My son gave me a voucher for a massage for my birthday - thoughtful as mama's alway's working (as he sees it through his sweet Gen Y lense). I was really looking forward to it and the fact that it was in a dodgy part of town didn't put me off. Nor did the fact it smelled like a brothel (although I was starting to have slight reservations). I wanted the massage so I hooked my handbag around my wrist and before long, my fears were banished and I relaxed into it.

Everything is going swimmingly until I am jerked back to reality as strong hands massage my neck and then lock around my throat (those Thai girls are deceptively strong!).

And I'm thinking - what makes a seemingly intelligent woman take her clothes off and allow a total stranger to rub her down with oil and lock her hands around my throat? That's a hell of a lot of trust...and yet, I stayed. I wanted that massage.

So it got me thinking, how much trust is involved  for you to get a customer to stay with you?  They really want your product or service so even untried, they choose to go with you. Who are those customers? What did it take for you to earn their trust? Do you have a process for building the relationship? What do you do differently to others to make people trust you and your product?

Connecting with people is the core of trust. Take a moment today to think about what you do, and how well it's working.

I was in the post office today listening to a two year old being, well, a two year old. Touching the wrong things, screaming at her mother, pulling her hand away...and mum saying very loudly in a stern voice all the things good mothers are expected to say like "Now remember that talk we had on touching what's not yours/behaving in public/ how good girls behave? Now put it back nicely thank you" and on it went for a while with the kid doing all but give the finger back to mum.

Finally, mum (standing in the queue and unable to control said child) raised her voice and said "Give it to me now!" And the sweet little angel screamed NO! and smashed her chubby fist into the woman who'd created her.

SILENCE.

Then quiet chuckles all around as we dared to look this exhausted woman in the eye. She broke. "I'm so embarrassed to take her out, I don't know what to do! She's like this all the time! I'm at my wit's end!"

And suddenly lots of kindly voices assured her she needn't be embarrassed. It's perfectly normal behaviour and will probably continue till she's 25. It happens to everyone and she'll find her own way to work it through.

In the workplace many of us are pretty good at beating ourselves up. And I think it's more endemic down under in Australia & New Zealand that it is with our American friends. We're not good enough. We need to be perfect. Other people are watching our every move expecting us to be. Focusing on this is NON PRODUCTIVE, and our negative self talk ends up going on 24 hour video loop, grinding us down even further.

The most successful people are open to learning. They're not afraid to make mistakes, even to laugh at themselves. They have no fear of what others think. They know they're always giving it their best shot.  And they make sure they have people around who support and encourage their endeavours. Unless you are attempting  a world first, whatever you're struggling with at work has been struggled with by someone else, somewhere on the planet. And when successful people do have wins, they take the time to celebrate.

Hope that mother has put the kid to bed and poured herself a nice glass of vino.

Welcome to the new year! Hope you all had a great break and are ready to take on the world. Because in 2012 organisations need to start thinking with their whole brain to succeed and grow into the future.

Why? Because lots of us can produce a good product. We’ve got the processes and quality control down pat, and whether we’re in Germany, China or Australia we can produce quality things.

First the industrial revolution and then the technological revolution taught us that. It was the era of the left brain. Logical process was required  and we got good at it. So good in fact, that the majority of our companies are mired in left brain heaviness in the way that we operate.

So if we’re all good at this now, what makes a company stand out?

Hello right brain! The qualities that make us human, such as creativity and empathy, are the ones that will make us stand out now as extraordinary organisations. We innovate, create growth and we care.  

According to Dave Evans from Cisco robots will outnumber human beings by 2025. But he’s not sure they’ll have human qualities – yet. We've got a 10 year start on them.

Big banks have cottoned on to this, albeit too late. They’re desperate to show how right brained they are with uber expensive ads that try to convince us they’ve been caring for 100 years. Sadly for them the consumer is way too savvy and cynical to believe them.

Instead less traditional financial institutions like Suncorp are making inroads by answering the phone with a real human being. Bank West has done away with the glass booths and greet you in their welcoming bright environment with a smile and invite you to take a seat. They’re quietly gathering steam and winning customers.

