Change is in the air! You can help by telling me about your water heater!

Image by McBeth via Flickr

Hi everyone,
There is a lot of change happening in our world. That's why I have made a personal change to spark systemic change. In a new role as chief innovation agent and president at Verinnovation, I have the privilege of working with companies, organizations and communities to bring better understanding of human behavior and its impact on change and innovation. We do this through information services and research.

We are now conducting a study about water heaters. If you have a few minutes, can you share information about your water heater?  Pretty please?

Why water heaters? Well, we want to understand energy use and how to reduce home operating costs. We learned that water heaters use more energy than your fridge, dishwasher,  clothes washer, and dryer -- combined! Who would have thought that an appliance that we stick in the back corner of our garages would be the second largest cost on our home energy bills?

So please take our survey. Your information could help us change water heaters from a back room energy vampire into a low cost, high performance money saver.

To learn more about Verinnovation, visit our web site at www.verinnovation.com. You can also find us on these social platforms:

Twitter: @e2liveworkplay

Special opps on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Verinnovation

On LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/verinnovation-inc-

Join the conversation at our online Wisdom XChange
forumsignup.verinnovation.com

Why can't Starbucks customers read?

I don't drink a lot of coffee, but I visit a lot of Starbucks coffee shops. It's a great "third place" to meet colleagues especially now that they have free WiFi.

In recent months, I have noticed their new compost and recycle bins. This two-part design is very hip (see photo) but as you can see, it doesn't work. Every time I peer into one of these bins, the contents of the recycle side match the contents of the compost side.

Not all disposable items at Starbucks are both recyclable and compostable. In fact, each color-coded side of the bin includes a list of acceptable items in a fun script font. Does this mean that Starbucks customers cannot read?

For a food service chain whose design was based on the favorite haunts of European writers and artists, I hardly think this is the case. Instead we have what Stanford Psychologist Lee Ross calls a Fundamental Attribute Error. The problem with the people isn't about the attributes of the people (i.e. illiteracy) but rather the situation.

In this situation, a patron has completed her tall soy mocha (no whip) and would like to dispose of her cup and lid. But are both pieces recyclable? Are either compostable?

In a few milliseconds, the customer is going to decide on the next course of action. If she has the time and inclination, she will stop and read the instructions. Most likely though, she's in a hurry or distracted by processing the conversation she just left. The reading of instructions distracts her flow. Instead of interrupting her thoughts, she clicks the cup with lid attached into one of the bins so she can hop the bus to her next appointment.

Does this make her a bad person? Indeed not. So how could Starbucks avoid the purchase of pricey bifurcate bins that their staff has to sort through at the end of the day?

I suggest pictures. Studies show that pictures of appropriate items bridge the fuzziness between user friendly and idiot proof. Instead of engaging left brain processes to shift gears and read text, pictures of acceptable items posted above each receptacle would allow the consumer to instantly id the appropriate place for her refuse. Or, since each is color-coded, Starbucks could add a dot or star or other color matching tag printed on each item. That way, the eye only has to match the colors to make an instant connection.

The problem with people is that they are busy. Like Starbucks, you can make little changes to encourage big behavior changes. And some day, I'll know automatically what to recycle and what to compost when I visit Starbucks.

Robert Reich Delivers The Truth about the Economy... in Two Minutes

With all the political posturing and dodginof real solutions about our economy coming from D.C., this video short brings to light the drastic measures that are needed to pull us out of economic freefall. As professionals, I hope you can leverage this information in your decision making and strategic planning.

Making Harsh Decisions Brought Starbucks Back from the Brink of Disaster

On 7 April 2011, I attended a lunch event at which Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company) discussed his new book, Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul. For those of you who don't recall, Starbucks found itself with an identity crisis in 2007. It's passion for coffee and customer experience had gotten lost behind a subconcious appeasement of Wall Street. By focusing on P/E ratios and stock price, Starbucks was losing its soul.


Schultz had stepped down from the helm of the company, but he still served as chairman of the board. "I should have been paying attention," he said when commenting on the company losing its way. Schultz re-took the helm and worked hard to steer the company back in the right direction. That meant making tough decisions. Starbucks retooled its business model to focus heavily on the customer experience. In fact, the company spent $7 million to close all of its North American stores for a day to retrain its employees. The move drew harsh criticism and sank their share price to an all time low of just above $6. They closed store locations and laid off employees for the first time in its history. This was hard-hitting for Schultz, who grew up in the projects in Brooklyn. He watched his father take a major blow to his career when he lost his job, worker's comp, and health insurance. He did not want to do the same to his own employees, but found he was faced with no choice. Making these tough decisions saved Starbucks and put them on a path to recovery.


Making tough choices can be painful and emotional. Many of the company leaders and entrepreneurs who read this blog don't have to turn a battleship the size of Starbucks. But making significant changes in times of challenge and struggle require significant investment. Your entire team has to be on board. And if they aren't, then it's time to get rid of them. Schultz knew that with the changes they were making, they needed people who not only had the skills and shared the company values, but also believed in the change. Nine of 11 of its leadership did not, and as a result, they are no longer with the company. It's only when leaders can make tough decisions like these in times of challenge that good companies can grow to become truly great -- and in a case like Starbucks, recapture its former glory.


Mr. Schultz also made it clear that in today's marketplace, principles and values matter the most. If companies "wash" their marketing with green or social claims that aren't true, consumers will go elsewhere and not purchase from you. Tracy A. Corley & Associates works with company to capture their vision, mission, values, and position so that they have a clear framework for articulating and communicating their souls. I asked Mr Schultz how growing companies could do a better job of creating consistency in their cultures. He was direct in stating that human resources must have a seat at the big table (ie. not just be relegated to subordinate role in the organization), otherwise the message would not be embedded throughout the culture.


