Uncategorized

Elite Status

A room on the highest floor with a views may be provided for individuals with higher status in a hotel loyalty program.  That perk is less treasured when the elevators stop operating or a tropical storm forces evacuations to lower floors.  First and Business Class seats are usually clustered in the first rows of an airplane.  These seats becomes less desirable when the air conditioning unit in the front of the plane fails and the temperature soars.  Upgraded luxury cars are offered as perks to loyal rent-a-car customers.  This upgrade becomes less remarkable when one has to refill the gas tank or a customer is assessed a congestion charge in a major city, a fee that is waived for smaller hybrid vehicles.

Elite status brings benefits.  Not everyone is seeking the same perks.  The assumption that a business makes about what constitutes value can be misaligned with the customer’s desires.  Being flexible with rewards offers more value than having a one size fits all rewards chart.

Sleeper

We get lulled into patterns of thinking and acting.  The is fast, that is slow.  Open this door, not that.  This person produces results, that person always hesitates before acting.  We do this until our pattern is interrupted.  If we are adventurous enough we put ourselves in unique environments then weak ideas influence our worldview.

We can interact with a different group of people, attend conferences that attract a different tribe, read from peripheral sources, or just try to get lost and search for a way back.  Otherwise it takes the unexpected to jolt us awake.  When our paradigm is flipped by the irrelevant becoming remarkable.

Humor

IMG_9084

Where does humor find itself into our efforts?  If we cannot remember the last outburst of laughter perhaps it is a point of reflection.  Few of us are making decisions that will change the fate of the world within seconds.  It is the committed ceaselessness of our efforts that results in remarkable.  Lets be a bit playful in our deliberations otherwise the world we are trying to create becomes a lot harder to imagine.

An Instant Tribe

DCIM100GOPROGOPR0638.

Is your tribes instantly recognizable to each other?  Hang a pirate flag from your ship and anyone who comes within eye-sight knows your intentions.  Wear New York Yankees pinstripes, the Dallas Cowboy’s star, or a Harley Davidson tattoo and you find out quickly who is with you and who does not find favor with your alliances.  These are universal symbols and have taken decades to develop.  If you do not need everyone your focus should be on precise.

How have you distinguished your tribe?  Is it visible to those who need to know?  Do you need to be known beyond the borders of your tribe?  If not then release yourself from the self-imposed anxiety over being known by everyone.

Vanishing Point

IMG_8395

What is our vanishing point?  The focal point on the horizon that keep us orientated.  If you know our magnetic north then it is easier to track the direction of travel.  Many vision statements speak to the moment in time when our efforts are no longer needed.  A cure for cancer would allow many causes to cease their work.  Educational reform, end to homelessness, equal pay, and access to services are all vanishing points.  The challenge is to keep our vanishing point visible and not get caught cluttering our perspective with conflicting focal points.