• Common Ground is making strides in curing society's homeless problem. As a group, target a building or area in your town that could be revitalized as a homeless facility. Contact local banks, businesses and contractors to see if they would be willing to contribute the capital/labor. Volunteer at a homeless shelter and talk to some of the people there and see what services they would want in such a facility. Rosanne Haggerty complains that there is a lack of solid research on the homeless. How would you design a study to address this problem, taking into account the mobility of your target population?
• So what are people doing with their lives? Try and gather some COF people to come with you to the next cocktail party you attend. Ask ten people the dreaded 'What do you do?' question. Compare results--do the answers fall neatly into defined categories or are people all over the charts? Do people seem happy or frustrated to answer the question? Do those frustrated tend to have similar job characteristics?
• Compare 'callings' in your group. Try to find people at parties, on the street, in your office who can help nuture the callings of your COF members and invite them to your next group meeting to talk with them.
• Load up the van(s) and go on the great American corporate buying spree with your group. Hit all the biggies--Kmart, Walmart, Target, etc. Do the store designs and products appeal to you? Discover what specialty stores are thriving in your town and which are missing. Can you spot examples of where mega-stores have succesfully integrated specialty services into their stores, or where they have attempted and failed? Would you want to buy a car at Walmart?
• Find other examples like ESPN parks and Disney stores of media brands becoming tangible entities. Design a company store with a wealth of potential consumers. Would you shop at a store based on your favorite TV show or band?
• Hit the slopes COF-style. Try and find an independent-run mountain near you and take a day excursion with your group. Keep in mind comparisons as to how it operates versus corporate-owned resorts. Try to set up a meeting with the manager of the resort to discuss what other services ski resorts could offer to business travellers and skiers. Consider how skiing is unique compared to the rest of the resort industry. Snow is its lifeline. What is the 'snow' of your industry--the one thing that is nearly impossible to control yet makes or break your company.

Daniel Richards contributed this month's Next Steps.

January 2003 Connexus | Flash Points | Next Steps

Action Packs home