In Praise of Snap Judgments
By Dana
I like to think of myself as an open-minded person. If someone suggests to me that I've reached an opinion by way of a "snap judgment", that's generally a bad thing, a pejorative term designed to stop you in your tracks to reconsider.
But I've been thinking lately about the track record of my snap judgments, and actually I've done pretty well. And I won't be surprised if you tell me you've observed the same phenomenon. Think about that salesperson who struck you as phony ... and then, if you squelched that thought and bought from him anyway, you found yourself on the receiving end of lousy service. Or maybe someone pitched you a great idea that somehow didn't feel right ... and three months later you found yourself having dodged a bullet when that market went south.
Counter-balancing that would be the great hire you made, someone straight out of school, perhaps, or with the kind of experience that didn't appear on paper to be a good fit with what your company needed. Or a new product that your company launched without your typically thorough market research, and it turned out to be a home run.
So I'd like to suggest that we rebrand the snap judgment. If we call it "intuition", it sounds wiser, doesn't it? An intuitive person is simply fortunate enough to possess the kind of insight not everyone has ... the kind that kept legendary investor Warren Buffett away from dot com stocks, for instance.
To draw an analogy from the world of food, I invite you to consider the unfortunately-named Patagonian toothfish. Ever eaten one? Would you order it off the menu of your favorite seafood establishment? Marketers didn't think so, and that's why they gave it a new name -- one that's benign to the point of meaninglessness, and that helped drive its popularity almost to the point of overfishing: Chilean Sea Bass. Changes things, doesn't it?
I have excellent company praising snap judgments: best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, whose specialty seems to be observing the little differences in business that can make all the difference. His 2005 book is titled Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, and I think you'll appreciate taking the time to read it. Let's face it -- small business owners need every available advantage, especially in this day, age, and economy. Honing and then trusting your intuition is an advantage you can create for yourself.
Providing practical ideas that drive success is the keystone of the Business Audio Plus philosophy, and that's why we feature a business book in every issue of our monthly newsletter, The Microphone. If you're not yet subscribing, please contact Lauren and have your name added to our distribution list. And if you've recently read a business book you'd like us to feature, please tell us about it.
Readers Make More Money
By Dana
We've all heard the old adage "Time = Money", but here's a new and possibly even astounding equation:
Reading = Money
Even in tough economic times, according to several recent studies, business people who read at least seven business books a year earn over 2.3 times more than those who read only one book per year.
Why? One reason is they have a constant flow of new ideas and strategies they can use to help their careers, their teams and their companies. And given all the layoffs and other challenges during this recession, doing everything you can to help your company is not only smart, it's critical.
Maybe this is nothing new to you; in fact, there's another study out there that found that nearly 75% of all managers understand the correlation between reading and competitive advantage. So if you're saying to yourself, I get it -- but who has time to stick their nose in a book? ... let me suggest something that might help. It's a fast read (I promise) by Laura Vanderkam titled 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. Many business people would describe their lives as a frenzied treadmill of 24/7 connectivity and stress, and I'd even argue that small business owners have it worse than most. It's hard to give yourself permission to take downtime and actually enjoy it when you're feeling pressured from every corner. But wouldn't it be nice to play a round of golf or sit on the sidelines of a soccer game without thinking about payroll, or human resource issues, or redesigning your business cards, or your next product launch, or your social networking strategy? Vanderkam didn’t just envy the high-achievers who still manage to perform in community theater, engage in regular date nights, write poetry, and raise Yorkies. She set out to learn how they do it. Her compelling book is not just another future garage sale item on how to manage your day – you’ll be glad you took the time to learn what she has to say.
Providing practical ideas that drive success is the keystone of the Business Audio Plus philosophy, and that's why we feature a business book in every issue of our monthly newsletter, The Microphone. If you're not yet subscribing, please contact Lauren and have your name added to our distribution list. And if you've recently read a business book you'd like us to feature, please tell us about it.
* Sources: United States Department of Labor, Survey by Yahoo! Chief Solutions Officer Tim Sanders and Business Majors, Survey by Bersin & Associates, How Executives Stay Informed.
Your Brain At Work
By Dana
I admit that I first visited the Dana Alliance website because I thought the name was so cool. Maybe it was a virtual meeting place for people named Dana! Turns out, it's something that might be even more useful -- a practical collection of neuroscientific information addressing the way we learn.
When we're completely honest, we have to admit that lots of websites and emails fall into the category of what my wife calls "productive procrastination" -- things that look like work and sometimes even feel a bit like work, but are actually ways to avoid things you should probably be doing instead while you're in the office. Maybe that's even part of the reason that this blog isn't updated as often as I intend it to be ... but that's another issue. The fact remains that Your Brain At Work offers tips and tools designed to help people enhance their cognitive skills and work smarter on and off the job. Together with insights about how people receive and process information are suggestions for exercises and strategies to better retain information. There are interactive opportunities (quizzes, mostly) that will help improve learning and memory functions, and tips about leading a "brain-healthy" lifestyle.
Of course, we're delighted that the Dana Alliance suggests e-learning as a tool to help engage the brain at work, since that's one of our specialties at Business Audio Plus. From a marketer's standpoint there is plenty of material that's useful here; discussions of circadian rhythms and their effects on learning might have an impact on what time of day to schedule your next presentation, for example. And since there's essentially no such thing as One Size Fits All learning, we need to get our message across to our intended audience in a variety of memorable and compelling ways.
There's a marketing adage that has become an adage simply because it's so true: When a qualified prospect learns about your product or service, he will probably buy. Getting them to learn (or listen) is ultimately or biggest hurdle. Understanding more about how brains work has to help.
