#236: “Respect words and use them artfully”
| Good morning good people Thank you for your comments after last week’s letter, Fragments For Freedom. It was good to know, it resonated with many of you. Several readers shared Ezra Klein’s Don’t Believe Him. Thank you, it was worth listening to. Economist Thomas Piketty and political philosopher Michael Sandel’s conversation on How the Left Went Astray is equally insightful. /strategy Strategy classic, Playing to Win, observes, “While all companies make efforts to control costs, there is only one low-cost player in any industry – the competitor with the very lowest costs. Having lower costs than some but not all competitors can enable a firm to stick around and compete for a while. But it won’t win. Only the true low-cost player can win with a low-cost strategy.” Although seemingly self-evident, it is often forgotten. If you’re not the cheapest, you must differentiate to succeed. TJ Strydom’s fantastic history of fast-growing, market-changing, Capitec Bank tells two illustrative stories. In the first, the bank experimented with micro-loan interest rates. Two branches offered rates lower than the market norm, whilst a third traded at the normal high interest rates of the time. The two branches did well. Importantly, the branch trading at standard price also remained profitable. The difference of a few percentage points up or down didn’t make a material difference to the customer. Reflecting on their learning co-founder, Michiel le Roux, observed, “You need to change prices so dramatically that people simply have to take notice,”. This philosophy continued as they rolled out their savings account. Le Roux reflects “At that stage I think I was an accountant’s nightmare because I said to [CFO] André du Plessis: Whatever the other banks charge, we must deliver at half that price.” CEO Riaan Stassen makes a similar point, “Nobody would move his or her account from Absa to Capitec for a price difference of a mere 5 per cent. If you’re 40 per cent lower, then they look seriously at what you offer.” To compete on price, you must gear your entire strategy to deliver the lowest price. Without that, you die slowly, one discount at a time. (We’ll return to Strydom’s Capitec: Stalking Giants next week). //self Last week’s letter commented powerful strategy, a peaceful soul and a happy self require that we sometimes stick with discomfort in order to find the insights we need. This is also true in conversations (and arguments). Inevitably, at some point, someone says something that makes us uncomfortable. Sometimes we get defensive, other times – often with good intent – we may try minimising their upset, ‘it’s not that bad’ or too quickly making suggestions based on our experience. David Brooks observes, “It’s best to avoid this temptation. As soon as somebody starts talking about times when they felt excluded, betrayed, or wronged, stop and listen. When somebody is talking to you about pain in their life… it’s best not to try to yank the conversations back to your frame. Your first job is to stay within the other person’s standpoint to more fully understand how the world looks to them. Your next job is to encourage them to go into more depth about what they have just said. ‘I want to understand your point of view as much as possible. What am I missing here?’” This is even more acute with the power dynamic is uneven. When you’re the more powerful person remember this image “Someone who is being sat on knows a lot about the sitter – the way he shifts his weight and moves – whereas the sitter may not be aware that the sat-on person is even there.” (David Brooks, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen). ///soul Thomas Moore’s caution in Soul Therapy: The Art and Craft of Caring Conversations, reinforces that reminder: “Words are never just terms from a dictionary. They are more like packaged time bombs ready to explode at the right moment. This power can be a positive resource or it can ruin everything. The main thing is to respect words and use them artfully. Understand that words don’t always do what you want them to do. To an extent, they have a life of their own. If you are careless with words and use powerful ones without thinking, you risk breaking part of whatever vessel you have been building. Words are like the two-by-fours or concrete blocks that form a wall and a structure. I am careful even with words of greeting and good-bye. You can ruin an hour of work by saying something like, ‘I hope we do better next time.’ That’s a heavy judgment for a client or friend to carry for a week or so.” In another of his books (my favourite), The Dark Nights of the Soul, he says, “You use words every day. You can find the vital words that jar you into awareness. The way you talk to a friend could be your art”. We can expand this to colleagues, to strangers, and to the world. In this angry moment, speaking with compassion and a conscious intent to connect to others is a revolutionary act. Moore advises that effective therapists cultivate serenity, observing “Serenity is not the suppression of conflict or emotion but the achievement of calm through a big enough vision of life that troubles don’t take it away, especially in those moments when you need it. Know the difference between the inclination to react unconsciously and the ability to maintain a greater vision that is ready to go into action in a split second”. In this moment, we have to be therapists to each other and the world. Crises narrow our vision. It helps to remember that expansive vision is what will provide the possibilities we need. (Read more in The Inner Work of Leadership: Caring for Yourself and Others.) Karl If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. You can find our favourite quotations here. I have space for 5 new clients from June. If you’d like to work with me, email me and we can schedule time to speak. |