Can anyone be creative? By Annette Yates, On 5/1/12 2:52 PM

Luke Brason, Creative Design & Build

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The short answer is "Yes". As in, "Yes, really!". 
Try these principles next time you’re trying to create or solve something:

  1. Allow time...
    This video says it all really about the proper importance of allowing time and how you can’t shortcut creativity: http://youtu.be/jgvx9OfZKJw
     
  2. Look at things differently...
    Human beings are marvellous – we all see and interpret things in different ways. Embrace this, look for unusual angles. It’s amazing what you see if you approach from a different perspective: http://dennismaitland.com/life_on_the_edge/#/0
     
  3. Be fresh, brave, innovative...
    Do something no-one else is doing or has thought of. People relate to and engage with new experiences and new ideas because they are ‘fresh’. How else could you decide to advertise Smash like this?  http://youtu.be/3SAbJjktk7E
     
  4. Humour...
    A great way to make things memorable and stand out from a crowd. Starting with a humorous idea and a few hundred dollars of equipment, Blendtec changed from an unknown company to one of the most viewed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/Blendtec
     
  5. Be curious and childlike... (but not childish)
    This is not about throwing toys out of the pram! It’s about getting into the mindset when we could do anything and be anything: http://tinybuddha.com/blog/33-ways-to-be-childlike-today/
     
  6. Intuition...
    I’ve started to rely on intuition a lot recently, and I feel better for it. Gut feeling – I’m going with it. Avoid over-thinking and over-planning. Live in the now. As we are advised in Kung Fu Panda: ‘Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.’ So don’t get hung up on what might happen – just go with what feels right. In simplest terms: TRUST YOURSELF.
     
  7. Avoid yes-but...
    ‘Count how many times today you yes-but the ideas of others – your partner, children, colleague, or a new notion you read in the press. Typically, you may say, or think – 'With respect …' 'I hear what you say, but. . .' 'The problem with that is .. .' And so on. The antidote is to train your first reflex to be 'why not?' or 'what if?' Explore, extend, and play with new ideas – your own or others' – before you condemn. You are either a creator or a critic – there's no middle ground. Now is the time to try a first take at bringing your creative fantasy to life. Just switch off that little voice that's holding you back...’ (Source: nigelbarlow.com)

For further reading, I recommend: 
Re-think How to Think Differently by Nigel May Barlow

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The bonus conundrum By Annette Yates, On 4/23/12 3:20 PM

Steve Baker, Recognition & Incentives

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Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave over the last few weeks, you can hardly fail to have been aware of the ongoing debates regarding bonus payments. While discussions may have been clouded by emotions fuelled by the current economic climate, they do raise some interesting questions of when and how bonus payments should be made and what their purpose is.

The English Oxford Dictionary defines ‘bonus’ as:

A sum of money added to a person’s wages as a reward for good performance

That definition highlights two interesting areas:

  1. If it’s money added to a person’s wages then it is probably right to assume that it is for a performance over and above that which you are already paid to achieve
  2. The term ‘good performance’ is subjective. 

Much of the issues with bonus schemes and payments are in relation to the distinction between salary and bonus and what ‘good performance’ is. 

 
Essentially, an employee’s salary is the payment they should expect for meeting the objectives that their employer sets for them on an annual basis. As all businesses have an objective of year on year growth, it could be argued that your salary is your fair remuneration for helping your company meet that objective.
 
Any bonus that you may earn should, therefore, be targeted at your ‘over performance’ in pursuit of those objectives. However, to be fair and effective it should be made clear exactly what ‘over performance’ constitutes and how you can achieve it. This is often where bonus schemes fall down.
 
