Influence: helping others reach their potential

“The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and influence their actions.”

John Hancock

Last month I gave a talk on influence in the workplace. We spent some time exploring the difference between influence and persuasion. One of the participants felt that persuasion brings to mind someone getting you to do something that you might not really want to do. Influence on the other hand is all about creating “win win” situations.

The word “influence” comes from the Latin, "influere", which means "to flow into". The ancient Romans believed select individuals had special powers flowing into them from the gods. The assumption of strength and power and uniqueness remains to this day. To be regarded as a person of influence is to have power.

Chain-of-command hierarchies are obsolete. Today we function in networked, team-oriented organizations. To be successful we need to be able to influence others-especially those over whom we have no direct control.

Consider Ray Anderson who started Interface, Inc., in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1973. Every year his factories produced hundreds of gallons of wastewater and nearly 900 pollutants. Then Anderson read Paul Hawkens' book, The Ecology of Commerce. And he knew he had to change the way his organization did things.

At its plant in LaGrange, Georgia, Interface used to send six tons of carpet trimmings to the landfill every day. By June of 1997, it was sending none. At Guilford of Maine, a division of Interface, new computer controls installed on boilers not only reduced carbon monoxide emissions by 99.7%, but also improved the boilers' efficiency. The result - waste decreased and profits increased.

Anderson did a masterful job of persuading an entire organization to change. Admittedly he had the advantage of being the CEO. But many CEOs are not able to shift their organizations. Great plans die because leaders can’t figure out how to change people’s behaviors. Research shows that 70 percent of change initiatives fail because those who are to carry out the work are not engaged.

True influence is about understanding how to work with, and through others, to achieve a stated objective while staying true to your core values and maintaining your integrity.

There are three factors to consider in influence; emotion, strategy and consequences.

Emotion:

Ninety percent of decisions are emotional. In fact even with what we believe are logical decisions, the very point of choice is arguably always based on emotion. To influence means we must have the ability to connect with people at a fundamental level. No matter how logical your arguments you have to appeal to people’s emotions.

Research shows that we do business with people we like and avoid those we don’t like. So the more in tune you are with people you are trying to influence - the more they will be open to influence.

What to do:

• Develop relationships well in advance of attempting to influence. Understand and connect with the people you want to influence so that you are the person they like and trust.

• Help people to see the emotional benefits of the facts and figures so it’s easy for them to come to a point of decision.

Strategy:

Your likelihood of influencing others will increase significantly if you have a strategy or plan of action. People will feel far more comfortable if they see you have a vision and a path to achieve that vision.

The psychology of influence tells us that people respond more favourably to solutions if they believe the plan of action came from them. Find a way to link your strategy with their ideas.

What to do;

• Build a plan of action when trying to influence for a project. Show people you have thought about the issues.

• Link your strategy to pet ideas of the people you are attempting to influence.

• Link your strategy to corporate strategy to show strategic thinking and a willingness to plan for the good of all.

Consequences:

Influence is built upon making others successful. When you are trying to influence others ensure that your solution deals with their pain points and/or achieves goals and objectives of interest to them. Often the need to protect against pain takes priority over everything else.

What to do:

Understand the concerns of the people you are attempting to influence. Build your approach with their needs, not yours, in mind.

Influence is all about facilitating for mutual benefit. Take a real interest in the success of others, be likeable and focused on offering real results in a strategic fashion that mitigate any potential pain for the person you are trying to influence.

And finally, remember enthusiasm is contagious. Believe in your project, like the people you are attempting influence and be credible.
Nicky Fried is the principal of Nicky Fried Consulting Inc. She helps organizations to translate strategy and change so that employees understand where the organization is going and how they support it through their daily actions. Learn more about us at www.nickyfried.com

Discovering your unique ability

My coach has me on a journey to discover my innate ability.

Innate ability is that which comes naturally to us. It is our preferred mode of operation; it is instinctual. We do it very well and we get a great deal of satisfaction from work performed in this mode. However, because it is instinctive we tend to take it for granted – until someone points out how valuable it is.

