Case in point, check out this deleted scene from Wasp’s video before we even get to the end product!

Did you see it? Take a look at where the wires for the taser are hooked up! They crotched him! YIKES!!! It’s not bad enough to get tasered – this guy got tasered in the crotch! I’m pretty sure that is the last time he pulls a knife on a woman with a taser!

Anyway, I think the boys and girls at Wasp decided that the taser scene might be a little much for the corporate video, so wisely left it out. Nonetheless, here is what they ended up with.

Lets examine some things they did VERY right with this corporate video:

• The video is about a Wasp customer, and shows how they help this client. It’s not some boring old marketing person standing on screen giving us death by PowerPoint.
• The production quality is extremely high! This kind of video costs a fortune to make. It’s likely done by the same sort of studio that films TV shows or movies. Wasp was obviously planning for success with this video.
• They made the video content available in full HD quality 1080p. So I can watch it like it is a TV show by choosing the HD size and maximizing it to full screen.

The video starts out with so much action (namely some cops tackling some criminal and wrestling him to the ground) that I’m glued to the video wanting to see what comes next! And once they have my attention, they slip in a little discussion from the company founder who is telling me about how Wasp helps them stay organized.

By the time its over, I’m like… “Ok, I’m ready to see someone else get their ass kicked!” Which basically means that I’m asking for the “commercial” to continue. And that’s not something I ever do. Unless it’s a beer commercial full of hot chicks in bikinis. But I digress…

Now, Wasp is a company that makes barcode scanners and asset tracking software for inventory tracking. You might not have known that before, but you do NOW! So, social media is obviously doing the job. Cause I bet the next time you need, or hear about someone who needs, a barcode scanner – you’re gonna remember the guy who got tasered in the crotch and run out and get you a WASP!

What do ya think?

PS – Seriously! The guy got tasered in the groinal area. hahaha I’m going to be laughing at that for a long time.

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In her book e-Volve, Dr. Kanter set forth a framework for managing change which she dubbed The Change Wheel. It’s appropriate that she treats the concept of change as one which has no real beginning or end, because the process needs to be continually taking place.

In other words, once any change process is coming to completion, another change process should be beginning anew.

The Change Wheel

Select the image above for a full sized graphic which illustrates the change management process in the continuing format. The following list contains The short way to look at it:

• Tuning in to the Environment
• Stimulating Breakthrough Ideas
• Communicate Inspiring Visions
• Getting Buy-in, Building Coalitions
• Nurturing the Working Team
• Persisting and Persevering
• Make Everyone a Hero

As soon as you are done, repeat.

And here it is in far more detail.

1. Common Theme / Shared Vision
1. Must be well and widely understood
2. Crafted by a small group, but must be internalized by a large group
2. Symbols and Signals
1. Vision must be modeled from the top down
2. Employees gage whether the change is serious and how it will feel
3. The right early symbols show people what the change will mean for them
3. Guidance Structure and Process
1. Assigning accountability for the big picture
2. Keeping an eye on all the elements of the change is an important step
4. Education, Training, Action Tools
1. Necessary to communicate the Why and What of change
2. Necessary for people to become adept at the new behavior implied by the change
3. Action tools help people relate the change to their own day-to-day work
5. Champions and Sponsors
1. Changes need people who become passionate about seeing them take place
2. Champions are cheerleaders for change
3. Sponsors make sure the change has the backing of those with the power to fight for it
6. Quick Wins and Local Innovations
1. Early successes show that change is possible and indicate what the change means in practice
2. Pick projects that particular units can tackle
3. Give a clear overall direction, but details created as units allow people to “make it their own”
4. Pilot projects, demonstrations, and local modifications make the vision concrete and ensure its acceptance
7. Communications, Best Practice Exchange
1. Change requires more communication than routine activities
2. Leaders need rapid feedback from the field
3. The field needs role models to learn from the experience of their peers
4. Change can be chaotic without a way to communicate what’s happening
8. Policy, Procedures, System Alignment
1. Rules and processes need to be reassessed and adjusted to support the new direction
9. Measures, Milestones and Feedback
1. It is important to know if the change is on track
2. Must establish measures for things that don’t show up on financial or other reporting mechanisms
3. Divide big changes into small milestones
4. Celebrate milestones met, readjust for milestones missed
5. Have a feedback loop based upon measures of progress
10. Rewards and Recognition
1. The organization’s carrots and sticks combine with the publicity engine to create heroes of the revolutions or enemies of the change

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In her book e-Volve, Dr. Kanter laid out the following characteristics of true change masters. She argues that if we all study and emulate the processes followed by change artists, we will become better managers of change ourselves.

And who needs that? We all do! In just about any business environment the only thing you can really count on is that everything will change. So, it’s best to be prepared for it and if you follow this list – you will be.

