Choices

What would life and business be like if everyone took full responsibility for themselves?

If they didn’t pass the buck, if they extended themselves beyond their job description, realized their paycheck was not a right but an earned metric, created solutions rather than extending issues, served rather than portrayed entitlement?

“Indecision is debilitating. It feeds upon itself; one might almost say, habit forming. Not only that, but it is contagious; it transmits itself onto others … Business is dependent upon action. It cannot go forward by hesitation. Those in executive positions must fortify themselves with facts and accept responsibility for decisions based upon them. Often greater risk is involved postponement than making the wrong decision. ‘One of these days,’ is none of these days,” said Harry A. Hopf.

It was 20 years ago when I first read Mr. Hopf’s words on business management. What struck me than was that this was written in the early 1900’s and it resonated eloquently in the 1990’s.

(Then again, Michael Bolton had a number one song that year so anything of substance would have stood out.)

Fast forward to present time and businesses are more dependent on acute action and unwavering accountability, but now it’s no longer solely in the hands of executives. If you agree with me that “everything communicates,” nothing “communicates” worse than inability of action.

I am positive that many people have no idea where they’re going these days. Not in life, love or business. Worse, I get the feeling they just don’t care. Lewis Carrolls' Cheshire Cat famous from Alice in Wonderland remarked, “If you don’t care very much where you are going, any road will get you there.”

Are we an “any road” society?

Faith Popcorn wrote about the danger of too many choices, “We used to believe we can become anything we wanted to be. Now we tell ourselves we can be everything we want to be.” Problem is that most people are afraid to choose because they don’t want to leave anything out or worse will make the wrong decision.

At STIR-Communications, we work hard at empowering all to make choices on their own, sometimes manufacturing decision making opportunities even when not necessary, simply to reinforce the importance of decisive action at every level.

My experience is most decisions (ending wrong) are not nearly as monumental as not making the choice to begin with. Later today, you will be forced to make a decision. I hope you take a moment to think about the options and then do what needs to be done, no waffling. Pull the trigger and ride the bullet.

All my best,

Greg

Greg Salsburg
The Big STIR
STIR-Communications
Miami | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064
o: (305) 407-1723
e: Greg@STIR-Communications.com

Heroes

I have made you do it. Controlled you to buy it, forced you to go, and convinced you to think it was wonderful or that it wasn’t. I created hype, hyperbole and hysteria. I built greatness when the truth was mediocrity. If the truth was greatness, I turned it into superhuman. My ideas have caused you to purchase sneakers you thought made you more fit, soft drinks that gave you instant energy, technology you didn’t know you couldn’t live without and much more. I did and do these things brilliantly, piously hiding behind the veil of advertising and marketing.

However, it hit me somewhere along the way; our industry’s actions have contributed to a seismic societal shift, a pandemic deficiency of reasonable reasoning. An advertising inverted shift alongside the space/time continuum where people now have clearer relationships with “brands” and their supposed meanings than real life activities.

A week ago, millions of people world-wide tuned into ESPN to view “The Decision” by NBA player LeBron James to hear him announce where he would be playing the game of basketball for the coming years. When the decision was made for him to go to the Miami Heat, fans of that team and city rejoiced to a degree near frenzy. I saw a father holding his twin boys proclaim, “This was the happiest day of his life!” Sad thing is I believe him. Others were jumping on each other, kissing strangers, lighting fireworks and fits of random dancing.

Conversely, the fans of other cities in the running, especially the Cleveland Cavaliers where James would be departing, reacted with hysteria. People began to cry, scream, and publicly burn pictures and jerseys bearing James’ likeness. The Cleveland NBC News interviewed a family where the mother explained, “My kids will be devastated; who will they look up to now?” The father quickly added, “Our heroes are letting us down.”

Really?

Have we lost all sense of irony? Are we wading in the shallow end of a spiritual poverty pool? How is it possible that a recent poll shows Spencer Pratt, Heidi Montag and the Kardashian’s with a more favorable Q-Rating than Stephen Hawking? (Pause for effect.) Hello People?!?!

My job has actually become harder to convince people to focus on reality than Reality TV. We must break this cycle!

As I've said, I helped cause a lot of this. I too represented many void of substance, heavy on narcissism. I made you believe.

I spent sometime this week with a friend of mine who is a pediatric opthamologist. He was explaining to me the numerous procedures he and his partners perform on children. Each one of these procedures creates positive life altering effects for the child and the child's family. One disease in particular effects preemies: (ROP) Retinopathy of Prematurity. Very few doctors perform this type of surgery, and without the procedure, the child will be blind. He does, they don't.

