We're 3-5 posts from the finale of this The Conversations with the Past arc. Just thougth I'd share that with those faithful readers who always write me in the middle of one of these long arcs, wondering either where it's going or when it will end. I will be offering a "lessons learned" post at the end of this arc. Already I've acquired so much regarding what has and hasn't changed in nine years.This arc is based on a nine year old article by Chris Locke, Faster Horses! sent to me by Jim Sterne and is an experiment in trans-temporal communication; a kind of "Can we learn from the past?"
Part 1 had Mr. Locke waking up in the middle of the night and asking me some questions. Part 2 went into why we dream what we dream and what would have to happen for someone to dream about ecommerce. Part 3 ended with Mr. Locke going to a prospect meeting and in Part 4 Mr. Locke was engaging with the prospect. Part 5 found Mr. Locke going into metaphor and being distracted and Part 6 delved into a cynicism that can develop between client and consultant (and hopefully note mine!). Part 7 found Mr. Locke turning his well-deserved cynicism into a moral philosophy, a difficult task and one that I can easily appreciate.
Not that I've ever been cynical. Pas moi! To make things a little easier to read, Mr. Locke's article will be in standard text, my responses in italics.
{Perhaps the lesson for me in this exercise is to share more of my inner workings with my readers?}"Are you seriously suggesting..."
{No, don't worry. I don't think anybody's prepared for that. Especially not me.}
"I'm not suggesting anything!" I interrupt back, having no idea what the guy was going to say, but not liking the sound of that "seriously" bit. "I'm telling you! People will kill for meaning in their lives. Not finding any after so many years, they'll naturally be grateful for any scrap of direction you can provide. Take all these people you see walking around in expensive t-shirts covered with advertising slogans. And they pay for the privilege. You can make these people do anything you want!"
This, I agree, is true. Perhaps even more so now than it was nine years ago when you wrote this, Mr. Locke. I see people's frustrations at being less and less in control of their lives playing itself out in many, many ways.
I've got them now, I can tell. Time for a little personalized relevancy, I'm thinking. "Not that it matters much, but what is it that you folks sell again?"
Boy, and I was always told to research the client before engaging with them. I think this is one reason that our first meeting with prospects is always what we call "The Learning". We go in and let them talk and talk and talk. Somewhere in there we learn what their challenges really are and if they're really willing to let anyone else address them. KBar had the philosophy "If you can't Bedazzle them with Brilliance then Baffle them with Bullsh?t". I could never really get that to work for me. I always ended up laughing at myself, despite WindKiller's suggestion to feed the demon.
(more to follow...)
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Links for this post:
- Chris Locke's Faster Horses!
- The Conversations with the Past blog arc
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