The Art Of Magazine: Volume 9 by The Art Of

Which Habits Should I Focus On? Charles Duhigg

How Does the World See You? Sally Hogshead

The C-Suite Six Dan Roam

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Build Your Network, Nurture It Stephen Shapiro

The Art of Gold Leadership Lessons from

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CONTENTS 7

Which Habits Should I Focus On? Charles Duhigg

The C-Suite Six Dan Roam

How to Build a Reputation for Being an Expert John Jantsch

16 The Gut Check

for Leaders Dr. Vince Molinaro

Don’t Build Your Network, Nurture it Stephen Shapiro

28 One Conversation that can

Change the Game for Women Janet Kestin & Nancy Vonk

30 Innovation, Personalization

& Information Cheri Chevalier

34 Think You Like what

You Like? Think Again Nir Eyal

Falling Short of Your Best Mitch Joel

#Lets#Start#A #Conversation Tom Fishburne

Actionable Summary: Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc. Rex Williams

37 Get a Better Return on

Your Business Intelligence Vijay Govindarajan & Srikanth Srinivas

42 Boost Your Leadership Skills

By Differing Without Dividing Lorne Rubis

Building Loyalty the Lady Gaga Way: Focus on 1% of Your Customers Jackie Huba

EDITOR Scott Kavanagh

How Money Actually Buys Happiness

PUBLISHER Christopher Novais

Elizabeth Dunn & Michael Norton

DESIGNER Joey Van Massenhoven

The Art of Gold: Leadership Lessons from Hayley Wickenheiser

The Artists

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World See You?

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Sally Hogshead

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Why Do Most Executive Dashboards Suck So Much? Avinash Kaushik

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The Editor’s Letter Scott Kavanagh, Editor “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go.”

- Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

A frequent contributor to The Art Of Magazine and past speaker at our conferences, Mitch Joel often talks about his personal relationship with reading and said this in a recent interview with Forbes: My daily reading habit is the exact same as my daily breathing habit. I am

constantly and consistently reading something. The biggest difference is that I do my best to recognize how much reading I am doing. I do this because, as I get older, it became abundantly clear to me that the more I read the more informed I am. The more informed I am, the better the ideas are. The better the

ideas are, the more creative I become. There is no doubt that reading more can lead to a host of benefits for business people of all stripes, and broad, deep reading can increase your performance significantly. Are you having a challenge getting started? Here are a few tips:

DIVERSIFY YOUR READING - I believe that one of the many reasons that people do not read more is that they do not alter their reading enough. Any subject, no matter how much you are interested in it, can begin to feel dry if you focus all of your attention upon it. APPLY YOUR READING TO YOUR WORK - Are you struggling with a problem at work? Pick up a book on astronomy or gardening and see if there are ways in which you can apply the lessons from those fields to your profession. ENGAGE WITH OTHERS - After working on projects both internally and externally, I’ll often send my colleagues or partners a book that I think they’ll enjoy. Try it out; it might encourage discussion, cross-application of important lessons, and an expansion of readers in your workplace. READ FOR FUN – Try not to make all of your reading about business. Read to relax, escape and put your mind at ease. Reading for pleasure often offers a new perspective on business issues as well. This issue touches on everything from “Hashtag Hijacking” to understanding the psychology behind habits. I hope this helps get your wheels turning. I’d love your feedback about the content, our conferences and The Art Of in general. If you have the opportunity, please email me at scott@theartof.com.

FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS Charles Duhigg

Page. 7

New York Times Investigative Reporter & Bestselling Author of The Power of Habit

Dan Roam

Page. 10

Bestselling Author of The Back of the Napkin & Blah, Blah, Blah: What to Do When Words Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Work

Jackie Huba

Page. 44

Customer Loyalty Expert & Bestselling Author of Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics

Avinash Kaushik

Page. 61

Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google & Bestselling Author of Web Analytics 2.0 & Web Analytics: An Hour A Day

FALL 2014 | 5

WHICH HABITS SHOULD I FOCUS ON? Charles Duhigg

Where should a would-be habit master start? When I was reporting my book, The Power of Habit, this question was always at the back of my mind. My initial reporting focused on understanding the neurological structure of habits – what is known as the habit loop – which explains how habits can be created and changed. But our lives are filled with habits, and time is limited. Knowing how to improve behaviors doesn’t resolve a central question: where to begin? Is it better to create an exercise habit, or reform eating patterns? Should someone

focus on procrastination? Or biting their fingernails? Or both at the same time? The answer came when I was introduced to a concept called ‘keystone habits.’ Some habits, say researchers, are more important than others because they have the power to start a chain reaction, shifting other patterns as they move through our lives. Keystone habits influence how we work, eat, play, live, spend, and communicate. Keystone habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything.

This, then, is the answer of where to start: focus on keystone habits, those patterns that, when they start to shift, dislodge and remake other habits. Identifying keystone habits, however, is tricky. To find them, you have to know where to look. There are three basic characteristics that keystone habits all share, and if you look for these characteristics, you can figure out which parts of your life can become leverage points for success.

Characteristic 1: The Science of Small Wins When Michael Phelps’s alarm clock went off at 6:30 A.M. on the morning of August 13, 2008, he crawled out of bed in the Olympic Village in Beijing and fell right into his routine. He pulled on a pair of sweatpants and

walked to breakfast. He had already won three gold medals earlier that week— giving him nine in his career—and had two races that day. Phelps’s first race— the 200-meter butterfly, his strongest event—was scheduled for ten o’clock.

Two hours before the starting gun fired, he began his usual stretching regime, starting with his arms, then his back, then working down to his ankles, which were so flexible they could extend more than ninety degrees, farther than

FALL 2014 | 7

a ballerina’s en pointe. At eight-thirty, he slipped into the pool and began his first warm-up lap. The workout took precisely forty-five minutes. At ninefifteen, he exited the pool and started squeezing into his LZR Racer, a bodysuit so tight it required twenty minutes of tugging to put it on. Then he clamped headphones over his ears, cranked up the hip-hop mix he played before every race, and waited. Phelps had started swimming when he was seven years old. His coach, Bob Bowman, knew Phelps could be great, but to become a champion, he needed habits that would make him the strongest mental swimmer in the pool. So Bowman focused on giving the swimmer keystone habits that drew on what’s known as “the science of small wins.” Small wins are exactly what they

sound like. A huge body of research has shown that small wins have enormous power, an influence disproportionate to the accomplishments of the victories themselves. “Small wins are a steady application of a small advantage,” one Cornell professor wrote in 1984. “Once a small win has been accomplished, forces are set in motion that favor another small win.” Small wins fuel transformative changes by leveraging tiny advantages into patterns that convince people that bigger achievements are within reach. Which is exactly why Phelps’s daily stretching routine and eating routine— and every other routine—served as a keystone habit: they created a mounting sense of victory. “There’s a series of things we do before every race that are designed to give Michael a sense of building victory,” his coach, Bob Bowman, told

me. “If you were to ask Michael what’s going on in his head before competition, he would say he’s not really thinking about anything. He’s just following the program. But that’s not right. It’s more like his habits have taken over. When the race arrives, he’s more than halfway through his plan and he’s been victorious at every step. All the stretches went like he planned. The warm-up laps were just like he visualized. His headphones are playing exactly what he expected. The actual race is just another step in a pattern that started earlier that day and has been nothing but victories. Winning is a natural extension.” Keystone habits create small wins. So to identify the keystone habits in your life, look for those patterns that give you numerous, small senses of victory; places where momentum can start to build.

Characteristic 2: Create New Platforms The second way that keystone habits create success—and can be identified—is by looking for patterns that create new platforms from which other habits can emerge. When Phelps was a teenager, for instance, at the end of each practice, Bowman would tell him to go home and “watch the videotape. Watch it before you go to sleep and when you wake up.” The videotape wasn’t real. Rather, it was a mental visualization of the perfect race. Each night before falling asleep and each morning after waking up, Phelps would imagine himself jumping off the blocks and, in slow motion, swimming flawlessly. He would visualize his

strokes, the walls of the pool, his turns, and the finish. He would imagine the wake behind his body, the water dripping off his lips as his mouth cleared the surface, what it would feel like to rip off his cap at the end. He would lie in bed with his eyes shut and watch the entire competition, the smallest details, again and again, until he knew each second by heart. During practices, when Bowman ordered Phelps to swim at race speed, he would shout, “Put in the videotape!” and Phelps would push himself, as hard as he could. It almost felt anticlimactic as he cut through the water. He had done

this so many times in his head that, by now, it felt rote. But it worked. He got faster and faster. Eventually, all Bowman had to do before a race was whisper, “Get the videotape ready,” and Phelps would settle down and crush the competition. By establishing a keystone habit of visualizing victory every morning and night, Bowman and Phelps created a platform from which another habit— calming down and performing during a critical race—became effortless. The visualization keystone habit had prepared the soil from which other habits could grow.

Characteristic 3: Establish a Culture Where Excellence Is Contagious Back in Beijing, it was 9:56 A.M.—four minutes before the race’s start—and Phelps stood behind his starting block, bouncing slightly on his toes. When the announcer said his name, Phelps stepped 8 | FALL 2014

onto the block, as he always did before a race, and then stepped down, as he always did. He swung his arms three times, as he had before every race since he was twelve years old. He stepped up

on the blocks again, got into his stance, and, when the gun sounded, leapt. The final characteristic of identifying keystone habits is to look for those moments when excellence—or change,

or perseverance, or some other virtue— seems to become contagious. Keystone habits are powerful because they change our sense of self and our sense of what is possible. For instance, during that race, Phelps knew that something was wrong as soon as he hit the water. There was moisture inside his goggles. He couldn’t tell if they were leaking from the top or bottom, but as he broke the water’s surface and began swimming, he hoped the leak wouldn’t become too bad. By the second turn, however, everything was getting blurry. As he approached the third turn and final lap, the cups of his goggles were completely filled. Phelps couldn’t see anything. Not the line along the pool’s bottom, not the black T marking the approaching wall. He couldn’t see how many strokes were left. For most swimmers, losing your sight in the middle of an Olympic final would be cause for panic.

Phelps was calm. Everything else that day had gone according to plan. The leaking goggles were a minor deviation, but one for which he was prepared. Bowman had once made Phelps swim in a Michigan pool in the dark, believing that he needed to be ready for any surprise. Some of the videotapes in Phelps’s mind had featured problems like this. He had mentally rehearsed how he would respond to a goggle failure. Most important, Phelps’s keystone habits had established a certainty within his mind: he could succeed, no matter the obstacles. After all, he had always succeeded before. His self-image, all of his habits, were built around the certainty of overcoming any problem. As he started his last lap, Phelps estimated how many strokes the final push would require—nineteen or twenty, maybe twenty one—and started counting. He felt totally relaxed as he swam at full strength. Midway through

the lap he began to increase his effort, a final eruption that had become one of his main techniques in overwhelming opponents. At eighteen strokes, he started anticipating the wall. He could hear the crowd roaring, but since he was blind, he had no idea if they were cheering for him or someone else. Nineteen strokes, then twenty. It felt like he needed one more. That’s what the videotape in his head said. He made a twenty-first, huge stroke, glided with his arm outstretched, and touched the wall. He had timed it perfectly. When he ripped off his goggles and looked up at the scoreboard, it said “WR”—world record—next to his name. He’d won another gold. After the race, a reporter asked what it had felt like to swim blind. “It felt like I imagined it would,” Phelps said. It was one additional victory in a day full of small wins. It was a triumph of keystone habits, just another step in a lifetime of success.

