THE FUTURE-GENERATING SELF CONTINUED

We are now ready to look at the next aspect of our 'self': the Present-Focused Self.

The Present-Focused self, just as it sounds, has to do with responding to what is happening NOW. It is about our connection to stimuli, our responsiveness, our alertness, our present-moment reflexes and reactions.

The Problem:

The problem occurs when we act only on what is most superficially before us, with no sense of context or larger meaning. We tend to then think of what is literally in front of us. This can lead, in a team setting, to excessive 'silo' thinking. It also can be delusional, because the significance of whatever is in front of us is often more than it immediately seems.

Tom Peters minted an example about the life-time value of a customer. Imagine that you own a pizza parlor. Someone walks in. They order a $15 pizza. We see them in purely a present-moment context as worth $15 worth of business and pay no undue attention to them.

However, if that person has just moved to the neighborhood, and is likely to order pizza once a week for their family, that's $60 a month. If let's say, they stay in the neighborhood for 5 years, that's $60 X 11 (assuming they're on holiday one month) X 5 = $3300.

Now, let's assume you 'wow' them with your service, food, delivery, everything. They now tell 3 friends. These 3 friends also order 4 X a month, and each stay in the neighborhood about 3 years. That's $5940. With tips etc, and sometimes with them ordering extra items, that's about $10,000 combined. How would we treat that walk-in if we knew they represented potentially $10,000 worth of business?

Recently travelling from Canada, I experienced what Senator Ted Kennedy did. My name 'Khan', being quite common, meant I had to undergo what is euphemistically called 'secondary inspection'. There were numerous travelers from all over the world. We were seated in a sterile area and told, 'They'll call you when they're ready for you.'

Minutes ticked by, no word at all. Immigration officers walked by with nary a look at the various passengers watching the clock and realising they were going to miss their flights. There wasn't a shred of concern or empathy in the whole scenario.

Doubtless the officers have created this persona given the stress of their jobs in a post 9/11 world. And for the 5% of people who the secondary inspection DOES show to be a problem, they doubtless have to steel themselves. However, to create a mode of behaviour determined by 5% of the population that penalises 95% is silly. This was especially acute when the officers were seen joking around with each other, while harried families waited for some movement or update.

I finally opted to speak to someone. I picked the most 'friendly' looking person I could, and very respectfully asked him how I could get some information. He looked as if jolted from a reverie or dream. Once his faculties clicked into gear, he was very friendly and at least told me that someone was 'working on it'.

I then approached one of the supervisors. She reassured me that a number of the pilots go through this every week, and given that it was a holiday week-end, it was just taking longer. She said we could go get coffee and come back, and she would personally check on it. Hurrah! Humanity at last!

Keeping in mind that most of us were in the same situation, why some communication would not have been the most natural thing to offer, I don't know. Everyone was polite, I had no complaints as such. But it was striking how limited their chosen options seemed to be, and how off-putting the experience they created was. This happened because they focused ONLY on 'security check' and 'processing' and ignored entirely the fact that most of the people they were detaining were entirely blameless, and that some sensitivity regarding the entire emotional experience of contemporary travel would only help everything along.

My wife just spent countless hours trying to get our Bank to tell us how to redeem 'award points' from one of our credit cards. To me an award means you should feel good for having used the bank's card. Availing of the award ought to be hassle-free, should be a pleasure, encouraging you to use the card still more often. In short you truly feel 'rewarded'.

My wife tried to find out how we might get a catalogue of items redeemable by our earned points. She was told to go on the website. On the website there was only a listing of approved stores, but no list of items.

She called again. She was told a catalogue could be picked up at the branch. We went there. After standing in line, she was told it was a mistake, we had to go to the website!

Fuming, we tried again. After finding our earlier survey of the website as only listing stores was accurate, we called once more. They AGAIN said we could pick up a catalogue at the branch!

We then got a form faxed to us (no catalogue at the branch). But the form had no indication of whether you can fax it back, whether they need the original, or precisely how the processing would be done.

Each individual in the Bank gave a present-focused answer. It was an answer that was hemmed in, however, by their role, the limited information they had, and their own specialty. They had no interest in the larger picture. They didn't bother to find out that we have done significant personal and corporate business with that bank for over 7 years and have three separate credit cards with them. No one bothered, or cared, but each was 'functional', 'accurate' within the confines of what they had been told. They even empathised with our plight. But they were unable to help, unwilling to summon any imagination, seemingly incapable of glimpsing the larger absurdity of the system they were a part of perpetuating.

