Status meetings: Value-add or productivity drain?

May 23, 2012

A group of co-workers stare down a deadline. How will the project get done? This project has huge expectations. If this one fails, we’re all doomed.

The struggle: How to keep all stakeholders involved and engaged?

Are you tracking to a date or a destination?

The typical answer: the status meeting.

On a recent flight, I happened to be sitting next to a woman who was painstakingly drafting meeting minutes from a recent status meeting.

I wasn’t deliberately peering into my seatmate’s laptop, yet I happened to steal a glance as I looked out the window. When I saw the meeting title: Status Meeting I did a double take? Did people conduct status meetings anymore? Was this a concept that people still believed in for true team accountability and transparency?

For the past 5 years, I’ve been fully engrossed in the world of agile, and I hope to never go back.

In agile, there are no status meetings. They’d be considered a waste of valuable time and resources.

A major upgrade from the dull, dry status meeting is the daily standup, a daily, short, focused meeting that centers the team to answer 3 questions:

  • What have you completed since yesterday?
  • What do you plan on completing today?
  • Is there anything that’s impeding your work?

Who wants to sit in a room and get status with 10 other colleagues? Conversations drift; people stare at watches; (when will this end?)  Disengagement lingers; morale plummets.

Stop the status meetings. Look into agile. It’s not a scary, scientific concept. Bottom line: it drives results for you, your team, and your business.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

Leave a Comment » | Achievement, Communication, communications, customer experience, meetings, personal, personal connection | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Dan Naden

When the audience wants to text, how do you get them to listen?

April 11, 2012

As the communicator connected with the audience, every single person in the audience perched on the edge of her seat.

The speaker made points with authority. He was confident and the audience took an emotional joyride through the many stories, anecdotes, experiences. The audience quickly jotted down key points to remember. The nearly indecipherable pen on paper scribbles happened so fast because the next magnificent great idea was seconds away.

What's there to do when your audience moves from you to the small screen?

No one looked at his/her watch, cell phones, iPads. Time froze. The audience didn’t want this journey to end.

A presenter’s dream, right? A noble, yet challenging goal to shoot for in today’s world.

Sadly, this scene is a rarity today.

Presenters compete with technology and waning attention spans when faced with communicating a message.

Recently, I attended a presentation with about 100 people in the audience. 20 out of the 100 people were ‘zoned’ into their smartphone instead of listening to the presentation. This wasn’t a one second glance at a device, but a committed engagement to ignore the speaker and the message.

So, Naden’s Corner readers?

We can’t force audience members to turn in and/or shut off all digital devices; there might be a revolt.

  • But what can we do when you are speaking to get the focus off the device and onto you and the message?
  • How do you command the audience when speaking?
  • Can you incorporate new technology challenges into the presentation? (if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em)

I want to hear from you. Use the comment box below and speak your mind.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

Leave a Comment » | Communication, communications, group communication, Leadership, memorable presentations, personal connection | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Dan Naden

Sea World presents a charming day…with a catch

January 4, 2012

I am surrounded by Cookie Monster, Elmo and Bert, as they dance to a catchy tune about letters and numbers. For a moment, I think about throwing caution to the wind and join in the two step. The furry creatures that taught me the ABCs are now paving the path for the next generation and I can’t really control myself.

The smiles on our children’s faces are as wide as Texas.

The live shows were a dazzling display of beauty and strength.

Recently, the family spent a spectacular day at Sea World San Antonio on a mild late summer day. The sun beat loud and proud on that day.

This treasured day, however, almost didn’t happen.

Our plan was simple:

-Open the doors to the park at 10am.

-Stay until exhaustion beat us down.

 The skies on that particular Saturday morning, however, were hostile. Drizzle and fog dampened all spirits. The previous night’s rain, thunder and lightning displays were legendary.

After a few hours of wishing, hoping, praying that the rain would stop, we caught a break.

The skies lightened just enough to let us into the park around noon.

Despite our late start, we were ambitious about our pursuit of trying every ride, coaster, game that was available at Sea World San Antonio. With the park featuring Halloween hours and events (until 10pm), we believed that we had plenty of time to ‘give it a go’.

We petted the sting rays, bobbed and weaved on the Shamu Express roller coaster, laughed on the merry-go-round, and marveled at the artistry and acrobatics of Azul. Azul was a major departure from your typical dolphin show. Talented professionals swam, dove, climbed, soared against a majestic backdrop of light, color, sound.  Unbelievable.

Even I tested his nerves on the jaw-dropping Steel Eel. As I made the slow, methodical incline prior to the ride’s steepest drop, I wondered, “Why am I doing this?” When it was over, I was ready to do it again!

