This is further evidence of why the personality of your organization matters more than ever before.

(Thanks to Kem Meyer for the link.)

One of the driving forces in helping a client to identify their personality is to help them think about what makes them unique. If you offer burgers and fries just like the place next door, why should I come to your place and not theirs? If you sell cars and they sell cars, why should I buy a car from you? If you help feed children and they help feed children, why do I want to help you feed more children?

Your answers to these questions will help identity the unique personality traits that make you, you.

The problem with the client conversation on this particular day was that so many on the team kept answering questions in the negative. Instead of focusing on the positive attributes that made them unique as an organization, they were dwelling on everything they were not.

We're NOT a place for those people.
We're NOT the cheapest place in town.
We're NOT like them.
We're NOT designed like that.

Well if you're NOT any of those things, what are you? When pressed, the conversation seemed to get even more negative. So if you're not a place for these people, how about those people? "No way! We're not for those people either!"

If you want to know who you are as an organization, you've got to take a stand for what you are for. Not what you're not for.

Slogans, argue the Heaths, are not anything new. "The Oxford English Dictionary traces [the word slogan] back to the year 1513, referring to a battle cry of Scottish Highlanders." Slogans were often displayed on their coat of arms, including this gem from the Donnachaidh clan: "Fierce when roused."

The "slogan-virus" is rampant these days and it's the antidote to a good story. "When you have a big idea, make it come alive with a story. Make it real, color in some details, let it be something people care about. Just don't make it snappy."

This is one of the things I appreciate about the Personality Profile™. Instead of a crescendo at the end unveiling a great tagline, the process results in a frame-by-frame story that captures the essence of the organization. The Profile becomes a framework for decision making and storytelling, with everyone working from the same page.

Millennials were born between 1980 and 2000 and there are 78 million of them in the U.S., bigger than the baby boomer population. Millennials, says Gloeckler, are "a demographic tsunami that will soon be remaking business schools on a grand scale."

Politically galvanized, [Millennials] are in some ways even more influential, helping propel Barack Obama to the Presidency on Nov. 4. Generalizations about them should, like all generalizations, be applied with caution. But they like personal attention and are used to getting information how they want it, when they want it. They are strong-willed, passionate, optimistic, and eager to work.

Since first appearing in the workforce in 2002, members of this so-called Millennial Generation have been praised and derided in equal measure—for their tech knowhow and idealism, their unrealistic career expectations, and their doting "helicopter" parents, who hover over their kids obsessively. Beginning as a trickle last year, the flow of Millennials into B-schools will become a flood this year and next, as the bulk of Gen Y begins entering the prime B-school age group of 26 to 28. When that happens, B-school will never be the same.

Which means business will never be the same.

I can't wait to see how Millennials (Generation WE) help shape the identity and soul of new organizations. I also look forward to their leadership in resurfacing and returning to righteous roots that are embedded in so many existing organizations, but have been lost to a Wall Street worldview over the past 50 years.

With new success measures like the Triple Bottom Line and B Corporation, as well as conversations like GOOD, I'm encouraged to see where things are headed with the future of business.

Dubai has garnered a lot of press over the last several years as being a haven for billionaires and ordinary tourists, "drawn by a relaxed attitude to Islamic norms, absurdly opulent hotels, and man-made islands." It has been built on three core values: capital, competence, and ambition.

Abu Dhabi, on the other hand, has provided a lot of the funding to build Dubai. It is also attempting to learn from Dubai's excesses. "[Abu Dhabi] is pointedly marketing itself to foreign investors as a cultural center and 'sustainable' city."

As the available credit for Dubai's rapid expansion is tightened, "the squeeze might ultimately be good for [Dubai's] competence if the government focuses its more limited resources on infrastructure - as any visitor can attest, the city's own transport system is woeful - and tries to add some community to a place often described as soulless."

I'm not so sure you can just add "community" to a place with an identity and soul that never included it or incorporated it in the first place. Most of the labor was imported to build the city. The buying and selling of property in Dubai is done mostly on making a profit, not a home. Slapping a community label on a brand that exudes commodity is going to be a real challenge.

