Obliquity: Why our goals are best achieved indirectly

Obliquity is the idea that implies that complex goals are best achieved indirectly.  The book explains why the happiest people aren’t necessarily those who focus on happiness, how the most successful cities aren’t planned, the most profit-orientated companies aren’t usually the most profitable. 

This means to attract your customer indirectly, by making them curious, by being different, unpredictable and extraordinary in thy way you promote your business. Some aspect of this behavior is partly manifested in adolescent hood.  So, people of that age, tend to be different, follow the trend, they tend to do the things the adults say not to do etc. And as we all know, at the end the adolescents are at the center of attention of teachers at school and at families at home.  So what business needs to do in this competitive world is to “imitate” adolescents, is not to say things directly but they have to be wise by winning indirectly.

In other words, I would say that it is of great importance that one often has to take a step backwards in order to move forward because in taking a step back a person becomes less attached with his or her goals, almost loses sight of them, and is then able to see things in clearer perspective without focusing continuously on one thing. The aim of a company is to sell his product or service and raise the profitability, but by focusing in the customers needs and complains, that company achieves its aim and retains its customers. 

The experiences perceived during the time that you want to achieve something are more important than the result itself (this is addressed more to personal life experiences than to business). So as the known quotation says; everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it. The intentions are more important than the results, as intentions construct our experiences and judgments, makes us learn and improve even if we fail at the end. The happiness is achieved and is perceived by us when we experience and live special moments. When we are focused in our goals, may be we run the risk of loosing opportunities that can appear in the way out. 

As the known quotation says; everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

How to Change the World - Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas

We have spoken, discussed and read a lot about change; what prevents change, how to overcome our immunity to change and so on. In fact what is happening today is that people in general want change to happen, want that the company where they work to be successful, they want to be contribute and improve the social environment where they live etc. At the same time they continue to do nothing and expecting from the others to do it. We theoretically agree that the change begins from us, and practically we expect it from others.

At work you might have an idea that might be very brilliant, that calls for change but you do not take the risk of taking actions as it might make you lose credits. I think that we still do not believe enough in our capacities and in our ability to make this a better world to live in. The examples given in the class by the professor they were great men who did not choose to flight their home country and to find their creativity somewhere abroad. They stayed in their poor country and they found their inspiration and the power to make big changes there.

We should start to believe in our ability, and we should not ignore our ideas. We should be open with ourselves, our friends, our colleagues. At first, our idea might seem an ordinary one; it may also seem ridiculous at first. It does not matter, evaluate your thoughts and ideas, and share them with whoever you can, in order to construct them. Make yourself think and others as well. To me: No idea is bad idea, without evaluating it.

Immunity to change

There are identified three necessary ingredients in the book: Head, Heart and Head. The extent to which a person is connected to all three will almost certainly determine the extent to which that person will be able to achieve and then sustain the significant changes that are desired

The challenge is to establish and then sustain a connection with each of the three necessary ingredients in proper balance with each other. The “head and heart" work simultaneously to engage both thinking and feeling throughout change initiatives, and the "hand" implies the importance of doing what the mind perceives and the heart wants s to be done.

I want to make another point; the word “Change” means to cause to be different.  So one can make a change and only at the end of the day one will realize if it was worth doing it. So to change does not mean to improve, so people are not convinced if at the end of their changing proceeds they are going to be satisfied and proud of it (If not carefully thought and planned-Heart&Head&Hand). The steps that you or the company will make in order to change may result in very positive outcome but at the same time it may result in negative results. This is the reason that it is difficult for people to overcome the immunity that we have toward change, as it means to risk. So people feel more comfortable in the position that they are, and they fear to change. But even if they fear to change, it is a learning opportunity and consequently, even after failing they have an learning experience from their mistake that they did not have before.

I advice that people should dare to change, and it will be better for them if they dare logically. Because they succeed and be extraordinary when they dare logically ( as the authors quote: "perception without conception is blind"- Kant)

Followership,

We usually tend to overestimate and to concentrate on managers and leaders rather than to the low rank employees, called first line employees. In the focus of the book written by Prof. Barbara, as the title implies, is not leadership but followership. So she has shifted our attention from leadership to followership. She argues that followers are as important as leaders, defining 5 types of followers in her book: Isolate Bystander, Participant, Activist and Diehard.

Kellerman argues that a big organization's fate can be surprisingly dependent on how well it understands thousands of low-ranking employees, and makes them more effective. This is best manifested at service industries. The service industry is very variable, as it calls for managerial and leader presence as much as it calls for effective first line employees presence. A very good result is achieved when exist a leader-follower interaction. Due to the works that they have to handle, and due to the fact that most of the services in hospitality service are 24h services (reception, security, technical assistance etc), they often are not always present with the guest as the first line employees. The guest will make the check in and the check out with the receptionist, will call the receptionist for whatever they might need or for the guest at the bar/ restaurant the first contact will be the waiter, and he will handle all his requests. 

The guest satisfaction depends on the level of service he is experiencing; consequently the guest loyalty is conditioned by the service that the first line employees are offering. The first line employees should be empowered and they should interact with the leaders (managers), they both should follow the company vision. There are cases when the managers tend to see themselves as “God”, sometimes also expressing this nonsense feeling in words when giving orders (I am the leader here!). Leadership must guide followership, it must stay on the followership side, always supporting and directing to the desired result. The leader should communicate give and take feedback from its followers. 

