Change….

For most human beings ”change” can be the scariest thing that ever happens to them. For others it is the most invigorating. 

Regardless of which side your emotional makeup puts you, it is imperative in business and life that you know how to handle it, and make it work for you and your company.

Keith Yamashita may be the most influential consultant you’ve never heard of.  For nearly a decade, his firm’s eclectic team of designers, writers, and technologists (plus a poet, a sociologist, an ex-attorney, and not a single MBA) has tackled tough problems for some of the world’s most powerful companies. 

Here’s a crash course from Keith on the art and science (mostly art) of creating strategy and unleashing change.  (My thoughts are in italics.)

*Outlaw PowerPoint. Write down your vision as a story — with a beginning, middle, and end — to clarify what must change first.  For us radio types it might be like writing a long promo.

*Don’t rely on words alone. Bring your thinking to life: Create an exhibit, use diagrams, prototype ideas.

*Make strategy an everyday act. The creation and re-creation of strategy shouldn’t be a process that you undertake only when budgets are due.  Keep your strategic plan close at hand and top of mind.  If your plan is sound, it will answer most of the questions that come along in your day.

*Argue forcefully against your most dearly held hypotheses.  Only then will you know if they stand up to scrutiny.  (Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself and your strategy.  It’s the only way you and your plan will get better.)

*Make decisions, right or wrong. There’s nothing worse than waffling.  (Amen.)

*Take over your station.  Airtime is everything.  Reinforce your messages in everything that you do.  Use every ad, press release, store, package, and event to tell your story.

*Embrace thine enemy.  Make a list of the people who could legitimately stop your big idea from taking root.  Befriend them.  Convince them.  Make it their responsibility to improve on your vision.

*Don’t hold meetings longer than two hours.  (Otherwise they’re workshops, which require more planning.)  Don’t walk out of a meeting without assigning a name to every item that needs follow-up.  (And, who is responsible for making it happen.)

*Startle people.  Break out of your comfort zone, and do something unexpected.  Run an offbeat ad (promo).  Institute casual-dress Tuesdays.

*Don’t throw anything out.  Don’t kill ideas that won’t work right now.  Someday soon, the world might be ready for them.

Bob Glasco

bob@glascomedia.com

480-488-0903