Hvad er dit motto? Er det simpelt og stærkt nok til at guide alle beslutninger i din forretning?
Jeg læser i øjeblikket “Made To Stick” af Chip Heath & Dan Heath. En spændende bog som undersøger, hvorfor nogle ideer, historier eller budskaber hænger bedre ved end andre. Kan man udlede en slags skabelon for, hvordan man kommunikerer sin ide på en måde som folk husker? Og hvordan koger man sit formål eller budskab ned til det mest essentielle?
Det er noget, vi bruger en del tid på sammen med vores kunder, og når vi kigger indad på vores egen forretning. Det er noget af det vigtigste, du kan gøre – men samtidig også noget af det sværeste overhovedet. Vi arbejder på det hver uge og er stadig ikke i mål.
THE low-fare airline
I bogen kommer de med et eksempel på, hvordan Southwest Airlines bruger deres motto som den ledestjerne, der hjælper dem til at tage alle deres beslutninger. Jeg syntes den ville være fin at dele, for den er et godt eksempel på, hvordan alle dagligdagens beslutninger bliver nemmere, når du er helt skarp på dit kernebudskab og målsætning.
Fra “Made To Stick”
Herb Kelleher [the longest-serving CEO of Southwest] once told someone, 1 “I can teach you the secret to running this airline in thirty seconds. This is it: We are THE low-fare airline. Once you understand that fact, you can make any decision about this company’s future as well as I can.“Here’s an example,”he said. “Tracy from marketing comes into your office. She says her surveys indicate that the passengers might enjoy a light entrée on the Houston to Las Vegas flight. All we offer is peanuts, and she thinks a nice chicken Caesar salad would be popular. What do you say?”The person stammered for a moment, so Kelleher responded: “You say, ‘Tracy, will adding that chicken Caesar salad make us THE low-fare airline from Houston to Las Vegas? Because if it doesn’t help us become the unchallenged low-fare airline, we’re not serving any damn chicken salad.’
”Kelleher’s Commander’s Intent is “We are THE low-fare airline.”This is a simple idea, but it is sufficiently useful that it has guided the actions of Southwest’s employees for more than thirty years.
Now, this core idea—“THE low-fare airline”—isn’t the whole story, of course. For instance, in 1996 Southwest received 124,000 applications for 5,444 openings. It’s known as a great place to work, which is surprising. It’s not supposed to be fun to work for penny-pinchers. It’s hard to imagine Wal-Mart employees giggling their way through the workday. Yet somehow Southwest has pulled it off. Let’s think about the ideas driving Southwest Airlines as concentric circles.
The central circle, the core, is “THE low-fare airline.”But the very next circle might be “Have fun at work.”Southwest’s employees know that it’s okay to have fun so long as it doesn’t jeopardize the company’s status as THE low-fare airline. A new employee can easily put these ideas together to realize how to act in unscripted situations. For instance, is it all right to joke about a flight attendant’s birthday over the P.A.? Sure. Is it equally okay to throw confetti in her honor? Probably not—the confetti would create extra work for cleanup crews, and extra clean-up time means higher fares.
Jeg syntes, at det er et super eksempel på, hvordan det kan betale sig at finde ind til kernen af sin virksomhed og sit budskab. Men det viser også, hvor vigtigt det er, at det man når frem til er et simpelt og kompakt budskab. I bogen præsenterer de en skabelon, de kalder S.U.C.C.E.S (uden det sidste s). Hvert bogstav refererer til en karakteristika, som kan være med til at gøre en ide “sticky”.
- Simple — find the core of any idea
- Unexpected — grab people’s attention by surprising them
- Concrete — make sure an idea can be grasped and remembered later
- Credible — give an idea believability
- Emotional — help people see the importance of an idea
- Stories — empower people to use an idea through narrative
Når jeg kommer lidt længere med bogen vil jeg vende tilbage med lidt flere guldkorn. Kan du ikke vente, så køb din egen kopi af Made To Stick. Indtil videre har det været rigtig god læsning.
/Thomas
