Rivers and Channeling Emotions (3-7-18)

Last week we kicked off a series about looking at emotions differently.  We began by thinking about “losing” face vs. “finding” yourself.  This week we are going to take a second to think about rivers as they relate to controlling and channeling our emotions.     

Pretend for a minute that I asked you to go to a river and trap the water.  Imagine forcing the running river into boxes and Tupperware containers.  Imagine the sloshing, the energy, the swift current pushing on all corners of the container as it finds itself trapped.  Imagine you were successful.  Now you would have a river trapped in piles of containers.  Let’s think about something else.  Pretend for a moment that I asked you to change the course of a river.  Imagine I asked you to dig irrigation ditches to redirect and guide the water to a new location.  This would be a lot of work.  What good could this water do after it was redirected to dry soil?

How do the above situations connect to work?  Rivers are like emotions.  It is up to you to decide what you do with your emotions.  You can try to control your emotions and box them up, stacking them off somewhere to the side, or you can find a way to channel and reroute your emotions into something.  Why is this important?  If you’re anything like me for the longest time I tried to box up my emotions, especially the bad ones.  I felt that doing this was the professional thing to do.  I felt this proved I had strength.  Since then I’ve changed my mindset.  I’ve realized I was hurting myself by not feeling things.  I now try to better embrace my feelings and in time, (if I’m able) I try to channel it, to change its course to turn it into something that can help instead of destroy.

I’m not great at this yet, but I’m trying to be more okay with feeling everything.  I hope you become more okay with feeling things too.  I hope you allow yourself to feel angry and upset.  I hope you get irritated that often when are the ones who are getting in the way of fulfilling our mission to help people.  I hope you allow yourself to shed a few tears.  I hope you feel pride in the work you do and the person you are.  I hope you are overcome with joy when someone you know accomplishes great things.  I hope you feel love when you step into the doors.  I hope you feel so much and so strongly that sometimes you don’t even know what to do with it.  It’s okay.  I’ve been there, I am there.

As you feel those things, I hope you channel them into something.  I hope the anger and fury turns into tenacity, an unlimited will to do what is right for the people we serve.  I hope the joy is transformed into laughter, hugs, high fives, and all the little things we can do to remind each other that work is more than trudging through meetings and slide decks.  I hope the love you feel causes you to reach out to people when they need you and to reach out to people because you need them.  I hope that all of the emotions you have inside of you are channeled somewhere, instead of locked away in a vault.  I hope you find a way to redirect your emotions to bring water to dry soil.

The challenge: Are you controlling or channeling your emotions?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Emotions and Losing vs. Finding Things (2-28-18)

This week I’d like to kick off a series that challenges us to think differently about emotions.  This week we will start by thinking about emotions as they relate to losing and finding things.  This week’s message started more like a journal entry that I decided to share.  I don’t have a clever metaphor to kick us off this week.  All I have is a true story and some thoughts.

Embry story.  A couple of weeks ago I had a one on one meeting with someone at work.  I was talking about stuff, became pretty emotional, got choked up, and cried a few tears.  As soon as I did this, I said something like, “Sorry for losing my crap.  I need to pull my crap together.”

You might be wondering where this is going.  Often in life, losing things is a bad thing.  If I lose my wallet/phone/keys, etc. it’s a bad thing.  If I lose those things it reflects poorly on me.  If I lose things I’m careless.  If I lose things, I’ve made a mistake.  In the above story, I was emotional, cried, and the first thing I did was apologize for losing something.  I “lost” my crap.  I “lost” my composure.  I “lost” face.  I apologized for “losing” those things.  I apologized for letting a little bit of my humanity slip through.  Do you ever feel this way?  Do you ever feel you need to apologize when you show emotion, as if showing emotion is some kind of mistake, some kind of weakness?

