Posted by Vaughn Mordecai on Wed, Jul 14, 2010 @ 10:42 AM
My teenage years were in the 1980's. The era of odd synthetic fashion and tight pants, extreme hair styles, hair bands, punk, new-wave, breakdancing and early hip-hop music, MTV, VCR and the cassette tape, neon and uninhibited materialism, Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the end to the Berlin Wall.
I was actually in high school in the late 1980's when new wave and hair bands had a strangle hold on American culture. I grew up in a rural city in the West. My town was filled with tight pants, waffle-stompers (also called Keg Boots), tight t-shirts and 
feathered mullets (guys) or REALLY REALLY REALLY big feathery hair (girls). Big trucks with even bigger lifts reigned and a European car was unheard of. Local radio stations gave you the choice of hair bands, hair bands, more hair bands, or country western. In my neck of the woods, big ballads ruled the airwaves and new wave was looked down upon with radical distaste and unstopped disdain.
My pack of friends (shout out to those of you who read this), from three different schools, were...well...different. We were punks, skaters, preppies, mods, and wavers in a sea of butt-rockers and hair. It was easy to point us out and easy to identify us. We were the pre-generation of, and evolved into, the Grunge movement of the 1990's that was so well accepted with its long hair and flannel. We listened to bands like U2, The Police, Depeche Mode, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Big Audio Dynamite, The Cure, The Ramones, Social Distortion, The Violent Femmes, Jane's Addiction, and saw Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam before they ever played stadiums but could only be found on the local music circuit. We identified with bands that are very mainstream today, but were misunderstood in the 1980's.
This identification that my friends and I had with something "different" often lead to consistent trouble for us. I distinctly remember a moment in high school when my younger brother was surrounded by a group of butt rockers (about 15 of them), dog piled, and duct taped upside down to a pole in the middle of the school. At the time, the group felt justified in this action, because he was different than them. His career path has been in law enforcement. I'm sure this experience was a turning point. It's interesting how most of our life experiences and differences lead us down pretty specific paths. We were chased, egged, tripped, spit on, threatened, and asked to leave public places. In spite of this, we were a proud group, proud of ourselves and proud for standing out in a crowd.
Maybe I'm an optimist at heart, but I believe that things, and people, change for the better (most times). History shows that things that are "different" are often frowned upon at first, but often produce long-term acceptance or a positive impact on culture. It's an interesting evolutionary cycle as you watch "different" become mainstream, acceptable, and eventually embraced...much like the music transition from punk, new-wave, and the hair bands of the 1980's, to the 1990's grunge movement.
When is "different" ok? When is "different" encouraged? When is "different" necessary for your survival?
For your business to have value it must provide something that is better, cheaper, faster, more technical, simpler, easier, innovative...something...different. What makes you or your organization different...really different? I liked a recent blog post by ActusMR titled "Stand Out". It focused on the reasons that you want to stand out for sales purposes, but there's more to it than just sales...right? Businesses exist to make money...to sell...we all know that. It's the underlying approach to our economy. But they also do something more. They become a part of the culture, the social landscape. They become part of who we are. They support families, support individuals, alter the view, change communities, change countries, and in some instances change the world. Different...can change a lot of things.
Here are some simple tips to identify how your business is really different.
- Survey or simply ask your employees, your team, your department, what makes your group different. Do you believe what they say?
- Survey or simply ask your customers, your clients, your patients what makes your company different. This is risky business, maybe they won't know. Hopefully they do. In either case you'll learn something.
- Conduct a litmus test. Do the differences your staff identify align with the differences your clients identify? How do these two things align with the goals of your organization, your mission statement? If they don't align, work at bringing these two views together.
- When you speak to potential clients, are the characteristics you talk about unique to you, or are they industry rhetoric? If you talk about quality, what do you do differently than your competitors to ensure that quality exists? Rhetoric isn't the actual difference; it is an outcome. The different steps you take to achieve the outcome are the real difference.
It's important that you know how you are different. Now that you know how you are different, be prepared to talk about your differences and, more importantly, be prepared to show why they are a benefit to your customers, your clients, your patients, or your employees. Your organizations success and survival, either now or in the future, will depend on your ability to characterize why you or your products and services are different and why "different" matters.