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THE C-SUITE SIX Dan Roam

The SIX PICTURES every successful leadership team must be able to draw. THE VISUAL LEADERSHIP TEST What is the simplest way to see if a leadership team is up-to-speed, on the same page, and in possession of an achievable vision? Ask them to draw.

Six Pictures from the C-Suite When each executive presents the right visual, we get the whole picture Over the past twenty-five years, I’ve worked with executive teams around the world. The scariest lesson is how consistently teams that thought they knew what they were thinking and thought they had talked it through well leave the executive presentation – and realize they really don’t have a clear idea what each other just said. A solution? Ask each member of the team to contribute the JUST ONE PICTURE that best illustrates their individual contribution to the team and the organization. The pictures don’t need to be elaborate, don’t need to be polished, and don’t need to be perfect. But they do need to be created, they do need to be shared, and they absolutely need to be seen. How to clarify your next executive presentation? Hand out pens and say, “Don’t just tell me; SHOW me.” 10 | FALL 2014

The Chief Executive Officer draws the Visual Equation. As the leader of the organization, all eyes fall turn to the CEO whenever anything happens – good or bad. The best way the CEO can show WHY she has made the decisions she has is by showing a simple “visual equation.” Think of this as the moral of the story made visual; the simplest possible visual that says the most in the clearest possible way.

The Chief Marketing Officer draws the Portrait. As the leader of the organization, all eyes fall turn to the CEO whenever anything happens If there is anybody in the organization who better know WHO our audiences are and WHAT we are offering them, it’s the CMO. (How can we market if we don’t know to whom? Or what we’re trying to tell them?) When the CMO needs to say “we are doing THIS for THESE PEOPLE,” nothing beats a simple, iconic portrait illustrating the who and the what.

The Chief Financial Officer draws the Chart. Who owns the top line, the bottom line, and every line in-between? The CFO does. So when Wall Street or the investors comes knocking, it’s time for the CFO to share the charts. How much? This much. What are the financial trends? These lines. If the CEO can’t show the numbers in a way that makes sense, how can we be sure he knows them himself?

The Chief Strategy Officer draws the Map. It is the job of the CSO to sketch out the opportunity landscape, plot in the competitions’ positions, and map in the right moves. That requires a map. The CSO better be able to draw it. It is also the CSO’s job to make sure everyone else sees where those moves are going to take the organization – so that map better be clear, readable – and show the minefields.

The Chief Operations Officer draws the Timeline. Only 60% of Fortune 500 companies have a COO, but that number is rising again. Why? Because getting everything done in sequence and on time is only getting harder. That’s why the COO’ best friend is the timeline: the single picture that shows what needs to get done, who is doing it, and most important: in what order.

The Chief Technical Officer draws the Flowchart. The vision is clear, the numbers are there, and the process is mapped. What remains? Building the systems and architecture that makes it technologically feasible. That’s the job of the CTO. The picture she draws? The flowchart; it shows how the pieces interact, how the information flows, and how to monitor all the incoming data. It’s usually the most complex picture, so demands unusual attention to clarity.

FALL 2014 | 11

HOW TO BUILD A REPUTATION FOR BEING AN EXPERT

JOHN JANTSCH

This article was drawn from the teachings contained in Duct Tape Selling – Think Like a Marketer Sell Like a Superstar by John Jantsch

If we’re being honest, we all prefer to do business with people we know, like, and trust. In today’s online world, however, trust building means something very different than it once did. Reputation and trust building used to be controlled by marketing. Now the Internet and social media give customers a bigger say in the creation and communication of how a company is viewed by the rest of the world. Today’s sales professionals must think of building an online and offline reputation in the same way a company would think about creating a brand. When a prospect is considering a purchase, the reputation of a salesperson for delivering value and the social proof of that is crucial.

There are No More Blind Dates With the huge amount of potential information, blind dates essentially don’t exist anymore. If someone were set up on a blind date, he or she would most likely use a search engine to learn all they could about the other’s reputation.

The same is true in sales and marketing. Prospects are digging online to find out about companies and products they’re interested in. They are also researching the sales professionals involved in the sales process. The reputation of a salesperson can be a

key ingredient in winning or losing a deal. The good news is that your online and offline reputation is something you can and should proactively manage. faked. You can’t copy it, it simply is what you stand for – so dig deep on this one!

Claim Your Real Estate A big part of your reputation is built through non-active interaction like information on profiles, social media activity and engagement, and even the number of followers you have on Twitter.

The first step to building a solid presence is to have a number of social profiles. This builds search results for your name because the search engines will index content from some of the

larger platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Organizations have a lot to gain when their individual salespeople are active in a smart way and link back to the organizations they work for. FALL 2014 | 13

Create a Powerful Bio Most salespeople don’t even think about their social profiles until they’re looking for a new job. Look at your social profiles as a key to building a stronger digital footprint. Claim a personal profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter. Then consider creating Pinterest,

Instagram, Reddit, and Quora profiles. Services such as KnowEm will claim your profile on a hundred or more social networks. You also might consider submitting your personal name to BrandYourself, which offers tips on how to get the profiles that actually represent

you, as opposed to someone else with your name. This will give you a better chance of showing up on the first page of search results. Regardless of the service you chose, your first priority should be claiming your own personal name on as many networks as possible.

Use a Good Photo on Your Profiles Once you’ve claimed your profiles, add some detail to them. Don’t just leave them with a generic image or no profile photo at all—and don’t use for that phone “selfie” bounce shot off the mirror, either! Get professional shots done. It doesn’t have to be the stiff studio shot; you can add some character, mix

in outdoor shots, or experiment with backdrops. Just make sure the photo is well lit and composed. When you’re first putting your footprint online, you may also want to check out some personal pages from services like About.me that allow you to build your pages by drawing from

your social media participation and images you already have online. These sites can also help with your overall SEO by giving you another piece of real estate that contains your branding elements and messages.

Resist the Urge to Cut and Paste Your Resume Instead, tell stories. Focus on where you’ve been, what experience you’ve gained, what skills you’ve mastered, and why. Write in the first person and use a tone that is active and expressive.

Don’t forget, you want your value to be obvious, front and center. Also, don’t be afraid to mention your passions in your profiles, even if they’re outside of the professional requirements.

If you’ve climbed Mt Everest, I want to hear about it. And by all means, link to your company website, useful content you’ve created, and all of the other social networks in which you participate.

Lead with Your One True Difference While you first need to set up profiles to build the foundation of your online presence, building and maintaining a meaningful reputation does actually require some work. However, before you look into the more expansive view

of personal branding that will be an effective community attracting and building tool, you need to hone in on your one true thing. Your brand and your reputation for offering expertise and insight must come

from that one true thing you stand for. This one thing becomes the story that transforms into a bigger narrative that lives on in your community with no real end.

Develop Consistent Sharing Habits Once you perfect your profiles, you have to show up and contribute regularly. You need to set a foundation of participation and engagement. One of the best ways to do this is to make a habit of sharing. Create a master list of blogs to follow. Using a tool like Feedly or Feedbin, subscribe to the blogs of your competitors, your major customers, industry related sites, and some key journalists that might call on you as a source. Additionally, add the blogs of non14 | FALL 2014

competitive strategic partners to your list. These will be businesses related to your business or maybe even other salespeople from non-competing companies. Aim for adding at least 30 blogs from this category to your list. These sites will be your go-to resource for sharing content with your followers and customers. You must build a good reputation in order to have any chance of selling your product or service to anyone these

days. Now more than ever, anyone can find information on anyone else with a simple Internet search. If they find bad information, or even worse, no information, they will look to your competitors. However, by developing solid online profiles and being active in those networks, your reputation will become one of being a smart, active, and generous business person. This will build the trust necessary to form a solid business relationship.

THE GUT CHECK FOR LEADERS In the course of my work as a leadership advisor, I work with all kinds of leaders tasked with all kinds of responsibilities and challenges. As individuals, they can be as different as the jobs they hold. However, there are threads that run through their lives, things that connect them as leaders. One of those threads is an inability for many leaders to engage in critical and honest self-reflection. Simply put, I find too many leaders lead without challenging themselves and assessing their own performance. They never pause for what I call, a “Gut Check” – a way to ensure they are leading effectively and living up to the obligations of leadership.

16 | FALL 2014

Dr. VINCE MOLINARO

Let’s take the example of Kyle (name changed) an individual who prides himself on being a great technology leader. He is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at a mid-size financial services organization and a key member of the company’s executive committee. However, during his most recent qualitative 360 review, Kyle made an alarming discovery: his peers thought he was – for lack of a better term – opting out of key leadership responsibilities. In the 360 feedback, Kyle found that others in his organization, including the CEO, thought he was only interested in his own IT priorities, which often came at the expense of other priorities also important to his company.

The feedback really surprised Kyle. He had always thought the best way to support his company was to champion the IT infrastructure projects that enabled the sales force to capture market share. In Kyle’s world, it all made perfect sense. However, his peers felt that he focused too much on this part of his job. When he showed up at executive team meetings, he only wore his CTO hat. When the team discussed broader business and people issues, Kyle would remain silent, never weighing in with his point of view. Even though he was respected as a strong CTO, his credibility was undermined because Kyle wasn’t fulfilling the broader expectations of leadership. He was leading his

department, but not contributing to the leadership of the entire organization. This created a number of problems. The head of human resources was frustrated because the IT department didn’t follow many of the practices the organization put in place. Performance m a n a g e m e n t re c e i v e d m i n i m a l attention. No time was spent on career development conversations with IT employees. Kyle never green lighted his staff to take part in marketing projects, or other organization-wide initiatives. That created a lot of resentment throughout the organization. Kyle didn’t dispute the feedback. He simply didn’t find those parts of his job interesting and so he opted-out of them. The most interesting part of this story is that it eventually became a reflection of leadership at the CEO level. When I spoke to the CEO, she

admitted her frustration at Kyle’s twodimensional leadership. However, she also had to admit that she had never clarified her expectations of her team. In our conversation, it became clear that she expected her executives to show up with a corporate hat on. She understood that each had their own functional responsibilities. However, she felt strongly that these couldn’t trump the broader corporate responsibilities. Following the 360 process, she brought Kyle and the rest of her leadership team together for a meeting at which she made her expectations clear. She wanted her team to show up with a focus on corporate priorities, not just the priorities of their individual departments. There is great value in the backstories of Kyle and his CEO. Both came to a similar realization, albeit from a very different perspective.

They both learned that it is not acceptable to take on the mantle of leadership in an organization and then focus solely on your functional or technical area. As leaders you need to think more broadly about your company. I call it showing up with an enterprise perspective. And it’s an expectation that many organizations have of their leaders at all levels. Sure you’ve got to excel at your function or your area of expertise, but you need to do it with a company-wide lens. That’s the leadership game today. You need to have a broad, deep understanding of all challenges facing your organization. You need to step up to the full responsibilities of leadership, not just those that personally interest you. So the gut check question for all of us in leadership roles is: Are you opting out of important leadership responsibilities?

“you’ve got to excel at your function or your area of expertise, but you need to do it with a company-wide lens.”

DR. VINCE MOLINARO is the Managing Director of the Leadership Practise within the awarding winning company, Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions. Vince sets the bar high for the leadership of his team, working hard to live by his leadership philosophies. His passion is in helping senior leaders and executives create compelling organizations that drive sustainable growth through strong leadership cultures. As an engaging speaker with experience conducting keynotes for numerous corporations and conferences, Vince is frequently called on for his innovative opinions on the future of leadership and his pioneering research in holistic leadership.

