Categories
Engagement

I Don’t Need to Have the Answers

… as long as I have the right questions.

That’s one of my most important tasks as a facilitator: to carefully select the “right” questions. These are thoughtful questions that engage all participants in purposeful discussion leading to outcomes such as resolving a problem, getting everyone on the same page, setting strategic priorities, identifying resources and next steps, etc.

“Most facilitators spend considerable time looking for and thinking about a question for a particular situation with a particular group of people.” Dorothy Strachan, facilitator and author of Making Questions Work. 

That’s why I put much effort and energy into building a toolkit of engaging and focused questions – collecting them, adapting them, and coming up with new ones. It’s one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of my work.

My clients are smart 

I learned that the groups I work with have the answers – they just don’t know it. My role is to come up with the best questions and guide the process that enables clients to uncover the answers they need to get unstuck and move forward.

Sounds simple, but it’s not. I feel a tremendous amount of pressure to come up with the most appropriate questions for each group. Given the answers are unknown until participants ponder the questions, their answers cannot be presumed or predicted in advance. So the stakes are incredibly high in choosing the right questions and creating a psychologically safe space in which to pose questions that:

  • frame the issue(s)
  • provoke thought
  • provide focus and clarity
  • prompt creative thinking
  • foster idea-exchange and development
  • encourage the sharing of relevant experiences that help people learn from each other.

Coming together to address carefully chosen engaging questions, reflecting on them, building on one another’s responses, and reaching resolution is most important for the participants … and most satisfying  for the facilitator.

“I asked, ‘What would you like me to do when you feel stuck?’
She said, ‘Do what you do best. Ask questions. Help me find an answer.'” Peter Drucker

[Image credit: Pete Linforth from Pixabay]
Categories
Engagement Musings

Worried Much These Days?

Unlike MAD Magazine’s “devil-may-care” poster boy, Alfred E. Neuman – described as “someone who can maintain a sense of humor while the world is collapsing around him” – many people I know are worried. They’re worried about COVID’s resurgence, especially as flu season approaches, in addition to feeling stressed over continuing political and environmental issues.

I’m worried about my friends and family members who feel this way. And although the music video is entertaining, suggesting to people that they “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” is insulting.

What helps me cope is to try to maintain a sense of perspective about worrying itself.

“Worry is a by-product of feeling powerless. We fear the unknown and are frustrated that we can’t do anything about it. We also want to influence daily events, but some things are beyond our control. The key is to face that reality and go with the flow. Most things that we worry about never come to pass … In fact, in most cases, worrying is a lot worse than the actual outcome.” – Frank Sonnenberg

Please know it’s not my intention to make light of or dismiss the seriousness of dealing with anxiety issues. I’m just sharing what helps me cope, and here are some of my favorite quotes on the subject:

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca

“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.” – Swedish Proverb

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” ― Corrie Ten Boom

“If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved worrying will do you no good.” ― Shantideva

“If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.” – E. Joseph Cossman

A sense of humor (ala Alfred E. Neuman) is also helpful.

“[One fellow] worried so much that he decided to hire someone to do his worrying for him. He found a man who agreed to be his hired worrier for a salary of $200,000 per year. After the man accepted the job, his first question to his boss was, “Where are you going to get $200,000 per year?” To which the man responded, “That’s your worry.” ― Max Lucado

Besides a sense of perspective and humor, check out this helpful article on coping tips this season.

[Image: Alfred E. Neuman, created by Norman Mingo for MAD Magazine]
Categories
Customer service Engagement

Attention, please

Pandemic-induced stress and other reasons have led to decreasing workforce numbers and increasing pressure on remaining employees. Demanding, rude, and uncivil behaviors by some customers – and employers – only exacerbate the situation.

Please be patient, understanding, and considerate. Thank you.

[Image credits: “Dude breathe” photo by Kyndall Ramirez on Unsplash.jpg. Sign posted in office or store window – source unknown.]
Categories
Musings

What I’ll Miss Post-Pandemic

I’m feeling a bit unsettled as we ease out of pandemic-related restrictions. All of a sudden it seems my work and social calendar are filling up with in-person meetings and meals with friends, colleagues, and clients. With more people fully vaccinated (including me), I’m cautiously excited about having a busier schedule with more than just Zoom meetings.

Who could have imagined the many mundane things we took for granted before the pandemic? Activities like being together to share birthdays, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, and memorial services … attending concerts, plays, sporting events, museums, and conferences … planned and impromptu get-togethers for coffee or lunch or dinner … handshakes and hugs (especially hugs!).

“A crisis can be very clarifying. When you have emerged from a crisis you learn to cherish what really matters.” Scott Cochrane

While we’re fortunate in the U.S. to say “Good riddance!” to the worst of the pandemic, I find there are some aspects of the past 15 months that I’ll actually miss. Here are a few of them (in no particular order):

  • a renewed sense of respect for front line and essential workers like grocery/convenience store/drugstore clerks; healthcare professionals; delivery and truck drivers; etc.
  • a greater appreciation for nature’s restorative benefits
  • people proactively reaching out to connect with others near and far to check on their wellbeing
  • self-acceptance that it’s ok to say you’re not ok
  • increased awareness of the importance of mental health —  the impact of anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues that emerged and/or deepened during the pandemic, along with the need to de-stigmatize them.

