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Every company has the thing they think they’re doing, and then the thing they’re actually doing. The most classic example are the train companies at the turn of 20th century who thought they were in the train business. Turns out they were in the transportation business. That new-fangled motor car nearly killed them!

Take magntize as another example. For the longest time we thought we were in the website business. We built personal websites for people. Over time we realized we were actually in the business of introducing people online. Websites were just the online medium (for now) that we used to do that. In the future that may or may not change depending on where technology and the broader culture goes.

What about your business or organization? Is there a difference between the perception and reality of your business offering?

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Macaroni Grill has their chefs out front so everyone can see their artistry. Certain Japanese grills also make your food right in front of you – complete with knife and fire breathing tricks. The best Starbucks’ baristas spin the caramel bottles and shout out orders as they prepare your coffee. Steve jobs gives his keynote and geeks around the world hold their breath as he zooms in and out on the iPad. A local church youth pastor throws his hands in the air and shouts at the top of his lungs “you MUST be saved!” as dramatic music plays in the background.

There’s something that the greatest organizations in the world are catching on to that most haven’t picked up on yet: business is theater. Anytime you’re interacting with a customer you have a chance to dazzle and delight them. Why not put a little creative thinking into each of these interactions?

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The number one unspoken rule at most companies is don’t mess up. I agree that you can’t run a business with a bunch of people screwing up all freaking day. However, I’d suggest we move this rule down a notch or three.

I think this unspoken rule stems from the fact that as leaders often times we hire people because we’re motivated by pain. Clients are yelling at us about timelines so we hire a project manager to take away the pain. Employees are yelling at us about getting their paychecks on time so we hire another account to take away the pain. They’re job is to make things smooth and easy for us. People who do their job neatly and quietly are rewarded while more outspoken and controversial employees are criticized and encouraged to get back in line. It’s easy for the culture to become “Sit down, shut up, and do your bleepin job.”

The problem with this is that it’s a sure path to mediocrity. No one wants to stand out. No one wants to innovate because that’s messy. You might fail in a big way.

The best companies in the world hire crazy, talented, ambitious, outspoken, and creative individuals… and let them loose. We need change. We need new ideas. We need new life. Maybe we need to give our people permission to make rule #1 “mess it up.”

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Most organizations start out lean and mean. They’re willing to take risks and try new things. It doesn’t take forever to make decisions or change directions. As the market fluctuates and shifts they’re nimble enough to go with the flow. They’re fighting guerilla warfare style. Inevitably, these organizations grow up though.

More people means added complexity. This leads to rules and guidelines. Rules are good because they help set expectations. However, they’re also bad because they tend to generic and rigid. No one wants the word “generic” to describe their business.

You’ve been successful so you play not to lose. Have you ever watched a sports team playing not to lose? They usually end up losing. They’re timid and reserved. No on wants the words “timid” and “reserved” to describe their business.

Grown up organizations also tend to struggle with memory loss. They forget why the hell they started doing this. At some point along the way the main thing isn’t the main thing anymore. It becomes about “satisfying customers”. (Who wants satisfied customers? I want ecstatic customers!) It becomes about pleasing shareholders or moving our profit margin up a menial .5% this month over the last. You need a mission, a mantra, a dream, an enemy. No one wants the words “satisfied” or “menial” to describe their business.

The trick is to grow your business without killing it’s soul. That takes leadership.

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There is a reality we often don’t like to acknowledge. It’s that the time it takes us to accomplish something is often determined by how long we’re given to complete it. It’s almost like some sort of mental jujitsu our brain does to us.

If I have 2 years to build a house, I guarantee it will take me me the full two years (maybe longer). Whereas if I have one year I’ll figure out a way to get it done. This is true whether your in construction, web design, or lawn care. When we have a short time line we work faster and more efficiently. When we have tons of time to accomplish something our brain’s begin to see all of the nuances and somehow complicate the issue.

If you’re about to tackle a big project estimate however long you think it will take you to complete it and then cut that time in half.

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There’s lots of talk now days about brands. We’re told that organizations and even people have brands and that if you’re not building your brand then you’re so 1998. With all the hubbub surrounding the concept you may be wondering what exactly a brand is?

A brand is the sum of people’s emotional and psychological perception of you as a person or organization. If that sounds a bit fluffy or hard to pin down, you’re right, it is. However, alot of people have found it to be helpful because it makes the intangible important again. It says that every interaction a person has with you or your organization, from a phone call to the print marketing piece you ran in that trade magazine, is either positively or negatively effecting how folks perceive you. The beauty is that over time if you build trust with people they’ll come to love you. That’s why we hear people say things like, “I only drink Starbucks” or “I love my TOMS shoes”. Really, no other coffee on planet earth is good enough for you other than Starbucks? Did you actually just say the word love when connected with a pair of shoes?

