Exhausted winter 2014 by Liftshare Team

EXHAUSTED DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS Issue 7 – Winter 2014

Changes

– North Bristol NHS

Think Money RIP Transport Direct

Consider – purple cows? Re-inventing

Taxis

Fun

- put it back in to your organisation Innovation not always the way

How to use LinkedIn Publisher

EDITOR’S NOTE As we head towards the end of another busy year in sustainability we see a year of change – from new emerging technologies that are changing how we do business and live our lives, to the loss of free data from Transport Direct. And, with any change comes challenges, and as the New Year approaches it’s a good time for businesses to re-examine and focus. So this issue of Exhausted is packed full of useful and inspirational articles to help you continue to succeed and adapt. Find out why innovation isn’t always the answer (page 3) – that doesn’t mean we stop advancing! And discover how your organisation can use a pre-mortem to prevent colossal failures with regard to product and service delivery (page 4). And

if you haven’t already considered your ‘purple cow’ check out the article on page 6 & 7 and find out what will make you remarkable. This is just a taste of what you’ll find inside, so have a flick. As per usual, we’ve tried to avoid the waffle and stuffiness you may find in other business and sustainability-related magazines, let me know if you think we’ve managed it! And if there are certain topics and issues that you’d like more info on or to see in the next issue, get in touch, it’s always great to hear from you. and we wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Happy reading... Jemma Editor

CONTENTS

Why innovation isn’t always the answer in clean tech

Think money

RIP Transport Direct

Put the fun back into work in your organisation

6 ways collaboration can boost sustainability

Electric mini-cabs to re-invent the taxi?

Pre mortem

3 4

DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

Be remarkable and consider purple cows

How to use LinkedIn Publisher to get more visibility

Behaviour Change at North Bristol NHS

Web: www.liftshare.com/business Linked-in www.linkedin.com/ company/liftshare

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Why innovation isn’t always the answer in clean tech Innovation is exciting, cutting-edge and overall vital – without technical innovation to bring down the cost of clean energy and transport, we will never decarbonise the economy; without innovative new ways of doing business, we will never tackle the resource crunches that loom over us.

owever, sometimes we need to stop regarding a solution as innovative and acknowledge that it has become normalised, boring even. In fact, this should be the point we are aiming for. That is when we have made it. We must remember that not everyone likes innovation. Large swathes of the public don’t like innovation. Pension funds and institutional investors really hate innovation. Many multinationals, regardless of what they say to the contrary, are wary of innovation. What they want is safe, reliable, bankable technologies, projects and business models that will deliver near-guaranteed returns. Our goal therefore with clean tech should be innovation to reach and pass the point where greener alternatives become safer

and more effective propositions than what they are designed to replace. We need a clean tech industry that can innovate, but we also need one that can roll out its innovations on a global scale in a matter of a few years. Innovation’s goal: To become commonplace. Of course, innovation remains crucial. It is the lifeblood of the clean tech sector and will remain so for years to come. And it is almost always good to be seen as innovative, but if we are to ever achieve our goals, those of us delivering clean tech solutions have to be regarded as boringly mainstream too.

Electric mini-cabs to re-invent the taxi? You can’t blame taxi drivers for being confused looking at what’s going on: traditional road-mobility is being disrupted as never before, everywhere; the likes of Uber are turning the old fashioned taxi model on its head. And here’s yet another one! Mellowcabs. A business that manufactures and operates electric pedicabs equipped with top-notch technology. These new vehicles are due to be available free of charge for consumers, paid for by advertising on the interior and exterior. Thanks to on-board tablets running geolocation software, passengers will also be shown relevant ads and promotions when a Mellowcab is close to one of their partners (such as local stores and restaurants). I wonder what we’ll see next?

... these new “ vehicles are due to

be available free of charge...

”

DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

Pre mortem Pre-mortem “

The early results from our software release are in

...and it’s a colossal failure.” No project leader wants to say these words – and a pre-mortem can prevent it.

pre-mortem is a session where the project team gathers to discuss the risks and the possible disasters that the project can experience when it is introduced. It looks at the worst case scenarios and works to prevent them from happening. Avoid the “how could this have happened” question and the postmortem to find out what went wrong – this is too late and a costly way to behave. What a pre-mortem does is offer opportunity and allow concerns to be raised before it’s too late. So how do you conduct a pre-mortem? It’s actually quite simple and straight forward…

DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

The project lead sets the stage outlining the purpose of the meeting, which is to identify the potential risks and solutions for the project.

