i2i - Incentive Intelligence

Sales Motivation Research Has Charitable Impact - Thank You

I'm bouncing off to the HRevolution Conference in Louisville, KY tomorrow and will be doing some windshield time - thinking about my "unconference" session and what the heck I'm going to say.  Being an unconference I'm gambling on the fact I don't really have to prepare too much.  Of course you know I will :-)

But while I'm dodging cherry-tops and looking for Starbucks off the interstate I want to thank those of you who read my post on the Sales Motivation Research conducted by Paul Beaumont out of the UK and responded.  Paul hit all his targets and has some great information that will be published some time in spring of 2010.  Hopefully, I'll be able to bring you some groundbreaking info then.  Here's a link to his group on Linkedin if you want to connect with him.

At the time that Paul and I connected I did not know that behind the scenes he had arranged for a donation to the Save the Children charity based on survey responses.

Below is the text of a letter sent by the charity to Paul Beaumont thanking him for the donation.

Thanks to all of you who responded to the survey and I hope the results help you drive motivation in your sales organizations.  Obviously, if there is anything I can do to help let me know.

Save The Children Thank You

View more documents from Paul Hebert.

Thank you for your help

Premier Episode - Influence Insiders on Blogtalkradio - May I Have Your Attention?

Yesterday at Noon EST you may have felt a slight disturbance in the Force.  That was the exact moment when the first episode of a monthly discussion on how to influence your audience hit the airwaves (more accurately the internet waves.)

(Note:  as of 7:30am Nov. 5 - the blogtalkradio site was having some issues - player may not work - check back please...one of the pitfalls of free services I guess.)

Influence Insiders has one episode in the "can" so to speak and you can jump in and listen via the embedded player to the right, or out at blogtalkradio.  The show lasted an hour so grab a sandwich and listen during your lunch.

I can tell you this - I truly enjoyed the conversation with my fellow panelists and was very happy with the turnout from the audience.  I can't wait for the next episode - December 2, 2009 if you want to mark your calendars (Noon EST again.)

I won't go into details on the set up - you can read that here from a post last week.  On the show were:

• @annbares
• @heathermargolis
• @leapcomp
• @toddhanson
• @incentintel (that would be me)

Missing from this episode were @frankroche and @thelance - (we missed you guys!)

Great contributions - thank you all very much.

Since you can listen to the show I won't go into boring details but here's where I netted out of the hour-long discussion...

• Getting an audience's attention is tough (no new news there.)
   
• Every audience is starting to act more like a traditional consumer audience.  B2B customers, Employees, etc. are have similar issues relating to information overload and multiple channels of communications.  Getting any audiences attention is tough and getting tougher.
   
• People are less influenced by "brand" messages (again no new info.)
   
• People pay high attention to someone in their network - whether that be in real live or via linkedin, twitter, or other online groups.
   
• Getting attention today is about getting the attention of some one who can get the attention of your target audience member.  In other words, you might ignore a message from a brand that you received via email, TV, radio, other "mass" tools - but if someone in your network says to you directly - "you might want to look at this" you will pay attention.
   
• The need for a "big" event to get attention is less important than an event that gets the attention of a few people who are in the network of the person you want to talk with.

It Ain't New Any More

Some will say that none of that is new - and I'd agree.  For those of us who have been involved with social media and networks we've known this for a while.  But the key thing for me is that it is now mainstream.  It isn't a cutting edge idea and it isn't something only the "new age" companies need to worry about - it is here and it is real.

Tortoise and the Hare

The one thing that hit me after the show was that attention isn't something we get with an announcement any more - it's something we get, over time, based on opinion.  It's probably best illustrated...

 

If you're responsible for communicating with an audience and getting their attention - you may want to consider being the tortoise instead of the hare.  In my opinion, a good message to the right network will have a bigger impact on the audience - and have staying power.  IMHO.

Hope to have you on the next episode - remember - December 2, 2009 - Wednesday - at Noon EST.  Hope you tune in!

 

Deming and Systems in Today's Business World - No Answers Just Questions

In the last few weeks I've seen a couple of people quote Deming saying "95% of the problems in business are system driven and only 5% are people driven." (Or similar to that.)

Based on that simple statement it would seem that you should spend 95% of your time on improving the process in order to get your biggest bang for your buck no?  Seems logical.  If that's the case - don't run incentives or reward programs - pour all your money into system design and try to create a system that is fool proof.

But not really...

One of the people that used that Deming quote was @bobcorlett - who runs Staffing Advisors and is a Deming guy.  I'm not - I'm familiar but not a scholar.

So Bob and I connected on the phone (gasp!  I know - real time, analog) to discuss the quote.  My point was that a quote like that would seem to indicate you should worry less about the people themselves and more about the system in which they behave.  Bob reminded me that Deming also said a poor system will win every time over a good employee.  There is a lot of truth in that as well.

But after a great conversation about people and systems that meandered around a bit, (btw - Bob does not advocate ignoring your human resources in favor of systems) I was left with this thought...

Deming focused on systems because they were the process by which business got done and that's what drove success at that time.  A good, predictable, non-variable system produced quality products en masse.  Since business was about production of product primarily made by doing the same thing as many times as you could in a quality manner, it made all the sense in the world to focus on the process not the people.

But are we production oriented today?

