Do you stand out?
On July 25, 2007 in Thought for the Day
I have been reading the great book (strongly recommend) Change to Strange by Daniel M. Cable. Its focus is to encourage us to see that any organization (I add in “individual� as well) will not be great unless customers reliably and consistently notice something out of the ordinary about their products or services. And his contention is that something out of the ordinary happens only with a “strange� (non conventional, non predictable) workforce. Here, here! Bland and boring is out – the unusual is in…it has to be. This is the only way to be remembered and in a world of information blur; things that are different, odd or strange stand out. If we stand out, we get remembered.
We are not taking about being strange just to be different. But rather think strange as something others don’t do but add value to your customers. He calls it “strange� – I call it “stand out.�
So I know that makes a lot of sense for a company. Humanetrics approach in its programs and education includes creativity to help our clients learn how to stand out. That means that our education and programs must also “stand out.� In short, we do it for the exact reason that Daniel Cable writes in his book: to get the customer to see that we stand out and we get remembered. I recommend Mr. Cable’s book for anyone managing a business or looking for a way to get customers and employees to notice them.
So, how strange is your workforce? What can you do so that you really stand out?
How about with life? Shouldn’t Mr. Cable’s concepts work in life? How about a relationship that continually does out of the ordinary things? How about family events that are “strange� and then notice their impact on memory making?
Here is something I always did with my kids…and now in their late teens and early twenties, they still remember it. On rides when they were younger we would tell stories…and each child had one of two roles. Either I would start the story and pass it to each one for them to add in whichever direction they wanted and then passed it on. That way we invented a new story each time. Or they chose characters (wind, dog, witch, etc) that I had to work into the story and each time the heard from the character, they had to make its sound. Strange? The kids still talk about it. We built a memory. It was different. It stood out. We made hundred of moments like these.
What thing will you do today that will stand out in your family or friend’s mind?
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