comments

Hi Kristin-

Sorry it didn't come across for you--it was meant as ironic humor. An illustration on-the-spot of why it doesn't work. I believe they did notice it, and perhaps they were chuckling along with me?

Did you read the long paragraph? Maybe it wasn't as funny as I thought it was...

@Marianna- somehow we slipped it by. :)

@Marlaine- glad you liked it, Mama. :)

@Dave- I love the 3rd part. That can be the hardest. As Michelle Shocked sang: "The secret to a long life is knowing when it's time to go."

@Bill - thanks for the validation. Glad you've found the same things to be true. The heart is universal, isn't it?

@Ken- Absolutely- I had branding in mind when writing this, and I like how you brought in the design element.

@Laura- glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know.

@Justin- It's true- ya gotta talk about something that is of mutual interest to both of you- if they aren't, the conversation is dead, and if you aren't, the conversation is still dead.

What I wrote was aimed at helping people with their written sales offers, when the kind of flexibility and responsiveness you describe so well isn't available. For live situations with an actual human being, I agree with you completely.

Good question. I dunno. I just did.

Rebecca- that's a great question to ask- I can see how it would really open things up.

Jen- I know... eval forms are iffy, even when not asking real estate agents. :) We've had so-so results with them ourselves. Sometimes useful, though.

Avonelle- That sucks! Hopefully, you'll get yourself invited next time. I love being in on those kinds of discussions.

What company was it... I can't remember- oh, I think it was Smith and Hawken, who has a "Go For Broke" every year- where every employee is invited/expected to participate in documenting everything they think is wrong/broken/not working in the company. These generate thousands of ideas, and help the company improve tremendously.

I take heart from Jim Collins' example as well, in Good to Great, about being willing to look at the bad stuff.

Hsuan-Hua- well, I trust you are on your path with all of this. It is a different way, and because it's different, I've noticed over the years that it generates radically different feedback- feedback that I hadn't seen before- and has helped us improve our company tremendously.

Even to the point where I can call it "our company" instead of "my practice." ;-)

Hi Hsuan

Well, last year we had a course that we heard some grumblings about from the participants. Little comments here and there. In the far past, I would've tightened up, ignored them, and hoped for the best.

What we actually did was confront it openly. I created a pdf that asked for their feedback, and then set about having individual conversations with them. "What's broken? What's not working? What are you hating?"

People responded. One person even sketched out a whole idea/flow for the course and for the year, and gave us more than an hour of her time to explain it and talk about it. It was great to get that feedback.

For our on-line community, The Business Oasis, I post a thread from time-to-time called "the bad and the ugly" asking for all their niggles, problems, things they don't like.

And then we make a list from it, make some decisions, and set about fixing them as best we can.

Is that helpful?

Ahh, see, that's the rub. I can't give that kind of "that's not working" feedback to someone else very effectively unless they:

a) have actively asked me for it or b) we have a long relationship of trust built up between us, and I ask permission. (or c- they are already enlightened spiritually, and can take everything in the right spirit. ;-))

For instance, I'd love it if someone from Qwest, for instance, were to honestly ask me to give feedback to them about what doesn't work, or what hasn't felt good about their service- if they were inquiring in a spirit of truly wanting to hear me, and to know what's wrong so they can improve their business and their service.

My suggestion is, as business owners, that we give that gift to our clients- of truly asking for what's broken, what doesn't work, what they didn't like- and make it as safe and possible for them to speak up past the normal reticence people have to give honest feedback.

If you do that, your customers will, literally, give you huge pointers on how to run a successful business.

I can, however, share feedback we've gotten from our clients- in a general sense- without breaking confidentiality if that's interesting to you.

Hi Hsuan-Hua

I think I'm up to it- but I'm a little confused. What do you mean by "trent"? I'm not familiar with that word...

And what do you mean by "share at least one honest feedback with the format against the trent you noticed."??

Do you mean for me to give someone else feedback? Do you want to hear about feedback we've received at Heart of Business over the last few years using this approach?

I'm happy to show up- I just need more clarity about what you're asking for. Please excuse my misunderstanding.

Sandra- Doesn't that help? It's amazing how much confusion it erased by introducing that kind of a feedback loop into the process. Woo-hoo!

Hi Tammy

I'm glad you are getting that feedback, and I agree that it's really helpful.

However, I guess the point I am making is that if you stay away from 'what didn't you like'- those answers, I find, don't come out naturally. There are sometimes big issues that people are afraid or shy to mention, and you never hear about them.

There is a trend in a subsection of popular culture to 'never be negative' :) to always be positive, and I think it does us all and our businesses a real disservice.

I'm not saying you subscribe to that, Tammy- I just notice it as a trend, and try to encourage people to allow for the full range of human emotion and reaction- especially if it's going to help you serve people better, and get more clients.