Category Archives: Creativity

How a simple change in routine can show you a new perspective

in Creativity

To change things up a little bit I decided to take a taxi after I crossed the border to Mexico today. After you cross the border and walked over to the cab station you’ll notice there are two types of cabs, the yellow ones which are the least cheap and the ‘taxi libre’ which takes you anywhere you want for less money than the yellow taxi. But surprise-surprise, I got on a taxi libre and soon found out that there’s a third type of cab and that I was in it.

  • ‘Taxi libre no economico’. As in a Taxi that’s non-economical. As I sat there and listened to the driver I asked him:
  • Me: So what’s the damn difference between this taxi and all the other ones that look just like it?
  • Driver: That’s it’s non-economical.
  • Me: And how are people supposed to know which one is which?
  • Driver: After we’ve taken them where they want to go.

Are you kidding me?! Seriously that was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. Nowhere on the cabs is it mentioned that there are two ‘taxi libre’ types of cabs, you really don’t know only after you get on a cab and ask for a price. It’s safe to say that if you’re a foreigner you’re paying a lot of money for a cab and I have no doubt that is why this exists. I’ve taken a lot of cabs down here but this is the first time I’ve encountered this, I mean I was surprised at this nonsense!

I ended up telling the driver to drop me off immediately and went back to where the taxis are stationed. Once there I started asking around which ones were the non-economical taxis, that got some of the drivers really angry because it was as if I’ve just crashed their party. They had no other option than to offer me the normal rate.

So why am I writing this?

Because it just goes to show what happens when you change your routines. If you always stick to the same path, the same way of doing things, you’re missing out on other possible paths. If I hadn’t changed my routine today I wouldn’t been able to tell my foreign friends and readers to watch out for those ‘taxi libre’ cabs the next time they come visit Tijuana!

Give it a try. Instead of driving to work like usual, take the bus. There’s nothing like seeing things up close and personal.

Don’t waste people’s time. Help them do more

in competition, Creativity, entrepreneurship, Strategy

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The gap between what is right now and where others are become very obvious when you go from one extreme to another. This past week I spent a little time with a friend I’ve known since kindergarten as he just opened a restaurant in Mexico and I went over to see how he was doing. This is his second restaurant venture for him, his first one closed after a year and a half.

While I was there he was telling me how he’d just bought a new restaurant management software homemade in Mexico. The incentive for him was that the top Mexican restaurant chains, such as Sanborn’s, also claimed to use the same software to manage their operation so in his eyes it was good decision to buy. Nonetheless he asked me if I could give it a test drive to see if it was worth the buy…

Before I dig in I just want to say that with any kind of business if you have pitiful customer support you are in a whole lot of trouble no matter how great your product or service is. With that in mind, here we go…

What you see in the picture above is restaurant management software made by Nationalsoft. The software is still delivered in a package, the serial number is taped on the inside (post it note inside the CD) which registers a single computer. The software is less than 15 MB and takes less than a minute to install. Feels like you’re back at the end of the 90’s huh? Wait it gets better!

If a user loses their password (which did happen) they have to call support who then has them create a .dat file which they then have to send back to support by email so they can ‘do something to it’ to unblock it. After support does something to the file, they’ll send it back to the customer so he may add it to a folder and overwrite the previous one. Are you kidding me!? What happened to the ‘forgot password’ link that is not a default setting in any kind software?

If these people were doing business in the US they would be out of business. But wait, it gets even better…you have to pay them to get the software unblocked.

A modern software company not only provides support by phone but also provides customers with online resources such as FAQ, forums or wiki with answers to common problems. Seems Nationalsoft forgot to add this to their checklist because they’re nowhere to be found. Ironically they do have a Twitter account and a Facebook Fan page! None of which are used as customer support touch points. Promote first, serve later right?

There’s more but I think I’ve provided you with enough information to see how frustrated I was when I was seeing this happen before my eyes. The way this software company is designed to operate is to deliberately waste their customers time, not to help them get going as fast as possible.

 

Signs that you’re behind the curve

Businesses in Mexico still operate by the logic of ‘forcing customers to do what I want them to do’ not ‘I make it easier for my customers to do what they want to do’. The result of operating by this logic is that people who may be interested in your product or service have been programmed to expect ‘below average service’, they expect to be treated like crap. They put more obstacles in place for the customer, never taking into account that the customer is a human and therefore ignoring the fact that humans do make mistakes. In a world where software is as ubiquitous as water, the days of bloated software are over. Today every piece of software (including websites) are designed for humans, not robots. As an example see Facebook’s platform, which now 500 million people use, it epitomizes software designed for making social interaction as simple as possible.

Point: Design your operation so that every interaction your customer has with you helps him do more by making it simple. You’ll not only have happy customers but also angry competitors. Here’s how to do it:

 

Create barriers to entry not barriers to use

Barriers to entry is what you do to make it difficult for competitors to compete with you (like doing everything in your power to make your customers happy). Barriers to use (such as having weak customer support, no online Q&A, making customers pay because they lost their password) is what you do to impede customers from getting on with it and start using your products, and if all goes well they’ll be very happy and tell their friends about it.

Anticipate human stupidity

Humans make mistakes, in the online world it becomes even more obvious because everything they do online has to be done through a digital interface. As software has evolved from being used exclusively used on the desktop to be used on the web, it’s become important to focus on designing your software to anticipate the fact that humans need things to be spelled out for them just like children, therefore making it easier for them to do what they want to do. For example humans will also forget things, including passwords, so make sure you cover the basics.

Learn how Zappos treats it’s customers

No seriously I’m being honest. If you want to make competitors really angry and therefore put them in a disadvantage, focus your efforts on making your customers really happy by actually giving a damn about them.  That’s Zappos secret weapon Smile

 

What do you think, is making customers happy an unconventional strategy?

Find insights in unlikely places

in Creativity, Innovation

Insights, they’re the seeds of new groundbreaking ideas. I was watching the BBC documentary on the life of autistic celebrity and was intrigued at how her invention was born out of an unlikely insight from cow vaccination: the squeeze chute which holds the cow in place so that it can be vaccinated made some cows more relaxed.

As a young child, Grandin realized she would seek out deep pressure stimulation, but hugs and being held over-stimulated her. The idea for the hug machine was devised during a visit to her aunt’s Arizona ranch, where she noted the way cattle were vaccinated while confined in a squeeze chute, and how some of the cattle immediately calmed down after pressure was administered. She realized the deep pressure from the chute had a calming effect, and decided that might well settle down her own hypersensitivity.

As an autistic person, Mrs. Temple’s main emotion is fear. So she’ll mainly be looking at things that help her cope with that fear, and the squeeze chute was it. This also helps understand , you start with a problem in mind and you focus like a laser beam to find a insight in unlikely places.

In the video below you can see what I’m talking about but if you haven’t seen the documentary I encourage you to watch it completely.

The Devil is in the details.

 

Design for better behavior in mind

in Creativity, Innovation

If we want to encourage better behaviors, we have to make it easier for people to do whatever it is that we want them to do by removing obstacles in their path. What about if we want to discourage behaviors such as smoking? We put more obstacles in the smokers path, Erik Askin proposes ‘design to annoy’.The premise is that if you design the cigarette package in a way that makes it harder for people to smoke; it might change consumer behavior. You can also suggest a safer alternative like vaping. The users of Golden Leaf Shop have the option when vaping to get e-juices like the candy king vape juice with less nicotine.

This is a clear example of questioning the status quo and purposely breaking the rules to encourage a behavior, in this case, to make it difficult for people to smoke.

When we look at our organizations and institutions from this lens, are we designing them to encourage the behaviors we want or discouraging them? It’s clear that if we want to encourage creative thinking in our organizations then we have to do some major changes as most organizations are designed to encourage predictable outcomes and not new ones.

Food for thought!

Delivering happiness: Not business as usual

in Creativity, Innovation, Strategy

A few days ago I wrote about how . They’ve designed their business model around the concept of ‘happiness’ and have made it clear that the customer IS their business. The idea is driven that by making their employees happy it further drives customer happiness. It’s common sense but we, as consumers, can’t really say that other businesses look after our well being.

But what about pre-Zappos, is there another business that does business to deliver happiness?

Enter hotelier Chip Conley. In the video above he talks about how he designed his business model based on happiness. He talks about how he was inspired, to question the truth that businesses were made to profit, by a vietnamese woman named Vivian whom he met after he bought the motel where she worked as a maid. After noticing that Vivian did her work with joy, he began to question: How can someone find joy in brushing toilets for a living?

Because of her attitude towards service. She felt her job was to make not only guests happy but also her fellow employees. Sound familiar?

Like I mentioned on my previous post:

The universal truth is that no brand really cares about YOU, they care about your buying power. With such a dominant assumption (rule) why is it that businesses don’t choose to break it?

Well as you can see from the above talk, Zappos isn’t a one time phenomenon and business can be driven by ‘happiness’. What’s needed is a change in mindset, that profit is result of two forces:

Happy employees + Happy customers = profitable business

Let me know what you think.

A young mind is a healthy mind

in Creativity, Strategy

I wrote an article for On Innovation a few weeks ago and it was published yesterday: Finding your crayons: Innovation inspiration from the young. Initially I wanted the the article to be titled ‘A young mind is a healthy mind’ but I guess that didn’t say much, but here then is what I mean in a nutshell:

Mental health must be a priority

Not a lot of people take that in mind, and carry serious mental issues all throughout life. Most of these can be resolved, in time, as long as they are attended to. The Online Dispensary Delivering to New Brunswick has access to many medications that can help even with serious issues that could be considered debilitating, not to mention stress and the multitude of ways in which it can affect a person.

You get to enjoy a sense of calmness and more focus. CBD affects learning positively and it also motivates learning. It is also helpful in reversing the symptoms of the Alzheimer disease. You can get a heart that is healthier by the use of the CBD. CBD has a lot of benefits that it brings to the heart, these include the capability of lowering high levels of blood pressure. You also get relief from the stresses that are part of your daily life. CBD has been known to provide therapeutic cures for symptoms like stress and anxiety (check out Candyland vape cart for anxiety relief), thus helping in the reduction of psychological levels of anxious behavior. It also helps in reducing the feeling of depression and anxiety, the dart makes the best weed pipe. You can also navigate to this website to listen to what health experts opinion is on this topic.

How does CBD get to work? The body of humans contains a large network of constituent receptors, the system of endocannabinoids, which is critical to maintaining the overall wellness, along with helping the support systems for many of the physical processes in our body. Cannabinoids and CBD products like this 5mg gummy fit inside these receptors that help the human body with its efforts in maintaining good health.

CBD is the acronym for cannabidiol. It has been used by people for a long time and helps to get rid of the symptoms of many common ailments. Recently it was found that a number of common problems such as lack of cognitive abilities, mental disorders, anxiety, and both internal and external pain can be relieved by the use of CBD oil in any form. CBD is extracted from the marijuana plant but it is not psychoactive in nature due to the absence of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Many consumers prefer to buy CBD online which you can order from trusted suppliers like Hinton cannabis over normal medications due to its effectiveness.

CBD is an amazing source of medication that can be used instead of normal medication. However, you must check with your doctor before using it because you might be allergic to the product. CBD is a great product, but you must be very careful while using it. Also, CBD is effective only if applied at the initial or intermediate stages. It is best to consult a medical professional in case of a serious case of any disease. You can visit observer to get more information.

In Australia, many children and young people under the age of 20 have a computed tomography (CT) scan each year. CT is a valuable diagnostic tool, providing doctors, dental practitioners and other health professionals with non-invasive, fast and accurate information to help diagnose serious injury and illness with tools like this hcv antibody test so they can inform treatment.

CT scans are of benefit in a wide range of clinical situations – they provide a diagnosis in an emergency situation where immediate imaging is required, or when high quality bone detail is necessary to assess complex fractures or planning for surgery. However, these benefits also come with increased exposure to ionizing radiation. To learn how you can get protected, see here this post about radiation protection equipment.

To be strategic is to be unconventional

The unconventional is the province of the young who are not comfortable with conventions and take great pleasure in flouting them. The danger is that as we age, we need more comfort and predictability and lose our taste for the unorthodox. This is how one of the finest strategist in the history of our world, Napoleon, declined as a strategist: he came to rely more on the size of his army and on its superiority in weapons than on novel strategies and fluid maneuvers. He lost his taste for the spirit of strategy and succumbed to the growing weight of his accumulating years. Check out the latest male enhancement pills reviews.

You must fight the psychological aging process even more than the physical one. You can find supplements at https://www.buoyhealth.com/blog/health/best-nmn-supplement that will help keep you young. Make a point of breaking the habits you have developed, of acting in a way that is contrary to how you have operated in the past; practice a kind of unconventional warfare on your own mind.

Keep the wheels in your mind churning against the soil of precedent so that it doesn’t settle on the conventional.

Reimagine how you imagine

in Creativity, Innovation

Alright it seems to me that the word ‘imagination’ doesn’t fit in a business context, unless you’re an ad agency it’s been completely banned! The mere mention of ‘let’s use our imaginations’ gets people nervous as if saying ‘what’s that?’ Ok Ok I get it, there are alternatives though and to battle that I use the word ‘reconfigure’ to talk to non-imagine people.

Take for example, an interior designer who might be adept at Custom furnishings, his/her job is to reimagine the interior of your house. They take what you have and reconfigure it in another way to arrive at something different. They tweak, move, shift, turn your living room in all sorts of ways sometimes by moving the objects already in place or by bringing in new objects from the outside or a mix of both.

The interior designer in the examples below focuses on ‘using what you already have’ to reimagine your living room. The objects might not be new but the small change in the arrangements makes the living room not just look different but also feel different.

 

before and after

before and after 2

before and after 3
This is what imagination is all about.

You don’t have to drink tequila to loosen up (although it certainly helps), you just have to ask ‘what if’ we take this and move it, remove it, turn it, twist it, shake it, etc and see what happens. So if you’re in the process of reimagining how your business will have to work in the future but lost your imagination on your way to being an adult, just put yourself in the interior designer’s shoes and start reconfiguring.