Southwest Gets it. American Doesn't.

A few weeks ago, my friend Anne Jackson blogged about American Airlines. Her inspired blog post aptly titled “American Airlines is the Devil” drew a lot of comments from weary travelers who had similarly painful experiences with the airline. It took American Airlines a long time to notice and respond to Anne’s post, which is read by thousands of people. Eventually someone from the company acknowledge her complaints and even confessed that AA needs to do a better job managing its online reputation. As far as I’m concerned, they need to do a better job managing their entire business let alone their online reputation. But I’ll leave that discussion for another time. In contrast with the flying woes of AA, I had a WOW experience with Southwest recently. They did something I didn’t expect them to do.


Last Wednesday I boarded a Southwest airline flight from Nashville to Hartford and to my surprise, as soon as I sat down, I realized that the plane had just been upgraded with new leather seats. Sadly, I spend more time seating on Southwest’s cushions than my living room chairs. The happy discovery prompted me to right a tweet about it (tweets are single posts on twitter). Here’s what it said:

“New seat cushions on my southwest plane. First reaction: excitement, then sadness that I actually noticed and cared. The crew was amused.”

The post went out at 6 a.m., and by 5 p.m. I had a reply directly from Southwest:

“SouthwestAir @maurilio That's awesome that you noticed our new seats. That's not pathetic, that's SWAwesome. (Dorky, sorry, but couldn't resist).”

For those of you not aware, Twitter is a new and fast-growing social network using mostly cell phone technology. It’s just now hitting the mainstream. I never thought of Southwest as a cutting-edge business. I love their business model, corporate culture and customer-focused service, but they have never been on the cutting edge as far as technology goes. However, they have always been great about communicating who they are and what they do. Having someone monitor social networks on their behalf is a sign of how intentional they are about communication, their brand and the dialogue with consumers. Even the cheesy tone of the reply is consistent with the fun and irreverent spirit those of us who fly SWA have experienced time and time again.

Well that’s yet another reason I continue to LUV SWA.Read more...

Another Trip to ER Hell: Why our Health Care Needs Reform

Lately I have become an unwilling member of the emergency room frequent guest program. Six weeks ago I spend the better part of an afternoon at ER of centennial hospital after finishing the Nashville Marathon. [I wrote about it here.] This past Saturday I returned to another ER, Williamson Medical Center, with my youngest son, Derek, after he got a small gash on the top of his head during a “friendly sword fight” (official version by his older brother, Marcus). The swords in question were not real swords but hockey sticks that doubled as ninja weapons. However, the whole incident was not as traumatic to the family, including the busted boy, as was our trip to the ER. No wonder our health care system is in such a crisis.



Since the cut happened Saturday afternoon, we called the pediatrician’s office to see if we could get the physician on weekend duty to examine the boy. To my surprise, here’s the recording I got: “You’ve reached Old Harding Pediatric, our offices are closed. If this is an emergency, call 911.” I guess we have two options, get sick from 9-5 or call 911. That’s crazy!

So we pack everyone on the SUV and head out to the ER. We walk to the lady behind the glass, and she takes our information and gives Derek his hospital bracelet immediately. Great, this thing seems to be moving fast, and since there’s only a couple of people sitting in the waiting area, I’m hoping to be headed to Cozymel for fajitas in no time. 10 minutes later we’re called in an examining room with a pleasant man. After examining Derek and ascertaining we didn’t beat him purposely on the head with a stick and tried to cover up with the sword fight story, he tells us that someone else would probably staple the boys wound together. “It’s pretty simple process” the man says. “Why can’t you do it?” I ask. “ I just do the exam,” he says and sends us back into the waiting room again. “You need to check in first,” he says.

After sitting down for a few minutes another woman calls my name into yet another room where I produce my insurance card, work information, home information, political views, past girlfriends list and whatever else she can think of. Then she sends me back to the waiting room to be reunited with my family. Derek is already sufficiently freaked about the whole staples-on-his-head idea. I try to console him with my cheerful “isn’t that the coolest? You’re getting staples!” He doesn’t bite. He looks up at me with disappointment at my lame attempt, sighs, rolls his eyes, shakes his head and laments “Oh please. You get them, then.”

Twenty minutes later we’re called in. This time another male nurse escorts us to an examining room where he looks at the wound and confirms the earlier treatment: staples, quick and easy. But he can’t do it. We have to wait for the nurse practitioner to do it. He tries to comfort the boy by telling him how simple and painless this will be once they do “a small, local shot that you won’t even feel.” Now the only thing Derek hears is “shot.” The kid really begins to freak out. He not only is getting his head stapled, but someone is going to give him a shot on the skull. Nice going, Mr. Smooth.

“Please, don’t tell him anymore information, just stapled the darn cut and let us go.” I say as patiently as I can. Ok, I was getting angry by then. He leaves. I’m scolded by Gwen for not being helpful.

For the next forty-five minutes we’re in a 4 feet by 8 feet treatment alcove with a bed and two chairs waiting for the official hospital “Stapler” show up. Gwen, Marcus and I kept moving around the two available chairs while Marcus whined: “I’m hungry. Can’t we get something to eat and then come back?” Meanwhile I’m being tortured by reruns of Hanna Montana and iCarly (if you don’t know what those are, thank God for your good fortune) on the Disney channel playing above our heads.