Falling Short of

FALLING SHORT OF YOUR BEST

Your Best Mitch Joel

It sucks when you don’t do your best. I am very tough on the work that I put out into the world. Maybe too tough. I was reflecting the other day on some new client pitches that have been lost... the ones that didn’t go our way here at Twist Image. It’s frustrating. That feeling is only exasperated by the media. Running a marketing agency is a funny thing. While the new business process is often so confidential that you don’t even know who you are pitching against, once a digital marketing agency is chosen, it’s pretty easy to see the work as it lives and

breathes in the market place (you also get agencies doing a lot of PR around the work, so that helps too). When that happens, it’s hard not to think about how your work might have impacted the client had things gone another way. Losing those kinds of pitches doesn’t bother me the way that it used to. Don’t get me wrong, they still bother me (I hate losing), but my mindset has changed. I’m often reminded of this shift in belief when I think about one of my three business partners (it’s our CEO at Twist Image, and his name is

Mark Goodman). Prior to Twist Image, Mark ran a very successful multi-office marketing agency that was also a part of a large advertising network. When he decided to join Twist Image, he saw how hard I would take new businesses losses. He used to always tell me the same thing: it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s that you keep on going. The most successful marketers and agencies are the ones that stuck it out. Yes, you have to win. Yes, you have to keep the lights on. Yes, you have to always strive to grow the business.

No, you won’t always win. While I was accepting that you can’t, in fact, “win ‘em all,” there was still something else bothering me. I felt that we could have done better. That we weren’t presenting our best. Ugh, “Our best.” How does one always be 18 | FALL 2014

their best? That was the frustration. It’s fine to lose when you’ve done you’re best. Anything else isn’t acceptable. In business - especially in the pitch - you want to be “in the zone” you want to have lined up all of the ducks, so at that

precise moment you are experiencing what professionals athletes would define as peak performance. All of that practice, hard work, dieting and attention leads you to this one, exact, moment.

Let’s put an end to peak performance too. I spent years training and then being a coach for Tony Blauer. He’s also a close friend who has taught me more about business, psychology and how to get things done than anyone else. Tony doesn’t believe in peak performance. This may be strange for a coach, but Tony’s specialty is

close quarter combatives. Whether he’s training Federal Air Marshalls, Navy SEALs or a women’s self defense course. Tony believes that if you get jumped in an alley, praying for a peak performance moment is probably not an efficient use of your time. Rather, Tony believes that we

should all train on the basis of performance enhancement. You just have to be better than you were yesterday. Striving for that, rather than hoping that everything will come together in one moment, will enable you (and me) to evolve in a more healthy and realistic way.

Why am I telling you this? I often feel like am falling short of my best. It can be a blog post, a client presentation, a public speech or anything else. I beat myself up. Pretty hard. I have to focus and remember that it’s not about perfection (or peak performance). It’s about the journey (performance enhancement). I’m telling you this,

because every brand is so excited about content and marketing and social media. Creating relevant content that consumers like and want to connect to is challenging. Creating relevant content that consumers like and want to connect with on an ongoing basis is nearly impossible. Too many brands are looking for that peak

performance moment. That viral video. That wildly popular hashtag. Whatever. True success with content is much more about performance enhancement. It’s about inching it forward with every piece that is produced. It’s about getting more people to care about the brand on an ongoing basis.

This is not about quality or quantity. One could argue that for content to work, in this day and age, that it requires a delicate balance of both quality and quantity. As popular as some brand’s viral video was last week, there’s something newer this week (and we’ve already forgotten about them). Name the top five viral videos from a brand

that really rocked your world. Now, ask yourself this: what has the brand done for you (and the other consumers) lately? How soon we forget. The real challenge with great content, working with a performance enhancement attitude and trying to keep consumers interested is trust. Remember trust? We

talked a lot about the merits of trust when social media first took hold. It’s probably more valuable today than it ever has been. Don’t believe me? Don’t think consumers need that trust? Trust in Sponsored Content Runs Low was the headline from a Marketing Charts article that came out in late July.

if they trust the publication it runs on (19%) or they already trust the brand (23%). That’s according to survey results from Contently, which also

found that two-thirds of respondents have at some point felt deceived upon realizing that an article or video they read was sponsored by a brand.”

much for them to lose that trust. What’s the lesson? You’re going to fall short of your best work (often), you’re going to slog through some tough mud to get anyone to care, and it’s going to take even more to get them to

keep caring. Don’t get down when you fall short of your best work. The more you keep at it. The more you try (authentically and with care), the more consumers will trust, engage and encourage you to keep at.

From the article: “Some 54% of internet users aged 18-65 say they generally don’t trust sponsored content, with most of the remainder only trusting such content

Trust is not a given. Whether you’re sponsoring content in a space that is trusted, or whether you are trying to build up your own audience. Not only is trust not a given, even when consumers trust a brand, it doesn’t take

If that’s not true brand loyalty, I don’t know what is.

#LET’S #START #A #CONVERSATION Tom Fishburne Hijacking implies that brands own the hashtag at the start. Unlike traditional marketing messages, brands can’t script the narrative. Brands can spark conversations, but they can’t control them.” Social media allows brands to start conversations, but are they conversations worth starting? It seems like nearly every ad closes with an invitation to “join the conversation” with a dedicated Twitter hashtag. Beyond Twitter and Instagram, Facebook incorporated hashtags into its platform. Some marketers are referring to hashtags as the new URL. But there’s a fundamental difference between hashtags and a URL. Brands aren’t in control of hashtags. JPMorgan Chase discovered this the hard way when it scheduled a live Twitter chat with the hashtag #AskJPM, inviting people to submit questions. The hashtag quickly started trending, but not for the reasons JPMorgan expected. “Did you have a specific number of people’s lives you needed to ruin before you considered your business model a success? #AskJPM” “If it came out Jamie Dimon had a propensity for eating Irish children, would you fire him? What if he’s still “a good earner”? #AskJPM” “Is it the ability to throw anyone out

of their home that drives you, or just the satisfaction that you know you COULD do it? #AskJPM” It’s the same lesson that McDonalds famously discovered with #McDStories (which quickly devolved into snarky comments about Type 2 Diabetes and how McNuggets are made). When consumers are invited to talk about a brand, they’re not always going to say nice things. Marketers refer to this phenomenon as “Hashtag Hijacking”, but that’s a misnomer. Hijacking implies that brands own the hashtag at the start. Unlike traditional marketing messages, brands can’t script the narrative. Brands can spark conversations, but they can’t control them. Many marketers assume that consumers are dying to join a brand’s conversations. Instead, consumers have conversations with each other. Brands can be a part of those conversations, but the best examples I’ve seen are when they enable and extend conversations that consumers are already having. My favorite branded example remains Oreo’s 2012 “Daily Twist” campaign. To celebrate 100 years of the Oreo, Oreo

posted a new image every day for 100 days, using the Oreo to celebrate different events. It launched with a Gay Pride Oreo, and continued with Shark Week, Mars Rover, Elvis Week, 40 years of Pong, and 95 other images. With “Daily Twist”, Oreo didn’t merely start brand-centric conversations that consumers could easily ignore. Instead, they inserted themselves in a positive way into conversations that consumers were already having. In India, the dairy brand Amul has been executing a similar strategy with a weekly cartoon for decades. Each week since 1966, Amul has released a new cartoon on billboards across India that riffs on topical issues, from politics to Bollywood to cricket. The cartoons aren’t about the butter. They’re about conversations that matter to their consumers in India. No wonder this campaign won a Guinness World Record for the longest-running ad campaign in the world. A hashtag alone does not make a conversation. They are only a means to an end.

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CTIONABLE SUMMARY

Summary written by Rex Williams

This book… is about the ongoing work of paying attention – of leading by being self-aware, as managers and as companies.”

CREATIVITY, INC. by Ed Catmull Making the first full length digitally animated movie was no small feat. Especially when the current technology and practice was limited to short films. Now that it’s commonplace we expect it, but before the first one existed (Toy Story), it was only a dream and vision by Ed Catmull. Isn’t that the case with everything? Before the existence of something, it has to be created in someone’s mind. And aren’t you creating something every day? Whether it’s a new thought or experience or item for yourself or someone else, you are a creator. And that means you need the ideas in Creativity, Inc.

A major part of this book is the ‘Inc.’ part. To ‘incorporate’ means you need to create with other people as part of a business. And no one does that more than Pixar or Disney Animation Studios. Those amazing box office record breaking movies don’t just happen. They start out as an idea, and a not-very-good story. But through the collaborative creativity of everyone involved, they become the masterpieces we continually enjoy. What Ed has discovered is that when you marshal a group to create something, unseen forces emerge to try to destroy that effort. So he learned how to overcome them. First, by learning how to see them. He focuses on creativity because that is

his business, but the concepts Ed reveals apply to any business, whether you’re a bank, shoe retailer, grocery store, or non-profit. We are creative beings, and when we work together with others in any capacity we are creating, and thus need trust and collaboration and good leadership. This book is about how to create an environment that nurtures those critical elements. Through the engaging stories of success and failure at Pixar and Disney Animation Studios as they developed those well-known, heart capturing movies, Ed Catmull provides validated truths about leadership, creativity, and self-awareness.

Uncover the unseen You’ve done it too. Read about the stories of companies who made obvious bonehead mistakes, and thought, “What did they do that for?” Maybe you’ve seen it in your own company.

22 | FALL 2014

Well, have you ever made a mistake? Or, do you know everything? Something that might seem obvious to you, may not have been obvious to them, at the time.

Sure, we make decisions based on the information we have, and we should try to get as much as we can, but the dangerous decisions come when we think we know something, or take

Only when we admit what we don’t know can we ever hope to learn it.” something for granted, or assume we know the answers (we all know what happens when we do that), because there is always something you don’t know. This is what Ed calls “The Hidden”. It’s the stuff we’re blind to, and we don’t even know it, so we’re not even looking for it. Discovering these unseen forces requires major self-awareness that you have a limited ability to see,

understanding that your worldview is not the only one that exists, and accepting the fact that what you see and know is inevitably flawed. That is a difficult request for smart, driven, successful people who usually end up leading an organization. But Ed believes (and I agree) that it’s our duty to find ways to heighten our awareness of these unseen forces. Ed lists several levels of the unknown,

from the limited communication you receive just because you’re a manager (or other positions of authority), to the danger of being successful, which can lead you to believe that you’re doing everything right. I will try to keep my mind open to alternative viewpoints and realize that others see problems I don’t, and they see solutions too.

Increase trust with candor without the critical ingredient that is candor, there can be no trust. And without trust, creative collaboration is not possible.” If you ask the question whether you should be honest or not, most people would say, ”of course,” but sometimes honesty is tricky when you’re asked what you think about someone’s idea (all those hidden ramifications). So Ed decided to use the word ‘candor’ instead, to explain the behavior that is critical to a healthy creative culture. One of the mechanisms they started using at Pixar to ensure that

they were embracing candor in a way that pushed them toward excellence was called ‘the Braintrust.’ Its premise was that if you put smart, passionate people in a room together, charge them with identifying and solving problems, and encourage them to be candid with one another, you would produce the best possible product. It is one of the most important traditions at Pixar, and you will see it mentioned at

the end of the credits in every movie. If you think of a tight-knit working group who gets along, respects each other ’s knowledge and capabilities, and can be completely open and candid with each other, even getting into heated debates, then you have a group full of trust and candor. Some people dream of having that experience. I have experienced it, and plan to develop those features more in every group I work in.

