Definitions Redux

We've been talking about communications all week -- how words are powerful and the role of culture and medium. Meaning is what gives words and phrases power. Culture provides the context in which that power is liberated. Humanity is the ultimate context, what we have most in common with each other. Yet humanity is also what makes us most different from each other.

We inhabit a world that co-evolves as we interact with it -- relationship is the key determiner in everything. How things relate to each other and how we relate to them. It is virtually impossible to pin down the combination and permutations of changes that occur within relationships as outcomes of choices.

Why should we try so hard to pen definitions in such fluid, complex and organic systems? Customer relationships are conversations, that is my central credo and the fulcrum of my posts at FC Expert blog. Join me today as I visit with Steve Yastrow, bloggers and thinkers who are discussing definitions of customer relationships at TomPeters.com.

While I understand the need to put order to chaos and simplify, I also caution that we should not lose sight of what we value about complexity. In our haste towards prediction we should not abandon accountability. Definitions are great. Action is greater. How do we create processes and structures that allow us to be flexible and adaptive while we stay focused on what matters? How do we keep the eye on the ball?

Comments

[Robyn]

One way to keep our eye on the ball is by our motivation. If we get bored, we don't get very far.

A very thoughtful post, Valeria! Thanks.

[Cathy Baradell]

Great communications message for us all.

[Joe Raasch]

Hi Valeria,

I posted my extended thoughts on the FC Experts piece.

How best to stay flexible? I learned at term during my tenure at General Electric: the flexible factory.

Essentially, this was the concept of continuous conversation with clients via face-to-face sales staff and client advisory boards in most businesses (flexible) and maniacal focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of transactional processes (factory). When both sides of this promise are fulfilled, everybody benefits.

Ciao, Joe

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Robyn -- how do you make sure that motivation is part of the equation? Sure, you hire people who are self-directed and motivated. How do you keep your policies and processes from taking the motivation out of them?

@Cathy -- thank you for visiting. I hope there will be reason to share your thoughts with us in the future.

@Joe -- that was an incredibly good comments on so many levels (hint: if you're reading this, you should jump over to FC and read that). A conversation is never over, it is continuous and evolved over time. Think of relationships the way Europeans do -- they are (almost) for life. Good of you to mention the fulfillment of promise. We do forget that clients or customers are not a nuisance, they are actually those who pay our bills!