Don’t get me wrong. We will ALWAYS need our left brained skills. Without good budgeting, forecasting, cashflow, processes and the results driven ability to make non emotional decisions – your organisation will not survive.

But my point is that while this has been the foundation of good business, it isn’t enough anymore.

A friend of mine called a removalist the other day. The guy on the other end of the phone spoke in a monotone, addressed her as “lady”, gave her the rate, said it was non negotiable without seeing her goods. She hung up and gave her $2000 to another removalist who CARED.

Why is Maccas such a success? Because it does both well. And the golden arches aren't  rushing to catch up like the rest of us. They've been full brained for years. They innovate, and they care.  I was in one recently early in the morning. They run efficiently because they have excellent processes, quality and cost control.

I watched as everyone was greeted with friendly smiling faces. Staff carried trays out to elderly patrons and said hello to cleaners. Granted, they’re not all like this but the majority are. I want to go back to that Maccas.

Creating authentic customer stories, growing through nurturing of ideas, showing empathy and care are often the missing part of our company brain. Make sure you’ve got both working hard in 2012.

I just watched a short talk given by Amy Purdy at TED. She's a pro snow boarder who also happened to lose both her legs when she was 19. We get a bit immune to the many terrrible stories we hear - bombings, massacres, tsunamis - because of our access to internet and TV bought directly from war zones.

But Amy's story touched something inside me. This year Christmas has felt different. Retailers will tell you it is. Many people haved shared they are spending less, entertaining less, doing without a tree, not giving as much to charity -  because money really is short. I'm talking about us. Average middle class Aussies.

Now I'm not saying that it's not hard when there's not enough money. Financial hardship is one of the toughest to negotiate. But Amy's talk reminded me to get up in the helicopter and not be limited by the things we call limitations.

It's really easy to see the boundaries placed on us as limits we can't push past.

I can't do that - I don't have the money.

I can't leave my job - I have a family to support.

I can't just go travelling like you - what about uni?

These are very real issues. And often ones we can't see answers to. The gift is to open our creative file. When we're up in the helicopter we can be more objective, use our imagination, create innovative ways to see our problems that seem almost impossible. But they're not. We all have choices but sometimes we're so blinded by our limiting beliefs that we can't see them.

The answers don't need to come quickly. Some of mine have taken many months and sometime years. Make 2012 the year where you refuse to let the boundaries limit you. If you're not happy with something in your life, bring out the thinking cap, and imagine how it can be different.

Have a listen and be inspired by Amy.

I was speaking this week at the Professional Conference Organiser's Conference in beautiful Auckland where the theme was Adapt - Improvise - Overcome. 

I don't think that's ever been more relevant as we teeter on the brink of another GFC, at best in Australia and New Zealand we can expect a market with little growth and plenty of turbulent times ahead. We can stay ahead of the game by looking at the mistakes of others. Take Nokia. They were leading the field in mobile phones not so long ago but failed to pick up smart phone technology so Apple and Google Android leapt ahead. Harvard Business Review suggests that one of the key reasons Nokia missed the boat was that at the time the board was made up of 100% Finnish, middle aged men. Now I've got nothing againts Finns, middle age, or men - in fact, I'm quite fond of all of them but the comsumer shift in phones at the time was being driven by Gen Y men and women.

In healthy economic times  you can get away with one size fits all. But when it's time to adapt, innovate and grow, we need diversity. Differences in people bring fresh perspective, different ideas, robust debate and innovation. If your team is full of one type of person growth will be stifled, because everyone is too busy validating each other's ideas. It's why we hang out in groups of like minded people. Because we want to hear that our thoughts on politics, religion, barbequing and fixing a toilet are right.

Good for peace and quiet. Bad for innovation.

If you find yourself in a team surrounded by clones, don't despair and certainly don't resign! But let me encourage you to climb out of your silo and hold ideas workshops or brainstorming sessions with other teams. Try sales with operations, or marketing and finance. Guaranteed not to agree on everything, which is a good thing.

Search out vibrant conversations and stay ahead of the change game.