FALL 2014 | 23

Protect the new when someone hatches an original idea, it may be ungainly and poorly defined, but it is also the opposite of established and entrenched – and that is precisely what is most exciting about it.” Ed calls them ‘Ugly Babies’. These are the first mock-ups of their films. They are not yet fully developed, but awkward and uninformed, vulnerable and incomplete. Truly ugly. They need nurturing, which means time and patience, in order to become the beautiful masterpieces we enjoy at the theater. The same is true for most any idea. “Originality is fragile,” says Ed. “If while in this vulnerable state, it is exposed to naysayers who fail to see its potential or lack the patience to let it evolve, it could be destroyed. Part of our job is to protect the new from people who don’t

understand that in order for greatness to emerge, there must be phases of notso-greatness.” This is such a valuable concept that seems to go against much of the prevailing thought of ‘getting it right the first time.’ But that idea was specific to a production environment where rework is seen as costly and undesirable. In a creative process, making the process cheaper, easier, or consistent is a worthy aspiration, but it is not the goal. “Making something great is the goal.” And that takes iterations. I plan to protect the new by not being

a naysayer and respecting others’ ideas by encouraging them to continually evolve and improve their idea. Creativity, Inc. was one the best books I’ve read all year on leadership and creativity. It’s packed with more thought provoking concepts than I can cover, so my recommendation is to read the whole book. Uncovering the unseen requires open trust and candor, and a diligence in protecting the new. What unseen forces are standing in your way of true inspiration? (I guess you can’t tell me if you don’t see them!)

This book summary was written by Rex Williams on behalf of ActionableBooks.com

24 | FALL 2014

DON’T BUILD YOUR NETWORK,

NURTURE IT OVER THE YEARS I HAVE TRIED MANY METHODS FOR GROWING MY BUSINESS. I’ve hired internet marketing firms to implement direct marketing programs or improve my Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I’ve worked with PR firms who secured me key spots in national newspapers, magazines, and television. And I’ve paid out large sums of money for online advertising campaigns. The objective in each case was to expand my network, increase traffic to my website, build my mailing list, and raise awareness of my brand and services. After all of this work and expense, I conducted a post mortem and discovered something quite interesting. With the exception of one, all of my speeches from the last 18 months were generated from previous relationships. They were either past clients, audience members, bureaus with whom I’ve had strong relationships, or someone who was following up on a recommendation. Nearly all of my bookings were a result of my existing network. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Statistics show that the probability of selling to an existing customer is a hefty 60 to 70 percent, whereas the probability of selling to a new prospect is only 5 to 20 percent. To compound things, it

Stephen Shapiro

costs over six times more to acquire new customers than it does to keep current ones. Despite this, we’ve been brainwashed to focus on growing our network with people who neither know us nor have a prior connection to us. Of course there are times when attracting new prospects is valuable, for example, when you are in the earlier stages of building your

business. However, if you are more established and have a track record, nurturing – not growing - should be the name of the game. Unfortunately, we typically treat most customers like transactions. Get the sale and move on. But we miss the possibility that they can either be a repeat consumer or a referral to a new customer.

FALL 2014 | 25

Think about the books you’ve recently purchased. I bet most were due to a recommendation by someone you know and trust. I suspect it is less often that you buy a book on a whim based on an advertisement or an Amazon.com recommendation. The same is true with most businesses. Someone who has a past relationship with you, and is a fan, is the best advocate. For example, if you run a restaurant, common methods for attracting new customers include offering deep discounts through Groupon or paying for expensive listings on OpenTable. These are designed to attract those individuals not already familiar with your business. Instead, consider giving existing customers – your fans - an incentive to recommend your restaurant to others. Provide free appetizers to past patrons who bring along new diners. Grant gift certificates for frequent referrals. Create a “wall of fame” with the pictures of the customers who refer the most business. Or, better yet, find ways of creating even more value for your customers, regardless of whether or not they bring you new business. Show your appreciation by buying them a bottle of wine on their birthday. They will most likely repay the gratitude by excitedly sharing the experience with all of their friends. With hopes of expanding my network, I just launched a new website. We spent a lot of time and money to make this a reality. But in hindsight, I might have been better off investing in the creation of a formal advocacy program where I strategically contact and cultivate relationships with former customers. I’ve found that sometimes simply calling or writing a past client to say

26 | FALL 2014

As the old song goes,

“Love the ones you’re with.” hello is enough. In doing so, when a new need arises, they think of me first. I often introduce clients to one another so that they learn about innovation from a peer, not just me. Sometimes I’ll send a small, personal gift. Or if I find a relevant article, I mail it. The key is not to sell to these customers, but to provide value. You want them to view you as an ally, not a vendor. And this repeated, friendly contact keeps you front and center in their minds. Should they (or a colleague) require someone with your skills, they will think of you first. Where do you invest your marketing time and money? Do you go to

networking events to hand out business cards? Have you created a shiny new logo and website? Do you run Google AdWords or do a direct marketing campaign to attract new customers? Or how about cold calling? Of course all of these can be valuable. However, I want to get my business to the point where my business cards, websites, logos, taglines, and brochures are irrelevant and unnecessary. If you already have a nice following, don’t try to attract new customers, nurture the people who know you best. Or as the old song goes, “Love the ones you’re with.”

LOW Martin Group AD

ONE CONVERSATION THAT CAN CHANGE THE GAME FOR WOMEN Janet Kestin & Nancy Vonk In 2005 I had an exchange with my friend Mike Hughes about gender that stuck hard. When it came to women having half of the top jobs, the advertising guru who led The Martin Agency for most of his career put it this way: “Nothing will ever change until men do half the child rearing.” I knew exactly what he was suggesting: men given this responsibility would redesign business to make it viable for them to do both jobs. At the time, his belief was clear and I shared it: “Well that will never happen.” Picture the massive benefits of the fantasy coming true, for a moment. In industries designed for the success of parents, all employees would benefit from more flexible hours, no stigma for taking advantage of that flexibility, no stigma for leaving work to look after school or health-related needs, no stigma 28 | FALL 2014

for women or men for taking parental leave (let’s go all the way and imagine it’s available in equal amounts to both Mom and Dad). The outdated concept of value being tightly attached to number of hours spent in the office and on timesheets would finally be replaced by performance and results. On site child care would become the norm, freeing up countless hours and income for other uses. Productivity would rise, retention rates would be up, stress levels reduced, and women would stay on track to top jobs with no reason to lower their prebaby goals. They’d be promoted by men who appreciate their unique perspectives on problem solving and management styles that are collaborative, empathetic, and less driven by ego. Quality of decision-making and profits, up. Nirvana! Now consider this: Scandinavian

countries are virtually there. They look at North America in bewilderment that we’re still so far behind, missing out on ways of running business that mean greater profits, better retention, happier, healthier employees and happier children. It’s not a coincidence that Denmark was just ranked the happiest country in the world in the World Happiness Report, which cited gender equality and the support of parents in the workplace as a top factor. The up side to business designed to support the success of employees with children would be so dramatic, it’s baffling that North America isn’t pulling out all the stops to make it so. I have new faith we’ll get there, because the benefits of gender diversity at senior levels are being discussed more than ever before, and a sustainable future for industries will be insured by it.

In the mean time, right here, right now, many women could take one big step that would assure they have more sustainable careers and happier lives: hammering out a routine with Dad that means sharing child care equally. While bias and outdated systems do their part to limit women’s advancement, what’s happening at home has a huge impact as well. And this is well within the individual’s ability to change. I’ve always worked with many women with children. It was amazing to me how often I learned chronically exhausted women did most of the childrelated duties---and had never broached the subject of sharing the load. Looking more closely at what’s going on, there’s

a pile of reasons women keep doing the lion’s share without much pushback, while dads have five forty-hour weeks worth of leisure time more than Mom per year *. There’s the mom guilt of being at work when some part of us says ‘your child needs you more’. We need to be perfect, in a time when the measure of what a good mom looks like (complete with 800 activities critical to Junior’s success) is impossible to achieve. Many of us are in our comfort zones with the complete control. There’s often an assumption the partner would balk, that it would be impossible to manage any other way. And of course the gender stereotype that says it’s just plain wrong to leave the ‘essentials’ to anyone else, even Dad, is still very much alive.

But for all the effort to do it all, women are on track to have strained relationships, and kids who have less of their father than they want. Certainly, it’s not a win for the career if you’re verging on burnout and unable to do your best, or you lower your goals because no, You. Are. Not. Superwoman.

A BETTER LIFE IS A TALK AWAY There are how-to’s for just about everything, and though I won’t compare this to 3 simple steps to installing your new garburator, I believe most women would find these not-totally easy steps would lead to a breakthrough that means a better career path and better life experience for the whole family.

Broach the subject. Make it happen with no distractions. Paint the picture of your reality, for context, first. Help him appreciate what you’re really going through---the price you’re paying. And by extension, the cost to the family. You may actually find a very receptive father who has always been prepared to do more. If you hit resistance, see debate and conflict over this as part of resolving a big problem, and worth the discomfort in the moment.

Work together to create a plan. This shouldn’t be you dictating an arrangement---even as the need for a new strategy should be framed as non-negotiable. There are infinite possibilities on how to work it out. Start with what each is best at, then be ready to compromise. He makes the bed like a first grader? Get over it. Let go of perfect. Life will be messy and really, everyone will live.

Check in regularly together on how it’s going. You may find it’s time for a re-jig of duties when walls are being hit

too often for you or him (maybe homework duty on all the sciences, or all the weekend driving, is now making him crazy).

Single parents have greater challenges still. It’s hard to take this suggestion, but worth serious consideration: move if necessary to be close to family or friends who can help. It’s the oldest model in human history for managing through child rearing. Mike Hughes was right. The day equally shared parenting is the norm, workplace gender equality will have arrived. I think the world is changing for the better with men steadily putting more time into parenting, and some day it really is possible we’ll get there. The more women and men embrace 50-50 routines at home, the faster it will happen. *Through the Labyrinth, Alice Eagly and Linda Carli 2007

FALL 2014 | 29

Connecting brands to people through

INNOVATION PERSONALIZATION & INFORMATION By Cheri Chevalier

“Our mission [as marketers] is to inspire people to think differently about our brands – whatever they may be – and to change consumer behavior as a result”

A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to take part in a conference that included a fantastic presentation by the Chief Marketing Officer of the Coca-Cola Company for North America. While she was addressing an assembled group of Microsoft CMOs from around the world, it hit me: this was how my own journey began. 30 | FALL 2014

I thought back to the late 1980s: as a high school student from a small town in southwestern Ontario, I joined my class trip to Toronto, where we were awed by sights and sounds of the ‘big city’. The trip included a behind the scenes tour of the not-yet-officially-opened SkyDome, and then to the offices of one of the largest advertising agencies in Canada. We were young kids learning about the world of big-time marketing. At the SkyDome, they showed us the marvels of the world’s first fully-retractable roofed multi-purpose stadium – an incredible feat of engineering at the time. Then the executives at the ad agency showed us the ins and outs of how they promoted one of the most iconic brands on their client roster: Coca-Cola. The SkyDome was certainly impressive – this was the heyday of Blue Jays-mania – but I could have spent all day at the ad agency. I was engrossed by the thinking and the creative work

that was all ultimately focused on a single goal: inspiring people to think differently about the brand. It wasn’t about a carbonated soft drink. It was about joy. And really, as marketers, isn’t that the essence of what we do? Our mission is to inspire people to think differently about our brands – whatever they may be – and to change consumer behavior as a result. I have been Microsoft Canada’s Chief Marketing Officer since September of 2011, but I have been with the company since the beginning my professional career – a rarity in this field. I started as a co-op student when I was studying at the University of Waterloo, and was fortunate enough to have been selected for a role on Microsoft’s Windows 95 launch team. I watched, in amazement, as a team of incredibly creative people – who seemed to be constantly told that what they wanted to do was

not possible – pursue their goals relentlessly, and ultimately succeed in achieving the seemingly impossible: the unprecedented move of draping the CN Tower with banners proclaiming the launch of our groundbreaking operating system. I was later part of the team that launched Hotmail, Messenger (remember that sound!) and MSN in Canada. These launches were a major milestone for us as we embraced the power of the internet during the height of the dot-com boom. And as part of the team that brought these products to life in Canada, I could see that this was a defining moment, not only us as a company but for the tech industry at large. Today, as CMO, I am experiencing that feeling all over again. Microsoft is continuing its evolution – some might call it a revolution – from a software company, into a devices and services company. It is a defining moment for us. For me, as chief marketer, it’s not only an exhilarating time but a somewhat challenging one as well. Microsoft is going through a truly phenomenal transformation. And yet, as we chart a new course, I remain as committed as ever to what I call the three P’s of marketing – core principles, upon which I rely to guide my team along the way:

PIONEERING Innovation must be at the forefront of how you’re reaching and connecting with your audience. In order to breakthrough, you have to meet your customers where they live, work and play, in fresh and unique ways with timely and relevant advertising. And today there are more ways to do this than ever before. At Microsoft we enable this by providing advertisers with the opportunity to engage with their customers on platforms they trust – such as MSN, Xbox, Skype, and Bing. There are countless innovative marketing executions that can be done

through these services, which in many cases, go across three screens. Marketing innovation at its best.

