Visionary at Last

It may seem strange for a blogger to quote another blogger's blog in their own blog yet at last recognition or at least flattery.

Poisson Rouge has always placed great emphasis on being creative and being different. No more so than in our original branding and naming of the actual company itself.

Being Poisson Rouge and not the 'Really Tedious Development Corporation of North London'...Catchy huh?) was always intended as a flag. It was and still is supposed to inform our loyal clients and supporters that whilst we take what we do very seriously - we don't take ourselves too seriously. In everything we do -making people think that what we offer is different, refreshing, innovative and unique whilst at the same time making them challenge their own pre-conceived thoughts and then making them smile is our aim - and one we have achieved consistently for over 18 years.

So recently a reference in a meetings industry blog (http://www.meetpie.com/Modules/EditorsBlog/EditorsBlogView.aspx?id=71) on the subject of agency names and what's behind them...they had the following things to say......

the mould wasbroken, and the new bright young things in the agency world worked out (at last) that a good name should: 

a. Be different from the others (no words like ‘conference’ in it.) 
b. Be memorable 
c. Be short 

What was the result? Well it seems to involve (mostly) an adjective and something edible. A few examples that have crossed my desk include Pickled Egg, Black Tomato and Banana Split. 
I could be wrong but seem to remember this trend was actually started more than a decade ago by an agency called Poisson Rouge – definitely a ‘catchy’ name - but at that time its creator, Mark Katz, seemed to be in a club of one. 

It took a while for his idea to catch on but now it seems he was a visionary in these matters and everyone else is following suit.

THE ART OF TEAM BUILDING

It's a funny thing - over the past 20 years by far and away the most powerful and popular team building event / activity that we offered was our Art Challenge. 

Yet in the past 6 months we have sold significantly fewer.

This is because teambuilding is changing.

Whilst motivating and developing teams is perhaps now - more than ever - a vital element of surviving and succeeding in a recession - people need to feel that they are doing something that is more justifiable - financially and emotionally.

We are seeing many more clients looking for shorter, more strategic interventions that tie into other activities - such as management meetings, off-sites, training days etc.

Clients are nervous that they will be deemed to be 'wasting' money if they fritter it on activities that have no direct action outputs or immediate and identifiable returns.

One continuing trend is a move towards CSR based activities which satisfies the head, the heart and often the budget.

Budget is another big issue - whilst the quantity of enquiries we receive is only slightly down - the budgets are significantly down. For some - this is as a result of mandates that have been handed down from on high effectively telling team leaders to continue doing exactly as they did before but spend no money (the phrase 'champagne taste - lemonade money ' springs to mind.)

In response to all this we have developed a number of team based activities that can last one hour, half day, full day - whatever is required. They are designed specifically to require little or no set up and little or no specialist equipment - thus keeping the charges down to simply our facilitation fees (which in line with the market we have of course reduced.)

To help you get maximum value from your next team development activities here is a checklist:

• Be clear about your objectives before you send out a brief
  
• Have an idea of what budget you can make available and share this information with your suppliers
  
• Try and avoid D.I.Y - recession or not team-building is a specialist area best dealt with by specialists.
• If budgets are tight - it is better to do team-building events less frequently but do them properly than to try and save money. A badly conceived or badly executed team event has exactly the opposite effect to one that is well planned, well conceived and well executed.
• Get competitive quotes from at least three suppliers but remember to give feedback to those you decide not to work with
• See if the costs can be shared with other internal cost centres - ie. marketing, sales, training etc...
• Make sure you get feedback after the activity to guage how it was received and what you can do better next time
• Make sure it is Fun. No matter how serious the message, the rationale or the reason for doing it - there is little enough fun in business now.
• Be bold - Look for things that will inspire, delight, ignite!. 

HAPq™ CORPORATE HAPPINESS QUOTIENT

Further to my recent posting about HAPq here is a more detailed overview about this exciting and unique Corporate Happiness Metric.

ACCORDING TO FEEDBACK WE HAVE RECEIVED FROM A DIVERSE RANGE OF COMPANIES ACROSS THE UK – INNOCENT, GOOGLE AND VIRGIN ARE PERCEIVED AS BEING AMONGST THE HAPPIEST COMPANIES IN THE UK

Recently after many years development and research Poisson Rouge launched the world’s first, and possibly only, on line instrument for measuring true corporate happiness. It is called HAPq™ and it actually measures how contented, engaged, fulfilled, motivated and and optimistic corporate teams and companies are. In other words it assesses and measures a team or company’s Happiness Quotient (hence HAPq™) 

It is actually a scientific fact that happy people are more productive, more creative, more successful, earn more money, have better health, have better relationships, have more friends and are even shown to experience more luck!  

 HAPq™ is based on hard science, research and evidence as established by the Positive Psychology movement pioneered by global thought leaders  such as Seligman, Clifton, Csikszentmihalyi and many others.  It also based on Poisson Rouge's extensive track record of success in motivating and managing change and performance improvement in individuals, teams and organisations.

As mentioned - the HAPq™ survey is an online survey and takes only 10 –15 minutes to complete with reports generated automatically.

The HAPq™ score is measured through four scales:

1.   OPTIMISM
A workforce that accepts responsibility for success, has huge hope for the future, bounces back from adversity and takes control.

2.   PERFORMANCE
A workforce that is engrossed with what it does (flow), applies its strengths and talents and has the confidence and willpower to deliver challenging goals.

3.   ENGAGEMENT
A workforce that experiences positive emotions and positive relationships, is motivated and has fun at work.

4.   MEANING & PURPOSE
A workforce that has a true connection with what it does, understands what is important to it and is enabled by the organisation to deliver to this agenda.

With the recession all around us, with staff motivation at an all time low – if ever there was a time to measure and benchmark corporate happiness – that time is NOW!

5 a Day

At Poisson Rouge we spend our lives telling others how to improve performance - how to help teams develop, bond, grow etc. But it is always harder to practice what you preach.

last week in response to unpredented market conditions we have instigated a new corporate health strategy - 5 A DAY

Everyone at Poisson Rouge is now publishing to everyone else internally - at least 5 things they have done to generate new business that day and/ or further enhance our customer relationships or service offering.

This is proving very effective and I can highly recommend it to all readers of this Blog.

Mark Katz

Major US Client Brief

Poisson Rouge continue to provide ongoing team building solutions for this major US client and are currently working on a brief for a UK management team away day this May.

Exciting news about HAPq

Poisson Rouge have just received another 200 respondents for the unique corporate happiness survey - HAPq™

As the world’s first online measurement of corporate happiness this is fast becoming the industry standard for establishing how motivated, engaged, optimistic and focused corporate teams are.