Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com June 19, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 21 BIZ BOOKS Debunking clichés that make for bad business decisions "E xpensive Sentences — Debunk- ing the Common Myths that Derail Decisions and Sabotage Success" by Jack Quarles (Ideapress Publishing, $24.95). How often have you used or heard: "It's too late to turn back." "They're the only ones … ." "We have to act now to lock in the price." Clichés like these proliferate in business decision-making. Their real meaning can be summed up in three words — stuck, special and scarce. They're expensive words because they place limits on opportu- nities. Stuck tells us that "we can't do certain things." Spe- cial tells us that "someone or something is outside the rules that apply to others." Scarce tells us that "there's not enough of something we need." Let's put some of these into real-time context: 1. Stuck — The cost of refusing to change course. There comes a point where realization (i.e. the dog won't hunt) must trump expectation. Wasting time, people and money on a "limping" project just because you've already invested lots of time, people and money in it won't make it a winner. It's time to cut losses and move on. Analogy: If you spent more time work- ing with your best employees rather than trying to get an underperformer up to aver- age, wouldn't your team's results improve? Wouldn't the team's results be even better if the underperformer was replaced by someone who had an "A" Game? The answer to both questions is "yes." Why not apply that same logic to projects? 2. Special — Vendor A has proven reliable over the years; we trust it. The reasoning to stay with vendor A centers around "If it isn't broke, don't fix it." This type of thinking eliminates other vendors that could be just as reliable and trustworthy — but may be less expen- sive or offer additional features. Explore the potential payoff of other vendors. 3. Scarce — The customer is always right. It takes lots of time to turn a prospect into a customer. Doing whatever it takes to keep a customer often takes customer-cen- tricity too far. Catering and customization can erode profit margin — and take atten- tion away from other customers. The Bottom Line: When you limit options, you limit opportunity. • • • "You've got 00:00:08 Seconds — Communications Secrets for a Dis- tracted World" by Paul Hellman (AMA- COM, $17.95). According to a 2015 Microsoft survey, the attention span of humans is less than that of a goldfish's eight seconds. Hellman's fast- focus method centers on making the "right" point, emphasizing it and telling people what to do with it. To find the "right" point, you must become your audience and answer three "homework" questions: 1. "Why should I listen?" Don't confuse a purpose statement with your talking-points agenda. A purpose statement convinces them to listen by emphasizing why what you're going to talk about has impor- tance to them; an agenda deals with what. Look at your topic and decide if it needs a positive or negative why — "If you listen, you'll either get something good or avoid something bad." The more boring the topic, the more likely an audience will react positively to a negative why. Exam- ple: When speaking about new financial regu- lations, a banker had a picture of a prison as his background; his why: Pointing to the back- ground he said, "We don't want to go there." 2. "What exactly are you saying?" Build your what talking points around your why. Hellman offers a tree visualization for the pro- cess. Draw a horizontal line near the bottom of a sheet of paper; below it, list your ground- level why. Draw the tree's trunk; label it with the one thing (i.e. main message) that must be remembered. Next, draw and label three limbs with a key point. Flesh out the key- point limbs with a few sub- point leaves. 3. "What should I do with this info?" If your "one thing" and key points are grounded in the why, they'll know what must be done. The message: Relevance, relevance, relevance. n Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer. Jim Pawlak COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS Is Hartford getting its groove back? By Greg Andrews H artford today stands at a tipping point: Bankruptcy? Revival? Or both? No matter what happens, a longstanding undercurrent of negative "alternate facts" and misperceptions affect the outcome. As a for- mer suburban high school teacher, it shocked me that few of my students had ever been in Hartford. A bad sign; personal involvement in the city can turn these attitudes around. The relationship between a commu- nity's success and its positive self-image is well established. But the surprise is that a community's posi- tive self-image is the cause, not the result, of its success. As noted author and civil rights attorney Bryan Ste- phenson challenged us during a recent Hartford visit, "if you're not feeling hopeful, then you're part of the problem." Hartford has abundant creativity, oppor- tunities and solutions to address its problems and achieve its potential. But defeating nega- tive perceptions can and must occur. Perhaps the most common misperception is that Hartford totters on bankruptcy through its own fault. The facts belie this "truth." Hartford's fiscal chal- lenges result mostly from its unusually small size and inordi- nate amount of tax- exempt properties. Parks, government, education and nonprofit organizations fill 60 percent of its 18 square miles. Revenue from the remaining grand-list properties cannot support city services for resi- dents, businesses and the commuter workforce. Another attitude, common on social media, is that Hartford's glory days are past. While the past was indeed glorious, and many of Hart- ford's assets are among the most historic in Connecticut and the nation, experiencing the present reality can change perceptions. Hartford's cultural and entertainment strengths are abundant, but in this "Land of Steady Habits," effective self-promotion has come late. The city boasts the world's first written democratic constitution, the first pub- lic art museum and the oldest continuously published newspaper, but most of its amazing "firsts" are seldom touted. Few credit its first publicly supported school for the handicapped (the American School for the Deaf), the first public park (Bushnell Park), or the first Boys and Girls Club. There's so much more. While the world comes to the Mark Twain House, among the "world's 10 most important house museums," suburbanites and outsiders still undervalue Hartford. The new Coltsville National Historical Park was created by Con- gress in 2014, but why not long before? Sam and Elizabeth Colt and Coltsville, their industrial village, are paramount in U.S. industrial/social history, making Hartford the epicenter of the "Silicon Valley of 19th-century America." When I've led tour groups that get off the bus and meet Hartford's diverse city lead- ers, the amazement is palpable. On finishing a recent tour, a suburbanite said, "They're making an impact in their community and workplace. I connected with the 'new' Hart- ford and all it has to offer." Today, accelerating changes are expand- ing the city's appeal to young and old, and corporations alike. The flourishing arts com- munity is more than just our Tony Award- winning Hartford Stage Company and nation- ally recognized Artists Collective. Our acclaimed waterfront, created by Riverfront Recapture, is one of Connecticut's major entertainment/recreational venues, the new Dunkin' Donuts Park is selling out Yard Goats games, and dozens of parades and festivals occur year-round. Downtown's boom in new housing and college campuses, and Front Street's enter- tainment and restaurants are energizing city streets day and night. In order to claim a dynamic image, Hartford needs to follow other successful cities and cre- ate strong partnerships among all stakeholders and implement smart, creative and highly publi- cized programming/marketing. Done right, the public will embrace Hartford's vibe. Publicize daily events through a compre- hensive online calendar and app, highway bill- boards and corporate office monitors. Conduct more guided city tours and market diverse offerings linking retail, food and entertain- ment experiences. Make it easier to discover Hartford in all its present glory. As a Trinity student recently observed, "The city has the potential to be as popular as Boston or New York City, and has the people and leaders with the know-how to get there." That's the stuff of this city's future. n Greg Andrews is the manager of the Hartford Encounters and Executive Orientation pro- grams at Leadership Greater Hartford. He is also the co-author of "Structures and Styles: Guided Tours of Hartford Architecture." Greg Andrews ▶ ▶ If you spent more time working with your best employees rather than trying to get an underperformer up to average, wouldn't your team's results improve? ▶ ▶ Hartford has abundant creativity, opportunities and solutions to address its problems and achieve its potential.

• Cover