PERSONALIZING The customer must always be at the heart of everything you do. It’s very easy for marketers to get caught up in the wonders of their company’s products or services – but at the end of the day it’s about customer-centricity. It is critical to understand your customer’s unique needs and how your products and/or services align to those needs. And it is critical to engage with your customers in a way that demonstrates this understanding. Tools like Microsoft Dynamics CRM allow you to do just that. Through powerful behavioural and marketing analytics, you can gain insights that allow you to better connect with your customers with the right message, at the right time.

PERFORMING Marketing needs to drive results. Knowing what works allows you increase the return on investment (ROI) from your campaigns. It gives you the power to make better informed decisions and drive increased efficiency and effectiveness in your marketing. Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, our

campaign management solution, gives you the power to automate, execute, and monitor campaigns across all channels - including traditional, online and social media. Campaign budgets, costs, performance and ROI can be tracked accurately, and email marketing and lead generation campaigns can be executed with ease. So you can monitor the performance of your investments. Sometimes the best marketing approaches start off as the craziest ones. That’s why I’m very pleased that we have just launched the Microsoft Canada Marketing Innovation Fund, an in-house program created to encourage the best offthe-grid thinking within our marketing team. It’s a relatively small pot of money, but it’s there to support those wonderfully crazy ideas that might not have received funding otherwise – “never been tried before, don’t know if it’s even going to work, just needs a few bucks to get it going” – which could turn out to be the next big marketing breakthrough. I’ll admit, I thought some of those late 80s Coca-Cola creative concepts were pretty ‘out-there’ too – but they sparked in me a passion for the marketing discipline that has driven me throughout my entire career. And I owe those smalltown high school teachers who decided to bus a load of high school kids into the big city a huge, huge thank you.

Cheri Chevalier (@avidmarketer) is the CMO of Microsoft Canada and leader of its Central Marketing Organization. She is responsible for marketing across Microsoft’s commercial and consumer audiences, including the management of integrated marketing communications, global advertising, data, analytics, events, as well as digital and social disciplines. Cheri has been recognized within and beyond Microsoft for her strategic marketing and leadership skills, including a landing a spot on Marketing Magazine’s Top 30 Under 30 list, and receiving Microsoft’s Chairman Award, the highest award given to employees globally. Cheri has participated in several Art of Marketing and Art of Leadership events as a panelist and expert. FALL 2014 | 31

Help salespeople deliver amazing customer experiences to close more deals, faster The way people buy has changed…

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Customers are 57% through the buying process before they talk to you CEB, “The New High Performer Playbook”, 2012

…shouldn’t you change the way you sell?

3% vs. 67% 73%

3% of cold calls vs. 67% of seconddegree LinkedIn referrals result in appointments Microsoft, “The Dynamic Sales Team”, 2013

of sales people using social media to sell outperform those who don’t Sales Centered Guy Consulting, A Sales Guy Consulting andASocial Selling “Social Sales Quota”, 2012 “Social Media Media and Sales

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Think You Like What You Like? Think Again A funny thing happens when you lie to people: they tend to believe. Why shouldn’t they? They lie to themselves all the time. Our minds are wired to respond in predictable ways–among them is perceiving the world the way we want to see it, not necessarily the way it is. Perhaps no other phenomenon demonstrates our brain’s ability to make believe better than the placebo effect. Long known for its ability to

improve a patient’s health, the practice of giving people an inert treatment they believe will make them better has been proven to be highly effective. In fact, in recent studies, researchers have found the placebo effect may be much more potent than previously thought. So strong is the expectation that a pill will provide relief, that even patients who are told beforehand that the medication is a placebo and has no medicinal properties, still show significant signs

Nir Eyal

of improvement. When it comes to fooling ourselves, the brain can’t help itself. How a sugar pill could be as effective as an FDA-approved drug, backed by millions of dollars in research, is a central mystery of the placebo effect. But the brain’s predilection to fool itself is not only evident in the medical field. The cognitive trick is a central trait of how the products we use every day become part of our lives.

Making Connections Products alleviate pain. But finding the pain is only part of the challenge. Once the source of temptation is found, be it hunger, fear, boredom, or any number of other triggers, a connection must be formed in the customer’s mind between 34 | FALL 2014

the craving and the company’s offering. An association is a memory that informs the way the world appears. If a company can form a connection between the trigger and its product, it can create a habit. Associations crowd

out rational thought, enabling the “doing without thinking” characteristic of habits. But are associations and the memories they are based on really powerful enough to prevent us from thinking?

Consider the image below.

Take a guess at which surface is darker, the top square or the bottom? Assuming you’ve seen any number of similar optical illusions, you likely anticipate that there is a trick, and you’d be right. With your finger, cover up the line that separates the two squares. Doing so reveals the two squares are the exact same color. Why does this happen? The answer is your brain has learned an indelible association. Your brain can’t register this image any other way unless you stop seeing the line in the middle which, when removed makes the two squares look like a solid object, not two stacked squares. Associations are powerful and long lasting, indicating that they might have served an important evolutionary purpose. One hypothesis is that these associations help us make faster decisions my jumping to conclusions we’ve seen play out before. These associations are critical to what makes brands valuable and how we make automatic decisions about what we buy.

the sample. MRI scans of the testers brains confirmed they had actually experienced the two drinks differently. Similar effects have been observed with other factors, which should not objectively affect taste. For example, wine you believe is expensive really does taste better. After all, isn’t expensive wine supposed to taste better? It better if you just shelled out an ungodly sum on a bottle. Here

again, the brain’s ability to perceive the world the way it expects it to be kicks into high gear. Just as the expectation of a placebo’s effect informs how we perceive physical symptoms, associations create connections between things, which may or may not be related. Marketers create these associations to ensure consumers choose their products out of habit, as well as enjoy them more once they do.

Nir Eyal is the author of Hooked: How to Build Habit Forming Products, coming from Penguin Canada on November 4.

Creating Preference Consider the famous Pepsi Challenge, which researchers have recreated in the lab on several occasions. Studies reveal that when people are asked to do a blind taste test of Coke versus Pepsi they split equally, showing little measurable preference. However, if people are asked to evaluate the drinks knowing the brand name, they disproportionately prefer Coke. But here’s where the research gets interesting. When a study compared preference for Coke to an unidentified cola, Coke was overwhelmingly chosen. However, unbeknownst to the taster, sometimes the other cola was not just some drink, it too was Coke. Despite tasting two identical drinks, the Coke brand affected the flavor of FALL 2014 | 35

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BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Vijay Govindarajan & Srikanth Srinivas There is a lot of hype and buzz around business intelligence. Companies are investing millions of dollars in business intelligence technology. However, unless this is accompanied by the simultaneous creation of a strong foundation for taking intelligent business actions, they are unlikely to reap a good return on that investment. An analogy might help explain what we mean by this. Imagine a plane heading from Dallas to New York. If that flight’s trajectory were just a degree off, it would end up in the ocean instead. The fact is that planes are more than a degree off 95% of the time, yet most planes land where they are supposed to. In spite of all the storms, the changing wind conditions, turbulence, and all the volatility and uncertainty they encounter along the way, they manage to land at their intended destination. Similarly, we

believe the primary purpose of an investment in business intelligence should be to help companies reach their intended destinations in spite of all the storms they are likely to encounter along the way. So by learning how pilots are successful, leaders can get a much better return on their business intelligence initiatives. How is the pilot successful? By managing six critical variables effectively. These variables are the essential ingredients for business success:

Starting Point. The pilot knows clearly that he is starting in Dallas. There is nothing clouding his understanding of the current reality as it is, not as he would like it to be, not as it appears to be, not as his copilot describes it to be. Similarly, there should be a good, datacentered understanding of the reality as it is — with holistic data across the

functional silos, that is available in a timely manner, and which describes the current status of the business accurately.

Destination. The pilot can’t just land in a random location and declare, “You have arrived.” He must make proactive choices to reach a predetermined destination. Similarly, business intelligence must be viewed against the backdrop of a clear vision, goals, and strategy, and used as a means to getting there, rather than viewed in isolation or as a technology initiative. This vision should then be cascaded down so each decision maker has a clear idea of the destination they are working toward, while at the same time, ensuring that all these will add up to the same common goal.

The Plan. The pilot doesn’t take off FALL 2014 | 37

“If there is only one thing a business intelligence

initiative can focus on, we would say, put all that energy and focus on more dynamic, forward-looking course correction.”

until he has a clear flight plan, and he can understand how it will take him from the starting point to the destination. Similarly, business intelligence must be leveraged to create a plan that charts a path from where the organization is today to where it should be in the future. A visual way of depicting the plan — one that connects the starting point and the destination, and takes into account all the nuances of a business (more sales in fourth quarter, a spike in sales at month end and quarter end, etc.), seasonality, trends, etc. — will help with understanding the next variable, variation. In our experience, this element is weak in most business intelligence initiatives.

Variation. The pilot knows that he is going to be off 95% of the time. He expects variation from the plan and deals with it. Similarly, leaders need to anticipate variation. They should neither freeze in surprise when there is variation, nor should they create so much noise that the signal gets drowned out. Just like Peter Aceto, President and Chief the pilot makes a calm assessment and Executive Officer of ING DIRECT Canada, operates the right levers, leaders need to is a passionate leader and committed create a climate and culture where people savings advocate. His career with ING can make a calm assessment and fineDIRECT began in Canada more than a tune the right set of drivers. Without this decade ago as a founding member of one simple prerequisite, we have seen its senior leadership team. many business intelligence initiatives fail. 38 | FALL 2014

Act Early. When you are a degree off and you correct it early, it may be a matter of no more than a mile. Leave it for a while and it can compound quickly to hundreds of miles off course. The pilot has a cockpit full of tools that tell him where he is relative to where he should be and provide the visual cues he needs to act early and course correct often. Similarly, business intelligence must provide the visual and data-centered cues that show people the widening nature of the gap. For example, a bar chart by time period, one of the most common visual tools used, may not show the widening gap. However, a cumulative line graph can visually highlight the widening nature of the gap in a powerful way. Further, sales variation can get widened much more when it comes to financial variation because of fixed costs. It is not uncommon for a 5% drop in revenue to result in a 30% drop in profitability. Along the same lines, a 5% drop in revenue can result in a 50% drop in market cap. Such gaps must be exposed clearly and visually so employees understand the true impact of making decisions early.

