After They Stop Believing in Santa – It’s All Down Hill

PLEASE NOTE: The following thoughts on this subject are in no way complete.

Speaking with my friend Mike, my friend, neighbor and former educator about the sorry state of things, education specifically, got me to thinking about how we allow ourselves and our elected officials to charge forward with a half-baked solution to nearly every problem we don’t fully understand and worse, problems or situations we won’t take the time to understand. You know – just fix it for me! Before I slog onward – I’m not blaming charter schools.

This is my opinion based on observations and experiences in education and is painted with a very broad brush to hopefully stimulate discussion. It is in no way, my version of the next best thing. I am trying to understand broken schools from a marketing guy point of view. Somehow, schools have been in trouble since well, the Fifties. In 1955’s Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern and Sidney Poitier the ugliness of urban public schools were projected on the big screen.

Here we are fifty-six years later and although most of the boards are whiteboards, it’s still a jungle out there. Program after program has been launched to stem the tide of the deteriorating American school system as our students continue to slip in the world rankings for educational attainment. Everything from desegregation to No Child Left Behind and nearly everything has been of little or no lasting value. Just another “look what we did” photo opportunity for some with limited results for all.

In the meantime, we still base our school calendar on the agrarian calendar and the day-to-day operation on the old mill clock. These old-world mechanics can’t continue to be applied to current educational needs. Awhile back I did a post: Fix the village. Fix the child. If the neighborhoods where the child lives are sustained, the schools will be sustained and the child will learn. The more I think about this concept, the more I believe in it. Desegregation was long overdue. However, busing was a completely backwards attempt to inject the equal in equal education. Instead of bringing up the neighborhoods, they shuffled the kids in and out of neighborhoods.

The haves and the have nots were in too close proximity and clashing like the Titans and it was an all around ugly mix especially in what was one called junior high when students become more aware of cultural trappings and identification. Urban culture didn’t evolve because “those people” didn’t want to relate to “these people” or what was available to them but rather because they didn’t fit, weren’t accepted or both. All along the education higher ups, not those in the schools, start to throw out the next best thing from their safe, arm’s length, well paid positions. Yada, yada, yada and now we’re rallying around the next best thing or flavor of the day – the charter school.

Charter schools have ended up unintentionally siphoning students, teachers and resources from public schools and are now more a part of the problem rather than the hoped for solution. If you a conspiracy theory follower, checkout where the charter school concept came about. Separate but equal is a clue. Again, I’m not blaming charter schools. It wasn’t the axe it was (or not) Lizzie.

The old chestnut - if it ain’t busted (or, broke), don’t fix it. On one hand, it makes sense to identify what is “busted” and what isn’t “busted” when looking into this issue. So you’d think somebody would know the difference between something that’s busted and something that’s not. Wrong! If the public school system in your hometown is busted, the brilliant solution is to build a charter schools – huh? Yeah, so if your house is falling apart, don’t fix it up, build another house tight next to it. The people who are in charge of the people who are education our children thought of this!

Look, the schools aren’t broken. They’re just longer connected to anything. They no longer represent anything. They no longer function the way they were meant to. You can’t run a program like No Child Left Behind in this disconnected environment – it’s not one size fits all! I’ll say it again, Fix the village - fix the child. Education starts at home. The health of the home is the health of the neighborhood. Healthy homes create healthy neighborhoods. Neighborhoods form “villages” which give a city or town character. The village is the neighborhood school’s steam gauge. The neighborhood school is central to the survival of the neighborhood and reflects its identity or lack of it. The school produces educated youth to sustain the neighborhood’s vitality and economy.

Boston’s older Southie Irish neighbors understand this. Southie is school, church and culture. They call those who left the old neighborhood two toilet Irish meaning, those who left for the suburbs for the promise of a single dwelling with two toilets. They also know by bitter experience that bussing kids doesn’t teach diversity. What it teaches is that they have more than we have. It creates a separate them and us environment. Birds of a feather do flock together. At the end of the day, the kids from the poor neighborhoods go right back to where they came from.

Busing is very expensive and I’m not talking about the cost of fuel. Yes every town has two sides of the tracks. Why did families escape to suburbs to begin with – better schools! The schools were centralized and ripped out of neighborhoods to save money and, at this point in this posting, the tail has begun chasing the dog.

The simplest of all questions is: why? Sometimes all you need is that one word. Why do we question the cause or reason of an outcome that was either unacceptable or unexpected? It can only be answered with: because. Because defines the outcome’s existence as on account of what was not acceptable or was not anticipated. Why then, do our children begin to fail when they reach the middle-school years? This feeds the frenzy over our broken schools. Before I answer that, let me once again say that the hardest questions may usually have the simplest answers. And, for that reason, the answer or the solution it represents is rejected.

