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FranklinCovey Blog | Challenges
Simplification Reduces Uncertainty
On July 11, Apple celebrated the first anniversary of the App Store. One year and more than 1 billion downloads later, the App Store has revolutionized the software market and chalked up a wildly successful year in the middle of one of the deepest downturns in business history.
They did this by applying a key principle from Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times: focusing simply on the job real customers want done. Clearly, the App Store is successful because it allows customers to get exactly what they want immediately and in a simple and inexpensive way. As we said in the book, “Simplification reduces uncertainty. You can get more predictable results if you focus on simple, high-value offerings for the customer.”
Is the App Store simple? Absolutely. Search the catalog for what you want, and buy with one click.
Is the App Store “high-value”? Absolutely. You get low-cost applications that solve such pesky everyday problems as remembering your schedule, counting calories, and checking the weather, as well as giving you instant access to your favorite music.
We agree with the comment from Domonic on our previous post, who contributed this insight: “One of the biggest challenges I see is that people are focused more on what they have to offer than really identifying the needs of the market. They are telling the market what it needs instead of listening to clients and letting them identify what the true need is.” So true.
So many organizations just don’t get it. They are, as Domonic says, focused inwardly on what they have to offer while deluding themselves that they are customer focused. In crazy, unpredictable times, customers are very careful, but they do know a good deal when they see it.
If the App Store can solve one of my problems right now and for 99 cents, I’ll buy. And, it so happens, so will a billion other people.
So what are you doing to focus more on your customers in these wild times? Is it paying off for you? We’d love to hear.
Check out videos and tools from the book Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times
Managing Fear and Insecurity
Much of our world is gripped with a sense of fear and insecurity–fear of losing jobs, homes, or our future. In such a state of insecurity and vulnerability, it is easy to see why people might resign to being in survival mode and looking out only for themselves, at home, at work or in the community. In this environment people tend to respond by being more and more independent. The mindset becomes: “I’m going to focus on ‘me and mine.’
Certainly, independence is vital; however, the problem is that we live in an interdependent reality. Our most important work, the problems we hope to solve or the opportunities we hope to realize require working and collaborating with other people in a high-trust, synergistic way-whether at home or at work. Having an interdependent mindset, skills and tools are vital, especially now as we work through challenges unlike anything most of us have ever seen in our life time.
The principles found in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are all about helping people learn how to understand and build interdependence. The more we really understand and practice the habits, the more we will build the core skills and character necessary to successfully respond to the many challenges that will inevitably come our way. As a result, we will be able to manage our fears and insecurities, and take charge of our lives-which, in turn, can reduce our fears and insecurities.
Are you focusing on practicing interdependence? What differences have you seen in your life?
Click here to learn more about my summer webinar series on job security and career development.
Author: Stephen R. Covey
____ In a Crisis (you fill in the blank)
One of the great opportunities this downturn has created is the selling of how to do something in a crisis. I get many emails a week offering to educate me on how to do something I thought I knew how to do, but no apparently do not because we are in a crisis and everything is different. ‘How to lead in a crisis’, how to project manage in a crisis’, ‘how to sell in a crisis’, ‘how to buy a car in a crisis’, ‘how to make French onion soup in a crisis’ (well, that one wasn’t real). While everyone is on the bandwagon, they are with good cause. The crisis demands at times new actions for new challenges. However, at other times, what it demands is a recommitment to what has always worked, but was less understood in good times. This is the case with leadership.
Given that our job as leaders is ultimately to get results through our teams, and given that declining results are one of the big problems in this economy, then our problem to solve is results. And, given that we need to achieve results through people, our challenge is to help a group of people who are bombarded daily both in the workplace and the press with dour forecasts for the future, feel motivated, energized and engaged.
The good news is not only is it possible, it is probable if the leader does the right things. A crisis sets the stage for the leverage and changing of the most powerful force over behavior in an organization – culture. › Continue reading