Thinking is not a highbrow sport. Change Managers know all about thinking

Thinking is not a highbrow sport; not an activity for the intellectuals or the intelligentsia to practice and thus to lord over others, demonstrating some supposed sense of superiority. That is neither what thinking intends nor what I propose nor who I am. Thinking is, however, a vital part of being alive, a privilege that, for some reason, a seemingly, ever-increasing group of fellow-citizens have abdicated: to the Tube, or to “the crowd” or to anyone else except themselves. Again: or, so it seems. Thinking, rather, is a gift, is our Divine right as human beings: “cogito ergo sum”. We all, each of us, has learned that such is the essence of being human. We do not think well any longer. Is it that we have grown so unconscious of what we do daily? Do we not simply plug in and surrender to some force other than ourselves and find superiority in that commonality of approach to life and its issues?

Thinking is not a highbrow sport. Not an activity restricted to lawyers and doctors and politicos or to . Yet as a nation, we, without a second thought, without the uproar the decision deserves, have done nothing to overturn the worst decision our nation’s Supreme Court has ever made: unrestricted control of the airwaves and media channels to the monied. And so people have become lemmings, led by a talking-head who is already brainwashed of the truth. These talking heads and pundits no longer think themselves. They spout that which is approved and is PAID FOR; nor the truth that has been concealed, hidden, unquestioned, forgotten, displaced.

Thinking is not a highbrow sport. I am not talking from an ivory tower. I am talking from the trenches of 2011. While admittedly, I come from a Patrician background, I am not a Plute in thought or reality: unless They now be among the poorest and those beleaguered by life (and, we know that the Plutes are THAT oligarchy – that tiny ! group of the richest ½ of 1% at most, who want to tell all of us that because they are rich that they know best and that they are right). Yes, I am a Republican by birth. I was not, however, brought up to believe the lies that the Tea Party is foisting upon the unwitting: my contention is that “the unwitting have become all of us.” Stop drinking “the Kool Aid”. Please! That is all I ask. We need to think; and, thinking is not applying group common sense. We no longer ask authentic questions; we no longer seek the complete truth; we accept the good enough instead of the best; we accept lies from Tea Party “pledge”-takers and certain Republicans who care only for themselves and the very wealthy who now own America.

Do you remember reading Plato’s Republic and the Allegory of the Cave? Thinking, the role of teaching, the challenge of taking on a responsible role in the world is the touchstone for life that is presented to us during our encounter with the text of the Allegory of the Cave. We all know that text. Many of us have re-read Plato. As readers of the text of during this present-now, this-today, the challenge, now, is how do we become unfettered; and, how do we go back up into the world, aware that most has been hidden; aware, and struggling to change the fact, that we are 3 removes from the truth. More importantly, how can we demonstrate convincingly and straightforwardly, and with simplicity that we have and continue to be misled, lied to by these Plutes? The Allegory of the Cave is much about what lies concealed, what has been hidden, what is several removes from the truth. My “allegation” or charge against myself and you is that all too often we kick pebbles. Try this test for yourselves: Pick up one of those pebbles. Hold that rock in your hands in a dark room. Then, take your narrow beam flashlight and direct its beam towards that rock. How much is revealed? 7%? 1% ? Certainly not much more. The challenge that we face, then, is to learn how to shine the light upon the 99% (or 93%) that remains concealed by when that partial particularity of a mere 1% is revealed; it is to learn how to discover the greater proportion, and then all of, that 99%. From that point on our responsibility under a new civil and social contract would be to share it responsibly, authentically with one another.

Thinking is not a highbrow sport. I am no intellectual; just a guy who believes that we have become deceived and led far astray by the oligarchy - the few. Their message has become only and exclusively a message that says “no”; it is a message of fear, exclusiveness, deception, lies, and betrayal. Thinking is not a highbrow sport, but it does require one to unplug from Tubeville, from the talking heads, from the summarizations that only provide a distortion of truth, from the cave; and to emerge into the light so as to ask questions and to listen authentically. It does demand a great deal of constructive questioning, informed paranoia, and a willingness to uncover what has been concealed and hidden away from us. That is what I would offer, if I could, to those who want again to find a path to a sustainable future. Instead of kicking pebbles; pick them up: shine a light upon the 99% that the Plutes want to hide. Make thinking truly a participative sport at last.

