Recently I wrote on Community Building.

Since the internet, since web 2.0; all of us are involved in many community-based organisations—either as staff and leaders, as consultants, or on boards. We may actually describe ourselves as community builders. But what do we mean by that? What are we doing when we “build community?” and what makes them a success. Those answers are not immediately obvious.

Several years ago, the Wilder Research Center delved into the studies on community building. They found 28 factors that influenced the success of any community building effort.

Some Definitions

We can’t get started talking about successful community building without defining some terms— especially when the terms used by community builders are often subject to varied interpretation. While the report includes many definitions, I’m going to highlight three that get used frequently: community, community building, and community capacity building.

Community

People use the term community in a variety of ways, ranging from various uses that emphasise geography, socio-politics, consumption, ethnicity and profession. After researching a number of possible definitions, Wilder researchers purposely limited the definition to a specific type of community:

People who may live within a geographically defined area and who have social and psychological ties with each other and with the place where they live or work.

This definition requires both geographic bounds and social ties. Obviously, this definition does not include many types of social networks that people consider communities. Those are also valid communities—but the factors described further in this article are extracted only from research related to geographically bounded communities.

Community building

Community building generally refers to building the social networks within the community, and developing group and individual problem-solving and leadership skills. The report defines community building as:

Any identifiable set of activities pursued by a community in order to increase community social capacity

Community capacity building

The broad capacities relevant to community building are abilities to develop and sustain strong relationships; solve problems and make group decisions; and collaborate effectively to identify goals and get work done. When one builds community capacity, one is

Increasing the extent to which members of a community can work together effectively.

Working with these (and other) definitions, Wilder Research Center identified 525 written evaluation studies and reduced the final number of reports to 48. Two reviewers independently extracted success factors from those reports; the findings were synthesized in initial and final forms. Ultimately, this process yielded 28 factors.

The 28 Factors

The 28 factors have been divided into three categories, 1) those that are endemic to the community itself, 2) those that relate to the way one builds community, and 3) those that relate to the people doing the community-building work, as defined here:

1. Characteristics of the community. These are the social, psychological, and geographical attributes of a community and its residents which contribute to the success of a community building effort.

2. Characteristics of the community building process. These are factors that make up the process by which people attempt to build community, such as representation, communications, and technical assistance.

3. Characteristics of community building leaders. These factors are the qualities of those people who organise and lead a community building effort, such as commitment, trust, understanding and experience.

A brief description of each of the twenty-eight factors follows. These factors should not be a surprise—but they do serve as a helpful checklist as you enter into a new community building situation.