I sit on the Board of Directors for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida. Two amazing men and a dedicated staff lead the organization here. They help change lives daily. That's not hyperbole, I've seen it firsthand.

My neighbor down the block is a "First Responder." A job that has him vow to risk his life for the well being of yours.

The two guys running the charity, the doctor and the neighbor down the street may never become household names. You will never wear their jersey's or have reason to burn them in effigy. However, they will also never be famous for arbitrage and that means something to me.

When I point my children in the direction of a hero, those aforementioned and others that walk among us in our daily lives are where I will look. Who will you point to?

All my best,
Greg

Greg Salsburg
The Big STIR
STIR-Communications
Miami | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064
o: (305) 407-1723
e: Greg@STIR-Communications.com

Harnessing Tenacity

I need to look no further then my 5 year old to point out one of the most important traits in business and life: tenacity. Using the word in a sentence, he asked what it meant and I explained its essence being, “never giving up on something you want or believe in.”

A glazed look, followed by an, “ok daddy,” saw him off to get dressed for a picnic. At the event, kids had an opportunity to win a goldfish by bouncing a ping-pong ball in a bowl. My son was determined to win. In the hot sun, 15 times my son tried, missed, headed to the back of the line and undeterred, tried again. On the 16th try, the ball entered the bowl and he leaped for joy, embraced me and proclaimed, “Daddy, I have it!” “The goldfish” I responded?

“No, I have tenacity!”

Sure, the fish and the win meant something, but he reminded me that the pursuit, the understanding of lessons learned in the journey and an unwavering resolute, were where the magic lied. With each execution, my son was gleaning important lessons he would incorporate in the following attempts. If whenever during that process he allowed my attempts at imposing my will, with suggestions this challenge was out of his reach or we had exhausted our attempts, the final outcome would be entirely different and I would have robbed him and myself of a key life lesson.

Far too often in business and in life, those in leadership positions fail to recognize there is more than one way to get to a final outcome, not to mention the importance of never giving up. Classrooms are the worst example of this and why we must encourage real world learning as a complement. Scholastics and many organizations profess there is only one environment to learn, one correct answer and one process to achieve results. Wrong, Wrong and Wrong! This destroys our exploration, creativity and steadfastness.

At STIR-Communications and our other businesses, I always hire on attitude and enthusiasm and not experience. My philosophy is you can teach someone almost any skill but you cannot teach them passion. I do highly value IQ (intelligence quotient) but not nearly as much as I value EQ (emotional quotient). I strongly believe to achieve great success, knowing how to identify, assess, assimilate, manage and control one’s self emotions is a key to survival and desired results. School, books, teachers and organizations cannot teach you this. Less and less, important work is done in an office. It’s the real world that teaches survival and it is why we push people out the door.

I spent some time this past week with Izzy Havenick of Magic City Casino. He and his family have a long, illustrious and tenacious business and philanthropic history. This past year they received their gaming license and are poised to operate one of Florida’s most significant attractions owned by a tax paying organization. I am no stranger to the gaming industry as I have helped orchestrate the openings of New York New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Harrah's Casino’s outdoor pavilion in Las Vegas and have created several events for Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Never during that time did I have a warm and fuzzy feeling for a gaming operator or ever felt they were sympathetic figures or even role models, until now. Izzy and his family spent decades battling significant hurdles trying to make their family dream come true. They would try, they would lose, they would be undeterred and they would try again, each time with a slightly different approach but never once with any less passion and belief. As we strolled across the floors, bells dinging, lights flashing and hundreds of people excitedly parting with their money, I suggested to Izzy that he must be proud. Without missing a beat he said, “I am proud for my mother and father (who died during the process) and my family who refused to walk away.” He led me to an area in the casino where a row of all the slot machines would provide a portion of the proceeds to various charities. Izzy explained, “My mother is most proud of this area -- to be able to give to those in need and who never give up hope.”

What a wonderful way of exemplifying and rewarding tenacity.

How do you instill, recognize and reward tenacity at work and in life? Who has shown you great examples of tenacious behavior?

All my best,

Greg

Greg Salsburg
The Big STIR
STIR-Communications
Miami | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064
o: (305) 407-1723
e: Greg@STIR-Communications.com

Reengineer the Machine

I would like to begin this week answering an email I received from a friend who noted even though much of our topics are business related, he can as easily transfer and incorporate them within his personal life. Well, of course and isn’t that really the point? My greatest role is being Co-Chairman of my household and where much of the communications tools discussed here are first test-marketed.