Click, The Magic of Instant Connections by Ori & Rom Brafman

Click, is written by the Brafman brothers. Ori Brafman is an organizational business consultant. Rom Brafman is a psychologist with a private practice in Palo Alto, California. This book, is explaining the entire perceived situation in our real life (the one that we name “Coincidence”) and more specifically it addresses to business, but only through analyzing the psychological factors shaping our attitude.

Most of the situations that are described in "click" were things like star-performing athletic teams, teams of inventors, scientists, linguists, and other such connections. Only few examples did deal with romantic relationships, but it was not the essence of the book. At this point the Brahmans explore what it means to “click”: the common factors present when our brain and senses are completely present. Why do we click in certain situations and with certain people, but not with others? Is there a way to create such experiences, whether on a date or at work?
They identify five “accelerators” that increase the likelihood of these kinds of magic connections in our work and relationships. In peak experiences, as the ones given as example in the book, when our senses are completely focused on the moment, person or object, are something that individuals and companies aim to achieve. 

Through employing the click approach we will feel more present, engaged in the situation, in touch and more involved in our personal relationships but also in a team work as well. So the people who click tend  to succeed at their work, but click also also helps business attract new customers and retaining the existing ones. This is due to the “click consequences”, as it is mentioned before it is a long lasting phenomenon.

The Power of Positive Deviance,

Positive Deviance is an approach to social change that enables communities to discover the wisdom they already have and then to act on it (Sternin & Choo, 2000; Pascale & Sternin, 2005; Singhal & Dura, 2009).  “Positive” means to do things right, and “deviance” because it engages behaviors that the society do not make use. 

There are a lot of non logical norms that the society makes use even today, like the cases that the professor gave in his lecture.  At the center of those cases were some very poor countries in Africa, Argentina, Mexixom, Egypt etc. In my short writing I will not go so far away, but I will talk about my home country; Albania. As everybody know in the north of Albania is still in practice “Kanuni I Lek Dukagjinit”. For those that do not know it; it consists some written norms  of the North men that that are strictly followed, so when somebody is in quarrels and fights with somebody else (for a specific reason) and that fight concludes in a murder. The relatives of the murdered person must take blood (kill) to the person that survived the fight. It means that the person that that must be killed could be the person who participated in the flight or any of his family members (children and adults). After they kill somebody from that family, somebody else from the family of last killed person must take blood again. So it continues like this (from generation to generation), it can stop only if the last family forgives the murder and do not seek to take blood again. It is sad and it is illogical and it causes a lot of pain and suffering to both families, as to my opinion there are no winners in such situations. But they are laws to be followed and if you do not get the forgiveness of the family which is in blood you cannot change it.   

In this mad situation a solution has to be found and the approach of positive deviance should take place. People should be aware of the results of their behavior and should begin to be deviant to the laws of the canon. There are some organizations which are working with this matter, but we hear news almost every day about the victims of these phenomena. The positive change should being by the people themselves that are suffering this phenomena. They should first IDENTIFY this as a PROBLEM not as a solution and then they have to think SMART, because the reasons they have to do it are more than enough.

In conclusion I can say that we should not be tied to traditional norms of our society (regarding every aspects of it; as we face this norms every day of our life), we should change continuously and it is the time when we have to evaluate our position, learn from it but at the end we must be deviant in every situation. This is the only way we can make it better. Think!

Thank you, 

Groundswell- Winning in the world transformed by social Technology

Today’s information world is leaded by internet, and it has become more and more popular because of the power of connectivity and communication it contains. Internet was invented in the year 1973, and since then, it has developed itself at a tempest rate. Its development and the technology transformation have a large impact on every aspect of life (business, economy, science, education, social life, health care etc.).  It goes in parallel with technology transformation and it expands itself through the social, economical and political activities of people all over the world, and the impact that it has grows exponentially. In this new world created through internet and technology transformation, there exist no borders or geographical separation.  So every distant place, experience or resource of information becomes “reachable” and “touchable".

Social technology, as a new application, is and will continue to create systemic change for any and all businesses. It is a new system of communications that connects people, customers, suppliers, employees and entire markets. It does not call for advantages and disadvantages elements ( as adv and disadv. depends on the strategy that you make use of it),  can have a lot of advantages when managed and used properly, as the customers are becoming everyday more and more reachable through it. Customers are at the heart of every business with social technologies having wide ranging benefits on loyalty, average spend, frequency of spend, referrals and overall customer satisfaction. In addition social technologies deliver deep insight into customer demand. In social networks, people stay in touch with information and recent offers and at the same time companies stay in touch with the customers (market). 

I will explain by taking as an example booking networks. There are a lot of GDS systems that offer the possibility of e-commerce and more specific online booking. There are worldwide online system that is used to book hotel rooms, flights etc. In this site people can read reviews of  the hotel guests, and through their reviews create an impression of this hotel and its service. We can always find there two categories of witting: The one that enjoyed staying there and will choose it again and the one that had complains for their specific reasons (that may be also comments written by the competitors). But this page and the guest reviews are important because when they form a majority (for both mentioned experiences ), the people who visit this site can have an objective view of the hotel and its service. while complains help the hotel check and improve itself. It help the hotel industry to grow itself through satisfied customers or vice versa. The only advantage that is at the same time an advantage of the social technology for companies (that helps a company win but at the same time loose)  is the openness of the market (makes reach people worldwide) and a lot of competitors in this opened market (makes loose its customer).

Thank you,