Blink or Think: Be Here now

Be Here Now: Blink or Think

A decade ago, while still consulting heavily, I entered the office of the President of a Billion $ business. The brass-plated desk-ornament in the middle of his desk gave one simple admonition: “Be Here Now!” This leader wanted everyone to be present. When I ask myself or you “Was heisst Denken?” I am, to begin with, asking myself to be here now, to be present. I am asking myself, and I am asking each of you as well, to locate that way, that path on the way to; and, to be here now, to be present and accounted for.

Our current situation is one that calls for thinking; it is one that calls for each of us to be fully present, to be engaged to be here now. If we believe Thomas Friedman’s presentation in That Used to be Us, we are a divided nation in decline, one that has brought itself to this precipitous predicament. We have failed our country, our citizen, our nation’s children - our own gift to the future - in that we have failed to invest in our future. We see it now in our dearth, in our unemployment; in our inability to generate meaningful, fully engaging work; in the homeless, the under-employed. We see it in this State’s decision to cut back on education; its decision not to invest in much-needed infrastructure and renewal efforts; in our ever-widening gap between those who have and those who have not. Rather than attend to the now, we turn away. We choose not to attend to what calls for thinking; instead we blink and we turn away.

It is not unexpected that we blink; that we turn our backs on what calls for thinking; that we turn back to our comfortable lives; turn on the Tube, and plug in un-thinkingly to what Thomas Pynchon referred to as “mindless pleasure”. In fact, a highly popular “pundit”, Malcolm Gladwell incites us to blink. His book Blink: the power of thinking without thinking admonishes us to “blink – don’t think”.

Whereas by contrast, in his 5th lecture, Heidegger begins: “What is called thinking? We must guard against the blind urge to snatch at a quick answer in the form of a formula. We must stay with the question. We must pay attention to the way in which the question asks: what is called thinking, what does call for thinking?” Our present now calls for thinking. We turn away, however. We blink.

“What does that mean? Blink is related to Middle English blenchen, which means deceive, and to blenken, blinken, which means gleam or glitter. To blink – that means to play up and set up a glittering deception which is then agreed upon as true and valid –with the mutual tacit understanding not to question…”(lecture VII).

While I see many of us trying to solve the issues of today, I see equal or greater numbers who turn away. Regardless of party affiliation, we no longer can turn away. We cannot, however, solve any of the current problems by blind adherence to party lines. Nor can we solve today’s issues neither through rancorous argument nor partisan paralysis. We cannot take Gladstone’s advice and decide what is important based on 2 seconds of ephemerality and what we knew to be true in that present-now, now long past. We must be present; we must be here now. We must understand and act knowing that “what is most thought-provoking in our thought-provoking age is that we are still not thinking.” We need to, we can and we must, get underway, unterwegs zu.

Language and Politics: TeaParty calls Dems Nazi's in Wisconsin

“Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells.”

“It is language that tells us about the nature of a thing, provided that we respect language’s own nature….

Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.

… Among all the appeals that we human beings, on our part, can help to be voiced, language is the highest and everywhere the first.”
Martin Heidegger.

I want to stop the misuse and abuse of language. Especially the “words that work” of the Tea Party and Republicans who are trying only to throw out our President. They still are just a “party of no”: and lest you hate me and send me nasty notes: I am a life-long Republican. Now, recovering, I am a proud Obama republican.

Let me digress and offer a brief explanation, if I might. My love is and has been Literature, philosophy, the classics and structural analysis &criticism (my Comparative Literature background) and teaching. With only a few regrets, I spent 30 some years in “Business” & Consulting. While in my business career I both had a modicum of success in marketing, sales, and consulting, I was also afforded quite a bit of time delivering training or other seminars. In doing so, I confess that I was not always careful with language. I want to write about language and its use, and maybe whatever else strikes my fancy.

But again: Why the insistence that we attend to language? I can only reply with a question, or two, and a suggestion. Have you turned on the news? Have you heard the lies, the distortion of facts, coming out of Fox News? Whom can you trust? Haven’t we reached a time when it now is vital for us to silence the furor and to listen with authenticity?

