Last Thursday’s radio show was the last in the series (just for the time being) of ‘So what’s stopping you?’ with Steve Dickinson of Dickinson Coaching. This time, we were talking about over-thinking.
We’ve all heard the expression, ‘Failing to plan is planning to fail’, haven’t we? In fact, we hear it so often it’s become a bit of a cliché. Like all clichés, there’s a lot of truth in it, especially in business. Running headlong into a project just because it excites us as individuals is no guarantee of success. Other people might not share our enthusiasm; there might be a lot of competition in the particular market – and if there isn’t, that might be because there’s no money in it. These issues would probably have come to light if we’d done a bit of planning – and we may even have found ways around them.
There is a real danger, though, at the other end of the spectrum, of potentially great ideas being strangled at birth by too much thinking. Listening to other people – especially those with more experience – is vital; but too much advice – and too much reliance on it – is as dangerous as not enough.
Then there’s the more personal kind of over-thinking which can destroy our own confidence – the kind that can start with, ‘I don’t think I’m very good at…’ and end with, ‘I can’t do…’
If you’re a thinker by nature – someone who likes to plan everything down to the last detail – you might well believe that’s just how you are and you can’t change. I know that because I’ve done it myself; but very recently, I broke the habit of a lifetime – had an idea and made it happen within a week. For the first time ever, I’m working on the basis that ‘done is better than perfect’ and I have enough business experience now to fine-tune the project as I go. Yes, I could have spent six months meticulously planning and refining. The control freak in me would have found a certain satisfaction in that; but this project is far more use to me – and my clients – out in the big bad world than it is on the drawing board.
Oddly enough, doing live radio has helped me to become less of a control freak. When everything is pre-recorded, there’s a real temptation to go on re-recording or re-editing indefinitely, in search of absolute perfection; but in a live situation, all you can do is make sure you’ve thought enough (but not too much) beforehand. Once it’s out there, it’s out there. I can illustrate that from very recent experience.
Aside from the interview with Steve, I did last week’s show on my own – without my regular colleague, Alison, who was on holiday. The whole three hours was live – no pre-recorded ‘packages’ to give me breathing space. There were several things in there which I had to do for the first time, like the weather forecast (which has to be fitted into thirteen seconds just before the news kicks in automatically), travel updates (which obviously have to be delivered clearly and logically – because people listening on the move aren’t giving you their full attention and the information you’re delivering could change the whole shape of their day) – and an interview which I didn’t know was happening until ten minutes before it went out.
Now, I interview for a living. At the moment, it’s the major part of my programme-making; but normally, I talk to the interviewee in advance, we prepare the questions together etc. This time, there was no such luxury. All I had beforehand was the girl’s name, where she was from – and the fact that she wanted to talk about ‘fish pedicures’! Still, I’m told I pulled it off.
The weather was interesting. Before the first forecast, I rehearsed it aloud three times –but the mouth went into reverse almost as soon as the mic was up. The next three were done without rehearsal – and went smoothly and to time.
The show as a whole wasn’t perfect – but what really mattered was that it got better as it went along, the feedback afterwards was great – and I learnt so much from the experience.
Steve’s parting shot last week was, ‘If there’s something you really want to do, just go for it.’ I’ll second that. Yes, do some planning and preparation. If you’re very passionate about an idea, it’s quite useful to make yourself step back a bit and try to look at it more objectively, to see it in the wider context of the market you want to go into, the trends and so on. Failing to plan without that knowledge really is planning to fail – but don’t plan it to death. If circumstances allow – if it doesn’t need too much investment to get started – there’s nothing wrong with testing the water by jumping in. Very few people ever learnt to swim by sitting on the side and watching.
I’m taking a couple of weeks off from the programme. It all starts again on 14th July, with a brand new series: ‘The only way is enterprise’ – looking at the influence of the TV show ‘The Only Way is Essex’ on local business – should be fun!
Feedback: A painful noise? Or music to your ears?
A couple of years ago, I did a presentation under this title. It was all about the similarities I’d spoted between two apparently completely different kinds of feedback – the horrible, high-pitched whistling noise you get in a studio, or with a PA system, when the mic is too close to a speaker or a pair of headphones and the sound circles around between the two, and negative comments from customers.
I hadn’t thought of it in ages – until yesterday.
I’m currently adapting a series of training courses I normally deliver personally, into downloadable packages. If you’ve never done that, it isn’t as easy as it looks. When I’m face to face with a client or group of clients, although I follow the same basic process each time, their questions and feedback play a significant role in deciding what we focus on and how I deliver the information.. The online version has to include everything and be user-friendly for everyone who wants to use it.
As I’m too close to the subject and the material to judge whether I’m hitting either of those objectives, I’ve asked a small group of people to road-test the course as I develop it. Yesterday saw the first major milestone, when I sent them the first draft of the first module.
To be honest, I was quite surprised how nervous I was – it was almost as bad as when I hit the ‘Send’ button and emailed out the very first draft of the book!
A few hours later, I was sitting in the radio studio, interviewing Caroline Thomas of Sales Scene and Louise Innes of Dotty Hippo Design, about the Thurrock Network Group and their ‘Thurrock’s Den’ project at this weekend’s T-Fest. If you’re in the area, go and check out their stand – there’s a great prize on offer for the best videoed business pitch, courtesy of the Park Inn Thurrock, Sales Scene and Dotty Hippo Design.
The interview went really well – both girls know their stuff inside out and are passionate about their subject – but through the whole thing, I could hear the familiar high howl of feedback in my headphones – OUCH! There was nothing obviously wrong and as we were live on air, there wasn’t much I could do by way of investigation – so I just had to grin and bear it – and solve it at the earliest opportunity (before the poor listener ran as far from the radio as possible, holding their ears!)
So what’s the connection between those two events? Well, as I said at the beginning, audio feedback happens when a mic gets too close to an output source. It’s a nasty noise – it can actually hurt if it’s loud enough – but it does alert you pretty quickly to the fact that there’s a problem which will, if it’s left unchecked, drive listeners away. It’s usually quite easily fixed, by putting distance between the two bits of kit which are annoying each other.
In business, we often fight shy of getting too close to our customers, in case we hear something that hurts, don’t we? I’m twitching at the moment, waiting for my test-drivers to come back to me. I’d love them to tell me my first efforts are wonderful and I should just keep doing what I’m doing – but realistically, I know they’re far more likely to offer constructive criticism. Some of it might even sting a bit – but at least it’ll tell me where the issues are at this early stage and I’ll be able to fix them before the product hits the market – and prospective paying customers vote with their hard-earned!
We tend to see complaints etc as problems – but shouldn’t we actually see them as opportunities to improve? Rather than being painful noises (avoided by putting a distance between us and the critic), shouldn’t they be music to our ears? I’m certainly trying to see them that way at the moment!