Marzec 27th, 2011
Dear BEM Readers,
This week it is time to relate our post to an important political/business event - Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk visiting Marcin Meller's „Brunch” program on the TVN TV station.
Why was this program so important? It was a first step towards recovery of the Polish politicians Public Relations. The program's guests were some of the most recognized artists, the s0-called „celebrities” Tomasz Lipiński, Zbigniew Hołdys and Paweł Kukiz. It was a breakthrough scene for such a meeting. To date the only meetings held with politicians were stiff press conferences or interviews with pre-agreed scenarios and questions that made them predictable and limited. What has changed? Well for a starter, the PM had no idea what will the questions look like. He had to face what was coming at him from an unpredictable set of artists. Just the fact that he agreed to join such an uneasy setting was an effective PR move that subconsciously communicated „Yes, I am open for discussion”.
Most of the questions were a hard nut to crack. Tusk was accused of (among other issues) the ineffective Polish political system, taxation and financial limitations of the Polish art industry, endless road construction and lastly hiring over 80 thousand new administrative staff, going agains his initial political promise of cutting down on them. Whether you support him or his party, it goes without say Tusk was brave to even accept that invite. Imagine being on a board of directors of Lehman Brothers (who were partly responsible for the global financial crisis) and being asked to go on national tv to admit to your mistakes. Would your answer be: „Sure, when can youhaze me?”…
Entrepreneurs and politicians are in the same bag when they screw up, everyonetakes the blame in a given party or company. It's just the way it works. As citizens and consumers we only see the end result - hey we are still driving on bad roads, the art industry is underfinanced and why is there so much administrative staff in the government? It is easy to throw the blame to those at the top. I am not saying, sure they can make all the mistakes they want and we won't even blink. Sometimes making mistakes and trying out various solutions works much better than not doing anything. A country is not a good example for such experimentation but people are people and no government, generation, business strategy, foreign investment or funding will change that.
The lesson here is: go out of your comfort zone. In politics, business, cooking, travel and language learning/teaching. Donald Tusk has grown in my eyes since the „Brunch” program, as I can relate to his obstacles more closely, now that he has pointed them out. Before it was issues he took care (or didn't in our view) behind closed doors and as citizens we only saw the negative impact that his party's governing had on our country. Yesterday, he showed his face as a human being just like you and me.
Harvard Business covers the story of failure in the latest magazine, see a sample video with one of their professors here
Many companies run a risk of becoming a „behind closed doors” operation. As consumers we only see a bad or good product or service. Take some of the Polish public companies like the Polish rail or education system. If only their management was more open for talking to us what and (if) anything is being done to improve their products and services, we would limit our complaing about their low quality.
The biggest mistake is not to admit making it, or even worse making an obvious mistake and openly denying it.
You need to make mistakes, so next time when you will have a fear of asking yourself „Should I say he have or he has”, just say it. You will be better of with someonepointing out your mistake, admitting to it and learning from it, than sitting quietly in the corner of your „quiet comfort zone”.
The inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner sir James Dyson said in an interview with Fast Company: „It can take a very long time to develop interesting products and get them right. But our society has an instant- gratification thing. We admire instantbrilliance, effortless brilliance. I think quite the reverse. You should admire the person who perseveres and slogs through and gets there in the end.”
If I made some mistakes in this or previous articles, please let me know. I am happy to admit to them, learn from and move on.
I advise you to do the same.
Enjoy your week, go make some great mistakes, they are worth it!
Krzysztof „Chris” Dargiewicz
USEFUL VOCABULARY:
1. the first step towards recovery - pierwszy krok do naprawy/wyzdrowienia
2. the so-called - tak zwany
3. a breakthrough - przełom, przełomowa
4. to date - dotąd
5. stiff - sztywny
6. press conference - konferencja prasowa
7. pre-agreed - wcześniej ustalony/umówiony
8. predictable - przewidywalny
9. limited - ograniczony
10. to face something/somebody - stawić czoła komuś/czemuś
11. something coming at someone - coś czeka kogoś
12. uneasy - trudny, niekomfortowy
13. setting - sceneria
14. a hard nut to crack - ciężki orzech do zgryzienia
15. to accuse someone of something - oskarżać kogoś o coś
16. stubborness - upartość
17. taxation - opodatkowanie
18. limitations - ograniczenia
19. it goes without saying - nie trzeba wspominać że, wiadomo, że
20. to haze someone - dokuczać komuś
21. to be in the same bag - być w tej samej sytuacji/”worku”
22. to screw something up - zepsuć coś
23. to take the blame for - wziąść odpowiedziałność za coś
24. the end result - rezultat końcowy
25. to throw the blame to someone - zrzucić na kogoś winę
26. to not even blink - nie kiwnąć palcem
27. to point out - wytykać, pokazywać, podkreślać
28. to run a risk of - stać przed ryzykiem
29. brilliance - geniusz, doskonałość
30. to persevere - przetrwać; wytrwać
31. to slog through something - przemęczyć się przez; przejść przez