Act Often. The pilot is making dynamic course corrections, perhaps every minute or so. He is not waiting

an hour before deciding what to do. Contrast that with a typical business. A whole month goes by. A couple of weeks later the books are closed. Only then do leaders know where the business was last month. In addition, at best, this gives 12 opportunities for course correction over a typical annual cycle. If a plane were to attempt that Dallas–New York flight with just 12 course corrections, based on where the plane was at the time of the previous course correction, it will most certainly end up in the ocean. As volatility increases and uncertainty builds, the need for more frequent course correction accentuates. If there is only one thing a business intelligence initiative can focus on, we would say, put all that energy and focus on more dynamic, forward-looking course correction. Unless a strong, intelligent, actionbased foundation is in place to address each of these six critical variables, organizations are likely to get swept away by the buzz of business intelligence, become distracted by pretty charts on mobile devices, and end up landing where the winds take them. And when the external forces take charge, there is no guarantee it will be a safe landing. Instead, leaders must guide their companies safely toward their intended destinations.

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LEADERSHIP SKILLS BY DIFFERING WITHOUT DIVIDING

Lorne Rubis

In any problem-solving situation, we all know how common it is for people to come into the process with a biased view, or a lack of information. This can instantly compromise the group’s ability to create an optimal solution. So, how do you move forward? As a leader, you need to set your team up for success by using effective tools and strategies that will, ideally, leave all parties feeling like they have a better understanding of the situation at hand, and of the potential for all solutions that are brought to the table. One of the best ways to do this is by encouraging “differing without dividing.” It is an important skill for creating the best possible solution and can be supercharged by combining it with another tool I use daily called STP (which stands for Situation, Target,

Proposal). I’m literally using “switch and commit” with our executive team – and it works! This team is a high functioning and effective group and the goal, when problem-solving, is to have us all commit

“An exceptional leader appreciates the value of differing without dividing.”

42 | FALL 2014

to a commonly accepted target (or end of process) without causing a huge and unnecessary rift. So, we begin our oneon-one conversations by agreeing on what the end point (target) is. Defining the target and situation is a crucial first step, as conflict can arise when there’s a lack of information about either. If you start your meeting without a

defined target, get your team engaged in the problem-solving process by asking clarifying questions – at its most basic level, what are the facts of our current situation and what problem are we trying to solve? Next comes the proposal – we want to close the gap between the current situation and how we’d like things to be. This is where we start the ball rolling and bring in “switch and commit.” Each member of my team has their own preferred view and after hearing that perspective, I ask them to switch and argue another, differing, and opposing viewpoint. It’s challenging, but it’s effective. Being open to an opposing view or solution allows for better understanding and better problemsolving. The objective is to remain unified – to come together and develop the best proposal or solution for the given situation. As a leader, you don’t want unnecessary conflict or for your team to walk away feeling more divided

on an issue. Now, when is this approach most effective? This technique in the leadership tool kit is not intended for determining “where to eat lunch.” It is an effective process that often plies open opportunities or solutions not originally considered, and is best used when challenging issues that require compromise and an abundant outcome (that initially may feel like a loss). It can be utilized one-on-one or in team meetings. The source for this tool is reinforced and attributed to a Stanford blog that refers to a recent Barnett Talks article. The following outlines the author’s approach: “I prefer ‘switch and commit.’ The goal is still to end up committing at the end of the process, but during the

decision I want the participants to switch roles. The person disagreeing with you needs to take your position and argue it well. Similarly, you must argue the other’s view well. You can think of the approach as devil’s advocacy taken seriously by both sides. I first tried ‘switch and commit’ when teaching a controversial topic at Stanford. For the first assignment, the students had to state their position on the topic. For the second, big assignment, they had to write an essay taking the opposite view. (They did not hear about the second assignment until after they handed in the first.) The end results were some fantastic essays, because the authors were legitimately skeptical.” The author goes on to note how he currently uses this technique for hard-

hitting business topics. It doesn’t always work because some people struggle to open themselves to an authentically opposing viewpoint. He goes on to say though… “An exceptional leader (and I might add… colleague…) appreciates the value of differing without dividing.” I agree. No technique is foolproof, but what makes this one unique is its ability to compel people to step out of their comfort zone and really examine all solutions for their core attributes. At the very least, it will help foster a sense of mutual respect between those with opposing viewpoints. Let’s end with a few “Character Moves” to assist you in utilizing the “differing without dividing” technique and achieving success with your problem-solving.

1. Encourage “differing without dividing” by practicing and using the “switch and commit” tool. Your best leaders and teammates will commit to the end goal or “target” and then be prepared to vigorously explore a differing and ultimately not divisive dialogue.

2. Intentionally encourage people to argue another person’s perspective in real time in group meetings. It creates greater understanding and empathy. It also promotes ideas that spring from constructive and creative abundance. For example, how do I make this a win versus a loss.

3. Ask switchers to not only pursue the other viewpoint from a content perspective, but also track the feelings or emotions that ride along with the “switch.”

LORNE RUBIS – Chief People Officer, ATB Financial As chief people officer, Lorne Rubis is proof of the ATB commitment to leadership. He is responsible for leading change within ATB as the organization sets out to be number one in local markets, become THE place to work and further entrench itself in the hearts of Albertans. As a general manager, facilitator, consultant and entrepreneur, Lorne’s diverse career has focused on driving organizational change and performance improvement for public and private companies on a global level. He has extended his experiences, ideas and energy within ATB by elevating and transforming Human Resources into what is now People & Culture. This significant change highlights the two most important elements of the organization that are responsible for bringing the strategies and vision of ATB to life.

FALL 2014 | 43

Building Loyalty the Lady Gaga way: Focus on

OF YOUR CUSTOMERS Jackie Huba

Shiny New Object Syndrome. It’s hard to resist. We, as businesspeople, often focus on the newest things, the latest and the greatest, and this can distort our business priorities. Many businesses are consumed with chasing new customers instead of focusing on the ones they already have. I see this all the time: companies give heavily discounted offers to new customers to get them in the door while longtime customers wonder why their loyalty isn’t being rewarded with the same offers. A 2011 study by Forrester Research 44 | FALL 2014

and Heidrick & Struggles shows how chief marketing officers focus on the “new.” CMOs were asked to name their current top three marketing objectives. The No. 1 objective was “acquiring new customers,” with 59 percent of CMOs checking this box. What about current customers? Only 30 percent of CMO respondents said they are focused on retaining customers as a top priority. Just over a quarter of respondents, at 26 percent, said better customer lifetime value and customer satisfaction/ advocacy were key objectives.

According to research from TARP Worldwide, it is five times cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one. So the CMO’s No. 1 priority is all wrong and may very well be damaging relationships with existing customers—customers who, if retained, would help bring in new customers based on customer satisfaction and word of mouth. Where other businesses don’t seem to have their priorities straight, pop star Lady Gaga understands that focusing on current customers is the key to building long-term, sustainable audience loyalty.

With 23 million albums sold, five Grammy awards and Forbes’ distinction as one of the world’s most powerful celebrities, Gaga is one of the most wellknown pop artists in the world. While known as much for her voice as for her over-the-top wardrobe, few recognize Gaga for her stunning business acumen, which has earned her legions of loyal fans worldwide. Gaga is one of the most followed people in social media, with 41 million Twitter followers and 67 million “likes” on Facebook. But she spends much of her efforts focused on just one percent of her fan base, the die-hard fans Gaga calls her “Little Monsters.” I call these super-engaged customers the One Percenters, the core group of customers making up about one percent of a business’ customer base. This idea of the One Percenters is based on research conducted with my coauthor, Ben McConnell, for our 2007 book, Citizen Marketers. In the early days of online community and social media, we looked at online communities and tracked what percentage of members created content and were most engaged. We found it amounted to just one percent of the total community members. One percent is a very small part of the community, and yet this disproportionate number of super-engaged members was creating most of the value for the rest of the community. In February 2012, Gaga and her manager created their own private place for the Little Monsters. Gaga herself dreamed up the idea after seeing an advance screening of The Social Network, a movie about the rise of Facebook. Not finding existing technology that could do what they wanted, Gaga’s manager, Troy Carter, sought out the best Silicon Valley talent, Gaga invested her own money, and they created a firm called Backplane, which would build a niche social-network platform that could be used by other artists and even brands.

CMO’S TOP MARKETING OBJECTIVES

59%

Acquire new Customers

42%

Launch new products/brands

41%

Increase brand awareness

41%

Improve marketing ROI

30%

Increase customer retention

29%

Innovate

29%

Improve digital interactive/social marketing tactics

26%

Increase customer lifetime value

26%

Increase customer satisfaction/advocacy

23%

Acquire, develop and retain talent

21%

Improve marketing’s value in the organization

17%

Expand globally to new geographies

Integrate communications

Base: 191 CMOs (top 3 responses accepted)

Gaga’s social network is called Littlemonsters.com and looks like a cross between Pinterest and Reddit, with a scrolling wall of Gaga fan art and photos submitted by the Little Monsters. Fans can set up profiles, message each other and find links to concert dates. They even get their own Littlemonsters.com e-mail address, linking their online identity to Gaga. The pop star is on the site weekly, posting special messages to fans, “liking” and commenting on their fan art, and participating in chat discussions. Smart companies, focused on creating more customer loyalty, are taking a page out of Gaga’s playbook. Premium bourbon maker Maker’s Mark created a special program for their One Percenters called the Maker’s Mark Ambassadors.

Source: Forester Research, Inc.

Ambassadors receive an array of benefits from Maker’s branded business cards to invitations to Maker’s historic distillery in Loretto, Kentucky. Car manufacturer MINI holds a annual 3,877-mile trek from New York to Los Angeles, called MINI Takes the States, for MINI One Percenters to connect and share how they customized their own MINIs. So where have you been focusing your efforts: on ways of wooing new customers or tending to your most loyal few? Who are your One Percenters and are you giving them a chance to connect to each other and to you, building those loyal bonds? So much more than a catchy verse, latex and lust, Lady Gaga can teach businesses how to lead with loyalty, success and gratitude.

Gaga is one of the most followed people in social media, with 41 million Twitter followers and 67 million “likes” on Facebook. FALL 2014 | 45

MONEY NEY HAPPINESS NESS HOW

ACTUALLY BUYS

Warren Buffett’s advice about money has been scrutinized — and implemented — by savvy investors all over the world. But while most people know they can benefit from expert help to make money, they think they already know how to spend money to reap the most happiness. As a result, they follow their intuitions, using their money to buy things they think will make them happy, from televisions to cars to houses to second houses and beyond. The problem with this approach is that a decade of research — conducted by us and our colleagues — demonstrates that our intuitions about how to turn money into happiness are misguided at best and dead-wrong at worst. Those televisions, cars, and houses? They have almost no impact on our happiness. The good news is that we now know what kind of spending does enhance our happiness — insight that’s valuable to consumers and companies alike. Buffet recently penned an op-ed titled “My Philanthropic Pledge” — but rather than offer financial advice about giving, he suggested we give as a way to enhance our emotional wellbeing. Of his decision to donate 99% of his wealth to charity, Buffett said that he “couldn’t be happier.” But do we need to give away billions like Buffet in order to experience that warm glow? Luckily for us ordinary folks, even more modest forms of

generosity can make us happy. In a series of experiments, we’ve found that asking people to spend money on others — from giving to charity to buying gifts for friends and family — reliably makes them happier than spending that same money on themselves. And our research shows that even in very poor countries like India and Uganda — where many people are struggling to meet their basic needs — individuals who reflected on giving to others were happier than those who reflected on spending on themselves. What’s more, spending even a few dollars on someone else can trigger a boost in happiness. In one study, we found that asking people to spend as little as $5 on someone else over the course of a day made them happier at the end of that day than people who spent the $5 on themselves. Smart managers are using the power of investing in others to increase the happiness of their employees. Google, for example, offers a compelling “bonus” plan for employees. The company maintains a fund whereby any employee can nominate another employee to receive a $150 bonus. Given the average salaries at Google, a $150 bonus is small change. But the nature of the bonus — one employee giving a bonus to another rather than demanding that bonus for himself — can have a large emotional

payoff. Investing in others can also influence customers. Managers at an amusement park were unable to convince patrons to buy pictures of themselves on one of the park’s many rides. Less than one percent purchased the photo at the usual $12.95 price. But researchers tried a clever variation. Other customers were allowed to pay whatever they wanted (including $0) for a photo, but were told that half of what they paid would be sent to charity. Now, buying the picture allows the customer not only to take home a souvenir, but also invest in others. Given this option, nearly 4.5% of customers purchased the photo, and paid an average of more than $5. As a result, the firm’s profit-per-rider increased fourfold. Warren Buffett, happiness guru. Just as we have taken his advice on making money, research suggests we should now take his advice on making happiness. By rethinking how we spend our money — even as little as $5 — we can reap more happiness for every dollar we spend. And Buffett’s happiness advice comes with a financial payoff as well. By maximizing the happiness that employees and customers get from every dollar they receive in bonuses or spend on products, companies can increase employee and customer satisfaction — and benefit the bottom line.

