The Baer Facts Issue 53: Saying Sorry Can Spur Success

🤷‍♂️ Saying Sorry Can Spur Success

It's been a wild summer of storms at home, in Bloomington, Indiana.

I've spent more time in the basement than a Gen Z Twitch streamer. 

A couple Fridays ago, we had a doozy. It was the Charles Barkley of storms: pretty short, but powerful. 

Quickly, word got around town that the storm was a lot worse than we'd thought, given its brevity: tons of trees blown into electrical lines, and many power poles severed at their base, like the wind chopping scallions. 

It knocked power out for about half the city for three days. Which, for my friends who own restaurants....is bad.

Duke Energy is the primary electric company for our town, and they sent a surge of repair. On my way to the airport after the storm, I passed a literal convoy of Duke trucks heading south. 

Eventually, power was restored.

Right after, customers received an email from Duke, explaining the severity:

Excerpt: 

...Last Thursday’s weather phenomenon known as a derecho was one of the most devastating storms in Duke Energy Indiana’s history. It generated incredibly high wind speeds and caused significant, widespread damage across many of the counties we serve in the state.

...In all, the storms produced about 550 fallen trees, an estimated 200-plus broken poles and over 156 miles of downed power lines over the four-day span.

...More than 1,000 crew members came from outside the state to aid in restoring power. Even so, we know that many of you had a long, uncomfortable wait for power during summer’s heat and humidity – and we are grateful for your patience and understanding. Those of you affected aren’t just our customers. You’re our neighbors, friends and co-workers. In all, over 330,000 outages were restored from Thursday to Tuesday.

I've written in the past about the "fallacy of the faux-pology" whereby businesses apologize, but clearly don't mean it.

This may be the opposite. A message of accountability when the business wasn't really at fault.

Several best practices here from which we can learn.

*Respond fast. They had crews mobilized within hours.

*Explain in full. The full email was even more comprehensive and further communicated what happened, and why.

*Close the loop quickly. This email was sent just 2 days after power was back.

As we've talked about in The Baer Facts before, people HATE uncertainty. Almost as much as they LOVE electricity.

Good job by Duke Energy closing the uncertainty gap, while also explaining we're all in it together, without coming off as treacly or out-of-touch.

📗 The Books Report

My friend Dan Thurmon is one of the most interesting and inspirational people I know. 

When I put together a retreat for my own staff a couple years ago, I hired Dan as the keynote speaker. That's how much I believe in him.

His new book is right on time. With everything in the world seemingly a maelstrom, Positive Chaos: Transform Crisis into Clarity and Advantage shows you how and why to use uncertainty and craziness as a major workplace opportunity. 

Must-read for all managers and business leaders. 

✅ Jay's Faves

I was on a plane the other day (not unusual), and two adorable tykes sat in front of me (also common in summer).

An hour in, I glanced at the window in the row in front of me and saw it was festooned with colorful square blocks. The kids were having a blast decorating the airplane window.

Their Mom explained to me about Stickikubes. Imagine 72 rainbow sugar cubes that are very adhesive, but don't leave residue. 

Also, unlike LEGOS, they don't murder your feet if you step on them.

Great gift for under $20.

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