I was recently called by the Chairman & CEO of a Fortune 1000 company seeking my council on the development of “Interpersonal Relationships” within an organization.

He was aware that our company has in the past 24 months, as James Champy wrote, “Reengineered the machine” and took a thriving multi-million dollar company and blew it up (money and lifestyle be dammed!) in order to build a company that would be more suited to the new world of business. (I will write about this in future blogs, in between my therapy sessions and meetings with my suicidal accountant.)

Although he was not looking for those types of extreme measures, he wisely determined that business has changed drastically in the past decade.

I pointed out that in the early 2000’s we began to see the business paradigm shifting from a top-down approach to a bottom-up approach. Employees, as well as customers and clients, were beginning to drive the direction of companies like never before. However, for the same reason, the first approach finally crumbled, we concluded that this is why the “new” approach was riddled with flaws and would soon follow suit.

As such, we created and implemented a different structure: “Circular Communications.” We determined that information had become extremely ubiquitous, speed to market in which businesses would be forced to operate in the future would be on hyper-drive, and why, for many without the benefit of proprietary products, they would become a commodity. As such, if the product playing field will soon become equaled, the way you communicate and deliver your product needs to be more efficient.

In Circular Communications, every person within the organism plays a vital role and is heard, they become an active participant and “ideas” shared and weighted equally. There is still a hierarchy and decisions can still be made at the top, but now with all understanding the process. You would be amazed at how much of a difference this structure will improve business, increase company moral, communication and loyalty. Most importantly, it positively impacts interpersonal relationships.

We determined to best implement long-term change, focus should begin on the following: broadening interpersonal relationships throughout the numerous department channels, sharing knowledge in an open forum, providing tools to encourage discussions, creating metrics to define successes and implementing key findings to guide the future growth of their business.

For my friend who emailed me, all of these are the same channels one can use to build a stronger family dynamic.

How are your current communications structured in your work, relationships and family? Are you operating on a linear or circular format? Are you encouraging, optimizing and empowering everyone within the system?

All my best,
Greg

Greg Salsburg
The Big STIR
STIR-Communications
Miami | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064
o: (305) 407-1723
e: greg@STIR-Communications.com

Perceptual Reality

Poet John Godfrey Saxe famously tells of six men of Indostan …“To learning much inclined, Who went to see the Elephant (Though all of them were blind), That each by observation Might satisfy his mind.”

Those who have read the poem will recall that the first blind man felt the broad side of the animal and proclaimed the elephant “is very like a wall.” The second, feeling the elephant’s tusk cried, “This wonder of an Elephant is very like a spear!” Struggling with the elephants squirming trunk, the third said, “the Elephant is very like a snake!” The fourth man feeling the elephant’s knee said, “’Tis clear enough the Elephant is very like a tree!” The fifth, feeling the ear said, “This marvel of an Elephant is very like a fan!” The sixth man, feeling the tail said, “the Elephant is very like a rope!”

In perceptual reality, each of the men was correct.

Often my job is to not only see all six points of view, but to convince “one blind man” to see the elephant as I wish.

My father, a lawyer by profession and a historian by nature, often would remind me to “focus in the grey” since, as he believed, the world is rarely black and white. The advise he ingrained into my psyche, along with the countless books I have engulfed on the human brain, have taught me that focusing in the grey was really forcing me to understand the delicate dynamic of perception and reality.

Although I will not generally use this blog to tout my company’s unique skill sets, the way we delve deeply into perceptual realities has become a stable quiver in the arrows of our arsenal at STIR-Communications. Not wishing to appear too nerdy, we tell our clients it’s simply segmenting.

“Perception is a dynamic conflict between the attempts of an outer world to impose an actuality on us and our efforts to transform this actuality into a self-centered perspective. Perception is a confrontation between an inward directed vector of external reality compelling awareness and an outward-directed vector of physiological, cultural, and psychological transformation.” An excerpt from The Dynamic Psychological Field by R.J. Rummel. 

We all see everything differently, even if we both can agree on a specific color or taste, we are actually seeing or tasting something different. Knowing this, have you ever considered your co-workers, consumers/clients, friends and family live in their own private perceptual reality? Instead of expecting them to see the elephant as you do, why not try and see what they are seeing?

Who knows … you might finally see enough of the animal to make sense of it all.

All my best,
Greg

Greg Salsburg
The Big STIR
STIR-Communications
Miami | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064
o: (305) 407-1723
e: greg@STIR-Communications.com

Gravity

I was thinking yesterday about gravity and its delicate balance between simplicity and enormity. A force so great it holds the planets in our galaxy in line, the rotational direction of the earth, moon and sun. It causes all that is suspended in mid air to fall to the ground, without expectation. However, this force can be broken with the simple action of picking a penny from the ground.

