Long haul flights provide the opportunity for thinking time, sometimes even more than anticipated – thanks to BA for a cancelled flight.  I am on my way to New York to attend the Second Global Conference on Creating Value and give a talk about how values add value.  The talk is in the context of what I refer to as the Values Economy: how more people are making decisions based less on a rational and financial basis and more at a deeper, emotional level – think of the growth of Fair Trade.  The title of the book I am writing due for publication in 2020 is “The Values Economy: How to deliver values-driven service for sustained performance.”

Continue reading “Synchronicity and closing circles”

As 2018 will be with us in a few days, you might be thinking about New Year’s resolutions. If, like many people, you have experienced disappointment in previous years when failing to do more exercise, drink less alcohol or lose weight etc. why not try something different? Consider a New Year’s resolution for 2018 “to live my life in line with my personal values”. What will you and others say about your Chapter 2018?

Continue reading “New Year’s Resolution Time: Chapter 2018 – What Story will you Write?”

“You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the won-lost record of the referee.” Napoleon Hillⁱ

“To make a difference”…. How often do you hear this answer when people are asked what they want to achieve in their lives (at work, for their community or at an individual level)? To impact means to have a marked influence, a strong effect on someone or something.

In the last couple of weeks, I have experienced two very contrasting approaches to service recovery or complaint handling and find it fascinating that the way in which the issues were handled were so completely different. Usually, making comparisons is about identifying some differences within a structure that is basically the same or similar, whereas in the examples I am sharing here, I think you will agree that such a comparison is impossible because the two approaches are as different as night and day. In the interest of time and to remove my personal opinion/bias I have listed a chronology of events for each situation:

Recently, I took a courtesy bus from the railway station to a client office and during the journey, the driver whistled “Summertime”.  This happens to be one of my favourite tunes and he whistled very well so it was a really enjoyable experience.  When the bus stopped, I said “thankyou” and he wished me a good day in a genuinely warm way.  I also noticed that he was immaculately groomed and very smartly dressed.

Values at Heart 2018

Research shows that people who are clear about their own personal values are happier and more fulfilled and up to 17% more engaged at work than people who do not have that clarity ¹. For the first two weeks of February 2018, you can take a special ‘Values at Heart’ profile, courtesy of www.magmaeffect.com and use my31Practices to release the power of these values every day. You can sign up yourself or with friends… or, if you are an employer, encourage your employees to take part to show your organisation cares about what matters to them.

Values often appear in organizations’ annual reports and may even be in a frame on the boardroom wall but how they are brought to life in day to day behaviour is less well understood.  This is just one comment from the fascinating discussion thread on LinkedIn at http://lnkd.in/pkVVSP