Skip to main content

Have you ever said, this release or content shouldn’t Work, but It Does

 

Have you ever said, this release or content shouldn’t Work, but It Does


Have you ever told yourself or to client that this release , or content, according to industry  norms, shouldn’t work – but somehow it works for you?


Then there’s the practice called percussive maintenance or thappad therapy where you give a quick smack to the back of an electronic device that’s acting up to bring it back to life. 


There’s absolutely no reason why this should work. But, somehow, it does. 


I call these “idiosyncratic practices.” In many cases, these practices not only work, they help us to be the best versions of ourselves and do our best work.  


I see versions of idiosyncratic communication  practices all the time. For example, there’s the organization where every single person on the 10-person content marketing team, including the CCO, reviews every piece of content that goes out the door. 


It should be a massive workflow bottleneck, but it’s not.


Then there’s the blog team at a B2B tech company that doesn't even have forms of organized SEO – and still achieves exponential growth in their subscribed audience organically.  


They should struggle to get organic traffic, but they don’t.


Many of us read about the best practices for approaching our narrative daily. But I’ve never heard of a company, successful or otherwise, that attempts to meet them all. 



That’s not to say you shouldn’t ever stress-test those idiosyncratic practices. The content marketing team with the extensive review process is growing – and they’ve decided having everyone review the content isn’t necessary. 


One of the best lessons about best practices is that they’re a starting point, not an endpoint. Your mileage for any approach may not be the same as your peers. 


The same goes for idiosyncratic practices. You should be willing to question “the way it’s always been done.”  But you also should realize you don’t always need to change the way it’s always been done.  


You might have hit on a great idiosyncratic practice.  It shouldn’t work. But it just does. 

Its your practice, follow it well. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning from #FriendsReunion - Plan Your Bottle Episode

Learning from #FriendsReunion - Plan Your Bottle Episode While watching Friends: The Reunion a while back ( Yes, i am super late, been a very busy week) something  struck with me which the show’s creators said about "budgeting" a term called Bottle Episode.    On Friends - Its one of the most successful television sitcoms of all time. From 1994 to 2004, the show never left the list of top 10 most-watched  television programs.  It was also one of the most expensive television series of all time. By the last two seasons, each of the six main actors earned more than $1 million per episode. From the resources perspective, the show has more than justified that expense since then. As per some estimate Friends earns around $1 billion a year from syndication, merchandising, streaming, and other deals. During the reunion show, creator Marta Kaufman talked about how they planned “bottle episodes” each season to manage the show’s budget....
6 comments
Read more

What if SP comes to power?

I was just wondering, if the Samajwadi Party (SP) supported government comes to power at the Centre this time around, many companies in India might have to write off another kind of loss from their books - loss on account of unused computers. After all, the party’s supremo Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav believes that - "The use of computers in offices is creating unemployment problems. Our party feels that if work can be done by a person using hands there is no need to deploy machines." Incidentally, the party is also against stock markets, use of English language, agricultural machines, and high corporate salaries!
4 comments
Read more

Jet Airways will start a new no-frills carrier called Jet Airways Konnect

As per a leading business daily, Jet Airways will start a new no-frills carrier called Jet Airways Konnect. The fares for the service will be 10% to 15% lower than the normal Jet Airways economy fares. The company has not launched the new service under its JetLite brand due to pending litigation with the Sahara group. It may be noted that market share of the more expensive full service carriers has fallen due to the economic slowdown. There is a beleif that the airlines industry is value destructive. As Warren Buffett once said, "Should you find yourself in a chronically-leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks." If only, our air carriers paid heed.
Post a Comment
Read more