I was in an agri-show a few weeks ago and there, I met Ray.

Ray was the herd dog that was herding five ducks in a show to demonstrate how dogs can be good shepherd with proper training.

The ducks went into different obstacle challenges with Ray not barking once, but pre-empting the ducks' movements, nudging them to take a certain direction, and lastly, blocking their way so that they have no choice but to take the challenge.

It was a great experience to learn and see how Ray was a patient, methodical, and strategic herd.

I likened this to leaders who are trying their best to show their followers the way.

Through nudges, incentives and rewards, pre-emptions, and strategic blocks, leader fine-tune their styles to suit the temperaments of their team, the objectives at hand, and the process they had to be girded on. 

Herding is a process that requires high relational quotient. if your team doesn't trust you, your herding is scorned and ridiculed. 

Your attempts to pre-empt and redirect will be taken in contempt and mistaken to be self-serving.

Your nudges and subtle reminders will be ignored.

Like Ray, you don't need to bark to show them the way.

​Your subtle gestures are loud enough to warrant paying attention. 

I was talking to a coordinator of a research institute a few weeks ago and we talked about how community supporters can help in bridging the academe with community issues through their involvement and advice in their institute. 

Good idea, right?

Well, this idea is not new and had been proposed for several years but the supervisor refused to budge on the topic for various reasons: Money, adding up to work, etc.

When bureaucracy says no, almost all the time, it's just protecting the status quo and eliminating any threats to its  state of being. Community involvement means work but it will open up the institute to far greater input, new ideas, new partners, which will then lead to greater impact.

Results are not what bureaucracies are for, in general. When questioned, they tend to have a zero vision about outcomes, impacts, or resonance with real-world issues.

If our academic institutions are solely run on past successes and are afraid of building allies, then we should all be worried about our future generation!

I just moved to a new celfone provider from one that I had for more than 3 years now.

The agent presented a better price, better service, better features, and overall ease with the move.

I was convinced easily. Plus I didn't get charged for a connection fee.

The best is that he knows who is he talking to: small business owners who are always on the lookout for better communications to power their businesses.

The admirable part of it is that he got my data from the thousands of subscribers and zeroed in on what the segment I represented really needs.

Their competitor had no clue as to what happened just that one subscriber out. We could be in thousands until it's too late for them to figure out what was going on. 

It's not rocket side to please a customer.

You have these things and the switch will happen.

Don't let your valuable partner, donor, or customer switch and disappear out of the blue.

Mere satisfaction is a given.

But surpassing expectations and finding out what would delight them at every stage of their relationship with you is the challenge. 

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