7 Skills of Change Masters

1. Tuning in to the Environment
• Encourage Organizational curiosity. Let everyone look for change opportunities. Look outside your own area as well.
• Measure not only against past performance but potential performance as well. (i.e.- what’s the opportunity cost?)
2. Kaleidoscope Thinking: Stimulating Breakthrough Ideas
• Challenge and question current assumptions.
• Encourage “out-of-the-box” thinking.
3. Setting the Theme: Communicating Inspiring Visions
• Charisma factor is critical
• “If you can dream it, you can do it” is not necessarily true. “If you can dream it AND make others dream it, you can do it”
4. Enlisting Backers and Supporters: Getting Buy-in, Building Coalitions
• What is the minimum support system required?
• Where are you going to get everything you need to be successful?
• Make sure everything is in place before undertaking the change initiative.
• Plant some seeds before the change announcements. See who shows initial support, then bring them in.
5. Developing the Dream: Nurturing the Working Team
• A new team, doing new things, needs a leader who can fend off the rest of the organization to keep them doing what they need to do.
6. Mastering the Difficult Middles: Persisting and Persevering
• After the project has gained some momentum and is underway, the completion of the project is the most difficult phase.
• Time and resource shortages often pop up and can be very difficult.
• Everything can look terrible in the middle.
• Unexpected obstacles pop up.
• Momentum slows because morale sags.
• Critics seem to (re)surface at this phase.
• Leaders must be resolved to see it through.
7. Celebrating Accomplishments: Making Everyone a Hero
• Once the project is complete, make sure to take time to celebrate the accomplishment with team members who made it happen.
• Organizational change is a perpetual process, so after celebration begin tuning into the environment again to see what next steps are needed and begin right away.

(From: e’Volve!. Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Harvard Business School Press, 2001. p.258)

Also make sure and check out my 10 Traits of True Leadership.

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If you want to step up to the plate and help shape the future at work, in an organization, as a teacher or anywhere else, you need to master the 10 traits I’ve listed right here. I should state that this is not some list I’ve regurgitated from elsewhere. This is my own personal list that I’ve lived by my entire career.

Do they work? Well, given the fact that I’d attribute all of my past successes to the teams I’ve led, I’d say so. But perhaps if we’re lucky a few of my old employees will stop by and let us know.

Now you’re going to see things on lists of leadership characteristics such as “have confidence”, “great communication skills”, “empathy” and other traits that can generally be stated to be desirable in all people regardless of if they are in leadership positions.

However, I want to cut to the chase and focus on the ones that are most applicable specifically to people in leadership roles. You take care of these, and the business will take care of it’s self.

• Make decisions that are sometimes unpopular. You’re in charge. You’re going to have access to information other people aren’t privy to. Sometimes you have to act on that even if you think it’s going to be less than popular. That’s life. Suck it up and do what you know has to be done.
• Lead from the front. My rule number 1: never ask your people to do something you won’t do yourself! A leader has to be willing to roll up the sleeves and get your hands dirty with the troops. Otherwise you’re just a boss.
• Teach and Mentor. There is no way you can earn respect if you don’t share some wisdom and information with your team. Make it your goal to teach people everything you know. And make sure you are always pushing yourself to learn more.
• Empower people. I promise you this… if you make everyone run every decision past you, you will be a massive failure. Give people a little room to make decisions, and let them earn more responsibility over time.
• Hold people accountable. Accountability goes hand in hand with all of these other traits. If you are going to be good to your people, train them, mentor them, lead by example, and establish a vision, you must hold them accountable for their performance. That is part of being a team player.
• Develop an inclusive vision. People will only follow a vision that is good for the company if they think it’s also good for themselves. So any good strategy includes everyone in the vision.
• Demonstrate honesty and integrity. Don’t ever lie. Make it an edict and live with it. If you can’t tell the truth for a good reason then abstain. But don’t ever lie. Oh, and if you make a promise – live up to it.
• Have conviction. Do you believe in your product, service, plan, strategy, etc.? If you are not absolute convinced, don’t expect anyone else to be. Instead, work to refine the vision until the argument is absolutely convinced. Conviction is merely a demonstration of the amount of faith a person has.
• Be flexible. There are times when it’s appropriate to demonstrate conviction, such as on matters of principle. But 90% of the time it’s important to keep an open mind and watch for opportunities to do things better, faster, or cheaper.
• Motivate and Inspire. Remember, a great way to motivate and inspire people is to blend realism with optimism. It’s important to demonstrate that you have an accurate assessment of the situation, and that despite that you are optimistic for the future. Optimism is contagious.

As a final thought, remember that people follow answers. You can be a nice guy who tells everyone all about the situation they are in, but unless you discover, inspire or demonstrate how to change things you have not really earned the title of leader – even if you are a manager.