More context to the Embry story.  Four days before the meeting, my cousin had died of a drug overdose, leaving behind a fiancée and a two month old baby.  I hadn’t cried since I found out he had died.  I was sad for him and even sadder about the family he had left behind.  I spent the days asking, “What will be the ripple effect for my family?  Who will fall apart?  Will they fall apart in a safe way?  Who will turn to bad coping mechanisms?  Who do I need to watch out for?”  I was also stressed about work, life, who knows what else, and I was carrying all of this around with me everywhere I went.  I was a mix of emotions heading into that one on one meeting and as I mentioned I got emotional and cried a couple of tears. 

My epiphany.  Like I said, in that moment, I felt I had lost something.  I had lost my “crap.”  I felt I had lost my composure.  What if I was wrong?  What if I didn’t lose anything?  What if I found something?  What if I found tears I needed to cry that had eluded me for days?  What if I found a colleague that created a safe enough space where I could show that emotion at work?  What if I found a little bit of peace?  What if in that brief moment I found the part of myself that is most human?  Tell me those things aren’t special.  Tell me those things aren’t sacred.  Tell me I “lost” something that day.  Tell me those things aren’t some of the best things you can find.

The challenge: What are you losing?  What are you finding?  (Just know that if you ever feel like you are “losing” something, I’ll be right there beside you finding anything you want to find and more of myself in the process.)

By the way, in case you’re wondering, I’m good and the family is doing okay.  Thanks to everyone for the good vibes and things.  Hug the people you love a little tighter next time you see them.   

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Market Research, Interpreting Data, and Triangulation (2-21-18)

This will be the last in the series about lessons I’ve learned from working in market research.  We’ve talked about defining problems, mitigating risk, collecting stories, establishing decision criteria, and being objectively passionate on behalf of our customers.  This week we are going to think about market research, interpreting data, and triangulation.

Let’s pretend for a minute you asked me to do some kind of research project.  Let’s say I came back to you and told you the answer was 5.  Is that good or bad?  Are you prepared to make a decision?  I’m guessing that you probably aren’t. 

You’re probably thinking that’s a strange opening and you might be wondering what that has to do with anything.  Throughout my career I have often heard people say something along the lines of, “The data will speak for itself.”  The problem is that data doesn’t speak for itself.  Data on its own has no  meaning.  Data only has the value we assign to it.  The power of data lies in how we interpret it.  For some situations if the answer was 5 that could be a great thing.  If the question was, “By what percentage have your sales increased in the past month?” 5 could be a great answer.  In other situations, 5 wouldn’t be so great.  For example, if your market share was 5%, but it was forecasted to be 20% there might be an issue.

The longer I’m in market research the more I realize how important it is to be able to interpret data.  Also, I continue to learn that part of the skill in correctly interpreting data is triangulating.  It’s taking the time to look at the problem and research from multiple angles to make sure that everything is saying something similar.  If one thing is telling me the answer is 5, another is telling me it’s 26, and another is telling me the answer is purple there is probably a gap in my understanding.  The only way to find the truth is to triangulate.

Now everything above applies to market research, but it also applies to life.  How often have you talked to someone who has come to conclusions based on one piece of data or only one side of an argument?  How often are you that person?  I know I’m that person sometimes.  It’s easier to take the data that is readily available, assume that data speaks for itself, and not take the time to triangulate.  The problem is that whenever I’ve done this I’ve missed part of the story and have missed the truth as a result.

The challenge: Are you actively trying to triangulate, so you can better interpret the data in front of you?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Market Research and being Objectively Passionate (2-14-18)

Last week was about market research, being a security guard, setting up velvet ropes, and establishing decision criteria.  This week is what I’ve learned about being “objectively passionate” on behalf of our customers.  I’ll dive more into that in a moment, but first an analogy.

Pretend for a moment that you are a master brewer and in particular you love beer and love making beer.  You are going to open a bar where you will serve beer and other beverages you’ve created.  When you look at your potential market you see there are a lot of people like me and a lot of people like my wife (Diane).  You know that Andrews like a variety of beers and enjoying experimenting with new things.  You know Dianes don’t like beer of any kind (AT ALL) and instead prefer fruity tasting beverages.  As a master brewer, how much time do you invest in trying to make a beer that Dianes will like?  I’m assuming you wouldn’t try to make beer for Diane, because she doesn’t like beer at all and your chances of changing her are slim to none.  Instead, you’d probably try making different beers to entice Andrews and you’d create fruity cocktails to bring in Dianes.  At least that’s probably what you would do if you put your customers’ needs above your own biases and desires.  This is probably what you would do if you were “objectively passionate” on behalf of your customers.

