News last week that Meridian Energy has inked a deal to sell green energy company Powershop sent people heading for the exits. It seems the acquisition by global energy behemoth Shell and its investment partner Infrastructure Capital Group struck customers and environmental groups as a betrayal of the promises they signed up...
Experience without expectations is unthinkable — literally. What I believe will happen plays a prominent part in how I feel about what does happen.Even when it’s part of a subconscious story I didn’t know I was telling myself.So, why should organisations even try to shape people’s experience?Because even a modicum...
The book “Noise, A Flaw in Human Judgement” by Daniel Kahneman, Cass Sunstein and Oliver Sibony explores the information and choices that interfere with judgement when people make decisions.Reading it got me thinking about noise of a different kind.Brand noise.The interference comes from many quarters (and here I am adding...
Values are not there as a billboard for your goodness.Frankly, I don’t care what someone who doesn’t work for me, with me and buy from me thinks of them and nor should you.So, when I talk about good and bad values, it’s not with any moral judgement. Instead, it’s the...
Are you a trust given or a trust earned person?In my experience, everyone is one or the other, and like oil and water, the two don’t mix. When earners run into givers, things quickly become the trust edition of a Mexican stand-off.It’s one of the things I look for when...
Consequences always follow promises, and the nature of the outcome is determined by whether you keep or break them.At first glance, broken promises appear to exert a more significant impact. And indeed, the hurt caused deserves attention. Less examined are the gains from keeping them.It’s easy to overlook the rippling...
These days, it feels like every damn thing I do is called a journeyI’m not buying a drill. I’m on a home improvement journey.I don’t need to make a different choice. I’m on a change journey.I’m not visiting my doctor. I’m on a wellness journey.I don’t deposit money into my...
Promises play an indispensable part in how value accrues in your brand result. Yet despite that, too little thought gets applied to what’s going on within the promise itself.Have you ever found yourself trapped under an avalanche of cavalier promises, with people playing fast and loose with the content. And...
In a recent poll on Linkedin, I asked people how they think about making promises. Do they think hard about them, figure out how to keep them later, try and avoid them, or only think about the big ones? Acknowledging the question bias – that people think about promises at all,...
The combination of hubris and aspiration, liberally sprinkled with puffery make many value sets mosh pits of self-delusion.So there’s every chance your company values are complete bullshit. And if they are, it’s a quick ride on the slip slide to cynicism and ridicule when actions reveal them to be naked...