When Solutions are Bandaids

The other night I went to hear Jeffrey Hayzlett speak. When I read his bio (he calls himself a business celebrity), I was a little put off. But when I heard him speak, I was completely enamored by his style of storytelling and the stories he told. Sure he had a schtick. He’s a maverick. Wears cowboy boots (probably worth thousands), expensive “faded” jeans, a striped jacket with some patterned (maybe paisley) lining that he showed off. He used ranch, pheasant and horse analogies. His volume would rise and fall to make a point. He was one helluva show.

Among the statements he made was one about identifying problems, not solutions at work

I used this analogy when emailing Pamela today. We were in an email dialog about a very big problem in our world that is being addressed by short sighted solutions.

Here’s how I responded.

Just as we are trained in corporate America, when we want to stand for a movement, it isn’t enough to address the issue. We need to have ways to solve it. We need to rally our community to believe in it so much, that they can do even the smallest thing to make a difference. It needs to be told in about 7 seconds to engage them before you can sell them your higher purpose. Although I don’t agree with some of Hayzlett’s points, I did like this statement. Hayzlett says you have 8 seconds to engage and calls it 118.

Whatever your math, there is so much truth within that statement. Make those seconds count, so your audience isn’t counting the seconds until you are done. Otherwise, we are back to bandaids.