Cancer, the impending arrival of death for my friend and later myself, concentrates one (at least me) on that which matters. Today’s conversation is around that which has been unconcealed for me: about myself and the purpose/contribution of this blog. So now is the time to leave if this is not the conversation for you. I don’t even know, right now, how long this conversation is going to be.
Purpose of The Customer & Leadership Blog
Why did I create this blog back in 2010? Was it to be recognised as a thought leader, a guru, in the Customer space? Was it to get on the speaking circuit and make money? Maybe it was to sell my services e.g. paid for content and/or advertising as a result of having a thriving web presence? Some folks think so. Enough people contact me to speak as a thought leader. More contact me about writing advertorials and passing them off as my conversations. Others contact me to search maximise this blog (as it is crap from a search perspective enough though it has great content – that is what I have been told). Then there are others that offer to write stuff, for free, that I can publish on this blog.
I decline all the content stuff. Occasionally, if the speaking stuff appeals to me I speak. The rule is that I speak that which I speak – for that is the only way that the speaking shows up and expresses itself through me. Once boundaries are putting up, the speaking dries up. That is simply so and I work with that – life as it is and is not.
So what got me started? Allow me to share the following quote:
“I had a vivid imagination. Not only could I put myself in the other person’s place, but I could not avoid doing so. My sympathies always went to the weak, the suffering, and the poor. Realising their sorrows I tried to relieve them in order that I myself might be relieved.” – Clarence Darrow
In short, I found myself identifying with particular folks in organisations: those with affinity for the customer, seeking to simplify/enrich the lives of their customers AND get a fair reward (money) for the difference they make in the lives of customers. It occurred to me that these folks were being misled or duped by those with influence: academics, consultancies, thought leaders, and gurus. I found most of their advice BS in the sense that Harry Frankfurt uses this term.
It occurred to me that these high priests (thought leaders, gurus, academics, consultancies) were sitting in the stands and at best sharing that which they saw from the stands. Few had/have substantive (many different trials over many years) experience in the arena. Yet, the game is played in the arena – always! The insight / truth that matters is the truth that arises from and makes a difference in the arena! Not the commentary that comes from those sitting comfortably in the stands – spectators.
I have been in that arena playing many roles in many types of Customer games: salesforce automation, CRM, 1to1 marketing, CX, web design & commerce, digital strategy, marketing automation, sales & account management, customer service & contact-centres…
It occurred to me that I could/should make a contribution by sharing that which I had learned through many years in the arena; there is both success and failure in the arena, each provides learning opportunities, oftentimes the learning from failures is more powerful than the learning from successes. This logically led me to this choice: the choice to share my perspective/learning/experience for those who find themselves in the arena or are about to enter the arena. Hence, the genesis of The Customer & Leadership Blog for the business domain.
The joy of self-expression and contribution through this blog, The Customer & Leadership Blog got me thinking. Why not make a similar contribution to folks on the personal (non business) side of human existence. This led to the birth of a second blog: Play BIG: Live A Life Worth Living.
Still why did I do this and why do I continue to do this. Is it to be a thought leader or to establish myself as a guru thus win lucrative speaking gigs? Talk to my wife. Talk to my great friend Lonnie Mayne: you might find that I prefer to be in the background as a catalyst: coaching, educating, enabling/facilitating, and provoking original thought &/or action. I wish to conclude this portion of the conversation with this quote:
There is a basic difference between the leader and the organiser. The leader goes on to fulfill his desires, to hold and wield power for the purposes both social and personal. He wants power for himself. The organiser find his goal in creation of power for others to use. – Saul Alinsky
I leave you to decide whether I fit the description of the leader or the organiser.
What Has The Process That Keeps The Customer & Leadership Blog In Existence Unconcealed To Me About Myself?
Let me be clear, I started with what occurs to me as altruistic motive. I continue with the same altruistic motive – declining opportunities to write paid for content and pass it off as my work, to accept advertising, refusing speaking opportunities which are paid for PR/marketing for some business or other.
Despite or because of my altruistic motive, I have gotten a HUGE amount out that has left me enriched:
First and foremost, The Customer & Leadership Blog saw me through some of the darkest times of my existence. Where the world that constituted my world slowly disappeared. I am talking about the world of sports/activity: Paragliding, trekking in the mountains, going backpacking in third world countries, cycling, tennis, badminton, even something as simple/joyful as table tennis.
Second, In the process that is the Customer & Leadership Blog my image of myself shifted. I start out thinking that I was a pygmy in the land of giants – that I had nothing to say that was worth listening to. Further, I was convinced that I could not write. Today, without hesitation nor doubt I say that I show up for myself as a thinker-writer-speaker who is worth listening to by those who know who/what to listen to. It doesn’t stop there, I learned much more about myself.