Then, unexpectedly at 5pm, we heard this over the park’s loudspeaker:

“Attention please; because of inclement weather earlier in the day, the park will be closing at 6pm today. All Hallowscream activities are cancelled for tonight.”

The words: “What?”, “Huh?” could be heard reverberating around the park.

This was a surprise in the worst way.

I realize weather plays a significant role in the unpredictable schedules of most of these amusements parks, yet we wouldn’t have made the decision to enter the park around noon (at full price!) if we knew the day was only six hours long instead of ten hours. With the sky clearing, it didn’t cross our mind that the park would close early.

Most likely, we’ll return to Six Flags San Antonio for some stupendous fun. This bout of unfortunate, nearly unfathomable, news probably put a frown on the furry faces of Cookie Monster, Elmo and Bert as well as on the faces of the Austin visitors.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

1 Comment | advertising, Atmosphere. Customer Service, Communication, community, customer experience, Customer Service, knowing your customers, marketing to kids, Texas | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Dan Naden

Blackberry’s customer service misfortunes

December 21, 2011

With my flight hours away, and my departure gate in sight, I decided to move off the main pathway of Atlanta’s airport and into one of its many retail stores.

Moving past smoothie factories, cheery sports bars and bustling departure gates, I ventured into a Blackberry store.

Blackberry's in-store experience was extremely underwhelming.

The young man glared at me as if I were the first visitor in hours. No greeting. No welcome. He stared straight ahead as if his job were torture.

Being a former Blackberry customer and ‘in the market’ for a new phone, I had an interest in the past, present and future on this once proud leader of mobile devices.

After browsing the many phones available in the store, I thought the staffer would inquire about my needs, yet the silence continued.

I took the first step and asked:

“Do you have any specials today?”
“No,” the worker responded, quickly retreating to his comfort of silence.

“Are all of the recent outages affecting Blackberry resolved.”
“Yes,” he muttered.

“Do you have any Sprint phones?”
He then pointed to a row of Sprint-enabled phones against the wall.

I tipped and tapped a few keyboards, touched some screens, read some feature descriptions and then it happened as I prepared to exit the store.

“Are there any questions I can answer for you?” the Blackberry representative asked meekly. Amazingly, he finally woke up to his role as customer advocate.

I turned and shook my head from side to side as I stepped back into the main artery of the airport.

Blackberry’s problems are much more fundamental and far-reaching than this dispirited exchange, yet this is clearly are a microcosm of this floundering mobile machine.

Years ago, Blackberry lost the touch of the customer. Apple brought products to market that inspired and energized the masses. Now, Blackberry’s doing its finest to ignore customers on their doorstep.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

3 Comments | advertising, Communication, Customer Service, experience, knowing your customers, marketing, merchandising, shopping, simplicity, Uncategorized, user experience | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Dan Naden

Get personal and watch a person light up

October 3, 2011

The scene: Two workers decompress over a beer at a local conference’s happy hour.

When this conversation ends, what will anyone remember?

“So, what do you do?” says the bespectacled middle manager #1. The grey in his hair is slight, yet his face’s wrinkles signify many years of hard work.

“Oh, I am an engineer,” responds middle manager #2. His hip backpack with electronic gadgets and artsy glasses hint that he’s new to the working world.

“Where do you work?” says manager #1, sipping slowly from his ice cold green bottle of Heineken.

“ICE Wonder Corporation,” responds the engineer. “I just started there after I finished school last fall.”

The conversation drags slowly along, finally crashing to a halt with the inevitable exchange of business cards; two people with so much potential and opportunity never to cross paths again. There’s a ‘chance’ that new business was generated, a referral was brokered, career advice was shared. More than likely, however, there’s very little that managers #1 and #2 will remember about one another when the happy hour ends.

Ask these types of questions and watch a person grow:

  • What do you like to do on the weekends?
  • What’s been your favorite vacation spot?
  • When have you felt most alive?

It’s fine to talk ‘work’. After all, it’s what’s pays the bills. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’ll meet a person and you ’just click’. You laugh, swap stories, enjoying the company the entire time.

If not, crack into authenticity by using the above questions to find out if that engineer is:

–the world’s greatest Nascar fan
–a season ticket holder for your favorite football team, Chicago Bears
–a die hard 30 Rock viewer (he’s never missed an episode!)

Not everyone will feel comfortable getting personal. That’s ok; it’s their choice. Keep at it. Find connection points even if they are far away from the 9-to-5. If it works, you’ll forge a strong professional connection while uncovering the uniqueness that lives inside each of us.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

2 Comments | attitude, Communication, communications, community, Conversation, Conversing, Friendliness, group communication, improvement, knowing your customers | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Dan Naden

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