BLT Discussion – What’s your trigger?

This fortnight’s BLT (*) topic for discussion was originally listed as simply ‘Trigger’.

This did set me thinking in advance…..was it something to do with business (most likely), a gun-based motif, or maybe musings on a certain character from ‘Only Fools and Horses’ (least likely, but potentially most fun to discuss!)

What’s your trigger?

Ah well, in the end the discussion topic turned out to be the former; i.e. what ‘gets you going’ in your business?

Proactive v Reactive triggers

• Reactive = triggers driven by your customers’ expectations
• Proactive = your own drivers

Now it’s not often you hear this mentioned before 8am on a weekday, but Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs reared it’s theoretical head at this point in the discussion.

Since the majority of us sat round the table were self-employed, a very important trigger was the need to make money to fulfil ‘Basic Needs’.

However, this same majority had, by and large, previously worked in corporate for larger organisations, so being self-employed was also important for meeting our ‘Self-fulfilment needs’.

Interestingly, for the self-employed, Maslow’s highest and lowest needs were the primary triggers, whereas for those working for others, ‘Esteem needs’ (we couldn’t remember the technical term at the time) turned out to be equally important…..which brought us on to…..

Positive v Negative triggers

• Positive = driven by the need to do something good
• Negative = avoidance of something ‘bad’; e.g. Completion of a tax return before a deadline or  meeting a management target.

In this respect, it was notable that negative triggers potentially result in sub-optimal behaviour.

For example, nowadays in larger organisations, a common management measure for customer engagement/digital-style roles is the number of tweets or postings put out in any given day. No thought is given to the quality of these postings, or indeed the quality of the service given, because they are qualitative and cannot be easily measured.

So, it’s a case of a negative trigger leading to quantity over quality, sacrificing any of Maslow’s higher needs (e.g. self-fulfilment) to meet basic needs; i.e. you need to be seen to perform in order to keep your job!

All this brings to mind the economist, Charles Goodhart, a former advisor to the Bank of England, and his famous observation:

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

Bruce’s Brain Teaser 

Purely to get the brains working first thing in the morning….name another word apart from ‘vacuum’ in the English language which contains two ‘u’s together?

Answer at the foot of the page (**)

The ‘other’ Trigger

Well, I couldn’t resist it, having originally googled a few of Trigger’s best one-liners ahead of the meeting.

This was one of my favourites:

Uncle Albert: How did you walk into a mind your head sign? Didn’t you see it

Trigger: Of course I saw it. But in those days, I couldn’t read.

---

Newsworthy Corner

1. New members this week:

• Jules Sainter, Picture Framing: www.lovinglyframed.co.uk
• Alison Sellers, IFA: www.astusfp.co.uk

2. Tony Thornby

• Sharpspring: a marketing automation system that helps companies to nurture and filter leads to make their selling more welcome and effective; Tony now knows all about and reckons everybody else should do too!

3. Natwest Events for Sep-16

• Recruitment (8th Sep), 4-6pm @ High St branch, High Wycombe
• Women in Business (22nd Sep), 4-6pm @ The Tree, Cadmore End

4. Edward Briscoe

• Bucks Carers’ Ball (1st Oct), Wycombe Heights, £45 p/ticket

(*) BLT is a free fortnightly networking group that meets from 7:15-8:45, every other Thursday at The George & Dragon, Marlow.

For more details, please leave me a message – new networkers are always welcome.

(**) Muumuu – a Hawaiian-style dress – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muumuu