Perform Meaning...Add Meaning

Finally today I was able to experience a little of the magic of Deepak Chopra's philosophy and techniques. This was courtesy of Tony Pinto who is a certified Chopra Centre trainer. It was calming to be in his office which was furnished with furniture from my grandmother's era. I am sure your grandmother's too. Perhaps it is Tony's strategy to put me at ease. It worked on me wonderfully what with his soothing bhajans and incense. Who does not feel a sense of warmth and love when thinking of their grandmother. I surely do whenever I think of my late grandmother.

Anyway, my idea was to take a Saturday off for something other than work related stuff. So, for the first time in a long time since I joined my current organisation, I didn't switch on my office laptop first thing on a Saturday morning (I did so at 4pm after returning from Tony's office though...good enough for starters)or sit at the Starbucks at the Curve reading the Economist.Yet, as I was enjoying my conversation with Tony, I noticed a little poster on his wall that said " Perform meaning...add meaning" and my thoughts went straight back to work! So here I am blogging about work...I guess its an incurable disease but love it. In a sense your calling never leaves you and I guess I should not be complaining as some people spend a lifetime trying to find theirs. Tony found his after over 50 years of searching.I found mine when I was perhaps 20 years old.

That phrase on Tony's wall is powerful and I have seen its power. In fact just a few days ago, I delivered a half day seminar for a client and I witnessed how powerful it is when you spend some energy in determining what exactly the meaning behind what you are doing. Essentially, at least for me, what it means is that you need o find what exactly the meaning behind what you are doing and having found that meaning continue to add more of that meaning into your action so that it becomes filled with meaningful discovery, knowledge, experience, emotion, learning, etc for yourself and others. In my chosen calling, often times it is not what I have to say that is important but what my audience needs to know that becomes the key concern. I can be armed with the best research or equipped with the most advanced tool but they are of little use if they can't provide the meaning (read value)that my audience is seeking for. Sometimes we do great injustice to the product or service that we have when we think that the product by it self should be sufficient to attract a potential customer. In my experience the more sophisticated or cutting-edge your product or service is, the more you rely on the product or service to sell it self. In other words, you don't add meaning/value. You don't innovate, improvise, re-configure, change or adapt. You become the GM and Ford of the past (present too perhaps?).

Guess what? It is also very easy to find out what meanings you customers want out of your product or service. Just ask them. Tell them what you have and ask them what they need and end by telling how much of their needs your product is going to fulfill. Finally, suggest ways how you are going to help them meet their needs or requirements which your product will not be able to satisfy. Now, that's what I call adding meaning to what you do.

Someone once told me that people don't buy a Nike because they want shoes. How true.
They buy the meaning behind Nike and Nike has added lots of that into its products.