I took a walk to Panera the other day to grab a Greek salad. (So good.)
As I made my way into the restaurant, I saw a sign about the new MyPanera rewards card. When I got inside there was another sign about the card.
While I was waiting for my turn I heard everyone single one of the clerks asking if people wanted to sign-up for the free card. Then someone actually came up to me in line asking if I wanted one.
They made it super easy to sign-up. If I was staying I could fill out a form and they’d activate the card for me. Or I could just activate it myself online if I was taking my food to go. Which is what I chose to do. So the woman gave me a card with the web address so I wouldn’t forget.
And if I activated my card I was rewarded with a free pastry. Yum!
As I listened I only heard one person refuse the card.
It’s pretty amazing what happens when there’s a clear goal and everyone works together to accomplish the same thing. There’s focus on making that thing happen.
What would happen if, as artists, we focused our energies like this?
What if instead of focusing on problems after we’ve identified them, we focused on actually trying to fix them instead?
Instead of just speculating about what’s best, or arguing about what should be done, we actually tried something then reported back with the results.
Clearly things are not a-okay. And the only way to make things better is to take some action. Don’t wait for things to get better. They will not. Do something yourself.
The cool thing is there are no rules. If you think something would work, do it. See what happens. Then you’ll know for sure. Let’s look at the example of the MyPanera campaign.
Here’s what we’d need to do:
- Make it clear what we want people to do
- Get our team on the same page
- Give everyone the tools to work together to achieve this goal
- Make it easy for people to take action
- Then reward them for doing so
Maybe that thing your were thinking won’t work like you thought it would. Or maybe, just maybe you’ll get yourself a sweet.
Whatever the outcome you’ll be working from a place of learned knowledge, not speculation.
And that’s more beneficial don’t you think?