Business, brands and bias.

Why do you choose what you choose?
You think you know, but you don't (not really).
See for yourself.
Pick a brand that you own.
Or one you've recently experienced.
Now deconstruct your decision.
Your critical thinking process.
Did you compare your choice to all of the available offerings?
Did you analyze all of the terms, parts or ingredients?
Did you check out the various sources of supply?
Did you do a thorough investigation of the company?
I could go on and on and on (and that's the point).
You can't "reason" your way to a decision.
There's too much information and not enough time.
Plus, your motivations are emotional and complex.
And, largely, hidden from your conscious awareness.
In fact, you don't really know... yourself.
Instead, you use mental shortcuts.
Practical, but not perfect.
I refer to those heuristics as "feelings."
Scientists call them "mistakes" or "cognitive biases."
A successful brand is one that is aware of its own biases.
And which manages those feelings in order to appeal to others' biases.
Especially ones driven by aesthetics, control and identity.
Do you understand your audience's biases?
Are you aware of your own?
I find it quite interesting.
Ask business owners if they understand cognitive biases and they'll look at you sideways.
But everyone thinks he or she understands branding and marketing and leadership.
And that's the biggest business bias of all.

Let it go.

There are boxes of notes stacked up in my office.
They’ve been taped closed for years.
I have portable hard drives loaded with data.
I’m pretty sure I’ll never access them.
Strangely, it all makes me feel secure.
The same thing happens with other aspects of our work.
We think that security consists in clinging onto what we’ve done.
And so we refuse to let go and move forward.
Last week I decided to update my website.
To throw everything out and move to a different platform.
But I became fearful.
My instinct for self-preservation kicked in.
What if someone is looking for one of my articles?
What if the new site doesn’t look or work as well?
What if people have linked to me and now can’t get to me?
Like an old sweater, I wanted to clutch what was familiar, what felt right.
It helped define and comfort me.
It gave me something to depend on.
It helped me... survive.
But at what cost?
At the expense of living.
Life is what we do, not what we’ve done.
It’s what we create, not what we’ve accumulated.
When you stop clinging, everything changes.
Your senses wake up.
You see a world rich in possibility.
One full of energy, excitement and learning.
Don’t cling to survive.
Let go and be alive.
You have nothing to lose but your past.
And everything to gain.
Your passion, your reputation, your life.
Stop holding on to yesterday.
Change is what you should depend on.
Because when you stop creating.
You cease to exist.

Why brands are dying.

My entire philosophy of brands revolves around the star called “feelings.”
And that star may be burning out.
Let me try to explain.
Brand beliefs have always had an underlying fusion of rational and emotional factors.
But people’s choices have always been driven by their feelings.
It’s how humans are wired.
But this may be changing.
“Feelings” are what signal us to approach or avoid things in our environment.
And, as distinct from “emotions,” feelings refer to a very specific quality.
Pleasantness, unpleasantness, or neutrality in an experience.
Pleasant feelings—excitement, reward, increased self-esteem, etc.—condition desire.
Unpleasant feelings—pain, effort required, decreased self-esteem, etc.—condition aversion.
And neutral feelings condition… forgetfulness.
So what are the feelings behind most of today’s brand choices?
Neutral ones.
Because the marketplace is bursting at the seams with look-alike brands in every category.
And the more brands there are, the less they mean and the more confusion.
So what happens to the primacy of feelings in this scenario?
Typically? They become even more important, as a signalling device.
That’s why, over the years, look-alike brands have spent close to $6 billion on Super Bowl commercials.
But things are changing… and really fast.
So much so, that feelings are losing their authority.
Why?
Because of the internet.
Today, when you have a problem, you don’t consult your feelings.
You ask Google or Amazon.
They know better than you do.
Despite every advertisement you’ve ever watched or read.
Do you see and fully appreciate the change?
And the challenge?
Things are changing at a pill-popping rate.
Marketing messages are mushrooming (try saying that three times fast).
New brands are bursting onto the scene.
And feelings are losing their authority to data.
So now what?
There’s only one way forward.
And that’s to go back to the start.
Question everything.
Create nothing but value.
And get as close to the customer as possible.

Identity is destiny.

Three simple words.
Identity is destiny.
An executive mouthed them to me after a talk.
He meant it as both undeniable and auspicious.
“Our organization’s identity is its unique advantage.”
He probably believed the same to be true of individuals.
I see it quite differently.
Like him, I see the statement as self-evident.
But it’s not an empowering aphorism.
Especially in times of rapid change.
It’s a cautionary adage.
Because what is identity?
Identity is a story.
An invented narrative that connects our past to our future.
A linear mental model of ourself or our group.
Especially relative to how we appear to others.
Whether it’s our family, friends, company or industry.
Identity is a collective construct.
Built around socially consequential qualities and beliefs.
The illusion that identity is destiny is really quite strange.
Consider psychological and sociological studies.
People think they tell us who we are and what we should expect.
The same is true of personality and brand assessments.
But what they really describe are how we’ve been conditioned.
It’s like studying polluted water.
And then telling us how to swim in it.
It’s based on what we’ve become.
Not on what we should be or could be.
And that’s a shame.
Because we’re living in turbulent times.
A dynamic world of possibility.
One that requires fresh thinking and bold action.
And for that, we need to kill our comforting stories.
Go back to the source.
And purify our minds.
The choice is yours (and mine).
Either we break free of our manufactured identities.
And be a lively force for change in the world.
Or we stay in our stories.
And stick to our knitting
The former will bring us exciting lives.
Ones driven by our unique essence.
And filled with spirited and meaningful action.
And the other will bring us more of the same.
And comfortable sweaters.
Which we’ll most likely need.
In the cold, barren future of irrelevance.

