August 29, 2016
Great cultures
It’s the golden chalice of marketing – when you don’t have to even market your products and services. Your customers do it for you.
The early history of Zappos is based on this. At a time way before social media, the company decided to spend money not on marketing, but on a remarkable experience so that people spread the word.
So what makes a person or an organization referable? You may be surprised how simple it is.
The technique comes from Dan Sullivan‘s book, The Gap. He says referable means the best people say the best things about you. And here’s how you do it:
Yup. That’s it.
You can have the fanciest branding and marketing, or the most well developed core values, but without this, it’s all wasted.
August 23, 2016
Great cultures
Fast company is saying culture is overrated. As with many articles, it begs the question I ask my audiences…
What is culture?
I’m sure many people are confused by this, considering Webster’s dictionary recently said it’s the most looked up word in the English language.
The article directly relates culture work to employee happiness. If that’s your definition of optimal workplace culture, then yes, culture is not only overrated, it’s dangerous. It’s like being parents who think they have total responsibility for their kids being happy, when it reality it’s their responsibility to develop people who can make it in the world.
Strong cultures are not about happiness, they are about engagement. And strong cultures are simply in alignment. That means what they believe, say and do are all consistent and evident. They hire for it, fire for it, and reward by it.
July 18, 2016
Great cultures ,Hacks
In the last blog post I talked about how drugs could impact corporate culture. Well, it turns out the best culture drug is very available and very legal. Most people actually use it, but I wouldn’t say they use it correctly. It’s called coffee.
Quick story: There was a company from Mexico that visited the Zappos Insights program. They saw the popcorn machine in the front and said that’s the culture hack they’re taking back home. I thought, “What?! You can’t think a popcorn machine will help culture.” Well, I was wrong. It became a central hub of conversation. A group of people took care of it, another group operated it, another group brought seasonings and flavors. Talk about co-creation around ritual!
I knew coffee could be a great ritual when I read about how Apple does it. But I was really happy to see a service bring it all together: Bloom. They were launching a startup, and then…
To spice things up and quench a mad thirst for delicious coffee, we created a coffee corner in our office. Soon, we were brewing fresh coffee everyday with our coworkers. We knew more about who we were working with plus what they were working on.
The coffee culture we built not only made us more effective at our jobs, but made everyone’s days more enjoyable.
Now they have a service around providing quality coffees. And it’s not just the quality, it’s the ritual, it’s the process. And of course, coming together.
And then there’s the Bulletproof coffee phenomenon I’ve talked about before. I’ve introduced it to people and went from six cups of coffee a day, down to one of Bulletproof.
While great coffee won’t solve all culture problems, I’ve definitely seen how weak cultures almost always serve weak coffee. (I’ve even seen them charge for it!)
If you do get into coffee, I recommend checking out how to hack the coffee experience.
Let me know how it goes! [email protected]
July 6, 2016
Culture of Chaos ,Hacks ,Productivity
When Lance Armstrong got to Europe for his first Tour de France, he quickly realized he had to either start doping or accept losing to those who did. It was a different game.
Could corporate America go the same direction? It’s possible.
Silicon Valley executives have long been known to take modafinil (brand name Provigil) to gain a cognitive edge, and it seems that Wall Street does as well. Still others create their own “custom stacks” of over the counter supplements.
These smart drugs seem to speed up the brain, and yet other workers use the effects of marijuana to focus and reduce stress.
And what about for insights and ideas? In this piece on CNN, Venture Capitalist Tim Ferriss shares that every billionaire he knows “takes psychedelics on a regular basis.”
And if we look at the offices of a smart drug supplement company, what do they do to get that extra edge? Fasting. Nootrobox‘s employees stop eating from Monday night to Wednesday morning every week. This article in Fortune explains the psychology of why fasting actually enhances our cognition.
Could performance-enhancement be the new reality of companies that outperform the others, the way doped riders took all the awards at the Tour de France?