Branding goes far beyond pretty logos. It’s the essence of what people feel when your name is mentioned.

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If you’ve spent any length of time in the technology industry you know one of our biggest quirks is the use of technical jargon. If you see our mouths moving it’s a safe bet that we’re spouting off the following…

* cutting edge enterprise solutions
* disruptive market technologies
* cross-browser seo compatibility
* vertically integrated platforms

When you spend enough time around people who talk this way you actually start to understand them (to some degree). From there it’s a slippery slope to joining the fray. The problem is that too often these words masquerade as meaningful when no one is exactly sure what we’re talking about. They may nod their heads in agreement to pacify us but inside they’re wondering what the heck we’re talking about. Here are a few simple rules to rid you of technology speak.

* Eliminate the acronyms when chatting with folks outside your industry. SEO, CMS, and DNS are off limits.
* Never utilize a long word where a short one will do.
* When possible replace technology b.s. words with plain english.

Finally, if I ever utter the word “solutions” on this blog way you have every right to punch me in the kidney. That is a word that is now so devoid of meaning it should be banned from our mouths until 2025.

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Every great company is founded on a few guiding principles or ideals. If you’re lucky those will lead you to some level of success in your industry. One day large amounts of money will be offered to you that will require you to go back on those ideals. It will seem like an innocent thing. “Who will notice?” you’ll mumble to yourself. Here’s one piece of advice: don’t do it. At that moment you’re not in your right mind. What you’re not taking stock of is that those ideals contain the soul of your company. They’re what set you apart and compel people to do business with you.

A great example of this is the surf company Finesterre.They’re committed to creating the best technical apparel with minimal environmental impact. For awhile one of their biggest manufacturers was based in China. However, it soon became apparent that going green and human rights wasn’t the top priority for this manufacturer. Finesterre decided to cut ties even though this meant a huge price increase in their cost to produce the apparel. That’s a company with soul and integrity.

Someday your moment will come. Do what you know is right. It’s not just a matter of integrity. It’s good business sense.

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Organizational charts, contracts, HR policy manuals, and sales projections don’t normally strike us as something to get excited about. These tend to be labeled the boring and messy details of business. The non-creative part that is less important than the stuff the client interacts with. No one would ever describe them as beautiful. Let’s take a forward thinking industrial design firm as an example.

They have the highest expectations for their marketing pieces. Their product designs are off the charts. Everything they produce is beautiful. However, the ‘behind the scenes’ parts of their business are anything but beautiful. They treat their employees poorly. Their sales process is a mess. The way they manage client relationships throughout the design process sucks. The lobby and board rooms where they meet with clients look great but the rest of the office is shabby. For some reason they’ve created a distinction between the “creative” and “details” side of their business. Maybe it’s time we raised the bar for our systems.

Why not have a business that people describe as beautiful from top to bottom. Every manual elegantly designed, not just from an aesthetic standpoint, but with simplicity and clarity of message in mind. What if we took the time to craft our HR policies the way we craft a presentation for a huge client? Of course we want a beautiful product to hand the customer but why not have an amazing process to create and deliver that product? What if we could get as excited about employee quarterly reviews as we do about a new website?

Let’s stop neglecting these portions of our business and embrace them as creative endeavors worth our love. What say you?

*The book ‘Design’ by Tom Peters served as inspiration for this post.

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America is a nation of self made people who are taught from a young age that we can become anything we want. We’re a “pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps” type of place. We fancy ourselves the masters of our own fate. For a long time I thought this was a good thing.

It would seem to encourage initiative and responsibility because people feel like they have the power to change their lives for the better. However, after watching this TED talk by Alain de Botton it dawned on me that this mentality is a bit of a double edged sword. On the one hand this is a good thing when you’re fabulously successful in life because you get to take all of the credit. No one is responsible for your success but you. It was your charm, your hard work, your intelligence that was the difference. Chance and outside circumstances played little to no role as far as your concerned. On the other hand if you’re not successful then you you just suck. No excuses. It was your lack of intelligence, charm, sophistication or whatever that landed you where you are. Randomness played little to no role in your lot in life.

This leads us to place successful people on massive pedestals. Almost like mini-gods. While lower rung folks get titles like “loser” because obviously they’ve gotten exactly what they deserve. Machiavelli thought that half of ones life was determined by circumstances outside our control. Maybe as a society we need to better recognize the role of chance in our lives. I’m not in favor of doing away with our sense of personal responsibility. However, I’d like to see the successful among us a bit more humble and the unsuccessful less despised.

I think that might be a world God would be more inclined to smile down on.

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