Suddenly, the Nurse Practitioner comes in. She takes a look and yes, confirms the treatment. “I think two staples would be the way to go.” But before I could rejoice, she breaks my spirit with “I’ll come back as soon as I finishing stitching the girl next door.” “O for the love, I should have stapled his head at home and we’re been done with this ordeal,” I say out loud. Stares all around. The Nurse looks shocked, Gwen looks embarrassed, Derek looks scared, and Marcus, well, he looks hungry and bored.

She leaves and we’re left alone again with the bad tv shows. After another 45 minutes, the male nurse apologetically returns and says they’ll be back soon. “You ticked her off with your smart comment,” says Gwen to me.

The Nurse looks shocked, Gwen looks embarrassed, Derek looks scared, and Marcus, well, he looks hungry and bored.

Finally, almost three hours since we got there, the Nurse and her nurse come in, spray some freezing deal on the boy’s head while we hold him down, gives him a couple of quick shots and then, clunk, clunk—two staples. That was it. The entire ordeal lasted less than 30 seconds. Really. We still had to wait another 15 minutes for whatever discharge papers needed to be finished.

3 hours, 4 different rooms, and 5 different people later we’re done. I’m not an efficiency expert, but there’s got to be a better way to do this. There’s got to be. And we wonder why our health care costs are out of control. Now we wait again. This time we wait to get the likely 5 thousand dollar bill from the ER visit, since we use so many of their resources. And the irony of it all, we never even saw a Physician.Read more...

My Life in 140 Characters: The Twitter Writing Course

I've been twittering for almost 2 months now. And while it has connected me with a lot of people, it has really helped my writing.

Twitter forces me to make an argument or develop a thought in no more than 140 characters. In a world of digital verbosity, that's hard to do.

But how much can one communicate in such small chunks, including spaces and punctuation? A lot of people tell me it's too restrictive.


But it has compelled me to focus on the power of words, using them deliberately and effectively--painting a clear picture with few strokes.

As a former college teacher, I expected my English composition students to get to the point quickly and give their readers a reason to read on.

In a time of endless blogs and social networks where prose flows unfettered, a well-crafted thought has the opportunity to rule the day.

Twitter is not about more; it's about better. It's like the difference between an eau de cologne and eau de parfum--quantity vs quality.

Here’s a few examples of recent tweets. Some are funny, some thoughtful, some mundane, but all of them succinct:

• Proverbs 16:32 I wish it didn't speak so powerfully to me, but it does. As a parent to two teens I need to plaster this to my forehead.

• New seat cushions on my southwest plane. First reaction: excitement, then sadness that I actually noticed and cared. The crew was amused.

• Met a huge spotted eagle ray on my morning swim. Never seen anything like it. Thankfully, he seemed less interested in me.

• Being transferred like a cow to the airport in a shuttle while @michaelhyatt takes a nap by the sea. But I'm not bitter at all. really.

• It's only 6:30 pm, but it's 7:30 in CT and I've been at it for 17 hours. Would I get the official old-man card if I went to bed now?

There you go, another reason to give Twitter a try: you'll be more selective in your word choices and become a better communicator.

PS In case you didn't notice this blog post was Twitterlized by keeping paragraphs to, well, as you'd expected, 140 meaningful characters.Read more...

Thoughts from a Secret Church Shopper

Today I walked through a church as a secret shopper. I experienced a Sunday service for the first time and tried to answer the question that every first-time guest asks himself: "why should I come back here?" The question is not as much about musical style and preaching method as it is about connecting spiritually and emotionally. The Answer to that question begins at the parking lot and ends on the way home.

It's not about any one thing, and, yet, it is about every single thing.

I'm not sure most pastors and church staff realize that most newcomers want to like the church they chose to visit. Whether they are apprehensive or down right afraid of the experience, excited or just wanting to please a friend or family member, deep down they want to enjoy it; they want to connect with God and with people.

Unfortunately many churches are not intentional about helping the unchurched, or the unchristian to find a connecting point. How many times church leaders have welcomed new people from the platform, but practically "uninvited" them with their lack of preparation and care? "We're a very friendly church" I once heard. Well, they were definitely friendly to each other, but not so much toward someone new--as I was "crowded out" of a pew, that, obviously, belonged to a group of senior citizens--and was forced to move to another row. On another particularly painful visit, the church's music minister greeted the congregation with "I see a lot of strangers here today." Ouch.

My prayer for the Church is that we take Jesus' words in Luke 14:23 to heart and find a ways to "compel" people to come in, and, as they come, we'll learn to love them beyond the welcome time.Read more...

Tweevangelism: A New Use for Tweeter

Lately, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t introduce someone to Twitter. Mike Hyatt has a great blog about it here, if you don’t know what it is. Most people’s first reaction is almost always the same: “Do you really think anyone cares what you’re doing throughout the day?” Yes, I do, but that’s not the point here. The most import aspect of Twitterland, however is how it facilitates community through small, succinct posts of 140 characters or less.