Some of you may remember a book “Now Discover your strengths” by Buckingham and Clifton. The premise of the book is that we should build on our strengths and if we do we will be successful.

In reality we often train our weaknesses which means that we end up with mediocre weaknesses. Why not train our innate strengths for excellence! Imagine our organizations full of people employed for their strengths and trained to become outstanding in the areas where they have natural talent. Sports people do this all the time – with obvious rewards.

It’s a “win win” when employees are operating in their natural mode. They are happy and more productive and the organization gets the benefit of an employee who does a darn good job with passion. I had coffee with a woman yesterday who used to work for a large financial institution in town. She found her passion for facilitation quite by chance and realized where she wanted to spend the rest of her working life. She is now busy, and happily, pursuing that career elsewhere because the bureaucracy she worked with had her pidgeoned in a box she no longer wanted to be in.

Because we have certain innate abilities doesn’t mean to say that we aren’t good at other things. I’m pretty good at administrative stuff - when I have to be – but it is not on my list of favorites things and I do tend to avoid it. On the other hand, I love to work with groups and help them move toward a stated goal in a creative fashion that engages them. And the more time I spend doing this the happier, and more productive, I am.

Your innate abilities and those of your staff may surprise you. My coach had me ask my clients what they thought my abilities were. None of them told me I was a great trainer or a fabulous creative writer, but all of them mentioned my ability to communicate effectively and get people on board and behind a project - which might explain why I do so much work in the area of change.

You might want to figure your innate abilities, as well as those of your team members. This is the kind of information that you can use to focus people on activities that will make them happy and your organization more successful. One way to do this is by taking an online assessment. I recently completed the Kolbe A Index www.kolbe.com . The Kolbe looks at four action modes; information gathering and sharing, arranging and designing, dealing with risk and uncertainty and your best way for handling space and tangibles. The results were pretty surprising. My scores showed me to be very high on conceptualizing and risk taking. Again, skills that are important if you work in the area of change. The Kolbe is around $50 for each person.

Another option is the Strengths Finder from Gallup. Purchase the book “Now Discover your strengths” by Buckingham and Clifton and you will get access to an online profile and find your five top strengths.

A lower cost strategy is to get together as a team and focus on what you consider the other team members unique or innate abilities might be. Try and be as specific as possible, focus only on positive attributes. For example I’m a risk taker. This could be seen as negative but the Kolbe highlighted it as very positive for example it allows me to initiate change, improvise solutions and options and create a sense of urgency. You get the idea of why working for change is good for me!

Here are five steps you and your team can take to identify and take advantage of your unique abilities:

1. As a team consider one another’s unique abilities. Summarize the findings. If you prefer do online assessments.

2. Circulate everyone’s unique abilities – give people time to celebrate how they are perceived or assessed.

3. Come together as a group – celebrate the great strength you have as a group

4. Consider how you can support one another to ensure each individual is spending more time on his or her unique ability.

5. Review your training strategy. Train your unique abilities.

Nicky Fried is the principal of Nicky Fried Consulting Inc. She helps organizations to translate strategy and change so that employees understand where the organization is going and how they support it through their daily actions. Learn more about us at http://www.nickyfried.com/.

Climbing up Maslow’s hierarchy

So much of what we do is about meeting needs.

Maslow outlined it perfectly in his hierarchy of needs; you have to meet basic requirements before you can deal with higher level needs. At the bottom of the Maslow’s pyramid are needs associated with food, water and sleep, this is followed by physical safety, then belonging and affiliation, next is esteem and right at the top of the pyramid is self actualization. This is the point where we fully realize our potential.


