Monthly Archives: July 2009

Food: the universal language

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One of the most popular ways for people to find common ground is over a nice meal. When we are trying to build rapport and relationships with prospective customers, we arrange a great dinner meeting. When we’re trying to impress that new girl (or boy) friend, we reserve the best seat in the house and the city’s hottest restaurant. When we’re trying to comfort someone, perhaps during a time of loss, we cook for them.

Yes, food is a catalyst for great conversations and memorable moments. Don’t under-estimate the power of food in the workplace either. When you’re in the middle of a tough project, one that has few good days and many bad ones (we’ve all been there), nothing brings a team together like a good meal at a great locale. It’s the social aspects of eating together that leads to break-throughs… we relax when we’re eating and drinking. And when resistant stakeholders’ guard is down, that’s when you really make progress. Pretense is gone and posturing is off-duty.

Of course, it’s more than just resolving differences or problems or tearing down walls… just showing up some morning with bagels and coffee or fruit and yogurt puts smiles on people’s faces. Why? No matter the situation, we all (well, most of us anyway) feel good when someone does something for us… shows some appreciation to us. It means a lot. Often, the smaller, more random acts mean the most. So the next time you’re in a bind with a customer, a colleague, a staff member, a boss, a friend or a family member… bring food. Sure you can always pick up the phone (we don’t do that enough anymore) but after that… show up with food.

By the way, speaking of food… tonight we made homemade pizzas for supper (does the word supper make me sound like a Canadian?… I hope so!!). We got the idea from our friend Cheryl and her blog 5 second rule (http://5secondrule.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/07/how-to-make-a-tortilla-pizza.html). She had a great recipe for a simple six ingredient tortilla pizza.  We improvised a bit based on what was in the kitchen (pitas for the kids)… Our six were tortillas, mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, scallions, olive oil… The result: delish! (thanks C. — here’s a pic… not as professional as yours but you get the idea).

Our Six

Our Six

What did I say about food? It puts smiles on faces… and a simple pizza even does the trick. It worked for us.

“We don’t hire consultants for advice.”

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If not… why do you hire them?  For their good looks and their bargain basement prices?  The rest of this statement was “we hire them to deliver (what we asked for).”  Ouch!

I’ve been in consulting (in some form or another) for most of my career and I can appreciate what a client is thinking when he says he just wants someone to deliver what he’s asking for.  Too often, consultants swoop in wearing their $1200 suits, conduct some high-level interviews, leave a 50,000-foot report on the table and fly off (collecting their air miles as they go) to the next one.  It’s unfortunate that consultants are generally painted with the “we don’t do what we propose” brush (remember the UPS commercial?).

So, yes, there is all kinds of fun to be made of the “consultant.”  However, in my experience (and I suspect yours as well), clients usually don’t really know what they need because they seldom have the people or take the time to analyze their situation and develop a real case for doing something.  And to implement real, lasting change, you need to have a good rationale for it in the first place… Otherwise, you’ll be the hamster on his little wheel thingy… spinning your wheels… spending lots of money on, well, who know.  Now that’s a shame.

Anyone can hire an implementation specialist to come in and do what you say.  But if you’re wrong, you’re SOOL.  A good consultant will provide you insights based on solid analysis of your problem(s) and their experience with similar problems in different organizations.  That can be incredibly valuable.

So the next time you’re simply looking for a body-shop to provide a coupla drones to carry out your latest order, take a moment to be sure YOU know what you need.  Otherwise, you will not win… and it’ll become something else you blame on the consultants.  You may not want their advice but you certainly need it.