Category 1. Characteristics of the community

1. Community awareness of an issue
   Successful efforts are more likely occur in communities where participants recognise the need for some type of initiative. A community building effort must address an issue which is severe enough to warrant attention, and which affects enough in the community to spark self-interest in participation. A rallying point.
2. Motivation from within the community
   The motivation to begin a community building process is self-imposed, rather than encouraged from the outside. We should get together as a community.
3. Small operating area
   The operational area is tightly defined so planning and implementing activities is targeted and transferable.
4. Flexibility and adaptability
   Communities exhibit flexibility and adaptability in problem solving and task accomplishment. The community exhibits determination.
5. Preexisting social cohesion
   Other things being equal, the higher the existing level of social cohesion (that is, the strength of interrelationships among community), the more likely that a community building effort will be successful. Like language breeds trust.
6. Ability to discuss, reach consensus, and cooperate
   Communities have a spirit of cooperation and the ability to discuss openly their problems and needs. They are a pressure value.
7. Existing identifiable leadership
   There are residents whom most community members will follow and listen to, who can motivate and act as spokespersons, and who can assume leadership roles in a community building initiative. Expertise hierarchy is identifiable and participates actively.
8. Prior success with community building
   Participants who have prior positive community building experience.Category 2. Characteristics of the community building process
9. Widespread participation
   Participation is representative of the community and members continuously recruit participants.
10. Good system of communication
    The process includes effectively communicating within the community and to the rest of the world.
11. Minimal competition in pursuit of goals
    Existing community organisations do not perceive other organisations or the leaders of a community building initiative as competitors. Or at least get more from “coopetition” than by not participating.
12. Develop self-understanding
    The process includes developing a group identity, clarifying priorities, and agreeing on how to achieve goals. A badge.
13. Benefits to many
    Community goals, tasks, and activities have clear, visible benefits to many people in the community.
14. Focus on product and process concurrently
    Efforts to build relationships (the process focus) include tangible events and accomplishments (the product focus).
15. Linkage to organisations outside the community
    Community members have ties to organisations outside the community that add value to the community
16. Progresses from simple to complex activities
    The process moves community members from simple to progressively more complex activities. Thread become more specialised.
17. Systematic gathering of information and analysis of community issues
    The process includes taking careful steps to measure and analyse the needs and problems of the community.
18. Training to gain community building skills
    Participants receive training / encouragement to increase their community building skills. Rites and rituals initiation.
19. Early involvement and support from existing, indigenous organisations
    Organisations of long tenure and solid reputation become involved early.
20. Use of technical assistance
    Participants use/source/provide technical assistance at no cost to help them gain competence in a particular area.
21. Continual emergence of leaders, as needed
    There are processes to produce and recognise new leaders over time.
22. Community control over decision making
    Participants have control over decisions, particularly over how funds/resources are used and shared
23. The right mix of resources
    The process is not overwhelmed by too many resources or stifled by too few, and there is a balance between internal and external resources.Category 3. Characteristics of community building organisers
24. Understanding the community
    Successful community building efforts tend to have organisers who have a thorough understanding of the culture, social structure, demographics, political structure and issues.
25. Sincerity of commitment
    The effort is organised by individuals who convey a sincere commitment for the community’s well-being.
26. A Relationship of trust
    Organisers develop trusting relationships with community participants.
27. Level of organising experience
    Organisers are experienced in the many facets of working with communities.
28. Able to be flexible and adaptable
    Organisers are flexible and able to adapt to constantly changing situations and environments.I found this list of factors has enabled me to understand and develop a rigid paradigm for viewing the development of communities, I hope it does for you too.

What does the worldwide, technologically enabled drive for conversations mean for marketers? It means you’re no longer marketing products or services — you’re marketing conversations.

It means marketing-communication planning should be driven by a conversation strategy.

The right conversation strategy answers two big questions: What meaningful content will attract sufficient conversations with the right people? And, how will you jump-start conversations and keep them alive?

When people are starved for time and already engaged in many conversations, jump-starting new and meaningful conversations is the big challenge of marketing today. Just building a website, writing a blog or posting videos on YouTube doesn’t mean sufficient numbers to impact ROI will find them organically, much less take the time and energy to converse with you. By definition a conversation requires others to be present and participate — otherwise you’re talking to yourself. Perhaps therapeutic, but no way to make a living.

Even if people know there’s an opportunity to have a conversation with you — on Twitter or your blog, for instance — you can’t expect them to engage given all the other demands on their time. You’ll need a strategy that both gets them to know you exist and care so much that you exist, they’ll become intrigued about conversing with you. This requires a strategy that integrates search optimization, media, message and contributions of content from consumers.

The right strategy begins with the end in mind: What message can work across multiple platforms and be scaled so quickly and broadly it can drive sufficient revenues to support a business model?

Very few companies have the luxury to let conversations build slowly over time. And no business can afford to risk a high-waste and low-impact effort. More often than not, high-impact campaigns with reasonable returns don’t materialize solely from online ads and social media. Traditional communication media must be a major component of the mix.

A multimedia mix framed to spark conversations requires a compelling message concept that can work across a multimedia platform. Its foundation has to be far more than a one-time promotion or product attribute; it must be a message strategy that connects brand meaning with search habits and accommodates ongoing contributions that can range from casual conversations to consumer-generated content.

So how do you keep the conversation going? You’ll constantly be competing with other conversations for your target’s time and attention. So, spark and fuel conversations with surveys, forums, contests and invitations for contributions that pertain to the change your brand’s products and services can help people achieve. Keeping ongoing conversations fresh is where contextual ads, blogs, websites, videos and social media shine.

Content themed to your target’s daily passions, routines or rituals are great for habituating conversations. And, habituated conversations have the greatest opportunity to generate ongoing revenue and almost unbreakable customer loyalty.

