Mark’s Daily Thought – Ideas from Mark Fritz to help you Get Ahead, Stay Ahead and Be Successful
There are far too many people who try to control what others do…which is quite difficult. Successful people have realised that they can’t control others, but can influence others by what they do themselves.
Mark’s Daily Thought – Ideas from Mark Fritz to help you Get Ahead, Stay Ahead and Be Successful
Everyone has “their talent”, and the people who make the most of that talent view it as both a blessing and a burden. They feel blessed that they have that ability, but also they feel the burden of using to the fullest the ability that God has given them. It’s both blessing and a burden.
Mark’s Daily Thought – Ideas from Mark Fritz to help you Get Ahead, Stay Ahead and Be Successful
Everyone knows that discipline is important, and many think that discipline is needed in everything. However, there’s one area where discipline makes the biggest impact. When you have the discipline to stay focused on the important, you can afford to be a little undisciplined in others areas.
Mark’s Daily Thought – Ideas from Mark Fritz to help you Get Ahead, Stay Ahead and Be Successful
Effective communication is not about us, but about them. Successful communicators think about the backgrounds of others, and then package their key messages to better match how others would be most comfortable in hearing it (which also means…in understanding it).
The Obvious?
As some of you who have seen my grumpy tweets will know I have been having significant problems with my broadband access from Orange over the last few weeks. It would run fine for a while then go for days only managing to stay connected for a few minutes at a time – apparently more than 500 disconnections! Given how much I work online and with a family all wanting to use the web for all sorts of things, this is a not insignificant irritation.
Things started going badly from from the beginning. When I moved to them in November Orange got my login details mixed up with another customer. When I pointed this out I was told that they couldn’t correct this simple bit of information and that I would have to start again with the ten day registration process. I said this was nonsense and to get around it I now have to log in under this other customer’s login name.
They then failed to cancel my previous ISP causing double payments on my account for a couple of months which led me to two sets of call centre hell to sort out.
This more recent technical problem involved approximately 30 phone calls to Orange technical support who insisted on conducting about 8 line tests because that was part of their rigid system. They also replaced my modem, triggered a visit by a BT engineer and lost my landline as well for half a day. On top of this they closed the fault twice because we had triggered some time delay or particular response from some part of their check list. I would then have them announce that the fault had been resolved while I still had no broadband access!
The reason I am writing this post though is to comment about the over systematisation of everything. Each time I called the Orange operatives in the call centre in India they wanted to start from scratch with their script. Literally. If I am ever asked again if I am using a wired or wireless connection I will scream. Not only that but no one seemed to know anything about what had happened previously. There was no one apart from me seeing the whole picture. It was like being in my own Groundhog Day nightmare. It was all very frustrating.
No one really owned my problem. Not even the databases that stored my info owned the problem. And when the system didn’t work no one was willing, or able, to step out of it and take reponsibility for solving my problem. As I said in a pointless email exchange with a gatekeeper in the chief execs office their company was in a race to the bottom with other ISP’s reducing costs to such an extent that their product was becoming unuseable. I had little confidence that moving to another ISP would make a lot of difference as their whole industry is afflicted with the same corner cutting mentality. Feeling stuck in this disembodied, call centre hell is an unfortunately common experience these days with all sorts of services.
I got to the stage where I didn’t care how much my service cost so long as it worked or at the very least I got looked after well when it didn’t. In response to some advice from friends I have switched to Zen who cost more but who I understand still employ grown ups who can take responsibility for solving my problem and aren’t hamstrung by a broken system. Here’s hoping!
The Obvious?
As some of you who have seen my grumpy tweets will know I have been having significant problems with my broadband access from Orange over the last few weeks. It would run fine for a while or so then go for days only managing to stay connected for a few minutes at a time – apparently more than 500 disconnections! Given how much I work online and with a family all wanting to use the web for all sorts of things, this is a not insignificant irritation.
Things started going badly from from the beginning. When I moved to them in November Orange got my login details mixed up with another customer. When I pointed this out I was told that they couldn’t correct this simple bit of information and that I would have to start again with the ten day registration process. I said this was nonsense and to get around it I now have to log in under this other customer’s login name.
They then failed to cancel my previous ISP causing double payments on my account for a couple of months which led me to two sets of call centre hell to sort out.
This more recent technical problem involved approximately 30 phone calls to Orange technical support who insisted on conducting about 8 line tests because that was part of their rigid system. They also replaced my modem, triggered a visit by a BT engineer and lost my landline as well for half a day. On top of this they closed the fault twice because we had triggered some time delay or particular response from some part of their check list. I would then have them announce that the fault had been resolved while I still had no broadband access!
The reason I am writing this post though is to comment about the over systematisation of everything. Each time I called the Orange operatives in the call centre in India they wanted to start from scratch with their script. Literally. If I am ever asked again if I am using a wired or wireless connection I will scream. Not only that but no one seemed to know anything about what had happened previously. There was no one apart from me seeing the whole picture. It was like being in my own Groundhog Day nightmare. It was all very frustrating.
The point is that no one really owned my problem. Not even the databases that stored my info owned the problem. And when the system didn’t work no one was willing, or able, to step out of it and take reponsibility for solving my problem. As I said in a pointless email exchange with a gatekeeper in the chief execs office their company was in a race to the bottom with other ISP’s reducing costs to such an extent that their product was becoming unuseable. I had little confidence that moving to another ISP would make a lot of difference as their whole industry is afflicted with the same corner cutting mentality. Feeling stuck in this disembodied, call centre hell is an unfortunately common experience these days with all sorts of services.
I got to the stage where I didn’t care how much my service cost so long as it worked or at the very least I got looked after well when it didn’t. In response to some advice from friends I have switched to Zen who cost more but who I understand still employ grown ups who can take responsibility for solving my problem and aren’t hamstrung by a broken system. Here’s hoping!
Mark’s Daily Thought – Ideas from Mark Fritz to help you Get Ahead, Stay Ahead and Be Successful
People get anxious when doing something new for the first time, and especially when asked to present something new. Everyone feels anxious in those situations. However, the people who do their preparation feel far less anxious than others…because then the first time is not really the first time.
Mark’s Daily Thought – Ideas from Mark Fritz to help you Get Ahead, Stay Ahead and Be Successful
Your mindset will guide your behaviours, and as a result, what people think of you. That mindset can come from two directions, a victim or a victor. Victims are thinking that the world is against them, while the victor is thinking about creating the world around them. Which mindset do you want?
The Obvious?
“What day is it,?” asked Pooh.
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.
The Obvious?
Some time ago I suggested iTunes for journalism and compared newspapers to albums – having to buy two crap tracks along with the six you really want. Why not build an RSS playlist of journalists you rate rather than having to pay for all the stuff you don’t?
This tweet from Mark W. Smith suggests taking the next step and giving journalists their own platform – at least for longer form pieces. I know all the arguments about the need to fund good investigative or foreign journalism but this might in the long term prove an interesting alternative.
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