DW's Blog

Are feelings relevant in an organization?

by DW Green — December 3, 2018

It’s about competing with yourself

Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, I became a non-conformist, a maverick, and a Beatles fan, always questioning and challenging the status quo. I think that’s why the study of brands is so appealing to me. Branding is about connecting companies emotionally to their customers and helping them differentiate themselves in their markets. It’s about leading, not following. It’s about competing with yourself, making your company better, stronger, staying relevant in an ever-changing world and creating the best possible shopping EXPERIENCE for the customer.Take a look at a different organizational paradigm. Consider refocusing on the deep longings we have for community, meaning, dignity, purpose, and love in our organizational lives. Begin to look at the strong emotions of being human, rather than segmenting ourselves by believing that love doesn’t belong at work, or that feelings are irrelevant in an organization. Begin to see ourselves in much richer dimensions, to appreciate our wholeness, and hopefully, to design organizations that honor and make use of the great gift of who we humans are.In a word, it’s purpose. What is the underlying purpose of your organization?

...
read more

Millennials

by DW Green — November 28, 2018

Beliefs and values are based on our life experience

Years ago, we did a lot of research on millennials. Our goal was to discover ways we could better connect with them from a marketing perspective. More importantly I learned better ways to communicate and manage millennials at the workplace. Since our beliefs and values are based on our life experience, it’s important to understand the “world” different generations have grown up in.Check out this link on Millennials. This is very interesting. 16 minutes long.Time to study up on Gen Z (also called Homelanders or GenEdge). Here’s the surprise. Gen Z shares generational DNA with their grandparents and great-grands, the Silent generation that came of age in the wake of World War II.

Read More – What an A-Hole!

...

by DW Green — November 20, 2018

Gratitude is one of the greatest expressions of love.

Today and everyday is a time to be grateful. The more we practice gratitude, the more we see how much there is to be grateful for, and our life becomes an ongoing celebration of joy and happiness. When we master gratitude, we perceive God in everything, and our reaction is love and gratitude for the greatest gift, which is life.To live with gratitude is to enjoy every moment of this precious gift that comes from God. Gratitude is one of the greatest expressions of love. To express what is in our hearts is to be truly alive. Just saying thank you will open all the doors to an abundance of life’s blessings from all directions, but especially an abundance of love.Since Thanksgiving is the “official” day to express thankfulness for our blessings, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for clients and staff, past and present, who have provided me with so much joy, knowledge, wisdom and happiness.Thank you all very much and Happy Thanksgiving.DW “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a ho...

by DW Green — November 15, 2018

My ego has gotten the best of me at times.

I’ve always had an interest in the ego. We all have one, and the fact that our ego effects our relationship with life. I know my ego has gotten the best of me at times.Ego defined: A person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance. The part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity.I read the following in the November 6th Harvard Business Review. It’s written by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter. An edited version below.“Our ego is like a target we carry with us. And like any target, the bigger it is, the more vulnerable it is to being hit. In this way, an inflated ego makes it easier for others to take advantage of us. Because our ego craves positive attention, it can make us susceptible to manipulation. It makes us predictable. When people know this, they can play to our ego. When we’re a victim of our own need to be seen as great, we end up being led into making decisions that may be detrimental to ourselves, our people, and our organization.An inflated ego also corrupts our behavior. When we believe we’re the sole architects of our success, we tend to be ruder, more selfish...

by DW Green — November 6, 2018

When we develop Brand Foundations for clients, we begin our work, with what we refer to as the “Soul of the Brand”. Or the meaning of the brand. Over the years, we’ve experienced some apprehension for using the word soul to describe the unique meaning of a business. Like a person, the soul of a business is actually the essence of who the business is. The soul is then seen and experienced as the company becomes that essence. It’s Doing business activities grounded in Being.

Read More – The Uncomfort Zone

May those who work for you know You see and respect them

...

by DW Green — October 31, 2018

I’m perfectly imperfect! We’re all perfectly imperfect! Not being a perfectionist is something I like about myself. You may be thinking – how in the world is that a quality you admire? Well, it’s simple, I don’t think you have to be perfect to still be pretty darn good at whatever you put your mind to.

May those who work for you know you see and respect them

There are great benefits to being a perfectionist. It pushes you to be better and do better than you would otherwise. You pay more attention to detail, have a more organized lifestyle and your boss probably thinks you’re phenomenal. These are all wonderful and we should all strive to do better. The flip side (because there’s always a flip side): Perfectionism can often become a painful awareness of your imperfectness. It’s unrealistic to believe you will not fail at something, so why set yourself up for possible depression or anxiety when the inevitable eventually happens? Is your perfectionism holding you back from taking risks, voicing your opinion, and living your truth? Is your fear of being wrong standing in the way of your opportunity to rise? Making mistakes is a good thing! Repeating the same mistake, not so good!

by DW Green — October 24, 2018

Ego gets attention but modesty gets results.

Humility is our third core value. I read the following article in a recent Harvard Business Review. Written by Bill Taylor, the article is entitled If Humility Is So Important, Why Are Leaders So Arrogant? Interesting.A recent management column in the Wall Street Journal appeared under the appealing headline, “The Best Bosses Are Humble Bosses.” The article reported that humble leaders “inspire close teamwork, rapid learning and high performance in their teams.” It even reported that one HR consulting firm is planning to introduce an assessment to identify personality traits that include “sincerity, modesty, fairness, truthfulness, and unpretentiousness,” inspired in part by what two psychology professors call the H Factor (“a combination of honesty and humility.”)This celebration of humility sounds great, and it is, but it flies in the face of daily headlines in the Journal and the realities of our business and political cultures. Exactly no one would use the...

by DW Green — October 17, 2018

You hear with your brain.

Sound is vibration. The strum of a guitar string. The crack of the bat. The wave pounding the breach. The sonic boom in the sky.Sound waves enter your ear and go through your ear canal to the eardrum. The waves make your ear drum vibrate and the vibrations are sent to three tiny bones. These bones are named the malleus, incus and stapes. The bones amplify the sound and send vibrations to the cochlea, which looks like a snail. It is filled with fluid. The vibrations cause the fluid to ripple. This causes hair cells in the cochlea to move. Chemicals then rush into the cells, creating an electric signal. The signal is sent by the auditory nerve to the brain and the brain turns the signal into the sounds you hear. The entire process is electrical and chemical. You “hear” with your brain. Almost everyone has heard the question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound?” From what you just learned the answer should be obvious. Do you know what it is? The answer is… NO! If a tree falls in the forest it produces sound waves but if there is no ear and brain to receive and interpret the waves there can be no sound. We can say if there is nothing conscious around, the...

by DW Green — October 10, 2018

Let’s crock and roll!!

I have always been a proponent of using themes for the cover page of weekly ads.In my view, the purpose of the weekly ad is to attract new ad readers and new customers to the store. The purpose of attracting new customers is an important distinction, since most consumers who read weekly ads tend to read only those of their primary food store.Theme cover pages lend themselves to strong, compelling headlines and storytelling, two important factors for attracting new ad readers and new customers. Additionally, theme ads differentiate retailers print advertising from competitors, create complementary product sales and provide in-store merchandising opportunities. Conventional wisdom suggest otherwise. Many national and regional retailers take the “laundry list” approach to cover page ads. This modus operandi involves featuring a dozen or so items, normally one item from each store department, presented in a value hierarchy from the top to the bottom of the page. This strategy may help with a value perception but it rarely helps differentiate the store or attract a new reader or new shopper unless the price of the feature item is considerably less than the competition. In Phoenix, where I live, the loca...

by DW Green — October 3, 2018

“The number-one job for a designer is to make things easy to read.”

We teach our designers that the most important element of their design work is “readability”. Whether they’re working on an ad or a sign, a poster or a web page, if the design impedes readability it’s an ineffective design. Consumers must be able to clearly read the message for the message to have impact. This includes choice of type fonts, type size, boarders, and pictures. A busy ad reduces the number of prospective readers. Clean, simple, and easy to read reflecting the brand personality is our design mantra.I read the following by Roger Black in a Type Network email last week. Roger Black is synonymous with the modern magazine. He has designed or redesigned Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, McCall’s, The New Republic, Fast Company, Reader’s Digest, Foreign Affairs, Advertising Age, Esquire, and now the National Enquirer (to name just a brief sampling). “I think the number-one job for a designer is to make things easy to read. And give some sense of pleasure about it.There is a relationship between reader ...