For marketers who get their brand’s meaning and conversation strategy right, consumers will take over the conversation for you, making your marketing more proficient, and making you a genius in your new role of chief conversation officer.

I’d like to know what it cost SA in 5 cent redemption for glass bottles.

I’d like to know if there is a pricing model that has worked that rises exponentially as you use more than what allocated – and providing small but noticeable rewards for consumption discipline, with all the implied consumer protection.

What if there were real, yet very small, financial incentives for acting in the long term interest.

Pricing, policy and social research professionals should really be taking a look at the dynamics of different price modeling on what we know to be the crucial elements in change. Perhaps some control norms need to be reviewed.

I’ve been watching Dan Ariely’s inspired presentation on Temptation and Self-Control.

One of the challenges of human life is what’s good for us in the long term often doesn’t seem good for us right now. Dieting, for example, is not so much fun now, but good for the future; the same goes for saving money or submitting to preventive medical tests. When we face such trade offs, we often focus on the short term rather than our long-terms goals, and in the process we get ourselves into trouble.

One of the example he uses is financially based, where a (theoretical) alarm clock is connect to your bank account, and if you sleep in it deposits funds from your account into a Cause you don’t approve of.

Can this type of thinking be applied to rein in unnecessary or unconscious consumption.

Would Origin for example or another energy retailer get excited about the ability to charge more potentially for more use – and something that customers may willingly sign up for to achieve a small upside and a large downside.

Where else could exponential pricing work?

Experience has shown that been that barriers to innovation are often company culture, employee workload, and myopic vision. There are some commonalities which present:

Company culture – some companies are so large that they become so bureaucratic that it becomes impossible to effect significant change without a specialist department. The reason being that people do not have the autonomy, correct remit or wherewithal to move innovation outside their department because at that point it requires so much by-off from other staff, managers, departments, budgets, etc. that it becomes impossible to solicit sufficient support to generate momentum for innovation.

Workload/Shirkload – most are are so tied-up in meeting immediate goals that there is little or no time to innovate. In particular people’s performance is most often judged on how they meet those short term goals.  Worse, commitments are made and activity joins the bottom of a long the list, then heroic last minute efforts are recorded.

Myopic vision/Limited Planning – Since most are evaluated on how we meet standard goals it is often hard to generate enthusiasm in coworkers for innovative ideas because 1.) they fail to see how it will benefit them personally and 2.) in truth innovation invokes changes, which by definition, requires extra work to implement new procedures and then optimize those changes 3.) skills of individuals aren’t broad enough to make the connections that lead to innovation.

An alternate answer to this interesting question:

Being the barriers to innovation inherent to organisational culture, personality traits, style of management and restrictions imposed for economic downturns, without the aim of being exhaustive, I have identified the following barriers in encouraging both creativity and innovation at the enterprise:

1. A conservative corporate culture that due to its rigid set of values, principles, beliefs and policies has the potential of denying any possibility of being creative to introduce true innovation in the workplace.

2. In contexts predominantly oriented to the operational excellence as happens in enterprises belonging to the industries of manufacturing and Energy, they typically focus on finding streamlined procedures and policies compliance with international quality assurance guidelines, where there is no room to innovate by applying a creative mindset.

3. Micromanagement practices where the willingness to innovate, being a creative and communicative professional is systematically denied, when many managers exert over their subordinates micromanagement practices where the proliferation of excessive controls, lack of freedom to innovate and restricted communication flow are detrimental for the self-esteem and engagement of the affected employees.

4. In many companies where I have worked, the only innovation that is exceptionally fostered, sponsored and supported by Senior Management is only in cases where a ROI may be easily calculated and where perceived risk is straightforwardly identified.  In most  cases getting to a clear definition of ROI and Risk is not well resourced killing innovative proposals.

5. The sum of genetic factors, infancy’s history, roles assumed by imitation, and the permissiveness, freedom and openness of corporate culture determinate, that some people are much more successful in applying an innovative mindset at the workplace than others. A leader typically differentiates from managers because of having an assortment of unique personality traits that when are merged with managerial skills, deep knowledge of his/her discipline, professional experience and an outstanding relational capital generates an empowered leader with the willpower of inspiring passionately to workgroups, teams and even entire organizations in pursuing with creativity the goals that an organisation needs to achieve in its route to financial profitability and sustained growth.