Recently I introduced a good friend and seminary professor, Mark Overstreet, to Twitter. At first he didn’t know what to do with it, but last night he called me with a proposal: “What if a church used Twitter for evangelism?” First I thought he was envisioning people sharing their faith through tweets (a twitter post). While I could see someone doing that, I’m not sure that it would be effective in this type of community, where the personal transparency and openness is valued over any other agenda. However, his angle was different.


His thoughts centered around a congregation using Twitter as a way to encourage each other as they share their faith throughout the day. The way he envisioned it happening, the pastor and staff would use Twitter for thirty days as they share tweets about their ministry opportunities throughout the day. After the staff trial, the Pastor would then challenge the entire congregation to join them. Each time someone had a potential ministry opportunity they would post a tweet. From tweets about sharing their faith with a coworker, encouraging someone in need, or praying for a friend, members would post a tweet prompting the rest of his church group to say a quick prayer for them beforehand and/or celebrate with them after the exchange, while simultaneously, encouraging all members to find their own ministry opportunity.

I slept on that idea and I still think it could be an amazing tool for a congregation to use. Now I need to talk my pastor, Pete Wilson, to lead the way.Read more...

Building a Winning Team: When Talent Isn't Enough

The 2006 Brazilian National team was favorite to win the World Cup. They were touted as, potentially, the most talented soccer team ever assembled. Yet, the world favorite was eliminated during the quarter finals much to the disappointment of Brazilians worldwide, including yours truly. What happened? How can so much raw talent, experience and stardom result in such a poor performance? While some blame Brazil's coach, Parreira, most of us saw clearly the problem play itself out on the field: superstars who could not play together as a team. It was obvious that the players were more preoccupied in looking good than winning games.

Individually, they were the best in the world; together, however, they were less than the sum total of their talents.

All the pride and praise of Brazil's "jogo bonito," translated "the beautiful game" could not make up for the lack of team spirit and comradely on the field. Individually, these guys were the best in the world at their position; together, however, they were less than the sum of their talents.

As I build my team at The A Group and as I help my clients build their teams of talented, creative and effective professionals, I'm keenly aware that talent alone does not cut it. It never has. These days I hire on three levels: character, competence and chemistry. Sure I want to hire the most honest and talented person I can find for the job, but not at the expense of the team chemistry. In the past few years, I have changed the way I interview for openings in my company. While each potential hire has to meet our toughest job standards, he or she will not be hired unless the entire department feels good about them--after all, we are a small collaborative group and even one odd person can change the entire team dynamics.

It has taken me a long time to learn this lesson. I wish I'd learned it a long time ago. It would have saved me a lot of pain over the years. In last few years we have passed on some great talent because they were not a good "fit" for our creative and professional culture. I have learned to trust my team's collective instincts, and have regretted when I've gone against them.Read more...

In Defense of the Techno Slut

Lately I have gotten a lot of "feedback" from friends, family, associates and even complete strangers on my obsession with technology, as some have labeled it, specially my ongoing usage of Twitter. Since I syndicate my tweets (what we call a twitter post) on my blog, my Facebook page, and Plaxo, I can see how, for a non web-savvy person, it seems that I'm spending most of my days updating these sites with seemingly trivial information. Even, Gwen, my lovely wife, emailed me the other day with the indicting words, "if you have time to twitter, than you have time to . . ." and so it began my "honey-do" list. The truth is that it only takes a few seconds per post. I estimate that I might spend a total of 5 minutes--on a busy tweet day--on my social network posts.



First of all, I'm in the communications business. I own a media and marketing firm whose job is to help develop communication strategies for our clients, helping them to be as effective as possible in what they do. Technology is often the best conduit for those strategies. Frankly, I'm tired of people who, like myself are in charge of communicating with culture, commenting, denouncing, or plainly dismissing tools they don't understand or have never even used for themselves. Think about it as a child who affirms that he hates broccoli, but has never tried it once.

Secondly, there's an objective, quantitative side of testing new technology. It's called results. No matter what world we live in, whether market place or non profit, we are compelled, if not required to maximize our impact, to have the greatest return on our investment--investment not only of resources, but also of time and personal equity (relationships). I can pontificate all day long that I prefer a clean, streamlined design for a website which I happen to do. But that's not always what works. Recently my company "junked up" a home page that was not performing to our expectations. Traffic improved. Unfortunately "preferencentricity" (term I coined to reflect judgment solely based on one's point of view and tastes) has a way to hijack meetings and projects when outspoken and yet misguided people speak out of ignorance, fear or prejudice.

Since I began Twittering, traffic has increased on my blog as well as on my corporate website. I have met some great new people as well, just to name a couple of benefits.

Finally, I like gadgets and technology. I really do. As a matter of fact, things with buttons, touch screens, and cool shiny lights make me happy. When I run or ride my bike, I carry on me a GPS, a heart rate monitor, a cadence meter and a wrist watch that controls my iPod as well. I'm a techno slut after all. But at the end of the day if the new technology doesn't deliver, it'll be gone and I'll be looking for the next big thing that will help my clients and me to reach people.Read more...