Here in North America we have made good strides in meeting employees needs as outlined by Maslow’s hierarchy. We pay decently and frequently offer benefits, safety is a focus for all out organizations, and we work hard at developing culture and recognizing our employees. But somehow that whole actualization thing is a little bit trickier then it should be. Not all our employees feel like they make a contribution to the success of the organization and the direct impact of that is poor engagement. Not surprising given engagement is all about the involvement, commitment and satisfaction that employees have with their work.


The level of employee engagement is directly associated with performance. Some 32 % of Canadian employees are partly or fully "disengaged." Companies with the lowest percentage of engagement show declines of 33 per cent in operating income and 11 per cent in earnings per share.


I can’t think of one client I have worked with who hasn’t imagined how exciting it would be to have the majority of employees right at the top of the pyramid. Most of us can recall a situation where we have been involved with a motivated, excited group of individuals - people who feel they are making a major contribution to the organization. It is a powerful experience!


I have worked with several such teams and observed a number. The common denominator is excellence in leadership. More specifically leaders who establish a clear vision and create the kind of environment that deliberately takes care of all Maslow’s levels – pushing people up to self actualization, where they are at their most engaged and most productive.


One of the most effective means of helping people understand their contribution and how valued they are is by connecting them directly with customer needs. Helping employees understand the Maslow equivalent of client needs and what this means for them.


I was privy to an excellent example of Maslow-focused project management. This particular project manager worked to put her team in the shoes of the client, building understanding and relationship between the two that would pleasantly surprise any client. Together her team established service criteria based on client needs. She then worked very, very hard to model the kind of behaviour she wanted her employees to adopt. Her team was a screaming, happy mess of actualized success. Her company made money on the project and brought in more business because of it.


What she did sounds pretty straightforward, but it’s not always that easy to build a self-actualized team when you’re dealing with the reality of getting things done. The approach that the project manager above took meant that she had to do a lot of planning and thinking about the people stuff. Often it’s easier to simply do the work at hand.


Another example came from a manger who helped his employees connect their own needs with those of their customers – right at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy. He encouraged employees to become involved in community projects of their choice. In this way he blurred the lines between customer and employee.


Helping your employees reach their fullest potential begins with leadership. Here are six steps you can take to begin to build your employees toward self actualization.

1. Begin with yourself. How far on Maslow’s hierarchy are you? What do you need to do travel further? Understand what makes you most fulfilled.

2. Build a customer-focused vision with your team. They will be more likely to accept a vision they have been involved in developing.

3. Together with the team establish your customer-service standards.

4. Work individually with each team member to ensure s/he understands their personal contribution. Plan with each employee to find opportunities for his or her special talents. Help them build their own self-actualization plan.

5. Build a community giving program. This helps shift the focus to the higher levels of Maslow’s hierarchy.

6. Develop your own local reward process.

Dalai Lama guides workplace productivity

Some weeks ago the Dalai Lama was guest editor for the Vancouver Sun. In his lead article he commented that our purpose in life is to be happy. Certainly no-one can argue that most of us want to be happy. Just look at the self help section in your local bookstore.

The Dalai Lama then goes on to say that we achieve a greater sense of well-being when we care for the happiness of others. This takes care of the simplistic, and indeed destructive, notion that we can and should strive for continuous personal happiness. In other words, if I understand the Dalai Lama correctly, our happiness is a by-product of our striving for the general good.

Things become a little bit more complicated when we look at the workplace. Should happiness be something we strive for within the workplace? How do we collectively define happiness and what is the greater good within an organizational setting?

These are hard questions to answer. Let’s tackle two of them:
1. Is happiness important in the workplace?
2. What is the greater good in the workplace?

As a result of research by John Helliwell, professor emeritus of economics at UBC, we now understand that the pay cheque is only half the story in terms of employee satisfaction. Just as important is how far you think you can trust your boss. If, on a scale of one to 10, you can give your employer a one-point rise in rank on trust issues, the flood of well-being you'll experience will be equivalent to a one-third increase in income. So – improve trust levels – employees will be happy and performance will improve?