6. In many organisations the unfortunate fact of doing a mistake is strongly punished and may be a hindrance in achieving the goal of having from an exciting and successful career development. From this standpoint any initiative of being creative in the workplace is an immense risk that not anyone can afford by assuming the role of being an innovator beyond of his/her own comfort zone.

7. It is a commonplace that in certain organisations the potential of a professional of being creative might face the risk of languishing progressively, when Senior Management is reluctant in recognising those with a clear sense of opportunity, in rewarding competitively and in celebrating those creative ideas and initiatives that lead to introduce innovation in corporate processes, its products and services.

Talking with my college and mention Mike, he claims the following:

• As the organisations go bigger and more and more people are hired without planning in order for certain management tiers to prove their own existence that leads to total inefficiencies within departments
• Interdepartmental domains which eventually start hurting the organisation internally
• Cross Organisation hiring and lack of training within existing management tiers
• The total decay of employee confidence by unsecured supervisors
• Non Clarity and dilution of organisational objectives
• Personal Survival at top management.

From a functional view, in an organisation which lacks a broad innovation culture and lacks discipline in change/innovation, the two biggest barriers to change are:

- Accountancy:  The bean counters say it will cost too much and/or that the customer will not pay the incremental price.

- Engineering: The mechanics are simply resistant to any re-engineering of the process and/or say the change would be too disruptive and/or too costly.

I have seen these feeble excuses trotted out time and again in various industries, especially the auto sector.

These two professions are often not customer focused or maintain a customer dialogue and yet the successful teams time and time again are able to engage an use the real skills these two functions possess.

The most striking barrier I see is not so much the lack of innovative ideas but the lack of appreciation by both innovator and the organisation of the degree of support required to turn ideas into a reality – it is hard work from everybody’s perspective.

If both are not prepared to invest the time, process and resources let alone fragile egos when the majority of such initiatives fail then the innovation pipeline soon dries up and competitive advantage flounders.

This is really the future in my humble, consumers are smart enough to realize content costs – so why not offer the opportunity for them to nominate their advertising and more importantly, when they are ambivalent or oversaturated. I can see a consumer choosing their TV commercials in such a way – “ok I’m over this, give me the next one in the story or substitute it, I get the message” Digital technology really will allow this.. consumers clearly want it….

A September 2009 study conducted by Roy Morgan Research has found that a majority of Australians (75%) surveyed want greater control over advertising content, compared to 10% saying they wanted less control.

According to the study, TV is the medium most in need of more control over its ad content (53%), well ahead of radio (19%), the internet (18%), direct mail (14%), newspapers (13%), magazines (13%), outdoor (10%) and cinema (7%).

“This special Roy Morgan study shows that TV remains the advertising channel that Australians have the greatest concern with in terms of advertising content. Despite these worries about advertising, 76% of Australians (up 2% since 1982) believe advertising is essential,” explained Michele Levine, chief executive of Roy Morgan Research.

The survey also indicated that perceptions of the truthfulness of advertising have continued changing since 1974 – now 41% (up 21%) of Australians agree that in general, advertising presents a true picture of the product advertised.

An increasing number of Australians also agree that advertising often persuades people to buy things they don’t need.

On the whole, the study showed Australians are still very positive about advertising with 87% of Australians saying that it is good for keeping you informed about things you can buy.

….

“Because I keep telling you its good for you.” – Motherhood

Shifting from zero awareness, to inclination to explore, to full blown desire, is an jaunting and gestalting process, particularly in the marketplace where supply/demand (price) themes change as new product and communication styles are introduced. Ok – so why the title?

Sustainability is an intrinsically good theme, I’ve been working on a research project surrounding the benefits of becoming sustainable business – you will have to wait for the results – but it begs the question, why choose a path when the outcome is inconclusive and potentially negative?

We are the Crowd

Forget the individual, look at the crowd, one contention could be that its the latest trend, a perception created. If mass media communicates to the masses, it communicates to crowd, inflecting disjaunted and uncontrolled information flows to the “crowd” – which then develops an inclination, a movement from that.

Noise.

The failure to understand the simple truth that marketing is a battle of perceptions trips up thousands of would-be entrepreneurs every year.