Typically, bonus payments are set against fixed targets, such as growth in sales, growth in market share or growth in profits; and over-performance is seen as attaining or beating that target. However, sometimes the attainment or failure to meet those targets is not necessarily a fair judgement on the performance of an individual. For example, if you are targeted to grow sales by 10% and one of your competitors goes out of business, you may easily achieve that target without actually over-performing, as the total pool of sales is distributed between fewer competitors. Conversely, if market conditions dramatically change and you achieve a 5% increase in sales while all your competitors show zero growth, despite having over-performed in real terms, the bonus scheme would consider you to have failed.
 
And this is the conundrum of bonus schemes and, maybe, why they have generated so much debate recently. To define what your normal job requirements are and what over-performance really looks like, is subjective. Similarly, even where those definitions are clear, determining whether a person’s performance merits a bonus payment is determined by many factors outside of simple target setting.
 
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Rising to the challenge of Olympic hospitality By Annette Yates, On 3/13/12 10:13 AM

Alick Miskin, Diversity

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The London 2012 Olympics is a huge opportunity for the leisure and hospitality industry, but it will also bring its challenges as we prepare for the influx of a diverse mix of tourists, sporting competitors andsupport staff visiting the Games. With ten venues scattered from Glasgow and Newcastle to Cardiff and Coventry, visitors will be eating, travelling and sleeping around much of the country. Though many venues are in large cities, some like Weymouth and Brands Hatch are clearly not, and others like Hadleigh Farm and Lee Valley are well out in the sticks.
This has some unexpected implications. 

Making everyone welcome

London and most of our big cities are fairly diverse places. People from a huge range of nationalities, ethnicities and faiths live and work together; restaurants, pubs, hotels and places of worship cater for most needs; lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people feel generally at ease and public transport and hotels are largely accessible to disabled travellers. But this doesn’t mean that those who live there will automatically be comfortable travelling to other, for them, unknown destinations. Some will be less comfortable doing this than well-travelled overseas visitors and occasionally their concerns will be justified.

Last year a Bristol couple in a civil partnership won a case against a Cornish B&B which wouldn’t let them share a room. You cannot exclude same sex partners from your hotel or pub or ask gay or trans staff not to work their usual shifts in case their presence offends specific guests. Sexual orientation can still be an awkward area for people of some religions and cultures and it is important to know that UK law offers the same protection to LGBT people as it does to anyone who shares a ‘protected characteristic’, be it their ethnicity, gender, religion or disability. 
 
Only age is unprotected when it comes to providing a service, as the Government is still considering how and when to introduce this, but it is unlikely to happen before the Olympics. So it’s still notionally legal to refuse someone a room because they’re too old (or too young) so long as it’s shown to be an established policy and not a cover for some other form of discrimination. Pregnancy and maternity are also covered, although like disability, there may be health and safety factors that would make it reasonable to refuse admission say to an amusement park ride or scuba diving course.
 

The right ingredients

Catering for a diverse audience requires careful thought. Pork products including bacon, ham and possibly gelatine are proscribed by both Jewish and Muslim faiths; last week I saw pork gelatine listed on the ingredients of a supermarket fruit fool. Even if not pork derived, some Jewish and Muslim guests would require the source of the gelatine to have been appropriately slaughtered (Kosher or Halal) as they would any other meat product. Many Hindus and most Sikhs are vegetarian and with cows being sacred to Hindus, fish, eggs and beef products could be on a ‘best avoided’ list. Alcohol too is contentious; some Muslims as well as not drinking themselves would not wish to be anywhere where alcohol is served. And Christians may still need a fish option for Fridays.
 

Providing a comfortable environment

When determining where to stay, religion can have an unexpected impact. Muslims in particular will wish to have access to an appropriate mosque even if this is only to attend Friday prayers. Strict adherents of many faiths, particularly when this is apparent from their clothing, can feel uncomfortable when alone or in areas where few locals share their ethnic background. This sentiment is amplified for women, say in healthcare settings, or - if alone - perhaps when a room is being cleaned or while travelling by taxi.
 