ELIZABETH DUNN AND MICHAEL NORTON Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton are co-authors of Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending (Simon & Schuster) and professors at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School, respectively.

46 | FALL 2014

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ART OF GOLD

THE

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM

DON’T GET ARROGANT Approaching the Sochi 2014 Olympic games the Canadian women’s hockey team having previously won three gold medals were the chosen favourite to win a fourth when the games began. An outsider may assume retrieving the gold may be easy for the team; however no one was going to physically hand Canada the medal, each game was hard fought. If the Canadian women’s team had gone 48 | FALL 2014

HAYLEY WICKENHEISER

into the tournament with the attitude they were entitled the medal they would not have been so successful. Wickenheiser recognizes success is harder to achieve as you accumulate more of it. The same is recognizable in business: once good business deals are made and a company experiences rapid growth, leaders tend to set their sights higher and higher. These ideals mean individuals need to work harder to achieve goals, rather than being complacent with past

successes they must continually strive to improve their performance to ensure future victories.

USE PRESSURE TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE Wickenheiser knows what playing under immense pressure really entails. When she and the Olympic team reached the gold medal game at the Sochi Olympic Games the entire world was watching.

I don’t think there’s one single way to lead, I think every person has their own strengths and weaknesses and within that you have to figure out what works for you and what helps you connect with other people.”

The team was aiming for it’s fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal. Captain Wickenheiser led her teammates to rise to the occasion; defeating the respected US team for the gold. In business, buckling under pressure can lead to missing tight deadlines, receiving the short end of the stick on negotiations and making errors on important reports. In the Olympic space there is no room for bad days and Wickenheiser holds herself and her entire team accountable for their actions. As the same for every Olympic team if you do not maintain your level of play every day someone will be jumping at the chance to replace you.

USE REST TO YOUR ADVANTAGE When desiring to become the best, initial first thoughts may be to go full speed, but

the reality is much different and produces destructive effects. Athletes may feel the longer and harder they train, the better they will perform at competitions and the same goes for business workers, they may feel that by clocking extra hours and even working weekends they will gain the edge they need to succeed, but this is not the case. The problem with going full speed is that it is unsustainable. For athletes, lack of rest can lead to overtraining and subpar performances. Worse, it can cause injury ad pit the athlete out of the competition completely. In business, burnout is a risk of overworking with results being lack of creativity, fatigue and low productivity. Overall both of these scenarios lead to low performance in any environment. Athletes must plan rest days and take additional rest when feeling unusually

weak or tired. Executives can set their schedules to take weekends entirely off to take advantage of resting time and return to the office clear-headed and focused. Leaders can support better performance in teammates and colleagues by encouraging them to rest when needed or relieve stress through group activities.

DON’T FOOL YOURSELF Part of being a great leader is the ability to build a great team. Wickenheiser suggests choosing teammates who are not only experts in their field, but who will be honest. Approaching the 2014 Olympic games Wickenheiser selected two coaches to help her get over her injuries and back on track. She sought the help of two experts who were honest with her on how far back she really was to being in gold

The best leadership is demonstrated in action. A lot of people really listen to what people say, but they ultimately follow what people do and you can’t ask somebody to do what you’re not willing to do yourself” FALL 2014 | 49

medal shape. From there she was able to realistically set goals and pursue the gold. Being surrounded by peoplepleasers is a common drawback believes Wickenheiser. Whether you are an elite athlete or a CEO, these types of people can lull you into a false sense of security, leaving you at a disadvantage or shocked when you find yourself unprepared in the middle of a play or business meeting. Instead, Wickenheiser advises to choose integral people when building a team - the types of people whom you feel are true to you to the point of delivering whatever words or actions in an honest manner and to the best of their ability.

WORK TOWARD A COMMON GOAL The only way to become a winning team is to set aside differences and work toward a common goal. At times team members may clash due to different the personalities or working styles, but a great leader does not let this get in the way of

50 | FALL 2014

Control what you can, let go of what you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t and reinvent yourselfâ&#x20AC;? business. One of the most important arts of being a leader is to bring everyone together, despite their differences and focus on one single goal. This involves pulling out and magnifying the strengths in members and encouraging everyone to play their part in the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success. There is much to be learned from each other and Wickenheiser emphasizes that when going for gold it is crucial to take in as many lessons from teammates as you can. In the business world your goal may not be as straightforward as winning an

Olympic gold medal; your long-term goals may include hitting certain profits for the year or making certain business deals. At the same time you will likely have multiple short-term projects, such as hiring a new employee, landing a new client or preparing a presentation for stakeholders. For each of these projects it is crucial to communicate with team members and agree on one single goal and how to achieve it. As a leader it is necessary to take command and execute your strategy to be successful on going for whatever your gold may be.

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RTISTS “Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.”

“Having talent isn’t merely about being competent; confidence is actually a part of that talent.”

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DUHIGG

“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.”

“It took thirtyeight years before 50 million people gained access to radios. It took television thirteen years to earn an audience that size. It took Instagram a year and a half.”

Arianna

Gary

Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy World

HUFFINGTON

VAYNERCHUK

Dell Salutes

ENTREPRENEURS CENTRE FOR ENTREPRENEURS LAUNCHES IN CANADA Coincident with Small Business Week, Dell is announcing plans to introduce its Centre for Entrepreneurs program in Canada at The Art of Entrepreneurship in Toronto on October 7th, 2014. The Dell program has already launched in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, the Netherlands and France. “For Dell, supporting entrepreneurs isn’t just a business strategy, but a corporate philosophy. Since its launch in the United States, the Dell Centre for Entrepreneurs has been a true testament to the collaborative win-win of startups and corporations partnering for growth,” said Kevin Peesker, President, Dell Canada Inc.

“Entrepreneurs power our economy, drive innovation and create jobs. We’re excited to be taking big steps forward to expand this program into Canada.” The Dell Centre for Entrepreneurs initiatives includes the Dell Founders 50, targeted to entrepreneurs leading recently funded companies who view technology as a critical “backbone” to business success and have immediate technology needs to scale quickly. The Founders 50 is an exclusive global group of founders and CEOs of emerging companies that are poised for rapid growth. All the companies utilize a strong technology infrastructure and

have established themselves as innovative and disruptive forces in their respective industries. Dell identified 50 companies as the key startups and founders to watch in the Spring 2014 cohort and the Fall 2014 cohort which was announced in August boosts it first Canadian member, Cloud Dynamics. We are now accepting applicants from Canadian start-ups for future cohorts. To view the criteria and apply please visit www.dell.ca/entrepreneurs. All of them are on the verge of making it big and Dell is putting its power behind them to further accelerate their business objectives through:

1. Technology – Access to consulting resources to plan and architect businesses’ growing technology needs to address scale. 2. Capital – Access to efficient credit financing through Dell Financial Services (DFS) Qualifying entrepreneurs can receive up to 10% of their funded amount.

3. Network – Support through Dell’s internal and external network, including connections with partners, advisors and

robust entrepreneurial ecosystem to open opportunities to explore new partnerships and channels that could support or grow a company’s revenue.

4. Knowledge – Expert driven webinars, think tanks and comprehensive learning series. Exclusive monthly calls with top thought leaders in topics ranging from PR to securing funding.

The Centre for Entrepreneurs and Dell Founders 50 initiatives have helped Dell develop mutually beneficial relationships with fast-growth entrepreneurs during their crucial early stages. Catherine

Graham, president and co-owner of Toronto-based RIGHTSLEEVE and cofounder and CEO of commonsku is a member of the Entrepreneur-in-Residence Global Advisory Board which serves

as a collective voice for entrepreneurs worldwide and lends strategic insight into Dell’s entrepreneurial initiatives. The global board also includes a curated group of influential entrepreneurs and FALL 2014 | 53

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS experts from around the world including Ashish J. Thakkar, founder of panAfrican multi-sector investment group Mara Group and winner of 2013 Young Entrepreneur of the Year award at the World Entrepreneurship Forum; Ido Leffler, co-founder of Yes To Inc., the No. 2 natural beauty brand in the U.S; Marcelo Sales, founding partner of 21212, a digital business accelerator headquartered in Rio de Janeiro and New York City; and Elizabeth Gore, resident entrepreneur at

the United Nations Foundation. “Having started my first company at the age of 15 selling computers in Africa, I have first-hand experience building a business from scratch and understand the challenges that face young entrepreneurs in getting ahead. I admire the work that Dell is doing to empower entrepreneurs and feel honored to join their Global Advisory Board to help shape the way we support young business leaders globally,” said

Ashish J. Thakkar, founder, Mara Group. “Entrepreneurs are the innovators and job creators of tomorrow, so we should do all we can to support and nurture their growth, particularly in developing nations like Africa.” Within the Dell Centre for Entrepreneurs, Dell offers a number of initiatives all aimed to help empower, support and fuel the growth of innovation, via entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Centre for Entrepreneurs online resources: Designed by and for entrepreneurs, the online hub is a one-stop shop for the resources, expertise and technology solutions founders at all stages need to start, run and grow a business. Dell Founders 50: The Dell Founders Club 50 is a curated group of entrepreneurs leading companies that view technology as a critical “backbone” to business success, and have immediate technology needs in order to scale quickly. The program focuses squarely on business acceleration, targeted towards CEOs and founders who are game changers in their industries and that are poised for massive growth.

Partnerships: The Centre for Entrepreneurs is proud to be aligned with groups and individuals that are both trailblazers and thought leaders within the entrepreneurial space, including leading accelerators, incubators and venture capitalists. Through workshops, office hours, demo days, networking events and conferences, we work with the following organizations to support entrepreneurs around technology, network, capital, and knowledge: Key partners include Extreme StartUps, DEMO, 1871, Capital Factory, the Angel Capital Association, 1776, Chicago Innovation Awards, Tech Cocktail, Techstars, YEC, TechWeek, Mass Challenge, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and Young StartUp Ventures

ON THE WORLD STAGE Dell’s commitment to entrepreneurs is shaped at the highest level of the company. Recently appointed as the United Nations Foundation’s first-ever Global Advocate for Entrepreneurship, Michael Dell will work closely with the Foundation to extend its work advancing key priorities of the

United Nations. The vision for the role of the Global Advocate for Entrepreneurship aligns with Dell’s efforts to engage with global entrepreneurs for positive social impact, and with UN programs embracing innovation and entrepreneurship. This is a unique moment in which key

global trends are aligning to create new opportunities to leverage the power of entrepreneurship and innovation in the effort to reduce poverty, increase health, and improve lives around the world. This allows Dell to champion entrepreneurs while underscoring:

– That the entrepreneurial spirit that defined the early days of Dell has lived on throughout the company’s history. – Dell has always been about breaking down barriers – finding a better way to create technology, get it in the hands of customers, and enable them to achieve their goals.

Want to know more about Dell’s Centre for Entrepreneurs? Visit us at www.dell.ca/entrepreneurs. A community tailored for women entrepreneurs can be found at www.dell.com/women. 54 | FALL 2014

The more hunches you follow. The more bars you raise. The more weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re inspired. Dell salutes the entrepreneurial spirit in everyone. The Dell for Entrepreneurs is now in Canada!

Dell.ca/Entrepreneurs

HOW DOES THE WORLD SEE YOU?

Sally Hogshead

Let’s say you think you’re funny. As far as you’re concerned, a sense of humor is one of your best traits. There’s just one problem: Nobody else thinks you’re funny. This is indeed a problem. Humor is a two-sided exchange. It’s a feedback loop between you as the joke teller, and your audience. Humor doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s not enough to only consider how you see yourself. You must also consider how the world sees you. If nobody else thinks you’re funny . . . well, you’re probably not funny. Humor is in the eye of the beholder. So are likability, leadership, and a range of other subjective qualities that are rooted in the perception of others. You get a vote, but your listener has veto power. How do others respond to you? Do they pay attention to what you say, or do they ignore you? Do they seek your opinion, or do they consider your ideas irrelevant? Do your words prompt clear action? For example, you might see yourself as lovable, but if the world sees you as a coldhearted curmudgeon, there’s a 56 | FALL 2014

disconnect. You might think that you’re respected or independent or practical, but if nobody agrees, you’re out of luck. You might see yourself as good with kids, but if small children cry and run

to the other side of the street at the very sight of you, there’s a disconnect (as well as a serious impediment to any career aspirations you might have of becoming a birthday party clown).

“It’s about focusing on your personality’s differences.”

By looking at yourself from the outside in, and systematically measuring the effect you have on your listener, you can become more influential and impressive. My new book, “How the World Sees YOU: Discover Your Highest Value Through the Science of Fascination,” helps you see exactly what kind of impression you’re making, and how your personality adds value. The science of fascination is based on my decade of research with 300,000 participants, including dozens of Fortune 500 teams, hundreds of small businesses, and over a thousand C-level executives. I discovered a way to measure your most fascinating traits. You might be surprised at the patters underlying your daily communication. The custom algorithm will identify

how others see you at your best, so that you can build your brand around your personality advantages. If you’ve done a test such as DISC or StrengthsFinder or Myers-Briggs, you already know how you see the world. These were built on psychology. This is different. I built this system around branding, so you can see yourself from the outside in. As life becomes more crowded and competitive, it matters far less how you see the world. It matters far more how the world sees you, at your best. Once you know what makes you valuable to others you’re more authentic and confident, and more able to make a positive impression. If you want your messages to be heard and remembered, if you want to share big ideas and important

opinions, you need a full and accurate picture about how you’re actually communicating—and how others perceive your communication. In the modern work world (unless you find yourself alone and shipwrecked on a desert island, where physical survival is your chief and only concern) you do need to know how to communicate and connect. If nobody hears or remembers your message, it failed. Forbes magazine reported research findings that indicate that 85% of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Shockingly, only 15% is due to technical knowledge. To understand what’s at stake here, let’s turn to the world of marketing.

* FOR A LIMITED TIME, YOU CAN TAKE THE FASCINATION ADVANTAGE® ASSESSMENT FOR FREE (NORMALLY $37). HERE IS YOUR PRIVATE CODE: 1. GO TO HOWTHEWORLDSEESYOU.COM/YOU 2. FOR THE ASSESSMENT CODE, ENTER ARTOF. IT TAKES LESS THAN 5 MINUTES, AND YOU CAN DO IT ON YOUR PHONE.

FALL 2014 | 57

WHAT GREAT BRANDS ALREADY KNOW In my early 20s, I discovered the field of advertising and instantly fell head over heels. My personality felt custom-built for this profession: the creativity, the hallway brainstorming, the opportunity to create pop culture and invent taglines from a handful of ordinary words. Right from the start, in my second year in the business, I was the most award-winning copywriter in the country. I opened my first advertising agency at age twenty-seven and went on to become a global creative director for major brands. Over the course of my advertising career, my clients broadcasted billions of messages through advertising campaigns for brands such as MINI Cooper, Nike, Godiva, Coca-Cola, and BMW. I studied every great agency, devoured books and magazines, and honed my craft so that I could develop new ideas for my clients. Advertising and I had a torrid affair for more than a decade. Along the way, I learned how communication is received and interpreted, and which types of messages stand out in a crowded marketplace. Yet, that’s not the most important thing I learned. My

experience in advertising taught me how to look at words and ideas through the eyes of others, and identify what others value. I learned how the world sees you. Advertising isn’t about what a company wants to say. It’s about what the market wants to hear about, talk about, and buy. When companies don’t listen to what consumers need and want and value, they can damage their own brand. Brands know that having a great product or service means nothing-- if nobody buys it. The same is true for all of your communication, too. Writing a worldchanging blog post means nothing-- if nobody reads it. Having a great idea means nothing-- if nobody listens. Imagine you’re writing a blog post, intended to get donations for a nonprofit. You spend weeks researching and polishing this blog post on fundraising. Your post is articulate. It’s insightful. It has the potential to change the model of nonprofit fund-raising. You want people to read it, share it, comment on it, apply your insights, and feature your post in other blogs or even major media. Above all, you want donors.

You don’t have to CHANGE who you are. You just have to become MORE of who you are.

In a perfect world, this post deserves to be read. But if nobody reads the post, it will never fulfill its purpose. So how can you make sure your messages are heard, remembered, and acted upon? The answer might surprise you.

IT’S NOT ABOUT FOCUSING ON STRENGTHS. IT’S ABOUT FOCUSING ON YOUR PERSONALITY’S DIFFERENCES. DIFFERENT IS BETTER THAN BETTER Different doesn’t try to turn you into something else. Different allows you to highlight the singular traits you already have within you. You aren’t necessarily better than your competition. But you are already different. As conversations become more compressed, and the marketplace more crowded, you need to know how others see you and respond to you. Rather than just knowing your strengths, you need to know your differences.

Avinash Kaushik

Why Do Most Executive Dashboards

Suck So Much? Despite the many big promises of big data there is big disappointment that our companies are not truly datadriven. A critical part of that sad reality is that our executives don’t rely on data they receive, usually dashboards, as much as they should –

and it is not their fault, it might be yours. Why? There is a profoundly simple reason, and it is heartbreaking. Consider this... Who has access to data and the skills to analyze the data and understand causal factors related to

performance? The Analyst. Who has the power to make decisions and galvanize the organization into action? The CXO. Or perhaps an appropriately higher up executive.

Here’s a handy-dandy visual.

ACCESS TO DATA ABILITY TO ANALYZE UNDERSTANDING OF CAUSAL FACTORS

SR. DATA ANALYST

DIRECTORS, MARKETING OWNERS, CAMPAIGN BUDGET HOLDERS

If this asymmetry in analytical ability exists, why do we deliver dashboards that contain just data to our executives? And not just data, but all data, at six fontsize, with tiny charts and graphs that can fit an A4 sized paper?

VP, MKT, ADV, PROD,PR, HR

If our executives don’t have the analysis skills, knowledge of on the ground context (which you do), or have spent time collecting insights (which you have), why deliver data pukes to them? Why is the vast majority of the space

CMO, CFO

CEO

in our dashboards (which are a critical decision making tool) not words in English, rather than numbers? My recommendation is that 50% of the dashboard should be words in English, covering three key elements:

FALL 2014 | 61

1. INSIGHTS. Not a repetition of what the data already says. (As you can see graph one shows that visits in Sept. are down by 4%. They can see it, the graph is right there!!) Rather, what caused graph one to be up or down – the reasons for the performance identified by your analysis and causal factors.

2. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION. What action should the CXO take? These will sound like: Metric x is down because of our inability to take advantage of trend y and hence I recommend we do z. Or: We missed our target for customer satisfaction because our desktop website performs horribly on mobile platforms hence we should create a mobile friendly website. Or: While revenue is up by 48% profits have plunged by 80% because of our aggressive shift from to Cost Per Click as the God metric, this has brought increased sales of our loss leading products. The problem is further compounded by our reliance on last-click conversion tracking. I recommend a shift to Profit Per Click and Avinash Kaushik’s custom attribution model. A do this specific thing list.

3. BUSINESS IMPACT. What will be the impact on the business if the CXO accepts your recommendation and the business takes action? I almost never see this. A small part of the problem is that Analysts often don’t have the skills to compute impact of the recommended actions. A bigger part is that it is actually quite a bit of effort to compute impact. But, what better way to create a sense of urgency than tell the CXO what the expected outcome will be if they do based on your insights and recommended actions?

Here is a graphic you can keep as a reference/reminder:

ACCESS TO DATA ABILITY TO ANALYZE UNDERSTANDING OF CAUSAL FACTORS

SR. DATA ANALYST

FULL ACCESS TO DATA

DIRECTORS, MARKETING OWNERS, CAMPAIGN BUDGET HOLDERS

CUSTOMIZED DATA PUKES CUSTOM REPORTS WITH DRILLDOWNS

VP, MKT, ADV, PROD,PR, HR

CMO, CFO

CEO

CMO, CFO

TELL THEM EXACTLY WHAT TO DO CONTINUUM / AMOUNT OF WORDS IN PLAIN ENGLISH INCLUDED

DATA 62 | FALL 2014

INSIGHTS, RECOMMENDED ACTIONS, BUSINESS IMPACT

Your dashboards don’t need more wiz-bang graphics or for them to be displays of your javascript powers to sql your hadoop to make big query cloud compute. They need more English language. They need your brain in a box. As Marketers, Product Managers, Analysts, HR Professionals, Mid-level Managers, Customer Service Insights Leads, have the skills, knowledge and access to information to convert it into

a strategic asset for our company. But that won’t happen unless we realize that output of our brilliance needs to be expressed not in numbers, rather it needs to be in English (/Urdu/Mandarin/

Norwegian/Swahili). Are your dashboards custom data pukes and hence just, best case, inform… or do they contain, even emphasize, IABI to drive action?

CLOSING THOUGHTS: RULES FOR REVOLUTIONARIES Five specific rules for revolutionaries looking to create magnificent dashboards: 1. Dashboards are not reports. Don’t data puke. Include insights. Include recommendations for actions. Include business impact. 2. NEVER leave data interpretation to the executives (let them opine on your recommendations for actions with benefit of their wisdom and awareness of business strategy). 3. When it comes to key performance indicators, segments and your recommendations make sure you cover the end-to-end acquisition, behavior and outcomes. 4. Context is everything. Great dashboards leverage targets, benchmarks and competitive intelligence to deliver context. (You’ll see that in above examples.) 5. This will be controversial but let me say it anyway. The primary purpose of a dashboard is not to inform, and it is not to educate. The primary purpose is to drive action!

Hence: List the next steps. Assign responsibility for action items to people. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Never forget to compute business impact.

Did you ever imagine that the answer to all your data problems is the English language? It really is. I wish you happy dashboarding! Bonus: Need inspiration? See examples of the best dashboards in this article on my blog: http://zqi.me/dashtips

FALL 2014 | 63

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