Marketing people are preoccupied with doing research and ‘getting the facts.’ They analyze the situation to make sure the truth is on their side. Then they sail confidently into the marketing arena, secure in the knowledge that they have the best product and that ultimately the best product will win.

It’s an illusion. There is no objective reality. There are no facts. There are no best products. All that exists in the world of marketing are the perceptions in the minds of the consumers or prospects. The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion. Period.

Deliver a great story. That’s what we’re here for.

http://anxietyindex.com/anxietyindex/

It tracks the levels and intensity of consumer anxiety and, importantly, the drivers of anxiety. The index examines safety and security concerns—the threat of terrorism, potential and current military hostilities, crime, etc.—and economic worries, such as the cost of health care, the cost of living and job security. The AnxietyIndex also uncovers consumer insights that help inform business and marketing strategies during times of high or low anxiety.

Many companies today are misguided in the way they view market research. Instead of seeing research as a foundation for strategic planning, enabling them to see the big picture view of what’s happening in external markets, they see it in a microcosmic fashion. In other words, they look at research as “projects,” basically unconnected to one another. Rarely are the pieces of research integrated; rarely are research projects planned in conjunction.
Market research directors at major firms have complained that their internal customers (other divisions and business units) don’t use the research results for maximum effectiveness. These customers’ myopic view leads to tactical decision-making at best, and seldom are they concerned with how their research connects to other departments’ research.

Surprisingly, the best research planning and integration is done at small and mid-sized companies with a marketing director or vice president (but no market research director or department). These organizations know how to get the most our of their research investment for several reasons: budgets are tight, the competition is fierce and their market position is uncertain.

Case study: Answering many questions
Take the case of an organization that makes products for the residential building trade. This manufacturer needed answers to many questions, and needed those answers simultaneously. To make the assignment more challenging, there were tactical questions (“What benefit should we emphasize in our trade advertising campaign?”) as well as strategic questions (“Should we vertically or horizontally integrate our product line?” and “Who are the most promising segments of the market?”).

The objectives of the assignment, which was to be carried out over a five-month period, were lengthy and entangled with one another. In essence, this manufacturer was consolidating all its research monies into this single integrated project. Methodologies included focus groups with contractors, one-on-one interviews with wholesalers, an analysis of competitor strengths and weaknesses from the market’s perspective, a statistically valid phone survey with 475 contractors, sales and market share analyses, product feasibility testing, and a brand recognition/perceptual mapping study. The budget was less than $100,000 and the manufacturer wanted a consultant who would not only conduct all forms of research, but interpret what it meant so the executive team would all be on the same page as they engaged in the strategic decision-making process.
Valuable findings uncovered
The manufacturing firm learned a lot through this market research. Here’s a sampling:
- An underestimated competitor in one region of the country was seriously eroding the company’s market share.
- A strategic partner selected to secure distribution with wholesalers had a shaky and inconsistent reputation with the target end user.
- The company’s star product, once an innovator in the category, was now perceived as a “me too” product with no salient differentiating benefits.
- An important and lucrative segment of the market was being underserved by all competitors.
- A new product developed by the company was focusing on a benefit the end user ranked low on a list of benefits.
- A key influencer (the architect in this case) had no favorite brand and was frustrated by the lack of specialized niche products he needs.
- Price was a purchase driver at the distributor level, but not at the end-user level.

How results were reported and used

The consultants conducting the research consolidated the findings into one report. The presentation was designed to share key pieces of learning that would have strategic import to the company. In addition, individual reports focusing on tactical questions were delivered separately, addressing the research pertaining to sales, marketing, product development and customer service. The umbrella report presented to the executive team gave them the foundation needed to discuss and challenge strategic initiatives. It put the group on a level playing field, providing a block of data that was rich and complex but, at the same time, easy to understand.

The consultants’ approach was straightforward — here’s what we’ve learned, how does this jibe with what you know, what further data need to be gathered to get us all comfortable about what’s really happening in the marketplace?

This approach to sharing information is dynamic in nature, not a bunch of meaningless statistics in a binder that gets filed away. The interactive nature of the presentation acknowledges that the consultants aren’t pretending to understand every nuance of the market, but that they bring value as a result of not knowing the nuances. The research results are pure, unbiased and without pretense.

Translating research into action
After several strategic planning sessions facilitated by the consultant, the executive team adopted eight strategic initiatives that were designed to more than double the company’s growth in a five-year period and seize the position of market leader in the category.
Says the vice president of marketing who commissioned the research and planning initiative: “The research had a profound impact on how we began to see the real world. We realize we were looking at things through rose-tinted glasses. It was a wake-up call for us. Our consultants brought back all kinds of data that we found hard to believe at first. We made them go back several times to document and corroborate specific findings that seemed questionable to us. The interaction was frustrating, intimidating and gratifying all at the same time. It was a true growth experience for our executive team. This is the way to do research — comprehensively and with a fresh set of eyes.”

Let’s say you have just returned from a conference emphasizing the importance of gathering information in today’s competitive business arena. One case study that has been brought to their attention highlights a company that improved sales by making product decisions based upon research from existing and potential customers through a series of opinion surveys on their Web site. In fact, your boss has now decided it would be a great idea to survey current customers about a newly launched product. Before you know it, you find yourself responsible for this fantastic and exciting new project. There’s only one small problem: You’ve never created a survey and have no idea where to begin. It may seem overwhelming at first, but by following these eight steps you can be well on your way to becoming a survey expert.

Step #1: determine the objectives
It is important to pin down the objectives before beginning the survey process, because they are the reference points that guide the survey. Your objectives will influence the number of questions while shaping content and administration. Some questions to ask that will help determine the objectives of the survey include:
- Why is this survey being done? What problem needs solving?
- What information does the person requesting the survey need to know?
- How will the response data be put to use?
When making decisions on the target audience, the demographic questions, and the survey structure, you can return to the statement of objectives to ensure that what is being asked will achieve the desired result.

Step #2: obtain corporate commitment
Your department will probably use the information from your survey to change or shape programs, products or services and even creative approaches. To produce the right kind of data that will help steer these decisions, it’s crucial to make sure that the people who requested the survey are committed to, and involved in, the survey process.

You need to write a plan that includes key actions, dates, roles and responsibilities, as well as other resources needed to administer and communicate the survey’s results. The chances of a successful survey are reduced unless you have clearly communicated the plan to the people involved.
Step #3: identify and know how to contact customers (the target audience)
When identifying customers and determining how to reach them, some useful questions to ask are:
- How big is the potential customer base?
- Will all the customers be surveyed, or only a portion of the market?
- If only a portion of the customers will be surveyed, will you survey a random sample of the group or a specific subset of the group?
- Who is responsible for providing or obtaining the names and addresses of the customers, if names are required?
- What demographic data will be needed?
The answers to these questions will help you develop a mail, phone number or e-mail list. It will also help determine the first communication vehicle for you – a memo, an e-mail, a letter to the customer’s home, or a phone call. Depending on who will be responsible for contacting the prospects, how confidential the responses need to be and how prospects will be instructed to return questionnaires, the survey process may be conducted differently.

You can obtain the names and addresses of your target audience from several sources: customer lists, mailing lists available through list brokers, or membership lists available through associations.

Step #4: constructing the survey
Like most jobs, thorough and careful preparation of the survey will pay off in the end. Write out the kind of outcome, information and analysis that you want to obtain, and then design your survey based upon these specific needs — always keeping the respondent in mind. Be careful not to bias a survey to show the data that you want to see, but be certain to design it so you can get the information needed.

Typically, there are several parts to survey question design:
A) Type of information sought. Questions should be designed carefully in order to gather the desired information. As in all professional correspondence, thoughtful vision, clarity of language and semantics are critical to good communication. Think through the objectives of the survey when determining what topics of information to include in the survey.

B) Actual question structure and word choice. Surveys may include closed-ended questions (e.g., “Rate from poor to excellent your view of the ease of ordering from our company”), open-ended questions (e.g., “What do you like the most about the products we offer?”) or a combination of both types of questions.

When writing or editing questions, you should scrutinize each question according to the following guidelines. Continue rewriting each question as needed, without altering the original purpose of the questions. Remember to:
- Keep each question simple and single-minded.
- Keep each question as short as possible. If it takes too long to fill out, customers won’t return your survey.
- Use understandable and clear language.
- Be specific.
- Do not talk down to the customer.
- Avoid bias.
- Avoid conjectural questions or situations.
- Keep response types to a minimum.