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Here is Dr. Bundy’s story:

There was a man sitting beside a pickup truck on the side of the road not far from the ocean. The back of the truck was overflowing with fish and about 50 yards before the truck he had posted a sign which read, “FRESH FISH SOLD HERE”.

Now, although some people did occasionally stop, Dr. Bundy questioned the effectiveness of the sign for the following reasons:

• Is it really necessary to use the word “FRESH”? I mean, no one is going to buy or sell old fish.
• Is it really necessary to use the word “SOLD”? Why else would a guy be sitting beside the road with a truck full of fish?
• Is it really necessary to use the word “HERE”? Um. That seems pretty obvious.

So, what we are left with is the realization that the sign would have been much more effective if it just said “FISH!”
We can call this the principle of “Conservation of Words”, and it should be practiced every time you write.

The one exception to this rule is if you are writing a story. Obviously in that case you can be as verbose as you like.

Incidentally, huge thanks to Colby Jones for illustrating this article for us!

Colby is one of the greatest artists I know, and I told him this story and he whipped out these illustrations. Aren’t they awesome!?! I highly recommend stopping by his brand new blog and subscribing for updates. I was his very first subscriber yesterday! woot!

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You know, pistachios are not exactly the kind of product people normally get emotional about, and that is what makes this story so compelling. Here you’ve got an abnormally boring food, yet someone has gone and made it deliciously desirable.

It definitely demonstrates how big of a role that creativity can play when it comes to selling your goods and services… or yourself!

The first thing to catch your eye is the unique packaging. Most pistachios come in clear bags, but these are in white boxes with a tapered top. They include eye-catching graphics, and have an awesome little pistachio mascot on them!

When you turn them over to look at the back of the box, they have a bunch of different stories printed on them. That’s right, what I’m telling you is that most of the time if you turn two boxes over they will have completely different labels, each with a clever or cute story. The packaging therefore reinforces the uniqueness of the product. (Make sure and click the following image so you can read the backs.)

Then, when you finally open them up you still end up with another little packaging surprise. A cute little cracker-jax style message inside.

All in all, I wish more companies would learn to make their products with the same level of quality, and the same level of packaging enthusiasm. In the meantime if you have access to Everybody’s Nuts I highly recommend you stop and pick some up. They are delicious!

By the way, Everybody’s Nuts is giving away a trip to Hawaii and the contest ends on September 30th, so head over and enter. No purchase necessary! Hmmm…. maybe I shouldn’t have told you that because it lowers my own odds of winning.

Oh, and if you work at Everyone’s Nuts, feel free to send me a case or two of your nuts after you figure out where all of the traffic to your site is coming from. :-)

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The following article, by Vickie Elmer, appeared in the Washington Post, Friday, December 8, 2006. It is in reference to this survey from Industrial Performance Group.

The Harder Sell
The sell, sell, sell strategy for sales staff may now be sell, fill out paperwork, look up some details, go to a meeting, sell.

Salespeople, on average, spend only 38 percent of their time pushing products or services, and even peak performers figure they are selling during just 58 percent of their work hours, a new survey of 1,502 salespeople shows.

The average salesperson spends as much time on operations and management tasks, such as turning in information or expediting orders, as he or she does talking to customers, according to the survey for Industrial Performance Group.

One-fourth of the time is spent dealing with mistakes, finding information or expediting orders. Altogether, two-thirds of time goes to non-revenue-generating activities; only one-tenth of a work week — four or five hours — is devoted to prospecting and locating new customers, according to the survey.

That’s because many companies have cut customer service staffing and have inefficient or outdated work processes.

The result: Salespeople are swamped with other tasks, costing companies in their bottom line.

I’ve seen situations where this scenario is most certainly true, and I’ve seen situations where salespeople are only spending a fraction of their time selling even though the excuses are really not valid. The best way to determine the legitimacy of the sales department’s claims of overwork is to perform a process-mapping study.

Process mapping simply involves the following steps:

• Obtain buy-in from the head of Sales to study the efficiencies (or lack thereof) within the sales organization.
• Interview managers and senior sales people and ask specific questions to ascertain exactly what they spend their time doing.
• Gather a small but knowledgable group of sales people and support staff and conduct a series of meetings in which you learn – step by step – the exact processes followed in each of the following categories (at a minimum):
• Prospecting / Pre-Sales
• Ordering / Implementation
• Account Management
• Cancellations / Upgrades
• Build flowcharts to document each process and put them together with a comprehensive report of the findings including quotes and other information from the interview process.

After this exercise you should be able to determine if the organization is suffering from massive inefficiency, or horrible mis-management. If you don’t have the in-house expertise to determine if your sales organization is “normal” I would highly recommend spending the money to bring in a real expert with plenty of experience to assist.

The bottom line is, a company will not grow without sales, and selling cannot occur without support from the rest of the organization.

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