Some Things Never Change

Sunday, December 03, 2006 3:02 PM

One aspect of my job (innovation) is all about change. The other aspect of my job is all about things that will never change, principles. The one principle that I want to touch on briefly in this blog is transparency, honesty and candidness, however you prefer to label it. It's about developing the habit of always telling the truth, no matter what.

In the long run truth is comfortable and easy. Truth is freedom because we'll never need to try and remember what we told someone. The truth is not always as simple as it seems on the surface.

As an example: An individual had a meeting at 9 am, it's normally about a 20 minute drive to the meeting place. As a result of some last minute things, he was about five minutes late leaving the house. He was rushing worried about being late and on top of everything else, it was a foggy morning making traffic move a little slower. He figured, great, I'll just blame it on the fog.

Arriving at the meeting 10 minutes late, he apologized for being late and blamed it on the fog. He didn't realize that one of the other people in the meeting came the same route and arrived only about five minutes late.

This seems very innocent and didn't seem to be a lie at all. However, the other person realized the fog was only half of the truth and the omission took a withdraw from the emotional bank account from his co-worker that arrived on time.  The deposits and withdraws from the emotional bank account is another principle I'd like to talk about in a later blog.  The non-verbal lie of omission can be every bit as destructive as a verbal lie. 

You might say, what's all of this got to do with hair?  I hopefully am not only talking to myself but rather talking to our clients and prospects and most importantly to our staff.  I plan on boring you all quite abit in the future with thoughts that I have on building a culture through habits based on principles.

What we're doing is growing a culture through developing habits based on principles that will never change.  These principles are becoming the governing force and the moral fabric entwined in the culture of Hair Direct.  Developing habits is not a quick fit solution. 

Developing habits is like building a cable winding one thin strand every day until eventually it can not be broken.  On second thought, habits can be unlearned in much the same way they were learned.  We're working real hard everyday to gradually unwind old bad habits and rewind good new ones.

Now, the other fun part of my job is the innovation part. Here's a few of the exciting things I have been working on.  Number one, hydration shampoo is a little bit behind production, but you'll be seeing it real soon.

The preliminary test for Extended Ware Deodorant is coming along quite nicely.  We are almost ready to begin field testing this product.

We are developing a better method for bleaching knots that does not weaken the hair like the conventional peroxide / powered bleaches do.

 We're working on new processing for the human hair to help prevent oxidation. 

We have begun field testing a new adhesive for extended wear that I am really excited about. There is a lot of stuff going on at Hair Direct, all really good stuff!  We'll keep you informed.

Have a great hair day,

Bill