Category: Uncategorized

Space. The final frontier! To boldly go (that famous split infinitive)! That’s the Star Trek take on it. Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, said ‘space is big, really big.’ I like his simple view. He’s right too. Space is big and yet it’s not empty either. Planets and meteorites and suns and aliens …all whizzing about and going about their business. Space is surprisingly crowded really.

Space is also crowded when two humans meet. There maybe talk. There maybe silence. Whatever there is, we have body language and eye contact and business documents and emotions. All these are in the space and all have value.

What can be easily forgotten is that space is useful. Holding the space means to let the other person talk, or feel, or share, or just be still.

We hold them in the space by making eye contact and by using small signs that we are listening, such as by saying ‘uhuh’ or ‘hmmm’.

These are powerful ways to communicate our attentiveness. However, they are not placeholders that signify we are going to speak.

We are not going to speak. We are quieting the noise in our head. We are focussing on the other person.

We are holding the space. Good things emerge when we do this.

A colleague may feel really listened to. A customer may reveal a new sales opportunity to us. A group may solve their own problem.

Space has value and it’s too tempting to fill it with our own words and our own agenda.

The more space we give to others the more they share and the more regard they have for us.

I would write more, but I will hold the space between us…

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Space is powerful. So, this week have fun holding the space!

Next week: Being Creative

The blog you’re reading now, Better Business, is in fact my second blog. Now running for over 8 years, I have put pen to paper every Sunday, or to be more precise, finger to keyboard, and written on average 400 words.

I love writing and always have a head full of words and ideas and stories to share with the world. If you were to cut me in half, and please don’t, then I’m fairly sure it would say ‘writer’ across the middle of me. Bit like a stick of rock. So you might think that blogging is easy for me. Well, I’ve had to learn a few skills along the way, so have paid my dues, so to speak.

My first blog was called The Physis Gap. It’s probably still on Blogger, or whatever that has morphed into. I wanted to explore the world of Physis, not physics, and began with enthusiasm. After five posts I’d exhausted my knowledge and was at a dead end. That blog has fossilized ever since and I realised that the first thing about any blog is that it must be sustainable.

Too many people start a blog and then fizzle out after 6 weeks. Well done for trying though, but just make sure your website doesn’t contain obviously out of date blogs, as they can detract from a smart site.

Whatever you feel like writing about, it’s important to have enough depth and breadth in the subject, to keep the momentum up over the long term.

The second most important point, if you wish to attract readers, is to be consistent. Consistency counts, with regard to:

A) Length

B) Subject matter

C) Delivery

D) Brand

For a short period I was too busy to write 400 words and instead tapped out a nifty 50. People complained, and rightly so. They felt a bit short changed.

We need to stick to the subject. If I was to write lovingly about flowers, which I know nothing about anyway, then the reader would be puzzled. So would I. Flowers would be a different blog entirely. So, we need to be consistent.

We also need to deliver on time. I write on a Sunday and the blog gets emailed out on a Monday and posted into the world of social media. People have complained when a Rich-free Monday has, on rare occasions occurred, and I’ve listened to them. It’s nice to know I’m being read and now make sure to be in their inbox on time.

We also need to consider the issue of our brand. A blog is a piece of work and once on the net it will be there until Doomsday. Therefore, if we are tempted to dash it off on the train home, or speed type in a hurry …and do no editing… we must know that we’re running the risk of damaging our brand.

People can forget that blogs get picked up by search engines, and it would be a shame if the first time a potential customer engaged with us was through reeding a porely wurded peace of wurk.

And finally …at the end of the day a blog is ours to put our stamp on. We can ignore all the rules and be as creative and inconsistent and exuberant as we like. It’s our blog and ours to enjoy.

So, this week maybe have a go at a little blogging. Twitter is a micro blog site afterall. And what ever you do …make it yours.

Next week: Holding The Space