So what does this have to do with work and market research?  I’ve discovered that one of my core jobs is to be “objectively passionate” on behalf of our customers.  My job isn’t about doing what Andrew thinks is cool (especially, because I’m not cool).  Being “objectively passionate” means always keeping the customer in mind as we do things.  It means always thinking about them, what makes them tick, and leveraging that knowledge as we create campaigns, messages, solutions, etc.  It means saying no to things that don’t connect back to customers, who they are, and what they need.  All of the this sounds easy, but it can be difficult.  Sometimes, you fall in love with an idea, because it’s shiny and it sounds great to you.  Then, it’s really hard to admit when that awesome idea you are in love with doesn’t work with the customer.  Have you ever seen someone fall in love with an idea that didn’t really connect back to the customer and their needs?  Have you ever been that person?  I have.

Embry work example.  Last week I mentioned doing market research on some new data with customers.  The data didn’t work very well for certain types of customers, because it didn’t connect with who they are and the tensions (problems) they have.  As we shared the fact that the data didn’t work too well for some customers, there were some individuals who were especially disappointed because they loved the data we were testing.  Being in love with the idea, they wanted to save it, so they would say things like, “What if you changed the headline or the graph or something else?  That could make it work.”  Eventually, we said, “The idea doesn’t connect with these people because of who they are.  It doesn’t address the tensions they have.  Even if we tweaked the headlines and things it wouldn’t make a difference.”  Per my analogy, it would be like serving Dianes beer.  They aren’t going to like it.  Sure it’s possible that we might be able to find a magic beer out there that Diane would like, but the chances of that happening are low.  We’d be better off investing that energy creating fruity cocktails she would more than likely enjoy.

The challenge: Are you being “objectively passionate” on behalf of our customers?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Market Research, Velvet Ropes, and Decision Criteria (2-7-18)

Last week was about market research and mitigating risk.  This week we will think about market research as it relates to decision criteria, security guards, and setting up a velvet rope.  Somewhere in our life we have all probably ran into a situation with a security guard and a velvet rope.  Security uses a velvet rope or some kind of tape to set up some parameters and borders.  The security guard then works the entrance.  They are given criteria to examine, such as a valid driver’s license.  If the person meets the criteria they are admitted.  If they do not meet the criteria they are turned away.  It’s that simple.

You’re probably wondering what this has to do with market research and work for that matter.  Market research isn’t about asking questions for the sake of asking questions.  Market research is about trying to help the business make better decisions.  Over time I’ve learned that if you want to make quick, efficient, and quality decisions, you need to establish clear decision criteria.  Essentially, you need to become a security guard.  You need to set up your velvet rope and only let things through that meet that criteria.  (That’s right. I consider myself a market research bouncer.  The picture to the right is me if I lost some of my muscles.)

Embry failure and learning example.  Last month the brand team tested some new data with customers.  We had to make a decision on whether or not to share the data with customers in the market.  In the beginning of the project I didn’t set up clear decision making criteria, so we swirled a bit whenever we talked about how the research was going (#Embryfailure).  The swirling was a waste of time and didn’t get us closer to making any decisions.  Then, I finally realized that I needed to set up some decision criteria to help us decide whether this data “worked” with customers or not.  With that in mind we decided that in order for the data to “work” it would need to meet three requirements. 

  1. Accept– Customers would have to accept the data as something that could be true. 
  2. Resonate– The data had to cause customers to think more positively about Trulicity. 
  3. Implement– We had to feel confident that we could implement around any customer concerns. 