If you read Thomas Pynchon, you might simply remind individuals that a cure is available: they merely need to enroll themselves in a Tubal-detox program: cure themselves of “Tubeitis” that illness that permeates American life. It isn’t just on TV and Cable; it’s everywhere They can buy the placement of Their fear-mongering, society-splintering, destructive messages: all “no!. You have Rush L., Glenn Beck, and of course, WTMJ’s very own Charlie Sykes, who believe that if they use “words that work” often enough you will gladly, lemming-like allow yourselves to become victims of a Plutocratic Oligarchy. But hey! Who cares? Right? If the talking heads create enough noise pollution backed by the Koch brothers and other fear-mongerers such as the current lot of TeaParty-ites and Republicans pool of candidates, it will be perfectly alright with you?

And, let me add that yesterday I noticed someone say that Democrats are the same as Nazi’s to be defeated by the Tea Party. OMG! (As my 15, 13, and 10 year might say, but probably not). I felt compelled to add some “local color” if I might and stir the pot, but without language that is so blatantly outrageous and maybe even add a few words, as an Obama Republican, for our current Commander in Chief.
As my continuation I want to add, and expand upon, a blog I wrote in part nearly 2 years ago concerning how language was destroying our ability to talk about food. The problems, as it relates to language tearing apart the fabric of our national tapestry, has become worse.

Language, that which has the power to “create worlds”, apparently has been purchased, by what now is called the Tea Party and the Republicans. A paid “pundit” for the past few years has been publicly creating verbal playbooks for politicians to manipulate, to distort, to instill fear and mistrust, and to conceal. A lifelong Republican I confess to cringing at the lies. I also quickly found myself a proud Obama Republican. I want to use this blog to talk about language and to examine with others this current phenomenon of media: noise pollution designed only to un-elect a sitting president.

Language is the most powerful and under utilized tool at our disposal, individually, severally, and collectively. Sadly, in business, politics, and virtually all walks of life, certain powers with greater reach are broadcasting rancor during a time when this nation needs healing, a coming together, and the stimulus of growth.

Originally what got me riled up was the realization that we need more conscious use of language. At the time Food and Agribusiness were in the news. in business was the finger-pointing and railing against the machine concerning food: genetics, modified seeds, chemicals, food production, food safety, food labeling, etc.

Nearly two years ago, I found myself becoming increasingly angry over the public debate, the “national palaver” to quote Carlyle. I was heavily involved with agribusiness. I had been blessed , or cursed – if you must – to have been able to work with the leaders of that field: Dow AgroSciences, Bayer, Monsanto, Case/IH, AGCO – and so on. The industry was under attack. The “blogosphere” was filled with anger, misinformation, and a lot of noise. The anger was over mistakes made by certain executives in the past; and, as so often happens in the world, one person’s errors become to some the entirety of the company.

Like many of us, I am deeply bothered by the current public debate about food, food production and safety. The traditional, and newer "social" medias have taken this very, very complex issue and lumped together factoids about "feeding the world", "clean air", "global warming", "genetically modified crops", and the very sustainability of our planet.

Doing so only made things worse and certainly more confusing for most listeners. A great deal of positioning; a good deal of shouting; not much listening and working together going on there, so far, in this public debate. Agribusiness cannot allow itself to be dragged into a public brawl such as the one we've recently watched - and still are watching - about Health Care Reform and The Public Option.

Now, 18 months later, we have suffered through months of partisan paralysis. "Debt ceiling" debates became fodder for TeaParty radicals to stop progress and civility. The issues surrounding agribusiness and farmers, are among the most important topics of today because we all are involved in food and clothing and environmental issues. Yet, journalists such as Michael Pollan, Paul Roberts, and notable world citizens, such as Vandana Shiva, are inciting their audiences and special interest groups, mostly through fear and "adjustment" of the facts.

In contrast to these divisive voices, Peter Senge, of Fifth Discipline fame, offers a much more tempered approach, deeper and more thoughtful and quite a bit more challenging to each of us in his newest book, The Necessary Revolution. Today, however, the debate about Food seems not to be among the top 10 topics on the World News Tonight (whichever of the networks you follow). Instead, that same rancorous discord, those same outrageous, divisive language has been turned to again divide our nation. Radical claims concerning the future of our nation are fueling fear; causing the paralysis of recovery; the death of job creation; and, shutting down much of our hope for recovery in the near term.

The United States has become a country of Haves and Have-not's. Jobs have been taken away, sent overseas, leaving Americans unable to be fully engaged – all for the sake of the Plutocrats now hoarding their cash and chanting “No!”. The problem is how quickly the widening of the gap is becoming; and, that widening is not slowing down. Instead of using language, political power, and spending power to recreate a stronger America, distinguished by its equality and sense of inclusion for all, our media and those political talking heads, paid for by the ultra-wealthy, the Plutocrats, is fracturing the nation even further. We need that to stop.

