We think we know...

Who we are selling to. And what we are selling. And when.

We say "people." Or, "People matter." Or "people buy on emotion and justify on logic."

Those things are all true. Very true. Definitively true. In who, what, and where senses.

Now, how often do we spend time discussing "people" as opposed to "TPS reports"?

Where's your "Why?"

Have you defined a dictionary of "People Attributes" that guide your conversations and the resulting actions?

Do finance people, the number counters, get a chance to share air with HR and similar "people counters", in order to find congruent leverage between numbers and flesh? Seriously. Congruence. LEVERAGE. Are you finding reason that this should occur and leveraging your reputation and power that this should happen?

Wanna know a goofy secret? Passion, plumbed and permitted, are the answer. People, not process, plan or Pert Chart are the answer.

Deeper, but not harder; different, but not difficult answers are the answer. Patience (not: unknowing hasty action) propels.

HR deeply wants to be respected by R&D. R&D knows they're not people people--and know that's their weakness. Sales and Marketing respects what Finance is capable of doing. Finance "gets" that without sales they have nothing to count. Everybody knows that production is the engine, just like everybody knows that armies are really run by sergeants, not generals.

Another?

CEOs don't "know" what they're doing. They just make it up on the fly.

Know what? That's their job. Managing unpredictability, I mean. Dealing with "sh*t happens." Important point. When they forget it, that's when they start to say and do stupid stuff. Mahogany paneling will make you do that. Stupid stuff.

Stupid, like forgetting you're one of the "guys." And, that ALL the guys -- providing and buying the product -- want to be Spartacus.