Our children begin to fail when they reach the middle-school years because, based on my friend Mike’s observations, it’s not just the disconnection of the school system, it’s a society that has forced them to grow up before their time to become childlike adults. They begin to fail when they reach the middle-school years specifically because they have stopped believing in childlike things. Or, worse yet, they have been taught or coerced to stop believing and that’s the sad truth of it. In what have they stopped believing? I know the answer will make you laugh or sit there in your own state of disbelief but, think about it. Middle school is the cultural bottle neck that’s choking the system.

Today, when children stop believing in Santa it’s not an awakening or a rite of passage. It is simply the revelation of life’s cold, hard reality. The casualty list of disbelief also includes the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. It, unfortunately, includes the loss of an element of childhood that, for many, can never be replaced – a sense of wonder. And, too, one of the victims is their own self-worth. All too often, this loss of belief coincides with art and music being downplayed in their curriculum. They enter a new phase in their intellectual and emotional development. Of course, the often pointed out culprit is their physical development especially when hormones seem to overshadow everything.

Not only is their disbelief in all things equated with childhood a factor. Those old beliefs are now replaced with a new belief system they may not really be prepared for. Yet, while this crisis of belief swirls in their consciousness, they come to believe, through their newly emerging social development, that they have certain rights and privileges in regards to specific social behaviors but they’re, as the retail industry has labeled them, ‘tweens. They are in a nether zone and are neither child nor teen.

Moms work because of taxes and the cost of health care. Sure, there are those who want a career. That’s not a problem. But when you combine all of these factors you get the childcare industry. Are they really just professional parents? The culture is shaping society into an ugly homogeneous blob. Working parents feel guilty about not being there so they give their children “things” and “experiences” to make up for it.

Every public school should be autonomous as to the extent of defining the neighborhood character and serving the unique need of the neighborhood. Where do we start? By creating a future for our children in the place where they were born. Our greatest export is educated youth. Send your kid to college and they’ll never come back even if they wanted to. The “village” needs to assist our educated youth by encouraging them to start businesses or create employment opportunities. So yes, student/child centric advocates are a requirement.

And finally, neighborhood kids can walk to neighborhood schools eliminating cost and maintaining environmental sustainability. Yes, this is decentralization. And, no, it is more financially appropriate because the delivery system is direct, easier to maintain and offers more value to the neighborhood(s) that comprise the village(s) which define the city’s geography, character and quality of life.

Charter schools should be developed for specific needs such as middle school vocational schools, centers for encouragement and advancement of talented and gifted children (which, by the way, I feel are getting a raw deal because they’re smart so why do they need help?) and as experimental innovation centers that test new technology or methodology before it’s released to the system.

The Sultan of SWOT & the Greatest Show on Earth!

I was at a business meeting the other day. A marketing position was described. On my way back to my sanctuary, it hit me. What an interesting concept – Sultan of SWOT. Imagine having a job where your primary purpose was to constantly monitor and report what’s really going on inside and outside the organization. Of course, this position would be supported by other marketing professionals who form a multi-faceted and brilliant marketing team.

As a Sultan of SWOT, you could go into the field and speak with the organization’s frontline and support personnel, as well as, the consumer. Wow! Marketing 101 teaches you that SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) is an analytical tool that assists in defining internal and external factors. Now, here’s the most interesting aspect of this tool; internal factors are controllable while the external ones are not.

The internal factors include your organization’s Strengths and Weaknesses. These are controllable. You can always increase your strong points and decrease or eliminate your weak points. But, there’s one factor that has to be understood, and that’s the human propensity to exaggerate strengths and downplay weakness. With that in mind, the Sultan would have to be very objective. Objectivity comes down to black and white or, what is and what isn’t. Business managers and owners say they like objectivity until and unless it hits too close to home. The wallet, the ego or both – ouch!

Internal controllable factors need to be identified almost every day. What is it that you are doing and why? Is there a better way to do it? Is the way you’ve always done what you do something you should continue to do? Most internal controllable factors are facility, equipment or people related. Controlling these elements may require a pattern of small, consistent changes or alterations. Or, it may require large and costly attention. But first, you have to assess if your perceived strengths are supported by physical evidence. As for your weaknesses, are they perceived based on some sense of inferiority or do they really exist and what can be done to overcome them?

The Sultan’s job, as easy as it may first appear to be, gets a bit more exciting when the uncontrollable external factors are analyzed. Opportunities may also be overblown while Threats are downplayed. The only control you have of these uncontrollable factors, threats specifically – i.e. rising fuel prices, is to first be aware of them before they cause you a sense of fear, urgency and doubt. With all of these supportive and pertinent facts, devise a solution or a plan to deal with the threat efficiently and effectively. The best innovations are brought forth in times of crisis.

