"...There's so much destruction all over the world and all you can do is complain about me..."
Morrisey - All you need is me.
The furore that has developed surrounding two British entertainers, Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand and their outrageous behaviour has salutary lessons for all communicators.
The wealth of passionate debate, the ‘Questions in the House,’ the entry of the ‘parental’ regulator, the emergency BBC trustee ‘conclave’ and the carrion call by thousands of others howling derision to radio phone ins, letter pages and blogs has been breath taking.
But for me, there are perhaps two points. What role is there, if any, for mockery as a humorous device and secondly, what constitutes a complaint?
Let us look at complaints first. When this story started to build, supporters and apologists for the two entertainers quite often pointed out that following the broadcast only two complaints were received by the broadcaster and used this as some sort of validation for their actions. The 30,000 and rising complaints received, as the story gathered momentum, were dismissed as irrelevant. So why is it that numbers of complaints are actually relevant. In fact they are not, and our target driven culture misleads us into thinking they are somehow important. It is the context of the complaint and the actions we take to first listen and act upon a complaint. The BBC has found its reputation taken to the cleaners but no doubt that is because they judge complaints by a target. Had say a 1,000 people filed a complaint then they may have acted sooner and maintained control of what is now a crisis situation with no winners. in future they will need to act upon every complaint and not just the sum total.
As for mockery, well it is a part of our humorous armoury, and it is to be hoped that entertainers will not be gagged or stifled by the current firestorm. It is context that matters yet again – the E4 programme Fonejacker spends its time parodying Indian call centres and African based scams but without any sense of making the call recipients victims or any hint of racism. It is the context that matters and there lies the important lesson – one I was taught by a teacher at primary school, and that is we should always laugh with someone and not at them.
Humour and dealing with complaints are key aspects of doing business. We communicators must help business find the context.
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Pay Up! Stay Up!
"...We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give..."
Winston Churchill
Cash is King, Queen and pretty much the ruler over all businesses and so getting paid by clients is one of our biggest business challenges. I recently held a theoretical debate with some small business owners that tried to imagine a time when every single business paid its invoices on time. What impact would that place upon the creditors, debtors and balance sheets? More importantly, what impact would it have on the looming recession?
Whatever the impact, all of us were agreed that if our clients paid up then we would stay up and trading. Of course we debated many horror stories including one large council who had still not paid a supplier after twelve months. No dispute over the work or the invoice just sheer incompetence, bureaucracy and now a visit to the small claims court.
So credit when it is due. The Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) announced last week that they aim to pay all invoices within 10 days. Whilst this is a small step, it is also a magnificent one and leading the way and they are to be commended. Now all that has to happen is for everyone to follow – easy!!!
Winston Churchill
Cash is King, Queen and pretty much the ruler over all businesses and so getting paid by clients is one of our biggest business challenges. I recently held a theoretical debate with some small business owners that tried to imagine a time when every single business paid its invoices on time. What impact would that place upon the creditors, debtors and balance sheets? More importantly, what impact would it have on the looming recession?
Whatever the impact, all of us were agreed that if our clients paid up then we would stay up and trading. Of course we debated many horror stories including one large council who had still not paid a supplier after twelve months. No dispute over the work or the invoice just sheer incompetence, bureaucracy and now a visit to the small claims court.
So credit when it is due. The Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) announced last week that they aim to pay all invoices within 10 days. Whilst this is a small step, it is also a magnificent one and leading the way and they are to be commended. Now all that has to happen is for everyone to follow – easy!!!
No time for a novice
“…I’m all in favour of apprenticeships, but I can tell you this is no time for a novice…”
Gordon Brown addressing the Labour Party Conference September 2008
The uncertainty created by the ‘credit crunch’ and the spiral towards recession is highlighting the demand for experienced operators to be deployed across all aspects of business and yet the number of people I am encountering that are being ‘let go’ is incredible. There seems to be a fundamental flaw in the logic. My company sells experience but we are finding that those responsible for buying are quite often not even considering experience and are often driven by other factors such as price. Clearly one would expect this at times of squeeze but it is often experience that will deliver the efficiencies and outcomes required. A fresh pair of eyes, a youthful exuberance and a lack of ‘been there and done it’ attitude are great attributes, but business would be well warned that they need experience to see them through the hard times ahead.
Gordon Brown addressing the Labour Party Conference September 2008
The uncertainty created by the ‘credit crunch’ and the spiral towards recession is highlighting the demand for experienced operators to be deployed across all aspects of business and yet the number of people I am encountering that are being ‘let go’ is incredible. There seems to be a fundamental flaw in the logic. My company sells experience but we are finding that those responsible for buying are quite often not even considering experience and are often driven by other factors such as price. Clearly one would expect this at times of squeeze but it is often experience that will deliver the efficiencies and outcomes required. A fresh pair of eyes, a youthful exuberance and a lack of ‘been there and done it’ attitude are great attributes, but business would be well warned that they need experience to see them through the hard times ahead.
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