This cab driver is a living vivid example of dead people working™.  His work (signature) was life threatening and he made it a disaster. Shame on him! He is an embarrassment to the profession.

The profession was redeemed! After our meeting we anxiously grabbed another cab to Chicago, O’Hare. An energetic woman greeted us ready to stow our bags and help us get in.  We asked, “Do you take credit cards?” She responded, “You bet, money’s money, I gladly take it all!”  We learned during our short ride that Mary, our driver, had driven a cab years ago when she was in college and recently lost her job so she is gratefully driving a cab again to stay off the streets and pay the rent.

We gave her cash, and a tip plus the tip we withheld from the earlier driver; we took her business card and will gladly give her business the next time we’re in Chicago.  Her work (signature) is life giving and Mary is conscious of making it a masterpiece.  Bravo to Mary, she is a refreshing ambassador of the profession.

We had a similar but different car experience while traveling with our family in San Jose (Cabo), Mexico. Upon arrival we were loaded into a “Grey Line” van and told we were the first drop. After a long and very warm two hours we were dropped at our hotel not first we were the last group to be dropped off.

Don’t use Grey Line in Cabo!  We discovered a car service that knows their work is their signature and service, promptness, and honesty all matter.  Instead of being pick-up by Grey Line at 9:30am to catch a 2:10pm flight (BTW the airport is 40-minutes away) we booked a private car ride for five with Private Luxury Travel Cabo.  They picked us up at 12:20pm and we arrived at 1:00pm a little tight, but we made it and we’d use them again in a heartbeat. Here is the link to Privateluxurytravelcabo.com and great service!

Work lesson:  Are you fully aware of your impact on people, every job serves another in some way, are you dedicated to creating an experience for those you serve or are you too busy just getting through the chips and twizzlers in your day?

Try a MotiVention™, a motivational convention in a box designed to help businesses and associations give people what they need in challenging times. Now you can host your own low cost, high return meeting to educate, retool and re-inspire people without all the costs associated with offsite meetings and conventions.

In difficult times, people need an opportunity to refuel and connect with colleagues. Unfortunately, the first things often cut are training, education and travel budgets.

Business recovery will follow individual recovery, and recovery is a journey. A MotiVention™ will kick-start your journey by equipping people with strategies on how to become more accountable, more committed, more forward thinking, more innovative and far more purposeful in charting a course toward recovery.

Intrigued with open source innovation and collaboration, McEwen ran a contest and did the unthinkable. He published 50 years of super secret geological data on the Goldcorp’s 55,000-acre mine in Red Lake. Then, he ran a contest inviting contestants to help Goldcorp find the gold.

Over 1400 people from around the world downloaded the Goldcorp data. The company received 71 proposals from 55 countries proposing to use technology and methods, in many cases, Goldcorp didn’t know about or had never considered.

For $500,000 in prize money, participants found over $3 billion in gold. Now, Red Lake is considered one of the richest gold mines in the world.

What would happen if BP offered $500,000 in prize money and invited the world to help it find a solution to the catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico? The Deepwater Horizon well is gushing 5,000 barrels of oil per day one mile below the ocean’s surface. That’s over 155,000 barrels since April 22 when the rig sank.

To BP’s credit it has 400 to 500 engineers working around the clock in a crisis center in Houston to solve the problem. I’m sure these are very, very smart people. But, what if BP had the humility and guts to admit that even its best minds don’t have it figured out?

We know from our research on innovation that the “experts” are often blinded by taken-for-granted assumptions about the way the world works—assumptions new faces from outside the industry don’t make. Perhaps like Goldcorp, BP would discover that someone out there has an idea its engineers haven’t considered.

Radical problems call for radical solutions—from people who aren’t afraid to question the unquestionable. These people often come from the outside.

When Rob McEwen first proposed his radical idea, the experts said he was crazy. They said, “Don’t do it! We’ll be vulnerable. Our competitors will take advantage of it.” Goldcorp fared pretty well and so did its investors. A $100,000 investment in Goldcorp stock 15 years ago would be worth approximately $2.6 million today.

This oil spill is a crisis of heroic proportion. Some say this disaster could be larger than the Exxon Valdez spill and possibly one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. It’s damaging the coastlines, shutting down fishing, threatening fragile habitats and putting entire industries in peril.

Once the problem is solved it will take decades to deal with the consequences. And, everyday the problem goes unsolved; it grows by orders of magnitude. Wouldn’t it make sense for BP to organize an effort that invites the best thinkers from around the world to become engaged?