If you have experienced a setback like Starbucks in recent years and would like to recapture your market position while retaining your soul, it's not too late. Though painful and emotional, I can turn your ship around and help you make the tough decisions like the ones that brought Starbucks back from the brink of disaster. Call me at 206.782.4040 to capture your strategic framework, create a strategic plan, map your business model, and assess your organization for efficiency and growth.  


Information on how to capture the values and principles that drive your organization can also be found in my book, The Strategy String: An Organizational Primer for Tying Strategy to Performance.

When Leaders Fail to Mentor, They Fail to Lead

Last week, I had the honor of attending a presentation by Jack Smalley. Jack did a great job of breaking down the top 10 qualities of a great leader. At the top of his list was Mentorship.

Mentorship is one of those things that business leaders forget about if they get caught up in the roles and accountability of leading an organization, large and small. Sometimes, they use the mantra "do as I say, not as I do," forgetting that what they do is what will lead their organization into success or failure. Additionally, effective leaders take time out of what they do to spend quality time with their charges.

I know that as a leader, I have failed dramatically with my mentorship role in the past. Specifically, I recall one key employee. She was wickedly smart, bringing a wealth of knowledge to our organization. And what she did not know, she knew how to find it quickly. Unfortunately, I as a leader did not take the time to mentor her on the differences between knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom combines knowledge and experience with the judgement to know when and how to use the information you have. So my superstar employee was a great asset in her knowledge, a bit low in experience, and definitely did not have the judgement to know when to speak up and when to shut up. As a result of her foot-in-mouth disease, I found myself repairing relationships and putting out smoldering brush fires from where she scorched important relationships.

Image via Wikipedia

The marketing firm that handled Chrysler's social media found this out, too. Their Twitter snafu dropped the f-bomb to its followers. Many Baby Boomer leaders are enamored with the generation of Millennials and their tech prowess. They forget, however, to teach discretion and the repercussions of actions made both in the workplace and at home. Facebook and Twitter, like all information on the internet, is forever. Top organizations need people who not only know how to work the technology but also how and when to use discretion with all those technology tools. This is not to hamper the activities of our young workers, but a call for executives and managers to step up and make mentorship a number one priority of their leadership development.

Have you been serving as an effective mentor recently? Ask you team for their feedback, and make it a regular part of your schedule to be engaged and active with each member your team.The difference between the knowledge and wisdom can make a huge difference is the success of your organization.

Many thanks to Michael Lee of Express Employment services for hosting the event. 

So how can lead as a mentor? 
First, tell me your story. We then decide together what resources, like training and executive coaching, will sharpen the leadership skills of you and your management team. We can also improve your mentoring program. Don't wait until your employees have a major malfunction and destroy relationships. Call me today at 206-782-4040 or connect on Skype at tracy.corley.

Could Shortsighted Futurists Cripple Our Economy?

The new year is in full swing and everyone is full of hope. I read the articles and see that everyone is making their new year's predictions on when the economy will return to "pre-2007 levels."

What these shortsighted futurists fail to realize is that the economic standards of 2007 no longer apply. For decades, our economic models and measures of prosperity used derivatives of industrial age standards. The Great Reset of 2008-2009 brought all those antiquated philosophies face to face with modern economic realities. The upswing in economic prosperity we're experiencing today requires new paradigms on how we measure, analyze, and monitor growth to deliver a true picture of prosperity and growth.

Few - if any - have written concrete rules on what the economy of the future will look like. Some have speculated, like William Knoke in his groundbreaking 1997 guide to the twenty-first century, Bold New World. Furthermore, Erik Brynjolfsson and Adam Saunders give us a clear look at the disruption that information technology brought to economic models in their book Wired for Innovation. These top economic thinkers from MIT examine official measures of the value and productivity of technology and suggest alternatives that better measure this economic contribution. Their explorations for the real sources of value apply not only to information technology, but other intangible inputs that drive nearly 85% of our nation's businesses, including intellectual property, services, and research and development.

To get a true sense of when we will see 2007-like prosperity return to the U.S. economy, we need to rethink our current measures, like the output of goods, retail sales, and credit card spending. True measures of gross domestic product, productivity, and prosperity will come when we are able to quantify intangible assets and integrate them into everyday practices. This means that small business lending will systematically include intangible assets in its risk assessments; service-based business valuations will be more in line with their goods-producing counterparts; information goods will take on the real value they deserve; and we will no longer rely on consumerism and debt as the driving factors for measuring consumer confidence.

According to Brynjolfsson and Saunders, information technology created the lion's share of the resurgence in productivity in the U.S. since 1995. It's time for our economic models to better measure the value that IT and other intangible assets bring to prosperity, productivity, and quality of life. Wired for Innovation delivers a first step at outlining how we can now measure, analyze, and manage the intangible assets of an information-based, mentisfacturing economy. Let's hope that our economic and government institutions catch on before the opportunity to leverage the Great Reset has passed.

What does this mean for you?
Our national economic policies have not caught up with the economic reality. That doesn't mean you have to sit around and wait for them to catch on. I've been working with a number of small business, mid-market, and nonprofit organizations who realize that they don't want to be at the mercy of misaligned economic policies. They hired me to solidify strategic plans, build strategic foundations, and map effective business models. Our process includes a gap analysis that exposes the holes in all critical area of your business model, including key partnerships, key activities, customer segments, cost centers, and revenue streams.

I invite you to take action now to optimize your products and services so that you don't get left behind by using old business models in a new economy. Call me at 206-782-4040 to schedule an initial consultation.