As for opportunities, they require a significant objective point of view. One of the Zen masters said that success is not about knowledge or luck but a matter of timing. Of course, I can’t find that quote now that I need it. Opportunities then are presented through vigilant observation and a honed sense of awareness. The secret is the same as the answer to the old joke of how to get to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice, practice.

How does the Sultan do this job confidently and competently for the marketing team? If the old school of sales was correct in stating that nothing happens until something gets sold, then the analysis should focus on the consumer more often than it does on the competition. How strong is your organization when it comes to offering and delivering your customers what they want primarily based on their expectations and with consistency? And, from a Zen perspective, where you are not strong, you are weak. As for opportunities, a consumer-centric approach is also required.

Consumers not only buy. Buying is not the result of selling. Buying reveals many things. When do they buy? How often? Are most transactions single purchases? Do buyers come to you alone or are they accompanied by others? Who are these others? Are they potential customers too? Buying reveals character. Character defines incidence.

Being a Sultan of SWOT is sounding better and better. As you may know, the original “The Sultan of Swat” was baseball legend Babe Ruth who, in 1927, hit 60 home runs and by doing so broke his own record. That record would stand until 1961 when another Hall of Famer, Roger Maris broke it. What record would your marketing team’s Sultan of SWOT achieve? How about defining and assisting in the delivery of what your customers really want with almost pinpoint accuracy?

How about developing an almost uncanny ability to forecast market trends and managing to avoid threats on an almost consistent basis? Of course, in order to achieve this, your Sultan would need to get out among the people to smell the grease paint and hear the roar of the crowd at the greatest show on Earth – your business!

A Question Ain’t Really a Question, if You Know the Answer, too.

I’m following up on Laws 4, 5 and 6 of the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by marketing legends Reis and Trout. I lead off this post with the words of singer and songwriter John Prine - a question ain’t really a question, if you know the answer, too – from his classic song, Far From Me. I’ve said before that clients tend to look for solutions (answers) to problems (questions) they’ve identified or, should I say, think they’ve identified. Why? The answer is that they think the problem, in order to really be qualified as a problem, has to be complicated. So with this in mind, let’s take a look at Immutable Law Number Four - Marketing is not a battle of products, it's a battle of perceptions.

What we perceive we believe. Two great thinkers believed this. The Media Guru of the last century, Marshall McLuhan said, “All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.” Sure, blame it on the media. If it didn’t work, who would we have to blame? The penultimate Renaissance Man, Leonardo da Vinci said, “All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” So, if consumer perception is a problem – change it! If they have no perceptions – create some!

If perceptions are that powerful, then it’s true what Prine wrote and sang that, “Well, a question ain't really a question, if you know the answer too.” If we really know what the answer to the question is, then why do we bother? Maybe it’s psychological. Does it offer us some form of control or it’s less fearsome than admitting that we either don’t know what the problem is or we do, and can’t bear to deal with it? This is especially true in family operated businesses where one of the relatives is not performing as someone hired from outside the family would be expected to. The mantra I’m still working on goes as follows: perceptions lead to thoughts, which lead to actions. Which, lead to habits that, in turn, define behavior. Like behavior determines culture and so on.

You are the word! Don’t believe it? Do these words hurt when they’re directed at you? Bum. Sleaze. Fool. Thief. Should they? If they do, is it because you associate yourself with the word? More than likely. Immutable Law Number Five - The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect's mind. What word do you own that customers immediately associate with your product or company? Why is that word associated with your product or company? Does it represent the same perception of your product or company that you have? If so why? If not, why not?

Changing a perception is more difficult than creating one. Once the perception is embraced by personal belief or an accepted belief system, it’s hard to change. The lament, when there is no other recourse is usually, say it ain’t so. Now, I’m not a sports fan but, that lament came about as the result of an early baseball hero’s involvement in the Black Sox Scandal, which was about a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series. A young boy supposedly coined the phrase - say it ain’t so Joe - as he tugged on Joseph Jefferson Jackson’s coat. Jackson was better known as "Shoeless Joe" and played for the Chicago White Sox. Scandal is a small word but it carries a lot of weight. Sometimes – forever!

Albert Einstein stated that two solid objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Therefore, based on that premise, let’s look at Immutable Law Number Six - Two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect's mind. Why? Because if you can’t distinguish or describe something, by defining its differences, there is then, cause for confusion. Confusion is conflict. Miller Beer’s less filling, tastes great campaign is a classic and one of the very few to use conflict to its advantage. Can you?