- Are the other steps you take to identify what makes you different?
- How do you get the word out on your differences?
- What makes you different?
Posted by Vaughn Mordecai on Tue, Jun 29, 2010 @ 02:46 PM
My family didn't really have a lot of money growing up so we didn't often vacation to exotic destinations (OK - never). Typical summer vacations included visits to cousin's houses in rural Idaho and Wyoming (is there anything but RURAL in Idaho and Wyoming), camping in Yellowstone National Park located a few hours away, family reunions in Las Vegas, and the occasional trip to a Salt Lake amusement park called Lagoon.
On the rare occasion that we did leave the area on vacation, my family visited Disneyland. For this reason, the theme park holds a dear place in my heart and might just actually be the "Happiest Place on Earth". On one visit to Disneyland, my family packed up the van (we'd graduated from the original wood sided, green, 
station wagon with the rear facing seat to a yellow van with a seat that folded out into a bed...I don't think it had seatbelts), and headed to Southern California. The trip looked to be an exciting and unique vacation. Instead of camping as we typically did, we were going to stay in a cheap motel near Disneyland and I was allowed to invite a friend along.
I was probably sixteen at the time and my mom let me drive much of the trip (growing up, I had my driver's license at fourteen years old). The thirteen hour drive from Idaho to Southern California was largely uneventful (although I was pulled over by an Arizona State Trooper for speeding up and slowing down as I drove the highway through the canyons between Utah and Nevada...he thought I was driving drunk...I wasn't drunk...just inexperienced). By the time we reached our motel, we were hot (no AC), tired, and ready for some relaxation.
Every cheap motel near Disneyland has an outdoor pool. The sheer number of people that stay in these hotels is mind-numbing. There are always a million kids in the pool, kids in the halls, and families in every nook and cranny imaginable. The morning after arriving at the motel, my friend, my two brothers, and I decided to take a swim. We spent quite a while in the pool and eventually started diving for things at the bottom. We'd throw change into the pool and then dive down and retrieve it. At some point during this thrilling event, my friend dove to the bottom of the pool to retrieve something brown (he must have thought it was a penny). He came to the top of the water, looked at what was in his hand, and realized that it was poop. Yep - POOP. Surprised by what he found, my friend screamed at the top of his lungs..."SOMEONE POOED IN THE POOL...GET OUT...SOMEONE POOED IN THE POOL!" And, an interesting phenomenon occurred...my two brothers, my friend and I all jumped out of the pool and started running to our room...as did several others. The interesting part was that many of the other swimmers just stayed right there and kept on swimming...IN THE POOP.
We sprinted back to our motel room. I'm happy to say that I was the oldest and fastest so I was able to shower first. We never did go back to the pool for the rest of the time we were there. It was a memorable and funny experience (after we'd showered).
So, what's the point? In your business, your department, your team, do you have employees and coworkers that poop in the office pool? What about you, do you poop in the pool?
Most days you go to work. Many of us spend as much time with our work associates as we do with our own families. The million dollar question is, "How do you approach your co-workers, your vendors, your clients and your customers?" Do you try to AVOID...
- Participating in office Rumors, Gossip, Political Maneuvering, and Back-biting?
- Having No Filter - Do you avoid saying everything that comes to mind, especially the negative. Do you consider the emotional impact of your words on those around you?
- Beating Up On Others...simply because you can...because you're in charge...because you have a leadership role...or because you are in a vendor/customer relationship? Do you avoid fiscally, verbally, or managerially beating up on those around you?
- Smack Talking Clients (and vendors)
These things are like pooing in the pool. Regardless of how far away from the poop you are when it enters the pool, poop travels and still gets on you (maybe even in your mouth - yuck). Don't allow yourself, your employees, and your co-workers, to participate in these activities...Don't poop in your office pool.
As a company, a team, a department, you're all in this together. Do what it takes to build cohesive associations that watch out for the best interest of your team, your vendors, and especially your clients and customers. Live by the simple mantra "Relationships Rule". Build positive relationships and good things will happen. You'll respect your employees, your clients, your vendors, and they'll have greater respect for you. Good things will result, you'll have more success, and you'll be happier for it.
- What are some other ways to "Poop in the Office Pool"?
- More importantly, how do you avoid them?