Well, maybe – but didn’t the Dalai Lama also say something about happiness being the by-product of working for the greater good. So what is the greater good in an organization – the vision? Many visions are centred around making more money, selling more product. Perhaps we have to look at the organizational values; the accepted standards and behaviors that hold us together.

Values throughout the western world espouse notions such as; honesty, integrity, respect, loyalty, innovation, teamwork, excellence, accountability, pride. These are all concepts we can relate to and probably adhere to in our personal lives. So if we can connect the organizational values to those of the employees – we have something that is a common good. Something we can work toward together.

I have been involved in not-for-profits where the personal and organizational values were so closely linked that it was hard not to feel like everyone was working for the greater good. It’s a little more challenging when you deliver janitorial services. And yet my friend Steve says the company he works for is hot on values – it’s something he talks with employees about all the time, topmost among them pride and teamwork.

Happiness and values – these are tall orders for a busy organization. If you don’t have a retreat planned when you can build your values or an HR consultant to help you develop strategies to improve trust, try these two simple strategies:
1. Each senior leader take a value that is important to him or her and does three things:
a. Live that value very deliberately – every day
b. Talk about that value
c. Comment on others living that value.
2. Just as the Vancouver Sun did when the Dalai Lama edited the newspaper, ask people to submit stories about themselves or fellow employees who live the values. Display them on the notice board. Give out prizes. You will create a groundswell of goodwill and coincidentally break down silos.

Here’s to happy, value-driven workplaces!

Accountability is engagement

Do you have 45 minutes? Pick up a copy of John G. Miller’s QBQ: The Question behind the question. http://ping.fm/cBNx9 . It’s all about personal accountability.

Miller believes the answers are in the questions. He has a simple formula for taking accountability:
• Ask What and How questions
• Use I in the sentence
• Make the sentence action orientated.
E.g. What can I do to improve our relationship with marketing.

Imagine working in an organization where people functioned like that!

The customer rules

In hard times the customer rules! Check out this Globe and Mail article http://ping.fm/HH6nl

Employee shows the way to get the job done

Check it out! SW Airlines employee - gets the job done his way. http://ping.fm/gmYQD

Ten most common mistakes CEOs make in communicating strategy

been six months of hard work, time and energy, the results are outstanding and you and your executive are looking forward to seeing your strategic plan implemented. Nine months down the road you are disappointed and frustrated. The new plan is not having the results you would like to see.

Employees don’t seem to understand or care. It’s a great plan but it’s not getting any traction.You are not alone. Seventy percent of change plans fail, not because they aren’t good, but because the people who must execute them don’t feel engaged. To fully engage employees you will need to actively communicate.

Here are the 10 most common mistakes CEOs make in communicating strategy:

1. Not having an engagement/communication plan. Any important initiative needs a plan. You have put a lot of effort into the development so make sure an equal amount goes into the execution.

Solution: Work with your communication team to develop a clear plan that targets different groups and maps out strategies, tactics and messages.

2. Leaving it up to someone else. You own the plan. No one else has the same passion for it. How can you expect them to communicate as effectively as you?

Solution: Show you are committed and get out and communicate. Your employees will respond to your passion and understand this is important to the organization, through your behaviour. You need to be a key tactic in the communication plan. You are after all the Chief Engagement Officer!

3. Trying to be someone else in communicating the plan. Don’t try and communicate in a style that doesn’t work to your best advantage.

Solution: Use your personal style to your advantage in communicating to staff. If you are an outstanding one-on-one communicator then set up a series of meetings that allow you to communicate in this way.

4. Not taking time to simplify the message so everyone can understand it. Remember only you and the executive worked on it for six months.

Solution: Work with your communication department to create key messages and graphics that clarify and communicate the plan so everyone can understand and relate to it.

5. Sending out the same message to everyone. Different areas will need to interpret the strategic plan in different ways.

Solution: Personalize your message to different departments so that they can begin the work of interpreting it for their area.

6. Not being available to answer questions about the plan. This is not about telling – it’s about engaging and helping people understand their role in the plan.