We need authentic listening. We need to silence the lies, distortion of facts, and to begin using Language in order to create the sustainable future world we all desire. Not a world that excludes those the TeaParty doesn’t understand and are being taught to fear. Certainly the majority of us do not want an America for just the few who have control of all the wealth. 1/2 of 1% controls 80% of the wealth.

They cannot control the Language and ideas, however, or our nation will suffer tragic consequences. The issues we face in government are more complex, more divisive, and at a quantum level greater than the battle over food. Crafting a sustainable solution - just to guide the public debate - can, and will, not result from singularly slanted, or otherwise distorted preaching. These interrelated problems can only be corrected through a creative learning process. Rather than creating an atmosphere in which a true long-lasting solution can be crafted, these activists see only one-way: their own.

Instead we need to work together. Education and communications will play a huge role in shaping the outcome for many of us. It will take hard work. We lose all chance to shape the future, however, if we allow ourselves to be controlled by the puppeteers speaking into the ear-pieces of the TeaParty backed candidates and their media talking heads (or in the case of agribusiness: those outside agribusiness) to shape the public debate. Certainly we do not want to engage them at their level and try to yell over them: god help us if we try to do that – it’s just a waste of more money that could have been put into the economy to add value and thus would have been relevant to all citizens.


We need to listen. We need to look for the clearing. We need to listen for what has been concealed to become un-concealed. We need to practice what Stephen Covey suggests: "seek first to understand, then to be understood". We also need to build a dictionary that guides this conversation and mutual learning. All of us need to shape the language and use words that work and metaphors that reach across the gap between sides, pulling them into our conversation.

Keep this truism on a Post-It: "...those who define the debate will determine the outcome" (c.f., Frank Luntz, What Americans really want ... really). It's time to re-tell, or to tell anew, the story of farming, of how the world is fed and clothed - and what it will require when there are 9 Billion people on earth. It is time for us to educate the rest of the world about farming, agriculture, tillage practices, land and water conservation, seeds and chemicals. If we shape the conversation, without rancor and with a complete and easy-to-comprehend story, which helps reveal the truth in its complexity, everyone will come out ahead. Then we can move ahead proud of our stewardship and assured of a sustainable future.

But remember, "It's not what you say; it's what they hear" that matters We need business leaders and politicians to stop paying for words that work, words that distort and hide the truth. Our agribusiness leaders have worked exceedingly hard to being to address these same sometimes-difficult-and-admittedly- complex subjects through education and communication - the ones the extremists have distortedly made visible - so that our fellow citizens of the planet can help better understand the reality, the rancorous, drama can subside; constructive conversation, dialogue and trust can be built; and, we can craft a sustainable future together. We need that self-same commitment to renewal of our nation, as one of inclusion. We need to stop the fear mongering. We need to use language to un-conceal and to make the world we all want. The few that want to be the few can afford to go buy their own island: I suggest that they do just that. For the rest of us, let us co-create a sustainable future for America. That future will renew the social contract. Then we can walk our talk proudly. - old consultant adage, however: easy to say, harder to accomplish.

Unterwegs zur: Diagnostics, Facilitation, and Coaching for the B2B CRM & CEM Strategists

On the way to ....
As I walked in this morning, I saw a large horse fly resting on the sidewalk. Huge, not particularly attractive: it couldn’t possibly fly. When She (sic!) created flying creatures, people asked what God had been thinking to design the horse fly or the bumblebee. After all we know that God has a grand design and all creation fits into the plan according to Her design. In truth, however, God’s design of bumblebees and horse flies has come under question for centuries. As in: what was She thinking? Or, nothing designed that way can fly. Yet, we know that both creatures do fly and do so well. What works so easily for God does not work as well for humans when it comes to successful planning on how to get to there from here.

Getting from here-to-there is always on everybody’s minds; and, getting from here-to- there is always already a clearly visible destination. Truth is, however: often we get lost on the way. [And, no! I really do not just mean driving directions]. I’m thinking more along the lines of the transformation the US now faces as the Tea Party tries to hold the nation hostage and take its citizens back to the 1787-9 period; or, a lot more simple to solve, how to transform a business into a customer-centered, customer-based business.
The challenges are so immense as to risk hyperbole. The missteps made happen so frequently and predictably that there must be a better way.

