunday's paper that they send out on Friday. 

Every other email I get from the Washington Post has tons of links to articles and ads.  So the lack of links was noticeable.  They weren't promoting 'related stories' or 'from our sponsor'.  It was just some nice text and graphics.

And when the magazine arrived on Saturday and the main paper on Sunday, I read them, because a few things had caught my eye in that email.

On a call last week with the volunteer leaders of a client association, one board member said that the association's quarterly magazine lies in his in-box for weeks before he gets to look at it.  I know that sometimes my own association's magazines go straight to the bookshelf.

Isn't the sneak peak that creates anticipation (and mandates delayed gratification) a great idea to combat that?

Innovation: Focus on Execution

Kim Kishbaugh (@kkish) tweeted a Harvard Business Review blog posting by Kevin Evers about innovation.  Thanks Kim, because it got me thinking!

Evers says that ideas are easy to generate, and companies that spend their time on brainstorming, holding contests etc., are wasting their time.  It's the execution of the idea that is hard.  He identifies the three tasks in the innovation process that follow generating ideas: "picking the right idea, expressing enthusiasm, and executing." 

In associations, I've seen these three tasks successfully and unsuccessfully completed:

To pick the right idea, it has to really tie in with the mission.  That seems obvious, but in the heat of a great idea, especially one that will generate revenue, that isn't always one of the highest criteria used.  Sometimes the shiny, sparkly idea gets traction even when it's not really a great fit.  In one association, we had a service that served medical schools, and worked really well for them.   A public school district came to us and asked if we would be interested in developing that same service for them.  But we turned them down, because while the process would be similar and the money attractive, the goals of the institution would not mesh with our mission. But when osteopathic medical schools came to us and asked the same question, we agreed readily.  Both types of schools had excellence in medical education and the health of the nation as key goals, so we were advancing our own mission.

Expressing enthusiasm is entirely dependent on who is the organizational champion.  Every new idea and program needs to have one, a person who champions that idea through all reviews, processes, and budgets.   And that organizational champion needs to be the person who will have direct line responsibility for that program.  That is the person who will eat and sleep this program throughout the typically two years it takes to launch a big one.  They can't be an ideas person who comes up with good ideas, and then tries to hand them over to the line staff, because they can't feel the full pain of implementation.  They can't be too high up the line of command, because then they aren't immersed enough in the details.  But they cannot be too low down the chain because they don't have the access or authority to get the resources they need.  To be just right, they need to be a visible manger or director who is the consistent face of the program to constituents and staff alike. 

And finally, executing requires a commitment by the association to the full time and resources needed.  This thing will need staff, maybe not just one or two, but perhaps a whole team.  They will typically need substantial time from IT, communications and other staff.  And most of these programs need at least one year, and probably two to launch.  Wise associations don't expect the program to even cover its initial costs for three years post launch, and will plan for a modest return on investment even in the long term. 

Telling the Truth at Work

I learned from a very wise boss that it's possible to say the truth at work, that it's possible to deliver even the most difficult messages well.  As a manager, he was able to tell people not just about poor performance; he would talk with people about the need for them to leave the organization, effectively losing their jobs.  And they would seem to accept this, without drama or threatening legal action.

I couldn't do this for the longest time.  In fact, I dreaded even first level performance conversations, because I was scared that they would come up with arguments from their side that would demolish mine.  So I would spend ages gathering information and rationales, sometimes so long that I never acted at all, never had the conversation, and never addressed the performance issue.

A book that made a major impact in my ability to address performance issues was "Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most".

People take different things from that book.  For me, the biggest insight that stayed with me was that there isn't just one truth - there are multiple perspectives, each of which is an aspect of the truth.  Together they make up the best overall approximation of the truth. 

So when addressing difficult topics, it's possible for me to deliver my side of the story then ask for theirs.  Then in looking at the whole story, the closest approximation of the truth, I can decide what to do.  In the light of the whole story, we might even agree on the action.

Separately, I've learned that it's not really possible to be truthful while being 'nice'.  You can't expect the delivery of bad feedback to be pleasant and comfortable.  But you can be kind. 

Do this by assuming the best of people, not the worst.  Assume that they are doing the best they can with what they have.  And maybe they don't have the skills for the job (in which case training may fix that), or maybe the skills they have are a bad fit for this job.  But assume that they are not deliberately lazy, malicious, or obstructive (unless they are, in which case, document it quickly and start termination processes). 

But even if they aren't deliberately lazy, malicious or obstructive, you still might have to let them go.  That was always the bit I didn't understand.  If someone was a good person who was trying to do the job, how could I let them go?  To let them go, I'd have to think of them as a bad person. 

But now I realize that even being a good person, even with all the help I could give them over time, even trying as hard as they could, sometimes people are not able to reach the performance that the job needs.  And that's when it's time to tell the truth.

AMS Therapy

Do you love your AMS?  Anytime I've asked that question, the answer has often been No.

Maybe it's time you did some AMS therapy, and examined your relationship with your AMS vendor.  While system functionality can be the obvious problem, the root cause is often in the relationship with the vendor.  Some functions were over-promised and under-delivered.  Or the system was implemented fine, but the ongoing support of the system is disappointing.