Along these same lines, Adweek ran a great opinion piece last week from Deborah Morrison, a professor of advertising at the University of Oregon. The article is a punchy piece of pithiness that is both relevant and researched. Although Morrsion is writing in the context of why the ad industry will change because of the next generation, her points are applicable to a wide range of industries.

Personality Advisors are keenly aware of these generational trends when it comes to their profiling work with clients. Although the personality of the organization does not necessarily change with each passing generation, the expression of that personality does. So while messaging, style guides and structures may come and go based on generational differences, the personality of the organization will continue to serve as a compass for onward advance.

NYU professor Douglas Rushkoff, a correspondent for Frontline, embarks upon a 90-minute expose on the ad industry, and its continual struggle to fight through the clutter with more clutter. Loaded with interviews of industry veterans, including a look at the psychology behind consumer decisions, this show is both powerful and frightening.

Not surprising, much of the conversation about persuasion comes back to personal identity and meaning. How we feel and how we define who we are—especially through our purchases—is the foundation for a persuader's playbook.

If you haven't seen The Persuaders, I encourage you to check it out. You can view it online, order it from PBS, or add it to your Netflix queue. You can also read the synopsis online.

Norm Brodsky, in his September 2008 Inc. magazine column, tells the story of Ernie and how easy it is to be distracted and even hijacked by growth and opportunity.

In Ernie's case, it was a move to a new office that would ultimately cause him to realize that they had lost their "mojo." The staff was no longer unified. Walk-ups were higher than ever, but they weren't the right kind of customer. He even described his partner as "ships passing in the night." A far cry from the solid business they had been building together for years.

The lesson in Ernie's story, and in so many businesses today, is that when you loose sight of your roots, success is usually artificial and almost never sustainable. From Starbucks to Ford, businesses are learning—often the hard way—the value of knowing who they are deep down by rediscovering their roots.

Finding the soul of your organization is not an easy task, but it's a critical first-step in laying the foundation of your personality.

Often times, the first thing a Personality Advisor does with a client—before guiding them through their Personality Profile (21 business frames and 21 brand frames), starts with a soul searching exercise.

For those of you playing along at home, you can begin with the Building Momentum white paper to get your wheels turning. The four R's you're trying to identify are:

These four R's break out into a simple statement that reads like this:

We are a _____________________________________ (ROLE)

Working with ________________________________ (RELATIONSHIP)

Doing _______________________________________ (RESPONSIBILITY)

Accomplishing _______________________________ (RESULT)

Bench Test
For each subsequent draft, ask these three questions:

1. Is it differentiated? (i.e. it is different from all others)
2. Is it demonstrable? (i.e. we can prove it can be done)
3. Is it sustainable? (i.e. we can make a profit and sustain the effort over a long period of time.)

If it doesn’t pass this test then rethink your answers. If it does, well done! You're on your way to knowing who you are.

Just as I was reaching a point in my life where I was beginning to feel part of something, I've become restless for a new me.
When you know who you are, new ideas are icing.

Excuse me Mr. or Mrs. Quiksilver Ad Copywriter, but if I'm always restless for a new me, how will I ever know who I am? And if I don't know who I am, according to your ad copy, I guess new ideas will never come to me.

Therein lies the rub. Too many organizations today are restless and, in the name of innovation, they are continually trying to figure out what it means to be who they are. A restless person without a sense of who they are will always be on the lookout for a new "me." The same goes for companies.

Yes, I realize this is just an ad and its attempting to catch the GOOD hipster's attention by its pithy copy and identity searching vibe. However, it does speak to the continuing unfolding drama of people and companies that lack a true understanding of identity.

This idea of creative capitalism and it's not-so-distant cousin, cause marketing, have been a part of Personality conversations for years. We've argued that it should be—and for the most part is—in the DNA of organizations to want to do well by doing good. It's a part of who we are as people and, in turn, what we should be about as organizations of people.