2. It must be made clear that the

discussion follows the theme: this project has just experienced a colossal failure – what went wrong.

3. Each person writes down all the

potential risks they can identify.

The project lead goes around the room and each person identifies one of the risks they’ve written down.

These are captured on a flip chart.

This process continues until there are no new risks identified.

7. The project lead than reviews each risk and the group discusses ways to strengthen the plan. Action steps are then identified, along with the individual accountable for implementing the identified improvements to the plan.

Hope is not a strategy

Conducting a pre-mortem is a powerful pre-emptive strategy for project launch success. If you don’t feel you have the time, then where will you find the time to rectify the situation if one of the potential disasters strike?

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Think Think money money Fast facts

• S ingle site in Trafford Park with 1,000 staff • 348 members – 95% of which have a regular journey registered • 750 SOVs but only 500 parking spaces • Target – 10% of drivers to begin car-sharing • Target reached within 6 months of launching

Launch Ian Williams the Liftshare

Scheme Manager recognised the importance of ensuring a positive and well publicised launch event so undertook a number of activities to raise awareness and generate interest. For the first four weeks after the launch a competition to win five x £50 vouchers was open to anyone who registered to

RIP

the group and added a journey. This enabled the Think Money Group Liftshare Scheme to rapidly grow and ensure there was a good level of matches for individuals. The competition was promoted through an email to all staff which included a link to an article on the company intranet. The subject line of the email clearly mentioned the

competition, whilst the content of the email focused upon the benefits that individuals can realise through car-sharing. Alongside the email, screensavers on employees’ computers were changed further highlighting the competition and launch. Within the first three months there had been 346 registrations to the group.

Transport Direct

Today data is described as ‘King’, well for the transport industry, the king has left the building. The governments Transport Direct service which provided free transport data for journeys is no longer available. The removal of the service affects their website, API and bulk upload service. And may leave a number of transport journey planners defunct without the appropriate data. But it’s not all gloom and doom. There is a solution. myPTP has removed Transport Direct’s data and made alternative arrangements. The online travel planning tool can still deliver

public transport information for any journey, as-well-as walking, cycling, car-sharing and in some cases park and ride. And, these new arrangements have also opened up new avenues for myPTP development to further improve the usability of the software. If you’d like to know more, please contact tellmemore@liftshare.com.

DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

remarable & consider

purple cows

If you haven’t heard of Seth Godin – where have you been? As a marketing guru, Seth Godin is responsible for many books, not least ‘Purple Cow’ – a book that talks about how you can transform your business by being remarkable. In Godin’s words,

For years, marketers have talked about the ‘five Ps’ (actually, there are more than five, but everyone picks their favorite handful): product, pricing, promotion, positioning, publicity, packaging, pass along, permission. Sound familiar? This has become the basic marketing checklist, a quick way to make sure that you’ve done your job. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but it used to be that if you dotted your I’s and paid attention to you five Ps, then you were more likely than not to succeed. No longer. It’s time to add an exceptionally important new P to the list: Purple Cow. Weird? Let me explain.

He goes on to tell us about driving through France with his family and how in the beginning they were “enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing in the lovely pastures right next to the road.” After a while, however, they started ignoring the cows, because, “the new cows were just like the old cows.” They became common, and “worse than common: it was boring.” What a terrific metaphor for our businesses and marketing. We need to ask ourselves, “Are we and our approach to business so common that we have become boring? What will make us stand out from the herd and make us and our businesses remarkable – like a Purple Cow would?” Here are some of the questions Godin suggests asking of your business in his list of “10 ways to raise a Purple Cow.” If you could choose your customers, who would they be?

DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

EXHAUSTED Think small. Godin “ points out that the present

day thinking is that what we do should appeal to the masses

”

Who would be the most profitable? It is time to start catering to the people we would choose to work with if we could choose. What is an underserved niche market that we could dominate if we could launch a service that would appeal to that market – even if it would compete with one we already offer? What if we started providing a super special service just for those clients who love us? What could it be? What small or detailed practices could we make remarkable? Godin suggests getting into the habit of doing things in an “unsafe” way every time we have the opportunity. That way we’ll find out what is working and what isn’t. It is so easy to stay in our comfort zone. We use the same software, network with people we already know, attend the meetings we always attend.

