City Centre Mirror
Every action is the result of a series of decisions.
It’s mind-boggling, actually, to think what it really takes to make a business-altering decision. While the pressure is on once you hit that “We’ll spend the money here” stage; it’s the earlier decisions that have such a great effect on how it plays out.
Decisions such as who comes to the meeting, what you think the consumer thinks and the choice of the roadmap for the plan that are critical.
That’s why our primer on decision-making can provide some valuable tools.
Sure, we know so much of what these fine columnists say already. But here’s a challenge. Read those four pieces and challenge yourself to take one or two of those concepts to heart and adapt them to your own decision making.
Put some greater emphasis on one or two aspects of the decision-making process – and you’ll have better focus and a better decision.
Here’s one of my favourite aspects of decision making:
Take your own emotion out of your decision making. In this business, editorial-types sometimes develop a fondness for features or stories that have served them well through time. It’s up to us to ensure, however, that the content we provide on various platforms meets the need of the audience we’re attempting to engage.
It’s absolutely essential to ditch the emotional attachment and work toward the reader’s need of the moment and into the future.
One season it’s police shows that are the rave on TV. The next it may be a medical show, or reality television. Public interest and need moves fast and that’s, of course, important to know in every business context.
Recently we examined one of our publications to determine whether the product needed to change its approach to content. The most fascinating piece of the investigation was the decision to involve the end users – the readers. It was incredibly helpful and interesting.
The most uplifting part? When an engaged audience showed their passion for the subject matter and, working together, unsolicited, started building story ideas and content models that served them best.
You can’t beat passion. And you can’t beat the passion the consumer has for your product.
So take your personal emotion out of the decision and adopt the passion of the users of your product. When you can do that, you’re turning your clients into marketers on your behalf.
It was the decision to involve our customers into the content decision making that gave us the greatest clarity for redefinition of the product.
A good decision to be sure.
Peter Haggert is editor-in-chief of Toronto Community News. He can be reached at phaggert@insidetoronto.com