The article also included a sidebar by Barbara Kiviat titled "A Brief History of Creative Capitalism." I could not find this anywhere online to link to, but it does a great job of tracing the roots. She spans from 1799 with Robert Owen and his cotton mill that sets up a fund for sick workers and does not employ children under 10, to American Express creating the term "cause-related marketing" in 1983 for its campaign to help restore the Statue of Liberty.

1. CADBURY - The British confectioner is investing millions of dollars in small farming communities in Ghana that provide the cocoa bean for one of its lines of chocolate.

2. TECHNOSERVE - The U.S. non profit gives business and agricultural advice to coffee farmers in Africa and Latin America and links them to buyers such as Starbucks and Peets.

3. BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES - The Indian food company teamed up with an NGO to provide children with vitamin-fortified biscuits that are served after a donated midday meal.

4. GAP - A sexy product (RED) T shirt is appealing on its own, but advertise that half its sale profits go to African women and children affected by HIV/AIDS, and you've got a real hit.

5. GRAMEEN BANK - The Bangladeshi bank makes small loans to impoverished people keen to start their own business. Since founding, Grameen has disbursed more than $7 BILLION to the poor.

6. SUMITO CHEMICAL - The Japanese company bought a stake in Tanzania's A to Z Textile Mills to produce up to 10 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets a year.

7. SAFARICOM - The Kenyan phone company does well by serving the poor. Customers buy prepaid phones, paying for the amount of time they can afford and avoiding hefty monthly fees.

8. TOMS - The program from the company based in Santa Monica, California, is simple: Buy a pair of our shoes, and we'll give a pair to a needy child. That helps the poor and attracts altruistic shoppers.

Ford had been through five failed strategies for its cars in as many years because no one could agree on what the brand stood for anymore. At first, [Ford CEO Alan Mulally] flailed, reversing a decision to dump the well-known Taurus name and publicly advocating reviving the "Have You Driven a Ford Lately?" slogan. Then he went looking for a new marketing chief.

That new marketing chief is James Farley, and he's helping Ford figure out who they are. It's going to take a lot of work, but it appears he's already doing a few things right. Two examples cited in the article include:

1. Farley is bringing in local dealers to be a part of the discovery of who Ford is and what they should be doing. Dealers control 75 percent of marketing budgets but until now, they've been absent from the corporate conversation.

2. Farley looked to Usha Raghavachari, a young marketing exec, to create a "brand book—a bible that spells out every attribute of [a new car launch]." Says Raghavachari, "We need the discipline of the brand book to make sure everyone is connected to the same idea."

I look forward to seeing how Ford figures this stuff out. I wish I knew James Farley because this is what Personality is all about—helping organizations figure out who they are and what to do about it!

When I saw their post today about the early days of 37signals, I was thrilled to see how they stick to their DNA. They know who they are and what they're all about. Peter said:

It’s also worth reemphasizing one thing that’s been there from the beginning: Our philosophy. By knowing what we stood for, we always had an internal compass to guide us. We knew which clients were right/wrong for us. We knew which projects we wanted to spend time on. And we knew what we stood for.

When you know who you are as a company--we call it knowing your personality--you have a guide for the journey ahead. You have something to stand on.

Well done 37signals!

One of the temptations for companies like VF who buy and own a variety of different brands is to eliminate overlap for the sake of efficiency and profit. Fortunately, VF is very aware of the individual personality that each of their brands have and they attempt to guard that as much as possible. For example, writes Kapner, "Reef executives typically start the workday catching waves near their Carlsbad, Calif. office. The Vans headquarters in Cypress, Calif., boasts a halfpipe ramp and concrete floor so that employees can skateboard to meetings."

Another reason for VF's success, writes Kapner, is that before they acquire a new brand, they "often spend years examining [it] and developing a relationship with management before signing on the dotted line."

Soul searching... protecting and promoting personality... sounds like a winning combo!