R.I.P.?

Last week, we lunched with a rather senior colleague who’s on job search.

“I need a business card,” s/he explained.  And went on to talk about its qualities, like design-worthiness  and purpose and so on.

Which (natch) got us to thinking.   Is our biz card defunct, out of date, even lame as the digital geeks assert?

Truth:  We’ve got issues with bumping smartphones to exchange contact information, not just because technological compatibility ain’t there yet.  But also because there’s something about a heavy-duty stock, a great brand look and feel, colorfulness, and a permanence that seduces us. 

Sure, we’d be lost without our portable e-database, housed oh-so-conveniently in our phones.  It’s handy during a conversation, or meeting, when we absolutely positively need immediate access.  On the other hand, we (like the few thousand International Business Card Collectors – and yes, there is such a group) tend to hang on to the best specimens, those that are memorable for whatever reason.

Best also implies yet another quality:  Innovation.  We’ve seen and heard of USBs attached to a card, one composed from an iPhone screen, yet another functioning as a keyboard.  The marketing ideas for our commonplace rectangle are almost endless.

There’s yet another reason for not burying the business card:  The networking possibilities.  Japan has us cornered on the romance of the meishi (occasionally carrying its own QR code), having created a rather personal ritual around the hand-off of cards.  In fact, relationships a few hundred years ago flourished, thanks, simply, to the use of calling or visiting cards.

You, dear reader, know the business case for business cards – from exchange obligations (“Hey, I handed you one – I need one in return”) and etiquette to quick responses and quality messaging.  Would you ever give them up?  RSVP about the business card’s potential R.I.P. to cbyd.co.

SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE

With all the conversations about monetizing social media and, specifically, brand conversations, it seems like we’ve forgotten one thing:  Kickstarting the dialogues, inside.

A long-ago research study about, yes, study groups reminded us.  Decades ago, under the auspices of Harvard, it pointed out that learning was all about relationships, that is, with whom you learned, rather than how you learned.  When compared to solo students, social learning produced more engaged, better prepared, and more knowledgeable participants.

[We also remember One L, author Scott Turow’s account of his first year at Harvard Law, wherein study groups became highly politicized – and learning-challenged.]

Today’s collaboration is yesterday’s study group.  And collaboration, most CEOs admit, is the gateway to the company future; it’s all about the ability to access people and resources when needed and drive the insight and performance business must have.  Better opportunities for learning and growth, as millennials have demonstrated, will magnetize the best talent.

In turn, the role of communicators shines.  Ramping up the social network.  Forming communities of practice.  Encouraging the talk – and walking that same way.  Encouraging leaders to role-model by working together in inclusive and diverse teams and conversations and brainstorming.  And offering references and tools and relationship-building context (in tandem with HR and other functions) that propel the business forward.

Interactive.  Experiential.  Personal.  Ever-evolving.  Now that sounds like a recipe for change.

MERCY MERCIS

It’s time to get the hook.

Here’s a life truth:  Sitting through interminable awards show thank-yous is part of live television.  Wouldn’t it be great if every actor could simply say, like Sally Fields:  “You like me”?  Comedians, long ago, used to signal an end through the finger across the throat sign or, yes, the brandishing of an actual hook on a long-handled cane.

Today, there’s another recourse to the on-and-on-and-on again droning that serves for gratitude:  Turn off the TV (or computer, if you’re streaming it).

Thanks is a funny thing, though.  When we’re not on stage, it’s a courtesy not necessarily included in everyone’s roles and responsibilities.  Often, when we do receive a gracias, it’s a) through email, b) insincerely, c) quickly emoted in person, and/or d) not at all.  All of these, in most circumstances, deserve a re-think of the thanks.

What’s wrong with an email?  When well crafted and sincere, it’s a thing of beauty.  But why not put those same sentiments into something more tangible, like a note, addressed to business or home, with a 50-cent stamp (which is what US stamps will cost by the time this blog is issued!)? 

We could say the same things about verbal thanks.  Sure, it’s okay.  But not memorable.  And if a staffer or peer or other colleague has gone out of the way to deliver, why not hand write your thanks?

The hook, in our opinion, goes to those who either “forget” common gratefulness, who just can’t be authentic – or are way too busy to send anything more than a perfunctory “it was nice of you.”  That happens way too often. 

Many forgive the sender.  We don’t.  Whatever happened to mutual respect, appreciation, value, a give and take relationship?  Mercy.

IF WE WERE KINGS/QUEENS OF THE FOREST ...

We got thinking:  What would it be like if communicators ruled the corporate world?

[AdAge started us, running a story about the marketing department changes made by Newell Rubbermaid’s fairly new, i.e., 15+ months, CMO, a market researcher by background.  To date, he’s culled staff, established outposts in Shanghai and Sao Paolo, doubled research staff and spend, and winnowed down the number of agencies … so far.]

There’s one current precedent we know:  David Novak at Yum! Brands, also a marketing guru.  And if we were to expand the question into the design arena, Apple – and design chief Jony Ive – comes to mind.  [Obviously, many executives have great quals as communicators and marketers, but not a deep backgrounding.]

Here are a few perks of being corporate kings and queens:

• ·       Embedded teams in every corner of the company, reflecting the ability of communicators to influence change inside and out
• Public relations leading the marketing function, owning social media and content and …
• Change initiatives run conjointly with HR and IT
• A larger spend, all judiciously accounted for
• A cadre of the best and brightest senior talent to tap into, from communications and research to branding and marketing
• An experimental mindset, where pilot programs could take on, say, in-depth research into the power of third-party editorial media

Phew:  There’s more.  Rather than exhaust every possibility, we’ll open it up to you:  What dreams and wishes would you have come true as CEO communicator?

JUNG AND US

Archetypes*, today, are everywhere. 

BloombergBusinessweek usually populates its back-end section with a humorous take on different responses to, say, gossip in the workplace. 

Marketers use new forms of ‘original patterns’ to define and segment their audiences, giving each a distinctive personality that’s easily understood. 

Entertainers of all kinds assume personae, from Lady Gaga to Madonna. 

User experience designers base their groupings on solid research, creating specific narratives for each group.

No doubt, it’s a convenient way to classify folk.  Remember the MBTI and Insights, among other personality assessments?  A similar concept:  Colleagues are downright fascinated with the diagnoses, and will spend time discussing and arguing about where they fit.  We’ve seen some very fascinating behaviors during presentations and workshops, where participants almost immediately assume the roles ascribed to them.

One month later, those personae are forgotten.  Work rules, after all.  Yet are we using archetyping and its brethren, personae, in the best possible ways – while avoiding stereotypes? 

We’d say ‘no.’  Most of us don’t use guideposts to understand the nature of how our very different selves act in the world, and in the workplace.  Existing assessments like MBTI, while useful in workshops and change situations, don’t help us as we form strategies to get our staff and team and enterprise to act in certain ways and adopt specific goals.

Ever try to gather all the INTJs into one group to figure out what appeals?   Good luck.  And give us a holler about the narratives and personae you’ve used to drive change.

*[Our caveat:  Thanks to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, this Greek word now serves as a model for ways of being/acting in the world, even though that wasn’t his original intent.  And even though personae differ from archetypes.]