Mark's Meadow School, an elementary school in Amherst, Massachusetts, will close after the 2009-2010 school year. The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported on June 20th that the principal wants next year to be "a celebratory, meaningful time" and that he wants to find out what children are saying and feeling about their school closing and then discern how to make it a positive transition. I think we need a passel of committees, a flock of psychologists, and a herd of grief counselors. If we really work at it, perhaps sacrificing weekly instructional time to the process, I am certain we can leave every child feeling distraught and victimized. They will cherish the memory of Mark's Meadow and mourn its loss. They will fear the new year and worry about how they will fit in and adapt through such a dramatic transition. They will be fully aware of how they have suffered while others remain in schools unaffected by changing times. If we really communicate carefully, we can ensure no stone is left unturned and every child experiences the maximum emotional trauma and growth from these unfortunate events. I bet we could make it every bit as traumatic as watching the school destroyed by a tornado with their friends still inside. OR, we could just tell them that they get to go to a different school after next year. How exciting is that!?! My elementary school classmates and I had to switch schools twice, if not three times. I can't even remember it was so important!

Close up from "The Scream" by  Edvard Munch

I've seen businesses launch equally nonsensical initiatives to make mountains out of mole-hills. Some have human resource departments that seem dedicated to creating trauma and wasting time when simple communication would suffice. They believe people fear change, so they fear change and they create big programs to mollify the masses.

Save yourself a lot of trouble, time, and money. Don't create trauma where none is needed!

Related articles of interest:

So You Think Employees Hate Change
Change Management - Five Colossal Mistakes to Avoid
How to Make Decisions Better and Faster

 © 2009 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.

        

I am a consultant so you may think this posting is all about how to hire me. You'd be wrong.

I only want you to hire me if the fit is right. As a matter of fact, I will not even encourage you to hire me unless:

• I believe I understand your objectives
• I believe I can help you achieve your objectives
• I believe you are serious about taking action and investing in your future

Your objectives are all-important. And they should be business objectives - outcomes that positively impact your business. They should not be touchy-feely ideas. For example, "improved teamwork" is not a business objective. However, fewer decisions landing on your desk so you can focus on other matters, is a business outcome. Reduced attrition is also a business outcome. Without a focus on results, something like teamwork is just a nice idea.

In addition, your objectives should not be deliverables. You don't need more piles of dusty plans that never come to fruition. You don't need grandiose mom-and-apple pie platitudes (i.e., vision and mission statements) that likely apply as well to the business across the street as to yours. But you may need help in establishing a new direction and a laser-focused framework that guides daily decisions. You may benefit from understanding why your plans fail in the execution and how to remove the obstacles and create the practices that get you moving forward. Or perhaps you need help seeing opportunities and techniques for making an employee a process or your business as whole more effective. The things you need most rarely fit in a binder.

Nor should your objectives be means instead of ends. You don't want to sign up for a method or a process or a solution, you want results. A good consultant has a number of tools to help you achieve your objectives and can adapt them to your situation. One-size-fits-all methods are rarely the answer. That would be like going to the hardware store and buying a cool tool you saw advertised on TV without knowing what it does.

How does that help you select a consultant?

I hope it obviates the need for serious discussions about your objectives. The focus must be on outcomes, not ideas, deliverables or methods.

Beware the consultant who does all the talking, instead of listening and understanding your situation and objectives. Beware the consultant who promises plans, recommendations and other deliverables, or feel-good ideas. Beware the consultant who launches into a sales pitch for their custom process without any way of knowing whether that tool is the right tool for you.

Choose the consultant who listens, who offers to help only after understanding your situation and objectives, and who seems genuinely interested in improving your condition.


© 2009 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.

        

Moan if you like, but many are thriving. It is true in this economy as well as every other. It is your choice. If you choose to thrive, you can. If you choose to wait and hope, you probably won't.

For those who wish to thrive, here is a list of some of the companies and industries that are doing well.

crafts
cooking equipment and instruction
Walmart
McDonald's
yoga
consultants
alcohol
Hyundai
hot dogs and hot dog stands
guns and ammunition
Flip videos
Amazon
Hershey's
iPhones and iPods
AT&T Mobility
running shoes
video conferencing
recruiting for our armed services
pest control

There are many more. Please add to my list!


© 2009 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.

        

I sent an email to my account representative in an effort to prevent a problem with an order. I got no response. Three possibilities came to mind:

• She took care of my concern but didn't bother to tell me
• She was out of the office and did not have her email forwarded to someone who could ensure prompt attention
• She did not understand my concern and simply dismissed the email without following up

None of these left me with a good feeling. I felt like I had dropped one more well-intentioned email into the abyss.

Are you leaving your customers suspended in uncertainty?

