Getting beyond Awareness

It’s actually starting to happen.

I always wanted it to, but many clients didn’t like thinking that far ahead.

We’re actually doing work now that takes all those wacky things like Values and Behaviours and Brand Attributes and actually weaving them into organisational processes.  And I’m not talking about a couple tick boxes in a competency framework.  Not just making neat websites and brand books and leadership presentations; but bringing it to life, day to day.

We used to all talk about it a lot, and knew it was the right thing to do, but somehow, by and large,  once we got it all thought through, figured out and launched — the “Awareness” stage — people moved on to other agendas, or budget was reallocated, or the job was considered “done”.

But a couple clients are moving it into “Attitude” and even “Action”.

I have to pinch myself, really.

At last.

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Gen Y and the downturn

I had an interesting chat with one of my clients the other day: how is Gen Y reacting to the downturn?

It was a fascinating chat – this generation has only seen “boom” times, which has fit very comfortably into an overall world view of self-actualisation / entitlement etc.  What happens when they are made redundant, or don’t get a bonus, or suddenly get no work-life balance when they now have to pick up the slack?  Is it a different reaction to us old dogs?

I manage a couple, but I work in an agency so I suspect they are not “normal” (no offense intended), if there is such a thing.

I’d love to see something about this.

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Motorcycles and organisational psychology

Beware, motorcycle musings ahead.

I recently hit a patch of black ice on my big bike, a 1200 cc Triumph Trophy.  Riding in a straight line, well below the speed limit, not a care in the world apart from riding as safely as possible, and the next moment I saw my bike spinning off to the left just before I hit tarmac face down.

I dress for war, so luckily I was unhurt apart from a bruised hip and a bruised ego.  The right side of the bike, on the other hand, is more or less missing.

While the Triumph is in hospital, I’m on my summer bike, a 675cc naked sports bike.  Much smaller, much faster, likes to go fast; can outaccelerate a Porsche 911 Carerra Turbo, though one would have to be mad to try.  Before the spill on the big bike, I could confidently thread the small bike through London traffic without a care in the world.

Bikers will always tell you (if they aren’t lying) that after any crash it takes a while to get your confidence back.  But my crash wasn’t that scary, really: I was more worried about the bike since within a milisecond of landing I knew I was fine.   And yet… getting on the small bike has been really hard for the past couple of days.  It’s not turning, I’m not shooting gaps, I’m baulking around corners.

I’m confident  I’ll bounce back, I’m sure, within the week.

 But I wondered about the sort of psychological connection with trauma or change at work – whether losing budget or redundancy or not winning a big pitch.  We have minor crashes all the time, but ocassionally there are those that seem innocuous but probably knock our confidence a lot (just as sometimes there are massive disappointments that we actually don’t let get to us at all).

I suppose what I am trying to get at is maybe it’s not the size of the crash, but rather the context.  If I had been speeding or riding aggressively, I would have said “I got what I deserved.”  But the bike just went down instantly.  Maybe it’s about the degree of control, and the degree of surprise involved, that truly dictates the knock-on effect to confidence.

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Scoring my 2008 predictions

Here were my predictions for 2008 and my self assessment:

 1.  Monolothic brands operating in heterogenous (e.g. global) environments are going to have to flex their guidelines and rules if they are to succeed in the employer brand space.  We’re going to see more variation in expression of corporate brands.  Otherwise they cannot differentiate and appeal to specific people segments.

2009 SCORE:  75%, more or less right.

2.  Employer brand will become an embedded and specific role in smart organisations to overcome the inertia created by the internal communications – human resources – marketing impasse that many experience. 

2009 SCORE: 100%.  It’s everywhere.  Again, though, I think the trend might reverse.

3.  Developing economies will move even further into the centre stage of opportunity.

2009 SCORE: 50%.  Nope, stayed about the same really.

4.  There will be a social media backlash as people grapple with the issues around work-public-private boundries.   It will not be a severe one. Second Life will lose momentum and new niche players will devour their market with more focussed/segmented/pragmatic offers in the social media space. 

2009 SCORE:  25%.  The backlash is yet to come, if at all.  However there was a lot of grappling with the issues, so partial credit given.  And Second Life was shown to be the dog that it always was.

5.  We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of the subprime fiasco and its long-term impacts on the global economy.  Combined with 8 years progressive mismanagement of the U.S. economy, it will not be an easy year and there will be some profound longer-term issues, making this election a poisoned chalice.  Although the exchange rate is great from a UK perspective…

2009 SCORE: 100%, and I  underestimated things.

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