Inspiring Workplaces: Make It Personal

Published: Wed, 11/23/16

Humor at Work

ISSUE 656 - Nov 23, 2016


			Make It Personal

	I recently spoke at a fabulous event where the theme of the conference was "Make It Personal." This is a theme I come back to time and time again because work is intensely personal - it affects every aspect of our lives, including our mental health, physical health, marriages, families and personal growth. The way to succeed in any business is to treat every employee, every team mate, and every customer like an individual human being by making it personal: A survey by Dogster.com revealed that 49% of dog owners would switch jobs if they could bring their dogs to work; 66% would work longer hours; 33% would take a cut in pay. Now I'm not necessarily suggesting you make your workplace pooch-friendly, but I highlight this survey as a reminder that there are indeed different strokes for different folks. Everyone on your team has different motivators and different de-motivators, and the more you uncover what those are and treat everyone as a unique human being, the more successful you'll be at building a truly inspiring workplace culture. The YMCA in New York found that one of the single biggest factors in membership retention rates was simply ensuring YMCA staff referred to members by their names. Dirt simple, but other studies reflect similar findings: Learning and using customers' names is an important way to make it personal. A study by Randy Garner found that when a handwritten Post-it Note was attached to a survey request, the response return rate went from 36% to 75%. The study found that the more personalized you can make a request, the more likely people are to respond to the request. Everyone has different needs. Everyone has their own story. You create passionate, loyal employees and passionate, loyal customers when you Make It Personal!

		Mike's Fun at Work Tip

Speaking of remembering and using names, a loyal, passionate Humor at Work subscriber (thank you Derek Stone) shared a story with me about how one cast member of the short-lived TV series Firefly created a challenge to his other cast mates to learn and use as many of the support crew names as possible in an effort to bridge the divide that often exists on film productions between the behind-the-scenes employees and the cast. Turning it into a fun competition encouraged everyone to learn everyone's names and make it more personal in their workplace.
		Quote of the Week

"An ounce of personalized extra effort is worth a pound of persuasion." - From the book, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
		It's a Wacky World

Some more unintentionally funny newspaper headlines: State Dinner Featured Cat, American Food Local High School Dropouts Cut In Half Court To Try Shooting Defendant SWAT Team Ends 6-hour Standoff With Empty Apartment Hospitals Resort to Hiring Doctors Miracle Cure Kills Fifth Patient

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