We even took it a step further to establish the criteria that would have to be met for each of those three components.  For example, for Accept customers had to accept the data could be true over all, was representative of their practice, and was high enough quality that they would accept the data as being factually accurate.  What I soon noticed was that as soon as we had clear decision criteria, it became easier to decide if something worked or not.  The decision criteria gave us a framework for making the decision and for talking about the decision.  Overall, it became a lot easier to decide whether or not we should let the data past our velvet rope and into our club (#Embrylearning).

The challenge- Think about your role.  Are you setting up clear decision criteria to help drive quick, efficient, and quality decisions? 

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Problem Definition and Asking the Right Questions (1-24-18)

Throughout my time in market research I’ve picked up on a few fundamental lessons and skills that are transferable to other situations and life in general, so this week we’ll kick off a series inspired by lessons I’ve learned while working in market research.  We’ll start this series by exploring problem definition and the idea that that you are only as good as the questions you ask.  

My car is currently making a ticking noise.  What should I do?  Should I fix it?  It depends on my understanding of the problem and its implications.  These seemingly straight forward and simple questions are actually not that simple or straight forward.  The assumption is that if something is broken I should fix it.  However, if I pause for a second and ask some questions I may not come to that conclusion.  What do I think is wrong with the car?  How big of a deal is the problem?   Why would I want to fix it?  What is the car worth?  How much would I be willing to spend on a repair before it wasn’t valuable?  In my case the car is a 10 year old Pontiac Sunfire with over 200,000 miles.  The ticking isn’t a serious problem, and instead it’s just an annoying sound.  Even if it was a serious problem, I’m running the car into the ground anyway, so it’s not worth spending the money for me.  Bottom line, I’m not going to pay to have it fixed.  However, if the car was newer and the sound was serious I might come to a different conclusion and decide to fix it.

How does this connect to work?  Over my career I’ve realized that everyone (myself included) makes a lot of assumptions about things and we often rush to fix the wrong problem or problems that don’t really matter.  It’s really easy to see some bit of data or to see a problem and instantly decide we need to do something about it.  Do you ever fall into this trap? 

In my market research role, a big chunk of my job is working with my partners to define what problems we are trying to solve and I’ve learned that I’m only as good as the questions I ask.  As a result I’ve tried to get better at pausing and thinking through things.  Instead of running in and trying to solve the problem, I’m trying to evolve to be more like, “Yes, that’s a potential problem.  How big is that problem?  Is it a problem we need to solve?  Why or why not?  Is it even a problem we think we could solve?  Do we need to solve that problem at the expense of these other problems we think we need to solve?  Are we confident we are even solving the right problem?  If I got you an answer, how would you use it to solve your problem?” 

Once we get through those questions, if we still need to solve it, then we can start trying to figure out potential solutions.  However, you’d be amazed at how often I’ve worked through those questions and I’ve come to realize I was trying to solve the wrong problem, trying to solve a problem that our customers don’t really care about, or trying to solve a problem the wrong way.

The challenge: If you are only as good as your questions, are you taking the time to ask questions to better understand and define the problem? 

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Super Bowl Commercials and Building Culture (1-17-18)

This will be the last in the series about message evolution and improving the relationships with the people we work with.  We started by thinking about being intentional with the desired feelings we want people who work with us to have.  Then, we talked about our reasons to believe, consistently executing these, and ensuring they ladder up to the beliefs we are trying to drive.  We’ll end this series by thinking about improving relationships and culture with consistent touchpoints.

I want you to imagine for a moment that you run a huge brand like Coke.  Now, I want you to imagine that you have identified what you want your audience to believe and you have figured out your reasons to believe.  You have pulled all of this together into a campaign to share the message and drive those beliefs.  Now you have to make a decision.  Would you rather have 1 big commercial for the Super Bowl with no other marketing support OR would you rather not have a presence at the Super Bowl and instead have a series of consistent touchpoints across channels throughout the year? 

For me, I’d choose the latter option.  While the Super Bowl commercial would be cool, I know that is just one touchpoint.  Also, I believe that while the commercial might boost some awareness, I’d assume my likelihood to move the audience with one commercial would be low.  Instead, I’d rather invest in multiple touchpoints throughout various channels, because I believe a story told consistently has a better chance of moving an audience than delivering the message once.