Only as a result of these two blogs did I realise that I am more than a thinker. I realised, that I create (these original conversations) therefore I have the capacity to be creative. What joy this realisation / experience brings! What is the experience that I am seeking to share with you? Allow me to point you towards that direction by sharing this quote:
Curiosity, irreverence, imagination, sense of humour, a free and open mind, an acceptance of the relativity of values and of the uncertainty of life, all inevitably fuse into the kind of person whose greatest joy is creation. He conceives of creation as the very essence of the meaning of life. In his constant striving for the new, he finds that he cannot endure what is repetitive and unchanging. For him hell would be doing the same thing over and over again. – Saul Alinsky
Yes, fundamentally I am curious, I have that free and open mind, and accept the relativity of values/positions/theories and the inherent uncertainties that come with finding oneself in living in a complex non-linear world where prediction/certainty is for those who are either naive or fools. Which kind of explains how it is that I have deliberately sought to make friends with folks from different countries, different faiths, different ages. It also explains how it is that my interests/thinking spans science, philosophy (eastern, western), history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, ecology, systems thinking, chaos/complexity….
Is it possible that it is irreverence that lies at my core? It hasn’t escaped my notice that the subtitle of this blog is: “provocative conversations: questioning conventional wisdom / stimulating original thinking.”
They say you remember the moments in your existence that really matter. I must have been between 8 and 10 years of age. Unhappy. Perplexed. Desperate to figure this thing out. What thing? Why is it that the stuff the (white) folks teach me at school about good/bad, right/wrong differs from and contradicts that which my parents (and their relatives) insist is good/bad, right/wrong? Then one day, one moment, outside walking, a thought/insight arises and hits me. It does not leave me the same person – it changes me fundamentally and forever. Which thought/insight? Here it is:
Its ALL made up!
Once I got that, I started pushing the boundaries – at school, at home. I became the person who questions that which is taken for granted. The one that asks the difficult questions like “Why be a team player in a competitive individualistic culture and economic system? Do you think I am stupid? What is a team player – one who censors self to fit in with the powers that be – you? Why should I be that kind of person? Anyway, why should you get to define what constitutes team playing?” Or”What makes you certain that your religion is the only true religion, that your way of life is the right one?”
There is a Chinese saying which goes something like “Beware, every stick has two ends, when you pick up a stick you get both ends!” I can vouch for the truth of that. Curiosity, open mindedness, acceptance of relativity of values/perspectives, and especially irreverence have brought me great learning, memorable experiences, and joy. That is one end of the stick. The other end is that almost always I find myself the Outsider. And folks do not like that which they hold dear questioned. They don’t even like the opinions/prejudices/’facts’ they picked up from their media to be subjected to Socratic questioning or my blistering critique.
My professional existence is been that of a traveller: travelling from one employer to another, moving from domain to another. History suggests that I tend to last about two years in an organisation. At about that time I usually find myself bored – having learned that which there was to learn. And/ or I find myself facing a ‘superior’ who shows up for me as ignorant/stupid/arrogant or just a bully.
There’s an ancient story of The Oak and the Reed. According to this tale, the smart choice is to be the flexible/supple reed. I am the reed when it comes to means to accomplish ends. When it comes to values/ends and the way I have chosen to show up and travel in this existence I am the Oak. Why? Because these matter – these are what I choose to orient/navigate my existence by. How important are they to me? This quote says it all:
“A man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” – Hemingway, The Old Man & The Sea
What Has This To Do With Customers and Leadership?
Good question. Allow me to respond with a few questions of mine:
Do you identify with the customer (see the Clarence Darrow quote at the beginning of this conversation) and so are committed to simplifying/enriching the lives of your customers? Or are your in it purely for yourself – to make a name for yourselves, to get rich?
Are you playing the Customer game because it is THE game that you want to play because it is THE game that calls you – your deepest self? Is playing this game the expression of your deepest self?
Do you have or are you cultivating the curiosity, the open mindedness, the awareness of the relativity of perspectives, and the inherent uncertainty of existence to get out of your existence (your default existence) and really enter into / live the lives of your customers? And thus to generate original insight, and cultivate empathy, for your customers? How can you simplify/enrich their lives if you do not truly understand them – not as mere personas nor statistics – but as concrete human beings?
Do you get all that is – you, your organisation, the economic model, society as such – is all made up? And are you up for unmaking that which is necessary to unmake to become a giant in the Customer arena – as seen through through customers’ eyes? Is this a mission that appeals to you – calls forth intellectual interest and emotional passion? How do you know that passion is present? Passion brings boundless energy and it does not get stopped by obstacles that appear on the path.
Are you willing to pay the price that comes with questioning the status quo and threatening the powerful who seek to lose by the changes you are proposing to make or making? Are you willing to be that Outsider? Are you willing to accept Hemingway’s truth that a man is not made for defeat, that he can be destroyed but not defeated?
If you answer these questions honestly you may get why it is that few are successful in calling forth genuine loyalty between themselves and employees, between themselves and their value chain partners, between themselves and their customers, between themselves and the communities in which they operate.
Thank you for your listening, I wish you the very best, until the next time.
The Customer Blog 