Snap out of it!

A while back, following a keynote speech and during Q&A, someone in the audience asked a heartfelt, yet somewhat rhetorical question.
“So, how do I communicate to people that our approach, our culture, needs to change?”
My immediate impulse was to hit her with a stick.
Like Zen masters reportedly would do to knock someone out of her attachment to conventional reasoning.
But I was on a stage and far from her.
And anyway, I didn’t have a stick.
So, I gave her a koan-like question to ask “those people.”
A seemingly self-evident one designed to snap them out of it, to open their minds.
“Ask them if your organization, your culture, is producing the results it is designed to produce?”
As I glanced around the auditorium for a reaction, all I could sense was collective confusion.
And their visceral desire to shout out the, apparently, obvious response.
“Of course it’s not, idiot. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have asked you that question.”
But no one dared blurt that out.
Instead, they just sat there, perplexed.
Why?
Because they were deluded.
They believed that their organization was NOT producing the results it was designed to produce.
And they assumed that the reason had something to do with their people, with them.
In fact, their organization is producing precisely the results it is designed to produce.
So is yours.
So is your community, your family, your government, your country.
So is your life.
Because . . . the design determines the results.
So snap out of it!
Stop fighting the existing reality.
Stop trying to change the people.
Stop trying to change your mind.
If you don’t like the results, change the design.
The great systems theorist and designer Buckminster Fuller put it this way.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
To change your beliefs, change your behavior.

Leadership is simple.

Earlier in the year, McKinsey released results from new research on leadership.
“Decoding leadership: What really matters”
The subhead of the article suggests that there’s a “secret” to developing effective leaders.
And it’s achieved by encouraging four types of behavior.
Do you think you can guess what they are?
Don’t try, you can’t.
And neither can most CEOs.
Despite the fact that they spend over $14 billion annually on leadership training.
And that’s just in the United States.
In fact, less than half of CEOs are “confident that their training investments will bear fruit.”
Why not?
Because they don’t know what behaviors they’re training to enhance.
I know you’re curious, so give it a go.
Which behaviors, of the following choices, is more important?

A. Seek different perspectives? or
B. Develop and share a collective mission?
A. Communicate prolifically and enthusiastically? or
B. Be supportive?
A. Facilitate group collaboration? or
B. Operate with strong results orientation?
A. Solve problems effectively? or
B. Develop others?

The answer is the name of a Swedish pop group from the 70s.
So how did you do?
And here’s why.
Einstein said, “It is the theory which decides what we can observe.”
You don’t have a theory of leadership, a metaphor.
One that allows you to observe and compare people’s behavior.
And which informs your decisions and actions.
My theory is simple.
Leaders are Sherpas.
The root of the word “lead” means “to go forth, to travel.”
Great leaders are simply great guides on other people’s trips.
And what makes someone a great guide?
They’ve climbed the mountain many times before.
So they know the terrain and the culture.
And they know how to prepare the route and the logistics.
But more importantly, they listen to, and work with, the climbers.
They support them, keep them moving and on track, and remove obstacles.
They don’t talk much.
And they don’t stop to convene countless meetings.
They allow the climbers to reach the summit through their own skill and will.
Successfully and safely.
Leadership is simple.
It’s the climb that’s challenging.

Step in, step back.

In 1960 Theodore Levitt wrote “Marketing Myopia.”
A seminal paper on the nature, and perils, of strategic vision.
Levitt posited that railroad executives should have stepped back.
And looked at themselves differently.
As being in the transportation business.
Rather than the railroad business.
And then they would have continued to grow.
Ergo the compelling, “What business are you really in?”
It’s such a powerful question.
Intended to shift one’s focus.
From the inside.
What an individual or organization does (railroads).
To the outside.
What customers actually desire (transportation).
But here’s the dilemma.
If you don’t focus intently, you’re dead.
Monomaniacs on a mission will step in with increasing relevance and value.
If you focus too closely and unwaveringly, you’re dead.
The entrepreneurial spirited will step back.
And outmaneuver you with innovative offerings.
So what’s a leader to do?
Be like great artists.
Don’t paint by numbers.
Create a bold and daring composition.
Don’t simply step in and color what’s been handed to you.
Step back from the canvas and get a new perspective on your work.
A highly visceral and brutally honest one.
Step in and paint with passion and precision.
But then stop, step back, and look at it again.
From your audience’s changing point of view.

