When actions don't match the promise:
"Integrity Outage"

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Earlier this week I met with Jim Skutt and Ron Kieling, the gentlemen at the helm of Skutt Ceramic Products, one of our clients (visit www.skutt.com to find out more). We're currently going through the first phase of The Hero's Quest, and at lunch we started discussing the fact that to have your actions be seen as heroic, they have to meet or exceed what you've promised.

We talked about how most decisions are easy to make when keeping your promise, but every now and again a more difficult test comes along. For instance, you might have made a mistake with a client that would cost $1,000 to fix, and you don't hesitate to take care of it. But what if you had to add another "0" to that number (or two or three)? At what point do you begin to hesitate, or justify a different decision? Jim smiled and said to me, "Haven't you heard the joking definition of 'business decision'? It's 'integrity outage.'"

I realized as he said it, that we had our own "integrity outage" just the day before. A client had told us of a particular promotion they were planning, and after hanging up the phone it occurred to us that this promotion didn't seem in line with their brand promise. So Erika, Rich and I talked about it. We knew the client REALLY wanted to do this promotion, so rather than risk antagonizing them, we let let it slide...we didn't speak up.

In most hero stories, there comes a point where the hero faces a tough decision. It is no different for a company, or the people within a company who bring those actions to life. Some day you'll be faced with a situation where you may hesitate to keep the promise you made. The question then becomes, have you had the conversation ahead of time about what you'll do when that day comes? Are you clear to begin with on what you've promised to your member or customer? Are you aware of what actions might not be seen as heroic, and are you willing to live with the consequences of taking that action anyway if you have to?

Every company has a different "tipping point"...what is yours? Do you have an example of an "integrity outage"? Share it with us by clicking here, or on the "Share Your Story" link at the top of the page. We'd love to hear it!

Lisa and the Creative Abandon team

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DECEMBER 1, 2006 | ISSUE NO. 009

When actions don't match the promise: "Integrity Outage"

When actions don't match the promise:
"Integrity Outage"