We no longer can afford missteps in today’s hyper-competitive, always-on, flat world. No, what we need is a way to assure breakthrough performance and to assure creation of a roadmap that outlines our best chance to arrive at the destination, the desired end-state.
And it really is quite simple to effect best-planning and execution of these crucial transformations. The keys are diagnostics, facilitation, and coaching.

Plans, lucid, readable and comprehensible roadmaps are important, nay vital to success: whether it is a “simple” exercise, such as taking your family of 5 to [you fill-in-the-blanks] for a mini-summer vacation, or (more) complex such as planning for your 24 year old daughter’s dream wedding, or compound-complex as in establishing your firm’s new customer centered and customer focused strategy. (Thinking of plans as a type of sentence construction may be a helpful metaphor).

Distractions, unanticipated events, setbacks, life: all these “things” happen and so our best laid plans somehow end up producing horse flies rather than hummingbirds. Problem is our horse flies don’t fly. Our “success” at planning, unfortunately, does not translate into successful implementation and operational effectiveness.

And, so what?! What now? How can your B2B CRM & CEM strategy be implemented successfully, without a hitch? How do we plan for life to happen and keep on the path. As I began to write this paragraph these 2 phrases surfaced: “Seek first to understand.” “Start with the end in mind.” And, yes, both pieces of advice are apropos of this discussion. Do they give a way to find planning and implementation success? I think they do. And, I think they do because they un-conceal what has been hidden or that which may distract.

What is needed is diagnostics, facilitation, and coaching. The process will clearly define 3 critical areas: 1. Where you are starting from: the point of departure or your “Current State”; 2., Where you intend to end up: your destination or “Desired End-State”; and, 3., the stuff that has to be done, accomplished, solved, etc. so that you can, in fact, get from here to there: “the bridging tasks”.

Unterwegs zur…

on the way to language

When the salesman starts talking do your eyes glaze over; do your ears close a little; do you begin to daydream about your kids or... ? What happens when you listen, or watch, the news? Do you change channels; perhaps watch Veggie Tales with your kids, or even better: turn off the TV? Is Language alive. Do metaphors enhance our lives? Does Language reveal or hide? Persuade or do damage? Or , as always is the answer "It depends"?

My concern here, though, is the language of daily living.

I confess that I may have been pulling my own Rip Van Winkle. Driven to learn, to make money, to nurture my children, and to find balance, I find that i wasn't fully engaged with the world. Particularly the way in which we of the world communicate, use language to shape our world.

Never in my lifetime has the use of language emerged with such singular and dramatic force: a force for change; a force to bring about unification; a force for getting truth out to everyone; a force for lies, distortion, and manipulation.


Over the past two years, I've noticed that the level of disinformation and actual yelling has increased if one listens to cable and other news' outlets. The business of government has been forced to a sluggish, muddied, grimy cesspool more like paralyzed sewage rather than a fountain of living inspiration and truth.

I've gone back to school to work on a PhD - across a number of disciplines: literature, philosophy, and business (or, history & business). I wanted to build on my business acumen and successes while improving my own ability to create, think, learn, and lead. I have read quite a bit of Heidegger. There is so much more to read, digest, and absorb before I can begin to try to share it.

I have found out that Language is one part of what makes us human. I have learned that there is something called "Fixed English" another version called "Free English" and that there is a still newer version called "Words that Work".

I've tried to remain silent and listen over these last few months. I haven't wanted to pollute the public discussion by yelling, which in today's world seems to have emerged as the WAY by which communicators get their message across.

One thing I have come to realize is that Language is the key to unlock the potentiality of the world again. Language creates world. Language allows the unhiddenness of truth to become unconcealed. In order for Language to retain and have the full force of its power to create world, we must engage in authentic listening. Not something we American are good at.

Which takes me back to the salesman whose elevator speech has just made my eyes glaze over and my head to nod.

I really do wish I had answers. I know that I believe that I do - at least in the world of B2B CRM strategy, sales, marketing, and a few other areas try some authentic listening for myself and for all of us. We then can use Language to create world.

Help! how do you talk to your Waldorf 8th grader about "Food, Inc."?

[As I sat and tried to collect a few thoughts before writing this posting, I began to wonder whether there is something of Horace's "The City Mouse and The Country Mouse" underlying the American debate about food and agriculture].