These horrifying images from the Boston Globe tell the story and build the case for why we should tap into the intellectual capital of the world to solve this problem.

While doing the research for our book, NUTS! we were impressed and humored by a story that a customer service agent shared. Late one evening, a disgruntled customer approached the Southwest Airlines’ agent counter yelling and complaining that his bags were lost. After a brief venom spewing session, the agent kindly and calmly leaned toward the customer and said, “Sir, right here, right now, there are only two people interested in finding your bags and one of us is quickly losing interest.”

Southwest Airlines, has always blazed the trail on “people first policies.” Their customer service philosophy, as surprising as it sounds, is this: the customer is NOT always right! If a customer is abusing an employee, Southwest will fire the customer or invite the customer to do business elsewhere. Is your business willing to fire an unruly, abusive customer?

Today there are zillions of books touting the importance of delivering great service. In general, it seems the responsibility for delivering unforgettable service rests in the hands of the customer service team. As customers, it’s become normal to “expect” great service—but do we always “deserve” it?

Nasty Begets Nasty

A few years back, our purebred Himalayan kitty, Carlos, was overdosed because a pharmacist filled a prescription with three times the dose prescribed. Sadly, Carlos never recovered. I was emotional, I was irate and I acted that way on the phone with their claims rep. He responded accordingly and made a very difficult situation even worse. Yet, in looking back it wasn’t entirely his fault and he certainly didn’t deserve my bad attitude. I wonder if the whole situation would have been easier if I had taken some time to cool off before involving him.

Kindness Begets Kindness

Recently we launched our daughter off to college. Four days later we got a frantic call from her on a roommate’s phone saying, “my phone is broken!” It’s late on a Saturday afternoon and I’m a mother bear needing a lifeline for my endangered cub. I immediately hung up and called AT&T customer care. Barbara answered and I said, “I’m so grateful to get you on a Saturday, phew! I really need your help. I’m in San Diego and my daughter is in Tucson. We just dropped her off at college less than four days ago and her phone is broken. Her lifeline to us is gone, she’s scared and I’m anxious. Can you please help me help her?”

Immediately Barbara said “don’t worry, I can help.” When Barbara accessed our account she discovered all the warrantees were expired and an upgrade wasn’t available until January 2010. The cost to replace the broken phone with a new one would be $499. But Barbara didn’t stop searching. She looked at our other account names and saw that I was available for an upgrade. She said, “your daughter can use your upgrade—saving you $400!”

Then Barbara wrote a detailed description on our account and authorized my daughter to access the account. So when our daughter walked into the Tucson AT&T store, the sales associate was able to assist her with everything. In less than two hours, our daughter had a fully activated brand new black berry in her hand—thanks to a few great AT&T people who chose to create an unforgettable customer experience.

Had I called Barbara and let my fear and anxiety leak through to her with a bad “demanding” attitude, I wonder if she would have been as helpful?

We think its high time to call for everyone to practice good manners when giving and receiving service.

How About You?

Have you ever used a nasty approach and been guilty of sucking the life and energy out of a poor, innocent customer service agent? How did it work out for you?

For over 20 years we’ve been honored to partner with the United States Marine Corps Recruiter School, teaching presentation skills to many of America’s finest young Marines. A dear friend and retired Marine sent us the video below and it is truly worthy viewing!

So, whichever side of the war you are on it does not matter, this young man’s courage, optimism and vision will touch your heart, stir your soul and pull you out of whatever self-pity parties you are tempted to attend.

In anticipation of Memorial Day, we thank all of you who have chosen to serve. Semper Fi!

What would you choose to do today, if you were really brave?

My girlfriend and I took the kids to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We’re big fans of the books so we were excited to see the movie over spring break. Ten minutes into the movie, I’m feeling uncomfortable, but optimistic and hopeful it will get better. Shoot, the books made us laugh, shouldn’t the movie do the same?

I’m waiting, watching and wishing I could grab my child and walk out. But the more frugal side of me says, “I forked over close to $20 for a “bargain” show, I can’t just walk out and throw that money away!”

Unfortunately after 20 minutes it’s even worse—clueless judgment, over the top discrimination, serious big brother meanness and awkward middle school stereotypes prevail and getting worse as the movie drones on.

I can’t hold out any longer, I lean over to my girlfriend and say, “I’m hating this!” Surprised, she shouts out, “me too!” We grab our kids, manage to find our way out through the darkness and stop by the ticket booth to request our money back. DONE! Gratefully we pocket the refund, take the kids for ice cream instead and celebrate the fact that we chose to listen to our values.