So what does this have to do with work?  I feel that we often treat culture change and relationship building like airing a commercial during a Super Bowl.  We treat it like a one-time event.  Often when we talk about culture, we talk about having some kind of offsite or some kind of meeting dedicated specifically to culture.  Then, we end up having 1 or maybe 2 of these sessions per year.  During these sessions we talk about the culture, get to know each other as a team, etc.  While we make progress during these sessions, how often do we follow-up and build off this progress?  I don’t know about you, but I’ve went through these kinds of meetings before and then asked myself, “Will anyone actually do anything with this?”  Imagine showing a Super Bowl commercial, and never doing any more marketing for the rest of the year.  It wouldn’t make any sense to do this, because it’s hard to move people with just one touchpoint.

In the Coke analogy, I made you choose one or the other.  In our work, we can have both.  I’d challenge us to think of culture evolution like a true campaign with various channels.  Some channels will be larger, like off sites and team meetings.  Some channels will be smaller, like in-person communication, emails, handwritten notes, small talk, and lunch with colleagues (I’m convinced there is something magical about eating with someone.  It’s a great way to get to know each other).  All of these channels are important, and all of these channels can accomplish different things.  The key is that all of the channels are consistently driving the feelings we want to drive.

The challenge: Are you treating building culture and relationships as one-time events or as things that require continual attention?  How are you leveraging the different channels available to you in order to drive the desired beliefs you want people to have?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Reasons to Believe and Pizza (1-10-18)

Last week we kicked off a series about marketing and being intentional to improve our relationships.  We started by identifying what desired beliefs we want to drive with each other.  This week I want us to focus more on the reasons to believe and executing those. 

After a brand chooses the desired belief they want a person to have they need to identify the reasons to believethat can drive that person to the desired belief.  These reasons to believe are the supporting points (data, images, written messaging) AND customer experiences that you could share to drive people to have that belief. 

Let’s pretend you own a pizza place and you want people to believe that your pizza is the most delicious pizza.  What would cause them to believe this?  The reasons to believe could include things like having a wide variety of pizza toppings, fresh ingredients, expert chefs, and handmade dough.  You would take these reasons to believe and turn them into a campaign that told some story like, “Our pizza has the freshest ingredients sourced from local farms.  We have the largest array of veggies, meats, artisan cheeses, and toppings to craft a pizza to your tastes.  All of our pizzas are made each morning by our chefs who studied in Italian kitchens and have brought with them their grandma’s pizza dough recipe.”  If you communicated this story well enough and the experience matched this, then people would probably believe your pizza was delicious.

You might be wondering what this has to do with work.  Last week was about being intentional about WHAT you want people to believe, and reasons to believe are the things that can help you figure out HOW you can get someone to believe something.   Essentially, what would you have to do to drive the desired feelings with your co-workers? 

Embry example.  As I mentioned last week, my desired feeling is that I want them to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I care about them and the work we do together.Over time, I’ve found that in order for people to believe I care for them I need to show them I care for them (I know your mind is now mind blown, right?).  I show people I care for them by actively listening, seeking to understand people and their stories, recognizing them for their contributions, and giving people usable and constructive feedback.  The way in which I go about doing those things can include face to face conversations, hand written notes, sending memes, sharing articles I think they’d be interested in, etc.  Throughout my career I’ve found that if I am INTENTIONAL and CONSISTENTLY do those things, then most people will eventually come to realize that I care about them and the work we do together. 

The challenge: What are things you need to do to drive your desired belief with people?  Are you CONSISTENTLY doing the things that will drive a person to feel how you would like them to feel?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Being Intentional and Driving Desired Beliefs with each other (1-3-18)

Happy New Year!  I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday season.  As we begin 2018 I’m sure we have various goals that we would like to accomplish.  I’d like to kick-off the year with a blog series focused on goals that involve the people side of things.  In particular I want us to think about setting goals to improve the relationships we have with the people around us.  I’d like us to do this by looking at how intentional we are about the marketing process and applying that to how we interact with each other.