Think of how many problems you could prevent and how confident your customers would feel:

• If you and your employees always took a moment to confirm receipt and provide some indication of when you would follow up
  
• If your customer service representatives always forwarded their email and phones to another representative when out of the office so that important messages receive prompt attention
  
• If you and your employees always clarified confusion with a quick phone call

Even when short-handed, you can make this happen. Consider the following:

• If you prevent a significant problem, your quick response will have taken far less time than the rework.
• If you retain a customer, your efforts will have taken far less time than winning a new one.
• If you find yourself answering the same questions or managing the same concerns over and over again, you have found an opportunity to take preventive action. What is driving your customers to raise these issues repeatedly? What can you do to prevent it? What information can you provide? What forms or web pages might you amend? What preventive phone call might you make?
  

I won't know until my shipment arrives whether my email failed to avert a disaster. Why would anyone want to leave their customers suspended in uncertainty?


© 2009 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.

        

A lesson from my new book, Clear Thoughts - Pragmatic Gems of Better Business Thinking, available in June: Show, don't tell. Demonstrate your mission and values with every action. As a customer, I want good value, not grandiose talk.

© 2009 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.

        

A Wall Street Journal story on May 19th echoed a familiar conclusion:

• "Nobody is spending money right now"
  

Based on what?

One man, whose values were altered by a brush with cancer, tried to sell his entire ocean-front estate and most of his belongings in a single-day auction. Those belongings included a room full of hunting trophies, 8 rare parrots, antique road signs, pricey cars and more.

One hundred bargain hunters and an online crowd walked away with 500 items including a wildebeest for $250, an elephant head for $6,750, a Pennzoil sign for $75, a Country Motor Coach for $150,000, a motorcycle for $9,500, and much more.

While Mr. Peacock is disappointed that he didn't unload everything in one day that he has spent years accumulating and that he didn't recoup his investments, I can't see leaping to the conclusion that people aren't spending any money right now. On the contrary, this strikes me as proof that people will spend money right now. Last I checked, elephant heads were not considered a necessity.


© 2009 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.

        

Today The New York Times reported that 4.8 million people lost or left their jobs in February and only 4.3 million were hired. That's grim news.

Unless you dig deeper. There were also millions of job openings in February.  And many of the 4.3 million were new jobs in areas that are growing.

This is not a surprise to me. I personally know many who are unemployed, some of whom have essentially given up looking. At the same time, I have clients who are hiring and having trouble filling openings. From Class A drivers to engineers to administrative assistants, there are jobs out there. Some of these positions have been open for many months.

If you need a job, don't give up! Be alert, realistic, creative and flexible! Get some help if you don't know the next step.

If you have an opening, get the message out! From social media to good old fashioned networking, there are more tools for this than ever before.

If you are shrinking under the weight of doom and gloom, cut it out! Accentuate the positive, invest in your future, and help others!


© 2009 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.

Sign up for my newsletter at www.uncommonclarity.com

        

Two on-coming cars swerved into my lane right in front of me on Saturday. One was on a mountain road and my swerving took me dangerously close to a rock face. I don't know that a ringing cell phone was the reason for each but I do know cell phones, hot coffee, small children, and a general lack of attention to driving are constant, common and horrific causes of car accidents daily.

How will you feel if you are talking with someone who is driving and you hear the crash? How will you feel when your call goes unanswered but you learn later that your friend or loved one died in an accident just then, maybe because they were trying to answer your call?

Honestly now, how many times have you found yourself over the center line recently? How many mailboxes are lucky to be standing?

And what are the chances you would have avoided the car that came at me if you had been dialing just then?

Count the cars you see with drivers talking on the phone. Every one is either about to cause an accident or unable to avoid one.

Death is only a few feet away when driving. Distractions like cell phones eliminate that steady and tiny buffer, transforming driving from dangerous to deadly. Drivers should drive. How about turning those gadgets off and leaving them in the trunk or the back seat?


© 2009 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.

Sign up for my newsletter at www.uncommonclarity.com

        

I received a letter recently telling me that I will receive a gift shortly - a book. The book is obviously part of someone's marketing plan, though the letter is bizarre enough so that I am not sure who is getting what from this beyond me getting a free book.

But wait, that isn't worth writing about. Here is the interesting part:

Enclosed with the letter was a 3" x 5" label with the author's signature. I can stick that in the book when it arrives to make it look autographed!!!

I could also stick it on my recycling bin to make THAT look autographed.

Should this woman get the award for best labor reduction technique or cheesiest marketing technique? What do YOU think?


© 2009 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.

Sign up for my newsletter at www.uncommonclarity.com

        

The house next door boasts a new "Sales Pending" sign. One farther down the road just sold.

Sales at American Dream Hot Dog Carts Inc. in Florida were up 150% in January and revenue has tripled from a year ago at Nation's Leasing Services in California, which depends largely on leasing hot dog carts. Meanwhile, white collar folk are selling hot dogs to replace or supplement income (Sarah Needleman, The Wall Street Journal).

Small companies win (Peter Bregman, Harvard Business Publishing) by passing on a sense of stability to customers in contrast to all the fear emanating from corporate America.

U.S. companies may be cutting costs and jobs, but the smart ones are positioning themselves for the rebound by holding R&D budgets steady (The Wall Street Journal).

The resourceful are not hunkering down. They are looking ahead and making smart choices.


 © 2009 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.