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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday October 31, 2019: Trick or Treat
Tonight is Halloween–the night when kids of all ages dress in costume and knock on doors saying, “Trick or treat.”
The expectation is that their goodie bags will be filled with lots of tasty treats–without any tricks involved.
Our customers love when we treat them, too. Most organizations will focus on customer appreciation days or events and they are quick to tell us they love their customers.
But how often do customers feel tricked instead of treated? What happens between the appreciation events? Have you instilled a culture that lets staff and employees know they should be treating customers well every single day?
Too often, not paying attention to customers causes them to be spooked. And the result of that could haunt you for a long, long time.
How do you act in a climate of change? Read my article.
Join me for the free online video interview series The Inspired Leadership Show: Discovering Secrets to Being an Effective Leader Through Communication, Positive Influence and Sustainable Productivity. My episode is live NOW!
Contact me to find out how to get heard above the noise.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday October 24, 2019: Flying Blind
More than seven months after global aviation authorities grounded Boeing’s 737 MAX jets because of safety concerns, the planes are still not back in the skies.
And it doesn’t appear this will change soon. Airlines have canceled thousands of flights and reworked schedules to substitute other aircraft when possible. Meanwhile, it appears it will be sometime in 2020 before the plane is cleared to fly–and some countries may not ever clear it at all.
It now also appears Boeing was aware of concerns with the 737 MAX flight control system as early as 2016, when a test pilot complained of “egregious” problems when testing the system in a simulator. Why this concern was not considered and taken seriously is not yet clear.
This week, the company removed its head of commercial aviation, and it has stripped its CEO of the chairman title. These are symbolic moves. It will take much more significant changes to the company culture to restore faith in Boeing again.
This is not simply an issue of a new system that didn’t behave as promised. It appears the process to design, build, and test one of the most complex products engineered on earth is broken–which leads us to wonder what else could possibly be wrong that we don’t know about? And where were the FAA and the airlines in ensuring these aircraft were safe?
Let’s hope that the lessons from this debacle are learned well by all involved. This is why there are checks and doublechecks and triplechecks built into the system. Ignoring them and flying blind doesn’t help anyone.
How do you act in a climate of change? Read my article.
Join me for the free online video interview series The Inspired Leadership Show: Discovering Secrets to Being an Effective Leader Through Communication, Positive Influence and Sustainable Productivity. My episode is live NOW!
Contact me to find out how to get heard above the noise.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday October 17, 2019: Democracy Can Get Messy
I’m in Barcelona this week for a Society for the Advancement of Consulting (SAC) workshop tomorrow.
Barcelona is a wonderful city, but this week it’s in a bit of disarray. All week there have been protests against the convictions of Catalan politicians for their acts in support of the separatist movement.
Monday, the airport was closed down by protesters. Last night, there were street demonstrations, with dumpsters set on fire. Tomorrow, thousands of people are supposed to be marching on the city to signal their protest. People have been arrested, but for the most part, life goes on.
It’s messy and a little disconcerting, but not like the situation in Hong Kong where protests are now in their seventh month as China attempts to clamp down on the situation. The NBA was caught in the midst of this when a team official sent out a tweet supporting the protesters, angering the Chinese government and cutting off support for the league.
Even worse, consider what happens to people who don’t support the government in fully totalitarian states. They’re often not heard from again–jailed, exiled, or killed for their actions.
In America these days, we see polarization and strongly worded accusations by both sides. The House is conducting an impeachment investigation, and the White House is accusing Congress of a witch hunt. It’s not particularly fun, but it’s all happening without violence, arrests, or firing squads.
Yes, democracy can be messy, but considering the alternatives, that’s not such a bad thing.
How do you act in a climate of change? Read my article.
Join me for the free online video interview series The Inspired Leadership Show: Discovering Secrets to Being an Effective Leader Through Communication, Positive Influence and Sustainable Productivity. My episode is live NOW!
Contact me to find out how to get heard above the noise.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday October 10, 2019: Playing Power Ball
Starting yesterday, nearly a million people in Northern California are having their power shut off for days at a time as a way to prevent wildfires.
The preventative shutdowns are utility PG&E’s way to avoid a third year of catastrophic wildfires caused by down electrical lines. Over the last decade, PG&E has been responsible for nearly 400 deaths, billions of dollars of property loss, and the destruction of the entire town of Paradise, CA last fall. Now, a convicted felon in the midst of their second bankruptcy, PG&E admits they can’t clear enough trees fast enough to maintain an adequate fire break during dry/high wind conditions.
Meanwhile, residents and businesses are scrambling to find a way to stay safe during the shutdowns. Anyone who relies on electricity to keep perishables cold or to operate critical medical equipment has to find alternatives quickly or suffer the consequences.
How did we get here? Decades of delayed maintenance and an unwillingness to tackle a tough problem have put PG&E in this bind. But no one should be surprised by the preventative shutdowns. The utility threatened to do this last year (which would have likely spared the town of Paradise). They’ve repeatedly told the public since then they would implement these actions during times of high fire danger this year. Yet until this week, it appears most people didn’t take steps to be prepared.
The lesson here: Don’t avoid tough issues in the hope they’ll go away. Whether it involves preventative maintenance or contingency planning for loss of power, the warning signs were there. The consequences of not acting on them are severe.
The only winners in a power struggle like this are those who don’t need to participate because they’ve developed a Plan B. That’s a dark lesson many will be learning this week and beyond.
How do you act in a climate of change? Read my article.
Join me for the free online video interview series The Inspired Leadership Show: Discovering Secrets to Being an Effective Leader Through Communication, Positive Influence and Sustainable Productivity. My episode is live NOW!
Contact me to find out how to get heard above the noise.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com