- Let us have your 3D examples!
The 2013 3D Challenge!
We’re Looking For 100 Examples Of ‘Dramatic and Demonstrable Difference‘
And We Need Your Help!
We love finding (and sharing) real examples of businesses that are ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’. The ones that ‘break the rules’, ‘stand out from the crowd’, and do ’remarkable’ stuff!
We love it even more when others find and share them with us!
We also love a challenge!……So, we’ve challenged ourselves (and you, if you’re up for it!) to find 100 Examples Of 3D Thinking in 2013!
The 3D Challenge is an attempt to share 100 brilliant examples of ‘Dramatic Difference’ – it could be what a business does, or how it does it (or maybe, even both!).
We describe a ‘Dramatic Difference’ as….
“an unmatchable ‘bundle’ of products, services, skills, methods and practices that differentiate a business from its competitors”
It’s any business that ….
- Creates ’remarkable’ customer experiences
- Engages their people to do brilliant things
- Delivers innovative stuff that ‘delights’, amazes or even just intrigues you!
- Does things that their competitors aren’t doing, or even better, things that their competitors can’t do!
It doesn’t have to be the Apples, Amazons, First Directs of the world – although of course, feel free to put them forward!
Here are some examples of the sorts of things we’re looking for…
‘Stop Looking At My Bottom!’! Innocent Smoothies innovative attempt to engage their customers in coming up with a winning phrase to sit on the base of their bottles!
‘End ‘Fiddling With Coins’ Misery’! The Starbucks ’app’ that, among other things, allows you to pay for your coffee with the swipe of your mobile phone!
‘Would you like hundreds and thousands on that?’ Social Media specialists Rocket Powered who, in the ‘warm spell’ late last year organised for an ice cream van to deliver ice creams to their clients’ offices!
It’s The Way You Tell ‘Em! South African lowcost airline Kulula Air with it’s friendly, quirky approach to corresponding, informing and engaging their customers!
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Have you ‘experienced’ anything like this…. as a customer, as an employee or simply as an observer? Well, we want to hear from you!
It’s easy for you to get involved….
Simply email me your 3D example with some basic information (company details, website, photos, evidence etc)….
or
Fill in the comments box below – again all ‘relevant’ information please….
….and we’ll follow it up!
If you send us an example that gets included in my forthcoming book ‘The 7 Characteristics Of Dramatically and Demonstrably Different Businesses’, you’ll get a complimentary copy!
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Click Here To See The Examples We’ve Found So Far!
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Here’s the latest of our 100 Examples Of 3D Thinking…….
#24: Hubspot: ‘Use Good Judgement’!
“You’re going to have a culture anyway. You can and should influence it – so why not build the one you love?” Those are the words of Dharmesh Shah, the co-founder of of HubSpot.
Like many businesses, culture wasn’t always something that they focused on: “In the early years of HubSpot we didn’t talk about culture at all,” he explains on Inc.com but then he started working intensely on building and developing the culture of his business, and it clearly seems to be working – the inbound marketing company has grown from a $2 million business in 2008 to over $50 million in 2012!
“A couple of years ago I started a simple document that talked a bit about culture, describing the kinds of people that seemed to do well at HubSpot and that we wanted to recruit. Then I started getting feedback from the team that it wasn’t going far enough: It described the who but didn’t address any of the how or why.”
Part of this iinvolved developing 10 tenets that shape and drive the culture of the business and they are a brilliant example of 3D Thinking. In fact are our latest example in our search for 100 Examples and in particular, Creating An UBER Culture which is Characteristic #5 of The 7 Characteristics of 3D Businesses!
The key ingredients of an UBER culture are:
- Everyone Understands what’s expected of them and behaves accordingly and consistently as a result
- Systems and processes are Built to reinforce and support those values and behaviours
- People are Engaged, Empowered and Encouraged to deliver them
- People are Rewarded and Recognised for doing it!
The Slideshare presentation below highlights just some of the systems and processes that are Built into the way they do business which include…
- Sharing (almost) everything! they protect information only that they are legally required to do and when it’s not completely theirs to share (salary details for example)….
- An inhouse Wiki site that shares financial information, and details of Board and Senior Management meetings…
- A seat shuffle every 3 months (which they say, reflects the fact that change is constant)…
- Unlimited free books for personal development…
- Unlimited free meals to get to know your colleagues…
- A 3 word policy on just about everything such as social media policy, sick day policy, travel policy, working from home policy, ‘buy a round of drinks at an event policy’ and that 3 word policy is..
……………….’USE GOOD JUDGEMENT’!
For more insight into what they do, and how they do it, have a look at this Slideshare presentation they have produced to explain it all…….
- Have you established the preferred behaviours you want from your people?
- Are your systems and processes Built to support these behaviours?
- Do you Recognise and Reward those who consistently display them?
If the answer is ‘no’ to these questions, then there’s a fair chance that you’ve got some work to do! A starting point might be to download our Free eBook Creating An UBER Culture which expands on the key elements of UBER culture, and crucially helps you see how you measure up – The answers you get might not be pleasant, but at least you could start doing something about establishing and reinforcing your culture you want!
(3D Characteristic #5 Build An UBER Culture!)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
#25: …. You Tell Us!
2 Responses to Introducing…
Richard Field
Replied on: July 2, 2012, 10:26 am
OK Andy, your free and valuable tips deserve support.
Tip:
Send a ‘thank you’ communication to someone every day.
The structure that i use is: Thanks for (for example) seeing me yesterday. One of your great strengths is (EG) your integrity. (Now if the communication was left here, the recipient would probably be asking ‘why is he saying that?’) So i also include: ‘An example of this is that you had completed all of the actions that you committed to.
The habit takes less than five minutes a day and is a great relationsip-building process, and reflection tool for me too.
Cheers, Andy – keep up the freat work!
Rich
Andy Hanselman
Replied on: July 2, 2012, 11:26 am
Thanks so much for that Richard – really appreciated!