Bear in mind that customers answer survey questions by different scale types (i.e., excellent, good, fair, poor). Most users will select only a few types for any particular survey to limit confusion on the part of customers and simplify the analysis process. Try to keep the number of scale types small, and survey design will remain simple.

C) Survey construction. Once you have determined the type of information needed, the question structure, the word choice and the scale types, it is time to combine the pieces of the survey into a complete document.

Issues that need to be addressed include determining if you want to group any demographic questions together at the beginning or end of the survey and deciding if you want to group the survey questions by topic or mix them up randomly.

If possible, you should have a small sample of customers take a draft survey to ensure that the questions are understandable, and that the survey takes a reasonable length of time to complete.

Step #5: administering the survey
You should consider the options for survey administration early in the design process. Choices include mailing a hard copy (paper) survey; running the survey over a network, your Web site or via e-mail; or proctoring the survey over the telephone. Today’s survey software products typically give you several options.
Hard copy surveys, also known as paper-and-pencil surveys, are easy to administer to people that can be brought together in one place. Where technology is either not available or is intimidating to some of the customers, a hard copy survey is a good alternative. The potential downside to a hard copy survey is the cost and time of data entry to get the survey responses ready for analysis.

Computer-administered surveys can be quick and easy, and eliminate the need for data entry for analysis of answers. In today’s world, we are accustomed to electronic communication: e-mail, the Web, an intranet or network. Many customers will find it much easier to respond to your survey on-line. Just make sure that customers are comfortable using a computer so participation isn’t lessened because of technology intimidation.

Other questions regarding survey administration include those dealing with confidentiality and anonymity. For some surveys these concerns may not be large, but for others they will be very important. You need to ensure an open and honest approach to this issue so that the integrity of the survey does not become compromised. Confidentiality and anonymity can be enhanced by explaining to customers the steps that have been taken to ensure confidentiality and anonymity.

For all target audiences, there are good times and bad times to give surveys. For example, don’t plan to administer a survey during the last week of the quarter crunch if you want to reach marketing executives. If you are doing a phone survey, when will potential customers most likely be available?

Finally, don’t forget to tell customers the date their surveys must be completed. Some organizations use a small incentive (a coupon for a product or service, even a dollar bill) to increase participation.

Step #6: compiling the data and analyzing the survey responses
It is time to gather the data and understand what the customers have told you. There are four sequential steps to this process.

1. Analyzing the answers of all customers. You usually want to see first how the total population of customers answered your survey questions. Some survey software products allow you to complete this step with a few keystrokes; others may be somewhat more complicated. If you have done a relatively lengthy survey that covers several topics, you will probably want to look at topic averages in addition to responses to the individual questions.

As you do your analysis, keep in mind the many statistical measures of dispersion and central tendency. Will the mean be enough information or will you need to know the standard deviation of the responses? Will you need the percentage breakdown of each response? Ask yourself what would be meaningful to you and your customers. Think about the level of statistical understanding of the client and the customers.

2. Analyzing subsets of customers. Once you know how the total population answered, you will want to look at how subsets of the population responded compared to the total population. How did men answer compared to women? How did people in the 45–54 age group respond compared to those in the 35–44 group? What quality issues are reported by first-time purchasers of your product? Knowing this kind of information helps you provide better products and services, identify new markets or respond to operations problems.

3. Analyzing by topic or question. Sometimes you will want to know how a total population or a subset answered a specific question: “How many times in the last decade have you bought a Ford?” You can examine the breakdown of the customers not only by frequency but also by demographic category. Good survey software should allow you to analyze your data in many ways.

4. Graph the analysis. The ability to present data in easy-to-understand graphic formats is important. Charts and graphs allow you to see and understand the data quickly. Ultimately this may help you communicate valuable information to key executives and members of the marketing and creative teams.

Step #7: preparing to communicate survey results
As we stated above, it is important how you communicate the results of the survey to your boss, department or client and, depending on your agreement, to the customers who participated in the survey. Communicating the results to customers reinforces that their input was used.

