Are you getting noticed by the throng of customers looking in your direction? Does your business force people to take a second glance because you have more than meets their eye?
Art is the science of unexpected beauty, the language of delight and surprise. It forces us to feel what we can't explain, sends fireworks to a worn out brain, turns pain into healing and forces us to take notice of its song. Bad art has nothing to do with poor technique. It's when people can walk right by without even paying attention.
When I worked as an engineer for Motorola we had one of those corporate mantras of “delighting the customer.” I got the strange idea that this might apply to all the facets of our company. So I started looking for ways to delight my customers, the people on the manufacturing line.
What if I did more than make machines and procedures that function properly?” I thought. “The biggest problem my customers face is the boredom of a mind numbing task.” So I asked the head of our factory if I could do some performances to inspire my manufacturing line friends. I mean, I'd already helped turn the new “performance excellence” initiative from a crappy, corporate idea into something the guys on the floor wanted to use. Why not capitalize on the momentum?
“I think Motorola's goin' to value yer engineering skills more than yer performance qualities, Peter,” he said in his Scottish brogue. “I think ye'r talkin' about yer dreams.”
“And wouldn't that be something,” I shot back, “if Motorola reverberated the message to its employees: Come work at a place where you can follow your dreams. People would do anything for you.”
He didn't get it, even though the numbers showed that the line beat all their goals on the days I performed. I left Motorola a few months later to follow my dreams around the world. That factory doesn't exist anymore.
Do you have the guts to turn your business into art? Can you rise above the din of industry blandness and say something important and meaningful?