Delivering a great experience

But it is around disability that accommodation and travel is most critical. Given the ever increasing popularity of the Paralympics and the huge demand for any Olympic ticket, there will be a lot of disabled spectators as well as support staff. Having enough accessible accommodation doesn’t just attract individual disabled people but whole parties, as large groups, perhaps with only one wheelchair user, will all want to stay together. And as disability is as much about sensory as physical impairment; the key to ensuring a good guest experience is well-trained staff. Having staff understand the kind of adjustments to offer and how best to communicate with deaf or blind guests is far more critical than having the right ‘kit’. Increasingly well travelled sensory impaired people have their own accessible applications for their smart phones and laptops.
 
While we all want to ‘put on a good show’ in 2012, most of the issues outlined here apply to the here and now. We should all be treating our guests as far as possible in ways they will find appropriate, but we must bear in mind that occasionally this will bring up issues that run counter to UK law, and these need to be carefully handled to minimise offence to both guests and the very staff we rely on.
 
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Rolling out the red carpet for employee feedback By Annette Yates, On 3/6/12 4:42 PM

Alison Godding, Employee Engagement

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I was delighted to be invited to the Best Companies award dinner last week, where Grass Roots was placed at 56 in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For.  It was a great opportunity to spend time with colleagues from across the business, and wonderful to see a number of our clients being recognised as top employers too, such as British Gas and BMW.  It was a brilliant 'red carpet' experience. 

Best Companies initiatives are great to get involved in as they positively impact on the attraction and retention of employees. I know that's what the marketing will tell you, but I can vouch for that from personal experience, too. It was no accident that my two most recent employers (Grass Roots, and - five years ago - Nationwide Building Society) have both been featured in the list, as it was one of my key criteria when seeking new opportunities. Of course, there are plenty of great companies to work for who do not feature on the list, but it's difficult to be sure of that before joining.

Just like every employee, it important to me that I have a voice that is really heard.  That my days are stimulating and fulfilling, and that I am able to make a contribution to the success of our clients and our business. There's another dimension at work here, too, as I am also on the team that provides employee engagement services to our clients.  This makes it vital to me that we practise what we preach, and makes my expectations of Grass Roots as an employer even higher.  

Our leadership team and managers take the results seriously and make decisions based on the feedback we provide as employees, whether through the annual best companies survey or our in-house pulse surveys.  Over the years I have seen change implemented and the employee experience remain high on the agenda as a result.  

Being involved in best companies doesn't create a company's culture  - people do that.  Nor does being a part of the top 100 list mean that there is nothing more for us to improve on.  What Best Companies does do is provide a vehicle for me to give frank and honest feedback that I know will be acted upon. And for the company, it provides a measure and a forum for continuing all-important conversations that keep our company thriving.  

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Cookies? Why not... By Annette Yates, On 2/21/12 11:44 AM

Chris Ford, Digital Marketing & Loyalty

The Information Commissioner has been pretty busy lately, and by the end of May, he’s likely to be busier still.  That’s when the new EU laws about cookies come into force (for more information on how and why see this great article in The Guardian).

As both a consumer and service provider, I can only see this as good news. As a private individual, I totally agree with permission marketing, and want to filter out junk or irrelevant messages in my in-box.  And as a professional in the digital marketing industry, my focus is on enabling our clients to harvest relevant contact data, with an emphasis on quality rather than quantity.

The smart thing to be doing right now is to be putting in place an opt-in engagement strategy for online prospects and customers.  This isn’t a ‘terms and conditions’ issue for hiding in the small print – it’s an opportunity to seize the initiative and establish trust, credibility and loyalty with the people who visit our sites.  And if you’re looking for ideas on just how to do that, drop me a note – we’ve got loads!

Every change means pushing through a pain barrier, yet rather than seeing it as a negative, let’s recognise this legislation as an other opportunity to strengthen customer engagement - the end result will mean long term gains all round. So bring it on – and pass me the cookie jar.

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