Marketing is all about understanding and influencing people’s beliefs to help them find solutions to their problems.  Recently, I did some message evolution work with my wonderful brand, market research, and creative agency partners.  Message evolution work is about deciding what are the DESIRED beliefs you want a specific group of customers to have and then deciding what REASONS TO BELIEVE (think of supporting points like data, science, images, written messaging, etc.) you could share to drive people to have that belief.  You then test these concepts and use what you learn to create campaigns and stories that drive those desired beliefs.  All of this requires discipline and the team being intentional about choosing which desired beliefs they want to drive. 

Let’s think about a real world example.  Think of Ford Mustangs.  What do they want you to believe about Ford Mustangs?  Look at the image I pulled from Google about the Mustang and the message it conveys.  To me this suggests that they want you to believe something like, “Mustangs show the world that you are successful, tough, and driven.”  Think of Subaru.  What do they want you to believe?  Look at the image.  Subaru wants you to believe that Subarus are safe and reliable.  These campaigns both started with the brands identifying what desired beliefs they wanted to drive, and then they could try to drive those desired beliefs with images, text, etc.

What does this have to do with anything?  Instead of thinking about brands, let’s go in a slightly different direction.  Much like a brand, when we interact with people we cause them to feel a certain way.  What desired feeling are you trying to drive with the people you work with?  Seriously, pause for a moment and give the answer to that question a thought.  Do you have an answer?  How intentional are you about trying to make people feel that way? 

In case you’re wondering, here is the primary feeling I’m trying to create with people.  I want them to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I care about them and the work we do together.I want them to know I care about them and our work, because I believe if they know I care about them we will have a better working relationship and we will be able to do amazing work, which will help more patients.

The challenge: If we want our relationships to evolve, we need to be intentional about the feelings we are trying to create with the people we work with.  What feeling are you trying to drive?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Market Research, being a Stunt Person, and Assessing Risk (1-31-18)

Last week we kicked off a series on lessons learned from market research by reflecting on problem definition and the questions we ask.  This week I want us to think about market research, being a stunt person, and taking risks.

Let’s pretend that you are a well-trained stunt person for action movies (I know this is my real life, but might be a stretch for some of you).  You know in this upcoming movie you’ll be doing a lot of jumping and falls and things.  Do you need a parachute?  The answer is, “It depends.” (See what I did there, tying it back to the first blog in the series).  If you’re jumping out of a plane for a scene, then yes you need a parachute.  If you are jumping off of a balcony or something, the parachute wouldn’t be necessary, but maybe you’d want some kind of foam padding to land on.  If you were doing some chase scene on foot where you were just jumping over stationary objects, you probably wouldn’t need anything.  In this example, the equipment you would need to keep you safe is dependent on the risk you are incurring.  The bigger the risk, the more likely you need something to help you mitigate that risk. 

You’re probably wondering how being a stunt person ties back to work.  Mitigating risk is what we do in market research.  What I’ve found over time is that the impulse is to try and eliminate ALL risk.  The impulse is to always do more and more market research to justify and support every situation.  The impulse is to wait until you know every small little thing before ever taking action.  If you think of the example above, the impulse is to give everyone parachutes, even though this doesn’t always make sense.  While I understand and have given in to this impulse from time to time, I also know that no matter what we do we CAN’T eliminate ALL risk.  Do you ever feel this way?  Do you ever feel like you have to do so much additional stuff to eliminate ALL risk before you can take action?

Here’s the difficult part, and the thing I’m still working on.  The difficult part is being able to look at the situation and gauge an accurate estimate of what the risk is, so I can respond accordingly.  Sometimes we are jumping off into the great unknown, so a parachute is needed.  Most of the time though, we know more than we realize and it’s a matter of pulling those thoughts together to guide us or having the faith that we know enough to act.  After all, we’re all well trained stunt people, and I’m pretty sure we are tough enough to take on a few bumps and bruises along the way.

The challenge:  Are you honestly assessing the risks you faced or are you always trying to get a parachute for a street chase?  Are you focused on mitigating OR eliminate risk?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry