Comfort Zones – Anticipating Change – and Municipal Progress

I’m visiting Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia for a few days.  It would have been nice to spend a few days skiing at Cape Smokey, which offers a stunning ocean view, but that’s not to be on this visit.  Here’s a link to the Cape Smokey website should you want to see the spectacular view across the water https://capesmokey.ca/

As a result of breaking from my usual routine, and being here for a few days, I’ve been thinking about community identities, things we hold to be unchangeable and immovable, and comfort zones.  I grew up here in Sydney on Cape Breton Island.  Sydney was and is a small town of about 30,000 people. In 1992 the Nova Scotia provincial government decided that 67 municipal governments in a province of 900,000 people was too many.  As a result of a study and recommendation, in 1995 Sydney was amalgamated with 6 other entities to form the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM). CBRM suddenly appeared as a municipality, and market, with 100,000 citizens. 

Since 1981, I have lived in Saint John, in the smaller province of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia’s neighbor. I didn’t pay much attention to the Nova Scotia amalgamations at the time.  However, as the 1990s ended I noticed on my visits to Sydney that business investment took off. To my observation it was mainly with big box stores, but they did arrive and invest, and hire people. I noticed further investment in infrastructure that occurred to support the new construction, particularly in roads and interchanges. While it wasn’t obvious to me, I’m confident that the investment in infrastructure, the creation of jobs, and the subsequent development of local talent benefitted the local economy. 

I surmise that the big box stores arrived because where there had previously been a town of 30,000 people, there was what suddenly looked like a small city of 100,000 people, that was the result of the amalgamation of the 7 local towns into one governmental entity.  When a business is investing, a city and market of 100,000 is more attractive than a town of 30,000 people. 

This growth and investment occurred even though people didn’t move. People stayed in their homes in Whitney Pier and Dominion but were now in a municipality of 100,000 people. Today I continue to visit Sydney to see my family. We still visit the excellent Black Spoon Bistro in North Sydney (https://www.blackspoon.ca/)   The ferry to Newfoundland still departs from North Sydney.  The Fortress of Louisbourg hasn’t moved from the town of Louisbourg since France built the massive fortifications in 1720.  You can see more about Louisbourg at https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/ns/louisbourg/visit. Sydney, Louisbourg North Sydney, and others continue to have their community identities within the governmental body of CBRM.

I write this because I’m obsessed with change and comfort zones. I’m sure the amalgamation of these local governments was controversial at the time. But life didn’t seem to change for the worse for people, and while I’m not an economist it is apparent to me that the region has grown. And these days in my home province of New Brunswick, some amalgamation is about to take place.  340 entities are being amalgamated into 90. This is pushing some people out of their comfort zones, and forcing people to deal with change. People are concerned their small town will lose its identity.  However, I don’t perceive that that happened in CBRM.

As I reflect on the experience of municipal reform in Nova Scotia, as I saw it, I believe it’s another lesson that while change is uncomfortable, we often worry too much about the effects. We do need to anticipate and plan for the effects. But regardless the world around us will evolve.  As individuals, and as communities of various forms, we need to respond and evolve appropriately.  If we stay in one place and refuse to evolve, we’ll be left behind as others change and adapt themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comfort Zones – A Sales and Decision Making Model

How do people make decisions?  A helpful way to consider how people progress through decision making is with decision making models.  A long time ago I learned about a model that works for marketing, sales and public relations.  I know the model as AKIDA, although it’s usually simplified as AIDA.

What is the AIDA model and the AKIDA model?

The AIDA model is comprised of

-         Awareness

-         Interest

-         Desire

-         Action

Here’s how it works. If a prospective customer isn’t aware you exist, he doesn’t buy your product obviously. If the prospect is aware you exist, he may develop interest in your product. A change in his needs and life circumstances may drive desire to purchase your product. And finally, a further life change, or a sales promotion you offer, may drive action to purchase your product.  Moving through these stages may take minutes, but it may take years.

The AKIDA model inserts knowledge after awareness.   This makes sense to me because without some knowledge of product features, benefits, and success stories it makes progression difficult. I suppose knowledge may be implicit with awareness, but I find it helpful to see it clearly called out.  It becomes obvious that part of our roles in sales, marketing, public relations and leadership is to drive awareness and knowledge that develops interest, desire and action.

An Example of AIDA (AKIDA)

Here's an example.  I’ve been an avid cyclist for years, and have a couple of nice bikes.  I’m generally aware of e-bikes, which are not terribly new, but are becoming much more popular these days.  I have awareness, but little knowledge about price, benefits, and I haven’t had discussion or thoughts about how they might fit my lifestyle or my transportation needs. I have awareness.  I have little to no knowledge.  I have no interest, desire or action to purchase. But it may be the case that an e-bike would be a great option for me now. So vendors need to be effective at driving messages to prospects like me to see us progress along the purchase decision.  

How To Expand Your Comfort Zone

I share this because I’m interested in how people make progress in expanding their comfort zones, which is in itself a decision. I’m interested in how you make such progress. Do you have awareness of what holds you back from making progress on goals and aspirations?  Do you have knowledge on options and alternatives that will set you on a path to making progress?  If you have awareness and knowledge how strong is your interest and desire to take action.

I spend a lot of time developing speakers both professionally and in Toastmasters. Toastmasters is a low-cost high value option to develop improved overall communication skills, public speaking skills, soft skills and leadership skills.  I’ve seen people join Toastmasters who say that they’ve known about Toastmasters for years but a life change drove them to take action.  Often there’s an urgent need to address a skills gap. Sometimes it’s a retirement speech, or a speech at a wedding, or a desire to play a role in their community.

The AKIDA model helps in planning how to reach prospects and offering solutions to their needs.

Dealing With Team Conflict, Real And Perceived

Some years ago I was working on a project with a team comprised of senior leaders. On a conference call, I had a couple of awkward interactions with one of the team members. I felt that he made some dismissive comments in response to some of my comments after which there occurred some awkward silence.  So, I quickly emailed him and suggested we book time to talk.  And we did. It was scheduled for noon on a Thursday in my Atlantic time zone. 

As noon on that Thursday drew near, I was dreading the conversation.  At noon I called him and I began with ‘how’s the weather in your part of the world?’  He said it was fine and he asked the same of me. After I shared niceties about our fantastic weather in Saint John I quickly moved to the purpose of the conversation.   

I said ‘I get the feeling you are upset with me.’

He responded ‘No, I thought you were upset with me.’ 

I responded that I wasn’t and then we talked about our recent interactions.  We realized we had misinterpreted responses and intentions.  It was still a little awkward but a new and better awkward. 

What continues to amaze me about this interaction is that based on our misinterpretations, we created some weirdness in our relationship. If we had not addressed the perceived issues, I am confident that to this day that weirdness would persist, and if asked I’d be saying ‘I don’t know what it is, but we’ve never been comfortable working together.’ However, we addressed the issues early and we continue to comfortably do occasional work together. 

How To Manage One-On-One Conflict 

I write this because these scenarios of conflict are common.  Dealing with conflict, real or perceived, is one element of leadership.  Here is my approach or dealing with these scenarios;

1. Schedule a time to talk one on one

2. After niceties say something like ‘I get the sense you’re upset with me.’  It’s important to have specific examples ready, but start with a general statement as you might be entirely wrong on why the other person may be upset with you.  Don’t start with a specific example. 

3. If the other person doesn’t want to address the issue let it go.  There will be a future opportunity to try this approach again. 

4. If the person does want to address the conflict let her talk.  Your role is to listen and only say ‘I see,’ and ‘ok.’  This doesn’t mean you agree with all she is saying but you want to acknowledge that you’re listening.  When there is conflict, you’re dealing with emotion and you need to let the other person tell you why she has reacted as she has. Let her tell her full story. 

5. As the other person tells you how he feels you wronged him, he will likely lose eye contact as he replays the scene in his head and describes it to you. Just keep listening. 

6. Eventually the story will wind down. Be comfortable with some silence.  As the emotion is expunged, you’ll start to get eye contact again.  Test for completion with ‘Okay. I see.  Anything else?’  If there’s more, continue to listen. 

7. If there’s nothing more ask this key question, “Where do we go from here?’   90% of the time the other person will say ‘I just want to do my job, and I’m glad we had this conversation.’  If they don’t say that, that’s another level of conflict management and another article for another day.

8. In a team environment, your goal in managing conflict is to repair a working relationship, to be able to work together.  You might become friends in the future, but in most situations, we simply need to be respectful and learn to work together. 

Accepting That Conflict Will Occur

Differing view points about goals, strategies and results is not uncommon.  A disagreement about goals, strategies and results isn’t usually a personal attack. It’s always advisable to listen to other viewpoints and consider the pros and cons of other interpretations   We all want to be listened to and respected.

That said, when conflict occurs, or is perceived to be present, effective leaders work quickly to understand it, manage it and resolve it.

Comfort Zones and Keeping Material Fresh

 

Sometimes speakers need to create entirely new material, or feel a need to create entirely new material.  In my experience, great speakers often work within one or more core sets of material, and tinker and add over time.  I like to focus on evolving my material over time to ensure it remains relevant and fresh for attendees in the audiences.  Such a slow evolution of material results in a deep expertise in the topic area.  My expertise is in speaking, communication in general, leadership and marketing and I continue to search for new ideas and approaches.

I’m inspired to write on this topic because this week I have quite a few speeches to deliver.  On Monday I speak to a university class, Wednesday to a multi-cultural group, Friday to some Toastmasters board of director candidates about board governance, and Saturday to an international group about leading in a virtual environment.

I don’t often feel much stress about presentations but when I looked at my upcoming calendar, I did feel a little stress at the volume of upcoming events and the varied topics and diverse audiences. That said my core material for each presentation relates to communication and leadership, and the governance session will be group discussion style on the book The Imperfect Board Member (If you’re interested in this book please see https://www.amazon.com/Imperfect-Board-Member-Discovering-Disciplines/dp/0787986100

I take comfort in knowing that my material and reusable PowerPoint slides address key premises of communication and leadership. These key premises haven’t changed much over time.  While our world is more online in 2022, concepts such as clear communication of team goals and team progress, recognition of helpful behaviors, and communicating effectively to audiences large and small remain relevant.

I do recognize it is critical to keep material fresh for the audience and for me as a presenter.  To that end I will perform some research on any news or articles related to communication, leadership and governance that is relevant to these audiences and some will make it into some new slides and speaking points.  (For example here is an article with some good perspectives https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2022-public-speaking-online-challenges-self-tips-amalia-sterescu/

My point in writing this is to remind speakers to work from your core expertise.  But continue to make incremental changes to your knowledge and experience for the benefit of audiences and you as a presenter.