Smiling Solutions … A Competitive Advantage for Creative Problem Solvers.
I awoke to find a message from Gilbert, my friend in Scotland, in my inbox.
He wrote regarding the post I shared yesterday about Dunedin airport's new 3-minutes-max hugging rule.
Gilbert reminded me of two things:
Dunedin is the Scottish Gaelic word for Edinburgh ("Fort of Edin" - see the pic up top to see Edinburgh Castle, where the original fort stood), and,
Edinburgh Airport, in Scotland, manage its drop-off-zone bottleneck by charging the drivers £5 per 5-minute drop-off.
Fork me - that's £60 an hour, which is an horrifically high hugging tax.
If you're not familiar with the exchange rates, that's more (per hour) than you'd pay a plumber to unblock your clogged toilet.
So ... two distinctly different solutions ...
One that makes people smile.
One that leaves a bad taste in people's mouths.
... to the same problem.
Wanna know a secret?
The business world has a huge bias against smiling solutions - but that doesn't mean you have to.
In fact, you shouldn't: smiling solutions aren't just nice, they're often a competive advantage.
Why?
Your BORING competitors won't ever think of them,
And even if they did ... they'll butcher them to make them less smiley.
If you know how to Zig, and everyone else is Zagging, .... ZIG!
Speaking of smiles - please hit reply and say hello! That makes me smile 😸 .
Clarke