Why The Grumpiest Person Is Your Best Friend
"Who is your grumpiest, most irritable, most frustratingly difficult IT guy?""Can you introduce me to him?"
Sounds crazy, but let me tell you why I wanted to meet this person so much.
I was running a software development team at the time.We were building a data visualization software for a government client--which posed a number of challenges.They were using old technology, which meant that a lot of the cool new features we wanted to add wouldn't work. We had to do things very differently if we wanted to get our customer these new features.They were also prone to a lot of needs for approvals, which meant it was slow to implement anything new.We also were up against personalities and politics, so we needed to make sure that the decision-makers were on our side.
So how do you get this new technology past an IT department so furiously vigilant to foreign antibodies?
You call the IT department and you ask for the most irritable, most frustratingly difficult IT guy who could possibly say "no" to your project.I'm dead serious--I've done this.
You ask for that person and you review your concept with them.
The point is that by winning over a decision-maker (or a decision-influencer) like this, you've done 90% of the work up-front. You didn't build out any code, but you solved a ton of problems before they happened.Make them your best friend and you will have a much better chance of success.On a single phone call, you have now increased outcome quality, decreased cost, and dramatically increased speed-to-market.
2 Minute Action
A call like this probably won't take 2 minutes, but that doesn't mean it won't take 2 minutes to schedule it.Who is someone who could say no to your project? How early on can you get them into your process?If it's not a person, what will happen at the last second that will prevent you from achieving your goal? Budget? Timeline?Take 2 minutes to call that out into the light and schedule the meeting, call, or workshop to address this head-on.By frontloading the work you get to solve problems before they happen.You will have a happier team, a lower cost, and higher quality output.
The Strange Lesson My Whiteboard Taught Me
I walked into my office today and saw some brainstorming I had done over a week ago.It was all over my whiteboard.
It was a map that helped me see some of the dependencies and workflows in my team—visibility here is critical for making improvements.
But then I realized that if I wiped it away to make room for the new problem I needed to solve right then, I would lose a lot of my progress.Sure I can take a photo, but those so easily get tucked away into the bottomless digital pile.It’s so easy to do some of the work without doing all of it. If you don’t do all of it, it’s easy to waste all the work you did do.
And that’s the lesson.
You will develop an incredible amount of work waste unless you’re careful not to do some of the work without doing all of it.You will move faster if your work progress is documented or if a decision is made at the end of the time you’ve set aside to work.
2 Minute Action
Get all of your “to-dos” into a single pile. Pull them all in from everywhere you keep them.Your notepad. Your inbox. Your sticky notes.Get them all in a list and prioritize them. Each one must fight for its life to stay on the list.You are much less likely to have work waste when you have a single place to store tasks and review projects.Nothing gets lost.The work you’ve done so far gets recorded in the same place as everything’s else.
The Unusual Reason Listerine Is So Successful
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How many times have you gotten this within 2 seconds of hitting a new website or page?
How bad is that?We just met!Now you want me to upgrade? I haven't even used your product yet!
The first interaction someone has with you, your service, or your product, should be positive.
The first thing that should happen is that they get something. They feel good for making the decision to hit your page, buy your product, or hire you for the job.The first thing they need is a hit of dopamine to reinforce their behavior.Sounds a little mechanical but that's how brains work.
Stimulus. Behavior. Reinforcement.
EXAMPLE:Listerine doesn't need to be painful.But the marketing team found out that when consumers got "feedback" from the product, they felt like it was "working."They continued to use the product.You have to make your own ethical decision about whether the ends justify the means, but that's up to you.All I can share is what I know works.
2 Minute Action
What's the first interaction someone has with you, your brand, or your product?An email? A cold sales call? A welcome desk at your office?It only takes 2 minutes to come up with something small you can do, offer, or say within the first 2 minutes of meeting a new customer to make them sure that they made the right choice.Lollipops for their kids.A cold bottle of water.A cable to charge their iPhone.It's little things like these that your customers, clients, patients, or students will remember and then tell others about.