Last week my 8th grade Waldorf educated daughter, Isabella, and her class sat through Food, Inc. As it's viewing did for so many adult audiences, the movie hit a nerve with her and her classmates. And, as I try to sift through her questions and emotional reaction to the questions raised by the book, I am forced to re-examine certain questions and decisions I have made myself.

I had spent the last year researching the emotional fall-out, and rising criticism that has pummeled the GMO movement (Monsanto in particular), the poultry, cattle, and hog industries. I thought I could sit with my 13 year old and learn a lot from that conversation.

Her first 3 remarks were along the lines of "I'm never eating chicken again" and "why does Monsanto fight with farmers" and "what if Monsanto has it wrong"?

I have written about how destructive the rhetoric and "the noise of the special-interest groups", calling for a return to civility, for using "words that work", and for creating metaphors that move us towards civility once again. My personal library has grown to include numerous studies about seeds, the climate, soil use, tillage practices, and the future. Every author has an answer or a gripe, or some combination of both.

Sadly, I do not have "the answer".

Perhaps there is not one, single answer. In fact, how could there be just one answer!?

I have come to realize, however, that the underlying complexity of safe food production and of how American Agriculture feeds, clothes, and supplies the world is not as widely understood as we Americans need. Moreover, i've also come to realize that this subject matter: feeding and clothing the world safely - will only grow in importance as the planet races to embrace 9 Billion people by 2050. We need to talk about food production and future without all the rancor that controlled the health care debate.

To begin to grasp the complexity of the questions surrounding food production, safety, and availability, I encourage everyone to adopt Peter Senge's view of systems (c.f., Fifth Discipline) so as to begin to understand that whatever changes we make in one area necessarily have an impact on another area of the system.

Tonight is Jamie Oliver night at my house: my daughters' choice of programming!

So : what did you tell your teenager after s/he saw Food Inc. ?

Did, in fact, s/he see it? Did it cause a visceral reaction?

Finding "Words that work" for your customer-facing roles

"English...tends to ambiguity and obscurity of expression in any but the most careful writing."

Robert Graves, the great English poet, mythographer and translator, wrote these words in his 1943 book, The Use and Abuse of the English Language. I can only imagine how Graves might react to the language of 21^st century sales, marketing, and customer service efforts. If our written language is imperfect, what indeed can be said about our verbal skills?

For Customer Experience Management and CRM proponents, our message is this:

- there is a vital connection between your company and your customers that is forged at, and across, each touch point with them, as they move from suspect, to prospect, to trial user, to customer, and finally either to loyal customer advocate or to the position of terrorist, whose attitude threatens your reputation.

It is clear that we - each of us in those roles - must take more care, be more clear, be more precise, and more completely understandable as the company providing the service, products, solutions, and answers than our customers need be. Our front-line personnel can often feel besieged, if the customer is upset. Emotions can get in the way. In those "moments of truth", to borrow Percy Barneveld's phrase, when our frontline personnel are telling the product story, resolving an issue, or trying to sort through a complaint, the reputation and image of your company are put at risk.

Most of us understand this reality. Many of you have tried to communicate, train, and monitor your front-line people. Yet, all too often, it is the linguistic part of the interaction that causes the breakdown. I am not advocating scripting. I've never really liked the idea of any customer-facing representative having a script. I do advocate, however, guidance and planning: training, role-playing, on-going communications, and (perhaps even) a company-specific, conversational "dictionary" as actionable tools that each front-line, customer-facing individual can absorb and personalize.

In today's economy, our customers are looking for openness, resolution, and consistency. While words alone will not save or protect your reputation, words alone can sink your Customer Experience Management Efforts.

it IS what you hear

Saturday note:

It IS what you hear. I'm not trying to beat a dead horse or plug someone's book, but this simple concept, one we all forget, truly is a lesson to be held close each day. We see examples of how language "works" in our daily public lives . Just consider the raucous behavior and emotional manipulation connected with such publicly debated topics as Health Care Reform; sending more troops to (or, the withdrawal of all troops from) Afghanistan; or the effect that cap and trade legislation will have on farming or our everyday lives. Language works in our lives: it gets things done; it produces results; it exerts an influence.

Whether it is my awkward attempt to talk to my 13 year old daughter about boys or acne or ?; or your time with a counterman at the dealership; or, your conversation with your spouse, remember this simple fact: it's not what you say it's what they hear.

