The One Thing You Need to know

Photo courtesy of TheDominican.net

It’s been a busy week.  The modern day marketing process has become, rightly or wrongly, a most time consuming and arduous process.  At times even an unpleasant one.  

Still, the week wasn’t all heavy going.  I was blessed to end five consecutive days of daylong workshops sipping red wine with an old friend around a roaring fire in his Houghton home.  Amongst many other things, we discussed the busyness of life inside the big companies we serve.  

“It’s interesting”, my friend observed, “that given all the stress and running around, the average supermarket looks no different to what it looked like 15 years ago.  Sure, there’s nothing really wrong with them but the process of buying my household essentials seems no better, easier or different than it used to be”

I think he has half a point.  There may be more products – and some of them are improvements on what we used to get – but in general, the end result always seems to belie the undeniable increase in the stress, politics, nervous energy, endless meetings and late hours that went into producing it.

By the way, there is one exception when it comes to retail – not just when it comes to choice but to the sheer sensory dimension of the aisles.  I speak of The Food Lovers Market – a treasure trove of beautifully merchandised products from both our own and foreign shores – wines, baked goods, sauces, spices, confectionary to name but a few.  A place where, contrary to the mainstream chains, the fresh produce department actually lives up to its name and then some. 

I wouldn’t go so far as to say the owners of Food Lovers are lazy – far from it - but the fruit of their labour (if you’ll excuse the pun) is in a quantum sense disproportionate to the work that goes in.  The whole operation is a single-minded conspiracy of delighting shoppers with a wide array of fresh food choices and experiences at a competitive price.

A few years ago Marcus Buckingham published “The one thing you need to know” – a great book which insists that at the heart of most phenomena (this could include your job, your marriage, your parenting strategies and yes, even your relationship with God) lies a single yet controlling insight.  Lose sight of this “one thing” and all of your best efforts at managing, leading or individual achievement will be diminished.  Says Buckingham:

“Keep mindful of the one thing, understand all of its ramifications, orient your decisions around it, and you will act with far greater power and effectiveness”

But we have become wary of the one big thing.  Despite the stress we live under, we feel somehow incensed or short-changed when someone suggests an easier way.  In spite of our discomforts, we exchange the quiet yet focused composure of the OR for life in the ER.

What is the one thing you need to know in order to claw back the elegant yet pragmatic simplicity of life?