Today however, our economy changes rapidly, businesses change rapidly, business models change rapidly, technology changes rapidly.  Do systems still matter more than the people?  Should you worry more about systems or people?

When we were an industrial economy, success was a function of economies of scale, quality and mass production.  Controlling variability was a good thing. We wanted to make sure that all the machines contributing to the process behaved within the specifications.  The tighter the specifications the better the quality, the lower the costs and the ultimately - the better the product.

But today, it seems to me we are driven more by innovation and new ideas brought to market quicker and incrementally better or through big disruptions.  To me that is the antithesis of the Deming formula for managing variability in a system.  To me creating variability has more value than limiting it.

Plus - there is no machine in the world with as much variability as a human being.  Our specs are off the chart on what is possible.

So, I'm left with this... how much should you spend on systems versus people in today's business world?

Or is it - "You gotta do both, quit carping and move on!"

Is it 50/50 now or does Deming still hold?  Inquiring minds like mine want to know.

Bueller, Bueller?

A Face Made For Radio - Conversations About Influence - New Blogtalkradio Show

Move Over Howard Stern

My father always said he had a face made for radio - and due to the vagaries of genetics - I've inherited that trait.  Always looking to turn a weakness into a strength I'm playing host to a new radio show - brought to you by the magic of the internet.  Through Blogtalkradio you can, using only your phone, listen and contribute to a discussion on how to influence and drive business performance through employees, channel partners and consumers.  And as a bonus it will be a bit of fun.

The Format

This isn't really my show - it's a collaborative effort.  

Over the course of a few years I've been privileged to be schooled by some very smart and engaging people.  All of whom are outside my normal area of focus.  And that's the important part.  Having a group of people that aren't affected by your own biases is a great way to grow and learn.  So, as a group, we thought if we all benefited from those conversations you might as well and we created Influence Insiders.

Influence Insiders is a core group of experts, bloggers, thought leaders and smart folks who will be getting together monthly to talk about the things that challenge them and their clients associated with engaging audiences.  The line up is impressive and should provide all of us with some interesting points of view.  I know I'll be learning and you can to if you tune in and listen & contribute.

The Team

In no particular order:

• Ann Bares (Minneapolis):  Managing Partner  – Altura Consulting Group, author of the blog Compensation Force (a Workforce.com featured blog)  and editor/contributor for multi-author blog Compensation Café and one of the Top 25 Talent Blogs as ranked by Fistful of Talent (FOT) – a popular talent management and HR focused blog.  Ann has been a compensation consultant with RSM McGladrey, Inc., Riley, Dettmann & Kelsey LLC, and Watson Wyatt Worldwide. 
   
• Frank Roche (Philadelphia):  Partner iFractal – sponsor and contributor to very popular KnowHR blog.  Frank and his team focus on helping their clients talk to their employees.  In the past Frank led Mercer’s Human Capital Practice in the Netherlands and worked at Hewitt Associates.
   
• Heather Margolis (Boston):  President Channel Maven Consulting – Prior to her current role Heather led channel programs for companies like EMC, EqualLogic, and Dell.
   
• Julien Dionne (Ottawa, CN):  Julien authors the very informative blog leap.com and works with OpenSymmetry a consultancy that specializes in Sales Performance Management strategic planning, business process optimization, technology assessment and system integration engagements across diverse industries and software providers.  He has worked with Accenture and nGenera prior to OpenSymmetry.
   
• Lance Haun (Portland, Or):  Lance has a long history in the HR field and authors the highly rated and read blog YourHRGuy – now called Rehaul.  He currently is VP Outreach for a company called Meritbuilder – an online employee reward/recognition portal with a unique feature of being portable – moving with the employee as they move.
   
• Todd Hanson (Appleton, WI): CEO of Catalyst Performance Group.  Todd’s group is heavily into measuring the ROI of marketing and incentive/reward programs.  They are currently measuring the ROI on the recent Motivation Show, works in partnership with the ROI Institute and he authors the blog called the ROI of Engagement.
   
• Paul Hebert (Greenville, SC):  Managing Director I2I – author of Incentive Intelligence, contributor at Fistful Of Talent and general good guy.  20 years helping companies design and operate incentive, recognition and loyalty programs – degree in Statistics, worked on the Space Shuttle and B1 Bomber while employed at Rockwell and did a stint at a branding and corporate identity firm.

The Schedule

• Monthly - the first Wednesday of the month (First episode Nov. 4 at noon)
• Time:  Noon - 1:00 p.m. EST

How to Play

Blogtalkradio is essentially a big conference call that is recorded and shared.  During the call people can chime in and ask questions, add to the conversation and in general be a part of the fun.  The service (free version of course!) allows for 5 simultaneous "open" lines plus the host (total of 6.)  During a show the host (that'll be me) can add folks and mute others to move the conversation around the audience.  If you want to chime in - just hit "1" on your phone and the host is alerted and can then "unmute" you and you will now be part of the show.  Pretty cool.

We've set up our station at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/i2i

The call in number will be the same for every episode: (646) 381-4430

The topics will be different and varied.

YOU are Important

The real fun of this isn't the group of us talking about how to drive business (well, yeah it is that) but that you get to play in the process.  Truly, the benefit to us it hear your points of view and hear what is stopping you from fully engaging your audience, influencing their behaviors and driving business results.  

Here's the topic for the first show next week:

 

I hope you take the time and listen in.