I sincerely hope these will not disappear during and after our recovery.

What about you? What part of pandemic life will you miss?

[Image credit: photo by Thomas Kinto on Unsplash]
Categories
Engagement Marketing Musings

Special Mother’s Day Tribute from My Favorite Geek

[Note: I’m happy and humbled to re-post the following written many years ago by Jason Stershic, digital marketing professional, blogger, podcast producer, host of The Palmer Files Podcast, and (best of all!) my son. Thanks, kid!]

Sybil Stershic is my mother and, for most of my conscious life, she’s been the proprietor of Quality Service Marketing. When she founded the business, I was 5, and it has had a profound impact upon both my personal and professional life.

Personally, she was around more than most, as she worked from home. I was the audience for her as she practiced her material to a room of one, and she was there to take breaks and be a mom.

As I grew up in a world of advancing technology, I became her “Chief Technology Officer,” a title I still hold today. I came to set up computers, fax machines, modems, tablets, smartphones and introduce her to the world of social media – and I now jokingly take all credit for her social media success.

Professionally, I have to give her credit for my views on internal marketing. I assume I came to most of them by osmosis, due to the fact that I was her audience in the beginning and I don’t recall having great conversations about them until well after I established my own views. I’m fortunate – for several reasons – that they coincided with hers.

Those views have allowed me to be successful. I know to treat internal marketing and communication with the same importance as external. This was completely evident as I worked in retail for a company that had a good idea of internal marketing but horrible follow through.

Almost five years ago, I set upon my own business endeavor, Spectyr Media, Ltd. I do consulting for social media and internet marketing as well as branding, graphic design and website design (this one included).

My mother is now a treasured business associate, taking the time to answer any questions a small business owner may have and being supportive of my business. When I can, I urge those of my clients who could use her services to do so.

My mother has a great marketing mind and she is also a great mom! Happy Mother’s Day, to my mom and to yours. If you’ve learned and gained as much as I have personally and professionally from your mother as I have, then consider yourself fortunate. I know that I do!

[“Mothers Day” image credit: Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay]
Categories
Engagement Musings

A Twilight Zone Episode? If Only!

[Note: I’m delighted to feature this brilliant piece written by Izzy Gesell, who generously allowed me to share it here. A former stand-up comedian and public school teacher turned professional facilitator, coach, and speaker, Izzy creatively applies improvisation to enhance personal and organizational learning. You can learn more about this “organizational alchemist who helps individuals and organizations transform their thinking from commonplace to extraordinary” by visiting Izzy’s website.]

“Ladies, gentlemen & non-binary passengers. This is your Captain speaking. This inaugural flight of Air Pandemica is beginning its final descent into the partially renovated New Normal airport.

I know we’ve been in the air much longer than anticipated so I hope the complimentary Zoom memberships made the journey a bit easier.

Please take the remaining time to check around your seats and into your heart and make sure your risk-tolerance belt is tightened low and snug around your assumptions.

The flight crew will make one final pass through the cabin to collect all old habits, empty sanitizer bottles and the take-out food containers that have sustained you during this trip.

In your seat pocket you’ll find our complimentary in-flight magazine called “Lessons Learned.” You are welcome to take it with you. Please read it and discuss it with your children and grandchildren so they might know what to do if or when they have to take the same trip.

We’ll be landing shortly, fingers crossed. Vaccinated passengers wearing masks will depart first. Thanks again for flying Air Pandemica. We know you had NO choice in airlines but we thank you anyway. Hope never to see you again. BuhBye.”

[Thank you, Izzy Gesell!]

[Image credit: photo by Daniel Norris on Unsplash]
Categories
Engagement

Volunteers Get to the Heart of the Matter

Q: How would you facilitate a meeting-of-the-minds between two competitive nonprofits?

A: Very carefully.

That was my challenge when I was asked to facilitate a special meeting of two organizations striving to enhance their impact in their community: one was a local affiliate of an established nonprofit and the other was a grass-roots start-up. Both groups were dedicated to helping people with cancer.

Concerned with competing for limited donor and volunteer resources, the established nonprofit felt threatened and candidly admitted they wanted the new organization to just “go away.” Fortunately, they accepted the new group’s invitation to sit down together and explore how they could co-exist to serve the community.

Focusing on what matters

I remember my feelings of trepidation as I prepared for the joint meeting – I was a facilitator, not a peace-keeper! But my fears dissolved after interviewing several volunteers from each organization. Their message was clear and consistent: “We don’t care who we work for as volunteers, we just want to eradicate cancer. So find a way to work out your differences.“

These volunteers provided the critical reinforcement and reminder both nonprofits needed to hear: purpose supersedes politics. It also proved to be the perfect framework for a dynamic and fruitful dialogue.

I’m happy to share both organizations took the volunteers’ message to heart as they continue to successfully co-exist and collaborate in their efforts to help people with cancer.

[Image by Lou Kelly from Pixabay]
Categories
Engagement Musings

Time for a Play Date with Your Inner Child

The arrival of spring combined with advent of mass COVID vaccinations is the perfect time to refresh ourselves as we emerge from our winter cocoons and quarantines. This year in particular, it’s also the perfect opportunity to safely indulge in a little fun with a re-visit to one’s inner child. Here’s why:

“We’re living in a world that’s more conducive to anxiety than playfulness … Play offers a reprieve from the chaos, and it challenges us to connect with a key part of ourselves that gets lost in the responsibilities of adulthood, especially during a crisis.” Kristin Wong

Here are several play date ideas for you to safely engage your inner child:

  • read a favorite story book or book of poems from childhood
  • weather permitting, roll down a grassy hill … look for four-leaf clovers in a green field … play hopscotch …
  • share favorite childhood memories with friends (and they don’t even have to be the ones you made the memories with)
  • dance to the music of a favorite band or recording artist from your youth
  • bake a family favorite cake or batch of cookies
  • draw pictures with crayons or color in a coloring book [Remember the scent of opening a fresh box of Crayola crayons?]
  • build with clay, LEGO® bricks, or other building materials
  • read comic books or race Hot Wheels® or Matchbox cars
  • watch your favorite childhood cartoons or movies [I love that I can now watch an hour of Bugs Bunny & Friends on Saturday mornings!]

Whatever your inner child decides to do, be playful … whimsical … let your imagination take you wherever it leads … Just let go and enjoy.

“What all play has in common is that it offers a sense of engagement and pleasure, takes the player out of a sense of time and place, and the experience of doing it is more important than the outcome.” Stuart Brown

[Image by Gustavo Rezende from Pixabay]

 

Categories
Customer service

Customer Service Behind the Mask: We Need More Like Laura

With the exception of surgical doctors and nurses who are used to communicating while wearing masks, many of us are challenged to communicate effectively when half of our faces are covered. Until the pandemic, I took for granted how much our facial expressions greatly enhance verbal communications and personal interactions.

Yet skilled service providers can still excel despite unseen smiles, muffled voices, plexiglass separators, and social distancing. That’s what I learned last year from Laura, who works at Wegmans.

Here’s an excerpt from my note to Wegmans about my experience.

“I’m writing to commend Laura who works in the Allentown PA store pharmacy and processed the paperwork for me to receive my flu shot.

What impressed me most about this young woman was her courteous and professional manner in welcoming customers and making eye contact while asking routine questions that can become tedious. I may not have been able to see her smile behind her mask, but I could tell she was giving me her full attention.

Please know I’m a business professional specializing in employee-customer engagement. I understand the tendency of some employees to perform on auto-pilot when processing repetitive paperwork in high volume situations. That’s why I complimented Laura on her customer-focused behaviors today — her attentiveness made me feel welcome, showed that she cared, and didn’t make me feel like an imposition.”

Kudos to Laura and all frontline employees who continue to deliver a positive experience without the ability to fully face customers.

[Photo by Evgeni Tcherkasski on Unsplash]

 

 

 

Categories
Marketing

How Marketing Makes Its Work More Difficult

I often hear marketing staff commiserate about how they struggle to get respect and buy-in for their programs. Several reasons account for this:

  • given its work with advertising agencies, media firms, and incentive and premium providers, marketing is primarily associated with creative (aka “fun”) processes to promote the brand
  • marketing teams typically work within functional silos such as research, market development, brand identity/management, marketing communications, etc.
  • marketers neglect to educate others in the organization on marketing’s fit in “the big picture” and how everyone’s individual and collective actions impact the brand.

Just because the Marketing Department is on the organizational chart doesn’t mean people know what it does and why it’s important

It’s hard to be taken seriously when people dismiss marketing as necessary “fluff.” By not taking action to correct this misperception, marketers make their work more difficult and compromise marketing’s effectiveness as every employee in the organization (not just those in the Marketing Department) play a role in delivering the brand promise.

From awareness to action: the missing link

What’s missing is marketing marketing’s purpose and role in the organization — not for its own glory or credit, but for strengthening its internal relationships and integral connection to the bottom line. Marketers have the requisite knowledge and skills to communicate marketing’s value, yet they’re so busy taking care of everyone else’s marketing needs that they neglect their own.

The solution isn’t difficult or complicated. It’s a matter of intentionally and proactively educating employees about marketing is, what it does, and why it matters to the organization by:

  • increasing awareness and visibility of marketing’s various roles as brand promoter and steward … collector and interpreter of market/consumer insight … product/service/brand communicator … customer advocate … etc.
  • increasing the perception of marketing’s value to the success of the organization
  • and strengthening relationships within the organization in the process.

Marketing marketing’s value is not a once-and-done campaign. It’s an on-going strategy that’s needed to build and maintain mutual understanding and respect between marketing and the rest of the organization.

Unless, of course, marketing is okay being known as the “Department of Fluff.”

[Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash]