Suggestions

Suggestions Accepted, Obsolete Or Desired

Garth Beyer

Do you have a suggestion box at the office or hub?

Give it a try. You’ll learn one of two things.

If you don’t find any suggestions in the box, you will either know your team is comfortable enough to voice their suggestions openly without the need for a suggestion box or that you need a different team.

If you find a handful of suggestions in the box, you know to make your team feel more comfortable and to open yourself up to idea generation for business improvement.

 

Stay Positive & This, Of Course, Is Just A Suggestion

The Problem With Advice, Suggestions, And Orders

Garth Beyer

It’s one thing to give them out to someone; to think critically before doing so with a selfless goal in mind.

It’s another to be given advice, suggestions or orders from someone. Most of what people recommend, suggest or oder 659315_5ba9794c89you to do is what they would have liked to do themselves. In essence, they are attempting to live and learn from the experience through you. It’s a great way to learn, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not a great way for you to learn.

So many of us have a curious tendency when it comes to decision-making, especially when its other people making the decisions. We’re more risky when giving advice to someone because we’re not the ones who will follow through with it, receiving consequences and all.

I’ve even given advice that I would never do for the single reason of wanting to know how it would have turned out. (Full disclosure: We were both interested in what would happen if he took my advice.)

Quit plainly, we’re reckless when it comes to advice, suggestions, and orders.

Which is why I’m telling you of a solution to it. Ask.

 

Stay Positive & Ask, Ask, Ask

Garth E. Beyer

Photo credit

Vending Machines

Garth Beyer

Why don’t vending machines have a slot for consumers to suggest what they would like to purchase from the machine next time it gets refilled?

No pretzels? Put in request.

Machine gets refilled. Pretzels found.

You can aim for the mass or you can aim for those who will purchase from you and hope to still please the mass in doing so. If not, it doesn’t quite matter. You still made a sale.

More On The 2nd Part Of Being Scared

Garth Beyer

There are two parts to everyone being scared.

The second is my favorite because it has the potential of making you feel better than you ever have before. At my work, I have evaluated applications from students that have put in more than 2,000 hours of community service over a span of four years. But when I think of the second part of fear, I can’t help but realize that more empowering results can be created by talking to someone for two minutes.

Online example

Despite Twitter’s popularity, it’s far from perfect. In fact, I gave their ads a try and was revolted. They gave me $50 to start running ads and I quit before it was spent.

They also required you to have a debit/credit card on file before they gave you the money. Once I quit my ads, I wanted to delete my debit card information. I could not find any place to do this. So, I emailed them.

Within a day I received an email saying that the feature I requested was not available and that they would work on it – in the mean time I would basically have to deal with it.

Since then, a few weeks have passed. The other day, I opened my email to find this:

Twitter

There is always room for improvement

Whether the person, company, or client you’re talking to follows through with your suggestion – or in Twitter’s case, takes your unfulfillable request and turns it into something real – it’s still your responsibility to make that suggestion.

Out of the millions of Twitter users, I have no clue how many will be happy that they can delete their card from their account. I have no clue how many employees it took, how much red tape it had to go through, or how successful their actions really were. What I do know is that they took a request, an idea, and made it happen. And for that – although I still can’t stand the ads, – I will stick by Twitter’s side.

Personal examples

An old friend of mine wanted to start a blog about teen dads. I gave him roughly five lines of hard encouragement. I told him exactly what he needed to do. He never did. I didn’t let fear get to him, he did.

Another friend of mine was applying to law school and asked if I would review his personal statement. I gave him a few suggestions but explained more about human personalities and how those reviewing the application are real people. He understood, realizing that there was fear that the person reviewing his application might misjudge him. Because of fear, he wrote a safe statement. Once I called him out on it, he made some changes and while he has yet to hear back, I’m sure he will get in.

I shared a speech I wrote with a respectable entrepreneur. She critiqued the staleness and boredom out of it. Because of her, my speech became more remarkable. I also gave the original draft to a friend who said it was good, providing a couple grammatical corrections. You can guess which one had more of an impact.

Criticism is tough work

So is encouragement, accountability, and inspiration – all of which are required to back up another’s dance with fear. I’ve always thought that doing your own work is easy, well, maybe not easy, but always easier than helping someone else do their own work.

I suppose that’s why I love giving people feedback. Maybe, just maybe, they will see how valuable it is to them, that they give feedback to someone else.

 

Stay Positive & Let Others Know What You Think And Feel

Garth E. Beyer

Missed Connections

Garth Beyer

Successful businesses are built around the idea of connecting. And with new media, this has never been easier to do.

Just yesterday I posted on Seabird’s Facebook page and they actually responded with an honest and sincere update. I thought to them I was just a fan. Now, I’m a friend.

Today I posted a suggestion on Boulders climbing gym’s page. Instead of saying something along the lines of “great idea, we’ll consider it.” They asked me a couple of questions in an effort to make my suggestion happen.

I see business to stranger interaction on Twitter all the time. The result? No longer strangers, no longer consumers, no longer another person on the email list. Instead: friends, connections on an emotional level, and above all, real trust.

What I see is businesses connecting with strangers and turning them into friends. Next, what I believe businesses need to do is discover a way to then connect friends with other friends.

For example, a friend of mine is working on her first startup. She is building a website that you can rent graduation gowns from other students who graduated before you. She can connect well with the target audience, being a recent graduate herself.

But what matters most to her business plan is the level of social interaction and connection she is using to leverage herself. It’s not just about saving money on a cap and gown. It’s about inspiring, creating, aspiring, and sharing your story with other past and current graduates within your field of interest and geography. Beneficial connections for any graduate!

If I may throw an idea in. I think every Facebook page for a restaurant/gym/local shop/retail store/movie theater (you get the idea) should have a missed connection portion on their page.

Business to peer connecting has gotten easy. Now, to benefit more than your competition, it’s about businesses connecting their peers to other peers.

 

Stay Positive & Once You Connect, Connect Others

Garth E. Beyer

On What To Write About

Garth Beyer

Writer, novelist, journalist, whatever your title, the question always comes up, what should I write on?

For many, we have plenty of ideas to keep us occupied. However, that doesn’t always mean that our readers want the same things that we want to write about.

There is a simple solution.

I’ve recently interviewed Doug Moe, long time columnist for the Wis. State Journal. When asked about how he decides what to write on, he mentioned that he gets a lot of his ideas from his own history. Things happen to connect for him. On the other hand, he also gets a lot of suggestions from readers, friends, and people looking to be profiled.

Doug elegantly entwines what he wants to write about and what other people want him to write about, all the while making it so that each piece is loved and felt by the people of Madison.

When you can’t come up with ideas for what to write on, or your ideas aren’t appealing to your audience, don’t quit, don’t give up, don’t put down the pen. Get people to suggest stories for you and run with them like you’ve been handed a batton in the Olympics.

Every idea for your audience is a treasure, or at least it will be viewed as one when you’re done writing about it.