The power of amplification

I was ushered into the room and this person I consider as my personal “hero” in modern day marketing enters. His name is Seth Godin. He smiled and we shook hands. The first question I asked him was, “Seth, what does it take to invite you and get you to do a talk or give a seminar in Manila, Philippines?”

Guess what his answer was? “That will never happen!” I was a little bit taken aback at the response as most people would have given a more “politically correct” answer. I laughed as I admired the candor of this person seated beside me, wearing a colorful yellow frame, his trademark, that makes up his personal branding.

I asked why and he said, “I cannot imagine travelling 14 or more hours to a place, speak for a few hours and suffer the jet lag. This is just not viable for me.” That is how brutally frank Seth Godin is and I appreciate him for that.

I have read all his books (without any exaggeration), followed his blogs and learned a lot from him, and in one of his blog Seth talks about the “amplifying factor.”

Again, in his candor and directness he addresses an issue that most people in our place would not dare articulate.

Seth says: “You probably know people who are late. Often.

They don’t want to be late. In fact, their good intentions are probably the reason that they are late. They might try one technique or another, and even apologize for being late, and yet it happens again.

There is one reason and one amplifying factor.”

The amplifying factor is that when they’re late, people wait for them.

It is important to note that the next thing he says should be taken in the context of the US or other countries with good reliable public services. Seth says: You might notice that things that leave on time (commuter trains, airplanes, live TV shows etc.) almost never have a crowd of people showing up five or 10 minutes late cursing out the system. For those things, the things that are known to leave on time, they manage to show up. That’s because their good intentions are not welcome here.

And the reason?

The reason is that in every interaction, they want to connect a bit more, respect the other person’s ideas and contribute in that moment. They do that by spending their most precious resource on their behalf. What’s happening is that they are looking for a magical way to get more minutes in the day.

Of course, the person they’re meeting with doesn’t need five more minutes of their time. They need five more hours of their time. But it feels like giving them five minutes one doesn’t have is a way of showing them that they care.

The alternative is a simple as it is difficult: Say no.

An overloaded truck isn’t a more efficient way to move gravel (or anything else). And when you overload your day by treating time as squishy based on how much you care, you’ve just become inefficient, and thus disrespectful.

Lots of other things in our life aren’t squishy. Gravity, for example, or the solidity of dry wall. They are what they are.

So is time if you let it.

The hard part about being on time is standing up and moving on. But the cost of being squishy is that you’re not only disrespecting the next person, you’re stressed all the time.

Stand up and walk out.

People will learn, and they’ll end up respecting you for it, because it’s not personal. Just as it’s not personal when the train leaves on time. The alternative, which is squishiness, is personal. Because if you like someone, you’re willing to be even more late than usual.

Say it without rushing and without stress. “I’m sorry, our time is up.” End of article.

Seth makes sense, doesn’t he?

I used to attend a faith-based organization’s service that would start late and end late. People are polite. They bear the inconveniences without complaining. And so the services started later and later, and ended later and later as one would expect. I was able to attend another faith-based organization that would start the service on time. The volume of people attending this one is many times more than the first one. But people know that the church means business. So they start on time whether the seats are occupied or not, and they end on time. The people learn to arrive on time as they do not want to miss out on the services.

In my last “Power Up Conference;” the speakers are all professionals. They did not just arrive on time, they arrived early. We started on time, even when the seats were two thirds full, and we ended on time.

Professionalism demands that we respect time. Our own personal time, as well as the time of others. Time is the scarcest commodity these days, and being late and having people wait is robbing other people of their precious resource. The good thing is that I have seen the behavior of many professionals today improve, and despite the pain of city traffic; they are punctual. I would even suggest that when you have business meetings, you need to start on time and end on time. If this is not followed, then the amplification factor operates and will mess things up.

Seth Godin makes a lot of sense. It is good to follow his blogs and study his thoughts. And his being a candid, direct, brutally frank person is what I admire. He did say, “Thank you Francis. Our time is up.” And the more I admired him for that.

(Attend the two exciting and inspiring days of leadership training with Francis Kong in his highly acclaimed Level Up Leadership seminar-workshop this April 2 and 3 at the Makati Diamond Residences across Greenbelt 1. For registration or inquiries contact Abby at 09175336817 or Cj at 09176299401 or register online at www.levelupleadership.ph)