The Weekly: Edition #100 - June 4th, 2021
The Art of Tough Conversations
Business owners don't stick around for long without developing thick skin and the ability to take some heat. Unsatisfied customers, employee complaints, lackadaisical vendors - the list could go on forever. Whether you are taking the heat or giving it, here are a few principles that may serve you well as an owner when dealing with tough conversations.
1. Ask questions first.
Questions diffuse problems whereas accusations inflame them. Questions also send a signal of dialogue to the the opposing party instead of hostility. Finally, questions allow you to establish a baseline of what the other party believes to be ground truth: an employee may have a legitimate concern, a vendor may have a legitimate excuse, a customer may have a legitimate complaint. You don't know unless you ask and hear their side of the story.
2. Be friendly but fair.
A smile goes a long ways. A kind word takes the edge off. Once all questions have been asked, your position may remain the same. Acknowledge their concern if it is legitimate, and if not, educate them in a friendly manner on where you stand.
3. Transparency is key.
If you are going to negotiate or have a tough conversation, allowing the other side of the table to understand the 'why' behind your position sets the tone for why both parties are at odds and lays all cards on the table. Being transparent allows you to point to the facts that have lead to the situation and creates a decision point for both sides: are you going to yield to the employee, the vendor, or the customer? If so, by how much? If not, why? Transparency is key to establishing the table stakes.
4. Choose humility over cold, unemotional logic.
Customers, employees and vendors don't want to deal with an automaton. Sometimes all they want to know is that you care, even if the situation won't change after a hard conversation. Couple transparency with humility and you may make a friend instead of an enemy.
5. Do not play someone else's game - stick to yours.
There are times when a customer will simply complain because they can, when an employee may not perform well or at all because they choose not to, or when a supplier may drop the ball because your business simply isn't that important to them. If you cannot reason with them, realize when they aren't playing the same game and are trying to extract value from a situation. It is time to move on - don't fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy, especially when your valuable time is at stake.
6. Be willing to lose the battle to win the war.
In any of the above cases, it is paramount to understand when you must give a little to gain a lot (e.g. a disgruntled customer who may be stalling on payment). Equally important is knowing when to stand your ground rather than set a precedent (e.g. employee policy).
How to do long-term (Morgan Housel)
+ "Long-term thinking is easier to believe in than accomplish. Most people know it’s the right strategy in investing, careers, relationships – anything that compounds. But saying “I’m in it for the long run” is a bit like standing at the base of Mt. Everest, pointing to the top, and saying, “That’s where I’m heading.” Well, that’s nice. Now comes the test."
How Milk Bar's Christina Tosi is bringing unabashed indulgence to grocery aisles (Fast Company)
+ "Christina Tosi has made a career of creating innovative treats from familiar, grocery-store flavors. The chef, founder, and CEO of the 12-year-old bakery chain Milk Bar has concocted soft serve ice cream that tastes like the milk left at the end of a sugary bowl of cereal, truffles inspired birthday-cake mix, and deliciously addictive cookies that blend cornflakes, potato chips, and marshmallows. So it seems almost preordained that her unabashedly playful and decadent dessert brand would find its way into supermarkets. Last April, as the world locked down and some of her Milk Bar bakeries closed, Tosi’s baked goods company made its first foray into grocery aisles with a line of Milk Bar soft-bake cookies, sold at Whole Foods. In October, the company expanded to more stores, including Target and Shoprite, and debuted refrigerator-aisle “truffle crumb cakes” (a rich cake with a cookie-like exterior), wrapped in the company’s signature bold packaging. Now, just in time for summer, Milk Bar is launching its next product line: ice cream."
How do consumers feel when companies get political? (Harvard Business Review)
+ "The fact that participants viewed engaging in liberal advocacy as neither good nor bad suggests that they thought doing so was merely normal business. This lack of cynicism, frankly, perplexed us. We live in an age where trust in fundamental institutions — be they church, state, or business — is steadily waning, especially among millennials (which was 75% of the sample). Perhaps this can be explained by our supposition that political advocacy has been absorbed to the extent that it is seen as a natural extension of a business model. Further, participants generally acknowledged that political advocacy is both a way for companies to connect with customers and promote their brand. Using advocacy to advertise to target audiences isn’t seen as manipulative pandering. Rather, it’s seen as common practice."
Will the baking industry still rake in the dough after the pandemic? (The Hustle)
+ "Aspiring bakers cleaned both brick-and-mortar and online stores out of supplies, while baking sales rose faster than your sourdough starter.
How to ask useful questions (Josh Kaufman)
+ "Keys to information-seeking questions:
Be specific about the information you're looking to obtain.
Give context by referencing why you're contacting them and how you found their contact information.
Make it easy for the recipient to refer you to the best resource as quickly as possible, which will save you both time."
Why commuters won't easily be lured back to the office (Financial Times)
+ "Nervous building owners are responding by rolling out more of the amenities popularised in recent years by tech companies such as Google and Facebook. It has become conventional wisdom in the property industry that a 25-year-old software engineer will not set foot in an office unless they are massaged each day like a Kobe cow and given access to cold-brewed coffee, outdoor space and enriching activities planned by a concierge. All that is fine. But it overlooks the many other workers who, I suspect, care little about free candy or a ping-pong table at the office. For them — and me — the great disincentive to returning to the office is the commute."
The week the shook big oil (NPR)
+ "A court in the Netherlands issued a landmark ruling against Royal Dutch Shell — an oil company already pledging to cut its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 — ordering it to act faster. At Chevron's shareholder meeting, investors voted to demand that the company reduce its contribution to climate change. The demand was short on specifics, but investors made it clear that it was not enough to use renewable energy to power oil and gas operations: Real action on climate change means selling less oil. And a much bigger shareholder revolt took place at Exxon Mobil. Activist investors took on the giant and won, delivering a stinging rebuke to the company's management."
A breakdown of Amazon's revenue model (Visual Capitalist)
+ "Amazon has evolved into more than just an online store. While ecommerce makes up a significant portion of the company’s overall sales, its diverse revenue model generates billions through various business segments. This visualization provides an overview of the different parts that make up Amazon, showing each business unit’s net sales from June 2019 to 2020."
This is the first 3-D house to be printed from raw earth (It's Nice That)
+ "Mario Cucinella Architects and Wasp, Italy’s leading 3D printing company, have completed the first house to be 3D-printed from raw earth. The process coined Tecla (standing for technology and clay) is eco-sustainable and environmentally friendly due to the production being zero waste and needing no materials to be transported to the site as it uses local soil. It took just 200 hours for multiple printers to construct the 60-square-metre prototype in Ravenna, Italy."
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