“Explore the limits. What if you’re the cheapest, the fastest, the slowest, the hottest, the coldest, the easiest, the most efficient, the loudest, the most hated, the copycat, the outsider, the hardest, the oldest, the newest, or just the most! If there’s a limit, you should (must) test it. Think small. Godin points out that the present day thinking is that what we do should appeal to the masses. What if we imagine the smallest conceivable market and create a service that overwhelms them with its remarkability? What things are “just not done?” Once you think of them, go ahead and do them. Ask, “Why not?” Almost everything we don’t do has no good reason for it.

DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

fun

Put the

back into work in your organisation

It’s simple, having fun at work leads to a great company culture. It’s no secret that having a great company culture boosts productivity and has a major ROI from a financial standpoint. Haven’t you heard… “Happiness is a business model.” Now more than ever, companies are going all out to provide a wonderful experience for their workers. Ensuring that they’re happy, engaged, and having fun at work. Work-life integration is becoming common for companies of all sizes.

Your Work Honeymoon Should Never End Have you ever thought back to the first day that you started your job? It almost feels weird, you’re excited to be in this new environment, but feel anxious because you don’t know the atmosphere, yet. You’re meeting all these new interesting individuals, while learning the duties that will hopefully make you the next superstar employee. You’re scared to make mistakes and you’re getting so much information, it’s like trying to take a small sip out of a running fire hydrant.

Gamified apps “ for offices are taking over the next big need for enterprises...

Companies are even investing in work tools that are “funner” to use. Gamified apps for offices are taking over as the next big need for enterprises, as they’ll allow employees to get work done in an efficient manner while allowing them to enjoy themselves. It’s projected that by next year, 70% of Global 2000 companies will have at least one gamified platform. So it’s important to have fun at work, but to really understand this you have to truly dig a little deeper and find what goes into building a great company culture.

DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

At the end of the day you begin to tell your friends and family how great this new environment is and how you’re ready to take this workplace by storm.

”

That feeling of excitement should NEVER die out. Unfortunately, after a while people feel burned out and this comes from lack of change and a “not too exciting” office atmosphere. Which basically means that the job has become too redundant (not challenging) and employees aren’t having fun.

This can be changed if a company were to mix things up every now and then. Give employees more autonomy, change up the seating arrangements to allow different people to collaborate or host an event outside of the office.

Here are our top three tips for putting the fun back into your organisation: • Create an atmosphere that embellishes your company culture • Create the right office atmosphere for your business! It’s unlikely a hospital crew would be shooting nerf guns around the wards, find something that fits for your environment. • B ecome an expert at fun at work and all you need in order to do this is to know your employees and have plenty of ideas! Tech companies have become pioneers in “fun at work”. They’ve come up with all sorts of crazy ideas to make their offices better; slides, pool tables, sports facilities, even nap stations. But, all they’ve really done is take time to learn about their employees and see what interests them.

collaboration

sustainability

can boost

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ways

Collaboration is hard. You have to balance competing needs and, compared to an individual corporate initiative, collaboration almost always takes more time, commitment and patience. But it’s worth it. Corporate collaboration can drive exponentially greater impacts. It can foster innovative solutions, level the playing field, move an industry, influence policy and encourage change. So here are our six tips for making collaboration easier:

1. Don’t follow a template There is a need for a wide variety of collaborations: some within an industry, some multi-industry, some multistakeholder. Some are focused on standards and implementation, others on learning and sharing. But there is no one right way.

2. Embrace good governance Take the time to define decision-making processes and roles, ensure sufficient administrative time and support staff and use effective meeting facilitation techniques. In some cases, this might mean hiring staff

to ensure the long-term viability of the effort.

5. Know when to move on

3. Take advantage of external pressure

Often, we associate ending an effort with failure, when it’s actually a sign of success. Every group should review progress annually and assess whether it makes sense to continue – if it doesn’t, then celebrate the ending and move on, as there is plenty more work to do in other areas.

Collaboration can be challenging and sometimes it helps to get an external push.