Who is your jester?

According to various surveys, CEOs and senior executives hunger for leadership advice.
But no one will give it to them.
Not employees nor coaches nor consultants.
No one.
Despite the fact that “Even the best-of-the-best…can dramatically improve their performance with an outside perspective weighing in.”
This is nothing new.
Hans Christian Andersen wrote about it 178 years ago.
If your life, or livelihood, depended on it, would you tell the Emperor that he’s naked?
That his strategy is misguided and his people are deluded?
Hell no.
You tell him what he wants to hear and to believe.
That’s how you sell anything and everything to anyone.
The famed British economist John Kay had the courage to make this clear in his latest book.
“For over ten years, I built and ran an economic consultancy business, and much of our revenue was derived from selling models to large corporate clients.
One day I asked myself a question:
If these models are helpful, why did we not build similar models for our own decision making?
The answer, I realized, was that our customers didn’t really use these models for their decision making either.
They used them internally or externally to justify decisions that they had already made.”
Which is precisely why leaders need a jester.
Someone who will speak freely without fear of execution.
Someone who will point out the obvious and highlight the absurd.
While everyone around you is telling you how great you are, the jester will point out the problems that you deny to yourself.
While others will cook up the facts for you before serving, the jester will deliver them raw.
Bottom line: The jester will help you see.
And seeing is the key to success.
Seeing ignites insight.
And insight is what prompts action.
Goethe wrote, “Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
Make no mistake: The world of work is overflowing with talent.
Genius is required to be a leader in today’s hypercompetitive marketplace.
So I ask you, geniuses.
Who is your jester? 

We need more "nos."

Last week, dozens of newsletter readers unsubscribed.
I have an idea why, but it still stung.
I’m wired to feel that way (so are you).
But then I remembered something.
Ironically, it was something that I said years ago.
Following a speech and during Q&A with a room full of CEOs.
This was the question, as best as I can remember.
“What’s the one piece of advice you’d give us to help increase sales productivity?”
All eyes were on me (I felt like I was being baited).
“That’s an easy one,” I replied.
“The next time one of your salespeople feels a prospect may not be interested, have him or her say this.”
“Mr. Prospect. I may be way off base, but I get the feeling that we’re not going to be doing business together.”
The questioner looked confused.
So did everyone else in the room.
“And what if the prospect replies, ‘You’re right. We’re not going to be doing business together?'”
“That’s great!” I said.
“Now your salesperson can get on with doing the real work of finding and helping interested people.”
I still sensed skepticism.
“Look, there will be two, and only two, possible reactions to that very honest and direct approach.”
“And both are extremely helpful.”
Here’s the first.
“You’re feelings are wrong. I’m definitely interested.”
“That’s good, because now your salesperson can probe to find out what’s holding that individual back.”
“And the other response is just as good.”
“Yeah, you’re feelings are right. We won’t be doing business together, because . . .”
“And that’s good too!”
“Because now your salesperson can stop bringing that person donuts every week.”
Suddenly, everyone in the room lit up and started writing.
It’s so simple.
We hate the word “no.”
We avoid it like writers avoid clichés.
“No” feels like rejection (it’s not).
And so we gravitate towards “maybe.”
Maybe validates us.
Maybe gives us hope.
We’re living in a world of maybe.
But maybe is dangerous.
Because maybe feels good.
Maybe appeases us.
Maybe keeps us on the same path.
A path that goes ’round in circles.
It’s time to put on the brakes.
If you feel it, say it.
Straighten yourself out.
What’s the worst that can happen?
Certainly not “no.”
No is valuable information.
No is a kick in the pants.
No gets us moving in a different direction.
No helps save our most precious resource.
For as Buddha’s teachings made clear, our real problem is this.
We think we have time.
We don’t.
And that’s why we need more nos.

Branding is simple.

Are you launching a new venture?
Perhaps you’re hoping to grow an existing one.
Either way, you’ll be immersed in branding.
Branding is a verb.
It’s a continuous, progressive process.
One that answers some very simple questions.
Who?
Who informs everything you’ll do.
Your perspective and intention.
Your look, feel, thoughts and behaviors.
Your vision of the future.
Who is your karma.
Because who you choose to focus on, will ultimately define who you become.
What?
What is your laser focus.
Your passion.
Your unique point of view and expertise.
It’s your daring, meaningful and believable value proposition.
The one that attracts your who.
What is your why.
It gets you up in the morning.
How?
How communicates your what, your passionate point of view.
How is the motivating language, stories and experiences you create and share.
How is your art and your voice.
It sets you apart from others who say they do what you do.
Successful branding is simple.
Who, what and how.
Yes, it requires nuance and subtlety.
But it’s simple nonetheless.
What’s hard is the focus, discipline and unwavering belief necessary to pull it off.