Successful communication requires a consistent and persistent plan. Most organizations use a variety of formal and informal communication methods that suit their culture, such as newsletters, e-mail, and meetings. Customers, suppliers, employees and other groups may require different forms of communication.

Step #8: creating action plans
The point at which surveys prove their value is when the information you have gathered is used in a constructive way to improve operations, products, programs, creative, offers, etc. Developing an action plan helps implement those improvements. An action plan should include:
- An evaluation of survey data and consensus of what action needs to be taken, and with what priority.
- A listing of activities that need to be carried out for each priority item.
- The names of the people responsible for implementing the plan.
- A timeline for each plan’s accomplishment.

Once you put the action plan in place, it is important to periodically re-visit the plan. Be sure that the work is getting done. At some point, you can conduct the same survey again and evaluate if the areas identified as action items are actually improving.

Planning and commitment
Successful customers surveys require planning and a commitment from all parties involved. By following these eight steps you can make the process of designing, administering and analyzing surveys a positive one. In the end, you will obtain valuable and desired information from your customers that may be used as the foundation for major change within your company. These steps will hopefully make your job less stressful and your life a little easier.

Autopilot
The ability of the leader to take action, despite not having a clear course, is a highly coveted skill in the entrepreneurial world. A leader takes action while others wait around for the situation to become more favorable. He has the “auto-response” of “I’ll figure it out.”

Force growth
It will make you question yourself and force you to get really clear about your purpose and what you want to contribute. It boosts your confidence and your intelligence.

Ping Quotient
Excellent responsiveness to other people’s requests for engagement; strong propensity and ability to reach out to others in a network

Longbroading
Seeing a much bigger picture; thinking in terms of higher level systems, bigger networks, longer cycles

Open Authorship
Creating content for public modification; the ability to work with massively multiple contributors

Cooperation Radar
The ability to sense, almost intuitively, who would make the best collaborators on a particular task or mission

Multi-Capitalism
Fluency in working and trading simultaneously with different hybrid capitals, e.g., natural, intellectual, social, financial, virtual

Mobbability
The ability to do real-time work in very large groups; a talent for coordinating with many people simultaneously; extreme-scale collaboration

Protovation
Fearless innovation in rapid, iterative cycles; the ability to lower the costs and increase the speed of failure

Influency
Knowing how to be persuasive and tell compelling stories in multiple social media spaces (each space requires a different persuasive strategy and technique)

Signal/Noise Management
Filtering meaningful info, patterns, and commonalities from the massively-multiple streams of data and advice

Emergensight
The ability to prepare for and handle surprising results and complexity that come with coordination, cooperation and collaboration on extreme scales

Trust Movement
Come to the opportunity fresh of scars and discover an interest rather than push the preconceived – but if collaboration is not possible let the opportunity slide, retaining the relationship. Make the first moves to establish trust and show effort.

If you aren’t awake, take a moment to absorb the basics of De Bono’s six distinct states;

- Neutrality (White) – considering purely what information is available, what are the facts?

- Feeling (Red) – instinctive gut reaction or statements of emotional feeling (but not any justification)

- Negative judgement (Black) – logic applied to identifying flaws or barriers, seeking mismatch

- Positive Judgement (Yellow) – logic applied to identifying benefits, seeking harmony

- Creative thinking (Green) – statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a thought goes

- Process control (Blue) – thinking about thinking

The use of these metaphors allows an interest and very personal way to approach the management of complex issues and team performance.

Then it is perhaps appropriate to cover in some ‘Good to Great’…
- Level 5 Leadership: Leaders who are humble, but driven to do what’s best for the company.
- First Who, Then Where: Get the right people on the bus, then figure out where to go. Finding the right people and trying them out in different positions.
- Confront the Brutal Facts: The Stockdale paradox – Confront the brutal truth of the situation, yet at the same time, never give up hope.
- Hedgehog Concept: Three overlapping circles: What makes you money? What could you be best in the world at? and What lights your fire?
- Culture of Discipline: Rinsing the cottage cheese.
- Technology Accelerators: Using technology to accelerate growth, within the three circles of the hedgehog concept.
- The Flywheel: The additive effect of many small initiatives; they act on each other like compound interest.

I want to publish this now and pick it up after I have sought applied and audited this more fully.