4. Focus on the long-term and recommit to your purpose As with any longstanding relationship, it’s important to focus on the long-term and remember why the group came together in the first place. Always remember the value you are seeking from collaboration. That commitment provides a foundation for healthy debate and the motivation to push through the difficulties.

6. Be open to informal collaboration Formal initiatives are important, but they also take a lot of work, and sometimes all a company needs is a place to go for thought partnership and ideas. There are many opportunities for informal collaboration, through groups, industry-specific associations and even social networks.

DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

How to use

LinkedIn Publisher to get more

visi bility

Do you want more visibility on LinkedIn? Are you using the new LinkedIn publishing platform? Posting articles to LinkedIn with Publisher makes the content searchable by keyword in LinkedIn’s post search box. It’s a great way to showcase your knowledge and expertise in any given area, and that’s a big part of content marketing! Beyond visibility in search, both your connections AND your followers see your published posts just like on Facebook. If your post is viewed enough times, it’ll get picked up by LinkedIn’s newsreader, Pulse. At that point, you’ll get exponential views, comments and shares.

DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

KNOW THE ELEMENTS OF A GOOD POST – THERE’S FIVE OF THEM! • A catchy title • Attractive images and video if you have it • Brief, but engaging content (300-600 words) • Keywords • Good marketing/sharing strategy for your post Because you’ll be building your readership on Publisher from scratch, writing posts about LinkedIn influencers or influential people in your industry is a good place to start. If they decide to share your post with their network… it could help your traffic no end.

A FEW IDEAS FOR INFLUENCER POSTS: • W rite a post about the top 10 influencers on LinkedIn and why they’re so hot. • G et on the radar of LinkedIn influencers relevant to your industry. • C onnect with an influencer in your network to ask some questions or get him or her on the phone. Use the answers to write an interview that’s interesting and likely to be shared by your audience. If your chosen subjects don’t respond, you can still write an opinion piece about why they rock. And then of course tell them. Just don’t be creepy.

Take the time to customize your existing content for your LinkedIn audience, altering it enough so you don’t get a Google slap and choose a publishing frequency – once a week is enough to start with – but make sure the content is great!

...writing posts about “ LinkedIn influencers or

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Here’s how you can get started on Publisher

influential people in your industry is a good place to start.

”

How to apply for Publisher Give LinkedIn your name, email address, your LinkedIn URL and two examples of your writing. I recommend you submit your most shared post and the post you’re most proud of. You’ll know you have Publisher when LinkedIn sends you an email or you see the little grey pen in the update box on your home page. With some consideration, strategy, testing and a little bit of luck, Publisher should help you get more visibility than you’ve previously had on LinkedIn. And that will lead to more engagement, brand recognition and possibly even more business for you!

• S ource influencers as experts. Talk to your five closest influential friends and have them send you a quote on a particular subject. Once the post is published, share it with them.

DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

Behaviour change at North Bristol

NHS

North Bristol NHS Trust wanted to encourage staff to consider travelling to work using more sustainable options by providing discounted bus tickets, a cycle-to work scheme, car-sharing benefits and providing them with a myPTP.

What did they do? Using the ‘opt-in’ methodology, the Trust produced 350 personal travel plans (PTPs) using the 1:1 function as they were only making them as and when staff requested them. Staff asked to receive an application form for a PTP by providing their email address on the back of a travelsmart post card and putting it in the internal post to the travel team. Staff then completed the form with all their travel details and had a plan made for them. This was followed by meeting with a travel advisor where they would talk through their myPTP and the initiatives on offer at the Trust. Staff were also told about the travel planning service through the weekly team meetings, the staff intranet, screen savers, LCD displays and leaflets in communal areas. As well as advertising the travel planning service in different internal communications, the quality of the service ensured that many referrals were actually as a result of word-

DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

...43% of “ respondents said

they had considered changing the way they travel...

”

of-mouth recommendations. The delivery happened over a period of six months before the follow-up survey was sent out.

What did they achieve? So far, there has been a response rate of 27.7%. Results show that 43% of respondents said they had considered changing the way they travel as a result of receiving their myPTP. This has led to a modal shift of 18.6%, which saw Single Occupancy Vehicle journeys reduce by 14.7%. The number of those that cycled increased by a third and bus increased by 89%. Now 35.3% of travel to the site is by more sustainable methods.