 |
|
The
Little BIG Things
In anticipation of Tom's upcoming book, The
Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence, which
will be published on March 9, 2010, we are presenting a collection
of stories based on its contents. As you might know, the book began
with the Success Tips from the Tom
Peters Blog. The contents of the blog entries were sliced and
diced almost beyond recognition before the book took its final form,
but the seeds of the Little BIG Things are on the website, in the
series of posts titled "100
Ways to Succeed" or another blog entry. We put a call out
to members of the Tom Peters community, consultants who specialize
in putting Tom's theories into practice in the workplace, for real-world
examples of Little BIG Things in action. We hope you get ideas from
these vignettes, each one linked to the blog post that inspired
it.
A Shoe Shined Brand
[See Tom's Success
Tip #1: THE CLEAN & NEAT TEAM! (TEAM TIDY?)]
A colleague told me that one day he had left the house to go to
work without shining boots. It seemed like such a little thing,
but I am sure his military background had taught him that it all
matters: how you dress, having your shoes shined, your mannerisms,
being respectful.
So, my friend turned around, went back into the house, and shined
his boots. After he completed that task, he felt better because
he was ready for work.
Taking care of the small details can make all the difference in
one's perception. For instance, I took my car to have the oil changed.
As I entered the waiting room, I wondered where I should sit. The
chairs were all stained and looked quite uninviting. The floor had
been mopped, but it wasn't really clean. While I was offered a cup
of freshly brewed coffee, it wasn't in a freshly cleaned environment.
I thought about the boots being shined, a small detail that made
a big difference in that person's attitude. Our personal brand should
exude excellence. Our business brand should exude the same. Alas,
too many businesses are slack on the details. I don't think that
it would have taken more than a few minutes to make the waiting
room more presentable. Changing the chairs out to something that
could be easily cleaned, straightening the magazines, having the
counter sparkling and the coffee table inviting would have been
such a change for the better.
I don't plan to go back there. I have been in other car service
waiting rooms that were much cleaner and neater, and since I have
to spend money either way, why not go somewhere comfortable?
The next day, I shined the boots I was wearing and it brought a
big smile to my face!
Where should you be paying attention to the small details? Doing
so can make a big difference in customer loyalty.
Val
Willis
U.S. Consultant
Facilitator & Keynote Speaker
Back to top
Enthusiasm
[See Success
Tip #5: Target #1: Me! and Success
Tip #169: Only You "Own" Your Attitude!.]
What is the secret of success when you find yourself running a business
or a team that is consistently failing to meet its promises? One
of our clients has developed a reputation for being a troubleshooter
at sorting out struggling teams. When we talked to him about the
secret of his success, he told us that he is convinced that it is
the intangibles of his approach (how he relates with the team),
not the tangibles (his problem solving and project management skills),
that really make the difference. "I have to keep reminding
myself that I set the tone for the whole organization," he
reported when I visited him recently.
On a tour round the factory, I found myself struggling to keep up
with his pace as he strode across the shop floor. "Anyone
who comes across me at any time I'm at work will get the
sense that I am in a hurry," he told me. "There is a job
to be done, and none of us has any time to waste. I make a point
of doing everything at a healthy pace."
Without his ever having made a speech to that effect, the sense
of urgency in that factory was tangible. In the midst of a complex
turnaround project, boiling the essence of the challenge down into
a mindset that you can model seems to be a great symbolic message
to send. Tom often quotes Ghandi, who summed it up so well, "You
must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Madeleine
McGrath
Managing Partner, UK
Consultant & Facilitator
Back to top
Design
[See Tom's views on design
excellence and Success
Tip #7: If No "Wow," No Go!.]
Herman Miller has built their brand on a foundation of design excellence.
D.J. De Pree, the founder, took the bold move to "offshore"
design early in the firm's history. All the way to New York City,
which indeed is a long way from the firm's
home base in the farm town of Zeeland, Michigan!
Bill Stumpf, design guru behind the Aeron
chair along with Don Chadwick, recalled D.J.'s insisting that
design wasn't just good business, it was a moral obligation. Which
brings me to Bill's last chair, a joint effort with Jeff Weber,
the
Embody. I remember the head of the commercialization team eagerly
rolling it out for me to have a look-see. I remember thinking, oh
my, that is, well, unusual looking. Especially in canary yellow
fabric. He saw the look in my eye, and merely said, "Sit."
It was great. He pointed out a myriad of design features all aimed
at improving personal productivity. Research shows that it lowers
your pulse rate by 10%. Maybe the most innovative feature is the
recognition that when it comes to rear ends, one size doesn't fit
all. So, the seat bottom is adjustable. I remember another quote
from D.J. De Pree, that design is not about making pretty things,
it is about pretty things that solve a problem.
I shared my initial reaction to the Embody with a VP at Herman Miller.
She has been with HMI for some time, and she told me about a similar
reaction she had to a chair that looked like lawn-chair webbing
on a free-form frame. Now it's iconic--you can hardly walk into
an office without seeing at least one. You can probably guess that
she was talking about the the Aeron. Design that solves a problem
brings your product to another level. Design is not just "prettifying";
it's the reason an object can meet the needs of a person so perfectly
that it can't help but become a best seller ... now that is pretty!
So, is your current project likely to become the next Aeron?
Michael
Neiss
U.S. Consultant
Facilitator & Keynote Speaker
Back to top
More to Come
The consultants and speakers who populate Tom Peters World are glad
to take this opportunity to relate lessons they've learned in their
day-to-day activities. They're out in the world using Tom's principles
to help businesses energize themselves or solve problems, so they
have a multitude of stories. We plan to continue these real-life
examples in the next several newsletters, and we hope you find something
that you can use in your own work place. Stay tuned ...
Back
to top
|