During the movie my head kept saying, “this is not right, this is NOT real!” Yet, my heart was asking, “will my 9-year old understand that this is over the top ignorance and Hollywood drama at its worst?” I wasn’t sure, so I decided not to take the risk.

I kept thinking about how I was going to undo what the movie had done in my son’s head. What misguided impressions would leak out in his conversations, what mean behaviors would rear their ugly head in his anger, what unfounded fears would influence his choices? Darn! We have to wake-up and realize our kids and their minds are precious and oh so easily influenced.

I was reminded of a simple but powerful concept we learned years ago in our early studies of communication, “garbage in leads to garbage out.” What we fill our minds with will leak out through our thoughts, words and behavior. Be ever so careful of what you feed your soul.

I couldn’t stop thinking of the garbage that was filling my son’s soul as he sat in the theater and watched. Without a doubt our kids are both blessed and cursed by the information economy. As adults, I think it is our duty to help our children process the good AND the bad. I don’t believe for a second that we should protect them from everything but I whole-heartedly believe we must prepare them.

My girlfriend and I demonstrated to our children that they have the freedom to choose what they subject their minds to and what they watch.

In the spirit of preparing the next generation, let’s show our children through our own behavior how to stand up for what we believe. Our choices determine the quality of our life and with all the choices out there…choose carefully and help your children do the same!

Lets change garbage in to “gift in, gift out.” Lesson in, lesson out. It’s up to us to help our children make, not only healthy food choices, but healthy media choices as well.

Purpose…it’s what we stand for… it calls us to action…it earns our commitment…it guides our thoughts…it influences our behaviors…it gives clarity to confusion, direction to choices…it inspires us to give more than we’ve got… it compels us to persevere…it keeps us up at night and wakes us every day…it frees us from fear…it binds us to others…it drives us toward significance…its well worth the fight…it’s our reason for being…it brings meaning to life and gives life new meaning.

Does your company stand for something meaningful? If not, it’s time to take a stand. Companies with a deeply rooted purpose, that is consistently and creatively communicated, tend to be leaders and innovators in their industries. They have high engagement levels and enjoy both employee and customer loyalty.

Give purpose serious thought, it has the power to revive hearts and reignite engagement. If we don’t stand for something we’re likely to fall for anything. Industry leaders always stand for things worth fighting (not falling) for—how about your business, what does it stand for and are you willing to fight for it? These tough times call for commitment. What is your business committed to and is it a purpose worthy of your people standing behind?

Are you proud of what you practice—the habits in which you repeatedly engage? Are you proud of who you’ve become—the reputation you have built?

Reputation and brand lies within us. It is what we do. If you are not happy with your reputation then change your behavior, change what you do!

Think about it this way, “what should you STOP, START and CONTINUE doing? How can you build a new and improved reputation?” If you’re not sure, ask your team….from their feedback create a plan and do it—repeatedly.

Since we are what we repeatedly do, we must practice noble and worthy habits. Do things that will help you build a reputation you’re proud of—a best in class leadership brand. What habits are worth changing to become the best leader you can be?

Maybe this speech by Al Pachino will remind you of the realities of life and what it takes to win. Watch it with others and start an authentic dialogue about ways you can inspire each other to win this battle against the economic enemy.

Are you fighting to win or playing not to lose?

Social media is a new and exciting game with unimagined possibilities, new rules of conduct and a boat-load of questions yet to be answered.

According to Brogan, building a “trustworthy” brand or reputation in the social media scene happens by giving and adding value. What are you in it for, to give or to get?

Brogan offered some great questions at the LE Web convention in Paris:

If your business is using social media how do you plan to…

• share info vs. just sell it?
• collaborate vs. tell?
• move from a “home” based website to become a junction box that connects people to other really cool sites and then loops back to you?
• make social media real, lasting and extend the experience for people?
• deliver on your SM promises, make the expected experience an actual experience?
• create a dialogue, a multi-way conversation vs. a one way conversation with your audience?
• keep it real, keep it human, keep it authentic and personable in the midst of so much technology?

Like it or not, you’re in a highly connected world so buckle up and CYA. Think before you speak, think before you link, think before you add a friend, think before you blog, and please think before you tweet.

We’re jumping in and we’re thrilled that Chris Brogan is walking his talk and so freely sharing his knowledge.

How are you and your organization using social media to answer Chris’s questions?

Watch Chris’s full presentation.