The Solution:

The solution derives from using our present-focus not to obliterate the lessons of the past, the opportunities of perspective, or the hopes of the future. Rather, we use the present to heighten alertness, to fertilise imagination, to accentuate sensitivity and to sharpen our sense of presence to everything before us.

Again, we look for meaning, for significance, for the widest possible angle, for the broadest canvas, towards what Stephen Covey introduced us to as 'the end in mind'.

If all kinds of government bodies had to look at the public as truly their 'customers', and had to audition for budgets and resources based on customer satisfaction and their genuine effectiveness insofar as what they've been mandated to achieve, a true revolution would take place. For example, this superficial name-checking at airports results in severely limited resources checking the very same people over and over -- like the pilots who apparently are going through this once a week!

Let me give you an example of where the present was cultivated for its full potential. I had a cousin getting married in Washington D.C. not long ago. While in Canada we requested the concierge desk at The Four Seasons Hotel to help us get flowers delivered to them. They asked about the occasion, making sure they understood both the sentiment and the situation. They contacted their sister property in D.C. and enrolled them in the exercise.

The result was a glorious flower arrangement that apparently became the talk of the celebration. Family members positioned the flowers to have pride of place, and the comments haven't stopped coming in since. While tackling a present request, both Four Seasons clearly looked beyond the transaction, to the larger opportunity. They looked at us as loyal customers. They participated eagerly and willingly in the joy and excitement of an upcoming wedding. They linked a request they were given with the possibility of lending enchantment to a special day. That's why we consider this place very much a kind of 'home', their service ensures we are truly CARED for.

One of my clients, who is a Chairman of a major company, learned one of the tools we teach relative to helping people deal with conflict and bridge forward together into fresh design. As he returned from a business trip, he learned that his fellow Board members were polarised relative to a challenging decision that had to be timed 'just right'. Rather than rushing to resolve it, he decided to be fully PRESENT to the differences and explore the feelings, convictions and passions behind each position.

Using a 'reframing' technique we had passed on them, he had each faction represent the views, priorities, values and nuances of the other side, to the other side's satisfaction. As these viewpoints were clarified and the real purpose behind the decision, the larger aim, was zoomed in on, it became evident that neither viewpoint would actually serve the purpose.The disquiet of both sides was actually well-founded!

So instead of 'this or that', a true synergy of ideas was evoked, and a third way was alighted upon, to the satisfaction AND excitement of all present. This leader enriched the present by seeing it as a 'portal' not a barrier, as an 'opportunity' not as a limitation.

ACTION POINT:

In the coming weeks, choose some upcoming challenges and decide how to take the present-focus and use it to transform these moments away from prosaic, functional, staid, dull and predictable moments and towards creative and purposeful alchemy.

Each week look back at moments you aren't satisfied with. As we learned in the last discussion about the past-based self, convert these into learning first. Then reflect on how each could have been enhanced with greater present-focus imagination and energy.

Your team walks into the room. Why are they there? What are you hoping to achieve? How will you need to rally them? What is the largest opportunity here? How will you lead?

Your spouse wants to talk. What's the end in mind? What does the occasion require, what does it offer? How can you prepare to optimise this? What is the most loving context you can offer for the exchange?

You have a disgruntled customer who represents a huge percentage of your profitability. What can we learn from this? If you were this customer, what would be necessary for you to feel overjoyed at the handling you had received? How can you re-invent this customer's experience of partnership and service? What other present-moments in your service interactions might you want to investigate on the basis of this input?

You have a wonderful new idea, but you're not sure how to apply it. But you sense there's 'something there'. Who might you talk to? How might you test the idea? What permutations of the idea could you explore? How can you safe-guard against the potential downside of your idea? How could you make this good idea BETTER? How can you enroll others?

And so on.

The key here is to be fully present to everything that happens. To make today a treasure trove for tomorow's experience. As leaders, we have to ensure the present paves the way to the future. We have to offer ourselves as a full-fledged, totally engaged contribution.

At my building in New York, one of the bellmen is named Jacob. Jacob is so alert to ways to help and support, I delegate a lot of my requirements to him, rather than anyone else in the building. He is clearly the elder statesman in the building, and he gets the tips and appreciation that accompanies that achievement. I have no doubt his salary reflects that too. Jacob uses his present interactions as a way to create future loyalty and current satisfaction. In microcosm, it's a great lesson for all of us.

When we use our present-focus to enhance the experience for everyone and to create the conditions we'll want to enjoy in the future, then as leaders and as people we are ready to generate the future.

It is to that we will finally turn in the next weeks.

HAPPY FULFILLMENT!

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