Solution: If you are holding group meetings, assign a large portion of session for questions. Host a blog where people can interact with you. Cancel appointments and open your door to employees.

7. Not making your communication objectives clear to managers on how they must communicate the plan to their employees.

Solution: Set clear and measurable communication objectives for managers on communicating e.g. “the plan will be communicated to all your staff by July 15”.

8. Not supporting managers with appropriate materials so they can communicate to their staff.

Solution: Develop discussion guides and Q/As so managers can fully discuss the strategic plan and help employees understand how they support it.

9. Not measuring the success of communication throughout the organization. How do you know your efforts are working?

Solution: Phone surveys to random employees to see if they have been communicated to and understand the gist of the communication.

10. Not communicating early wins. Employees need to see the new behaviours in action so they can understand what they need to do.

Solution: Know who your early adopters are and make sure their successes are fully communicated.

Peter Gruber on sharing stories to engage and communicate effectively

Here’s a great interview on storytelling with one of the masters, Peter Gruber, chairman of the Mandalay Entertainment Group.

Gruber maintains that we are all wired to tell stories.

Language is an organizing principle for human cultures and allows us to communicate values. We are not wired to remember information; only when it is embedded in story does it become memorable and actionable.

According to Gruber every great leaders is a storyteller, and it’s the stories leaders tell that move our hearts and excite people to action. Story makes people apostles and moves them to tell others. He reminds us that when if we tell people to move to the door – they don’t, but if we yell ‘fire’ - which is in essence a story – they run for the door.

Gruber talks about control and the viral nature of story, suggesting that control is in fact illusionary. He suggests that through story we provide the navigational stakes and the emotional connection and let others take and retell our stories.

Feathers are soft: communication is a hard core management skill

Recently I came across Ten Tips on how to help your employees manage change in uncertain times from Towers Perrin. It’s good sensible advice like, have a strategy for uncertain times and communicate your strategy effectively. And, help employees understand the context they function within, let them know they area valued and give them an opportunity to air concerns. Have a look at them – I’m sure you will find them useful.

What intrigued me was the fact that the majority of the tips are communication related. We know that organizations that practice effective internal communication financially outperform those that don’t; up to 29.5% increase in market value and 50% higher shareholder returns. Impressive!

I don’t know why people call communication a ‘soft’ skill. Soft suggests something lightweight – like feathers. And feathers have a horrible habit of flying all over the place and being difficult to catch. I like to believe that we can be more targeted and deliberate with our communications. My business partner refers to communication as a fundamental management skill - a far more appropriate term, don’t you think?

People are more precious than machines

I had the pleasure of hearing Paul Herr speak today. His book Primal Management was published last month.

Paul’s focus is natural management. This is a management strategy that respects human nature and strives to align the workplace with the motivational survival-mechanism nature built into each of our brains.

I’d like to share with you one of Paul’s analogies - I found it quite powerful.

If you purchased a $5 million piece of equipment for your organization you would likely look after it. You would have dedicated technicians to watch over it, and you would have sensors in place to track and ensure it functioned within established parameters.

Do we do the same for human beings? No we do not!

And yet we should. A Brookings Institute study found that nearly 85% of a company’s assets are related to intangible capital tied up in knowledge and human talent. Our employees truly are our greatest asset and we are all quite willing to admit as much. But we need to go beyond the words. Why is this so difficult? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Why people and engagement matter

This video was first produced in 2007. I came across it in my files and was reminded of why I feel so strongly about what I do, and the importance of engaging employees in the organizational journey. I hope you enjoy it.

Facilitate leader communications for engaged employees

Imagine every manager in your organization fully understanding the communication role they play within the organization? And now imagine those managers with all the necessary tools and process at hand to be highly effective communicators?

My friend and client, Susan, who heads up internal communication for a financial institution, is doing just that and creating communication leaders within her company.

