Listening to and Pleasing : What a difference!

Last week I was teaching a class about project  management to my students, so I started with the idea that a project is to meet a number of needs from stakeholders.  As usual and (un)fortunately, another idea came to my mind about how projects are born.  We tend to think that we are to continuously please our audiences (customers, students, even the wife!), so we are here for them, so as to make our jobs worth pursuing and worth paying for.  But somehow I managed to make a distinction between listening to and pleasing.

Pleasing seems to be a common trait in the work of many managers and specialists.  They want to give their audiences the best: "The customer is always right!" we hear and often accept.  The more expert we become, the more we think we 'know' what our audiences want.  But if we are going to better understand their needs, what they want to achieve in life, and more importantly how we are to support them in their life quests, it is essential to look at how we listen to them.

I said to my students: Imagine if I please you continuously, what challenges would you have to meet by yourselves?  What sort of core ideas and concepts am I going to offer to you for you to solve real life problems?  How can I stretch their minds if I just please them with all the answers, superficial content, whilst they continue browsing through their mobile phones and laptops the latest gossip in Facebook?  What if you always do what the customer says?  You should always reply to their requests, but that is different from pleasing them.  

I am not against Internet browsing (I do it a lot, even to look for the latest reviews of products that I have already bought!), as long as it does not take over concentration.  Turning this situation for the better, it seems that when 'browsing', students and customers (me included) are looking for something else in our lives. As managers and educators we should be listening to ourselves and our audiences, trying to see the bigger picture.  What is it that we really mean?  What is it that we want to achieve?  What are their worries?  

I might not be able to please myself or my audiences fully, but at least I can try to think of our and their needs and expectations.    This might take time and patience, also letting go of our idea of "thinking about the product that is to meet their needs" and replacing it for the idea that "there is a person there with a problem or a need, and I will see that I do what I can that fits both of our circumstances and help us both".  This can apply to many activities in projects, including their definition and their planning.  

And if this applies to work, how could it apply to the rest of our lives?  

Time to listen, what a precious think to have.  Listening and Pleasing, what a difference! 

What do we wait for? E-commerce during recession time

This week I gave a lecture to my students on e-commerce. When I was finishing its preparation I decided to include a few suggestions for them if they want to start an e-commerce site.

Suggestions turned out to be more about what to do with a business idea, and looking for good ideas for good businesses I decided to show a short video of Martha Lane Fox, co-founder of lastminute.com

Many people who know about what happened in the 1990s with the '.com' bubble burst would acknowledge that many e-commerce failures were not due to technology, but to lack of planning, lack of good relationships with suppliers and sellers of products, and more importantly, frenzyness.

Textbooks suggests that a proven business model is a key factor for an e-commerce site to succeed, but in the case of last minute, there was little in the way of a model that connected those who had products/services to sell, with those who were looking for them, doing a 'last minute search' on the internet.

Martha Lane Fox strikes me as a gentle but determined person, who presumably also had a good network of people to start with, and an curiosity to find out things and try out possibilities. She encourages people to think big, start small, and keep going. Wise words I think.

In another class students to whom I asked the question "What are we waiting for to start your own e-commerce business" complained 'almost immediately' that during recession times it is very difficult to start. So I told them what a wise person told me once: There is a difference between a job and an employment. The first one needs to be done regardless. The second one is a paid one.

I guess now there are many jobs to be done, connecting people, brokering information, listening carefully to what is really needed in our countries and societies. Many people (me included) find it difficult just to buy things (like the latest mobile phone!) or continue consuming what we used to consume. But I am sure if the right product comes along, I will think again.

Those people who might not feel it is a right time to start, could also think of their networks of people. I finished my lecture with another question: "Who are going to be your friends / contacts in a couple of years time?" Maybe it is time we all dig our well before we get thirsty, in case you want to have a look at the book with this title.

So what are we all waiting for?