I have determined that just like gravity, our lives are punctuated in the same delicate balance. Live a life of enrichment and the powerful forces are aligned; falter and we crash to the ground. In life and in business, when missteps occur in numbers, it becomes a daunting task to break. It appears moments of clarity and goodwill are quickly erased by additional acts of disappointment and failure. However, just like the picking up of the penny, it’s as simply to put things back on track. In uncertain economic times it can seems we are spending more time fighting off challenges and issues rather than celebrating successes.

Last week I spent many hours meeting with three extremely accomplished individuals to discuss a project in which we are all involved. One is the former head of a major global film studio and most recently lead the broadband direction of the world's largest Internet provider; the second is a leader in digital media, technology, business consulting and capital investment, and the third is in charge of a highly influential non-profit educational center focused around the world of entertainment. The specific project is significant and not without major obstacles, not only requiring an assemblage of many tangible components to achieve success, it requires an assemblage of shifting mind sets. The former is underway, the latter, is the real issue and a hurdle many of us face.

Anyone can have an idea or create a product, but only a few know how to create like-minded demand. Apple didn't invent the smart phone, MP3 or a digital book reader, however, they have been able to move the mindset of the masses to embrace their vision, brand philosophy and product design in an evangelical manner.

Some companies seem endlessly successful in making us see the inherent needs of their product offerings or overall business vision. Others seem like Don Quixote shooting at windmills.

It’s funny how significant past success can influence people’s perception for future success. During a moment of clarity (or bathroom break) it was asked why this group was so positive that they can bring to market this monumental project, alter mass perception, and do something no one else has ever done before. The answers: "That's what being a leader is about" … "The world is truly built on those few who lead and the majority that follow" … "It is because no one has been able to do it before, that we are positive we can" … "Think of all the great inventions in history that almost all you either didn't know you needed or others felt it would not be a demand." Somehow when coming from this group is didn't sound like palaver. I have always said, "The problem with the "norm" is it fails to see the "new" as a viable mechanism."

So here we go, with full recognition of the pull of "gravity" from the task at hand. We remain confident we can alter the force of nature.

What forces are controlling your life? How will you pick up the penny?

(For the record and I know what you're thinking, I am acutely aware I am least qualified in all aspects of life to be part of this group.)

All my best,
Greg

Greg Salsburg
The Big STIR
STIR-Communications
http://www.stir-communications.com/
Miami | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064
o: (305) 407-1723

Change

"If it ain't broke don't fix it" or "If it ain't broke, don't break it" have each been popular clichés I have heard uttered by some well regarded leaders in business, as if they were mandates. Only problem, both can actually be counter-intuitive to business success. Change, even change for change's sake, is a vital business organism to evoke creativity, innovation, efficient resource allocation and adaptability. I am not talking about blowing up a company to start fresh, nor am I suggesting a move from being a farming widget maker to a pharmaceutical widget supplier. However, if you can pull off that niche go for it, we will provide our services for free, just for the ride.

James March of Stanford University eloquently explained: Exploitation (doing what works today) drives out exploration (seeking out risky but potentially valuable new ways of doing things). A company that is seemingly healthy and well performing for sometime without any change, can actually be vulnerable to major disruptions.

Harvard professors have determined that even the change you implement needs to change from application to application in order for the productive disruption to take place.

Do you workout? Ever hit a plateau and growth becomes stagnant? It's not because you are doing anything wrong, it's that the body has become comfortable and has anticipated the output. Switch up the routine and progress will immediately return. Many companies operate in the same manner, maintaining business functions around a single criterion and creating a silo effect. I saw in a span of three months one company almost have a mutiny and mass exodus of top employees and then double digit growth in the same year. All caused by changing personal office locations within the company's offices, removing solid doors and replacing with clear glass ones, and insisting each key personal in each division share information with other service lines at staff meetings. Many people love well-established routines and are uncomfortable and will reject change. However, top performers are that way because they know how to adapt. Some will even find it a new challenge. For the rest, change reminds them this is a place of business and performance is the indicator. (Some will simply disappear.)

At our company, we have made major shifts in the past 18 months. It’s been difficult, but now are we seeing the positive returns that come with strategic change.

The risk of not assessing your internal and external business functions, directions, market condition is costly. Not allowing for your business to change to capitalize on those opportunities is deadly.

All my best,
Greg

Greg Salsburg
The Big STIR | STIR-Communications
http://www.stir-communications.com/
Miami  | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064 | o: (305) 407-1723