Susan has documented all the communication processes from the point of view of the manager. In addition she has developed a series of simple tools to help leaders take control of those processes in their areas. She is sharing this material in management meetings throughout the organization, and empowering managers to take control of the communication process.

Twenty years ago communicators produced the goods. Today we facilitate the discussion and it’s an exciting place to be.

Saying thank you still the best way to engage

I am in the process of developing a Webinar on leadership communications. There are a number of cool things about the technology, such as being able to hold random polls at any point during the presentation, share multiple documents, work on a whiteboard as a group and surf the web. But my favourite is the thumbs up button. How wonderful to be able to give on the spot praise, something we are short on in our culture. We spend vast fortunes on reward and recognition programs when the most effective and well received strategy is to say “well done” right there and then. Cost to the organization: $0, payback: priceless!

Engage employees by being present in your communications

Great excitement yesterday in our home. My 16 year old, a keen student of the social sciences, went off to the Provincial Legislature to observe democracy in action. She said it was hilarious. “Why?” I asked. “Were the members of the house at one another’s throats.”

Apparently not; one was having a nap, most were busy on their Blackberries – though many were just playing games. My daughter was somewhat indignant – not because of her concern for tax dollar misuse - but rather because the person who was speaking did not have the attention of the house. And she is quite right to be outraged. When we do not pay attention to humans we dismiss them – which may well have been the intent at yesterday’s session.

I remember once sitting with a senior leadership team and one of the leaders was working away on his Blackberry while the CEO was speaking. Apparently he does this with his own staff. The engagement scores within his group are abysmal.

Technology is wonderful it allows us to connect in many more and exciting ways. But we should remember to present in all our connections. If we try and be everywhere at once, we end up being nowhere and sending the message that we do not care.

Employee passion - is it being directed toward work?

On Sunday I had the pleasure of attending a multi-cultural choral performance featuring choirs from the Italian, Chinese and Jewish communities here in Vancouver. The finale involved all 160 voices singing songs from the three traditions.

It was a remarkable performance – and of a quality that one would expect from internationally acclaimed groups. And yet it was put together and performed by volunteers, ordinary folk; possibly the man or woman in the cubicle next door to yours. These people gave up their free time to give something astonishing back to their communities. Sometimes the effort was considerable - I know because my husband was one of the organizers.

I can’t help but wonder if the organizations these people work for understand the fabulous talent they employ – and I’m not talking about the ability to sing. What if these people gave just some of the passion they put into their singing, to their work?

It’s a question I can’t fully answer. But given what I saw over the weekend it would seem that a little bit of effort on the part of organizations to involve and enthuse employees would probably be more then worth its weight in gold. Performance improvement is in our people!

Search optimazation: Engaging clients through your web stories

National Post journalist, Brianna Goldberg, writes amusingly about her competition to gain ascendance over her “googlegänger” – the other Brianna Goldberg - a pagan who worships the Invisible Pink Unicorn, and who consistently rated above her in Google searches.

There’s a secret need in all of us to be number one. As children we’re pretty straightforward about demanding attention. At school the popular kids have everyone talking about them – they get their stories out there. As we grow older our tactics become more subtle – but the aim is still to get people thinking and talking about us.

Brianna Goldberg #1 (our journalist) had some stiff competition from Brianna Goldberg # 2 (unicorn worshiper) – who had a story line to knock your socks off. Brianna # 1’s strategy involved a significant amount of social networking, including an article about her in Wikipedia. In other words she got people talking about Brianna the journalist. Brianna # 1 triumphed – first among Brianna Goldberg’s in Google-world.

If you are a business – being number one has very serious implications. Search-engine optimization is an expanding niche in online marketing.
Search-engine optimization is important, but it can only work if you have a genuine story to tell that connects with your audience. Brianna # 1 worked hard to tell her story. She told the story of Brianna the writer and musician. A story that allowed her to hook up with people interested in her world – as opposed to invisible pink unicorns.

