Not so grim up north

I do love spending time in the north of England. Whenever I'm around that whole area from Newcastle to Durham and Sunderland, I walk around with a permanent smile on my face because everyone is SO friendly.

The groups I ran workshops for today were lively, interested and contributed loads. People I've never met stopped me in the office just to say 'hello, how are you?' And if I had £1 for every time I've been called 'darling' or 'pet', my Christmas shopping fund would be looking very healthy!

This morning's taxi driver probably went a bit overboard, mind. Within 2 minutes of me getting in the cab he'd asked if I was married, had a boyfriend, and whether I get lonely on my own.  Which moved swiftly onto asking how many hours I worked, followed by a friendly lecture about life being more than work and pointing out that I really need a man around to balance things out a bit. Then he asked how often I work up north and started telling me about all the new bars opening up ... at which point I suddenly remembered I had to make a very important (and very long!) phone call!

When I travel around the different companies I work for, the differences in the local cultures are striking and I find myself having to adapt my workshop style and sometimes my material quite a bit. We all know about audiences being different, but it's one of those things that gets brought home to you when you actually get out and spend time with them. One CEO I used to work with told me I couldn't be doing my job effectively if he saw me at my desk any more than two thirds of the time. The rest of the time he expected me to be away from head office.

The audience segmentation research I worked on with Melcrum earlier this year was one of the most thought-provoking things I've worked on in a good while. It convinced me how little we really know about our audiences, and what a difference it can make if we invest the time in finding out. 

How are you doing on that front?  Do you manage to get out and about, or are you permanently chained to your corporate head office desk?  One to think about for next year maybe? (Just watch out for any cabbies you meet in the process - I distinctly remember someone on our very first Black Belt being asked out for dinner by the one that took her to Henley!)

Sue