Put yourself in their shoes. Seek first to understand. Stop and think. Be civil, respectful, and honest. Be open. Use language designed to build conversations and relationships.

Or, put this advice into your own words and add your own "rule".

What do you want your customers to hear? Given who they are, however, how do they hear, and translate, the words that you say?

Try this exercise in a "safe environment" (say with your "bride"). Ask your listener to "play back" to you what they heard. Were you understood? What affect did your words have?

Finding words that work, however, isn't the entire story. Listening, asking for clarificaton, seeking to understand: these are additional, critical elements of conversation. Conversation is what we want between ourselves and those who matter in our daily lives, as well as between ourselves and our customers.

For those of us deeply concerned about the customer experience, loyalty and customer relationship management, distracted by the pressures of business or life, we often can overlook how language shapes our results and the relationships we have with our listeners, our customers, friends, family.

If you want to analyze the underlying issues, go ahead. It could be the result of the Fall of the Tower of Babel or the speed of change in our world or careless use of "the Mother tongue". Let me know what you think. Thanks.

If "It's what people hear"...?

How often do you listen well? How well do you listen to your customers and prospects? Better yet: How well do you hear yourself?

If you are in sales, marketing, customer service, or another "customer-facing" role, what could word-choice and your use of language have to do with your success; with your customer acquisition and loyalty efforts; or, with the entire concept of customer relationship and customer experience management? Any? None? My guess is most of us never think deeply about it? Perhaps we should.

Preparation, research, scripting, and rehearsal are important parts of our pre-call planning, before meeting, or talking, with customers and prospects. If you’re in AG, you know the facts: "stuff" such as, acreage, crops planted, inputs and equipment: heck, you many even know the dog’s name. Does it matter in some way, when you talk with these customers, if you’re waging a “campaign” or having a “conversation” or developing a relationship?

The Story of Babel.

All too often we, myself included, fail to realize the power of language in our daily personal interactions. Seemingly, if we stop to think about it at all, we tend to reserve a different style for certain situations versus others. The motives are varied: perhaps we believe that certain occasions, settings, circumstances require more conscious, formal and deliberate language, while others don’t need the precision or effort or . True enough I suppose.

Yet if you stop to listen to conversations, even our own, often words no longer mean what they once did: denotations, connotations, and the satellite of associated images no longer are as rich nor as nuanced. The end-game for casual substitution of one word for another with completely different sense would be a re-enactment of the myth of Babel.

With the fall of Babel, god left confusion: confusion that carries over in our marketing, sales and service language and CRM efforts. In the words of Willis Barnstone , “…God dispersed the word, gave us tongues and the solitude of difference, and also the impossible but pleasurable duty to repair our separation.” Translation necessarily must be a key component of our relationships and conversations. Translation is an important tool with which we can rebuild a new tower of Babel. Barnstone believes “it is an impossible task”; and, I believe it is one that clearly haunts our customer relationship efforts.

The challenge is when one word is substituted for another or mistranslated in the mind of either the speaker or listener. The slippery slope here would results with words in casual conversation having lost their precision; they no longer would retain the power of their meaning; and, eventually one word could be substituted for any other with impunity. The crime of being careless and imprecise eventually could bring about the demise of language. In all words would become the same.

Communication, as Lakoff & Johnson point out[1], “is based upon the same conceptual system that we use in thinking and acting.” When trying to build a loyalty relationship with your targeted and best, core customers, what metaphors does your organization use in its conversations with others: customer, business partners, suppliers, employees, investors, etc.? Two metaphorically structured concepts to think about are:

ARGUMENT IS WAR (think about that next time your group talks about its “campaign”).

Or,

THEORIES (AND ARGUMENTS) ARE BUILDINGS

Such mental frameworks do color our efforts to build customer relationship management and loyalty. There are a myriad of other examples about how language shapes our reality and relationship, such as: “orientational metaphors” such the special concepts “virtue is up; depravity is down” or Rational is up; Emotional is down”

In truth however, language is one of our most powerful tool in building relationships. We live according to the metaphors of our daily exchanges. The simple fact is “our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.”[2] Are we overlooking the power and value of crafting consciously the metaphors that shape our attitudes, demeanor and behavior? Our assumption is that looking at these questions squarely in the face might do more for our relationship and loyalty efforts than we previously have given credit.

---

[1] Cf. Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff & Johnson.

[2] Ibid.