There was a confluence of events this week for me that got
me thinking about a word. That word is: Control.
By the time most of you read this, there will have been some
decision (one way or another) on one of the largest pieces of legislature that
has been considered in years – the healthcare bill. And, no matter what side of the political
argument you fall, what we can all decidedly agree upon is that the process has
felt “out of control”. Conservatives
argue that the bill is being forced through with no consideration of the
opposition – and thus out of control. Progressives feel as if the opposition paints
an emotional caricature of the substance of the bill and therefore – the debate
has become beyond their control.
For those of you who follow @ChrisBrogan – you may have seen
his “redrawing” post on Friday – where he talked about how he was feeling
overwhelmed and a bit out of control. Chris is an extraordinarily popular Social Media consultant and blogger. And, his is a common refrain
that many in the marketing/social media space are starting to echo. And, it's one I also hear from colleagues and
clients.
How Do We Maintain Control?
In an always-on, real-time, transparent and socially
connected world – how do we simply keep up? How do we make thoughtful decisions? How do we sift through the mountain of
analytics to make smart business decisions?
How do we keep the creative side of our brain from atrophy when everyone
talks about the “science” of marketing? How do we lead our organizations?
All of this coincides with the fact that I just finished “The
Leader’s Way: The Art of Making the Right Decisions in Our Careers, Our
Companies, and the World at Large” (disclosure: I stole the idea for the title
of this post from the introduction).
Written
by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Laurens Van Den Muyzenberg, the book is a
wonderful approach to how we have the opportunity to make decisions that feed
our soul. As the book puts it - by "improving the quality of our leaders’
decisions, we will find ourselves in a better world for everyone”.
So, What Are The “Right” Decisions
I won’t go into the details here – and no spoilers for
those of you who might want to read the book – but the two most important
concepts that the Dalai Lama discusses for making good business decisions are taking “the
Right view” And “the Right action” (emphasis mine).
These are decisions made with intention.
The Right Intention that comes from a place that deeply understands that
whatever the resulting action – it will benefit everyone affected by it. The “Wrong” Intention is sourced from self-centeredness,
anger, jealousy or negativity (there are others but you get the idea).
Understanding this helps us to understand the chaos around
the Healthcare bill. Again, without
taking a side – we can all agree that not everyone is arguing
with integrity.
I’ve Seen The Enemy – And It Is Us
Through Social Media, One-to-One Marketing, Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Lead Nurturing
and all the other Cluetrain goodness that we’ve adopted over the last few years, we are starting to
understand that, as marketers, the veneer is being stripped off of the
messaging of the “faceless” corporation and being given to the individual.
It starts creatively, and giving the brand a point of view -
and avoiding the Gobbledygook that David Meerman Scott made famous. You develop Seth Godin Linchpins in your
organization – and your company worries about addressing “personal brands” as
Jerermiah Owyang discussed. These are all the new “face” of our marketing. Individuals bring the uniqueness that is "them" or "you" to your marketing positioning. We're creating unique points of view. We’re bringing the “human” into the process –
and that’s, of course, a double-edged sword.
Don’t believe it? Ask yourself what would happen if Frank
Eliason (the @comcastcares guy) went rogue and started posting ugly things. Or, what
if - @scottmonty at Ford Motor Company is photographed eying a new Prius? Or, just ask Twitter developer Alex Payne who
immediately had to gobble some of his own words when he tweeted about the “cool
features” they had that others didn’t.
Like it or not, these are the new marketing “leaders” in your
organization. And, the decisions they
will make will affect your brand – and your success. And how you "control" that messaging is changing.
As @chrisbrogan poignantly illustrated on Friday – one-on-one
doesn’t scale. There’s just no way that
you can keep up. Whether you’re the one in charge, or the one
that’s the “face” – there will come a time when they or you will desperately
grasp for control – and for ways to make good decisions.
And as you do, hopefully some of these sources can become good influences for you and your team. Just consider some of the ideas posed by the
Dalai Lama. There are others as well – such as
Dan Pink (and the amazing new book Drive) and of course Dan Heath. Let’s
make sure that as we forge ahead – that we don’t forget that the path we forge
is of our own making. And, that the
decisions we make will create the environment we live in. We have both good maps and bad maps which to
follow. May I humbly suggest that the map that our own Congress is laying out for us is the wrong one.
There’s a wonderful quote at the end of the Dalai Lama book
that I just love. He says:
“when you become a leader, your power to influence
and your ability to get things done grow very substantially. With that boost in power comes an increase in
your responsibility to make the right decisions. Making the right decisions in an
interconnected world is becoming more challenging all the time. When you are able to keep a calm, collected
and concentrated mind even under intense pressure you will be better able to
reach the right conclusions – and consider the consequences from many
perspectives – employees, customers, shareholders and society at large.”
Or as he says in the beginning.... "the best way for a ruler to reign over his country if first of all to rule himself".
What about you? Having difficulty keeping up, and maintaining control? How are you adapting?
Photo Credit: Elton Melo