A face to face meeting is a prime opportunity to accomplish something valuable in a business relationship.  So you need to be clear on why you want this meeting, and that whomever you’re meeting with has the same or similar understanding.

Recently, I attended a meeting where a consultant thought he was there to help a client develop an approach to solve a particular problem.  However, the client already had a pretty good handle on the plan of attack, they simply were looking for help to hone the plan and to execute it.

This joint misunderstanding led to frustration for both the consultant and the client and ultimately a major opportunity was diminished.

Moral: We work hard and spend money to make and develop new relationships.  Be sure there is up front agreement on the reason for an encounter and check in along the way to be sure you’re staying on course.

Your reputation and your business depend on it.

Posted by: Steve Banis

Last week two girls, ages 10 and 12, fell down a storm drain/sewer in Australia. They weren’t seriously hurt. (link to story)

But they were without any means to climb out and desperately needed help. Fortunately, one of the girls had a working cell phone with plenty of bars.

So, within minutes she pulled out her phone and…updated her status on Facebook. Her friends then called 000 (the Australian equivalent of 911) and help arrived soon thereafter.

You either admire the girls’ quick thinking and resourcefulness or you are recoiling in horror. If you’re like me – you’re simply left slack jawed.

Younger ‘Millennial’s’ have so adopted social media as a means to carry on regular dialogue with their friends that, at least in this case, they trust Facebook over calling 911 in a dire emergency.

The older you get of course, the more preposterous it seems.

But is it really?

Facebook is now beyond 250 million members and skyrocketing globally. Together with other social media, it is a standard mode of communication. Individuals, businesses, and government officials exploit the platform – finding new ways to use it every day.

Over the last 9 months, the number of users in the USA has grown 101%. But that’s nothing to Taiwan’s 1899%, the Philippines’ 1136% or Indonesia’s 879%.

The upside? Worldwide personal connectivity and the emergence of the true world marketplace. Going where no one has gone before.

The downside? It is growing as a standard of personal communication, taking the place of face to face and even voice to voice communication. Relationships are increasingly bound by skin deep connections rather than shared life experience.

In the virtual world of online gaming, Avatars ARE you in the community. They are not real – rather they are the perception you wish others to have of you in this alternate ‘reality.’

Is Social Media becoming an Avatar for personal relationships? A stand in for true friendship and professional bonds?

We may not like the answers to these questions, but we better figure out how to deal with their impact on our daily personal and professional lives. And take action.

Welcome to the continued evolution of society.

Posted by: Steve Banis

One conversation in particular caught my attention.  The topic was important, but the variance in emotional intensity was riveting.

A veteran reservist was talking with a younger serviceman about his two deployments in Iraq.  At first, the conversation was highly interactive, with the elder sharing the details of his assignments and the personalities he’d encountered.

Suddenly, he looked down and his pace slowed.  He got very focused on something he could see in his head, and totally detached from the place he was sitting.

He paused and looked up at his companion, crock shaking on his twitching foot. “I know I was lucky a couple of times over there and you know that at some point your luck runs out. There were the same brown sandals and the same brown hair. The children aren’t children.  The women aren’t women. It was like being on another planet.  They weren’t human to me. We weren’t human to them. It was Gimme chocolate. Gimme football mister. I didn’t see where we built up any goodwill over there. Just take take take.”

Then he broke out of his trance, and the conversation went on like it had before.

My take, other than seeing an example of the enormous strain on our servicemen and women, is how global communication disconnects are.

There is absolutely no political intent here, it’s a marketing blog.  I just wanted to relay a story.

But, the inability to see one another’s real goals consistently seems to lead to grave misunderstandings and devastating effects on life and business relationships.

Posted by: Steve Banis