All the research says empowered employees make a huge and positive impact on businesses but the concept scares the living daylights out of owners and managers.
That’s why, smart speakers and authors like Josh Bernoff and Stan McChrystal, change the language to terms like Strategic Alignment And Customer Obsession. It’s more palatable to the C Suite!
We unpack this in the Principles section of the podcast.
Meanwhile, a random playing of an old Tom Waits song gave Steve cause to pause and reflect on how rarely he stops to pause and reflect.
In the Person section, he riffs on that with David and they come up with some thoughts to share with you.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record of the same vintage as Tom Waits’ Heart Attack And Vine, Steve uses the Problems segment to share a story of woe about two new clients who’d both lost control of their websites.
And for a dose of perspicacity (the sharpening of our minds), David and Steve reflect on a refreshingly different road safety ad, honey buns!
We hope you find this helpful.
Talking About Marketing podcast episode notes with timecodes
03:37 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.
The Radio Is Off The Air
Th little bit of the Tom Waits song, Diamonds On My Windshield”, has a lyric that caught Steve’s attention, it goes: “The radio goes off and it gives me time to think.”
Steve heard it while listening to the River Blues program on Radio 5mbs – the fine music station in Adelaide where he’s a board member – and it jumped out at his consciousness.
We rarely get time to think these days, unless we’re disciplined in making that time, and it’s robbing us and society of depth and innovation.
13:57 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.
Strategic Alignment And Customer Obsession
If you want your employees to relate to your customers differently, do you ask them to change what they do first, or do you change the systems that support them first?
This is the question at the heart of this segment, as David reflects on the work of Josh Bernoff (Empowered) and Stan McChrystal (From shared consciousness and autonomous action to strategic alignment and empowered execution).
It’s a nailbiting discussion if you believe you need to micromanage everybody around you, or rule by putting the fear of god into people.
If that’s not you, you’ll probably be applauding, as David works through the key points.
30:08 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.
Control of your website
Steve reflected on two cases from recent days where an organisation has lost its web person and has ended up stranded with broken websites and one riddled with malicious code.
The lessons:
- Always have full administrator access to your website and web hosting and domain name.
- Always ensure updates always happen.
- Treat websites as importantly as you would your office or shopfront; looking for shortcuts can result in great pain and damage.
36:10 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case stude from the past.
Keep The Bromance Alive
In 2015, a rather ear-catching TV commercial was produced, encouraging “blokes” to listen to road safety messages.
In it, rather blokey blokes spoke to each other like sweethearts, using endearing terms like, take it easy on the road, honey buns.
The juxtaposition of these characters using dialect usually reserved for cutesy lovebirds, turned heads and got attention.
Hop in, and let Steve and David take you for a drive around the key points.