One Executive Director told how she would call up customer support, and talk to a patronizing 20-something IT person who would ask her if she had tried rebooting.  When a few easy fixes (that she'd already tried) didn’t solve the problem, her case was 'escalated'.  What that meant was that she would never hear anything back about it again.  She hated her AMS vendor and called us to help her choose a new one.

But the cost of replacing your AMS is high, in terms of the time you spend documenting your requirements, evaluating vendors, transferring your data, and getting reach to launch a new system.

So what if you could engage in AMS therapy, in couples counseling?  What if you could rebuild your relationship with your vendor?

We suggest taking time to think about the issues you face in your current AMS relationship, and identifying what needs to be fixed.

Then book a meeting with your vendor and get the same level of attention you got when they were selling you their product.  It's time to go beyond your normal point of contact and set up a meeting with the head of the company or a senior executive.  Consider having a facilitator to keep it on track, relevant and civil.

You will not end up with a fairy tale happy-ever-after relationship with your vendor.  But a good partnership, which deals openly with issues and in which both sides work toward joint interests, is a happy ending.

Belching and Laptops

It used to be that working on your laptop at a meeting was as rude as belching in polite company.

But just as some cultures value burps as an appreciative comment on the refreshments consumed, so has our culture started to change.  Conferences welcome Twitter comments throughout the sessions to encourage dialog and engagement.  Using a camera to take pictures of key slides or whiteboards shows interest rather than laziness in not taking notes.  And some bosses now want you to demonstrate your willingness to listen with a laptop.

In this rather in-your-face HBR blog posting, Alexandra Samuel berates a hypothetical (hopefully) staffer who comes into her office with a notepad and pen to take notes.  She insists that only an electronic device will provide the level of efficiency required.

She makes a good point.  While she is rather dismissive of those that prefer to write, it is incredibly useful to capture notes in a format that is easily stored, searched, and retrieved.

I am moving more and more to taking notes electronically, especially since an iPad has silent keys which don't provide background noise to conference calls.  But I still have a stock of pads of paper and refillable pencils to use, particularly in thinking through issues.  But perhaps these are now a matter of situation and preference, not of politeness?

Zen and the Art of Software Development

Going through the requirements gathering process recently to develop a comprehensive set of user stories, I argued strongly for a particular feature to work in a certain way.  I'm on this team because of my knowledge of similar systems, and this was the way we'd done it before and it made sense then and so needed to be done that way again.  I argued forcefully for a simple feature in the system to be a multiple step process.

But when we came to examine each of the steps in detail, I realized that in this system, it didn't need to be so complex.  A simpler approach would have been much better.  But the others on the team, convinced by my previous argument, retained the multiple steps and they remain there to haunt me as a symbol of my own ego.

One of the things that can derail a software development project (or any project for that matter) is large egos.  But particularly when creating a new software application from scratch, there is a delicate balance between many variables such as customer needs, project scope, organizational needs, budget, timeline, market changes.  In this situation, people have to work together collaboratively and finely bring those variables together to the best solution.

You can duke it out, and the person with the strongest ideas win.  That's fine if the one with the strongest ideas is a true innovator, like Steve Jobs, who spends his or her time questioning how things work, envisaging new ways of doing things, and testing those ideas out.  But if like many of us, you are more of a plodder, then really utilizing the collective wisdom of the team comes in.

In Buddhism, there is a term, the 'undefended heart'.  It's the result of putting down one's defenses, putting aside one's strong opinions, and instead letting things in.  In modern management speak, we might refer to it as deep listening.  Such listening goes beyond the ears and the brain, and allows new ideas to penetrate into the heart, to be felt as something that can move us, actually touch our heart.  The undefended heart is us at our most vulnerable, and most creative.

Most of  the time I am good at listening, and letting different opinions flow through me, and really working to see all the points of view and letting the best solution emerge.  Most of the time I work to have an undefended heart.  And when I don't, when I stick to my guns and get my way, sometimes the monument to that stays around to remind me.

Listen, Your Technology Strategy is Calling

Your technology strategy is there for you, if you only listen.  Your technology strategy comes from people and is about people, and they want to tell you.

I'm not talking about technology planning.  Planning is about making operations easier.  To do what you do, you need the right tools.  And to avoid things going wrong you need to do maintenance, fix problems and upgrade those tools.  A technology PLAN will deal with the details of hardware and software, systems and connections. 

Strategy is about seeing how you can get ahead, move forward in what you do.  If you have direct competitors, a technology STRATEGY can help you establish a competitive advantage.  Even if you don't have direct competitors, it can help you get forward momentum in meeting members expectations now and in the future.  And it comes from listening deeply to many people, and being very interested in what they have to say. 

Many of the people you will listen to will be your members as well as your staff, partners and vendors.  Some will be interesting experts in technology who alert you to coming trends and interesting developments.  And others will be completely unrelated to either your association or your computers.  They will spark connections in your mind that will help you see how new problems can be solved and new ideas implemented.

This is the fun part of technology.  Working with others to translate organizational goals into technology opportunities and actual implementation.  Come join Ellipsis Partners as we discuss the three different types of technology decisions that you need to make and the questions you need to ask to make sure you have a robust technology strategy.

Our free online webinar is Thursday April 25 at 12 noon EDT / 11 am CDT / 9 am PDT.  Register now.