Likewise if we are to engage prospective clients and customers, we must start with the real organizational story. The story of our pride and the journey our organization is on – and we must make it accessible. In other words find the emotional connection so people can relate to the organization. Most often this will be the stories of your customers, the stories of your staff – people stories that illustrate your service values.
With a real story to tell you are ready to connect with clients and customers and that’s where search-engine optimization can make a difference and get you noticed for what you are. I know some people say any publicity is good publicity, but I’d far prefer people come to me because of what I am, rather then what they think I might be – because that’s bound to lead to disappointment and recriminations.

Employee engagement and marketing - closely connected

There is quite a bit of buzz out there about a recent session entitled "Storyteller Marketing - How the Art of Storytelling Matches Up With the Business of Marketing". The session was moderated by Rebecca Lieb, Contributing Editor of ClickZ. Speakers included Gary Stein, Director of Strategy, Ammo Marketing , Sally Falkow, President, Expansion Plus Inc. and Larry Lawfer, Founder/President, yourstorys.com: .

Charlene Jaszewski does a great job of summarizing what was said. Check out her blog.

In her blog Charlene cites Larry Fowler who defines engagement marketing as "when your DATE says you are a good date", as opposed ot PR "Your mom says you had a good date."

I'm not a marketer. I use stories to engage and align employees. But what could be more powerful for employees to fully understand the impact they make - then the stories of their customers. Employees are the people who live brand every day - if your organization wants employees to be a "great date" then connect them to the stories of the customers.

When engaging employees blurs the lines between the inside and the outside

Check out http://www.mystarbucksidea.com/ . Starbucks – a masterful marketing organization is going back to the root of its success – people looking for a unique coffee experience. Their "mystarbucks idea" web site, asks for direct customer input – and they’re getting it in bucket loads. Fabulous idea – but there’s more! A lot of the suggestions and comments are from Starbucks employees.

There’s significant power in connecting employees and customers. Several months ago in our newsletter I mentioned Farm Credit Canada showing videos of customers to their staff. Other strategies include sending employees to work for the customers, bringing customers into meetings and telling customer stories. Starbucks has found the solution that works for their youthful, dispersed and coffee-connected part-time workforce and customers.

I read a column about mystarbucksidea that expressed some annoyance that customers weren’t being reimbursed for Research and Development. I’d say the writer (who looks to be about my age) is missing the point.

There’s a whole generation out there that expects and demands a more integrated relationships with their suppliers. They’ve had five years of MySpace and Facebook and they know that they can connect with anyone – anywhere. They know they don’t need to be part of the corporate structure – or the pay packet – to make a difference and influence. And they are doing just that – they’re getting the coffee they want, the clothes they need and generally managing their life experiences far more intimately then my generation ever imagined. That is power. It’s also a generation savvy enough to understand that a good idea is just that and needs to be tested and refined before it’s put into practice – and that is the job of the Starbucks corporation.

Pretty neat when the line between employee and customer blurs to the extent that they are all working toward a common goal – with little concern about which side of the counter you’re on.

Employee engagement and marketing - closely connected

There is quite a bit of buzz out there about a recent session entitled "Storyteller Marketing - How the Art of Storytelling Matches Up With the Business of Marketing". The session was moderated by Rebecca Lieb, Contributing Editor of ClickZ. Speakers included Gary Stein, Director of Strategy, Ammo Marketing , Sally Falkow, President, Expansion Plus Inc. and Larry Lawfer, Founder/President, yourstorys.com: .

Charlene Jaszewski does a great job of summarizing what was said. Check out her blog.

In her blog Charlene cites Larry Fowler who defines engagement marketing as "when your DATE says you are a good date", as opposed ot PR "Your mom says you had a good date."

I'm not a marketer. I use stories to engage and align employees. But what could be more powerful for employees to fully understand the impact they make - then the stories of their customers. Employees are the people who live brand every day - if your organization wants employees to be a "great date" then connect them to the stories of the customers.