What's the new normal?

Dear Clients and Colleagues:

There's a new default mode in the marketplace. It's called the "New Normal." You may have already seen the term cropping up in reporting on the financial sector.

It's not clear what New Normal means or if there's anything substantive behind the term. Chalk another one up to media creation. Here's our take. New normal seems to describe a new place that some have arrived at following the Great Recession. Just don't ask them to tell you what's behind the "at."

What the saying points to is the continuing need for businesses (and their leaders) to find better narratives describing what they're doing or trying to do. After what's happened over the past couple years, there's little excuse left for an organization not to tell a better story. Yet fear of the unknown, anxiety about what's going to happen next and refusal to accept change continue to permeate behavior in the marketplace -- even despite signs of tenuous improvement.

You'll be comforted to know that there's now a better way to overcome this challenge. We are here to help tell how what you and your firm are doing can translate into better narrative with key constituencies, such as customers or clients.

While this may sound like an overly inward creative exercise, the truth is it's not. Effective narratives are only as relevant as what outside audiences want or need to know. The second truth is the normal tools such as press releases, canned speak, resumes/bios/CVs, Linked In updates and Tweets leave much to be desired when it comes to high-impact story telling. That's not taking anything away from all the channels being on; more to the point, it speaks to content that goes into the channels.

Consider a consultation if you're interested in learning how a process can work from a senior leadership POV. We will walk through the steps required, what a final product can accomplish and costs associated with the exercise. Here are several inflection points for when a new story typically has the most value:

1. Job and/or career change
2. New leadership position
3. New business strategy/direction
4. More actionable vision and shared values among a team

Thanks for your continuing support. May the New Normal exceed all previous expectations.

All the best,

JG

Jeremy Garlington
Point of View
Phone: 404-606-0637
Email: garlingtons@msn.com


P.S. If this doesn't interest or appeal to your needs right now, please consider forwarding the message to a senior-level leader who you think could benefit. Only personal one-to-one action makes a difference.

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Childish or Churlish?

So by now we all have our own POV about Wall Street, financial reform and the current standing of the bank otherwise known as Goldman Sachs.

No matter what we may think or believe individually, what passes by in the public square never ceases to amaze.

The latest case in point comes courtesy of a private equity executive who probably will wish that he wasn't quite as candid as he was after reading today's New York Times' Dealbook column, http://http//www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/business/27sorkin.html?ref=business. Then again maybe he will simply rationalize the view deeper as fact. Who knows. Here's an excerpt:

"I don't want to use the word childish but...it's childish." That's how Kenneth Griffin, the founder of Citadel Investment Group described the Security Exchange Commission's decision to pursue a civil fraud case against Goldman for their role in creating a sub-prime investment that went sour...

Classic. I don't want to but will thanks to my vaulted position. But wait, it only gets better. Here's another excerpt (we strongly suggest reading the piece in its entirety for context.)

"...I think the Goldman case has clearly energized the Democrats with respect to passing the regulatory reform."

Fair enough. We're all entitled to an opinion. The fatal flaw in this type of thinking though is how it tends to create conspiracy theory. Follow the logic and see if you agree or disagree. By adding this last line, Griffin seems to be saying that the fact the SEC took this action means that political fallout and momentum behind reform legislation will increase. That may be the case, but by connecting two separate events, the belief now trickles into the widely mediated territory of fact. It also does not acknowledge any resemblance of fault by the original party, which in this case, is Goldman Sachs -- not the SEC or efforts to reform the system.

For another example that now seems like decades ago, consider the original case for the Iraq war, which unsuccessfully attempted to implicate Saddam Hussein with the 9/11 tragedy.

The gray area between fact and opinion is where efforts to solve a problem get horribly off track. To borrow an age old line, don't let facts get in the way of a good argument.

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