Since I started with John Prine, I’ll end with him and the song, Far From Me that this posting is titled after. In his inimitable style, he writes about how his girlfriend is signaling the end of their relationship as follows:

She asked me to change the station
Said the song just drove her insane
But it weren't just the music playing
It was me that she was trying to blame.

Verify your customer’s perceptions. Verify the word they most associate with you. Verify whether or not you are described or distinguished in a manner that differentiates you from the competition. With that in mind, here’s the end of Prine’s song and his lovelorn character’s perceptions, although evident, are now verified.

"Will you still see me tomorrow?"
"No, I got too much to do."
Well, a question ain't really a question
If you know the answer too.

Finally, with the spirit of the song still in mind, the title seems appropriate to end this posting. How far is the answer from you?

Here We Are. But, How the Heck Did We Get Here?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the path of each man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours.” What do we prepare for? Is it the hereafter? A sure lot of it goes into doing our taxes. And, of course, there’s the exams, job interviews or the hopefully never to be rainy day. Why also, are we so habitual in our routines? So much so, that it appears out pets can read our minds when, in reality, they are more aware of our habits and routines than we are because they’re better observers of the human condition. Have you asked yourself if you are ever really retrospective enough? Or, do we just save retrospection for funerals, tragic aftermaths and get-togethers where reminiscing is naturally rampant? Today’s new word for retrospection is reflection. Are we all spending too much time reflecting on the coulda’, woulda’, shoulda’ episodes of our lives?

And, why is our genius, according to Emerson who lived a long time ago, contracted so much so as to only be perhaps a few measly hours in length? His genius seems to still fill volumes and continue to inspire people like me who think about these kinds of things. Was his generation and those of his time smarter than us? Or, did they just possess more common sense? We’re smarter than we believe we are aren’t we? Or, is that one of the problems that plagues us? The inimitable and ubiquitous author of Murphy’s Laws said that common sense wasn’t common. According to www.murphys-laws.com, a website dedicated to the business and cultural phenomena known as Murphy’s Law. Murphy, who coined the phrase, if anything can go wrong, it will, was Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981. Someone on the project team obviously thought the captain’s observations of the challenges of the project were auspicious enough, if not brilliant enough to record for posterity. The rest is history.

Maybe, we all have lots of brilliant moments but no one is around to appreciate, record and share them. Or, maybe they really didn’t add up to as genius-worthy as we’d like to think in retrospect.

With all of the above in mind, do we prepare ourselves for, or are we as aware of perhaps other moments of genius that we’re not fully aware of? Moments, that could be described as butterfly moments in our day-to-day experiences? A butterfly moment, at least to me, is one where, if we hadn’t answered the phone, we would have missed the job offer. Because we missed the job offer, we never worked for the person who lived across the street from the person we would have never met and would have never married.

If we remain in our routines, when do we ever find the time for retrospection? Do we really need the time to remember where we’ve been, as much as, is this where we thought we’d end up? What does any of this have to do with a blog about marketing? A lot I think. What’s the difference between the two? We prepare for success in life and in business. Yet, we become mundane and trapped in our routine manner of running things. Hindsight is as close to retrospection as we’ll ever get. It offers us the opportunity to realize whether we’ve been part or parcel to a moment of genius, or one of humbling stupidity. Perhaps the wise old turtle in the Kung Fu Panda movie can offer us a bit of wisdom and, more importantly, clarity. Oogway said that movie’s main character, Po the panda would never fulfill his destiny until he let go of the illusion of control.

Is control an illusion? I’ve always believed that marketing offers businesses a sense or method of control allowing for the origination of marketplace changes while, at the same time, determining the best way to deal with change in the marketplace. How many businesses, as Master Oogway would have put it, meet their destiny on the road taken to avoid it? I’ve been trying to synthesize what I truly believe marketing is to my students every time I step foot in the classroom. One of the discoveries I’ve made in retrospect is that, yes, and the solution to a problem can sometimes be as simple as the problem itself. Not all problems are difficult. And, not every difficult problem requires a difficult solution.

At this point in my life and here, in this blog, I believe that as Shakespeare wrote, “We know what we are, but know not what we may be” is what is hampering the output of those moments of genius. We may simply be paying too much attention to the preparation of what it is we know needs to be done. Does it feel right? Is this what our customers have demonstrated they really want, or not? Is it the correct thing to do? The routine is important.

Routines are systems. But, a mindless routine offers no time to step back and see the affects of our labors. On the other hand, retrospection is more than a post mortem, or a scorecard. It is, hopefully more than, “a tale; told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing,” as Shakespeare’s Macbeth believed. So, here I am. But, how the heck did I get here? I’ll reflect on that and get back to you…